Recaps

After learning that a massive war was underway in the Zerg’s Viers Supercluster, Lin Fan chose the Nether Fleet’s First Legion to investigate. Lin Yu arrived at Interstellar Fleet Headquarters to receive the mission.

• Aierfei’s four angel star clusters attacked the Brecht System while Lin Kexin waited for experts to study the captured device and rescue the trapped 105th Star Cluster.
• Li Lizhi and Wei’s experimental surveillance device detected a massive war in the Viers Supercluster, and Lin Fan realized it explained Aliya’s desperate retreat.
• Lin Fan weighed possible responses and decided to send a covert fleet to the Willster Super Galaxy Cluster to gather intelligence.
• Lin Fan ordered his son Lin Yu to divert the Nether Fleet’s First Legion to Interstellar Fleet Headquarters for an important mission.
• Three days later, the First Nether Legion arrived, and Lin Yu flew toward the headquarters base.

Lin Yu accepted Lin Fan’s mission to investigate the mysterious force fighting the Zerg and assist Aliya if necessary, with an alliance with the Zerg as a possible option. After resting, Lin Yu led the First Legion of the Nether Fleet into the Cosmic Current toward the Viers Supercluster.

• Lin Yu arrived at Federation Interstellar Fleet Headquarters, where Lin Fan complained that he had shown off by walking through space.
• Lin Yu reviewed the mission documents, and Lin Fan explained that he needed reliable intelligence about the unknown force and authorized Lin Yu to help Aliya if it was safe.
• Lin Fan raised the possibility of an alliance with the Zerg, and Lin Yu agreed to investigate whether the unknown civilization warranted such a step.
• Lin Yu arranged a three-day rest for the First Legion of the Nether Fleet before departing for the Willster Super Galaxy Cluster.
• In Federation Year 152, Lin Yu ordered the First Legion to activate its Hyperspace Engines and depart from the Mels Star Cluster toward the Cosmic Current.

Lin Yu led the First Legion into the Cosmic Current, where its engines and instruments could not determine whether the fleet was moving. He ordered most of the crew into Stasis Pods as the Melos continued through the darkness.

• Lin Yu declined Lin Tian's suggestion to test the Cosmic Current with a separate warship and said Li Lizhi had assured him it was safe to enter.
• Lin Yu and Lin Kexin missed the chance to meet because she was returning from the Messiah Star Cluster and would arrive three days later.
• Lin Yu led the fleet into the Cosmic Current aboard the Melos, with the other warships following in order.
• The Melos shut down its Near-light Speed Engine after entry, and the crew could not determine its speed or whether it was moving.
• Lin Yu ordered nonessential personnel and off-duty control crew into Stasis Pods while essential personnel worked in rotating shifts.

Lin Yu’s Nether Fleet completed the Federation’s first Cosmic Current crossing, evaded a King Bug with its stealth systems, and set out for the Missel System to get ahead of Aliya. Meanwhile, Aliya’s forces had been wiped out by Hypnos, leaving the Boötes Void exposed while her main army remained months away.

• Lin Yu led the intact First Legion of the Nether Fleet out of the Cosmic Current into the Moras System and ordered the fleet into stealth mode.
• A fifth-tier King Bug investigated the Current Node but failed to detect the concealed fleet, confirming that stealth worked against ordinary King Bugs.
• Lin Yu ordered the staff to calculate Aliya’s location and then sent the fleet toward the Missel System, where it could arrive before her and reach the Viers Supercluster months ahead of her.
• Aliya led the bug race’s main army through a Bug Nest Channel while reflecting on how Hypnos had destroyed the more than ten thousand swarms she had sent to delay him.
• With no bug forces left to resist Hypnos, Aliya realized he could reach the outskirts of the Boötes Void within a month, while her army needed at least seven months to return.

Lin Yu’s Nether Fleet reached the Viers Supercluster and detected a powerful unknown faction advancing toward the Boötes Void. A close scan revealed that the force included the Star Devourer from the Large Magellanic Cloud and far more high-ranking creatures than Lin Yu had expected.

• Lin Yu ordered a maximum-range scan, which detected large numbers of high-energy targets moving toward the Boötes Void.
• Hypnos sensed a familiar, repulsive presence in the distance, but Aura could not detect anything nearby.
• Lin Yu’s fleet plotted a stealthy route and prepared to scan the unknown force as it passed ten light-years away.
• The Information Division identified the Star Devourer and reported that its faction had about thirty-six Seventh Order Creatures and billions of lower-ranked creatures.
• Lin Yu realized the force could pose a serious threat to Aliya’s returning army, while Hypnos stopped again as the fleet observed him.

Hypnos sensed a threat near the Nether Fleet and redirected his army toward it, while Lin Yu prepared to delay him and investigate why both Hypnos and Aliya were heading toward the Boötes Void. Lin Yu assigned Jiang Sen’s Second Division Fleet to hold Hypnos’s forces for half a year as he led the remaining fleets toward the void.

• Hypnos ordered Ola to redirect the army toward the source of the threat he sensed.
• The Melos detected the army’s change of course, and Lin Yu ordered his crew to assess its speed and likely destination.
• Lin Yu learned that Hypnos’s original route led to the Boötes Void and connected that destination to Aliya’s urgent return.
• Lin Yu ordered Jiang Sen to use the Second Division Fleet to hold Hypnos’s army for at least half a year.
• Lin Yu planned to take the remaining fleets to the Boötes Void while Aliya’s forces approached.

Lin Yu’s fleet prepared for Planet Devourer’s arrival, while Jiang Feng’s Second Division Fleet remained hidden to carry out its ambush. When Hypnos sensed the concealed fleet and ordered millions of Void Dragons to gather energy for a broad attack, Jiang Feng revealed his forces and prepared for combat.

• Lin Yu ordered Jiang Feng to carry out their battle plan and sent most of the First Legion away, leaving Jiang Feng’s Second Division Fleet hidden nearby.
• Hypnos tore open a spatial passage and emerged with its biological legion, but it could only vaguely sense the concealed fleet.
• Jiang Feng ordered the hidden fleet to move at combat speed seven while Hypnos struggled to pinpoint its location.
• Hypnos arranged more than three million Void Dragons around itself and had them gather crimson energy in their mouths.
• Jiang Feng ordered the fleet to disengage stealth, enter DEAC combat mode, and ready its combat teams.

Hypnos and millions of Void Dragons attacked Jiang Feng’s concealed Second Division Fleet, forcing it to reveal itself and defend against their space-tearing beams. Jiang Sen’s flagship stopped Hypnos’s powerful attack with a fourth Dark Energy Barrier, and he ordered the fleet to continue toward the Cheles Galaxy.

• Hypnos’s Void Dragons detected the hidden Second Division Fleet and attacked, while Hypnos recognized the humans he blamed for his past suffering.
• The fleet revealed itself and activated its Dark Energy Shields as three barriers formed before each warship.
• The dragons’ attacks shattered the first barrier and weakened against the second, while Hypnos’s stronger beam broke through two barriers and threatened Jiang Sen’s flagship.
• Jiang Sen used the flagship’s warship-scale DECA to create a fourth barrier, which absorbed Hypnos’s remaining attack.
• Jiang Sen ordered the fleet not to engage and to proceed toward the Cheles Galaxy, making hyperspace jumps of one hundred light-years.

Hypnos pursued the Second Division Fleet but could not overcome its speed and evasive maneuvers, while Jiang Sen used the distance between them to keep his forces from coordinating an attack. The chapter left Hypnos enraged after his full-force strike missed every warship, and only then did he remember the biological army he had left behind.

• Hypnos sensed the Second Division Fleet after it left hyperspace and opened a Spatial Rift to pursue it, leaving his biological army behind.
• Hypnos emerged seven minutes later, but the fleet had traveled nearly fifty million kilometers away at sublight speed.
• Jiang Sen ordered the fleet to maintain seventh battle speed, reasoning that Hypnos's attacks could be evaded and his Void Dragons could not catch up in time to coordinate a saturation strike.
• Hypnos charged a powerful crimson beam for twelve seconds and fired it at the Second Division Fleet.
• The fleet's warships evaded the beam, and Hypnos realized he had attacked alone while his kin were still behind.

Lin Yu led the Nether Fleet into the Boötes Void and found a hemisphere of Combat Bugs positioned as a surveillance network. At the same time, Jiang Sen prepared to monitor a confrontation in the Cheles Galaxy as Aliya’s army and the Planet Devourer approached.

• Hypnos grew furious after Jiang Feng repeatedly lured them into futile pursuits, while Lin Yu’s fleet entered the Boötes Void from the opposite side.
• After finding nothing along the void’s edge, Lin Yu ordered the fleet to advance toward its center in cautious 10,000-light-year increments.
• Jiang Sen positioned his fleet at a Cosmic Current node in the Cheles Galaxy, where Aliya’s army and the Planet Devourer were due to arrive within minutes.
• Lin Yu’s fleet reached the central region’s outer edge, exited hyperspace under stealth, and detected about one thousand scattered Combat Bugs.
• Lin Yu saw that the bugs formed a hemisphere and concluded they were sentries monitoring every route into the area.

Lin Yu’s fleet detected an anomalous region that might be connected to a Time Bubble, but experts could not determine what it concealed before the battle began. Hypnos and the other leaders emerged to find the Zerg army waiting, while Aola stayed back as the fighting started.

• Lin Yu ordered the Radar and Intelligence Divisions to scan the hemispherical region, where an energy scan found data resembling a Time Bubble recorded by the Angel Fleet.
• Lin Yu summoned Lei Li and the expert team to investigate, then had Bai Xuan connect the real-time footage as the appointed time approached.
• Hypnos tore open a spatial passage and emerged into an apparently empty region, while Aliya spotted him through the Zerg’s Psionic Network as her vanguard swarm poured out of the Cosmic Current.
• Aliya sent the vanguard war bugs to hold Hypnos until the main Zerg force arrived, and Hypnos charged at them to vent his frustration.
• Aola and more than thirty other leaders emerged from the passage and joined Hypnos in attacking the Zerg, while Aola stayed behind as the Void Dragons continued to arrive.

Hypnos’s biological army struggled against Aliya’s insect swarms after both forces emerged near each other, leaving his troops unable to use their long-range tactics. Aliya’s reinforcements arrived, including the stealthy Void Predator, which took control of a Tier 7 Leader Creature and forced it toward Hypnos.

• Hypnos’s army fought the vastly more numerous insect race at close range while he waited for reinforcements to emerge from the Space Teleportation Channel.
• Aliya realized the enemy had not deliberately waited to ambush her, but decided to exploit the favorable battle and awaited her high-tier Queen Bug guard swarms.
• Stealth Blade Bugs and Tier 2 and Tier 3 guard bugs entered the battlefield and inflicted serious losses on Hypnos’s ordinary kin creatures.
• The Void Predator slipped past the fighting and approached a Tier 7 Leader Creature without being noticed.
• The Void Predator struck the Tier 7 Leader Creature, gradually took control of its body, and made it walk toward Hypnos while it watched helplessly.

Aliya used a Void Predator to take control of Bolt and strike Hypnos, severely wounding the biological legion’s commander. Ora ordered a retreat, but Aliya’s forces inflicted heavy losses as the legion withdrew.

• Aliya sent a Void Predator to parasitize and control Bolt, which then approached Hypnos through the battlefield.
• Ora discovered that Bolt was controlled and warned Hypnos, but Bolt struck Hypnos with a full-force blow before Hypnos could react.
• Hypnos was sent flying and suffered a severe wound to their head, throwing the biological legion into chaos.
• Ora ordered the frontline forces to retreat and stopped those in the rear from entering the Space Teleportation Channel, abandoning tens of millions already inside it.
• Ora left another ten million kin creatures behind to cover the retreat, and the legion’s losses exceeded sixty million, including a seventh-order leader-class creature.

After the Zerg won the first clash against Hypnos’s Purgatory Second Legion, Lin Yu’s crew discovered that a tiny Zerg insect could parasitize and control a host. Lin Fan secretly ordered them to capture one, while Lin Yu ordered fleet-wide examinations and continued investigating Aliya’s secret for one week before changing plans.

• The Zerg took the first round, inflicting heavier losses on the Purgatory Second Legion and severely wounding Hypnos, with Lin Yu’s interference helping Aliya’s forces.
• Lin Yu’s team found footage of the Void Predator entering Bolt and proposed that it could parasitize and control living beings, possibly including humans.
• Lin Yu planned a parasite-capture operation for one week later, first giving the fleet time to investigate Aliya’s secret in the center of the Boötes Void.
• Lin Fan questioned Emil, learned he knew nothing about the Void Predator, and secretly ordered Lin Yu to capture a parasite at any cost.
• Lin Yu restricted movement aboard the Melos and arranged physical examinations for everyone on the bridge, then extended them to the crews of the fleet’s other warships.

Lin Yu’s fleet detected Zerg Queen Bugs and guard-bug swarms emerging from an anomalous region, and Lei Li identified the region as a Minor Universe with a different flow of time. Lin Yu learned that entering might require waiting for the Zerg to open another passage, but Lei Li had no immediate alternative, leaving the fleet without a way to gather intelligence inside.

• After a day of scans found no parasites aboard the warships, Lin Yu kept the fleet focused on the anomalous region.
• The Radar Division recorded more than a hundred Queen Bugs and over fifty guard-bug swarms emerging through a rift before it closed.
• Lei Li identified the region as a Minor Universe whose time flow differed from that of the major universe.
• Lei Li explained that the fleet could enter through a passage when the Zerg opened one, but the interval between openings was unknown.
• Lin Yu asked for another way in, but Lei Li admitted he had no method yet, and Lin Yu sent him to rest.

Lin Yu launched Operation Insect Trap to steal Bolt from the bug race’s rear without revealing the Federal Fleet. Jiang Sen’s Second Division Fleet reached Bolt’s location undetected and began the operation.

• The bug race and Hypnos’s Purgatory Legion fought two more battles, with the Legion winning both despite Aliya capturing another Seventh Order Leader-class creature, Bolt.
• The First Legion of the Nether Fleet returned to the Boötes Void, and its commander ordered Operation Insect Trap to begin.
• Jiang Sen received orders to take his Second Division Fleet to the Essex Starfield and secretly retrieve Bolt using the Federation’s Spatial Storage Technology.
• The Second Division Fleet approached Bolt’s location in the Enles Star System without alerting the bugs.
• Jiang Sen confirmed that Bolt had not noticed the fleet and ordered the first phase of Operation Insect Trap to begin.

Jiang Sen ordered the enemy lure squad to begin its operation, and Wang Hai deployed a Spatial Illusion System to create a fake Planet Devourer. When the insect race did not react to the illusion, Wang Hai activated Contingency Plan Twenty-Six and used it to blast a hole through a bug swarm.

• Jiang Sen shut down the surveillance feed of Queen Bugs devouring Bolt and ordered the enemy lure squad to begin its operation.
• Wang Hai directed the hidden warships to deploy illusion equipment and move to their designated positions.
• Wang Hai explained that Aliya would mistake the illusion for a strange Purgatory creature rather than suspect humanity's involvement.
• Wang Hai ordered the Spatial Illusion System to create a simulated Planet Devourer.
• After the insect race showed no reaction, Wang Hai activated Contingency Plan Twenty-Six and made the illusion fire a beam into a bug swarm, destroying countless battle bugs.

Wang Hai used a staged illusion to make Aliya believe Hypnos’s old injury had relapsed, hoping to draw out the two Queen Bugs who remained behind. Aliya watched Hypnos appear to weaken and fail to escape, leaving her poised to respond to the apparent opportunity.

• Aliya learned through the insect race’s psychic network that Hypnos had attacked the swarms, and she concluded that he could conceal his presence and might be vulnerable alone.
• Jiang Feng ordered Wang Hai to create a distraction because two Tier 1 Queen Bugs had stayed near the target.
• Wang Hai arranged for the technical team to simulate Hypnos’s injury worsening and his failed attempt to flee through a Space Teleportation Channel.
• Hypnos fired successive beams that punched holes through the swarms, alarming Aliya as reinforcements remained far away.
• After the next attack began, Hypnos appeared to suffer a relapse, spraying purple blood and failing to open a Space Teleportation Channel.

Aliya sent her remaining Queen Bugs to capture the weakened Hypnos, while Jiang Sen’s forces used a Stellar Package to capture Bolt. Hypnos escaped through a Spatial Rift, and Aliya discovered that Bolt had vanished.

• Aliya ordered the last two Tier 1 Queen Bugs guarding Bolt to join the attack on Hypnos, hoping to seize the weakened creature or harvest its flesh.
• Jiang Sen and his adjutant praised Wang Hai for devising a way to hold the Zerg off, then prepared to evacuate.
• Jiang Sen’s forces activated the Stellar Package and stored Bolt, cutting the Void Predator inside it off from its senses.
• After Bolt was captured, Jiang Sen ordered the device retrieved and told Wang Hai to prepare for evacuation.
• Hypnos regained enough strength to tear open a Spatial Rift and escape, thwarting Aliya’s attempt to capture it.
• Aliya sensed that Bolt had disappeared and realized it had been taken away.

After the insect race surrounded the Current Entrance, Lin Yu ordered Wang Hai to find a way to draw the swarm away without exposing the Nether Fleet. Wang Hai devised an audacious plan, which Lin Yu and the division fleet commanders approved, and the fleet prepared to launch it.

• Aliya concluded that Hypnos had concealed its method for making a Seventh Order creature vanish and resolved not to repeat her mistake with the remaining creature.
• Jiang Sen's Second Division Fleet rendezvoused with Lin Yu's main fleet near Chers, but the insect race's swarm blocked their route through the Current Entrance.
• Jiang Sen suggested that Wang Hai devise a solution, and Lin Yu promised to let him independently command an army as a Major General if he succeeded without exposing the fleet.
• Wang Hai received Lin Yu's order, considered how to lure the swarm away without repeating an earlier trick, and sent Lin Yu an unconventional combat plan.
• Lin Yu and the ten division fleet commanders approved Wang Hai's plan and ordered their fleets to prepare for the operation to begin in one hour.

Wang Hai’s fleet disguised itself as Bolte and used a joint Dark Energy Shield to break through Aliya’s insect swarm and enter the Cosmic Current toward the Kebiniah Supercluster. At Federal Fleet Headquarters, Lin Fan reviewed the reports on Enles and Chers and approved Wang Hai’s promotion.

• Wang Hai’s fleet approached the Chers Current Entrance under a Spatial Illusion System and activated its joint shield within five million kilometers of the insect swarm.
• Aliya detected the shielded Bolte but could not sense the fleet inside, and she mistook it for a biological creature.
• Bolte smashed through the insect swarm, leaving wreckage behind, and entered the Cosmic Current.
• Lin Fan read the top-secret battle reports on Enles and Chers and signed Wang Hai’s promotion application.

Lin Fan briefed Federation leaders on the Zerg’s retreat and the rise of a powerful biological faction in the Viers Supercluster, while Wei isolated Bolt at a secret research institute to keep Aliya from detecting the investigation. Ed reacted with unusual anger when Lin Fan refused to reveal the military’s observation technology, leaving Lin Fan suspecting that something was wrong with him.

• Lin Fan ordered Wei to isolate Bolt and Research Institute No. 17 from the Zerg mental network so Aliya would not notice the investigation.
• Ed muttered to Queen Aliya while working, then attended an emergency meeting called by Lin Fan.
• Lin Fan told the Federation leaders that a new biological faction led by the supposedly destroyed Planet Devourer was challenging the Zerg in the Viers Supercluster.
• Ed demanded to know how the military had observed the distant supercluster, and Lin Fan refused to reveal the technology.
• Ed angrily slammed the meeting table, surprising the attendees and making Lin Fan suspect that Ed was not acting like himself.

Lin Fan warned the Federation that the force invading the Viers Supercluster might be only a vanguard and proposed temporarily helping the Zerg and allying with Aliya to keep the threat at bay. Mew struggled to accept cooperation with the Zerg, while Ed suggested keeping any alliance secret from the public.

• Lin Zhen upheld Lin Fan's use of the Seventh Special Ordinance to keep a technology secret from the gathered officials.
• Lin Fan explained that the unknown force invading the Viers Supercluster might have far greater strength beyond the forces currently fighting the Zerg.
• Lin Fan proposed using the Zerg as a buffer and, if necessary, helping Aliya through a temporary alliance.
• Mew recognized the proposal as strategically sound but struggled with the idea of allying with the Zerg, which had slaughtered most of his people.
• Ed urged Mew to support the temporary alliance and suggested concealing it from the Three-Eyed Race's public.

Lin Fan established a secret company of newly produced Bio-humans to investigate parasites inside the Federation while delaying Aliya’s attempts to bring humanity into the war. A year later, Wei told Lin Fan that the researchers had developed a device that could pinpoint parasites, giving them a way to address the crisis.

• Lin Fan asked Lin Zhen for an independent Central Guard Corps company staffed by newly produced Bio-humans, and Lin Zhen approved it.
• The Presidential Palace created the classified company under Lin Zhen’s direct command, while Ed failed to learn its purpose.
• In Federation Year 153, Hypnos’s return and Ao’s ability to detect Void Predators let the Purgatory Second Legion inflict heavy losses on Aliya’s Zerg.
• Aliya tried to push the Federation into joining the war, but Lin Fan repeatedly blocked the proposal as opposition to him grew.
• Wei told Lin Fan that the Seventeenth Research Institute had built a scanner that could precisely locate parasites within one kilometer, then hinted at another surprise.

After Wei confirmed that parasite-controlled hosts could be saved, Lin Fan oversaw mass screenings that uncovered thousands of infected people across the fleets. He then ordered the Dark Energy Legion to pose as rebels and seize the Presidential Palace to contain the remaining parasite threat, naming the mission Operation Defiance.

• Wei told Lin Fan that parasite-invaded hosts were still alive and could be rescued.
• Lin Fan screened Interstellar Fleet Headquarters and the fleets, uncovering nearly two thousand infected people, including over eight hundred from the Dauntless Fleet.
• At an emergency meeting, Lin Fan revealed that Vice President Ed and most of the Central Guard Corps' senior command were compromised by parasites.
• Lin Fan explained that he would disguise an assault on the Presidential Palace as a rebellion to prevent the parasites from taking officials hostage or choosing mutual destruction.
• Lin Fan ordered Lin Yu to lead the Dark Energy Legion in surrounding Earth and subduing the Central Guard Corps, and formally named the operation Operation Defiance.