Recaps

Lin Fan and Liang Xue observed the Snow Leopard-class Battlecruiser’s shield tests, which showed it could withstand repeated Main Cannon fire. Lin Fan and Liang Xingchen then considered how the Oakes Empire might respond to the Ninth Prince’s death and agreed to prepare for another battle in the Asteroid Belt.

• Lin Fan joined Liang Xue and Elder Bai at the test zone to observe the Snow Leopard-class Battlecruiser’s systems.
• The test ship activated its Energy Shield and blocked three shots from the Uranus’s Main Cannon, while the crew measured its damage and recharge rate.
• Liang Xingchen concluded that the new battlecruiser could withstand at least twenty consecutive Main Cannon shots from Oakes Empire warships.
• Lin Fan warned Liang Xingchen that the Oakes Emperor might order Adams to launch a desperate attack rather than execute him outright.
• Lin Fan estimated that the Emperor’s orders would take two or three months to reach Adams, and Liang Xingchen ordered increased surveillance of the Asteroid Belt.

The Federation expanded its fleet with new Snow Leopard-class Battlecruisers and Sky-class Aircraft Carriers while Adams prepared the Third Imperial Guard Legion for a desperate attack on humanity. After Liang Xingchen reported that Adams's 48,000 warships were charging toward Mars Base, Lin Fan concluded that his second prediction was likely correct.

• The Federation produced 6,000 Snow Leopard-class Battlecruisers and 700 Sky-class Aircraft Carriers, strengthening the First Fleet and replacing part of the Fourth Fleet's Guard Fleet.
• Adams told the Third Imperial Guard Legion that Emperor Milao had ordered them to attack humanity, promising a pardon if they won and death on the battlefield if they lost.
• The Third Imperial Guard Legion rallied to Adams's order and prepared to charge against humanity the next day.
• Emma met Lin Fan in his office, where he and Liang Xue teased her about avoiding him and feeling distant from them.
• Liang Xingchen told Lin Fan that Adams's 48,000 warships were charging toward Mars Base, and Lin Fan said his second prediction was likely correct.

Lin Fan and Liang Xingchen planned a decapitation strike to defeat Adams's 48,000 suicide warships with minimal losses. Adams charged his fleet at Liang Xingchen's force, while Lin Fan and Liang Xue prepared a Warp attack on the exposed position behind Adams's wedge formation.

• Lin Fan told Liang Xingchen that a decapitation operation could help the Federation minimize losses against Adams's suicidal fleet.
• Adams ordered his 48,000 warships to ignore casualties and charge at any human ambush, believing their willingness to die would break conventional tactics.
• Adams spotted Liang Xingchen's 25,000 warships in an open region of Sector 039 and sent his fleet forward in a wedge formation.
• Lin Fan and Liang Xue identified that Adams's flagship and 5,000 ships were exposed behind the wedge, while the Uranus and 6,700 new-model warships waited 2 AU away.
• Lin Fan ordered the waiting fleet to Warp to the optimal surprise-attack coordinates.

Lin Fan’s 6,701-ship ambush fleet appeared behind Adams’s wedge and overwhelmed his central fleet with advanced shields and weapons. Adams ordered the remaining ships to press on toward humanity’s homeworld, but an ion cannon blast destroyed his bridge before he could finish his final broadcast.

• Adams ordered his 48,000 warships to advance in formation toward the human fleet.
• Lin Fan’s 6,701 warships warped in behind Adams’s formation and charged his central fleet.
• The human fleet’s opening volley destroyed more than 1,000 ships, while its Energy Shields blocked the fighters’ attacks.
• Adams realized the Oakes Empire could not win and broadcast orders for the vanguard to continue toward humanity’s homeworld.
• An ion cannon blast struck Adams’s bridge and killed everyone aboard before he finished his broadcast.

Lin Fan and Liang Xingchen destroyed the Third Imperial Guard Legion, seized Jupiter and the outer planets, and secured the Solar System’s Star Path entrances. Aisa learned of Adams’s death and set out with the Fourth Imperial Guard Legion to reach the Solar System and avenge him.

• Liang Xingchen used Plan Three to lure the Third Imperial Guard Legion into a minefield and encircle it with Lin Fan’s fleet.
• Lin Fan and Liang Xingchen annihilated the Third Imperial Guard Legion, declaring humanity victorious in the Third Asteroid Belt War.
• Lin Fan and Liang Xingchen advanced to Jupiter, where they found the base undefended because Adams had taken its troops with him.
• Lin Fan captured the outposts around Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, then moved to defend the Kuiper Belt Star Path entrances.
• Aisa learned that Adams had been killed and ordered the Fourth Imperial Guard Legion to travel to the Solar System to avenge him.

After completing the first phase of his assessment, Lin Fan received Battleship Piloting ability and a new mission to destroy the Oakes Empire within ten years. To keep the fleet occupied during its long deployment in the Kuiper Belt, he proposed a mecha tournament and agreed to face its eight strongest pilots.

• Lin Fan completed the first assessment phase, received B-rank Battleship Piloting, and was assigned a ten-year mission to destroy the Oakes Empire.
• Lin Fan reviewed his status and considered improving his command and piloting abilities while the fleet waited along the Star Path.
• Lin Fan summoned Liang Xue, Will, Emma, and the staff officers to plan activities for the fleet's ten-month deployment without a starport.
• Lin Fan proposed a mecha tournament in the Kuiper Belt, with new-model mechas from Bai Zixuan's production as prizes.
• Emma suggested that the tournament winner challenge Lin Fan, and Lin Fan offered to face the eight strongest pilots himself.

Lin Fan proposed broadcasting a Federal Fleet mecha tournament to attract new mecha pilots, and the Presidential Palace approved the plan. After a promotional video went viral, millions of civilians rushed to enlist, leaving Marshal Sanders struggling to handle the overwhelming number of applicants.

• Lin Fan explained that public broadcasts of mecha combat could address the Federal Fleet’s shortage of pilots, and he ordered Liang Xue to contact the Presidential Palace and Will to borrow one hundred Sky-class Aircraft Carriers.
• Lin Zhen, Ed, Marshal Sanders, and the presidential aides approved Lin Fan’s proposal, citing the severe shortage of mecha pilots.
• The Presidential Palace announced the tournament and released Lin Fan’s promotional video of a battle in the Kuiper Belt, sparking widespread excitement and enlistment interest.
• More than five million civilians registered for the mecha forces within three days, and Marshal Sanders worried that the number could eventually exceed thirty million.
• Sanders ordered the current round of pilot recruitment to end.

Lin Fan approved Will’s plan for a three-month mech competition and prepared to host pilots from the First and Fourth Fleets. As the event approached, the Federation publicized Lin Fan’s extraordinary record, making him famous across the Federation without his knowledge.

• Will told Lin Fan that Liang Xingchen would send ten thousand Fourth Fleet mech pilots to join the competition and presented the completed plan.
• Lin Fan approved the competition’s individual, squad, and legion events, along with its rewards and schedule.
• A week later, one hundred Sky-class Aircraft Carriers transported First and Fourth Fleet mech pilots and Earth media to the competition venue.
• The Federation released information identifying twenty-year-old Lin Fan as commander of the First Fleet and touting his command, scientific, and military achievements.
• Marshal Sanders and Liang Xingchen confirmed the Federation’s claims about Lin Fan, while Lin Fan remained unaware that his name had spread across the Federation.

The Federal Fleet’s first Mech Tournament began, drawing military and government leaders as well as elite pilots from across the Federation. Lin Fan praised the young prodigy Li Cangqiong, whose skill rivaled Zhang Hu’s, while revealing that Li could last several minutes against him in a mech duel.

• Saunders thanked Lin Fan for the gene enhancement serum, and Lin Fan declared that humanity would one day dominate the universe.
• The Federal Fleet’s first Mech Tournament began with individual, squad, and corps events involving hundreds of thousands of competitors.
• Liang Xingchen recognized Zhang Hu after he defeated an opponent in under ten seconds, and Lin Fan said Zhang had reached A+ skill through their daily sparring.
• Saunders and Li Fulai praised nineteen-year-old academy student Li Cangqiong, whom Lin Fan judged to be as skilled as Zhang Hu.
• Lin Fan said Li could last two or three minutes against him, surprising Li Fulai, who had not known Lin Fan was Humanity’s Strongest Mech Pilot.

As the Federal Fleet Mech Tournament reached its finals, public attention focused on the celebrity trio and the coming duel between Wang Hu and Li Cangqiong. Lin Fan assessed their strengths and predicted that Li Cangqiong would lose if he failed to defeat Wang Hu within ten minutes.

• The tournament’s preliminary rounds ended with thirty-two pilots advancing in the individual event, including academy cadets Li Cangqiong, Zhang Zhiwei, and Xia Tina.
• Lin Fan reviewed Earth’s detailed pilot assessments and asked Liang Xue to recruit the report’s compiler as a First Fleet staff officer.
• The final individual elimination match paired Wang Hu against Li Cangqiong, drawing Federal leaders to the Uranus to watch.
• At Arena 32, Old Marshal Sanders asked Lin Fan to assess the duel, and Lin Fan said Li Cangqiong would lose if he could not win within ten minutes.

Lin Fan correctly predicted Zhang Hu would defeat Li Cangqiong, who lacked real combat experience, and the individual competition’s top eight were decided. The finalists then learned how overwhelmingly strong Lin Fan was before their upcoming eight-versus-one challenge.

• Lin Fan explained that Li Cangqiong’s inexperience would make him hesitate, giving Zhang Hu the advantage if the fight lasted more than ten minutes.
• Li Cangqiong hesitated when Zhang Hu charged while shielding his vital points, then struggled through the fight as Zhang Hu pressed his advantage.
• Zhang Hu struck Li Cangqiong’s vital point in the thirteenth minute, winning the final and securing first place among the eight Federation Ace Pilots.
• The host announced that the eight finalists would challenge Lieutenant General Lin Fan as a team, and viewers reacted with excitement.
• Xia Tina asked whether Lin Fan was truly that strong, and Zhang Hu and Xisai said they had lasted only two minutes and thirty seconds against him in sparring.

Lin Fan began his one-versus-eight mech battle at full speed and used carefully calculated maneuvers to evade the squad’s attacks. He eliminated four opponents, leaving Li Cangqiong and three others facing him as the fight continued.

• Lin Fan assured Saunders that he was ready, then entered his mech and charged into the battlefield at full speed.
• Zhang Hu organized the eight pilots into a formation, pairing with Li Cangqiong to engage Lin Fan while the others prepared to surround him.
• Lin Fan used planetary debris to block the squad’s covering fire and shot Rogue and Wang Luo, eliminating both pilots.
• Lin Fan calculated the trajectories of the squad’s next volley, dodged the laser beams, and eliminated Xisai and Zhang Zhiwei.

Lin Fan defeated all eight ace pilots in the individual mech match and then watched the legion battle begin. The First Fleet’s Guard Mech Squadron launched a flanking charge against the advancing Fourth Fleet, targeting Rogue.

• Zhang Hu and three surviving pilots hid among planetary debris, but Lin Fan used fragments as cover to break their ambush and eliminate them.
• Lin Fan won the individual match, leaving the livestream audience stunned by his piloting skill.
• Li Fulai learned that Lin Fan could also pilot starships, though Lin Fan said he was only excellent at it.
• The legion battle began, and the Fourth Fleet gained the early advantage against the First Fleet.
• The First Fleet’s Guard Mech Squadron emerged from planetary debris in a triangular formation and charged into the Fourth Fleet’s ranks to decapitate Rogue.

After the First Fleet won the mech competition, it began rotating and refitting its forces while Lin Fan visited the Interstellar Military Academy to recruit promising graduates. The chapter ended with Lin Fan asking Li Cangqiong, Zhang Zhiwei, and Xia Tina to join the First Fleet.

• Zhang Hu led a counterattack that broke the Fourth Fleet's formation, and the First Fleet won the mech competition.
• Seven months later, the Fourth Fleet completed its refit and Liang Xingchen took command of the War God.
• Lin Fan handed over command to Liang Xingchen and returned with the First Fleet to Mars Base for its refit.
• Lin Fan, Liang Xue, and Emma attended the Interstellar Military Academy's graduation ceremony.
• After the ceremony, Lin Fan asked Li Cangqiong, Zhang Zhiwei, and Xia Tina to join the First Fleet.

Lin Fan recruited three mech pilots for the First Fleet, then traveled to Earth with Liang Xue and Emma to meet his father, visit his mother’s grave, and find Chris Rhode. They met Chris at his home, where he recognized Lin Fan as the reason his daughter Ava had stopped following celebrities.

• Lin Fan invited Li Cangqiong and two other mech pilots to join the First Fleet, and they accepted.
• Lin Fan traveled to Earth with Liang Xue and Emma to meet his father, visit his mother’s grave, and recruit Chris Rhode.
• Liang Xue explained that Chris had been framed by Horn Sterling and expelled from military service, which had spared him from the destruction of the Second Fleet.
• Lin Fan and the women visited Chris’s home and met his wife, Alice.
• Chris recognized Lin Fan and explained that his daughter Ava had stopped chasing celebrities because she now followed Lin Fan.

Lin Fan persuaded Chris Rhode to return to the Federal Fleet, appointed him a major general, and placed him in command of the First Division Fleet. After months of preparation, the First Fleet began Operation Dawn's Light to reclaim human star systems from the Oakes Empire and rescue survivors.

• Lin Fan invited Chris Rhode to rejoin the Federal Fleet, and Alice encouraged Chris to accept the offer.
• Chris agreed, and Lin Fan recalled him to active service as a major general and appointed him commander of the First Division Fleet.
• Seven days later, Chris reported aboard the First Fleet shuttle, where Lin Fan explained the fleet's new ships and capabilities.
• After more than half a year of refits and drills, Lin Fan led the First Fleet to Neptune to join the Fourth Fleet.
• Lin Fan and the Federal Fleet launched Operation Dawn's Light, with the First Fleet assigned to reclaim Proxima and the Fourth Fleet assigned to reclaim Barnard's Star.

The Federal First Fleet returned to the Proxima Star System and launched a surprise attack on the Oakes forces occupying it. As the Oakes commander sought to surrender, Federal mechs descended on the Resource Stars and the enslaved humans rose against their overseers.

• On a Proxima Resource Star, human slaves endured forced labor under overseers including Lance Sterling, while Horn Sterling begged Oakes commander Lancer to spare him from slave duty.
• Lancer learned that the Fourth Imperial Guard Legion's vanguard was expected soon, unaware that the Third Imperial Guard Legion had already been destroyed.
• The Federal First Fleet annihilated the Oakes ships guarding the Star Path entrance and split its forces to defend the route, seize the Resource Stars, and attack the Life Planet.
• Lancer's fleet engaged the eight thousand Federal warships, but he ordered a surrender after seeing their Energy Shields.
• Federal mechs descended on the Resource Stars, and the human laborers recognized them and attacked their overseers.

The Fifteenth Subfleet’s forces landed on Proxima’s Resource Stars and discovered hundreds of millions of enslaved human survivors. Lin Fan arranged emergency relief while ordering the Oakes fleet destroyed despite its surrender signal, leaving its fortress intact for intelligence.

• Chu Zihang told the mech pilots that Resource Star Seven held more than thirty million human compatriots and made their safety a priority.
• Luo Fei collapsed from exhaustion as mechs descended, and Lance prepared to whip him before the Federal Fleet arrived.
• The field commander ordered the mechs to suppress armed humans while protecting those in ankle shackles, and Federal soldiers took control of the work zone.
• Chu Zihang requested food and medical personnel, and Lin Fan directed Liang Xue to send supplies and arrange relief ships.
• Lancer sent a surrender signal, but Lin Fan ordered the fleet to destroy the Oakes warships and leave the fortress intact for intelligence.

Lin Fan’s First Fleet defeated the Oakes Empire forces at Proxima A and began seizing their fortress, while Chris pursued a fleeing ship he identified as Horn Sterling’s. Meanwhile, a huge Oakes fleet emerged from the Star Path near Epsilon Eridani, and Lin Fan ordered reinforcements to assemble as the defenders fell back.

• Lancer’s fleet continued fighting despite repeated surrender signals, and Lin Fan’s First Fleet destroyed it before surrounding the fortress.
• Lancer refused Lin Fan’s offer to surrender, so Lin Fan sent the Guard Mech Squadron, the First Division Fleet’s mech corps, and Assault Ships to capture the fortress intact.
• Chris identified a fleeing warship as Horn Sterling’s personal ship, and Lin Fan assigned the First Division Fleet to capture him alive.
• Donnie and Eric’s detachments attacked the Oakes warships emerging from the Star Path near Epsilon Eridani, but the enemy fleet kept growing.
• Lin Fan ordered the Nineteenth and 20th Detachment Fleets to retreat and summoned the 9th to 18th Detachment Fleets as reinforcements.

Sola’s Oakes Empire fleet arrived at Proxima and was caught in Lin Fan’s trap as it tried to flee through the Star Path. Lin Fan’s forces annihilated the entire fleet, leaving no Oakes warships in the Proxima Star System.

• Sola arrived at Proxima and learned from Lancer that human forces had destroyed the Third Imperial Guard Legion’s fleet and trapped Lancer inside the fortress.
• After Lancer’s communication was cut off, Sola ordered his fleet to retreat through the Star Path to Epsilon Eridani.
• Lin Fan ordered Donnie and Eric to lure Sola’s forces into pursuit while ten human fleets warped behind the stretched-out Oakes formation and attacked from ten directions.
• Sola turned his fleet toward the Star Path, but Lin Fan sent eight more fleets to block the route with 7,200 Battlecruisers.
• Lin Fan’s forces destroyed Sola’s central and rear fleets, then surrounded and annihilated his remaining vanguard warships.

Lin Zhen and Ed decided to publicize the traitors’ crimes and present Lin Fan as a hero while exposing the Sterling Family. As relief operations struggled to help hundreds of millions of survivors, Lin Fan and Liang Xingchen chose to advance on Epsilon Eridani without waiting for more support.

• Ed persuaded Lin Zhen’s staff to reveal the Proxima traitors’ crimes, publicly try Horn Sterling’s group, and promote Lin Fan as a hero.
• Lin Zhen approved Ed’s plan and assigned him responsibility for carrying it out.
• Lin Fan’s fleet began moving survivors to Proxima A, where food and medical care were stretched across hundreds of millions of people.
• After learning that the Fourth Fleet had retaken Barnard’s Star and that Liang Xingchen was rescuing over 200 million survivors, Lin Fan proposed sending 10,000 warships from each fleet toward Epsilon Eridani while leaving forces behind for relief work.
• Lin Fan and Liang Xingchen agreed to coordinate their departure, and Lin Fan ordered the First Fleet’s ten subfleets to activate their Warp Drive Engines.

Lin Fan and Liang Xingchen launched their assault on Epsilon Eridani, quickly destroying its unprepared Oakes fleet and capturing its orbital fortress and starports. Liang Xingchen began arranging temporary settlement for more than three hundred million people as the campaign continued.

• On Oakes, Ross warned Ramiro that Adams had been missing for over a year and that the Empire could lose several star systems if Adams’s fleet had fallen.
• Ramiro demanded more troops for the human front, but Ross explained that the Fourth Imperial Guard Legion would take nearly ten years to arrive and other forces were tied up in the war with the Kabart Empire.
• Lin Fan and Liang Xingchen arrived in Epsilon Eridani with fleets of ten thousand warships each, then split up to attack the system and secure its resources.
• Lin Fan’s fleet caught ten thousand Oakes warships docked in the starports and destroyed them in under five minutes, while Chris’s forces captured the orbital fortress after its commander committed suicide.
• Lin Fan’s troops took control of the starports, and Liang Xingchen asked him to send Assault Ships to help transport more than three hundred million people to the captured facilities for temporary settlement.

The Federation adopted a five-year plan to defend Epsilon Eridani, develop its new systems, expand its fleet, and accelerate technological progress before confronting the Oakes Empire. Lin Fan also arranged further training for Li Cangqiong and considered how to develop Emma’s command talent without promoting her beyond her experience.

• The Federation decided to assign the First and Fourth Fleets to defend Epsilon Eridani, develop Proxima, Barnard's Star, and Epsilon Eridani, rebuild the Second and Third Fleets, and distribute enhancement potions.
• Lin Fan concluded that the Federation needed time to improve its technology and military strength before launching a campaign against the Oakes Empire.
• Lin Fan recognized Li Cangqiong’s fleet-command talent and offered to arrange special training for him at the Interstellar Military Academy, which Li accepted.
• Xia Tina and Zhang Zhiwei continued training under Lin Fan, while Emma served as a squad commander and learned fleet command from Chris.
• Chris argued that Emma was talented enough to command a division fleet, but Lin Fan refused because she lacked the rank and military achievements for the post.

After learning that humanity had captured Epsilon Eridani, Ross gathered forces to defend Rao while Lin Fan received a secret mission to deceive the Kabart Empire into fighting the Oakes Empire. Lin Fan departed with his First Fleet and ten thousand Energy Shield devices for the Kabart Empire.

• Ross learned that humanity had taken Epsilon Eridani and ordered nearby garrisons to assemble at Rao while he sought a truce with the Kabart Empire.
• Ed told Lin Fan that interrogation of Lancer revealed Rao's defenses and that the Oakes Empire's main forces were fighting the Kabart Empire.
• Ed assigned Lin Fan's First Fleet a secret mission to impersonate a Level 4 Civilization and persuade the Kabart Empire to fight the Oakes Empire.
• Lin Fan requested Energy Shield devices with hidden backdoors, and Ed arranged for ten thousand devices to be sent to Epsilon Eridani.
• Lin Fan verified the Kabart Empire's coordinates, then departed with his fleet and two hundred Bull-class Supply Ships under the cover of combat training.
• Lin Fan briefed his squadron commanders and led the fleet and supply ships in a space jump toward the Kabart Empire.

Aboard the Uranus, Lin Fan studied intelligence revealing the Oakes Empire’s overwhelming military strength and the scale of its war with the Kabart Empire. After forty-nine days of travel, the ship neared its target, and Lin Fan headed for the bridge.

• Lin Fan reviewed intelligence showing that the Oakes Empire had roughly five million warships, including a powerful Imperial Guard Legion equipped with Babawi warships.
• Lin Fan learned that the Oakes Empire had committed nearly four million warships to its decades-long war with the Kabart Empire, while another legion was expected to arrive near the Solar System in just over eight years.
• Lin Fan recognized why the Presidential Palace had given the Kabart Empire 10,000 Energy Shield devices: it wanted the Kabart Empire to weaken the Oakes Empire without leaving itself as the Federation’s next overwhelming rival.
• Lin Fan lamented the Warp Drive Engine’s limited speed and spent the journey training and relaxing aboard the Uranus.
• Liang Xue told Lin Fan that the Uranus would reach its target location in one hour, and he set off for the bridge.