Recaps

Arno prepared to attack the Blue Radiance Republic’s capital while Lavoisier’s rescue plan reached Lin Fan and the Federal commanders. Lin Yu argued that Aierfei needed authorization to use a Doomsday Bomb during the withdrawal to deter the Moy Union until reinforcements arrived.

• Arno ordered his fleet to preserve the capital’s facilities and capture the Republic’s leader while rapidly cracking the hyperspace interference.
• Lavoisier sent Aierfei a rescue and withdrawal plan designed to evacuate at least twenty percent of the Republic’s population while minimizing Federal casualties.
• Lin Fan presented the plan to the Federal commanders, who learned that Lavoisier, a commander from a newly affiliated civilization, had devised it and was recommended as commander-in-chief of affiliated fleets.
• Lin Yu warned that Aierfei’s fleet would remain vulnerable after retreating to the Renos Supercluster and proposed authorizing a Doomsday Bomb to deter the Moy Union.

Lin Fan ordered the Doomsday Bomb prepared to deter pursuit as the Federation withdrew toward the Renos Supercluster, and sent Zi Ling and Wang Hai ahead with Zi Luo to follow as reinforcements. When the generals objected to leaving the Viers Supercluster without an S-Class Dark Energy Manipulator, Lin Fan revealed that he was the Federation’s fifth.

• Lin Fan backed Lin Yu’s proposal to use the Doomsday Bomb and warned that the Federation could not risk losing the Renos Supercluster.
• Lin Yu said it would take at least a year to gather and deploy the Second Headquarters’ scattered fleets to the Renos Supercluster.
• Lin Fan ordered Zi Ling and Wang Hai’s Nether Fleet to depart immediately and rendezvous with Aierfei, then arranged for Zi Luo to join the main fleet as a reinforcement.
• The generals protested that moving all known S-Class Dark Energy Manipulators would leave the Viers Supercluster vulnerable to the Zilun Empire.
• Lin Fan revealed that the Federation had a fifth S-Class Dark Energy Manipulator and identified himself as that person.

Aierfei approved a revised battle plan to use one Doomsday Bomb against the enemy fleet attacking the Terra Empire’s border trade hub, aiming to deter the invasion while limiting future damage. As Tarz warned Lavoisier that the enemy had reached the Capital Sphere, Lavoisier received the plan and wondered what the Doomsday Bomb was.

• Aierfei chose the roughly fifty-billion-warship fleet near the Terra Empire’s border as the target for a Doomsday Bomb, intending to conserve the weapon and avoid devastating future Federal territory.
• Aierfei ordered her forces to prepare for the operation within an hour and told Lavoisier to use the time gained to evacuate as many people as possible.
• Tarz saw enemy warships enter the Capital Sphere less than two hours after they breached its interference network, and he warned Lavoisier that the enemy could rapidly crack the interference parameters.
• Lavoisier learned that the administrative districts were evacuating civilians and ordered governors to execute anyone obstructing the evacuation.
• Lavoisier received Aierfei’s encrypted battle plan, recognized most of it as his own work, and questioned the unfamiliar changes, including the Doomsday Bomb.

After the Moy Union captured the Blue Radiance Republic’s capital, Arno studied recordings of humanity’s forces and ordered two detached fleets to rendezvous with his main fleet after completing their missions. Meanwhile, Aierfei began evacuating six Federal affiliate civilizations from Holtair, but only three committed to leaving entirely.

• The Blue Radiance Republic’s forces destroyed their facilities and leader’s residence rather than let Arno’s troops capture them, leaving him without the intelligence he sought.
• Arno studied Terra Empire combat recordings and found that humanity’s Dark Energy technology seemed to exceed what its overall technological level should allow.
• Arno ordered Sarna and Ramni to finish their current attacks on two capitals, then bring their fleets to rendezvous with him.
• Aierfei offered six affiliate civilizations territory in the Renos Supercluster and future help reclaiming their homelands if they evacuated Holtair.
• Three civilizations chose to evacuate fully, while the other three sent only elites with the Federation and left their main populations in Holtair.

Sers accepted Lavoisier’s plan to lure the invading fleet into a trap at Koseqin Outpost, where Aierfei’s forces waited with Doomsday Bombs. The Sarna Fleet arrived with fifty billion ships, while the Terra Empire’s Garrison Fleets surrendered immediately, leaving the Federation’s commanders waiting for the bomb’s kill zone to fill.

• Sers agreed to Lavoisier’s request to withdraw the Terra Empire’s main fleets while leaving its Garrison Fleets at Koseqin as bait.
• Lavoisier joined Aierfei aboard the Thersus, where they waited with the Federation’s five attack groups and a Doomsday Bomb planted at Koseqin.
• The Sarna Fleet arrived at Koseqin with an estimated fifty billion warships, and Aierfei held back until more of them entered the bomb’s kill zone.
• The Terra Empire’s Garrison Fleets abandoned their weapons and propulsion systems and sent surrender signals as Sarna’s fleet approached.
• Sarna held back from attacking the surrendered fleets and prepared to search their officers for useful intelligence.

Aierfei detonated a Doomsday Bomb against Sarna’s fleet, spreading lethal Knox Particles across the battlefield and leaving most of the fleet incapacitated. Sarna escaped with a fraction of her forces, while Aierfei and Lavoisier discussed the weapon’s limited deployment options.

• Aierfei detonated the Doomsday Bomb, and Knox Particle detectors showed its crimson spread engulfing much of Sarna’s fleet.
• Sarna and her crew began suffering worsening symptoms, and many officers collapsed as the Knox Particles took effect.
• Sarna ordered the fleet to retreat, then piloted her flagship into hyperspace while fewer than seven billion ships escaped with it.
• Aierfei asked Lavoisier’s opinion of the weapon, and he compared its power favorably to the Blue Radiance Republic’s Zero-Point Armament.
• Aierfei agreed that the Doomsday Bomb’s deployment limitations made it less dangerous to Eighth Order Civilizations and above in conventional battles.

After most of Sarna’s fleet vanished and its crews became inexplicably lifeless, Arno sent Cheyina’s assault teams aboard the remaining ships. They found Sarna alive but barely conscious, and Arno ordered them to locate and rescue other surviving high-level Dark Energy Users.

• Arno authorized Cheyina to send assault teams aboard Sarna’s warship and took control of the teams’ command system.
• The assault team entered the warship and found the crew dead without visible injuries, with no signs of life elsewhere aboard.
• The team found Sarna alive at the helm, confirmed the ship’s treatment pods were working, and took her to the medical bay.
• Arno concluded that high-level Dark Energy Users might resist the deadly incident after reviewing records from the ships that escaped.
• Arno ordered assault teams to search the remaining warships for high-level Dark Energy Users and rescue any survivors.

After Sarna survived the destruction of most of her fleet, she told Arno that she had found no trace of the enemy. Arno learned that the Blue Radiance Republic was evacuating toward the Renos Supercluster, suspected the humans were behind Sarna’s defeat, and ordered a search for their fleet before discovering that the Yeripok Fleet had gone silent.

• Sarna awoke in a medical pod and recounted her fleet’s defeat to Arno, reporting that she had found no enemy ships.
• Arno’s adjutant reported that the Blue Radiance Republic was evacuating toward the Renos Supercluster, including its main fleet.
• Arno suspected the humans had caused Sarna’s losses and might be sheltering the Blue Radiance Republic, so he ordered contact with them and a search across one million light-years.
• Arno learned that the Yeripok Fleet had missed its scheduled response and ordered the nearest fleet to investigate its situation in the Brant Empire.

Yeripok’s fleet was trapped in the Lanster System, where mysterious interference disabled most of his warships and communications. The Brant Empire attacked alongside a human fleet, while Aierfei held back and waited for the enemy fleet to weaken.

• Yeripok discovered that the Lanster System was empty and that hyperspace and spatial transmission were being jammed.
• Mysterious deaths and Ghost Ships left Yeripok unable to contact nearly ninety percent of his fleet, while the Dark Energy Network was also jammed.
• Yeripok learned that 95 billion enemy warships had arrived, including 70 billion Brant Empire ships and 25 billion human ships.
• The Brant Empire launched a close-range assault on Yeripok’s remaining five billion warships as Aierfei’s human fleet waited three AU away.
• Lavoisier negotiated human support for the Brant Empire, whose Sester System garrison agreed to obey human command during the campaign.

Aierfei lifted the communications blockade so Yeripok would learn the Federation was behind the attacks and be deterred from pursuing it. Yeripok contacted Arno’s main fleet, but the chapter ended just as the communication request arrived.

• Aierfei explained that the Federation needed to reveal its role in the attacks for them to serve as deterrence, then ordered all battlefield communications jamming lifted.
• Yeripok’s fleet continued fighting the Brant Empire’s forces, suffering heavy losses while the human fleet waited on the perimeter.
• Yeripok learned that long-range communications had been restored and ordered his adjutant to contact General Arno immediately.
• Arno’s main fleet remained unable to reach Yeripok and awaited reconnaissance ships, which were still hours away.
• Arno’s communications officer announced that the Yeripok Fleet had sent a communication request.

Arno learned that Yeripok’s fleet had suffered the same catastrophic losses as Sarna’s and ordered Yeripok to hold out until the main fleet could arrive. Yeripok shifted to an all-defense strategy to stall for time, and Aierfei sent the human fleet in to stop him.

• Arno connected with Yeripok and learned that more than ninety percent of Yeripok’s fleet had been destroyed, with the remnants surrounded by the Brant Empire and a human fleet.
• Yeripok reported that a small explosion had preceded the anomaly, and Arno suspected humanity was behind the fleet’s sudden losses.
• Arno ordered Yeripok to hold out for at least four hours and speed up the effort to crack the Hyperspace Interference.
• Yeripok shut down the fleet’s weapons and diverted nearly all available energy to its shields, reducing losses while leaving the Brant Empire fleet to slaughter the defenseless ships.
• Aierfei and Lavoisier realized Yeripok was stalling for Arno’s main fleet, so Aierfei ordered the Brant Empire fleet to withdraw and the human fleet to attack.

Yeripok abandoned his fleet’s defensive formation to pursue the retreating Brant Empire ships, but the Federation trapped both fleets in a chaotic battlefield and destroyed them with indiscriminate fire. As Yeripok ordered a final attack, a Dark Energy Attack pierced his flagship’s shields and struck its bridge.

• Yeripok ordered his fleet to charge the Brant Empire fleet after the humans began firing on his defensive formation.
• Aierfei and Lavoisier ordered the Brant Empire to leave two attack groups behind while the rest of its fleet withdrew.
• Yeripok’s fleet became entangled with the Brant Empire rear guard, and the Federation attacked both fleets with concentrated and area fire.
• Yeripok realized his defeat was inevitable and ordered his fleet to activate its weapons for a final attack on the humans.
• A Dark Energy Attack pierced Yeripok’s flagship shields and struck its bridge.

After destroying Yeripok's fleet, Aierfei cleared the Hyperspace Interference so the Federal Fleet could withdraw before the enemy's main force arrived. With the Blue Radiance Republic's evacuation far behind schedule, she prioritized its professional specialists as the seeds of its future and prepared to head for the Brant Empire's Sander System.

• After Yeripok died, the leaderless Yelipok Fleet was annihilated by the Federal Fleet and Brant Empire forces.
• Aierfei ordered her fleet to locate and destroy the enemy's Hyperspace Interference Devices, then confirmed that hyperspace travel was possible again.
• Lavoisier told Aierfei that the Blue Radiance Republic had evacuated only two percent of its population because it lacked spacecraft.
• Aierfei explained that the evacuation prioritized scientists, engineers, medical specialists, and other professionals as the Blue Radiance Republic's seeds.
• Aierfei ordered the fleet to set course for the Brant Empire's Sander System and wait for her command.

Aierfei’s Federal Fleet escaped the Sester System just before Arno arrived, then left hyperspace interference to delay his pursuit. Arno abandoned his gamble on reaching the human fleet first and ordered his forces to destroy the Brant Empire fleet while the interference was cleared.

• Aierfei ordered the Federal Fleet to enter hyperspace before Arno’s fleet arrived, then activated interference devices across the Sester System.
• Arno learned that the human fleet had escaped, and his adjutant explained that its destination could not be identified among three possible systems.
• Arno ordered two attack groups to destroy the Brant Empire fleet and sent the rest of his fleet toward Target A, gambling that the humans had gone to Target C.
• Arno’s fleet could not depart because 127 hyperspace interference devices were scattered across the Sester System, and clearing them would take at least two hours.
• Arno ordered his fleet to crack the interference and destroy the Brant Empire fleet as quickly as possible.

After the Brant Empire fleet was overwhelmed, Arno halted the attack on its remaining forces and used them to investigate humanity’s Doomsday Bomb. He estimated the weapon’s death zone could persist for thousands of years and concluded that preventing humanity from deploying it was the key countermeasure.

• Arno stopped his fleet from attacking the nearly 30 billion Brant Empire warships and ordered them driven into the area affected by the Doomsday Bomb.
• Arno used the deaths of Brant crews to estimate that the weapon’s lethal range extended 10,000 light-years and killed exposed personnel within a minute.
• Arno ordered more fleets into the death zone at intervals to measure how long its effects lasted.
• Arno’s officers estimated that the death zone could persist for 5,000 to 50,000 years.
• Arno concluded that humanity likely had limited ways to deploy the weapon and resolved to cut off those means.

Arno realized the human fleet had been buying time for the Blue Radiance Republic and four other civilizations to evacuate, so he redirected the Moy Union fleet toward them. With the enemy due to arrive in eight hours, Lavoisier ordered evacuation ships to leave before they could rescue everyone, and the chapter ended as a hyperspace window formed near a civilian vessel.

• Arno learned that the Blue Radiance Republic and four other civilizations had begun evacuating, and realized the humans had used their maneuvers to buy time.
• Arno ordered the Moy Union fleet to abandon pursuit and attack the evacuating civilizations.
• Lavoisier told Aierfei that less than twenty percent of the Blue Radiance Republic's population had been evacuated, though its elites were already safe.
• Aierfei revealed that the Moy Union fleet was heading for the Blue Radiance Republic and would reach its outer perimeter in about eight hours.
• Lavoisier ordered all ships to stop boarding civilians and jump to designated coordinates, and a civilian captain prepared to obey despite having taken aboard only seventeen percent of the planned passengers.
• The civilian ship detected a hyperspace window as the captain was about to repeat his departure order.

The Moy Union’s scout ships and Arno’s main fleet attacked the Blue Radiance Republic, destroying ships and purging inhabited planets. As the other four civilizations gathered at the Ariston Star System’s Cosmic Current, Arno sent most of his fleet after them.

• A Moy Union scout ship destroyed twenty-seven civilian ships near Hava Star and attacked the planet’s surface, while three ships escaped.
• Arno’s main fleet arrived hours later and attacked the remaining planets, ordering that no civilians be left alive.
• Aierfei learned that the ships assembling at the Ariston Star System would need at least three days to pass through the Cosmic Current and said they would use the last Doomsday Bomb approved by the Marshal.
• Arno learned that the other four civilizations had departed toward the Ariston Star System and ordered most of his fleet to pursue them, leaving ten attack groups to continue the purge.

The Federal Fleet prepared a vast Hyperspace Interference labyrinth around the Ariston Star System to funnel Arno’s fleet toward the Doomsday Bomb. Arno’s fleet entered the labyrinth, and repeated interference forced it out of hyperspace again.

• Aierfei oversaw the evacuation and the near-completion of the labyrinth deployment, built with interference devices from humanity’s allies.
• The Federal Fleet detected Arno’s approaching fleet and ordered the remaining deployment ships to withdraw.
• Arno’s fleet emerged from hyperspace 120,000 light-years from its target, and Arno ordered his crew to crack the interference parameters.
• Aierfei learned that Arno had entered through sector C17-52, which would guide his fleet toward the Doomsday Bomb without further intervention.
• After two hours, Arno’s fleet cracked the interference and resumed its journey, but it was immediately forced out of hyperspace again.

Arno’s fleet repeatedly encountered humanity’s hyperspace interference zones while pursuing the humans toward the Ariston Star System. By cracking the zones’ parameters and choosing the longest routes, Arno brought his fleet within 30,000 light-years of the system and ordered another major advance.

• Arno learned that the fleet had been forced out of hyperspace after traveling only thirty light-years because the interference parameters had changed.
• Arno realized humanity and its five allied civilizations had divided the interference field into many zones with different parameters, and ordered simultaneous decryption and reconnaissance in every direction.
• Reconnaissance ships found a route permitting more than 9,800 light-years of travel, so Arno redirected the fleet and advanced over 6,000 light-years closer to the Ariston Star System.
• Arno used the same method over the following day to bring his fleet within 30,000 light-years of the Ariston Star System.
• Arno learned that one of two promising routes would bring the fleet 8,700 light-years closer, and ordered it to advance that way.

Aierfei’s Doomsday Bomb devastated Arno’s fleet inside the maze, costing it billions of warships and leaving many more as Ghost Ships. Arno retreated, only to find energy signatures surrounding his fleet in a sphere that left it nowhere to go.

• Aierfei monitored the evacuation and ordered the Current’s transit route kept clear while Arno’s fleet advanced into the maze.
• The Doomsday Bomb detonated near Arno’s fleet, killing twelve billion warships and turning nearly twenty billion more into Ghost Ships as they retreated.
• Arno halted his advance, wary that the humans had planted more Doomsday Bombs in the maze.
• Aierfei ordered all energy simulation devices detonated, creating matching energy signatures around Arno’s fleet.
• Arno saw the signatures form a sphere ten thousand light-years away and realized his fleet could only stay put.

Arno realized the humans had trapped his fleet with simulated energy signatures, then led it through the interference zones to the empty Ariston Star System. Finding that the humans and allied fleets had fled through the Current, he called for a Moy Union Supreme General Conference.

• Arno ordered scout ships to probe the weapons surrounding his fleet and search the sites of previous energy bursts.
• A scout ship found a Simulated Energy Signature Device, and Arno concluded the humans had used the decoy because they had few Superweapons.
• Arno ordered his fleet to resume its advance toward the Ariston Star System, cracking five interference sectors along the way.
• Arno entered the Ariston Star System and found it empty, realizing the human and allied fleets had escaped through the Current.
• Arno ordered a message sent to the other nine supreme generals to convene the Twelfth Supreme General Conference of the Moy Union.

Arno convened the Moy Union’s twelfth Supreme Commander Conference after Humanity’s superweapon devastated Yeripok’s fleet in Holtair. He revealed that the weapon had a lethal range of ten thousand light-years and had reduced the fleet from five hundred billion warships to three billion.

• Arno summoned the other Supreme Commanders to a conference, but refused their attempts to contact him beforehand.
• The ten Supreme Commanders gathered, and Antonio demanded that Arno justify calling a conference during what seemed like a minor military loss.
• Arno showed footage of Yeripok’s fleet fighting Humanity, and Ansen recognized that Humanity’s ships used fixed Dark Energy cannons, marking them as a Ninth Order Civilization.
• The Supreme Commanders questioned why the footage showed only three billion of Yeripok’s five hundred billion warships.
• Arno explained that Humanity’s superweapon had a lethal range of ten thousand light-years and had reduced Yeripok’s fleet to the three billion surviving warships.

Arno revealed that humanity’s Doomsday Bomb could kill life across more than ten thousand light-years, prompting Nina to warn that attacking humanity through the Renos current would be disastrous. The Supreme Commanders realized a full-scale offensive could be annihilated at the current exit, leaving the war seemingly impossible to fight.

• Arno explained the Doomsday Bomb’s effects, limits, and known delivery methods to the Supreme Commanders.
• Nina considered how the Moy Union’s ability to pass down skills might help it recover from crew losses, but recognized that the weapon made attacking humanity’s territory extremely dangerous.
• Nina asked Arno whether his enmity with humanity could be reconciled, and Arno reacted with disbelief.
• Belterlun asked Nina to explain why she had raised reconciliation, and Nina asked what would happen if humanity detonated the weapon at the Renos current exit during an offensive.
• The Supreme Commanders realized that fleets entering the Renos current could be destroyed in vast numbers, and concluded that a full-scale attack could not be fought.

At the Supreme Commander Conference, Nina persuaded the Moy Union to avoid war with humanity and explore an alliance against the White Tiger Empire. Meanwhile, Lombard’s forces detected a lone object entering the Cosmic Current at the Liss Supercluster and prepared for battle.

• Nina reminded the conference that the Moy Union lacked a way to counter humanity’s Doomsday Bomb and would soon face the White Tiger Empire when their armistice expired.
• The commanders agreed to seek contact with humanity and possibly recruit it as an ally, while Nina offered to handle negotiations herself.
• At the Liss Supercluster, Lombard’s adjutant worried that General Larnass’s attendance at the Supreme Commander Conference could signal an impending war.
• A monitoring soldier reported abnormal energy fluctuations in the Cosmic Current and detected a single target roughly the size of an Assault Ship.
• Lombard ordered the defensive fleet to ready its weapons, called rear forces back from leave, and sent an emergency transmission to Larnass.

Lumbard’s defensive line lost the ability to fight after a strange iron ball disabled the Moy Union’s weapons, while a massive White Tiger Empire fleet approached through the Current Mouth. Unable to destroy the object, Lumbard ordered the fleet to retreat and yield the passage, leaving the Moy Union facing an unfavorable encounter battle.

• An unknown iron ball emerged from the Current Mouth, and Lumbard ordered the defensive fleets to attack it.
• The iron ball disabled the weapons systems of hundreds of billions of Moy Union warships as reports warned that at least a hundred billion enemy-sized objects were approaching.
• Lumbard ordered several warships to ram the iron ball, but the first collision at 0.22 times the speed of light left it intact.
• With the enemy fleet due to arrive in less than three minutes, Lumbard ordered the Moy Union fleet to retreat and abandon the defensive line.
• Lumbard ordered the danger reported to General Larnass as the Moy Union prepared for an unfavorable encounter battle.