Chapter Summaries

Lance and Xiwet captured the noble commanders and secured the surrender of the Conquest Fleet, while Xiwet learned about Lance’s alliance with the Human Federation. At Rabi Star, the Federation’s defenders reported that an entire invading force had been wiped out after Commander Rhyent destroyed the spatial passages.

• Lance reassured Xiwet that Rabi Star was safe and agreed to let him capture the fleet commanders.
• Xiwet gathered the noble commanders aboard the flagship, arrested them, and ordered the Conquest Fleet to surrender to the Rose Fleet.
• Xiwet boarded the Rose, admired its advanced technology, and learned that the Human Federation was supplying Lance under an agreement for Lancer Ore.
• Weilala reported that about five billion warships had been sent toward Rabi Star through hundreds of stargates.
• Weilala told Lance that Commander Rhyent had destroyed every spatial passage, wiping out the entire invading force.

Lance prepared the Rose Fleet’s decisive assault on the Imperial Capital, Sasala, as the Empire gathered its forces to defend the Wilton Star Domain. The operation began with rebel attacks from two directions, and Emperor Landon received word that both had been struck.

• After a year of fighting, Lance controlled eight of the Cassano System’s nine star domains and commanded seventy billion warships, while the Empire assembled hundreds of billions of ships in Wilton.
• Lance assigned Xiwet and Aier to draw away Imperial fleets with attacks from the Laswell and Hailington Systems, while his own force prepared to assault Sasala.
• Lance named the operation Imperial Glory and asked Commander Chris to secure the Rose Fleet’s rear.
• Emperor Landon berated Grand Duke Sailan and the other nobles for losing eight star domains.
• An Imperial Court guard reported that rebel forces had simultaneously attacked Laswell and Hailington with at least thirty billion warships at each location.

Xiwet and Aier’s fleet attacked Laswell, prompting Emperor Landon to take personal command of the Empire’s defenses and send massive reinforcements. Convinced the nobles were obstructing the war effort, Landon ordered attacks on rebel-held capitals and placed the nobles under house arrest.

• Xiwet led the Rose Fleet into Laswell, where its technological and combat advantages put the Imperial defenders on the defensive despite their greater numbers.
• The Imperial commander requested aid, and Emperor Landon examined the battlefield footage before taking command of the fleets.
• Landon dispatched four Galactic Legions and two Royal Guard Fleets to reinforce Laswell and Hailington.
• Landon ordered eight Sector-Class Fleets to destroy everything in the capitals of the eight Star Domains held by the rebels.
• The nobles protested the order, so Landon had Royal Guards place them under house arrest until the war ended.

Xiwet and Aier drew massive Imperial reinforcements to Laswell and Hailington, leaving the imperial capital exposed. After receiving the news, Lance ordered his Federation raid fleet to jump to Sasala and launch a surprise attack.

• Xiwet routed the defenders at Laswell and drew 210 billion Imperial warships there while keeping the Federation fleet in reserve.
• The Second Legion reported that Hailington had also received 210 billion Imperial warships as reinforcements.
• Vilette told Lance that 420 billion Imperial warships had been diverted, leaving the imperial capital with fewer defenders than Lance had expected.
• Lance ordered his ten-billion-ship raid fleet to activate its Hyperspace Engines and head for Sasala.

Emperor Landon tried to regroup the Empire’s fleets at Durant Fortress after Lance’s forces captured Sasala, but a Zero-Point Missile destroyed the fortress and the assembled ships. Lance then ordered the occupation of Sasala and the next phase of Operation Imperial Dawn, while resolving that the Empire must remain subordinate to avoid provoking the weapon’s power.

• Emperor Landon learned that Lance’s ten-billion-ship fleet had breached Sasala and out-ranged the Royal Guard Fleets, so he ordered the remaining Imperial forces to regroup at Durant Fortress.
• Lance discovered that many Imperial ships were missing, suspected they had been sent to raid his home base, and requested authorization from Chris to use a Zero-Point Missile.
• Emperor Landon arrived at Durant and prepared a counterattack as the remaining Imperial warships assembled around the fortress.
• After Chris authorized the strike, Lance launched the Zero-Point Missile at Durant Fortress, and it destroyed the fortress and more than fifty billion nearby warships.
• Lance ordered his forces to occupy Sasala, arrest its nobles for public trial, and begin the third phase of Operation Imperial Dawn against Imperial fleets that refused to surrender.

The Rose Empire turned Ailuo Metal mining into a popular civilian profession, securing the supply needed to repay its warship debt and trade with the Federation. With the empire stabilized, Lin Fan began planning the Federation’s campaign to unify the Virgo Supercluster, focusing first on three neighboring star clusters ruled by Level 6 Civilizations.

• The Rose Empire established the Ailuo Metal Administration Bureau and required citizens to sell mined Ailuo Metal to the state at an official price, prompting a rush of private miners.
• Lance relied on civilian mining to meet the empire’s Ailuo Metal obligations to the Federation and secure points for purchasing supplies such as warships.
• After the Rose Empire stabilized and its Ailuo Metal supply was secured, Lin Fan turned to the Federation’s expansion across the Virgo Supercluster.
• Lin Fan reviewed a Star Chart showing three neighboring star clusters unified under Level 6 Civilizations and reflected that the Federation would have faced disaster without his advantages.

At the end of Federation Year 150, the Federation assembled an expeditionary force of 15.3 billion warships, including five Angel Fleets and three experimental Nether Legions. Chris ordered the fleets to depart while Lin Fan kept him at headquarters to oversee the operation, and the fleets vanished through Hyperspace Windows.

• The Federation mobilized seventy percent of its core-region fleets, including five Angel Fleets commanded by Aierfei and three experimental Nether Legions crewed by C-Class-or-higher Dark Energy Manipulators.
• Lin Fan refused Chris's request to join the expedition and told him to remain at headquarters as the core region's supreme fleet commander.
• Chris's adjutant reported that Commanders Qin Tian, Elio, and Aierfei were ready, and Chris ordered the fleets to depart in five minutes.
• The three expeditionary forces, totaling 15.3 billion warships, activated their Hyperspace Engines and departed through countless Hyperspace Windows.

Aliya’s Zerg forces faced a powerful invasion in the Viers Supercluster while her main army took a year to return, leaving her desperate to protect the Boötes Void. Meanwhile, Aierfei’s Angel Fleet lost contact with the Federation’s 105th Star Cluster in the Brecht System, and Bernice announced that they had found something.

• Hypnos led the Void Dragons and other powerful civilizations in an assault that overwhelmed Aliya’s weakened Zerg forces across the Viers Supercluster.
• Aliya sent her main army toward the Viers Supercluster but feared the invaders would discover the Boötes Void before the force arrived.
• Aierfei’s Angel Fleet captured thirty-eight systems in the Messiah Star Cluster and surrounded the Italo Union’s home system.
• The Federation’s 105th Star Cluster entered the Brecht System and then vanished from contact, leaving Aierfei unable to locate it.
• Bernice announced that the Angel Fleet had found something as Aierfei considered reporting the disappearance to Interstellar Fleet Headquarters.

The Angel Fleet discovered that the missing 105th Star Cluster was trapped in a Time Bubble where time contracted thirty thousand times. Aierfei sought Li Lizhi’s help and urgently requested her reassignment to the Messiah Star Cluster.

• Bernice told Aierfei that Angela had decoded a continuous transmission from the 105th Star Cluster by speeding up a day’s worth of data tens of thousands of times.
• Angela proposed that the 105th Star Cluster was inside a Time Bubble, and Aierfei’s research confirmed that time there contracted thirty thousand times.
• Aierfei contacted Lin Fan and requested that Li Lizhi be requisitioned to join her fleet in the Messiah Star Cluster.
• Lin Fan, concerned by the severity of the Angel Fleet’s problem, asked Aierfei what had happened.

The Italo Union’s surviving leaders debated how to respond after the Federation conquered nearly all their territory, while a relic from a Level 8 civilization protected the Brecht System. Council Chairman Resels rejected negotiation and urged them to keep inflicting losses until the Federation abandoned its invasion.

• The councilors gathered on Otus, worried that the Federation had taken more than ninety percent of the Italo Union’s territory.
• The councilors discussed the Sacred Artifact’s ability to defend the Brecht System and feared the Federation might blockade them until their civilization stagnated.
• Resels silenced the council and argued that the Federation had come to conquer, not negotiate.
• Resels said the Italo Union had to repel repeated attacks or inflict enough losses to make the Federation abandon the invasion.

Lin Fan learned that a Time Bubble had trapped the Federation’s 105th Star Cluster and assigned Aierfei a Dauntless Fleet legion to disable its source. He then turned his attention back to the insectoids’ unexplained withdrawal and considered sending a fleet into their territory to investigate.

• Aierfei reported that a Time Bubble had trapped the 105th Star Cluster, and Lin Fan recognized it as a technology the Federation could counter.
• Lin Fan refused Aierfei’s request to requisition Li Lizhi because she was occupied with a critical project.
• Lin Fan assigned Aierfei one Star System Legion from the Dauntless Fleet, whose warships carried devices that countered Time Bubbles.
• Aierfei accepted the mission and pledged to resolve the incident.
• Lin Fan focused on intelligence about the insectoids and considered sending a small fleet into their territory to investigate.

Aierfei’s fleet rendezvoused with Lin Kexin’s Dauntless Fleet, which was tasked with disabling the Italo Union’s Time Bubble in the Brecht System. As the fleet entered the system, Union Chairman Resels tried to persuade the Supreme Council to authorize a fight before negotiations.

• Aierfei welcomed Lin Kexin and agreed that the Dauntless Fleet would enter the Brecht System to locate and shut down the Time Bubble device.
• Lin Kexin departed three minutes later, eager to resolve the operation and return to the Kate Galaxy amid strange insect race movements in the Moras System.
• Resels learned that a Federation fleet of about one billion ships, mostly destroyers, had entered the Brecht System and was heading toward the former Time Bubble site.
• Most councilors favored trying negotiations, while only a few hardliners supported fighting first.
• Resels argued that the Union had no bargaining power and needed to gain an advantage before negotiating, prompting a councilor to ask what he proposed.

Resels persuaded the Council to send thirty billion warships against Lin Kexin’s fleet, hoping to win a conventional battle or force the enemy to reveal its time-manipulating weapon. When the fleet arrived to encircle her, Lin Kexin realized they had mistaken her for an easy target and prepared to strike back.

• Resels convinced most councilors to attack the Federal Fleet in the Brecht System, and the Council deployed three United Fleets totaling thirty billion warships.
• Lin Kexin and her experts failed to locate the device generating the Time Bubble around the 105th Star Cluster.
• Lin Kexin’s expert team proposed provoking the enemy into using the device so they could detect its energy signature.
• The Radar Division reported that thirty billion enemy warships had arrived to encircle Lin Kexin’s fleet.
• Lin Kexin realized the enemy saw her fleet as a soft target and decided to attack until they revealed their trump card.

Admiral Thatcher led three Italo Union fleets against the Dauntless Fleet, but distrusted the enemy’s apparent passivity and faced pressure from the Council to attack. As the fleets began moving, Lin Kexin ordered the Dauntless Fleet to form a tight defensive formation and make it look ready to fight to the death.

• Thatcher suspected the small enemy ships were combat vessels, but followed the Council’s orders to lead three fleets into battle.
• Uneasy that the enemy had not reacted to the encirclement, Thatcher ordered the 7th United Fleet to probe while the 12th and 13th advanced to within two AU.
• The Council criticized Thatcher’s cautious approach, but Resels stopped them from replacing him before the battle.
• Lin Kexin learned that the Italo Union fleets had begun advancing and ordered her forces to gather around her ship in a tight defensive formation.

Lin Kexin let the Italo Union's Seventh United Fleet approach the Dauntless Fleet before it opened fire, while Thatcher believed his fleet's superior range gave him the advantage. The Union's attack appeared to hit the Federal formation, but the Seventh Fleet began suffering catastrophic losses from an unexpected counterattack by the supposedly destroyed target fleet.

• Lin Kexin held the Dauntless Fleet in a dense formation and allowed the three United Fleets to close in without attacking.
• Thatcher assumed the Federal warships could not fire beyond 2 AU and ordered the Seventh United Fleet to advance into its 1.5 AU attack range.
• The Seventh United Fleet fired Gravity Cannons at the Dauntless Fleet, and Thatcher believed the concentrated barrage would overwhelm its defenses.
• Thatcher saw the Seventh United Fleet's forces rapidly disappear from the tactical display and demanded to know the source of the attack.
• A Union officer reported that the attack came from the target fleet that should have been destroyed.

Lin Kexin’s Dauntless Fleet devastated the Italo Union’s United Fleets while its Council decided to activate a Sacred Artifact against the enemy. As the 12th and 13th United Fleets approached their Stargate escape route, the Stargate cluster was destroyed in a spatial attack.

• Thatcher ordered the 12th and 13th United Fleets to retreat while the Seventh United Fleet counterattacked to cover them.
• Lin Kexin learned that the retreating fleets were heading for Stargates and ordered the Dauntless Fleet to keep attacking Target One while waiting to strike their escape route.
• The Italo Union Council panicked over its inability to damage the Dauntless Fleet, then unanimously ordered the Sacred Artifact activated.
• The Seventh United Fleet suffered more than eighty percent losses as the 12th and 13th United Fleets neared the Stargate evacuation point.
• Lin Kexin ordered the Stargates destroyed, and a wave of attacks tore apart the Stargate cluster just as Thatcher expected his fleets to escape.

The Dauntless Fleet destroyed the Italo Union’s stargates, triggering a Spatial Collapse that annihilated billions of enemy warships. A Time Bubble then engulfed both sides, but Lin Kexin’s fleet continued moving and set course for the device’s source.

• The destruction of the Italo Union’s 380 stargates triggered a Spatial Collapse that destroyed 2.7 billion warships from the 12th and 13th United Fleets.
• Thatcher realized the Dauntless Fleet had cut off his escape, while Lin Kexin waited for the remaining enemy fleets to react.
• Lin Kexin detected an energy reaction far away, ordered the Time Effect Countermeasure Devices activated, and located the source of the signal.
• A Level 8 Civilization’s experimental base released a pulse that enveloped the Dauntless Fleet and the 7th, 12th, and 13th United Fleets in a Time Bubble.
• The Italo Union’s council celebrated the Time Bubble’s apparent success, but Resels saw that the Dauntless Fleet had begun moving.

After the Federation fleet escaped the Time Bubble and vanished from the tactical display, Resels realized it was likely heading for Holy Land, where the Italo Union kept the Sacred Relic. He ordered fleets to defend the base and experts to dismantle the Relic, while the Federation’s Dauntless Fleet prepared to arrive within minutes.

• Resels and the councilors saw the enemy fleet move despite the Time Bubble, then vanish from the tactical display.
• Resels calculated that the enemy was likely warping toward Holy Land, and the councilors feared losing the Sacred Relic and their bargaining power.
• Resels ordered every available United Fleet to converge on Holy Land and ordered its experts to dismantle and relocate the Sacred Relic.
• Resels insisted that moving the Relic offered their only chance, despite the risks and the Union’s inability to power it elsewhere.
• The Italo Union’s fleets mobilized, unaware that the Federation could cross fifty thousand light-years in minutes using its Hyperspace Engine.
• Aboard Luoshen, the Dauntless Fleet’s Second Division prepared to exit hyperspace and assault the interstellar fortress.

General Boris rushed the Italo Union’s defenses around Sanctuary into position after recognizing that the Federation could arrive far sooner than expected. When the invaders’ spatial gateways appeared, he ordered the fleet to fire as their warships began emerging.

• Boris ordered the garrison fleet to accelerate its deployment around Sanctuary, despite the council’s prediction that the enemy would take several days to arrive.
• Boris explained that the invaders might have developed a new faster-than-light travel method and warned his adjutant to plan for the worst.
• The command team detected hundreds of millions of azure spatial gateways, and Boris learned that the defensive line was still incomplete.
• Boris ordered every fleet to charge its main guns and fire as soon as the enemy ships emerged, hoping to exploit their possible lack of shields during arrival.
• Boris saw the front ends of the invaders’ warships emerge from the gateways and ordered all warships to open fire.

Lin Kexin’s fleet used Assault Ships to survive the Italo Union’s Gravity Cannon ambush, overwhelm Boris’s forces, and secure the machine controlling temporal effects. After Boris’s fleet was destroyed, Lin Kexin reported the mission’s success to Commander Aierfei.

• The Italo Union’s Gravity Cannons struck as Lin Kexin’s Hyperspace Windows opened, but the emerging Assault Ships withstood the gravitational tearing using their hull armor.
• Lin Kexin sent the Assault Ships at 0.99 times the speed of light into Boris’s five United Fleets, then used them to shield the Space Base from attack.
• Lin Kexin ordered the Dauntless Fleet to annihilate the defending forces once the Assault Ships had isolated the Space Base.
• Boris ordered his remaining warships to attack the Space Base, but their weapons could not breach the Assault Ships’ shield wall, and his fleet was nearly wiped out.
• Lin Kexin reported to Commander Aierfei that her forces had secured the machine controlling temporal effects and completed the mission.