The Overwhelming Gap

"Built by nonhumans—and another case of the Alien Forces?"

After hearing Macha's words, the Marine Corps lieutenant asked in a low voice.

As for "another"...

It was because Earth had just suffered an invasion by the Mimic race two months earlier, though that invasion had been resolved in just "one day."

"There's a very high chance they're the Alien Forces."

Macha did not deny it. She operated the Central Control Console, generating a three-dimensional star map of the Epsilon Indian System.

She then enlarged the star map and focused on the Giant Gas Planet.

At that moment, images of three spacecraft unlike any human vessels appeared along the edge of the Giant Gas Planet's near-Earth orbit.

The three vessels had rounded bodies, with very narrow front and rear sections but an extremely rounded middle.

There were also two sharp, slanted wings beneath their fronts. They looked like insect antennae, making the ships resemble enlarged cockroaches.

More importantly, judging from the data displayed, each vessel was no smaller than a Phoenix-class Aircraft Carrier.

They were roughly two kilometers long, about nine hundred meters wide at their broadest point, and between two hundred and two hundred fifty meters tall.

Macha continued, "These data and images came from observation satellites deployed in orbit around EL-3, the Giant Gas Planet.

"At present, all observation satellites have lost contact.

"After investigating, we discovered that the other side had initiated signal interference.

"Before you arrived at The Observer, I had already instructed the crew to use the Quantum Communication device on Bountiful Star to transmit the data photographed and monitored by the satellites to Earth.

"After that...

"Their signal interference was actually capable of affecting even our military-grade communications. Even Quantum Communication was not spared.

"That is why I had to send personnel to Harvest City