Daryl, a Level 6 Black Giant, saw three planets the moment he stepped out of the teleportation array.
They hung silently beneath the starlight, slowly orbiting along three different trajectories.
The innermost was a reddish-brown rocky planet.
Its scorching land was covered in metal mines, while crisscrossing rail transport lines blanketed the planet's surface like scars.
The middle planet was the main colony world of the entire star system.
Deep green vegetation covered its continents, and gray-white city clusters stretched along the coastlines and plains.
Orbital elevators thousands of kilometers long pierced heaven and earth, their tops reflecting a cold silver gleam beneath the star's light.
At the outermost edge of this star system was a gas giant.
A colonial outpost had likewise been established on its largest moon.
The three planets hung like three leaves from an invisible branch.
Thus, the Tentacle Tree Civilization had named this star system "Three Leaves."
Standing in space, Daryl's vertical chest-mouth opened and closed slightly as his gaze slowly swept over the outermost moon.
According to the records, a Native civilization lived there—an indigenous intelligent species conquered by the Tentacle Tree Civilization and classified as a "protected species."
They were kept in so-called nature reserves, with a fixed number of visiting slots opened every year for colonial nobles to come and observe them.
It was somewhat like a zoo.
At that moment, a piercing warning suddenly rang across all three planets.
With the aid of spatial warning devices, the three colony worlds entered the highest state of alert the instant the five Black Giants appeared.
All orbital defense platforms around the three planets rapidly turned, their cannons unfolding as blue points of light began gathering energy.
Near the star's orbit, several enormous Energy Harvesting Devices also slowly adjusted their positions.
Those devices were