Earth, outer space.
As the Mechanical Legion tore open space and descended,
the Earth Alliance's guardian defense system, the "Firmament Matrix," deployed in near-Earth orbit, was activated.
The twelve main annihilation cannons in orbit slowly adjusted their angles. Their armor plates slid open layer by layer, revealing enormous muzzles beneath. Their insides began charging, while the particle-accelerator tracks continuously shed blue light.
Energy silently gathered in the vacuum, sending ripples of power outward in wave after wave.
Next, tens of thousands of defense platforms broke away from their original patrol orbits.
They rapidly performed complex formation adjustments, building a crisscrossing mobile fire network in front of the main gun emplacements.
The densely packed defensive laser turrets on their surfaces spun rapidly, locking onto potential targets in outer space and lighting up red laser targeting dots like a field of stars.
Farther away, the Moon Eclipse Clan's massive war platform, hidden on the far side of the moon, slowly opened the covers of its enormous launch silos, revealing the unfathomable darkness within.
Even satellites originally meant for communications and observation changed their orientation.
Hidden weapons modules extended from within them.
In a very short time, the entire near-Earth region transformed from a silent vacuum into an iron fortress bristling with "spikes." The lights from locked weapons shone like the eyes of beasts in the darkness, one after another, gazing toward the mechanical tide surging out of the Spatial Rift. A tense standoff took shape in silence.
At that moment, inside the Mechanical Legion's core command room,
Hub Brain's crystalline body hovered above the ground.
Countless translucent tendrils studded with tiny neural nodes extended from its base, swaying through the room as they exchanged data with the flowing light screens on the walls and floor.
A vast torrent of data coursed through