The War Begins

The Epoch Clan knew nothing of the mysterious organization and Sarah's return attack. With the Zerg's stealth and mimicry technologies, plus the mysterious organization's insiders, conventional surveillance and defense systems simply could not stop Sarah from infiltrating.

Although the Epoch Clan had purged one batch of mysterious organization members, the organization was deeply entrenched, with far more personnel than the Epoch Clan had imagined. Moreover, the frontline forces had wartime duties to fulfill. The previous large-scale summons and self-inspections had already caused a wave of panic and destabilized morale. Without conclusive evidence, they likely would not dare conduct another purge anytime soon.

The warship Sarah boarded this time had been reassigned from an outer patrol fleet. Its course ran counter to most others because Epoch Clan command believed the mysterious organization would likely use the fleets transported out of XM768 to make trouble. To disrupt their plans, the Epoch Clan decided to call back the outer fleets and have them take over the defense of the XM768 Star Gate.

The mysterious organization quickly learned of this news and, after some discussion, settled on their current plan. In truth, their original plan had also been to wait for the heat to die down before having Sarah sneak back, return to the XM1209 Star Gate through the XM768 Star Gate, and then head back to Zerg territory from there.

After all, this place was thousands of light-years from Zerg territory. Relying on a ship's own power, even without interception by the Epoch Clan, would take centuries—perhaps even a thousand years—to get back. A thousand years? The Zerg had not even been in the Star Sea Alliance's sight for that long.

Even the nearest Star Gate was three hundred light-years away, a journey of decades. Given the mysterious organization's and the Zerg's current