Their clash with Konak Utopia's military forces had ultimately triggered a supernova explosion. To the Konakians, this had been a sweeping victory for the Collectors, but in the Collectors' eyes, they too had lost.
The Collectors' goal in battle had been to capture the Konakians—to capture this Seventh Tier civilization. Yet not only had they gained nothing, they had also lost a considerable amount of material resources.
Capturing enemies was more complicated than exterminating them, so the cost was naturally higher. There was no way around that. If they had merely wanted to destroy the Konakians within the star system, the Collectors had simpler and more efficient methods. There would have been no need for the entire cluster to enter the star system and confront Konak Utopia's military forces head-on.
Nor would they have used precious megastructure organisms as meat shields to draw enemy fire.
"We failed. I didn't expect the Great Destruction to notice us so quickly."
The reason for everything lay with the Great Destruction. The Collectors had been on the verge of capturing a large number of Konakians, yet who could have expected the Great Destruction to notice them in such a short time?
Because they knew nothing about the Great Destruction's avatars, the Collectors could only attribute it all to bad luck.
One individual conducted a post-battle analysis. "The supernova erupted without warning. Konak Utopia's military forces were closest to the star, so they should have been the first to act. Yet they remained where they were. Clearly, they had not sensed the crisis that would arrive seconds later. By then, it would inevitably have been too late to use teleportation to evade the supernova."
"All of Konak's military forces in that star system should have been completely buried."
The Collectors did not believe there would