"Those damned heretics! How dare they toy with us like this? They're treating us like hunting hounds they can play with at will!"
On the bridge of the Battle Barge, Tyberos glared furiously at the Auspex array before him. His face, already flushed red with rage, now resembled a ripe apple, while his eyes were filled with a terrifying crimson. This was clearly an ominous sign that Tyberos was about to lose his mind completely.
It was no wonder Tyberos was so enraged. Three long hours had passed since the Imperial Combined Fleet entered the Karen System.
Yet in those mere three hours, the once-majestic and imposing fleet had suffered unprecedented devastation.
When they set out from the capital of Provence, their 125 warships had seemed to blot out the sky. Now, after an intense engagement with the Star Navy Fleet, only seventy vessels remained, barely holding the situation together.
Faced with such disastrous losses, the Imperial Combined Fleet had paid a tremendous price. Yet unbelievably, they had failed to destroy even a single warship of the Star Navy Fleet.
This cruel reality was undoubtedly a crushing blow to the proud Tyberos. The fire in his heart burned ever more fiercely, while the defenses of his reason crumbled bit by bit.
Tyberos was not entirely helpless against the Star Navy Fleet's elusive, flexible hit-and-run combat style.
He racked his brains to devise numerous countermeasures, such as dispatching part of his forces to attack the various planets in the Karen System separately, hoping to disrupt the enemy's strategic deployment.
Or he could divide his forces and surround them from all sides, attempting to trap the Star Navy Fleet within an encirclement in one stroke.
Unfortunately, every one of these carefully planned schemes ended in failure, unable to pose even the slightest