Dear readers, happy Lantern Festival! Wishing you good health, harmony in your families, and success in all you do!
One month later.
After completing repairs and replenishment in the Sa'cea System, the Imperial Fleet began advancing into the heart of the T'au Empire.
But they soon discovered something strange: every planet along their route had been deserted.
Once-bustling colony worlds now held only empty cities. Factory production lines had stopped midway through their work, vehicles lay abandoned in the streets, and even dining tables still held half-eaten meals, as though every resident had vanished in an instant.
"What's going on here?" Admiral Yanis frowned at the footage sent back by the reconnaissance teams. "Where did they all go?"
Saul stood before the star map, silently studying the planets marked "evacuated."
"They're pulling back their defensive lines," he said slowly. "Concentrating their entire population, resources, and military in their core systems."
His finger swept across the star map before finally stopping on a planet surrounded by layer upon layer of defenses.
"T'au. Their homeworld."
A trace of gravity entered Saul's eyes.
"The enemy knows that a scattered defense is now meaningless. The Imperium is too powerful. Isolated colonies would only be defeated one by one. So he has chosen to abandon all outlying territories and concentrate his remaining strength at a single point."
"So they intend to fight a decisive battle against us at T'au?" Yanis asked.
"Yes." Saul nodded. "And it will be a battle of unprecedented ferocity."
He raised his head and looked out through the viewport into the depths of the void.
"What power can a civilization unleash when it stakes everything on one final battle? We'll find out soon enough."
T'au, the Supreme Council Chamber.
Aun'Va stood before an enormous floor-to-ceiling window, gazing down at the