Half an hour ago.
In Desolate Universe Belt far from Lighthouse Star, a Kunde Race fleet leaped out of a stargate, quickly splitting into multiple groups, entering warp mode, and heading towards Lighthouse Star along different routes.
After the rampage of the Federation of Light and the Arcane Church, the Crimson Dynasty had expanded the perimeter of its perimeter around Lighthouse Star several times over. This Kunde Race fleet was detected by the area's space monitoring devices shortly after it appeared, but the Kunde Race fleet ignored it and continued on its way.
The main ship's command center is predominantly crystal blue and dark gray, with various control panels designed for use by crustaceans. The fleet commander is a large lobster-man, noticeably more robust than the average human, with fiery red stripes on his carapace.
The Kunde Race is also divided into different subgroups. One of these subgroups has a unique characteristic: when they experience different emotions, certain parts of their carapace will change color. Red patterns represent anger and excitement. This commander is currently in a state of anger, and the object of his anger is the enemy, the Crimson Dynasty.
Yelu, a ruthless officer of the Kunde Race, known for his radical approach, volunteered to participate in the attack. He and most of the crew knew that this mission was likely a one-way trip, but they still went without hesitation.
How far are we from the Lighthouse Star marked on the star map?
"Commander, the journey will take about four more hours."
"Speed up even more."
Yelu's tone was filled with murderous intent, as if he wished he could immediately unleash the ship's cannons into the enemy's heartland.
The Kunde Race have only acquired the full set of stargate technology and advanced warp engines a few years ago. Even with the powerful productivity of a cluster-level civilization, they cannot mass-produce troops. Naturally, the Kunde Race lack experience in using these two technologies and cannot come up with many tricks. Even now, many Kunde Race soldiers are not yet accustomed to these new technologies.
Four hours of travel time is naturally not enough to launch a surprise attack, but this is the limit that the Kunde Race can achieve. Their stealth forces can only quietly place the stargate in this location; any closer and it will be impossible to hide.
However, this fleet was unconcerned about being discovered and instead opted for a surprise attack.
The data from the crashed spaceship marked the location of Lighthouse Star and its approximate warning range, stating that it was the command core of the Crimson Dynasty. The Kunde Race confirmed this fact through targeted long-range observation, and thus devised this plan to raid their base—taking advantage of the Crimson Dynasty sending out most of its army to attack them, they would attempt to launch a fierce attack on the Empire from the rear.
Knowing that a direct confrontation would be extremely risky for the Kunde Race, they had no choice but to take a desperate gamble. If they could destroy the enemy's command center, they would gain a temporary advantage, and the enemy would inevitably lose an important escape route.
This fleet was equipped with a large number of Primal Psionic Energy weapons. The Kunde Race believed in the power of these weapons. As long as they got close to Lighthouse Star, any one of them hitting the planet would achieve their strategic objective. Primal Psionic Energy was almost immune to defense; most shields would simply be assimilated by it, providing energy for its expansion.
Although they knew the mission was fraught with danger, the crew members, including Yelu, were generally resolute in their beliefs and fearless in the face of death.
On one hand, there was anger and hostility towards the empire; on the other hand, there was a deep-seated fear. And the reason for their fear was closely related to Han Xiao.
Originally, due to their inferior combat strength, the Kunde Race were very careful to conceal their location. As long as they did not expose their territory, they could do a lot of things using the strategic depth of the Light Dust Star Cluster.
However, after half a month of marching, the Crimson Dynasty's army had not conducted much reconnaissance and was heading straight for their territory, which disrupted the Kunde Race's plans and threw them into a panic.
The exposure of civilized territory will render most of the measures prepared by the Kunde Race useless and put all their armies in danger. Countless people are glad that they sent away the vast majority of civilians early on, otherwise they would be in an even more passive position.
Left with no other choice, the Kunde Race had to implement this tentative base raiding plan. As the saying goes, every tactic is subject to change. Now that their base had been exposed, the Kunde Race attempted to use a surprise force to destroy the Empire's rear as well.
The instigator of this whole affair was Han Xiao, who provided the intelligence. This saved the empire a great deal of energy and forced the Kunde Race to take a desperate gamble.
At the Lighthouse Star Command Center, Tarrokov and all the officers remaining on duty gathered in the command room, gazing at the star map on the virtual screen. The red dot marking the Kunde Race fleet was slowly approaching, with a countdown timer in the upper right corner indicating its expected arrival.
"As you can see, the enemy is launching an attack on Lighthouse Star and will arrive in a little over three hours."
Tarrokov stood with his hands behind his back, surveying the crowd with a calm expression, showing no sign of pressure.
Everyone remained calm and showed no surprise.
This situation was one of the possibilities they had simulated, and they had already prepared contingency plans. In Tarrokov's strategic sand table, the enemy had almost no chance of winning in a direct confrontation, and the probability of them taking a risky gamble was as high as 95%.
During the Exploration Era War, the Crimson Dynasty had been ambushed countless times and was very experienced. The officers present were not flustered at all; in fact, they almost wanted to laugh.
Compared to these seasoned veterans, this indigenous civilization, lacking much war experience, was far too inexperienced; their every move was entirely within their expectations.
Without High-Dimensional Apocalypse Teleporter, you still want to launch a sneak attack?
It doesn't have the destiny of the Federation of Light, but it has the Federation of Light's ailments.
Lighthouse Star has suffered many disasters; to be honest, they're used to people coming straight at them.
Having learned from the previous experience, even if a large force is sent out, Lighthouse Star retains a sufficient fleet. Moreover, the expanded vigilance range means that it will take the enemy longer to warp to Lighthouse Star. Several hours is enough for allied forces from Gaolu, Renault, and the Crown Ring to reach this place through stargates. Even large armies sent out can jump back through stargates built along the way.
"As everyone already knows, the only remaining threat from the enemy's surprise attack is the Primal Psionic Energy weapon itself."
Tarrokov paced back and forth, slowly saying, "We have ample time to intercept and eliminate all incoming forces. If any enemy ship gets close to Lighthouse Star and drops its Primal Psionic Energy bombs, we'll be in serious trouble."
"I request to use Primal Psionic Energy, just as Black Star said, it's only fair to reciprocate." A hardliner officer sneered.
"Yes, that's fine." Tarrokov nodded.
The use of Primal Psionic Energy is strictly prohibited in the Explored Universe, but since the enemy has already used it, the Empire will no longer hide it. Since pollution is going to happen anyway, it's either you or me, so there's nothing to worry about.
However, while allowing the use of this powerful weapon, Tarrokov had other plans. He said in a deep voice, "The destructive power of Primal Psionic Energy is too great. If possible, try to fight with conventional weapons and capture enemy ships and people. This is a good opportunity to obtain information about the enemy. Don't forget, we still know almost nothing about their civilization. Also, keep the virtual mechanics on standby; we should be able to use them."
The Empire itself has a large number of virtual mechanics, and it doesn't plan to rely on the power of its Beyond Grade A allies to deal with this kind of native-level civilization... After all, Black Star's appearance fee is still quite high.
Upon discovering the enemy's attempt to launch a sneak attack, Lighthouse Star summoned garrison troops from various locations through the Stargate, rapidly assembled its forces, and then dispatched them to intercept the sneak attack fleet from the Kunde Race.
Not long after, the two sides clashed in the Desolate Universe Belt near Lighthouse Star. This time, it was nothing like the friendly exchanges of cannon fire that Explored Universe. Both sides were frantically throwing Primal Psionic Energy at each other, like throwing excrement.
In the universe, the expansion rate of Primal Psionic Energy is slightly slower, since there isn't an entire planet's worth of matter for it to transform and devour, but it is still dangerous because it doesn't dissipate.
The Primal Psionic Energy orbs lingered on the battlefield, becoming near-death obstacles that the spaceships could only nimbly avoid. Moreover, the Psionic Energy orbs continued to expand and grow, releasing enormous gravitational pull that swallowed up various shattered spaceship parts, like miniature Black Hole.
In such a complex battlefield environment, everyone was wary of the other's long-range attacks, and the frequency of boarding actions actually increased, mainly led by the Empire. The Kunde Race only wanted to bombard the enemy and were the ones being boarded.
"Commander, ships 078, 075, and 102 have been boarded by the enemy, and the ship's guards are completely unable to resist."
In the command center of the Kunde Race flagship, a virtual screen displayed footage of superhumans slaughtering Kunde Race armored soldiers.
Yelu watched this scene, his tone unfriendly, "This is what the data calls a superhuman? There's actually a way to gain extraordinary power without genetic modification?!"
"Commander, the battle situation is unfavorable to us. What should we do now?"
Upon hearing this, Yelu glanced at the overall situation and realized that there was a gap in both warship technology and military strength, resulting in heavy losses for the fleet.
Although this operation was similar to a suicide attack, the fact that so many people were lost without even seeing the Lighthouse Star clearly indicated that progress was impossible.
Everyone was looking at him, as if they had all prepared themselves mentally.
Yelu gritted his teeth, slammed his fist on the table, and said in a ferocious tone:
"It is my honor to fight alongside you... All troops, listen to my command: activate the Spacetime Shearing Device!"
Meanwhile, at the start of the battle, Han Xiao received a message and remotely projected his observation of the battle situation from Lighthouse Star.
The Empire's interception of the Kunde Race fleet was swift and devastating; the enemy had virtually no ability to resist, and the technological gap in warships was not so easily bridged.
In the command center, Tarrokov calmly directed the overall situation, while Han Xiao stood by, seemingly indifferent.
Seeing that the battle was going very well, Han Xiao was a little puzzled.
"That's strange, the Kunde Race seems so weak... How exactly did they cause trouble for the Empire in my past life?"
The current situation is different from what he expected. In his view, since the historical background of his previous life stated that the Kunde Race caused trouble for the empire, there should at least be a back-and-forth battle, right? How come the enemy is so weak?
A group of virtual mechanics were working diligently nearby to crack the Kunde Race warship's quantum network firewall, and they were making promising progress.
In another ten minutes or so, we might be able to capture an entire fleet without even lifting a finger.
"The Kunde Race has no chance of turning the tide. They've been getting crushed so far. How strange..." Han Xiao muttered to himself.
Just as he was pondering, the virtual mechanic team beside him suddenly exclaimed in surprise, looking puzzled, and quickly spoke up:
"Commander-in-Chief, we've encountered a problem on our end."
Tarrokov looked over, puzzled, and asked, "What's the problem?"
"This... just a moment ago, the enemy fleet's quantum network nodes disappeared. We couldn't receive any signals, and the virtual intrusion automatically stopped; it wasn't a network outage."
Before Tarrokov could think it through, a strange scene suddenly unfolded on the battlefield.
Suddenly, all the Kunde Race fleets seemed to freeze in place.
The imperial army wouldn't just stand there dumbfounded; they unleashed a fierce barrage of fire, instantly destroying most of Yelu's warships, including his flagship.
Suddenly, something unexpected happened!
White noise and subtle spatial distortion appeared on the appearance of these destroyed warships. Before anyone could react, the next moment, these ships suddenly became intact, returning to their state before being hit. At the same time, their positions shifted forward a large distance without any movement, and they were in a state of stillness.
The Imperial fleet hesitated for a moment, then opened fire again, destroying the ships. However, the same scene repeated itself, and the Kunde Race fleet moved forward a considerable distance.
This time, the Imperial fleet did not attack. After a few seconds, the Kunde Race fleet suddenly jumped again, its position moving forward a large distance without any actual movement, as if it were skipping frames.
"What's this..."
Tarrokov, who was watching the battle remotely from Lighthouse Star, was immediately filled with doubt and uncertainty.
Buzzing--
Just then, a piercing alarm sounded in the room!
"Serious fluctuations in the spatiotemporal coefficients have been detected, with an unknown degree of distortion. Matching to the database model... Matching failed; no similar model found in the database. Creating a new profile..."
Meanwhile, the Imperial fleet at the front lines attacked with all its might, but no matter how many times they destroyed these warships, they always managed to recover and move towards the Lighthouse Star in a series of jumpy movements, impossible to stop.
Seeing this, Tarrokov's expression changed slightly. He exhaled, quickly composed himself, and shook his head, saying, "It seems I underestimated them. Ha, indeed, no civilization should be underestimated."
The group exchanged bewildered glances, their expressions varying.
They initially thought it would be an easy victory, but unexpectedly, this indigenous civilization pulled out some unknown black technology from its crotch, seemingly related to time and space, and they had no idea how it had progressed through its technological development.
While a group of officers were filled with doubt and uncertainty, Han Xiao on the other side was also somewhat taken aback and subconsciously lowered his arms.
He recognized this technology!
I never expected it to originate from the Kunde Race, as there was absolutely no mention of it in the historical background of my previous life!
This move is one of their trump cards used to attack the World Tree Explored Universe!