Super Mothership
“Kloros! You… you actually…!” the old clan chief roared like a furious lion, his eyes bloodshot.
Out of the hundreds of thousands of Ryan Tribe warriors, less than one-tenth had managed to escape back alive. They had been almost completely wiped out.
And the one responsible for all of this was none other than the calm-faced Kloros standing on the other side.
Facing the clan chief’s madness, Kloros merely cast him a cold glance.
“If your warriors hadn’t pinned down the enemy’s main fleet, we could never have achieved such a glorious victory. These… were necessary sacrifices!”
Necessary sacrifices?!
Even if they had informed him just an hour or two earlier, the Ryan Tribe’s casualties would never have been this devastating!
The Jinlok Consortium had clearly decided to discard them once they had outlived their usefulness!
If those brave warriors had fallen charging on the battlefield, the old chief, though heartbroken, could at least have accepted it. To die in battle was the fate of a warrior.
But to die under such an obvious scheme and conspiracy finally drove this long-suffering chief into despair.
If the figure before him had not merely been Kloros’s communication projection, the old chief would have rushed over and torn him to pieces.
“You…”
“That’s enough! This discussion ends here. The warriors you sacrificed will naturally be compensated by the Consortium. And one more thing—I advise you not to forget that your families are still on Ryan Star…”
With an unmistakable tone of threat, Kloros immediately cut off the transmission.
“My lord, doing this… won’t it provoke the Ryan Tribe into rebellion? The hatred in that chief’s eyes just now was overwhelming.”
The adjutant beside him had witnessed everything and only spoke after the call ended.
“Hmph! Rebellion without strength is nothing more than courting death!
Still, they’re of no further use to us now. Dispatch a fleet and escort them back to Ryan Star.
Time will wash away all hatred. And once they realize their survival depends on us, even the most ferocious hound will become obedient.”
“Your wisdom is unmatched, my lord!”
“Mm! Order the fleet to move out! It’s time for us to harvest the sweetest fruits of victory, hehe!”
Kloros cast an aggressive gaze toward the wormhole outside the viewport.
At his command, over a thousand warships ignited their engines, their massive steel bodies slowly entering the wormhole one by one…
…
On the other side of the wormhole.
The intense electromagnetic radiation and storm of celestial debris raged on for more than three hours before finally dispersing into the deeper reaches of space.
Their next target would be the nearest Storm Galaxy.
Even after weakening across such a vast distance, the power of this cosmic disaster would still be enough to paralyze all space routes within the Storm Galaxy for a considerable time and severely affect planetary life-support systems.
However, the surviving Gemini had no time to worry about the aftermath of this nova explosion.
In the end, only 113 ships remained of the Gemini fleet, and the damage to the Dreadnought Battlestar had exceeded 80%…
The once-mighty fleet had been reduced to barely a hundred warships, trembling as they hid behind the equally battered Dreadnought Battlestar. Most of their shields were on the verge of collapse, and their reserve energy was nearly exhausted.
After the energy storm from the explosion had swept through, the battlefield was no longer littered with the wreckage of war machines as before.
All of it had been blown away by the violent storm, making the surviving Gemini fleet appear even more desolate and isolated.
But no matter what, compared to those Gemini soldiers who had been torn apart by the storm in despair, these survivors were undoubtedly fortunate.
“They… what a ruthless scheme…” Gilad slumped into his chair, despair filling his eyes.
When the explosion occurred, he and several key fleet commanders had been inside the underground command center of the Dreadnought Battlestar, and thus had narrowly escaped death.
This battle had buried nearly half of Gemini’s fleet and cost them an entire battlestar. The losses could not have been more catastrophic.
Even worse, they no longer had the ability to organize another fleet of meaningful scale in the short term.
That meant the enemy would certainly take advantage of their weakness and launch a full-scale invasion next!
Once the enemy occupied the Storm Galaxy and used it as a bridgehead, they would be able to gradually devour the Galent Star Region with their superior forces.
And with their unique wormhole expansion technology, they might even break through key defensive chokepoints between star regions and swallow up other sectors as well…
In other words, with this single explosion, the fall of at least a quarter—or even half—of their territory was only a matter of time.
Just as Girard had predicted, before the survivors could even finish assessing losses and tending to the wounded, every radar system on the warships began to blare wildly!
Beep! Beep!
Amid the piercing alarms, countless red dots representing enemy units began to densely fill the screens.
In the direction of the wormhole, one void vortex after another appeared out of thin air, and then enormous space warships with golden hulls slowly emerged.
Unlike the enemy ships they had faced before, these golden warships were much larger, generally over two kilometers in length.
Spindle-shaped and extravagantly designed, they radiated an overwhelming sense of oppression.
“General, it’s the Jinlok Consortium’s main fleet! Approximately 1,500 ships!” Beckman’s face turned pale.
In their current condition… they had absolutely no chance of winning.
Yet when the enemy’s main fleet finally appeared, Girard instead grew calm.
“Beckman, take the others and leave first!” His tone was steady—unnaturally so.
“What?” Beckman froze for a moment, then his whole body trembled as he said anxiously, “General, let’s retreat together! Staying behind to hold them off now is nothing but meaningless suicide!
The destruction of the fleet is not your responsibility…”
“No more words. Carry out the order!” Girard’s voice was firm.
Even if they returned to Gemini, someone had to take responsibility for this devastating loss… and Girard had already resolved to die.
But…
Looking at the enemy fleet charging toward them, a cold smile appeared on his face.
“Even if I die, I’ll drag some of them down with me!”
…
After everyone had left the command room, Girard straightened his back once more. Taking a deep breath, he said,
“Central AI, in my capacity as wartime commander, I request authorization to execute the ‘Gemini Council Emergency Authorization Act’!”
“Identity confirmed. Request approved. Beginning authorization verification!”
Beep, beep, beep! Four holographic projections appeared, surrounding Girard.
At the center was none other than Kruze, Chairman of the Gemini Council!
“I already understand the situation… so it has come to this after all…” Kruze sighed.
“I’m sorry, but… we have no other choice…” Girard said gloomily.
“…Very well. I, Kruze, Chairman of the Gemini Council, approve the authorization!”
“I, Admiral of the Caldari Star Region, approve the authorization!”
“I, Admiral of the Amarr Star Region, approve the authorization!”
“I, Admiral of the Minmatar Star Region, approve the authorization!”
Girard revealed a relieved smile.
“Thank you, everyone! Now, initiate ‘Reaper’! Coordinates… ‘Dreadnought Battlestar’!”
…
The Dreadnought Battlestar moved slowly, and with its propulsion system severely damaged, it had lost most of its mobility. Thus, it “naturally” stayed behind to cover the retreat, buying time for the remaining ships to escape.
“So Girard… stayed behind…” Nie Yun looked at the slowly receding battlestar outside the viewport, his expression tinged with emotion.
Even as an enemy, he was one worthy of respect.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Several striking heavy artillery blasts suddenly cut through space, firing toward Kloros’s massive fleet.
They were the last remaining guns of the battlestar, roaring one final time.
The scene reminded Nie Yun of a movie—of a lone soldier firing a pistol in desperation at an oncoming Tiger tank…
Perhaps it was a will to fight until the very end, or perhaps a release of unwillingness…
This futile act clearly enraged the enemy fleet. They swarmed forward and, within an hour, caught up to the slow-moving battlestar.
Countless dense attacks exploded across its surface, blooming into bursts of fire, worsening its already critical damage.
The last traces of resistance on the battlestar were quickly extinguished. High-powered bunker-buster missiles and penetrating beams riddled it with holes!
It began to collapse… to disintegrate…
All the retreating Gemini soldiers watched this scene with tears in their eyes.
Just as they believed they would have to flee in disgrace, abandoning everything…
someone suddenly noticed a rapidly approaching unidentified object!
“What… is that?”
When Nie Yun noticed the anomaly and saw the rapidly enlarging object on the observation screen, it had already appeared ahead of the fleet at a staggering speed.
By the time he quickly turned to look out the viewport to catch a glimpse of it, the object had already swept past the Fallen Angel with overwhelming momentum!
If not for the faint trail of dissipating light particles left along its path, no one could have even caught it with the naked eye.
Even with Nie Yun’s millisecond-level reaction speed, he couldn’t clearly see what it was!
“Huh?!” Nie Yun’s eyes widened in shock.
Could it be some rogue wandering celestial body?
However, before long, something even more astonishing happened.
Because the fading trail of light left by the unidentified object was pointing straight toward the besieged Dreadnought Battlestar…
TL Note- Sacrifice...
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