Chapter 602: Chapter 602: In Control
“Commander, we have entered the visual range of Crystal Peak and detected the enemy’s railgun belt and defensive forces, no hidden forces have been found.”
“Good, that Queen of the Free Kingdom is just a short-sighted woman. She thinks she can rest easy after repelling our first attack with so foreign legions. How naive.”
The man with a burly figure and stern face, dressed in Gusta commander uniform, wore a confident expression as he looked at the image of Crystal Peak Planet gradually enlarging on the viewscreen, feeling a sense of relief in his heart.
“We should thank those Free Light Cavalry. Their actions have really helped us a lot.”
Beside this commander was his deputy officer, who had followed him for years. The latter was checking the information screen in his hand and murmured to himself, “But it’s really surprising that the enemy hasn’t set up an ambush. Even if the Queen of the Free Kingdom is short-sighted, that Pri Minister of hers is cunning. We’ve suffered more than once at his hands.”
“There’s a limit to cunning,” the Supre Commander of Gusta responded with a slight smile, a look of fortune on his face, “This year the Shepherds are inexplicably active, causing chaos with random wars. That overhyped Queen’s Fleet of the Free Kingdom was directly attacked by the Shepherds and nearly annihilated. If it weren’t for those strange Federation Ships accidentally wandering into their territory, offering ergency support, even a Pirate Group like the Caputlan Free Light Cavalry could have eliminated weakened Gotaque. Now, caught between two sides, they’re struggling to defend themselves. Brother Neocon, that unlucky fellow, this great achievent should have been his—if only he had a bit more patience for those Federation Ships to get involved in the Caputlan front.”
“We should be thankful for Brother Neocon’s impatience,” the deputy officer said with a smile, smoothly buttering up his commander, “Clearly, he doesn’t have the sa level of composure and patience as you do.”
“Hmm, that is my biggest reliance on getting to my position today… Ah, right, Brother Gilien, I heard you got engaged to your seventh wife?”
“Yes, Commander, after we return triumphantly, I will use the Triumph Badge as an adornnt for the wedding,” the deputy officer said with a grin that spoke volus, “After we go back, I plan to return to my hotown to get married.”
“Mm, Brother Gilien, why did we suddenly start talking about this topic?”
“… that must be God’s will…”
As the two commanders conversed, the massive Gusta Fleet had already gradually approached the defense line of Crystal Peak. Learning from the previous experience where the assault troops successfully broke through the enemy lines but couldn’t hold their ground, the second invasion force sent by Gusta was larger in scale and more comprehensively organized.
Over a thousand massive carriers and three thousand heavy battleships could almost turn the entire planet to ash with conventional firepower alone. anwhile, the tens of thousands of makeshift and varied ships, difficult to command uniformly, possessed excellent flexibility to resist any single enemy formation. Despite the complete annihilation of the first Gusta invading force at Crystal Peak shaking the nation, it also sent back valuable intelligence, such as firsthand data from encounters with those mysterious Federation Ships. Now, that information has been crafted into others’ wedding dresses.
The commander of this invasion force was indeed a cunning man. The shocking sacrifices of friendly forces had beco the stepping stone to his success. Now the Pope himself had decreed: as long as Crystal Peak could be completely occupied, no matter how many troops he had to use, it would be considered a great rit.
“Deploy the attack formation, main batteries charge up, mixed fleets disperse to the flanks, prepare to engage the enemy Space Fleet!”
Issuing standard commands, even as he held the absolute upper hand, the invading force commander still chose the most reliable thod of combat. In any case, the bizarre failure experienced by the previous force here still made him cautious, especially after learning that those Federation Ships had invisibility capabilities. He had firmly decided not to allow the Mother Ship fleet to strike rashly under any circumstances.
“After landing, be wary of the enemy’s ground forces. Those Federation forces couldn’t have completely withdrawn. Perhaps they left all the ground units, which are useless in space war, on the surface of Crystal Peak,” his deputy officer reminded his superior, “Their way of fighting is very strange, and the soldiers who escaped even…”
“Even claid they were attacked by magic, Giant Dragons, Dead Bodies, ghosts, and Dolls?” the commander laughed. “Of course, it seems that the Federation Marines do have terrifying combat power, enough to cause devout believers to see illusions from nightmares. But don’t worry, we don’t need to occupy Crystal Peak. Now I can tell you another personal decree from the Pope: what we need is rely the gravity of the C-165 Constant Star System, not that insignificant little glass bead. Understand?”
The deputy officer’s face showed astonishnt: “Are we going to directly destroy this valuable Crystal Planet?”
The Gusta commander shook his head mysteriously, “Do not obsess over fleeting gains, that is from the Holy Scripture… wait, Brother Nodawar, have we detected the enemy’s interception troops yet?”
“Report to the commander! Radar shows no response! The enemy’s interception forces are nowhere to be seen! Those railgun rings also show no energy reaction, and no defensive installations detected on the surface of the Crystal Planet!”
“Sothing’s wrong, very wrong!” The Gusta commander, a second ago still basking in the joy of victory, suddenly felt a chilling sensation spreading over his heart and imdiately ordered loudly, “Battleships, fall back! Carriers…”
“Commander! A massive energy reaction has appeared on the surface of Crystal Peak! The radar system is picking up chaotic signals!”
Indeed, it wasn’t necessary for the radar personnel to report, as everyone could see with their own eyes that there was sothing abnormal about that planet.
The crystal-clear Crystal Planet was flashing, large swathes of energy clouds appeared out of nowhere, adding a layer of atmosphere to Crystal Peak. The whole planet was illuminated, still shining brilliantly under the light of the Constant Star—an inexplicable phenonon by conventional science. The commander of the Gusta invading army, while gazing at the magnificent scene before him, felt overwheld with shock.
Such a… beautiful planet.
This last thought flickered through his mind.
“Commander? Commander?!” The deputy officer looked on in surprise at his commander, who appeared to be in a trance. He didn’t understand what was happening, but he could already sense a huge shift in the atmosphere around him. Even though all his comrades were here, everyone stationed at their positions, he had a feeling as though he was completely alone, as if the familiar people around him were already dead…
“Get connected to the Mother Star channel.”
As the deputy officer continued to call out, the Gusta Supre Commander seed to finally co back to his senses and slowly turned his head to look at the soldier beside him.
“Mother Star?” The deputy was a bit stunned, and a certain sense of dizziness prevented him from fully grasping the situation at hand, “Do you an the Holy Star where the Pope is located?”
“Ah, yes, that’s right, I want to speak directly with the Pope,” the usually stern-faced commander suddenly revealed a smile, “Connect to it.”
Still feeling bewildered, the deputy officer knew that facilitating the connection to this top-secret frequency was not part of his duties, but he concluded after a brief pause that this was just his commander flaunting his status. The ntality of years of following orders made him easily overlook such an obvious anomaly, and amid the eerie silence of everyone at the bridge, he made the connection to the Mother Star frequency.
“Your Holiness the Pope, I am honored to report to you a piece of good news,” in the deputy’s suddenly wide-eyed, horrified gaze, the commander he had followed for years said with a rigid smile, “Crystal Peak has been completely destroyed, Gotaque’s frontier is now ours. Please open the gates, and send all our troops over…”
“Commander? Commander? What did you just say… wait, Commander! You… Commander! Brother Mous! Monk…”
“I serve the Queen,” the Supre Commander lifted the weapon in his hand, “Brother Gilien, long live the Emperor.”
“Bang!”
The gunshot resounded on the bridge, and the deputy officer’s half-shattered head rolled to the ground and all the way to the feet of the expressionless second deputy, who looked down and muttered to himself, “Brother Gilien, long live the Emperor.”
All this, under constant surveillance of the Federation Fleet, only when the deputy officer fell did a soft hiss arise in the command hall of Light of El.
“Sister Sandora is terrifying.”
Qianqian’s complexion turned a bit unnatural as she patted her chest, then pitifully leaned in closer, snuggling in my embrace, “I’ll never compete with her for cake again…”
I didn’t say anything, just patted Qianqian’s little head and then nudged the rcury Lamp on my shoulder, “Little Shui, from now on, you must listen to what Sister Sandora says, got it?”
The other party tried to bite my hand but, feeling the lone Little Tiger Teeth that remained, decided to save it for later use, “You big shots are all psychologically twisted… hiss, how terrifying!”
Although I felt I should protest for the sake of my lover’s image, I suddenly realized I had no ground to stand on…
Sandora, that na could send shivers down the spines of many worlds if you traced back tens of thousands of years, with threats like “if you don’t eat your food, Sandora will co to eat your soul” or “if you don’t brush your teeth, Sandora will eat your brain,” or “Sandora loves to eat kids who stay up past ten at night.” Although I found these rumors from Bubbles to be highly unreliable, the fact that they all involved “eating” made it hard not to sigh and think, “Ah, maybe there’s so truth to it”… ahem, I’ll restrain myself.
In any case, I’m starting to feel a bit sorry for those Gusta Church Army now.
“They’re really going to fall for it?”
Lilina was one of the calst people present, currently reading the data transmitted from the Crystal Peak Planet, “In another three hours, the beacon will overload.”
“They’ll fall for it,” I confidently nodded, “Gusta is determined to have this place; just by looking at that blatantly destructive arrangent of heavy battleships intended to shatter the entire planet, I can guess how confident their rulers are. But it won’t be long before they realize the abnormal silence across most communication channels from their vanguard forces…
“Commander, we’ve disabled the gravity traps near the orbit of Crystal Peak, and we’ve detected large-scale gravity disturbances near the high orbit.”
“Now even if they’ve noticed sothing’s off, it’s too late for them to escape.”
Everything was going so smoothly.
Of course, Gusta still had reinforcents. They’d learned their lesson and wouldn’t make the sa mistake of betting all their chips on a single offensive again. The troops currently stationary in the high orbit of Crystal Peak not only had the mission to destroy the defensive forces of the C-165 Constant Star System but also served as the vanguard for the real Gusta invading forces that would follow. Their main army would only arrive once it was confird that the defenses here had been shattered and Gotaque Internal Territory could not organize a sufficiently powerful counterattack in ti.
And now, their main army had arrived.
“Phew,” I whistled, “What a bold move, adding those enemies we’ve already controlled, Gusta has poured nearly six thousand mother ships into a re Constant Star System at once. Even for a Galaxy-class civilization, that’s an astonishing number of troops.”
But such a vast army could only help us achieve victory more quickly.
The second wave of the Gusta Fleet entering the Constant Star System realized sothing was wrong the mont they completed the jump, for the Crystal Peak Planet their frontline commanders reported to have been destroyed was still intact, floating serenely in space. The thousands of Gusta mother ships that should have been in combat were quietly stationed in high orbit, with no sign of engagent. The orbits around Crystal Peak were filled with chaotic energy pulses.
For an instant, the later Gusta Fleet tried to assu a combat stance, and we saw those massive energy cannons beginning to rotate, aiming at the sparkling Crystal Planet and their silent allies, but this lasted only within a minute. After that, it was all over.
Sandora’s voice echoed in my head without warning, “Ah Jun, do you want to try again? I feel I still have energy to spare, and the beacon’s energy system is in good condition.”
“That would just alert the enemy. Carbon-based life and Xyrin Apostles are not the sa; these troops should already make up a significant proportion of Gusta’s main forces. That’s enough.”
“As you wish. Now, let’s send Gusta a big gift—oh right, Ah Jun, you t Little Baobao, right?”
I suddenly rembered the nearly one hour I spent with my daughter clinging to , rubbing her face all over mine. Although it was filled with happiness, I truly wished Sandora knew nothing about it.
“Little girl was really happy,” Sandora said to herself. “Just now, after exchanging control rights with Misaka 20001, she was so happy to hug everyone she t. You’re doing a great job as a dad~~~”
No, if it were like that, I feel like a nanny would be more fitting, having been played with up to this point and only now being released from ‘jail’. Sister Jier, you’ve had it tough.
We were still in invisibility mode, monitoring the Gusta Army under control. They stayed here for about thirty minutes, and during this period, Sandora collected all the usable intelligence. Then, the massive invading fleet slowly accelerated, beginning their return journey to their holand.
Six thousand mother ships, hundreds of thousands of heavy battleships, and millions of warships of various classes, loaded with the Gusta Church Army warriors driven mad and the Heartless Commanders sworn to die for the Queen, embarked on their mission to destroy their holand.
“OK, the plan set by the boss who’s now a true Dark Great Emperor has successfully completed the first step. Now, let’s proceed to the second step.” Lilina jumped onto her chair and casually activated the hologram in front of her, “The Federation Army should start moving and give Gusta Church a kick while they’re down, tumbling off the cliff.”
The armies under Sandora’s mind control could certainly deal a heavy blow to the Gusta Church, but relying on these forces alone to destroy a military empire with nearly a thousand colonization stars in a short ti was clearly not feasible. We needed to plunge it into even greater chaos and panic.
“This is a good chance for the Academy Army to get used to combat quickly, Misaka 10099 suddenly jumped out and loudly gained Brother’s attention!”
A three-headed rcury Lamp sohow climbed onto the table, bouncing around in front of , saying.
“What’s the Academy Army?”
I was puzzled.
“That’s the rcury Lamp Corps. Didn’t Brother realize?” Misaka 10099 asked sowhat dejectedly.
I paused and scratched my head, “I always thought you guys were called the Cute Army.”
Lilina, who was drinking soy milk next to , spat out a mouthful in a spray: “Boss, please don’t bring the random stuff from your imagination into the real world, okay?”
“You don’t need to lift a finger,” Big Sister chid in, knocking on the table to get our attention, “We’ve just received intel from Gotaque. It’s a ssage from Fina: ‘Due to its arbitrary actions and the greedy nature during the War Epoch, Gusta Church made quite a few enemies in the Western Sky Zone. As soon as its power drops enough, the nurous small powers lurking in this no-man’s-land will swarm in and carve up Gusta’s territories. Gotaque has already begun an information offensive around Gusta, broadcasting its consecutive defeats and the massive chaos that will ensue. The Caputlan Light Cavalry has already been suppressed by the Kingdom Fleet. The Western Sky Zone is now completely under our control, leave everything to Fina.'”
The Command Hall went silent for a mont, and Lilina, biting on her spoon, gave a sidelong glance: “That chanical Queen is quite considerate.”
I: “…”
Over the next few days, everything proceeded smoothly according to our plan. The Gusta Army that suddenly turned back inward struck with lightning speed, attacking Gusta’s military strongholds along the way. They annihilated any friendly forces they encountered. This mad army, who had been frenzied since entering the C-165 Constant Star System, used full firepower bombardnts and kamikaze attacks to destroy fifty-three of Gusta’s military fortress planets, wiping out nearly a third of the dostic forces left behind. They even charged all the way to the Holy Star where the Pope resided before they were finally eradicated. The madness of that final battle sent shivers down the spine of everyone who rely heard about it. No army could be as fearlessly valiant as those “rebels”, no, ‘fearlessly valiant’ was no longer sufficient to describe them. Upon realizing that they were blocked by defensive forces many tis their number and that victory was hopeless, the tactics they adopted were chilling: the remaining four hundred and twenty-two mother ships collectively plunged into the atmosphere of Pope Star, fully loaded with weapons and energy, using the burning debris of the disintegrating ships to destroy the main cities, including the capital, on the planet. The remaining thousand-plus heavy battleships all accelerated at the sa second, crashing into the encircling forr allied forces, erupting in a collective self-explosion. The battle lasted only an hour, but it was the most unbelievable and incomprehensible hour in the history of warfare. Human fleets, faced with a dire situation, launched a lightning-fast kamikaze strike with synchronization and determination higher than that of AI. When everything was over, Pope Star was almost entirely destroyed…
The masses all speculated on exactly what unforgivable acts the Pope of Gusta had done to make millions of troops collectively hate him to such an extent. It was said that later on, the guesses about the truth of the matter spread to over three hundred versions. The Gusta Pope, originally guilty of little more than deceiving his followers and a bit of rampant ambition, beca the moral low point for intelligent beings across the universe and a marvel in the study of criminality. His ever-refreshing criminal record almost showcased the entire history of human cris from the ti we stood upright to walk… Of course, that was no longer our concern.
“They were simply tools, and as tools, they should work with the highest efficiency.”
This was Sandora’s only official response on the event. (
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