Xyrin Empire
Chapter 594: Concept of the Dead Star Fortress

Chapter 594: Chapter 594: Concept of the Dead Star Fortress

The attack by the Imperial Rebel Army on Jetas was completely unexpected—but that’s normal, as any of their actions appear without warning before we understand the logic of those "Shepherds."

Fortunately, the number of enemy troops deployed wasn’t large, consisting of a single second-order flagship modified from an Eternal-class Mother Ship, five regular Eternal-class Mother Ships, and over a hundred Expeditionary-class battleships, equivalent only to a slightly larger Supervision Team. In fact, I believe it was just a reinforced Supervision Team, sent by the rebels after the original one was destroyed. But it was Pandora, hot-blooded and without a second thought, who launched the attack. The battle erupted in an orbit close to the Fourth Planet, far from Jetas’ airspace, and since it occurred in a distant orbit, Gotaque’s colonies weren’t severely damaged—only a few fragments from the explosions broke through the Free Kingdom’s anti-aircraft artillery after entering the atmosphere, destroying two ice mineral extraction points on the Fourth Planet. The intense engagement lasted less than thirty minutes and ended with the complete annihilation of the rebel forces.

It was a beautiful counterattack, with the Federation Main Fleet suffering zero casualties during the fight with the Imperial Army—an event that could only be described as a miracle.

This was the preliminary information we received, which brought some cheer to everyone in the meeting room, but then, a superluminal communication signal personally transmitted by Qianqian left us all at a loss for words.

"Half of the enemies were killed by Silvia!"

On the communication screen, Qianqian’s first sentence was just that, which immediately caused Lilina, who was standing on a stool scanning the room, to crash down with a clang.

"Girl, haven’t you been eating something strange?" I incredulously observed Qianqian, who was fiddling with a gadget on the communication device, "Silvia—the one who’s slow-witted?"

"Yes, yes!" Qianqian, seemingly unaware of the explosive truth she was revealing, grinned and nodded energetically, "Silvia was mostly staying on the Light of El, right? When the battle started, she was there—thought it was like watching a movie, but when the fighting began, she suddenly started complaining of a headache, and next, including the flagship, all the mother ships self-destructed, Little Pandora was outside at that time and got quite a scare!"

"How’s Silvia now?" I asked, frowning.

"She’s sitting right next to me!" Qianqian reached out and pulled the person next to her closer, and suddenly a silver-haired girl squeezed into the view of the communicative image, who blankly stared at us for a while before slowly waving at me and saying, "Hello—Mr. Chen, this video phone is amazing... the screen is so large... when are you coming back?"

So, her intelligence returned after just three minutes?

Watching Silvia leisurely playing with her hair on the other side of the communicator, I fell into deep thought.

It was the second time now, this slow-witted burst from her.

The first time was in Academy City, just when we had met her, she had an unconscious soul awakening, causing part of our fleet within the atmosphere to lose power, and almost completely annihilated the then fragile Imperial Army. Now this was the second time; feeling a headache, she caused including one modified flagship-level Eternal among five mother ships to self-destruct, combining the previous battle reports and what Qianqian said, it must have been the result of a loss of control of a ghost energy vortex during the charging process of the Galaxy Main Cannon.

The first uncontroll corporeal dispersal almost caused Silvia, being an energy lifeform, to dissipate. Later, with Alaya’s suppression and our addressing of the root cause of her loss of control, she had recovered normally and had since been obediently playing her role as the mascot of Shadow City. We thought that the factors that could awaken her abilities were no longer present, but now it seems that she might again face a risk of dispersal.

"I need to return to Jetas, if Silvia’s energy body is undergoing a mutation, only I and Alaya can suppress her again."

After a moment’s consideration, I made the above decision. I could have brought Silvia over as well, but now I’m a bit worried that the slow-witted girl has already become a porcelain doll, and super space-time travel might cause some kind of mutation in her, which would be bad.

"I’m going with you!" Lilina immediately jumped over, "Don’t get me wrong! It’s definitely not because I want to stay by your side or anything. I just haven’t seen Qianqian for a long time, it’s absolutely not because I enjoy being with you... Ouch!"

After retracting my hand chop, I looked down at 1.09 meter Lilina and conveniently ignored her using tearful, puppy eyes gazing up at a 45-degree angle to win me over: "Just be your scheming, tsundere self, will you!"

"Tch, heartless boss."

Knowing Lilina’s naturally dark tricks all too well, I’d long been immune to her malicious cuteness. Almost effortlessly, I tossed the girl into a large basket labelled "Lilina Recycling Bin," and clapped my hands addressing the deputy officer by the star map, "Sivis, lay out your plan, how should we proceed with the military operation?"

Though I needed to return to Jetas urgently due to Silvia’s sudden situation, military operations in the East Sky Region and around the Red Giant needed organizing. After all, even though everyone knows I’m a rookie in strategy, my status as the head of the Empire is still something, and it’d do me good to show some initiative occasionally, right?

"Yes, Your Majesty," Sivis nodded meticulously and then activated the holographic simulation mode of the star map. Suddenly, the room we were in vanished, replaced by a vast holographic projection of space, with everyone seemingly situated in the universe, and a slightly dark red Big Nebula resembling a red eyeball, suspended in the center of the room, "This is the main battlefield."

"Firstly, due to the special structure of our universe, the majority of trapped lifeforms are concentrated in our large Galaxy, where the density of celestial bodies and life drastically decreases outside of it. The Imperial Rebel Army numbers are minimal there and can be ignored. Our primary battlefield will be this 3000-light-year radius shown in the star map, and we are currently here."

Before us, a small spot on the star map lit up following Sivis’s words.

"Next, according to the intelligence provided by Queen Fina, these are the locations of the major civilizations likely to be involved in the war."

As Sivis finished speaking, the star map reacted again— no longer a single shining spot, before us, behind, and all around, countless points illuminated across the whole room on the virtual star map, and for a moment, the glimmering brilliance nearly blinded one.

"The Imperial Rebel Army has called upon the races to begin the War Era, meaning countless Supervision Teams will appear above countless Colonies. By leaving their base in Deep Space, the enemy moves from shadow into light, which is advantageous for us. Moreover, the biggest threat from the rebels to the Imperial Army is their number. Numerous Supervision Teams scattered across the Colonies will inevitably spread their forces thin. We can deploy several superior troops, in coordination with Sniper Star Cannons and other Super Space-Time Strike firepower, specifically targeting these isolated Supervision Teams. The Galaxy is vast, the rebels can’t cover everything, so a significant part of their forces will be engaged by our mobile troops, resulting in exhaustion far exceeding ours, and their homeland war efforts will become their weak spot."

It became clear to me then: Chairman Mao did it this way back in the day.

"But guerrilla warfare can’t be the key to winning a universal war," Sivis said, switching the display mode of the star map. According to territorial distribution, the entire star map was divided into several color blocks, "The main powers in the Western Sky Zone are the Gotaque Free Kingdom, the Gusta Church, and the newly rising Caputlan Free Light Cavalry planning to establish a regime. The first can be considered an ally to us, while the Gusta Church, because of the War Era, has received orders to declare war on Gotaque. The Caputlan Free Light Cavalry, having not yet established a state nor owning Colonies, haven’t received clear ’Shepherd’ orders to attack anyone, but if they want to survive post-War Era, they’ll surely need to capture some territory. Considering their main area of activity, it’s highly likely they’ll take advantage of the situation to attack Gotaque. Our base at the Red Giant is in the Western Sky Zone. To ensure stability at the rear, our goal here is to assist Fina in quickly settling the war, ensuring the integrity of the Free Kingdom’s power. This way, even if the rebel forces directly attack the Imperial Army’s headquarters, we wouldn’t be too distracted by rear chaos. The Free Kingdom can also provide some support."

"As for the East Sky Zone, your subordinate believes that this should be a point of breakthrough in our operations. The intelligence brought by Lilina (at which point a certain priest bellowed from inside the basket: It’s Archbishop Lilina, alright!) indicates a connection between the Angel Army and the rebels. Whenever they are severely attacked, the latter appears. This explains how a small power of pirate origin can rise quickly enough to contend with an Iron Blood Kingdom with a massive army. Regardless of what their link is, we should start there and target the Colonies of the Angel Army, trying to draw the rebels here, making the main battlefield in the far away East Sky Zone. Since a large amount of the rebel army will be engaged due to our targeting of various Supervision Teams, the enemy we face in the East Sky Zone should be minimal, at least within an acceptable range. As for the South Sky Zone and North Sky Zone, there are no major powers worth noting, and Fina’s diplomatic efforts should be able to keep the smaller powers there stable during the Imperial Army’s dual engagements, and we don’t need to maintain it for too long, just until our super weapon is in place..."

Are you all dizzy yet? Because I certainly am...

Sivis’s strategic planning sounded like gibberish to me, and Emperor Sandora was not wrong when he said Sivis could handle ordinary tactical and strategic issues. I’ve always thought anyone who could talk themselves into confusion in a few sentences must be quite impressive, and from this perspective, Sivis was truly incomparably skillful.

"So basically, stabilize the Western Sky Zone, initiate war in the East Sky Zone, then deploy a group adept at looting and plundering, like the Holy Temple Army, causing chaos everywhere preventing the rebels from concentrating their forces. Meanwhile, momentarily leave the South and North Sky Zones, letting Fina send a bunch of diplomats to heartily sway them, right?"

Sivis stared blankly at me, and after a long while, he nodded his head, covered in cold sweat, "Your summary is very accurate."

Eh? Did I get it right?

"Hey! Why is the Holy Temple Army good at pillaging and looting?" Just as I was enjoying myself, Lilina suddenly popped out of the basket, her aura fierce as she jumped in front of me, "That’s blasphemy! We are all holy professionals! We preach love and peace!"

"You should explain the issue about Holy Dad first!"

Rolling my eyes heavenwards, I had been too busy consoling this girl to bring it up earlier, but now that she was fired up, it was time she explained what the term ’Holy Dad’ in the Life Goddess Sect manual meant.

"It refers to you," Lilina said very nonchalantly, hands on her hips and face turned aside, "It was originally ’Holy Father’, but then we changed it to ’Holy Dad’ to avoid copyright issues with Yahweh — who knows if my boss Dingdang has a colleague named Yahweh, it wouldn’t be good to disrupt the work environment in the Divine Realm. It’s got a more local flavor, and I’ve even written a bunch of ’Holy Mother’ and ’Holy Daughter’ in the manual..."

I was internally distraught. Holy Dad, Holy Mother, Holy Daughter — did this girl use all her brain cells for this? Is the Trinity supposed to be pieced together like this?

Once again, I seriously stuffed Lilina back into her recycling bin, letting this utterly lost cause protest all she wanted on her own. I tried to divert my attention, and indeed stumbled upon a question, "Sivis, you mentioned a super weapon earlier? What is that?"

"You’ll be pleased, great Emperor," Sivis revealed a "You’ve finally remembered to ask about this" expression, though his words remained habitually formulaic, "It’s this."

The starry sky in the room vanished, replaced by clean white walls and seats and instruments. In the holographic image before us appeared a sphere shining with white light, densely covered with black patterns, and it seemed to be enclosed in some translucent shell-like material, though the specific structure was unclear.

"This... looks like the white dwarf star at the core of the Red Giant?"

Big Sister wasn’t too certain as she spoke.

"Yes," Sivis enlarged the image of the massive energy source being modified, "Researcher Taville has reconstructed the giant energy reshaping technology from some scattered technological fragments. Progress has also been made in research related to the ’Red Moon Cube’. We have preliminarily mastered the technology to shape and control a pure energy body. Emperor Sandora issued an order yesterday to construct a Dead Star Fortress. We plan to transform this white dwarf into a control center, then use pure ghost energy to reshape the entire Red Giant, and finally let the ghost energy giant star collapse again. If we can still control it by then, this giant weapon will be used to destroy the core of the Big Nebula — which, though its structure and function are unclear, is definitely of extreme importance to the Rebel Army, even their ultimate headquarters, else they wouldn’t need to construct a nebula with a radius of three light-years to protect that core. We must have a powerful enough weapon to deal with situations where a conventional army cannot breach the Big Nebula. The Sniper Star Cannon is too weak and effective only against material bodies, and Avalon is powerful but mostly in macro-control and assistive functions. We need to build a weapon with greater power to turn the tide in our numerical disadvantage against the rebels."

After listening to this insane weapon construction plan, I was silent for a long time before slapping my thigh hard, "So that’s what Sandora meant when he talked to me yesterday!!"

Sivis immediately looked utterly devastated, "You personally approved this proposal, didn’t you?"

I shrugged, "Anyway, the proposal from Sandora must be correct, so I just went ahead and approved it."

Everyone: "..."

Jetas high-orbit, Light of El Holy Mother Ship.

After a sudden firefight with a small unit of the Rebel Army, the Federation Main Fleet had been in a perpetual state of readiness, maintaining a defensive formation in the high-orbit. Silvia had not left the warship since the sudden outbreak and, for safety reasons, Pandora had temporarily locked her in an isolation chamber. Fabricating an excuse to keep her quietly in a completely enclosed room wasn’t hard; the brainpower required wouldn’t even exceed that needed for a third-grade math problem: Qianqian had given her a Magic Cube, and a certain silver-furred animal kept busy with it until we hastily returned.

So, we really need to keep an eye on this one often. If someone with an IQ over 10 came along, kidnapping this former Imperial Emperor would be child’s play.

"Silvia!"

As the energy shield of the isolation chamber deactivated, the first thing I saw was the silver-haired figure quietly sitting at a table, twisting the Magic Cube. She seemed unharmed, focusing intently on the toy without even hearing my call until someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she slowly expressed surprise, "Ah—eh? Mr. Chen, welcome back... Was your trip successful?"

...I bet Qianqian and Pandora didn’t even have to use their brainstem when they tricked her.

"Not too bad, not too bad," I said, wiping nonexistent sweat and nodding slightly, "And you, I heard you were sick?"

While asking, I was also subtly perceiving her condition and finally breathed a sigh of relief after discovering that her energy was completely balanced.

"Ah, just a sudden headache..." Silvia slowly said, flashing a brilliant smile at me, "It’s gone now. Mr. Chen, you really care about me—it makes me very happy..."

It was as if there was some magic in her words; the anxiousness that had rushed me back here miraculously settled after speaking with Silvia for just a few moments. Now, looking at the serene smile in front of me, which seemed forever parallel to the real world, I let out a long breath.

It’s good that she’s alright.

Even though Bellavilla used to be everyone’s enemy, the current Silvia was just a naïve and slightly dull good girl, considering it the greatest happiness in life to quietly watch the shop after a meal and live happily ever after. This frighteningly innocent girl, like a baby and fragile porcelain doll, was unconsciously protected by everyone, and even Sandora had accepted her as family. Therefore, when I heard that Silvia had lost control again, I was so nervous. But now, it seemed it was just a false alarm?

"Phew, good to hear you’re okay. Rest well and don’t wander off, alright?"

"Can I leave this room then? Qianqian told me not to go out..." Silvia said pitifully, the Magic Cube still clicking away in her hands.

"...You can."

Why do I feel like I’m coaxing a child?

As I just stepped out of the isolation chamber, Qianqian’s voice suddenly echoed in my mind: "Ah Jun, Ah Jun! That round Prime Minister of Gotaque wants to see you!"

Round Prime Minister? I paused, then broke out in a cold sweat as I recalled who Qianqian meant—it must be Bieberu... that peculiar round creature. It seems I need to teach Qianqian some basic etiquette when I have time. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote and support on starting point (qidian.com), your support is my greatest motivation.)