Xyrin Empire
Chapter 595 Lightning War

Chapter 595: Chapter 595 Lightning War

Gotaque Free Kingdom’s Grand Chancellor Bieberu was a presence one couldn’t ignore, not just because of his (her?) status, but more importantly, because of his unique form: a gigantic silver-white sphere. I had no idea what evolutionary theory had to look like back at his home to produce such a bizarre species...

Bieberu hailed from an extremely ancient race, whose name was a strange string of letters that was difficult to pronounce and, of course, even harder to remember. This ancient race had been lost in this universe for nearly ten thousand years. After countless generations of dynastic rises and falls, national struggles, and the ravages of Imperial Rebel Armies, they were now nearly extinct. In the Free Kingdom, the population of Bieberu’s kind didn’t exceed one thousand, and looking across the whole universe, the number did not surpass four digits. However, due to the special nature of their life form, he only expressed regret and no sorrow. I had previously asked out of curiosity about his species, and the amiable and generous Grand Chancellor did not hold back and told me many things.

Bieberu’s kind was a silicon-based life form. In his home world, all life was silicon-based, including microorganisms and "plants." The former were nanobiotes capable of autonomously generating magnetic fields and extracting metal particles from ores to replicate themselves, while the latter were more like growing solar panels. Initially, Bieberu’s species did not have the concept of "plants"; they thought the things back home were just growing minerals, but after seeing the "miraculous, unbelievable" carbon-based life forms, they started referring to their solar panels as "lawns." Over there, at six and a half, children learned the word electromagnetic induction, and the first physical education class in the first grade would involve training in the Tesla effect... but that is straying off topic. Still, the thought of a bunch of spheres, big and small, huddled together in class makes me want to digress!

"Um, excuse me, is there a problem?"

The somewhat embarrassed voice that suddenly emerged less than half a meter in front of me snapped me back to reality. Looking up, I saw the fully reflective surface of Bieberu, who was slightly floating up and down in mid-air, indicating he was not very composed.

"Uh, no, no. I was just contemplating the next step in our plan," I lied casually, pretending to look seriously at my own large reflected face on Bieberu’s belly. "What were you saying just now?"

"It’s an oral decree from Her Majesty the Queen," the spherical chancellor said, with no sign of impatience in his voice that had a hint of a metallic quality, "We’ve already had two direct confrontations with the Shepherds. The Queen’s Fleet lost combat capabilities in the first conflict, and the second conflict has made the Jetas garrison fear to venture half a step away from their star system. The Gusta Church’s fleet has taken advantage of the situation to occupy the key planet at the southern border: Crystal Peak. Now, the Kingdom’s main forces dare not launch an offensive rashly, so they hope you could..."

"Send troops, help recover the lost territory, right?" I stood up, stretching languidly. "Go back and tell her we’ll set off immediately."

Like an opportune downpour providing a pillow to a sleepy head, or a beautiful woman appearing just when loneliness becomes unbearable—anyway, we were just wondering what excuse to use to get the Federation Army active on the Western Sky Zone battlefield. And since it was Fina’s trouble, naturally there was no reason to stand idly by.

Such a straightforward reply took Bieberu by surprise, but he did not ask further and instead gently wobbled his body: "Then, I will report this matter to Her Majesty the Queen."

After Bieberu floated away, I exchanged a smile with Big Sister, both feeling that this reason for going to war could not have come at a better time.

Looking at Pandora and Visca, who were itching for action nearby, I spoke loudly: "Alright, now we have a reason to strike at the Gusta Church. We have no grudge against them, but to keep the home front quiet, we still need to knock them down a notch. Fina should be able to handle the Caputlan Pirates. Now, who can give me some information on that planet called Crystal Peak?"

The star system where Crystal Peak was located lay adjacent to the Jetas star system and was not suited for human habitation. However, it was an extremely important strategic chokepoint on the Kingdom’s border. Unlike the Xyrin Empire’s extraordinary space transmission technology, most spaceships in this universe, especially the massive Mother Ship-class vessels, needed a mass point nearby the target as a "coordinate" when making a super space-time jump. Crystal Peak’s C-165 star system was the only suitable mass point on the southern frontier of the Free Kingdom. In other words, once war broke out, this would be the enemy’s only jump gate to enter the Kingdom’s star domain from the southern frontier. The strategic importance of this was self-evident. As for why Crystal Peak bore such a peculiar name, it had to do with its mineral wealth. This was a planet almost entirely composed of pure crystal, separated from within a star due to an unsuccessful binary star collision. The crystalized quartz mined from this planet was a core material for the jump engines, and the difficulty of mining this mineral in the asteroid belts was extremely frustrating. So then, just how important was a solid planet composed of pure crystal mines to those civilizations engaged in endless wars?

According to Lilina, that means even if you have to pick up a crowbar, you’d still have to pry it back!

Anyway, if Little Baobao is here, that girl might really dare to drag the whole planet over.

Such a strategic location, and the biggest mineral star within the Kingdom, Fina didn’t hesitate to let us help her snatch it back, without worrying at all whether the Federation Army would just join forces with Gusta to claim this planet as their own (such things are not uncommon in this lawless universe, even one’s own country’s army has been known to go to reclaim lost territory and simply decide not to leave and become king of the hill), you can imagine the doubts that Bieberu and a bunch of ministers would have. Of course, they would never guess that their own queen had already become someone else’s little sister... Self-respect aside, fortunately, Fina is often treated as a decision-making machine by her ministers. The bureaucratic layer of the Kingdom is already used to taking the policies calculated by Her Majesty the Queen as absolutely correct, which is why such a sensitive mission of reclaiming Crystal Peak would fall to the Federation Army, which doesn’t have any substantial alliance with the Free Kingdom.

We also had the chance to launch our first plan: a lightning strike on the unstable elements in the Western Sky Zone.

The Jetas Star System, where Crystal Peak is located, is only 0.5 light-years away from Jetas. It used to be under the defense zone of the Jetas defense forces. As a strategic location, it also has a very tight protection system, including a standing defense force of a thousand heavy carriers and a space orbital gun belt to make up for the lack of close defense capabilities of the carriers, as well as super dense ground-based defense towers that can be described as a pain in the neck. Theoretically, even with ten times the forces, you might not be able to take down this spiky crystal ball. However, the spies that the Gusta Church had planted inside Crystal Peak before the War Era disrupted the space gun tower’s command system and simultaneously disabled the energy grid of those ground anti-aircraft guns. Though the sabotage lasted only an hour, it decided the course of a war. The Gotaque carrier fleet, not adept at dealing with assault troops, entangled with thousands of assault ships without the support of anti-aircraft artillery, fought desperately and ultimately perished in its entirety. When the Light of El jumped to the high orbit of Crystal Peak, the countless floating shipwrecks in space still recorded the fierceness of that battle — and the frustration.

But different people value different things: military strategists saw a brutal battle between light ships and carriers; some were enjoying the space scenery.

"So beautiful..."

Leaning on the holographic projection, Qianqian couldn’t help but exclaim.

Crystal Peak indeed was a very beautiful planet, without a doubt. The planet, comparable in size to Earth, was formed when matter from the two suns of the C-165 came into extremely close proximity and hurled stellar material at a rocky planet, reacting and solidifying. Its mantle and Earth’s crust are made up entirely of crystallized quartz ore with a purity of up to 90%. This sole planet of C-165 has no vegetation, no oceans, and no atmospheric structures on its surface—just a shining and translucent exquisite gem in space. Even the distant twin stars suns seemed like background accessories for Crystal Peak. Looking at the beautiful crystalline planet in front of her, Sister Jier, standing beside her, couldn’t stop drooling, slobbering as her eyes, now shaped like crystal balls, sparkled, "Mine! This has to be mine!"

"In the end, it’s going to belong to your princess,"

The naturally black-haired Lilina played her part in time: her words turned Sister Jier pale.

"After the war ends, I have to drag this planet back," I thought, coming here to help others reclaim lost territory, but I was already figuring out how to steal their mine. Perhaps what the Gotaque ministers worried about wasn’t so far off, "This thing’s shininess has already broken through the sky. When we get back, it’ll be about time for New Year, and it sounds good to use this as Little Baobao’s New Year’s gift..."

I hadn’t finished talking when Lilina collapsed with a bang. After a long time, Lady Priestess stood up and looked at me as if I were a class enemy, "Rich people... that’s too cruel. Are you planning on letting Little Baobao play with such a big planet as a ball?"

"Cough cough... How much force does Gusta have?"

"Three hundred mother ship level warships, five thousand assault ships, one hundred and twenty thousand high-speed fighters or equivalent flying devices," a intelligence officer reported loudly, "all are mixed formations, and we can only determine their level by size. We cannot ascertain their combat power—report! Energy reactions detected on the dark side of the planet, the enemy fleet has arrived!"

"Have we finally cracked the fleet’s invisibility field? Well, they came to flex their military muscle anyway..." I rubbed the heads of Pandora and Visca, signaling for them to stay calm, "According to the original plan, Light of El will deploy a micro black hole in the center of the enemy carrier formation. All Great Harmony Cannons are free to fire, destroying the enemy’s assault fleet. Carriers deploy all their aircraft to engage the enemy’s high-speed fighters. The fleet will switch to pure ghost energy output mode. We hold absolute advantage. My order is: destroy the entire enemy fleet within twenty minutes!"

"Yes! Victory is certain!"

"Remember, the fastest speed, the most ferocious tactics," Lilina clawed theatrically at a group of commanders who were already starting to bustle about, "This world’s only True God is the Life Goddess! Gusta heretics as stupid as this all deserve to be burnt to a crisp by me! For the Holy War!!"

If it were possible, I would really love to stuff Lilina into a basket right in front of hundreds of Federation officers.

"Pandora, Visca, go crazy out there, that’s all you have to do," I patted the two little ones on the head again, "For the Federation’s first battle on the frontal battlefield in the Western Sky Zone, we need to greatly exaggerate the combat power of this new corps. Make everyone focus here. Think of how you want to play, and even taking down those three hundred carriers with bare hands won’t be a problem."

"Chirp~ Chirp~"

Before I realized it, my face suddenly felt two points of slight chill and softness. The lively Visca is one thing, but even Pandora tiptoed up to give me a peck—a kiss—is the allure of battle really that strong for you?

Under Lilina’s contemptuous gaze, I watched, my head in the clouds, as the two little girls, flushed with excitement, left the command hall. Then I turned to the gathered Heroic Spirits, "Get ready for battle. After the orbital bombardment, your mission is to search for all life reactions on the entire Crystal Peak planet, protect the miners of Free Kingdom, and eliminate all Gusta heretics—in Lilina’s words, those are all blasphemers who disrespect the Life Goddess. Show some fighting spirit!"

As soon as I mentioned this was a battle for the Life Goddess, the troops were instantly energized. Dingdang also timely crawled out of my pocket, face smeared with sugar flowers, the little thing also held a licked-clean lollipop stick, teetering on top of my head dancing and gesturing, "Warriors, fight for Dingdang~~~"

Visibly, the morale was gone.

"Space Rift generated, black hole deployment complete, battlecruiser formation advance, enemy vanguard has entered firing range, battle begins!"

The dazzling feast of death once again blossomed above Crystal Peak.

The fleets in this universe possessed a variety of novel technologies; although their combat strength was uneven, they were not to be underestimated. However, facing the ships of the New Eden Federation, they were still separated by an insurmountable gulf: the Federation Fleet had Xyrin technology.

All the Federation’s ships were equipped with two modes, the conventional power mode, and the three-minute superhuman’s Ghost Energy power mode. In the second mode, all warships were like chickens with their blood up, having unlimited energy for an hour, several times the attack power, and at least double the firing rate. Moreover, the Ghost Energy Fire could ignore any strength of magnetic fluid shield, sentencing a third of the conventional warships to death. These used cheap and easily rechargeable magnetic fluid shields. Therefore, when all the Federation ships went into berserk mode, the enemy faced the terrifying firepower that they had only seen on Shepherd battleships.

Powered by Ghost Energy, the Light of El created a "micro black hole" with a radius of tens of thousands of kilometers, lasting more than six minutes, and directly deployed it at the center of the Gusta carrier formation. Although the latter, following the customs of space warfare, had arranged their giant warships in a scattered formation, with each carrier hundreds of kilometers apart, the super weapon of the Light of El was too aberrant. At the beginning of the battle, half of their only three hundred carriers evaporated. The remaining hundred carriers frantically dodged the abnormal gravitational vortex only to find that two more dangerous enemies had quietly approached them. Pandora and Visca had filled every gap in the battlefield with their Floating Cannons, which didn’t even need aiming. Those warships over two kilometers long with severely limited maneuverability were just sitting ducks. The Gusta heretics, who had once slaughtered the Free Kingdom’s heavy carrier squad with five thousand assault ships, now tasted the same flavor. Faced with Floating Cannons loaded with vector steering devices and micro jump engines, their few ship-borne anti-aircraft guns had no use except to spin madly in place. As for the masters of those Floating Cannons, two Little Lolis who were now playing hard had resolutely executed Brother’s command of "dismantling warships barehanded," competing to see who could pull out the engines of those big iron clunks with their bare hands the fastest. They were already quite skilled at this job.

The lightning-fast Gusta assault warships, on the other hand, encountered the most shameless super cannon in history: the triple-mounted, rapid-firing Great Harmony Cannons, as well as the overwhelming Viking and Phoenix fighters. Designed specifically against large warships, these were fast spaceships with high maneuverability but thin skins and little blood. When facing the mixed units of the Federation Army, the downsides of fighting as a single unit became immediately apparent, almost like waves sweeping over a sand castle. The wall of fire from the Great Harmony Cannons and the storm-like assault of various fighters rushed toward the bewildered Gusta makeshift fleets, who could only scream and cry on the comm channels.

In less than twenty minutes, the invasive enemy fleet was nearly decimated. The remaining forces began to retreat and regroup near the synchronous orbit, trying to resist the Federation Army’s frenzied onslaught by relying on the countless space orbital guns above Crystal Peak.

Just then, the communication device on the officers’ platform in the Command Hall lit up punctually. A soft girl in light composite armor appeared on the screen, with a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood behind her: "Federation Ghost, reporting to you, Commander. I have occupied the command center of the Space Orbital Guns and controlled their command leader with brain waves. However, the orbit gun firing codes were deleted by their intelligence officer before he died in battle, and I cannot shut down the orbital guns."

"Don’t bother shutting them down. Just have them all self-destruct," I ordered without hesitation, "They aren’t ours anyway..."

Nova: "..."

Thus, amidst a series of self-destructing orbital guns, the enemy’s space force finally collapsed, right at the twenty-minute mark. Then, I began to ponder a problem:

All the orbital guns had self-destructed, what the heck am I supposed to use for orbital bombardment now?! The Federation Army didn’t even bring space orbital bombs this time!

"Lilina almost went mad, "Why didn’t you say so sooner?! I thought the Light of El was equipped with planet-burning rays!"

"Well, they couldn’t be used anyway," I shrugged, "Those are all crystalized quartz. They’ll decompose when they meet high energy beams. We’ve already blown up their anti-air systems clean. If we were to burn the entire mining star, even without Fina’s objection, that big iron sphere would’ve had to fight me."

"So you still need Sister to clean up your mess after all this time as an adult," Big Sister’s helpless voice rose behind us. I was first embarrassed, then overjoyed, "Sis, do you have a solution?"

Big Sister’s face held a tremble-inducing smile, her fingers drawing circles in the air: "Give me two rolls of paper, and I’ll draw a large diameter..."

(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to go to Qidian to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation.)