Chapter 712 - The First Clash!
Back in the mother battalion of the supernova fleet, general Creed was sitting with the commander and the rest of the generals.
In front of them was a hologram, showing Emperor Rawal and the Great Commander Hade.
"We have just received Intel that the enemy is mobilizing a five-star nova fleet to defend the wormhole." General Creed shared with his head lowered, "In addition, a supernova fleet is preparing to march from Silk Isle Region for reinforcement."
"We are estimating that they will reach the wormhole in about two months."
Upon hearing so, Emperor Rawal smiled, "It seems like that kiddo doesn't want to leave the Maganda Tribe defenseless."
Only emperor Rawal had the guts to call an Origin Bloodliner as a 'kiddo'. It was understandable since he was as old as Gabriel's grandfather.
Yet, he looked even younger than Zosia's uncle...His longevity sure was enviable.
"Smart, but anticipated move." Commander Hade looked at the emperor and inquired, "Should we follow up with our plan?"
Emperor Rawal thought about it for a second and shook his head, "Not yet. We can start when we make sure that all eyes are on Toppoki region."
"Understood." Commander Hade nodded.
"For a such a large mobilization, I believe that they had certainly seen our hidden supernova fleet." Creed added.
The other generals nodded their heads in agreement.
"If so, then get rid of the disguise and increase your speed to 70%." Emperor Rawal commanded, "We can't be too fast lest we end up breaching the wormhole before its time."
"Roger!"
Emperor Rawal looked at them one last time and spoke with a faint smile, "Don't disappoint me."
Peep!
His hologram disappeared the moment he said so, making the commander and the generals sweat a little.
Even though his tone didn't carry an ounce of threat or coldness, they knew that heads would start rolling if they screwed up with his strategy.
****
A few minutes later...
"Commander. The royal family's fleet has removed the disguise. They are in plain sight now."
The assistant walked in the office with a holographic screen, showing the mother battalion and hundreds of warships in all of their glory.
It was expected that eyes would be placed on the asteroid after their discovery.
"Well, that was quick." Zosia's eyelids twitched, knowing that they must have seen their mobilization through the live stream.
Honestly, If she tried to mask it, she would have done it pretty easily since Queen Ai wouldn't forcefully attempt to stream her plans.
This was the reason why she didn't stream the asteroid even though she knew that it was a supernova fleet hidden.
As for streaming what's going on inside cockpits and such? That was off the limits unless she had been given permission.
"Whatever, they were bound to find out about it either ways."
Zosia didn't try hard to hide her mobilization because she knew that the royal family had many insiders.
After all, their alliance was made out of hundreds of backgrounds. Each background had some of their civilians participating in this war.
There were simply too many people to make deals with.
"Tell the generals to stay on plan. Nothing to be afraid of." Zosia said, "We have anticipated this much."
"On it."
After the assistant walked away, Zosia lowered her head with a thoughtful look, 'Why do I feel like something is missing?'
So far, the ambush could be considered as almost nullified since she had noticed the asteroid before it was too late.
If she didn't trust her guts and allowed the asteroid to continue on its path, the supernova fleet would have struck the defensive station before they could reinforce it.
But now?
They added more troops and also guarded the exit of the wormhole, so even if they succeeded in destroying the defensive station, they would be welcomed with warm hugs from the other side.
This without adding the fact that reinforcement was already on the way.
In her mind, the best decision to make was actually retreat and change target to another region.
'They must have something else prepared.' Zosia ensured, 'Emperor Rawal isn't foolish to make a forceful invasion like this after he got busted.'
Zosia had sent decades learning everything there was to learn about Emperor Rawal.
To erect her revenge against him for assassinating her family, she needed first to understand him completely.
Based on her gathered information throughout the years, his intelligence was off the roof when it came to politics and wars.
In fact, he wasn't even supposed to be the next emperor.
He was the 10th heir, meaning that he should have never had thought about sitting on the throne. Yet, surprisingly the other heirs began dropping like flies throughout the years.
Some died in missions, some had gotten sick during the worst moment, some had decided to step down from the race by their own will, and so on.
This kept happening until only Emperor Rawal was left as the 1st heir of the empire.
Everyone knew that it was Rawal, who was caused those misfortunes to his brothers and sisters...But, the previous emperor didn't punish him for it or allowed anyone in the family to touch him.
Why?
Because, they had absolutely not a shred of evidence.
Knowing was one thing, but proving it was another.
The previous emperor respected his son's burning desire for the throne more than he loved his other children.
Till this point in time, no one knew how Emperor Rawal had managed to get rid of his brothers and sisters...
When he sat on the throne, he was barely one hundred years old...Now? His age almost reached fifty thousand years! He still had plenty more years to live.
Zosia didn't know if he was as smart as he used to be. But, she did know that he had gotten greedier, lazier, and more self-centered than ever.
If it wasn't for so, the empire wouldn't have turned to shit under his ruling...
...
Sixteen days later, the stream chat room had been resurrected from the dead as hundreds of billions of live viewers were logged in for days now!
The news about the asteroid gimmick, and the incoming clash had already circulated throughout the network.
Right now, everyone were sitting in front of their screens, staring at the exterior of the defensive station in the Toppoki region.
The defensive station appeared to be the same as a towering metallic fortress that was geared to the max with grim dark plasma cannons.
Since it was called a station, it was normal to assume that it had no thrusters or such. It was a static fortress that shields whatever you put in front it.
At this moment, it was guarding the mesmerizing spherical wormhole behind it.
The wormhole wasn't really that big since it was made by a Space Worm instead of it being natural.
It was big enough to allow multiple spaceships to enter it at once but not big enough it was the size of a planet.
So, a single defensive station was more than enough to block any spaceship from passing through it.
If it was a natural wormhole, it would take tens of defensive stations to cover it and still, there would be hundreds of holes to be taken advantage of.
[Does anyone know when the supernova fleet of the royal family will arrive? I have been waiting for a week already.]
[Based on my calculation, they should be merely a few hours away.]
[They must be slowing down on purpose. If not, they should have already arrived yesterday.]
[Let's go! I am getting pumped! I never watched live a space battle of such magnitude before.]
[You guys are sick! People will die by the thousands!]
The forums and chatroom were filled with excited and nervous chatter.
The ones unaffected from the war just wanted to watch some excitement, while the ones affected could only wish it would end in triumph for their side.
[Wait...Is that them?]
[Shit! I can see them! It's about to go down!]
Abruptly, the chat rooms exploded in a frenzied spamming after they spotted the approaching humongous dark mother battalion.
It was approaching the defensive station with a slow pace. The distance between them was actually in the hundreds of kilometers.
But the size of mother battalion was too noticeable even in this pitch-black darkness due to its blinking lights.
As for the warships with it? They appeared like tiny shimmering stars.
After the mother battalion reached the fifty kilometers mark, it stopped. Meanwhile, the warships began moving around it, appearing like they were setting a formation.
They were lining up in a straight line at the sides of the mother battalion, making it resemble a plane with wings.
On the other hand, warships near the defensive station were already in a perfect formation for days now.
Inside the center of operation of the defensive station, Zosia and the rest of the leaders were standing as holograms in front of the glass window.
While Zosia seemed as cool as a cucumber, the other four had signs of nervousness on their face while they watched the enemy formation.
"They are going with a progressive formation...Why?" Zosia wondered in confusion.
She assumed that the formation they pick would be focusing on breaching their defenses as fast as possible.
In her eyes, they must have known about their incoming reinforcement. Hence, slowing down the pace of the battle should have been their own thing not theirs!
'I have a bad feeling about this....'