Chapter 446: Ch
After all, the Celestial Void Empire had already exported Peak Tier 3 warships to outside powers. If that was what they were willing to sell...
...then what kind of monsters would they reserve for themselves?
But that wasn’t all. Scattered throughout different regions surrounding the system were fleet formations, each consisting of roughly 3,600 warships.
There were at least a dozen such fleets.
Everyone silently took another deep breath, calming both themselves and even their contracted beasts. Many subconsciously swallowed hard while wiping the cold sweat from their foreheads.
The forces displayed before them were more than sufficient to wipe several of their states from existence.
Fear naturally arose within their hearts. Yet alongside that fear came excitement.
Suppressing those emotions, they continued watching the recording.
The scene shifted once again, this time focusing on a massive asteroid drifting not far from the Star Wormhole Gate.
The recording zoomed inward once again.
The asteroid had been completely hollowed out, with a makeshift control center constructed deep inside it. It was clearly a hastily assembled operations center.
Bundles of exposed wiring covered the walls, while powerful electrical surges crackled through the chamber at regular intervals.
Several members of the Star Empire, along with representatives of the Alchemy Association, operated the brand-new-looking control equipment.
Standing behind them were towering, green-skinned Orcs whose blurred, muscular figures radiated intimidation.
One of the Orc leaders stepped forward impatiently and roared, "Open the portal. Immediately."
"Yes! Yes!" the Star Fleet commander grunted, his face flushed with excitement and anticipation as his hand hovered over the central console of the makeshift control room.
With a decisive slam, he brought his palm down onto the large red button.
Instantly, the vacuum of space at the center of the Spatial Wormhole Module trembled as immense energy surged into it. Some kind of strange frequency spread outward, violently shaking the surrounding space.
Before long, space itself began to fracture.
Ripples spread in every direction before reality folded in upon itself. A massive swirling wormhole finally tore open and rapidly expanded, only stopping once its diameter reached nearly five hundred kilometers.
At the very same moment. Within one of the Battle Stars, Grand Commander Alex could be seen standing before a gigantic holographic star chart displaying the Solar System.
The instant the Battle Star’s detection systems registered the spatial fluctuations, alarms echoed throughout the command center.
[Warning! Massive spatial surge detected.]
[Warning! Massive spatial surge detected ahead.]
Hearing the warning, a smile slowly appeared on Alex’s face. "Looks like they’re finally here."
An evil smirk crept across his lips. "Let’s see who plays whom and who ambushes whom."
With those words, he opened the fleet-wide communications channel.
"Attention, everyone. This is your Grand Commander speaking."
"The enemy is about to enter our sights. Prepare your ships and weapon systems. On my command. Fire at once!"
Meanwhile, back within the desolate star system...
The gigantic wormhole had completely stabilized.
Soon afterward, warships began pouring out of it at an astonishing speed.
Within no more than an hour, well over one hundred thousand ships—nearly two hundred thousand in total—had emerged from the colossal wormhole.
The sheer number of enemy vessels surprised, and even momentarily astonished, Alex and the commanders under his command.
But that was all. They were merely surprised.
Even if several hundred thousand more ships arrived, it wouldn’t have any meaningful impact on them or the battle ahead.
It would simply mean more targets and nothing more. At worst, they would only need to launch a few additional salvos to eliminate them.
Pushing those thoughts aside, Alex immediately gave his next order. "Prepare and load antimatter missiles into every missile launcher."
"We’re going to deliver a massive opening strike and cripple them immediately."
"Yes, Grand Commander!" many direct and indirect subordinates replied in unison.
Meanwhile, back with the Leviathan-level invasion fleet inside the abandoned star system...
The smallest warships, serving as the fleet’s vanguard and belonging to the coalition of the twelve Tier 1 powers, measured no less than one thousand meters in length.
Behind them came the medium-class warships, ranging from two thousand to four thousand meters long.
They were followed by the fleet’s core battleships and battlecruisers, each measuring between six thousand and at least twelve thousand meters in length.
Finally, at the center of the formation were ten enormous dreadnought-class battleships, each stretching roughly twenty to twenty-five thousand meters in length, towering over nearly every other vessel in the invading armada.
Leading the charge was Lord Corvus and his group. Though not everyone was present, only a select few had come along, accompanied by several unfamiliar faces. Even the Orc Overlord was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a Red Orc was leading the Orc forces, which made up the majority of the fleet and served as both its primary ground force and its vanguard.
Within the bridge of the largest dreadnought-class battleship, Lord Corvus of the Star Empire slowly looked around the star system before turning his attention toward the navigation coordinates to confirm whether they had truly arrived at their intended destination.
Indeed. The moment he confirmed the coordinates, a smile appeared on his face. They had arrived exactly where they wanted to be.
The smile on his face only grew wider as countless thoughts flashed through his mind. "The day of fun and celebration is over. Void !No !!. I should call them the Celestial Void Empire."
"The day of your founding ceremony will become the day your empire begins its downfall, you Void Humans. And don’t blame me for being cruel..."
"That is simply your fate. Had it not been for your arrogance and your ignorance in standing in the way of the glory of my race, perhaps all of this could have been avoided."
"But... oh well." Corvus let out a sigh that seemed almost filled with pity.
"Anyway..." Pushing those thoughts aside, he opened a secure communications channel connected directly to the battle-scarred asteroid base below.
"Superb work, all of you." His voice echoed throughout the asteroid base’s makeshift control room.
From his tone alone, anyone could tell just how satisfied he was. "You secured exactly what you were instructed to secure without encountering any problems, proving just how capable all of you truly are."
"Do not worry."
"The promised payment, along with the agreed-upon bonus, will soon be transferred to your accounts."
"The Orc machinery, as well as the engineers from the various powers, will also fulfill every one of your requested demands."
Hearing those words, every person inside the asteroid base surged with boundless excitement.
Their hard work had finally paid off. The risks they had taken had all been worth it. Completely worth it.
But before they could celebrate any further, Corvus—completely oblivious to the excitement erupting inside the control room—spoke once again.
"For now, remain at your positions."
"Continue repairing the Spatial Warp Module so that it can be activated again if necessary."
"Once the fleet has accomplished its objective every one of you will receive exactly what you were promised."
"As you command, Lord Corvus!"
Each of the present Orcs, along with the members of the other races within the asteroid base, hurriedly replied with excitement.
"We... we will do our best to repair the module as quickly as possible!" Corvus merely hummed in acknowledgment.
With that said and done, he cut the transmission before turning his attention back to the fleet he was leading throughout the operation.
Saying he wasn’t excited would have been a complete understatement. For the first time in his life, he was leading a fleet. No. Calling it merely a fleet would have been a joke. An armada was a far more fitting description.
If he successfully destroyed the Celestial Void Empire’s defenses and seized control of the Holy Region, then the merits, reputation, and glory he would earn would be immense, elevating him to a height he had never been able to reach before.
Because of that, he was excited. But he was just as equally serious. He didn’t want even the slightest mistake to occur during this operation.
He held every advantage at this stage and cards of the game were in his hands. The element of surprise belonged entirely to him.
If, despite possessing all of that, he still failed to accomplish the mission’s objective then it would be nothing short of a mockery of all his years of hard work, talent, and effort.
That was something he absolutely would not allow to happen.
With that, he prepared for the armada to move and strike the defense base of the Celestial Void Empire not far from his current position.
From there, he intended to begin his assault and create an opening within the Celestial Void Empire’s high-tier defensive network, one that had already achieved full coverage throughout the entire Holy Region—or, as they called it, the Sol Region.
After that, he would target the star system containing the Stargate, allowing his fleet to achieve deep-strike capabilities by using the humans’ own equipment against them.
