Chapter 447: ch
Once that objective was secured, he would personally lead the core fleets of the armada toward the capital of the Celestial Void Empire and bring it down in one decisive strike.
That was the plan. But as the saying goes, not everything happens according to plan. While Corvus’ strategy was sound and was certainly capable of achieving its objective.
However, he had failed to consider one crucial possibility.
This operation might not be a surprise to the Celestial Void Empire at all. Perhaps they had already discovered it.
Perhaps, they had been anticipating it from the very beginning.
That single miscalculation— one made completely unknowingly by Corvus— would soon prove to be a catastrophic error.
But this was something completely outside the expectations of Corvus and the others.
Never, even in their wildest dreams, would they have imagined that this very star system was also under constant observation by the Celestial Void Empire’s defense forces.
The moment the first group successfully passed through the Mana Storm and entered this star system, they were detected, and the entire plan was immediately made known to the Celestial Void Empire.
Then again, this only proved one thing.
In times like these, one should never put all their eggs in a single basket.
And if they do, they should observe every possible variable.
Unfortunately, that was exactly what the alliance of nine Tier 3 states and one galactic organization had failed to do.
Then again, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to.
Rather, they simply had no way of being completely certain.
After all, passing through the Mana Storm that blanketed the entire Sol Region was no easy feat. In their attempts to gain that certainty, they had already suffered tremendous losses, both in capable individuals and in countless rare, precious, and extremely expensive resources.
This was the only successful breach they had managed, allowing them to pass through the Mana Storm and arrive within this star system, which lay inside the safe zone and was directly connected to the territories of the Celestial Void Empire.
Corvus, while confident, wasn’t a fool either.
Although he had no idea that he had walked directly into a trap carefully laid by the Celestial Void Empire, and therefore had made no specific preparations against such a possibility, the armada under his command remained in full battle-alert status.
Every warship had its shields fully activated, and those shields were further reinforced by the captains themselves using their own mana.
Mind you, every commanding individual leading a major vessel was, at the very least, a Grand Master Realm expert.
By the standards of most of the galaxy, the preparations Corvus had made were more than sufficient.
But...
Those standards meant absolutely nothing against the 6th Defense Fleet, also known as the Dominion Shield Armada, or against any of the elite military forces of the Celestial Void Empire.
Or rather, even the "ordinary" forces of the Celestial Void Empire that patrolled the star systems under its control could take on the "elite" forces of any other power, regardless of how prepared they were or how much preparation they had made.
After all, every military personnel of the Celestial Void Empire underwent rigorous training for at least one hundred and thirty to one hundred and forty years, if not longer. During that time, they fought through hundreds of thousands of simulated near-death battles and combat scenarios.
Only after passing every one of those trials were they finally allowed to join any branch of the military, be it the Border Defense Armadas, the Internal Defense Forces, or the main Expeditionary and Attack Fleets.
But back to the matter at hand.
Just as Corvus and his armada were about to begin their advance something drastic happened. Corvus’ body suddenly stiffened.
His instincts screamed at him with an overwhelming warning. A suffocating, primal sense of dread gripped his heart in but an instant.
Yet before he could process what was happening—or even begin to react— far away from his position, Grand Commander Alex observed that the enemy armada had completely emerged from the wormhole. No additional ships were following behind, and the wormhole itself had already become increasingly unstable, shrinking with every passing second.
That alone was enough.
It was time to begin.
Alex immediately rose from his command chair. Blood surged through his body as excitement coursed through every vein.
His voice thundered across every communication channel.
"The time has come to show these foolish powers what happens when they dare set their eyes upon what belongs to us what belongs to the Celestial Void Empire!"
"Now, Everyone ! On my command!! FIIIIIRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" he bellowed.
At that very instant. Every single warship fired. Even the two colossal Battle Stars unleashed their gigantic main cannons alongside countless secondary batteries that had already been warmed up and fully primed.
Kinetic projectiles. Massive artillery shells. Energy lances. Particle beams. Super Annihilation antimatter beams.
Thousands!! No. Tens of thousands of missiles followed behind them, surging toward the star system like an unstoppable tidal wave.
Meanwhile, corvus, his entire body, mind, and soul consumed by dread, finally saw it.
A perfectly coordinated salvo.
Countless projectiles tore through space, racing toward his armada at superluminal speeds—many times faster than light itself.
Missiles. Kinetic shells. Energy bolts. Particle beams type attacks. They came from every direction simultaneously.
Because those attacks far exceeded the speed of light, there was no radar warning. Nor was there any advance detection. Nor was there time for anyone within the grand armada to react.
Nor any of them had opportunity to organize a defensive screen. And thus, no chance to intercept them.
Before any of that could happen the outermost layers of the invading armada were struck.
Every single impact landed almost simultaneously.
The attacks struck the energy shields of the destroyer-class warships—the invading fleet possessed only vessels ranging from destroyer class to dreadnought class, with no smaller ships such as frigates or corvettes.
The shields were instantly pierced and shattered.
And mind you, those shields had been reinforced by the mana of their captains, every one of whom was at least a Grand Master Realm expert.
Yet even then. They couldn’t withstand the assault for even a tenth of a second before being completely obliterated.
The very next moment, the incoming projectiles slammed directly into the exposed outer hulls of those Tier 2 destroyer-class warships.
The sheer kinetic force and unimaginable thermal energy they carried instantly tore through the hulls, causing the destroyers to fragment and collapse under the overwhelming impact before erupting into blinding fireballs.
Some vessels were fortunate enough to survive the initial strike.
However, they had already lost all combat capability. Their propulsion systems failed. Their gravity dampeners instantly went offline.
The Orc soldiers stationed aboard those outermost Tier 2 destroyers were violently thrown around the interior, smashing into bulkheads, consoles, and armored walls before dying on the spot, confusion still visible across their faces.
That, however, was only the beginning.
The following wave of missiles slammed into another group of warships positioned within the outermost defensive layer of the armada.
Those vessels had already lost their shields from the previous barrage.
Now, with nothing left to protect them, the missiles struck their exposed hulls directly before detonating in catastrophic explosions.
And mind you. These weren’t ordinary missiles. They were highly charged, unstable plasma missiles.
The instant they detonated, each one transformed into a cataclysmic sphere of blazing plasma, swallowing not only the ships they directly struck but also many of the nearby vessels caught within the expanding inferno.
And before the expanding fragments of shattered warships and the raging flames of the explosions could even begin to settle (Mind you... Not even a single second had passed yet.)
The gigantic dark-red Super Annihilation Laser Beams fired by the two Moon Destroyers tore across the battlefield.
Wherever those terrifying beams passed, every warship caught in their path was instantly swallowed without the slightest resistance.
The two colossal beams continued to surge forward until they struck the very center of the invading armada, where the ten dreadnought-class battleships were positioned.
One beam pierced through from the bow side. The other tore through from the stern. The two attacks collided head-on.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!
The resulting explosion formed a gigantic crimson sun within the heart of the armada.
In an instant, it swallowed the dreadnoughts at its center, along with almost every other warship caught within its devastating range.
Even the ships that escaped complete destruction were not spared.
The overwhelming shockwave, unimaginable heat, and annihilating energy severely damaged countless vessels beyond the blast radius, leaving the once-proud armada in utter chaos before many of its commanders could even comprehend what had happened.
Oh no... How could they comprehend anything?
They had already been erased into oblivion by the two Super Annihilation Laser Beams fired from the two Moon Destroyers.
Nothing remained of them. Their existence had been wiped away in an instant.
Only the surviving warships of the armada remained, thrown into complete chaos.
It was only at this moment that they finally realized...
