Xyrin Empire

(Oh, I almost forgot... the double monthly vote should still be going on, right? If you still have votes, you can cast them. Also—what do you think is the biggest gift in this shadow space?)

The alert for the super space-time strike and the report of finding the control core of the shadow space arrived almost simultaneously, just as previously speculated: the detection technology of the Revenge Army and their defensive strength for their headquarters are extremely powerful. The moment the control core was scanned, the enemy also confirmed the position of the invaders.

"Warning, super space-time strike detected en route, high energy reaction at the fleet boundary... Twilight No. 3 Planet Battleship's crust is cracking, we are undergoing an airdrop-style gravitational impact!"

The instant the alert for the airdrop-style gravitational impact sounded, the Imperial Fleet on the attacking front had already effectively encountered combat losses. A fleet of Protos Carriers orbiting the Twilight No. 3 planet battleship was suddenly struck by a fierce gust, causing a violent formation chaos at high altitude near the North Pole. Three carriers collided with each other, forming a heap of twisted metal debris, while the ejected escape pods shot at an abnormal speed toward the sturdy man-made crust of the planet battleship below—all of which happened within a lightning-fast ten seconds.

It was my first time seeing such an attack; there was no energy beam in sight, nor any large-caliber warhead jumping over. Our spacecraft were bizarrely flung away; according to the battleship's alert, it was clearly a weapon based on gravitational effects, but this elusive way of attack was truly something I'd never seen before.

All planet battleships immediately activated their gravity isolation barriers, detaching themselves from the universal gravitational system to prevent larger-scale gravitational attacks from the enemy. Near the North Pole of Twilight No. 3, a terrifying rift nearly a thousand kilometers long and up to a hundred kilometers wide was torn open. Erupting ghost energy spewed out like magma from the rift, forming a spectacular chain explosion in the planet battleship's upper atmosphere. The damage control system responded swiftly, immediately cutting off energy supply to the damaged areas of the starship and starting emergency repairs on the armor there. The escape pods that were nearly flung towards the surface by the gravitational upheaval were saved after the starship activated gravity isolation. However, a small portion still turned into bright fireworks in the high air due to mutual collision.

After this bizarre gravitational attack, the enemy's conventional artillery fire tardily fell on the fleet. Due to the existence of super space-time strike technology, these artillery fires spewed out from space rifts distributed in all directions around the Celestial System Fleet, instantly blocking all dead angles of the entire fleet.

The Ghost Energy Death Star began to accelerate. The class coordinate engine caused spatial chaos while towing this unprecedentedly massive Constant Star Fortress, leaving web-like black cracks on the Death Star's surface—these were not damages to the Death Star, but rather endless reconfiguration of spatial coordinates within a small range. The multiple spatial overlaps ultimately formed low-speed space, creating a view obstruction where light couldn't escape. These vast low-speed zones were like countless black ribbons hindering the Ghost Energy Death Star's advance, entwining the gigantic celestial body, looking eerie and terrifying.

Our escort formation quickly locked onto the coordinates from which the attacks came. To our surprise, they were originating from every corner of the entire shadow universe. The enemy had no intention of concentrating their ships but was attacking directly from potential hundreds of billions of light-years away.

Super space-time strike technology made such an attack possible, yet undeniably, if the enemy didn't assemble their forces and relied solely on super space-time delivery of firepower, their attack power would be greatly reduced. The enormity of the Celestial System Fleet was evident, and without enough interception firepower, it was virtually impossible to stop this giant. Would the enemy really hold back like this?

Sandora shared the same confusion as I, but she had no hesitation. Regardless of what the Revenge Army was planning, the Imperial Army had already advanced to this point, leaving no reason for retreat.

"All super space-time firepower, full force open!"

At Sandora's command, the escort formation composed of over a thousand Eternal-class Mother Ships, hundreds of thousands of various types of mainstay ships, and countless medium and small-sized auxiliary warships immediately began their counterattack. This presented an extraordinarily eerie counterattack scene: all enemies were beyond conventional range. They could only intercept us with super space-time strikes, and we could only retaliate the same way. The Revenge Army's artillery fire poured out from space rifts close to our forces, and then we opened similar rifts ourselves, tossing missiles, energy beams, suicide fighters, and bricks into them. Every planet battleship's airspace was filled with crossfire, ghost energy beams intersecting, but a bit further away, on the outskirts of the Celestial System Fleet, outer space remained calm. Except for the bustling explosions, it became so quiet that it could practically film over forty episodes of Hong Kong-Taiwan dramas...

"I don't know what went wrong with them," Sandora frowned in confusion. "Their ships scattered across the shadow space still show no inclination to gather at the control core, yet they attack from afar, wasting nearly forty percent of their weapon power—it's practically inviting us into their base camp."

"I don't think so at all."

As soon as I finished speaking, the bridge shook violently: it was that strange gravity strike again. It had given up on targeting the planet battleships that could resist gravitational effects and started attacking the escort formations.

The Imperial Admiral itself was also equipped with a gravity isolation device, but its power was clearly not up to par with the planet battleships. When the enemy's attack arrived, a dozen or so anomalous gravitational points suddenly appeared within the Royal Fleet's formation. The gravitational waves released from these points caused the Imperial Admiral's hull to tilt severely. While stabilizing myself, I observed the outside scene, where dozens of small escort ships were caught by the mass points, disintegrating into bright fireworks. Other large motherships barely maintained their posture, but the super space-time strikes were interrupted.

"You see, I don't think the enemy's interception fire is mild at all!" I tightly gripped the armrest of my chair, watching the command hall below in a flurry of activity. "Sandora, what exactly is this? Which type of warship is specifically designed to fight with gravity weapons?"

"I'm afraid it's not a conventional warship." Sandora's face turned gloomy. Even the main flagship couldn't immunize against the enemy's attack, which wasn't a good sign. What was even worse was that we couldn't find where the enemy launching the gravity attacks was: it wasn't using super space-time strikes, and both attacks had left no traces, as if the space around us naturally underwent a cosmic anomaly.

At that moment, Sivis, who was busy tracking the source of gravity strikes, suddenly reported loudly, "Your Majesty! Anomalous information detected within the Celestial System Fleet formation... the fundamental laws of the space the fleet is in are being modified!"

"Law modification?" Sandora immediately stood up. "What's happening?"

"The situation is unclear, but within the Celestial System Fleet, the law of universal gravitation has become chaotic. The mass and universal gravitation of all warships are changing... a single-soldier fighter's mass just surpassed that of the Sun! It destroyed its own flying formation!"

Taville's report left me in shock; this situation couldn't simply be described as bizarre. It was clearly not a standard gravity strike; the enemy wasn't just deploying mass points against us but outright distorting the laws of universal gravitation within the Celestial System Fleet's range; this is a class of law-like weapons!

Taville's report was just the beginning. Soon, subordinate fleets sent more damage reports related to "gravity loss of control." A batch of Commonwealth warships collided with a mass wall while intercepting enemy super space-time jump warheads. What should have been empty space in front of them suddenly became a gravitational zone only a few micrometers thick, less than a kilometer wide and high, but with a mass exceeding thousands of white dwarf stars. Dozens of battleships were flattened into thin metal pancakes like soft dough thrown against a wall in outer space. Escort ships responsible for intercepting super space-time firepower, separate from the mothership, suffered similar misfortune. In the vastness of space, gravity faults constantly fluctuated everywhere. Even the armor of Imperial Battleships couldn't withstand such strikes, with their hulls potentially situated simultaneously within gravitational faults with a differential reaching tens of millions of times. The once indestructible interstellar alloy was scoured continuously by such faults thousands of times in an instant, reaching the limit of destruction...

The Ghost Energy Shield offered very weak defense against this type of attack because it happened to lack the function of isolating universal gravitation!

"Contract the formation, have small warships move close to the mothership, and all large ships set their gravity isolation systems to maximum," Sandora commanded decisively, then turned to the command hall. "Taville, give me a gravitational distribution map of the space within the fleet."

The star map on the officer platform flickered, quickly filled with colorful patches.

"The law of universal gravitation is chaotic now, and any warship in the fleet not within the gravity isolation system's protection will see its mass fluctuate by the millisecond," Sandora said, observing the holographic projection, now rendered almost like her high-energy cooking (no mistake), resembling a TV screen full of snowflakes. The patches representing different gravitational accelerations flickered to the point of blinding the human eye. "At the same time, all fundamental laws related to mass are chaotic. Once small warships are out of protection, they will instantly disintegrate or be smashed to pieces."

"Your mothership and planet battleships have that isolation system, right, though it shakes quite intensely," Bingdisi, standing unsteadily on the shaking bridge, unfolded a pair of large black wings to maintain balance, accidentally causing Lilina, who was closest to her, to be knocked away. "Although the small ships can't fire their cannons now, it doesn't seem to affect the main cannon combat."

"But without escort ships, it's tough to intercept the enemy's super space-time strikes. Standard anti-gravity devices simply cannot cope with this law-approaching attack method; they're using this attack to nullify our escort ships." Sandora angrily pounded the chair; her tone was exasperated. The holographic projection was filled with the fire produced by explosions, and the high-energy beams and jump missiles repeatedly created alarming large fireballs on the Imperial Battleship's energy shield. The pale blue protective barrier continually produced ripples resembling water waves from the impact. The planet battleship's shield was as thick as an atmosphere and looked like it could hold out for a long time. However, the motherships with slightly weaker protection were already incurring combat damage. They had to not only support their Ghost Energy Shields but also be responsible for all the counterattack firepower with the escort ships unable to fight. Moreover, they needed to exert several times the output to construct a gravitational isolation field to protect the entire fleet. Under such circumstances, the motherships' energy consumption was enormous, greatly affecting the shield's recharge speed. When the enemy's super space-time strike gradually stopped targeting the thick-skinned planet battleships and focused on sweeping the mothership formation, the latter appeared to be struggling alone.

A dazzling flash suddenly appeared at the bottom of the external scene. After tracking by the camera, I found that it was the enemy's dozen Galaxy Main Guns converging into a line, delivering a strong attack on the Teldar Hill Planet Battleship. This attack even pierced through the starship shield, leaving a broad scar on the Teldar Hill's silvery-gray crust.

Under normal circumstances, its shield should not fear bombardments of this magnitude.

"Your Majesty! The surrounding spatial thermodynamic laws are in disarray, increasing the burden on the Ghost Energy Shield!" Sivis's urgent report explained the sudden vulnerability of the starship shield. Sandora immediately ordered to change the output mode of the starship engine to use computational power to correct the energy loss caused by the chaos, but obviously, this was only a temporary solution.

"Law-like weapons, and not just one, corrections to the laws of gravity and thermodynamics... Could it be the War Song?"

Sandora's brows furrowed tightly, her voice sounding extremely grim.

"War Song?" Qianqian asked curiously.

Sandora looked at the gigantic holographic projection, her gaze seeming to penetrate the war-torn scene and reach a corner of the universe: "It's a planet battleship, a true planet battleship from the Old Empire era. It was a flagship I ordered to be built to celebrate a great victory, equipped with a total of seven law-like weapons and a damage definition system. It was named after me due to its power. The Revenge Army has never used this thing; I thought it had been destroyed by the rebels when the Old Empire collapsed..."

With Sandora's words, the platform of officers fell silent.

Qianqian's nonlinear thinking sometimes really focuses on crucial spots that ordinary people wouldn't think of immediately: "If it's law weapons... aren't Xyrin units unaffected by law disorder?"

"Right, Xyrin units themselves aren't afraid of law disorder," Sandora shook her head, "but law disorder can trigger many catastrophic phenomena, and the law resistance of Xyrin units isn't one hundred percent effective against these phenomena. Moreover, law weapons are different from naturally occurring law disorders; they are aggressive. It's like the difference between natural flames and a stellar furnace, completely incomparable."

Bingdisi said, "Talking about this is useless, the key is to take out that planet battleship first—you're not going to be reluctant, are you?"

"That's already history, of course, there's nothing to be reluctant about," Sandora shook her head, "but finding the War Song may not be so easy. Its disguise system is very powerful, capable of disguising itself as a small stone right in front of you, and a true planet battleship is equipped with extremely advanced Super Space Strike devices. It can attack from any corner of the universe to the opposite end, with 'firepower' covering an entire star system..."

"But I think it should be over there..." Big Sister suddenly looked thoughtfully in a certain direction, "a strong hostility, my spiritual power reacted to that direction, but the distance is too far, the curse cannot take effect."

Almost forgot: there's someone here whose power doesn't require active targeting but needs to be activated by the enemy itself!

"We must deal with that thing quickly," Sandora immediately stood up, "the War Song is best at relying on destroying base laws on enemy positions to sweep away opponents' combat power. It's probably still adjusting its weapon system, but as long as we give it enough time, it will be a huge trouble."

"The entire Celestial System Fleet being played around by a single planet battleship." I shrugged, "Does it have any weaknesses?"

"The total strength of the Celestial System Fleet certainly surpasses the War Song, but in a real battlefield, data is sometimes the least reliable. As for weaknesses... the protection device of that starship is the damage definition system; it can directly adjust any damage it suffers to a minimum value, and this minimum value can only cause a ripple on its regular shield. So the more you bombard it with big guns, the more wasteful it is. Concentrating a large amount of small to medium firepower for bombardment might be an option..."

Another violent shaking sensation came from beneath our feet, probably one of the unlucky spaceships nearby accidentally collided with a mass point, causing the Imperial Admiral to shake violently as if it had passed swiftly by a hundred neutron stars. I grabbed Lilina, who was rolling in front of me, and said loudly, "Look, small and medium warships can't get close to that kind of thing!"

Sivis's urgent report came through again, still bad news: "Your Majesty, the concept of surrounding space coordinates has been overturned! The output of the class coordinate engine is declining; the Ghost Energy Death Star is advancing in Void Navigation mode—if this continues, we can't get close to the control core within the time limit!"

"I'll go." Big Sister and I said in unison.

"A curse is not a direct attack; it directly changes the target itself, so the damage definition system is ineffective against me," Big Sister explained.

I added beside her, "The Void is roughly the same, I just don't believe its armor can withstand the Void Domain."

Sandora glanced at us, and although there was some concern in her eyes, it was indeed the best option at the moment: if the Celestial System Fleet used super space-time firepower to bombard the direction indicated by Big Sister, it might indeed take down that solitary planet battleship, but it would inevitably waste a lot of time, and we have more than one starship to deal with: the entire universe's Revenge Army is waiting for us to direct our cannons at them!

"Be extremely careful, I'll provide you with super space-time firepower support to eliminate enemy escort formations. If the attack is ineffective, retreat immediately: don't rely too heavily on personal strength, as it is insignificant in front of the whole fleet."

Pandora and Visca also stood up, as the enemy kept attacking us with super space-time firepower, these two little ones couldn't find a place to use their skills. Now, seeing special action, they gleamed with excitement and edged forward.

"Got it, got it, I'll take you with me."

Being stared at by the two one-meter-two twins with their starry eyes made me uncomfortable all over, so I hurriedly agreed, receiving two soft flying pounces as a reward.

"Big Brother is the best!"

A brother who leads his sisters into battle is actually the best. These two little madmen are indeed incorrigible.

Since we know that conventional main cannons pose as much threat to the "War Song" as a single soldier fighter jet, and the main reliance to solve the enemy's escort formation is still the super space-time firepower support provided by Sandora, we only brought a small number of ships this time. Ten Eternal-class Mother Ships led a limited escort formation away from the Celestial System Fleet, accelerating into deep space, with the burning Ghost Energy Shield and overwhelming cannon fire sweeping past below the warship, and in the next instant, only the red-blue shift formed superluminal tunnel remained in front of us.

Alright, let's see how powerful a super battleship from the Old Empire era really is! (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets, monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)