The tide of battle in the Stardust Star Region shifted at this moment. What was originally a steady, methodical campaign to gradually whittle down and eventually swallow the entire Third Spiral Arm now turned chaotic due to the Katon Creatures' furious recklessness. A portion of their fleet broke away from the main force, launching a Boar Rush against the Pioneers. Worse still, the charging fleet obstructed the firepower from the rear Fortress.
For the Pioneers, the previously dire situation suddenly became clear. Even if they would ultimately be forced to abandon this Star Region, at least now they wouldn't have to retreat without putting up a fight.
Facing the scattered charging fleet, the Pioneers fully leveraged their advantages. While continuing their retreat, they suppressed their urge to counterattack, luring the charging fleet deeper into the heart of the star system.
Within the Katon Fleet, which still maintained its formation, another faction grew desperate to return to their home base to rescue their kin trapped in the Solar Storm. Moreover, their entire fortune was stored there—if they acted now, they might still salvage something rather than be left utterly destitute.
The fleet was thus deeply divided. Those consumed by rage and thirsting for vengeance had already charged out or were in the midst of their reckless assault.
Those worried about their possessions were also breaking formation, eager to return to the home base.
The remaining rational and indifferent members held their ground, intent on sticking to the original plan: securing this Star Region and annihilating the Pioneer Fleet.
The argument grew increasingly heated, yet the fleet continued its advance. Though some allied ships blocked firing lanes, they also inadvertently provided cover for the fleet's forward push.
Because the Katon Fleet's explorers couldn't reach a consensus, the first wave of charging Exploration Fleet had already moved beyond the protective firepower of the main fleet, stepping right into the Pioneers' long-prepared encirclement.
Lasers illuminated the void, their fiery beams slicing through the starry expanse.
Warships charging too recklessly were instantly focused down by dozens—even hundreds—of concentrated beams, melting and Detonating in mere moments.
With the first warship destroyed, the Pioneers, who had been biding their time, unleashed their full firepower. Swarms of Drones, so dense they blotted out the stars, surged from every direction, plunging straight into the Katon Fleet.
Already battered and suffering heavy losses from their headlong charge, the Katon Fleet now found themselves swarmed by Fighters during a lull in artillery fire. Faced with the relentless barrage from the Drones encircling them, every warship could only attempt to close ranks, relying on formation to provide mutual defense.
Unfortunately, their high acceleration made any attempt to regroup in such a short time a futile joke.
Thus, within half an hour, hundreds of charging warships were wiped out by the Pioneer Fleet and their Drone Swarms.
While the Pioneers reveled in their hard-won satisfaction, the Katon side was furious.
Fleets that hadn't yet reached the frontlines hastily decelerated and turned around, their feverish rage doused by cold reality as they regained their composure.
The morale that had been shaken by the attack on their home base now stabilized. Several leading Katon Creatures leveraged their influence, pulling back the wavering explorers and reorganizing them into an offensive formation.
But the Pioneers hadn't put on this elaborate act for so long just to destroy a few hundred warships. Their ambitions ran far deeper.
After retreating several light-hours into the star system, the Katon Fleet advanced the same distance. By now, the flanking detachment had completed its encirclement, and Planet Six had moved into optimal ground support range.
Seizing the moment before the Katon Fleet could solidify its formation, the flanking detachments, controlled by AI, surged forward at full speed under enhanced shield cover, protecting the hundreds of millions of fighter mechs behind them as they charged toward the enemy fleet.
Simultaneously, the Pioneer main fleet pushed forward, coordinating with the remnants of the Stellar System Defense System to draw the bulk of the Katon Fleet's firepower, providing cover for the flanking assault.
Hidden turrets across the battlefield now shed their camouflage, training their barrels on the Katon Fleet. From the planet's surface, massive distorted energy beams—each hundreds of meters in diameter—lanced into the heart of the enemy formation.
In an instant, dozens of Katon warships were obliterated. The Pioneer Fleet pressed forward under heavy fire, trading blows with the enemy.
Energy shields on both sides flickered at a frenetic pace, their reserves plummeting faster than the reaction furnaces could replenish them.
Under this relentless barrage, warships on both sides lost their shields in waves, their armor melting away. The detonation of antimatter reactors carved pitch-black voids of annihilation across the starscape.
After half an hour of brutal combat, the flanking detachments—having suffered heavy casualties—finally broke through, allowing their fighter mechs to plunge into the Katon Fleet and engage the enemy's fighter swarm in chaotic close-quarters combat.
Millions of fighter jets and mechs, accelerating to 15% of sublight speed, clashed across dozens of light-minutes of space. Particle cannons streaked through the void, their beams tracing graceful arcs amid the carnage.
Explosions lit up the darkness like countless stars, while shattered debris, propelled by the blasts, hurtled outward at even greater velocities, turning the battlefield into a lethal storm of shrapnel.
The Katon Fleet struggled to reorganize. Though the Pioneers' drone swarms had breached their flanks, the sheer size of their formation meant only a fraction of their forces were disrupted, leaving the fleet largely intact.
After losing tens of thousands of fighters, the Pioneer swarm broke through the Katon blockade in successive waves, braving the hail of defensive fire to strike at the fortress ships deep within the enemy formation.
With both flanks locked in a tangled melee, the Katon Fleet abandoned attempts to clear the chaos swiftly. Instead, they sacrificed their outermost warships and fighters, deploying area-denial weapons to blunt the Pioneers' assault.
Yet even as the swarm disrupted flanking fire, reinforcements arrived. Hidden within the asteroid belt, drone swarms surged forth to fill the gap in firepower. The addition of millions more fighters tipped the numerical balance overwhelmingly in the Pioneers' favor.
By this point, the Pioneer Fleet had exhausted all nearby reserves. Any reinforcements from farther away would arrive with depleted energy reserves. Worse, the sheer scale of the battle—nearly ten million drones—had pushed their control systems to the brink. Dozens of central nodes were operating at full capacity, unable to support further reinforcements.
Forcing more drones into the fray would only overwhelm the system, degrading reaction times and crippling combat effectiveness.
"Hurry! Keep attacking, pin down their capital ships, let the Fighter Swarm charge in!" A Pioneer was so excited he could barely contain himself. Even a Fortress would fall when swarmed by countless fighters at close range—he could almost see the dawn of victory.
"Bad news! The Katon Fleet has deployed a Strong Magnetic Pulse."
"No problem, it won't affect the Fighter Swarm much. Just temporary remote control disruption. The Fighter Jets have their own onboard systems, though with reduced capability."