In the Gemini Starfield, at the Clone Legion base in the Pisces Star System, thousands of mecha pilots were queuing up to enter the safety pods.
With a series of mechanical pressurization sounds, the pilots inside the pods activated their mental links, their haptic senses replaced by the mecha's various sensors.
Outside the planet, in the space station, the Tier-5 Raider Mechs came to life. Their human-like flexible bodies moved briefly before lining up and flying out of the station, boarding the waiting transport ships.
Rows of nearly hundred-meter-tall Combined Control Mechs stood neatly in the cargo holds of the transport ships, which urgently ferried them to the Angel Fleet's location. There, the mechs attached themselves to the armor of the Angel Battleships in squadrons.
By the time the Angel Fleet was fully prepared, three hours had passed.
The defending Garrison Fleet, engaged in battle, was gaining momentum—even launching organized small-scale counterattacks. The sub-fleet commanders, treating this as a rare live combat exercise, systematically deployed every tactic they had trained for.
The Katon Fleet, after all, was not a formal military force. Though its coordination surpassed that of other Explorer Fleets and its combat experience was solid, it was utterly outmatched by the tactical command system of the Garrison Fleet.
What had initially been a more than two-to-one advantage was steadily eroded by the Garrison Fleet's command structure, to the point where the balance of power seemed reversed in localized engagements.
Though the purpose of the Katon Fleet's presence remained unclear, Irina and Liu Hai believed it was due to leaked intelligence. This fleet's appearance might just be a probing move by Katon—regardless of the outcome, the Brolly Star System would become a thorn in their side.
The precedent set in the Stardust Star Region would soon be repeated in the Brolly Star System.
Understanding the stakes, Liu Hai was determined to cripple as much of the Katon Fleet's combat strength as possible to ease the burden of future battles.
This was the genesis of his audacious plan. Now, with the fleet ready—though lacking a mothership to deploy large-scale drone swarms—the Tier-5 Raider Mechs he had chosen would suffice for the mission.
"All warships, prepare to warp according to the predetermined plan. Space stabilizers synchronized. Remember—no prolonged engagements. Execute the operation strictly as planned."
Liu Hai, wary of his Clone Soldiers' eagerness for glory under the merit system, specifically warned them against overextending.
After a brief buffer, the Angel Battleships simultaneously activated their jump engines. Guided by the Transport Fleet's coordinates, they forcibly warped into the formation of the Katon Fleet's First Legion.
The Angel Battleships, dispersed after individual warps, immediately unleashed fully charged energy beams from their cannons upon arrival. The beams shattered the energy shields of nearby Katon Warships and pierced clean through their hulls—killing them in a single strike.
Simultaneously, the Raider Mechs attached to the Angel Battleships detached in squads, charging toward the Katon Warships.
Since the Katon Warships were pursuing the Transport Fleet at sublight speed, and the Angel Battleships appeared ahead and to their flank, the distance of hundreds of thousands of kilometers closed in mere seconds as both sides raced toward each other.
The nearly hundred-meter-tall Raider Mech wielded a Special Laser Sword, its hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius heat distorting the surrounding space.
Four High-Energy Particle Rapid-Fire Cannons mounted on the mech's back swiftly deployed, unleashing a relentless barrage as they closed in. Streaks of orange high-energy particles formed continuous lines, their combined firepower exceeding hundreds of degrees per shot. The Energy Shields of the oncoming Katon Light Cruisers were swiftly breached by just a single squad of mechs.
Accompanying the sustained particle cannon fire were volleys of Force Field Disruptor Bombs, designed to unleash powerful magnetic fields upon detonation, scrambling the enemy's protective force fields.
The moment these disruptor bombs made contact with the Katon warships' Deflection Fields, they detonated instantly. The intense electromagnetic interference caused localized disruptions, rendering the deflection fields momentarily ineffective.
The mech squad effortlessly penetrated the weakened fields, entering the Close-in Weapon System's Fire Net. Their Condensed Laser Swords, blazing with hundreds of millions of degrees of heat, were swung in dazzling arcs, slicing through the warship's armor despite the defensive fire.
Within mere seconds, the mechs located the ship's turrets and coordinated their attacks to destroy them. Simultaneously, their particle cannons targeted the turrets' energy conduits, triggering violent energy collisions.
The turret positions erupted into massive craters, venting the ship's atmosphere into the void of space.
Seizing the opportunity, the mech squad stormed the warship's interior. Their tens-of-meters-long laser swords, freed from the constraints of the force field, instantly transformed into thick crimson beams several meters in diameter.
The alloy walls inside the warship melted under the laser onslaught, forming rivers of molten metal that surged and churned through the corridors under the ship's artificial gravity.
Less than twenty seconds later, five mechs burst through the hull, leaving behind a warship torn apart from within. The explosion triggered the Antimatter Reactor, causing the shattered vessel to rapidly collapse before annihilating in a burst of antimatter, scattering only fragmented debris in all directions.
Under the Angel Fleet's warp strikes, warships exploded one after another, while even more were ambushed by mech squads that breached their shields and executed devastating internal assaults.
By the time the Katon Fleet reacted—slowing their advance and deploying Fighter Swarms to encircle the mechs—the Katon Legion, originally numbering over ten thousand warships, had already lost nearly a thousand vessels, most of which were Cruisers or higher-tier capital ships.
The staggering casualty rate only fueled the Katon forces' fury. Their hastily reorganized command structure struggled to respond effectively to such internal devastation.
The Angel Battleships appeared for no more than five seconds before warping away, while the Katon warships required at least three seconds just to detect and lock onto them. With the battles unfolding deep within their own fleet formations, much of their firepower remained unusable, as stray shots risked hitting their own ships.
The only minor victory for the beleaguered Katon Fleet came when three Angel Frigates warped directly in front of a Battleship. Reacting swiftly, the Battleship's main guns blasted them point-blank. Then, unable to retreat in time, the frigates collided with the Battleship and were obliterated by its Ship Cannons, scattering wreckage across the battlefield.
The First Fleet was thus dragged below sublight speed by Liu Hai's warp tactics. The Katon Warships huddled together recklessly, ignoring safe distance protocols to cluster for mutual protection against the ghostly warp assaults of the Angel Battleships.
After three rounds of warp strikes, Liu Hai realized there would be little further gain in continuing. He quickly withdrew after deploying a large number of antimatter missiles to create confusion.
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