Hearing the praise, Gaud smiled lightly and recollected himself, standing by the side. His eyes were deep and unfathomable, and no one knew what he was thinking.
…
The dynasty started warring on multiple fronts, fully moving into battle.
The Kunde Race armies were defeated one after another, the dynasty’s sudden full-scale offensive disrupting their momentum.
“Everyone, we are losing this war.”
In the conference room of the Kunde Race flagship, the Kunde Race leader placed his palms on the table as he glanced coldly at the upper echelons present.
“Our defeat was expected, but this process has spiraled out of our control,” one of the senior officials said solemnly. “Our fleets, which were hiding in different positions, were all accurately attacked by the enemy, suffering heavy casualties. This is strange, as though the enemy seems to have knowledge of our coordinates.”
The battle strategy of the Kunde Race was to slowly lure the enemy deeper into their territory, bringing them into the hinterlands before using their main fleet to attack the stargate and cut off any paths of retreat of the enemy. They would then use the Scorched Earth plan to wipe the area of as many enemies as possible.
However, the precise attacks of the Crimson Dynasty had disrupted their battle strategies completely and made them wonder if their own intelligence had been leaked.
“There’s no way for us to judge now whether the enemy is utilizing special observation methods to locate our hidden main fleets or have stolen our internal intelligence. If it’s the former, it’s still ok, but if the latter situation has happened, our situation now is grim. The enemy likely has insight on our Scorched Earth plan, and they might even have grasped the coordinates of all our troops, including our location.” One of the officials had an uneasy tone as he spoke.
The Kunde Race leader said, “No matter what, we have to prepare for the worst case scenario. We have yet to properly master the quantum network technology in application, and the enemy’s technology is better than ours. We should first temporarily give up on this convenient communication technology.”
“But in that case, we’ll become even more passive…”
“Forget about it. Now that the big picture is already gone, it’s time for us to evacuate and pray for the Scorched Earth plan to take effect.” The leader spoke in a commanding tone. “The problem remains, does the enemy have any information about our Scorched Earth plan? If even that is exposed, we need a remedy.”
“How do we remedy this problem?”
“The troops implementing the Scorched Earth plan have been out for a long time. Even if the enemy has gained their coordinates, it will take some time to catch up. Thus, as long as we cut off the link between them and the headquarters, closing the quantum network, we will cut off all information exchanges with the outside world, so the enemy will lose sight of their coordinates.”
Hearing this, everyone could not help but nod.
This was a method to turn the troops involved in the plan into a blind and deaf ghost fleet.
“Since the enemy know of our plan, they will have prepared to deal with it,” someone said. “Even if they do not know the location of the Primordial Psionic Energy explosion, they can identify by observation and quickly manage it. In this manner, the effect will be greatly reduced.”
“That’s right. Our strategy could be considered, to a certain extent, to have failed.” The Kunde Race leader’s tone was decisive. “But we must leave as few resources as possible for the enemy. In any case, we must cause a certain degree of loss to the enemy.”
Among the upper echelons, no one objected.
Seeing that there were no objections, the leader then opened the virtual screen of the conference room, entering his own permissions before accessing a confidential interface that monitored the location and status of all Scorched Earth plan troops in real time.
At this point, the interface showed that all troops were rushing to their destination, proceeding as normal.
Confirming that the plan was still running as normal and had not been destroyed by the enemy, everyone was relieved. This was their last hope.
Everyone quickly connected to the representative of the Scorched Earth plan, and his figure soon appeared on the virtual screen.
“There is an order from the upper echelons. Change all psionic energy bomb locations and cut off the quantum network links. Close all channels of information completely, and only reconnect to report the results when you have changed all locations.”
“Understood.”
With a few instructions, the leader ended the call.
Less than a minute later, the real-time monitoring on the virtual screens slowly dimmed one by one as the links were disconnected.
Seeing this, one of the officials sighed. “While this is not the best solution, at least it’s more secure.”
The Kunde Race leader nodded. Surveying his surroundings, he spoke in a heavy tone.
“Since it has been properly deployed, we can start to evacuate. Remember to bring all the Super captives with us.”
As matters had reached this point, the Kunde Race decided to recall their troops and evacuate.
They had profited by catching a few Supers during their past few battles, and planned to experiment on them, so they were taking them back to study.
…
At the same time, within one of the borders of the Kunde Race territory, one of the fleets of the Scorched Earth plan was being attacked by the dynasty fleet.
The Kunde Race battleship was being boarded, and the dynasty Supers cleared the soldiers within the battleship.
The captain barricaded the command room, immediately sending communication requests to the headquarters again and again. However, all of them seemed to sink into the sea without any sort of movement.
“What’s going on? Why aren’t the upper echelons answering the emergency call‽” the captain screamed in exasperation.
At this moment, a cold beam pierced through the metal doors of the command room, penetrating the captain’s body.
Whoosh!
“Argh!” The captain screamed and fell, and blue blood spilled out.
A dynasty officer who was holding onto an alloy knife walked in, and glancing at the communication call on the virtual screen, he smiled and turned it off before looking at the unwilling captain’s eyes.
“Don’t waste your energy. You cannot contact anyone right now.”
Hearing this, the captain’s eyes grew wide. “Don’t tell me…”
Swoosh!
The knife swung, and a huge shrimp head flew up into the air. Blood splashed everywhere, forming a poor representation of some abstract art.
Sheathing his weapon, the officer turned away, not bothering to explain his plan to the enemy. This was one of the lessons all military personnel had to undergo.
In fact, Han Xiao had not just delivered intelligence to them but had pulled out all the stops. Since he had decided to help, he had conveniently handed over the loophole program that left him in control of the Kunde Race quantum network, to improve his task evaluation.
The entire command system of the Kunde Race was completely reduced to a plaything for the dynasty, where the latter could manipulate them as they liked.
All the pictures seen by the Kunde Race headquarters, including their communication targets, were illusions created by the dynasty.
The Kunde upper echelons thought that their troops had received all their orders, but in actual fact, nothing had gotten through to the soldiers on the battlefield.
The Kunde Race had already turned completely deaf and blind and mistakenly thought that the situation was proceeding according to plan. This was just an illusion that the dynasty had arranged. Since their system was paralyzed, the troops could not call for assistance and could only be slowly eaten by the dynasty.
Without the support of an interstellar society, the Kunde Race was akin to a crippled Star Cluster civilizatio
n. Their quantum network technology was bad and completely vulnerable to Han Xiao. If they were a true Star Cluster Civilization in the explored universe, Han Xiao would not have been able to gain control of their quantum network so easily.
Virtual Mechanics were originally considered a strategic weapon in the intelligence department, and Han Xiao stood at the peak of the Beyond Grade A level. Furthermore, with the recent addition of his [Perfect Mechanical Sense], his role in wartime far outstripped that of the other classes.
It was enough to let the enemy die without knowing how they died.
…
Within a starry sky far away, the migration fleet carrying all the civilians of the Kunde Race turned around without anyone sensing, returning along their original path.
There was no display on the star map, so everyone in the ship was unaware.
The dynasty did not have a habit of letting its enemies go and had already set up a web to capture them all.
The Kunde Race had practically no way to retreat.
Chapter 979 - Certainties and Uncertainties
At a certain place in the borderlands of the Kunde Race, the remainder of a Kunde Race fleet was slowly cruising through space.
Not long ago, this fleet with the code name of ‘Sea Flag’ had gone through a rough fight. They were attacked by a dynasty admiral’s fleet, which forced their command ship and guard ships to break away with their lives and escape with their tails tucked between their legs.
Currently, there were only twenty or so guard ships around the command ship. The rest were either eliminated or scattered somewhere else.
The Sea Flag fleet belonged to the Third Cosmic Army of the Kunde Race. The commander of their fleet was the renowned general of the third army, Oliert, who was praised to be the ‘Star of Tomorrow’. When the Marshal of the third army reached his retirement age a few years ago, Oliert was seen as the top candidate to take on the position of the Marshal.
However, due to the fact that the data of a destroyed ship was received a few years ago, the upper echelons made the decision to prepare for war. This led to the retirement of all army officials to be delayed, so this matter was put aside for the time being.
At this time, the Sea Flag fleet was moving in stealth mode while waiting for the next order from command.
Inside the bridge of the command ship, the atmosphere was grave and silent. Everyone was immersed in the pain and agony of losing the battle and losing their comrades.
Oliert stood before the most front porthole in silence, only showing his back to everyone in the room. The color of the carapace on his body was a mixture of sorrowful green and raging red.
In the battle earlier, almost everything he did was expected by the enemy commander. He was partially responsible for the loss of that battle.
Everyone knew that the commander was the one facing the most pressure, so none dared bother him.
After hesitating for a very long time, the aide-de-camp finally found the courage to walk to Oliert and said quietly, “Sir, we…”
“Say no more.” Oliert turned around as his body gradually turned into the color of calming blue. He then said slowly, “This was not just my personal failure but a failure on the level of civilization background. I did not lose to the opponent but the enemies’ entire civilization.”
Oliert knew that his talent as a commander was no match for the dynasty’s admiral, but he felt that this was not just the issue of individual ability and that the main difference came from the civilization backgrounds.
During the battle, he made the most detailed and careful decisions he had ever made in his life. To him, his performance this time could even be placed in the curriculum of military schools as a crucial case study. However, to his absolute shock, the response of the enemy was unbelievably quick. His plans were seen through almost instantly.
Meeting such an opponent was a heavy blow to his confidence as a commander.
This did not mean that Oliert was incompetent. In fact, he was already considered top-notch by the Kunde Race’s standards. On the surface, this situation happened because the ability of the dynasty admiral was far superior to his, but the deeper reason lay within the difference in civilization backgrounds.
The rise of the three Universal Civilizations was accompanied by the wails of countless races. As they experienced the flames of war, all the battles were recorded in the curriculum of their military schools. Therefore, no matter what situation their commanders faced, they were able to come up with the respective solutions almost instantly.
Comparatively, the Kunde Race had experienced way too few galactic wars. All the strategies they were using had been abandoned by the explored universe long ago for being too behind. This was what the difference between backgrounds meant.
After the battle, Oliert was pessimistic. He saw completely no way of winning even parts of the battle, and the continuous crumble of the various fleets right now was the best proof for that.
He was not the only one that felt this one; all the soldiers fighting on the frontlines basically had the same pessimistic view of this war.
They were furious that their home was coveted by the enemies, but they did not think that the sacrifices in this war were necessary. However, as soldiers, they had to follow the orders.
Oliert sighed in his mind, put these pessimistic emotions away, looked at the aide-de-camp, and asked in a deep voice, “Has an order from command arrived?”
“Er… It has just arrived. They’ve told us to standby and retrieve the scattered fleet, then rendezvous with the main fleet of the third army to plan for the attack on the enemy stargate.”
Oliert slammed the table and said with rage, “Bullsh*t! Why aren’t we retreating now? Have command lost their minds‽”
We were just defeated and forced to scatter. How can we stay in this dangerous area to recover the rest of the ships? Do they think that the enemies won’t chase after us‽
Furthermore, the main fleet is already in shambles, yet we’re being asked to rendezvous and attack the enemies’ stargate. This is basically asking us to commit suicide!
Many of the officers in the room felt that this strategy was problematic, but they did not dare speak. They all stared at Oliert and waited for the decision of their commander.
Oliert took a few steps back, suppressed his rage, and said, “Contact the Marshal. I’m going to ask him personally about what’s going on with this decision!”
The aide-de-camp nodded and immediately made the arrangements. A communication interface popped up on the virtual screen. After a few seconds, the other side picked up the communication, and the third army Marshal appeared on the screen.
“Oliert, I heard you were attacked. Glad to see you’re still alive.”
“Luck was part of the reason.” Oliert tried his best to speak as calmly as possible. “I have received the order from the command department. Are we planning to attack the enemies’ stargate?”
“Yes, that’s the order.”
“Don’t you think that’s problematic? The battle has already deviated from our initial plan. We shouldn’t linger now. It will only cause more meaningless sacrifices.”
“I know. I think it’s time to retreat, too, and I’m talking to the upper echelons. For now, let’s follow the order.”
Oliert became silent for a moment before ending the call.
The aide-de-camp asked cautiously, “Sir, what should we do now?”
Oliert glanced at him and suddenly said, “How many battleships do we have left?”
“Er, twenty-four.”
“Gather all the captains into the communication channel.”
As this order was executed, Oliert stood in place with hands behind his back and waited for a while. The images of the remaining captains then appeared one after another on the screen.
This time, Oliert made a hand sign and said slowly, “Remember what I’m going to say next. I’m only going to say it once…”
He then went on to
say a ton of standard encouraging words and repeated the order of the command department, during which, he kept making several hand signs. All the captains stared at him very closely.
“Alright, that’s all. Let’s do it.”
Finally, Oliert placed his hands down and completed his speech.
The images of the captains disappeared on the screen one after another.
This time, the aide-de-camp who was looking at the other command screen suddenly said with shock, “Sir, all the captains have turned off their artificial intelligence cores and blocked all outside information. We can’t contact them anymore!”
Oliert, however, expected this. He nodded calmly and said, “Very good, go turn off the artificial intelligence core of our spaceship.”
The others were shocked to suddenly understand what was going on. They were in disbelief.
This means that… we’re going to be deserters‽
“Th-this…” The aide-de-camp was stunned.
Oliert glared at him and said with a stern tone, “What are you waiting for‽”
The aide-de-camp hesitated for a moment before making the arrangements. Very soon, the artificial intelligence core of the command ship was turned off.
This way, the remnants of this Sea Flag fleet became a ghost fleet that had lost contact completely to the outside world.
Only now did Oliert heave a sigh of relief. He looked at the others who were still lost and explained, “Sorry, this is all to be as cautious as possible. If I’m not wrong, our quantum network has already been completely infiltrated by the enemies.”
With these words said, everyone was shocked.
Oliert glanced around and said slowly, “I know the Marshal very well. He’s a stubborn soldier who would never question orders from the superiors. Although this is a difficult time and everything could change, we can’t ignore any suspicious behavior. I suspect that what I just spoke with was not the Marshal at all.
The Legendary Mechanic c1-1385 Page 668