Chapter 142 – Invaders (2)
“Yeah. Are you determined to see the end?”
There were limits to fleeing unless one completely left the planet’s orbit.
In other words, a collision was inevitable at some point, and Liam suspected that moment would come sooner than expected as he dodged the cannon fire and saw the wings of the attacking fighter jets charging toward him.
“Commander! We have received a response from the home planet!”
“I knew it! So, when is the support coming? What’s the scale? We need overwhelming numbers to defeat those bizarre tactics of theirs!”
“That’s…! It…”
The assistant who rushed in with the news had wide, trembling eyes. For some reason, Liam clicked his tongue and shook his head at the all-too-familiar scene before him.
“Please don’t spout nonsense. No matter how power-hungry the Chancellor is, he knows how to be rational. He wouldn’t just sit idle after witnessing this.”
“Y-yes! They were definitely trying to send support from the home planet!”
As Liam’s irritation grew, the assistant reported in a quivering voice. The more he continued, the wider Liam’s mouth opened in disbelief.
“The home planet of Remun has been attacked!? That place is the most critical economic city deep within our alliance. How could such a place be attacked? By those monsters we are facing right now!”
“This is a piece of attached information from the home planet.”
Liam tried to hold onto his sanity and think rationally, but every aspect of the situation was spiraling into absurdity.
“What the hell is this?”
Liam and those around him, including Amy, were left speechless as they looked at it.
In the expanse of space, with the sun at its back, it appeared.
It was as if a colossal tree had been planted on an island, standing majestically while sending the surrounding monstrous spaceships charging ahead.
Of course, it didn’t matter to Liam what that celestial island was.
What mattered was why those monsters were encroaching on a place they shouldn’t be.
‘…Could it be?’
In an instant, a despairing hypothesis flickered in his mind.
It was known that those monsters stole the local magic. Austin described them as evolving and learning creatures, labeling them as far more dreadful and fearsome than imagined.
Having succeeded in evolving to this extent, perhaps they could also steal not just magic but their own technology.
“Why? Why would they be so arrogant… No, it hasn’t been just a few days. How could that be possible in such a short time…”
“Are you saying they took the warp engine through us? Th-they knew the coordinates of each planet through us, and then…”
Understanding his frenzied ramblings perfectly, Amy covered her mouth and widened her eyes in shock.
This was no longer a situation where they could merely buy time with their residual strength.
—
“A new world. A new sun. New humans…”
Right after the warp, Reina gazed at the completely transformed scenery around the invasion fortress and raised her hand to the sunlight behind her.
This fortress, which had moved part of the Legion’s nest, was still converting sunlight to replenish energy.
“But those arrogant humans who dared to attack us.”
Her gaze now shifted forward.
Planet Remun. It was a quite important planet for the rebel alliance, yet surprisingly, there was a pathetic level of vigilance. No busy defensive posture was felt, neither from the planet itself nor from the orbital stations above.
“Why is that?”
Reina questioned. It was indeed a surprising strategy, but the enemy wasn’t a fool.
They had technology to detect warp signatures well in advance, and above all, the enemies they had been fighting wouldn’t have failed to report.
If they had even the slightest awareness of who they were, shouldn’t they at least have prepared some minimal defenses?
Neither Reina nor Eve had expected that the human side would be completely oblivious until the last minute.
‘Could it be a trap?’
“I’ll confirm it. Let’s see how well they’ve prepared to greet us.”
Though she considered the possibility of a trap, the Legion’s advance continued relentlessly.
Having come this far, it was already calculated that even if it were a trap, rushing in would yield more benefits.
‘…This is strange.’
However, as the charging spaceships rammed into the stationary warships and began to destroy them…
Despite orbital stations being smashed in an instant, with many people inside screaming and being propelled into the vacuum of space, there were no signs of Eve’s anticipated ‘perfect trap’ being activated.
“It seems that these arrogant humans did not prepare properly. If so, all that remains for them is a brutal punishment.”
Reina let out a baffling laugh and, masked, stepped off from the edge of the fortress.
Landing on the spaceship passing below, she led her fleet straight toward the atmosphere.
“Death to those who dared to oppose the Legion.”
As they passed through the atmosphere, tendrils erupted from the two other passing warships and connected to her body.
Having gained the energy of a colossal warship, she raised her staff high.
The magic she was casting now was a resonant 100-fold magic projectile drawn from the energy of the past nest.
Starting from the ground, the spell was aimed at a warship in space with the power to annihilate it, but now it was fired downwards toward the densely packed land.
“Disperse.”
It didn’t matter where she shot, so her target was a battleship hurriedly launching upwards.
That battleship was struck by Reina’s bombardment and exploded into nothingness.
As they unleashed indiscriminate bombardment upon the Legion’s nest, the ships, including Reina, began attacking the ground with their beam cannons.
—
‘As expected, the battlefield is divided.’
Eve simultaneously controlled the warzone now split into two.
Though somewhat foolishly breached by surprise, there were still troops stationed here, and even fleets arriving in real time via warp.
“The fortress initiates a defensive posture.”
Eve executed a thorough defensive battle against the encroaching enemy fleets.
She had prepared a majority of warships and higher-tier troops for this battle, figuring that ground forces wouldn’t need higher-tier troops.
And Eve’s plan fell perfectly into place. The army of the rebel alliance, lacking information, was unable to keep up with the agile maneuvers of the higher-tier beasts working in coordination with the warships and began suffering significant losses.
“Internal invasion! There’s an internal breach!”
As the enemy’s attention and bombardments turned toward the warships, the higher-tier beasts, who slipped by, concentrated their power to immediately break through the barrier and penetrated the weakest part of the external wall, massacring the crew inside without restraint.
The ships, rendered useless by internal damage and loss of life, became nothing more than empty shells.
Through this method, Eve was able to block all directions of attack with less than one-tenth of the enemy’s personnel.
The enemy’s assault boats, which were trying to exploit openings, were shot down one by one by the defense facilities embedded in the fortress, which were modeled after their weapons.
“If only our fleet numbers were doubled or even tripled, we could have done a perfect counterattack.”
However, she lamented their lack of firepower and numbers. Eve loved to deal the blows but hated being hit incredibly.
After all, the dispatched forces were quickly sent out right after being created to prevent enemy attacks, so there was no changing that.
“Don’t worry. As much as we lack here, we can inflict more casualties on the ground.”
Of course, Reina’s confident declaration meant that the more crucial battlefield was not in space, but on the ground.
—
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Leaving behind the fierce battles occurring in space, Reina, suspended in the blue sky, unleashed simultaneous blasts of magical cannon fire in all directions toward the approaching enemy ships and fighter jets.
The fired projectiles traveled hundreds of kilometers in an instant, obliterating the approaching armored units, fighter squadrons, and warships.
“Launch.”
Eve used Reina’s cover to maneuver the warships, opening some of the outer shells and launching the ports concealed within the carapace and skin into the most effective locations.
The ports slicing through the sky smashed into buildings and roads, embedding themselves into the ground.
“Ugh, Ahhh!”
Before their eyes, stunned by the sudden ambush, appeared the mid-sized Legionnaires contained within those ports.
Screaming, the Legionnaires began to hunt and slaughter the fleeing humans, as they struck a massive area of the city simultaneously.
Their response was pathetic. The people of Remun had never experienced a confrontation with monsters coming out of a gate.
‘Utilizing the deployed Legionnaires for all-round strikes, and releasing the main force and larger Legionnaires who had boarded the warships.’
In truth, this ambush was also a testing ground. And as intended, Eve’s strategy was progressing steadily.
It followed the results of thousands and tens of thousands of simulations.
[A Legionnaire from our side has died. And another Legionnaire next to him killed him. You are the representative unit, meaning you can now gain points from hunting units of other worlds.]
‘Unit.’
Just then, a variable that instantly captured Eve’s attention appeared.
