Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1481: Occupation and Premonition

Hearing Vincent’s exclamation, I rushed over immediately, only to find he had brought up something resembling a system log.

"What is this? A historical record?" I frowned. Having been involved with Empire affairs for some years, I couldn’t make out the technical parts of this log, but the non-professional, descriptive content was easy to understand. It seemed to be a military transfer directive, along with some scattered commands from within the Abyss Zone and the operational status of the Sovereignty Hub. Essentially, it’s a miscellaneous record, evidently of low security level; otherwise, it wouldn’t be so easily compiled into a database, nor would Vincent have cracked it so easily.

Vincent rapidly reviewed this information, clearly finding some crucial clues: "Here it records several conflicts breaking out within the Abyss Zone, causing military dispatch to fall into chaos. There are also travel records of temporary front-line troops, again very chaotic. Additionally, there are commands that are completely contradictory, yet all issued from the same source... all sorts of inexplicable things. Furthermore, it mentions that some important reports were sent to the Sovereignty Hub... it seems like there’s some secret at the Sovereignty Hub."

A series of explosions boomed in the distance, followed by the piercing screech of weapons firing and metal wrenching: the Scorpion Soldiers were engaging once again with a wave of fortress guards. I snapped back from the logs, glanced at the entrance of the mainframe room: "First copy these logs, then let’s finalize the fortress defense net."

"Understood!" Vincent nodded immediately and returned to work.

At this moment, the exterior shield of the fortress mainframe had already descended, and a group of specialists were dismantling the protective plates of the fortress mainframe. Some of them were former Fortress Commanders from the Fallen Apostle’s camp, others were technicians brought over when Harlan was assimilated. These people were very familiar with this colossal machine before them, even knowing the location of every crystallized line inside the mainframe. In just ten seconds, three protective plates were removed from the fortress mainframe, Vincent connected his data terminal to the console at the corner and then ran over to directly connect another data terminal to the processing core inside the fortress mainframe. As he worked swiftly, he muttered to himself with a slight sense of pride: "Back in the day, we used to do it like this—this operational method was invented by me. Technical experts believe this synchronization protocol could harm the system, but front-line soldiers prioritize efficiency. Mainframe longevity was designed to be a million years, but realistically, what fortress could survive that long?"

Two former Fallen Apostle technicians standing beside Vincent both turned their heads to silently watch him, one couldn’t help but speak: "So you were the one who led the use of external synchronization back then..."

Vincent froze, then regretfully slapped his forehead: "I forgot you two were the ones who converted... I didn’t expect to run into my creditors even after changing camps."

While conversing, they did not slow down their work one bit, clearly agreeing with Vincent: The entire process was not overly difficult, and they were already quite experienced, even if Fallen Apostle changed their recognition database, these former experts did not care in the slightest.

Inside the mainframe room, the emotionless broadcast from the fortress mainframe sounded again: "Attention, protocol change underway, new protocol to activate in thirty seconds, the operation may have unknown consequences, if it’s a mistake, cancel immediately."

Vincent’s face finally showed a relieved smile: "Done, in thirty seconds all Space Fortress attack commands will be locked, and they’ll cease all information transfer, should last about thirty minutes—enough to destroy all defenses."

Another explosion sounded outside, mingled with the piercing screech of metal being torn, Vega’s voice came in through the Spiritual Connection: "Commander! All fortress guards are heading this way! How long do we hold?"

"It’s handled here, twenty seconds left, fight your way to the mainframe room," I quickly responded, then patted Pandora and Visca’s heads, "You two go support them."

Then I contacted other assault teams: "Mission accomplished, swiftly converge at the mainframe room and prepare for evacuation!"

As if deliberately adding to the chaos, the mainframe room’s broadcast sounded again, more urgent than before: "Attention, top command received, this unit is detaching from the network, repeating, this unit is detaching from the network!"

"They’ve realized something is up here," Vincent quickly checked the operational status of the fortress mainframe but didn’t seem too worried, "Defense Circle Command Center is forcefully blocking this fortress through external commands, but the blocking order takes thirty seconds to take effect, it’s too late."

"Boom!" A colossal explosion far more powerful than prior ones erupted from somewhere, shaking the entire mainframe room violently with tremors, various ear-piercing alarms converged into a cacophony, as the lights in the mainframe room began flickering erratically, I floated into the air to avoid falling, while contacting other assault teams: "Isn’t this a bit too intense?"

"Your Majesty, the fortress is self-destructing!" A voice from an assault team commander came through in the Spiritual Connection, distorted severely due to intense energy interference, "Teams Three and Four are caught in the explosion, all casualties..."

"Boom boom boom—" Continuous explosions sounded from all directions, a couple seeming to be just a few hundred meters away from the mainframe room, alarm sounds and explosion noises mingled, causing chaos and dizziness, I saw large torrents of Ghost Energy Sparks erupting from the ceiling, evidently the fortress’s energy network was collapsing: the enemy had detonated the fortress’s Reactor, spreading massive explosions to the most protected mainframe room within seconds.

A glaring white light abruptly flared nearby, blasting a large hole in one side of the mainframe room, high-temperature metal jets mixed with corrosive Ghost Energy splashed in from the opening: even the specially-shelled mainframe room was beginning to break apart, it seemed ready to be done for at any moment.

It appeared the Fallen Apostles had realized conventional methods couldn’t stop this contaminated fortress from broadcasting a viral signal across the network, so they had resolutely decided on self-destruct to obliterate it, but thanks to Ocam’s "reliable design" back then, this mainframe room was sturdier than expected, and the fortress mainframe absolutely utilized an extraordinary power supply circuit: even with the entire fortress’s energy network out of control, that gigantic mainframe continued to operate normally!

With only ten seconds remaining on the countdown, I rapidly gave an order to other assault teams: "Upload your souls immediately! We’re evacuating!"

The artificial gravity inside the fortress had ceased, violent winds carrying Flames swept through the large hole above the mainframe room, though stationed at the explosion center I couldn’t see the scene outside, but judging by this phenomenon I could tell the fortress had started disintegrating, the outer shell peeling away, fundamental functions halted, atmospheric environment leaking—only five seconds left on the countdown!

At this moment, another hole appeared in the ceiling of the mainframe room, out came the Pandora Sisters and a group of Armored Scorpions, Vega waved to us: "Commander, this path leads outside!"

"No point in running with five seconds left," I transformed into Void Form, "Everyone gather close, we’ll hide in the Void for a bit."

The Void Domain opened instantly, the material world was replaced by "Origin," everyone sheltered safely in the Void Barrier, explosions and blaring alarms vanished instantly—this world is truly peaceful.

Thanks to the "All Clan Sanctification" improvements and transformations, every Apostle in the New Empire was gradually gaining affinity with the Void environment, even without an Order Field, an ordinary Imperial Soldier could survive a significant time in the Void, our assault team being all elite, I could safely envelop everyone in my Void Domain, waiting for the turmoil outside to subside.

Moments later, the Void Domain was withdrawn, we returned from the world’s border to the Material Plane, only to find ourselves surrounded by large chunks of debris filling outer space.

The fortress had completely crumbled, the unprecedented power from self-destructing had torn this colossal object spanning tens of kilometers into fragments in the blink of an eye, these fragments scattered rapidly in the zero-gravity environment, now they had spread into a hundreds-of-kilometers-wide "ruins ball," in this desolate world devoid of other celestial bodies and interstellar dust, perhaps these fragments will perpetually continue to disseminate.

There are still huge ghost energy sparks leaping between the remnants of the fortress, and the energy remaining in the crystallized pipelines is slowly releasing. I looked up into the distance, where I could see a few other space fortresses at a suitable angle and fairly close.

They were utterly silent.

"Sandora, do you see the situation here?" I contacted the Imperial Admiral, "Their fortresses have already shut down."

"Are you alright?" Sandora’s voice immediately echoed in my mind, "I just received the soul upload signals from those assault teams, were you caught in a self-detonation?"

"Indeed it blew up," I was in a good mood, "But I protected everyone nearby with the Void Domain, while the assault team soldiers weren’t close enough and could only upload their souls in advance. Lying in the resurrection factory for a while is better than being killed. We’re heading back now; prepare to receive us."

The return journey encountered no further obstacles. The simultaneous offline status of all space fortresses had plunged the Fallen Apostles into chaos. In addition, the most crucial close-defense units near the Sovereignty Hub: the drone swarms, which also relied on the fortress network commands, were paralyzed, creating a temporary defense gap. Before the carrier-based aircraft of the enemy fleet could cause trouble, we safely broke through the blockade line and teleported back to the Imperial Admiral once we left the strong gravitational trap near the Sovereignty Hub.

The subsequent battle was without suspense. The non-resisting space fortresses were quickly cleared away (these things needed to be prioritized as they would reboot in thirty minutes). The enemy fleet, stubbornly holding defensively over the Sovereignty Hub, fought to the death, but their overwhelming numerical disadvantage and the chaos caused by the fortress system’s destruction left them no chance of victory. The Imperial Fleet unleashed all its firepower, layer by layer, breaking down the enemy’s shields. The Radiant Rings, which had been preparing their ultimate attacks for a long time, finally unleashed their divine power: nearly half of the enemy ships were "singled out" and illuminated to death by them.

During the battle, I witnessed the cooperation between the Radiant Rings and other ship types, and how once this cooperation took shape, it brought great power: Other types of ship cannons fully opened, solely dealing with the enemy’s shields. Once the opponent’s shields extinguished, they immediately switched targets, no longer wasting excess firepower on those annoying recharge armors. The Radiant Rings were the last link in the "firepower chain," they did not fire throughout the process, just waiting to harvest those enemies that had lost their shields. Originally a Xyrin spaceship, after losing its shield, could still rely on its recharge armor to continue fighting, but facing something as unreasonable as the "Horror Mirror System," those ships that still had combat power became as fragile as paper.

If you consider a ship’s defense as composed of shields + armor, then the appearance of the Radiant Rings on the battlefield means the enemy’s armor defense has already been zeroed.

What do they call this: Ultimate attack, head taken, leaving no wounded survivors... I know there is a grammatical issue with this phrase, but it’s for the rhyme, so please don’t delve into it.

The defense fleet over the Sovereignty Hub was wiped out, and the last line of defense of the Fallen Apostles in this universe also collapsed. The two black artificial planets, of course, had anti-aircraft guns installed, but these weak defenses were clearly insufficient now.

The enemy is still trying to send reinforcements into this world; the combat will and stubborn spirit of the Fallen Apostles truly follow the same line as the Xyrin Apostles. Yet, the troops we left beyond the World Barrier well completed their tasks: The strong interference environment arranged around this universe delayed the enemy’s reinforcements. Now that the dust settled, they never need to come over anymore.

Sandora looked at the Sovereignty Hub picture transmitted from the external monitors. The two dark artificial planets were still quietly orbiting in place. Although the surrounding space fortresses and defense fleet had been cleared out, the planets themselves had strong shields, so they remained intact for now. However, no matter how strong a shield is, it can’t withstand the wanton salvoes of the Imperial Fleet, destroying them is only a matter of moments, and as long as these two artificial planets are destroyed, the enemy’s World Gate will shut down.

We are still unable to pinpoint where exactly the Fallen Apostles have hidden the World Gate. That gateway seems to be hidden with some sort of powerful cloaking technology, but we can determine that the control center for the gate is on those two planets — this was confirmed through sensor scans.

"It really is a damage definition system... All secondary cannons and assault fleets prepare for a salvo, push EOP-03 to the firing trajectory," Sandora wasted no time giving the command, "This world is ours now."

At this moment, I suddenly remembered something and quickly shouted from the side, "Wait a minute! There’s something on the Sovereignty Hub!"

Sandora looked at me, puzzled, "What’s going on?"

"We found some rather strange logs in the fortress mainframe, the logs mentioned there’s more data on the independent database of the Sovereignty Hub." I quickly relayed the situation I discovered to Sandora, "About the conflict within the Fallen Apostles this time — the internal conflict affected the borders’ defense layouts, the records here should provide insights into the situation in the Abyss Zone."

"Planetary bombardment will save time; the enemy is soon going to connect the World Gate," Sandora frowned, "There just isn’t time to slowly capture the two planets..."

"Isn’t this simple? Leave it to me." Xiao Xue’s voice came from behind. I turned around to see this naughty kid pointing at the holographic image in front of her, marking a small area on one of the planets of the Sovereignty Hub, "Don’t use EOP-03, just use the Galaxy Plowing, don’t bomb this marked area."

... This kid sure uses her abilities quite flexibly.

Sandora nodded, issued Xiao Xue’s marked coordinates to the fleet, and then ordered the orbital bombardment.

Since a damage definition system was in use over the Sovereignty Hub, the powerful Galaxy Main Cannon appeared very weak against this shield. Our first wave of bombardment was completed by various fleet secondary guns and a multitude of small warships. The powerful planet shield flickered violently for a moment under the overwhelming bombardment before rapidly disintegrating, and what followed was the familiar Galaxy Plowing: The fully charged Galaxy Main Cannon sliced through the Earth’s crust casually enough to slice tectonic plates. Although these two artificial planets were constructed to military fortress standards, boasting solid structures and high-resilience shells, they still couldn’t withstand the vast number of Eternal Level assaults. Moments later, those two planets’ surfaces were reduced to solely molten seas of liquid metal and storm clouds filled with ghost energy.

All facilities at the Sovereignty Hub were destroyed, and the Fallen Apostles’ last control in this world dissipated.

The early warning radar confirmed the information source pointing to this world had been temporarily cut off. The fleet positioned on the World Barrier also sent the good news that "the World Barrier ceases to resist." This formerly unyieldingly fortified world finally fell into the hands of the Imperial Army, and the command hall of the Imperial Admiral was filled with a palpable sense of exhilaration. Although I felt like the battle had only just begun and many tough battles awaited me, I couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement—though I hadn’t forgotten the main business.

"The environment below is not friendly," Sandora examined the images of the Sovereignty Hub in the holographic projection. Those two planets now looked like two masses of semi-molten slag, enveloped by high-energy storms. The Galaxy Plowing turned the planets into a purgatory, with only the segment of database marked by Xiao Xue surviving like an island, "Send two engineering ships to retrieve the database and assemble a space laboratory on the spot to see what chaos is going on within the Fallen Apostles."

Two heavily armored Engineering Ships specially designed for battlefield operations were released from the lateral arm Gnaku of the Imperial Admiral to salvage that critical database from the "molten slag ocean." A special operation ship, popularly known as the "beacon ship," set up a coordinate guidance tower directly nearby: This setup can amplify cross-void navigation signals. Now that this world was temporarily stable, it was also time to teleport the Celestial System Fleet and the Revenge Fleet to the front lines.

But I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, I always feel...

This war seems very, very off-beat in its rhythm, and I don’t feel like we’re on the verge of a great victory. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)

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