A day later, a fleet of 822 heavy warships, 5,860 mid-to-light vessels, and more than 43,000 fighters departed the Aurora Plateau in a vast, rolling formation.
Their destination lay in the Star Ring: Deep Space Base No. 2.
Two days later the fleet entered the Star Ring. After another two and a half days of flight, they reached a region roughly five thousand kilometers from the base.
Cole’s recon ship, the Flying Scarecrow, had already been waiting there. Once the main fleet arrived, Cole was ordered to transfer to a small transport craft sent to pick him up.
Cole boarded with two guards. Waiting for him in the transfer bay was a gentleman in a crisp white suit.
Cole blinked, then smiled and shook his hand. “So similar… You startled me. It’s only been a few days, and your mannerisms are already identical to his.”
Ogen returned the smile. “Thank you for the compliment, Doctor.”
“Ogen, this is an important campaign. Perform well.”
“We should all give it everything we’ve.”
Cole frowned. “But where’s your Azure Thunder? Shouldn’t we be on the flagship?”
“Azure Thunder is still on Lansen,” Ogen said. “The ship you just boarded is the flagship.”
“It completed an upgrade not long ago. It’s been named the General Graham. Don’t worry—its firepower and defenses are no worse than Azure Thunder.”
“Uh…?” Cole said. “I don’t quite understand. Lansen is hundreds of millions of kilometers away. Won’t your commands lag?”
“I think you’ve misunderstood,” Ogen said with a soft chuckle. “This time I’m only acting as a messenger.”
“The campaign will be commanded personally by General Graham.”
“Ah! The general is here too?”
“Yes. He’s waiting for you on the bridge.”
…
Ten minutes later, Ogen led Cole onto the bridge.
General Graham stood in a black-and-red commander’s uniform. The weary, slippery fat man from the office was gone.
In his place stood a straight-backed, imposing general—every inch a war leader.
After greetings, Cole let out a sigh. “I didn’t expect you to take the field yourself, General.”
“After a century of idleness, I’d almost forgotten I was a general,” Graham said. “This is a good chance to stretch my legs and find my old rhythm again.”
“And to remind the world how childish a machine’s little tricks look in the face of human intelligence.”
“You’re right,” Cole said. “This battle will do wonders for restoring human confidence.”
Graham smiled. “Exactly. The people of Edean are waiting for it.”
“You’ve been on station here for days, yes? Any new movement from the enemy?”
“Yes, sir.” Cole nodded. “I put it all in the letter I sent yesterday.”
“Blin, Wyatt, Bit, Merc—those criminals are all gathered at Deep Space Base No. 2. The defenses are tight, and their main warships are concentrated there.”
“Including Integrity, the ship you told me to keep an eye on.”
“But their numbers are hollow. All their warships together don’t even reach a thousand. Their fighters and ground units are even thinner.”
“You’ve done well,” Graham said. “I read your report. The base really is hidden deep, and it’s guarded heavily.”
“How did you manage to learn so much detail?”
Cole grinned. “Hehe. I planted a source on the inside…”
Graham threw his head back and laughed. “Excellent. After this battle, you’ll deserve the top merit.”
Cole’s eyes shone. “Thank you, General.”
…
Graham immediately had Ogen convene a pre-battle conference.
He always preferred to finalize his formations and publish specifics only an hour before combat—an old Plando habit that helped prevent leaks.
Present were Major General Neris, Major General Lahong, and Lieutenant General Adelaide—veteran commanders who had followed Graham for years.
In addition, six newly promoted senior aides attended.
To Cole’s surprise, Graham had also brought three of the Demon Kings: Gunnar the Scarless Tyrant, Gandio the Hell Piledriver, and Sili the Thorn Banshee.
Graham divided the fleet into four forces:
First Force, commanded by Major General Neris, with a Leviathan-class flagship, the Undying. Its primary task was to smash the defense infrastructure around the base—turrets, missile towers, and external emplacements.
Second Force, commanded by Major General Lahong, with the flagship Extreme Force. Its job was to engage the defending warships and fighters head-on.
Third Force, commanded by Lieutenant General Adelaide, with the flagship Civilization Vandal. This group was heavy with carriers and carried more than sixty thousand ground units.
The three Demon Kings were assigned here. Their mission was to land, occupy the base, and hunt down Blin, Wyatt, and the remaining followers of Julian.
Fourth Force was the largest. It would be led by Graham himself: encircle the entire base once the battle began, prevent escape, and reinforce the first three forces as needed.
After the assignments were announced, nobody in the room looked nervous.
By the intelligence they had, any one of the four forces outnumbered the base’s garrison on its own. With a surprise strike on top of that, the enemy’s chance of turning the table was practically zero.
This would be an effortless fight.
Before dismissing the meeting, Graham stressed one point:
“The base and its ships are secondary. The priority targets are Blin, Wyatt, and Julian’s remnants.”
“Once you spot them, everyone piles on. Terminate on sight. Don’t let a single one escape.”
The conference ended. The fleet formed up quickly—First Force and Second Force side by side at the front, engines flaring, advancing openly toward Deep Space Base No. 2.
…
***
The battle began.
The fleet’s brazen approach was quickly detected by an outer patrol craft from Deep Space Base No. 2.
It barely had time to broadcast a warning before concentrated fire shredded it into fragments.
The base’s defense system activated instantly. Turrets and missile towers embedded in nearby asteroids powered up.
Space defense stations—disguised as small rocks—shed their camouflage and opened fire on the incoming fleet.
Between the lattice arrays, sheets of laser netting unfurled like glowing webs, trying to slow the attackers.
But the attacking force was simply too large.
Leviathan battleships went to full output. Heavy beams and energy cannons tore defense towers apart one by one, pulverizing even the asteroids they were anchored to.
Swarms of fighters surged in like feeding hornets, ripping through the emplacements in wave after wave. Some towers were drowned in fire before they could fire a single shot.
In only a few minutes, the outer defenses were almost completely overrun—before the base’s own warships and fighters had even fully launched.
First Force and Second Force drove forward under constant bombardment. Third Force followed close behind.
Fourth Force had begun its encirclement even before the first shots were fired.
As the fleets closed in, Deep Space Base No. 2—hidden among the asteroid cluster—began to reveal itself. Defending warships and fighters rushed out to meet the attack.
Seeing that, Lahong ordered Second Force to unleash a dense missile volley straight at the base.
The base’s towers and ships abandoned their current targets in a panic to intercept the incoming missiles—and that was exactly what Lahong wanted.
While they were busy with interception, he ordered his ships to dump overwhelming fire into the targets they had already locked.
Energy waves and beams bloomed into dazzling light. Explosions chained together without pause. The vacuum itself seemed to tremble.
To keep the enemy from reaching the base, the defenders threw ship after ship into the approach lanes—only to watch them get blown apart.
The few that survived the initial clash tried to withdraw, but slipped into a pincer between two attacking fleets. After a brief exchange of fire, they ignited and detonated, becoming drifting hulks.
Flame and shockwave distortion twisted the battlefield into a suffocating mural of slaughter.
Outside the main kill zone, the General Graham held position to oversee the entire engagement.
On the bridge, Ogen worked nonstop, filtering the flood of data into the most valuable feeds and placing them before Graham’s command chair.
Graham watched the dozen live projections with a faint smile, almost entertained.
“It’s like splitting rotten wood,” Cole said, laughing softly. “The enemy is pathetic.”
“That’s what an outnumbered fight looks like,” Graham said, casual. “No suspense. A little boring, really.”
“Congratulations on your first victory, General.”
Graham chuckled. “It’s too early to congratulate me. The enemy’s real target still hasn’t shown itself.”
“It might have,” Ogen said. His hands flashed across the displays, dragging one feed forward and projecting it larger in front of them.
A single Nightmare fighter was carving through the chaos—darting between friendly fighters, warships, and drifting debris as if it owned the battlefield.
Dozens of their fighters chased it, tightening the ring. It looked surrounded.
But the Nightmare was impossibly agile. Neither ship nor fighter could land a hit or pin it down.
Instead, wherever it passed, their fighters exploded—one after another. It even managed to blow apart an escort frigate.
“I’m sure that Nightmare is Blin,” Cole said.
“Finally,” Graham said. He shot to his feet. “Signal the first three forces.”
“No matter the cost—terminate it.”