Blin called in Wyatt, Merc, and Little White for a war council. The first order of business was brutal arithmetic—comparing forces.
Edean currently had roughly 35,000-40,000 warships in theater. Around 500 of those were heavy cruisers, battlecruisers, or carriers. Fighter count: 80,000-100,000.
On our side: 12,000 warships total. Heavy cruisers, battlecruisers, and carriers: 166. The rest were medium and small hulls, plus roughly 1,000 transports. Fighter count: 28,000.
Air power was down about three-to-one—and that was after Blin used fifteen thousand ships to drag Ogen’s fifty-thousand-ship fleet away from Aurora Plateau. Without that, the gap would’ve been laughable.
Ground numbers were even worse:
• Us: 150,000 small-class units, 35,000 mid/large-class units.
• Edean: 600,000 small-class units, 80,000+ mid/large-class units.
And Edean was defending, backed by layered fortifications.
The only bright spot was Teresa’s leak: a detailed picture of enemy deployment across Aurora Plateau. That gave us one chance to strike where it would actually matter. Even so, Blin’s biggest worry was the forest of anti-air emplacements—thick-skinned towers that would chew up ships, fighters, and any landing force before it ever touched ground.
After a long argument and a longer silence, Blin set H-hour for thirty-six hours later—the time he needed to return to Lansen and put his fleet in position.
And the campaign would open on three fronts.
Front One: Five-Color Fortress.
Blin would lead an 8,000-ship main force straight at Five-Color Fortress. As the gate to Glimmer Caverns, it was a necessary choke point—nobody got to Edean without dealing with it. The strike would force the enemy to mass the bulk of their strength to defend. Most importantly, thanks to the fake Azure Thunder decoy, they would believe we’d taken the bait.
Of course, it was a feint.
Front Two: Mist Valley (Winterhold Lake).
Once the battle for Five-Color Fortress was fully engaged, Wyatt would lead 4,000 ships—Free Will at the front, plus every transport carrying the ground army. We would appear to be heading to reinforce Blin, then cut course mid-way and sprint for Mist Valley. Our job: strip the region of anti-air towers, annihilate the garrison, and sever the ground reinforcements moving in.
After that, Blin would abandon the feint and race in with elite forces. Together, he and Wyatt would clear every hostile unit around the real Azure Thunder. Only then would Integrity move in under heavy cover and restart Lord Julian.
Front Three: Inside Glimmer Caverns.
Little White would slip into Glimmer Caverns right after this call and rendezvous with Bit. With Teresa’s help, they’d infiltrate Edean Tower. Once the general assault began, they would push to the top level and seize—or kill—Soren and Graham. The point wasn’t revenge; it was to cut Graham’s ability to command the battle.
***
T-3 hours.
Merc finished deploying “eyes” around Mist Valley. From here on, Wyatt’s landing force would have real visibility. Every bunker, turret, outpost, missile silo, and watchpost in the area was marked in detail on the common channel.
T-2 hours.
Soren took to the balcony again—this time to deliver a speech over swelling music and giant tower screens. With triple the enemy’s numbers and a fortress of defenses, he didn’t look panicked. If anything, he looked excited. His words, however, were even cruder than General Graham’s.
Tyler Lynn and Ogen issued their own deployments as well, focusing almost entirely around Five-Color Fortress. Troop counts around the stronghold surged toward 300,000 ground units, and warships that had been sitting idle in the docks began lifting one after another.
T-1 hour.
Blin ordered the fleet to slow. Weapons online. Fighters prepped for launch. Every robot ready to drop.
T-10 minutes.
From the bridge of Free Will, space began to “fill” with lights—countless points, like stars packed too tightly together. One cross-shaped glow stood out from the rest.
In response, the planetary orbital defense grid began to flare. Missile trails and beam lines braided through the darkness. In the cloud cover above the North Pole, swarms of ships and fighters surfaced like crabs after a retreating tide.
Then a brutal violet pillar of light stabbed in, raking across the defense grid and tearing open a massive gap.
The assault had begun.