Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1476: Large-Scale Advance

The pressure from the Divine Race on the other side of the Abyss Zone finally forced the Fallen Apostles to redirect more forces to the Far Border. Regardless of what issues they might be facing internally, their overall troop movements and external defense mechanisms seem to be functioning normally for now. There might be some decrease in efficiency, but at least they have made sufficiently effective responses when facing the invasion of the Divine Race.

But none of this has much impact; even if the Fallen Apostles’ defense mechanisms are still operational, they cannot possibly withstand the simultaneous assault from the New Empire and the Divine Race.

The Divine Race is skilled at prolonged warfare and steady advancement. Even though their action speed isn’t as fast as the Xyrin Apostles, they have strong battlefield regeneration and resistance capabilities. The more fleets the Fallen Apostles send against the Divine Race, the deeper they become entrenched, hence reducing the counterattack force that the Imperial Army might face when taking action. The enemy commanders must be aware of this, but they are compelled to continually push their fleets against the points of the Divine Race’s offensive. If they don’t, the Abyss Zone Far Border will soon be breached by the Divine Race.

Under immense pressure, the Fallen Apostles will also make strategic miscalculations, relatively underestimating the threat of the New Empire. This presents the Imperial Army’s opportunity to act.

With a command from Sandora, the massive Imperial Fleet slowly disengages from the locking force field of the Starport, jumping in batches into the Void, rushing towards the Abyss Barrier that has obstructed the Imperial Army for years.

"The First Legion is approaching the Abyss Recognition Zone. The vanguard and main fleet have completed Order Field separation... Separation complete, the information offset between the vanguard and main fleet is thirty-five percent, preparing for early contact with the enemy outpost."

"The Fourth Legion deploys the Void Interferers, deployment complete!"

"Abyss reaction detected within the Recognition Zone... confirmed as Fallen Apostle front-line outpost! Expanding Order Field, executing rapid assault!"

Reports from various fleets are compiled at the command center. Each fleet commander independently decides on local battle plans, while the command center is directly overseen by Sivis and Sandora, ensuring holistic coordination across all fleets. As they draw closer to the Abyss Zone, the speed of information processing within the command hall of the Imperial Admiral increases at a visibly astounding rate. Yet, with the finest frontline commanders and military strategists gathered here, this influx of intelligence is handled methodically, without a hitch.

I know that it’s best for me not to interfere in matters I do not understand at this time, so I quietly wait on the sidelines, keeping my eyes fixed on the holographic projection before me: the ship’s mainframe translates the abstract Void routes into comprehensible diagrams, allowing me to grasp the current status of the fleet and the progress of the engagement zones.

In this diagram, the Abyss Zone appears as a large cluster of tangled cotton, with vast shadows gathered on one side of the image, representing completely unknown twisted zones to the Imperial Army. The edges of these shadows are seemingly haphazard waviness lines, which are not an actual "line of defense," but instead composed of numerous Void Outposts and Void Fortresses forming a disruption belt. This endless disruption belt composed of Void facilities envelops the entire Abyss Zone in a fog, and the chaotic information they emit leads to the Empire’s inability to accurately scan the conditions within the Abyss Zone or precisely locate ninety-nine percent of the material worlds therein. As long as these Void Outposts are operational, they can continuously disrupt the Void Engines of the Imperial Fleet, preventing us from breaking into the Fallen Apostles’ Inland regions—hence, the Empire is gradually destroying these outposts.

Void Outposts are set beyond the world and are surrounded by a stable Order Field, which allows them to be permanently deployed in the Void. Typically, Void Outposts are quite small, roughly equivalent to a small Starport. These outposts mainly function for surveillance and early warning, serving as jammer towers. Their combat capabilities can tackle small invading forces but are clearly insufficient when faced with a mass onslaught. The Imperial Fleet’s method for dealing with these small outposts is both brute-force and straightforward—expand the fleet’s Order Field and charge directly.

The small Order Field of the outpost will be engulfed in an instant, and then the outpost itself will be swept by the secondary cannons of the Fleet at extremely close range, usually disintegrating into ashes with just one round.

The Order Field is the only reliance for spaceships to survive in the Void environment, and it is the premise for various conventional equipment and observation methods to function properly. Due to the special nature of the Void, in places without an Order Field, the concept of "observation" does not exist. Therefore, unless aided by the Void Radar, we cannot "see" anything outside the Order Field, even if it is "right next" to the Order Field: within the Void range, "right next" and "infinitely far" are the same concept. So when the Imperial Fleet sweeps the Void Outposts of the Fallen Apostles, it is such a scene: an Abyss Facility suddenly pops out from the Chaos on the far side of the Fleet, and then all warships in the shooting angle open their secondary cannons, obliterating the small outpost in an instant with overwhelming firepower.

Simple, violent, direct—however, this doesn’t mean we advance like a hot knife through butter. The Void Outpost is just the most basic early warning unit on the border, like an automatic machine gun set outside a fortress. A Fleet should effortlessly destroy them, yet the real large-scale counterattacks haven’t emerged yet.

The Imperial Fleet does not recklessly charge toward the Abyss Zone: such an act is no different from a reckless lunatic seeking death. In fact, the major Fleets each have different operational tasks, and even in the Void’s special environment where firing is not possible, each Fleet has various tactical maneuvers.

The First Fleet is responsible for direct assault, divided into three echelons: the vanguard, the main force, and the rear guard. The information offset between the three echelons is 35%, to ensure that the Order Field of the forward units does not interfere or merge with that of the rear units, and also to prevent the enemy’s Void Interferer (a dangerous weapon that can reduce the stability of the Order Field) from posing too great a threat to the entire Fleet. The Void Interferer is the most commonly equipped defensive weapon at border outposts, and although most enemy outposts have not had the chance to use this device, once deployed, it poses a deadly threat to the Imperial Fleet. The vanguard deals with the Void Outpost while clearing out these devices. Meanwhile, the First Fleet’s main force and rear guard continually rotate warships with the vanguard: they build battlefield facilities similar to World Gates within the Order Fields for rapid transit between Order Fields—if you see the Order Field as a simplified version of a universe, then jumping from one Order Field to another naturally requires the principles of a World Gate.

The spaceships of the First Fleet continually rotate between the three Order Fields, replacing the damaged ships of the vanguard to ensure this sharp spear remains invincible.

Additionally, splitting the Fleet across several small Order Fields serves other purposes: smaller Order Fields contain less information, allowing them to "move" faster in the Void. If you view a Fleet as a file and its movement in the Void as cut-and-paste, it is evident that smaller files move faster. What we need now is speed: before the counterattacks of the Fallen Apostles escalate, we must find a material world to occupy as a bridgehead; otherwise, the Fleet cannot exert combat power in the Void.

By dividing a Fleet within several Order Fields and ensuring the combat strength of one sub-fleet through constant jumps between these Order Fields, taking advantage of the speed of small Order Fields while maintaining the fleet’s advance speed and sharp combat power, this tactic is Pandora’s favorite and her invention—created 1.26 million years ago, still extraordinarily effective today. In circumstances where we hold numerical and surprise advantages, this tactic can amplify the Fleet’s advance speed to near the limit.

Of course, this tactic also has its drawbacks, as it is risky: if the rear does not have enough reinforcements to arrive in a short time, or if the enemy’s combat strength is too strong, this spear overly emphasizing speed and sharpness can easily break: after all, it requires dividing a whole Fleet into several parts, and while the Fleet speeds up, its resistance to strikes decreases.

Anyway, it suits Pandora’s headlong rush personality quite well.

While the First Fleet clears the Outer Layer of Outpost Barriers in the Abyss Zone, the Fourth Fleet is responsible for continuously deploying Void Interferers. These temporarily deployed disruptors are weaker than the fixed devices equipped at Void Outposts but still pose considerable threats. They are essentially a type of small Order Field device. However, unlike normal Order Fields, the Order Field generated by Void Interferers is rapidly "oscillating," featuring sixteen different Order Sets. Each Order Set can be viewed as a "Worldview" (if viewing the Order Field as a simulated self-consistent mathematical system, then essentially it has no difference from a small world, just a self-explanatory formula set). The Void Interferer rapidly switches the expression of its Order Field according to a certain encoding. Upon contact with other Order Fields, these little things act like a hexadecimal program forcibly read into a binary system, crazily disrupting the surrounding rules. We know that the reason an Order Field can maintain safety in the Void mainly relies on it being a self-circulating and self-interpreting "Rulebook." If something unexplainable appears in this Rulebook, naturally the entire system will stall.

The Void Interferer is such a device, causing local disruptions to the Order Field and reducing the system’s stability. When their numbers reach a certain extent, they can stall the latter: for a Fleet navigating the Void, this is fatal. The Void Interferer is hence seen as the only effective "weapon" in the Void environment. However, despite its usefulness, it can only be used defensively; the Void does not allow "projectile" weapons. You can’t launch such a disruptive device like a shell at the enemy because you can’t create a fire control system capable of accurately locking onto and tracking other Order Fields. Thus, the greatest role of these disruptors is deploying them around oneself to create a safe zone.

The Sixth and Seventh Fleets temporarily have no combat mission; their current task is to align with the Royal Fleet, following behind the pioneering First Fleet and the escorting Fourth Fleet, preserving strength and maintaining concealment until we make contact with the Fallen Apostles’ Material Universe: these two fleets will serve as our main forces for capturing the bridgehead.

Other secondary units (such as reserve echelons) are maintaining a 35% to 75% information offset in their respective Order Fields with the Central Army Group. Their combat tasks are to adapt according to the situation. If the enemy’s main force appears, they will confront the enemy. If we reach the enemy’s Material World first, they will go out for bombing—in short, they should preserve the combat power of the Ace Army as much as possible.

The figure of the First Fleet’s general appeared on the communicator: "Confirmed substantial contact with the Abyss Zone; enemy Void Outpost numbers have surged, with substantial Void Fortresses detected ahead; the vanguard units are encountering intense resistance."

The holographic image beside displayed the situation of the First Fleet, showing them engaged in battle with an "indescribable" entity. Ships relentlessly exploded suddenly or vanished into the Order Field: this is the result of hitting the enemy Void Interferers. The disruptor’s power causes part of the Order Field to collapse, and those unfortunate ships either suffer severe damage or are cast into the Void.

As the enemy’s counterattack grows stronger, black-red self-destructing drones and suicide warships have started frequent incursions into the First Fleet’s Order Field. They appear abruptly on the monitor screen, then frantically target all large ships. This recklessly effective attack has started slowing the First Fleet’s cleanup speed. If this keeps up, Pandora’s "three-team rotation" tactic might fail to match the fleet’s consumption speed.

"The Fourth Fleet is already on its way to support you," Sandora calmly stated, "Continue to maintain cleanup speed, leave the Void Fortresses to the reserve echelon’s siege team, we must immediately land on the Material World."

"The Void environment is troublesome," Visca grumbled with slight agitation, "The main cannon can’t be used."

As Sandora previously mentioned, the Fallen Apostles hadn’t relaxed their vigilance towards the New Empire despite the Divine Race’s assault on the other border. Their inland forces might have largely reinforced the battle against the Divine Race, yet the inherent forces on this side’s defenses hadn’t decreased much. As the Imperial Army advanced into the Abyss Zone, we started facing increasingly powerful counterattacks.

The advance speed of the First Fleet was no longer as fast as at the beginning. The "three-team rotation" tactic significantly strengthens the army corps’ advance speed and raiding efficiency (since it always uses the fleet’s best-conditioned vanguard third for battles); however, its pressure resistance isn’t strong. When the Fallen Apostle army gathers for a counterattack, the vanguard units start sustaining heavy damage. Sandora has ordered the Fourth Fleet to aid, but it seems we’ll no longer maintain the initial smooth momentum.

But at least there’s good news: although the enemy’s counterattack is fierce, we haven’t scanned any signs of them deploying large-scale reinforcements from inland in this direction—in all likelihood, the Divine Race has indeed fully occupied the Fallen Apostles’ attention on the other battlefront.

Yet Sandora remained furrowed with worry; despite the current situation being entirely according to plan, she showed no sign of relaxation. I couldn’t help but glance at her in curiosity, "What? Feeling something’s off?"

"The enemy’s forces shouldn’t be this few," Sandora indicated the battle zone map, showing the Imperial Army continuously approaching the Abyss Zone akin to the division of swarms, while the black-red marks representing the Fallen Apostles emerged from the Abyss Zone. I see everything normal, but Sandora spotted something amiss, "Even if the Divine Race can draw most of the enemy’s attention away, the Fallen Apostles should not be so devoid of forces inland. Now, the counterattack forces we face are all from enemy border troops. Positively speaking, in aggressive defense, the Abyss Zone’s inland hasn’t dispatched troops. Speaking of abandoning this line... the counterattack intensity the First Fleet faced was no joke."

"Who knows, maybe their civil war really depleted all their foundations." I shrugged.

I understood Sandora’s implication—namely, the Fallen Apostles have shown far less force than expected. Even accounting for their civil war losses and Divine Race constraints, the forces they displayed are still insufficient, making the ever-thorough Queen slightly uneasy.

"Depleted foundations?" Sandora smiled lightly, "I truly hope it’s like that, but unfortunately, I always feel the Fallen Apostles aren’t foolish to this degree. Even if they have vast internal conflicts, they wouldn’t abandon even their foundations."

Just then, a report suddenly came from the command hall below: "Your Majesty! Detected a Material Universe within jump range! Light Abyss pollution, stability meets landing requirements!"

Sandora immediately stood up: "The First Fleet should reorganize their Order Field, prepare for the second batch landing. The Fourth Fleet deploys interference bands at the World Barrier. The Sixth Fleet, Seventh Fleet, prepare to charge in. Xiao Xue—"

Sandora turned towards our military prophet; Xiao Xue, who was resting his eyes until moments ago, had already opened them, a hint of white light slowly dispersing in his eyes, "Around the landing point, there are numerous space dark mines. Dispatch a batch of self-destructing drones to trigger those things. After landing, there’ll be a round of the strongest counterattack fire concentrating on the Sixth Fleet’s flank. Have the Seventh Fleet’s Judgement Throne go on top, teach those madmen a lesson with your reflecting mode, and then activate all shields, just like that."

—This is the prophet’s underlying strength.

After Xiao Xue clarified all precautions, I nodded to Sandora and gestured to the command hall below, "All fleets, act!"

The Sixth Fleet and Seventh Fleet, representing the New Empire’s highest combat power on both the Technology Side and Mysterious Side (the latter being forced to represent because the Mysterious Side currently has only this one established unit), adjusted their Order Field resolutely upon receiving the command, charging toward the nearest Material Universe. On the World Barrier of this universe, the Fallen Apostles certainly deployed numerous interference and lock systems, but under the concentrated assault of the entire Imperial Army fleet, these defenses quickly collapsed.

After less than half an hour of fierce contest over the World Barrier, the Sixth and Seventh Fleets successfully completed their landing.

However, the real battle was just beginning. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to www.qidian.com to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com for reading.)