Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1478: The Plan

The sovereignty hub of this world is an artificial small star system. Since it is a man-made object, it naturally does not conform to convention: this star system has no stars. It consists of a pair of Dark Twin Stars and numerous space fortresses deployed around them, orbiting in complex trajectories. Not counting those that may be hiding within space folds, ready for sneak attacks, there are already thousands of confirmed large defense stations. These large space facilities, which resemble stacks of flying saucers, are a size larger than the Eternal-class motherships. They rely on swarms of drones and heavy fortress missile launchers for combat. They operate in high-altitude orbits of the sovereignty hub, and each space fortress’s fire coverage zone directly overlaps with at least five other fortresses. Even without using super space-time firepower, there is no gap to exploit. These giants are the defense system of the sovereignty hub itself—sturdy, resistant, and incredibly powerful. Their drone swarms can effectively deal with fast invading forces like assault ships, and heavy fortress missiles can deal considerable damage even to motherships like the Eternal-class. Meanwhile, there are some special models of scan towers hidden within these space fortresses’ stealth force fields. Our stealth bombers sent out almost suffered immensely because of this.

The mobile forces of the Fallen Apostles, in conjunction with these sturdy space bunkers, formed an additional line of defense for the sovereignty hub. This is equivalent to three restructured legion enemy fleets all concentrated in low-earth orbit of the Twin Stars. The thick-skinned space fortresses intercepted almost all of the Imperial Army’s assault ships, allowing the enemy fleet to shrink back behind the line and use their main cannons to engage in a shootout with us.

The blinding beams of the Galaxy Main Gun frequently illuminated the deep, dim space, as the Imperial Fleet standoff against the enemy’s defense line at a distance of over 1.2 million kilometers from the sovereignty hub. I think I have to announce some not-so-good news now:

I underestimated the defense capabilities of the Fallen Apostles’ space fortresses. These seemingly clumsy space facilities are as hard as Yelsen’s golden turtle shell! Moreover, the Fallen Apostles have also set up a heap of shield pushing towers and amplifiers around each space fortress. These amplifying devices have no other function but to continuously generate mothership-level shields. When grouped together, they create a joint shield effect, making each space fortress effectively protected by a joint shield. The Galaxy Main Gun can hardly shake them. Only a collective salvo from the fleet can overload and annihilate these fortresses.

However, there are thousands of such fortresses set up over their sovereignty hub. Even if the Imperial Army can eliminate them one by one, the Fallen Apostles would have achieved their goal of delaying time.

Moreover, their main fleet has now huddled behind these fortress-formed lines, and by the time we clear the fortresses on the high-altitude orbits, we still have to deal with those guys—and it’s likely by then, the Imperial Army’s numerical advantage will have diminished.

Our initial combat plan was this: send enough elite troops into the Abyss Zone, quickly occupy a world, and then, once the battlefield is stabilized, teleport the Celestial System Fleet and Sandora’s Revenge Fleet from within the Empire. Starting with the Celestial System Fleet as the vanguard, expand the frontlines—this step is particularly crucial; otherwise, how could we, with the troops we currently have, sweep through the Abyss Zone?

If we can’t quickly take down the sovereignty hub of this world now, the entire plan will be stuck. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"Seems like we’ve picked a tough bone to chew on, truly some bad luck," Sandora said softly, frowning, "This universe is likely a Fortress World, it must be an important node at the Fallen Apostles’ border, perhaps even the defense headquarters of other universes."

"Looking on the bright side, if we take this place down, we’ll be able to open up a bigger breach," I tried to give Sandora some psychological comfort, "Look at this insane number of space fortresses, the sovereignty hub below must be some important node, maybe it holds a key to other universes—just like those pivotal worlds of ours that lead directly to the capital. As long as we take this place, think how much effort we’d save..."

I hadn’t even finished speaking when I saw a burst of brilliant light flash across the holographic projection in the center of the command hall, followed by a tremor beneath our feet.

"What just happened?" Sandora immediately inquired, and Bubbles’ voice responded over the ship’s broadcast, "One-third of the enemy fortresses launched a salvo of heavy missiles at us, but thankfully, the joint shield is holding strong, only some nodes are overloaded, no serious issues."

"Are those fortresses of a special model?" Sandora asked, puzzled, looking at those space structures on the holographic projection that looked like piled-up discs, "In such intense crossfire, they still managed to preserve firepower and prepared for a salvo in secret..."

"Attention, a swarm drone is approaching!" The warning radar issued another alert, and I looked up only to see a vast swarm of small flying devices rush out from the enemy’s space fortress like a dark cloud. These flying devices, slightly smaller than single soldier fighter jets, were shaped like rugby balls with four pairs of swept-back wings. They swarmed out from launching nests on the upper floors of various space fortresses, appearing as if they were a swarm of bees preparing to go wild. They accelerated constantly by short-range jumps during flight, arriving at the Imperial Fleet in an instant, and began bombing our joint shield in a doomsday manner.

The space fortresses contain high-speed processing plants that can manufacture a batch of such self-destructing drones every ten minutes. These drones are not equipped with any weapons; they have only a remarkably efficient propulsion device and a belly full of unstable ghost energy crystals. These cheap and annoying little devils are extremely fragile, any model of anti-aircraft fire can take them out, but their enormous numbers and overwhelming speed of birth are truly vexing.

Moreover, their self-detonation on the joint shield is not weak at all.

The Frontier-class Fortress Ships at the fleet’s periphery opened their anti-air armor belts, and the dense anti-aircraft guns began firing madly at these little devils. The Expeditionary-class Battleships on the flanks deployed a large number of guard towers to intercept these endlessly self-destructing drones as much as possible. Simultaneously, various motherships opened their onboard hangars, and assault ships and single soldier fighter jets began swarming out to clear away these dangerous self-destructors. The numerous small explosions on the joint shield caused thousands of surges, rendering the external monitors blurry due to intense interference. However, although the self-destructing drones were annoying, they were too fragile, and coupled with the Imperial Army’s ample anti-aircraft firepower, this wave of attack ultimately did not cause us much harm.

However, as soon as this batch of self-destructing drones was cleaned up, those space fortresses had already produced the second batch of drones... thus the cycle repeats, endlessly.

Along with the likely arrival of the second batch of drones was potentially a second round of heavy fortress missiles.

"This kind of tug-of-war is not the solution," I frowned, almost knitting my brows into a Chinese knot, not expecting that the numerically superior Imperial Army would be stalled by the Fallen Apostles’ tower defense tactics, "Even if we can take out their fortresses one by one, by then their reinforcements should have long arrived... We still have several fleet batches in the Imperial District waiting to be teleported here. If we can’t take down the bridgehead, how can we progress?"

"We must find a way to bring those fortresses offline... The Fallen Apostles’ greatest reliance now is on those structures," Sandora frowned as well, examining those space fortresses, then quickly checking something on her data terminal, before abruptly connecting the Sixth Fleet. "Vincent, do you know any weaknesses of those fortresses?"

The Sixth Fleet was established as an "expert unit" specifically for combating the Fallen Apostles, its high-level commanders and tactical advisors were largely former Fallen Apostles, with Vincent Caro naturally among them.

"These fortresses were personally designed by the former Chief Technician Ocam. They differ significantly from the Old Empire’s models, and after Ocam’s death, his successors have improved them numerous times, so these days we don’t know all their advancements," Vincent’s face appeared on the communicator, "However, their basic framework should not have been altered too much. Compared to the Old Empire’s models, the most notable changes to these fortresses are the removal of all Ghost Energy Cannons, the empty turrets have been converted to heavy missile silos. Additionally, Ocam also restructured their internal layout, the extra effective space is equipped with new model drone production lines and missile assembly lines..."

"Missile assembly lines?" Sandora raised an eyebrow, "Even the heavy missiles it fires are manufactured on the spot within the fortress?"

"Yes," Vincent nodded, "It has two ammunition supply methods. One is the conventional super space-time bullet chain, which teleports ammunition through space-time transmission from the main ammunition depot. The second is the manufacturing facility, continuously assembling missiles on-site at a slower pace. So even if their super space-time supply is blocked, these fortresses always have ammunition to use—only the firing efficiency decreases slightly."

"No wonder they can still gather enough firepower for a missile salvo amidst fierce battles - more launchers, more ammunition supply, cancelling artillery design and fully enhancing missile power... That Ocam truly doesn’t let people rest in peace even when dead," Sandora’s lips twitched slightly, "There must be a loophole here, there’s no such thing as a perfect weapon... Vincent, you’re saying these fortresses have no artillery, which means their attack speed and close defense capabilities will be low?"

"The attack speed is indeed affected; without high-speed turrets, it’s very hard to attack quickly relying solely on heavy missile launchers," Vincent nodded, "But the close defense capabilities haven’t decreased much; Ocam uses a massive amount of drones to compensate for the lack of high-speed turrets. These drones also have strong defensive capabilities. Now those fortresses are actively attacking with drones, but if the Imperial Army sends assault troops close to those fortresses, these drones will instantly switch to defense mode, they’re not weaker than anti-aircraft positions. We’ve tried this once just now, the assault troops simply can’t get close to the space fortresses."

"Those drones have a ten-minute production cycle," Sandora raised an eyebrow, "As long as we can clear out all the drones produced in one round within ten minutes, those fortresses will have a defense gap."

"It’s a ’close defense gap’, Your Majesty." Vincent very seriously corrected, probably nobody forgot that the Callo Brothers have a language compulsion.

"Alright, then it’s a close defense gap," Sandora waved her hand indifferently, "Now we’ve found a breakthrough point, Vincent, tell me your suggestion. If we can break through the fortress’s close defense circle, how can we temporarily disable these big guys?"

Vincent seriously pondered for a while, then he raised his head: "Your Majesty, we can consider making these fortresses temporarily offline. This planetary defense facility operates automatically, controlled by the fortress mainframe, and these mainframes use a distributed network where each fortress mainframe can be considered as a mainframe of the planetary defense circle, while they are also terminals, all fortress mainframes are completely equal in the entire defense system - that is, the highest command mainframe has been canceled. This design was initially to improve the survival ability of the planetary defense circle. Because there’s no highest command mainframe, it prevents all fortresses from losing control due to the destruction of the control center. No matter how many distributed mainframes we destroy, the remaining computing power can always ensure the planetary defense circle operates continuously. But this distributed network has a flaw: although it cancels the highest command mainframe, it still needs a ’source’ capable of issuing super commands, and this ’source’ can be corrupted."

Sandora showed a look of interest: "This ’source’ doesn’t actually exist, right?"

"Yes, it’s a kind of protocol package, widely present in the network of the whole planetary defense system," Vincent nodded, "Every fortress mainframe is installed with this protocol. When the fortress group needs to combat externally, they randomly select one mainframe as the highest command source, relying on a series of complex forwarding methods to achieve the coordinated action of the whole network. When the fortress where this random mainframe is located is destroyed, the network will immediately generate a new mainframe to fill the vacancy. This process was also designed by Ocam, theoretically foolproof."

"Theoretically," Sandora smiled, "Theoretical stuff can mostly be broken through, so you’re saying you have a way to stop these fortresses from mutually forwarding attack plans?"

Vincent pointed to his chest: "As a Senior General under Lord Harlan and being one of the Great Warlords of the Abyss Zone, we had many of such fortresses then and also know its stopping key."

I suddenly felt surprised: "These things come with brakes?"

"Not brakes, but a stopping key," Vincent sternly corrected me, "Every weapon should have insurance. This kind of automatically operating, powerful defense bunker indeed needs it more, the stopping key can stop all fortress mainframes, used for system maintenance or network upgrade protocol."

At this moment, another violent shake came from underfoot: the enemy’s space fortresses bombarded the Imperial Army’s joint shield with heavy missiles again. Just like before, the enemy’s attacks still couldn’t break the Imperial Army’s defense, while on our side it’s also hard to destroy the sovereignty hub in a short time. This shake once again made everyone realize that the current deadlock must be broken. Sandora glanced at Vincent on the communicator: "Then there’s the last question - you’ve left the Fallen Apostle camp for a long time, how to ensure the key is still usable? If I were the Defense Minister of the Fallen Apostles, once key officers like you fall into enemy hands, the first thing I’d do is reset all mainframe passwords on the defense line."

Vincent confidently smiled: "Of course they’d reset these keys, but I’m confident to crack it. I’ve worked with Ocam for years and was responsible for managing these space fortresses back then, knowing the decryption rules of this set of keys. Actually, cracking the key isn’t the hardest part - the hardest part is knowing exactly where in the defense system this set of keys functions, I’m clear about this."

"So the hard part is not forging the key, but finding the keyhole..." Sandora nodded, "You need to infiltrate those fortresses to hack them, right?"

"No other way," Vincent replied, "We’ve already lost the ability to control Abyss Zone devices via the Spiritual Network, the only feasible plan is to get inside those space fortresses. Cracking just one fortress is enough, the distributed network will handle the rest."

"Good, this plan is feasible," Sandora stood up, then frowned while looking at those space fortresses releasing drone swarms again, "The troublesome thing is those drones... Big ships can’t withstand fortress missiles, small ships can’t withstand drone swarms, we must eliminate all drones within ten minutes to find an opening to get people inside. Vincent, if you rush in, your people probably won’t make it."

I’ve been eavesdropping on the side till now, unable to find a chance to speak during those professional discussions. However, now that it came to the point of rushing ahead and risking it, I knew it was my time to shine. Don’t we Great Void Clan have such a saying: when undecided open it big, still undecided send a tower... So this should count as sending a tower now?

Oh, this saying seems kind of unlucky...

"I’ll escort the experts over," I stepped forward and patted Sandora’s shoulder, "You certainly can’t find a tougher escort than me. In the first few minutes, just keep eliminating drones. When the number of those little things is about right, I’ll personally escort Vincent’s people over. In such a big battlefield, such a big space, I don’t believe sending some people over could be that difficult."

Sandora glanced at me, seemingly wanting to say something to persuade, but she quickly remembered my habit of taking action myself, and ended up saying nothing, just firmly squeezed my hand: "Be very careful, if the breakthrough doesn’t work, immediately retreat, we surely can break this defense line with conventional methods... It’ll just take longer. I really don’t want to see you go rogue and leave me waiting for years living a widow until you resurrect..."

I cheerfully patted Sandora’s hand: "Don’t worry, I’m a man who creates miracles, leave this to me, I will definitely come back alive. After this battle, let’s..."

Just as I said halfway, Xiao Xue suddenly jumped over, pressing my mouth and bouncing vigorously: "Dad, you can’t tempt fate like this! Even Void Creatures shouldn’t act recklessly..."

I: "..." (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 can read at m.qidian.com.)