<h4>Chapter 1793: The Joker Has Come!</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions
Themand center of the Defense Counsel was consumed by silence.
The ck Wind Fleet had established a space gate at a certain point dozens of lightyears away, perhaps in the orbit of some dim star. It was no secret.
No matter how tense the rtions between the ck Wind Fleet and the homnd of the Imperium were, and no matter how dangerous the power struggles were, it was impossible for the expedition army topletely cut off the connection with the homnd.
By establishing a space gate and a super long-distancemunication base, if the nightmare of failure came true, however unlikely, they would be able to ask for help from the homnd.
Whether or not the homnd would send out reinforcements in time, and whatever the purpose of the reinforcement would be after they dide, such preparation work had to be done nheless.
However, none of the leadership of the federation had foreseen that Heiye Ming, themander of the ck Wind Fleet, would be insane enough to teleport the space gate, which was made of hundreds of star beacons and boasted absolutely no defense or attack abilities due to the enormous size and the sophisticated structure, to the Heaven’s Origin Sector altogether!
Under normal circumstances, it would be the most idiotic strategy.
The capacity, cost, and scale of every space jump were limited. To teleport the star beacons, which did not have any impetus and were extremely precise, dozens of lightyears away would not only consume an astronomical amount of spiritual energy but also upy the capacity that should have belonged to warships.
One could not have all the best in the world. One more star beacon teleported could mean the reduction of quite a few arsenal starships or shield starships. Who could tell if theck of one arsenal starship or a shield starship would be thest feather that decided the oue of the war at the most crucial moment?
Even if they did dismember the entire space gate into parts and teleport them over at great cost, it would still take a lot of time for the space gate to be assembled, debugged, and charged with energy.
During the whole process, the space gate would be an enormous and fragile target that was at any weapon’s mercy.
The first wave of attack from the ck Wind Fleet was notrge in quantity in the first ce. Logically, as long as the follow-up troops of the Burning Prairie Fleet arrived in time, they would not have any opportunity to assemble and debug the space gate unhurriedly at all. Instead, they would be drowned by the warships and soldiers ten times more than themselves!
However…
The three space gates on the federation’s side had all been paralyzed, and it remained unknown when they could be fixed. Part of the elite forces of the Burning Prairie Fleet were all there were. Besides, due to the ckout of the Spiritual Nexus, the coordination andmand structure had fallen into chaos. They were all mired in an invisible swamp!
Was it possible topete with ck Swirl, the gship of the ck Wind Fleet, with the forces that they had avable?
Before the Spiritual Nexus was repaired and rebooted, would the space gate of the ck Wind Fleet re first?
Everybody had the same desperate questions.
Heiye Ming’s seemingly rash and insane strategy turned out to be a marvelous, decisive move. As long as he could assemble and debug his own space gate before the three space gates of the federation were repaired, the unstoppable hooves of the Imperium would thump on the entire federation starting from the Heaven’s Origin Sector!
“I…”
Linking the anomalies from the beginning of the war to now, Jin Xinyue reached the conclusion immediately—she had been tricked!
The queen of demons felt as if a sour and bitter plum was stuck inside her throat. Her heaving shoulders were shivering intensely, and she could barely catch her breath.
Wan Guqing, the Speaker of the Federation, nced at her and blocked her from everyone’s berating eyes in silence. Then, he peacefully said, “The space gate must be destroyed before the enemy finishes assembly and charging.”
It was a useless statement.
But on many asions, a useless statement was the most correct statement.
“At least, we know for certain now…”
Wan Guqing was even able to control his facial muscles to put on a seemingly confident smile.
“As long as we win the war, we wouldn’t need to worry about the arrival of a second ck Wind Fleet for a long time in the future.
“It is well-known that the construction of arge-scale, high-level space gate consumes tremendous time and resources. To say that only a national treasury can afford such projects is not an exaggeration. I think that the ck Wind Fleet must’ve reached their limits to build such a space gate after only ten years no matter how extravagant they may be, right?
“Our strategic focus was supposed to be destroying the enemy’s space gate and preventing the forces from the enemy’s homnd arriving at the border of the federation directly. However, we did not know where the ck Wind Fleet had hidden their nest and their space gate at all. Searching for a secret space gate in thousands of space zones would be no different from fishing for a needle in a vast ocean.
“But as it turns out, the enemy has delivered the fat meat to our door. What else can this be if not a blessing for the federation?
“We must get rid of the chaotic state quickly. At least, we must establish amunication route that directly leads to the gship of the Burning Prairie Fleet. We also need to know thetest situation on the frontline. Right now, in the boiling sea of stars, how many troops are still organized and under our control?”
Since the best specialists of crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus nationwide had gathered there, and even quite a few experts in the Nascent Soul Stage and the Divinity Transformation Stage were supervising, it was possible to establish a route to the gship of the Burning Prairie Fleet in the emergency even though the Spiritual Nexus could not bepletely repaired for the time being.
The result of themunication, however, was not promising.
When the highestmand center in the capital city was scourged by the storm of crystal processor virus, the first attack group of the Burning Prairie Fleet that had beenprehensively connected to the battlework suffered ubiquitous infiltration and infection, too.
The crystal processors were paralyzed. The data was a mess. Themunicationgged. Themands could not be delivered. The battle formation was falling apart. It was even impossible to distinguish the quadrants and the coordinates. The warships had turned from moths darting toward fire into flies that had lost their heads. There was not the slightest ‘organization’ anymore.
Bai Kaixin, the Chief of Staff, estimated that it would take at least three hours to regain effectivemand and the ability to fight against the ck Wind Fleet!
“Three hours…”
The highestmand center was caught in dead silence again.
Everybody knew clearly that the Heaven’s Original Fleet had been exhausted to the maximum and might copse at any second. The demon troops that had reinforced them were neither good at space battles nor led by a distinguishedmander. They were ‘camouge’ and ‘bait’ in the first ce, and courage was almost all that they had.
The two second-tier troops were impossible to stop or stall the ck Wind Fleet.
Once the ck Wind Fleet destroyed them easily, they would be able to change their battle formation unhurriedly into an impregnable defensive circle.
In either the battles in space or those on the ground, the defenders always had greater advantages than the attackers. The ck Wind Fleet was of a higher quality than the Burning Prairie Fleet in the first ce. If they were given enough time to arrange their battle formation and take a good rest, it would be practically impossible for the Burning Prairie Fleet to break the defense and destroy the space gate even if it regained effectivemandter!
What could they do?
Who else could stall the ck Wind Fleet and earn three precious hours for the recovery of the Burning Prairie Fleet and the Spiritual Nexus?
Yes. There was another Deep Sky Fleet—the Big Bai Fleet.
However, the Big Bai Fleet was iparable to the Burning Prairie Fleet in terms of both scale and quality.
It was merely established for experimental and explorational purposes as a supplement for the Burning Prairie Fleet. The members of the fleet were mostly ex-space pirates, a mob that was too old to brush their own teeth. Theirmander, Bai Xingjian, was merely at the beginning level of the Nascent Soul Stage. If he were in the Burning Prairie Fleet where the most distinguished talents were gathered, he might not even be qualified as amander of a secondary fleet.
Besides, the Big Bai Fleet had lost connection even earlier. It was presumed first that they had encountered a cosmic storm or were under the inferences of the enemy. However, judging from what had happened recently, it was possible that the crystal processor virus had broken out on their starships in advance.
Even the most elite forces in the Burning Prairie Fleet were greatly disturbed by the mysterious virus. The Big Bai Fleet must have been even more chaotic, right?
Thest order from themand center to the Big Bai Fleet was to move to the No. 2 and No. 3 space gates immediately and join the first attack group of the Burning Prairie Fleet.
“Report!” Themunication officers brought messages from the ground. “Representative Ding and the other eight Nascent Soul Stage experts have arrived at theunch base of Heaven’s Artillery. All the Colossi have finished their maintenance. They are ready for an assault!”
Representative Ding was Ding Lingdang.
Unlike Jin Xinyue, she did not work in any government departments but was just a senior representative in the federal parliament.
Other than the fleets, the Colossi were the only forces under the control of the highestmand center now.
But it was theirst trump card andst resort. Right now, the Colossi of the ck Wind Fleet had not been deployed. If the few Colossi on the federation’s side carried out such an exhausting mission as to ‘stall the enemy’, they would certainly be trapped by the hostile starships and crystal suits.
Such a strategy was no different from quenching thirst with poison, but watching the ck Wind Fleet assemble the space gate unhurriedly while doing nothing meant nothing but doom.
The highestmander was so quiet that even a needle would rumble when it hit the ground.
“Re—report!”
Right then, another route leading to a hundred probe cameras in space was finally repaired. The chaotic battlefield around the ck Wind Fleet was disyed on the light beam clearly again.
The series of little white spots that were rushing at the ck Wind Fleet from the edge of the battlefield made an analyst cry in excitement. He jumped to his feet so hard that the chair below his bottom was blown away.
Everybody was taken aback. They looked at the analyst in surprise.
“Big Bai! It’s the Big Bai Fleet!”
The familiar appearance parameters gradually focused into the models and names of starships. The analyst’s throat seemed to be on fire under the stimtion of the glittering names.
“The Big Bai Fleet has somehow appeared behind the ck Wind Fleet. The two parties are less than thirty light seconds away from each other. The distance is still reducing.
“They are so fast. They—they still have their organization and keep the most perfect cone-shaped attack formation. How is it possible?
“Ah. They took a turn. The Big Bai Fleet changed their overall direction at a speed of at least three percent the speed of light, and the battle formation is utterly unchanged. Is this really happening?
“They’ve changed their target and lunged at the space gate of the Imperium that was just teleported!”