Chapter 17: The Ambush at Warstar: Crisis in the Fourth Fleet

“Order the entire fleet—deploy every electromagnetic rapid-fire cannon, intercept those unidentified devices coming our way with full force!”

“All fighter jets, launch! Work together to intercept as well!”

This time, Volkov was truly panicking.

If things played out the way he feared, they were in for real trouble.

He rattled off a series of orders without hesitation.

But unfortunately, the electromagnetic rapid-fire cannons meant for close-range defense packed far less punch than the railguns. Their rounds barely even scratched those incoming things.

As the spiked, cone-shaped devices neared the Fourth Fleet, they suddenly shifted gears.

They veered off, barreling straight toward the Federation warships.

They plowed right through the hail of electromagnetic gunfire and fighter attacks.

One after another they pierced deep into the hulls of the ships.

——

“Bagration reporting! Enemy forces have breached the ship—we’re resisting, but it’s not looking good!”

“Kutuzov! Dzerzhinsky! Kutuzov is sending an emergency SOS!”

“Aside from that, most of the remaining ships report onboard invasions. The situation is teetering on the edge!”

On the bridge, one bad report chased the next.

It was clear things had taken a disastrous turn.

But before Volkov could even issue another order, the entire Warstar jolted violently.

About three seconds later, two more tremors rocked the ship in quick succession.

“What’s going on?”

“Reporting in! Three unidentified enemy devices have invaded the ship—one on Deck 13, Section G5, and two more at Deck 18, Sections C6 and C9. Reports say heavily armored humanoids are pouring out of them!”

“Alert the 118th Orbital Drop Regiment right now! Send them in!”

“Yes, General!”

Warstar housed two permanently stationed orbital drop regiments.

Right now, they were the Federation’s most elite infantry units.

Their specialty was orbital assaults and suppressing planetary surfaces.

Originally, they were never meant to be involved in this battle—but now…

——

Almost every ship in the fleet had been invaded by the Klein.

Though they were roughly human in build, there was no denying—

The Klein were a lot tougher than humans.

Especially with their skeletal armor, hardened like natural plating over all that muscle. The toughness was mind-boggling.

The standard issue weapons given to Federation soldiers could barely pierce it.

Most of the time, it took several people firing electromagnetic rifles in tandem, blowing through tens or hundreds of rounds, just to shatter the outer bone and land a killing shot.

Take the Dzerzhinsky, for example—it had already fallen completely.

Only two Klein high-speed assault ships had boarded her, landing just forty warriors in total.

Yet these forty alone—

Sliced straight through the crew, seized the frigate and stormed the bridge.

Their speed, strength, reflexes—even their resistance to damage…

All outclassed human limits by miles.

It was painfully obvious just how powerful the Klein were in single combat.

Worst of all, unless you killed these guys outright, as long as they were still breathing, they’d charge at you through storms of bullets—

And turn themselves into walking bombs.

In less than ten minutes—

Over twelve ships in the Fourth Fleet had gone dark, while more than fifty others were transmitting urgent maydays, hanging by a thread.

As for the rest—

The conditions weren’t quite as dire, but chaos reigned inside every ship.

On many vessels, critical systems were being destroyed, crippling their fighting power.

The Fourth Fleet’s combat strength had been cut by at least sixty percent in an instant.

And back on the Pluto front—

Thousands more high-speed Klein assault ships launched.

Meanwhile, on the main line, with the Fourth Fleet in disarray—

A hundred and seventy Klein warships closed the final few tens of thousands of kilometers, stopping just ten thousand clicks from the Fourth Fleet.

And at this range—

This was where the Klein truly excelled.

Pale yellow beams of ‘light’ suddenly shot from every Klein ship.

All of them blasted toward the Fourth Fleet.

At first glance, they looked like energy blasts, but the speed…

Faster than a railgun slug, but nowhere near the velocity you’d expect from a true energy weapon.

But if they weren’t energy weapons…

Scans showed there was no solid projectile at all.

So what were they exactly? Nobody could figure it out in the moment.

But with the Klein so close, their shots moving faster than railgun rounds and the Fourth Fleet in chaos—

Dozens of warships took direct hits from those first salvos.

But the expected sight of ion cannon blasts punching through hulls never came.

Instead, it looked almost…

Yeah—like someone hit the side of the ship with a water gun, spraying it all over the wall.

It looked like energy fire at first, but when the beams struck, it was more like water jets splattering on steel.

And then, everyone’s eyes widened in shock.

The warships’ thick armor was dissolving—right there, in the vacuum of space!

And the process didn’t even take ten seconds.

Huge slabs of armor, over a meter thick, just vanished.

Even the inner hull behind it now had massive holes eaten through.

What sort of weapon was this? Volkov had no idea.

But what he did know—

It was time to make a decision.

First, a portion of the Fourth Fleet had to break out—someone had to survive, to keep hope alive.

Second, even if it meant his own death, he’d see to it the enemy paid dearly.

“Get me Alexei!”

“You’re connected, General!”

The next moment—

A figure flickered into view, projected as a hologram in front of Volkov’s command chair.

Alexei, a rear admiral under the Fourth Fleet, and Volkov’s most trusted officer.

“Alexei, are you ready?”

“Don’t worry, General—I’ll tear through that main enemy fleet and make them pay!”

“No. I’ll deal with the enemy in front. Your mission is…to take on the fleet coming from Pluto.”

At those words—

Alexei was speechless.

He was confident he could break through the main fleet, inflicting heavy damage.

But the enemy force orbiting Pluto—

He only had thirty ships at his command…

Was this a suicide order?

He’d be shredded before even closing the gap.

“Alexei, listen to me!”

“Soon, I’ll lead every combat-ready ship in a frontal assault. The enemy from Pluto will try to cut across and flank us, but they’ll have to go around Nyx. During that, the shadowed side of Nyx remains their blind spot—where you’re stationed.”

“You have only one mission—”

“At the perfect moment, break through and launch every nuke you’ve got!”

“Use every weapon at your disposal. Take down the enemy’s Warstar!”