Chapter 185: Alliance on the Brink

Year 241 of the Federation.

The Ziyang Empire and the Xitoris Kingdom, separated by only half a year, completed their total conquest of the Blue-Eye Tribe and the Totran Kingdom.

With that, both civilizations were utterly wiped from existence.

After all, every time Parlo and Tuoba took a territory, they carried out a sweeping purge.

There were no rules or standards—no one was left alive.

Age and gender didn’t matter at all…

Brutality like this was business as usual between interstellar civilizations. Nobody questioned it; everyone just accepted it as the norm.

If someone even suggested it was too cruel, they’d instantly be seen as an absolute fool.

Meanwhile, two Wasteland Alliance joint fleets had reached the borders, squaring off against Parlo and Tuoba’s armadas.

Each side had 25,000 warships at their command.

But truthfully, neither dared to make the first move.

Years of conflict had made them all too aware of what their opponents were capable of.

Take Ziyang Empire’s three field legions fighting in Blue-Eye territory—each one had a whopping 20,000 warships.

And now both Parlo and Tuoba commanded a new type of warship, far more advanced than the Alliance’s ships and capable of firing energy weapons from eighty thousand kilometers away.

Even though the Xitoris Kingdom didn’t have as many ships as Ziyang, they still boasted over 20,000 of the latest models, plus more than 10,000 older ones—still not something the Alliance’s 25,000 ships were willing to attack head-on.

So…

The whole situation ended up deadlocked.

Yet while the Alliance was too afraid to attack, Parlo and Tuoba were itching for a fight.

If you asked Parlo, he’d just say…

“All I see are 25,000 junk ships. What’s there to be afraid of?”

Parlo made the first move.

As for Tuoba, his next batch of Seawolf-class ships was still in transit; he wanted to wait for them before launching an attack.

Those reinforcements would arrive in about half a year.

Two months later.

On the border between the former Blue-Eye Tribe’s territory and the Hazza civilization, the Alliance stationed another 25,000 warships there.

Even if they weren’t bold enough to attack, they still felt completely confident in their defense.

They simply couldn’t believe Parlo would dare strike first.

With 25,000 ships guarding the mouth of the interstellar current, even if Parlo brought fifty or sixty thousand, there was no way he’d just barrel in.

On paper, that logic made perfect sense.

If it were just the Ziyang Empire, anyway.

But thanks to Lin Yu, another test was about to turn things upside down.

Before the Ziyang Empire’s fleet set off, the Houyi was piloted straight to the mouth of the interstellar current, where its ninety-six dedicated railgun batteries started launching wave after wave of oversized quantum bombs inside.

In just ten minutes, they’d blasted off several thousand rounds.

Satisfied, Lin Yu ordered the Houyi to clear out and let the rest of the Empire’s fleet start entering the current.

Like they’d said before—inside the current, it didn’t matter what kind of weapon you fired, big or small, heavy or light, or whether it had any propulsion. Everything traveled at the exact same speed.

So…

Whether it was the quantum bombs fired just now or the ships entering after,

two months later they’d emerge at the same pace, one after another, in perfect order.

Ninety-six quantum bombs burst out of the current and instantly set off alarms along the front lines.

But when they scanned the mouth of the current, they found nothing. Only after running an even more detailed scan did they discover…

What came out weren’t warships but—railgun projectiles?

On top of that, there weren’t even that many of them.

So everyone figured the enemy was just messing with them.

What could a handful of railgun projectiles possibly do?

Come on, it’s not like you can tell me you predicted the precise coordinates of our entire fleet from two months ago?

Obviously, that was impossible!

So as long as there was no pinpoint targeting, there was nothing to worry about.

If you got one hit out of a hundred shots, that would be a miracle.

And even if one projectile did hit, what’s the worst it could do? Maybe scratch up a warship’s armor a little.

Moments later, as the projectiles streaked through the fleet’s formation, sure enough…

Not a single one scored a hit. The whole crew laughed, thinking the Ziyang bunch were dreaming.

But before their laughter could even start, the projectiles that had skimmed past suddenly exploded in midair.

Each erupted into a brilliant blue sphere hundreds of kilometers wide, and every warship caught in that radius was wiped out right before everyone’s horrified eyes.

Not a single trace remained.

Wave after wave of quantum bombs kept detonating every few seconds, sowing panic throughout the fleet.

Nobody knew where the next blast would land.

Finally, the commander had no choice but to order the fleet’s wings to split off, opening a gap in the central formation so they could steer clear of the deadly flight paths.

It was the right call.

There was no way to change the path of a railgun projectile.

If you couldn’t withstand the blast, the only smart move was to get out of the way.

But…

While the fleet was shifting to the flanks—

this time, what emerged from the current wasn’t a quantum bomb but…

Seawolf-class general-purpose warships from the Empire.

All that movement allowed the Empire to seize the moment; by the time the formation finished adjusting,

more than a thousand Seawolf-class warships had secured a foothold at the current’s mouth.

And with the front lines pulled back, the fleet’s crossfire became far less effective.

Trying to patch that breach wouldn’t be possible anytime soon.

Lin Yu’s improvised tactics didn’t win the Ziyang Empire a complete advantage, but they did minimize early losses as much as possible.

In the end, the battle raged on for two days straight before it was finally over.

The Empire paid the price of six thousand Seawolf-class and twelve thousand older warships, but managed to seize the border star and wipe out all 25,000 Alliance ships.

It looked like a bloody defeat, but bear in mind—this was an attack through the interstellar current.

If Lin Yu hadn’t helped establish that initial beachhead with a thousand ships,

even if Parlo won, the losses probably would have doubled.

When the dust settled, the entire Wasteland Alliance was thrown into chaos.

That same day, the Alliance rushed through an emergency resolution:

A total mobilization order for the Wasteland Alliance!