Chapter 20: The Tides Turn at Nyx

Petrov Glory.

One of only five Warstars the Federation possessed.

By self-destructing, it signaled the brutal start of the Battle of Nyx.

In this fight, aside from 27 ships that managed to escape, the entire Fourth Fleet was lost here.

And the Klein…

They lost over 258 ships from their sub-fleet and 25 more from their main fleet.

Looking at the numbers alone, the Federation suffered close to a one-to-two casualty ratio, but in reality…

For the Klein, their sub-fleet has another name.

The Third-Class Clan Fleet.

So, what does ‘Third-Class Clan Member’ mean?

Within the Klein, the people are divided into three classes.

Members of the lowest class aren’t even allowed in the main fleet.

They either handle the filthiest and toughest jobs or end up serving in the sub-fleet.

If you wanted to put it in human terms, that fleet is basically…

A cannon fodder fleet.

On top of that, to make sure this lowest rung of society can’t revolt, the Klein intentionally restrict their equipment.

Ships of the same size – a single main fleet ship can take on three from the sub-fleet.

And when it comes to battle, they’re the ones sent in first, burning away the enemy’s strength.

It’s cannon fodder, no question.

——

At this moment.

Almost every linguist in the Federation was urgently summoned.

There were fears the 27 surviving ships of the Fourth Fleet might be pursued, and it would take nearly a year for them to return anyway.

So the Federation Fleet decided those aboard Fourth Fleet needed to start interrogations right away.

Meanwhile, Federation interrogation experts and a host of linguists would assist remotely.

That’s right—the ships had captured aliens aboard.

All of them were Klein warriors who’d boarded ships during the invasion, wounded and captured.

The Federation still knew too little about this alien civilization.

And there wasn’t much time left.

The Federation had to crack these aliens’ mouths wide open and get their intel fast.

At the same moment.

In the Qiongxiao’s conference room.

A gathering of Fifth Fleet high-ranking officers was studying data from the Nyx battle to analyze the Klein fleet.

“No, unless the aliens make another Nyx-level mistake, railguns are barely effective at five hundred thousand kilometers.”

“Then let ’em come in closer—take the shot at eighty thousand kilometers.”

“You crazy? Even at half a million kilometers, they can deploy swarms of raiding ships. At eighty thousand, they’d be at our throats before we could react.”

“So what now? Beyond five hundred thousand klicks, the railguns are useless. Get closer and their raiders become a problem. We can’t just give up, can we?”

“Isn’t that what we’re here to figure out?”

“All right, everyone quiet!”

As the argument got louder, Mu Qingxue’s voice cut through.

Instant silence.

Seeing this, Mu Qingxue nodded, then looked to Lin Yu.

She’d noticed Lin Yu hadn’t said a word in over ten minutes, just lost in thought.

There was no evidence, but she couldn’t shake the feeling—he must have come up with something again.

“Lin Yu, what do you think?”

Everyone’s eyes snapped to Lin Yu as Mu Qingxue spoke.

Only eighteen years old, and with a special exception just granted the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

But after working together, none of the three sub-fleet commanders dared underestimate him.

“When it comes to standard space fleet combat, we don’t have much chance. First thing: we have to avoid a head-on engagement, since…”

“Their ship count’s more than triple ours, and that’s probably not even their whole force.”

“If I were in charge, I’d take out at least half their force right here, then use the Asteroid Belt as a natural defense line to confront them—waiting for a chance to turn the tide!”

Luo Lan pointed at Jupiter’s orbit as he spoke.

The whole conference room went silent.

The first part, they could understand.

Sure, in deep space, facing the enemy fleet head-on, there’s basically zero chance of victory.

So avoiding a direct fight has to be the plan.

Even if Lin Yu then suggested giving up the Jupiter defense line and rallying all fleets at Mars to contest the Asteroid Belt…

They could go along with it.

But what was Lin Yu saying?

Take out half the enemy’s force in Jupiter’s orbit?

How was that even possible?

Even if all four Federation fleets attacked at once, they’d never halve the enemy.

After all, even the combined First, Second, Third, and Fifth Fleets didn’t have seven hundred ships.

“Explain in detail!”

After a long pause, Mu Qingxue finally spoke again.

Her expression was deadly serious.

“It’s simple. Lure their main fleet into Homeworld’s orbit and force them into a running chase along the ring. Then, at just the right moment…”

“Let Io, one of Jupiter’s moons…”

“Fall!”

“Io’s huge—over 3,642 kilometers across. If it weren’t for the Homeworld itself, you could call it a planet!”

“If something that massive slammed down, the energy released would equal fifty billion nukes at once. The shockwave would rip through the orbit, obliterating anything caught in it!”

As Lin Yu explained, he worked furiously on the virtual panel.

The next moment, a tactical simulation began to play before everyone’s eyes.

Red and blue fleets snaked around Jupiter’s orbit, locked in a deadly chase.

It was a long, grinding war of attrition.

But after several laps around Jupiter, Io broke free from orbit, slowly pulled downward by Jupiter’s gargantuan gravity.

Of course, the red team didn’t have a clue this was happening.

At the time, they were on the far side of Jupiter, while the collision was brewing on the blue team’s side.

The chase continued along the orbit.

But now…

The blue fleet’s front cut away from the chase, heading for the Asteroid Belt.

Seeing this, red prepared to follow and pounce on the blue fleet’s rear.

But as they swept around Jupiter, they were caught off guard by the falling moon—Io.

It was already too late.

Io crashed into Jupiter. Energy burst skyward, swallowing most of the red fleet that strayed into its path.

The simulation ended there.

Mu Qingxue and every single officer stared, dumbstruck.

Holy shit!!!