Chapter 208: Turning the Tide: Federation’s Masterstroke in the Desolate Star Region

The Venus Empire situation had finally been resolved.

But there were still four more civilizations, all drifting along the interstellar current, with about seventy days left before they reached Ross 248.

Thankfully, this was an easy fix. The Human Federation sent a direct assignment via the Subordinate Civilization Platform, instructing the Venus Empire to persuade those four civilizations to join the Federation’s subordinate system.

They also had to make sure none of them would leak information to the Drac Empire.

As for the rewards, each successfully persuaded civilization would net the Venus Empire ten million points.

Convincing all four meant a total reward of fifty million points.

For the Venus Empire, this was like free money handed on a silver platter.

All it took was four calls and a bit of persuasive talk to seal the deal.

And in reality, it was just as simple—faced with a choice between getting wiped out at Ross 248 or being allowed to claim fifty prime star systems in the Desolate Star Region as their own, the answer was obvious.

It wasn’t even worth debating.

What’s in a name anyway? Being labeled as a subordinate civilization was really more like joining a partnership.

Pride?

No—when the survival and future development of a civilization are at stake, pride means nothing.

Besides, joining this system meant they could even buy jump engines if they wanted…

Only a fool would turn that down!

So the leaders of the four civilizations—the Syndicate Collective, Quirta Alliance, Selinm Union, and Autik Coalition—all signed the agreement at once and contacted their fleets drifting in the current.

That call left their soldiers totally bewildered.

One minute they were charging forward, brimming with fighting spirit—the next, headquarters ordered them to halt mid-charge.

Even more shocking, they were told the enemy ahead was now their boss.

Who wouldn’t be confused by that?

And so, just over two months later—

More than sixty thousand warships glided out of the interstellar current, forming up at their designated locations under the watchful eyes of over ten thousand Seawolf-class warships and eight thousand Zhulong-class Type B ships.

Following orders, they shut down their engines and waited for the next command from the Federation.

The massive crisis that loomed before had now been entirely defused.

The Federation no longer had to worry about being discovered by the Drac Empire, at least for now.

As for having to give up three hundred star systems in the Desolate Star Region, the Federation really couldn’t care less.

That number didn’t even make up one percent of the entire Desolate Star Region.

With over thirty thousand systems in total, losing three hundred was barely a drop in the ocean.

Not to mention, those civilizations still had to conquer the territory themselves—what the Federation agreed to was only letting them take up to that number, and only if they could seize it on their own.

If they wanted more, they’d have to use points to trade with the Federation for extra star systems.

In short, the Federation didn’t need to lift a finger; all they had to do was kick back and count their earnings.

——

During these two-plus months,

the research institutes went wild yet again.

It was another avalanche of technical data being uploaded.

This time, not only did the Venus Empire upload far more material than the other four civilizations combined—the best part was…

the quality was stellar.

After all, the Venus Empire was a Tier 3 civilization.

Their energy weapon technology, in particular, was a colossal boon for the Federation.

Energy weapon development could take many distinct paths.

Take the Federation for example—they’d pursued an ion-based route, making ion cannons their mainstay. The Venus Empire, though, focused on particle technology.

Compared to ion weapons, particle weapons specialized in high-energy destructive power, excelling at direct physical damage—perfect for space battles, but with a much steeper technological threshold.

The Venus Empire’s specialty was proton beam weaponry.

That’s a high-energy particle weapon that uses an accelerator to fire protons—basically hydrogen nuclei—at near-light speeds, producing a devastating, highly focused beam with three distinct attack effects.

First, kinetic impact—slamming high-speed protons into a target replicates a meteorite strike.

Second, ionizing radiation—when protons penetrate material, they emit secondary radiation that can harm organic tissue or fry electronics.

Third, thermal effects—the immense energy of those protons raises temperatures locally to scorch and burn through targets.

Technical files showed the Venus Empire had already mastered proton beams—both in raw power and range, they far surpassed the Federation’s ion cannons.

For the research teams, these breakthroughs were a gold mine—they dove right in, eager to unlock new possibilities.

Once they cracked the code, the firepower of the Federation’s warships…

would leap to an entirely new level.

The current Zhulong-class Type B ships would soon be replaced by the more advanced Type C.

In just a few years, the pace of technical upgrades in the Federation had become almost wild—exciting, sure, but also kind of exhausting.

It took ages to design a new warship around the latest tech, only to see an even newer technology roll in just as mass production started.

Still, this wasn’t such a big problem.

Even after absorbing the particle—specifically proton beam—weapon technology, they’d only need to retrofit the Zhulong-class Type B with new weapons.

No need to overhaul the production line—the whole process would connect smoothly with what was already in place.

——

Once the Barnard Defense Circle was handled,

Lin Yu took his fleet back to the Federation’s front line in the Desolate Star Region.

It would be almost two months before the Sixth Fleet could be transported over.

But that hardly mattered—Lin Yu had over 8,300 Zhulong-class Type B ships under his command, more than the entire Sixth Fleet, and their combat strength was in a class of its own.

So Lin Yu was ready to launch his next major operation.

He planned to do two things.

First, he would intercept and wipe out the Alliance’s army of over a hundred thousand on their way in.

Sure, if you added up all the warships from Tier 1 and Tier 2 civilizations, the total was almost two hundred thousand. But here’s the thing—

Over half the Tier 2 warships had already pledged allegiance to the Federation, becoming subordinate civilizations.

So this part of the plan would be a cakewalk.

The second step: aside from the ten subordinate civilizations already accepted by the Federation, he would destroy every remaining civilization’s administrative center.

With those two moves done,

the Wasteland Alliance would be wrapped up in no time.

Afterward, the Federation would only need to post a simple task on the Subordinate Civilization Platform.

The idea? Let these new subordinate civilizations handle cleanup—clear each star system, hand them over to the Federation, then collect their mission rewards.

Of course, finishing off the Wasteland Alliance didn’t mean the entire Desolate Star Region was in Federation hands yet.

All those Tier 1 and Tier 2 civilizations within the Alliance combined controlled just about two thousand star systems—not even a tenth of the region.

Even throwing in all the outside powers, the grand total might be three thousand at most.

Still, the Alliance’s turf was definitely the best slice of real estate in the Desolate Star Region.

Most other areas really did live up to the core worlds’ clichéd impression of this place.

Barren!