249: "My driftwood is gone."

"Exited the Gravity Conduit navigation, beginning status check of all sections."

At Sea Witch Constellation V22.78, in orbit of Planet Three, one hundred and sixty dark starships with long comet tails slowly crossed the black sky.

One hundred and thirty frigates, all T-5 light frigates.

This 145-meter-long light frigate was originally one of the standard frigates of the Cloud Consortium, but since The Consortium 'collapsed' and fell apart, a large number of The Consortium's active ships flooded the market at bankruptcy prices.

Clearly, this cheap and useful frigate fit the needs of small regimes like the Saint Blade Group.

As for the thirty destroyers, twenty-nine of them were 'Long Shuttle' class high-speed destroyers from The Consortium (345 meters long).

Only one was an 'H-50' class armored destroyer purchased from the Giant Stone Group, serving as the flagship of the entire fleet—

Within the Saint Blade Group, these precious heavy destroyers were only assigned one or two to A-class fleets.

"Power system normal."

"Artificial gravity normal."

"Main structure normal."

"Weapon system normal."

"Electronic system anomaly detected, virus scan in progress."

At this moment, on the Bridge of that H-50, technicians were checking the status of the Warship one by one, reporting based on the data on their screens.

The captain sat in his seat, watching the technicians troubleshooting below, while checking the central console in front of him and turning his gaze to the navigator nearby, asking:

"Electronic system failure? Can we still measure how long it will take to reach the rebel planet?"

The navigator skillfully pushed a large black canister into a hole in the wall while replying:

"The electronic system has started a self-check; control has been switched to manual mechanical control."

"According to the gravity rangefinder, we are currently about twenty minutes away from the target planet."

"Good," the captain nodded. After thinking for a moment, he tuned his microphone to the command channel and issued orders:

"All units, attention! Slow down by one notch and wait for the operating system switch to complete!"

"Perform a final quality check on the fire control system! Note the ratio of anti-ship fire to ground-attack fire is 3:7!"

"Keep the anti-air system on high alert throughout! Prevent the planetary Defense Force's Aerospace Fighters from being captured!"

Afterward, a staff officer came up, handed over a tablet, and said:

"Captain, this is the combat plan drafted by the staff department,"

"It includes planetary landing, rebel suppression, and rescue missions. Please review it."

The captain of the H-50 waved his hand dismissively.

"Keep the hostage rescue plan and the backup plans,"

"As for the rest... summarize it for me, I'm listening."

"Understood." The staff officer bowed slightly and opened the tablet.

Actually, he didn't care much about anything other than the rescue mission—

Regarding suppressing rebellions, they were already very experienced; it was nothing more than killing the leaders and then packaging the rest as aid for the Military Alliance,

Or just killing everyone.

"Our preliminary plan is to first take out the orbital space station floating in low orbit, then send aerospace combat units and paratroopers to coordinate and ensure the safety of the rescue targets,"

"Immediately after, conduct orbital bombardment over the rebel center: biological bombs for the suburbs and incendiary bombs for the urban areas."

The captain nodded.

"Alright—get people ready then,"

"Has the Marine Corps finished putting on their tactical gear?"

"Report! Completed!"

"..."

Half an hour later, Planet Three in Sea Witch Constellation V22.78,

In low orbit.

"Enemy fleet signal source has entered our warning range,"

Among several Orbital Defense Platforms, the one facing The Corporation's fleet was the first to sound the alarm.

This platform was the one where the general head of the Orbital Defense Platform uprising was located.

At this moment, he was in the control room, holding his breath as he watched the flickering dots approaching on the holographic radar screen, asking:

"Have any long-range strikes from the enemy been detected??"

He subconsciously lowered his voice, as if this would prevent him from being exposed to the enemy fleet's sight.

"Yes," the member in charge of intercepting system monitoring replied in a similarly low voice:

"We have intercepted two long-range blind-fire missiles and eleven electromagnetic shells with a hit rate greater than 2%,"

"There is some bad news—the enemy's luck might be a bit good. They already achieved a bracketed shot in the first round."

Not good.

Very not good.

Hearing this, the head of the Orbital Defense Platform felt cold sweat break out on his back.

Achieving a bracketed shot in just the first round?

"What about our missiles?"

"Some have turned off their engines to hide temporarily, and others are being remotely controlled to circle behind the enemy fleet..."

"My Driftwood is gone!"

Suddenly, a nearby operator shouted, interrupting their conversation—

"They've all been intercepted!"

"The missile strike group has been discovered!"

"How much distance is left?"

"About 0.1 gimis!"

"Go full speed!"

"It's already at full speed!"

On the grid of small screens, images were constantly turning from shimmering pure black to static.

And in the split screens where images remained, many glowing long lines appeared—

That was the dense interception net drawn by the electromagnetic point-defense cannons.

At this moment, on the Saint Blade Group's H-50, the captain looked at the reports of 'successful interception' with a look of extreme contempt.

"Just a bunch of bumpkins—"

"Has the error from the previous round of fire been adjusted?"

The Armory Chief beside him immediately took over and shouted:

"Report! Calibration complete!"

The previous round had already bracketed the target, which meant for this round, they only needed to tighten the weapon spread.

"Very well," the captain clapped his hands. "Order a volley—"

"Let those flies realize the gap between us!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Also, conduct a round of fire coverage on that dense asteroid belt over there to check for any possible ambushes."

"Yes, sir!"

Soon, the shells left the barrels like raindrops, followed closely by missiles being flung from the magazines, their tail flames igniting in mid-air.

Unlike the 'Driftwood' model missiles originally used for ground attacks, these weapons, while not advanced, were true space combat weapons.

They maintained an eerie silence as they flew into the distance, soon striking the target—

The targeted Orbital Defense Platform was already in a frenzy.

"Oh no! Dense barrage incoming!"

"Performing evasive maneuvers!"

"Interception system running at full capacity!"

"Enemy attack is too dense! Cannot intercept!"

"Discard all non-core modules! Crank all maneuvering engines to the max!"

"Do your best to evade!"

"Our missiles hidden in the asteroid belt have been destroyed!"

The clunky defense platform began to disintegrate in mid-air, many pods were jettisoned, and its heavy body traced an arc, breaking out of its orbit with the help of gravity.

However, despite the chaos, no one on the scene panicked—

Everyone who was unwilling to stay or not allowed to stay had already left in the remaining escape pods.

Those who remained now were prepared to die.

"BOOM!!!!!!!"

A loud explosion rang in everyone's ears, and the floor beneath them shook violently.

Metal twisted and deformed, letting out sharp screams.

"Warning! Sections A and C are losing pressure!"

"Core keel deformed!"

Alarms blared, only to be drowned out by even more intense explosions.

There were no tragic goodbyes or passionate speeches, only molten iron scattering and dense fragments flying into the air.

Only the people on the ground could look up and see those beautiful and tragic meteors slowly falling into the atmosphere—

The brilliant flames were a final farewell to the brave,

And the final warning sent to those on the ground:

The enemy has arrived.