Chapter 199: The War Development

Rigo was sitting inside his cruiser when they finally reached their destination. "Spread the word, let the fleet divide according to the plan," he said to his droids while glancing over the system up front on the hologram.

"If we manage to control this system early on, we will be able to cause great stir in the Terases empire," he smiled while the fleet started to divide into smaller groups, each headed towards one direction fast.

The distance between the planets in this system wasn't much, only one day was required to jump from one end to another. The two grand fleets used in this war had their engines upgraded, making their travel speed much faster than before.

"Report," one of the droids hurried to say, "many fleet ships are coming our way."

"They have a fleet stationed here?" Rigo was surprised before adding, "scout them and send me a detailed report fast!"

"Roger that," the droid was such a capable aider, and he developed Rigo's words into steps to be executed by some ships.

"Report," after ten minutes the droid said, "the number of enemy ships is massive, not less than ours. They are coming directly to us."

"And we didn't yet start our full assault," Rigo sniffed something unpleasant in this tactic, "give the orders to the fleet, all open fire and start battle formation," he ordered before adding, "send some ships to scout our rear. If the enem guessed our intentions this clear, then there is a chance they will send a detachment from behind."

"Roger that," the droid started relaying orders while Rigo started to think deeply about this. "Send the word to the emperor, make him haste in sending the third fleet, and the fourth if possible."

"Done!"

The message was sent to James, and the same thing occurred to Dora who also did the same. James was in his cruiser, resting after another fight with some assassins. "They never give up, sigh," he shook his head before the two messages arrived at his place at the same time.

"They read our intentions? Frontal direct assault and backstabbers as well? Interesting," he laughed before adding, "send the word back, we already dispatched the third fleet to the front. Send orders to the fleet to divide into two, each heading towards one grand fleet rare to aid."

He then paused before adding, "and sent the fourth fleet right away."

"But it's not completed yet. It requires another week," one of the droids said.

"Just send whoever is ready, and make them divide into two, appearing just behind the frontal assault."

James' eyes shone as he muttered, "trying to defend the decoy this hard? You already took the bait, hehehe."

He was in a better mood than Rigo and Dora who had many loss reports coming from all the battlefields. The battle was intense, and each side had great losses from the start.

Yet the headache the two had was coming from their rear! A fleet was spotted there, waiting for the chance to attack. That made the two unable to move freely and use all their forces to crush their enemies.

"The emperor is wise," Rigo laughed before adding, "contact the third fleet, determine the time they will arrive here."

Dora also did the same, and for their good luck the third fleet was already two days away from them. "Spread the word, one day from now we will start our full assault," Rigo and Dora both relayed the same orders to their men.

The fight kept raging brutally while many ships and good soldiers were lost from both sides. Yet none managed to claim victory over the other until one day passed and the main fleet joined the fight on both fronts.

The addition of such a grand number of ships made the fight lean towards Rigo and Dora. Yet they both knew this would only be temporary, as the rear fleet would start moving soon.

"Dispatch part of the main fleet to the rear, their task is to stall for time," Rigo said, before adding, "and start hitting those bastards with our new cannons."

The godly ores weren't just used to fuel the engines, they also were used to upgrade the missiles and cannons. The only side effect here was the low amount of these ores in their possession, making only the main fleet in each grand fleet have these ores and upgraded cannons.

"Fire," Dora said with a grin while the cannons roared and the enemy ship in the distance started to explode in large batches.

"Great aim, keep firing and create a gap for us to penetrate," she ordered before adding, "what about the rear?"

"The battle started, yet our boys are holding the line."

"Great," she nodded in content, "and the third fleet?"

"It's almost here."

"Nice," her eyes shone brightly before adding, "Relay the word, be ready for all out assault soon. Make the rear boys ready, once the third fleet arrives, they have to push forward, throwing everything they had on the enemy ships."

"Roger, madam."

"This war… I have a very good feeling about," she laughed while she ignored the incoming loss reports which indicated that she lost almost one tenth of her fleet.

"The third fleet arrived," the droid said.

"Great, make full assault on all fronts," Rigo said while watching the hologram closely, "also be ready for any sudden tricks from them."

"Roger," the droid started relaying orders while the fight suddenly intensified.

The sudden appearance of the third fleet made the fight on the rear smoother than before. In one day they managed to destroy all the ships there, using the fact their numbers weren't that much from the start.

Then they started joining the main fleet in attacking the enemies.

The fight lasted for five days, and at the end of the fifth day and after chasing the Terases fleet to the end of the system, reinforcements appeared from far away to aid the Terases fleets.

"Report, another fleet appeared coming near here," the droid said.

"How much time do we have?" Dora asked, "and the fourth fleet sent to here is on the way, send to them a message with our current coordinated and the new reinforcements coordinates and make them give a specific date of arrival."

"Roger, madam," the droid kept working and relaying the orders before he added, "the enemy reinforcements will arrive in six hours, and our fleet will arrive in twelve."

"Good," she laughed before adding, "keep the pressure boys, let's burn them alive!"

Rigo also gave the same order, and with the addition of half of the third fleet and his dispatched ships to guard the rear, he was able to crush any enemy ships standing in his way.

Yet he didn't delve deeper than the current system, as he wanted the fourth fleet to arrive just in time to surprise the enemy and finish them in one full sweep.

Once the reinforcements arrived, the fight started to be balanced once more and the amount of losses escalated. Rigo and Dora didn't pause or hold back, keeping the fight raged and hot until the fourth fleet arrived.

"They are finally here," Rigo smiled before adding, "give them the orders, full attack on the rear of the current enemy fleet, let them scatter them around."

"Relay the orders, make them attack the central spot of the enemy fleet and we also will attack the same spot. Let us meet in the middle," Dora said.

Both had different approaches here, yet the end result was the same. The enemy fleet couldn't handle the pressure on two fronts, especially they didn't expect the new fleet to arrive at this time.

Most of the fleet was either destroyed or captured, and the small rest ran with their lives far from here.

"Good start boys, start controlling this system and send many ships to scout the systems around," Rigo said.

"Should we focus on the back or front?" the droid asked.

"Everywhere," the eyes of Dora shone, "target everywhere! They have amassed all the resisting armies and fleets in the zone, so it's logical to assume these places are now defenseless."

Dora and Rigo shared the same vision, and their assumptions were proven right later on. All the systems adjacent to the ones they easily controlled were defenseless, and that made their task to control them easier.

In less than a week, each fleet controlled a large cluster of ten systems together, with two to three systems in the center being fully surrounded by other systems.

"We will turn these into our bases," Rigo said before ordering, "spread the small cruisers everywhere, we welcome any resisting forces to join our fleet. Use the slogan of ending the age of tyranny to attract more to our cause."

Dora went further by sending her specially trained soldiers to instigate protests and callings to arms to aid her fleet. The response was more stunning than Rigo's systems, and in less than two days her fleet managed to replace the losses and also gain more!

The two fleets kept their places recuperating while sending small detachments everywhere to control more zones. This expansion was slower, yet it was solid, and now the Terases empire had nothing in hand to do but to amass their fleets and wait for a chance to hunt down these two annoying bases.

Yet James wasn't staying back doing nothing!

"The fifth fleet and the sixth fleet are ready!" Islinda came smiling as she followed what he previously told her to do, "we already sold all the slots of the future controlled regions, we only need to deliver them in a month's time."

"Great," James laughed, "these merchants are really stingy and greedy."

"You mind is much dirtier than them to be honest," she laughed while recalling his past orders to her. He considered the area between his empire and his two fleets as his own, and ordered Islinda to start an auction for them.

This auction alone could fund more than two grand fleets, but as they weren't ready to deliver the regions yet, they had to settle with advance payments enough to form two fleets.

"Send the two fleets outs and let them start controlling the areas beyond us," James laughed before adding, "each time we free a region, take the full payment of it. Like this we can amass four more fleets in two weeks."

"That's… amazingly underestimating the prices these merchants paid, hehehe," she laughed as she knew the number of fleets could escalate to reach six by the end of the two weeks.

"Let's squeeze them dry as long as we can," he said before adding, "how about our allies and other forces applying to join us?"

After the first two crushing defeats of the Terases empire, many local forces around the grand sector sent delegations to negotiate terms of joining hands with James.

The example he used by what he did to the six forces made everyone envious and greedy. He aimed for that, and now it was time for him to reap the benefits of his previous wise decision.