15: A completely unequal battle

On the bridge of the Starwalker, the moment Elder Vorlag issued the "Fire" order, time seemed to stretch.

He saw the fanatical fervor and acceptance of death in the eyes of the young gunners, and saw the elderly engineers pushing the reactor power to the limit, enough to melt the ship.

Every member of the Tigaden people condensed their final light and heat into the fury fired at that silver-white warship.

Thus, the most spectacular and tragic "firework show" in the universe began.

The massive fleet, composed of over two thousand ships, turned into a violent hive of light in the same instant.

More than forty warships, which the Tigaden people called dreadnoughts, were the last military force in their fleet.

The main guns at the bow—the "Stellar Spear" plasma accelerator cannons—spewed out dozens of scorching, dazzling energy beams.

These beams were enough to vaporize a small meteorite in an instant and were their greatest reliance against all malice in the universe.

Following closely behind were hundreds of nuclear fusion warheads, each trailing a long ion exhaust flame; once their internally compressed fusion fuel detonated, it would be enough to shake the continental plates of a planet.

And even more were the "weapons" from those civilian ships.

The massive colony arks activated their "Star-Crusher Cannons," originally used to break apart obstructing meteorites, projecting large, electromagnetically accelerated alloy blocks or captured meteorite chunks.

These crude kinetic weapons had no guidance capabilities, but they excelled in sheer numbers.

The mining barges overloaded the high-power mining lasers they used to cut asteroid veins, firing off rays of energy in various colors that flickered unsteadily.

Even some small cargo ships turned on all their external floodlights, hoping to use the most primitive light to interfere with the unknown enemy's sensors.

Thousands of attacks converged into a multicolored torrent containing plasma, high-energy particles, solid warheads, and pure light energy.

This torrent carried the final dignity and fury of a civilization, pouring down with thunderous momentum toward that lonely, seemingly petrified silver-white warship.

This was the first interstellar war of the Tigaden people civilization.

But Elder Vorlag knew that this might also be their last.

...

On the bridge of the flagship rathia, Talon's expression remained unchanged, as if waiting to enjoy a primitive sacrifice performed by lower life forms.

"Commander, the sifidia has sent real-time tactical data," Communication Officer Kyle's voice was as steady as a synthetic recording. "The dark matter deflector shield is active; the energy field is stable."

"Enemy attack expected to make contact in 42 minutes."

The sifidia just hovered there quietly, like an eternal reef, waiting for the coming tsunami.

The attack waited a full 42 minutes before arriving.

The first "Stellar Spear" plasma beam slammed into the void hundreds of meters in front of the sifidia's hull.

There was no explosion, no dissipation of energy.

That scorching, violent energy seemed to have struck an absolutely smooth, invisible mirror.

It was refracted in another direction without losing a single shred of energy, grazing an unlucky asteroid and instantly melting it into a mass of twisted lava.

Immediately after, thousands of attacks arrived one after another.

The nuclear bombs detonated before the invisible barrier; their destructive energy was absorbed and smoothed out by an incomprehensible force field, ultimately turning into nothing more than colorful and harmless ripples of energy.

The kinetic warheads seemed to strike a dimensional wall the moment they touched the barrier; their contained kinetic energy was instantly stripped away and reduced to zero, leaving them like powerless stones floating in space.

The mining lasers, like light rays shooting into the deep sea, were rapidly twisted, absorbed, and dissipated into nothingness.

The Tigaden people fleet's relentless, all-out volleys, aside from accidentally hitting a few of their own ships, couldn't even cause the slightest vibration in the hull of the sifidia.

On the bridge of the Starwalker, Elder Vorlag and all his crew stared in stunned silence at the miraculous scene before them.

Their artillery, their roars, their last hope... in front of the opponent, it didn't even count as "tickling."

"Shields? What kind of shields are those?" a young weapons officer muttered to himself, his voice filled with despair. "There's no energy signature, no radiation... it... it's like space itself; it simply cannot be destroyed!"

They finally understood that what they were facing was not a powerful enemy.

But some higher-level law of physics.

On the other side, on the bridge of the rathia.

Talon watched the spectacular "firework show" on the main screen quietly.

Countless attacks struck an invisible, naked-eye-imperceptible barrier hundreds of meters before reaching the hull of the sifidia, then exploded into clusters of brilliant light orbs.

That was the dark matter deflector shield of the sifidia.

"Shield integrity... no decline," Kyle reported in a tone without any ripples. "Hull integrity is at 100%."

Talon's face remained devoid of any expression.

The last shred of scholar-like curiosity and high-civilization benevolence in his deep blue eyes vanished without a trace, like evaporated seawater.

Replaced by a cold will.

He had extended a palm symbolizing peace, only to be bitten hard.

Although it didn't hurt, this was an intolerable provocation and stupidity.

"They responded to our goodwill with attacks."

Talon slowly turned to face all his bridge officers.

"They have declared their hostile stance with their actions."

His voice was colder than absolute zero at the most desolate corner of the universe.

"They are... an obstacle."

"And when facing an obstacle, we only need to do one thing."

"Eliminate it."

He turned to the communication officer.

"Connect to the Supreme Command Center; request to execute 'Protocol No. 4 for Primitive Civilizations'."

Five minutes later, the communication officer nodded to Talon. "Supreme Command Center; Consul Price has personally replied with 'Approved'."

Upon hearing this, Talon continued to issue orders to the fleet.

"Authorize the sifidia to initiate the first phase of the counterattack. Order: Neutralize the threat, but preserve the flagship; we need to interrogate their commander."

"Yes, Commander."

The order arrived instantaneously at the AI core of the sifidia via high-dimensional quantum communication.

This beautiful killing machine finally began its performance.

It did not fire any energy weapons.

Facing the final volley of energy and material reserves that the Tigaden people were preparing, dozens of bud-like devices slowly extended from beneath the hull of the sifidia.

At the tips of these devices, soft, pale blue halos of light lit up.

"What is that?" On the Starwalker, Vorlag stared nervously at the screen.

Just then, the Tigaden people fleet launched their attack.

This time, it was primarily kinetic weapons, as they had realized energy weapons seemed completely ineffective.

They pinned their hopes on the most primitive, pure physical impact to shake that incredible barrier.

Hundreds of electromagnetically accelerated alloy warheads once again formed a barrage of death.

Then, all the Tigaden people witnessed a scene they would never be able to understand or forget in their entire lives.

When those warheads with tracer exhaust flames flew halfway, they... stopped.

It was as if time had been frozen, or as if an invisible giant hand had gripped all these violent instruments of death. They just hovered quietly in the void between the two fleets, like a collection of metal sculptures.

"What happened? A gravitational field?"

"No! Our gravity sensors have no readings! Their kinetic energy has vanished into thin air!"

Immediately after, something even more terrifying happened.

Those stationary warheads suddenly changed direction.

And then, they shrieked toward their own launchers at a speed faster than when they had arrived!

"Evasive maneuvers! All hands, evasive maneuvers!" Vorlag let out a heart-wrenching roar.

But it was all too late.

For those civilian ships that had almost no maneuverability to speak of, there was nowhere to hide.

A massive colony ark had just fired a hundred-ton alloy block with its bow Star-Crusher Cannon, and now, that alloy block was accurately slamming back into its own "home" with the fury of revenge.

The hull of the colony ark was easily ripped open by the shell it had fired itself, creating a huge gash.

Internal decompression occurred; air and debris were violently sucked into the vacuum, forming a silent storm of death.

One ship, two ships, dozens of ships...

The entire Tigaden people fleet was plunged into a bizarre and absurd fratricide.

They were being slaughtered by their own most powerful weapons.

On the sifidia, this weapon was named—the Reversal Force Field.

It was a type of interference force field generator, one of the small achievements of their former "Cosmic Genesis" project.

It didn't generate energy; it only "edited" the laws of physics. It could temporarily reverse the vector direction of kinetic energy within a designated area.

For the Tigaden people, who could only think within the framework of classical physics, this scene was nothing short of divine punishment.

The fundamental law of the universe—physics—had rebelled at this moment.

Facing this eerie and terrifying scene, the last of the Tigaden people's will to fight was completely dismantled by fear.

But instinct drove them to make a final choice.

"Disperse! The fleet must disperse! Charge! Use our hulls to ram them!" Elder Vorlag's eyes were bloodshot. He knew that any long-range attack had already failed.

The history of the tens of thousands of years of war against the alien race on Tigaden B told him—it was time to go and perish together with the enemy.

The two thousand-plus ships no longer maintained formation, and like a swarm of hornets whose nest had been poked, they launched a suicide charge toward the sifidia from all directions.

Colony arks, cargo ships, mining barges... these "homes" that were meant to carry the sparks of civilization had now turned into the most tragic weapons.

Facing this overwhelming "beast tide" made of steel, the sifidia finally revealed its true fangs as a cruiser.

At its bow, the elegant, streamline armor, which looked like a work of art, slid silently to the sides, revealing a main gun with an extremely complex structure, composed of countless nested, rotating black rings.

That was one of the standard main guns of a Far-star cruiser—the Void Beam Generator.

"Commander, the sifidia is about to fire the Void Beam." On the rathia, Kyle reported in a tone of stating facts.

The muzzle did not emit any light.

Only a black "beam," deeper and purer than the surrounding darkness, was fired.

It had no speed.

Because the moment it was fired, it had already reached its target location—the very center of that charging, frenzied fleet.

Time, at this moment, seemed to lose its meaning.

Space, at this moment, let out a painful groan.

With that black "beam" as the center, an irresistible, terrifying gravitational force capable of warping light suddenly erupted.

All ships in the path of the beam were instantly captured by this force.

Their hulls, several kilometers long, did not explode but, like a stretched noodle, were instantly elongated several times over.

The metal constituting the ship hulls let out a silent wail that exceeded the limits of materials science; in an instant, they were torn into atomic form and sucked into the center of that invisible black light.

Immediately after, the range of the black beam began to expand.

One by one, ships were sucked into it.

A silent, magnificent funeral began.

Ships were twisted, stretched, and "spaghettified."

Light formed a perfect Einstein ring around that black light.

The dozens of ships charging in the front were completely decomposed within just a few seconds; all their matter was greedily devoured by that terrifying black light.

Only thirty seconds.

The airspace for millions of kilometers around it had been completely cleared.

Thousands of Tigaden people ships didn't even leave behind a single intact fragment; they just evaporated into thin air.

As if they had never existed.

There was dead silence on the bridge of the Starwalker.

Everyone was staring at the huge, empty circular void in the middle of the fleet on the screen, their minds blank.

That was not war.

It was simply the ancestor who created the world erasing a draft they were unsatisfied with.

Elder Vorlag slumped in his command chair, murky liquid flowing from his insect-like compound eyes.

They were not fighting a fleet.

They were fighting "physics" itself.

Their existence, from the very beginning, was a mistake.

A firefly, attempting to challenge the brilliance of a star, could only result in turning into ash.

"Stop..." He used his last bit of strength to issue the order, "All ships, stop..."

The remaining Tigaden people ships, like puppets whose souls had been drained, shut down their engines one after another, floating desperately in the cold space.

Resistance had lost all meaning.

Vorlag looked at that silver-white warship on the screen, still perfect and unscathed. He knew he had to make a final effort for the last spark of his race.

He stood up, adjusted his worn-out commander uniform, walked to the communication console, and personally opened the most primitive wide-area electromagnetic communication channel.

"This is the flagship of the Tigaden people exile fleet, the Starwalker."

"We... surrender."

On the rathia, Talon listened to the message full of despair and exhaustion translated by the communication officer.

His face still bore no expression.

"Very good," he said indifferently. "Stupid, but at least they know how to assess the situation."

He turned to Kyle.

"Order the sifidia to escort their flagship to rendezvous at our coordinates... never mind, their starship is too slow; we'll go over there ourselves."

"I have some questions that I need to ask the highest person in charge of that civilization in person."

Talon turned around and cast his gaze back toward the direction of the distant Solar System.

This small interlude left no ripples in his heart.

To him, this was just crushing a small bug that was blocking the way during this brief journey.

Nothing more.