Legacy of the Void Fleet

Chapter 422: Ch

A couple of moments ago, aboard the Imperium fleet flagship Indigo Pride...

"Commander! The Orc fortress shields are breached!" one officer shouted.

Hearing that, Kronos didn’t even flinch and calmly ordered, "Continue on with the bombardment. Take those Orc fortresses down."

"Yes, Commander!" the officer replied immediately.

"Commander! Six Orc battleships, twelve battlecruisers, and more are down!"

"Hmmm... impressive. Keep up the momentum. Don’t stop," Kronos grunted before ordering the fleet to continue pushing ahead.

Saying that, he leaned forward and looked beyond the viewport ahead, only to witness, a couple of seconds later, five enormous explosions erupting like flashes of light.

"Commander! The Orc fortresses, all five of them, have been taken down!" the Vice Admiral said excitedly this time.

"Not only that," the Admiral himself added, "we have sunk, if not more than, at least four hundred of their ships and severely damaged another two to three hundred."

As he spoke, he pointed toward the optical imaging display where one could clearly see the current state of the Orc fleet, which was already reorganizing itself despite the heavy and sudden losses.

Kronos didn’t pay much attention to that and instead praised the weapon systems of the ships.

"These weapon systems that we procured from the Void Humans are working exactly as their schematics described... great."

"Indeed, Commander!" the Admiral and Vice Admiral chimed in simultaneously, praising the fleet immensely.

"With such tremendous firepower, we could easily deal with the Orc fleet, and quickly at that!"

"Everyone, now is not the time to celebrate. We still have things to take care of," Kronos stated calmly, even though hints of excitement were clearly visible on his face. Still, none dared point it out and simply nodded.

"Now, since we can finish this from here, target the rest of the remaining Orc fleet. Don’t concentrate all weapons on single ships like during the last round of attacks.

Divide the firepower and quickly take down the Orc fleet in front of us."

"Yes, Commander!" the weapon officer replied.

And during the time they were talking, all the weapon systems had already finished cycling through and charging once more.

Then they fired again.

The attacks rushed forward and just as quickly reached their destination, hammering the Orc fleet ships that were now more prepared, yet at the same time far less formidable after losing their main firepower and reliance.

Many ships had already suffered different kinds of damage to their shields and even their hulls.

The frontal ships had their shields obliterated within only a few attacks launched by the main weapons of the Tier 3 destroyer-class ships before being finished off by the secondary cannons of the battlecruisers just as simply and directly.

The attacks came in quick succession, where the Tier 3 ships’ weapon systems did the heavy lifting while the Tier 2 ships, with their overwhelming numbers, made quick work of the now unprotected hulls, dispatching them one after another.

"Umm...?"

Kronos had a speechless look on his face as he watched the Orc fleet nearly get wiped out in the second round of attacks just like that.

It was like crushing an ant you never even knew was an ant and instead treated as an elephant, only for that so-called elephant to be crushed even more easily than the ant itself.

Something he struggled to accept.

"S-so strong..." the Admiral muttered.

The Vice Admiral and the others had no better reactions either.

"Such destructive capabilities... h-how...?" they all said in disbelief.

Previously, since the attacks had been concentrated on only a few points, such as the fortresses, their quick destruction had mostly been attributed to the concentrated bombardment more than the actual power and destructive capabilities of the weapon systems themselves.

When in reality, the two Indigo-class dreadnoughts alone were already more than enough to handle that task with only half their strength.

And that was why they were all so taken aback now.

This time, the attacks had been distributed across the fleet, yet the damage produced was even more severe and devastating than before combined.

It completely surprised and caught the Imperium fleet off guard, as none of them had ever expected the ships they were sitting on to possess such overwhelming power.

A level they believed definitely surpassed Tier 3... or so they thought.

But while putting that aside, this level of power raised another question.

Where exactly was such destructive force coming from?

Because according to the design parameters, the Indigo-class ships should not have been capable of producing attacks powerful enough to cause this level of destruction.

It was then— Swish! A flash of realization passed through Kronos’s mind.

Quickly, he unleashed his divine senses and scanned the Indigo Pride from the inside out before realizing something shocking.

The weapon systems were actually pulling in ambient mana from the surroundings and using it to enhance their power, thus producing such destructive attacks.

The Admiral and Vice Admiral, who themselves were peak Paragon-ranked beings, also realized this shortly after.

They sucked in deep breaths. "This..."

But they dared not say what was truly on their minds and instead looked toward Kronos, who at some point had become completely serious.

Seeing their gazes, Kronos nodded his head.

"Looks like those Tier 1 forces facing against the Void Fleet are in fact underestimating them. They are far, far more capable and powerful than anyone expected them to be."

Hissss...

Hearing this, the Admiral, Vice Admiral, and the other senior officers all hissed sharply, feeling even more shocked and astonished.

The Minister of Defense couldn’t help but add, "Looks like they are in fact playing around with the Star Empire and the others..."

"Looks like Lord Seer truly guided us toward a path far greater than we realized," the Minister of Education said with excitement visible in his voice. "With such power, do we really need to fear anything anymore? We should cross rivers, oceans, mountains, even the heavens themselves to deepen our partnership with them!"

"Yes..." another senior officer nodded heavily. "Seeing how they have already shown such sincerity by giving us ships of this level of power, a fleet that could rival... no, perhaps truly stand toe-to-toe with the grand old powers of the galaxy..."

"Those Tier 3 superstates..."

"...Those Tier 3 superstates," spoke Kronos with a thoughtful look full of contemplation.

No one had any idea what the prince was truly thinking at this moment.

"Commander, we are about to reach the sixth planet in the Silver Mountain Star System," suddenly the ship onboard AI, Imperius Indigo, announced, breaking Kronos out of his contemplation.

Yet even then, a flicker of light hidden deep within his eyes remained. It was a mixture of planning and deep ambition, something he had long kept buried because of his lack of ability.

But slowly, that was beginning to change.

His very being itself was starting to transform. The reserved nature he once had would not remain forever.

"Hmmm... deploy the mech and starfighter divisions, as well as our left flank, to deal with the surviving ships of the Orc fleet.

At the same time, take care of the Orcs still alive aboard the ships that have already sunk as well.

Meanwhile, keep charging the main weapon systems of the Indigo-class ships and the other Tier 3 vessels, and prepare to break the planetary shields as quickly as possible."

"Yes, Commander!"

...

Just like that, the Imperium fleet led by the Imperium’s First Prince took down the Orc fleet and successfully took over the Silver Mountain Star System.

And not long after, another intense battle broke out when a heavy Orc reinforcement fleet made up of nearly 5,000 ships entered the system and clashed against Kronos’s forces.

The result, however, was even more shocking.

The Orc reinforcement fleet suffered total destruction, while the Imperium fleet only sustained minimal losses.

Thus, after a full hundred years, the Imperium finally dealt a heavy blow to the now far more powerful Orc Clans, seriously harming their foundations and military strength.

And all of it could be attributed to what many believed to be likely peak Tier 3 ships, mechs, starfighters, and other undisclosed technologies.

The article continued:

"Not long after this battle, though hidden intelligence reports, it was brought to light that the Imperium and the Void Fleet are currently in the midst of discussing a deeper level of collaboration between them, which is likely directly related to mining rights, tax concessions, and other undisclosed agreements.

For more updates, please stay tuned to the XXXXX Galactic Report."

The article sent thunderous shockwaves across the galaxy, stunning countless ordinary citizens.

But the ones affected even more were the Tier 2 and Tier 1 powers and even the tier 3 and supere tier 3 powers were not left.

Meanwhile, the Star Empire and several other major forces were left at a complete loss.

At the same time, a few ancient powers that had long remained hidden in the dark began stepping back into the light, finding the current situation favorable for their own reemergence.