Chapter 331: Destroying Kepler

The large screen provided the perspectives of the sixteen teams; they would face the same challenges, and now it depended on what choices and commands the team members would make.

The fleet entered the Swan Constellation and had not been sailing long before encountering a drifting meteorite belt. Some chose to detour, while others used firepower to clear a path. The top three teams all chose to detour; although time was pressing, they could not be blind or hasty. Striking the meteorite cluster would consume the fleet's energy and ammunition, and the results were not guaranteed—there were too many uncertainties.

Although it was just a competition, commanding a massive fleet still gave one a feeling of immense pride. The team members in every department were standing by in full readiness. At this moment, it was the commander's world; as a fleet commander, one was a supreme existence. In interstellar navigation, the fleet commander's orders were the highest law.

The commander of the Galaxy Team, Dan, did not have many smiles. "All team members, stay on high alert. The difficulty of this competition is different from previous years; it will definitely give us a surprise in the end."

The team members were fully focused, and the broadcast director was also very sensible in giving the perspective of Galaxy. No one expected that the Galaxy Team, which already possessed such a large lead, could still be so cautious, not giving their opponents even a sliver of a chance. This was why they deserved to take the championship. Within Galaxy Academy, the students gathered in front of the large screen were chatting and laughing; never underestimate the heart of a champion. The powerful genes of Galaxy Academy had forged one strong individual after another, and they were already somewhat impatient for the victory parade.

First take the Starship S Tournament, then take the Mecha S-Tournament; Galaxy Academy was the number one academy in the universe.

After dodging the meteorite cluster, the interstellar voyage became calm, but soon everyone realized that the second challenge should be coming soon, yet it was very quiet. What would it be?

The fleets that chose to detour were all very fast and remained in the first echelon in terms of propulsion. It was those who wanted to gamble that gambled themselves away. Suddenly, the Galaxy fleet, the Eternal fleet, and the Tianxing fleet slowed down one after another. Such a massive fleet.

Other fleets, led by North Caro, were still sailing because they were in a hurry, and currently, space was peaceful, so they did not want to miss the opportunity to create a miracle. J.

Soon, an anomaly appeared; a terrifying gravitational force suddenly emerged in space. A massive gravity tide swept over, causing chaos and blaring alarms. The large screen began to scan; the thing interstellar fleets feared most had appeared: a black hole!

And it was a static black hole. This type of black hole carried no charge and no rotation, quietly waiting for prey to approach like an abyss. It was impossible to guard against, and by the time it was discovered, the prey could hardly escape.

In essence, one rarely encountered such extreme situations during normal navigation, and general sailing speeds would also avoid them. Clearly, this competition was somewhat targeted; even this one-in-ten-thousand probability had appeared. J.

At this time, it was a matter of luck. Some fleets were moving too fast and were directly sucked in, unable to break free at all. Others cautiously deployed reconnaissance planes, but they also failed to escape in time. Although the reconnaissance planes suddenly lost signal, the commanders did not immediately analyze the danger from the information.

The commander of the North Caro fleet, Ni Anliang, reacted very promptly. The moment the reconnaissance planes lost contact, he had the fleet slow down, and it was this judgment that allowed North Caro to escape the black hole.

It was not that other fleets were unwilling to slow down; during a fleet's normal navigation, the consumption caused by slowing down or stopping without sufficient reason was enormous. Misjudgments were all point deductions, especially in rescue situations.

The four fleets from ROM were completely wiped out. The Martians were just risking their lives; after falling behind, they stopped caring about anything. They were completely unaware of such an ambush, and when they realized the situation was wrong, they could only curse.

The Martian team members whose fleets were destroyed had dejected expressions, and some were cursing in unwillingness. They were gone before even fighting the Giant Insects head-on; it was too frustrating, leaving their ferocity with nowhere to be unleashed. Despicable and shameless Moon People, cowardly Earthlings, and stupid TAS.

Although North Caro luckily escaped, the fleet also suffered considerable losses, as did their energy. They also lost two Pangu-class Strategic Ships. This rescue felt very dangerous; after all, judging by the current difficulty, the Giant Insects they would wait for were definitely not playing around.

It was all thanks to the contrast of their peers that the three NUP fleets were preserved, their performance nothing short of perfect, bypassing the black hole without loss. The Galaxy Team members looked at Dan Emperor with admiration. Anluo Dan was also a Golden Gene awakener and possessed a powerful premonition of crisis. With his rich knowledge base, combined with even the slightest fluctuation on the star map, he could make a judgment. They were the first to react, so they were currently in the lead in terms of speed.

As for Gelan of Eternal Academy, he read the abnormality in the gravity curve. This change was very subtle, especially since changes occurred when entering any star sector in the universe, and there were experts in this field in the Eternal Team—experts in gravitational wave judgment. Of course, there was also a certain element of game theory involved, and at the same time, they believed it was highly likely that a black hole would appear in this S Tournament. They anticipated it, and they succeeded.

What was surprising was the Tianxing Team, which actually also dodged the static black hole, and it was from the judgment of the commander Arths. Because they did not understand the personnel and capability reserves of Tianxing, there was no way to know how she judged it.

Now only the three major teams of NUP were still advancing. The speed difference between the three fleets was not large. At this time, what they were competing on was how to complete the rescue mission.

The three fleets entered the Kepler Star Sector. The star that Kepler belonged to was much larger than the sun, emitting powerful energy in space and also breeding the powerful creatures of Kepler.

In space, countless Giant Insects appeared. Of course, the human fleet had encountered them long ago and had suffered losses, but compared to the scale before their eyes, it was completely dwarfed. This test actually significantly strengthened the number of Giant Insects, though the data on the types of Giant Insects was not exaggerated.

With this scale and this massive amount of Giant Insects, especially since the Giant Insects also had biological energy cannons on the ground—this type of energy projectile, similar to human missiles that could pass through the atmosphere, was also a great threat to the fleet.

The mission began: eliminate the Giant Insects and save Kepler Base.

The fleet opened fire. Countless Giant Insect Brood Mothers floating in space released countless winged Silicon-based Giant Insects that pounced on the human warships. The bone spurs sprayed from their mouths could pierce the armor of the warships, and there were also dense swarms of bomb insects. Silicon-based life possessed survival capabilities far exceeding carbon-based life, still running rampant in space.

The battle was extremely intense. At the same time, the competition information also began a countdown. The human ground base was also suffering from the attack of the Giant Insects. If they could not rescue them within the stipulated time, this rescue would fail. The three human fleets faced a huge test, which was also a heavy test of the commanders' strategies and psychology.

The commanders of the three major fleets did not rush because of this time, but observed the overall battle situation. The strength of both sides was equal, but the Giant Insects were fighting on their home turf, and time was not on their side.

Looking at the combat power, the Galaxy Team was currently still in the lead, followed by the Eternal Team, and third was the Tianxing Team; the latter two were not much different. The overall combat command and precision of the Galaxy Team were frighteningly high.

In fact, given the current situation, with everyone choosing the same, the Galaxy Team was still the undisputed champion.

And the other teams had already withdrawn from the competition; compared to the performance of these three teams, they were already unqualified.

The three remaining commanders were also evaluating the battle situation. There was less than one Earth hour left. The enemy was endless, and many Brood Mothers were rising from Kepler, looking like dense balloons from afar, continuously replenishing their space combat power.

It felt like this was not a rescue test, but a suicide test. It was impossible to rescue them; this was an impossible mission.

The three team leaders also faced a choice: if the rescue was bound to fail, what should they do?

Since the exchange of fire began, the fleet's losses had been increasing rapidly. Everyone had a considerable understanding of the combat power of the Giant Insects during their usual training, but the number this time was too large, and there were Brood Mothers constantly rising from Kepler. This was a problem that simply could not be solved.

At this time, countless spectators were also watching. Even ordinary spectators could see that it was basically hopeless, but there were many aspects to the test. How should the commander decide? The mission was to rescue, but knowing that rescue was impossible, should they let the team members die in a desperate struggle or preserve their strength?

If they preserved their strength, all the humans on Kepler would be abandoned.

No matter which choice they made, it was actually very difficult, and they had to bear the responsibility.

At this time, the high-level officials from the Solar System Alliance were also watching the choices of these young elites. Although it was just a competition, they could judge quite a few things.

Time did not drag on for long. The leader of the Eternal Team, Ace, was the first to make a choice. He believed that this rescue plan was a failure; the preparatory work was insufficient, and the strength of the Giant Insects was seriously underestimated. In a situation where the rescue was bound to fail, they should choose to retreat decisively to preserve their combat strength, rather than consuming the vital forces of humanity.

After making a global judgment, Ace Gela began to order the fleet to retreat.

Preserving strength was not running away; it was also a helpless choice.

The remaining two fleets had not yet made the choice to retreat. If the final judgment was that it was unfeasible, and they also buried the entire fleet, it would be a greater failure. From a certain perspective, Ace's choice was more decisive. After paying a certain sacrifice, the Eternal fleet successfully preserved its main force and withdrew.

At this step, the Eternal Team's competition was also over; what remained was to wait for the evaluation of the judging panel.

The team members could watch the choices of the remaining two fleets. It was clear that both the Galaxy fleet and the Tianxing fleet decided to look for another opportunity; they had not given up yet. Currently, it would still take some time for the Giant Insects' support troops to arrive at the battlefield from the Kepler ground, and the encirclement had not yet formed.

Galaxy's Dan looked at the intense space battlefield with a cold expression, the battle damage reports constantly ringing in his ears, along with the endless stream of enemies emerging.

The Galaxy fleet adopted the most difficult Bolonov Roller Formation, constantly grinding and killing with the Giant Insect swarms. The battlefield was like a giant meat grinder, but this situation could not continue. The Giant Insects were endless, while the human fleet had no reinforcements; this was the drawback of cross-star-sector combat.

"Kashu, you command eighteen destroyers to provide cover. Spare no cost to buy time; execute the Kepler destruction plan!" Dao Anluo Dan said in a deep voice.

"Yes, Commander!"

All members of the Galaxy Team remained calm, coolly assigning tasks.

The formation of the Galaxy fleet began to change. A portion of the warships pulled out, all drones were deployed, and space mechas flew out to cover the Loki Aircraft Carrier as it approached the sky above Kepler. Meanwhile, the countless Giant Insects clearly realized something and launched a frantic counterattack.

The Galaxy fleet displayed superb command and decisiveness. Without any hesitation, warships were constantly destroyed, and the remaining warships took their places in turn. Sacrifice was inevitable; this was a suicide mission.

Anluo Dan's choice was to perish together.

At this stage, retreating would only lead to being hunted down and wiped out by the Giant Insects. Having missed the first opportunity to retreat, Anluo Dan had already prepared for the final move: if they could not save the humans on Kepler, then destroy Kepler and completely annihilate the enemy.

As a fleet commander, he was willing to give everything for humanity; his own life was not worth mentioning.

The Loki Aircraft Carrier continued to advance under the cover of the team, and the terrifying Forbidden Planetary Weapon was also being prepared—the Janibekov Cannon.

This was the ultimate human Forbidden Weapon that could change a planet's rotation axis. Any rotating object in three dimensions had three axes. The Janibekov Cannon was meant to change one of the planet's rotation axes, causing the planet's rotation to become chaotic. By then, Kepler would become a hell for life. This was a planetary-level equivalent weapon far exceeding any nuclear weapon.

Dan's judgment was that Kepler already threatened human civilization; destroying it was the best protection.

On the other side, the situation of the Tianxing mechas was even worse. Arths observed the battle situation with full concentration. A planetary weapon was one choice, but once used, the Kepler planet would no longer be a paradise for humanity's future, but would turn into a hell, and at the same time, the humans on Kepler would all be exterminated.

Is this a dead end?

That shouldn't be; any intelligent life form must have a command structure, and the life pattern of Silicon-based Giant Insects is even more so. They are just like ants; the low-level Giant Insects are entirely soldier ants. The core of this rescue mission is to find the Brain Insect of the space Giant Insect swarm.

The problem is that intelligent life will certainly hide itself. How can one find the Brain Insect among a massive, countless swarm of Giant Insects?

The Giant Insects all look exactly the same, filling the sky and covering the earth. The signal transmission of Giant Insects is different from that of Humans; this kind of biological ripple is something Human scientists have yet to master, let alone detect.

Likewise, in the many years of battling the Giant Insects, Humans have also learned that Giant Insects are extremely adept at camouflage and hunting. This is known from the low-level Lurking Giant Insects; Mimicry and camouflage are their habitual methods, and the higher the level of the Giant Insect, the more cunning it is. For a swarm of this scale, it would be no exaggeration to say they have become spirits.

The Brain Insect is definitely on the battlefield, but unless one turns into a Giant Insect, how would one know?