The insectoids of today were no longer the insectoids of fifteen years ago. Relying on the genes of Haig and other high-tier purgatory lifeforms, the entire race had ushered in a frenzy of evolution.
And all of this was hidden deep within the Boötes Constellation Void by Aliya, not exposed to the Federation.
Perhaps, on the surface, the insectoids still looked the same as before, with not much change in strength. At most, they had recovered a lot of soldiers.
However, just in front of Aliya right now, there were eight Tier 7 Imperial Insectoids. Compared to fifteen years ago, the overall strength of the insectoids had risen by several levels.
However, even so, Aliya still didn't have much confidence in defeating the Federation. Not to mention the current Federation, she didn't even have much confidence in the Federation fifteen years ago.
In her original plan, the insectoids would have to develop for at least a hundred years before they had the strength to contend with the Federation. However, Lin Fan had suddenly shed all pretense of cordiality, leaving her in a rather passive position.
However, no matter how passive she was, she could only brace herself.
Aliya was very clear that since Lin Fan had begun to act, he must have sealed off all her escape routes. Now, she had no other choice but to fight to the death.
"We can't continue like this. Being scattered won't be able to stop the human's attack. Gather the entire race and immediately gather at the Newman Galaxy Group! "
"Yes, Empress!"
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The Netherworld Fleet cleared the path and destroyed the insectoids' command system. Then, the regular fleet followed up and cleaned up the insectoids that had lost their commander. The Federation fleet relied on this strategy to advance with unstoppable momentum.
In just a month, they had already taken down three galaxy groups, occupying about twenty percent of the insectoid territory.
Originally, it was only three galaxy groups, so it was impossible to occupy twenty percent of a large Super Star Cluster. However, the Wills Special Super Star Cluster was very special. More than a hundred thousand years ago, the insectoids had fought against the Saint Dimensional Empire, destroying eighty percent of the entire Super Star Cluster, resulting in the formation of the Boötes Constellation Void.
Therefore, there were only fifteen galaxy groups in the entire Wills Special Super Star Cluster.
Outskirts of Boötes Constellation, Newman Galaxy Group.
Due to the existence of the Boötes Galaxy Void, the remaining 15 Galaxy Clusters in the Wills Super Cluster were all located around this void. Newman was the only Galaxy Cluster that cut off the entire outer ring of the Super Cluster. It was also a strategic location that the Federation fleet had to take down if they wanted to continue moving forward.
Of course, there was another way, and that was to circle around the outer circle of Boötes Constellation. However, with all the insectoids gathered here, even if they circled around, they would not be able to avoid a decisive battle in Newman.
As the saying went, it was better to fight early than late. Since they were going to fight a decisive battle, they would accompany the insectoids to Newman's place and fight a battle that would decide the outcome of the entire battle.
Therefore, not only were the insectoids gathering, but the Federation was also gathering.
At this moment, more than eighty standard galaxy clusters had been assembled in the Weisthro galaxy cluster adjacent to Newman.
War … was about to break out.
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At the same time, at the ocean current node leading to the Neil Kea Supercluster, Jerez.
"Commander, we've detected an abnormal energy fluctuation in the ocean current. Something is about to arrive through the ocean current. Based on the fluctuation, there should be quite a number of them!"
"Sound the Level 1 Combat Alert. Regardless of whether it's the Purgatory Army or not, we'll use all our firepower to lock it down!"
"Understood!"
Although the Federation's technology was unable to monitor the ocean current, based on their years of research and analysis of the energy fluctuations emitted by the ocean current, it was still possible to calculate that something was about to arrive through the ocean current. Even if they could not accurately determine what it was, at least there would be a warning, right?
As for whether it was the Purgatory Army or not?
Lin Kexin did not care. At this critical moment, even if it was the Ambassador of Peace, she would still blast it to smithereens.
After all, the key to defending the ocean current was to not give the enemy a chance to rush out too many troops. Otherwise, once the enemy formed a solid bridgehead, the rest of the army would be able to gather relatively safely.
When that time came, the defense line would not be far from being breached.
Therefore, Lin Kexin did not have the time to play the game of questioning and warning with the enemy. She did not say anything and directly opened fire, not giving the enemy any chance to rush out and form a formation. This was the safest way.
"They're here!"
A few minutes later, following a loud shout from the bridge intelligence team, Lin Kexin's eyes narrowed. She stared at the surveillance image of the ocean current in front of her. A large number of warships flew out from it.
"Hmm?"
Looking at the target on the screen, Lin Kexin made a puzzled sound.
No matter how she looked at it, it was a battleship from a technological civilization and not a biological army from the Purgatory.
However, Lin Kexin would not stop the attack because of this. At this critical moment, not a single mistake could be made.
"All battleships and defense platforms, immediately open fire and form a firepower net to block the ocean current's exit."
"Understood!"
Because the ocean current's exit was only so big, even if they were separated by a distance of 1AU, and after removing the area occupied by the defense platforms, at most two galactic clusters could be deployed in a hemispherical shape.
Therefore, five galactic clusters could not be deployed on the defense line at the same time. Three of them could only be used as reserves.
Under Lin Kexin's command, two billion dreadnoughts and over 100 million of the Federation's newest generation of firepower support platforms launched an attack at the ocean current's exit. The powerful attacks immediately formed an airtight firepower net that completely enveloped the fleet of the unknown forces.
However, the effect of this attack made Lin Kexin frown deeply.
It was not that the attacks were ineffective. Just the wave of attacks just now had indeed wiped out the first batch of hundreds of thousands of battleships that rushed out.
But the problem was that the destruction that Lin Kexin expected did not happen. Instead, each battleship withstood at least five to six attacks before finally being destroyed.
This was very abnormal.
That's right, it was abnormal at all!
It should be known that after the Fearless fleet was upgraded, they had fully utilized the technology of a level-9 technological civilization.
Compared to the previous generation of dreadnoughts, the biggest difference was that a level-9 civilization had developed the use of dark energy to a certain extent. Even if they did not use dark energy manipulators to activate it, they could successfully use dark energy to attack and defend with their technology alone.
Of course, there was still a gap compared to the dark energy manipulators. After all, without the Federation's dark energy support calculation device, and without the help of dark energy manipulators, they could only write a fixed calculation program in the device beforehand.
In other words, unlike the Federation's dark energy manipulators, they could not rely on the calculation device to choose different attack methods according to the situation.
Even so, this was still a true dark energy attack, and the enemy could withstand at least five to six attacks before being destroyed. How could Lin Kexin not be surprised?
"Commander, according to the data analysis, the enemy's battleship shield is the same as our dark energy shield!"
"
That means … the enemy is a level-9 technological civilization?"
Hearing this, Lin Kexin's frown deepened.