Ship BI138.
The moment it exited evasion state, all the soldiers aboard were still processing the previous events.
They were utterly desperate because Tourmaline's decision signaled the annihilation of their entire vessel.
While their thoughts were in chaos, the DataNode transmitted data to all their terminals.
[Destination reached. Unknown warships detected nearby. All personnel prepare for immediate combat.]
The DataNode was incapable of processing complex data; its warning was starkly minimal.
Nevertheless, this served as a sudden shock to every soldier.
"It's over!"
"We're finished!"
"We're all going to die!"
Such simple, unadorned thoughts flooded everyone's minds.
Only one person, Tourmaline, after hearing this information, shouted: "All soldiers prepare to attack!"
"Right now, the enemy warships and ships haven't reacted. Deploying their shields requires a finite amount of time. Attack, attack!"
She waved her tentacles, her thick appendages rotating rapidly, resembling helicopter blades.
The other soldiers aboard had no alternative.
They could re-enter evasion state now, but the calibration process would take too long. Preparations would consume several hours, and by that time, the enemy's offensive volley would already be upon them.
So, they might as well charge forward.
Every soldier carried their own inherent desires. Though desperate, they were ready to stand their ground.
At this juncture, the ship's weapon systems were fully armed.
One main cannon, four secondary cannons, plus sixty-two small cannons, all unleashed their ordnance simultaneously.
Energy erupted.
They targeted the relatively close ships that were still caught in confusion.
The primary defensive protocol for a vessel is inherently energy-based defense. However, deploying such energy shielding typically requires anywhere from half an hour to two hours, depending on the ship's design. Generally, this grants ample time on an interstellar battlefield, as interactions often span several hours or even days between initial detection and final engagement.
But evasion-type ships ignored those conventional rules.
They closed the distance directly, approaching within hundreds of thousands of kilometers.
Hundreds of thousands of kilometers, for a laser weapon, translates to a travel time of merely one or two seconds.
From the appearance of Ship BI138 to its opening salvo, only five minutes had elapsed. These ships and warships belonging to Flaorse and the Ynun Star Nation were caught completely flat-footed and were instantly struck.
Moreover, Ship BI138 was still in a state of high-velocity transit. Its speed was incredibly fast; enemy targeting systems, at such close range, simply could not achieve a stable lock.
In an instant, four ships were destroyed, and one warship suffered a catastrophic breach.
This warship was Binom's vessel, the closest to the attacking unit.
It cried out in alarm, as the attack missed it by mere hundreds of meters.
Calm?
In this situation, composure was impossible.
As a void-class vessel highly anticipated by Luna, the sheer firepower of Ship BI138 was beyond dispute.
For the initial half-hour engagement, the enemy remained entirely in a passive defense posture.
Damage rapidly escalated from the initial four destroyed vessels to 2,700 ships impacted.
The density of vessels in this sector was extremely high. Often, a laser, upon striking one ship, would pierce straight through and then impact a second vessel behind it.
Initially, the soldiers aboard Ship BI138 had been wallowing in despair.
Upon witnessing such gratifying results, they became utterly energized, attacking frantically, like players engaged in a fast-paced game—pew pew pew!
However, as soon as the first half-hour passed, the tide began to reverse.
At this critical moment, those ships possessing activated defense layers charged toward Ship BI138. Their initial priority was not to strike back, but to immediately employ gravitational devices to clear the debris of surrounding destroyed ships and warships, thus clearing firing lanes for their rear armaments.
Ship BI138, regardless of its current velocity, was now completely exposed to the enemy's weapons arrays.
Less than 10 seconds later, a laser struck Ship BI138.
Ship BI138 sustained damage, which instantly reverted all the soldiers back to their original, demoralized forms.
Despair spread once more.
Tourmaline, at this moment, seemed to finally awaken fully, shouting: "Evade! Evade!"
But where was there space left to maneuver?
Her commands seemed to fall on deaf ears.
However, Tourmaline then indicated a specific point: the massive pile of wreckage that Ship BI138 had just obliterated. After being swept clear, the debris was conveniently gathered into a single, large mass. Hiding within that wreckage might offer a desperate chance.
"No, we cannot decelerate! That location is far too small!" the soldier operating the ship retorted.
"What do you mean, no? You fools! I mean for you to crash directly into it!"
Tourmaline lost patience. She moved directly to the soldier, yanked him up, and took control of the ship herself.
The vessel immediately shifted its vector, hurtling toward that pile of wreckage.
A high-speed collision at this velocity would instantly shatter the entire ship.
But Tourmaline seemed utterly unconcerned.
At the ship's speed of 180,000 km/s, impacting the wreckage pile would take only a few seconds. As Tourmaline piloted toward it, she yelled: "Gravitational weapon!"
The soldier responsible for the gravitational weapon, acting almost purely on muscle memory, hit the activation button.
The gravitational weapon fired.
The resulting gravity field immediately compressed that mass of wreckage—which had already been crushed once by Flaorse's own warships—again. It was compacted into a dense, spherical metallic asteroid.
At that instant, the ship, under Tourmaline's precise control, executed a maneuver to narrowly dodge this massive metallic sphere.
"Link the ship's gravity to the metallic sphere's gravity."
Tourmaline issued the next command.
The soldier complied without question.
Following the gravity link, the ship began to rapidly revolve around the metallic sphere.
The sphere had a diameter of just over 2,000 meters. Initially, the ship's orbital radius around it was 100,000 km. After barely a dozen seconds, the flight radius shortened to only 10,000 km, and it continued to shrink.
It spun rapidly around the metallic sphere, and the sphere, tethered by the gravitational link—its relationship with the ship mimicking tidal locking—also spun faster and faster.
Half a minute later,
both the ship's and the metallic sphere's rotational velocities reached their zenith. At this point, the ship was nearly skimming just 10 km from the metallic sphere's surface.
The metallic sphere's rotational velocity increased to a terrifying 2,604 revolutions per second.
"Is the Captain trying to use centrifugal force to achieve acceleration?" a soldier exclaimed in surprise.
If acceleration was truly successful, they might stand a chance of escaping the enemy fleet.
"What nonsense! You haven't even studied properly! Don't you understand the conservation of angular momentum? Centrifugal force itself doesn't provide net acceleration. Instead, it serves to obscure the direction we intend to jump next. With our current speed, we could be a vast distance away in just one minute."
"But what purpose does that serve? Even if we fly tens of millions of kilometers away, under enemy bombardment, we would still meet certain doom."
The soldiers remained uncertain of Tourmaline's ultimate objective.
As the ship continued its violent rotation, the internal cohesive force of the central metallic sphere reached its critical limit, and the immense inertial forces tore the entire sphere apart.
Seeing the metallic sphere about to collapse, Tourmaline shouted: "Open the ship's hatches! Everyone, abandon ship immediately!"
At this moment, everyone finally grasped Tourmaline's true intention.
Once the metallic sphere detonated, a vast amount of debris would be hurled outwards at hypersonic speeds. The crew, evacuating the vessel at that exact moment, would be flung clear by the immense inertial force. Under the cover of this wreckage, they would remain undetected for a significant duration. Even after discovery, they would be millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, of kilometers away. Furthermore, each individual was minuscule, nearly imperceptible, and if spotted, the enemy would still face the daunting task of distinguishing a person from the fragments.
The soldiers could never have conceived of such a desperate plan originating from Tourmaline.
They had no time for contemplation.
The metallic sphere shattered rapidly, and they each jettisoned from the vessel.
The last soldier to evacuate turned and cast a glance back at Tourmaline. He yelled toward her: "Captain, let's go!"
Tourmaline remained silent, as if she hadn't heard him.
Only once the final soldier had cleared the ship did Tourmaline directly manipulate its course, exiting its rotational stabilization and charging straight toward a nearby enemy vessel.
In reality, the entire execution, from decision to completion, spanned barely over a minute.
The enemy's initial volley of attacks had been evaded by Tourmaline flying toward the mass of wreckage. At this juncture, the second wave of bombardment was incoming. Tourmaline's maneuver was virtually indistinguishable from a suicide run.
The ship was struck by dozens of laser beams, and the entire vessel instantly disintegrated into countless fragments.
The assault was not yet over.
A small-scale gravitational weapon was deployed. All fragments were violently sucked back together, compressed by gravity into another metallic sphere, and utterly annihilated.
...
In a distant sector of space.
Set against the backdrop of the starry expanse, an invisible, transparent fleet was making rapid headway.
Their speed had been pushed to its absolute limit.
The initial velocity of 103,832 km/s had now escalated to 108,276 km/s, closing in on 110,000 km/s.
Per Luna's directive, the fleet had maintained a continuous, evasive detour. They calculated it would require another 48 years to potentially intercept the enemy fleet.
Luna theorized this journey should be relatively undisturbed. The scouting vessels she had deployed were certainly expected to be detected, thereby drawing the enemy's focus.
So, why would Luna choose this protracted course?
Because this conflict was fundamentally a game of calculated pursuit. The enemy would undoubtedly be hypersensitive to evasion-capable vessels. If Luna pursued directly, she would necessitate prolonged observation from an adequately close range before the void-class ship could initiate its evasion state and draw nearer.
By that time, the enemy would have surely noticed them, and worse, they would have identified the main fleet.
Should they then enter evasion state while the enemy was already preparing for engagement, upon exiting evasion, the enemy would possess the initiative. Their meticulously planned ambush would be rendered entirely ineffective.
Such a complication arose precisely with the advent of the 7-sensitivity-level detector. Were it not for this, Luna would have certainly enacted the original, direct pursuit plan.
The appearance of the 7-sensitivity-level detector signaled the enemy's heightened prioritization of their rear echelon.
Although they managed to neutralize the detector first, this only ensured the enemy remained ignorant of their precise fleet numbers.
The detector was designed to transmit encrypted signals at regular intervals. Lacking the time or capability to perfectly simulate this complex signal, it was only a matter of time before the enemy ascertained their presence.
Indeed, Luna had initially contemplated simply maneuvering around the detector at that juncture, rather than damaging it.
However, doing so would inevitably consume a significant amount of valuable time, and they had no guarantee the enemy hadn't deployed further detection arrays.
If bypassing the system was the eventual outcome regardless, they might as well proceed directly with the engagement.
The current strategy was far from flawless.
It was the necessary outcome of multiple tactical compromises.
From the initial decision to head toward the Bmen star system, problems at Bmen forced a revision, compelling them to detour around the flank, leading to plan after plan being revised.
But this was warfare!
No one could infallibly foresee the future; they could only continually adjust and modify their approach according to the fluid realities on the battlefield.
Even so, the unexpected occurred once more.
The BI13 squadron, which had been sent ahead as scouts, relayed critical intelligence: ship BI138, disregarding standing orders, had independently initiated an attack on the enemy.
Another unpredictable variable.
"BI138, I recall that's the ship that charged furthest ahead, correct?"
Luna's expression remained unreadable.
The secretary, momentarily assuming her superior might be suppressing a surge of fury, felt a ripple of nervousness.
"Yes."
"Is there any more detailed information available?" Luna continued her inquiry.
The secretary quickly searched the logs. The database aboard the void-class warship was not extensive and couldn't store such specific personnel details. However, someone within the BI General Squadron possessed some contextual information regarding Tourmaline.
In fact, if it weren't for this squadron lacking anyone with a rank higher than Captain, a captain's background file should be very easy to retrieve.
This is because high-ranking officials there often kept a portion of their subordinates' information siloed away.
In truth, this task should have been Luna's responsibility, but Luna had neglected it, marking it as an oversight on her part.
The secretary handed the information he possessed about Tourmaline over to Luna.
She was just a regular soldier, but one who had served under Tourmaline.
From this soldier's perspective, Tourmaline was an entirely different individual from the one the previous secretary had described.
"Tourmaline is incredibly devoted to every soldier. She exhausts herself trying to ensure everyone returns safely from every mission. If someone perishes, she carries an immense burden of guilt."
"Many people call Tourmaline a fanatic, but we know she isn't truly mad; in fact, she is exceptionally kind."
"We inquired about Tourmaline's past, and she remained silent, but once, when she was intoxicated, she disclosed a small fragment."
"Even in this advanced era, not everyone possesses genuine kindness. Ah… actually, most people lean toward malice. Only children under the age of 100 might still question their conscience for wrongdoing. Older individuals have experienced too many such compromises; they become desensitized—that is the so-called 'older and worse' phenomenon."
"Tourmaline is a pure native of the Rusty Star Nation. She was born here. Back then, the Rusty Star Nation was still very small, deeply chaotic. The fate of children was precarious, especially those born into destitution. Children, generally speaking, were viewed as mere sustenance."
"For certain factions, resistance from their 'food supply' was unacceptable. Usually, they would handle the issue internally, but Tourmaline was exceptionally intelligent, making her quite troublesome. Consequently, those individuals dispatched mechanical guards to handle her. No matter how sharp Tourmaline's mind was, within half an hour, she was apprehended."
"Then most of her memories were transferred to Prison Star, a chaotic location filled with deviants and fiends. We don't know what Tourmaline endured there, but she emerged truly kind."
"Sometimes she makes questionable choices, but that falls within the realm of normal human error."
"I sincerely hope that Miss CEO does not reprimand her too harshly. If she made a reckless decision, there must have been a compelling reason."
A kind, ordinary person.
Luna could perceive the sincerity embedded in those words. If that soldier was truthful, then who was it that caused Tourmaline to become "mad"?
Not just in nomenclature, but also in the decisions Tourmaline was making currently.
"Secretary, is it you again?" Luna suddenly tilted her head and inquired.
The secretary swiftly shook his head.
"I also do not believe it was Tourmaline."
Luna suspected the true instigator was within the fleet, holding a status higher than Tourmaline's—to the degree that Tourmaline would obediently follow their directive.
"Do you have internal audio frequency data for BI138?"
The secretary nodded instantly.
"Yes!"
He retrieved the data and sent it to Luna.
Luna listened to Tourmaline's mention of her.
"It seems she greatly admires you, Miss CEO!" the secretary remarked.
In his tone, it certainly sounded that way.
But Luna perceived something else entirely.
"That isn't admiration; it's a form of mockery. She actually looks down on me. She is merely utilizing my name as a means of provocation."
"She wanted me to acknowledge her true self, yet she sought to prove something to me. It's almost as if she's trying to demonstrate: 'I was incorrect'?"
"It seems it can only be you, Secretary. If it wasn't you, then who else could have altered her perception of me?"
Luna once again fixed her gaze upon her secretary.
This winged Lelera species had struggled immensely to attain his current position.
"Everyone possesses a past they reflect upon with surprise or shock. In truth, I am quite lenient with those who have a verifiable history."
"However, if that past directly intersects with the present, then an old record is no longer just a record, wouldn't you agree?"
The secretary nodded, smiling, and stated: "That is precisely the case."
"But Miss CEO, it truly wasn't me. I don't even know her."
He vehemently denied the accusation.
Luna shifted her gaze away.
The secretary initially believed he had escaped jeopardy, but Luna then spoke: "I possess the ability to control everything within the Rusty Star Nation. Everyone calls me the true sovereign of the Rusty Star Nation, and there is a sound reason for that title."
"When I choose to retrieve your memories, they will calmly unfold for me to read."
"Deception cannot fool me."
"If you were merely a peripheral figure, I wouldn't bother with punishment, as it would hold no consequence for me."
"But you are my secretary. You, pursuing your own agenda, actively influenced a conflict that determined the survival of the entire Star Nation. This constitutes your transgression."
"Therefore… depart."
The moment the word "depart" was uttered, the secretary's entire body disintegrated into particles, vanishing eternally.
Luna paid it no mind. She simply appointed another individual to serve as her secretary.
...
The name of the former secretary was Pumos, a person originating from what was once a slum district.
Rusty's history was marked by profound destitution; it was a desperate period.
Cannibalism was a common practice.
Wasn't this an age of advanced technology? One could even convert solar energy directly into sustenance.
But even that required sophisticated technological apparatus. Such logic was akin to proclaiming during a famine, "There is clearly arable land nearby; why not cultivate crops to feed yourselves?"
In times of scarcity, the affluent hoarded food, even feeding undesirable scraps to their animals. This era mirrored that reality. Even if advanced technology existed in a famine-stricken zone, it would remain firmly in the hands of the elite. The wealthy would sooner destroy the apparatus than surrender a single portion of provisions to the impoverished.
At that time, Rusty was precisely such an era.
Extremely chaotic.
The so-called destitute were essentially mere instruments of production, brought in by coercion.
Before the establishment of the Rusty Star Nation, the wealthy elite would rationalize: "How can a star nation with only a few million people possibly endure? Let's forcibly bring in hundreds of millions of people from various sectors, or clone hundreds of millions using cloning technology, to inflate the population numbers so the city doesn't appear sparsely populated."
The poor were effectively just background scenery within the city. They were comparable to those non-player characters in games who never receive quests and whose names don't even register when approached.
And even among the city's impoverished, there existed stratification: the strong and the weak.
Pumos was once considered one of the strong, though "strong" here must be placed in quotation marks. He was arguably just a low-ranking soldier in the faction of the powerful individuals.
He derived pleasure from tormenting the weaker ones.
Tourmaline was one such victim.
At that time, he and Tourmaline developed a bitter feud. Tourmaline desperately sought to end him, but he consistently sheltered behind his elder brother, denying Tourmaline any opportunity for retribution.
He was also instrumental in having Tourmaline incarcerated.
Time passed swiftly.
In fact, Pumos had almost entirely forgotten about Tourmaline. He joined the military and settled into a comfortable existence.
That is, until he heard Tourmaline's name again, only to discover she was now assigned to the same military unit as him.
At that moment, he was gripped by profound fear. If Tourmaline discovered his role, retaliation would be certain.
He then began discreetly investigating, culminating in a wicked scheme that took root in his heart just as Tourmaline began establishing her own family. He abducted Tourmaline's relatives, relocating them to a location entirely devoid of communication signals, rendering Tourmaline's police reports utterly useless.
He, operating from the shadows, systematically pushed Tourmaline into the abyss. His desire was for Tourmaline to perish.
Tourmaline being branded as insane was actually part of his meticulous groundwork. He manipulated her into accepting a supposedly fatal assignment on the battlefield. A madwoman marching toward her demise—wasn't that the most natural outcome?
Tourmaline resisted, but she lacked any knowledge of who was orchestrating her downfall. Due to her criminal record, her clearance and authority were extremely low, making it impossible for her to investigate the truth.
She could report the situation, but her adversary would undoubtedly be aware of her move first, thereby endangering her family.
She had no choice but to comply, yet she knew she could not afford to die. As long as she lived, hope persisted. Her tormentor wouldn't dare to truly execute her family.
Previously, she had sought numerous chances, repeatedly attempting to draw close to the truth, which terrified Pumos to the point where he suffered loss of appetite and sleep.
And this time, Pumos finally found his opening.
He became Luna's secretary, an agent who conveyed Luna's directives.
He relentlessly continued to harass Tourmaline. Tourmaline had actually joined the fleet specifically to evade him, but she soon discovered that even in this new posting, she could not escape that person's influence. She genuinely descended into madness.
Her intelligence allowed her to quickly deduce who she was facing. Pumos had to be someone close to Luna.
Pumos gradually implanted the idea in Tourmaline that victory was impossible, further collapsing her spirit.
She had endured such an existence for millennia. She was utterly desperate. She knew she could not alter anything, nor could she rescue anyone.
And this approaching death was merely her powerless outcry against the injustice of fate.
...
Luna, after reviewing Pumos's memories, learned the entire history.
She felt no emotional shift.
She had long passed the stage where she would be saddened by the tragedies of others. For Luna, the most significant impact of this entire revelation concerned the changes on the battlefield.
Just as Luna was preparing to formulate a new strategy, the newly appointed secretary brought forward fresh intelligence.
"CEO, according to data from the BI13 Squadron, the battle results for vessel BI138 appear to be exceptional."
"Based on sensor readings, vessel BI138 destroyed at least 2000 enemy vessels, and 90% of the soldiers aboard BI138 survived."
This piece of information caused a slight ripple in Luna's composure.
"Confirm the validity of this intelligence."
Perhaps it was merely an enemy diversionary tactic.
In interstellar warfare, diversions were the easiest form of deception to deploy; one merely needed to manipulate optical data.
"Confirmed as accurate. The surviving personnel have provided an explanation of Captain Tourmaline's tactics. I will transmit them to you now."
Luna briefly reviewed the transmitted tactics.
From the initial execution to the final conclusion, if applied by a ship unafraid of annihilation, Tourmaline's strategy would have achieved a 1000% mission completion rate.
The entire tactic, upon examination, was surprisingly straightforward, involving only a few distinct phases.
But to execute it perfectly, especially on a complex, dynamic battlefield, required precise judgment and flawless timing—incredibly difficult feats.
Luna, having dedicated virtually half her life to warfare, understood this implicitly.
Tourmaline was a true genius in this specific domain.
"If I had known about your prior suppression from the outset and hadn't intervened, then yes, I concede I was mistaken."
"But I didn't."
Luna murmured to herself, as if directly addressing Tourmaline.
She initiated a connection to the highest tier of the grand network enveloping all of human Civilization.
In her vision, a brilliant, radiant figure suddenly materialized, resembling a God—impossible to gaze upon directly.
Luna queried: "Did Tourmaline enter?"
The God-like figure waved a hand, and a thread of light appeared before Luna, displaying an image.
It showed Tourmaline rising from the ground, disoriented, looking around. It was a scene of utter wartime ruin, with fierce gun and cannon fire roaring in the distance. A blood-soaked soldier rushed toward her, yelling into her ear: "Are you alright? They're about to launch another assault!"
That world was designated "Campaign 1946," a world-altering conflict that emerged following Ayla's initial appearance.
Luna had entered Hyperdimensional Space.
After countless years of technological advancement, Hyperdimensional Space had long since spread to every sector of human Civilization. Every starship and warship's main server could function as an access device for Hyperdimensional Space.
An individual like Tourmaline would inevitably be selected for engagement within Hyperdimensional Space.
Luna took a brief look, then withdrew, informing her secretary: "No need to revise the current plan. Proceed with the original directive."
"Tourmaline's action will undoubtedly influence the enemy's subsequent decisions. The enemy will be forced to shift their focus toward defending their rear flank."
The sheer casualty report from a single vessel was enough to cause alarm.
It would be impossible for the enemy to ignore such devastating results.
They were compelled to be wary of the other vessels in the BI13 Squadron positioned behind Tourmaline's strike group. Their established rhythm was disrupted, and Luna's original, methodical approach to the predicament became instantly clearer.
"This war will be easier than anticipated!"