"Captain, Officer Binom has issued an order. He requests that a contingent of the ships patrol the star's orbit, as Bmen currently possesses no established defensive perimeter."
Luna conveyed this message to the captain.
The captain heard this and waved his hand dismissively: "According to protocol, if Officer Binom had genuinely issued us an order, we would execute it immediately."
"But you need to present the official military directive first."
He glanced up, assessing the two individuals before him.
Pavarro immediately tensed up.
He had always considered himself someone who wouldn't easily lose his composure over certain matters, but now he began to realize he was still significantly inexperienced.
"You are attempting to pass this matter onto me. Tell me, which vessel do you currently serve aboard?"
The captain studied the pair, then reached his own conclusion.
"Yayi's?"
"It appears I guessed correctly. Return and instruct him to adhere strictly to his assigned duties on the military perimeter wall. There is no need for him to pull stunts where proper military eyes cannot observe."
"His petty nature only generates universal disdain. I once genuinely considered him a friend, but I suppose our destinies were never meant to align in companionship."
This captain clearly possessed a negative history with Yayi.
However, Luna paid no heed to these interpersonal dynamics.
She explained: "Actually, I also advised against this approach, but, as you know, his convictions are not easily swayed."
"We are not adept at deception. You must have noticed that we are somewhat... agitated."
"To be frank, we've grown somewhat weary of him. We have been associated for hundreds of years, yet the situation has never been entirely amicable."
"So, I implore you, could you permit me to join your crew? You are far more suited to command than Captain Yayi."
Hearing this, the captain did not object; on the contrary, he was visibly pleased.
His active mention of Yayi's name clearly indicated that Yayi's standing in his estimation was very low, suggesting the two might even be rivals.
And for a crew member of a rival captain to actively wish to transfer to his ship was undoubtedly a form of subtle derision directed at Yayi.
"Very well, due to fleet limitations, we all have available slots, but you must demonstrate your utility to me."
Luna nodded affirmatively.
"Of course, we are eager to contribute to any necessary endeavor."
"You are a commendable captain, unlike Captain Yayi. You wouldn't subject your future crew to undue hardship."
This remark caused the captain to laugh heartily.
"I now understand why Yayi assigned you these tasks. You are indeed suitable for such maneuvering."
"It is a shame you lack a suitable partner."
Luna added: "Nor did I have a commendable captain."
This was a carefully veiled compliment.
The captain became even more delighted. Who would reject a flattering subordinate?
"Alright, I will arrange transfers for you two. We will reassign Yayi to patrol deep interstellar space then."
Luna and Pavarro's subtle communication successfully integrated this decision into the current ship's logistics.
Luna could have performed the necessary adjustments herself, but it would have required specialized programming updates. Comparatively, this maneuver was far simpler.
"Thank you, Captain."
"What about the assignment?"
Luna proactively offered her assistance.
But the captain couldn't immediately devise a task suitable for Luna's unique capabilities.
"Later. We still have ample time ahead."
Luna pressed again: "Why don't you allow me to oversee the ship's operations for you? I heard that military mandates forbid all captains from disembarking while their vessels are active. That seems excessively harsh, especially since we anticipate remaining stationed here for a considerable duration."
"Just moments ago, I observed many soldiers outside selecting their long-term quarters. Knowing the officer's character, he will undoubtedly force the captains to choose last, leaving them to occupy the most undesirable environments, and disallowing any subsequent changes."
Strict requirements imposed upon officers within the military structure are quite common.
This is because officers constitute the decision-making echelon, especially captains, who control entire ship units and thus require exceptionally high competency standards.
Soldiers, however, are different. The requirements for ordinary personnel are significantly lower, so the military avoids imposing excessive restrictions on them.
This structure is the complete inverse of what is seen in lower-level Civilizations but is perfectly logical within this context, and Luna understood this rationale.
She possessed Binom's data; she knew Binom was an exceptional Archon Commander, so he would naturally adhere to similar principles.
What Luna articulated was precisely the captain's underlying concern.
But he still hesitated: "This maneuver could be discovered. That outcome would be undeniably catastrophic."
And Luna delivered the decisive counter:
"Captain Yayi abandoned his post aboard his ship a long time ago."
The implication was clear: While you strictly adhere to these protocols, others have already circumvented them.
This realization spurred the captain into action, making him restless.
"Which location did he choose?"
A decades-long accommodation assignment certainly couldn't be treated lightly. Even for individuals like them, while decades might not constitute an eternity, the duration was significant enough to warrant careful planning.
"I do not know the official designation of the location, but Captain Yayi was visibly pleased when he returned. It is the tallest structure visible from our perspective on this vessel."
The captain began to curse, his language becoming very coarse.
Then he declared: "Alright, I believe you understand what must be done. You must ensure the Commander has absolutely no reason for suspicion."
"Affirmative!"
Luna offered him another dose of reassurance.
"To my knowledge, the Commander is currently engaged with the other officer, familiarizing himself with Bmen."
As soon as this statement was uttered, the captain instantly transferred temporary command authority to Luna, then bolted out of the ship.
Pavarro stood dumbfounded.
"Selecting personal quarters is a minor matter. It hardly warrants defying established military protocol."
He found the captain's motivation profoundly strange. For people like them, who lived for such extensive lifespans, numerous minor details could easily be disregarded.
Yet, a dwelling they would only occupy for a few decades spurred the captain into such impulsive risk-taking.
"The distinction between professional and unprofessional lies precisely here."
Luna was in no way surprised that her explanation could sway the captain.
"You are merely analyzing the situation from a civilian perspective. Consider this: What if your current station was your permanent career?"
"You are an administrative employee. You sit at your desk every day processing paperwork. Your direct supervisor forbids you from leaving your station during working hours, and surveillance cameras monitor you constantly to prevent any slacking."
"But what if, at this precise moment, the company's surveillance system fails, the supervisor conveniently leaves the premises, and the office manager has also departed? What would the remaining personnel do?"
Pavarro almost blurted out the answer without conscious thought.
"Slack off, become lazy!"
Luna nodded in affirmation.
"For your long lifespans, what is just one day of laziness? Is it worth you paying the price of being dismissed by the CEO to do so?"
"Perhaps there's a secondary surveillance mechanism hidden somewhere, or maybe there's a treacherous individual among you."
"But at that critical moment, no one will worry about those possibilities. For a long-lived being, what truly matters isn't what they might gain, but achieving something that sharply contrasts with their usual dull and monotonous existence."
"The sheer exhilaration derived from such an act is incomparable, and it can even be weighed on the same scale as all the potential losses."
What the captain was seizing was not merely a physical location.
It was the feeling of deliberately breaking established protocols.
This impulse drove every single being toward the same action.
At this moment, Luna, seated in the captain's chair, controlled the DataNode via temporary authority.
"Launch the vessel!"
"I truly hope that little Xenian won't suffer a system collapse because of this!"
The others worked simultaneously with Luna and Pavarro.
They employed the exact same tactics Luna utilized.
When the ship finally initiated launch sequence, Pavarro still held doubts.
"How did you successfully circumvent the primary main computer?"
"With the main computer's super-strong computational capability, it should have locked onto our signature instantly."
This was certainly not a simple, superficial ship hijacking. It required not only clever maneuvering but also the appropriate level of technology and authority.
The main computer was programmed to instantly distinguish friend from foe. Luna and her team possessed no valid identity credentials.
At this moment, all the soldiers inside the ship looked towards Luna, wondering what exactly she was orchestrating.
Luna called out to them: "Apologies, everyone. The officer specifically mandated this vessel to patrol the interstellar orbit, and the captain seemed quite reluctant, so he delegated temporary authority to me. You understand the necessity."
The cabin immediately erupted in a flurry of muffled curses.
No one suspected Luna and Pavarro.
If she lacked the ship's executive authority, Luna couldn't have launched the vessel.
Moreover, they also observed other ships taking off alongside them—not too many, not too few, approximately over 200 in total.
At this point, Luna turned back and answered Pavarro's question: "Don't forget who holds ownership over this Star City."
A simple and crystal-clear answer.
Luna could control the main computer, but doing so directly was extraordinarily difficult. The derivation needed, spanning from bottom-level signals up to the top-level architecture...
Therefore, the simplest method was actually to directly block the signal source.
This city belonged to her; she possessed the inherent ability to control this domain.
Luna essentially constructed a secondary barrier outside the existing primary one, isolating the information flow from the inner system.
The main computer wouldn't detect her interference.
Of course, she couldn't engineer a flawless, parallel environment in such a short timeframe, so her method was relatively crude: directly jamming the main computer's primary input channel.
The main computer would definitely register that something was amiss.
This "lock" mechanism was generated by the Star City's main computer. Even the warship's dedicated main computer would require at least 30 minutes to bypass it legitimately.
But their entire operation wouldn't take even ten minutes; this window was sufficient.
...
At this precise moment.
On the planet's surface.
Binom, just as Luna had predicted, was leading several officers on a visual survey within the Star City.
They had originally presumed that this entire Star City had been deactivated, with its infrastructure, energy sources, and utilities all rendered inoperable.
But he quickly discovered this assumption was false.
"Many of those critical assets are still in their original operational state."
"That's a considerable stroke of luck."
An officer spotted a luxurious flying vehicle, his eyes lighting up. This was a high-end speedster worth hundreds of thousands of Energy Credits, with a conservative resale value exceeding 100,000. If they could salvage it, it might not even represent 1% of his wartime salary, but there were several such vehicles present.
Binom fell into contemplation once more.
"If it were me, given ample time to execute an evacuation, I would never leave behind so many valuable pieces of equipment. Even if removal was impossible, I would ensure their total destruction."
He posed the question to the officer beside him.
"Under what circumstances would one refrain from destroying assets in an area about to be occupied by the enemy?"
The officer considered this for a moment and replied.
"In an extremely urgent situation."
"Or, if I were absolutely certain I could return to reclaim them later."
This clearly didn't align with the first scenario.
Thus, it could only be the second possibility.
Binom attempted to contact the main computer to dispatch a reconnaissance team, but he swiftly realized he couldn't reach it at all.
He asked the officer beside him: "Can any of you establish contact with the main computer?"
After trying, the group also realized something was amiss.
But Binom didn't immediately turn back. Instead, he addressed the other officers, "Has anyone here visited Bmen and knows the location of the primary energy facility here?"
Several officers confirmed they had visited. They hadn't come for sightseeing, naturally, but for intelligence gathering.
"There is one unit approximately 200 km ahead."
Another officer interjected, "There is one 70 km to the left, but it appears to be relatively minor."
Binom immediately shouted: "Let's head there."
Then his own body shot forward directly. The small mass of fluid moved at an exceptionally high velocity, generating terrifying sonic booms and compressed air wakes within the Star City.
Although this compressed air had no effect on the high-strength architectural materials surrounding them, it forcibly sent the movable equipment scattering tens of meters away.
The officers around Binom followed closely behind.
In an instant, 70 km was covered. Binom smashed directly through a wall and burst into the energy station.
Then, he saw light.
The light produced by countless particles bombarding a giant circular energy device shot out from a small aperture, striking a specialized metal plate. That plate could collect energy and display its internal status—one of dozens of methods used to gauge stability.
The officers behind him also arrived.
"It's still operational."
Luna, of course, knew this. She quickly understood: "Our war is not yet over!"
With that realization, she rushed out of the building. She now saw ships actively taking off from the Starport.
"We did not authorize any vessel to launch."
Another officer stated.
They were merely reporting the current situation, for they already knew what was about to occur. Their hearts were filled with terror, rendering them unable to speak further.
Indeed.
When those ships flew to approximately one million meters outside the thick atmosphere of the Star City, they activated their weapon systems and targeted the ground below.
Mass-produced biological pulse weapons ripped through the cloud layer.
Dispersing ions slammed into the atmosphere, triggering a dazzling aurora display.
The main cannons of the military ships resembled enormous searchlights firing down upon the planet.
A mere scattering of light illuminated the entire sky, making it appear brighter than day.
No!
It was even more brilliant than daylight.
Luna was inside one of the ships; her gaze swept past the bodies littering the floor toward the main screen, then she announced: "Fire!"
Terrifying lasers bombarded the planet's surface.
The fleet of ships represented a definitive dividing line.
One side was the civilian sector, the other, the military domain.
Civilian structures were never designed to withstand military-grade attacks. Military domain armaments required extremely potent firepower.
The main cannon of a ship once carried another name tens of thousands of years ago.
—The Star Annihilation Cannon!
A vessel classified as thousand-meter-class could completely obliterate a planet the size of Earth.
Not just wiping out the surface civilization and life, but shattering the entire planetary body.
Over 200 military ships were insignificant on an interstellar battlefield, but if they truly invaded the interior of a star system and unleashed their weaponry, the resultant destruction would be immeasurable.
The Rusty Star Nation's Star City was not as vast as the Federation's Star Cities; it measured only about 100,000 km in diameter. Two hundred ships could achieve a great deal in this confined space.
As the lasers bombarded the earth.
Warships and transport vessels, one after another, activated their accelerators to escape. This was faster than engaging defensive networks because thrusters relied on pure, unadulterated energy expulsion.
Some ships and warships did manage to break free, but many more were not fast enough.
They could only endure the laser baptism, transforming into dazzling mushroom clouds.
"Is that all it takes?"
Pavarro couldn't believe it; they had genuinely succeeded.
In fact, less than half an hour had passed—only 21 minutes and 37 seconds.
Luna replied to him: "This is reality!"
"There's a saying that reality is often more fantastical than imagination."
"Because imagination requires pre-designing scenes, enriching details, and structuring downtimes and climaxes."
"But reality doesn't. In reality, every single being, even the main computer, will have inherent flaws. And by controlling those flaws, everything becomes incredibly simple."
Imagine a fortress, its walls lined with all sorts of powerful and countless weapons.
But what if this fortress possessed a single blind spot?
I can utilize the simplest method: tunneling directly into the fortress's interior, and then planting a bomb inside.
"Bang!"
A fortress, constructed with countless resources, was ultimately brought down by one individual wielding an iron shovel and a bundle of explosives.
These are occurrences that happen only in reality.
They are rarely depicted in stories because they are too commonplace.
Pavarro benefited greatly. He vaguely felt that he too could evolve into a tactical master.
In the future, he would attempt a tactic similar to Luna's, but that war would not be his moment of triumph, but his moment of demise.
Before his death, he cursed Luna.
Because Luna only revealed one facet of that war to him.
Luna's victory in that conflict stemmed from only one single, major factor: herself.
Only Luna could execute those maneuvers. She understood humanity too profoundly. No one else in that world had experienced the entirety of human history. Everything she did now wasn't a prescribed formula, but rather Luna's improvised, brilliant improvisation.
Pavarro grasped these truths only at the moment of his impending death.
And now.
He tallied the number of escaped warships and vessels.
"One hundred sixty-three warships escaped. Unfortunately, those were our primary bombardment targets."
"As for general ships, there are roughly five thousand two hundred and eighty-one. That's still quite a large number."
This was far from the desired outcome.
Their original objective was to reduce the number of warships to below 150 and general ships to below 5,000. They had not met their stipulated goals.
But Luna was not disappointed.
"Targets are meant to be aimed at. As long as you approach the mark, it's practically accomplished."
This level of combat attrition was sufficient to leave the Flaorse Corporation and the Ynun Star Nation utterly depleted.
"They won't be able to proceed to the next phase. Once we resolve the internal virus issue, they won't be able to maintain control over Bmen."
"If I were Binom, I would opt to retreat to the M36 star cluster. They would lick their wounds there, awaiting the opportunity for another offensive."
Pavarro didn't internalize Luna's words.
Because he witnessed the escaped ships and warships initiating a return trajectory. They had reactivated their weapon systems, clearly intending to eliminate the remainder of Luna's force.
"What do we do now, CEO Miss!"
Luna hadn't mentioned an escape plan. Pavarro felt more panicked than ever before.
Was it possible that CEO Miss had intended to accept death from the very outset?
"Don't be impatient, Pavarro."
"That is your greatest weakness."
"On an interstellar battlefield, no one pays attention to a small unit like a single person. So, you just need to hide within a structurally sound section of this vessel, and then, just before impact, launch yourself out. They will all assume you are merely a piece of space debris."
"I will pre-set the trajectory; you will make your way back to the star nation."
Pavarro felt a pang of shame. He realized that compared to Luna, he knew virtually nothing; he felt like a protected child.
Luna moved in and out of the battlefield flawlessly. Of course, he wasn't entirely useless; at least he hadn't cried out once while in Luna's arms, only made faint noises.
Pavarro quickly moved to prepare.
But as he reached the outer hatch, he suddenly recalled something, turned back, and asked Luna: "And what about you, CEO Miss?"
Luna remained seated, seemingly with no intention of moving.
"I wish to savor this spectacular view."
"Pavarro, this will be our final encounter. I must impart my final instruction: Always choose to meet your end at the most brilliant time and place."
The door hissed open.
Pavarro exited.
The door sealed shut.
Pavarro still had questions burning, but when he turned back, all he saw was the charcoal-grey hatch, so seamless it appeared to be a solid wall.
He paused, perhaps for five seconds, or maybe three, then turned and left, concealing himself within a sturdy component aboard the ship, following Luna's precise instructions.
Luna then commanded the ship to jettison that specific section of the cabin.
That detached cabin section hadn't traveled even ten meters before the enemy's energy beam arrived.
It pierced straight through the vessel.
The ship was instantly torn asunder.
That section of the cabin also exploded outward.
Pavarro's hidden component flew free, traversing at a speed exceeding 40 km per second.
After escaping the star system, he would exit the component, then utilize his personal mech to accelerate further, reaching speeds over 100 km per second, before flying toward a nearby interstellar passage. He estimated he could reach the star nation within a thousand years.
Although the journey would be lengthy.
It meant survival, at the very least.
And Luna, meanwhile, embraced oblivion.
She was merely a second clone. The original Luna had long since departed Bmen with the others. Next, the clone Luna would manage domestic affairs, and upon completion, the counterattack would commence.
...
Meanwhile, on the planet's surface.
Binom was, indeed, utterly shattered.
He prided himself on his refined cultivation, rarely losing his temper, and always striving to uphold the image of a gentleman within human civilization.
But now, he couldn't maintain that control.
"Everything is ruined!"
"Everything is ruined."
"This is entirely my fault. I cannot dispute it. I am unworthy of my current rank."
"Gentlemen, I am no longer an officer. Arrest me and escort me back to His Majesty the King. I wish to formally confess my transgressions."
Binom abandoned all pretense of resistance.
The officers trailing behind him exchanged glances. None of them were fools. This was Binom taking the initiative to shoulder the blame himself, aiming to shield them from the King's inevitable wrath.
Of course, Binom also intended to admit guilt and accept the ensuing punishment.
It was better to confess directly than to await the King's judgment; the penalty might be mercifully lighter.
This entire military campaign was a catastrophic failure. Binom, as the sole surviving Archon Commander, needed to assume full accountability, and these burdens alone were more than sufficient grounds for his execution.
Even for an officer of his stature.
An officer was the Ynun Star Nation's highest-ranking official, second only to the Prime Minister. The two were frequently referenced as the left and right chancellors, highlighting Binom's pivotal status.
Before the campaign launched, he had sworn his military oath, which was why he had proceeded with such extreme caution at every stage.
Duming, on the other hand, was a director within the Flaorse Corporation. Virtually no one possessed the authority to restrain him, allowing him to operate without constraint.
He had initially viewed this as an excellent collaboration, but he never anticipated such a disastrous conclusion.
In the context of interstellar warfare, Binom could have defended himself with a few well-chosen words, and potentially shifted culpability to Duming.
But this time.
It was he who, after lowering his guard the first time, was outmaneuvered again. Let alone others, even he himself now questioned his own capabilities.
But regardless of the internal doubt.
This defeat was his failure.
This loss would severely impede the progress of both the Flaorse Corporation and the Ynun Star Nation, casting their future into profound uncertainty.