Legacy of the Void Fleet

After all, the weight of the thinking he was about to do was placing an immense burden on him, making it impossible for him to consider much else at this moment. Something like this wouldn’t happen if not for the moral weight he was carrying upon himself.

No matter how he acts at this moment, Mimosa knows the consequences of his decision more than the others, though they might not believe it. He himself, internally and to an extent, didn’t want to do it.

After all, he is risking fellow clansmen and even his own life on a whim—and that was if that human mecha would move to save Fang Star. That will depend on whether the value of life-bearing, or rather natural habitable planets, has any value to them or not.

He wasn’t sure about it, but he knew he had to take this gamble. Remaining here to wait for death and destruction wasn’t a choice he was willing to make. There was no such assurance as he used to have in the past, where he might lay down his life willingly to fight to his last breath in order to buy time for reinforcements.

Today, there was no such thing as reinforcements. None would come here to preserve the lives of the tens of billions of Minotaur people. Even if he fought to his last breath, it wouldn’t benefit his clan or his people; it wasn’t helping anyone. Oh no, it was indeed helping someone: these Void Humans.

If he foolishly remained here out of moral obligation, he would be doing nothing but helping the humans. After all, to the humans at this moment, his fleet is nothing but a farce that they could take down with their eyes closed.

And the destruction of this fleet meant one less roadblock to clear for these humans, who he knows won’t stop just here. After all, with this much force, they certainly won’t be satisfied with just one star system.

Even though the fleets here are mere roadblocks, they are still something—and they could be of use somewhere else for the clan. Being destroyed here was not an option. For that, he was willing to do anything, even if it was something his conscience told him not to do.

He looked at the angered Chap and just snorted. ”Do whatever you want to do, Captain Chap. No one is stopping you from doing that. But for now, I’d rather have you fire on the locked target, for I’ve got no time to waste here on you.”

”Either you do that now, or I’ll have another person do it.” Mimosa didn’t stop there, but added more—even more bluntly than he had previously. ”If you think only you can do that and press that button, then you are wrong. Don’t forget, you are not a Mech Commander anymore. You are but a mere... no, a former master class pilot, and just that. If push comes to shove, I can even have you settled right here and now. If you think that’s not possible, then try me. You have ten seconds.”

Meanwhile, outside... Kael, controlling the Dark Blade, was moving through the fleet of ships at a rather slow speed. Because of his pace, he was consciously targeted by numerous weapon systems, which he was constantly avoiding through his maneuvers or by taking cover behind the Minotaurs’ own ships—forcing them to commit friendly fire on their own vessels.

All in all, one could say he was having fun. Currently, he was just avoiding the Minotaur warships’ attacks and not launching many himself. He let the Minotaurs target their own ships; just when they were about to fire, he would easily evade, letting the attacks land on their own clan vessels. Since thousands of weapons were targeting him, the shields of the Minotaur ships couldn’t withstand the scale of the friendly fire and were easily destroyed.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Kael fired a couple of plasma shots, breaking through a hull before shoving a few anti-matter grenades inside. He continued on his rampage happily, criticizing the Minotaurs for their foolishness.

”Hehe, stupid Minotaurs. Can’t they see I’m moving around their lines? Yet they keep attacking without even thinking about the friendly fire,” he mocked. ”And even after seeing the results, they keep repeating it again and again. Isn’t that right, Dark Blade?”

Kael asked his mech sprit as he once again evaded multiple incoming attacks. He fired a couple of shots, taking down a destroyer’s command bridge in two hits.

With a few more shots, he pried open an upper hull, tossed in an anti-matter grenade, and quickly moved away. Another volley of shots meant for him landed instead on the damaged ship, finishing the job for him.

Minotaur Grand Admiral Agnaros was paying close attention to this weird and powerful high-tier mech, trying to come up with ways to shoot it down—or at least halt its pace. But again and again, not only was he unsuccessful, he was failing miserably. Instead of harming the human mecha, he had done more harm to his own fleet.

”Damn you, cunning human! Why can’t you just stay in one place, damnit, and let us hit you? Why the hell do you avoid the attack at the very last moment, huh?” Agnaros growled.

”This human piece of filth avoids it just as the shots are supposed to land, and then those attacks hit our own fucking ships! They lose their shields, and this human toy takes advantage of it to take down our vessels time and time again!”

”Damn you, human... DAMN YOU!” Growing hysterical, Agnaros continuously stomped his foot in anger on his own flagship, feeling immeasurably frustrated, angry, and above all, embarrassed.

In his quest to obliterate the enemy, he was instead obliterating his own people—so much so that the others were throwing him weird looks. It had happened numerous times already.

It was as if they were questioning him with their eyes: What the hell, dude? Whose side are you on? Though the Minotaurs knew this was the enemy’s own cunning baiting them into attacking blindly, they still couldn’t help but look at him weirdly.

Agnaros, not at all used to these looks, felt even more frustrated and ten times more embarrassed. This is so embarrassing, damnit... I have lost face, all of it. Damn you, human! Damn you!

While, back on the ship, Agrnos stomped his feet in anger, feeling both helpless and embarrassed. Outside, however, Kale was having the blast of his life at that moment.

As explosions rang through the hull, the destroyer once again suffered catastrophic damage from its own people... and then the anti-matter grenades did their job, letting the destroyer explode in one hell of a fashion.

”Woohooo! This Diwali... in space. So magnificent,” Kael said with sarcasm, enjoying the explosions while he continued moving through the Minotaur lines.

”Indeed,” Dark Blade added. ”I cannot even understand a foolish race like this. How could they have such a standing in the galaxy? How could they have survived until now, let alone become a Tier 2 powerhouse?”

”Oh, did you forget about the so-called inheritance the Minotaurs found in their initial years when they were building their clan here?” Kael asked, feeling his mech’s spirit as he blocked the attacks of a few Minotaur fighters with his energy shield.

At the same time, controlling Dark Blade, he appeared directly to the left of a fighter. He grabbed its wing with one hand and flung it toward the line of incoming fire. Without even looking back to see the impact, he continued on, moving toward another fighter and throwing it into a second one before shifting again to fire a couple of plasma shots at a third, destroying it instantly.

He moved quickly from his position as the sound of continuous fire followed him. He didn’t grow tired of it at all; if anything, it was more fun to him.

”That’s not it. I do remember,” Dark Blade replied. ”But having an inheritance doesn’t mean they will develop without any problems, right? Given how their race is and their inherited, flawed thinking, they should have collapsed long ago. It’s a miracle they are still up and running.”

”Well, that’s mainly because it’s a galactic corner. Don’t forget, the galaxy is so big that any power with enough of a foundation could survive and hold a large territory, as long as they don’t provoke the ’big wigs,’” Kael said.

”The Minotaur clan had all those conditions fulfilled here. There were only weak factions in this sector, with many star systems not under the control of any power—many haven’t even been properly discovered yet. So, ultimately, because of that, they should be able to... you know.”

”Yeah, they do have great luck on their side,” Dark Blade admitted. ”But they—”

Just as it was about to continue, the AI stopped as if it had noticed something. ”Something is wrong with one of the Minotaur star fortresses. I am now detecting an overflow of energy out there,” Dark Blade said immediately.

Kael reacted with genuine surprise. ”What?”