The Almighty Ring

Though it was none of Alexis’ concern, the entire Valsalrian blockade ended up being utterly destroyed by the Federation fleet. While it had cost the Federation themselves a great number of ships, the blockade had lost even more resources and personnel.

When the news reached Aino, he wreaked havoc like any other hot-tempered army man would. After going through and understanding the mission report, he decided to put all the blame on Alexis alone. Right now, Aino wanted nothing more than to send Alexis to his death!

As predicted, Alexis knew the consequences of his actions and decided to flee to a nearby planet. Since he had turned off any means of communication, no one knew where he was or whether or not he was still alive.

Two days later, Aino, being an extremely busy man, had dove into his work, completely forgetting about matters with Alexis. Which is why when Alexis returned to the Dommix System, Aino was not trying to hunt him down.

“We got lucky this time but we cannot be careless again. By all means necessary, we cannot allow ourselves to get involved with the Federation. We need to just keep our heads low and the order to leave this battlefield will eventually arrive,” said Alexis once the fleet returned to the Dommix system.

“I’m curious, why didn’t we stay in hiding for longer?” asked Jiang Fei.

“Rules, Fei. Rules. In the case of an emergency, a fleet is allowed to take leave for a maximum of three days. After three days, one will be declared as a deserter,” replied Alexis, chuckling.

He had taken the rule literally and ran out of the system for three days. If anyone decided to investigate the matter, he would be deemed innocent since he returned to the battlefield within the three-day buffer.

“Reactivate all communications,” said Alexis.

As soon as the operator turned on the system, the ship’s computer was quickly flooded with messages requesting for reinforcement.

“Let’s see them all,” said Alexis.

“Aye, commander.”

…

“This is the 19th Division of the 7th Fleet requesting reinforcement at XXX, XXX, XXX!”

“This is the 19th Division of the 7th Fleet requesting reinforcement at XXX, XXX, XXX!”

…

The other messages merely repeated the same content and when Alexis tried to hail the source, there was no response. It was obvious that they had already been destroyed.

“Send out Wayfinders to scout the blockade. Keep our ship at this same speed,” said Alexis, not wanting to risk his fleet falling into an enemy trap before he could confirm the source of the messages.

“Commander! We have an unidentified signal on our radar!” cried the navigator as he cloned his display to the main screen.

“Send another Wayfinder to find out what it is,” said Alexis.

There were too many unknown signals emanating from everywhere in the universe. Occasionally, they came from naturally occurring phenomenons like collisions between two neutron stars or supernovae. Real threats were scarce.

“Sir! The signal is heading towards us! We do not have time to intercept its reading!” said the captain when he noticed the odd signal was bleeping through the radar scope at an alarming rate.

“Stop the fleet and send out the patrol fleet! Find out what it is!” said Alexis, his tone suggesting a reason for alarm.

In case when a Wayfinder was too slow, a patrol ship could be used to take over the scouting role. Being the smallest, most agile ship in the fleet, patrol ships were often tasked to carry out the most dangerous missions.

Because of their ridiculously low cost, no one would be stringy enough to not sacrifice a few. As for the pilots, they were as expendable as replacing weapons for soldiers.

In just a few seconds, the unknown signal that the ship had detected had travelled as far as a few lightseconds.

“What the f*ck is that?!” cried the navigator again when he finally had visual confirmation of the unknown signal.

Alexis gasped when he saw the image of the unknown being.

“An Ultralisk?! A Galactic Specter!”

“Specter?” asked Jiang Fei.

“It’s another kind of Ultralisk!” barked Sarila, to which Jiang Fei immediately understood.

The previous planet-sized beast that Jiang Fei had encountered was just another Ultralisk. That Ultralisk was already devastating enough, clocking in at over 30,000,000 combat level.

If that Ultralisk was already so f*cking powerful, this one would only be just as strong.

Galactic Specter

Combat Level: 40,000,000 – 60,000,000

Note: A never-been-understood lifeform. The beast possesses a conscious cloud of energetic particles. Conventional attacks have no effect on the beast. It is not known to feed and the reason it attacks others has always been a mystery.

Jiang Fei froze once he read the description of the Ultralisk. The previous beast he faced was horrifying as it attacked to feed, but this Galactic Specter attacks without any foreseeable reason. Any being would be afraid of the unknown.

“C-Commander, what should we do?” asked the captain. It was a well-known fact that only a handful of people had lived to tell the tale after facing an Ultralisk.

“It’s too late for us to do a Hyperspace jump! Captain, evasive maneuvers, now! Let’s just hope that it doesn’t see us as a viable target!” said Alexis.

The beast was moving at such a fast speed that even if the crew started to charge the Warp Core, it would be too slow. It would be faster to just set all the thrusters at maximum and get out of its course.

What Alexis was hoping for is that the beast would not care for the entire fleet and continue on its way.

“A-Aye, C-Commander,” said the captain, stammering.

With just a few flicks of toggles and buttons, the entire fleet, with Redstone leading the way, moved off their original course and away from colliding with the beast. They had done everything they could and now it was up to fate.

A minute later, the entire fleet and the Galactic Specter grazed past each other with only a hair’s width between them. This time, they were all lucky as the Galactic Specter did not stop or even glance in their general direction.

As it zoomed by, Jiang Fei managed to catch a glimpse of the beast’s appearance via the optical camera. It was the same size as the previous Ultralisk, almost the size of a planet. Like the scope explained, there was a thick layer of particles swarming around the beast like a protective layer.

With his careful observation, Jiang Fei deduced that the cloud of particles was destructive in nature, as asteroids immediately disintegrated when they made contact with it.

Jiang Fei gasped when he saw an impossible occurrence on the beast.

“What the f*ck is that thing?!”