Chapter 1 Interstellar Warfare

In interstellar wars, support and supply lines based on stargate transportation are very important. Imperial troops plant stargates along the way, connecting them into quick routes for both advance and retreat. To prevent enemies from raiding these stargate stations, each legion leaves behind some personnel to garrison them every time the stargate passage is extended. Therefore, the further into the Guangchen Star Cluster, the smaller the size of the units led by each imperial officer.

The Empire, as the attacking side, was forced to stretch its battle lines rather long, but this was precisely the advantage of its vast military strength, having the capital to squander.

Because the size of the units on the front line gradually decreased, the intensity of combat also gradually increased. Of course, the commanders of each army were promising young officers transferred from all over the Empire, possessing rich interstellar warfare experience.

As for how luxurious the lineup was, Han Xiao remembered that almost all of these transferred officers were future high-ranking military officials. At least three of them held power no less than Taini, and would command other large Imperial legions.

Facing such a group of famous generals, the Kunde Clan was at a complete disadvantage in large-scale interstellar warfare. Even with the reduction in Imperial troops, the Kunde Clan still suffered repeated defeats.

After receiving Han Xiao's instructions, Taini changed his previous style and began to assign more war missions to the Black Star Army, especially taking care of Nilo, whom Han Xiao had specifically mentioned.

Basically, every battle involved assigning critical combat missions to the large detachment Nilo belonged to, which then fell to the various squads, making the fighting extremely frequent.

Coincidentally, most of the graduates from the various Superpower Academies belonged to different squads within this detachment. Continuous high-intensity, high-risk combat placed a huge burden on these still-immature students. Even Nilo found it a bit overwhelming, feeling strange and wondering if their detachment had offended the commander somewhere.

Due to the continuous high-pressure battles, Nilo's mechanical equipment suffered severe wear and tear, losing nearly half of his stock. When there was no fighting, he couldn't rest either, and had to bitterly repair the machines, fearing that he wouldn't have equipment to use in the next battle.

At this time, Nilo was very grateful to Reynold.

--Isn't it just not sleeping? When I was forced to indulge in studying, I had already trained this ability.

It's not just a figure of speech, it's truly a talent on the attribute panel:

--【Advanced Fatigue Resistance】, Stamina recovery efficiency +500% during rest, Stamina consumption speed -60%, reduces the degree of "Mental Fatigue" negative status caused by lack of sleep and rest, at most accumulating to "Slight Mental Fatigue."

People with good talents can even train a talent by not sleeping, and Han Xiao didn't know who to reason with.

However, the other graduates, after all, did not have Nilo's inspirational experience, and were exhausted. Even Mia didn't have time to chat and flirt with him on the phone.

Unable to fathom the commander's thoughts, Nilo couldn't do anything about his complaints and could only bite the bullet and continue fighting, unaware that he had been carefully arranged by Taini.

High-intensity combat would lead to casualties, but that's how practical training worked, and losses were unavoidable. Nilo's squad was doing well, though tired, none of their members had died yet. In the frequent battles, the camaraderie between Nilo and his squad members grew stronger.

The Red Empire had an overwhelming advantage in this war, and in the blink of an eye, many days had passed. Various Imperial fleets steadily advanced, having crossed multiple star systems, and finally gradually approached the Kunde Clan's territorial border.

With the army pressing down, scouts moved first. Various legions approaching the Kunde Clan's territory from different directions sent out a large number of scout troops to explore the situation in advance, entering the Kunde Clan's territory. These scout troops included both remotely controlled unmanned fleets and combat squads carrying ground landing forces.

Unsurprisingly, Nilo and his squad were selected to become part of the scout force, carrying out the dangerous task of exploring the way.

And while the Imperial troops were exploring the Kunde Clan's border, a secret mechanical force secretly dispatched by Han Xiao had already arrived near the Kunde Clan's homeworld, following his guidance.

…

This was a black planet that looked like a barren planet. A large number of armed reconnaissance satellites floated in the outer space, as well as a sky curtain camouflage device used to shield the surface of the planet. Through the high-speed anti-camouflage detection eyes of the mechanical soldiers, it was possible to discern the true appearance of the Kunde Clan's homeworld. In reality, this was a sapphire-like planet, with the ocean occupying most of the surface area, with sea cities and floating cities.

"So, this planet was originally like this."

The mechanical troops stopped in the universe far away from the planet, all activating stealth camouflage. Han Xiao's technology and Mechanical Force enhancement were enough to prevent the Kunde Clan's homeworld from detecting the existence of this group of mechanical soldiers.

One of the mechs was Han Xiao's Sovereign Avatar, carrying his consciousness, carefully observing the planet.

In his previous life, after the Shattered Star Ring opened, Han Xiao had come here to do missions. At that time, the Kunde Clan's homeworld had already changed drastically, completely transformed by the Empire.

Because the Empire went straight for the jugular, the homeworld's population had basically been evacuated, but the Kunde Clan had not blown up the homeworld at this time. Many facilities remained on it, and a small fleet was stationed there to manage it temporarily. This place was still one of the core quantum network nodes of the Kunde Clan.

"Let's get to work."

Han Xiao twisted his mechanical neck, and with a thought, suddenly entered the quantum network vision.

The vision turned black again, leaving only the light clusters representing quantum network nodes, with varying degrees of brightness, connected to each other by slender rays of light representing information flow, forming the structure of the network.

Han Xiao directly locked onto the main quantum network node of the Kunde Clan's homeworld. His consciousness turned into a stream of light and arrived abruptly. The node's firewall appeared before him, like layers of active, dynamic data walls, full of loopholes and gaps in his eyes.

He didn't want to alarm the Kunde Clan, so he adopted data deep-diving instead of direct intrusion, skillfully passing through the loopholes in one data firewall after another, opening a backdoor.

The other party's quantum network technology was very poor, and any confidential permissions were just for show. It was like arriving at a house where the owner wasn't home, and the tools in his hand could open any room and safe. Don't ask, just do whatever you want.

Soon, the Kunde Clan's data mother lode shed all defenses, appearing naked before Han Xiao, like a dessert waiting to be enjoyed.

"Phillip, pack up and copy their database."

Han Xiao called out.

His goal was only the still-incomplete version 1.0 of the Time Cutting Technology, but since he was here, he might as well pack up and take away all the Kunde Clan's data.

Phillip began to work diligently. A whole star cluster's worth of data still took a while to copy. Taking advantage of this time, Han Xiao simply checked all the objects connected to this node.

By tracking the paths, he could locate all the Kunde Clan's fleets. It was just a handy thing for him.

"Let me see, where are the Kunde Clan's troops…"

Importing the coordinate data into the star chart, Han Xiao glanced at it, and suddenly his eyes moved, discovering interesting intelligence.

The Kunde Clan's fleet was roughly divided into four groups. The core fleet, led by the command headquarters, was waiting in ambush within the territory. The second was the front-line combat troops blocking the Empire, opening a battle line on the border, which was also normal. The third was the fleet carrying civilians for evacuation, which had already left the Kunde Clan's territory.

What caught Han Xiao's attention was the fourth type, countless squads separated and heading to other directions of the territorial border, seemingly trying to form an encirclement. But with such a long distance, it was obviously not a conventional encirclement. It looked like they were carrying out a special combat mission.

With Han Xiao's current knowledge, he naturally wouldn't be at a loss. He quickly had a guess, and his heart moved:

"In this situation, there should only be three possibilities… One is to escape, two is to cover the evacuation of civilians, and three is to set up special traps. Escape can be ruled out, and the evacuating civilians are going in the opposite direction, not with these fleets, so it can also be ruled out. Then the most likely thing is to set up traps. As for what traps…"

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes, analyzing based on the means and specific circumstances that the Kunde Clan could use. The enemy's most likely plan was to bury a large amount of Primal Chaos Energy at the edge of the territory, catalyzing its expansion, and letting it devour everything within the territory, leaving not even a hair for the Empire.

This wasn't just a random guess, but there were too many examples of this in the Exploration Era War. So many man-made barren cosmic belts were caused by the rampant proliferation of Primal Chaos Energy.

"So, the Kunde Clan wants to turn their homeland into a killing trap, luring the Imperial fleet to wipe it out. Hmph, pretty ruthless, wanting to bite the Empire hard before running away." Han Xiao shook his head with a tsk.

Only civilizations that haven't recognized the dangers of Primal Chaos Energy would use this stuff recklessly. The formation of a natural celestial body takes billions of years, and the probability is random, but wherever Primal Chaos Energy passes, it devours all celestial bodies, turning the universe into a vacuum zone, a barren wasteland, where no material resources can be found. It's truly a wasteland.

Moreover, as long as the pollution isn't controlled, the Primal Chaos Energy will expand endlessly. As its volume increases, the area of contact with external matter or energy also increases, and the expansion efficiency will become faster. If it grows to a terrible degree, it might not even be possible to control it. At that time, all living beings can only race against the end of the world.

One of the important reasons why the Three Great Civilizations are keen on exploring unknown regions is that they are afraid that in places they don't know, some unknown advanced civilization might have thrown down Primal Chaos Energy but didn't control it, letting it expand indefinitely. Sooner or later, the creatures of the entire universe would suffer.

In the historical background of his previous life, there was no record of the detailed process of the Empire dealing with the Kunde Clan. Han Xiao didn't know if the Kunde Clan had taken a scorched earth strategy last time, but the celestial bodies in the Guangchen Star Cluster were well-preserved in his previous life, proving that even if the Kunde Clan implemented a scorched earth plan, it was stopped by the Empire in time.

After thinking about it, Han Xiao prepared to hand over this intelligence to the Empire later. It would definitely greatly increase the mission evaluation.

"Although Primal Chaos Energy is terrible, it takes a process to expand to a certain scale. The Empire has plenty of time to solve the problem."

Han Xiao nodded secretly, feeling relaxed.

He originally just came to copy the Time Cutting Technology, but he didn't expect to have an unexpected gain.

After a while, Phillip finished copying the data. Han Xiao left a backdoor program, then cleared the traces of his visit, and after finishing the cleanup work, he ordered the mechanical force to return.

The Kunde Clan's homeworld soon disappeared from the Sovereign Avatar's field of vision. From beginning to end, his visit didn't alarm anyone, truly a thief.

A peak Super-A grade Virtual Mechanic is unparalleled in stealing intelligence and is a presence that even the Three Great Civilizations must fear.

…

At this very moment, the Kunde Clan's high command, who were completely unaware that their home had already been ransacked, were holding a new meeting.

The theme of the meeting was related to espers.

In the room, the Kunde Clan leader surveyed the crowd and said in a deep voice: "The enemy's esper technology endows their warriors with powerful individual combat strength. According to the data from the crashed ships, this esper technology is a method of self-training for individual lifeforms. An individual can even possess the power to destroy planets. Our proud warriors are simply vulnerable in the face of espers."

Everyone felt heavy-hearted. The esper system was a technology that required luck to discover, and the Kunde Clan was clearly on the blacklist of the Goddess of Luck, just like Han Xiao.

The Super Star Cluster civilization that was messing around behind the scenes mentioned the existence of espers, but didn't pack up the method of cultivating espers and throw it to the Kunde Clan as well, causing the Kunde Clan to still not have an esper system.

The Kunde Clan leader slowly said: "Espers, this is exactly what we lack. Everyone, we have already decided to leave our home. If we can obtain this technology from the enemy, it will help us gain a foothold in our new home."

"You mean…"

"I want the front-line troops to find a way to capture some of the enemy's espers and bring them back as experimental materials. As long as we get their bodies, we can study the principles and mysteries of the esper system."

"In that case, the front-line troops' combat policy will have to be changed."

Everyone perked up and began to discuss.

Most people want to have powerful personal strength and long life, let alone these high-level people who enjoy power. Power has always been linked to power. If there is a power that transcends the mortal world, then fist power is power.

They coveted the existence of espers. Now, they not only want to use the scorched earth plan to destroy the Empire's attempts, but also want to snatch the new technology they don't have from the Empire.

…

A few days later, on the border of the Kunde Clan's territory.

An Imperial reconnaissance force was quietly advancing.

This reconnaissance force had twenty or so warships, most of which were Black Star Army ships, carrying one combat squad after another. Not only Nilo, but also Mia and a large group of academy graduates were among them.

They had been in the Kunde Clan's territory for several days, maintaining vigilance along the way, ready to respond to engagements at any time, but they hadn't encountered the enemy.

In the cabin of one of the warships, a large group of legion soldiers were gathered around the star chart, discussing the current situation. Nilo pinched his chin, looked at the star chart, and couldn't help but ask the question:

"It's really strange. When we hadn't reached the Kunde Clan's territory, we could encounter enemies intercepting us every day. Now that we've entered their territory, no one cares about us?"

Hearing this, everyone turned their heads and glanced at him without speaking.

Not far away, Mia stood with her arms folded, raised her eyebrows, and joined the conversation, speaking with confidence:

"Maybe the enemy feels that they can't stop the Empire and has all fled."

"I don't think it's that simple." Nilo shook his head.

This time, Nilo's squad and Mia's squad were on the same ship, and several other combat squads were also on board.

After experiencing this period of baptism of fire, Nilo's combat ability had improved to a considerable extent, but his personal temperament hadn't changed much. After all, he had a baby face, and he couldn't look fierce, so he looked quite comical no matter how you looked at him.

On the other hand, Mia had verified her combat power in actual combat, and her temperament was becoming more and more confident.

Rumble--

At this moment, the fleet reached the predetermined target location and suddenly exited warp.

Outside the window was a planet, which was also the current exploration target of their reconnaissance force, to find a planet suspected of being a Kunde Clan colony and try to land on the ground.

And on the surface of this planet, there were obvious traces of cities.

Seeing this, everyone's faces tightened.

"It seems that we have found the place. Everyone, be cautious."