Attacks came suddenly!

Ion cannons exploded into brilliant fireworks on the Gedoran cruiser's golden shields, but a dozen or so stray shots slipped through the gaps in the protective fleet and struck the surface of Aquamarine Star.

The light beams shrank in the view, some falling into the sea, causing small waves, while others exploded into miniature mushroom clouds on the land—at least, from the perspective of outer space, the commotion seemed small.

"Activate the Vissy arcane energy shield!" Batette roared.

The Gedoran protective fleet changed formation, gathering together in the direction of the attack, shooting golden rays to form ten semi-circular, giant golden shields in front of the fleet, completely covering almost the entire side of Aquamarine Star.

Then, the Nocapp fleet's next volley of ion cannons came again, all hitting the shield. The ion cannons came one after another, like a rain of light, the golden shield enduring countless shots, constantly rippling with energy.

"Increase the power of the shield, hold on!" Batette waved his hands incessantly. "Don't just take the beating, fight back, fight back, fight back!"

The Gedoran fleet locked onto radar targets and also began long-range attacks, firing golden lasers at the empty void of space.

Neither fleet could see the other with the naked eye, but golden and green lasers streaked back and forth, creating a fierce exchange. If not for the vacuum of space, the people of Aquamarine Star would have been able to hear the sounds of the fleet battle, like continuous muffled thunder.

Batette quickly notified his superiors and also told Nagokin the situation.

…

At this time, on the surface of Aquamarine Star, the six nations had discovered the battle in outer space via satellite and were all in a state of panic.

Although they had no clear concept of DarkStar, they had learned from Nagokin that this was a powerful interstellar enemy, one that could crush them at will. The six nations did not dare to delay, and hurriedly began to evacuate, letting the refugees enter underground air-raid shelters.

In the first wave of attacks, a dozen or so ion cannons hit the surface, most of them landing in the wilderness. The one that landed closest to the six nations struck the outskirts of a city, like a green thunderbolt falling from the sky.

Boom!

A small mushroom cloud rose into the sky, blasting a large hole in the ground, and the shockwave leveled a street, leaving a scene of devastation, filled with dust.

The shelters also began emergency evacuations, and the tense atmosphere finally turned into panic. Although the refugees did not know what was happening, they could not help but let their imaginations run wild. The crowd was crowded, and stampedes occurred. There were too many refugees, and many had not yet received inhibitors. Coincidentally, the Heteromorphosis virus relapsed again, and a riot soon broke out.

The guards hurriedly intervened, but small-scale chaos was happening everywhere, making it difficult to manage simultaneously. Bennet looked serious and kept issuing orders, barely stabilizing the situation.

Players triggered emergency missions, the mission description stating that Aquamarine Star was under fleet attack, and the requirement was to help the shelters evacuate the crowds. Almost every player subconsciously looked up at the sky, scrutinized it for a while, and could actually see faint flashes of light in the sky.

"Are there warships duking it out outside Aquamarine Star?!"

"Too bad we can't see it, damn it!"

Curiosity was like a feather tickling the players' hearts, making them unbearably itchy. The feeling of knowing that there was a high-level war going on in space, but being unable to participate or witness it, was too tormenting.

The shelter's riots were being handled by others and were not within Han Xiao's scope of consideration. Although Han Xiao also triggered the same emergency mission as the players, the experience reward was too small (for him), and he had no interest in it. He opened the communicator and contacted Nagokin.

"What's the situation now?"

"The fleet is battling DarkStar, and support won't arrive for who knows how long. I have to go up and help." In the picture, Nagokin was hurriedly boarding a spaceship, his tone urgent.

"Then I'll stand by for now. Don't turn off your communicator, keep in touch," Han Xiao nodded, thinking that with Nagokin and the Gedoran fleet, he didn't need to join in the fun.

He wasn't surprised by DarkStar's sudden attack; instead, he breathed a sigh of relief, feeling like "it's finally here." He glanced at the mercenaries beside him, whose faces were all a bit tense.

The DarkStar fleet would not wantonly destroy the planet—this was important information that Han Xiao knew. Based on this premise, the enemy would most likely not land but instead carry out airstrikes from outer space, so what needed to be done was to reduce losses.

Moreover, Han Xiao estimated that there should be DarkStar forces lurking on Aquamarine Star. The enemy probably knew that both he and Nagokin were here, as DarkStar also knew the importance of intelligence and must have scouted every target they were going to attack in advance.

Han Xiao had experienced this kind of event in his previous life and knew the key points, so he quickly gave orders, directing the mercenaries to drive their spaceships to the territories of the six nations. Although these rented spaceships had limited combat capabilities, they could deploy shields to withstand the bombardment from the sky, thereby reducing losses. The power of these ship-borne ion cannons was considerable. If he were to take a direct hit with his physical body, after subtracting resistance reduction, the damage would probably be around 2000. If it were the players at this time, one shot would wipe out a whole group of them. Of course, he wouldn't be so thick-headed. He didn't build a mech just to look at. In this kind of battle, only martial artists dared to go naked, because they were so tough.

In this way, the overall progress of the [Heteromorphosis Disaster] mission would not drop too much—for the players, every DarkStar attack was a坑爹 (kēng diē, roughly translated as "father-screwing") event that greatly reduced their progress.

DarkStar naturally wasn't only attacking Aquamarine Star; other disaster planets were also under attack simultaneously. Han Xiao couldn't manage the other disaster planets for the time being, but on Aquamarine Star, he could at least reduce losses and stop DarkStar from destroying the disaster relief results, otherwise, the previous construction would be ruined.

"The Gedoran fleet is blocking the enemy, and Nagokin has gone up, too. I wonder how things are going," Han Xiao rubbed his hands and stared at the real-time images sent back by Nagokin.

He hoped that the Gedoran side could force the DarkStar fleet to retreat, so he wouldn't have to take action himself. DarkStar didn't know that his strength had increased, so the longer he hid his trump cards, the better.

…

Nagokin's spaceship left the atmosphere, and he immediately saw the ten golden shields in outer space. The Gedoran and DarkStar fleets were still exchanging fire from a distance. He was experienced and immediately saw that although the confrontation was fierce, neither side could do anything to the other.

The ion cannons were all blocked by the shields. Even if some spaceships had their shields destroyed, due to the long distance, there was enough reaction time for other spaceships to replace their positions, and they would take turns until the shields were restored.

Apart from the conventional ship-borne ion cannons, most other weapons were out of range, and nuclear tracking missiles were detonated by ion cannons halfway. The technological levels of the Gedoran and DarkStar fleets were similar, and there were no overwhelming weapons. To cause damage to the enemy, they had to close the distance.

Didi—

Batette connected to Nagokin's communication.

"The shields can't hold out forever. We can't just passively take the beating like sitting ducks. At this rate, DarkStar won't suffer any casualties. I'm going to close the distance, Nagokin, you lead the attack and crush them!"

"Don't take risks!" Nagokin shouted, "The situation is favorable to us now. As long as we continue this stalemate, DarkStar will naturally retreat."

"Don't be ridiculous! The DarkStar fleet is about the same size as us, but with you here, we're strong enough to overwhelm them. This is a good opportunity to strike at DarkStar!"

Batette said loudly. He was a radical officer who preferred to strike at DarkStar's armed forces rather than just defend the disaster planets.

Nagokin was about to speak when Batette suddenly exclaimed.

"Wait… Radar shows the enemy is retreating, are they going to withdraw?!"

…

Nocapp narrowed his eyes into slits, staring at the radar screen, his hands folded behind his back, his fingers subconsciously tapping the hem of his clothes. He shook his head and gave the order, his tone without any fluctuation, revealing no emotion.

"All units, prepare for warp jump."