Chapter 13 The Unexpected Cooperation

This strange communication didn't last long, but it touched Salaman in an unprecedented way.

After completing its mission, the bizarre unmanned machine slowly became transparent before the giant’s eyes, and then its energy signature left the defense platform, heading straight for the battlefield—a few minutes later, a small spark lit up from that direction, apparently a self-detonation.

A small metal box only ten centimeters square was left in place. Salaman carefully picked up this "little gadget," which looked like gravel in his eyes, with two fingers. He saw some text projected from it: "This is our communicator—but it may be a little small for you. Don't mind the details, just make do with it."

Salaman expressionlessly put away the little gadget. The adjutant next to him couldn't help but ask, "Legion Commander, are you planning to believe this stranger?"

"The Guardian Legion will cooperate with that drone legion in the next operation," Salaman said in a deep voice. "We will meet the Corruptors head-on on the main battlefield."

"But those drones come from a strange force," the young adjutant frowned. "'Observers'? I've never heard of such a civilization or organization in the universe. The images we saw are indeed scenes of them fighting the Corruptors, but these images may not be real, even if it is a fragment of Nakdal—it may be a counterfeit pieced together from somewhere else."

Another Guardian Giant grumbled, "But the Fairies are with them, I know that little long-haired one..."

"This is evidence, but it is not enough," the young adjutant emphasized.

Salaman raised his hand, interrupting his subordinates' entanglement on this issue: "There are two points you have overlooked.

"First, I never said I trust this suddenly emerging strange force. It is only natural for us to meet the Corruptors head-on on the main battlefield. Even without this suddenly emerging 'Observer,' this is what we have been doing all along. Are we supposed to retreat when those freaks attack in order to guard against those drones?

"Second, whether we trust them or not, it is a fact that a powerful legion is operating in this star system, and it is a fact that they are about to arrive. We cannot ignore it and must find a way to verify it. We must figure out what this Observer and his army are up to. The next battle is the best means of testing. If they are friends, then we are very fortunate. If they are enemies, it is better for them to take the initiative to show themselves than to always hide in the dark."

Seeing the adjutant showing a thoughtful expression, Salaman breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at the battlefield, which was already coming to an end—another wave of Corruptor attacks had ended. The ultra-long-range fire support from Agdar and the powerful fortifications of the hub itself withstood this round of attacks. Those freaks left behind tens of thousands of remains and the evil aura pervading the universe and were slowly retreating, but the remains of the Guardians and the destroyed defensive facilities were also floating on the battlefield, which did not inspire any joy of victory, but only endless fatigue and depression.

"Creatures corroded by that evil power would not retain such clear eyes," the old giant said in a low voice.

After the communication was disconnected, Hao Ren also breathed a sigh of relief, changed back to that lazy posture and slumped on the chair, as lazy as a dead dog.

Vivian stepped forward and pinched his shoulder: "Do you think they will believe us and cooperate?"

Hao Ren half-眯着 his eyelids: "They may not believe it, but they will definitely cooperate."

"So sure?"

"It's obvious. Those corrupted monsters are constantly attacking the Guardians' defense lines, and the Guardian Legion must resist. All we want them to do is to deploy more troops in the next battle and use Agdar to attract the enemy's attention—this is what they have been doing all along. This communication is not so much an invitation for the Legion Commander to assist in the battle as it is a mutual recognition of faces and an agreement on a signal to prevent accidental injuries during the fight."

"Sometimes I really don't know if your carefree appearance is real or fake. You think about these things so thoroughly, but you still look like 'I'm actually very weak'," Vivian glared at Hao Ren, then patted him on the back twice, "Get up, get up, I'll sit here—it's your turn to massage me."

"Speaking of which, where did those three Fairies run off to again? How did they disappear as soon as I turned my head?"

"I just saw them with Doudou. They probably went exploring somewhere again. It's okay, they won't get lost. There are surveillance cameras everywhere here, and there are terminals following them."

A large-scale military deployment was taking place quietly.

The Nakdal base cluster's cordon had been expanded to three times its original size, and the interior of the cordon was filled with gravity well generators and spatial rift monitoring devices. All attempts to directly enter the cordon via hyperspace jump would be blocked, and any jump behavior near the cordon would trigger an alarm immediately—under the protection of these security facilities, the Nakdal area had become a true "forbidden zone."

Deep inside those layers upon layers of drone turrets and outposts were hidden nests and factories of undetectable number and scale. Countless armed drones were being deployed and gathered within them, yet the outside world had no way of knowing the true situation of these deployments.

No one knew what the drones were doing except the owner of this base cluster.

In the next two or three days, the Mad Claws did indeed carry out several probes. Six waves of reconnaissance forces of varying sizes attempted to enter the drone blockade to determine the situation inside this base and fortress cluster. Two of the waves were captured by gravity wells when they tried to forcibly jump into the cordon and were torn into pieces by spatial turbulence before they could even materialize in the real world. The remaining forces, having learned their lesson, could only hover outside the drone blockade and were torn to shreds by swarms of incoming drones after several unsuccessful breakthroughs—although the last reconnaissance force was large enough to almost break through, the heavy armed drones that came to provide support still stopped them.

The commanders of the Corrupted Monsters were clearly angered and also became extremely vigilant. The increasingly strong reconnaissance efforts showed that their fear and hostility towards these drones had reached their peak, especially with the drone base being under strict blockade and unable to determine the internal situation, this fear and hostility should have brewed a strong sense of "unease."

If the monsters really had such emotions.

They should indeed be uneasy, because in fact, the core area of the Nakdal base cluster had been "emptied out" at this moment.

The six main nests had long since disappeared, and a large number of heavy drone factories had also been transferred to other places via hyperspace jump in the past two days. Command posts and production facilities of all sizes had left this place one after another. All that remained in place were tens of thousands of construction skeletons and abandoned spatial anchor points—and millions of armed drones ready to be deployed as the second echelon in the battle.

These armed drones were densely arranged in clusters like formations waiting for inspection, gathering in the empty ruins of the base. They turned off their lights, shut down their engines, and remained silently and neatly as if dead. Only a few Scout Drones occasionally passed through these formations, and the lights they emitted would cause a limited response from the waiting drones, which made people realize that these drone clusters, quietly floating in the dark space, were actually just hibernating, waiting for the start of the war.

A silver-white warship slowly flew past the front of the drone clusters. Behind the silver-white warship was a continent floating in the universe: this continent was now plunged into darkness. The artificial lights that had shone for thousands of years had been extinguished, and only a few temples in the core area still had some faint light, as if it were night.

Nolan's figure appeared on the bridge: "Nakdal Fortress has entered light control. The self-check of each system has just passed, and the engine group is currently being preheated. The Fairies are now staying underground, and Doudou and a large number of autonomous machines are playing with them. They are still quite obedient for the time being."

Hao Ren nodded and turned to look at Vivian: "To be honest, I think it would be better if you went down. You, as the Queen, still have a lot of prestige among the Fairies. They would be more obedient if you gave an order."

"I think I still need to adapt..." Vivian covered her forehead, "I never thought that one day I would be pushed to be some kind of Queen—and to be a Queen for a group of creatures like that. I have no interest at all. I don't even know what this 'Queen' identity that fell from the sky is for... It would be great if the Goddess of Creation had left me a manual."

"Alright, thinking about these things is useless. It's better to ask about it after meeting that Legion Commander named Salaman. Those Guardian Giants have been guarding this X-cluster for ten thousand years and are watching over that Crystal Planet. Maybe they know something—after all, that Crystal Planet was left to you by the Goddess of Creation."

Vivian nodded and changed the subject: "The reconnaissance forces of those monsters are appearing more and more frequently."

"Monsters don't have much patience. It's already unexpected that they can act rationally to this point. Next will probably be the real attack," Hao Ren said, while looking at the drone army waiting neatly in the universe, "They won't think of the real organizational form and 'breeding method' of the drone clusters—the drone clusters don't have a so-called 'main base' or 'headquarters' at all. They are gathered here only as a temporary phenomenon."

"However, you have forcibly created the illusion of a headquarters," Vivian smiled. "Those monsters will think that this is the main base of the drone clusters and then launch a large-scale attack on this place. However, all that awaits them here is a big 'surprise'."

"That's called art, the art of war. Of course, it can also be called technical support."

Vivian pinched Hao Ren: "You're really wicked now."

"Didn't you look just as excited as me when we were making the plan?"

Vivian rolled her eyes and didn't respond. Nolan then suddenly spoke: "Nakdal Fortress engine group is warmed up, ready to weigh anchor at any time."

Hao Ren put away the joking expression on his face: "Then... let's set off."