159: Chapter 159 Considerations

After the battle ended, the entire space was left with nothing but wreckage where flesh and steel were intertwined.

Xia Xingchen looked at the shipwrecks and alien corpses floating in space around him, contemplating his next move.

The appearance of the Lux Aliens had completely disrupted all his deployments.

The original expedition plan had to be re-evaluated, as he had to consider whether to prioritize these aliens as targets due to the new threat.

Just as Xia Xingchen was deep in thought, Cassandra walked up to his side and reported in a low voice:

"My lord, Fortress Guard Commander Keli reports to you that they have captured a Lux Aliens officer alive. Would you like to go and see it yourself?"

Upon hearing this, Xia Xingchen became instantly interested.

"We are going there now."

Xia Xingchen's aircraft landed on the fortress platform.

He stepped off the aircraft. At this moment, the entire fortress was littered with the corpses of Lux Alienss and the remains of fallen soldiers.

Soldiers and Servitors were busy clearing the battlefield, while a Tech-Priest was planning the repair scheme.

Xia Xingchen looked around the entire fortress; it could be said that it had been battered to the point of being half-destroyed.

However, its achievements were immeasurable.

It was precisely because of this fortress's existence that it successfully blocked the attack of an entire main fleet of Lux Alienss, protecting Vanad Planet and the more than 700 million people living on it.

Keli came to the Archon's side and performed a standard Aquila Salute.

"Commander Keli, you are a hero. You and your soldiers held the fortress and protected the countless people on Vanad Planet; they will not forget your achievements and those of all your subordinates."

Upon hearing this, Keli immediately puffed out his chest:

"Defending the home and country, and driving out the aliens, is my duty, Archon."

Xia Xingchen patted his shoulder with satisfaction and then asked about the living Lux Aliens:

"Take me to see the Lux Aliens you captured alive."

Commander Keli immediately led the way.

Xia Xingchen followed Commander Keli into the underground cell, where they discovered a Lux Aliens with a black head being detained.

"Archon, these aliens distinguish their rank based on their body color."

Keli took the initiative to introduce this to the Archon, while pointing at the alien's green body:

"The lowest-ranking Lux Aliens soldiers are entirely green; they are the bottom-tier cannon fodder and shock troops."

Following that, he pointed to the head of this alien officer, where the color was black:

"One level higher, the most obvious characteristic is that the head begins to show a different color, mostly black, which signifies a junior officer."

Based on battlefield intelligence, Commander Keli summarized and reported to everyone present:

"I have discovered that their colors are roughly divided into green at the lowest level, followed by black, but we are unclear about the levels above that.

There is also a special red type, whose status should be higher than ordinary soldiers, similar to elite warriors, but these elites are mostly uncontrollable, more like Berserkers on the battlefield."

After listening to Commander Keli's report, Xia Xingchen nodded. It was clear that this alien civilization had a strict hierarchy and extremely harsh regulations.

"Have you asked anything out of it?"

"No, nothing could be extracted."

Xia Xingchen looked at the Lux Aliens in the cage. It stood inside, looking at the people outside, its eyes seeming to contemplate something.

Xia Xingchen met its gaze; it was clear that it possessed intelligence, but it was obvious that this alien did not want to communicate with humans.

No matter how Xia Xingchen's subordinates asked, it remained silent.

Xia Xingchen gradually lost patience and looked at the Tech-Priest beside him:

"Find a way to pry its mouth open. I don't care what method you use; I want to know all their intelligence. Also, dissect it for research; it would be best if you could create special weapons targeting them."

The Tech-Priest immediately agreed:

"I will immediately take this alien to the biological laboratory. Lady Sera will surely be very interested in studying it."

Hearing the name Sera from the Tech-Priest, Xia Xingchen remembered that he hadn't seen her for a long time.

But Xia Xingchen could not go to see her immediately; he first headed to Vanad Planet to conduct combat propaganda.

His purpose was, on one hand, to demonstrate his powerful military strength, and on the other, to put the people of Vanad Planet at ease.

The aliens could not possibly pose a real threat to Vanad Planet.

After Xia Xingchen's troops held a grand victory parade.

The dark clouds that had originally shrouded the skies over Vanad Planet were swept away.

Xia Xingchen looked at the expressions of the people below with satisfaction, and then immediately took Cassandra and Hecuba to the Daxia Biological Academy of Sciences on Fengshan Planet.

This place gathered the top biological scientists and scholars under Xia Xingchen.

When Xia Xingchen arrived at the Academy of Sciences, the automatic doors opened slowly, and he walked to the very core of the biological research facility.

Sera was leading a large group of researchers, studying everything related to the Lux Aliens.

Xia Xingchen soon saw Sera, who was staring at an alien sample in a biological tank, conducting research.

"Long time no see."

Upon hearing the voice, Sera turned her head, then bowed to Xia Xingchen:

"Very glad to see you, Archon. Are you here to understand the research progress?"

Hearing this, Xia Xingchen pointed to the disassembled Lux Aliens samples:

"How many discoveries have you made from these aliens?"

Sera immediately called up her research report and transmitted it to the optical screen in front of Xia Xingchen.

Xia Xingchen looked at the report on the optical screen; it surprisingly showed that the entire Lux Aliens civilization possessed psychic talent.

Furthermore, their hierarchy was likely based on the strength of their psychic abilities. In other words, those individuals on the battlefield who could control the lower-ranking soldiers were basically all Psykers.

"Do you mean that the ruler of the Lux Aliens is most likely a powerful psychic alien?"

Sera pondered for a moment, then said:

"It cannot be confirmed with certainty, but the probability is extremely high."

Upon hearing this, Xia Xingchen asked immediately:

"That is to say, in a sense, a decapitation strike is an effective combat method against the Lux Aliens, right?"

Sera nodded:

"Yes, Archon. But the prerequisite is that we must find the Lux Aliens home planet and be able to organize a team to launch a decapitation strike. I believe this plan is quite difficult to implement."

Xia Xingchen pondered for a moment; indeed, they didn't even know where the Lux Aliens territory was right now.

Even if they knew the specific location, to launch an attack, they would need to organize an expedition fleet at least several times larger than the Troy expedition.

Xia Xingchen calculated: his current fleet was only enough to maintain the basic defense of each planet.

His main warships were basically all on the expedition; it wasn't impossible to recall them, but it would take at least a month. Of course, the Warp was full of uncertainty, and Xia Xingchen dared not guarantee whether they would arrive early or return late.

The only one capable of mobile combat was the dream star. Of course, it was unrealistic to expect the dream star to penetrate deep into enemy territory alone.

Warship construction was inherently an extremely slow process, and on top of that, Xia Xingchen did not have a specialized Forge World.

Even though he had been secretly using nanotechnology to accelerate production, rapidly manufacturing warship modules and sending them to temporary shipyards in space for assembly.

Yet even with this speed-up, the number of warships Xia Xingchen could launch each year was only about thirty.

Thinking of this, a thought suddenly popped into Xia Xingchen's mind: Since I can organize an expedition fleet, could the Lux Aliens also assemble a massive fleet to launch an expedition and reclaim the territory they lost?

As this thought appeared, Xia Xingchen immediately realized the severity of the problem.

He had no main fleet available at hand; all he could rely on was the planetary defense platform that had not yet been fully completed.

Viewed from space, the Iron Hairpin Ring Defense Platform consisted of two crisscrossing circular defense belts, one running east-west and the other north-south. The rings were covered with all kinds of weapons, from small close-in defense cannons to large Nova Cannons and Macro-Cannons, everything was available.

Originally, building a defense system of this scale would have been impossible to complete without a thousand years.

But with the support of Xia Xingchen's nanotechnology, combined with the endless supply of warship wreckage resources on the southern continent of Fengshan Planet, Xia Xingchen had completed the initial construction of the entire defense platform in just twenty years.

At the four intersection points of the two rings, Xia Xingchen built four large Spaceports.

The most important of these was the Eastern Spaceport, which was directly connected to the Space Elevator on the planet's surface.

Thinking of this, Xia Xingchen felt that perhaps he was overthinking.

Relying on this space defense platform, he was fully capable of fighting; even if the enemy organized an army of hundreds of millions, he could still defend against it.

In the end, Xia Xingchen issued the order in his study: let the expeditionary force continue to advance the western expedition.