169: Chapter 168 War Begins

"Fleet, enter the Origin Star System at full speed. Bypass unnecessary planets and proceed directly to Planet 3."

"Yes, sir!"

As they were about to arrive at the border of the Daxia Star System, they failed to notice a figure lurking in the shadows, watching them intently like a swimming shark.

The dream star was currently not far from the fleet.

As the Lux expedition fleet entered the border of the Daxia Star System, a terrifying beam pierced through space, like a charging shark opening its bloodthirsty maw, biting fiercely into the fleet.

Before the Lux fleet could react, the Origin Cannon had already wiped out a battleship.

Immediately after, the macro-cannons and laser cannons began firing at will.

Many escort vessels became the unlucky casualties of the crossfire; before they could even react, they were reduced to wreckage in the aftermath of the explosions.

By the time Lux realized what happened and prepared to intercept Xia Xingchen's dream star, it discovered that the dream star did not hesitate at all, instantly engaging its engines and accelerating, fleeing the battlefield in mere moments.

It could be said that no one in the Lux Aliens fleet had reacted in time; it was only nearly ten minutes after the dream star had fled that everyone realized what had occurred.

In the command room, Lux IV slammed the tactical table in a rage. He could not believe that he had lost a full billion soldiers without even seeing the enemy.

It was fortunate that the warship was merely a transport ship; otherwise, their losses would have been ten times greater.

Then, Lux IV suddenly realized that someone had mentioned this warship to him before—that person was his seventh brother.

Lux VII had once told his fourth brother that humans possessed a terrifying super-warship, and when it approached, it would bite at their throats like a shark.

Lux IV had always thought this was just a joke, believing his foolish younger brother had been spooked by a human warship, and that the vessel was merely a slightly larger battleship.

Now, Lux IV realized how naive his previous thoughts had been; the warship before him was truly a Megalodon.

It was almost a product of a different era, disregarding all existing rules, unless the Lux Civilization could field a warship on par with it.

That was impossible; the Lux Civilization lacked the capability to manufacture a warship exceeding 8 kilometers in length.

To be safe and guard against this human super-warship attacking the fleet again, Lux IV immediately ordered the escort squadrons to form groups of ten. They were to quickly spread out within a 1,000-kilometer radius, centered around the battleships, to ensure no enemy units could get close.

After his first success, Xia Xingchen's dream star also attempted to strike the Lux Aliens fleet a few more times.

However, it was discovered by the scouting escort boats every single time, leaving no options.

Faced with the endless reports from the schools of sardines, the Megalodon could only give up on attacking the big fish.

After entering the Daxia Star System, Lux IV did not hesitate in the slightest, ordering the entire fleet to advance toward the third planet—Xia Xingchen's Lanshan Planet—at all costs.

Lux IV knew that they had just been lucky; the human super-warship had only destroyed one of their ships. If that super-warship were to charge into their formation at all costs, the losses would surely exceed just one ship.

Therefore, Lux IV had to make a choice.

He needed to make that human super-warship hesitate, fearing collateral damage, so it would not dare to easily launch that kind of terrifying attack.

The Lux Civilization had only one option: to immediately land on the planet's surface and occupy it. If that super-warship wanted to launch an attack from space, it would have to destroy its own home along with them.

However, when they arrived at Lanshan Planet, they were instantly stunned.

What appeared before the Lux fleet was not some weak, defenseless existence.

The reason the Lux Aliens had decided to land directly was entirely because the human worlds they had attacked previously were places that didn't even have orbital defense platforms.

Have you ever seen the Cruciform Starlight?

The light emitted by all of humanity's weapons was enough to destroy everything.

As the Lux Aliens fleet continued to approach and reached the range of the Iron Drill Defense System.

With the space station as the center, the surrounding orbital platforms began to rapidly gather points of light. These were not lights, but every war weapon embedded in the orbital platforms.

A cross-shaped laser quickly sliced toward the entire fleet like a cross-blade.

This was not an attack from a single weapon, but a full volley from all weapons on the entire defense platform.

"Evasive maneuvers!"

Lux IV shouted through the communicator. After receiving these two words, all ships quickly took evasive action, and at the same time, Lux IV issued a new order.

"All units, retreat at will. Get out of the enemy's firing range."

The Seventh Prince felt the flagship battleship beneath his feet performing frantic evasive maneuvers as its psionic shields flared to life.

"After retreating to a safe distance, regroup the formation."

At this moment, Lux IV finally finished his entire order.

The Seventh Prince watched the planetary orbital defense platforms, which were still attacking continuously, and could no longer suppress the anger in his heart.

Previously, he had been viciously ambushed by the dream star, and now he was being forcibly suppressed by the planetary defense platforms in front of him. Could it be that he had come here just to be humiliated?

"Counterattack immediately!"

Faced with such an order, the captain had to explain the situation to Lux IV.

"The firepower is simply too intense and too saturated. If we choose to lower our psionic shields, I'm afraid we'll be hit in the next second."

Lux IV was no fool; he knew the captain was right, so he had to swallow his humiliation and wait for the fleet to exit the attack range of Lanshan Planet.

Eventually, after paying the price of a dozen escort boats, one destroyer, and lightly damaging one cruiser, they managed to retreat to a safe distance.

After stabilizing their footing, the Lux Aliens fleet immediately organized an offensive, without the slightest hesitation. After a brief discussion, several generals immediately deployed a battleship intended for main combat operations, along with a large number of escort ships, destroyers, and light cruisers, to organize the first wave of the attack fleet.

And in a corner they hadn't noticed, the dream star observed that because a large number of warships had been redeployed, the outer perimeter defense formation had suddenly thinned out significantly, giving it another opportunity to attack.