774: Chapter 774 will be added tomorrow.

At this moment, any more reprimands or accountability are meaningless; things have already slid toward the most irrecoverable, worst-case outcome.

The urgent priority is to rush to the scene immediately, try every possible way to curb the further deterioration of the situation, and minimize losses; there is no longer any extra energy to worry about the culpability of others.

The secretary also knew the urgency of the situation and didn't dare delay for a second. He quickly responded and followed Pudel's footsteps; the two walked quickly through the long corridor of the Administrative Center and headed straight for the starship port.

...

Winding back time, not long ago, the Guard Division and the pirates were still in a standoff in the Star Domain, both sides on guard and calculating against each other, neither daring to easily break the balance.

But the accident broke out without any warning.

A flustered pirate lackey, his nerves highly strained, perhaps due to a slip of the hand or a mistake caused by excessive panic, accidentally touched the ship's fire control permissions and activated the ship-borne weapon System without warning.

A blinding beam of energy pierced the silent deep space, blasting straight toward the nearest Guard Division standard starship.

"Warning! The enemy has launched an attack! They've opened fire!"

A piercing red alarm instantly rang out across the Guard Division fleet, and all ships immediately entered the highest combat readiness state.

Inside the pirate command cabin, the boss's pupils suddenly constricted, and he roared in disbelief.

"Who? Who authorized the firing without permission! Who told you to attack!"

Despite all his calculations, he never expected his subordinates to brainlessly attack first during such a life-and-death standoff.

Originally, they could have used those planets to negotiate and stall, but with this shot, all paths of retreat were completely cut off.

Without any hesitation, the Guard Division fleet immediately launched a full-scale counterattack, and dense, terrifying main cannon fire instantly covered the entire Star Domain.

The pirate fleet, forced into battle, had a chaotic formation and inferior ships; they were simply unable to withstand the crushing offensive of the Empire's regular army.

The combat power of the two sides was worlds apart. In just three short minutes, the cluttered and dilapidated pirate starships exploded, disintegrated, and turned into Universe debris.

The entire Meteor Pirate Group was wiped out; not a single ship managed to survive.

The firepower of the Guard Division fleet was already absolutely dominant. The dense energy cannon fire swept across the entire Star Domain, scouring the battlefield without distinguishing between friend and foe. While completely crushing the pirate fleet, it inevitably affected the hijacked planets.

Those Star Controllers maintaining the planets' shrunken state were already precision celestial equipment; they simply couldn't withstand the impact of high-energy cannon fire. Under the bombardment of the sky-filling energy flow, a large number of controllers were instantly damaged and failed, losing all compressive binding force.

In the next second, the compressed planets, originally only the size of soccer balls, burst out with blinding energy halos one after another in the Universe. They expanded frantically at a speed visible to the naked eye, restoring their original bodies as complete giant celestial bodies appeared one by one.

Thousands of planets instantly crowded the narrow combat Star Domain. Their massive celestial volumes squeezed and collided with each other, and the intense celestial gravity tore frantically at the surrounding space, forcing the originally stable cosmic space into distortion.

In an instant, the spatial walls completely shattered, and a giant spatial void extending for millions of kilometers suddenly formed, with black-hole-like terrifying gravity sweeping frantically in all directions.

The remaining starship wreckage on the battlefield, pirate corpses, planet fragments that hadn't fully recovered, and even the surrounding interstellar dust and meteorite particles were all sucked in by this irresistible force, torn into nothingness in an instant, and disappeared without a trace.

At the first sign of spatial anomaly, the Guard Division Detachment Commander keenly sensed the impending doom and immediately roared evacuation orders through the entire fleet's communications.

"Attention all! Activate spatial jump immediately! Evacuate this Star Domain at full speed!"

The entire fleet immediately abandoned clearing the battlefield, turned their bows one after another, and pushed their jump engines to the limit, trying to escape the collapsing area.

But the spatial void formed too quickly, and the spread of gravity arrived in an instant. Even though the Guard Division fleet reacted with lightning speed, a small portion of the rearguard or starships with delayed engine starts still failed to escape. They were firmly locked by the terrifying gravity, and no matter how hard the engines were pushed, they could only be dragged into the spatial void bit by bit, eventually being completely annihilated.

A moment later, only a silent darkness remained in the airspace where the battle had taken place. The spatial void slowly contracted, leaving behind only a mess and residual spatial turbulence.

The remaining Guard Division starships stopped in safe airspace, looking at this scene of devastation through the observation light screen. The Command Room was dead silent.

The Detachment Commander stood before the porthole, his face so gloomy it seemed it could drip water. His fists were tightly clenched, and his eyes were full of dejection and unease.

The adjutant beside him looked at the data of the disappearing planets and damaged starships on the light screen and couldn't help but whisper in a voice full of bitterness.

"We're in trouble. With such a huge mess and the loss of so many important materials, the higher-ups are likely to blame us severely this time. None of us will escape..."

But on second thought, the adjutant was also full of helplessness.

This sudden exchange of fire was not the Guard Division's fault to begin with. It was the pirates who first illegally opened fire in provocation. According to the Empire's military regulations, their immediate counterattack was completely in line with procedure. From beginning to end, there was no dereliction of duty. The current tragedy was truly an undeserved disaster.