Skyfire Avenue - Chapter 748

Chapter 748

Chapter 748: Middle Heaven’s Protection

Most military leaders were obedient enough to head the retreat order . But the commanders of the Citadels were thirsty for riches and chose to ignore them .

“We have our own ships . We’ll stay and take out some more of these creatures, it’ll be fine . ” The Pontiff cooly gave the command .

Satan, on the other side of the planet, cursed under his breath . “Bastard . He dares to disobey my orders . Are vital crystals worth more than your lives? You have five minutes to get your asses back here . ”

In contrast to the Pontiff’s Citadel, Satan’s people had not continuously suffered at the hands of Lan Jue . Though he was greedy, he was less desperate and more sensitive to commands . Despite his covetous nature, he understood that live was more important .

“That was an order to retreat, do you hear me!” Satan’s angry shout crackled through the Dark Citadel’s communications channels .

“But, your Majesty, the vital crystals…”

“Idiot! Do you think the army strategists are stupid? Do you think they’d order a general retreat for no reason? I’m leaving, if you want to wait here for death then so be it . ”

Satan screamed, his heart filled with a disquiet he couldn’t put his finger on . It had only gotten worse when he got a message from the daughter he’d been estranged from for years . The note was simple .

‘Run . ’

Seeing her name on his communicator stirred a host of complicated emotions, but chief among them was unease . Without it he likely would have reacted much the same way as the Pontiff .

Satan relayed the order to Lucifer, telling them to retreat as quickly as possible . The Paragon didn’t bother with a ship and instead shot through the air by virtue of his own power, and into space .

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“What are they up to?” The Violet Prince shut his eyes and tried to penetrate the disturbance with his psychic energy . But he was thwarted by the scale of power of it, only succeeding in causing himself more pain .

The Princess was grasping at straws . “Perhaps it is a precursor to their invasion? These are what the humans call ‘interference waves . ’ We mustn’t wait, it’s time to act . ”

An ominous lint glinted in her companion’s eye . “You’re right . Whether they’re attacking or fleeing we must react . ”

They exchanged a look, then suddenly vanished in a tornado of purple energy .

ζ

Zeus-1 and Majesty blasted through Monteux’s atmosphere at intense speeds, fleeing the battlefield . Moments after speaking with his brother, Lan Jue had alerted his troops . They were the first to gather by the transport ships in preparation to withdraw . Construction of the base and railguns had continued, though robot engineers were left the task . This perplexed the enemies and gave the humans cover for their retreat .

When the EMP missiles struck, the ships were guided into orbit by pilot experience alone . They fled the area with exceptional discipline .

Detonating a planet took time . No matter how strong the aliens were, a world that was the result of several millennia of compression wouldn’t explode with a word . It needed to undergo a process . However, no one knew how long that process would actually take . If it was on the shorter side, retreat might already be too late for those on the ground .

What’s more, only heaven knew the scope of a planetary explosion . How far would its destruction reach? They’d never bothered to calculate how much energy these worlds contained in their cores, or how resilient they were . Every planet was complicated and unique .

However, beyond all question the explosion would be catastrophic .

Lan Jue stood in the bridge on Zeus-1, his hand wrapped around a metal rod . He continuously flooded the ship with his Discipline to give it the energy needed . The light spat from its engines were a brilliant gold . Paragons on Majesty were doing the same .

Star Division’s commander scowled, his face dark with rage . Lan Jue’s fury was not simply because of the loss of these planets . It reminded him of the half-healed wounds deep within himself, of the darkest period of his life .

Hera had perished under similar circumstances, had she not? When that planet exploded Lan Jue felt like his soul had been in the center of it . For years he was inconsolable, and the path to recovery had been long and difficult .

These beasts – they were unthinkably cruel!

If they had not discovered the alien plot, the humans’ plans would have proceeded . Their ships and bastions would have retaken the planets and begun reconstruction . None of them would have been able to flee when the plants exploded . Perhaps the bastions would have survived, their defenses were strong, but the fleets and all their soldiers? How could they have survived the raging destruction of a planet at close range? Countless lives would have been lost in an instant .

It would have been an unprecedented loss for humanity’s military . Without a means to fight back, it would have spelled the end of their species at the hands of the alien menace .

Although Lan Jue and the men and women of the Alliances had learned a great deal about their enemy, their boundless cruelty and cunning continued to surprise . It was not easy to devour several planets’ worth of energy so fast, yet they did . What’s more, the energy required to detonate a planet was enormous . In order to prepare so quickly, it meant this had been their plan from the beginning .

Lan Jue’s first terrified thought was that they couldn’t think like humans if they wanted to fight against these monsters . The alien planets were no longer here, and whether they teleported away or left by some other means their target was somewhere else .

They were exactly as intelligent as Lan Jue suspected, which was why it seemed so strange for them to choose such an indefensible position as a place to evolve . Humanity’s armies were a threat, so they did whatever was necessary to stop them . Callously obliterating billions of lives and four planets was a passing thought, tools to use to their advantage .

It was frightening how accurately these beasts were able to judge human reactions . They knew how the North would be forced to react if their planets fell into enemy hands . They would have no choice but to come with their full might . They even anticipated mankind would fret over their ability to teleport, and painstakingly kept that possibility alive in the minds of their prey .

Were it not for Jun’er and Jue Di’s efforts, they might have succeeded . Even if only half of their ships were lost, a third of their bastions, humanity would never had joined together again in mutual defense . Leaders and politicians would have chosen to look after their own, to flee in the face of overwhelming adversity . But by then the alien teleportation abilities would make them invincible . They would hunt down and kill the humans with impunity until they got the DNA material they needed . With mankind’s armies in disarray, nothing would stand in the way of their domination .

How many humans would remain if that were to occur? Would it really spell the end of their species? No one knew . The universe was a dangerous place, and they didn’t have any hidden strength to depend upon . It was all unsettling conjecture .

Yet the heavens seemed to favor humanity . It had given them Jue Di, Jun’er . The Clairvoyant…

Zeus-1 was moving so fast the view outside its windows were a blur . In an instant they were looking back at the rapidly shrinking Monteux . Majesty kept on its heels . Although the battleship was larger by a fair amount, it had its advantages . Its equipment was top of the line, and had several Paragons as support to ensure it could keep up . However, the ships would need repairs after being so dramatically overloaded . The intense speed and flow of power damaged their internal components .

Before long Lan Jue spotted Middle Heaven looming nearby . It was easy to pick out – after all, it was a planet!

Middle Heaven was also on the move, and Su Xiaosu calculated a trajectory to bring them around its far side . Once in position they cut their speed and pulled into one of the bastion’s docking ports .

Lan Jue let himself relax, just a little . He was confident in Middle Heaven’s defenses . So long as they weren’t too near the blast, they would survive . But then he realized they were moving toward Monteux, and didn’t appear to be slowing .

After a moment of panicked confusion, Lan Jue understood . As he listened to communications passed along commanders he discovered five others were doing the same . Only two of the bastions weren’t pulling out to the front .

The bastions were going to use themselves to block the blast .

Bastions were the pinnacle of human construction, and that included their defenses . They had the best chances of surviving the blast of a planetary explosion . Although humanity’s forces were in full retreat, the planets could detonate at any moment . The bastions were determined to deflect as much of the blast as they could to give their people a chance .

It called to mind memories of Tyrannosaurus, when Admiral Kang had used the ship’s bulk to defend his fleet from the alien asteroid shower . Now Lan Qing and five of the North’s bastions were preparing to do the same . They tightened ranks, and waited .