Three weeks later...

The Toppoki region was still somewhat peaceful without anything major happening. Most of the viewers had already gotten bored and switched to another entertainment platform.

Meanwhile, the alliance was still struggling to find the location or the destination of the hidden fleets.

The investigations had reached to a dead end due to being a tad too late…Most of the fleets had gone missing months ago.

Fortunately, the alliance still enjoyed some good news as their additional reinforcement had been snuck successfully out of the Sheyrus region.

Honestly, they didn't know for certain whether the royal family had found out about their mobilization or not.

They could only hope that the royal family hadn't caught wind of it since their informants were useless when it came to dealing with the upper echelons.

...

"Commander, should we begin? Their reinforcement is merely a few hours away based on our calculation." General Creed asked as he saluted commander Edward inside the operation center.

Commander Edward glanced at his bracelet for a few seconds before responding, "Go for it."

The moment he said so, the operation center was enlivened. All the staff members and soldiers had cheerful expressions as they focused on their jobs.

The previous victory had boosted their confidence immensely and made them quite antsy to restart their invasion over the past few weeks.

In a few minutes, the mother battalion and its warships had begun approaching the defensive station rapidly.

Since the distant between them was in the hundreds of kilometers, the defensive station director was informed of their movement almost immediately.

"Bring commander Zosia and be prepared to activate the anti-plasma shield at any moment!" The director ordered with an unwilling look.

It was written all over his face that he didn't want to give up his authority again to Commander Zosia...Especially, when he knew that the reinforcement was merely a few hours away.

In his eyes, the next battle was going to be a free win as long as he focused on buying time.

When the reinforcement arrives and take care of the invaders, he would be honored with medals due to his achievement of guarding the wormhole successfully.

Too bad, Zosia had made it obvious that she wasn't planning on handing over the command here anytime soon.

"What did I miss?"

The moment she was called over, her holographic image appeared above everyone and was followed with the other four heads of the alliance.

"Nothing much, they are still approaching us." The director replied as he enhanced the image of the royal family's fleet getting closer and closer.

Just like last time, they were moving in the progressive formation that made them resemble a flying plane.

"Are they mocking us?" The director's eyelids twitched in irritation.

"Ignore them." Zosia requested, "Do a full ultra-wide scan around us and keep it active all the time. Plus, send out a few scouts just to be safe."

'Ultra-wide scan and scouts?' The director titled his head slightly confused, 'Is she anticipating an ambush or something?'

Although he was curious, he still did as he was commanded.

Zosia hadn't informed him or anyone in the operation center to minimize the risk of having her findings leaked.

Although she knew that anyone able to make it here was trustworthy and had gone through many checks, she still kept the Intel from them just to be safe.

"How are we looking?" She asked the director for results.

"Nothing on the scanner."

The ultra-wide scanner was able to cover up to five hundred thousand kilometer more or less.

As long as an object wasn't travelling at the speed of light or had a better anti-surveillance system, they were bound to appear on the radar.

Since most advanced anti-surveillance systems were expensive as hell, Zosia knew that it was impossible for every warship to be equipped with one.

Hence, if the hidden fleet was coming, they would show up in the radar one way or another.

"Alright, I will be spectating for now." Zosia nodded at the director, "You know what to do."

"I won't disappoint you." The director saluted respectfully with glowing eyes.

He truly didn't expect for her to hand over the leadership like this.

After a short while, the royal family fleet had stopped at the fifty kilometer again. Only this time, the director wasn't planning on waiting for them to make the first move.

"Fire in five!"

All the weapons on the defensive station and the warships had emerged and began glowing brightly.

The instant commander Edward saw this, he ordered everyone to take cover behind the mother battalion.

The mother battalion's alloy was tough enough it blocked the first salvo of orange beams without receiving any significant damages.

Still, the director kept the pressure applied by allowing the warships to cooldown their canons while continuing to use the defensive station canons.

This forced the royal family's warships to keep taking cover. However, commander Edward wasn't a pushover.

He started trading fire with the mother battalion's cannons.

He focused on the alliance warships, driving them into trying their best to evade the orange plasma beams.

Boom Boom!...

A few captains weren't lucky enough to evade in time and had their warships blown up, getting everyone within it killed.

This back and forth tradeoff continued on for a short a while until both behemoths had all of their cannons overheated.

The moment that happened, the warships had graced the stage and restarted their own battle in the center of the war zone.

Only this time, the director had his eyes focused on the mother battalion, so if they dared to use the red plasma canons, he would have his anti-plasma shield ready to block it.

Thankfully, commander Edward wasn't an idiot, who would repeat the same strategy.

Plus, he didn't even need to do anything since his warships were completely dominating the war zone.

Their overwhelming numbers were too much for the alliance warships.

"Retreat! Retreat!"

The director shouted the instant he was informed that some of the defensive station's canons had cooled down.

He wasn't firing them at the same time as a buffoon but on a rotation sequence.

When commander Edward saw that the warships were returning to the defensive station, he ordered the captains to leave the war zone as well.

A few seconds later, the two behemoths restarted their shootout, hoping to penetrate that tough alloy any time soon.

It was hard but not impossible to break apart.

If it wasn't for so, Zosia wouldn't have activated the anti-plasma shield to protect the defensive station in the last clash.

...

Minutes went by then hours, the war zone was still as heated as before.

There were some breaches on both sides, but they were dealt with by using repair bots. So far, no one had fired off the red plasma cannons.

As long as the mother battalion refrained from using theirs, the defensive station intended to hold into theirs.

That's because the director had only one purpose...Delay and Delay!

Although more than a hundred warships had ended up getting destroyed, his job could have been considered as done splendidly.

He held off the royal family's advancement for hours until the reinforcement had closed in to the war zone.

While everyone in the operation center was beyond relieved by their arrival, Zosia was getting anxious each minute.

'Where is the royal family's hidden fleet?'

She really didn't want for their reinforcement to engage without knowing the whereabouts of the hidden fleet.

If they appeared while they were in the middle of the fight, it would be awful. After all, they had more than three thousand warships and two mother battalion.

An ambush of such magnitude would ruin them. The worst part, the additional reinforcement coming from the Sheyrus region were still days away from them.

'There are only two options.' Zosia tightened her lips, 'Either attack them and take them down as fast as possible or hold off the reinforcement.'

She believed that the royal family might be waiting for the reinforcement to intervene then send their own and take everyone down at the same time.

Hence, if she kept the standoff from breaking to buy time for their additional reinforcement, the royal family would most likely keep their hidden forces away.

It was known knowledge that the ultra-wide scanner had a maximum range of five hundred thousand kilometers.

They just needed to stay outside the scanning area, and they would be invisible. Additionally, the scouts she sent would need more time for their search to come into fruition.

'I can't hold them off for days.' Zosia sighed and refrained from speaking.

She let the director conduct a join strike at the mother battalion with the reinforcement.

She knew that deciding not to use the reinforcement would backfire on her horribly.

More warships would get destroyed, and more crews would get killed.

All of that for what? A hunch that she couldn't share with anyone?

Hell, she would be even accused of assisting the enemy since no one was dumb enough to not use available reinforcement.

"Prepare for our counter-attack! The reinforcement will appear shortly on the enemy's radar!" The director hollered, "So, make sure to pressure them enough to forgo the thought of escaping!"

'Let's hope we stand for a few days.' Zosia closed her eyes as she wished.

She wanted to avoid admitting it, but she knew that she was as rotten as the other politicians....

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