312: Declaration of War

"Exactly as planned, isn't it?"

Indeed, the imperial fleet had just been fired upon in unison by the Siltrilich system fleet using Blaster mods.

The beams pierced through the fleet and continued onward, vanishing into the distance.

But that was all.

"Yes, exactly as planned."

"Truly, we owe our thanks to Lady Vilijanira."

"Who knows what might have happened if we had continued on that course..."

The shield mod and the blaster mod collision, which should have been visible, was nowhere to be seen.

The explosion, which should have occurred, did not happen.

The counterattack, which should have come instantly, failed to arrive.

Such an anomaly—so clearly abnormal that, with normal judgment, one would have immediately recognized it and taken action—was unfolding.

Yet, due to Fuunaka's disruption of their rational thinking, the fleet from the Siltrilirichi system continued firing the blaster mod.

"Then, simultaneous fire."

From an entirely different direction, countless blaster mods rained down upon the Siltrilirichi system's fleet.

Shields shattered, hulls cracked, and multiple explosions erupted.

The Siltrilirichi fleet, struck by the attack, began reacting quickly—those that moved first were immediately targeted and overwhelmed, falling one by one without any chance to respond.

It was as if the Siltrilich system had perfectly mirrored back at the Empire exactly what the Empire had tried to do to them.

Now then, it's about time we revealed our true intentions.

That said, we're not doing anything particularly complicated.

"Everything went smoothly, wouldn't you say? Still, I must admit, it was somewhat unexpected that they fell for such a simple decoy so easily."

"Lord Vee. Please be cautious. Their response was far too weak."

The first tactic is to deploy a decoy at the original entry point.

The decoy, created using the fleet's full strength and my ink, seems to have successfully deceived not only optical detection methods but also those relying on mod-based sensing, as they were unable to counter it.

"Interstellar travel takes just a few seconds—any slight delay in exiting hyperspace puts you in an entirely different location. Normally, the guide beacon would prevent such discrepancies, but not this time."

"Well, using this tactic would require spreading out so widely that it'd normally be easy to pick off one by one—so it's only feasible with a highly skilled fleet like ours."

The second part of the strategy was carefully adjusting the timing of exiting hyperspace and controlling the emergence pattern.

As a result, the imperial fleet managed to avoid the enemy's full-scale attack while delivering maximum firepower in return.

Still, as the saying goes, easy to say, hard to do—and even with the aid of machine intelligence, this was no small feat. Yet the Taima Mazedekawa accomplished it effortlessly.

Incidentally, they naturally employed a mod designed to conceal their departure point.

Apparently, it's an advanced, elite-exclusive stealth mod used exclusively by the imperial fleet.

"Then..."

With both strategies now in place,

The fleet on the Siltrilich system side was already in a state best described as obliterated.

It seemed Fuunaka had given up control, as pirate spacecraft were already preparing to flee.

Yet at the same time, a thought crossed my mind.

Could someone of Fuunaka's stature possibly fail to anticipate a situation this dire?

Then, as if to confirm my suspicions, Vilijanira shouted while exercising her one-time emergency authority.

"Order! Evade A!!"

Immediately, the imperial fleet, including the 'Shake Border,' entered faster-than-light maneuvering and executed evasive actions.

Moments later, a beam of light shot out from one of the planets within the Siltrilich system...

'‘‘‘!?‘‘‘'

"So that was the real target."

A massive explosion erupted.

Vessels caught in the blast were disintegrated, regardless of allegiance, and the disintegrated ships triggered even larger explosions in turn.

Undoubtedly, this was an attack that also utilized Fuunaka's own power.

"Phew... Satu, thank you for saving me."

"Yeah. Glad we made it in time."

The 'Shake Border' was safe.

Thanks to Vilijaniara's eyes, they knew the safe zone, and they managed to evacuate to the Ether Space just in time.

"Memo. What's the damage status?"

"Damage on our side... probably around 5% of the total units were lost. The enemy side is almost completely destroyed."

"I see. Knowing in advance there was a threat, yet still ending up like this... Really troublesome, isn't it?"

The *Shake Border* returns from ether space back into real space.

The other imperial warships... just as Memoqsi reported.

Given the nature of the enemy's attacks, there's only two outcomes—either you survive or you're completely destroyed. Whether you avoid the attack or not depends entirely on luck. There's nothing much we can do about that.

"The attack originates... from this planet. It seems the main cannon is buried underground, moving at high speed inside the planet's crust."

As Jo哈尔is speaks, footage appears on the monitor.

"It's a type of planetary cannon. It breaks down the crust it's meant to blast apart and uses that as energy for the initial attack. Sata."

"That's right. This is something we need to deal with."

"I agree completely. We have no choice but to use whatever means necessary."

The planet visible on the screen appeared as if its crust had been blown apart, with the mantle beneath violently erupting outward.

A few seconds ago, a massive, eye-like structure had been seen blocking the blown-off crust, but it had already moved into the mantle and vanished behind the planet's crust.

The exact mechanics are unclear, but one thing is certain—some incredibly powerful weapon is beginning to move, preparing for its next attack. We definitely need to deal with it urgently.

"Yeah. We still don’t know where Funaka is. That’s why we’re going to hit it with this."

So I transferred the mod—crafted from incompatible combinations I’d learned about at Seiryō Corp—into the planet’s interior.

As a result, the massive release of energy caused by the breakdown of the phenomenon scattered the planet, along with the planetary cannon swimming through the mantle.