Woll Star City Space Domain.
Twenty-six hours after the battle began.
Ryann dropped from the mecha cockpit, nearly losing his balance as he stepped onto the starship’s steel deck. Blood dripped in a trail behind him.
His chest heaved violently with each breath, sweat dripping continuously from the tip of his nose, jaw, and platinum blonde hair.
“Oh no, Your Highness!”
“Where are the medics? Hurry, hurry…”
People around him scrambled to offer support, but hesitated to touch him when they got close.
The backlash from overusing crystal bones had soaked Ryann’s combat suit with blood and sweat, making it impossible to tell which parts were intact.
Someone’s eyes immediately reddened, “Your Highness, why do you go to such lengths…”
Who could have imagined this scene before? While the empire’s emperor indulged in the people’s wealth and treated citizens as worthless, their lord was personally leading the charge and shedding blood for his subordinates.
Ryann’s gaze was as sharp as an unsheathed cold blade. He panted, “Don’t waste words. All enemy attention is on this side… Move back and cover the flagship!”
Just now, he had actually realized that Jiang Jianming had deliberately cut off communications. He also knew that after fighting for so long, the other side’s body probably couldn’t hold up anymore.
Since then, every passing second felt like it was cutting into his heart. Yet he couldn’t even go to the other’s side.
Before Jiang Jianming called him back, he had sacrificed four small starships in exchange for destroying over twenty of the enemy’s planetary-class main battle starships.
Now all of Woll’s city guard forces were watching his movements. If he approached the flagship where Jiang Jianming was, the latter’s position would be immediately exposed, becoming even more dangerous.
Ryann could only endure the torment, ordering his starship to retreat while drawing enemy fire.
At this time, reinforcement starships from Woll Star City had all joined the battlefield, immediately forming a numerical advantage. The Blue Mother Star rebel army, which had barely been able to hold on before, now fell completely on the back foot.
“Dawn! The formation is starting to fall apart. We won’t be able to control it if this continues!”
Lin Ge had also led a fleet of several hundred starships to provide support in various places. She could clearly feel the pressure increasing exponentially. “Should we retreat for a while…”
Jiang Jianming: “Hold steady, wait a bit longer.”
Lin Ge cried out in despair, “Good heavens, we really can’t hold on anymore. What on earth are you waiting for!?”
Jiang Jianming’s voice remained calm. “Wait for Woll Star City to fall.”
…
Dawn broke, with the light of the star rising from the central district of Woll Star City, illuminating the streets and alleys.
When that beam of light swept over the City Guard Force headquarters building, an explosion sounded from there.
It was followed by a second and a third, with a series of explosions blowing away the alloy glass windows. Alarms and red lights flashed together, with angry shouts quickly drowned out by the sound of gunfire.
Twenty minutes later, the defensive shield guarding the star city dissipated. Thirty minutes later, the jarring broadcast from the star city woke countless citizens from their sleep.
“Your Excellency the City Lord–!”
Inside the official residence, the Woll City Lord rolled out of bed in his nightgown.
His face turned ashen as he listened to the guard captain’s desperate voice, drenched in sweat.
“It’s terrible… Those soldiers who moved here from Blue Mother Star have launched a rebellion in the city!”
“The city’s defense system has been destroyed, and three anti-aircraft guns have also been seized. The city guards left behind can’t hold them off. They’ll soon charge towards the official residence…”
“What?!”
The Woll City Lord exclaimed in terror. “Quickly, contact General Zhou and order the fleet in space to retreat!”
“No… it’s too late.” The guard captain was on the verge of tears. “They’ve taken control of the starship port. All two thousand starships from Blue Mother Star have taken off… and then bombarded the port…”
“Our starship port is almost completely destroyed, the fires can’t even be put out. Even if the fleet in space could return to help, there’s nowhere for them to land now!”
“Ah…!?”
The Woll City Lord’s legs went weak, and he staggered to grasp the windowsill. Through the window, he saw the starship port in the distance, engulfed in thick smoke that refused to dissipate.
The group of starships that had taken off had already become tiny black dots, rushing towards higher space domains.
On the bridge of the lead starship stood a man in a crisp military uniform, hands clasped behind his back.
“Hahaha… my apologies, Your Excellency the City Lord.”
Chen Hanke smiled as he looked down at the star city. “If I were to let such a good opportunity pass, I wouldn’t have the face to meet His Highness Kaios and my old comrades.”
Outside the official residence, the iron gates were tightly shut. Nearly a thousand soldiers from Blue Mother Star revealed their crystal bones. Luther waved his hand. “Break down the gates!!”
The Woll City Lord’s teeth chattered as he slumped to the ground.
At that moment, a broadcast echoed into the official residence. “To all our human compatriots in Woll Star City…”
The Woll City Lord’s face turned ashen.
He knew it was a broadcast from the communication station.
After the empire had expanded its territory to three major star systems, the emperor had forcibly built countless such communication stations in every star city.
It allowed the ignorant masses to receive orders from the star city at any time, and also to listen to the holy voice of His Majesty the Holy Emperor whenever needed.
And now, as the official residence’s main gate collapsed with a thunderous crash, a completely different voice came from that broadcast.
“…My fellow citizens! Odin I’s harsh rule oppressed the people and caused countless deaths; Odin II’s debauchery and foolishness, his cruelty surpasses even that of his father.”
“The so-called Holy Human Empire, in its fifty-plus years since founding, has not gone a single day without trampling human civilization underfoot. Now the time has come for its downfall…”
“…I hereby declare that Woll Star City has broken away from the empire’s tyranny. From this day forward…”
The star city fell silent. Every citizen of Woll Star City listened in a daze to words they had never heard before coming from the broadcast.
Nobles and commoners alike; new humans and disabled humans alike.
They all realized – times were about to change.
…..
“It’s Old Chen and his crew!”
When obvious changes occurred on the 3D star map, Lin Ge shouted in joy. “They’re in Woll!? Dawn, how did you know they were in Woll!”
Scanning this space domain on the star map, they saw the previously advantaged imperial fleet suddenly fall into chaos, as if trying to retreat in a hurry.
But before they could truly escape from the battlefield, another squad of “imperial starships” rose from Woll Star City and, without a word, opened fire on their own “allies.”
“…Just a guess.”
Jiang Jianming let out a soft sigh, his tense back relaxing, a hint of relief appearing on his bloodless face.
—In fact, he never expected to conquer the entire Woll Star City with just Blue Mother Star’s half-baked fleet, even with the addition of the deception plan achieved through Fiennes and the surprise attack.
There was no choice; the power gap was too large. After all frontal assault strategies were rejected, he decided to take a big gamble.
Using the so-called main force as “bait” to draw out most of Woll’s troops. The rest was entrusted to his former comrades inside this star city.
As for how he knew?
The logic was simple. A year ago, the first great human migration had taken all the “upper class” and city guards from Blue Mother Star and sent them to the three star cities of Woll, Eden, and Watson.
It didn’t take much thought to realize that the empire must have had very mixed feelings about the troops evacuated from Blue Mother Star.
On one hand, they were indeed imperial troops, and it would pain anyone to just give them up.
On the other hand, most of them were people from Blue Mother Star. The empire had abandoned their mother star, so they had to be wary for a while.
So, he and Ryann analyzed these three star cities one by one.
Watson was the nobles’ holiday garden and retirement home, so they wouldn’t likely accept unsafe troops. Instead, people related to the nobles might have been sent there.
Eden Star City was the empire’s most important food source, and it was right next to Albourne, so it didn’t lack soldiers at all.
Only Woll, which lacked troops due to years of harassment by alien creatures, was not highly valued by the empire.
Usually, Jiang Jianming wouldn’t mind explaining the logic to Lin Ge. But now… even saying one more sentence was an overload for him, so he had to give up.
“Your Excellency Aslan.”
The screen in front of him flickered twice, and Chen Hanke’s smiling face appeared on it. “I hear we should call you Commander now?”
“Woll Star City has been taken, and the City Lord’s head has been chopped off. However, the starship port… well, it got a bit messy, so landing is temporarily impossible. Please bear with us.”
“Well done, thanks to you all,” Jiang Jianming said. “Is there any possibility of persuading the imperial fleet on the battlefield to surrender?”
Chen Hanke: “The Commander is merciful. I’ll give it a try.”
“According to the newly revised imperial law from two years ago, deserters are almost all sentenced to death. Moreover, the treatment of Woll’s city guards has always been poor. Persuading them to surrender shouldn’t be too difficult.”
Thirty-two hours after the battle began, the rebel army successfully occupied Woll Star City’s official residence.
Thirty-five hours in, seeing that the situation was hopeless, the morale of the Woll Star City fleet plummeted. General Zhou had no choice but to surrender.
With this, the Woll campaign came to an end.
The fall of a star city did not provoke fierce resistance among the local people.
The nobles were too accustomed to their pampered lifestyle to have the courage to go against the starships above their heads and the heavy artillery in the city. The common people, long oppressed by harsh policies, had no loyalty to the empire.
The rebel army parked a large number of starships in space, relying on mechas for movement and reorganization, quickly taking over all the checkpoints in the star city.
But for Jiang Jianming, he really couldn’t manage any more follow-up actions.
Exhausted. An overwhelming exhaustion seemed to drain the blood from him. His pale hands trembling on the command console, Jiang Jianming struggled to stand up—his vision suddenly went black.
He bit his tongue to keep from fainting.
…The soldiers below were still watching.
Rapid footsteps came from the gangway behind him. Someone rushed over and supported him from behind.
“Aslan.”
Ryann’s low voice sounded in his ear, “It’s alright, it’s alright… Slow your breathing, lean on me.”
Jiang Jianming took a breath, slowly opened his eyes, and then hissed in shock at the appearance of the person behind him.
“…You don’t look like you’re in any condition to support others either.”
“Minor injuries, at least better than you.” Ryann glared at him fiercely, lowering his voice, “Can you still walk? There’s a rest room below the bridge, I’ve locked a treatment cabin inside.”
Jiang Jianming’s cheeks were even paler than before. He stared directly at the bloodstained bandages visible under Ryann’s combat suit and replied in an equally low voice. “Together, can.”
Below, the soldiers were beginning to look up from their ecstasy over this “miraculous victory.”
From a distance, they saw two young figures leaning close together, slowly descending the bridge gangway step by step.
Someone remarked. “Lord Kaios and His Excellency Commander Aslan really do get along well, don’t they?”
There were also grumbling voices. “Why did His Highness come to see the commander in person when he’s so badly injured? Shouldn’t the subject pay respects to the monarch? Our commander seems to have too much pride.”
Someone next to them immediately refuted anxiously. “Don’t talk nonsense, the commander has a great personality! I heard Commander Aslan came from a commoner background and doesn’t put on airs at all with the soldiers.”
They chatted back and forth for a while, their faces flushed as they got more and more carried away with the conversation.
Without realizing it, everyone had forgotten… that such private discussion of the monarch and commander would be punishable by beheading under imperial law.
