Chapter 1618: Chapter 916: Blocking the Calamity
The arrival of the Calamity Fleet worsened the situation of the world of Papalier.
This world had already encountered a terrible crisis, to the extent that safe zone strategies could not be executed, leaving only the Extinction Orderâwhich ended up intercepted.
Now, the Calamity Fleet is involved.
The situation is extremely urgent.
The Alliance Fleet, caught off guard by a surprise attack, even had to temporarily avoid confrontation. To avoid being thrashed, it made an urgent retreat, allowing the Calamity Fleet to smoothly take half of Papalierâs orbit, while the Alliance Fleet moved to the planetâs far side.
The two fleets began combat along the planetâs orbital path.
But to be honest, the fighting wasnât particularly fierce.
The Alliance forces here were indeed where the Southern Line army command center was located, but not the main force. During combat, the armyâs units scattered into multiple detachments. The army sets general combat objectives targeting multiple Star Domains, while each detachment follows the detailed strategies provided by command to undertake their tasks.
This is to improve efficiency.
Unless they encounter particularly difficult challenges requiring multiple detachments or collective action from the entire army, they remain divided. Otherwise, they stay dispersed under normal circumstances.
Papalier was said to be in a critical situation, but before the Calamity Fleet appeared, it was merely an issue of a single world, insufficient to recall other detachments for reinforcement. The command fleetâs strength was more than sufficient to resolve the problem.
Until the arrival of the Calamity Fleet, everything changed.
The Human Fleetâs size numbered roughly over a hundred warships; in this Star Sector, there were another 500 or so ships belonging to the command fleet, having received the message and are rushing full speed.
Before they arrive, relying on the hundred warships at hand makes fleet confrontation with the Calamity Fleet difficult.
The opponentâs numbers far exceed ours.
However, the formidable chaotic enemy didnât, due to their larger scale and greater strength, insist on pursuing the Alliance ships to annihilate them.
On the contrary, after occupying half the orbital space of Papalier, their next move was deploying troops to the ground.
Their target region was rather apparent.
It was a church located in the middle area of a Nest Capital occupied by the Alliance Army. Originally, it served as a ground base, a temporary relocation site for surface residents to the sky before executing the initial Extinction Order strike.
Civilians would undergo inspections here, ensuring they carried no viruses or chaos corruption, before being safely transported to the rear.
Later, after the failure of the Extinction Order strike, human forces returned to the surface, reoccupying this area. It continued its duty of identifying civilians, further attempting to evacuate more people. Additionally, it fulfilled another role as a forward military base to strike a Chaos Rebel Army air defense site 70 kilometers away.
This place, considered important, does hold some strategic value, which is why the Alliance forces stationed a fully assembled Skeleton Division here, along with a company of Rong Lizard Battle Group Interstellar Warriors.
Rong Lizard is a subgroup of the Giant Dragon Legion, their sepia and dark green dual-tone paint making them resemble old banyan trees. With a history of 1600 years, theyâve been long understaffed. Until joining the Allianceâs Dark Side Expedition, Rong Lizard Battle Group was rejuvenated, now including over 700 new recruits beyond their less than 300 veterans, all Original Casting new soldiers.
The Eighth Company of Rong Lizard here is an Original Casting Company.
Their original duty wasnât guarding the church; they were meant to assemble here as the core force to attack the air defense site.
But now, with the Calamity Fleetâs ground invasion, their primary mission naturally shifted to local defense.
Initially, they didnât plan on defending to the death.
This churchâs value lay in being a staging ground for attacking the enemy air defense site. Now, the Alliance side evidently lacks the strength to continue the offensive, the entire battle situation undergoing significant changes.
With ground forces deployed by the Calamity Fleet targeting them, the opponentâs forces hugely surpass theirs, making the church, no longer holding value as an offensive springboard, logically a candidate for abandonment. Preserving their active strength, awaiting subsequent peripheral reinforcements for a counterattack, accumulating power, is the more correct choice.
However, just as the troops prepare to withdraw, an order from the general command halts them.
They were instructed to defend the area, holding it at all costs, even if it meant fighting to the last person.
...
This order was personally issued by Martins.
He was familiar with the Calamity Fleet.
Or rather, among various Alliance military units, the Interstellar Warrior Management Association was one most concerned with the Calamity Fleet.
The reason is simple: the Calamity Fleet is, among various enemies the Alliance faces, the force with the highest Chaos Starfield Warriors concentration. Often, the leader of the Calamity Fleet is a chaos combat group leader.
If thereâs an enemy in the universe the Interstellar Warriors most want to eliminate, itâs undoubtedly those traitors sharing their bloodline.
Bloodline traitors are the greatest enemy, aiming to cleanse disgrace; other non-bloodline traitors are secondary.
As a chief of the management association, Martins reviewed many command analyses on the Calamity Fleet. He knew the Calamity Fleet seemed to be searching the universe for something.
So far, the Alliance remains unaware of what that âthingâ is.
But seeing how clear their goal was, aiming for that church, could it be the âthingâ the Calamity Fleet seeks is inside the church?
They must be stopped.
Martins even judged that those traitors likely wouldnât wait for Alliance forces to gather outward-spread detachments for a decisive battle. After seizing the church and acquiring their desired âthing,â they might immediately withdraw.
Once theyâve fled, capturing them wouldnât be easy.
Martins was determined to stop them.
Solely relying on a Rong Lizard Company on the ground alongside an Alliance Army Division surely wasnât enough.
But as long as they could hold out long enough, until reinforcements arrived, it would suffice.
And the reinforcements would be led by Martins personally.