The Force Field Generator had become Xiao Yuâs worst nightmare. Its presence halved the combat effectiveness of Xiao Yuâs fleet of tens of thousands of ships and increased their attrition rate by over 50%.
Without the Force Field Generator, Xiao Yu could have held out until the Baoding returned from the asteroid belt. Its arrival would have bought enough time for the Tangshan and Langfang, along with their 10,000 reinforcements, to arrive. At that point, it would have been the end for the Luka fleet.
Xiao Yu made numerous attempts to destroy the Force Field Generator, but all had failed.
If the generator could be destroyed, Xiao Yuâs chances of victory would rise to 80%. Without it, his chances fell to zero.
Faced with this dilemma, Xiao Yu devised a desperate and insane planâone he had hoped he would never have to use unless it was absolutely necessary.
Now, the time had come.
âThe Force Field Generator is on Tianyuan A⊠If I canât destroy the generator, then Iâll destroy Tianyuan A,â Xiao Yu sighed deeply. âTianyuan IV, Iâm sorry. To survive, I must sacrifice you.â
Xiao Yu had spent centuries in the Tianyuan IV system, during which time his technologies had advanced significantly. He had developed a deep attachment to this system.
Now, he was about to destroy it with his own hands.
âThe Planetary Engines I installed on Tianyuan A are still intact. Letâs use them to crash Tianyuan A into Tianyuan IV. The Luka fleet will never follow Tianyuan A to their doom. As long as they retreat beyond the Force Field Generatorâs 150,000-kilometer effective range, the generator will be useless.â
âAt that moment⊠it will be my time to strike back!â
Xiao Yu refined the plan meticulously.
The communication between Xiao Yu and the Planetary Engines relied on superluminal communication, a point-to-point method immune to interference. Xiao Yu had equipped each City-Class ship with 10,000 superluminal communication devices, corresponding to the engines on Tianyuan A, ensuring that the 100 Luka shipsâ electromagnetic jamming had no effect.
Upon issuing the command, thousands of Planetary Engines located in Zones A and B of Tianyuan Aâs surface activated simultaneously. The planet began to tremble.
This wasnât just any tremorâit was the trembling of an entire planet. The sheer power of thousands of colossal Planetary Engines was enough to make even a celestial body quiver.
âThe situation is already this dire. No need to worry about Tianyuan Aâs crust anymore. Planetary Engines, full power!â Xiao Yu ordered with a hint of madness.
Previously, Xiao Yu had meticulously calibrated the engines to prevent damage to Tianyuan Aâs crust while relocating the planet. Now, such considerations no longer mattered.
Tianyuan A was about to meet its end at Xiao Yuâs hands.
In Zone A, engines worked to decelerate Tianyuan A, reducing its orbital centrifugal force, causing it to fall under the gravitational pull of Tianyuan IV. Meanwhile, in Zone B, engines pushed Tianyuan A directly toward Tianyuan IV, accelerating the planetâs descent.
This collision between a planet and a star was imminent. The resulting energy release would dwarf the Jupiter-Moon Collision, unleashing unfathomable destruction.
The sheer audacity of this plan was breathtaking.
As Xiao Yuâs command took effect, thousands of Planetary Engines fired at full power, emitting long blue plumes that danced in the void of space. The massive ejection of material provided unparalleled propulsion, all of it directed at Tianyuan A.
Xiao Yu observed as one engine, overwhelmed by its immense output, plunged headfirst into Tianyuan Aâs surface. The ground around it bulged upward, forming a massive ring-shaped crater.
Tianyuan A began to roar. On its surface, the crust cracked open, and countless deep fissures stretched thousands of kilometers like horrifying scars. Rivers of molten lava erupted from the depths, spreading across the ground like fiery veins.
In areas where the crust was harder and didnât crack, immense pressure forced magma to burst upward, breaking through in explosive eruptions. Lava fountains shot hundreds of meters into the sky before cascading back down like fiery rain.
Beyond the volcanic chaos, Tianyuan A was wracked by massive earthquakes. The crust had been shattered into several plates by the Planetary Engines, and these plates collided and compressed against each other, unleashing devastating seismic activity.
The destruction was apocalyptic. Xiao Yu watched as an earthquake flattened an 800-meter-high crater into level ground, while in another area, the same seismic force created a towering 2,000-meter-high mountain within an hour. These quakes exceeded magnitude 12 on any conceivable scale.
It was as if the planet was unleashing its final, defiant roar before its demise.
And this was only the result of the Planetary Engines operating at full power for sixty seconds.
For the first time, Xiao Yu had unleashed the engines without holding back. According to his calculations, the engines could decelerate Tianyuan A by 10 meters per second every second. Combined with the propulsion from Zone Bâs engines, Tianyuan A would fall into Tianyuan IV in no more than five hours.
If the Luka Civilization possessed any basic astronomical and computational knowledge, they should already be fleeing. The energy released from a planetary collision with a star was unimaginable, far beyond what Xiao Yu could calculate. He knew one thing: at a distance of 20 million kilometers, neither his ships nor the Luka fleet would survive the fallout.
Once the Luka fleet fled, Xiao Yu would also be forced to retreat, taking his ships beyond the reach of the Force Field Generator. At that point, Xiao Yu would regain the ability to fight on equal terms.
This was Xiao Yuâs ultimate goal.
However, Xiao Yu noticed that the Luka fleet wasnât fleeing. On the contrary, they dispatched 200 ships, which quickly broke away from the main battle. Xiao Yu immediately understood their objective: they were heading to destroy the Planetary Engines.
âThe engines only need to run for one hour to push Tianyuan A onto an irreversible collision course. That means I must protect them for at least one hour!â
Xiao Yu reached his conclusion instantly and decisively diverted 3,000 ships from his outer fleet to pursue and intercept the 200 Luka ships.
The two forces clashed across the ravaged surface of Tianyuan A, where the land was riddled with fissures, flooded with rivers of lava, and rocked by violent volcanoes. The Luka ships aimed to destroy the Planetary Engines, while Xiao Yuâs fleet fought desperately to protect them.
In Zone A, one Planetary Engine had already sunk 100 meters into the ground, its powerful exhaust continuing to deepen the crater. Lava surrounded its immense metallic body like a fiery moat, but the engineâs durable armor and heat-resistant design allowed it to keep functioningâfor now.
Unfortunately, lava and earthquakes werenât what destroyed it. A single Energy Cannon shell, fired from a Luka Town-Class ship positioned several kilometers above, obliterated the engine in a single strike. However, the Luka ship was immediately swarmed by ten of Xiao Yuâs ships and shot down, plummeting to the ground beside the destroyed engine like a sacrificial offering.
This scene played out hundreds of times across Tianyuan A.
Xiao Yuâs original fleet of over 5,000 operational Planetary Engines was steadily reduced. Their numbers dwindled as the Luka fleetâs relentless bombardment took its toll.
âOverload them! Overload them! It doesnât matter if theyâre destroyed; this is their final mission anyway!â Xiao Yu shouted in silent fury, issuing a new command.
The remaining 4,000 Planetary Engines ramped up to maximum power. Their exhaust plumes grew brighter and more intense, their frames sinking deeper into the planetâs molten surface.
The volcanic eruptions and earthquakes on Tianyuan A grew even more severe.
The planet resembled a juicy orange being squeezed by the immense power of the Planetary Engines. As the engines pressed harder, magma erupted uncontrollably from the planetâs interior. Xiao Yu watched in awe as a single magma plume shot into Tianyuan Aâs geostationary orbit.
Once cooled by the vacuum of space, the molten rock solidified into debris that began orbiting Tianyuan A like a makeshift asteroid belt.
Ten minutes had passed. By this time, Tianyuan Aâs orbit had shifted closer to Tianyuan IV by 3,000 kilometers, and its velocity had slowed by 5 kilometers per second. These numbers continued to climb.
If the engines could operate for another 30 minutes, Tianyuan A and Tianyuan IV would collide inevitably. If Xiao Yu were to cease the enginesâ operation now and use those in Zones C and D to push the planet back into orbit, Tianyuan A could still be saved. But if the engines continued for another 30 minutes, not even Xiao Yu would be able to avert the planetâs destruction.
Out of 5,000 engines, 1,000 had already been destroyed. But then Xiao Yu witnessed a sight that filled him with hope.
Perhaps realizing they couldnât stop the collision, the Luka fleet began retreating into deep space.
One by one, the ships abandoned the Force Field Generator, the device that had haunted Xiao Yu throughout this battle.