Chapter 541: Ch The Resolve and the madness-1

The Head Guard gave the Star Lord a solemn nod. Casting a firm glance at his men, he signaled them to follow, then turned on his heel and strode out of the office.

Boarding his combat mech in record time, he and the others ignited their thrusters and screamed skyward into the cold expanse of space.

“Planetary Guard, listen up!” the Guard Captain barked over the encrypted fleet comms. “We must hold the humans at all costs. Do not let them approach this world! The lives of billions—our families, our people—now depend entirely on us, and we cannot fail them! We hold the line until the planetary defense shields are fully synchronized and active. I need every combat-ready unit out in orbital space, intercepting that human battleship as it closes in!”

The moment his orders echoed across the communication terminals, a heavy, breathless silence gripped the channel for a heartbeat.

Then came the roar.

A thunderous chorus of thousands of battle cries erupted in unison, every soldier throwing their resolve behind their commander’s words. Instantly, across dozens of staging bases planetwide, swarms of light combat vessels, starfighters, and armored mechs launched into orbit, streaking toward the upper atmosphere in blazing ascent.

Simultaneously, the planetary surface stirred. Massive ground-based defensive cannons swiveled their immense barrels skyward, targeting the incoming Antares-class battleship and opening fire in continuous, rhythmic salvos.

“While our ground divisions cannot join you in the void, Planetary Guard, we will back you with every battery we have!” the booming voice of the Ground Defense Weapons Director rang clearly over the priority channel.

“My gratitude to you for that,” the Guard Captain answered, his throat tightening with raw emotion.

Steeling his expression, he shoved his throttle to maximum, pushing his mech to its absolute peak velocity. Channeling his mana outward, he condensed the arcane energy into a protective spell, wrapping his entire mech in a shimmering, thin arcane shell as he dove headlong forward.

Out in the void, approaching the planet, Captain Yami stood at the command station of the Antares-class battleship.

Suddenly, one of the sensor and early-warning operators called out, “Captain! Multiple high-velocity kinetic and power signatures are ascending rapidly from the planetary surface, closing on our vector!”

“Oh?” Yami murmured, shaking his head with faint bemusement. “Seems they haven’t learned to give up just yet.”

His look hardened, eyes narrowing further as he raised a single hand. “Though they will soon enough. Intercept and neutralize the incoming salvo, then trace their firing vectors back to the surface and silence those battery positions.”

“By your command, Captain!” the weapons station crew acknowledged in unison.

The Antares’s point-defense grid came alive in a heartbeat. Guided by advanced automated fire-control and tracking arrays, the batteries locked onto their designated targets and unleashed a succession of precision micro-bursts.

Every shot hit dead center.

A chain of brilliant detonations rippled across the black, blooming just a few hundred kilometers off the ship’s bow. From initial detection to tactical assessment, command, and total interception, barely a few seconds had elapsed.

“Captain,” the sensor officer reported immediately, watching fresh telemetry spike across the display. “Multiple starfighters and light attack craft, along with a massive swarm of combat mechs bearing high-density mana signatures, have broken orbit and are bearing down on us as we speak…!”

Yami was frowning at the report, muttering “What on earth do a couple of Star Empire planetary guards think they’re achieving by doing this? Do they honestly think they’re going to make any difference where their main defence fleet has completely failed?”

He couldn’t shake the absurdity, but he quickly put it aside. Whatever their game was, it was all pointless at this stage.

“Scramble Mech Squadrons A, B and C, followed by Heavy Starfighter Squadron H-A1 to intercept,” Yami ordered, taking in the tactical board. “Antares will provide fire support from our present vector. Target the light combat craft and the remaining surface batteries.”

Pausing for a moment, putting his hands behind his back and just look out at the planet.

“Wrap it up as quickly as possible.” There’s a very faint intuition in the back of yami head actually which is why he said “We need to keep a very close eye on the planet itself. As soon as anything out of the ordinary comes up, let me know straight away.”

“Understood, Captain!” the officer off the command deck barked down the console.

The hangar bays of the massive, nearly 6.5-kilometer-long Antares slid open along its starboard and port flanks.

Alrams blared across the cavernous launch decks as catapult operators scrambled into position to finalize pre-flight sequences.

“Launch rails one through eight ready for deployment!” one operator shouted over the roar of idling engines.

Noting the status board, the launch control officer ran a rapid final check on the starfighter and mech pilots, all locked in and green across the board.

“Release!” the officer commanded.

In a staggered, relentless launch sequence, armored combat mechs were catapulted into the vacuum one after another, followed closely by wings of heavy-class starfighters.

Their thrusters roared to life, brilliant violet-blue streaks surging across the space toward the incoming swarm.

Rising from the planet below, the Star Empire’s planetary guard forces blotted out the planet’s backdrop—a patchwork fleet of light starfighters, slender mechs with minimal armor plating, and small gunboats with rudimentary hull reinforcement and armor at the forefront.

The numbers were staggering: the Star Empire’s planetary defenders held at least a four-to-one numerical advantage over the Antares’s strike wings.

Yet even so, the three mech squadrons from the Antares-class battleship—totaling some 180 machines, all elites among elites across the fleets of the Celestial Void Empire—showed not an ounce of panic. Nor did they slacken their pace; instead, they accelerated, hurtling headlong into the enemy formation.

Close behind surged the heavy starfighters, their weapon arrays already glowing hot as they unleashed a ferocious opening barrage upon the planetary guard gunships spearheading the charge.

The gunships’ energy shields flared violently under the onslaught. It took mere seconds for the heavy ordinance of the Void starfighters to tear through the barriers, stripping the vessels bare.