Chapter 544: Ch The Resolve and the madness- 4

They moved like reapers,methodically cutting through the remaining aces and last few of the Star Empire’s planetary guard.

With every few strikes, another planetary guard mech or starfighter plummeted, heaping unbearable pressure onto the surviving defenders. Terror took deep root in the hearts of nearly every guard left alive.

The battle line they had barely managed to solidify fractured once more as cohesion evaporated. Every pilot began fighting purely for self-preservation, desperately scrambling to break out of the encirclement.

They fired blindly into the ranks of the Void pilots, their frantic crossfire even clipping and harming their own comrades.

The battle had now taken a even greater catastrophic turn for the planetary guard; they were now completely at the mercy of the Void pilots, waiting only to be picked off and slaughtered one by one.

Behind the frontline, the armored hull of the Antares-class battleship lit up from bow to stern as its primary and secondary batteries unleashed continuous counter-battery salvos, methodically neutralizing the surface-to-orbit defense installations across the world below.

Inside the command bridge of the Antares, an officer offered a confident status update: “Captain, the tactical field ahead looks exceptional. Under the three squadron captains and the squadron leader, the planetary guard is on the verge of being completely routed of—”

The officer’s words were cut short as piercing red klaxons blared across the entire deck.

Captain Yami rose from his command seat, his gaze sharpening instantly. “Report!”

The sensor officer stared wide-eyed at his console and the flickering holographic data charts hovering before him. “Captain, we are detecting massive, abnormal energy spikes surging from the planetary surface directly ahead of us!”

“Is it another heavy surface-to-orbit weapon array?” Yami pressed. “If so, pinpoint the coordinates. Which sector is generating the surge?”

The operator visibly hesitated, a sheen of cold sweat on his brow. “Th-that’s the problem, Captain… It isn’t a localized discharge originating from one or two firing sectors. It’s… it’s everywhere! There isn’t a single quadrant across the entire crust where the telemetry isn’t redlining off the charts! Something is going horribly, catastrophically wrong down there!”

The bridge fell into dead silence.

“Everywhere…?” Yami murmured in disbelief.

His gaze drifted through the forward viewport toward the celestial body floating in the void—a vibrant blue-green world now convulsing with erratic, pulsing flares. Glancing back at the wild instability charts floating across the primary tactical display, a chilling thought struck him.

“Officer,” Yami commanded sharply, “run a deep-core seismic and resonance sweep across the entire planet. Check the planetary core—tell me if its core activity is stable!”

The officer blinked, stunned by the question, and hastily replied, “The core? Yes, Captain. Give me a moment.”

He agreed as his fighter flew across his control consoles, deploying its advanced seismic resonator scanning instruments. Within three seconds, a deep stream of data quickly appeared on the holographic screen, displaying the planetary core.

The core was visibly expanding outward, and the expansion was damaging the planetary crust as cracks formed and spread at a visible speed.

The officer froze, his breath catching in his throat.

“T-The planetary core… it has entered a state of terminal runaway instability, Captain,” the young officer whispered, completely shocked. The disbelief was clearly audible in his voice.

“The instability and energy surges are coming directly from the planetary core itself. And it’s not a naturally occurring phenomenon. The planet is still far from its death cycle, nor has it suffered enough damage for its core to suddenly become unstable. This is… an induced process. Someone did this deliberately.”

Yami felt his body tremble for a moment.

It wasn’t that he was fearful of what was happening. It was just that the whole thing was so absurd that he had never even considered the possibility that this could be done by star people themselves.

“Dammit! Pull our squadrons back!” Yami cursed, his voice cutting through the bridge as he settled back into his command seat with grim composure.

His orders echoed sharply across the entire command deck: “Sound a general recall order! Recall everyone immediately—pull all squadrons back NOW!”

Consoles blared as officers scrambled across the deck, transmitting the emergency recall signals across open space. Through the forward viewport, Yami stared out at the dying world—a planet shoved toward total annihilation by the very people living upon it.

His gaze then shifted to the Star People pilots in their mechs and starfighters, still desperately throwing everything they had into the fight against his forces. He couldn’t fathom why they were pouring their absolute all into the struggle while a catastrophe of this scale was unfolding beneath them.

They definitely don’t know, Yami thought, a cold realization settling in.

Then, he looked back toward the beautiful planet again and couldn’t help but sigh.

“There is someone mad enough on that planet to trigger a death switch of this scale, and willing to do so at that. Ready to incinerate billions of their own people? And for what purpose?”

Yami shook his head.

“If whoever is behind this thought they could destroy us, they must be a fool. A planet exploding would cause our fleet no damage from this distance. Even if we were right in the dead center of the explosion, we would still be fine anyway.”

“Never mind.” He looked toward a standing officer and spoke in a deep voice. “Report this to the Imperial Commander as quickly as possible.”

With that, Yami didn’t give the officer another look. Instead, he fell into contemplation, wondering why whoever was behind this had done such a thing.

He believed that person couldn’t possibly be foolish enough to think that a planetary explosion could take down his ships. There had to be a different reason behind it…

If Yami had known that the Star Lord was doing this for no other reason than to prevent the annihilation missiles of their fleet from wiping out the star people like they did with bright moon republicans, and because he wanted to die on his own terms, he would have been left speechless.