Anger and frustration.
That's all the chieftain could feel right now.
The video transmission already ended, but the effects from it put the chieftain in an extremely volatile mood. Although the chieftain always tried his best to keep his emotions in check, the information from Emerson touched a very sore spot.
Sweat was dripping off the side of Renald's face. The chieftain's rage was literally heating up the area. Renald felt like he was standing next to a furnace.
The nearby beastman officers were nervous and silent. They could only guess what kind of bad news the chieftain received for him to be so angry.
On the side, Erin was quietly staring into space. He was thinking about the overall situation.
Last night, the surviving commanders redirected the energy that was powering the planet's defenses and used that energy to rebuild a damaged dimensional gate. It was one of the very few gates that wasn't completely destroyed by the Planetoid's intermittent attacks.
Once fixed, they stole dimensional crystals from the planet's emergency reserves and used those same crystals to activate the rebuilt gate. The reserves were emptied out completely.
The energy emitting from the dimensional gate was like a beacon of light. The Planetoids instantly detected the fluctuations and sent out several long-distance attacks to destroy this newly activated gate. Although they were in no rush to conquer the planet, they had no intentions of allowing more escapees.
Since these attacks weren't instantaneous, the commanders and their immediate followers managed to escape. The location of their escape is unknown.
While some of the attacks were blocked by the planet's defenses, a few still managed to break through and obliterate the portal.
Since the dimensional channel was not overloaded, the portal merely collapsed. The explosions from the attacks disintegrated all of the remaining dimensional crystals.
Because the other commanders did not get along with Warrick, they purposely did these things when it was Warrick's turn to rest. By the time Warrick woke up, all of them were gone.
Enraged, Warrick did everything in his power to stabilize the situation. However, he was injured and knocked unconscious in a Planetoid attack that happened soon after. The Planetoids noticed how weakened the defenses were and initiated an invasion. In less than an hour, Planet Varce was easily conquered. All of its defenses shattered.
Once captured, most of the Planetoid's main forces left. Instead of destroying the planet completely, they started using it as a training field. The survivors were basically used as target practice.
It's been nearly half a day since these events and, based on Emerson's words, there were a bunch of young Planetoid soldiers scattered across the planet. They were hunting down survivors for merit and experience.
While this information was incredibly shocking, the chieftain wouldn't blindly believe everything.
After the video transmission ended, he sent out dozens of different orders. Most of them were intended to confirm the authenticity of Emerson's words. Even though Chieftain Morack was waiting for verification, the thought of this story being true was enough to keep him exasperated.
Erin already half-believed Emerson's words. It was already very suspicious that, out of so many commanders, only Warrick's device was still actively connected to the planetary network.
Even if the commanders were killed, their emergency communication devices could still be used by military officers. Emerson's actions proved that. If none of the devices were connected, it meant that even the military officers under these commanders were gone as well.
The chieftain sighed with anger still evident in his eyes. He turned his head towards Erin and said, "My apologies that you had to bear witness to this. I only had you listen because it was related to Warrick."
"..I appreciate the sincerity." Erin slightly nodded his head.
He smiled before continuing, "In any case, this information, though unfortunate, has managed to inspire me. If I didn't have a solid plan before, then I can proudly say that I have one now."
In less than fifteen minutes, Erin outlined his plan in a very straightforward manner. The chieftain's face steadily shifted from meager interest to full-on excitement. The feasibility of this plan was well within his forces' capabilities.
In less than an hour, everything was ready. Recon starships confirmed which passageways were still in-tact while intelligence officers located most survivors through their connection with the planetary network. Although virtually all of Planet Varce's defenses were destroyed, the communication network was still in-tact because it relied heavily on spiritual energy. Since the Terran Universe didn't have any spiritual energy, the Planetoids were incapable of tracking it.
"Are you ready?"
The chieftain''s voice echoed across Erin's ears.
"Naturally. Since it's your tribe, I think you should do the honors." Erin responded casually.
Chieftain Morack smiled before looking around his command center.
All of the officers there were intently waiting for the chieftain's orders. Even Renald was sent to a station to help relay commands.
"Begin!"
A single command from the chieftain's mouth ushered in a massive counter-attack.
Many different places around Planet Varce suddenly started shaking.
The exits for some passageways were so heavily concealed that it looked like mountains were opening their mouths. The largest passageway made the entire side of a huge mountain collapse.
In the skies, there were less than thirty battleships patrolling the planet's outer atmosphere.
The Planetoid commanders on these ships looked at the ground in confusion. Since they destroyed all of the planet's defenses and dimensional gates, their main forces had left already.
In mere seconds, hundreds of Morack battleships rushed out of these numerous, open passageways.
They evenly engulfed the planet's atmosphere like a swarm. With their shields fully-activated, they opened fire on every Planetoid ship detected.
Thousands of laser-like weapons shot out and bombarded the Planetoid starships.
Caught off-guard, most of them didn't activate their shields on time. The explosions from these attacks multiplied and over twenty of the Planetoid ships were sinking to the ground in flames. Some Planetoids even fell from the sinking starships; their fates unknown.
In Planet Varce's orbit, four Destroyer-class starships detected the anomalies below. Their weapons warmed up before opening fire at the planet. The large energy-missiles launched from these destroyers broke into the atmosphere like a meteor shower.
In response, thousands of smaller energy-missiles were launched from the Morack battleships. The remaining Planetoid battleships were wiped out with this attack.
Although they managed to deflect and destroy most of the incoming attacks, it was impossible to block everything.
Even with shields fully activated, the large missiles managed to pierce through dozens of battleships. In a mere instant, nearly forty Morack battleships exploded in unison. Escape pods flew out of these starships in flames.
The residual energy from these clashes managed to pollute the atmosphere. It created a thick layer of hazardous debri that blocked the visibility for both sides.
Down below, the chieftain's warship finished charging up its own special weapon.
Before the residual energy blocked their visibility, the warship's main weapon was already locked down on one of the Planetoid Destroyers in orbit.
"Fire!"
Chieftain Morack commanded. He didn't want to risk losing their first target.
A thick, powerful laser shot through the planet's atmosphere and straight into space. Not only did the energy from this attack cut through the center of a Planetoid Destroyer above, it also blew away most of the residual energy in the atmosphere.
In less than a nanosecond, the destroyer exploded!
While two of the destroyers managed to increase the power to their shields in-time, one of them was too close to the blast and sustained significant damage.
The chieftain's warship originally came out of the largest passageway on the planet. When it was charging up its laser-weapon, many large starships were floating out of the large passageway too. By the time the chieftain's warship finished firing, a total of twenty large starships were in formation around the warship.
The Morack Family actually prepared twenty Destroyer-class starships for this mission!
With the residual energy blown away by the laser-attack, the Planetoids could clearly see the overwhelming forces below. Understanding how hopelessly outnumbered they were, two destroyers started sending out long-distance emergency signals.
Although the warship was able to detect these emergency transmissions, the chieftain ordered all of the intelligence staff not to interfere with them. In doing so, the emergency signals left the space unobstructed.
Although most of the staff didn't understand why, they couldn't reject the chieftain's orders.
Once they were certain that the emergency signals left the space, the twenty Morack Destroyers opened fire and obliterated the remaining Planetoid Destroyers. With one disabled and two weakened, it was far too easy to overpower them. Like fireworks, the explosions marked the end of any Planetoid starships around Planet Varce.
Looking up, countless Planetoid soldiers on the ground were speechless. With the dimensional gates destroyed too, they literally had nowhere to escape.
Earlier, these soldiers were the hunters. Now, they were about to become the hunted.
In the few hours that followed, hundreds of battleships shuffled from city to city. Their main objective was to rescue survivors while their secondary objective was to eliminate any Planetoid soldier remnants.
At this time, inside the hospital bay of the chieftain's warship, Erin was looking down at an unconscious, elderly beastman. Chieftain Morack was standing nearby. He was looking at Warrick with genuine respect. Unlike the commanders that fled, Warrick fulfilled his duties beautifully.
Although Warrick was in stable condition, Erin wasn't the type of person to take unnecessary chances. He took out a medical vial and asked the medics to use it on Warrick immediately.
While the chieftain didn't recognize what was inside the vial, he didn't say anything. With a simple nod of approval, the medics fed the unconscious Warrick.
In just a few minutes, a burst of energy condensed inside of Warrick and healed all of his internal and external wounds. The chieftain even sensed that Warrick made an unexpected breakthrough in power. Erin looked very satisfied by this outcome.
Stunned, the chieftain looked at Erin and asked, "What did you feed him?"
"It was just a special vial of vitality." Erin casually answered.
According to the records in his knowledge chips, vitality vials were very common in his universe. They were man-made medications that varied in grade. It's just that the ones in Erin's possession were all grade 9 vitality vials. Even though it was man-made, the ingredients and process needed to make them were both rare and expensive.
Erin looked at the chieftain and laughed, "Though, to be honest, the liquid in that vial is probably comparable in value to one of the crystals I gave you earlier."
Although Chieftain Morack was unable to recognize what kind of medicine it was, he understood the value based on Erin's words. He could sense that Erin was being honest.
The green aura around the chieftain turned into a very dark shade of green.
Erin noticed this and smiled.
"Oh right, since the bait has been sent out, how are the preparations on ground?" Erin asked.
It was now Chieftain Morack's turn to smile. He laughed and said, "I have several starships transporting in explosives as we speak. It won't be long till the entire planet is covered. I just hope the Planetoids send reinforcements in time."
Erin nodded. The next part of his plan was progressing smoothly.