Within the royal station, tens of corvettes and destroyers could be seen, men wearing large power armor entered these ships and waved their families goodbye.
This could be the last time they see them after all.
The children didn't truly understand why their fathers had to leave, but they knew that it was for their sake and an order from the Emperor.
So they cried but had no complaints.
As these men entered their ships, not too far away, a large army could be seen.
hundreds of thousands of men were entering rectangle-shaped ships.
These are the crasher class ships. they can break into thousands of pieces at command, these pieces have their own AIs and thrusters specifically made to allow them to crash into other vessels and board them.
there are hundreds of such ships present, and these men are heavy with the responsibility of being humanity's last bastion.
As everyone boarded their ships, only one man remained before a ship that was patiently waiting.
This man is his majesty himself, Adam Valencia.
He had white and gold armor, that seems to glow with a holy radiance.
Adam already towered over most people, but now with the armor, he is the definition of a giant.
Which only served to enhance the comedy of this giant beast of a man, desperately trying to comfort the six-year-old Brock.
"Do you really have to go!?"
"Brock you know I have to. You're a smart kid, you understand."
"But I don't want to!"
Alas, a child is still a child, no matter how mature and intelligent.
"I hate this! You just want more power and glory! You don't have to go, you dumbass!"
The air plunged to zero degrees mere seconds after Brock said this.
The Emperor could already be considered incredibly tolerant for simply not telling Brock to shut up, but now Brock straight-up insulted his Majesty and called him a power-hungry, glory-seeking fool.
In front of the most loyal and capable soldiers of the Empire.
When the Emperor was about to fight for him and the people of the Empire even though he didn't have to.
His Majesty had every right to execute Brock for such disrespect.
Adam's face is stone-cold after the proclamation made by Brock.
He knows he didn't mean it, but he must be punished, or else he would lose face among his men and nobility.
"W-Wai-" Brock's desperate stuttering was interrupted by Adam's cold and commanding voice. "The prince is tired, he should go rest in his chambers. I will come to see him later."
A cold shiver ran down Brocks and his personal servant's spines.
It is their duty to take care of the prince, so they should have calmed him down, not his majesty.
In other words, they failed. And now because of their failure, Brock will have to face heavy retribution, even if His Majesty doesn't want to do it.
And they won't get away scot-free either.
"Y-Yes your majesty..." One of the servants responded with a shaking voice.
"Good." The Emperor responded and entered the Corvette behind him.
"I'm sorry..." Brock whispered as the Corvets hatch closed.
Massive thrusters ignited to life as they lifted hundreds of thousands of tons of metal and weaponry.
Slowly, the ships lifted themselves out of the hangars into open space, and more and more ships joined them.
The ship with His Majesty is in front of the entire flotilla.
All of the ship head toward the star in the middle of the system, and from there, they angle themselves toward the Reginald buffer zone and initiate FTL travel.
The Reginald buffer zone is tens of hours away, even with FTL drives, and the Republic no doubt has detected their movements.
This means that they won't have a lot of time to prepare before they arrive.
At least I would have some time to think for myself.
I understand why Brock was, and probably still is, so upset, but the relationship is that of Emperor and Subject. I can't just let myself get insulted without payback.
The nobles and even some commoners would accuse me of showing favoritism.
Of course, I could just ignore them, I am the absolute authority in the Empire.
But why go through so much trouble when I could just give him a slap on the wrist?
Brock will no doubt be hurt by this, not just the action, but the meaning behind it as well. He probably won't consciously realize it, but he will definitely notice the symbolism by instinct.
The meaning behind this is that I will prioritize my people and what they think of me, rather than him and what he thinks.
Our relationship will never be the same after this exercise of power, but I will do what must be done. He only has himself to blame.
As Adam was thinking about how he will punish Brock for his insolence, the ships arrived at the designated star system.
This system is unique, it has an O-class star in it.
Billions of tons of material are constantly being ejected from the supermassive star in all directions, rocking the ships when they entered the system.
Luckily, the Empire anticipated this, and the shields are adequately prepared.
After the shock passed them, they were left with a beautiful sight.
The system glowed with a light blue radiance, with a speck of red and white, most likely star dust that has been ejected from the star, and the planets around also radiated with their own glow.
Their ship's computers and the AI in their armor immediately adjusted their visibility, so that they don't immediately go blind from the O-class, which is currently nearing the end of its relatively short life.
The captains of their various groups were not stunned for long, and quickly gave orders to their ships.
The corvettes moved above a gas giant, which is the only planet in the system aside from another gas giant, while the destroyers moved behind it, into its shadow.
Not long after, a large ripple was detected at the edge of the system, as a large armada of alien fleets, what looked to be forty normal corvettes and ten bulkier ones, arrived at the system.
The two armies immediately turned toward each other, more precisely, the "Imperial Navy" charged toward the Republic's "Liberators."
Merely covering the distance between them took hours due to the unnatural size of the system, and they didn't want to go too fast due to the unpredictable nature of the environment they found themselves in.
As the two fleets neared each other, the Imperial Navy split into three parts.
The central part had the fewest ships, with a meager six corvettes, and was a weak point in their formation.
The left and right wings both had twelve corvettes and were slowly distancing themselves from the center.
As the two navies neared each other, both sides fired lasers at each other, notably, the aliens focused their fire on the center.
The Imperial Navy released their missiles at the weakened ships, however, the bulkier ships intercepted them with their large amount of point defense and bulky bodies.
But those are not ordinary missiles, more precisely, those are nuclear bombs, each as strong as the Car Bomba.
Some ships were caught in the massive explosion, and since there were hundreds of them all going off at the same time, they had nowhere to run, and could only pray they don't get caught in the explosions.
An additional fifteen corvettes were destroyed in the large-scale thermonuclear attack.
Now the Imperial fleet has twenty-three corvettes while the aliens have twenty-eight, including the bulkier type.
After this attack, things turned up for the Liberators, as they have finally broken through the center of the enemy formation.
Now the Imperial fleet desperately fled away, towards a gas giant on the opposite end of the system.
The alien's Liberators gave chase, both sides fired lasers at each other while chasing and fleeing from the other.
The Royal Navy kept its three-way formation intact, except they were just ahead of the Liberators, meaning they no longer encircled them.
After fleeing for multiple hours, they made their way over the gas giant and stopped a while after crossing it.
The Liberators arrived a minute after they stopped, and rushed at the Royal Navy, eager to end them and their tyranny.
But just after they arrived, eager for battle, Twenty or so lasers shot at them from below, destroying a devastating amount of corvettes, specifically, the bulkiest ones.
With the bulky ones out of the way, the corvettes shot the last of their thermonuclear missiles at the enemy and destroyed whatever spirit remained in their hearts and minds.
Their morale now in taters, the Liberators attempted to liberate themselves from this battle, but just like their original intention...
...It failed.
No Xeno managed to get out of this battle alive and well.
Cheers of victory, joy, and pure adrenaline could be heard in the ships, as men celebrated their survival.
some of the gunners even counted how many kills they got, and compared it with their compatriots.
On a seemingly normal Corvette, his majesty himself is present, and he celebrated their easy victory with his men.
Many factors played to their victory in this battle.
The Xeno's overconfidence, and inexperience in combat clearly showed itself.
The republic usually didn't resort to violence in its history, and when it did, it was either using the same simple tactics over and over again or just blindly charging at the enemy.
Meanwhile, humanity solved most conflicts using violence since the old days.
Humans are naturally a wild, aggressive, and competitive species, they don't tolerate any challenge to their power and authority.
Which is the exact opposite of the Republic, as they are usually peaceful, stable, and kind.
The key word there is "usually."
The technique used in this battle was inspired by the ancient hammer and anvil strategy, used by Alexander the Great in ancient times, all the way to the world wars and even the cold war, this maneuver has clearly passed the test of time.
Adam didn't hesitate to celebrate with his men, they suffered minimal casualties while completely annihilating the enemy.
This battle went better than he could have ever hoped.
Now the Republic's territory is completely open to invasion, and nothing the Republic tried could stop them.
"Your majesty." A soldier approached me and whispered into my ear-
"An urgent Communication just arrived from the capital. They say that the Kuckod Regime has invaded and initiated a surprise attack on them. The station is holding their fleet off, but they request assistance ASAP."
"How about the Hail Mary? Have they not acted yet?"
"They will soon, but for now they are hiding away from the Regime and waiting for a gap in their defenses."
"I see. We shall return to the capital at once then!"
I climbed up the steps and held my hand up, silencing everyone with a wave of my hand.
"My soldiers! This is a great victory for the Empire, all of us, and our families! But I just got urgent news that while we were fighting, the other dishonorable Xenos attacked our Home."
"Earth is currently in direct danger of invasion! We must return at once to protect our homeland!"
"Set a course for Earth!" I ordered and the entire fleet united and FTL'd back towards Earth.
...
The majestic royal station is currently fighting a massive fleet of fifty corvettes and thirty destroyers, and holding all of them off on its own.
The nation-sized station could be seen from orbit, and so could the beams of light and energy it shot at the invaders.
Derelicts of destroyed cargo ships are scattered all over the area, as the corpses of humans and aliens float in the dark void of space.
And in the palace, the prince and his family are held up in the palace by the guards.
Due to the fact that the aliens have attacked the Palace.