Like the previous interstellar meeting, the confidential meeting before the battle also adopted the method of interstellar remote projection sharing.

When Lai An and Jiang Jianming came in, the projections of other people were all there.

It was still a black virtual space, with a huge dark blue screen hanging over it.The three-dimensional star map projection has been launched, and the cool-colored shimmer illuminates the faces of the people present.

Not many people attended.Xie Yuduo and Jin Min sat on both sides. Lieutenant General Jin appointed two capable generals whom he trusted, and Major General Xie was surrounded by Secretary Liu Rita who temporarily managed the First Army of the Silver Beidou on his behalf.

"Sorry for the long wait," Jiang Jianming sat down on his seat, "We are late."

"Your Excellency, what are you talking about?" Xie Yuduo raised his eyebrows at him with a smile, "It's so late, the official just came in."

The corners of Lieutenant General Jin's and Major Rita's eyes twitched almost simultaneously.

The two said in unison: "...that's because you (you) are late again, major general."

Xie Yuduo: "Oh."

They all knew that the situation was tense, and there were no outsiders, so they quickly omitted the links of pleasantries and formalities.

Lai An was still in his usual neat style, directly took the main seat, and looked at Xie Yuduo.

"Solve your problem first, Major General." The Crown Prince raised his chin, "Report the status of the fleet, and then talk about how you want to come back?"

"The status quo is okay."

Xie Yuduo was sitting with his legs crossed, but his expression was a little serious: "This trip, the main damage is in the crystal nest area. The return trip was very careful, and there were no more casualties.It’s just that part of the hull is seriously damaged along the way, which is not very good.”

"As for how to get back...the only option is to make a long-distance leap, there is no other choice."

In the past, the fleet could use the method of alternating jumps and sailing to slow down and return.But now that the Crystal Sect is entrenched in the distant interstellar, it is impossible to easily let this team of silver Beidou elites return to the country.

If you want to avoid a hard fight all the way, the safest way is to jump directly to the sky above Beta Alien from the Smectic Nest Yu Region, which is beyond the control range of Crystal Cult, so as not to give the enemy a chance to attack.

Jin Min nodded: "There is no objection to this, is the leap energy enough?"

"No problem," Xie Yuduo raised his eyebrows and smiled, "Before I left, I brought 30% of the engineers and equipment in the energy area of the fortress with me. A lot of real crystal mines were harvested along the way, and the energy was basically in balance.Balance, enough."

"..."

Lieutenant General Jin brought the two silver Beidou officers to the meeting. Hearing this, they first gasped in surprise, and then turned their heads away in grief.

Good Xie Yuduo, the expedition not only took away the capable generals, but also took away the energy production system, no wonder the first fortress can't be defended...!

The crystal nest expedition has made progress, but the front line of Yin Beidou has been lost.If the fortress can't be taken back, this major general will have to be taken to a military court for tea?

Xie Yuduo pretended not to see it, and snorted twice: "So, the next thing is for you to have a headache."

He falsely pressed with five fingers and poked twice on the screen in front of him.

In the dimness, the azure three-dimensional star map changed "buzzingly", and the red double circle logo representing the "jump wormhole" appeared on the coordinates of the Beta galaxy, spinning around.

It is through this wormhole that the expeditionary fleet will return from the smectic nest space to the alien star where the Yin Beidou is stationed.

"The Lava Space Pirates are okay, old friends. The trouble is that Crystal Cult, if they launch an attack, how will the Second Fortress respond?"

Xie Yuduo looked at Lieutenant General Jin and the Crown Prince in turn, and asked in a deep voice, "Lieutenant General, Your Highness, are you two going to choose 'attack' or 'defense'?"

Choose to attack or choose to defend.

If it falls into the ears of people who don't understand interstellar warfare, it seems like a sentence that came out of nowhere.

But the few people present all understood the two strategies Xie Yuduo was referring to.

Now the main force of the Crystal Cult is in Alien Alpha, which is too far away from Beta. If they want to attack the fleet, they can only use the method of jumping.

——The tactical game of jump versus jump has become a crucial point.

"If our army adopts a defensive posture, it will be deployed at the transition point in a satisfactory manner."

Lieutenant General Jin Min groaned with a straight face, and quickly manipulated the screen, "With the wormhole as the center, it forms a three-dimensional array of spheres."

In the center of the red double circle on the three-dimensional star map, a word "Thank you" appeared.

The white light blocks symbolize the Imperial Army, they move rapidly, disperse into a spherical shape, and wrap the red double circle in the center.

Lai An said: "But at the same time as the formation is deployed, the position of the jump point is also revealed, and the enemy can also jump over."

Next to him, Jiang Jianming understood, and placed a second red double circle on the star map, and at the same time placed black spots symbolizing the enemy.

He continued Lai An's words: "The spherical array is not efficient. It is suitable for encirclement, but it is not suitable for defense. It is easy for the enemy to break through with the cone array from the outside."

Lai An stretched out his right hand tacitly, and spread his five fingers, moving those small black light blocks.

With the same force, the white pieces disperse into thin spheres, and the sunspots condense into tight cones.

The latter quickly pierced the formation of the former, like a black arrow piercing a white bubble, piercing through the character "Xie" in the center.

An officer behind Jin Min let out an "Alas" and said in frustration: "The enemy army can't predict the time and coordinates of our army's transition. Originally, our army took the lead. But in this way, the enemy army took the lead instead."...No, no, no!"

Another person said: "Then, what about taking the offensive?"

If the defense is to try to protect one's own transition point, then the offensive is to block the enemy's transition.

A large-scale wormhole transition that can accommodate thousands of starships requires sufficient energy and preparation time. If the enemy can be restrained so that they have no chance to open the wormhole, the effect of using offense as defense will be achieved.

Xie Yuduo asked: "How about Alien Alpha's Crystal Cult and Fortress?"

"The lower officer rectified the fort before leaving."

Rita responded, "We emptied the warehouse of the True Crystal Mine, closed the Heroic Monument and sank it into the ground. On the surface, the automatic defense system was activated to the highest level, and all combat omnics were released. Outsiders cannot easily enter."

"This is also the reason why the Crystal Sect didn't come to support in time when the lava space pirates were expelled by us on that day—they must be racing against time to attack the first fortress with all their strength."

"but."

Xie Yuduo knocked on the table with his fist: "It can last for three or two days at most."

When the Crystal Cult really captured the first fortress, this battle will be even more difficult.

Someone said: "So plan the return of the expedition fleet as soon as possible, preferably within these two days!"

"But here is a question: Since the Crystal Cult is attacking the fortress, is it true that they are not planning to disperse their energy on the blocking fleet? Then we still have to take the initiative to attack, isn't it a waste of troops?"

"In my opinion, since Major General Xie's expeditionary fleet is still in good condition, it's better to plan the battle to retake the first fort first, and then welcome the return of the fleet."

"How can that be done!? I don't know how long the recapture battle will take. If something happens to the expedition fleet, who can afford it!?"

Soon, the meeting began to develop in the direction of brainstorming, and the heated discussions were like pieces of paper flying around.

Jiang Jianming stopped talking halfway, the blue light of the three-dimensional star map kept jumping, and the tactical rehearsals on it flowed away from his eyes like water.

"On the side of the lava, more or less energy needs to be allocated. It's better to combine offense and defense, and divide a team of starships to contain the space pirates, and the rest stay in the beta alien planet for defense..."

"What a bad idea! The defense of staying behind like this is weaker. Maybe the Crystal Cult wasn't tempted at first, seeing us disperse our forces, and immediately decided to jump over and take a few shots?"

"Major General Xie, if the situation of your fleet is really good, can you consider, cough, self-reliance..."

"...Old Jin, you want to thank someone for dying."

Jiang Jianming gradually frowned.

No, he thought to himself.

wrong.Now everyone's thinking has not fundamentally found the right direction.

Defending, attacking, attacking as defense, jumping to block... These tactical plans of theirs are still in the thinking of normal people.

However, is it okay to use normal people's thinking to deal with heresy like Crystal Cult?

All the while, they tried to deal with the enemy with inertial thinking.

However, Crystal Cult's tricks: manipulating alien creatures, creating chaos, infiltrating the interior of the empire... are far beyond the scope of "normal".

Therefore, facing the Crystal Cult, they often had to counterattack passively.

First, he was hit with a stick by the enemy until his eyes were bleeding, and then he tried to find a way to break the situation and retreat from the enemy in embarrassment.

Jiang Jianming lowered his eyelashes and stroked his ring finger.Through the black leather gloves, he felt a small but hard touch,

During the battle of Lan Xi Shi, the reason why he dared to venture deep into the enemy's line was because he had the hole card of the crystal bone ring.Directly beheading the "bishop of chaos" Lauren was an "unexpected surprise" for the Crystal Cult.

But now that the cards have been exhausted, if they want to exceed Crystal Cult's expectations again, they can only rely on purely psychological games...

"stop."

At a certain moment, Lai An interrupted everyone's discussion.

Jiang Jianming raised his head, just in time to meet the gaze of the crown prince.

The eyes of the two of them split apart, and Lai An said indifferently: "Intermission, let's calm down before continuing to talk."

In the virtual space glowing with dark blue luster, the tense atmosphere suddenly relaxed.

Jiang Jianming also breathed a sigh of relief, and the next second Lai An turned sideways and grabbed his wrist with a warning force, which made him a little painful.

His Highness looked gloomy, and lowered his voice: "You better know it yourself."

"If I get sick again this time, I will never come here again."

"..."

Did I look so bad just now?

Jiang Jianming didn't dare to speak for reasons, so he could only nod quickly.

Over there, Rita was reporting her affairs to the major general in a regular manner, but Xie Yuduo had already started talking about the wonders he had seen in the crystal nest.

Jiang Jianming didn't join in the greetings. He took a pill during the intermission, leaned on the seat wrapped in a coat, and stared at the curvature of His Highness's platinum hair with a blank mind.

What should do to make the Crystal Cult feel caught off guard...

Is it because the Xie Fleet is too important, and the first fortress is too important. They always want to seek stability, but instead limit their thinking?

"By the way, let's talk about something."

When everyone was almost relaxed, Lai An spoke again, and glanced at the two officers brought by Jin Min.

Lieutenant General Jin reacted immediately: "Oh, you two, get out first."

"No, everyone is here, let's listen together."

Unexpectedly, Lai An said: "Sooner or later you will know."

After finishing speaking, the crown prince pondered for two seconds, then leaned forward with his fingers crossed like a tower: "I will tell you... a new discovery about crystal particles."

Seeing his posture, Jiang Jianming felt as if his spine had been electrified.

"Your Highness?"

He said to himself, wait, you don't mean to—

I saw Lai An raised his head slightly, and a sharp smile appeared at the end of his narrowed eyes——

Whenever this person is about to do something out of the ordinary, he will show this kind of happy look.

"Although the empire still doesn't allow it to be officially announced, after all, the war is at hand. I think it's better to be honest."

Chu Jun spoke in an elegant tone without haste, crystal bones condensed on the back of his left hand, and his right hand carelessly bent his index finger, and knocked twice with "Dangdang".

"This thing... crystal particles, they are alive, and they are some kind of life form that is colonizing humans."

Ryan said quietly: "As for the Crystal Cult, they are an anti-human cult organization that believes in crystal particles and hopes that their family will perish as soon as possible."

"The conclusion is obvious: you are shouldering the future of mankind. Therefore, let me fight the next battle with vigor."

He's done.

Lai An put away the crystal bone, as if it was just an ordinary order.

He even scowled in dissatisfaction at the lack of response from the audience.

"What about the answer?"

Sorry, no answer.

Those who were drinking just now were still holding their cups; those who were chatting just now were still opening their mouths.Except for Jiang Jianming, an insider, the rest of the people looked at Chu Jun with blank eyes.

They weren't even shocked, because they didn't understand and their brains hadn't reacted yet.

Seven or eight seconds later, Xie Yuduo tremblingly said, "Huh?"

Jiang Jianming's eyes were blank for a while, and his Adam's apple moved.

He suddenly squeezed the space between his eyebrows, smiled discouragedly, stuffed the medicine bottle into his breast pocket, and stood up from his seat.

Very good, I almost forgot, the person with the most ability to "unexpected" in this world is here.

"...My dear Highness, you can't do this."

Jiang Jianming turned to the front of Lai An in two or three steps, "Even if you decide to confess to the generals, please be considerate of normal people's ability to accept."

Lai An looked up: "Ginger?"

"But." Jiang Jianming put both hands on Lai An's shoulders, his eyes were bright and menacing, he looked down at his lover, like a... an eagle staring at a rabbit.

He took a deep breath, and said eagerly: "This kind of 'no way' style idea, come again."

"?"

Lai An showed the look of someone who is unreasonable: "...Who do you say can't do it?"

"No, no, you can do it, you can do it, you can do anything!"

Jiang Jianming changed his words quickly, he felt the blood vessels in his brain throbbing, and the fingertips pressing Lai An's shoulder turned cold and blue.

Just a little bit closer to opening your mind, some crazy inspiration...

He shook it vigorously, as if something good could fall from the crown prince, "Don't think about the possibility, don't think about how to implement it. Anything is fine, just give me some ideas."

Lai An: "...you calm down. If you get so excited again, I'm going to pull out your terminal patch."

Over there, the officers were still in a daze.

"……no."

Xie Yuduo stared numbly at the figures of the two chattering, his tongue was stiff: "Your Highness, Your Excellency. After you finish discussing whether it's okay or not..."

"Could you please explain to the subordinate first, what are the 'crystal particles' and 'race colonization' all about!?"

On Alien Alpha, the First Fortress is still battered by wind and snow.

It is no longer what it used to be.Half of the watchtower collapsed, and there were countless strange alien creatures piled up beside the broken wall. Some were scorched by the electric shock rays of the fortress, and some died under the gunfire of omnics.

The alien creatures in front fell down, and more of the same kind climbed up the frosted corpses and continued to hit the iron wall.Explosions sounded every ten minutes, and the flames and black smoke were blurred in the snow curtain.

The soldiers have withdrawn, but the fort is still fighting here.

In the high-altitude starship, a man in a black robe walked through the automatic door and came to the deepest room.

The light in the room was dim, and there was only a white-haired girl sitting on the ground, holding a piece of real crystal mine the size of a human head, lowering her head to bite with the crystal bones on her teeth.

Except for the sound of "click, click", there is no other movement around, which is depressing and weird.

"Margaret."

The Bishop of Destruction frowned and shouted.

The other party didn't hear it, and the man took two steps closer and called her again: "Death."

Margaret raised her head and replied with a nasal "hmm".There were pale marks between her brows, and fine beads of sweat covered her forehead.

The man in the black robe bent down and took the real crystal mine from her arms, and said, "Don't eat it, where is Your Excellency the Archbishop?"

As soon as the words fell, the sound of gentle footsteps came from inside.

"destroy."

A bean of light and a silhouette appeared in the dimness. Gaius walked out wearing a white linen robe and holding a floating illuminator in his hand.

"What's the matter?"

"Your Excellency the Archbishop." The white-haired girl Margaret called out.

"Your Excellency the Archbishop," Su bowed deeply, "The Lava Space Pirates have expressed dissatisfaction with us."

"Chilong blamed us for not informing him of the real situation of the Imperial Army in time, causing him to be deceived by Yin Beidou's bluff."

Gaius smiled calmly.

"Does it matter?" He asked flatly.

"It may affect the cooperation between us."

"Yes, my destruction. But does it matter?"

Su choked and had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.

He looked up at his archbishop.

In the dimness, Gaius's face was still unpredictable, and the light from the illuminator could not fall into those eyes, they were like an opaque deep sea.

This man doesn't care about allies, doesn't care about the congregation, doesn't even seem to care about the success or failure of the plan.He doesn't show any obvious love or hate for anything, and seems to have only the desire to destroy the entire human civilization——

Su sometimes doubts whether the archbishop is the racial consciousness of crystal particles itself.

Su lowered his head: "...No, it's not important. Your Excellency the Archbishop."

Gaius held out his hand to him, fingers spread out and slightly bent.

Su realized something.He handed the true crystal mine to Gaius.

Gaius turned and put it back in Margaret's hand.

Margaret glanced at the archbishop with those pure blue eyes, she took the real crystal to her mouth, bit it down, and continued to eat painfully.

Gaius turned his head back, smiled faintly at Su, and asked, "Do you know why Chaos died?"

"...Jiang Jianming killed him. We didn't expect this person to have the crystal bone weapon of the prince of the empire."

"Really?" Gaius shook his head, "I told you to retreat early, but I made him stay on the front line of the defeat, and gave him the task of holding Jiang Jianming hostage."

Su shuddered suddenly, and looked up at the archbishop in disbelief.

He felt a chill go through the pores of his body, and his hairs stood on end.

"Even if there is no crystal bone weapon, he will still face the wrath of Kaios."

Gaius laughed and said, "I killed him."

"..."

Su heard the voice he squeezed out of his throat with difficulty.

He asked His Excellency the archbishop, why?

"Because he has love for humans."

Gaius said.

"He begged to the crystal particles, he believed in the ultimate inevitability, and his ultimate goal was to use the racial characteristics of the crystal particles to seek a paradise of great love and harmony for mankind."

"But you are different."

Gaius took a step closer to Su, and reached out to caress his forehead, "Do you still remember what you said to me at the beginning?"

"I," Su said with a pale face, he felt as if he was being stared at by the deep sea, "I remember, Your Excellency the Archbishop."

That was many years ago.Remote orphanages, Sundays, churches where the bells are ringing.

A world-weary boy who is out of tune with his peers meets a gentle and smiling archbishop.

"A dump."

The teenager described his race like this, "Narrow and arrogant, hypocritical and despicable... It is a sour and smelly garbage dump that has been piled up for nearly ten thousand years."

"Even if some self-righteous person tries to clean it, dumping a few bottles of perfume in the rubbish will only make the smell more disgusting."

"The best possible outcome for such a hopeless dump is spontaneous combustion."

"Yes, human civilization may only be beautiful and heroic at the moment when it chooses to self-extinction, and it can leave a shocking brilliance in the universe."

The archbishop's smile was as gentle and unemotional that day as it is today.

"Good boy. Light the fire."

That day, Gaius took him away from the orphanage, stroking his hair, promising him to see the flames of the garbage dump with his own eyes.

until today.

Inside the starship, the Bishop of Destruction in black robe and white temples raised his head——

"Destruction, I really like you."

Gaius said.

A "crack" suddenly appeared on his face.

Right in front of Su, the archbishop's flesh twisted, cracked, and transformed into crystal blocks, and the crystal blocks continued to crack, thus his entire body disintegrated.

Those crystal blocks fell under the pull of gravity, while still rapidly decomposing and becoming smaller, most of the crystal blocks disappeared before they hit the ground, and they became crystal particles.

"So please don't disappoint me."

Archbishop Gaius, who was still smiling just now, turned into crystal particles and disappeared in the starship, only the voice still echoed in his ears.

The author has something to say:

Destroy the Bishop: That is to say, the Archbishop is terrible, and now I regret my secondary school.