The Terminus fleet guarding the mass relay hadn't even had time to figure out what was happening when, accompanied by the roar of macro-cannons, their warships exploded into fragments as if they were paper models. Duanmu Huai didn't even spare the wreckage a glance. He simply stared at the star map and issued his order.
"Proceed according to plan! Move out!"
Only three Lunar-class cruisers remained behind to blockade the mass relay. The rest of the warships scattered in all directions, each heading toward its assigned target—this was exactly Duanmu Huai's plan. After all, what followed wasn't a war, but a massacre. And a massacre didn't require consideration for anything. As long as all life on those planets was wiped out, there would be no problem at all!
Therefore, there was no need to concentrate all fleets together. He had already issued an extermination order, so the missions of these warships were extremely simple.
Arrive above the target planet, drop a Cyclone torpedo, and call it a day.
Simple, convenient, fast, efficient.
That's right—if they attacked planet by planet, it would definitely waste time and give the enemy a chance to react. But if they bloomed everywhere at once, wouldn't that solve everything? Could they even manage it?
After all, this was just extermination, not conquest. One Cyclone torpedo per planet—how much time could that possibly take?
The only downside was that the Inquisition had recently run short on Cyclone torpedoes… Maria had also been complaining about insufficient materials.
Uh… do I really have to exchange that haunted mining ship?
Better wait a bit longer…
At the same time, Duanmu Huai and the Shepard siblings each led a sub-fleet, charging toward the three planets designated for conquest!
Yes—simple and brutal. No fancy tactics needed. Just bloom everywhere and attack simultaneously. The Terminus Systems were already a chaotic free-for-all with each faction doing its own thing. Many of these forces were mortal enemies to begin with. Even a unified civilization could descend into chaos when fighting on multiple fronts simultaneously—let alone a system that was already a complete mess!
Duanmu Huai's target was the second planet chosen by the elder Shepard—the one that radiated influence across the entire Terminus Systems, and also the toughest nut to crack!
As mentioned before, the elder Shepard chose this planet because of its excellent position—it could influence nearly the entire Terminus Systems. As a result, it had become the headquarters for all the dark forces in the region. These factions checked and balanced one another while constructing a powerful city together, so naturally, the planet's surrounding defenses were formidable.
But did Duanmu Huai care?
The resplendent, cathedral-covered battleship appeared above the planet Hiei. Then flames flashed and cannons roared as the fleets surrounding Hiei were instantly blasted into utter disarray. Facing the incredibly prosperous high-tech city below, Duanmu Huai didn't hesitate in the slightest and directly gave the order—
—orbital bombardment!
That's right. These planets couldn't be subjected to extermination orders, but no one said they couldn't be bombed!
The Terminus Systems were full of ruthless bastards, and they naturally wouldn't let this slide. When they realized that this bizarre warship actually intended to strike the city of Hiei, fleets from all directions surged in like madmen, desperately launching attacks against Duanmu Huai's warship. In an instant, hundreds or thousands of beams shot out from all directions, slamming toward Duanmu Huai's Emperor-class battleship.
However, these attacks were completely meaningless before the void shields—like raindrops falling into a pond, they vanished in moments. Meanwhile, every counterattack from the battleship inflicted devastating losses on those patchwork fleets!
"———————!!"
A flash of explosive light passed by. Watching a nearby warship get blown into a fireball, the Turian commander's face twisted in rage. He glared fiercely ahead and issued an order.
"Fire! Fire at it with everything you've got!"
"We can't damage it at all! Our attacks have no effect on that ship!!"
"Captain, we have to retreat!"
At the Turian commander's command, wails erupted below. In the Terminus Systems, there were no real standing armies—just thug fleets raised by gangs. When bullying the weak, these lackeys had some bite. But when faced with an utterly unbeatable enemy, their cowardly nature was immediately laid bare!
"No! We have to destroy that ship! Otherwise, down there—"
However, before the Turian captain could finish his sentence, the scene before him left him stunned.
Before their eyes, the resplendent warship slowly adjusted its orientation, aimed at Hiei City below, and then—
—a green beam of light suddenly shot out from the front of the ship, slamming directly into Hiei City!
The next moment, before everyone's eyes, the green beam struck Hiei City—the largest, most prosperous, and most filth-ridden dark city on the planet. The blinding light was so intense they couldn't even keep their eyes open. And when the light finally faded, and they looked again—
—the city that had been there was completely gone.
In its place remained only a massive crater!
Even on a planetary scale, it was enormous—so enormous it made one's heart tremble!
"...…"
Seeing this, all the alien fleets around them were utterly dumbfounded.
They had thought Duanmu Huai would first destroy Hiei City's defensive shields, then deploy troops to suppress it. They never imagined that this warship would be so ruthless—directly erasing the entire city without leaving even a scrap behind!
As for Duanmu Huai, he was perfectly calm. He had only promised the elder Shepard to preserve the planet—he never said anything about preserving the city. Moreover, he knew very well that in interstellar civilizations, cities were easy to destroy but hard to occupy. It was like an operating system infected with a virus—rather than painstakingly editing the registry and disabling services, it was far more convenient to just format and reinstall.
So Duanmu Huai directly activated the BFG10000 and formatted the city.
One had to say, this BIG FUXK GUN salvaged from a hell planet was really the smoothest weapon Duanmu Huai had ever used. At low power, it could wipe out cities. At high power, it could annihilate planets. No need to swap weapons—just adjust the output.
"Run—run, aaahhh!!!"
At this moment, the Turian captain completely lost his composure. Where had he ever seen such a terrifying warship—or such horrifying firepower? A single shot had erased all of Hiei City! How the hell were they supposed to fight that?!
Run!
At that moment, the fleet besieging Duanmu Huai split into two groups. One group went berserk, attacking Duanmu Huai in a frenzy to avenge their slaughtered boss on the surface. The other group immediately activated FTL and fled for their lives.
Of course, they intended to escape via the mass relay—but unfortunately…
The mass relay had already been sealed by Duanmu Huai.
These bastards…
—even if they wanted to run, they couldn't!
Damn it, where the hell did these bastards come from?!
If Duanmu Huai knew what they were thinking, he'd definitely sneer and announce himself.
I'm direct lineage of the Inquisition—Duanmu Group leader Duanmu Huai!
At this point the screen should go black-and-white with big bold characters splashed across it!
But now, that clearly wasn't necessary.
Duanmu Huai swept his eyes across the star map, confirmed that all nearby threats had been eliminated, and then opened a communication channel.
"I'm done on my end. How are things on your side?"
Soon, the younger Shepard responded.
"Reporting to the Inquisitor— we've reached the designated location and are engaging the enemy. They have hostages…"
His tone was urgent, and gunfire could be heard intermittently in the background. Hearing this, Duanmu Huai frowned slightly.
"Hostages? Are they human?"
"Th-this… no."
"Then wipe them out directly. Don't waste time. I'll order the Inquisition fleet to provide aerial support… By the way, what's going on with Team A?"
Duanmu Huai gave a casual instruction, then looked at the interface in confusion. Team B had responded, but Team A—led by the elder Shepard—hadn't replied at all. That was clearly abnormal. Given the younger Shepard's temperament, Duanmu Huai could understand him running into trouble—but Team A?
"Beep————!"
At that moment, a communication alert sounded, and an urgent voice appeared on the channel.
"This is Team A! We're under attack!"
"...…????"
Are you fucking kidding me?
Duanmu Huai was completely dumbfounded.
The younger one was fine, but the elder sister ran into trouble?
That's even possible?!
When Duanmu Huai arrived at the battlefield, the fighting was already over.
Wreckage and debris were scattered throughout space, and a human warship was badly damaged, clearly having taken a brutal beating.
When the elder Shepard reappeared on the screen, she was covered in wounds, her face ashen.
"What happened? How did you lose?"
Duanmu Huai couldn't wrap his head around it, and the elder Shepard spoke.
"Reporting, Commander—we were attacked by the Collectors!"
"The Collectors?"
Duanmu Huai froze for a moment, then immediately reacted.
"You ran into them? That's some seriously bad luck…"
The so-called Collectors were, plainly speaking, Protheans modified by the Reapers. They had lost all self-awareness and become complete slaves to the Reapers. In the DLC, the Collectors had launched large-scale operations, abducting residents of human colonies for experimentation in order to find a way to completely exterminate humanity. Duanmu Huai also remembered that in the Terminus Systems' Omega, there was indeed a mass relay leading to the Collectors' home base. Could it be…
Sure enough, from the elder Shepard's report, Duanmu Huai quickly understood the full sequence of events.
The elder Shepard had led half of the Stellar Federation fleet, along with one Inquisition Lunar-class cruiser. At first, the attack went extremely smoothly, and they successfully wiped out resistance on the target planet. Seeing their base destroyed, the local alien forces fled in panic. The elder Shepard, being ruthless, wasn't satisfied with just driving them off—she intended to exterminate them completely!
So she pursued the fleeing forces all the way to Omega.
Omega was a small space station originally built for mining. It had later been seized and turned into a stronghold of black forces within the Terminus Systems. When the elder Shepard arrived with her troops, the Asari controlling Omega even threatened her, telling her not to push her luck.
The elder Shepard didn't give a damn and directly blasted Omega Station into ash.
That should have been the end of it—but the problem arose when she was preparing to leave. She inadvertently spotted another mass relay located at Omega!
This startled her badly, because she could tell it was activated—yet there had been no mention of this relay in any battle reports or intelligence!
After capturing a few prisoners and questioning them, she learned that this relay had been active for quite some time. Many curious people had tried passing through it, but for some reason, everyone who went never returned.
At that point, the elder Shepard realized something was very wrong with this relay.
But she was also worried that others might escape through it. So she made a decision—to first blockade the relay and then report the situation to Duanmu Huai.
The idea itself wasn't wrong, but…
…that was when the Collectors arrived.
And not just one or two ships—
—but an entire fleet!
Yeah… now I know why she ended up so badly…
Collector ships, while inferior to Inquisition vessels, were still around 2,000 meters long—larger than the Stellar Federation's biggest dreadnoughts. Although the elder Shepard had an Inquisition ship supporting her, it was only a single Lunar-class cruiser. With Inquisition firepower, dealing with Collector ships wasn't a problem—but being outnumbered meant that while the Inquisition ship was fine, the fleet under the elder Shepard's command suffered heavy losses.
After fighting for some time and failing to gain any advantage—while getting battered badly by the Lunar-class cruiser—the Collectors decided to cut their losses and retreat.
Just in time for Duanmu Huai to arrive.
Had he come any earlier, the entire Collector fleet might have been wiped out.
Who would have thought the Collectors would act this early?
After hearing the report, Duanmu Huai frowned. He could guess why the Collectors had appeared here. The chaos in the Terminus Systems must have caught their attention, and they likely feared their mass relay being seized by the Stellar Federation. So they rushed over, trying to repel them. After clashing with the elder Shepard—and failing due to the presence of the Inquisition cruiser—they chose to retreat.
But this raised another concern…
Would the Reapers arrive earlier than expected?
In any case, it's always better to stabilize internal affairs before dealing with external threats.
(End of Chapter)