The battle concluded, and the rebel fleet was utterly annihilated. No fewer than a handful of derelict hulls remained, drifting in the void. Yang Ying returned to the bridge and ordered twenty Battlecruisers to remain behind for damage control, prisoner processing, and specifically requested the capture of several high-ranking officers to secure the latest intelligence. He then directed his staff to summon Idny.

Idny arrived on the bridge, already grasping the outcome of the battle from the ecstatic expressions of the crew. As she entered, she wore a look of sheer disbelief, as if witnessing an unprecedented miracle.

“How did you manage that?” she asked, her bright, watery eyes wide. “Even though the Dorun Star defense fleet was severely depleted, eliminating them in just half an hour—that is simply beyond expectation.”

“How we did it can wait,” Yang Ying stated. “The priority now is the assault on Dorun Star. Do you have any recommendations?”

Seeing Yang Ying’s reluctance to elaborate, Idny inwardly called him stingy, yet a wave of pride washed over her at being consulted. Even if you are that brilliant at fighting, she thought, you still have to ask for my opinion.

Aloud, she stated, “Dorun Star is militarily vital to the rebels. Even with most of the defense fleet gone, it cannot be underestimated. There is more on Dorun Star than just the defense fleet.”

Yang Ying nodded, his tone becoming slightly more serious. “Elaborate, please. What else is stationed on Dorun Star besides the defense fleet?”

Idny opened her mouth wide. “Didn't I tell you this before?”

“Say it again,” Yang Ying pressed. “Let’s see if any details were missed in the translation.”

“Oh.” Idny paused, gathering her thoughts before proceeding. “Beyond the defense fleet, the rebels maintain three other categories of forces on Dorun Star. First are the Ground Regular Forces. They possess a large number of armed soldiers and combat robotic soldiers, fully equipped and supplied. To prepare for this engagement, the rebels drew down the defense fleet but left the ground units intact. This force currently numbers around five million personnel, of which one million are flesh and blood, and four million are robots, spread across more than thirty fully equipped military bases situated across the planet.”

Yang Ying nodded. “Continue.”

Idny took a breath. “Second are the Recruits. Dorun Star is one of the primary production centers for rebel armaments. To avoid attrition during transport, the rebels established numerous recruit training camps here for localized training. The recruits are then immediately equipped with weapons manufactured on Dorun Star and shipped to the front lines. The total number of these recruits is also around five million, but this figure pertains only to biological personnel, excluding combat robots.”

Yang Ying grunted an acknowledgment. “And the third?”

Idny explained, “The third category comprises the armed personnel belonging to the military-industrial corporations controlling key enterprises on Dorun Star. The major corporations on the planet are intensely concentrated, and the capitalists who control them are direct supporters of the rebellion—this entire conflict was instigated for their benefit. These capitalists are obsessively fond of maintaining private armies; they established formidable private forces to suppress worker strikes and resistance organizations. Their numbers equal the sum of the Ground Regular Forces and the Recruits combined. They are greedy and cruel, posing an even greater threat than the other two categories!”

After listening, Yang Ying turned to Howard and the assembled staff officers. “You’ve heard it, gentlemen. Those are our enemies. Let’s go wipe them out!”

“Yes, sir,” a crisp, synchronized chorus echoed across the bridge.

Sensing the charged atmosphere, Idny suddenly recalled a critical point and interjected, “Master Yang Ying, the immediate priority must be to seal off the planet, preventing a single rebel vessel from achieving orbit. Dorun Star is constantly constructing warships, and the recruit camps house many personnel trained for space duty. If those recruits manage to board active ships, they instantly become combat assets. Moreover, Dorun Star must have a significant inventory of completed warships. If the people in the recruit camps aren't fools, they are likely already boarding. We must advance rapidly; we cannot allow them to regain combat strength.”

“I concur with Intelligence Officer Idny’s assessment,” Howard stated firmly.

Yang Ying’s brow lifted slightly. “If even Howard agrees, then so be it. Accelerate the advance! Seal the planet!”

The first step in blockading the planet was to suppress all anti-orbital weaponry capable of threatening the fleet. The fleet carefully maneuvered outside the effective range of planetary defenses. Yang Ying once again dispatched the fully reloaded Ghost fighter squadron, with the thirteen pilots themselves leading the charge. This invisible contingent descended toward the surface, targeting several key anti-space military bases.

Dorun Star’s Second Thunder Port served as the primary base for the defense fleet. Upon receiving news of the fleet’s total annihilation, a grim shadow enveloped the fully operational military harbor.

Soldiers ran about outdoors without discipline, panic etched on their faces, as if the sky itself were collapsing. The cacophony resembled a chaotic marketplace, utterly lacking in order or restraint.

Then, order appeared. Recruits being organized for ship deployment formed precise ranks inside the port, immediately silencing the surrounding clamor.

On the other side of the harbor sat hundreds of newly built vessels, completely unmanned except for a few maintenance staff conducting final checks. Now, the recruits boarded these ships in an organized fashion. A contingent of combat robots was also brought up from storage to fill roles requiring minimal critical thinking.

Seeing this, the port workers’ anxiety subsided, and they returned to their posts, organizing the departure of the new recruit fleet. They activated the port’s defense systems. Countless anti-aircraft barrels swung skyward, and a shield, condensing immense energy, rose into place. However, in the next instant, hundreds of streaks of orange-red light abruptly pierced the clouds, resembling vicious, sharp spears stabbing down!

The power of a Level Seven cannon rivaled that of a small nuclear bomb; one was devastating enough, let alone hundreds. Even if the shield had been running at full power, over three hundred hits from Level Seven cannon fire would have resulted in its guaranteed breach. In this instance, the shield was running at only eighty percent capacity.

BOOM!

A cataclysmic explosion erupted, unleashing a towering firestorm visible within a fifty-kilometer radius, and an agonizing glare visible hundreds of kilometers away. The entire planet shuddered from the shockwave.

Ten minutes later, the shockwave completed its circuit around the planet and returned to its origin. What remained was a field of ruins.

Simultaneously, at military airfields across the planet, countless fighter jets swarmed upward, rocketing toward the sky—nearly ten thousand machines launched every minute. The planet resembled a gigantic, unsinkable battleship; the complement of carrier-based aircraft possessed by a fleet was utterly dwarfed by the sheer number of fighters housed on a world.

However, before these fighters could clear the atmosphere, they met the Ghost squadron. The invisible assassins zipped back and forth at the very edge of the atmosphere, like tigers patrolling their territory, allowing no prey that entered their domain to escape.

Despite the Ghosts' skill, the rebel forces held an overwhelming numerical advantage. Some rebel fighters were piloted by soldiers, while others were commanded by robotic aviators. Robots could be rebuilt; their loss was inconsequential. Yet, even the biological personnel of the upper echelon rarely spared a thought for the flesh-and-blood soldiers they consumed.

Waves of fighters hammered the atmospheric defense line. Yang Ying was forced to divide the Ghost squadron into three operational groups: two-thirds engaged in combat, and one-third rotated back to replenish ammunition and energy, maintaining sustained fire only through this constant turnover.

The density of fire inevitably dropped, allowing many rebel fighters to punch through the atmospheric barrier and charge toward the fleet deep in space.

Yang Ying, seated in his Ghost fighter cockpit, sighed internally. If not for the entire planet below, with countless eyes observing the battle and broadcasting every action, summoning just half the Ghost squadron positioned on the floating continent would have been sufficient to crush Dorun Star’s air forces.

As the battle progressed, the Ghost squadron transmitted detailed schematics of the rebel fighters back to the fleet for database comparison. Idny provided live commentary. Through his link with the bridge, Yang Ying confirmed that the fighters encountered represented forces from all three identified factions: the Ground Regulars, the Recruit Corps, and the private security forces.

The three major rebel powers seemed to have synchronized their efforts, choosing to launch an all-out counterattack using their massive fighter wings to overwhelm the invading fleet in outer space.

Neither Yang Ying nor Howard entertained any thought of retreat. They both understood that while the rebel offensive appeared ferocious, they could not sustain such colossal losses for long.

Yang Ying’s fleet carried a total of just over thirty-eight thousand Ghost fighters, with eight thousand remaining in defensive screens around the main fleet while Yang Ying commanded thirty thousand in the primary assault. The fleet maintained an all-around anti-air barrage, coordinated with the remaining Ghosts, to ward off incoming rebel aircraft. Howard simultaneously focused the fleet’s main batteries on shelling military airfields across the planet.

The Yamato Cannons’ superior range provided a significant advantage in this bombardment. With Dorun Star directly ahead, a concentrated barrage could destroy one airfield, allowing the cannons to shift their aim to another airfield thousands of kilometers away with a slight adjustment.

In truth, destroying an airfield did not require the combined fire of three hundred Battlecruisers; the bombardment from just one squadron of twelve Battlecruisers was enough to obliterate an airfield.

Excluding the twenty cruisers detailed for clean-up, Howard organized the remaining fleet into twenty-five attack squadrons. Using Idny’s intelligence and real-time reconnaissance, they systematically targeted the military bases scattered across Dorun Star. As colossal fireballs bloomed across the planet's surface, the number of military airfields capable of launching fighters into space rapidly dwindled.