[A/n: Please take a moment to revisit the previous chapter—I’ve made a few changes. Some repetitive words were removed, and a few additions were made for better clarity. Also, I want to sincerely apologize for what might’ve felt like a filler chapter. While I can’t promise it’s the last one of its kind, I hope you understand that planning is a necessary phase before any real battle begins. After all, strategies are made before the fight, not during it, right?

Just one more chapter to set the stage… and then, we dive straight into the battle.]

….

The meeting continued, moving seamlessly from our own readiness to the next crucial phase: how best to counter and eliminate the enemy with maximum efficiency.

It was then that I began briefing the room on one of our most dangerous opponents—the Minotaur 7th Light Fleet. Though its name included “light,” it was anything but. As stated in previous chapters, the Minotaur 7th fielded over 10,000 ships—practically ten times our numbers.

Among these thousands, the most notable were what they referred to as Tauros Prime, which we had codenamed MBX-9000 Tauros Prime.

This was no ordinary warship. This vessel was a behemoth, a dreadnought-class vessel—slightly larger than even our Oblivion-class flagships. Its frame stretched an incredible 9,000 meters in length. There were three such vessels in the 7th Fleet, each a different variant, stationed in the Ridge Star System.

Tauros Prime served as their command ship: a siege vessel, and arguably the most powerful in their entire arsenal.

According to my intelligence authority, Tauros Prime was armed with six Gigasol Hyper Batteries—long-range directed energy cannons powered by dual quantum singularity cores.

“The exact specs of these weapons remain unclear, but what we do know is that they surpass our Obliterator’s main armaments in sheer size—though not necessarily in combat effectiveness or destructive capability. I mean, heck, the Obliterator was a ship upgraded and brought into reality by the All-Mighty Supermind himself. I wouldn’t call it his best or most refined creation, but by my guess, it’s more powerful than any weapon ever created, at least by the standards of the entire Infinite Realities and higher dimensions.

If these weapons from the Mintor truly lived up to their potential, they might’ve already ruled the Infinite Reality itself, huh. And if the Obliterator’s armaments—crafted directly by that being—are already not stronger than what Tauros Prime is working with, well… then even in a desperate situation, I’d still have the advantage. I’d activate my trump card. Let’s see if they could do anything about that,” I thought of this.

And it was only then, as I was consumed by my own inner thoughts, that Tyler, seated to my left, leaned forward and offered his own theory. It settled my inner doubts, or at least quieted them. I felt… relieved, uneasy. But I won’t acknowledge that. Hmph.

According to his analysis, the Gigasol Hyper Batteries unleashed colossal energy beams, designed to annihilate capital ships and breach high-tier shielding. He described them as delivering long-range solar plasma bursts with devastating impact.

However, despite their power, the weapons required a significant charge-up process, cycling through several phases before firing. A single shot could take anywhere from 40 to 60 seconds to prepare, followed by a cooldown period of nearly two minutes before they could fire again.

And during that time, most of the ship’s energy would be diverted to the weapons, meaning that other systems—except for the shields—would either be non-functional due to lack of power or completely shut down. It left the ship vulnerable, a sitting giant with a cannon too big for its own good.

And that was something we could exploit. Once its shields were taken down, it would be little more than a hulking target—brimming with vulnerabilities and just waiting to be destroyed.

That’s enough of it, super batteries for now. Let’s focus.

Aside from the primary weapons, Tauros Prime carried:

• 40 heavy ion lances

• 120 triple-barreled siege railguns

• 5,000 automated turrets for point defense

Its hull was armored in standard 2.5-grade dreadnought composite alloy.

Its shield system combined layered gravitational deflectors with thermionic dispersion fields—a tough nut to crack even for our best artillery, though not ours.

The other two vessels in its class—MBX-8700 Horn of Minotaur’s and MBX-8100 Iron Maw—were slightly smaller, at 8,700 and 8,100 meters respectively. Their overall armaments were similar to Tauros Prime, though neither had the Gigasol batteries. Weapon systems were fewer in number, but still formidable.

The Horn of Minotaurs and Iron Maw weren’t just support vessels—they were the guardians of Tauros Prime. Functionally, they acted as its personal escort, forming a tight trident formation that rarely broke during battle.

They moved as one unit.

While Tauros Prime served as the command and siege vessel, the MBX-8700 and MBX-8100 were its shields—designed to absorb, intercept, and counter any threat that came too close. Their firepower alone could wipe out fleets, but their primary role was to ensure that nothing touched the flagship.

They carried enough railguns and ion lances to drown entire squadrons, and with overlapping point-defense grids, they could shred anything smaller than a cruiser before it even got within strike range.

I said, “To take down Tauros Prime, we’d have to break through its escorts first. But doing that would put our fighter squadrons in serious danger. I’m not saying our fighters are weak, or that our bio-human pilots aren’t capable—far from it. They’re among the best. Each craft is outfitted with Tier-1 shield generators. Compact, but powerful. In most battles, they hold up just fine.

But even high-end shielding has limits.

Fighter-class ships don’t have the energy reserves of capital or mainline vessels. They can take hits, yes—but not a sustained barrage from three dreadnought-class warships. Under that kind of concentrated fire, even our best squadrons would be shredded before they got close.

So we don’t send them in at the start. Not into that kill zone. We need another approach.

And that decision,” I said, locking eyes with Admiral Tanno, “is yours.”

“You’re the one leading the charge. It’s your battlefield to command.”

“Figure out how to strike with minimal losses to our fighter squadrons. I know they’re expendable—bio-humans with AI cores, not traditional pilots—but that doesn’t make them meaningless. Each unit represents resources, time, and technology. We don’t waste that unless we have to. we win, clean and calculated.”

I held his gaze, I bit longer before adding.

“They may not be human, but they’re still ours. Keep them alive. That’s your directive, Admiral.”

“I will try to do as you command, Imperial Commander,” Admiral Tanno replied.

It wasn’t a firm answer—but it was the right one.

He didn’t make promises he couldn’t guarantee or might fail to deliver, and that in itself was a skill. After all, in war, losses are inevitable as they do happen.

And it doesn’t matter whether you’re on the winning side or the losing one—for even the victor suffers losses. The only difference is that the winner loses less. But losses are still losses, and the dead are still counted among his own.

After all, war is anything but certain. Even the strongest can feel weak on the battlefield—brought low by a single, sudden change.

Those thoughts passed through my mind, but I didn’t speak them aloud. That truth sat quietly in the back of my mind—but I kept it there, for now,

Tanno looked like he was about to speak—probably to lay out an initial strike plan—but I raised a hand to stop him.

“Let me finish outlining their fleet structure before you jump in, Admiral.”

….

Titan-Class Destroyers (200 ships)

Length: 2,500–3,500 meters

Weapons:

Heavy energy lances

Turbo heavy ion cannon

Point defense turret and lessor

Saturation missile pods

EMP disruptors

Defenses:

Mid-range shields system (tier-2 initial grade)

Forge-Class Battle Carriers (300 ships)

Length: 3,000 meters

Role: Deploy up to 200 Minotaur-class Interceptors

Features:

Repair drones

Launch hangars

Flak turrets and gravity mines

….

Anvil-Class Cruisers (2,000 ships)

Length: 1,200 meters

Weapons: Dual-barrel plasma mortars, arc cannons

Durability: High-density alloy composite hull

Function: Mid-line combatants and escort ships

…..

Skorn-Class Frigates (3,000 ships)

Length: 600–800 meters

Speed: High

Weapons: Precision railguns, swarm missiles

Function: Hit-and-run, flanking, support

….

Ramfang-Class Corvettes (4,497 ships)

Length: 150–300 meters

Weapons: Laser cutters and light laser cannon, along with some small-scale railguns, breaching drills.

Function: Interception, patrol, boarding.

“So… basically, they’ve got a lot of corvettes—almost half their fleet,” said Admiral Elira Seal of the Second Battle Group. “Mostly harasser-class ships.”

“Indeed, they are,” I replied.

Admiral Ryn Velos, commander of the Third Battle Group, spoke next. “Then we can deal with them using our fighter squadrons, right? Hmm… actually, how many fighters do we even have?”

“Now that you mention it,” said Admiral Kale Thone of the Fourth Battle Group, turning slightly toward the logistics side of the chamber, “how many are we taking into this operation?”

Mister Evans—our operations overseer and the man responsible for construction and deployment logistics—answered calmly.

“That would be 6,272 fighters, including both heavy and light-class units. If we include an additional 5,600 swarm interceptors—non-pilotable units—we’re looking at a total of 11,872 fighter and interceptor craft.”

A few in the room sucked in a cold breath at the number.

“So many…” murmured Admiral Alezand, commander of the Sixth Battle Group.

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