Chapter 401 Venturing Into the Great Beyond
Erich stood on a small space station built on the edge of the galaxy within the borders of the Germanic Star-Empire. Standing before him were a group of several heavily armed men, men whose entire purpose was to wage war on behalf of the Empire's enemies.
These men had been given the information necessary to understand their task, and the severity of the consequences that would result if they were to fail. They knew this was a suicide mission, and they were more than willing to throw their lives away for the sake of the Empire.
The Germanic Star-Empire had, for well over a century, possessed the technology to revive its dead soldiers. There was always, of course, a potential for permanent death. But most soldiers never experienced this, and it was never really a concern for most men on the battlefield because of it.
"If I die, my consciousness will be uploaded into a clone, far away from this battlefield."VIsit n0(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience
Yet these men knew that death was all but certain, and it was not the kind of death they could ever come back from. Despite this, they were not afraid. Rather, they were ready to embrace their fate. After all, life was meaningless, but the glory of the Empire? That was eternal and could never be besmirched!
Thus, these men stood before their emperor, a man who had recently claimed such a title, a man whose body had undergone a rebirth and was now immortal. The man who would lead their people on an eternal crusade to annihilate the Narkau menace wherever they may find them. Knowing all of this, these men stood with their proudest salute as he listened to their words.
"Each and every one of you knows why you are here at the edge of the galaxy. In Andromeda lies a threat to the very survival of our people and our way of life. This threat is legion, their numbers unknown, and their territory incalculable....
This enemy is the Naraku. They seek to invade the Milky Way Galaxy and consume all biological life within it. But we will never let that happen. For as long as our people have eixsted, they have fought tooth and nail, against all odds for individual glory, and the glory of our great race.
Today, you will be the first men to march into another galaxy and wage war upon its inhabitants. You will strike at the heart of the Naraku hive which is spewing out their filthy insectoid race at a rapid rate, and you will deal them a critical blow. One that will set back their plans to invade the galaxy long enough for us to be properly prepared for their arrival.
"I have complete and utter faith in the abilities of my warriors. They will succeed. I know this. And if not... We have a secret weapon, one that will make the Naraku think twice about their invasion should they start it prematurely...."
Though Mirage had no idea what this secret weapon was, or the fact that she was on close personal terms with it. The weapon being Ayumi; she trusted Erich's judgement. Still, she could not help but sigh and look out into the void of space, verbally questioning the man's decision.
"I hope you know what you are doing..."
---
Tia would watch the conversation between Erich and Mirage while monitoring the spacecraft that had penetrated the void between galaxies. Her deep space probes within the boundaries of the Andromeda galaxy were constantly reporting the movements of the Naraku.
It was as Mirage had said. The Naraku were preparing for an invasion of the Milky Way Galaxy. After discovering the origins of the probes which kept spying on them, they realized someone in the Milky Way had discovered their plans.
Thus, the timetables for the invasion were moved up. But they were blissfully unaware that the Milky Way was sending an advanced strike team, one a suicidal mission to destroy the hive world which was responsible for the overwhelming majority of production of their current forces.
Needless to say if this hive world was destroyed, the Naraku plans to invade the Milky Way would be set back by decades, as the amount of eggs, hive queens, and drones on this world accounted for roughly 25% of the Naraku forces within Andromeda.
But even Tia sighed when she ran the odds. No matter how many times she calculated thme, failure seemed the only possibility. Luckily for her, she knew never to underestimate the margin of error called humanity, and thus she silently hoped that Erich's strike team would genuinely succeed in their efforts. No matter how unlikely that was.
