NOVEL NEXT Chapter 200: A Complication
"Send the word back, I want the fleets to send out scouts and start collecting intel," he said to the droid next to him before turning to Islinda, "how is the operation droid going?" he asked.
He was talking about making an entire fleet out of droids and using them at the last moment as a trump card. Unless the enemies destroyed the droids one by one, these resilient machines wouldn't stop fighting even when thrown in space!
"We had a major breakthrough in the technology which made us change the current production procedures," she said before adding, "right now we can produce over a hundred thousand droid per day, not enough to arm an entire fleet except after a month 's time."
"One month," he thought deeply before nodding. He knew this operation was limited by the secrecy, making them unable to massively produce the droids with all their power. "Let's keep the current production rate on," he said before adding, "also collect the needed materials for them all the time."
"I'm already doing this, and currently our stocks are enough to sustain us for a month."
"Not enough," he shook his head, "I want to keep producing the droids even after this war ends," he added while not explaining further.
"Is there another war coming soon?" she asked, as she felt something was off.
"You can say that," he smiled before caressing her face, "I missed you," he said.
"M… Me too," she suddenly felt embarrassed before adding, "your newly selected girls will arrive tomorrow, be ready for them," she hit his chest while laughing.
"C'mon, you know I don't need any preparations," he laughed louder than her before carrying her in his arms.
"Let me down, I have tons of work to do!" she tried to escape his grasp yet the next hours she was helplessly lying in bed while he was devastating her in every way possible.
After she awoke, she hit his chest a couple of times with her fists while he only laughed. She headed back to the capital while he kept himself busy hunting her assassins and observing the status of war.
The war seemed to enter a cold state where both sides were observing each other closely. Rigo and Dora kept spreading out their control over the systems close to them, while news coming from Terases empire explained clearly how much preparations they were amassing.
Their loss at the start was painful, and they were now crazily building up fleets and amassing soldiers from everywhere. They had the home advantage, yet most people under their rule hated them!
Another thing James and his leaders cared for, the news regarding the decoy they planted there. "This isn't going according to plan," James shook his head as he noticed the lack of data coming from Terases empire regarding their search for his fake rival. "We need something to kick off the still waters," he thought before he sent an order to Rigo.
"Make him call people to our resistance," this was what he sent to Rigo, and Rigo stayed in the commanding deck for a while reading this short message over and over again.
"Despite seeing the logic behind this order, but doing that will make us lose more troops and fleets," he sighed, while passing the message to one of his main assistants, "send this to our boy, let him make some noise," he said.
As Rigo feared, when the droid showed himself in the public and asked people to join the sacred war against emperor James, huge lines answered his calling.
Yet after that he disappeared, leaving behind a promise to show up at the most stressful moment, when emperor James appeared, so he could kill him!
This was the fine touch Dora added to the scheme, and all this aimed for the Terases race and that cunning youth behind them to catch the bait.
And they did!
"Hahaha, I like this news the best," James was sitting in his main cruiser while reading the latest reports coming from the Terases empire. They had spread the word that decoy was considered a top asset to them and they even announced a rich reward for anyone telling them intel about their location.
"This might be useful later on," James laughed again while closing the screen and glancing at the latest updates from the war fronts. "We are doing great on this war, but the Terases empire is acting all cautious," he shook his head as in front of him, the map he once drew to others was getting closer to be real than ever.
"It's time for the next fleets to join the war," he thought before sending a message to Islinda asking her about the number of grand fleets amassed till date.
Ten days passed since she sent him the new girls, and he had to admit to himself that he enjoyed them very much. They kept his growing energy in check, making him quite pleased by them.
"Three fleets are ready to move out," she simply sent this message to him, "plus the droid fleet is ready to deploy."
He glanced at the war map again before making up his mind. "Prepare for all out assault, four fleets will come to your aid in one week," he sent the orders to Rigo and Dora, making the two much excited about this.
"Prepare for an all out assault," Dora excitedly said, "we are going to break some bones boys," she laughed while glancing at the map Rigo provided to her. "This path… it's so slow," she mumbled before starting to edit the course of battle Rigo drew for her.
Rigo wanted them to move onward and use the incoming fleets as surprise wedges behind the enemies' lines, yet she didn't accept that.
"Send this back to Rigo," she ordered after finalizing her touches over the plan.
"This… is quite bold," Rigo examined the plan for an hour before muttering these words, "like a man like his girls, tsk," he shook his head, "my leader is daring and loves to take risks, and so is she."
He turned to his men as he ordered, "send this map back to our leader, make him take a decision about it."
"Hahaha, this girl… she can't accept safety at all!" James laughed when he saw the map and studied it. "So you want to flip turns and be the wedge while hitting them where it hurts? Seems interesting, but the risks…" he stopped in tracks while glancing deeply at the map.
Dora wanted them to jump behind the already gathered three grand fleets of the enemy, and hit them on surprise. This might work, yet the risk of more reinforcements was great!
"Send the order back, let them start this when the fleets are only one day apart from them," he couldn't risk such a bold move without backing it up. If the enemy had reinforcements hidden anywhere, then he should be prepared to match their move with a bigger one.
"He is playing safe," Dora wasn't pleased much with that reply from James, "why should I wait? One week! One whole week!" she was really angered by just waiting there doing nothing. "Order everyone, we will spread our activities to more systems, let those Terases tremble in fear from us!"
She sat over her seat while doing nothing but examining the newest reports from all fronts. Her fleet was kicking everything in its way, with no resistance whatsoever.
During their stay there, she and Rigo managed to make people feel the difference between the brutal Terases rule and James' rule. People started to support them, and many volunteered to join their fleets.
As for the local merchants, Rigo was doing an excellent job compared to her. She had to go to him everytime a new group of merchants appeared knocking on her doors.
"Gosh! How can Islinda deal with these sly people all the time!" She suddenly had a great admiration for Islinda for withstanding these people all the time. "I only dealt with a handful of hundreds and already felt exhausted!" she complained while glancing over her calendar.
"Only one day is left, why is time moving so slow here?!!"
She was so impatient, yet the day passed and the moment of starting their full assault was here.
Yet a new sudden development made everything unclear for her and Rigo.
"The riots are spreading to three systems now!"
Islinda stood in front of James while delivering this bad news to him. Revolutions started to kick in with calls to arms to resist his tyrannic rule in many systems. He glanced at the reports and the three systems that had these riots weren't close to each other.
"He wants to make me busy with internal turmoil? Good," James viciously laughed before adding, "send the word to Dora, let her men scattered along the Terases empire start their mission."
"What about these systems? They aren't that close the capital, yet they have big part of our empire inside that triangle!" Islinda pointed out towards the map while adding, "if we let them do as they wish, we will suffer many losses."
"How much power have they amassed so far?" James asked, before adding, "and how many fleets have we gathered?"
"We have two grand fleets ready to set off at any moment," she finally said a piece of good news before throwing another one, "They only had three normal fleets, which I'm pretty sure they had from the Terases empire."
"Sending fleets to my empire?" he laughed before adding, "send two fleets to crush this futile resistance, and keep them stationed here for any future problems," he said before adding, "and let's repay the debt, spread the third fleet to many smaller ones and let them go to aid the rebellion started by Dora's men."