New reports of incoming signatures flooded the deck—more fleets, more heat, more Torank steel closing the noose around their sector.
"Hye, look at the monitors!" Olana shouted, her voice reaching a frantic pitch. "What about the incoming danger? We are speaking about over one hundred fleets from the Toranks!
Do you understand the sheer magnitude of that? Do you know how terrifyingly efficient their destruction is?
Even if we turned tail and burned our engines to the limit, it’s likely too late! With those astronomical bounties over our heads, every rcenary and minor race in the quadrant will be hunting us. Nowhere is safe! Nowhere at all!"
"Who said anything about running away?!"
Hye finally looked up, his preparations complete. He had received the pings from his friends—the "confirmations" that his chess pieces were moving into their squares. He leaned back, his eyes narrowing as he finally took a mont to explain the reality Olana was missing.
"Let ask you sothing, Olana. A force of this magnitude—hundreds of fleets from a top-tier race—is it common for them to just happen to be gathered in one place in the universe during normal tis?"
Olana blinked, taken aback. The question shifted the entire weight of the conversation. She paused, forced to move past her panic to engage her logic. "Well... no. Of course not. It’s completely abnormal. Moving that many ships requires months of logistical planning and fuel redirection."
"Exactly," Hye said, his voice dropping into a low, predatory tone. "That ans they didn’t react to my recent moves. They took their ti to prepare. Not just one force, but several, staged and waiting for the signal.
Now, try to consider the board: what happens if I suddenly retreat from here? What happens to my forces scattered across the various Hot Zones? What happens to the billions we just moved?"
"You can issue a mass retreat order," she countered, though her voice lacked conviction.
"We won’t make it in ti," Hye said, shaking his head firmly. "And it’s not just about the ships. It’s about the montum. The fa and reputation I’ve painstakingly built across these sectors would be tarnished the very second the Toranks broadcast footage of tucking my tail and fleeing.
No, the enemy has dozens of contingency plans ready for when I make that specific mistake. They want to run. They want to feel cornered. So, instead of playing right into their hands, why don’t we play the ga by the rules I set?"
Olana fell silent, the air leaving her lungs. Every point Hye ntioned had been a blind spot in her panic. As she re-evaluated his decisions, she realised that what looked like a rash, suicidal gamble was actually a deeply calculated counter-move.
What unsettled her most was the mystery of his mind. How had he grasped the entire geopolitical landscape in the few minutes since Gregotal’s speech?
He shouldn’t have been able to predict a declaration of war this bizarre, yet he acted as if he had been waiting for the Toranks to blink first. He was ready, as if he had rehearsed this disaster a thousand tis in his sleep.
"But what about the sheer numbers?" Olana asked, her voice hushed. "The incoming fleets... they are too many for our flagship to withstand alone."
"Yet they aren’t coming as a single, unified wall, are they?" Hye’s lips curled into an evil smirk. "Did you think I was just sitting here, idly waiting for their fleets to arrive, shake hands, and gather into a crushing fist?"
"You... you don’t an..."
Olana stood up slowly, her knees trembling as a wild, terrifying idea began to take shape in her mind.
Hye nodded slowly, confirming her worst fears. "I’ve already dispatched various strike groups to intercept them far from this sector. Of course, I’m not a fool—I know my current numbers aren’t enough to stop a Torank armada in a straight fight. I don’t plan to waste lives or resources on aningless attrition."
He paused, a dark glint in his eyes. "But those intercepts will buy us ti. Enough ti to finish our work here and in the other Hot Zones."
"Then..." She swallowed hard, recalling his earlier comnt about the inventory. "What about that item you were digging for? The ’old antique’ that was gathering dust? You said this was a ’chance.’ How is being hunted by the second strongest race in the universe a chance?"
"Ah, that," Hye said, his eyes gleaming with a dangerous, artificial light. "If I only send my forces to slow them down, they will eventually be overwheld.
The Toranks are disciplined. To truly disrupt them, a bait must be laid. And I am the only target they desire enough to break formation for. I’m the prize they hope for, right?"
The realisation hit Olana like a physical blow, leaving her mind frozen. She stared at him, her breath hitching in her chest as the scale of his insanity—or his genius—finally beca clear.
"You..." she whispered, her eyes wide. "You don’t actually plan on going out there and exposing yourself to them, do you? You’re going to broadcast your location to the entire universe?"
"That’s precisely what I’m going to do," Hye said, his eyes scanning the horizon of the command deck, flickering with a cold, calculated light. He turned back to her, his voice softening just a fraction. "If you want, you can leave here and move to another ship. Or, if you prefer, you can go back to the safety of my territory..."
"No, I’ll stick to your side," Olana replied instantly, her refusal sharp and decisive. She stepped forward, her gaze locking onto his with unwavering intensity. "I want to see this through right by your side!"
Hye let out a short, dry laugh, the sound echoing against the tallic bulkheads. "Don’t worry, you won’t miss a thing. In fact, I plan to let the whole universe watch what I’m going to do. After all, I need to clear this path. I still have to travel to other Hot Zones and continue amassing the remaining worlds waiting for ."
Olana froze, her breath catching in her throat. "What?!"
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