Star Citizen Online: Isekai Edition

Chapter 71: Curtain Falls

Yet even an hour later, after the last of the Greenskin ships were destroyed by the Imperial Defense Fleet under the command of the Varathar Medes, who was in charge of the overall initiative.

Still, the Imperial troops were ready for the upcoming battle, even though they were already waiting for one hour or so... Everyone knew that the Mind Flayers were coming for them as they were the main instigators of this battle, so nobody dared to be complacent.

Not like it was even possible under the command of Bashar-General Varathar Medes, who was extremely strict when it came to discipline and such. Arcturus was observing everything from a relatively safe distance, though after waiting for an hour and a half, he was already becoming bored...

Nothing was happening; the body was fitting, and the body was dying; it was like waiting for the inevitable in the endless cycle of boredom. Arcturus knew that there were two possible explanations for the reason.

The first one was that the Mind Flayers were playing for a time, most probably employing another of their deliberately crafted schemes in hopes of weakening the Imperial Defense Forces even more.

Or, the second one is that, right now, there was an internal discussion between the squids about whether they should even be attacking the Alaric Star Domain at all due to how disastrous the Orkish WAAAGH was! failed in their attack and the efforts of the Mind Flayers to cause some significant damages to the Imperials were null and void.

The squids were cunning and smart; they wouldn't be invading any place that had the potential to fight them back and cause them high losses. That wouldn't be really good for their already small population, as they were forced to depend on their slave armies for them to fight.

Though, if Arcturus had to guess, he would right now bet his money on explanation number two because that was the most probable. He knew that the Mind Flayers were depending on and hoping that the Orkish WAAAGH! would cause damages to the Imperial Defense Forces that would at least exceed 30%, preferably 40% of their overall numbers.

Unfortunately for the space squids, nothing like that happened, and according to the Red Queen, the losses were not reaching even 10% of the overall numbers, not to mention the losses among the high Grade Professionals were almost zero, which was another bad news for the Mind Flayers.

Now the question was if they actually tried to attack the Imperial Defense Forces in the Alaric Star Domain despite all of this or if they would just withdraw back somewhere into the depths of the cold void and wait for another opportunity or just switch the targets.

<Master, there is an incoming transmission from the Flagship of the Imperial Defense Fleet of the Alaric Star Domain.>

As he heard the voice of the Red Queen when he was watching the stars in space and sitting on the captain's chair comfortably, a screed suddenly lit up in holographic projection, showing the familiar visage of the Grandmaster Arsit Byrmellir.

It seemed that his master was on the Flagship together with the Bashar-General Varathar Medes.

"Master."

Arcturus gave his master a greeting as the old man remained stoic and looked at his newest disciple.

"I have seen the results of the Orkish raid... good job, but for now, the work is not done... I can rather sense the Psionic signature of the Mind Flayers some distance away from us, and it seems that they are approaching."

Hearing that, Arcturus nodded because it was possible that the Mind Fleet was coming here under the leadership of the Elder Brain...

An Elder Brain was the final stage of the Mind Flayer evolution. The Elder Brain lived in a brine-filled pool in the center of a Mind Flayer city, where it guided its community by filling them with dark dreams of Illithid domination.

The Elder Brains were the pinnacle of the Mind Flayer Psionic potential, and there were only a handful number of the publically known Elder Brains because they were pillars and the foundation of their race.

Many species that had conflicts with the Mind Flayers targeted the Elder Brains specifically because the death of even a single one was considered a great victory. When the Elder Brain died, it had a catastrophic aftermath on all Mind Flayers beneath the rule of the Elder Brain.

Not only did any kind of rule diminish almost instantly, but the Elder Brain was also the sole reason why the slaves were doing what they should, as the Elder Brain was specifically enhancing some particular Psionic Abilities of the Mind Flayer race, and the Enslavement was obviously one of them.

"Now, we shall be proceeding with the original plan, but it will be sped up... The moment Mind Flayers arrive at the Rylon Star System, you shall find the Flagship; it should be rather easy to find, because it will be the biggest of all and activate the device that Bashar-General gave you, most preferable the closer you would be to the Flagship of the squids, the better effect of the device."

If his mission during the incursion of the Orkish WAAAGH! was considered dangerous as hell, then this mission was essentially a suicide because he would need to go to the Mind Flayers and turn on the Psion-Disruption Device as long as possible.

"This is indeed mission impossible... for how long it should be on? The moment the device is activated, it would become a target for the Mind Flayers if they decipher the signal and pinpoint the location."

His mission in the phase from Bashar-General Varathar Medes was to activate the Psion-Disruption Device, which would disrupt Psionics in the entire area. In fact, this would also cause some minor inconveniences to the Imperial Defense forces, but it would still be just a minor problem.

Whereas for the Mind Flayers, it would be critical damage and deathly because not only were they using the Psionic Energy for almost everything, but their very own ships were also using a lot of it, so if the Psionic Technology couldn't work properly, then the combat prowess of the entire Mind Fleet would drop tremendously.

And even though such machines were ineffective on the beings that were on the level of Grandmaster Arsit Byrmellir or Edler Brain, it would still cause them some trouble, and that was the outcome that the Imperials were aiming for.

"Yes, it is... but we need to sever the connection between the Elder Brain and the rest of the Mind Fleet for as much as possible. If the connection is severed, we can make use of the immediate chaos to inflict as much damage on the Mind Fleet as possible before the final attack. Not to mention, Elder Brain should be weakened for some time, after the Psion-Disruption Field is not working any more..."

The societal hierarchy of the Mind Flayers was rather simple... they had some hive-like social structure, where they were ruled by the Elder Brain, who stood on the top of the pyramid as the Elder Brain ruled everything around the Mind Fleet.

Below them, the Mind Flayers were separated into castes depending on their Psionic Potential and Power; nothing more was important in their society aside from the Psionic Powers...

"Whatever... as long as I can get the Contribution Points and some Universal Credits as reimbursement for my efforts... hopefully, I won't end dead during your clash with the space squid, Master."

Those were the only things about that Arcturus cared right now, as his Master nodded, knowing very well that his disciple wanted to establish himself in the Eternal Imperium of the Asurya, and for that, he was pursuing the possibilities of the Contribution Points to the Empire at any costs...

"Good luck..."

With that being said, Grandmaster Arsit Byrmellir cut the call as Arcturus was pondering over the Mind Flayers that were soon enough arriving at the Rylon Star System.

<Spatial disturbances detected, approximate time of arrival of the Mind Flayer Mind Fleet, eta: 35 seconds.>

In the end, it was clear that the Mind Flayers had chosen to attack the Alaric Star Domain because it seemed that for the squids, it was something very important.

Soon enough, at the edge of the Rylon Star System, several huge cracks in the space appeared as countless Mind Flayer ships started appearing out of nowhere and entered the territories of the Eternal Empire.

All starships of the Mind Fleet were a combination of a living lifeform and the esoteric technology of the Mind Flayers, creating a truly unique type of starship. Immediately after they started exiting from the cracks in space, the Imperial Defense Fleets unleashed an enormous barrage onto the enemies.

Though, contrary to the Orkish spaceships that barely had any shielding, all of the projectiles were useless against the shields that the Mind Fleet was employing on their starships because it would require much more to breach through their shields.

Mind Flayers were not one of the most powerful and technologically advanced species for nothing.