Chapter 20

'Disintegrate? It'd better hit disintegration, or that's going to make a big hole in the starfort when such a big pile hits it!" Before Alphonse could say anything, a few bright spots appeared in the monitor trailing behind the Menil star.

'Federation troop transports detected! They're following the Menil Star!" The commanding officer in charge of detection shouted.

'What!" Alphonse exclaimed, 'How many are there?"

'Five in total, and they're still approaching the Menil Star."

'Attack! Hurry up all three cruisers and attack the transports." Alphonse hurriedly gave the order, his hands moving constantly, pressing something on the control panel.

'Colonel French, this is Alphonse in charge of the temporary patrol formation, quickly have the starfort hit fire to destroy the Menil star, behind it follow five Free Federation troop transports!" Alphonse reported what he had just discovered to the Andre Star Fort rotating staff.

'Alphonse you don't have to worry, at the rate the Menil Star is going out of orbit it will be cosmic dust before it reaches us." Colonel French on the comm sounded dismissive, completely unaware of the danger approaching.

'It's still accelerating! I suspect the Free Federation has installed boosters or something on it, please recalculate." Alphonse said, unbuttoning his collar, his mouth dry with anxiety at this point.

'Report! Our energy rounds are unable to penetrate the stream of matter." The weapons manipulation officer said.

'Shit! How are the orbital calculations coming?" Alphonse asked.

'At this rate of acceleration, Menil's Star will hit the Star Fortress and the Fortress Cannon will be too late to destroy it." The science officer accompanying the ship on the Tilapia said.

'Colonel French, this is the plan of the Free Federation, they intend for the Menil Star to make a hole in the starfort and let the marines take it, it is now imperative that the troop carriers behind it are destroyed." Alphonse said.

'Alphonse, I think the priority is to destroy Menil Star, we will concentrate our fire on Menil Star, thank you for warning us." Colonel French said and hung up the communication.

Alphonse sat on his butt in the command seat and muttered, 'It's over, we're going to lose the Star Fortress."

'Just destroy Menil Star and the Federation's plans fall apart." Jan said.

'No, as you heard, it's still accelerating." Alphonse was heartbroken at this point.

'Then get closer to destroy the transport ship." Jan said ready to give the order.

Alphonse shouted as he opened his hand that was ready to operate, 'What are you thinking, we use energy weapons on our ship, you saw the blasted material from the Menil star form a stream of material behind it in the shape of a straw!

Those energy weapons explode when they touch the object how do they get through?"

'That means ......," Jan's eyes were filled with a strange look.

'That means we can't do anything about those transports except go to the opening of the straw and drill into it to catch up." Alphonse finished and sat back in his command seat.

'Then we'll have to ask the fleet commander where that opening is." Jan said about to get on the comm.

Alphonse once again smacked Jan's hand away as he prepared to communicate and said, 'The opening is in the same spot where Menil's Star was first hit.

There's no time to lose, one more moment of delay and that straw opening of debris and dust will close itself due to gravity."

He stood up again, buttoned up his newly unbuttoned straightened his cap and said, 'Orders! Cruisers Tilapia, Cod, and Striped Fish proceed to the positions I have marked on the star charts!

We charge into the matter stream to destroy the Federation transports, long live the Star River Empire!"

'You're insane, you have no right to send the crew to their deaths!" Jan said and tried to stop Alphonse.

'All it takes is to rush in one cruiser to destroy those five troop transports!" Alphonse continued to issue orders despite the block.

'This is overstepping your bounds, your mission is to cruise and scout! Not to fight the enemy! Oi! Alphonse you calm down." Jan tried his best to persuade Alphonse, and all the commanders on the bridge froze as they watched this positive and negative captain arguing there.

'According to the rules you should report to your superiors!" Jan said with a blush.

'The fucking rules!" Alphonse pushed Jan out of the way and yelled at the commanders on the bridge, 'What are you looking at! Execute the order to full speed ahead!"

In the deep space, a lone star flickered with a vague firelight, and from time to time, material was stripped away from its body.

Behind it the trajectory that had traveled more than ten million kilometers was clearly visible, reflecting cold light against the background of the Milky Way like a silver ribbon.

Aboard the Tilapia, which had reached the tail end of the matter stream, Alphonse looked at the monitor with a headache.

The planetary surfaces that had been shattered were now transformed into boulders of varying sizes floating in his path of travel, and the movement of those debris had become irregular due to the gravitational pull of each other.

'Report, the Bandfish cruiser refuses to follow orders, the Cod is on its way."

'Let's go in first, navigator, radar spotter, cheer up." Alphonse said.

The navigator and radar observer looked at each other and began to work on their operation panels.

'Report, the calculations are in. We are now approximately fourteen million kilometers from Menil's Star, at the current acceleration of the target we would have to reach twenty-five percent of the speed of light in order to get into effective range before it hits Andre's Star Fortress."

Alphonse's fingers moved slightly, tapping the table twice in thought, and suddenly said as if he had made up his mind, 'Share the calculations with the Cod, let's go and save the situation!"

On the Gun Cavalry, Edward had already handed the command of the large fleet back to Admiral Walter, knowing that he was not capable enough in the command of such a large fleet.

Edward said, 'Admiral now that the Menil Star has attracted all the firepower of Andre Fortress, they no longer have time to support the fleet, the battle of annihilation of the grand fleet still relies on you to command."

'Good, please feel free to go and fulfill your mission." Admiral Walter was not polite and directly took over the command and started mobilizing.

'Report, cruisers have been detected appearing at the tail end of the Menil Star's material flow."

'They're not going to drill into it, are they?" Elina said in surprise.

'Is it possible for them to catch up? Elina." Edward asked as he walked up to her.

'I'll do the math ...... it's possible, it just has to reach twenty-five percent of the speed of light." Elina said.

'It's not going to be that easy, there's all that debris over there, and although there are very few obstacles in the center of the matter flow, that debris is already showing a tendency to spread." The radar man who had reported earlier interjected.

'Can we still get the acceleration of the Menil Star to increase?" Edward felt like he couldn't leave any possibilities open.

'That's basically the end of the line, in Menil Star's current condition, any more acceleration increases and it'll disintegrate on its own."

Elina said, pulling up a screen that showed a view of the massive thrusters, they had long since sunk deep into the ground, the earth around them was full of spiderwebbed chaffing and even a small amount of debris had been sporadically thrown off the ground and sent flying backwards.

'It's a good thing the troopships don't have a lot of relative speed to them, or all this rubble would be a problem." Edward then asked, 'How much longer?"

'Five minutes and twelve seconds." Elina said, clenching her fists tightly.

'Report, another Imperial cruiser has violently exploded after entering the matter stream and hitting the rubble at high speed."

'Where did the previous one get to?" Edward asked.

'I can't see it on radar anymore, the matter stream is blocking the echoes."

'This is Carrier 5, detecting high speed object currently ten million kilometers away."

'And they actually did it!" Elina said with incredulity.

'You're going to have to get Menil's Star up to speed again or we'll have all our troop transports taken out before it hits the star fort." Edward said.

'Carrier, watch out for debris, I'm going to accelerate our meteor." Elina said as she worked on the controls.

Edward stared at the display, only to see the thrusters suddenly twitch a few times and the light emitted faded from blue to orange.

The originally imperceptible trailing flame instantly rose up to extend more than ten kilometers towards the back of the planet, and the earth around the thrusters instantly trembled with it, for a while it even looked like a liquid going up and down.

'Carriers, you form a line to the middle of the six thrusters, where the impact is minimal." Elina said.

'Only three minutes left." Edward said.

'There's no way the cruisers can catch up, the only question left is whether or not Menil's Star can hold out." Elina said.

Due to the effects from the increased acceleration, the Menil Star began to gradually disintegrate.

The earth on the front part of the star that resisted the cannon fire became weaker than ever.