Years later, one might ask, who was the first to die?

The Halkosusse have no answer, and neither will the Nostramo. Most of the speculation will ridiculously cite important names, such as the three leaders of the Flame Burning Chamber of Commerce.

They would say that these men should have died at the hands of the Eighth Legion, the Nightblades. Such speculations are unfounded and absurd. The leaders of the Chamber of Commerce died, but certainly not the first, and not all of them were killed by the Nightblades.

In fact, the first deceased was a soldier on the Harkosus One. His name was Torak, and he used to be a stout man. Sadly, before he died, his muscles were already wrapped in loose fat.

He had a well-trimmed mustache, and his gray uniform was very neatly groomed by his wife at home. He was on duty at monitoring station A-1 and was responsible for security at the entrance to the third passage.

It's a nice-to-have, and yes, as you might guess, all nice-to-haves are actually all comfortable jobs.

Torak has a good salary, plenty of time to rest, and a happy family. Fifteen minutes before he died, he was even thinking about what food his wife would make for him when he got home from work tonight.

And fifteen minutes later, he would lose that opportunity forever.

An ancient mechanism in the monitoring station had been artificially activated as he thought about it, and Torak was unaware of it. Not because he was stupid, but because he did not know the real face of the A-1 monitoring station where he was located from the very beginning.

It took nine minutes for the mechanism to warm up completely, and after nine minutes, the white lights above Torak's head were a hideous red, flickering and flickering with an instinctive panic.

Torak, of course, did not understand what was happening, so he began to report the matter to his superiors and asked for help. And his superiors only said a word, a word that Torak did not understand at all.

That phrase does not belong to High Gothic, nor is it one of the eighteen native languages of Harcosus, it is a completely foreign language and belongs to another race.

His superiors said, "Our ministry is over." ”

Six minutes later, destruction struck. The A-1 monitoring station exploded in the icy vacuum, and the entrance to the third tunnel was immediately engulfed in flames, leaving Soldier Torak with no bones left.

The A-1 monitoring station turned into a furious flame in the universe, and was immediately captured by a large ship located not far from it, named Nightfall, belonging to the Human Empire.

It will conquer Harcosus I, just as its sister ships Steadfast Resolve and Glory of Macurag did with Harcosus II and III, but with the difference that it will come alone.

——

Conrad Coetzes stared through the observation window at the great fire, silent. Carlil stood beside him and slowly moved his shoulders. The same was true on the bridge, where everyone remained absolutely silent.

The crew members who had worked with the Eighth Army for a long time would not speak at this time, which was a precious tacit understanding.

However, it is worth mentioning that at the moment when everyone is fully armed, Karil Lohals is still not armor-piercing.

Two minutes later, a detailed mapping report was sent to the data board in Conrad Coetze's possession. Courtesy of Robert Kiliman, it is the latest model.

He lowered his head, raised his head after tens of seconds, and made a gesture to the instructor of the Eighth Legion: "It exploded on its own." ”

Carlil nodded calmly.

It blew itself up, of course, but not by any self-detonation device. The moment the flames erupted in the vacuum, Carlil felt the fluctuations of psionic energy. It was very slight, and he almost missed it because of the distance. But it does exist.

A satellite-like mechanism that has been blown up by psionic energy. What are the intentions?

Carlil had no answer, and he wasn't prepared to think carefully anymore to arrive at an answer.

The source of all problems is at hand.

There was no longer any obstacle between Harcosus I and Nightfall, and judging by the evidence provided by the senior traders, the Eighth Legion believed that they could take the planet in less than six hours.

Conrad Coetze's voice rang out again a few seconds later, like a sigh. Carlil turned his head to see the pale face of the Lord of the Eighth Legion, and an extreme concentration.

"It's a mystery," Coetzes said. "I'm starting to wonder about the so-called Federation of Harcosus, Carlil. It doesn't even have any more than three scattered planets. ”

"There are a lot of coincidences." Carlil said. "It's even enough to suspect it's a trap."

"Do you think it is?" Coetze turned his head sideways and met him, not flinching in his eyes.

Carlil nodded calmly.

There are always things waiting in the darkness, and their hunger is never satisfied, no matter how much they devour. There is no bottom line and so-called moderation, only pure malice.

He had been reminded before he set out, but if you were going to solve the problem, you would have to meet it first. And once you've seen the problems themselves, they've succeeded.

Impotence?

He sneered, and Conrad Coetzes was stunned—he hadn't seen it on Karil Lohals's face in a long time.

This is not a smile that belongs to the 'instructor of the Eighth Legion'. He had seen this smile in many dark nights, and at some point it had disappeared, as if it had been abandoned by Carlil.

And now, Konrad Coetze knows, it's never gone.

"Maybe it's a trap, or maybe it's not. It's disgusting to have a machination, isn't it, Conrad? You need to be wary of pitfalls, the consequences of stepping into them, and the ripple effects that could be triggered."

He smiled and lowered his head and sighed in the darkness. The cold light of psionic energy flickered, and from his shadow, something clinged to him in an instant.

The dead white and pitch black wrapped around the clothes in the next second, and the hideous skeleton took the place of the face, a cold light shining under the hood, and the shadow-like black cloak safely obscured most of the details, only a tiny blue light peeked through the gaps.

"So, we might as well destroy the trap along with it." Carlil said in his terrible voice at the moment.

- Twenty minutes later, a rain of fire fell from the sky and landed on Harcosus I.

The next paragraph will be a big chapter.

(End of chapter)