Following the antimatter annihilation cannon's launch, the fleet continued its advance.

Even with the thrusters deactivated, the fleet's momentum carried it forward.

"Estimated time of arrival at the target planet: 32 hours."

Upon hearing this, Luna decisively ordered,

"Send the Battleships and Landing Ships ahead."

"Completely eliminate all enemy warships in orbit. Once the Landing Ships land, deploy all drones to establish absolute control of the planet's surface."

The Battleships and Landing Ships would be the vanguard, clearing out the enemy's orbital defenses to prevent interference with the Hope.

This would also reveal whether the enemy possessed any hidden weaponry.

Ayla immediately complied.

She slowed the Hope and the remaining warships.

The Battleships and Landing Ships accelerated to maximum speed.

Thirty hours later, the Battleships encountered the enemy fleet.

Dozens of enemy warships instantly converged, their lasers firing, adding splashes of color to the cosmic darkness.

Just as the enemy, brimming with confidence, anticipated their lasers striking their targets, something unexpected happened.

Under Ayla's control, the Battleships and Landing Ships performed an elegant, almost balletic, dance amidst the laser fire, effortlessly dodging every shot.

As an AI, Ayla possessed unparalleled computational capabilities, exceeding biological speeds by millions of orders of magnitude.

For Ayla, any calculation was instantaneous.

Remote lasers required impact detection, but at close range, she could predict their trajectory based solely on the laser cannons' aiming direction.

Despite the close-range laser fire, not a single shot hit a Battleship.

As the flagship of the fleet, the Battleships, under Ayla's control, retaliated with Absolute Zero missiles.

Simultaneously, dozens of armor-piercing cannons on each Battleship targeted enemy warships.

Countless projectiles rained down, giving the enemy no chance to react.

Since the enemy civilization lacked advanced electromagnetic technology, while their laser weaponry had a firepower advantage, their defenses were insufficient.

When the 30-centimeter armor-piercing rounds, propelled by immense kinetic energy, impacted the enemy ships' hulls, they ripped through the outer layers instantly.

Optical cables hung exposed, brilliant light leaking from within.

The ships seemed to draw power from this light, and the moment the cables were severed, the vessels lost their ability to transmit this energy.

Ayla observed the long tendrils trailing from the ships begin to dim.

The Absolute Zero missiles arrived, their chilling cold seeping into the breaches, instantly incapacitating the enemy warships.

Seeing this, Ayla increased the rate of fire.

The enemy fleet fell into chaos.

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"Activate high-power signal transmission equipment."

"Preparing to hack into the enemy warships' control systems..."

Ayla planned to use radio signals to disrupt the enemy fleet's operations.

However, this alien civilization's technology was quite different from Earth's. While not entirely fruitless, her efforts revealed that the enemy heavily relied on optical signals for communication.

She focused her analysis on these optical signals.

"The enemy is formidable!"

"What's the situation on the ground? What are the casualties?"

"Most of our structures are underground and unaffected."

"Hurry! Enemy warships are closing in. Their maneuverability is far superior to ours. We must increase the distance. Our weaponry is less effective at close range."

"We've lost three more warships."

"Employ the light pollution tactic!"

Ayla processed and translated the torrent of information into Earth's languages.

These extraterrestrial beings possessed extremely complex thought processes.

The enemy fleet suddenly ceased fire. Numerous red-tipped protrusions on their ships began to glow.

Within three minutes, they became almost as bright as stars.

Ayla analyzed these lights, recognizing them not as simple light beams, but as high-energy gamma rays.

As the beams struck, all cameras on the warships malfunctioned. The bombardment of photons affected many of the instruments on board.

The enemy was buying time, drawing more warships into the engagement.

"The enemy ships appear to have stopped!"

"It seems our light pollution tactic worked."

"All ships, prepare for a concentrated bombardment."

Countless glowing tendrils, the enemy's laser cannons, were aimed at the Hope's Battleships and Landing Ships.

"Now's the time!"

Ayla disregarded the enemy warships' concentration. A dispersed formation would be far more difficult to target.

"Open all Landing Ship hatches..."

"Ares mechs, commence launch..."

"Deploy all units..."

"Engage in close-quarters combat against enemy warships!"

The 1200 Ares mechs from the four Landing Ships launched in a coordinated assault within five minutes.

Their speed increased to 600 km/s in just thirteen seconds, each mech subjected to a 13g peak acceleration as they hurtled towards enemy warships.

The enemy warships were taken aback by the sheer number of mechs.

For a moment, their weapon systems faltered, uncertain which targets to prioritize.

"Ignore those small units. Target their main warships."

The aliens seemed to have a central command structure, and Ayla quickly pinpointed its location.

She redirected some of the Ares mechs to attack the enemy flagship.

The four now-empty Landing Ships moved to the front of the Battleships, acting as a layer of protection.

Lasers rained down on the Landing Ships, instantly melting their outer hulls. Within half a minute, the ships were breached, unlikely to last five minutes longer.

Fortunately, the mechs were already close to the enemy fleet.

They reached the enemy warships.

A barrage of projectiles rained down, targeting the vulnerable points on the snail-shaped vessels.

However, the projectiles' power was limited, capable only of tearing through weaker sections of the enemy's hull.

"Are those little machines toys?"

"It seems our enemy has no other tricks."

"All warships, assemble. After breaching the enemy's defenses, continue the assault."

"Fleets five and six, intercept the enemy's rearguard."

"..."

"Wait, incoming message from the ground... incoming message..."

"Command is reactivating ground-based weaponry. Within two light-seconds (aliens' time), the enemy, whose weaponry requires extensive recharge time, will be annihilated without a doubt."

"This is vengeance for our fallen comrades."

Optical signals zipped back and forth between the ships. The extraterrestrial beings erupted in triumphant celebrations upon receiving this news.

But a moment later.

The mechs near the front lines vanished in puffs of light, not fire, but the light from antimatter annihilation.

A surge of high-energy photons expanded outwards, instantly consuming a significant portion of a warship, as if the vessel had been erased.

Each Ares mech carried 100 grams of antimatter, whose detonation yielded an explosive force of over 4 million tons of TNT—more than 100 times the combined power of the two nuclear weapons used in WW2 on Earth.

And this was only the beginning.

Mech after mech launched suicide attacks, a terrifyingly beautiful fireworks display in the vacuum of space.

The geothermal civilization lost half its fleet—nearly 400 warships—to these explosions.

Simultaneously.

Twelve Battleships unleashed 240 Absolute Zero missiles, in a relentless barrage on the stunned enemy fleet.

These 240 missiles instantly blanketed a large swathe of space.

This was what Ayla had referred to as "the opportune moment."

Only when the enemy warships were concentrated could their weapons achieve maximum effect.

The relentless cold continued to incapacitate hundreds of enemy warships.

And now the rearguard had arrived, with five Cruisers swiftly engaging the enemy.

The battle was now firmly in their favor.