Alexander The Great Mage

Chapter 100 - Invasion

A thousand Solar Class Motherships, each supported by over two hundred battlecruisers, frigates and destroyers, were enough to dominate a thousand star systems with an iron fist.

Each Mothership was as large as a small city or a very large fortress. They were dome shaped like the Galaxy Class Starships, but lacked the inverted-axe bottom that housed the Starship's ridiculously powerful star-annihilator cannon. Motherships were not designed to pack a punch. They were designed to DELIVER punches. And many, many punches at that.

With a million souls in each Mothership, the fighting edge of that number amounted to slightly more than four hundred thousand souls spread across two hundred other ships and thousands upon thousands of smaller fighters.

At that moment, the thousand motherships had completely surrounded Arcanus 26 like many ants around a large ball of sugar.

"Begin." Prince Jolto commanded from within the bridge of his Starship - The Tiger Lord.

His voice instantly sounded in the ears of the mothership captains, who immediately gave the command for their fleets to enter the atmosphere of Arcanus 26 to execute Prince Jolto's very simple commands. There were only 2.

Locate and capture Princess Anastasia alive.

Kill everyone else.

*-*-*-*-*

"Sir, Prince Jolto just launched a thousand Motherships into Arcanus 26." Special Advisor Gareth reported.

"He still did it after all. Does he really think he can enter my territory and do as he pleases?"  Prince Flario said in amusement. He glanced at the ETA counter. Just slightly over thirty hours left before he reached Arcanus 26.

That was more than enough time for Prince Jolto to destroy the planet beyond recognition. IF he didn't do anything. Which, of course, would be absurd.

"Release the drones." Prince Flario commanded.

"Yes, Sire." Special Advisor Gareth relayed the order to his underlings immediately.

"Speaking of which, don't we have a special asset in Arcanus 26?" Prince Flario asked Gareth.

"We do, Sire. However, there was a slight problem with the AI we've attached to his soul. It was deactivated within twenty four hours by an 'unknown power'." Gareth reported.

Prince Flario nodded. Soul transfusions were extremely difficult and prone to failure. Even after hundreds of years of technological refinement, the process was still imperfect. Malfunction was very common. Outright death of the soul itself was not a rare occurrence too. Prince Flario did not put much thought into it.

"Prepare the troops. We have a Starship to capture." Prince Flario said softly.

*-*-*-*-*

Alexander gazed down upon the ruins of the City of Rin. Over a million men and women, as well as three hundred thousand trolls were busy clearing up the ruins. With that many, the work would be done within a week or two, if not days. After that, the rebuilding would commence.

Alexander was not an egotistical man, nor did he lack any form of recognition or affirmation by people that would lead him to build cities named after himself or giant monuments depicting his valor. But Alexander was a man of the people. He knew that after the destruction of Valarin and now The City of Rin, his people needed a rallying cry, a hero that they could put their hopes of a better future and their thirst for revenge in.

That was why he wanted to put himself at the forefront of every person's mind. He had decreed the building of a massive city, more than ten times the size of the City of Rin, and he had declared that it would be named Aloxandrios.

At the same time, the training of the Air Force would commence immediately. Alexander had ordered the formation of Wyvern Rider Regiments with three mages per Wyvern.

They would assure the security of the nation by one simple strategy - conquest! Rin-Turah would begin the invasion of the continent within one month! Alexander had decreed.

Everything would be funded by the Imperial Treasury. Everybody had to be involved, and everybody would be paid generously.

Rin-Turah would rise back up once more from the ruins of the City of Rin, much stronger than before under the leadership of King Aloxandros, and the whole world would know of it. And feel the sharp edge of its fury.

Alexander wanted to unify the whole continent at the shortest time possible.

"How's the training coming along?" Alexander asked Dubaza quietly.

"It is too early to tell, Your Majesty. We've only just started. The mages and the Wyverns need time to adapt to each other first. It is… a rather difficult process." Dubaza replied politely.

"I would presume it is the former who are having problems." Alexander chuckled.

"Indeed. However, I must say that assigning three to a Wyvern is an excellent idea. Without that, the adaptation process would be significantly longer." Dubaza remarked.

"Yes, I was thinki-"

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Stunned, both Alexander and Dubaza turned their heads to gaze at the source of the sound. Millions and millions of sleek looking metallic constructs the size of an adult human had appeared in the horizon and were rising into the sky from the south and west.

The direction of the oceans.

Slowly at first, but with increasing alacrity, they rose into the sky and blotted out the sun. Their numbers were so incredible that they turned day into night.

"What in the world is that?" Alexander asked, feeling slightly alarmed.

"I have no idea, Your Majesty. However, it seems that they are not going in our direction." Dubaza said with great relief in his voice.

"They may not be a threat, but they could very well be responding to one." Alexander said quietly as his mind raced. The questions were, what sort of threat would cause such a massive response? And who exactly was responding? Arcanus 26 was owned by Prince Flario, so he immediately assumed that the drones were responses from Prince Flario.

And if that was the case, then the threat must be from his rivals. And it must be related to the fight for the Throne of Symphonia. And if that was the case, than the life of Princess Anastasia would be in danger.

"Alexander! What is that?!" Aleyria shouted from atop Blackfire who was in his dragon form. She had immediately rushed to Alexander's side when she heard and noticed the commotion.

"I have no idea." Alexander said softly, his eyes still focused on the swarm of drones.

"Shall we take a look?" Flamewing's voice sounded lightly in his mind.

Alexander remained quiet for a moment as he pondered the issue.

In that time, Flamewing in her dragon form reached their position as well. She gently nudged Alexander, asking him to get on.

Alexander obliged quietly. Finally, he instructed Dubaza with a heavy voice, "Defcon 5. Get the army on the highest alert, and all civilians to find cover in the forest or mountains under the lead of the City Guard."

"As you command, Your Majesty." Dubaza bowed.

"Aleyria, you will take charge of the Royal Dragon Battalion, the Royal Phoenix Battalion and the King's Guard. Stay on alert in the City of Rin. Protect Princess Anastasia at all costs.

Dubaza, gather the three remaining Battalions and all three Wyvern Rider regiments in the City of Turah. Await my signal there. I will recon with Flamewing." Alexander said in a voice that brooked no arguments.

"As you command, Your Majesty." Dubaza acknowledged.

"Alright." Aleyria agreed. She knew better than to let her worry for Alexander's safety be the cause of a meaningless argument in that critical time.

"Let's go! Alexander quickly led Flamewing upwards and flew after the swarm of drones.

*-*-*-*-*

The first and lead frigate exploded in a massive and horrifying display of fireworks after being swarmed by thousands of drones which blew past its defences like a tsunami.

Frigates were lighter and carried less firepower than destroyers, which in turn were weaker than battlecruisers. But even so, a single frigate should be able to easily wreak havoc in any country in Arcanus 26. Its shields could easily withstand the strongest magical barrage from red robes and its weapons could lay waste to fortresses and palaces alike.

However, it was nothing compared to the tsunami of drones which swarmed the hundreds of frigates that led the way for Solar Class Mothership Tiger 24 which was the first Mothership to penetrate Arcanus 26's atmosphere.

"Frigate 1 down. I repeat, Frigate 1 down." A terse voice sounded within the ears of the Commander of Mothership Tiger 24, Commander Batrias. "Drones detected. Initial estimates put them at over seven million drones within our battle zone."

"Defensive formation. Link up." Commander Batrias ordered.

Immediately, the remaining one hundred and seventy four frigates closed up the distances among themselves and a brilliant blue shield shimmered into being. This was the frigate's Defensive Link Formation which allowed them to share their energy to form a singular shield. It was an adaptive shield which could draw more energy from all frigates to strengthen any point of the shield which was under attack.

It was an incredible piece of technology which allowed packs of frigates to easily hunt down far stronger prey, or buy enough time defensively for their stronger elder brothers the destroyers or the battlecruisers to arrive and settle the problem for them.

When it first debuted, the technology singularly changed the battle scene within low power units such as frigates and other space vessels of similar classes. It solidified Symphonia's hold over its fringe territories and forced their adversaries to either commit their stronger warcrafts which would signify escalation, or pull back entirely. Most chose to pull back, and thus allowed the Empire to slowly enter a period of stable growth.

It truly was a fine piece of technology. The only downside was that once the shields were overwhelmed, all the frigates would be left defenseless. Without their shields, the frigates were weak prey and their only option would be to scatter to avoid a complete massacre.

Against a singular enemy, the Defensive Link Formation would be perfect. However, against millions of drones, it was actually pure folly. Once breached, all the frigates would be sitting ducks for the drones. Still, Commander Batrias had no choice. It was the Defensive Link Formation or near instant death. Retreat was not an option - Prince Jolto would probably have his head if he retreated mere minutes into the attack.

The drones swirled into a massive drill-shaped formation as they smashed into the frigates' Defensive Link Formation viciously. Every second, thousands of drones exploded and weakened the shield.

"Destroyers and Battlecruisers, engage the drones with maximum firepower." Commander Batrias ordered.

Immediately, hundreds of energy beams shot out from the back row and smashed into the drones, causing huge chunks to explode.

Seeing that the attack was effective, Commander Batria was slightly encouraged. "Fire at will!" He ordered.

PEW! PEW! PEW! The volley of energy beams immediately disintegrated into countless energy fires which smashed into the body of drones in a continuous stream.

"Release all your fighters." A cold voice sounded in Commander Batrias's head. "I want boots on the ground in one hour."

Commander Batrias paled slightly but immediately responded. "Release all fighters. Engage the drones with maximum force!"

Immediately, hatches from all ships opened and almost a hundred thousand fighters shot out into the sky. Each fighter had shields which allowed them to resist a few attacks by the drones. So for a moment, there were no casualties among the fighters. They quickly dispersed in pairs and trios and successfully led a few million drones away and eased the pressure on the frigates.

However, within moments, the dance between the fighters and the drones got extremely deadly. Each fighter released tens of homing missiles which locked on to the drones. Most of the drones that were hit exploded and were destroyed completely. However, many thousands managed to latch on to the fighters where they immediately self-detonated.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Fighters began to drop like flies.