Under the full, focused firepower of the Left Division, the star fortress was reduced to a blazing inferno—an artificial sun, torn and shattered, detonating again and again under the ceaseless fury of energy and kinetic weaponry.

And then came the swarm of thousands of missiles, clustered together in groups. They struck the Minotaur fortress simultaneously, slamming into different sections all at once.

On impact, the void blazed with fury as the missiles lit the fortress anew—this time with an even greater, all-consuming explosion. Vast portions of the bull-headed structure were torn apart, weakened sections collapsing under the devastation. Nearly half of its massive, bull-like head was obliterated, left burning in flames.

Critical systems began failing one after another as the fortress slowly buckled under the relentless onslaught.

In the command chamber, Korvus and his remaining officers felt the first tremors. The world around them quaked, walls splitting, consoles exploding in sparks. He barely had a moment to realize it—the gamble had failed.

And with the failed gamble, so too had his life come to an end. That was his final thought before the entire command room erupted in arcs of fire and destruction, taking him along with it—just as it claimed the lives of every other officer present.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

The fortress had begun to burn from within as the relentless assault of the Left Division poured down like heavy rain upon the now half-broken and defenceless stronghold. Each strike that slammed into the fortress's hull erupted in fire and shattering explosions, tearing away massive chunks of its structure and weakening it further with every blow.

Many Minotaur who had not yet lost the will to live—or had not descended into madness—tried desperately to escape. Some made for the shuttles, others for the escape pods. But they found no escape and salvation from this hell like place. Before the battle had Admiral Macron had ordered a subgroup of the Left Battle Division to break off earlier and manoeuvre into position from the back to cut off any chance of escape. Under Admiral Nathan's command, this small task force carried out its orders with ruthless precision.

Any pod or shuttle that dared to launch was obliterated in a single strike. Nathan did not stop there—his ships targeted the fortress hangars directly, destroying them one after another to ensure that no Minotaur could flee.

Meanwhile, the storm of kinetic and energy weaponry only grew more intense, their barrages hammering the fortress with increasing fury. Waves of missiles slammed into the structure again and again until, at last, after only ten minutes, the power generator could no longer endure the strain.

The heart of the fortress was a star reactor, a chamber designed to contain a five-meter-wide artificial star fueled by hypermatter through fusion technology. It was a marvel—capable of producing near-limitless energy, though its usable output was limited. But now, the chamber was failing. The containment field destabilized, and the tiny star within collapsed inward upon itself. When it reached its breaking point, it erupted outward in a titanic burst of fire.

A blazing white sphere of energy expanded violently, consuming everything in its path. Minotaur soldiers still fighting each other inside were incinerated so completely that not even ash remained. The superstructure's alloy hull melted away in an instant under the impossible heat, and in the time it takes to blink, the entire fortress was swallowed whole by the expanding firestorm.

The fireball, more a newborn star than an explosion, kept growing—engulfing even the shattered wrecks of ships from the Minotaur fleet that had been destroyed earlier. It expanded until it reached a diameter of one hundred kilometers before finally halting its advance. Then, just as suddenly, it destabilized and imploded in on itself.

The implosion rocked the surrounding space. Even the Left Division and the Main Fleet, positioned at a safe distance, were shaken by the blast. Their shields flared violently under the shockwave before the energy of the collapsing star finally dissipated into nothingness.

Where once the mighty Minotaur Fortress stood, nothing remained but a scattering of twisted hull fragments—mere wreckage adrift in the void.

"Damn, that was one hell of a blast," muttered Captain Joshua, forgetting for a moment that the comms were still active—and that the entire fleet could hear him.

"Indeed it was, Captain Joshua," replied Fleet Admiral Macron. "It gives me chills to think—if that explosion had gone off near our own formation, we might have lost ships outright, and the rest would have suffered devastating damage. We cannot afford arrogance. If the enemy had cared nothing for their lives and set this as a trap, we might well have paid the price here today."

"Even the Imperial Commander's flagship would not go unheard under the roar of a star," said Kael Throne, Grand Admiral of the fleet. His smile, usually unshakable, had long vanished. The detonation had sobered him, and his tone carried a weight of seriousness. Next system, he thought grimly, I won't play games like this again.

Meanwhile, half a light-year ahead of the Left and Main Divisions, the Third Task Force of the Right Division had arrived in the vicinity of Bovarka. From the bridge of her Resurgent-class battleship, Admiral Rose observed the massive space station ahead. It was shaped like a colossal mushroom, spanning some ten to fifteen kilometers in diameter—a structure that fell somewhere between small and mid-sized in scale.

"Thirty, perhaps forty military-standard vessels of the Minotaur clan stationed here," Rose analyzed aloud, her gaze narrowing as she studied the formation. Then she turned to her aide, Mina.

"Pass down the order. Prepare to fire on the station," she commanded. "Let it burn in an arc of fire—and let the Minotaur below witness it."

Onboard the space station in orbit above the planet Bovarka, countless ships of varying classes were arriving and departing—some ferrying down to the planet below, others heading out into space.

Kori, as usual, was monitoring the radar system, guiding a small freighter into Dock 601."Ship XXXX, you are cleared to enter Hangar 601," he said calmly over comms.

But then his attention shifted. His eyes fixed on a cluster of new contacts entering radar range—and in that instant, the color drained from his face. His entire body froze in dread as the truth hit him.

Plasma lances, pulse bolts, and volleys of weapon fire were streaking toward the station. A fleet of nearly two hundred enemy ships had suddenly arrived in their vicinity, and death was already on its way.

Before an alarm could even be raised, the first wave struck. The station's defensive ships were annihilated in bursts of fire and shrapnel. A moment later, eight… ten… twenty plasma bolts slammed into the station itself.

The impact ripped through its massive frame, detonating entire sections in a chain of fiery explosions. Kori never had the chance to move, never had the chance to scream—he died where he stood, consumed with the station he had served.

But the bombardment did not end there. Strike after strike hammered the space station until it was torn apart, reduced to drifting fragments. Then came the final blow: a salvo of warheads that triggered an implosion. In an instant, the remains collapsed into themselves, swallowed by a manufactured black hole.

And then—nothing. Not a trace was left of the space station that had once stood above Bovarka.

Meanwhile, on the planet Bovarka of the Granthor star system—one of the Minotaur clan's major homeworlds—life carried on as usual. The sprawling cities bustled with Minotaur civilians walking the vast streets, their voices mingling with the calls of traders haggling and shouting their deals. Flying cars darted past the pathways and roads, weaving through the skyline with practiced ease. To the Minotaur, this was the rhythm of daily life: calm, ordered, familiar.

Public transport crafts—sleek, bus-like fliers—moved in steady patterns, while above them, countless shuttles both small and large ascended toward orbit. Hanging in the sky, visible even from the planet's surface, was the colossal space station that anchored the system's trade. From the harbors below, larger vessels—two hundred meters long, some stretching even to three hundred—stood waiting.

Most were freighters, their yawning bulkheads wide open as automated carriers marched back and forth, loading them with supplies. Others were private ships, recognizable by their distinct color schemes and the smaller weapon systems mounted along their hulls.

Cargo of every kind flowed freely: goods for trade, materials for exploration, weapons for war, provisions for long voyages. No one paid them much attention. The sight was ordinary here, part of the everyday fabric of a star system known for its stability and security.

The skies were not empty of defense. Enormous mechas—towering over twenty meters in height—and fighter craft streaked across the skyline on routine patrols. Some strode between the towering high-rise buildings below, others soared through the upper atmosphere, keeping watch. Order reigned here, and in many ways, Bovarka shone with more discipline and stability than even the most developed worlds of Earth.

But just as the day unfolded like any other,the something unnatural began to happen.