Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

"Living up to the name of commander!"

The rebels used even greater enthusiasm and an even more unbearable fighting spirit to destroy all enemies in their sight. Some of the genetically modified warriors recruited from the frontier were so fierce that they even violated military regulations by removing their damaged helmets.

Plasma exploded into dazzling fireworks in each corridor, melting the metal floor into a muddy pool dripping with scalding liquid. Gene warriors darted and ran through it, moving at a speed that ordinary creatures could not even notice.

The ground was covered with melting flesh and blood, and many pipes were broken, releasing radiation or steam. The genetic warriors could distinguish friend from foe just by the sound of gunfire. When ambushed, they would ram into the nearest wall. After determining the direction of the attackers, another fierce firefight would break out.

The two sides in the battle do not take into account the crew inside the warships. Or rather, when the warships are large enough and have been in service for a long enough time, the ecosystem that spontaneously forms inside the warships also needs to be eliminated.

Puffs of scorching smoke, blocking detection signals, filled the narrow passage, obscuring the rapid pace of the charge. The two sides, like dance partners who had silently come together at a ball, began a deadly dance, their melee weapons drawing intersecting arcs between their steps.

In this level of warfare, powerful genetic warriors wither away as easily as autumn leaves in the wind. The wreckage of power armor serves as decoration, and the warriors' roars mixed with the roar of explosions are the dialogue. In every corner of the warship, a drama called death unfolds.

In this brutal boarding battle, an absurd and bizarre scene even occurred that shocked all those who experienced it: warships almost simultaneously sent most of their mobile forces into the enemy's hull during close-quarters combat, as if exchanging motherships in a starport.

Both sides were determined to die, even if it meant mutual destruction, to leave the other's warships in this starry sky, so much so that the list of captains who died in battle was refreshed like a waterfall.

The warships, out of control, flew and collided in the starry sky by inertia. Their hulls were riddled with bullet holes and craters from explosions, and their engines were still stubbornly working intermittently, as they poured out their last rage on each other in their dying moments.

This absurd and brutal battle came to an end when the engines of the fleet exploded completely, turning into a metallic nebula expanding in the starry sky.

It's hard to say who the winner is. The rebels' casualty ratio was quite poor, but they did fight tooth and nail to force the enemy into retreat and confine them to their fortified planet.

The theory of fleet decisive battles was brought to its extreme in this civil war. Fortress planets became isolated islands without protection or external support. In the face of defeat, they could no longer open up their crusts to raise new warships to join the battle.

The board's elite fleet had the advantage of being able to resupply nearby and relied on the interstellar defenses to achieve impressive results. However, it gradually fell into a passive position under the relentless offensive waves of the rebel legions.

Unable to determine which direction was the true main attack, and with their outer defenses under immense pressure, they could only appeal to the board of directors for help, hoping that the family's private armies, which had remained unmoved and steadfast amidst the rebellion, would mobilize.

This situation can only be attributed to the fact that the Foundation is ultimately a global behemoth, not an efficient and centralized empire. The heart of the Foundation, the fragmented board of directors in that magnificent golden hall, is the real adversary that the defending legions desperately trying to protect the Foundation must face.

The clamor of the celebration had long since subsided in the Golden Hall. The power struggles here never ceased, no matter what. The rotating director, Karen's grandfather, sat on the high platform, watching the directors arguing below, his face full of exhaustion and anger.

"Enough!" he roared, a fierce glint in his eyes. "The front lines are in dire straits! The rebels have already breached the star system's gateway! Instead of thinking about how to deploy troops and hold the line, you're here blaming each other!"

"We'd like to deploy troops, but who dares to send their own fleet out?" One of the directors' voices was filled with suspicion and dissatisfaction.

"Who knows if this rebellion is a staged act by your family? Karen is your grandson, the heir you personally promoted. The military power he holds, the factions he's won over—aren't they all operating in your name?"

"By using the pretext of rebellion, you're forcing us to send our family's army to the front lines to fight those peasant rebels to the death. Wouldn't that allow your family to then seize control of the foundation and eliminate all dissidents?"

His words were immediately echoed by several directors who had irreconcilable conflicts of interest with the directors of Karen's grandfather's faction.

"Nonsense!" The rotating director trembled with rage. "That rebellious son, Karen, has betrayed the Foundation and the family! I've severed all ties with him and publicly declared the disinheritance of his son, and yet you still dare to use this to slander me at a time like this!"

"Are you the only ones who are dedicated to the foundation? I think the traitors have already jumped out!"

The foundation has a very long history, and its past experiences can be used as a reference for the present. However, the rotating board members have always had a lingering doubt that remains unresolved.

He had never seen Karen step into the limelight since the rebellion began. Who knows if a rival board family kidnapped Karen while she was away, launched a rebellion in her name, and then smeared their family's reputation?

It should be noted that the decision to send Karen on a mission to help build the "City of Ten Thousand Stars" was made by the entire board of directors. In other words, they were all fully aware of Karen's itinerary.

"Whether it's slander or not, only you know the truth," another director said with a sneer. He was the leader of the veteran directors in the foundation and had always been on equal footing with the rotating directors.

"Even if you didn't orchestrate this yourself, is it possible for Karen to have built such a large force and turned so many legions and sectors in such a short time without the internal support of the board of directors?"

His gaze swept over the board members who were supporting Karen's grandfather, his tone full of hostility: "I'd like to ask, have certain families been secretly colluding all along, trying to use this rebellion to kick us out of the game?"

This statement instantly ignited a new conflict. The board members, who were already suspicious of each other, immediately split into several factions and exposed each other's shortcomings, even digging up old grievances from countless years ago to demonstrate the drawbacks of the powerful memory brought about by genetic optimization.

They casually tossed aside urgent reports from the front lines, as if the soldiers who died in the artillery fire and the fortress planets that were falling had nothing to do with them.

They couldn't believe this was a matter of life and death for the foundation. So many rebellions had occurred, yet their family remained firmly in the board of directors. Family interests were always paramount. In this game of power, surrendering was unacceptable, even if it meant selling the rope that would hang them to raise funds.

The rotating director looked at the scene before him, his aged face filled with despair. The proclamation of rebellion only said that it was necessary to purge the traitors within the board of directors, but it did not name any specific director.

That rebellious son of mine never intended to fight him head-on on the battlefield to determine the victor.

Using this rebellion, Karen completely ignited the deep-seated contradictions, suspicions, and divisions within the board of directors, causing these families entrenched at the top of the foundation's power structure to attack each other, vie for power, and dismantle the entire foundation's command system from within.

However, Karen has now achieved his goal, directly addressing the weakness of global giants in terms of centralized power.