Intergalactic conquest with an AI

Calling the special activation of the battle doll "battle armor" didn't seem to make much sense at first. After all, what suddenly appeared in the middle of the battlefield wasn't just a suit of armor... it was an enormous fortress.

It looked like something from a nightmare, with towering walls, dozens of heavy turrets, and several massive cannons capable of launching artillery shells across long distances. It had come out of nowhere, like it had been dropped from the sky or conjured by magic.

"This is a top-priority order from the right wing! Bombard the coordinates I just sent!" shouted out the lieutenant colonel in charge of the mercenaries right-wing offensive.

His voice was sharp and urgent the moment he saw the massive structure appear from thin air. There was no time to question it and he knew he had to act fast.

Since the order had high priority, the artillery crews didn't waste a second. They quickly adjusted their targeting systems and fired their first wave of shells toward the mysterious fortress.

"Mmm? Mini Cleo, incoming artillery! Watch out!" Rex warned her as he launched himself into the air, quickly flying away to avoid being caught in the blast radius of the incoming bombardment.

A few moments later, the artillery shells reached their target but instead of exploding on impact, something strange happened. The shells passed straight through the fortress, slamming into the ground behind it. Explosions erupted in the dirt, sending rocks and clouds of dust flying everywhere.

"Confirm the impact!" the lieutenant colonel ordered through his radio, holding his breath as he waited for the report.

"Negative! I repeat, negative impact! I saw it clearly! the shells went right through! They didn't even touch the structure!"

"What!? Then… could it be this thing is just an illusion? A projection, maybe? If that's the case… all units, move forward! Ignore the fortress! it's just a hologram!" he shouted, trying to make sense of what he had just heard.

After all, it was impossible for something that massive to appear out of nowhere in just a few seconds, at least not with the military technology he knew.

And he might have been right… if he had only considered normal military standards. But this battlefield was anything but normal.

Deep within the illusion, inside the seemingly fake fortress, a small figure sat with a wicked smile. It was Mini Cleo that was controlling the battle doll. Her smirk was mischievous, almost mad. She was excited because her trap had worked perfectly.

The truth was that most of what the soldiers had seen was indeed a hologram, but hidden within it was the real threat. The battle armor known as Veracruz wasn't a traditional machine.

It was made of dozens of small, spherical drones composed of living metal. These strange orbs were equipped with advanced cloaking systems and used the same warp-based teleportation tech as the Kaelzars portal systems.

As soon as the enemy troops began pushing forward, ignoring the fortress and aiming for the Kaelzars left wing, the little metal spheres sprang into action. They activated their teleportation, glowing with a cold, blue light.

That light shimmered across the turrets of the fake fortress, and then, in the blink of an eye, all the turrets opened fire.

It was a scene you usually only see in movies...

Bullets tore through the air. Lasers scorched across the ground. Flamethrowers lit up the battlefield like a fiery storm. The enemy forces, completely focused on advancing and unprepared for a real attack, were caught in the middle of a brutal ambush. The full power of the Veracruz battle armor rained down on them without mercy.

"Retreat! Retreat!" the lieutenant colonel screamed into his communicator as his command tank was pounded by blasts from the very turrets he had believed were just holograms. The tank's energy shields flickered under the relentless barrage.

But the worst was still to come.

Reinforcements from the Kaelzars left wing, following Rex's orders, arrived at that very moment. They charged into the chaos and turned the surprise ambush into a complete slaughter. The enemy had walked straight into a trap and now they were paying the price.

"Not bad, huh? Cleo?" Rex said with a grin, speaking through his special neural link with Cleo as he floated high above the battlefield.

From up there, he had a perfect view of the chaos unfolding below, the explosions, the laser fire, and the burning ground. It was like watching a violent symphony from the sky.

"That is up for debate," Cleo replied calmly, her voice as cool and analytical as ever. There was no trace of excitement in her tone, even as dozens of explosions bloomed across the battlefield.

"While it is true that the firepower being displayed is considerable, there is still a major flaw. The battle armor Veracruz is consuming its energy reserves far too quickly. At this current rate, it will only be able to maintain this level of output for approximately thirty more minutes."

"Thirty minutes of this kind of firepower? That sounds pretty solid to me..." Rex said while rubbing the back of his head as he tried to understand why Cleo wasn't impressed. To him, the destruction being unleashed was more than enough.

But Cleo disagreed.

"Rex, while what you're seeing now might look impressive against a disorganized group of mercenaries, it would be almost useless against a real army," she explained.

"Against trained soldiers, coordinated battalions, and elite units with heavy support, this would not be nearly enough. And that thirty-minute limit? It would become a critical weakness. We'd be exposed and overwhelmed."

Rex frowned. It made sense when she explained it that way. Still, part of him didn't want to admit it. Before he could say anything else, Cleo interrupted his thoughts.

"If you want a more practical example, look over there," she said while an arrow appeared on his helmet HUD.

Rex turned his head in the direction Cleo indicated. In the distance, a ripple in space suddenly opened. From that swirling rift stepped out a massive figure; he was tall and radiated massive power. He had seen that silhouette before.

"Oh no... is that Tier 6!" Rex shouted in alarm. "The general of the Wolf Fang Mercenaries is here!"

As Volkong emerged, the space rift above him cracked wider, and from it, hundreds of sleek, high-speed missiles came raining down like a storm. They targeted both the 201st Kaelzar Legion and the holographic fortress, exploding on impact and sending shockwaves through the battlefield.

"That's the general!"

"Long live the general! Kahahaha!"

Cheers broke out among the mercenary troops. Morale surged. Volkong had arrived not to crush the Kaelzars, but to save his own people. And he wasted no time.

He raised both arms, and with a roar, he summoned a powerful stellar barrier, trapping the entire fortress inside. Then, moving faster than most could follow, he began tearing through the Aegis units stationed around the fortress.

His punches shattered their armor. His kicks sent them flying like broken dolls. It was as if their reinforced bodies were made of paper.

"...He's not pushing forward," Rex muttered to himself as he watched. "He's just helping his soldiers retreat… That means the person commanding the mercenaries is someone cautious. Calculated."

Rex's eyes narrowed as he analyzed the situation. "But then… why make such a reckless move in the first place? It doesn't add up…"

Down on the battlefield, the chaos was slowly shifting back toward balance. The sudden dominance the Kaelzars had gained was now being chipped away. Volkong's presence had returned the situation to its status quo, at least for the moment.

Meanwhile, in a completely different corner of the battlefield, two other terrifying forces were still going at it like walking natural disasters. Little Red and Zanar, both of them high-tier powerhouses, were still locked in their fierce personal war.

But strangely, neither was aiming at the other directly. Their attacks were mostly blasts of energy, rivers of plasma, and bursts of psychic force that were being directed entirely at the opposing armies, not each other.

For Little Red, targeting Zanar wouldn't have been hard. She had the accuracy, the speed, and the raw power to land a hit. But she was, above all else, incredibly petty. If Zanar was going to ignore her and focus on her troops, then she was going to return the favor. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of a personal fight.

But after nearly an hour of intense, non-stop fighting, Zanar was starting to show signs of fatigue.

His movements, once sharp and precise, were now just a little slower. His breath came in heavier bursts, his armor slightly scorched from enemy hits he hadn't been able to fully dodge.

He had been burning through his stellar energy reserves at an alarming rate, pouring it into barrier reinforcements, stellar strikes, and propulsion boosts to stay mobile on the chaotic battlefield.

Now, those reserves were dangerously low.

His internal systems flashed warning after warning, red glyphs lighting up inside his HUD. If he didn't stop soon, he would overheat or, worse, collapse from complete energy depletion.

And yet… his opponent, Little Red, looked completely untouched. She floated gracefully above the battlefield, her eyes glowing with burning light, a wicked smile on her face as another colossal fireball bloomed in her hand... one that pulsed with the furious energy of a sun.

Zanar gritted his teeth, trying to understand how she hadn't burned out yet. No one could keep up that level of firepower for so long without suffering some kind of drawback.

But there was a secret, one only she knew.