Back on Earth, the emergencymunication was received at the Nexus, in the round table room where Admiral Olgierd was sitting in wait.
rms red, and chaos erupted as military personnel scrambled all around the Nexus, confusing the visitors and normal employees who didn''t have ess to themunication that had just been sent.
The Round table room was the only quiet ce in the Nexus building at the moment, but that was just because Admiral Olgierd was waiting for the other eight to arrive, while Major General Lyndal was standing in the corner, too scared to say anything.
She had nothing good to say anyway.
She was just afraid, for both herself and the human race, as thest few words the soldier spoke before he was cut off were still ringing through her mind.
''Hundreds of millions of warships…''
The human race probably only had two or three hundred million warships in operation, but that was all spread out across the federation.
After a few minutes, the other 8 seats around the table were soon filled, except for the one that almost always remained vacant.
The doors to the room remaining locked shut the whole time, with each of the new arrivals all teleporting in, directly into their seats.
Each bearing expressions that ranged from stern resolve to barely concealed anxiety.
They hadn''t heard of the news yet, but just them being summoned with immediate action showed that it wasn''t anything good.
Their presence was a stark reminder of the gravity of the situation.
Principal Farnes was thest to arrive, his aura of calm and authority, as well as the fact that he was stronger than almost all of the others in the roombined, bringing a slight relief to the room.
The only seat left unupied was the one that remained vacant for years, apart from the asional visitor taking a seat there.
Admiral Olgierd stood as soon as Farnes settled into his chair.
"Thank you all foring on such short notice," he began, his voice steady despide the underlying tension.
"We received an emergencymunication from one of our border stations just a few minutes ago."
"The war has officially started."
A few gasps and sighs sounded across the table when Admiral Olgierd revealed the reason for their meeting.
Principal Farnes, sitting next to the empty seat, spoke first.
"How bad is it?"
Admiral Olgierd looked at him with as serious an expression as he could muster.
"The soldier who reported this information''sst words before hismunication was cut off were ''Hundreds of millions of warships…''"
The room fell into heavy silence, the reality of the situation sinking in.
Farnes leaned forward, his fingers interlocked in front of him.
"So it''s the worst case scenario then."
"Do we have any additional intel on the nature of this fleet?" Principal Markus, the headmaster of the second ranked University in the federation, the Federal Military Academy, spoke next.
Major General Lyndal, her voice trembling slightly, answered.
"From the briefmunication we received, it''s clear these ships are not human. Based on thest analysis of the data we received before we were cut off, it''s the Red Demons. Their technology and ship designs match the data we have on them from the Pioneer''s ship."
Murmurs spread through the room.
They knew a little about the Red Demon race from the data they had scoured from the Pioneer ship.
They didn''t have any information of real importance to their ns with the human race, but from the stories that the Pioneers had recorded, it didn''t look good for them.
The federation knew that the Red Demon race woulde one day — they just didn''t expect for them toe so soon.
"We need to mobilise all avable forces immediately." Admiral Olgierd said, cutting through the murmurs.
"Our warships are spread thin, but we must concentrate our defences at key points. We cannot afford to lose any ground on them."
With there being over a hundred million ships, they knew that the space station on the border, along with many of the nearby star systems as well, were probably already doomed.
The only thing the human race could do for now was to strengthen the areas not affected by this invasion.
The Red Demon fleet would only have so much time to cover as much space of the human territory before the federation is able toe up with a proper defensive method to stop their advance.
And they intended to make full use of this time.
One of the S tier awakened, a woman with short, silver hair named Commander ra, spoke up.
"We also need to prepare our awakened forces. This is not just a battle of ships, from what I''ve seen, the Red Demon race is most likely physically superior to us. If they breach our lines, we''ll face ground invasions as well."
"We need to be ready to counter them on all fronts."
Principal Farnes nodded in agreement, "Our priority should be to protect civilian poptions and infrastructure. Evacuation protocols should be initiated in the border systems immediately."
Admiral Olgierd looked around the table, his eyes locking onto each member.
"We need a coordinated response. Each one of us, along with the other S tiers around the federation will be in charge ofmanding the weaker forces, and only step in if a major conflict urs, where you need tobat an enemy S tier."
Farnes nodded.
"We should recruit awakened still in university to the battlefields as well. We need all the manpower we can get, and these young awakened will be a valuable resource to us on the smaller battlefields, which will enable us to focus on therger scale battles out in space."
Principal Farnes made this suggestion, which many of the others epted, considering he was the person in charge of the strongest students of the bunch.
If someone else made this suggestion and he rejected it, then there was nothing they could do.
"Consider it done." Admiral Olgierd also agreed.
"Let''s get to work then. We should help with the evacuations first."
The group of 9 disbanded immediately after that, all disappearing from their seats in unison.
Major General Lyndal was left alone, finally able to ease the tension in her body.