"Okay, guys, let's do our final system checkups. We are five minutes from rollout," the ship commander of one of the ships in a mini-fleet said, sending final inspection orders to every part of the ship.

The empire, having finished assessing the threat level of their planned target, had adjusted their fleet structure so that they had just enough ships to take over a star system as fast as possible before they sent absolute coordinates on the planet for the wormholes to be opened, allowing the imperial citizen avatars to enter and act as control and peacekeeping forces as they moved to the next star system.

It was deemed that this was the best structure to allow for the vessels on hand, and the ones that would continue being printed, to cover as much distance as possible at the same time. Should a fleet face more than the expected resistance, they could always call for reinforcements, and the free fleets would be redirected to where help was needed.

"All systems green," a response came from the communication officer once they finished going through all of the system checks, which was mandatory despite the ships having been printed on the same day, with the time ranging from a few minutes to just a few hours ago.

The imperial government's ability to be able to place imperial military boots on the ground or in active wars without having to fear human casualties, thanks to their avatar technology, allowed them to be bolder in their planning, as casualties or crew safety were not among the things they considered.

However, the newly printed ships built specifically for this war had been stripped of everything a normal conventional ship is mandated to have, starting with the doors, as that was not something the ship needed since there was no single empty space inside. Even the avatars that the commanders and the rest of the soldiers controlled were not even inside the ships but were inside a representative ship matching the real-world replacement one-to-one within VR. But that didn't mean there were no avatars inside the real-world ships; there were, but they were inside a storage department and offline, ready to be deployed if physical boots were needed on the ground.

"Okay, I'm sure you have all participated in the training exercises a few hours prior, so there is no need for me to go through the motivational speech, as all of you know the importance of this situation and what is on the line if we fail. We already have millions of deaths that we have to avenge, and all we are going to do now will set up the grounds for the empire to take revenge for them.

If I discover anyone doing something that will hinder our operation and delay our revenge by even a single minute, I'm going to have you court-martialed and disgracefully discharged from the military. I know you are used to these trainings, and without the fear of your deaths and controlling these ships from comfy VR pods, it might come to some of you as a game, despite no matter how much it is repeated to you that it is not.

So, I'm saying this for the first and last time: anything you do that can be interpreted as you playing or messing around just because you know any damage will not harm your actual body, I will make sure to mirror that damage to you in VR with maximum pain sensors. You should thank the Emperor, or else my request for all of us to have our pain sensors at the maximum would have been accepted, and I wouldn't have to say anything about it, and just watch as you mess around and suffer the painful consequences.

You might wonder why I'm being harsh during what many would consider to be a motivational speech moment. It is because I don't want to see you doing these things during our attacks. My mother is among the casualties, as she was inside one of the space stations in Trinarian territory, so I will not have anyone treat the enemies who are behind this as some child's play or a game, as we need to take this seriously and make sure they feel as much pain as possible for what they did.

Understood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?" he asked while shouting once he finished his motivational, plus threatening, plus revenge speech.

"YES SIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The soldiers who finally understood why such a young man was promoted in such a short period shouted in unison as a response.

"Just a reminder, the rules of engagement are the same. Civilian casualties are off the table, and if a soldier can be captured, there is no need to go for the kill because the more alive they are, the longer they can live to pay for their participation," he said, this time throwing away all of his threatening tone for a calmer one.

"YES SIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Good. Contact the temp admiral and inform him of our readiness. We will wait for their orders."

"Copy that."

……………………..

Different conversations and speeches took place on different ships and fleets. The moment the timer on the clock hit exactly twenty-six hours since the surprise attack started, ten massive stargates that had just finished being constructed powered on. All the fleets in Proxima Centauri, ready for the war, split into ten different lanes as they moved towards one of the ten wormholes. As fleets neared it, they entered light speed one after another before the stargate instantly changed its destination target for the following fleet. Moments after they entered, the process repeated as more than a hundred and fifty mini-fleets entered the stargates, heading to their destinations, marking the start of Operation BOOMERANG.

And the Conclave, that had planned this attack from the aspect of it being a surprise, were about to learn why they needed to have finished everything in the first hour, because any more than that meant the empire was going to be ready for a legitimate and over-the-top response.

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