Ch.159The Melancholy of Pro-Snack.

# Chapter 159: Prosnack’s Depression

Turning back time, to when Arto was fiddling with Artraia’s horn.

-Woong woong woong woong…

Near the border between Kerzin and Prosnack, as usual, Prosnack’s fleet maneuver exercises—doubling as military provocations—were unfolding.

Of course, these maneuver exercises were merely provocations and bait to lure the Kerzin Federation into launching a preemptive strike.

The exercises had so many obvious flaws that, according to a Kerzin Federation admiral’s assessment, they were dubbed “seduction maneuvers.”

The name came from how they resembled someone desperately fluttering their skirt and exposing bare skin to seduce the sturdy man that was the Kerzin Federation’s defense fleet…

The original name was apparently even more explicit and vulgar, but for that reason, it wasn’t officially adopted.

What mattered, however, was why Prosnack was conducting these maneuvers.

“Mr. Kerzin, how about surrendering and becoming our soap and food?”

“Are you crazy?”

Fundamentally, Prosnack’s goal was the conquest and destruction of the Kerzin Federation.

For that purpose alone, they were willing to endure humiliation while carrying out such actions.

Had Arto or the Emperor learned of this, they would have immediately reconsidered their secret alliance.

Unfortunately for Arto.

And fortunately for Prosnack, Arto’s lovely spy network in the northern sector had been completely annihilated.

But that didn’t mean the Prosnack Union was gaining any advantage from the situation.

At the very least, with Arto’s spy network gone, Prosnack’s beloved surprise full-scale invasion became possible, but…

“Kerzin’s defense line is too solid; we simply can’t push through head-on.”

Despite this, there was a reason why Prosnack’s full-scale invasion hadn’t been implemented.

It was because of the Kerzin Federation’s ultimate defense line, built with all their national power, alliance support funds, and aid from other nations in the rear.

Add to that the subtle support from the Pioneer Empire, and you had the strongest defensive position.

The so-called “John-Burnator Line,” the largest fortress zone in the universe, was precisely the reason.

A fortress line with overwhelming defensive capabilities had been constructed along the border between the Prosnack Union and the Kerzin Federation, enough to offset the overwhelming difference in scale between Prosnack and Kerzin (approximately 15:1).

The John-Burnator Line boasted the strongest defense in the galaxy, to the point where other countries evaluated its existence as acting like a leash on Prosnack’s neck.

And whenever such evaluations emerged, Prosnack would retort that they could trample such a trivial defense line anytime, but…

“Didn’t even the Ztrakfor’s Grand Fleet fail to break through? If they couldn’t do it with their battleship-centered fleet, how could we with our high-speed ship-centered fleet?”

In reality, Prosnack was well aware of the John-Burnator Line’s insane defensive capabilities.

If they hadn’t known, they wouldn’t have invaded Zeltech to pioneer a detour or dreamed of developing other routes.

But the Prosnack people, familiar with Arto’s famous saying, “As always, life doesn’t go according to plan”…

Could only nod in agreement as they experienced the subsequent situations.

————————————

Indeed, the detour they had painstakingly found through a new hyperspace jump route…

“Choo-boo-choo-boo!”

“What the hell is that?”

An incomprehensibly bizarre ultra-mega space monster was stuck in the hole of the only hyperspace jump route from that planetary system to the Kerzin Federation.

“Oh, stuck in well…”

“Are you crazy?”

Of course, since Prosnack wasn’t a deranged environmentalist shouting “Monsters are life too and our friends!!”

“Fire! We must open that passage at all costs!”

“Oh…”

They immediately took hostile action against the monster blocking the hyperspace jump route.

“All shells hit the target!”

“Admiral, we haven’t inflicted any damage at all!”

The monster’s resilience remained unscathed despite massive amounts of shells, missiles, and beams.

“Choo-boo-boot!”

“Keeep!”

And with a tentacle smash of insane speed and power that violated the laws of physics, three high-speed warships were split in half.

“Choo-boo-yuuuuuuut!!!!”

A particle beam shot from its mouth(?) penetrated a 25km-long flagship from bow to stern.

Only after two Prosnack fleets attempting to break through the area were reduced to scrap metal did they abandon their efforts to pioneer this detour.

———————————–

But Prosnack’s desire to find a detour wasn’t going to be deterred just because two fleets were reduced to one.

They continued searching for potential new hyperspace jump routes while also considering ways to use existing ones.

And the best method among those considerations was to occupy the Zeltech Conglomerate, which was “physically” connected to the Kerzin Federation.

With the pretext of eliminating those who might help the Kerzin Federation, and exploiting the ambitions of the stupid red Fuxviet Federation burning with territorial expansion desires, they decided to launch a lightning invasion of Zeltech.

Of course, since they couldn’t just verbally persuade Fuxviet, they decided that whoever occupied a territory first would keep it, like a game of territory conquest.

Although they could only commit one-third of their actual strength since they couldn’t withdraw forces stationed near Kerzin and Ztrakfor.

Given that Zeltech had no veteran soldiers due to lack of proper fleet training, and was forced into a two-front war due to Fuxviet’s betrayal, there was no way they could win against the great Prosnack fleet.

Advancing with unstoppable momentum toward Zeltech’s capital, they aimed to seize the corridor connecting to the Kerzin Federation, but…

Unfortunately, Prosnack was served another big disappointment…

First, unlike their usual behavior, the Zeltech people…

“Remember us!!!!”

“We will remember!!!!”

“You crazy bastards!!!”

Self-destructed along with their capital fortress.

As a result, the fleet closest to the Kerzin-Zeltech connection corridor vanished into space dust along with Zeltech’s capital fortress.

And when the next closest fleet rushed toward the corridor…

“What? We’ve already taken this!”

It had already been seized by the Fuxviet Federation’s fleet that had somehow arrived first.

Caught in their own trap, Prosnack had to endure a period of great purges, with fleet admirals dying of anger and the staff who had planned the operation being turned into space soap one after another.

————————————

Nevertheless, Prosnack’s will showed no signs of breaking.

“We will definitely find an ice-free port… no, a detour!”

“Please stop… we’re all going to die at this rate…!”

They devoted all their efforts to breaking through Kerzin’s John-Burnator Line using all sorts of bizarre methods.

“How about giving bait to the Sir-Hod Alliance, like we did with the Fuxviet Federation?”

Among these was an opinion to try a diversionary tactic, which they attempted to implement.

“The Sir-Hod Alliance can’t move because of the Fuxviet threat.”

“You mean there’s no force to check Fuxviet?”

“Yes, because we tore apart and killed Zeltech, which would have kept them in check.”

“Ah.”

They were dumbfounded to realize that the Fuxviet they had nurtured was now an obstacle.

“It’s a Space Ballista, a revolutionary device that can throw fleets wrapped in quantum energy nets.”

“Wow, that’s amazing. So how do we make it?”

“Well, that’s for your tech slaves to figure out.”

“…”

Sometimes they approached from a technical(?) perspective.

“I’ve been waiting for men like you to surrender for a long time.”

“Actually, me too.”

Sometimes they even deployed honey traps(?).

“Really?!”

“Just kidding.”

“Hmph.”

Arto’s saying that life doesn’t go according to plan showed a remarkably high hit rate when it came to Prosnack.

“As expected of Minister Arto, a being we acknowledge.”

“He must have read and predicted all our movements in advance.”

“…Couldn’t it just be that we’re not doing things properly?”

Thanks to this, Arto’s reputation within Prosnack was skyrocketing, creating a strange phenomenon.

But both Prosnack themselves and their opponent, the Kerzin Federation, knew best that Prosnack wouldn’t just keep failing forever.

————————————

And indeed, about a week later.

Prosnack finally made what they considered the best choice to break through the “damned John-Burnator Line.”

After endless technological development grind, they created and deployed to the front lines an “ultra-large siege cannon” with insane output that fired stellar energy in series.

“All fleets, advance!”

As the saying goes, “the end of tuning is stock,” they began preparing an offensive to break through Kerzin’s John-Burnator Line.