The defensive room over the top of this cruiser controlled twenty cannons with different types. They were arranged generally to three groups, each was connected to one handle.

If James was doing this manually, he wouldn't be able to hit anything, however after activating the supporting systems here, all the hard work was literally done by the system.

All he needed to do was to try and move the handles towards the general location of the cruiser he wanted to shoot down then press the trigger. The systems would do the rest starting from calculating the shot trajectory ending by firing multiple times to make sure the shields were down and the cruiser was destroyed.

However even with all this help, James knew his main job wasn't to shoot down cruisers, but to try and support the shield by aiming towards the incoming shots.

This was a tricky task, yet crucial to their survival. The easiest way to do that was by destroying the attacking cruisers. However doing so would bring undesired attention towards them, so James decided not to destroy any cruiser unless there was no other option.

So he started to fire. He sat the system on detecting the incoming cannon missiles so he could destroy them. Once he started firing at the incoming attacks, the load over the shield in this area was greatly relieved.

"I've secured this side, has our fleet left the zone yet?" James asked.

"Not yet, but they are about to leave. They need less than five minutes to get out," Rigo replied through the central communication system inside this defensive unit.

"Good, five minutes aren't that long. Let's make sure we stay in one piece before they make it out," James said with a long sigh of relief. The situation in this spot of space was really complicated. The sooner they leave from here the better.

However fate didn't allow James' plan to go smoothly as he desired. With the passing of the third minute, some great shadow came from far. This shadow was so heavy that it made the entire battlefield silent.

The terasoras ship had finally made it here.

"Sir, I believe this is the terasoras ship. They are sending a broadcast to us. Do you want me to accept it?" Rigo asked with some worry in his tone.

"How long before our boys get out from there?" James didn't directly reply as he asked.

"Two minutes sir."

"Good, accept the transmission then," James ordered before adding, "and link it to me here so I can view it as well."

"Affirmative."

Rigo then accepted the transmission as he also relayed it to James' defensive unit. In front of James, the dome suddenly changed as a strange creature appeared in front of him.

He was one of the Terases species, which were a highly intelligent and extremely violent race well known across the cosmos.

They had huge bodies with three pairs of short and thick muscular hands. their bodies when they were standing were five times the size of humans, coupled with their bulging muscles and thick skin, they were really hard to lose foes in close combat.

Their heads were like humans, but with parrot beaks like mouths. Their hair was usually died crimson red for males, and cyan green for females.

The one that appeared in front of James was a female, wearing the formal uniform of the long destroyed crimson empire of the terases race. This empire was destroyed in the largest coalition war this cosmos had ever seen in its history.

That terases female general looked with disdain as she spoke with her own language with a strong tone. Terases race was a prideful race, even when speaking to strangers they wouldn't abandon their mother tongue language.

"Run the translation system for me," James ordered at once. He knew Rigo could understand directly what this fierce lady was saying, so he had to say it so Rigo would activate the translator for him.

"You are so bold to dare and trespass a territory under my jurisdiction and start fighting each other like we are never here," the translated voice came from the unit at once. James knew this general was furious, and so he had to find a way of here.

His fleet was less than two minutes away from the zone, so James was about to make Rigo send the order of immediate hyperjump after they exit the zone, the general continued speaking:

"As you were rude and committed this grave insult to us, I took the liberty to establish an isolation field around this whole place. now you are all trapped like rats, under my mercy. No ship will be able to leave here even using the space jump. This is the beginning of your deserved punishment."

James narrowed his eyes once he heard these threatening words. He didn't delay as he said at once:

"Examine the external space, can we jump?"

Rigo didn't reply at once, as he began to investigate the external space around this area. Rigo wasn't the only one doing that, literally all the ships here were doing the same thing.

And they all reached the same conclusion… the space around them was locked by a great net of energy that interfered with any space jump.

That meant one thing, everyone here was trapped like that general described, like rats.

"We are trapped, we can't jump out of here," Rigo said the shocking news to James, who began to be afraid.

He wasn't the only one feeling so, as all those trapped here were feeling the same. Terases' race was famous for their brutality, especially in dealing with war prisoners. The fate of anyone here was already dark and gloomy.

"Now I believe you all sensed the majestic powerful locking field of my old empire, the empire that everyone one here is a descendant of a power that schemed to destroy it.

And today I won't be less generous than you were in the past. I'm trapping you here not to kill you. I know that all the higher ups of the empire and the rebels are here right now.

Most of your star fleet is trapped here, and that only means one simple fact… your homes are now left defenseless, and I intend to seize them all and merge them together, the empire and rebels to resurrect my empire once again. thanks for the gift of your stupidity and arrogance, without your help my ancestors dream couldn't be achieved.

Now excuse me, I have a few star systems to conquer," the lady general said with a vicious smile before ending the transmission from their side.