This was the heart of the Milky Way.
What was the most extreme environment in the universe? It would not be the core of a star, which was as comfortable as a hot spring in the universe's' extreme index '. It would also not be the surface of a black hole, which could not be considered grand despite devouring everything. It would also not be the nebula, which, despite its surging energy and violent activity, still had a quiet interval. What truly qualified as the extreme environment of the universe was actually the most brilliant of galactic nuclei. It was glorious and radiant, but it was an absolute zone of death, at least for those civilizations that had just stepped into the universe.
The galaxy we had landed in had a massive central core, and within this 1.1-light-year radius, there were death vortexes everywhere. Astonishing mass was compressed within this 1.1-light-year radius, forming a supermassive and ancient black hole at its core. Beyond the black hole's event horizon, at the 'safe distance' boundary where the black hole could not capture, bright and violently active primitive matter was compressed into a dense 'cloud shell', incessantly emitting intense gamma rays and various ionizing rays. The intense energy release and mass flow caused everything in the area to be ejected, pushing everything outside the central core. Highly active matter and less active matter collided, reacted and fused, releasing dazzling light and surging mass jets (mainly composed of hydrogen, with a small amount of helium produced in the jet) that extended to 1.5-million light-years away, so much so that from deep space, the center of the Milky Way looked like a hazy silver egg.
Within the 1.1-light-year radius of the central core, there would be black hole disturbances. Although this environment would not affect the Empire's starships too much, it was not a good place for war, for both sides. So let us shift our attention outward to see what was happening outside the core.
Leaving this region would mean entering the expansion zone, where the black hole's lethal gravity was only effective within its horizon. Beyond that, its gravity was as' gentle 'as a normal celestial body. In this region, at least thirty stars of unprecedented size were rapidly living out their short but glorious lives. Even the smallest of these stars had a mass a thousand times that of the sun. They were born in the rich galactic center, bloated and reacting violently, their surface ejecting large amounts of gaseous matter to form a cloud that was tens of thousands of times larger than the star itself. Every space entity here was young and would soon grow old. They squandered their innate massive mass, rapidly metamorphosing into planetary debris with excessive heavy elements. Then, under the impact of explosions and silver core hydrogen jets, they became planetary debris that rushed towards the edge of the galaxy, with newborn stars taking their place. As for the planetary corpses, they would finally stop after hundreds of millions or even billions of years, becoming a golden necklace around the neck of some civilized creature, or an iron crown on the forehead of some tribal chief. They would be displayed in a palace or on a display stand in a museum, given a history and story that meant nothing to them. A group of intelligent animals that were merely a hundred years old recounted the deeds of these planetary debris that had experienced hundreds of millions of years, dazzling before the faint flashes of gold and other heavy elements — but the flashes were not even one billionth of what was before my eyes.
I stood on the bridge with Lin Xue and the others. Before us was the cradle of the galaxy. It was so huge and brilliant that one would be dazzled even if they did not look closely. It was said that in an ordinary star nest where the matter was relatively loose, there would be thousands of young stars squeezed together. However, that place was definitely not as' passionate 'as the center of the galaxy. The density of matter and the intensity of the reaction were incomparable. Of course, the gravitational environment was also vastly different. If a spaceship from an ordinary civilization were to enter the star nest, it would probably be torn to shreds no matter which environment it was in. However, I reckoned that in this place, they would be torn to shreds even more.
Shallow Shallow nudged my arm. The majestic space environment before her made her sigh. "It's so bright. It's blinding."
I nodded. "Mm, it's blinding — my eyes are getting tired from looking at it."
"Are we really going to fight in this place? I can't see anything. "
"It's fine. It's fine as long as the radar can see it. After all, it's a battle beyond visual range …"
Lin Xue poked the mini Medivh in her palm. She was dumbfounded when she heard that. "This is what you guys are talking about when you see this?"
"What else?" Shallow Shallow and I asked in unison.
The missy said, "… Forget it. I shouldn't have had any expectations from you two clowns."
"Most of the worlds have similar star creation processes." Liliana wore a pair of sunglasses that covered half of her face. "This is the shortest known star creation process and has the highest recycling rate. The various noises and disturbances produced in this environment are very strong. The Mellowans are quite smart to use this environment to gather their forces."
The fleet was now gathered in the Silver Heart's material expansion zone. Although they did not enter the core, it was still a dangerous place. The tug-of-war between gravity and the material jet had caused the area to be filled with deadly undercurrents. However, a giant star that was active 0.14 light years away marked a relatively stable "shaded zone" for the fleet. We could save some of the energy that was originally used to maintain the warships' posture. This amount of energy may be insignificant, but for the efficient and accurate Shiring Apostles, any wasteful behavior would not be forgiven. At the same time, with the help of the ionizing radiation released by the star, the fleet disguised themselves as an undercurrent that would not attract attention. The Mellowans had yet to realize that such a large number of scourges had gathered outside their fleet. Hundreds of Eternal-class motherships were already on standby in these bright clouds. Their main cannons were charged, and all the advancing spaceships were in a critical state of warp jump, waiting for the command from the flagship.
"Wait a little longer … Their teleportation is not over yet … Since they're here, let's leave a few behind."
Lin Xue's eyes glinted with a faint white light. She was not looking at the battle star map, and was merely toying with the little wheat Diwen in her hand as she spoke in a seemingly casual manner. The number of starships that the Mellowans would assemble was a military secret, but to the Prophet, everything was a transparent secret. With Lin Xue's reminder, the fleet was still biding their time.
But the time for the final assault was almost here.
The Empire's fleet was now hidden behind a violent hydrogen jet. The hydrogen jet originated from the Silver Heart and was millions of kilometers wide, resembling a vague floating ribbon under microwave observation. About twelve light-minutes away from the other side of the hydrogen jet was the Mellowans' warp point. They had also chosen the 'calm zone' marked by the giant star 0.14 light-years away as their warp point, and probably borrowed the gravity of the giant star to mark their warp. Now, a thousand Mellowan starships had gathered twelve light-years away, along with the massive escort fleet they brought. According to the intelligence we had, those pale golden warships that were almost as large as the Eternal class were the Mellowans' 'Commander Class Carriers', the enemy's main force. They were a type of ship that could deliver a large number of drones and was equipped with powerful main cannons. Their design was probably influenced by the Empire's style, and in the previous battle against the enemy's border military node, we were able to ascertain that the main cannons of these ships were almost comparable to a 'Galaxy' with one third of its strength. However, the Mellowans' fire control technology and main cannon cooling technology were clearly lacking, and the greatest threat of the Commander Class Carriers were the warp drones they launched — those annoying things were basically a bunch of small warp missiles. That was why we had brought along a large number of air defense frigates to restrain the Mellowans' Commander Class Carriers.
When the last wave of the Mellowans' Commander Class Carriers slowly appeared from the 'dark zone' at the center of the warp point, Lin Xue's eyes flickered slightly, and she waved her arm forcefully. "All ships, fire at will! Teleport dimensional bombs! "
In an instant, the Eternal fleet that had been charging for a long time fired in unison. The blinding psionic torrent was several times more brilliant than the bright clouds in space, as if to dim the center of the galaxy. At the same time, the catapults of hundreds of heavy bombers opened one after another, and capsule-shaped bombs shrouded in blue light disappeared into the spatial rift in front of the catapults. The priority of psionic information was higher than that of the world's conventional matter, and so it had infinite speed and could be fired at any time. The huge bombs dropped by the heavy bombers moved beyond the world, similarly ignoring the distance of twelve light-minutes, and reached the skies above the Mellowans' fleet almost at the same time as the psionic cannons. After all, the Mellowans' regular army still had the foundation of being the pawns of the Empire. After knowing that they were going up against the Empire's fleet, they at least knew to protect the fleet with giant shield-shaped ships at all times — because the attacks of the Schilling's army had always been sudden and swift. On the periphery of the Mellova fleet, within the sphere of space, there were a large number of oblate, medium-sized spaceships. Those spaceships turned out to be their combined shield generator, and when our army's first volley of cannon fire landed on the combined shield, a considerable portion of it was blocked — it seems that the Mellovas had learned quite a lot from the Old Empire. Shield technology was not rare, but the combined shield was a very high-end gadget, and they were very skilled at copying it.
Still, it was a knockoff after all. A volley of galactic fire had already caused the seemingly thick shield to flicker violently, and the warp bombs that crashed into it almost at the same time finally tore a large hole in the shield. The greatest characteristic of the Combined Shield was that it did not have two states of 'complete' and 'dissipation' like conventional shields. Conventional shields did not have such a setting as' wound ', and it would either remain complete or disappear completely. But the Combined Shield was different. Just like physical armor, it would have a regional vacuum zone (think of the ozone hole) due to a sharp drop in local strength. When the vacuum zone appeared, the gravitational trap generator that was originally protected by the Combined Shield had to be exposed to the following psionic torrent, and the continuous galactic bombardment instantly destroyed the Mellowans' gravitational trap protection circle. Although it was only temporary, that moment was enough.
The other half of the heavy bombardment ships followed closely behind and launched a second batch of 'ammunition'. This time, it was not a dimensional bomb, but a single-use teleportation blocker.
It was a type of 'bomb' that contained a set of high-intensity gravitational trap generator and a set of interference devices, designed to destroy open dimensional passages. These little devils that caught the Mellowans off guard burrowed into the very center of the Mellowans' warp field and released violently vibrating interference signals. The coordinates of the entire space there became distorted, and the consequences were devastating.
The last batch of Commander Class Carriers that were about to complete materialization began to distort, deform, and shatter into countless tiny fragments under the erratic spatial coordinates. If one looked close enough, one could even see the Mellowans that had been split in half from the middle. They became grotesque slender strips of flesh, and their bodies were fragmented due to the wrong coordinates. However, they did not bleed or suffer, and they were even alive for a short time now. Before the collapse of the dimension, these errant coordinates were still connected in a higher dimension, so the scene you saw was like seeing human organs from a four-dimensional space, or the middle of a two-dimensional image from a three-dimensional space. However, as the one-time interference device was shut down, all the errant coordinates would not be repaired, and these split things would fall from the higher dimension back to the three-dimensional world, really becoming a pile of debris. The captains of the Commander class carriers could still think, and they realized in horror what kind of weapon they had been attacked by, and frantically called for the rear base to stop the teleportation. But it was too late, the clock of the teleportation blocker had reached its end, the coordinate interference system shut down, and the gravitational trap lost its effect. The last fragments of the Commander class carriers were shot to the center of the Mellowan fleet, and then there was a series of explosions.
Sives pulled out her sword, and the power of the Storm Commander instantly covered the entire Empire fleet. "The second echelon attack begins. Do not hold back, in the name of the Emperor, do not leave anyone alive!"
More cannon fire and warp warheads began to pour out, instantly crossing the hydrogen jet zone between the two armies and bombarding the Mellowans who had just reacted. The heavy assault ships were the vanguard, and the other assault ships and individual fighters followed behind. The ships in charge of the assault all entered warp mode. Their mission was to tear apart the Mellowans' combined shield at close range and from the flanks, and if possible, try to destroy the enemy's gravitational trap generator so that we could launch another round of super-heavy bombs into the enemy's base. The Mellowans' formation was clearly in disarray after the first wave of fierce attacks, but they were still the ace army of the past, and under the long-term influence of the old Imperial Army's ideology, their combat qualities were certainly not low. By then, they had already adjusted their formation and reactivated their combined shield, and in the face of the Imperial Army's second round of cannon fire, the Mellowans calmly organized a counterattack despite the fact that their shield was in danger.
But no matter how powerful their counterattack was, the tide of the battle was still tilting in our favor. The overall combat strength of the Empire's fleet was already higher than the Mellowans', and if they had the upper hand, they might still be able to fight the Imperial Army with their numerical advantage. But now, they did not even have the upper hand, and their numerical advantage was also greatly reduced by the huge explosion during the last warp wave. If this situation continued, it seemed that it was only a matter of time before the Mellowans were completely wiped out.
"Blockhead, don't you think something is wrong?" Lin Xue stood on the officer's seat with her arms crossed, while Jingle and Little Crow clung to her shoulders like two symmetrical epaulets. The latter also seemed to know that war was a very serious matter, and although she did not understand, she still obediently quietened down, hugging a leek as she spoke.
"Indeed, something is wrong." I nodded and looked at the thing that I had been holding in my hand until now. It was a sky-blue irregular crystal, its surface glowing with energy. Sandora's presence emanated from the crystal, as if she was standing beside me personally. This was a resonant crystal, made from the special crystal material of Crystal Peak Planet, and now, it was the physical carrier for the extension of Sandora's will. "Why did the Mellowans' servant army not come out?"
I felt that the current situation was a little different from what I had expected. The Mellowans had a servant army, and they would never care about the lives of their servants. So, in theory, when they jumped into this galaxy, they should have let their servant army open the way in front, and they would have let the slave race serve as cannon fodder and meat shields, instead of using their regular army to fight the Empire's fleet while letting their slaves hide in some safe place.
I held the resonant crystal in my hand, and there was a special device at the bow of this flagship. There was an even larger crystal and a set of magnifying antennas installed there, and that device could spread the crystal's power over an entire light year — enough to cover the largest battlefield. Before we set off, we had considered that the Mellowans might drive the slave race into the battlefield as cannon fodder, so we prepared this thing. Although Sandora was currently transforming in the Void and could not personally be on the battlefield, her power could still be transmitted through the resonant crystal. Even if she did not enter her glorious form, it would be effortless for her to suppress the slave race that might appear on a mere battlefield. That was why we could come to the Silver Heart to face the Mellowans with ease. But now … it seemed that the enemy did not act according to the script that Sandora and I had thought of.
"Let me see what tricks they are up to this time." Lin Xue narrowed her eyes and looked at the star map. Although she could not understand it, the distribution of the fleet on the star map helped her to concentrate her power and focus on a more specific matter. After a while, she smiled. "Ha … As expected of a tyrannical and muddle-headed ruler … Pay attention, there will be two more troops jumping into the battlefield later. The number of troops that Barry has sent in is more than expected, and this is just the appetizer."
"There's more? Is he really going to send all the troops of the entire country into this battle? "
"I can only say that the number of troops in Barry's hands is more than what Turazzo knew. It seems that after that unlucky old man was pushed out, Barry secretly increased the number of troops in his army. This part of the army is a 'secret troop'. Barry's subordinates are all secret troops, and the troops do not even know the composition of their allies … This … This is really a strange tyrant, even he can't believe it!"
I was speechless.
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