It had been three days since the fleet had left the Empire.
Of course, since there was no concept of time in the Void, that 'three days' was calculated according to the Empire's standard timeline. No matter how far away we were from the Empire, we would always maintain the same timescale on our warships as the Empire.
For warships in the Void, journeying meant constant 'warping', and every time the Void Engine changed its identification code, it was equivalent to the entire fleet moving once. It was a non-linear method of advancement, and each warp was extremely fast. Without the obstruction of 'absolute path', the only thing that affected the fleet's speed was the Void Engine's processing ability. And three days was enough for us to travel a very, very long distance — although we still had a long way to go before we reached our destination.
After all, the fleet's movement speed could not compare to the Void Shuttles. Although Tawil did his best to equip every ship to increase their speed, there was a limit to the improvement. We would probably need more than half a month to reach the first suspected coordinates.
Now, the fleet was far from the border, but still within the range of the Departed Garden System. The Empire had sent a few scattered outposts and automated observation posts, as well as some self-proliferating and self-evolving autonomous bases, and they could be considered the limits of the Empire's influence. Through the frontier outposts, we could still receive some unclear civilian channels. Even if there were no civilian exploration ships here, those civilian channels still used their weak signals to declare the Empire's hegemony here.
It was a dead and desolate place. We had never developed here because there was really nothing to develop here — we could only search two or three scattered universes within thousands of units of information deviation, and all of them had no signs of life. This place was as empty as a graveyard, where even world debris was a rarity.
There would occasionally be such empty regions in the Void. The distribution of worlds in the void was uneven. There were dense places and sparse places, and when the sparse places reached the extreme, it would be a desolate area. The Desolation was a desperate situation for the local civilizations, which meant that even if they developed the technology to travel across worlds, it would be difficult for them to find other universes alive, and they would die on their first voyage. But for some cross-world civilizations, the Desolation was a rare natural barrier: without a universe as a springboard, it meant that it was difficult for the Abyss and foreign enemies to infiltrate. You did not have to set up a sovereign hub in every world to build a costly Sentry Wall. This desolate region belonged to the latter. It had been an excellent barrier for the New Empire for years, and it proved to be effective. Ever since the establishment of the New Empire, there had never been any warnings of the Abyss infiltrating from this desolate region.
But this time, we have to trudge through this barren land. Such a journey was not difficult for the Empire fleet, but it was unbelievably tedious. There was nothing to see along the way, and even Shallow Shallow, who was always excited, was quickly bored.
Fortunately, the Empire's spaceships were rather large, so large that towns and cities could be found inside them. The Imperial Admiral, which was several hundred kilometers long, had additional space expansion pods inside, and the scale of the town was already at the level of a capital city. Even if every ship was a purely industrial military city, walking through the streets of those cities would temporarily make one forget that they were on a starship sailing through the Void. Apart from that, there was also a massive eco-sphere inside the ship, which would keep Shallow Shallow busy for a long time — the girl would not be depressed from holding it in.
But while Shallow Shallow could run around and have fun, I had to constantly be on duty at the command center. Even if I knew that I was no expert in the field, I still had to set an example as the commander. Anyone could be absent from such a significant voyage, but Sandora and I could not be absent. Even though we always talked about slacking off and waiting to die, we still had the awareness during critical moments.
Of course, more importantly, I would be bitten by Sandora if I skipped work, and I could not beat her … Err, I did not have the habit of biting people!
It was the afternoon of the third day. Not even half an hour after lunch, I was summoned by Sandora to the command center to accompany her. The place was always brightly lit and bustling with activity. Every commander's seat and every MDT was constantly receiving information and issuing commands, acting as the brain of the entire ship, or even the entire fleet, coordinating everything. And Sandora and I were here as though we were supervising the working state of this brain. Isn't this analogy a little weird?
"Phew, looks like it's another idle day," Sandora was a little bored (in fact, I suspected that she called me over to find a fellow sufferer to kill time with her). She exhaled and looked at the embedded MDT in front of her. "We can still receive the signal from the Departed Garden. It seems that the system upgrade of the Departed Garden was quite effective. But it's time to set up an outpost. Although the spiritual network has always been reliable, it's always good to have a few more communication channels. "
I looked at the image sent back by the external monitor. There were dozens of large engineering barges in the middle and rear of the fleet. These barges were used for bridging operations after arriving at the destination. At the same time, they were also responsible for setting up outposts during the voyage, and the role of the outpost was to ensure smooth communication between the fleet and the Empire.
After all, we were going to a very distant place, and there were many unexplored environments along the way. We had to set up a large number of outposts along the way to prepare for all kinds of accidents.
The upper structure of an engineering barge slowly opened, and a dozen autonomous robots and a small workship floated out. Behind them was a silver-white cube that was dragged out by a tractor beam. This silver-white cube was the 'construction core' of the outpost. It came with a long-lasting orderly field, and sealed inside it was a set of building blueprints and the information-matter conversion device needed for self-deployment. It was the best basic unit for void exploration. This basic unit required very little external intervention to operate. Basically, the autonomous robots and workships would toss it into the void, locate it, set up a activation mode, and leave the rest of the work to the construction core itself. It would grow rapidly and finally become a permanent station like the Protoss Void Node. The standard configuration of an outpost was like this: a core engine room, located in the center of the domed building; two high-powered void communication modules, which were two large antenna towers, one at each end of the outpost; a medium-sized factory that could continuously produce autonomous robots and small workships; these units were used for self-maintenance and basic defense (although there were no enemies in the void, the Shiring Apostles had a habit of hanging guns everywhere); two teleportation devices, which led to the next outpost. All outposts were connected by such a void portal, and finally led to the Empire. Lastly, a living space that could accommodate hundreds of people (with the New Empire Survival Protocol, which could provide an ecological environment for seventeen lifeforms, and provide 'quick-freeze protection' for others).
Outposts were actually unmanned, but one of the main reasons they were set up in various extreme environments was to provide security for nearby explorers. Moreover, a survival pod that could accommodate hundreds of people did not put too much pressure on the dimensional expansion device, which was why these outposts had living quarters.
The basic shape of an outpost was a short and blunt olive, with antenna towers protruding from both ends of the main body. The alloy carapace and psionic barrier completely covered the rest of the outpost. They were between one kilometer and ten kilometers in size, depending on whether they needed to 'grow' that big. In such barren zones, outposts were important communication devices, as well as' insurance 'for the personnel on duty. If you were in danger in the void, escaping to the outpost was your last chance of survival, and you could also use the outpost's teleportation device to quickly return to the Empire. But to be honest, those who encountered danger in the void might not necessarily have the time to escape to the nearest outpost. No matter what, most mortal creations were too fragile in the void.
"Maybe we should take this opportunity to set up more outposts," I suddenly had an idea as I watched the work ships and autonomous robots drag the silver-white cube that was a hundred meters long out of the Order Field and disappear behind the fleet. "We can set up a network of outposts in the barren zone, and then use them as the coordinates to build a teleportation channel to our homeworld. After all, our homeworld is too far away, and the power of the Separation Garden can't 'drag' it over at all. We can't fly there for half a month every time. It's even more tiring than Hilla dropping by our house."
"That is indeed a problem, but let's talk about it in the future." Sandora pondered for a moment and shook her head slightly. "Setting up the continuous jump channel that you mentioned requires a lot of energy, and this place is the barren zone. There is no universe around that can be used as a node, and the jump channel itself needs a lot of self-maintenance components. Our fleet is not here to build along the way."
I nodded, but I still made a mental note of this matter. This problem had to be solved sooner or later. Our homeworld was far away from the current Empire District, and the Shiring Apostles' habit of 'dragging the new world over as their territory' had a limit. Back then, the old Empire took countless years to build more than a hundred heavens, and now the 'distance' between the new Empire and our homeworld was even further than the distance between the first and the 135th heaven! It was unrealistic to slowly open up new territories, so we could only build a temporary channel to connect them.
Speaking of which, I thought of the Silk Road. Could our history still be saved?
The fleet left behind an outpost and continued to move forward. What followed was an even more boring and long journey.
Another week passed, and the fleet arrived at an unfamiliar void that no one had ever set foot in before. If the previous intelligence and calculations were correct, this was the front edge of the destructive wave, and we would probably see a large number of world fragments very soon.
But the first thing we saw was something unexpected.
Sandora called me to the research facility of the Admiral of the Empire early in the morning. Tawil's mass projections were already busy, and Abyss Schilling was also there. I saw the holographic projection in the middle of the hall showing a large area of broken wreckage at the front of the Order Field, and the fleet had stopped in front of the wreckage.
A large number of work ships were shuttling through the wreckage, dragging bright lines behind them. The wreckage looked familiar, and I couldn't help but ask Sandora, "What is that?"
"It's the self-proliferating drone swarm that we launched two years ago," Sandora frowned. "We lost contact with some of them last year, but I didn't expect them to proliferate to this place. But it looks like they were destroyed by something. "
Self-proliferating drone swarm? I was stunned for a moment, and then quickly remembered. It was an exploration project from two years ago. At that time, the New Empire was still at war with the Abyss, and we urgently needed to expand our territory and increase our strength. So, Sandora led the deployment of a large number of self-proliferating drones. These drones were not a single piece of equipment, but a "colony" that included drone mother bases, conventional drone swarms, exploration laboratories, development factories, and a whole bunch of other things. Like a swarm of ants or bees, they could generate massive collective power. Once this drone swarm entered the void, it would rapidly proliferate, search for worlds, drop down colony stations, and send a beckoning signal to the Empire. At the same time, it would desperately spread out, and only the Shiring Apostles' orders could stop them. This drone swarm was used for "exploration and discovery," so other than leaving marks around the territory, they were not aggressive, and were considered a "safe product" (at least for the Shiring Apostles, but many ordinary races seemed to have doubts). In the old Empire era, this docile and loyal drone swarm had always been an important auxiliary tool. They helped the warlike Shiring Apostles expand their territory, and worked diligently for hundreds of millions of years. In the New Empire era, their work was also very effective, and the expansion project two years ago had brought us at least a third of the new territory.
But these drone swarms could not all work safely, and last year, a batch of drones, along with a mother base, disappeared together.
Such sudden loss of contact was not uncommon, as the droid swarms were exploring some extremely dangerous unknown areas. Their speed was not as fast as the void shuttles, but their range was far larger than any void exploration team, so there would always be droid swarms disappearing in the White Zone. These missing drone swarms either encountered the Abyss, or unluckily encountered the end of the world, and when the situation was serious, they could not even send a warning signal back in time.
The disappearance of the droid swarm last year was one of the more serious ones, as they had a newly built motherbase. It was considered a relatively large group, and Sives had organized several search operations for it. However, because the missing droids were too deep into the White Zone, and the Abyss was too restless at that time, the Empire had no time to care about it, and the droid swarm gradually faded out of everyone's sight.
Who would have thought that we would see the wreckage of the drone swarm here. They were clearly not the last batch that disappeared, but a new drone swarm that proliferated later on. It had to be said that the rate of expansion of these things was terrifying. Without the coordination of the headquarters, they had spread all the way to the White Zone. Fortunately, there were two restrictions in the core instructions of each drone: "do not interfere with the local civilization process, do not destroy the stability of the local world" (after all, they were used to mark new territories, and the Empire did not want to receive a scorched land and a group of enemies from the drone swarm). Otherwise, these things would definitely be a terrible plague of war.
Even the extraordinary substances created by the Empire would quickly disintegrate and assimilate into the Void when they lost their energy supply, so the wreckage that the fleet encountered must have been destroyed not long ago. Most of them showed serious signs of 'evaporation', and the edges of some of the wreckage had faded like phantoms, and I could even see the obvious blurring on the surveillance screen. But many of the wreckage were still intact, and salvaging them should be able to confirm what had happened in the area recently.
The crew ship found a spherical device that looked to be in good condition among the wreckage. It was a silver-gray metal ball with a radius of more than a meter, and its surface still had a dim blue light floating slowly. It must have been installed on a pedestal, but now the connection points were only some broken metal stubble. I watched as a crew ship used a tractor beam to pull the spherical device into its cargo hold, and then flew towards the Empire Admiral. Tawil explained, "That is the thinking device of the drone swarm. Every thousand drones have one of these 'brains', and every hundred 'brains' can form a mother base. Of course, there will be expansion or reduction, and this is all decided by the drone swarm. These 'brains' have very powerful protective functions, and even if the carrier they are on is blown up, these thinking cores can travel independently and survive in the Void for a long time. Probably these 'brains' recorded the recent encounters of the drone swarm. "
The thinking core was quickly sent to the research facility of the Empire Admiral, and Tawil led a group of experts to quickly disassemble it, and found the database inside. Fortunately, it was not broken.
According to the database, this thing had been destroyed a few months ago.
A report was compiled and sent to me and Sandora. Abyss Schilling also got a copy, and she shook her head as she looked at the analysis. "Looks like it has something to do with the Wave of Destruction. The logs said that after the drone swarm lost contact with the Empire, they chose to rebuild the communication link while continuing to expand into the Void. They proliferated normally for a few months, and finally a large group of drones finally found a stable new universe, and the drone swarm consciousness decided to merge themselves with the new universe. They seemed to be planning to build an industrial world, and then build a giant mothership to send a copy of the database back to the Empire. But before that … the entire universe 'shattered' without warning. "
"Just like what the exploration team reported, the world was dying, and the cause of death was strange." Tawil looked at the disassembled thinking core of the drone, and his tone was a little emotional. "Looks like we still know too little about the Void. Exploration is endless … The world barrier would suddenly 'shatter', and this is obviously something that can only be done by the Void itself. Theoretically, yes. "
"Let's not study these ultimate secrets for now." Sandora put down the MDT in her hand and looked up at the large holographic projection not far away. The projection showed a panoramic view of the Empire fleet. The fleet had cleaned up the wreckage of the drone swarm at the front of the Field of Order, and released some automated work ships to search for other drone swarms nearby (if possible, we still hope to recover some things, after all). The fleet itself was ready to set sail again. "We should now be close to the Wave of Destruction, and we may encounter unprecedented situations at any time. Get the fleet ready, turn on the sensors at full power, and turn the Field of Order into alert cruise mode. We can slow down a little, but it's better than missing something."
In the next second, I realized that Sandora's sixth sense might be similar to Lin Xue's, because as soon as she finished speaking, the onboard broadcast sounded. "Attention, the Wave of Destruction has been detected, and it is about to touch the Field of Order! All personnel, prepare for impact! "
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
