To be honest, before today, I had never seen what Tarver looked like in casual clothes. The classic image of a research maniac was simply too deeply ingrained in everyone's hearts. The neat and tidy white researcher robe, the elegant lady's glasses, and the meticulous and swift military style of action. These three points combined together made him the famous explosive maniac bespectacled girl in the entire City of Shadows … Yep, I definitely couldn't let her hear this. The Reich's scientists were generally no less dangerous than Hitler …
I gave Tawil a vacation, but I didn't expect to see her in casual clothes. To be honest, she looked like a completely different person after she put on an ordinary dress and took off her glasses. Her blade-like aura of a soldier gave people a sense of familiarity. However, it seemed extremely out of place when placed in her feminine attire. To be honest, I felt that it would be better if she stood still. Looking at her back, she looked like a lady …
This directly caused me to be unable to recognize her after she took off her glasses. If she didn't speak, I would have imagined that she was a half-sister to Tawil after ten minutes.
"I request to return to the research center in advance," Tawil repeated to me seriously. "Regarding the Ghost Ship, I feel that I should be able to discover more things by myself."
"It's not that I can't. Without you, the research institute would indeed be a little busy." I nodded slightly and the other party immediately revealed a happy expression. However, I added, "Speaking of which, you still have free time. Your vacation is long. To be honest, I would be satisfied if Ling Meng and Purple were half as dedicated as you."
As I said that, I thought about the unlucky fox that Purple had forcefully sent over to take over her shift every day. Blue had just come out from the medical center yesterday, and the fur on her tail was fully grown. However, it seemed to have left a serious psychological scar on her. Now, she would get angry at anyone who stared at her tail for more than a minute. She would bare her fangs and stand on all fours to fight back. Even I had almost been bitten by her. Currently, 70% of the stray dogs and cats in Shadows City had submitted to Blue's nine tails. She had become the king of the canines in Shadows City. I was worried that if this continued, there would come a day when she would revert back to eating raw meat. Recently, Ling Meng had been skipping work every day. She had pushed all her work to Ibuki Suika, who she had tricked into joining the Town Security team, and Marisa, who was a little silly. She had been sleeping in her dorm all day. Poor Suika, that silly girl, still had a limp leg. For the past two days, she had been relying on a walking stick that she had picked up from somewhere to patrol. She had tied the Town Security's armband to the horn on her head. From afar, it looked like a bunch of rags. She was always swaying while hugging a wine gourd. Now, many people were worried that the City of Shadows' Town Security department was facing financial problems. Every time Suika went out on patrol, she would get a lot of change …
Also, that silly girl happily thought that she had made a profit.
Just like what I had said before, Suika's eighty to ninety percent intelligence had been stuffed into that pair of horns on her head.
I accidentally thought of the two arrogant female workers who always gave me a headache, and it made me feel depressed. I was worried that after they turned Blue into a fox and dog, and Suika into a beggar's sect elder, they would come up with something else. It seemed that it was time for them to write a 30,000-word self-reflection letter.
Of course, I didn't forget that Tawil was waiting for my reply. She had applied to return to her post early. To be honest, this wasn't out of anyone's expectations. For this research maniac, asking her to leave the research lab was the same as forcing Liliana to go to Zimbabwe to save lives. Taking a break wasn't something comfortable for her — — Didn't you hear? Even buying beautiful clothes was an order from the higher-ups. She had no interest in it at all. If the same thing happened to Shallow Shallow, do you believe that she wouldn't be able to bring back the entire Tang Bai Building?
"It seems that even if I give you a break, you haven't been idle."
I glanced at Tawil, "Are you also researching the Specter Ship?"
"I just downloaded some information from the shared link," Tawil immediately stood at attention and started reporting. "This subordinate has always been on a break as per your order, but downloading information from the shared link and conducting scientific analysis is one of this subordinate's daily hobbies!"
"All right, all right," I waved my hand at Tawil, "Don't be so serious all the time. You should know that I don't like messy etiquette in an informal setting. What do you think about the Specter Ship? "
"This subordinate is guessing that the Specter Ship fleet may be slowing down."
Tawil's voice startled me. I originally thought that she had nothing better to do, so she wanted to learn about the Specter Ship. I didn't expect that she had already researched such a detailed thing!
"They are slowing down? What do you mean? "I rubbed my chin and asked.
"This is the conclusion I came to after analyzing and comparing the data obtained from the Void Probes scattered across the network of the Macro World and deducing the course of Specter. Although the core information disturbance source of this fleet is indeed approaching the Macro World, its speed in the Void is indeed slowing down. At present, I am not sure if this fleet intends to dock or turn around to escape, but it is clear that they do not want to make contact with the Empire. This is just a guess, and there is no concrete evidence, but that is the theory."
"There are still people controlling the Specter Ship fleet. This is indeed our guess," I thought for a while, "But if the entire fleet is slowing down … no one would have thought of it. How reliable do you think this conclusion is? "
"More than ninety percent," Tawil nodded confidently, "This subordinate is good at analyzing all kinds of vague data, and I have created some very complicated void data models. According to this model, the Specter Ship fleet is indeed slowing down."
"Slowing down, they don't want to make contact with the Empire … Oh right, when Blue and the Specter Ship came into contact, they launched a counterattack, but when the Empire patrol ships that Blue brought appeared, the three obviously manned Specter Ships disappeared as if they were running for their lives! They are indeed … "
Some of my guesses suddenly became clear, and Tawil's analysis was very likely correct. However, at this moment, I suddenly heard Sandora's urgent call through the mental link, "Ah Jun! Important news, the first probe may have made contact with the main body of the Specter Ship fleet! "
I was a little surprised, but I quickly calmed down and smiled at Tarver. "Your guess should be correct. But now, we don't need to guess anymore. We should be able to confirm the Specter Ship's origin. The probes have found their nest."
"Because the Empire always reaps success," Tawil's lips curled up slightly, and then he did not forget his request, "Your Majesty, can I return to the research center now?"
"If you want to confirm that there is nothing wrong with your body …" I glanced at Tawil, but I did not finish the second half of my sentence. Tawil looked very energetic, and as a Shiring Apostles, she was not worried about her health. In her words, ten hours of comprehensive adjustment was enough for her to take a vacation. I had no doubt that the current Tawil could kill a Terminator in less than ten seconds, and under such circumstances, he still insisted on returning to the research center. In that case, I really had nothing to say. "Alright, it seems that continuing to work is a better thing for you. Chief Researcher Tawil of the Empire, your vacation has ended early, return to your post. But pay attention to your health from now on, if you mess up the project again, Sandora might really punish you."
This workaholic immediately gave a military salute, overjoyed, "Yes! Tawil, return to the team! "
I had never seen anyone so happy after being called back to work early. If such an employee were to be placed in any private company, she would be hated by the people around her … The normal people around her would definitely bite her.
After wandering around outside for a short while, I returned to the command center in a hurry. Sandora, a bunch of commanders, and most of my family members were already waiting here, even Shallow Shallow and Liliana were together. There was a huge holographic projection in the largest command center, and a bunch of people were gathered in a circle in front of the holographic projection, pointing and discussing things. From afar, it looked like young ladies and young wives picking cabbages at the market. Many commanders were retrieving data from the surrounding information terminals and delegating tasks. It was a lively scene.
After asking, I found out that when Sandora contacted me, there was indeed only one probe that seemed to have come into contact with the main body of the ghost fleet. However, in the few minutes that I was rushing to the command center, many probes suddenly sent back a lot of information. It was as if the large number of probes that were sent out in batches had all discovered a large number of ghost ships at the same time. Perhaps this meant that the ghost fleet had a structure similar to a discrete group. It wasn't just a 'group', but many scattered groups of ships that formed a common core.
Not only did the probes send back rough information such as the number and coordinates of the ghost fleet, but they also recorded very clear video data. Now, Sandora and the others were studying the clearest and largest group image, discussing it as they studied it.
"Wow, Ah Jun, you're here!" Shallow Shallow was the first to notice me. She immediately jumped over happily, hugged my neck, and kissed me. I felt that the reason why she was always the first to notice others was because most of the time, her attention wasn't focused on anything. Just look at Little Bubble, she was seriously counting how many bright spots there were on the image.
… Speaking of which, Little Bubble had successfully sneaked into the military area again.
"This is the ghost fleet's base?"
I looked up and almost choked on the second half of my sentence. "Holy crap! How many of them are there?! "
Sandora zoomed in on the image and adjusted the image of the ghost fleet to the maximum. Then, she changed the background of the entire fleet, turning the black background of the void transparent. This way, all the ghost ships were clearly displayed in front of us. The scale was astonishing.
"This is only a portion of the ghost fleet. The entire ghost fleet is at least ten times as many as this."
Sandora said in a low voice. On the holographic image, there were tens of millions of enormous starships, and in the middle of the entire fleet, there was a strange-looking super huge fortress.
"Hundreds of millions of starships … and all of them are so big …" I felt sweat dripping down my forehead. "Do you have a scale? Can someone tell me how big this black lump is first?"
I was referring to the black fortress in the middle of the image. From the image, the main part of the ghost fleet was a cluster of starships that were distributed in a gyroscopic shape. Countless starships formed a flat disk that was large at the top and small at the bottom like a swarm of bees. The spaceships at the outermost layer were large in number but small in size. The spaceships in the center were even larger. It was hard to explain how a ghost fleet that had lost control could maintain such a stable structure while drifting, unless they still had a certain degree of self-control. At the center of the entire cluster was a huge, strange black 'thing'. It looked like a bloated lump of meat with an irregular appearance. Layers of black streamlined structures piled up into a roughly spherical shape. There were flashing lights and huge red cracks on the surface.
"It looks like a rotten potato," Qian Qian muttered. She didn't like the ugly lump at all. "It's so ugly."
"Those with trypophobia won't be able to watch this." The missy pointed at the countless starships.
Under the control of the rear, the probes that were already near the fleet carefully measured the size and energy response of all the starships. Then, they came to a conclusion: the huge black fortress that looked like a rotten potato was at least three times the size of Earth. And the countless starships around it were almost as big as an Eternal-class mothership!
Of course, such huge motherships were also quite rare in this fleet. They could probably only be used as strategic weapons. Most of the ghost ships were the size of small and medium-sized Empire warships. At the same time, the probes also began to analyze the theoretical combat power of these ships, mainly by measuring their energy intensity, energy form, and hull structure to achieve a preliminary calculation of the target ship's combat power.
"Sixty percent of them are unarmed or only have a few anti-aircraft cannons." Sieves was responsible for analyzing the combat power of the ghost ships. She enlarged some pictures of the ghost ships and showed them to us. I noticed that most of them had thick and round hulls. Such hulls were rarely used as main warships. Most of the time, only fortress ships like the Frontier Class would have such thick hulls. The short and thick spaceships in the ghost fleet were obviously civilian transport ships or colonial ships. "The main energy reaction of all ghost ships is low purity psionic energy. Compared to the void decay psionic energy used by the Empire, there are too many impurities in this energy, and the efficiency is lower. Perhaps their creators haven't fully grasped the technology to create a hyperspace reactor and directly decay psionic energy from the void environment. They could only use the reactor placed in the main material plane to simulate the initial environment of the world and extract a small amount of psionic energy."
"This means that the technology level of ghost ships is about two levels lower than that of the Empire," Sandora said. Then, she explained to me, "Usually, we can use the control of energy to classify technology. Using psionic energy as an example, just recognizing psionic energy and trying to use it is considered a beginner. Being able to mine ready-made energy from some rare 'energy fields' in the universe and use it is considered a step further. Being able to build a reactor in the main material plane and master the process of extracting psionic energy is considered a step further. Above that is the initial mastery of the hyperspace reactor technology, which can extract psionic energy from the borders of the world. Above that is the Empire, which can directly create energy in the void. Basically, the Shiring Apostles have already reached the highest level, and above that is direct control of the void. As for these ghost ships … although they are far inferior to the Empire, they are still considered products of advanced civilizations. It is just that no one knows how strong they are compared to the Empire, and no one knows how big these ghost ships were back then."
"This fleet is very close to the nearest Empire outpost," Sandora added. "But strangely, they seem to be slowly decelerating. Oh, this is easier to understand since there is no concept of speed and distance in the void. All we can say is that this fleet is slowly deviating from the 'information signature' of the Empire's territory. This is a trend that can only be discovered by advanced statistics, and the ghost fleet is trying to bypass the macro world. However, I am afraid that it will be difficult to succeed … The macro world network is too big, and the ghost fleet has basically entered an unavoidable collision zone. Unless they know the exact structure of the macro world network, they will definitely crash into it. "
I thought to myself that this was exactly the same as Tawil's deduction. However, Sandora had only discovered this trend when she had a large group of commanders with first-hand information, while Tawil had only downloaded some data from the broadcast network and analyzed it for a while before he went to bed … Comparisons were odious, and some things could only be done by professionals.
"Anyway, we should go and take a look ourselves," Big Sis suggested when no one said anything. "I think these ships are too weird, and it is worth checking them out personally."
Everyone expressed their agreement. Shadora immediately ordered for the royal fleet to depart. The first family would personally investigate the situation of the Ghost Fleet, while Pandora began to mobilize her guards. I quickly patted the little lass's head. "This isn't a war. Who are you going to fight with by sending an army?"
In the end, Pandora's explanation was very simple: "If those things crash into us, it will be very troublesome, and if there is no other way, just blow them up first …"
Just imagine how easy it is to have Pandora's logic. No matter what problems you encounter in life, just blow them up first. I should have learned this during my second year of high school's make-up exam … I should be able to fight for a reduced sentence now …
The Royal Navy and Pandora's Heavy Guards were ready for battle at any time, and the ship's energy and control systems were always ready. After the order was given, they were ready in ten minutes. The only thing that took a little time was that it took me five minutes to capture Little Bubble: that girl wanted to go out and play with me no matter what.
It only took the fleet less than seven or eight minutes to find the Specter Fleet. Just as the intelligence said, this group of floating corpses was too close …
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