APTnovel Chapter 102: The Arrow That Slays the Heavens
Chapter 102: The Arrow That Slays the Heavens
"Commander, a large number of neutron stars and stars are about to strike at a distance. Please take cover for the time being."
"Mudar, are you sure it was the Earth Empire fleet that did it?"
"Yes, Commander."
"Pass on my order: Project the Klein space erasure field. I want to seal off the Klein space within a range of 300,000 light-years in this region."
"As ordered!"
The Virgo Fleet's ninety-nine star barrier systems ceased projecting stars and continued to draw energy from them, generating Klein space decay fields. These Klein space decay fields were projected into the surrounding space by the ninety-nine barrier systems.
The large number of neutron stars and stars projected by the Earth Empire fleet towards the Virgo fleet fell from Klein space and rushed directly into normal space. They did not directly hit the Star Barrier System and the main Virgo fleet. Due to inertia, the neutron stars and stars in interstellar space continuously attracted stars along their path, and the stars continuously collided with other stars along their path.
The Earth Empire's "Star Eyes," deployed in the Andromeda Galaxy, naturally detected the anomaly and the failed attack.
"Dean Zhou, the enemy has actually mastered Klein's space containment technology."
"This blockade should work on them as well, otherwise the Star Barrier system should still be projecting stars."
"Very likely. What do we do now?"
“It’s no longer possible to target them with projected neutron stars and stars. The enemy warships are also emitting gamma rays, and there are nearly a million of them. We are no match for them in conventional warfare. Unless we lure them out and get them out of that Klein space blockade area.”
"They might not come out."
"If we don't come out, we'll spend more time. We'll use warp drive and then project a neutron star."
"it is good."
One hundred and seventy-nine Earth Empire fleets from various parts of the Andromeda Galaxy began assembling star-shaped "Halo Gardens" and, through Klein Space's long-distance travel, joined forces with one hundred and eleven Lunar Empire fleets that had just arrived in the Andromeda Galaxy. The combined Earth-Moon fleet, comprising two hundred and ninety star-shaped "Halo Gardens," began its journey towards the Virgo fleet.
"Commander, something terrible has happened! The Earth Empire's 290 fleets, each piloting a star, have traveled from the Triangulum Galaxy to the Andromeda Galaxy and will soon attack us."
"Their lair is in the Triangulum system. How long will it take them to arrive?"
"About four hours later."
"Pass on my order: retreat completely and return to the Virgo Cluster."
"As ordered!"
One hundred star barrier systems ceased operation, the giant system was dismantled and reloaded, the Klein space blockade was lifted, and millions of warships rapidly entered the Klein flip space. Other interstellar fleets were already waiting, and after nearly five million warships had all converged, they began to retreat through the Klein space towards the Virgo Cluster.
The Earth-Moon Joint Fleet, consisting of 290 stars in the "Halo Garden," has also begun its journey toward the Virgo Cluster.
"Reporting to the commander, the Earth Empire fleet is pursuing us. Their speed is greater than ours, and they will catch up with us sooner or later, or even reach the star cluster before us."
"Then we'll take a detour to the Grumpy Galaxy in the Hydra Cluster. Notify the Imperial Fleet Headquarters to prepare for an attack by the Earth Empire."
"As ordered!"
Nearly five million warships began to change course, gradually moving away from the Virgo Cluster and heading towards the Hydra Cluster.
The Earth-Moon Joint Fleet ceased its pursuit, changed course, and returned to the Andromeda Galaxy.
Through the "Eye of the Stars," the Earth Empire observed that numerous civilizations were ravaged or destroyed by the Virgo Fleet. If we add the stellar attacks from the Triangulum, the Milky Way, and their satellite galaxies, the number of destroyed civilizations is at least over a hundred.
The Alpha Fleet, leading 290 Earth-Moon Joint Fleets, arrived at the Earth Empire in the Milky Way in about a day via the Klein Hyperspace voyage.
"Gentlemen, it can be said that since its founding, the Earth Empire has encountered its greatest enemy ever. This Virgo Fleet is estimated to be only a small part of its military strength. The enemy has even mastered the Klein hyperspace blockade technology. This hyperspace blockade technology caused our neutron star projection to fail. You can imagine that without countermeasures, we will not gain much advantage. I hope the Imperial Academy of Sciences will speed up the research and development of countermeasures." Thomas, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Fleet, spoke frankly.
"As the Commander-in-Chief said, if we could also master hyperspace blockade technology, we could indeed prevent the enemy from traveling and striking at long distances. However, this hyperspace blockade is bidirectional and would also limit our own long-distance travel and long-distance strikes against the enemy." The president of the Academy of Sciences, Kofi, was still somewhat dissatisfied with this hyperspace blockade technology.
"The enemy's giant star-projection system has left a deep impression on me. You could say those giant star-barrier systems are interstellar catapults. Could we perhaps replicate them?" An Imperial scientist, the Gesang man Kupalenchen, seemed to see the potential strategic prospects of that giant star-barrier system. "Using our supersonic travel capabilities, we could also deploy these giant star-barrier systems in the star systems surrounding the enemy's star system, rapidly deploying neutron stars or stars. If we could also disrupt their hyperspace blockade technology, the effect would be even better."
"Everyone, how were the more than one hundred satellite star systems surrounding our Milky Way destroyed?" This question from the Imperial scientist, the Star Luo scientist Leska, jolted many people awake, including Zhou Yuan. Leska, with his sharp mind, was the first Star Luo scientist to be elected as an academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
Lesca's words drew the attention of all the scientists, and Zhou Yuan also fell into deep thought.
Lesca's question couldn't be clearer: the destruction of the Virgo fleet had to be lethal, meaning the destruction of the entire star system where the Virgo fleet was located. Perhaps it was precisely because of the inherent warlike nature of the Star Luo people that Lesca came up with such a bold and direct idea.
Seeing all the scientists from the Imperial Academy of Sciences deep in thought, Lefia was naturally delighted, thinking she would reward Leska handsomely upon returning. Lefia glanced at Zhou Yuan and couldn't help but smile smugly. Wei Shan, unaware of the situation, looked on in bewilderment as Lefia stared at Zhou Yuan and smiled.
However, the destruction of over a hundred satellite galaxies around the Milky Way is not so simple. It seems unlikely that the Milky Way's gravity alone could destroy so many satellite galaxies. Even if the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way were to collide naturally 50 billion years from now, it wouldn't be destructive; rather, it would simply involve the intermingling of most of the stars and other celestial bodies in both galaxies, eventually forming a larger galaxy.
"To destroy a galaxy, the energy required would be at least galactic in scale, right?"
"That's not necessarily true. For example, the intelligent energy beam of our sniper starship can destroy a star with just one beam. The energy of the intelligent energy beam of our warship is not the energy of an entire star."
"That's due to the star's own collapse; the star crushes itself."
How did that galaxy collapse?
"Could we utilize the supermassive black holes at the centers of some galaxies?"
"That's a good idea, but black holes only absorb matter. If black holes could eject matter or energy, then we could destroy galaxies. Even if we couldn't destroy the entire galaxy, we could at least strike enemies over a large area within it."
"You mean, if black holes can eject matter, such as large amounts of ultra-intense gamma rays or X-rays, we could use the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies as weapons to attack or destroy other galaxies?"
"Yes."
"Theoretically speaking, black holes do indeed just absorb matter. However, don't forget that rotating black holes also have a Penrose process." It was only after Lesca's reminder that everyone noticed the Penrose process of rotating black holes, also known as Kerr black holes.
The Penrose process was initially intended to extract the rotational energy of a rotating black hole (see Chapter 52, related content on rotating black holes). Although the Earth Empire fleet conducted an experiment involving a neutron star and a black hole during the war with the Spider Nebula, the violent collision between the neutron star and the black hole only emitted a large amount of electrons and light, but that massive black hole was not a rotating black hole (see Chapter 83, related content on the destruction of the Nebula).
Leska's idea is that if a large number of neutron stars or stars are projected into a supermassive black hole, a large amount of charged particles and electromagnetic waves will accumulate at the black hole's accretion disk. The rapidly rotating charged charges near the accretion disk will form a strong magnetic field in the polar direction. This strong magnetic field can, in turn, accelerate the charged particles, potentially accelerating the orbiting charged matter and plasma in the accretion disk to the speed of light, or accelerating gamma rays and X-rays to faster-than-light speeds, and then ejecting them at the poles of the black hole. This would allow for large-scale, superluminal attacks at a distance.
"Theoretically, this is indeed feasible. However, if we want to attack another galaxy, how can the ejection direction of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy be aimed at the attacked galaxy? Also, since this black hole ejects from both poles, if one pole attacks the galaxy, won't the other pole destroy other innocent galaxies?"
"I've come up with a solution. I think Taser, Wei Shan, and I are the most qualified to speak on this," Zhou Yuan finally said after numerous scientists offered their ideas. "In Interstellar Era 136, the Lunar Empire implemented a 'Moon-Earth Connection Project' to establish contact with the Earth Empire in the Milky Way. Through two 'super energy exchangers'—which contain the necessary optical paths for intelligent energy bodies, or what we now call 'intelligent super energy exchangers'—they achieved a 'gamma-ray Morse code matrix.' Similarly, we can use two super-massive 'intelligent super energy exchangers' to modulate and adjust the direction of gamma-ray bursts at the poles of the supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy." (See Chapter 67, Energy Shield section)
Taser and Wei Shan nodded. Although more than a hundred years had passed, they still remembered the circumstances of contacting the Earth Empire.
"Dean Zhou, does that mean that as long as we create a massive 'super energy exchanger,' we can develop galactic attack weapons?"
"Yes, that's the theory. However, for even faster strikes, I would like to add a super-powerful Klein force field generator to the 'intelligent super energy exchanger' function, so that this galactic attack weapon can achieve hyperspace rapid strike capability."
Okay. Thank you.
Commander-in-Chief Thomas finally breathed a sigh of relief. If he mastered the intergalactic attack weapon, even if the weapon could not destroy an entire star system, he would be satisfied as long as it could deal a devastating blow to a wide range of enemies, such as the damned Virgo Fleet's lair.
The Earth Empire later referred to this powerful weapon, capable of destroying a galaxy, as the "Heaven-Slaying Arrow."
(P.S.: The "Heaven-Slaying Arrow" concept art is shown in the center of the book cover, depicting a galaxy projection. Of course, gamma rays are invisible to the human eye; for the sake of clarity, it's depicted as a visible light arrow. At the top of the cover is a concept art of a stellar "halo garden," containing a sun, an Earth, a moon, and a warship. I'm not satisfied with the image of the warship. The meteor-shaped image to the left of the stellar "halo garden" represents a neutron star projection strike. The fireball at the bottom of the cover is a representation of a stellar strike.)