Light Speed ​​War

Chapter 124: The Wheel Demon Eye

“Dean Zhou, this is the fourth task we’ve identified.” Kofi pointed to the holographic screen.

The fourth task issued by the "Matrix Civilization" was supposedly to allow the Earth Empire to officially participate in the Great Wall War, but in reality, it was to allow the Earth Empire to occupy a fortress. This fortress was both a hyperspace communication base station for the Great Wall and a crucial transit point for the several Great Wall alliance factions plotting against the Matrix Great Wall faction.

This fortress's coordinates in the Cosmic Great Wall system are (36, 28, 22), which corresponds to the 22nd star sector in the 28th star region of the 36th quadrant. The speed of light in the 28th star region is 1200c0.

"1200 times the speed of light (C0)?"

"Yes, the information obtained from the 'light slice' shows that this is the case, and this Cosmic Wall Fortress is the hyperspace communication and transportation hub for those Cosmic Wall factions. The master's intention is for us to occupy this fortress and cut off their hyperspace communication."

"Can't we destroy this fortress?"

"The master did not explicitly say destruction, but only occupation."

"Alright, then we'll occupy it. And what happens after we occupy it?"

"Our master will send more of our companions to launch an attack on them."

"1200 times the speed of light (cos 0), can our fleet handle that?"

"The Imperial fleet is currently facing some difficulties; I suggest utilizing the star cluster."

"Similar to that Pandora Virgo team?"

"Yes."

"We don't have a star cluster yet. How long will it take to form one?"

"Simply forming a stellar cluster would theoretically take about half a month. However, considering the need to enhance the stellar cluster's combat, defense, and communication capabilities, such as integrating the Empire's 'Shengtianbo,' 'Sniper Arrow,' and 'Halo Garden,' the overall timeframe is estimated to be one and a half months."

"How many star clusters can be created in a month and a half?"

"If the Empire were to commit half of its resources, it could probably build fifteen star cluster fleets in a month and a half."

"What level is this star cluster fleet? This time, the Virgo constellation of the Pandora civilization has a range of 100,000 stars within a ten-light-year radius."

"Dean Zhou, we are also following this standard."

"Thomas, what do you think?"

"Dean Zhou, Kofi, I believe that stellar cluster fleets are suitable for high-light-speed plane regions and small-scale wars, and we must manufacture them in large quantities. In addition, since we are now going to participate in the Great Wall of the Universe war, we need to mobilize more other star systems in addition to the Milky Way to meet the needs of the large-scale war in the Great Wall of the Universe."

"Commander-in-Chief, you are right. Relying solely on the Milky Way galaxy may not be enough for the future."

"In other words, we need to build fleets capable of handling wars of all sizes and at all levels."

"Yes, Dean Zhou."

"That would be a huge workload."

"Yes."

"Thomas, Coffey, why can't we utilize the Pan-Interstellar Alliance? Why don't we have its members help us process those non-critical components?"

"We've thought about that too. But it's a very large system engineering project. If they can guarantee the time and quality when we entrust the production of fragmented, non-critical parts to them, that's great. But if there are delays or the quality is substandard, it will cause some trouble and could easily lead to strained relationships. Moreover, managing them will consume more of our energy."

"Thomas, you're right. I feel more at ease doing it myself."

"Let's build some star cluster fleets to deal with this first, and then spend time building and reserving large numbers of star cluster fleets and star system fleets later."

"Well, that's the only way."

"In order to build more star systems in the future, we need to find star systems with few advanced intelligent civilizations. Dean Zhou, I'll trouble you to search for suitable star systems in the Armenian Cosmic Great Wall for the next month or so. The Empire will also send another one hundred fleets to participate in this search in the Cosmic Great Wall. I hope to find two thousand suitable backup star systems in a month and a half."

"Coffey, what are the standards of this advanced intelligent civilization? Is it the ability to travel between stars, or a travel speed exceeding the speed of light by a certain percentage?"

"Let's define this advanced civilization as Type I or above, whose range of activity extends beyond the range of its parent planet's star system."

"okay."

The fleets led by Zhou Yuan, Wei Shan, and Lefia, along with the other one hundred fleets of the Empire, began to disperse and set off for various superclusters near the Earth Empire's Milky Way galaxy base in the Armenian Cosmic Great Wall. Each of the one hundred and one fleets was responsible for more than ten superclusters, searching among these more than one thousand superclusters for suitable star systems with few advanced intelligent civilizations that could be utilized by the Empire.

The fleet travels through hyperspace into star systems. If a star system exhibits phenomena such as a Dyson sphere, extremely strong electromagnetic waves or light signals, warp drive patterns, or interstellar warfare, it is immediately ruled out, and the fleet moves on to the next system. If no intelligent civilization of Type I or higher is observed or detected in a star system, its location and designation are added to the Earth Empire's star fleet candidate list. Furthermore, the fleet will place a "Star Eye" within this star system, capable of observing the entire galaxy, to monitor whether such a system, currently lacking advanced intelligence, will develop one in the future. Currently, a single "Star Eye" within a star in the Earth Empire has an observation range of four million light-years; even within the Milky Way galaxy, only about two thousand "Star Eyes" are needed for comprehensive observation.

Some of these candidate star systems were later equipped with super-large Klein force field generators by the Earth Empire to drive them and make them carriers for the Earth Empire's star system fleet.

The fleet led by Zhou Yuan, Wei Shan, and Lefia has discovered eighteen relatively "clean" star systems among more than ten superclusters. This "clean" means that the most advanced intelligent civilizations in the entire star system are still in the form of primitive civilizations.

The next supercluster, the Guma Supercluster, is the last supercluster that Zhou Yuan and his two companions' fleet are searching for.

The ancient Maastricht supercluster, containing over 2,800 galaxies, is a relatively large supercluster. Within the ancient Maastricht supercluster, there is a galaxy that radiates outwards like a wheel, somewhat similar to the Wheel Galaxy in the constellation Sculptor, which forms part of our cosmic Great Wall.

Wheel galaxies are an extreme type of spiral galaxy. They are formed when the energy of the galactic nucleus in the polar jets does not change significantly, and the angle between the magnetic axis of the galactic nucleus and the rotation axis is 90 degrees or close to 90 degrees.

The Wheel Galaxy in the constellation Sculptor, located in the Great Wall of this universe, was long ago thought by scientists to be a spiral galaxy that collided with another smaller galaxy, resulting in its wheel-like shape. The Wheel Galaxy's outer rings consist of many newly formed stars, while the inner rings are composed of diffuse spokes made up of slightly older star associations. These spokes then connect to the inner rings, where the stars are even older.

The wheel-lens galaxy discovered by Zhou Yuan and his two companions in the ancient Maastricht Cluster, while also exhibiting a wheel-like ring shape—meaning a bright inner core surrounded by a starburst ring—did not possess the characteristics of the Wheel of Sculptor. Even in neighboring galaxy clusters, no galaxies suitable for collision were found around this wheel-lens galaxy. Furthermore, the stars in the inner ring of this wheel-lens galaxy were neither old nor young.

"That super-bright center and translucent light blue wheel-shaped lens galaxy must be something strange," Zhou Yuan thought to himself.

"Shanmei, that Wheel Galaxy is acting strangely. Order all warships in the fleet to be on high alert and raise the defense level to level three. We'll be stationed in the neighboring galaxy not far from the Wheel Galaxy."

"Ok."

On a terrestrial planet in a neighboring galaxy of the Wheel Lens Galaxy, at night, the Wheel Lens Galaxy appears to this planet like a giant umbrella covering the sky, with clusters of incredibly bright stars shining at its center. Wei Shan and Lefia were somewhat captivated by this starry backdrop.

“The more beautiful and elaborate something is, the more dangerous it is,” Zhou Yuan suddenly blurted out, immediately drawing angry glares from the two beauties.

"Okay, you two are an exception!"

"Brother, the more I look at this Wheel Galaxy, the more I feel like it has a magical attraction for me."

"Sister Shan, I feel the same way."

"But I don't feel any magic power, this doesn't seem fair. No, the fleet must thoroughly scan this 'magic eye' tomorrow."

"Now that you mention 'the Demon Eye,' it really does seem somewhat like it. It really does seem to be watching us."

"Could it be a spyglass invented by aliens?" Wei Shan approached Zhou Yuan somewhat nervously.

“I feel the same way.” Zhou Yuan deliberately emphasized his tone.

Even the daring Lefia approached Zhou Yuan, saying, "Don't scare me, is that a huge spyglass?"

"That's not necessarily true. The 'Star Eyes' we placed in some stars in galaxies before were also spyglasses."

“Okay, we need to stay in the sun tonight, that will make me feel more comfortable.”

"Lefia, you're not serious, are you?"

“Of course it’s true,” Wei Shan chimed in.

Zhou Yuan wanted to slap himself. Now the three of them were going to have to sleep in the sun that night, and Zhou Yuan wasn't used to sleeping in the sun.

"Lefia, if the three of us were mice, it would be even better if we lived in the sun."

"why?"

"Guess."

"Big brother, I'm rather slow. Princess, guess."

"A mouse, why not raise a litter of baby mice?" Lefia couldn't help but laugh.

"Hmm, that's starting to look interesting. The three of us mice live in the sun, sleeping and munching on sun cheese, until the universe ends. How wonderful would that be?"

"Hahaha." All three of them laughed so hard they were doubled over, while poor Lefia was still clutching her stomach.

The outer ring of stars in that wheel-lens galaxy has a spoke-like band of stars, many of which blink and seem to be laughing.

"Big brother, look, what's going on there?"

Following the direction Wei Shan pointed, Zhou Yuan and Lefia also noticed that in that direction, the spokes of the star umbrella of the Wheel Galaxy had actually "moved." Many stars in that direction seemed to vibrate back and forth. This vibration, like a contagion, quickly spread to other parts of the star umbrella spokes. Then, all the star umbrella spokes in the entire sky "moved," and the super-bright clusters of starlight in the inner ring of the Wheel Galaxy's core, at the center of the large umbrella in the sky, became even brighter and more dazzling.

"I knew it," Zhou Yuan muttered to himself. "There's something strange about this Wheel Galaxy."