APTnovel Chapter 80: Spider Nebula
Chapter 80: Spider Nebula
The Large Magellanic Cloud is located at the boundary between the constellations Dorado and Mensa, containing approximately one hundred billion solar masses. Although it has a central bar and some spiral arms, it is still an irregular galaxy. Imperial scientists believe that it may have originally been a spiral galaxy, but was stretched into an irregular shape by the gravitational pull of the Milky Way.
Connecting the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Milky Way is an unusual long band of hydrogen gas—the Magellanic Stream, which extends around half of the Milky Way. Imperial scientists believe that when the two nebulae approached each other, it triggered a massive burst of star formation. The stellar winds and supernova explosions that followed propelled the hydrogen gas toward the Milky Way.
Interstellar Era 258, Star Marker (1, 4, 1, 4c0).
The Earth-Moon joint fleet used the Klein bottle space flip for long-distance travel and arrived at the Large Magellanic Cloud (Large Magellanic Cloud) in less than seven days.
The Earth-Moon joint fleet departed from hyperspace and arrived near a bright, expanding region of matter to the right of the center of the Large Magellanic Cloud's bar. Because the region's shape closely resembles a spider, it is also known as the Spider Nebula.
The Earth-Moon joint fleet dispersed and stationed themselves a thousand light-years away from the Tarantula Nebula, encircling it in a fan shape. Each fleet was three light-years apart, and the fleets began to detect it through the long-range "Twin Eyes".
The Tarantula Nebula is probably the largest and brightest hot hydrogen ion cloud in the known galaxies of the Earth Empire, with a diameter of about 3800 light-years (calculated at the speed of light in this space, 4c0).
Embedded within the Tarantula Nebula lies a hot, star-rich cluster of hundreds of thousands of closely packed stars. At its core are over ten thousand bright Golf-Rayet stars (massive stars), the smallest of which are at least 40 times the mass of the Sun. Among these stars are over two thousand exceptionally bright, massive stars, very close together, including one supermassive star with a mass 920 times that of the Sun, emitting light 5000 million times more intensely than the Sun itself.
Within the core region of the Spider Nebula, numerous warship wrecks were discovered. Analysis revealed that some of these wrecks belonged to the Thor civilization, while others were the remains of an unknown civilization. Drifting among these wrecks were more than a dozen translucent metal spheres—these were vacuum zero-point energy extractors from the "Metal Civilization," objects capable of "reversing" time! Therefore, the wreckage of the other warships likely also belonged to the "Metal Civilization."
Based on this, it is speculated that the Thor Gods Civilization and the "Metal Civilization" fought a fierce war with another unknown and powerful civilization in the Spider Nebula region. Could this unknown and powerful civilization be the "Bomb Star Civilization" that the Earth-Moon Joint Fleet is looking for?
The entire Earth-Moon Joint Fleet began to feel a sense of dread about this mysterious Spider Nebula region. With so many massive stars gathered together, along with a large amount of warship wreckage, the "Bomb Star Civilization" base must be located in the core region of the Spider Nebula.
Just as the commanders of the combined fleet were discussing further actions, all fleets issued a red alert. Eighty massive stars emerged from the Spider Nebula Rich Cluster. These eighty massive stars jumped out of warp space and entered normal space, directly attacking each of the eighty combined fleets one-on-one!
Eighty fleets immediately launched their own neutron star carriers, blocking the path of the approaching stars. The immense gravity of these eighty stars captured the stellar gas clouds from the outside in, pulling them directly towards the rapidly spinning neutron stars. This created eighty long, pointed cone-shaped light transmission bands, with neutron stars fifteen to sixteen kilometers in diameter at the tips and large-diameter stars at the far ends. The pulled-out stellar gas clouds continuously underwent thermonuclear explosions on the neutron star's surface. The rotating neutron star's two poles emitted intense rays, and the neutron star ejected various plasma jets. The stars' mass was continuously consumed, and the neutron star's plasma jets formed an ever-growing halo around the neutron star.
Eighty massive stars eventually collapsed as their mass was consumed and their internal regions were compressed by their own gravity, forming neutron stars!
Humanity on Earth cheered. In this battle, the Earth-Moon Joint Fleet had gained another eighty neutron war stars!
This was the first time that Lefia and the other Star Luo people had ever witnessed such a spectacular battle between a neutron star and a star, and they were all dumbfounded.
After the various fleets recovered the neutron star, a holographic joint meeting was immediately convened.
"It seems that neutron stars are a good way to deal with stars. With the neutron stars we just recovered, each of our fleets now has five neutron war stars, and the total number of neutron war stars for the eighty fleets is four hundred. However, there are too many stars in this Spider Nebula. It seems that it is not feasible to eliminate a large number of stars here with four hundred neutron stars."
"If we use a neutron star slingshot to launch the intelligent energy beam of the star-sniper ship, the distance is too far to reach it, and if we get too close, we might be hit by many stars, which is very dangerous. Let's think of a way that has the best of both worlds."
"The warship is controlled by artificial intelligence, uses warp drive to reach the vicinity of the core area, and then deploys the neutron war star?"
"While this might work, we probably won't be able to retrieve the deployed neutron stars. Without neutron stars, we seem to have no advantage in the face of a barrage of stars."
"Our warships use superphoton quark cryogenic insulation materials and have Klein force field intelligent energy bodies with integrated energy shields, right? If all else fails, our warships will just tough it out, pass through a large number of stars, and then use sniper ships to shoot at the stars, directly heading towards the core region of the Spider Nebula!"
"This method is good, but those stars are all massive stars. If we use large sniper ships to shoot them, it will create black holes. You know, those massive stars are very close. I'm afraid that a large number of black holes will be created, and we might be torn apart by a large number of black holes."
"Everyone, there's a question: what is our goal? Is it to destroy all the stars in the core region of this Spider Nebula, or is it simply to eliminate that 'Star-Bombing Civilization'?" Zhou Yuan asked, clearly pointing out the key issue after everyone had spoken.
"Dean Zhou, are there any differences between these two?"
"If it's just about eliminating that 'planet-bombing civilization,' that's even more difficult than destroying all the stars in the core region."
"Well, that makes sense."
"So far, the 'Bombardment Star Civilization' has not launched a second wave of attacks, which shows that our neutron star has effectively deterred them. If they have consciousness, I guess they are also trying to find a way to deal with the neutron star."
Just as Zhou Yuan finished speaking, the entire fleet sounded the alarm again: "Alarm! Alarm! A large number of warships have appeared behind the fleet's outer perimeter."
Judging from this situation, the Combined Fleet is now facing attacks from both sides.
The combined fleet did not turn around and continued to maintain its fan-shaped encirclement of the core area of the Spider Nebula.
A large number of Star Luo warships were released from the warehouses of large warships and transport ships. "Great Star Luo people, it's time for us to show our strength! Let's crush them completely!" Lefia personally commanded a Star Sniper ship called Tian Shen, leading a large number of Star Luo warships into warp space and attacking the invading fleet that was still a hundred light-years away.
The Star Luo fleet jumped out of warp space and faced the opposing fleet from afar.
"Human civilization, you are truly audacious to have broken into the temple."
Lefia got excited, "And who are you, you little bastard?"
"We are the Blue Deity Temple Legion."
"I don't care what kind of legion you are, you're asking for it." The Tian Shen sniper ship immediately fired its intelligent energy beam at the largest warship in the Blue Law Temple Legion. Because the Star Luo warship was out of range, Lefia had no choice but to order the Tian Shen sniper ship to lead the charge and command the artificial intelligence to open fire freely.
The intelligent energy beam previously fired by the Tian Shen sniper ship pierced directly through the warship in front of the largest warship of the Blue Jue Legion, and continued towards it. The Blue Jue Temple Legion panicked for a moment, and the largest warship hurriedly dodged the direct beam. However, before the largest warship had moved even tens of thousands of kilometers, the beam changed direction again, making a long-range attack inevitable, and vaporizing the largest warship of the Blue Jue Temple Legion. This completely threw the Blue Jue Temple Legion into disarray.
Taking advantage of the situation, the Star Luo warships unleashed powerful laser beams, maneuvering and crashing through the Blue Jue Legion. After the Blue Jue Temple Legion regained its footing, its warships did not back down, engaging the Star Luo warships in a fierce laser exchange.
Just as the two sides were locked in fierce combat, a large number of warships arrived from afar to join the battle. These were allies of the Blue Magic Temple Legion, the Black Stone Temple Legion.
What's giving the Star Luo people a headache is that six more fleets have arrived to support the Blue Jue Temple Legion and the Black Stone Temple Legion. The Star Luo people originally had more warships, and their ratio of four to one against the Blue Jue Temple Legion had now reversed to one to two.
The Earth-Moon Joint Fleet was forced to send additional warships to support the Star Luo people. With the addition of the Rutan sniper ship, cruiser motherships, cruisers, frigates, assault ships, and flying saucers, the tide of battle began to turn. The arrival of the eight hundred Rutan sniper ships, in particular, made them virtually invincible. Each Rutan could fire over fifty intelligent energy beams, totaling over forty thousand long-range beam strikes, causing the Temple Legion warships to flee in terror,不敢避锋 (不敢避锋 is a Chinese idiom meaning "daring not to engage in close combat"). What was terrifying was that these beams could even curve for long-range attacks.
Lefia and the Star Luo people finally witnessed the power of these projectiles. Eventually, the Templar Legion's warships fled the battle zone, observing from a distance. Lefia found this amusing and deliberately ordered the artificial intelligence to scare the Templar Legion; for every step the sniper ship took forward, the Templar Legion retreated several steps.
Later, Lefia got bored and instructed a trusted subordinate to lead the Star Luo warships to stay behind and protect the Temple Legion. Then she ordered the artificial intelligence to pilot the Tian Shen sniper ship back to the Alpha Fleet, while she stayed with Zhou Yuan and Wei Shan. Lefia naturally gave a very enthusiastic description of her first victory in over five hundred years.
The two sides and four factions were locked in a strange standoff. The joint fleet was trying to come up with a solution, and it was estimated that the "Bombardment Civilization" would not give up easily either.
(PS: Merry Christmas!)