The stars, but they become the gray wind

Aze snapped his fingers at Yang Weili and Reinhardt who were still in deep thought, and the scene in which the three of them were located switched again from the room filled with strange egg-shaped chairs to the void of space. With a flash of light cutting through the darkness, Yang and Reinhardt saw the scene they were most familiar with: thousands of fleets were besieging a planet, but there was also something familiar on the planet - a barrier star ring composed of regular pentagonal components that were large enough to cover the entire planet. Around the planet, thousands of warships whose appearances were unfamiliar to Yang Weili and Reinhardt were madly pouring firepower at the barrier star ring.

Reinhardt roughly estimated that the number of warships orbiting this planet alone exceeded 200,000. The scale of such a large fleet was even comparable to the total fleets of either the Alliance or the Empire.

The planet was completely surrounded by this fleet, and was armed to the teeth. Besides the planet-encircling barrier ring, Yang also spotted several artificial celestial fortresses larger than Iserlohn Fortress, estimated to be hundreds of kilometers in diameter. They blocked and defended the fleet encircling the planet, relentlessly attacking and bombarding it. They launched counterattacks, each of these massive fortresses easily destroying thousands of warships. Beyond these massive fortresses, the planet seemed to be surrounded by an incredible density of directed energy batteries. Tens of thousands of these massive batteries intercepted and vaporized all incoming attacks. Although these batteries occasionally suffered losses under the intense firepower, each one was immediately replaced by another. The two sides engaged in a frenzied exchange of firepower around the planet, with a firepower intensity that Yang and Reinhardt could hardly have imagined.

"This is?"

"The main fleet of the Interstellar Covenant is besieging a key planet occupied by an enemy they call the Star Controllers."

"The Interstellar Convention? Not the one you mentioned to me before..."

"Yes, it was them, and this is what happened on that planet back then. The Interstellar Pact, which occupied several core areas, was not an organization that pursued fairness and justice. The powerful civilizations within the pact treated the weaker ones as cannon fodder and tools. The Interstellar Pact accidentally provoked a passing super civilization. Although they were only an annoying bug to that super civilization, the extremely arrogant Interstellar Pact at the time still declared war on this super civilization they knew nothing about. And what you witnessed was the most crucial battle of that time, the siege of the Lost Paradise planet."

"The result of this war was that the entire fleet sent by the Interstellar Convention was easily wiped out by the enemy, leading to the collapse of the entire Interstellar Convention. That super civilization harvested the entire planet of Xingliu Lingering and left without a care in the world."

"The Barrier Star Ring created by that super civilization is also one of the prototypes of the Barrier Star Ring technology we possess."

"The Interstellar Covenant, aside from being comprised of multiple races, is like you, constrained by the historical baggage left over from natural evolution and development. The various civilizations and social classes within the Covenant are extremely unequal. The upper classes are obsessed with the extravagance brought by wealth and power, while the majority of the lower classes, deliberately guided by the upper elites, are driven by internal friction and hostility towards each other. Different species even discriminate against each other, leaving society as a whole in a state of extreme inefficiency and division."

"During this period, a fleet sent to occupy and colonize a planet with an indigenous civilization that had not yet ventured into space encountered an unknown spaceship. At the time, they contemptuously referred to this spaceship and the forces behind it as 'Star Controllers,' a word that carried an insulting meaning in their language."

"But what they didn't know was that the ship came from a super-civilization so powerful that they couldn't even comprehend it. The arrogant Star Covenant fleet launched an attack, but the ship from this super-civilization didn't even launch a decent counterattack. To them, it was just a swarm of bugs flying around their ears."

"The ship's actions led Star Covenant to misjudge the situation. They believed the ship and the forces behind it were too weak and backward to fight back, and instead launched an even more aggressive attack."

"Then, what happened next is what you see."

"In a nearly one-sided massacre, the ship from an unknown super-civilization easily wiped out the Star Covenant fleet attempting to occupy and colonize that pre-space-age indigenous planet."

"After destroying that fleet, the enemy appeared directly above the planet called Paradise in the core star field of the Star Covenant without any warning or preparation. In order to protect this planet, which was extremely important to the elite of the Star Covenant, the Star Covenant dispatched an entire main fleet. The result of this war was..."

Yang Weili and Reinhardt noticed that the Barrier Star Ring in the distance seemed to be getting brighter and brighter. The bright yellow etched lines on the surface of the Barrier Star Ring were surging with some form of energy pulses. Then, a blazing beam of light shot out from the surface of one of the components of the Barrier Star Ring and slammed into the Star Covenant fleet surrounding the entire planet. After a dazzling flash, more than half of the Star Covenant fleet surrounding the planet was wiped out. This was followed by the Barrier Star Ring's second energy sweep. After another violent and dazzling flash, the Star Covenant fleet surrounding the planet was almost completely wiped out.

After the Interstellar Convention's fleet was completely annihilated, the Rampart Star Ring seemed to have entered a special operating state. It began to rotate at high speed. Through the gaps left between the different components of the Rampart Star Ring, Yang and Reinhardt saw that the material on the surface of the planet below was being peeled off and decomposed layer by layer, and the entire planet was being gradually dismantled under the uncontrolled gravity.

"The planet-harvesting function of the Barrier Star Ring is a unique technology developed by that super civilization. Every celestial project they built has the ability to completely harvest all the matter and energy of an entire planet or star at one time." Aze explained to Yang Weili and Reinhardt, who were stunned by the scene of the entire planet being shattered and disassembled.

"Paradise is the seat of the Interstellar Pact Supreme Council, practically equivalent to the political center and capital of the entire Interstellar Pact. For an interstellar regime built on force and power, the main fleet was easily annihilated, and the capital planet was also directly destroyed, directly undermining the very foundation of the Interstellar Pact. The Interstellar Pact, already languishing and decaying through its long history of civilization, is now completely on the path of disintegration and destruction."

"Your current situation is very similar to theirs. The entire society is also severely stagnant and decadent, and natural evolution and development are also unable to keep up with actual needs."

"So what happened to this civilization called the Interstellar Covenant after that?"

"A chance to be reborn from the ashes, gained at an extremely tragic price."

"Following this incident, the Interstellar Covenant inevitably collapsed and disintegrated. Devastating civil wars erupted among the civilizations that comprised it. Some of the more powerful civilizations took the lead in utilizing the natural hyperspace channels, stargates, and wormholes within the core of the Interstellar Covenant to launch long-range strikes against the weaker civilizations. This civil war directly led to the collapse of most hyperspace channels and wormholes within the galaxy where the Interstellar Covenant was located. The entire galaxy was fragmented into countless warlords and pocket empires composed of civilizations of all sizes. A considerable number of civilizations experienced severe technological regression during this period, with some even regressing by thousands of years, their technological level regressing to the agricultural age."

"This devastating civil war directly led to the collapse of civilization across the galaxy. Civilizations that lost their ability to travel faster than light and those that experienced massive technological regression were completely severed. Even the few remaining, usable hyperspace lanes and wormhole networks were used by separatist warlords and pocket empires occupying parts of several star systems to wage endless civil wars."

"After thousands of years of devastating civil war, the various civilizations and species of the original Interstellar Pact rose from the ashes and re-established a new order, which would become the prototype of the Interstellar Protocol, one of the super civilizations that would later dominate their universe."

"After experiencing a civil war that destroyed their entire civilization, they learned a profound lesson and rose from the ashes. Under the influence of mecha-transmutation technology, the reborn Galaxy Protocol began to upgrade its life form, becoming a multi-species Gestalt civilization composed entirely of nanomachined bodies, with a shared consciousness."

"I don't think humanity can survive a horrific civil war of that magnitude and still stand up again."

"A thermonuclear war on 13 days in Earth's time almost led to the destruction of all human civilization."

"If such a devastating civil war were to happen again in the interstellar age, we would most likely never have the chance to stand up again." Yang found it difficult to agree with such an overly drastic method of allowing civilization to continue and change.

"Originally, according to our calculations, you wouldn't be able to reform in this way. The reason the Star Covenant was able to survive such a devastating war and recover is because their civilization is hundreds of times larger than yours, giving them greater resilience. Therefore, each civilization was able to recover after the war. If you were to experience such a civil war, the only outcome would be the complete demise of your entire civilization."

"Furthermore, you lack the mechanical transmutation technology they ultimately used to solve their problems. It wasn't until long after the Interstellar Accords were established that they realized this technology wasn't theirs at all, but rather a gift from the super-civilization that had destroyed their entire fleet and capital planet."

"Even for such an annoying mosquito, that super civilization was merciful enough not to slap the insect to death, but instead left a small gift. It was precisely because of this gift that the Interstellar Treaty was able to rise from the ashes of a devastating war and become the Interstellar Agreement."

"This gift also made the Interstellar Agreement a staunch supporter of a certain plan of that super civilization in the future, and almost saved the entire universe at a critical moment."

"These are the two things I want to show you: two civilizations that are similar to yours, and the history of how they transformed themselves and ultimately ascended."

"So... can your civilization accomplish such a difficult choice?"

Regarding the utilization value of black holes and quasars:

Quasars, the brightest persistent luminous objects in the universe, derive their incredible energy from matter falling into their black holes. Not only can their own light be used for solar power generation, but the near-light-speed relativistic jets emanating from their poles could also be used for power generation. Neutron stars' powerful magnetic fields, combined with matter ejected from previous supernovae, can provide a source of antimatter. Sometimes, collisions between high-energy cosmic rays and other matter create antiprotons, which are then trapped in the magnetic field. Antiprotons have been detected in Earth's magnetic field. Antiprotons combined with positrons form antihydrogen atoms. Positrons can be easily obtained through the decay of certain radioactive isotopes.

The immense gravity of black holes and neutron stars can also bend light, allowing them to be used as super-telescopes to observe distant targets. The greater the gravity, the closer the focus, and the more convenient it is to use. To use the Sun as a gravitational lens, a telescope would need to be at least 550 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth. For black holes and neutron stars, this distance is not necessary. Of course, for civilizations capable of interstellar travel, this would be a piece of cake.

Chapter 255 Future Vision Observation (6000 words)

"We... probably can't afford that kind of price." Yang Weili shook his head as he thought about the alliance's current dire situation.

"What about the other one?" The angel girl with long red hair looked at Reinhardt.

“I wonder what the consequences might be if I make the wrong choice now.”

"Anyway, it's worse than you can imagine. Before that happens, you need to understand the issue of the plasticity of civilization."

"Civilizational plasticity?" Yang repeated the word he had never heard of in confusion.

When the structure, form, and function of a civilization or species have not yet reached the mature and stable stage of interstellar civilization, they are easily affected by environmental factors and subject to uncontrollable changes. Civilizational plasticity primarily refers to the potential impact of external interference and intervention on a civilization's development during its maturation process. The plasticity of a civilization itself tends to decrease the later the stage of its development. Generally speaking, the plasticity of an intelligent species is greatest in its early stages of development. If a positive external force could intervene to provide assistance and guidance during this period, it would save the civilization countless time and costs.

"On the other hand, if a civilization has developed to the Information Age after the Industrial Revolution, or even a later stage, then this civilization has basically completely lost the plasticity of its earlier stages. You belong to this category."

"It's at such a late stage of development that it has completely lost the flexibility for external forces to intervene and provide assistance."

"Under these circumstances, if we still rely on external intervention to provide civilization with an opportunity to change, the cost will be extremely tragic."

"You've already seen two examples of this. A civilization that's at a later stage of development and has already entered a mature stage, if it wants to rely on external forces to change, it may have to pay the price of extinction."

"Is that so?" Reinhardt muttered to himself.

"If I could lead a comprehensive reform from the military to the economy to social thought, starting with the Empire, and the Alliance followed suit with similar means, could this outcome be avoided?"

"Mr. Reinhardt, have you misunderstood something? If simple internal institutional reforms were sufficient, then the Interstellar Covenant wouldn't have had to fight a devastating civil war."

"This isn't a problem that can be solved by simple internal reforms. It's a problem that requires the permanent elimination of the negative elements of human nature through technology."

"The reforms you're carrying out are, after all, only temporary solutions. How long will their effects last? A dozen years? Decades? At most, a hundred years. Humanity will fall back into the vicious historical cycle of corruption and inefficiency."

"As long as I'm alive, I can guarantee that this will not happen." Reinhardt patted his chest and said firmly.

"Well, Mr. Reinhardt, you may indeed be quite outstanding among humans, but you are still only human. As a human, you are subject to various external interferences, which may lead to deviations and gradually stray from your original intention. And according to the results given by our calculations, the probability of this happening without our intervention is quite high. And don't forget the most crucial point: your lifespan as a human is so short that it can be ignored. While you are alive, you may be able to ensure the continuation of these reforms and inject vitality into society, but what about after you die?"

"How long can this vitality last? No more than a hundred years at most, before humanity falls back into its previous state."

"To fundamentally change this, we must dehumanize the very beings that make up society. This means transforming humanity from being merely biological beings to becoming a new kind of human with a steadfast purpose, immortal, and capable of achieving a perfect balance between rationality and sensibility. This is an elevated form of life."

"Or perhaps a super artificial intelligence that is even more powerful than the former in all aspects will form the main body of society."

"Humanity's short lifespan and its easily altered nature and thoughts due to external influences mean that humans, or naturally evolved humans, are simply unsuited to the task of long-term civilizational development, which can easily span centuries or millennia."

"Don't be so quick to refute me, you two. Let me show you something else."

The scene around the three of them changed again. Yang and Reinhardt found that they seemed to be next to a star. The plasma flames burning on the surface of the star were surging, and coronal matter was ejected from the surface of the star from time to time.

This kind of scene wasn't new to Yang and Reinhardt, so they weren't alarmed. It was just that the opportunity to observe stars up close wasn't always available. Just as they were about to get a closer look at the active star beneath them, suddenly, without warning, the star below them began to violently contract inward, collapsing. The sea of ​​​​flaming plasma that made up the star seemed to be being sucked away by an invisible force. The entire star's volume began to shrink at a speed visible to the naked eye. As the star shrank, the object that was draining the star's matter gradually became apparent—a black hole appeared within the star. The rapidly rotating massive black hole was rapidly extracting and devouring all the matter on the star, rapidly sucking the main body of the star into the black hole. As the black hole swallowed more and more matter, the diameter of the black hole's event horizon rapidly increased. Eventually, the entire star was completely swallowed by the black hole, and a rapidly rotating supermassive Kerr black hole appeared in the star's place.

"You two should be able to recognize what this is, right?"

"A rapidly rotating, uncharged black hole?"

"That's only part of what it shows. The whole thing I saw was a highly efficient mining machine."

"Mining machinery? Wait? You don't mean to say?!!"

"That's right. This black hole is part of a massive mining machine used to harvest stars themselves. This is a common resource collection method used by some advanced super-civilizations. They launch supermassive black holes into stars, rapidly destroying and disintegrating them and collecting the entire star's worth of matter. The mining instructions issued by the owner of this mining machine directly created a massive void 2.5 million light-years in diameter in their part of the universe. All the stars and planets within the void were swallowed by the black hole, creating a vacuum zone in the universe devoid of any matter."

"Do you know how long the artificial intelligence controlling this mining machine has been steadfastly executing its initial instructions?"

"how long?"

"For two hundred million years, the super artificial intelligence controlling these black hole mining machines has been steadfastly executing the initial instructions given to them by their creators, continuously mining all celestial bodies within the area."

"Do you think you, or your descendants, or your students, can surpass this artificial intelligence? Can they remain steadfast and unwavering in their original aspirations for two hundred million years?"

"I'm afraid... I can't guarantee that. The only thing I can guarantee is that I will stick to my ideals."

"Not necessarily..." Aze stared at Reinhardt meaningfully. Another possibility was that after suffering a huge blow, he eventually became an empty shell that deviated from his ideals. After all, the human species is too fickle and fragile. A slight unexpected change in environmental factors may cause extremely tragic and vicious consequences.

"Well, since you think you can stick to your original aspirations and ideals, why not take a look at your other possibilities first? But before you do, I still have to ask you, do you really want to know your future and an alternative past?"

"If you refuse, I won't force you to know another possibility of your future or past."

"I'm not afraid of life-and-death fights on the battlefield, countless conspiracies and political assassinations, so how can I be afraid of facing my own future?" Reinhardt was not worried about the other possibility of his future and past. He believed that he could face it bravely.

"Okay, but I still have to remind you that sometimes this kind of thing is more terrifying than a life-and-death fight on the battlefield." Aze sighed as he looked at the young and fearless Reinhardt, and activated the Tianyan Star Ring's function to perform high-precision simulation and deduction of the possibilities of past time points.

The scene Reinhardt saw turned into a place he was very familiar with, which was his office. Reinhardt saw himself watching a video behind his desk, and the content of this video was actually the news that the planet Westat was bombed by nuclear weapons and almost all 200 million civilians were killed.

"This is?!"

"A high-precision deduction of an alternative scenario in the past, assuming you hadn't stopped your adversary from launching a nuclear bombardment on the planet Westat, and the resulting series of consequences."

Aze's voice appeared beside Reinhardt, and along with this reminder was the sound of anxious footsteps coming from outside the door. As the office door was pushed open, his familiar red-haired friend appeared.

"Lord Reinhardt, did you know about this from the beginning?" Completely different from the friendly red-haired friend in his memory, Gilfias who appeared in this simulation questioned himself in a heavy and serious voice.

"Yes." In response to the question from his red-haired best friend, the self in the simulation just replied calmly.

Gilfias's expression suddenly turned stern. He let out a long breath and continued, "I have always believed that the hegemony that Lord Reinhard pursues lies in the pursuit and creation of a just and equitable social environment that the current Goldenbaum Dynasty lacks."

"The demise of the old-school aristocracy is the inevitable outcome of historical evolution. Settling the scores of five hundred years will inevitably lead to bloodshed and tragedy. This is unavoidable, but we must not drag innocent people into this and make them victims. The new social system must be based on the liberated people. Only in this way can the foundation of the country be solid. If we treat the people as tools to be sacrificed at will, we will be digging our own graves! Lord Reinhard!"

"I understand what you mean, but as you said, bloodshed and sacrifice are inevitable, and such collateral damage is also inevitable."

And the voice of his red-haired best friend became a little angry.

"If these people were the aristocratic clans, in a power struggle of equals, they would have resorted to all sorts of cruelty without feeling any shame or guilt. But sacrificing innocent people, staining your hands with their blood—no matter how beautiful your words and excuses are, you can't wash away this stain, Lord Reinhard! Why would someone like you become so unkind and unjust for the sake of a momentary gain?"

"Isn't that enough of your preaching?" The self in the simulation seemed to become a little annoyed, and shouted at his red-haired best friend in an emotional manner.

"First of all, Gilfias! I didn't ask for your opinion on this matter, so don't mention it again!"

"Don't forget, who are you to me? What qualifications do you have to say such things to me?"

"Your loyal subordinate."

"That's enough. Go and have a good rest."

Seeing that he had made up his mind about the ever-changing Reinhard, Siegfried Gies bowed silently and left Reinhard's room.

"This..." Reinhardt fell silent just looking at himself in the simulation. He couldn't imagine that he would treat his most trusted red-haired friend in such a rude and unreasonable way. He seemed to feel that there was some kind of rift between himself in the simulation and his red-haired friend.

“The butterfly effect, remember?”

"Just the slightest change could have caused a catastrophic chain reaction, and if you hadn't stopped the massacre at that time, the chain reaction would have been beyond your ability to bear and predict." Aze's voice rang out again around, but Reinhardt didn't see her. Her voice at this time seemed to come from all directions.

The surrounding scenes changed again in a burst of light and shadow, and the following deduction and simulation scenes almost scared Reinhardt, who was watching from a third-party perspective. In the deduction and simulation scenes, he was holding Gilfias, who was covered in blood, and looked panicked.

"Gilfias

The doctor will be here soon, hang in there!

"Lord Reinhardt...are you alright?"

"I'm sorry, I can no longer help you fulfill your ideals, Master Reinhardt... Please forgive me..."

"Fool! What are you talking about?"

"The doctor will be here soon! This kind of injury will heal quickly! When you're better, we'll go to sister and tell her we've won another victory. Okay? It's a deal!"

"Lord Reinhard..." Gilfias coughed violently, blood oozing from his wounds and mouth. Reinhardt in the simulation held his forehead and said in a trembling voice, "Don't say anything until the doctor arrives!"

"You must control the entire universe... Lord Reinhard..."

"I will, and then we can go together, okay?"

"Please tell Miss Anne Roger that Sieg has kept his promise, but I am useless and have let her down. I can no longer be with her or you..."

"no, do not want!"

"If you want to say something, go and tell her in person! I won't tell her for you! How about this? We'll go see her together later. She must have a lot to say to you! Just tell her whatever you want to say." Reinhardt, who was playing the simulation, was completely panicked.

When Gilfias's last smile disappeared, the blond young man's heart seemed to stop beating. In a moment of shock, he knew that he had lost his right-hand man, family, friend, and partner forever. Siegfried Gilfias had left him forever.

"Gilfias... answer me! Gilfias, why are you not speaking? Gilfias, answer me! This is an order!"

Gilfias's body had gradually become cold, but the self in the simulation was still tightly holding Gilfias's hands that had lost their strength.

Reinhardt, who was staring at all this outside the simulation, felt his heart skip a beat.

"Is this another possibility? Will I...will I lose Gilfias?" Reinhardt's voice outside the screen also trembled and contained a hint of fear.

"The chain reaction caused by the butterfly effect can often be catastrophic, with an unexpected factor leading to results that would have been impossible before the unexpected event occurred."

"If you hadn't stopped that incident, he would have been the one who died in the assassination."

"And this will lead to a much worse consequence. You've suffered a huge mental blow. Therefore, you've strayed from your original intention and ended up... well... with nothing. Maybe that's not quite right?"