The stars, but they become the gray wind

"Observed the abnormal and continuous acceleration of multiple star systems as they were ejected from the edge of the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Cluster?"

"It is highly likely that the Kaplan stellar engine caused this phenomenon?"

"Fuck, someone actually uses an entire star system as an immigration ship?"

"And it seems there are more than one?" Yuki looked at the analysis report showing the number of wandering star systems approaching the Milky Way disk with abnormal phenomena.

"There are 53 of them. Which Type II civilization created these?"

"They've built over 50 star-system-sized immigration ships. Judging by their speed, they've been flying for tens of thousands of years, right? Judging by their trajectory, their starting point should be here?" Yuki drew a dotted line on the holographic display.

The stars in the outermost ring of the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy have been pulled away by the Milky Way's gravity, extending to a mere 15000 light-years from the uppermost polar regions of the Milky Way's disk. The regions closer to the disk have been completely destroyed, with most of the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy's stars now blended into the Milky Way.

"Did it start from the region of the Sagittarius Atoll Galaxy closest to the Milky Way?"

"The speed of the directed plasma jets observed from stars can only reach 50% of the speed of light?"

"A large number of high-energy gamma photons and muons were found in the spectrum analysis of plasma ejected from stars?"

"The conclusion is that they doped a large amount of antimatter hydrogen into the directed plasma extracted from the star to increase the exhaust velocity and propulsion efficiency of the stellar engine?"

"The Kaplan stellar engine can be used like this? No wonder it's so fast." Yuki was a little confused about this alien civilization that was driving more than 50 star systems from the Sagittarius Dwarf Ellipsoidal Cluster towards the Milky Way. They could increase the navigation speed of the stellar engine to 50% of the speed of light. God knows how much antimatter was left in the plasma used for directional propulsion they ejected towards the stars to increase the speed to this level.

Although there have been ideas in the history of Sky Star to create products similar to the Kaplan star engine, compared with the spacecraft that were able to conduct interstellar navigation at a speed close to the speed of light at that time, the efficiency of the Kaplan star engine, which could only move tens of light years in hundreds of thousands of years, was too low. Although technically it was not difficult to transform the Dyson cloud facilities on thousands of stars within 100 light years around Sky Star into Kaplan star engines, a series of abnormal stellar lifespans in the local bubble of the Sky Galaxy, including the Kylias twin stars, prevented Sky Star from using the Dyson cloud facilities to dismantle these stars rashly.

"To propel the entire star system to 50% of the speed of light, I'm afraid most of the antimatter produced by stellar astronomical engineering must be put into the engine."

"But... this universe clearly has the technology to utilize subspace for cheap, short-distance faster-than-light travel. Why... would they choose such a bizarre interstellar travel plan?"

Four days ago

"This is the result after adding them to the calculation." Aze stared thoughtfully at the core of the advance fleet that existed in the Tianyan Star Ring calculation. It was a giant spaceship converted from an asteroid with a diameter of 200 kilometers. This spaceship and the advance fleet it carried were traveling at a speed close to the speed of light and were expected to arrive in the Milky Way in more than 500 years, nearly half the time of the more than 50 star systems equipped with Kaplan engines that were moving towards the Milky Way. This advance fleet would arrive in the Milky Way at least 500 years earlier than the main force. Judging from their navigation trajectory, they did not intend to go straight to the star-dense area in the center of the Milky Way, but would make a brief stop and transfer on an arm on the periphery of the Milky Way before heading to the center of the Milky Way. This arm was the main area where the Empire and the Alliance were located.

"After taking them into account, the result is a billion times outrageous?" Aze said to Kalisi and Yuki on the communication interface.

"They're most likely just passing through the arm of the Milky Way where the Alliance and Empire are located. However, considering the nature of humans at that time, it's very likely that humans would launch an active attack on an alien civilization they don't understand. My conclusion is that 500 years from now, there's a high probability that humans would proactively attack such an alien civilization to deflect internal conflict and the risk of civil war."

"Why does it look so familiar again?" Carisi covered her face with her hands and felt a headache.

"Then you'd have to ask the United Planetary Governing Bodies 500 years from now. Having hit a bottleneck in science, technology, and economic growth, they, like the humans of the Galactic Federation centuries ago, have chosen a drastic solution with significant side effects to address social stagnation. The only difference is that while humans centuries ago chose dictatorship, humans 500 years from now will opt for external expansion and aggression to divert internal conflict."

"Diverting internal conflicts and getting yourself killed is still okay."

"A civilization that can transform over 50 star systems into spacecraft equipped with Kaplan engines, no matter how weak, will not be something humans will be able to provoke 500 years from now, when they will still be limited to exploiting planetary resources. Even if it only comes with an advance fleet whose mothership is a 200-kilometer-sized asteroid, it will be enough to give humanity 500 years from now a hard time."

"However, should we consider making contact in advance?"

"Okay, sure. But even if they beat humans to death in 500 years, it won't have much to do with us, right?"

"Let me handle this matter. 500 years from now, can humanity change its development model to avoid the risk of extinction in a war with advanced alien civilizations? I think the two people I'm about to visit may play a crucial role."

...the lacquer furniture will have three threads...

"That's what's going on. How about you guys give us your thoughts on the state of humanity 500 years from now?"

"It's hard to imagine... that over 500 years later, humanity would be on the verge of extinction in a war with alien civilizations, and this war was initiated by humans."

"But now we know, right? We can avoid it?" Reinhardt pondered the matter.

"Essentially, 500 years from now, human society has become similar to yours today, faced with the choice of either launching wars abroad to divert internal conflicts, or engaging in a devastating civil war."

"Just as human society chose the toxic and drastic drug of dictatorship hundreds of years ago at the end of the Galactic Federation, humanity has made a similar mistake 500 years later. In order to solve society's chronic illnesses, it has given itself another drastic drug. This time, the side effects of this drastic drug have directly brought human civilization to the brink of extinction."

"It would be foolish to rashly start a war against a more advanced alien civilization."

"The most crucial issue is actually... the cyclical development of human society. 500 years from now, they will inevitably face this dilemma. They will either fight a civil war to reallocate resources, or engage in foreign war to divert conflicts."

"The result of choosing the latter is likely to be what you see."

Aze called up the three broken planets in the simulation screen. Feishaxing, which was turned into broken planetary debris by huge meteorite showers and relativistic kinetic missiles, deviated from its orbital orbit. Over several orbital cycles, it continued to approach the sun. It is expected that it will eventually fall into the star after exceeding the Luoxi limit.

500 years later, Heinessen, whose surface was covered with urban clusters far more densely populated than today, was hit by a giant asteroid with a diameter of more than 100 kilometers at a speed of more than 0.8 times the speed of light, which directly smashed 1/5 of the earth's crust. The continental plates on the planet were thrown into space in whole pieces. Everything on the surface was completely razed to the ground in this impact. The satellite defense arrays and fleets in orbit were also turned into pieces of debris under the attack of relativistic kinetic missiles. Under the influence of the planet's gravity, large amounts of debris continued to fall into the planet almost every day, causing a dense meteorite shower on the surface of the planet composed of planetary fragments thrown into orbit and the debris of artificial space buildings, spacecraft and other products. The entire planet was bombarded by intensive meteorite showers almost every day, and the surface environment was completely unable to accommodate any life.

The worst hit was Odin, the former capital of the empire. This habitable planet, with an environment quite similar to that of the former Earth, suffered devastating damage. Hundreds of relativistic kinetic warheads carrying neutron degenerate matter bombs hit it at the same time. The pure energy produced during the beta decay of neutron degenerate matter completely blew the entire planet into pieces. The impact site of each relativistic kinetic warhead that hit Odin was precisely calculated. More than 100 relativistic kinetic warheads hit the planet's plate fault area at a speed close to the speed of light. After the relativistic kinetic warheads exploded with the planet's surface, a nuclear fireball was created that was enough to cause a fusion reaction in the entire planet's atmosphere. It engulfed the entire surface of the planet. The entire surface of the planet was cleansed by the gamma-ray burst produced by the relativistic kinetic warheads traveling at close to the speed of light and the impact. In fact, tens of billions of people on the planet were evaporated without leaving any residue. Then, the neutron degenerate matter bombs that drilled directly into the core of the planet from the fault of the crustal plate exploded in the core of the planet. The entire planet was blown into pieces by the explosion of pure energy produced by the simultaneous beta decay of hundreds of neutron degenerate matter bombs. Not even an intact core was left. Hundreds of millions of fragments directly exceeded the third cosmic speed of the Odin star system and flew directly into the void outside the star system.

The vision of three planets decimated with over ten billion people was deeply etched in the minds of Yang Wei-li and Reinhardt. Such a war, devoid of material resources or profit, purely aimed at the complete extinction of the other side at the species level, was completely unconstrained, and humanity was completely unprepared. Facing such a war, which had yet to occur, there were still at least 500 years left to prevent it.

Neither Yang nor Reinhardt knew whether their current actions would have sufficient impact on human society 500 years from now. Judging from the alien lady's explanation, the Tianyan Star Ring possesses greater precision in predicting the future of large populations at longer timescales. Of course, the further into the future a present-day observer's ability to interfere becomes less.

"To change the outcome that might happen 500 years from now, well... apart from our direct intervention, we can only rely on you, the group at that point in the future, to be more rational and not let humanity head towards the possibility of extinction."

"As for what you can do in this process... perhaps it's just to change humanity's way of thinking, to free humanity from this cyclical pattern of history."

"I wish you success."

"Hmm? Julian?" Yang woke up from his trance.

"Admiral! Are you awake? It's been an hour."

"Only an hour? But it felt like days in there."

"It's normal. I have adjusted your perception of time relative to the outside world. Inside, you feel that several days have passed, but relative to the outside world, it is only one hour." Aze, who had been multitasking, replied.

"What does the future hold? It's still very uncertain, at least for you."

"As for 500 years from now... I wish you success."

"But before that, I have one more thing." Aze looked at Julian.

Julian felt himself being pulled into a strange place, which seemed to be the interior of an Allied ship. However, the blood splattered on the walls and floors and the corpses lying on the ground indicated that a fierce battle had taken place here not long ago.

Julian turned a corner. The corridor ahead was deserted. A narrow maintenance corridor loomed to the left. A figure seemed to be lying on the street, leaning against the wall. A faint light suddenly appeared at a nearby intersection, seemingly from an Imperial Army pistol. One leg was stretched straight, the other bent, and the figure's head was lowered. Julian wore a hat that looked very familiar, but his bangs obscured his face, making it difficult to see his features. The figure leaning against the wall was covered in bright red blood.

Julian felt as if his legs were trembling, and he felt an inexplicable panic in his heart.

"Admiral?" Julian rushed to the figure. The familiar face under the hat and bangs, and the pool of blood under him, made him panic for the first time.

"Admiral!" Julian wanted to lift up the body of Yang, who had lost all vital signs, but he touched nothing, as if the Yang in front of him did not exist.

"This is one possible future, Julian Mintz."

"Although the probability of it happening has been reduced, it is still not zero."

"In other words, is it possible for this to happen in the future?"

"In the Tianyan Xinghuan calculations, if the probability of an event occurring in the future is less than 50%, then there is a high probability that the event will not occur."

"As for the probability of what you're witnessing... although it's been reduced once, it's still over 50%."

"What...exactly happened here? How could the Admiral die?" Not only was Julian's voice trembling, but it was also trembling slightly.

"You'll understand if you keep reading."

Suddenly, another figure appeared at the end of the corridor. The man was wearing the Alliance's standard power armor. He hurriedly took off his helmet. The face under the helmet was almost identical to Julian's from the perspective of a third-party observer, only a little more mature.

"Admiral!!!"

Julian, wearing power armor, rushed in front of Yang, who was already lifeless. Julian never thought that he would see another self with such a desperate expression.

"Who killed Admiral Yang?" Although he knew that this was just a simulation of the future and Yang was still alive and well, Julian still found it difficult to suppress his emotions.

Yiling Sanlin Qishi "An extremist believer and assassin from the Corner of the Earth disguised as an imperial soldier."

Julian watched as his other self staggered towards Yang Weili like a newborn baby. He knelt before him and said to him in a weak voice, "Admiral, let's go back to Iserlohn! That's our home, the hometown of all of us. Let's go home..."

Julian respectfully and cautiously picked up Yang Weili's lifeless body with both hands. Looking at this scene, Julian thought of the promise he had made to Yang a few years ago: "I will definitely protect you." He felt that his future self might just be an incompetent braggart. Not only did he fail to protect Yang, he even let him die alone here.

Julian followed Yang Wei-li's body all the way to the officer's cabin on the spaceship. The room was full of traces of fierce fighting. The walls were covered with bullet holes and blood. A man was lying against the wall. Beside him were at least seven or eight enemy corpses whose heads and hearts were shot through by his pistol. Julian knew the man lying on the ground. It was Lieutenant Colonel Blumhardt, who often appeared beside Schockob and provided guidance to Julian in close combat and shooting skills. His heart had stopped beating.

At the other door of the cabin, Petrichev's body, riddled with bullet holes, was blocking the door. It seemed that Yang escaped from the officer's cabin through that door. Apparently, before he died, Petrichev used his last bit of strength to lock and block the other door of the officer's cabin with his body.

With a sad face, Senkob closed his eyes for the two people who had died.

"Please tell me how to stop this from happening."

"It's simple, just protect him."

"As for the Earth Religion, you should now know what their true nature is."

"Until you take sufficient actions to alter a future that hasn't yet occurred, the Tianyan Xinghuan's future prediction and simulation capabilities won't significantly interfere with the material world."

"This is also one of the advantages of Tianyan Xinghuan. Observation will not cause the results to collapse into a fixed possibility."

"As for how to prevent this from happening, it depends on your own actions.

"Without activating its other functions, the Tianyan Star Ring is simply a future simulation and prediction device."

Yang was a little surprised. The winged alien lady seemed to have said something to Julian alone. He had no idea what the specific content was. The alien lady just snapped her fingers in front of Julian. Julian was in a daze for nearly a minute before he returned to normal.

Julian's subsequent reaction was also very strange. He might have known something that he didn't know, but Yang didn't ask directly out of respect for Julian's thoughts.

It was not until everyone was about to leave the huge planetary orbital ring computer that Julian confessed to Yang what he had seen.

"You mean... I might die at the hands of a group of religious extremist terrorists?" Yang took a sip of coffee.

"So, Admiral, you must protect yourself!"

"You don't like carrying a gun on you. For your safety, I will be responsible for supervising your shooting training!"

"???" Yang felt a little embarrassed when he heard about shooting training. As early as his military school days, his shooting level had always been hovering around the passing line. Julian's current expression and look inexplicably reminded him of the look of disappointment on the face of the teacher who was responsible for teaching him shooting techniques.

"This...isn't necessary anymore?"

"No, Admiral, this involves your life and safety, you absolutely cannot neglect it!"

Seeing Julian's serious expression, Yang knew that he probably couldn't escape.

"I didn't expect you to come here? It's been a while since we last met." After a few months, Carlisle once again saw the blue ghost with flaxen hair.

"Speaking of which, where have you been these past few months? I can't find you anywhere."

"Go get something at some point in the future." Cabot took out something and slapped it on Carissa's hand.

"Hmm? This is... Metatron's Cube?"

"It's made of space-time condensed material. Inside is a five-dimensional hypercube. If necessary, we can pack things the size of an entire planet into it."

"This shouldn't just be a space container, right?"

"If it's just a space container, there's no need for me to go to the future to get it back."

"Why not open it and take a look? There might be something you need in there."

Asteroid impact equivalent reference:

5 meters in diameter - the impact energy is about 10000 tons of TNT equivalent, which is slightly weaker than the Hiroshima atomic bomb (15000 tons). It will hit the Earth once a year on average.

10 meters in diameter – impact energy of about 10 tons of TNT equivalent, equivalent to a typical nuclear warhead today, and occurs approximately once every 10 years;

25 meters in diameter - releases energy equivalent to 100 million tons of TNT, equivalent to today's conventional hydrogen bomb, and occurs approximately once every 100 years;

50 meters in diameter - releases energy equivalent to 50 million tons of TNT. In the 1500s, a hydrogen bomb with a power even greater than this (1000 million tons) destroyed Bikini Island. This will happen about once every 1000 years.

140 meters in diameter - the impact energy is 300 million tons of TNT equivalent, which is equivalent to 6 times the energy of the largest hydrogen bomb exploded in human history - Tsar Bomba, 10 times the total energy released by an average hurricane in a day, and the total solar radiation received by the earth in 7 seconds. It is greater than the energy released by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake (240 million tons). It will occur approximately once every 20,000 years.

直径300米——释放能量20亿吨TNT当量，大约相当于里氏9.4级地震释放的全部能量，1千克物质加速到99.99%真空光速蕴藏的能量（15亿吨）也只有其3/4，每7万年发生一次，撞击所产生的地震波足以在整个行星范围内传播。

Chapter 259: United Glory Stars End (6000 words)

"How do I open it?"

"Find a flat surface and lay it flat. Press and hold one of the faces of the cube for five seconds. Rotate it counterclockwise five times, and it will open."

"It's that simple?"

"Well, it's that simple."

Kalisi picked up the Metatron Cube and looked at its surface carefully. It seemed to be made of a transparent space-time condensation material. Unlike the pure black space-time condensation material on the Zelli Night Fighter that completely absorbed all photons, the space-time condensation material on the surface of this Metatron Cube was almost completely transparent and quite smooth.

"Can space-time condensed materials exhibit this kind of properties?"

"Just like you can change the color of a super material like color-nuclear force material, which is originally silvery-white, by adjusting its quark arrangement, space-time condensed materials can certainly exhibit completely different properties."

"Is that so?" Carlisle placed the Metatron Cube on the ground and pressed one of the outer surfaces just above the cube with her index finger. After five seconds, she released her hand and rotated the cube on the ground counterclockwise five times.

At first, the cube seemed to be unchanged until it released a strange pulse. The moment this weak pulse of energy swept through Kalisi's body, she realized that the size of the cube she was seeing seemed to be getting bigger and was sucking her towards the surface of the cube.

After a flash of light caused by a pulse, the figure of Kaleese in the three-dimensional world disappeared, leaving only an empty Metatron Cube on the ground.

Cabot stood quietly aside, waiting for Carissa to pay again.

.........

After being sucked into the Metatron Cube, Kalisi felt that she was falling. There seemed to be some infinitely huge fractal grid waiting for her below. She fell into one of the grids. The moment she felt her body passing through the grid, the surrounding environment seemed to change. Kalisi stopped falling and floated in the air.

Kalisi looked around. It seemed that this place was a huge and unimaginably bright room, and all the objects in the room seemed to be overlapping infinitely in all directions. Every object in the room seemed to have countless double images. Even the room itself was overlapping infinitely in all directions that Kalisi could perceive, up and down, left and right. Kalisi could even see the inside of those objects against common sense. Every object seemed to have a strange line extending from it connecting to the surroundings. It was the string produced by the materialized gravity in the fifth dimension of space and time.