The stars, but they become the gray wind

"Are you completely transforming it into an arsenal ship?"

"There's no need for a close-range artillery engagement anyway. For the Sky Star civilization, which possesses superluminal, long-range strike capabilities, the fleet is mostly just a scout on the front lines, providing observation and aiming for the interstellar long-range strike facilities in the rear."

"All the fleet and warships need to do is mark and instruct targets for the rear from their positions close to the enemy's front lines. In essence, they are more like artillery observers, providing precise guidance for long-range strikes from the rear."

"In that case... we don't need too many guns on this ship. We can just stuff a few missiles in there to carry out long-range strikes against the enemy beyond visual range."

"And ultimately, the biggest advantage of laser or particle beam weapons over projectiles is speed. Currently, projectiles and guided weapons can reach speeds that are practically indistinguishable from light-speed directed energy weapons like lasers. Miniaturized inertia-free engines allow missiles to accelerate to near-light speeds over extremely short distances. A heavy warhead traveling near the speed of light can be far more effective than a simple directed energy weapon."

"But just because we have missiles doesn't mean we can do without naval guns. Do you remember the information my future self brought back?"

"That super-axle cannon that can accelerate projectiles to a speed extremely close to the speed of light?"

"That thing is outrageous... I mean the simplified, miniaturized version."

"A railgun capable of accelerating a warhead weighing between thousands and tens of thousands of tons to 64 percent of the speed of light?"

"As a point defense weapon, don't you think it's perfect? ​​With a high rate of fire exceeding several hundred rounds per second and a single-shot velocity of 0.64c, it's a very suitable choice as a close-in weapon to complement the Opinion and Relativistic Missiles."

"Where's the hull-mounted gun?"

"No need... Anyway, according to our simulations, most fleet engagements against the Black Mist will last at least hundreds of light seconds. Axis guns won't be effective at that distance. Most of our work will consist of continuously firing near-lightspeed inertia-free missiles at the enemy at distances of hundreds of light seconds, and providing sighting and guidance for our superluminal strike facilities in the rear."

Years later, having suffered a setback in this regard, Calisi might wonder why she didn't include the axial cannon. And Kylias, who went to the other extreme in ship design, might regret not equipping the Salem with more missiles and high-velocity naval guns for point defense when explaining it.

…………

Over the past few months, the number of newly constructed stargates within the spherical bubble of the Slow Domain has been rapidly increasing. Relying on the superluminal ejection field on the neutron star, the glass eels have reached an ever-increasing number of star systems. Compared to the mere dozens of sparsely populated stargates within the bubble when the Slow Domain first emerged, the number has now risen to over 300. While this still pales in comparison to the Slow Domain's vast internal surface area, for the glass eel civilization, the number of star systems within their territory has increased over 100-fold in just a few months. Most of these star systems lack a single stargate connecting them to the Slow Domain. The glass eels haven't had time to build any infrastructure in these star systems. Instead, they have deployed von Neumann self-replicators via wormhole hubs onto several massive asteroids within these star systems. While these von Neumann self-replicators continue to consume the asteroids at an exponential rate, it will take time to completely decompose the entire asteroids they inhabit.

"In the past four months... our territory has expanded more than 100 times. More than 99 percent of the galaxies are seriously lacking in corresponding infrastructure. Judging from the von Neumann-level growth rate, it will take at least ten years to complete the construction of the complete infrastructure for more than 300 galaxies." The artificial intelligence assistant reported to Chi Chengsan.

"Can we speed up the process?"

"We are already accelerating the progress. By releasing a massive amount of initial seeds of von Neumann self-replicators into these 300-plus galaxies, we can indeed speed up the progress to a certain extent. However, no matter how fast the exponential growth rate of the von Neumann self-replicators is, it will still take more than one cycle of replication time."

"This is the situation we're in now. Even if we increase the number of von Neumann self-replicators operating in those galaxies, it will take a considerable amount of time to build the complete infrastructure for more than 300 galaxies."

Chi Chengsan held his forehead helplessly. He had never thought that the glass eel would also encounter the problem of severe lack of infrastructure construction in most of its territory due to over-expansion.

"Have almost all the available spare von Neumann self-replicator units been sent to those star systems?"

"Yes, we have mobilized all unmanned engineering fleets and artificial intelligence units with self-replication capabilities to construct those galaxies."

"What about Sky Star?"

"Their situation is slightly better than ours. To prevent overexpansion beyond their capacity, their territory has only grown by about 20 times in the past four months. On average, each colony is responsible for building approximately 20 new star systems. Currently, they are developing infrastructure in approximately 100,000 star systems."

"Considering the star density of their local bubble, their main activity range is still confined to a spherical space with a radius of 1500 light-years centered on their home galaxy."

"This...ah...I didn't expect that we would encounter such a problem?" Chi Chengsan sighed.

"I think we have performed very well. The territory has expanded more than 300 times, and no problems have occurred. It's just that the newly expanded territory lacks infrastructure construction." The virtual image of the artificial intelligence assistant flew forward to comfort Chi Chengsan.

…………

"I only now realize how big the Milky Way is."

Looking at the actual control area of ​​the Sky Star civilization which had increased dozens of times on the star map, Luo Ying said in a daze.

"Even if the territory has increased tenfold, and the number of star systems discovered and reached has exceeded 100,000, this is still less than one millionth of the total number of stars in the Milky Way."

"By the way, most of these star systems now have nothing but a star gate, a few unmanned research vessels and engineering ships, and a bunch of von Neumann self-replicators gnawing on asteroids," added Elena, who was sitting nearby.

"Compared to the Milky Way's 4000 billion total stars, it's a drop in the bucket. We're doing relatively well here. The Glass Eels' territory has grown over 300-fold, and their infrastructure construction is already a bit tight. Therefore, they've temporarily delayed their expansion into new galaxies. They're waiting for more resources before starting construction on the new star systems they've discovered."

If we use a famous Paradox game to illustrate the current situation of the Sky Star Civilization and the Glass Eel Civilization, it is because of the excessive growth of territorial standardization in a very short period of time. Both civilizations have now experienced negative debuffs brought about by excessive expansion to varying degrees. It's just that due to the excessive abundance of total resources and production capacity of the Sky Star Civilization, the negative impact brought about by the rapid excessive expansion in a short period of time is not as great as that of the Glass Eel.

"Even the exponentially growing von Neumann self-replicator can't keep up with this civilization's territorial expansion. I think other civilizations in this universe that can only expand at sub-light speeds or the speed of light must be envious of Sky Star and the Glass Eel."

"The prerequisite is that they also have to know of our existence. The insurmountable limit of the speed of light in this universe means that most civilizations will not be able to know of each other's existence until their demise, and communication is even more impossible." Elena complained.

"Isn't it because our universe lacks a time-preserving mechanism in its fundamental laws that makes superluminal travel so difficult? However, according to Cabot, some other universes on the eleven-dimensional space-time membrane have different fundamental laws, making superluminal travel not so difficult. Civilizations in those universes also need to expend less time and resources during their interstellar expansion phase."

"However... this kind of universe, with its relatively cheap fundamental laws allowing for superluminal travel, also causes civilizations to venture into the starry sky at a relatively immature stage, causing the probability of civilizations being extinct due to catastrophic disasters during space exploration to increase linearly."

"In comparison... the universe inhabited by the Sky Star civilization is extremely difficult to achieve, so civilizations that have managed to travel beyond their own galaxy have already developed relatively mature technologies and are more adept at handling the various dangers they encounter in the universe."

…………

(Within the next two chapters, we will officially enter the interstellar war stage and start fighting with the enemy)

Chapter 166: Superluminal Long-Range Strikes and Whipping Operations (6000 words)

Zao Chiqi nervously gripped the gun-shaped trigger on the control panel with one of its tentacle. Chi Chengsan walked up from the back among the glass eels gathered in front of the big screen and patted its body.

"Don't be nervous, it's just a drill." Chi Chengsan comforted his friend.

"Even if you say so... this is directly destroying a star! Although I used to be a warrior, how can I not be nervous about something like directly blowing up a star?" Zao Chiqi shook his head and answered nervously with the other tentacles.

"It's just a blue giant without any planets or life. Don't be so burdened." Chi Chengsan comforted Zao Chiqi, who was anxious due to his tense nerves.

The large screen in front of the console displayed a blazing Wolf-Rayet star. As the hottest celestial body in the massive star category, the star's surface temperature exceeded 40000 degrees Celsius, causing the hydrogen in the star to be almost completely reacted. A large amount of heavy elements were separated from the star in chunks under the influence of stellar winds and radiation pressure from the star's surface, resulting in the formation of a large number of high-density nebulae composed of heavy elements around this Wolf-Rayet star.

The Wolf-Rayet star, whose mass far exceeds that of the parent star in the sky, is the target of this exercise. The superluminal catapult field on the neutron star in the Que galaxy has locked onto this star and is only waiting for the attack order to be issued. As the operator, Zao Chiqi will pull the trigger, and a part of the exotic matter extracted from the core of the neutron star by the star control device will, under the action of the gravitational field, reach the star target tens of thousands of light years away from another dimension at superluminal speed.

.........

"This is the front-line observation ship, prepare to enter the strike launch countdown!"

Only one astronomical unit away from the Wolf-Rayet star, the Ray of the Universe is acting as a frontline fire observation post, monitoring the specific effects of this superluminal long-range strike in real time.

"Countdown 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, fire!" After Calisi, who was the front-line fire observation post, gave the order to fire, Zao Chiqi pulled the trigger in his hand, and the star control body began to extract a large number of strange quarks from the core of the neutron star and send them into the superluminal ejection field as artillery shells.

[Superlight 1 Lingyan Phosphorus Eight Catapult Field Charging Completed]

[Start long-range attack]

【Estimated arrival time: seconds】

The attack has arrived

【Detection strike effective signal】

[Confirmed to have hit the target star]

.........

Everyone on the Ray Fantasy first detected a mirror-warp bubble with an extremely small diameter less than one light-second away from the star. The moment the bubble was released, a storm of strange particles traveling at close to the speed of light penetrated the interior of the star unhindered. After reaching the core area of ​​the star, the strange matter particles serving as cannonballs began to decay rapidly.

Then the nuclear reaction of the Wolf-Rayet star completely lost control, the coronal material layer began to shrink and collapse towards the core of the star, and a large amount of heavy elements gathered towards the core of the star under the uncontrolled gravitational force brought by the strange matter particle clusters, and finally reached the extreme event.

Then, the star that collapsed to the limit exploded, and the outer layer containing countless heavy elements disintegrated into a nebula that expanded outward at a speed close to the speed of light. At this moment, the brightness of the entire star exceeded that of the parent star in the sky, which was a yellow dwarf, by more than 10 billion times, and even surpassed the total brightness of all the stars in the Milky Way at one point. At this moment, a new supernova was born in the Milky Way.

During this supernova explosion, the Fantasy Light, which was only one astronomical unit away from the star, was like a fragile boat in a storm. The high-energy particle jets generated by the supernova explosion violently bombarded the Fantasy Light's gravitational shield. At a distance almost close to the supernova explosion, the Fantasy Light opened its own deflection shield to the maximum. Whether it was the high-energy particle jets close to the speed of light or the gamma-ray bursts produced by the supernova explosion, they were all forcibly deflected under the influence of the Fantasy Light's gravitational field, which was comparable to that of a massive black hole. The entire spacecraft was like a solid stone in a torrent and survived the supernova explosion unscathed.

"Super-massive gamma-ray burst observed!"

"High-energy matter annihilation observed!"

"A large number of superheavy elements have been detected!"

On the bridge, everyone, who had completely lost the ability to directly observe the external conditions due to the supernova explosion, was busy all the time, collecting data from the supernova explosion.

…………

On the other side, in the Xiangque Galaxy, at the control center of the superluminal long-range strike device, Zao Chiqi tremblingly released the tentacles that were holding the gun-shaped trigger from the trigger, and looked at the Wolf-Rayet star that had transformed into a supernova on the screen, Zao Chiqi couldn't help but feel sweat pouring down his back.

"They... should be okay, right?" Zao Chiqi took the iced drink handed to him by Chi Chengsan, took a deep sip, and tried to calm his restless heart.

"It should be fine... That ship was built using technology provided by Master Yanzhe, and it's designed to withstand the damage of a supernova explosion at close range. Our communications were temporarily disrupted by the supernova explosion."

"But... with such terrifying power, I think I understand why Master Yanzhe didn't tell us the specific purpose of this thing when he left hundreds of years ago."

"It is both a tool that can help us explore the stars, and a terrifying weapon capable of destroying everything."

.........

After dozens of minutes of silence on the communication channel, Zao Chiqi and other glass eels finally received the communication information from the Fantasy Light.

"This is the Fantasy Light, and this is a spectacular fireworks display!"

"How are you doing?" Zao Chiqi asked with concern at the first moment.

"Aside from the shield system being overwhelmed, the hull is intact. The reactor output has decreased slightly due to the shield overload just now, but otherwise, the ship's systems have suffered little damage."

"Huh...it's okay...I was scared to death. I haven't received any communication for such a long time. I thought you were reduced to ashes in the supernova explosion." The big stone hanging in Zao Chiqi's heart was finally put down. He wiped the sweat from his head and breathed a sigh of relief.

"As expected, this spacecraft was built using the technology provided by Master Yanzhe. It was able to survive the supernova explosion without a scratch... This is truly... unheard of."

"Not so bad... If we really talk about actual combat capabilities, our 20-plus kilometer ship isn't even as capable as that Night Fighter parked in the hangar. The weapons on board are so powerful they can destroy a star with a single shot. The Fantasy Light looks like a toy in comparison."

"Also, this simulation exercise was very successful and will provide valuable experience for our subsequent attack on the dark fog in the Large Magellanic Cloud."

"Our fleet will serve as an observation post on the front lines, providing firepower guidance for you in the rear. From the rear, you will simply continue to launch precise, superluminal, long-range strikes based on the coordinates we provide."

"But the enemy's territory is at least a hundred thousand times larger than ours, right? Even if we were to create dozens of supernovas within their territory in a short period of time, it wouldn't have a truly lethal effect, right?"

"Well... Zao Chiqi, do you know why we chose a Wolf-Rayet star as our simulated strike target this time?"

"What?"

"Because Wolf-Rayet stars are rich in heavy elements, both the other side and we will use them as an important heavy element production center. We will establish stellar astronomical engineering projects based on Wolf-Rayet stars or other heavy element-rich blue giant stars to harvest and mine the huge amount of high-value heavy elements on Wolf-Rayet stars."

"Moreover, most importantly, in addition to being a critical industrial production infrastructure, Wolf-Rayet itself is a massive star with the equivalent of tens of thousands of yellow dwarfs. If it also has a highly developed Dyson Cloud facility, the Dyson Cloud laser weapons built on ordinary yellow dwarfs and red dwarfs will be dwarfed by it. Therefore, the stellar astronomical engineering facilities on Wolf-Rayet may pose the greatest threat to us."

“举个例子,编号R136a1的沃尔夫拉叶星一颗恒星就抵得上顶871万个黄矮星的功率。”“假设如果有一个诞生在沃尔夫拉叶星附近的文明,成功完成了对于沃尔夫拉叶星这种恒星的天体工程建设,那么,它们仅靠这一颗恒星的能量就能达到卡尔达肖夫2.7型文明的功率,这近乎相当于天空星文明在获取超光速技术之前的数百个中子星飞轮发电设施再加上5000多个不同种类的恒星,甚至其中还包括相当数量的红超巨星児玲岜(五)龄氿厁刘氿和红巨星功率的总和还大。”

"Even pulsars, with their extremely strong magnetic fields and rotational speeds, pale in comparison to the energy output of massive Wolf-Rayet stars."

Ten years ago, the Sky Star and Glass Eel civilizations began the large-scale construction of a superluminal wormhole network throughout the Milky Way, and in less than half a year, they forcibly expanded their territories dozens or even hundreds of times. After a decade of construction, both sides finally had the ability to launch a large-scale inter-galactic strike against the black fog entrenched in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which was enough to severely damage the opponent. This simulated attack on Wolf-Rayet Star controlled by the black fog in the Large Magellanic Cloud was the two civilizations' advance preparation for this large-scale offensive.

…………

"Having said that...but the first wave of attack will destroy more than hundreds of thousands of stars. Isn't this a bit too outrageous?" Kylias looked at the offensive tactical plan for the Large Magellanic Cloud in front of him.

"Not far-fetched... These hundreds of thousands of stars are the enemy's industrial or energy hubs, encompassing almost every type of celestial body, from blue giants to neutron stars and white dwarfs. As long as the first wave of attacking skills arrives successfully, the enemy's industrial production capacity will be greatly weakened, allowing us to advance the front more steadily."

"Even if the first wave of attacks is not successful and can only destroy 1/3 or even 1/10 of the stars, as long as we can provide an area to gain a foothold in the Large Magellanic Cloud, it will be a nail deeply embedded in the enemy's flesh, which is enough to disgust the other party." The red-haired cat girl replied to the elf girl who was her partner.

"The current strategy is so focused on inflicting heavy damage on the enemy in the first wave of attacks because they are simply too massive. It would be much more difficult to take down their controlled star systems one by one. To avoid further complications, annihilating a large number of their industrial and energy hub star systems in the first wave of attacks is clearly the best option."

"What do the Tree of Life and the closed time-like curve computer say?" Kylias put down the display terminal in his hand and asked Salem.

"Hmm... In terms of the outcome, we're definitely winning. The closed timelike curve computer fixes all our outcomes on the timeline to a certain outcome, but the process of reaching that outcome will vary. We will win this war, but how exactly will we win? We don't know."

"In other words... regardless of whether this tactic succeeds or not, the outcome of this war will be our victory?"

"You can think of it that way... Although I don't know if we'll encounter any trouble in the process."

"Forget it... Anyway, our future selves have helped us to guide the results in the best direction. We just need to move forward steadily according to the plan we have made now. By the way, how do you feel about our new weapons?" Kylias stood up from the soft chair and asked the virtual image of the red-haired cat girl in front of him.

"Not bad...but...it seems like you haven't transformed me into the image that the future Carlisle showed me."

"I'm also curious. Is it really necessary to have so many turrets on a Huyilingliu? It would also affect the appearance."

"What will my future self think?" Kelias shook his head helplessly.

Thousands of miniaturized super-rail guns based on the same principle as the axial gun are distributed throughout the hull. These turret-type gravitational field accelerated super-rail guns, although much smaller in size and projectile speed than the X-0 super-rail gun that serves as their prototype, can only accelerate projectiles weighing tens to hundreds of thousands of tons to 64 times the speed of light, but are enough to blow up the crust of an entire planet with a single salvo. At the same time, as turret-type gravitational field accelerated rail guns, they also have higher flexibility and firing rate, providing sub-light speed artillery fire coverage strikes with almost no blind spots.

"This firepower should be enough to deal with most situations, right? I don't believe the black fog can break through the Salem's fire defense network." Kylias looked extremely confident.

.........

After a flash of blue light, accompanied by the release of the warp bubble, the Ultimatum, which had completed the simulation test, returned to the Sky Star System through the wormhole, and then made a short warp voyage within the star system and returned to the dock outside the Sky Star Orbital Ring.

Under the action of the tugboat's traction beam, the Fantasy Light docked in the Sky Star 06 Orbital Dock, and at the adjacent berth was the Salem, which had just completed its transformation.

Perhaps it was a coincidence, or perhaps it was a sudden inspiration of some artificial intelligence responsible for managing dock scheduling, but two Titan-class battleships with completely different development and design ideas were parked next to each other in adjacent berths.

If the Salem is the ultimate technological product of the big ship and big gun doctrine, then the USS Fantasy Light, which has just docked next to it, is the ultimate product of the even more heavyweight missile omnipotence theory. Unlike the Salem, which is covered with naval guns, the hull of the USS Fantasy Light is covered with hundreds of thousands of missile launch units of various sizes and functions, ranging from the smallest light relativistic kinetic interceptor missile launcher with a diameter of only a few meters to the giant relativistic missile launch unit with a caliber of over hundreds of meters specifically used to destroy planets. This warship, which has taken the arsenal ship concept to the extreme, forms a sharp contrast with the big ship and big gun doctrine of the Salem next to it.

"Fully loaded with guns? What was this guy thinking?"

"A body full of missiles? What was this guy thinking?"

In front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the orbital dock and on the bridge of the Ultima Thule, Calisi and Kelias simultaneously exclaimed at each other's bizarre battleship design ideas.

"I feel... that when it comes to battleship design, you two are considered a pair of geniuses?" The holographic projection of the red-haired catgirl appeared on the bridge of the Ultimatum Light, and she mercilessly complained to her director and partner, as well as the purple-haired girl who was sitting in the captain's seat, looking at the gunboat on the berth next to her with a difficult expression on her face.

"This...Kellias really reformed your group according to this plan?"

"Yes, although we will be responsible for firepower observation and aiming in the next wave of attack, Kailias believes that it is still necessary to equip it with sufficiently powerful close-range and long-range defense and offensive firepower."

"But... even if it's for self-defense... there's no need to pile so many cannons on the ship, right? Wouldn't it be safer to hide far away and snipe the enemy with relativistic missiles traveling at near the speed of light?"

"Anyway, the muzzle velocity of that main gun shell is about the same as a relativistic missile, so it's not impossible to use it to directly accelerate a relativistic missile of the same caliber."

"Besides...isn't there a special space on your hull for an axial cannon? Are you really not planning to install one?"