Age of Cosmic Exploration

Chapter 441: Sudden Arrival!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"...Yes, from our known information, there is a constant in the structure of the universe. In other words, when the active force is not over a certain threshold, space will exist in normal three dimensional space, but if this force is over this threshold, there will be chain effect that happens to this space, either tearing, twisting, or energizing...

"...The most relevant example is the black hole. It has an incredibly large gravity, and the large gravitational force causes the space to twist. This means that light can no longer travel at normal speed around it and consequently this means that time travels differently around it as well...

"...Similarly, when this large force affects space and time, the stability quotient of space will be affected as well. When the force is within this stability quotient, it will react within the expected rules of physics that we have in current space. However, when this force goes over the stability quotient, it will cause plenty of changes, including the change of dimension and time flow. In fact, as we have predicted, the technology of a level 4 space civilization or middle-tier space civilization like the wormhole is very possibly predicated on the manipulation of this space stability quotient...

"...Therefore, obtaining the standard formula of calculating space stability quotient is very pertinent because it is no less important than Einstein’s mass-energy equation!"

This was a thesis that was released by the Academy during the scientific renaissance after humanity became a level 3 space civilization. The thesis was titled "Space, Energy, Time, Mass: The Four Basic Elements of the Cosmos." Its writer was physicist Silewei, and the publication of this thesis had propelled him to the same state of fame and importance as Einsten and Newton.

The relevance of this thesis was huge, even Blue 6’s eyes shone brightly the moment he read it. In that half a year, he kept going to Silewei for lessons like a high school student. To quote Blue 6, this thesis could be considered the bible for scientific breakthroughs of a level 3 space civilization.

This thesis had introduced a brand new perspective, that was the existence of space stability quotient. This quotient came with a standard formula and its appearance solved many problems faced by the Academy. For example, it completely undermined the warp drive’s limitless travelling speed. In this formula, warp drive had an upper limit speed, and this limit was the space stability quotient. Normally speaking, warp drive would only continue to approach this limit but would never reach it because warp drive itself was a manipulation of space to initiate rapid travelling. If space didn’t exist anymore, then how could warp drive still exist? Therefore, warp drive had a limit just like how normal mass in space had the limit of the speed of light, one could only approach it but never reach or surpass it.

Generally speaking, the higher the technological level of the civilization, the closer they would be able to get to this limit during warp drive. This was true even for level 9 space civilizations because that was how warp drive operated. The only way to surpass this space stability quotient was to utilize a navigational method that was more advanced than warp drive, like wormhole and star gate.

In fact, this thesis had discussed that as well. The formation of wormholes was quite possibly due to the energy saturation within a constant unit of space and time. In other words, the force was greater than this stability quotient, and then they used some kind of method to initiate wormhole breakthrough. This perhaps was the navigational method of a level 4 space civilization.

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The calculated speed limit for warp drive was 528 times light speed!

Civilizations in the early level 3 stage could reach up to 50 times the speed of light, while in the intermediate stage, they could go up to 300 times, while peak level 3 space civilizations... like the Blue Race, could only reach 400 times the speed of light. Any increase in speed after that, even just 0.1 times, would expand such a great amount of energy that no level 3 space civilization would be able to support it.

However, this alien fleet, after increasing in speed, had reached 420 times the speed of light!

"Why!? How can they suddenly increase speed in warp drive?!"

Yao Yuan’s roar reverberated through the whole Barracks. This was the first time the man who had been exceptionally calm since humanity arrived at the New Solar System became so angry. This stunned the room into silence. After a long time, it was a military engineer who answered, "Chancellor, this issue is complicated. Our current technology is still unable to change speed in warp drive, but it is indeed possible. However, one needs to reach the intermediate stage of level 3 before one can do that..."

Yao Yuan sighed and practically slumped down in his chair. "No, this is my fault for not predicting our enemy could be using tricks. When we came up with superlight surveillance engine, we should’ve expected them to have the same technology. Perhaps that initial 20 times light speed was just a ploy for us to let our guard down from the very beginning. We fell for it hook, line, and sinker!"

Guang Zhen’s face was also dark. The fury inside his heart couldn’t even be described using words. This was on top of the Defense Unit expansion issues. If there were enough soldiers, the whole New Solar System first fleet wouldn’t have to return to the City of Light Moon for war preparations. Now they were hit by an underhanded tactic that could be prevented if the Defense Unit was bigger, so how could he not be angry?

Yao Yuan took in several deep breaths as he looked around at Guang Zhen, the members of the Black Star Unit, two Thinkers, the majors from Defense Unit, and the strategy department. With a drawn face, he announced, "I order for the Black Star Troopers to get ready. I order that all Black Star Troopers gather in the next 72 hours, and in the next five days, we will leave the City of Light Moon and head for the third defense line. In 10 days, Black Star Troopers have to reach the third defense line and then wait for my next orders.

"I order, the mass deportation of civilians at the first, second, and third defense lines. No need to wait for civilian-use shuttles, just use the military spaceships. At the same time, all three defense lines are now in heavy alert mode. If they’re assaulted, retaliate with maximum power!

"I order the tweaking of the Gravity Cannon to start immediately. The cannon has to be ready for use in 15 days.

"From this moment onwards, human society is in military state. In the next 24 hours, all the travelling spaceships have to return to the City of Light Moon and we will not accept any private requests to leave the city."

Following Yao Yuan’s orders, the whole human society started to turn chaotic. Thankfully, the human government had great efficiency. In just few hours, all the relevant parties had received the news and the whole civilization mobilized with great efficiency.

Blue 6’s foreign affair department also had started to mobilize. In reality, compared to the humans’ reaction, Blue 6 was more excited, excited at the prospect of work. If not for the fact that his Emissary of Peace’s spaceship was in the maintenance phase, he would’ve probably led his men to the frontline first.

Just like that, as the whole human race was urgently working, the alien fleet finally left warp drive two days later. Now humanity could finally scan this whole fleet clearly.

It was a clean and strong-looking space fleet. All the spaceships had a silvery-white color and there was no sign of racial senescence. The whole fleet looked brand new, gleaming in space like stars. Furthermore, before the alien fleet exited warp drive, the last superlight speed surveillance detected hundreds of extra spaceships. However, when the fleet escaped warp drive, the extra spaceships were nowhere to be seen. This caused people from the military department to think this was more of their tricks.

They wanted to initiate a second scan, but before that could start, the extra fleet appeared from warp drive, and the moment they did so, they released creator’s particle, disabling all of humanity’s surveillance methods.

However, the alien fleet didn’t move towards the New Solar System after they did that. They merely stood their quietly, and one thing that gave humanity much relief was that the creator’s particle didn’t cover the 72 pilotless spaceships. It was unknown whether this was done on purpose or not. At least this alien fleet didn’t show humanity any hostility directly.

Back at the City of Light Moon, everyone was busy. Yao Yuan sat quietly in central command, waiting for the next move... or rather, he was waiting for this alien fleet to make their first move.

"Send out 24 pilotless spaceships to approach this fleet carefully. Move them close to the edge of their creator’s particle and wait for them to respond!"

After Yao Yuan gave that order, the 3D image showing the location of the pilotless spaceships and the alien fleet appeared in the room. Following Yao Yuan’s order, the 24 spaceships started to move towards the silvery fleet.

Due to the size of the image, even though they might’ve appeared to move slowly on screen, they were in fact travelling at 80 percent of the spaceship’s maximum speed. However, they had only moved for several minutes and hadn’t even reached the edge of creator’s particle when a mess of plasma rays shot out from the silvery spaceships and shot down these 24 spaceships easily. Not only that, more plasma rays targeted the remaining pilotless spaceships, and in just the blink of an eye, an explosion erupted in space and all the pilotless spaceships disappeared in space...

Silence reigned in central command. Everyone’s face was dark. However, before they could react, several soldiers ran into the room. The leading soldier stopped at Yao Yuan’s side and passed him a report. When Yao Yuan read the report, his face darkened greatly.

"The last warp scan showed that...

"...the unknown silver fleet has in total.... 1,763,722 spaceships, and the spaceships that are bigger than the Hope number at more than 100,000!

"They will reach the edge of the New Solar System in another five days!"