Chapter 217: Galan's "Spoils of War"
"Calling the fleet! We've found a massive artificial object ahead, it should be a spaceship or a space station!"
Sure enough, a moment later, the forward fighter squadron made an unexpected and significant discovery.
"Aha!" Xige felt he was hitting his stride.
This war was as simple as previous ones, and just as rich in spoils.
"That must be a defensive facility built by the barbarians here. All warships, immediately gather in my direction. We'll go and occupy it, and recover the assets inside!"
"Something's not right," Gerald warned. "The indigenous people shouldn't have the capability to build facilities that can be described as 'massive.'"
Though he had a fiery temper, he was meticulous and always remained vigilant.
"Gerald! What did I say before? Courage! Show some courage!
"At least two-thirds of the barbarians' fighters have been destroyed by us, leaving fewer than 10, and we have 11 warships! I really don't understand what you're so afraid of? All ships, heed my command, full speed ahead!"
Gerald could only grit his teeth and follow.
But he kept a close eye, quietly ordering a change in the energy allocation for his three warships, preheating the warp engines so they could jump away at the first sign of trouble.
Ten more minutes passed, and everyone finally saw the true face of the "massive artificial object."
The target looked like a giant umbrella in space, nearly 1 kilometer long, with a "canopy" diameter of also 1 kilometer, a veritable behemoth.
"Vice Admiral Xige, preliminary observations indicate it doesn't look like a space station, but rather part of a spaceship. Traces of an explosion were found at the tail, suggesting it broke off from a larger main body."
The Galan optical observer reported.
Xige sat relaxed in the captain's chair, one hand propping his chin, the fingertips of his other hand continuously tapping the armrest, his eyes gleaming. "Hmm! I see it. Its structure is very primitive, not like something from our era. Let's fly closer and have a look."
He thought, like other surprises in his past life, this was also a gift from the heavens prepared for him.
Soon, the fleet arrived less than 100 kilometers from the "unidentified object" and began to orbit it in a circular path. The internal part of the ship experienced 1.3 G of gravity due to centrifugal force.
At this point, the Punishment Fleet could clearly see the details of the paint on the target's outer shell. Two "symbols" prominently appeared on the observation screen.
"Oh, it's the hieroglyphs of a primitive civilization."
Xige chuckled disdainfully, unable to resist showing off his knowledge as a High Citizen.
"When humanity first developed civilization, everyone used hieroglyphs. But as time passed, some more intelligent peoples invented alphabets, like our Galan ancestors. This greatly simplified writing and reading, and is humanity's greatest invention!"
So that's how it is!
Due to years of brainwashing propaganda, Galan people generally had a strong sense of racial superiority.
At this moment, even in the engine room, those level 5 untouchables who constantly received radiation due to lack of protective suits, upon hearing these words from the loudspeaker, nodded vigorously, their faces beaming with heartfelt happiness.
We Galan are truly strong! Destined by heaven, blessed by Galan!
"But the advantages of hieroglyphs are also obvious: they can produce an infinite combination of words with a small number of characters, and directly convey meaning literally.
Gerald felt a wave of nausea and couldn't help but retort.
Racial superiority was useless in war; it only bred underestimation of the enemy and exacerbated the sense of defeat after a military setback, a negative emotion to be avoided.
Looking at the two hieroglyphic characters on the screen, a sense of foreboding rose in Gerald's heart.
In his impression, the corporate logo of that global enterprise, which once stood at the forefront of human technology and exploration, seemed to be composed of hieroglyphs.
"—Let's not chat anymore. Immediately search the database for those two characters!"
A moment later, the results appeared.
"Report! The characters are one of the six official languages of the Old Earth United Nations!"
Earth!
Is that right?
This planet held immense significance in the hearts of all humans. In the Star Alliance, anyone whose ancestors could be linked to the UEG took immense pride in it, often receiving compliments for it, such as Galan's Level 1 Citizens.
Much less the UEG's capital, Earth!
That was already a legend, a myth—
"What's the meaning of the characters? Have you found out?"
"We can't be completely sure yet, but it seems to be 'Cangyuan'—"
"What did you say!?"
Gerald felt a chill.
The huge ship, the outdated technology, the Cangyuan symbol—could this be "that ship" recorded in human history!?
"That's Cangyuan 1! Humanity's first interstellar colonization ship launched from the Solar System in the 21st century! Why is it here? Damn it, did the crew survive the entire apocalypse in hibernation? Those people on Li Star really are Cangyuan descendants—no, not descendants, they—they're genuine ancient Cangyuan employees!?"
Those were the elites of ancient humanity's elites, so it's not surprising they could defeat Omar!
"Calm down, calm down~"
Xige was unconcerned, adding the unique Galan trailing sound to the end of his sentence.
"Maybe the barbarians just welded a few large wrecks together and painted a symbol they thought would make them look powerful, look how scared you are!"
Gerald grew anxious.
"Barbarians? Don't you understand! They're not barbarians at all! They're Earthlings!"
Xige waved his hand in disgust.
"Even if that really is Cangyuan 1, so what? I know that ship, its technology is very primitive, there's nothing about it that we should value!"
"No!" Gerald was shocked by the other party's arrogance.
"This place is at least 1 billion light-years from the Milky Way where Earth is located! Logically, with 21st-century technology, it would be impossible to reach! Cangyuan 1 appearing here is enough to indicate that there is some kind of black technology on board that we cannot understand, or it may even have been interfered with by supernatural forces!"
Xige's temper flared, completely unwilling to listen to these words.
"Enough! Gerald, you are a hopeless coward, you disgust me! If that really is Cangyuan 1, there should be a huge amount of nuclear fuel stored inside the hull, and I want to obtain these resources for our country!
"This ship will be displayed in our best museum, demonstrating to the entire Star Alliance the Galan Commonwealth's transcendence over former top civilizations! All hands, heed my command, continue forward!"
"Wait! We should act together!" Gerald couldn't stop the other party and could only watch as the Galan fleet continuously decelerated and moved to dock with Cangyuan 1.
A upbringing of "gifts every day" shaped the incredibly greedy personalities of high-ranking Galan Citizens.
For them, not taking advantage was a huge loss, as unbearable as oxygen deprivation.
Finally, 8 Galan warships stopped in front of the bow section of Cangyuan 1, and a large number of Galan marines left their warships from the airlock, preparing to go and receive the resources.
This was the opportunity Lu Yuan had been waiting for!
He knew the strengths and weaknesses of the "Qinling" class destroyer better than anyone.
Although the heavy electromagnetic cannon on board was powerful, the projectile speed was not ideal.
A muzzle velocity of 120 kilometers per second might seem fast at first glance, but it was actually 2500 times slower than laser weapons, requiring tens of seconds, or even minutes, to reach the target, making it easy for warships to evade or be intercepted en route.
To improve the accuracy of this cannon, one method was to minimize the engagement distance for close-quarters combat.
The second method, of course, was to ambush when the enemy ship was off guard, preferably when it was docked.
At this very moment, the 101 Xianyang was ambushed less than 5000 kilometers from Cangyuan 1, its heavy electromagnetic cannon already fully charged!
It maintained absolute silence, engines off, gliding solely on inertia; radar off, relying only on passive observation from the infrared optoelectronic system, and the Entropy Zero Element Furnace fully open, eliminating the ship's own waste heat.
It merged with the cosmic background radiation, like the grim reaper in the night, aiming at the first sacrifice of this war.