Chapter 318: The Deadline Is Up
In the final stage, Reid, due to being too engrossed, forgot to turn off the live broadcast signal directed to Chenxi Star, the Imperial Capital.
All citizens, including the Emperor himself, witnessed the chase and battle on the surface of the Brown Dwarf, and could even clearly hear every word of every crew member on the bridge.
But this program backfired; it couldn't serve as political propaganda for Congress, because what was ultimately presented was not a battle at all,
but a thorough massacre!
The “Great Enemy” is still in this universe, still among us!
The Silver Fox TV Station host, who had been so boisterous before, was silent for the last 15 minutes of the program.
He wanted to cut the signal early, but the Emperor himself called, saying it was important news and must continue to be broadcast, and also be relayed to Star Union Space.
Thus, three centuries later, humanity once again recalled the fear of being dominated by the “Great Enemy”.
The vague records and even legends of the past became bloody facts today.
The Empire's Nineteenth Combined Fleet was annihilated, and cangyuan one's expeditionary fleet was annihilated along with it.
Those giant dragons tore them apart as easily as tearing a piece of paper.
Star Alliance society was in an uproar. It was terrifying! No wonder even humanity in the golden age couldn't withstand it—
Even the usually boisterous “Purgatory” was much quieter than usual today; guests dared not speak loudly, fearing they might disturb other dormant “Great Enemies” in the universe.
The band was even more sensible, switching to softer dance music to soothe everyone's emotions.
Only the players knew that the cangyuan one expeditionary team was not only alive and well, but had planned all of this from beginning to end, using a brilliant strategy of 'driving a tiger to swallow a wolf' by leveraging more powerful forces in the universe!
However, the Executive Officer sent a message asking to keep this matter temporarily confidential.
It was clearly a good thing to let the Empire think the expeditionary team was wiped out.
It was just tough on the brothers in the branch, who, when receiving care and comfort from merchants and adventurers in “Purgatory,” couldn't explain anything and could only offer a mysterious smile.
Two days later, the expedition members used their limited plasma weapons to complete the initial dismantling of the Oka and the carrier.
The hull structure, external armor, and equipment rich in rare metals and relatively less important were further cut into small pieces by the players, pushed into vast space, and fed into the material decomposition chambers of the giant 3D printer.
The four reactors removed from the carrier were just the right size, fitting perfectly into the power rooms of the four “print head” ships. After that,
they would be equipped with several engines and Zero Element Furnaces salvaged from Imperial fighters, and then they could officially begin work.
However, without basic industrial facilities, the operating efficiency of the giant 3D printer was reduced by more than half compared to when it was installed inside the cangyuan one shipbuilding complex.
Printing a frigate would take at least a week.
On average, it could only print one owl every 5 hours.
The reason for this is that this “raw printing” mode, compared to “cooked printing” which involves pre-refining and crushing materials, puts too much pressure on the material decomposition chamber, operating at full load.
Inside the bridge of the Taibai, Chief Engineer Black Smoke reported the current engineering progress to Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan nodded slightly.
“We definitely won't have time to temporarily build a processing plant here. How about this: you prioritize printing enough industrial drones to first speed up the ship dismantling, ensuring material supply. Are we short on any elements?”
Black Smoke: “No shortage! The Oka is an all-purpose capital ship, fully prepared for long voyages. The ship has a complete periodic table of elements, and enough nuclear fuel and zero element!”
“That's good then. I'll find time to discuss the subsequent print production sequence with you.”
“No problem, Executive Officer! Oh, by the way, I have more good news to tell you: the deep sea has already built its warp drive and is now departing from Ruins Star! That battleship also has a production line inside, and I hear its capacity is quite high.”
Things are finally looking up—
This willpower-testing expedition has finally passed its most difficult initial stage and reached a turning point!
The addition of the deep sea will bring a qualitative leap in the fleet's strength, and it should be able to handle two to three Imperial battleships simultaneously.
Then we won't be afraid of being bullied, probably…
The deep sea's warp speed is 1.66 times that of the expeditionary team, and it can reach the K063 star system in a maximum of 15 days.
But Lu Yuan didn't want to just wait here.
He donned his gear, entered space through the airlock, and then entered the space station.
“Good morning, Executive Officer!”
Seeing Lu Yuan, Nan Guo de Xue, busy at the computer, looked up.
“Good morning. You look much better recently than when we first set off, which shows that changing your work environment really helps.”
“Really? Perhaps, some credit also goes to those Zerg creatures.”
“Zerg?”
“Yes! Many people find those larvae quite cute, and they say the way they eat battleships is especially stress-relieving. Compared to the stereotypical Zerg, these rogue creatures are more like Earth's whales.”
“Alright.”
The key lies in “rogue,” not controlled by the Mainframe, Lu Yuan thought.
Only in this state are they a bit endearing.
From beginning to end, he maintained a strong sense of vigilance towards these creatures.
“How are the new round of 'negotiations' going?” Lu Yuan asked.
“There's already a result; in fact, it just finished.”
Along with Nan Guo de Xue's answer, the bald Xian Yu disconnected his psionic link, jumped off the communication device, and came before Lu Yuan.
“Executive Officer, we've just reached an agreement! The Zerg fleet still needs five days to finish eating, after which they will set off for home, heading to the evacuation beacon left by their kin 300 years ago. The specific location is .—.”
“Here.”
Nan Guo de Xue opened the star map, pointing to the B112 blue giant star system on the holographic screen. It was located in the “north,” 41 wormhole jumps away. Xian Yu: “And I just convinced the other party that they can travel with us for the first half of the journey, and then part ways here,
at the X13 ‘Great Rift’ black hole cluster! Twenty-five wormhole jumps from K063.”
Lu Yuan nodded.
“This means we've secured Zerg escort within 25 jumps. During this time, even if other Imperial Fleets discover our 蹤跡, they will surely flee immediately.”
“Exactly! That's it.”
“How long will it take to reach the ‘Great Rift’?” Lu Yuan asked.
“The Zerg will travel with us at 60% of light speed, which will take about two weeks. During this time, the Zerg bioweapon ships can generate a warp bubble large enough to enclose all fleet members, so we can perform repairs and 3D printing during the journey.”
Oh?
That's good news.
“Which means we have an extra 10 days to produce supplies,” Lu Yuan muttered to himself. “Enough to replace all lost equipment,
and complete the repair of the external armor.”
The fleet moves at 60% of light speed, and due to relativistic time dilation, 14 days in the outside world is only equivalent to 10 days inside the warp bubble.
“And after the journey ends, we will have completed three-quarters of the trip, very close to the cangyuan one's route.”
Nan Guo de Xue smiled and looked at the Executive Officer, making a victory gesture.
“Good! Then it's settled. We'll try to collect as much material as possible these five days, and once the Zerg younglings finish eating in five days, we'll set off together!”
“Executive Officer!!”
As he gave the order, Charlotte's terrified voice came from behind.
She floated over to Lu Yuan, her face pale, as if she had seen a ghost.
“What's wrong? Haven't you recovered from the high-gravity flight around the Brown Dwarf three days ago?”
Although Charlotte was a gene-modded individual, her physique was still much weaker compared to players whose levels were generally above 15.
Three days ago, the fleet performed high-angle maneuvers in a 3.3 G high-gravity environment, which even she, having taken flight lessons, found a bit overwhelming.
“No! I... I think I just saw a ghost! It was Chang Kong, the ace pilot who died earlier. He was carrying a tray and waved at me in the Taibai's mess hall. I didn't even react at the time—”
The players nearby struggled to hold back their laughter.
Sorry, we tricked you into crying earlier!
“Well, about that….”
Lu Yuan gently patted her shoulder.
“Actually, I kept forgetting to tell you that these company employees I selected can actually be resurrected in stasis pods.”
“Resurrection!?”
Charlotte was stunned.
“Are you referring to medical treatment after cardiac arrest or brain death?”
“No, I mean resurrection in the literal sense. After complete death, consciousness recall, and physical reconstruction.”
“But even if the body can be perfectly cloned, how does consciousness manage to persist? Does it return to the quantum sea the instant before death, and then get summoned back?”
You play too many sci-fi games—
“This is cangyuan one's most cutting-edge technology from the golden age. The specific principles are not something I can reveal to you right now.”
Lu Yuan adopted an “no comment” posture.
“Alright,” Charlotte looked up at him with a slight complaint, “you guys are too much! How could you forget to tell me something so important!”
Nan Guo de Xue laughed.
“The Executive Officer is because—”
She stopped mid-sentence, then her eyes lost their luster, and she slumped into the Executive Officer's arms.
“A Xue? You— What happened?!”
This was the first time Charlotte had seen her like this.
From her perspective as a native, such a sudden fainting, if not some tasteless prank, must be a rather serious mental or neurological symptom.
“It's nothing.” Lu Yuan's voice was low. “She should—she'll be back to normal in a moment.”
“Did the cat knock the equipment off again?” The mage leaned over and whispered to Xian Yu.
“Once might be a coincidence, but a second time within a week—”
Xian Yu gently shook his head.
“I don't think it's the cat.”
3 minutes ago, Boston, USA, near an apartment building close to MIT.
In the dark of night, NSA Director Morgan glared fiercely at the lit room on the third floor, tossing his cigarette butt out the car window.
Then, he picked up his walkie-talkie.
“All teams, commence action!”
Two heavy black armored vehicles drove in from different directions, braking sharply below the apartment building.
Twelve fully armed NSA agents agilely jumped out of the vehicles, rushing into the apartment's ground-floor lobby before surrounding pedestrians could pull out their phones to film.
This was originally a low-crime community; tonight, the tranquility was suddenly shattered.
“Ah!”
Seeing a group of armed thugs burst in, the apartment manager, an elderly woman, let out a scream, then was immediately targeted by many AR15s.
“Shut up! Get on the floor!”
“Alright, alright, just don't shoot, God—”
“Lobby secured! Leave three to guard the elevators and stairs here, the rest follow me upstairs!”
Soon, the agents arrived at the door of Room 301, where Song Xue lived.
“The suspect may be carrying deadly weapons, but the higher-ups don't want her dead. If she resists, immediately fire tasers!”
“Watch my back! Prepare to breach! Three, two, one!”
Thud!
The police battering ram shattered the door lock.