novelhk Page 150
Page 150
United Star Planetary Dockyard —
The colossal War Moon had reached the final stage of its construction, and all could see that a planetary warship, no less powerful than itself, had already taken full shape beside the United Star.
Meanwhile, a large number of engineering vessels were still carrying out various facility installations and production around him.
After returning to Galaxy Star, Zhou Qing quickly went to the main control room of the planetary dock.
Next, he will be stationed here to complete the final stages of the planetary warship's construction, ensuring its smooth entry into the human legion's naval fleet.
As Zhou Qing resumed the final steps of the War Month process, Guilliman, who was handling various government affairs on Terra, lazily stood up and stretched.
"Ah~" After stretching, Guilliman felt much more refreshed.
With the increasing prevalence of AI, Guilliman now has significantly fewer tasks to handle, only needing to deal with high-quality problems.
This allowed Guilliman, who had been overwhelmed by a lot of complicated and useless documents, to find his own source of joy.
His life is much better now. After dealing with a lot of things, Guilliman can even stand on the high-rise building of the State Council with his coffee cup in hand, overlooking the entire Terra that is undergoing transformation.
“This is the life a human being should live!” Guilliman stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the State Council, holding a cup of Blue Mountain coffee and taking a small sip.
Terra is so much better than before. In the past, Terra was nothing but hives and was incredibly ugly, but now Terra is different.
Although there are still no oceans, green mountains and clear waters have appeared on Terra, maintaining the ecological environment of this giant planet.
Every time Guilliman finished dealing with everything and stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window looking at the view outside, he felt a sense of joy.
Today was a beautiful day for Guilliman, but just as he finished his Blue Mountain coffee, an urgent communication from the Highlord Council arrived at his terminal.
The High Lords Council, although this form of government is extremely inefficient, seems to be working for now; they handle some minor matters that Guilliman doesn't need to deal with personally.
This includes a series of foreign affairs.
Even if there are hardly any civilizations in the Milky Way that the human empire has yet to discover, the High Lords Council does indeed have such a function.
"Let me see what kind of information it is that was transmitted directly to my information terminal."
Guilliman muttered to himself, then turned on his information terminal.
[The Imperial Mars Mechanical Guild's Archsage Philus, leading a forging fleet, encountered an attack from starfish-shaped aliens in the Greater Magellanic Cloud system. These aliens were incredibly powerful; those in the region possessed the ability to accelerate to 60 times the speed of light at their peak.]
Guilliman looked at the message in front of him, quickly put down his coffee cup, and carefully read through the message word by word to understand its meaning.
He wasn't shocked by the Imperial fleet or the encounter with the alien civilization in the Large Magellanic Cloud; he was shocked that these guys had actually gone so far, considering that place was a full 16 light-years away from Terra!
Chapter 247 The Mechanicus Fleet Actively Explores Outwards
Guilliman said he was pleased that the Mechanicus was willing to explore beyond the galaxy, but the Mechanicus's actions left him feeling quite bewildered.
The human empire lacks ambition because it once struggled even to defend its existing territory.
Therefore, the human empire at that time could not venture beyond the galaxy, which was a regret for humanity. But what did he see now?
Those Keo guys from the Cult of Machines actually traveled 16 light-years to the Large Magellanic Cloud!!!
Such a concept is somewhat abstract. At its peak, the human empire's sacred domain spanned approximately 5 light-years. This was the entire area that the Emperor could illuminate, and also the area that allowed for warp travel.
Once you leave this area, you will be in complete darkness and without any guidance while navigating in the warp, and you will become completely lost in the warp.
In theory, the warp covers the entire universe, but in reality, even the four warp gods' areas of activity are basically fixed in the Milky Way.
The subspace outside the Milky Way is extremely barren. More importantly, there is a void region of 1.5 million light-years in the outer perimeter of the Milky Way. Although it is not completely empty, desolation is the basic character.
There isn't a region like the Milky Way there, with such a large population that the Warp Gods could exploit through their contracts, or perhaps there are races there with little to no psionic abilities...
Of course, besides these two who have no interest, there are probably powerful beings outside that make even the Warp God unwilling to leave his own space.
No one knows exactly which one it is, but all that is known is that under its influence, even the Warp Gods rarely leave the Milky Way, at most wandering around the edge of the Milky Way.
The farther away from the center of the Milky Way, the less likely it is to be affected by subspace interference.
Although Guilliman had long known that with Zhou Qing providing many methods for faster-than-light travel, the Mechanicus would inevitably explore beyond the galaxy, he never imagined that someone would actually explore to 16 light-years away!
If this speed were to be achieved within a year, then his daily travel speed would need to be increased to approximately 16 times the speed of light!
It's not that Zhou Qing doesn't have the technology, but Zhou Qing is currently based on the Cult of the Machine God, and the faster-than-light engine they possess can only reach a maximum speed of 5000 times the speed of light.
Moreover, the technology he provided was based on the fact that even if the Cult of Machines had created a mechanical ark capable of traveling at 5000 times the speed of light two years prior, and were to explore the Large Magellanic Clouds within two years, they would still need to maintain a speed of at least 8 times the speed of light per day.
Unless these guys from the Cult of Mechanics risk traveling at 5000 times the speed of light in warp space, it's more likely that...
"These mechanical gods are a bunch of lunatics!"
After having a solution in mind, Guilliman couldn't help but exclaim that these motor enthusiasts were all lunatics.
The difficulty of navigating in the subspace, especially at the edge of the Milky Way, without the illumination of starlight...
It's almost as if one could easily get completely lost in the warp, not even knowing where they are, and having no way of making any judgments.
Guilliman simply made a comment, then planned to simply send the message back to the Highlords Council and let them handle it however they pleased.
Even if the Empire's fleet is attacked, what can happen to the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is 16 light-years away?
Could we possibly send a fleet from the Empire's homeland to support him?
That's 16 light-years, not 16 light-years. If it were 16 light-years, Guilliman could choose to send the Imperial fleet to help and rescue the Imperial Forging Ark fleet.
However, if it's 16 light-years away, then there's really nothing we can do, even with Zhou Qing's combat fleet.
To reach this place 16 light-years away, even assuming all offensive methods are abandoned and the possibility of being attacked en route is disregarded, and all energy is focused on powering the engines, faster-than-light travel would still take a full year.
By the time they get there, the ashes of the Mechanicus's Ark-Forging Fleet will probably have been scattered to the winds.
Moreover, such fleets are relatively rare within the Empire. It's impossible to send them out for something like this.
If the fleet were sent 16 light-years away, the energy cores of ordinary warships would have been exhausted long ago. Even if the fleet arrived, it would be unable to carry out combat operations and would need to find a place to resupply.
But how could they resupply over there? It was simply impossible. Therefore, Guilliman never thought that this message would cause any trouble. He simply chose to classify it as useless information and send it back.
However, just as he was about to do so, a suggestion from the Golden Throne stopped him.
"Don't make the decision yourself. Send this information to Zhou Qing and let him make the decision."
Compared to the fundamentals, the Emperor has a deeper understanding of Zhou Qing, after all, he experienced the dark age of technology when human technology reached its peak.
The humans of that era were almost identical to Zhou Qing of today; they were equally arrogant and proud, and they would ruthlessly kill any race that dared to offend human dignity.
It was precisely because Old Man Huang had personally experienced that era that he did not let Guilliman make his own decision. Instead, he asked Guilliman to contact Zhou Qing.
"Huh? Why would Father need to do this? Does the War General really intend to send a fleet to rescue that forging fleet of the Cult of Machines?"
From his own perspective, Kiri felt that Zhou Qing probably wouldn't be dropped from the fleet, since it wouldn't make any sense...
Perhaps the emperor had regained most of his humanity by this time, so he spoke without hesitation.
“My son, you didn’t experience that era, so you don’t know just how high human pride can be.”
“I have experienced things you haven’t, so I know them better than you. You just need to give this information to Zhou Qing, and I believe that my war commander will definitely send a fleet to support you.”
"Even if he doesn't send a fleet to support us, it won't be a loss for the Empire."
"For you, it's just a matter of passing on information; what's so difficult about that?"
The emperor was convinced that Zhou Qing might send a fleet to provide support, and besides, it was just a message, so what did it matter?
Sending a message is no problem for the Empire now.
Guilliman, who had originally planned to scan the information directly into the junk file, recalled it after hearing these words.
"I understand. Father, I will pass this information on to the Commander-in-Chief, and he will make the decision."
Guilliman did not experience the Dark Ages, so he did not know just how arrogant humanity truly was.
However, he was very obedient to advice. Since his father had spoken, he naturally chose to listen.
Chapter 248 The War Moon is nearing completion; preparations are underway to rescue the Mechanicus fleet.
When Guilliman chose to send the message to Zhou Qing, Zhou Qing's expression upon seeing the message was one of great joy.
In many ways, Zhou Qing considered the Cult of the Machine God to be an utterly disastrous sect.
However, it still has its good aspects; for example, they still have a desire to explore the outside world.
Now that someone has explored the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is 16 light-years away, Zhou Ping'an feels even more gratified.
The technology of the Mechanicus has not been advanced to the point where it is easy to explore things 16 light-years away.
Therefore, Zhou Qing was overjoyed by their actions.
"From now on, Guilliman, I will be fully in charge of this matter. You can continue with your administrative duties. I will mobilize the Imperial army to prepare for battle!"
The fact that the Cult of Mechanisms was willing to explore undoubtedly showed that humanity still had a spirit of enterprise, which made Zhou Qing very happy. Therefore, given that Zhou Qing was happy, how could he possibly let it go unchecked?
What happened to those damned starfish that destroyed the Mechanicus's forging fleet?
"Have the Ministry of the Interior send a message to the casting fleet, instructing them to hold out against the enemy for at least two months. Our reinforcements will arrive in two months!"
Although Zhou Qing had already planned to go and support the Cult of the Machine God, the Cult's fleet had to hold out first, otherwise they would be wiped out before the reinforcements even arrived.
"Yes, Commander! I will go to the Ministry of the Interior immediately to inform the casting fleet to hold on!"
After listening to what Zhou Qing said, Guilliman felt a sense of relief. Fortunately, he listened to his father's advice and asked the war commander for his opinion.
Otherwise, if it were him handling it, he would definitely treat it as spam.
Traveling 16 light-years away, even a normal person like Guilliman would never make such a long journey for a Mechanicus forging fleet. The human empire simply doesn't have that capability.
Fortunately, Zhou Qing has now taken over the matter, and Guilliman can finally breathe a sigh of relief, feeling much better.
After dealing with this somewhat troublesome and absurd matter, Guilliman returned to his life of handling government affairs, while Zhou Qing began to mobilize the troops.
Why is Zhou Qing now capable of interfering with a target 16 light-years away? What is he relying on?
Without a doubt, he relied on the War Moon that was under construction!
A second-order singularity serves as the energy source for the War Moon, possessing ample energy supply, further enhanced by Zhou Qing's various technological advancements.
At this time, the War Moon could even travel at a speed of 6000 light-years per day!
Who would imagine a planet-sized celestial body traveling 6000 light-years per day toward a precise location?
The areas that the Cult of Mechanics' exploration fleet had been exploring for a long time could be covered by Zhou Qing during the current War Month in just 26 days.
This is the benefit of advanced technology; at the same time, the resources and various combat units carried by a planetary-class warship are also quite enormous.