Chapter 970: Pulling Black Technology Out of the Crotch

Chapter 970: Unveiling Black Tech from the Crotch

Half an hour ago.

In the desolate cosmic belt far from Beacon Star, a Kunder fleet leaped out of the stargate, swiftly dividing into multiple formations and entering warp mode, heading toward Beacon Star along different routes.

After the ravages of the Shining Federation and the Psionic Cult, the perimeter set up by the Crimson Empire near Beacon Star had expanded several times over. It wasn't long before this Kunder fleet materialized and was detected by the spatial monitoring devices in the area, yet the Kunder fleet turned a blind eye to it, ignoring it completely as they pressed straight ahead.

The command room of the flagship was dominated by crystal blue and deep gray, with various consoles structured for crustacean biology. The fleet commander was a massive lobster-man, noticeably bulkier than his ordinary kin, his carapace adorned with fiery red stripes.

The Kunder race was also divided into different sub-factions, one of which possessed a peculiar trait: when experiencing different emotions, certain parts of their carapace would change color. The red patterns signified anger and agitation. The commander was currently in a state of fury, and the object of his wrath was none other than the enemy, the Crimson Empire.

Yelu, a hardline officer of the Kunder race known for his aggressive style, had volunteered for this assault mission. He and most of the crew knew that this journey was likely a one-way trip, yet they marched forward without hesitation.

"How much farther to Beacon Star as marked on the star chart?"

"Reporting to the Commander, we are still about four hours away."

"Increase our speed."

Yelu's tone was brimming with murderous intent, wishing he could immediately unleash the ship's payload into the enemy's heartland.

The Kunder race had only acquired the complete stargate technology and advanced warp engines a few years ago. Even with the immense productive capacity of a star-cluster-level civilization, they could not mass-produce troops on a massive scale. Naturally, their experience in utilizing these two technologies was lacking, unable to pull off many tricks. Even now, many Kunder soldiers were still unaccustomed to these novel technologies.

A four-hour travel time naturally failed to achieve the element of surprise, but this was already the absolute limit of what the Kunder could manage. Their stealth forces could only quietly place the stargate at this location; any closer, and they would be unable to hide.

However, this fleet did not care about being detected; they were executing a strike plan.

The data from the crashed ship had marked the location of Beacon Star and its approximate perimeter, declaring it the command core of the Crimson Empire. After targeted long-range observations, the Kunder confirmed the authenticity of this information and thus formulated this plan to raid the enemy's base—taking advantage of the Crimson Empire sending out the majority of its army to crusade against them, they attempted to launch a fierce assault from behind, striking right at the Empire's rear.

In a direct confrontation, the Kunder knew they were doomed, so they could only take a desperate gamble. If they could blow up the enemy's command core, they would gain a phased advantage, and the enemy would inevitably lose a crucial retreat route.

This fleet was loaded with a massive amount of primordial psionic weapons. The Kunder deeply trusted the power of these things. As long as they got close to Beacon Star, any single shot hitting the planet would achieve their strategic goal. Primordial psionic energy practically ignored defenses; most shields would merely be assimilated by it, providing energy for its expansion.

Although they knew this mission was fraught with peril, the crew of this fleet, including Yelu, were fundamentally resolute in their convictions and fearless of death.

On one hand, it was their anger and hostility toward the Empire; on the other hand, it was a deep-seated fear in the bottom of their hearts. And the cause of their fear happened to be closely related to Han Xiao.

Originally, due to their disadvantage in combat power, the Kunder were extremely careful about hiding their location. As long as their territory remained unexposed, they could use the strategic depth of the Light Dust Cluster to do a great many things.

However, the Crimson Empire's grand army had been marching for half a month without much scouting, heading straight for their territory. This suddenly disrupted the Kunder's plans and threw them into a panic.

The exposure of their civilization's territory would render most of the Kunder's prepared measures useless and place all their armies in grave danger. Countless people were grateful that they had sent away the vast majority of civilians early on; otherwise, they would be even more passive.

Left with no choice, the Kunder had to activate this pending plan to raid the enemy's base. As the saying goes, all tactics convert to home defense; since their own lair was exposed, the Kunder intended to use a surprise force to blow up the Empire's retreat route as well.

The mastermind behind this scene was Han Xiao, who provided the intelligence, helping the Empire save a tremendous amount of effort and forcing the Kunder to take this desperate gamble.

...

At the Beacon Star Command Center, Tarrokov and all the remaining officers gathered in the command room, jointly gazing at the star map on the virtual large screen. The red dots marking the Kunder fleet were slowly approaching, with a countdown to their estimated arrival in the upper right corner.

"As you all can see, the enemy is launching an attack on Beacon Star and will arrive in just over three hours."

Tarrokov stood with his hands behind his back, looking around at everyone. His expression was calm, showing not a hint of pressure.

The others' expressions remained unchanged, showing no surprise at all.

This situation was precisely one of the possibilities they had deduced, and contingency plans had long been prepared. In Tarrokov's strategic sandbox, the enemy had almost no chance of victory in a direct battle, and the probability of them taking a desperate gamble was as high as 95%.

In the wars of the Exploration Era, the Crimson Empire had suffered countless ambushes. With their rich experience, the officers present were not only unflustered but even felt somewhat amused.

—Compared to this group of seasoned veterans, this indigenous civilization with little war experience was still too green; their every move was well within their expectations.

Without a High-Dimensional Apocalypse Teleporter, and you still want to launch a sneak attack?

Without the fate of the Shining Federation, you've caught the Shining Federation's disease.

Beacon Star had suffered through countless disasters. To be honest, they were already used to people charging straight at them.

After the lesson from last time, even though a large force had been dispatched, Beacon Star had retained a sufficient fleet. Moreover, the expanded perimeter meant the enemy would need more time to warp to Beacon Star. A few hours were enough for the allied forces of Gao Lu, Reynor, and Crown Ring to rush here through the stargate, and even the dispatched grand army could leap back all the way through the stargates built along the route.

"Everyone is already aware of the situation. The only threat from the enemy's surprise attack now lies in the primordial psionic weapons themselves."

Tarrokov paced slowly and said, "We have ample reserve time and must intercept and annihilate all incoming forces midway. If we let even a single enemy ship approach Beacon Star to drop a primordial psionic bomb, we will be in trouble."

"I request authorization to use primordial psionic energy. Just as Black Star said, it is only polite to return a courtesy." A hardline officer sneered.

"Mm, approved." Tarrokov nodded.

The use of primordial psionic energy was strictly prohibited in the explored universe, but since the enemy had already deployed it, the Empire would no longer hold back. Since it was going to be polluted anyway—whether by them or by us—there was nothing to worry about.

However, although the use of this ultimate weapon was permitted, Tarrokov had other plans. He said in a deep voice, "The lethality of primordial psionic energy is too great. If possible, try to fight with conventional weapons and capture the enemy's ships and kin. This is a great opportunity to gather intelligence on the enemy. Don't forget, we currently know almost nothing about their civilization. Also, put the Virtual Mechanic troops on standby; we should have a use for them."

The Empire itself had a large number of Virtual Mechanics. To deal with an indigenous-level civilization like this, they didn't plan to borrow the power of their Super-A-class allies... After all, Black Star's appearance fee was still quite high these days.

...

Upon detecting the enemy's attempt to sneak attack, Beacon Star immediately summoned garrison troops from various locations through the stargates, rapidly assembling the army and then dispatching them to intercept the Kunder's surprise fleet.

It wasn't long before the two sides engaged in a skirmish in the desolate cosmic belt near Beacon Star. This time, it was far from the polite exchange of conventional ship cannons seen in the internal wars of the explored universe. Both sides were frantically hurling primordial psionic energy at each other, like tossing bags of filth.

In the vacuum of space, the expansion speed of primordial psionic energy was slightly slower, after all, there wasn't an entire planet's worth of matter for it to convert and devour. But it was equally dangerous, because it would not dissipate.

Clusters of primordial psionic energy lingered on the battlefield, turning into nearly lethal obstacles. Ships could only narrowly dodge them continuously, and the psionic clusters kept expanding, releasing immense gravitational pull that swallowed various shattered ship parts, resembling miniature black holes.

In such a complex battlefield environment, everyone was wary of the enemy's long-range strikes, so the frequency of boarding actions actually increased. This was mainly led by the Empire, while the Kunder, who only wanted to bombard and blast, were the ones being boarded.

"Reporting to the Commander, ships 078, 075, and 102 have been boarded by the enemy. The guards on board are completely unable to resist."

In the command room of the Kunder flagship, the virtual screen displayed the scene of Supers massacring Kunder armored soldiers in a one-sided slaughter.

Watching this scene, Yelu's tone was grim. "This is what the data calls the Supers? There's actually a way to obtain extraordinary power without genetic modification?!"

"Commander, the battle situation is unfavorable for us. What do we do now?"

Hearing this, Yelu took a look at the overall situation. There was a gap in warship technology and military power, and the fleet was suffering heavy losses.

Although this operation was akin to a suicide attack, they hadn't even seen the shadow of Beacon Star yet, and they had already lost so many men. Clearly, they could not advance an inch.

Everyone looked at him, seemingly having made some kind of psychological preparation.

Yelu gritted his teeth and slammed his fist hard on the table, his expression ferocious:

"It is my honor to fight side by side with you all... All troops, listen to my orders! Activate the Space-Time Shearer!"

...

On the other side, at the very beginning of the battle, Han Xiao received the news and descended a remote projection at Beacon Star to observe the battle situation.

The Empire's interception of the Kunder fleet could be described as crushing and sweeping away all obstacles. The enemy had almost no ability to resist; the generational gap in warship technology was not so easily bridged.

In the command room, Tarrokov calmly directed the overall situation, while Han Xiao stood by, playing the idle bystander.

Seeing that the battle was going so well, Han Xiao was somewhat puzzled.

"It's strange, the Kunder seem utterly invincible... How exactly did they cause trouble for the Empire in my past life?"

The current situation differed from what he had anticipated. In his view, since the historical background of his past life stated that the Kunder had caused trouble for the Empire, they should have at least fought to a standstill. Why were the enemies so weak?

A group of Virtual Mechanic troops was working hard nearby to crack the quantum network firewall of this Kunder warship, and the progress was gratifying.

In another ten-odd minutes, they might be able to capture an entire fleet without even having to lift a finger themselves.

"The Kunder have no chance of a comeback; they've been getting thrashed this whole time. Strange, strange..." Han Xiao muttered to himself.

Just as he was pondering, the Virtual Mechanic squad beside him suddenly let out a sound of surprise, looking puzzled, and hastily spoke up:

"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, we have encountered a problem on our end."

Tarlkov cast a glance over, his brow furrowed in puzzlement. "What seems to be the problem?"

"It's just... in the blink of an eye, the quantum network nodes of the enemy fleet vanished into thin air. We are receiving absolutely no signals, and the virtual intrusion has automatically severed. It is not a network outage, but..."

Before Tarlkov could ponder the matter further, a bizarre spectacle suddenly unfolded upon the battlefield.

In a sudden flash, the entire Kunde fleet seemed to freeze in time, halting dead in their tracks.

The Imperial forces, however, were not about to stand idly by; they unleashed a devastating barrage of concentrated fire, instantly obliterating the majority of the fleet, including Yelu's flagship.

Just then, a sudden and drastic anomaly erupted!

Upon the hulls of the destroyed warships, white noise flickered alongside subtle spatial distortions. Before anyone could even register what was happening, the very next instant, these vessels suddenly reappeared completely intact, restored to their pristine state prior to being struck. Simultaneously, their positions had shifted forward by a massive distance, with no trace of transit, remaining perfectly still.

Hesitating for a brief moment, the Imperial fleet opened fire once more, blowing these ships to pieces. Yet, the exact same spectacle played out again, and the Kunde fleet's position leaped forward yet another massive distance.

This time, the Imperial fleet held their fire. A few seconds later, the Kunde fleet abruptly jumped again, teleporting forward by another vast stretch. Once more, there was no process of movement, as if they were skipping frames in a film.

"What in the world is this..."

Watching the battle remotely from Lighthouse Star, Tarlkov was instantly seized by a wave of shock and suspicion.

Bzzzzzz—

"Severe fluctuations detected in the space-time coefficients. The degree of distortion is unknown. Matching against database models... Match failed. No similar models found in the database. Establishing a new file..."

Meanwhile, the Imperial fleet on the front lines exhausted every means of attack, but no matter how many times they obliterated these warships, they always reverted to their original state. Time and again, they advanced toward Lighthouse Star in frame-skipping leaps, utterly unstoppable.

Witnessing this, a subtle shift crossed Tarlkov's gaze. He exhaled a breath, swiftly composing his mind, and shook his head. "It seems we have underestimated them. Heh, one truly must never look down upon any civilization."

The officers exchanged bewildered glances, their faces reflecting a myriad of expressions.

They had originally expected a leisurely slaughter of their opponents, never anticipating that this indigenous civilization would pull an unknown piece of black technology out of thin air. It seemed to pertain to space and time, leaving them utterly baffled as to how such a bizarre technological tree had been cultivated.

Just as the officers were gripped by shock and uncertainty, Han Xiao, on the other side, was equally taken aback, subconsciously lowering his crossed arms.

This technology... he recognized it!

He had simply never imagined it originated from the Kunde. In the historical context of his past life, there was absolutely no record of it whatsoever!

This very technique was one of the ultimate trump cards wielded by their explored universe against the World Tree!