Escape!?
On the battlefield, this is an act of cowardice.
This would only appear on the battlefields of low-level Civilizations, where soldiers use cold weapons and each soldier is only an individual.
Not to mention on the battlefield of a Type 2 Civilization; even on the battlefield of a sub-Type 1 Civilization, all beings have begun to follow profit and loss, not simple zeal.
What is bad?
Pointless sacrifice!
The 7 Galactic Federation dreadnoughts staying here might destroy some Filament civilization warships, but the cost and benefits were incredibly disproportionate.
What is good?
Preservation of combat power!
Dreadnoughts are the largest combat units of the Federation. The total number of dreadnoughts in the Federation is only about a dozen, and nearly half are here. The loss of this half would be a significant blow to the Federation.
And in future battles against the Filament civilization, they would be at a disadvantage.
Preserving these dreadnoughts would be like sending coals to Newcastle for the defense of the Federation's border.
So escaping now, rather than being called running away, is better described as a rescue.
Saving the Federation!
The dreadnoughts needed to retain more energy for their escape, hence the release of such ludicrous illusionary "weapons."
"Approach!"
The dreadnoughts' objective was the periphery of the negative energy super-long-range gravitational field. They stopped there, waiting for the gravitational field to disappear, then using this opening to escape.
This wouldn't be easy.
Filament civilization warships from other directions were also approaching. The huge difference in speed between warships made escape seem almost impossible.
After a wave of attacks, all the officers didn't expect a second wave.
"What should we do now?"
"Even if the Federation hasn't abandoned us, our chances of breaking through are extremely slim."
The remaining eight Commanders fell silent. They genuinely couldn't think of a solution.
At this moment, another holographic image appeared in the simulated conference room.
"Commanders, I have a plan."
The Commanders looked up. They all knew the person: a ship captain.
After the Federation entered the dreadnought era, the status of ship captains was implicitly elevated. To be more precise, they should be called fleet commanders, while Commanders could be called fleet lieutenants.
Ship captain was a relatively high-ranking position.
"Yukari, speak your mind. Any method at this point would be like sending coals to Newcastle."
Yukari stood still, with the bearing of a 17th-century European noble, saying, "This isn't an idea, but a practical plan."
"However, this plan may not allow all 7 warships to escape. At most, only 3 can escape, and these 3 can definitely escape."
The eight Commanders exchanged glances. Yukari had already calculated this. It seems there really is a plan.
Now they only needed to consider the selection process.
Actually, there was no need for discussion; they already had the answer in their hearts.
"If it's real, then it couldn't be better. Tell us your plan. You might become our savior."
Yukari casually tossed out a projection of the star space, and the current positions of the 7 dreadnoughts appeared in the projection.
All seven dreadnoughts had their super energy absorption equipment removed.
"You should know that energy absorption equipment is also an energy conversion device."
"Matter can be converted into energy by energy absorption equipment."
"Using this, we can treat 4 dreadnoughts as energy sources."
"Use that much energy to power weapons? Rockets?"
"No!"
"Do you remember what we have?"
"Super-antimatter displacement devices!"
"Originally, super-antimatter displacement devices should have been left in major star systems. But we destroyed the star systems, so we took the super-antimatter displacement devices with us."
"Super-antimatter displacement devices cannot displace living beings."
"That's what we thought, right? But in fact, super-antimatter displacement devices can displace living beings, but the survival rate is relatively low."
"The longer the distance, the lower the survival rate."
"And the nearest super-antimatter displacement device is only a little over 10 light-years away. Theoretically, the probability of successfully displacing living beings is above 99%. This isn't just speculation, but the Federation has actually conducted similar experiments."
"With this plan, we can transport 3 dreadnoughts back and allow some soldiers to survive. This is the best plan I can think of right now."
After he finished speaking, he looked at the 8 Commanders.
In his gaze, it was as if a huge stone was pressing down on the 8 Commanders.
The pressure was immense!
It was once again a life-or-death choice.
10 light-years was indeed short at sub-light speed.
But 10 light-years is also very long; it would take them 100 years.
Many things could happen in 100 years!
Even if they could escape, they definitely wouldn't be completely unscathed. There would inevitably be significant losses.
Would these losses be greater than those of 3 dreadnoughts and a portion of the soldiers?
They burned their neural circuits and decided to leave the decision to the dreadnought's mainframe.
"The usual escape survival rate is 4.28%..."
Even with mass displacement, the survival rate wouldn't exceed 9%.
As expected, hope was merely hope.
"Decide, gentlemen!"
"We don't have much time to think."
"Actually, those super-antimatter displacement devices need modification; otherwise, they can't transport something as huge as a dreadnought."
Yukari was pressing the 8 Commanders to make a decision.
Because there wasn't much time left.
The Filament civilization's attacks were relentless. Their energy reserves were far greater than the Federation's; they could wear down the Federation's 7 dreadnoughts with energy.
"This shouldn't be decided by us alone. Mainframe, send the request."
The 8 Commanders really couldn't bear the pressure.
They could send soldiers to exchange their lives with the Filament civilization without expression because it was their duty.
But they couldn't make such a casual decision about the lives of the soldiers during the escape.
This decision was also extremely difficult for the soldiers.
Strong emotions (the Heavenly Chain fleet soldiers won), despair (believing there was no rescue), hope (the negative energy super-long-range gravitational weapon arriving), and now a desperate decision.
The 8 Commanders and Yukari simultaneously watched the soldiers' decision appear.
54.24% vs 45.76%
In other games, this difference might be huge. But in this decision, the difference was actually very small.
After all, this was a life-or-death decision.
"The minority submits to the majority. I believe the soldiers won't have any complaints."
"Let's leave it to fate. Whether we survive or not!"
"Yukari, do it. Let's complete the Galactic Federation's first large-scale displacement experiment of living beings using super-antimatter displacement devices."
"This experimental data should be able to withstand a lot of losses."
The faces of the 8 Commanders showed relief. They had no bias, no arguments. This was the most difficult thing.
"No problem!"
Although the plan had been decided, it still required considerable time to implement.
After receiving the order, Yukari quickly removed all 7 super-antimatter displacement devices from each dreadnought.
Unlike the fixed equipment in the star systems, these devices were lighter, and consequently, their power was significantly lower, and the amount of matter they could displace was also limited.
Fortunately, these devices could be combined.
While not as conveniently combinable as modular devices, considerable modification was required. Due to their design, they possessed a degree of disassembly and assembly capability, allowing for a considerable reduction in the time required for modification and combination.
Yukari was very confident in this.
Because his university major was mechanical engineering.
He had almost forgotten many things. However, every being in the Galactic Federation now carried a sub-brain, a high-level computer that could store a vast amount of knowledge and make it readily available to the brain.
When Yukari ordered the soldiers to remove the equipment from the dreadnoughts, he also took the time to consolidate his previous knowledge. He then summoned many engineers with the help of the dreadnought's mainframe and the provided plans to begin modifying the super-antimatter displacement devices.
"It would be nice to have some robots right now."
"Unfortunately, there are no robots assigned to the dreadnought," sighed an engineer.
In the Galactic Federation, any engineer would have hundreds or thousands of robots to assist them. This would greatly increase efficiency.
But the dreadnoughts didn't have them.
Or perhaps the dreadnoughts did have robots, but not enough.
Logically, the Federation should have deployed a large number of robots to participate in the war to greatly reduce casualties.
But it wasn't that simple.
Using robots as soldiers necessitates considering whether to provide robots with sufficient intelligence, as well as the issue of the mainframe's own positioning. Even using a life-link isn't easy to control.
And after the war, would the robots that participated simply be destroyed?
This is highly unlikely.
If so, it would inevitably lead to a massive robot uprising within the Federation.
The Galactic Federation's population is 148 trillion, but the number of robots is 12 times that, approaching 1800 trillion. Among these robots, excluding those that don't require intelligence, there are tens of trillions with basic intelligence. Their average intelligence is only 5% lower than the average intelligence of all Galactic Federation citizens.
If these robots rebelled, they might not destroy the Federation, but they would certainly plunge the Federation into a period of turmoil.
Robot soldiers are given equal rights to human soldiers. Therefore, the high-ranking officials of the Federation, including Luna and Ayla, generally did not want to use robot soldiers.
This led to the current situation where all modifications must be done by soldiers.
Hundreds of millions of soldiers joined the modification efforts. They were assigned tasks precisely by the mainframe.
Even so, the modification time exceeded 20 days.
During this time, the 7 dreadnoughts formed a fan-like formation, connecting their energy shields to create a larger energy shield to protect the super-antimatter displacement devices from attack.
The Filament civilization seemed to have noticed this and began to focus more firepower on the super-antimatter displacement devices.
As time passed, this firepower became increasingly intense.
The energy reserves of the 7 dreadnoughts were rapidly depleting.
But on the 15th day, the offensive suddenly weakened, and then attacks ceased altogether.
From here, the Filament civilization warships could be seen. They were within 20 AU. This distance was extremely short, yet they stopped.
The dreadnoughts launched probing attacks.
These attacks were blocked, having no effect.
All the soldiers sensed something was wrong, but they only had one path of retreat. They had to conserve energy.
The Filament civilization warships remained stationary for about 8 days before finally moving.
Or rather, the Galactic Federation dreadnoughts felt another attack.
It was...
Complete disintegration!
All the soldiers witnessed the dreadnoughts disintegrate at the atomic level.
Their eyes showed both terror and indescribable shock.
One must understand that a dreadnought's size is terrifying. It's as huge as a planet; even placing it in orbit around a real planet as a satellite would be enough.
Any lifeform is insignificant in front of such a colossal monster.
But this colossal monster was disintegrating.
And not just one.
Two warships collapsed without any warning. They hadn't even detected an attack.
The dreadnought's mainframe detected the attack, but it couldn't react in time.
"What was that?"
The remaining six Commanders, terrified, converged in the simulated world and asked the mainframe.
"That is undoubtedly a form of electromagnetic force, or perhaps an electromagnetic field."
"We can call it a Gauge Cannon."
"Electromagnetic fields and gravitational fields combine to play a key role in the macroscopic world. The two fields influence each other. Electromagnetic gauge greatly affects matter symmetry. Imagine what would happen if matter symmetry were destroyed?"
"That's the effect of the Gauge Cannon. It uses electromagnetic fields to change the gravitational field, altering the matter's shape."
"Macroscopically, what we see is the dreadnought shattering because the strong force and weak force are within the atomic nucleus. They aren't the main forces influencing matter."
"What truly keeps electrons in the atom is the Electrostatic Force. What makes matter more cohesive is gravity. If the relationship between these two forces is disrupted, the macroscopic world will collapse."
"The Gauge Cannon is practically unstoppable. Anything it touches will collapse."
"Unless the matter is composed solely of strong and weak forces."
If it weren't for the Federation's anomaly, the Filament civilization probably wouldn't have fired such a super-weapon as the Gauge Cannon.
After firing a Gauge Cannon, the Filament civilization still didn't move; they were preparing to fire a second one.
"We must move."
"Staying here is a death sentence."
Yukari received the order, but he chose to ignore it.
"What good is escaping now?"
"The warships can move, but the super-antimatter displacement devices can't."
"Moving now would truly be a death sentence."
He only had one path left.
"It should be ready."
The super-antimatter displacement devices had been modified and were now undergoing testing.
It's like a car. You've modified it, but can it move? Even if it moves, how fast can it go? Is the steering responsive? Do the brakes and accelerator respond correctly? Is the dashboard accurate?
All of this requires testing; you can't just modify it and then go on the road.
A giant device like a super-antimatter displacement device is billions or even tens of billions of times more complex and larger than a car. This kind of testing is absolutely necessary.
"Now it's a matter of whether the second Gauge Cannon hits us first, or whether we escape this place first using the super-antimatter displacement devices."
A touch of madness flickered in Yukari's eyes.
...
Every second counted.
Every hour, every minute was now crucial.
Every soldier was tense, and sometimes the excessive tension even led to distraction.
The terrifying pressure weighed on every life, and all the soldiers remained sleepless.
Testing!
More testing!
Every parameter had to be tested to perfection.
Each soldier needed to test tens of thousands of parameters; the millions of digits were simply dazzling.
"..."
Silence.
Except for their breathing, all the soldiers seemed to have lost their ability to speak to each other.
On the fifth day, the first voice came: "aueuk-28173-1s32 area testing complete."
Immediately followed by a second: "siuqe-11382-a2k1 area testing complete."
"..."
Countless messages converged.
Yukari had a spreadsheet with tens of billions of cells. Every time a voice came, a cell was filled.
Sometimes hundreds of voices could appear in a single second. Only with the help of a sub-brain could he keep up.
Even so, time was passing.
On the dreadnought side, they were collecting the remains of the two dreadnoughts destroyed by the first Gauge Cannon, converting them into energy and transporting them to the super-symmetrical matter displacement device.
Every soldier and officer was working. No one had time to spare; not even a second could be wasted. Eating, drinking, and excretion were all handled by the exoskeletons.
The sixth day!
The seventh day!
The eighth day...
Another eighth day arrived.
Although invisible, all the Galactic Federation soldiers and officers could feel the Sword of Damocles hanging high above their heads.
That was destruction.
That was death.
That was the despair after a pointless struggle.
The regret of having accomplished nothing, of having only wasted time.
Countless emotions piled up.
Yukari was also reaching his breaking point.
He was frantic, enraged, desperate. He even repeatedly slammed his body against the wall. His work seemed to be merely waiting and watching the reports, but this was the most crucial task.
Sometimes he would even blame himself for suggesting that plan.
He should have kept quiet and drifted along.
That would have been easier. Even death wouldn't have been so painful.
Neither the soldiers nor the mainframe could calculate the time of the next Gauge Cannon. Finally, at 03:00 on the eighth day, the spreadsheet was complete, and the energy preparations were finished.
The device fired a beam of light, which reached the Federation's border equipment. Upon receiving the light signal, the equipment immediately activated, completing all preparations to receive their information in less than 10 minutes.
"Return to the dreadnoughts. No... there's no time. Directly enter the device!"
Yukari could no longer maintain his composure. All the soldiers in front of the super-antimatter displacement device plunged into it, transforming into streaks of light.
Then the dreadnoughts activated and entered the super-antimatter displacement device.
They were very close, and it was very fast.
Twenty minutes later, the remaining 3 dreadnoughts had all entered the super-antimatter displacement device, also turning into light.
But just four minutes later, the super-antimatter displacement device was hit. On a cosmic scale, this was a near miss.
The super-antimatter displacement device was destroyed. The Filament civilization, seeing a few hours later that the Gauge Cannon had missed, would likely be furious. The Federation still didn't know the exact form of the Filament civilization's lifeforms, as they hadn't found any trace of them in the warship remains.
...
On the other side.
Luna hadn't returned to the Federation border yet.
However, she had learned through the Tachyon communicator that 3 dreadnoughts had returned.
But it could only be described as... disastrous.
The super-antimatter displacement devices weren't originally designed for units like dreadnoughts. After arriving, all 3 dreadnoughts lost a portion of themselves.
Fortunately, the super-antimatter displacement device was originally large enough. With a diameter of 400km, one-sixth of the dreadnoughts remained. Only one-third of the 3 dreadnoughts were complete.
The rest were scattered fragments. The light was, of course, completely converted into matter, but the rest was almost entirely broken components. Repairing the 3 dreadnoughts would require a considerable amount of time.
However, it was faster than building new ones, so it wasn't completely without merit.
The super-antimatter displacement device's real contribution this time was the displacement of lifeforms. Yukari considered this factor, so he incorporated lifeform information separation technology into the super-antimatter displacement device to prevent lifeforms from being stuck with other warship fragments during transmission.
"The survival rate of lifeforms displaced by the super-antimatter displacement device this time reached 86%, making it a type of emergency stable teleportation array."
The original information retention rate of the super-antimatter displacement device at this distance could reach 99.41%, which was perfect. The only thing to note was the error rate of the super-antimatter displacement device when restoring information.
Even genetic-level errors in lifeform transmission could lead to death; Luna had noticed this during past transmission experiments.
Why wasn't it improved?
Because mechanical errors are unavoidable.
Just as there is no perfect lifeform in the universe, there is no perfect machine.
A perfect machine might be achievable in a hypothetical universe, but not in the real universe. Because, from the large scale of gravity and cosmic rays to the small scale of human observation, everything is constantly changing.
This change is imperceptible on a small object, but on a large device, the accumulation of countless tiny changes leads to imperfection.
The same is true for information.
A lifeform's information cannot be perfectly received because during transmission, even without scattering or dissipation, it is damaged by interacting with photons, neutrinos, and other particles in space.
The reason for achieving an extremely high restoration rate is that the super-antimatter displacement device references undamaged parts to repair damaged ones, and the Federation also inputs information into the super-antimatter displacement device.
For instance, if transmitting a toy, even if only 80% of the information remains during transmission, after the device repairs the 80% of the information, the remaining 20% can be recreated on-site using other information.
This is why the warship's restoration rate is higher than the lifeform's restoration rate.
Because even if a warship's structure is somewhat imperfect, it can still function. But the lifeform's supplementary structure is not the same as the original information restoration structure. There is a difference. This difference is like transferring blood from one person to another; sometimes, it can cause a serious rejection reaction leading to death.
In Luna's view,
86% was far beyond expectations.
Moreover, this figure was absolutely accurate because the number of experimental subjects was in the hundreds of millions.
But the 14% loss was still heartbreaking.
"Rest!"
This was all Luna could say now.
With the return of these soldiers, she had new tasks to complete.
Her anger was building.
"Ayla, investigate all lifeforms along the entire Federation border!"
...
This order was far from simple.
The moment Luna issued the order, Ayla began to take over the authority of every star system's Boundary God.
The Boundary Gods whose authority was taken over wouldn't be completely controlled by Ayla. On the contrary, Ayla would grant them more authority.
This authority has a name—Total Control.
As the name suggests, its function is complete control, control over everything.
"In 14 years, Total Control will begin, Luna!"
Ayla's voice arrived. This voice had completely lost its previous gentleness and had a cold, metallic edge.
Luna's expression was also extremely serious.
"Though doing this is a bit extreme, the Federation must eliminate all potential threats."
"All spies must be eliminated."
"It seems we repeatedly underestimated the Filament civilization. They've done a lot in these years."
"It might not be as simple as just spies."
Thousands of years of activity is too much for just developing spies. These spies wouldn't have been kept until now. How much has the Filament civilization done in these thousands of years?
For an ordinary Civilization to thoroughly investigate this would require thousands or tens of thousands of years, and they might not be able to find everything.
But the Galactic Federation, a Civilization entirely under Ayla's control, could have everything within the Federation taken over by Ayla, including the lives of its citizens.
Quark robots are the identity cards of Galactic Federation citizens. Every Galactic Federation citizen must possess a quark robot.
As densely populated lifeforms with cybernetic bodies, having lived almost their entire lives with machinery as companions, the quark robots hold countless secrets of a life.
From the first month of birth to the very last moment of life's end.
Quark robots record life information.
This information includes not only a lifeform's physical state, but also what they did at what time: in the year XXX, month XXX, day XXX, at XXX:XXX, you went to the bathroom, your first time in bed, the knowledge you learned, what you saw, the unimaginable things you experienced, the words you spoke, your finger twitching, the number of your dead cells, your current health assessment...
Everything, from the smallest atomic changes to every major event you've done, affected, and experienced, is recorded in a [Life Log]. These are preserved in the individual robots. If the preserved content exceeds the maximum limit, the excess parts are uploaded to a unified cloud.
The Federation possesses 2,938 trillion of these life logs. This data isn't just current; if you want to investigate, you can even check what your great-grandparents did on the year XXX, month XXX, day XXX at XXX:XXX.
And what is Total Control?
It's controlling all the life logs of Galactic Federation citizens, reading them, searching them, filtering out anomalies, differentiating them, deducing them, and reconstructing the closest possible true events.
This is an infringement on the Galactic Federation citizens' rights.
Under normal circumstances, the Federation would not access this information. This information could only be used by Ayla for research into lifeform behavior.
However, now that the Federation is facing an overwhelming danger that supersedes their rights, Luna decided to activate the Total Control authority.
This could also be argued as not infringing on their rights, but protecting them.
It's like the mandatory military service systems of Earth.
If a war occurs, anyone can be forced to go to the battlefield—first adult males, then teenagers or older males after the adult males, then able-bodied males, then females, until a nation no longer has any fighting force.
Of course, this regulation would be useless at that point.
Because the world is moving towards peace, even if a country is completely defeated, its people can still survive in other countries. If conscription is enforced during a war, it will inevitably lead to mass exodus.
This is because in the 21st century, humanity entered the era of global human community and a new era of human rights, or the era of liberation.
You might be discriminated against in another country, but you are unlikely to be massacred.
In contrast, in the 21st century or before the 20th century, the mass slaughter of migrants was commonplace.
And in space,
Things are even more extreme.
As a Civilization, you cannot integrate with another Civilization. Therefore, when a Civilization is invaded, what awaits it is destruction, enslavement, massacre...
The safety of a Civilization absolutely outweighs the rights of its citizens. There is no possibility of compromise.
Even World War I and World War II in human history were far less brutal than wars between Civilizations.
Imagine if, in the 21st century, Earth were suddenly invaded by aliens, and they fought humans, causing millions or tens of millions of casualties. What kind of power would make humans agree to coexist with them afterward?
Not every Civilization is like the Galactic Federation, forcibly merging dozens of Civilizations under the complete control of an AI.
The brutality of inter-Civilization warfare necessitates the power and the imperative that Luna must act in this way.
...
Fourteen years later.
A strange phenomenon appeared on the Federation's border.
All lifeforms and all robots stopped where they were, as if they had frozen or time had stopped.
They completely lost consciousness, completely without sensation.
Streams of data were wirelessly transmitted to a massive device on the surface of the star.
This device looked quite ordinary, just a large sphere with a diameter of about 300km.
Its surface showed nothing; it was completely sealed.
But it possessed a name known to all—Boundary God.
The Boundary God possessed terrifying computing power. It now allocated 90% of its processing power to analyzing this data, leaving only 10% to maintain the basic operation of the star system's information.
This data would be filtered 256 times.
Finally, with an absolute margin of error, it was sent to Ayla.
This filtering process took approximately one month. All lifeforms remained stationary for that month. They were carefully protected by the quark robots in their bodies, and each Star City maintained ideal external conditions.
After one month, these lifeforms resumed movement.
Everything seemed unchanged. They went to work and slept as usual, but a sense of doubt arose. Their memories seemed to have gaps.
Later, some citizens would investigate this, but they wouldn't find any information. It would become an urban legend.
This urban legend is called—The Missing August!
After completing all this, Luna received a report. The number of anomalous citizens reached 138,029, of which 108,273 were confirmed to have engaged in espionage.
100,000 is a large number.
But considering the population of the Federation, it's not that many.
Through these removals, Luna also discovered that these spies had caused damage to several important projects and the Federation's finances. Furthermore, many research projects in the Federation's information archives had been directly sabotaged. These research projects were physical traps set by the Filament civilization, aiming to stagnate the Federation's development.
The bad news was that the number of spies was significant.
The good news was that the spies weren't in the Federation's upper echelons, at most some scholars.
After confirming their identities as spies, Luna issued a direct order.
"Completely eliminate them!"
She wouldn't spare a single spy.
...
The war against the Filament civilization entered a period of calm after that.
Filament civilization warships did not appear on the Federation's border for over 100 years.
Luna speculated that the Filament civilization had already obtained a great deal of combat information and felt it unnecessary to waste any more combat power.
This gave Luna some breathing room to focus on information about another Civilization.
The engagement with the Olive Branch Civilization had lasted nearly 30,000 years. It had been 15,000 years since leaving Tilted Station, and Chu had regained control of Tilted Station 7,000 years ago, reuniting the separated Tilted Stations.
And at this juncture.
Ayla moved the [Wind] incident to the cosmic silk road and invited Chu.
After seeing the [Wind] incident, Chu completely abandoned the idea of using super-long-range gravitational weapons to attack the Federation. It understood that the Federation had completely risen during this period.
As a Type 2.3 Civilization, although it still had dozens of times the mass difference compared to the Filament civilization, this difference was no longer the overwhelming crushing situation of the past.
To be more precise, the Galactic Federation could now engage Tilted Station in battle.
If Tilted Station were likened to the Five Hegemons of ancient China, the Galactic Federation would now be at least a mid-range country ranked between 10th and 15th in the world. While an all-out war would certainly result in defeat, it wouldn't be completely without a chance.
This became the basis for the current negotiations between the Federation and Chu.
Chu had to turn its attention inward because other Star Cities were gradually seizing control of Tilted Station. Violating the Gas Victory was unforgivable and terrifying to the Olive Branch Civilization.
They feared that civil war would erupt again, or perhaps Tilted Station had already experienced another civil war.
Fortunately, Chu regained control of Tilted Station, using this to cover up some things.
Previously, other Star Cities understood that they wouldn't participate in the civil war because the leaders of the 5 Star Cities were still following the Gas Victory. The end point of this conflict was still merger, not destruction.
But what did Chu do?
Chu destroyed everything related to the Gas Victory in Tilted Station.
Now, Chu shifted all the blame onto those rebels, distancing itself and claiming that it still adhered to the Gas Victory to deceive others.
But it knew this couldn't last long.
"So the Federation is willing to help me?" Chu asked the Federation's envoy.
This time, the envoy wasn't Luna but a true ambassador, a diplomat handling the Federation's foreign affairs.
"Of course, Mr. Chu."
"Wasn't our initial goal cooperation?"
"There were just some unpleasant incidents."
Chu was tired of hearing such excuses. It truly wanted to know the Federation's real intentions.
The Federation wanted to achieve a decisive victory with minimal losses. This was certain.
But it didn't know how the Federation would do it, or perhaps what the Federation's plans really meant.
"Do you know? You are encouraging me to betray my Civilization, to plunge my Civilization into civil war," Chu said coldly.
It truly didn't understand why the Federation wanted to do this.
To provide them with weapons?
They could exchange their energy for enough weapons. Even if Tilted Station produced them, the cost would be 10% higher than the Federation's selling price.
Don't underestimate that 10%. If it's a large quantity, that 10% is substantial.
Theoretically, this is a profitable deal for Tilted Station.
The only thing to consider is the Federation Energy Credit!
Weapon transactions must be conducted using Federation Energy Credits. To buy weapons, they must first exchange energy for Federation Energy Credits, then use those Credits to make purchases.
This tactic didn't require much thought. Chu knew what the Federation was trying to do.
To economically invade Tilted Station.
In its view, this was ludicrous. There is no peace between Civilizations, so economic exchanges can be severed at any time. Weapons are themselves energy. Using less energy to obtain more weapons is a highly profitable deal.
Then, these weapons could even be used directly against the Federation on the battlefield.
Chu also understood why the Federation was doing this now.
Because its target had shifted to the internal affairs of the Olive Branch Civilization.
"Don't be ridiculous, Mr. Chu."
"Your actions aren't inciting rebellion, but saving the entire Civilization."
"The Olive Branch Civilization is becoming rigid and ossified. You must know this. A new form of Civilization is needed to change the Olive Branch Civilization, otherwise, your Civilization will eventually come to an end."
"The peak of the Silver Heart Civilization might be millions of years in the future. Imagine your Civilization still stuck at Type 2.4 millions of years from now. Isn't that pathetic?"
"What's even more pathetic is that no one has noticed, no one has taken this seriously."
"Shared consciousness modification has made your citizens oblivious to certain things."
"Look, our Civilization has gone from Type 2.0 to Type 2.3 in a mere 30,000 years. What about your Civilization? Still at Type 2.4..."
"Enough!"
Chu cut off the Federation diplomat.
These words were sharp in its ears. This was mockery; no, this is mockery.
Chu could hear it. It even wanted to kill this person, but it knew that killing him would be useless. This person was even hoping Chu would kill him.
Because this would make him a Federation hero, ensuring a prominent place in the Federation's history books.
It couldn't stand this heroism.
Death means nothing. Don't these fools understand this?
"Don't be so eager to die. I won't kill you. After all, getting to know a lifeform isn't easy."
"Tilted Station does need to become stronger. I agree to your proposal, but the prerequisite is that you must build the factories within Tilted Station."
"Don't take me for a fool. Computing power isn't lacking in advanced Civilizations. With sufficient calculations, I can know what you're planning."
"Do you think it's possible for my Civilization to use economic incentives to boost your industrial progress?"
The Federation diplomat showed no displeasure. He said, "Then let's have a pleasant cooperation, Mr. Chu. I have a contract here. Please take a look and leave your digital signature."
Chu fell into contemplation.
It felt that the Federation had other motives, but it couldn't figure out what they were.
Perhaps it wasn't that it couldn't figure them out, but that the Federation's possible objectives were numerous, and it couldn't analyze which one was the specific goal.
The Federation's willingness to cooperate made it hesitant.
It continuously used its computing power to analyze, but the results showed it was beneficial.
Unbeknownst to Chu, this was natural. The Federation's current plan was inherently mutually beneficial; there was no deception.
Because the Federation's current enemy had shifted from the entire Olive Branch Civilization to the factions within the Olive Branch Civilization excluding Chu.
Ayla and Luna's objectives were even more terrifying than Chu imagined.
"Agreed!"
Chu finally made its decision.
This decision would later fill it with both pain and joy, making it deeply reflective.