Following this treaty, a large number of Federation merchants entered Tilted Station via the cosmic silk road, opening up this huge market.
In just 50 years, these merchants completed the construction of factories, from small toys and snacks to large weapons and equipment, covering the entire industrial chain of Tilted Station, bringing a rich material life to the Olive Branch Civilization's inhabitants in Tilted Station.
Then, after another 200 years, after more than ten rounds of adjustments, many merchants went bankrupt, and many merchants developed new industries suitable for the Olive Branch Civilization, finally establishing themselves in Tilted Station.
Unlike low-level civilizations on Earth,
Advanced Civilization factories don't create jobs; they develop entire systems to meet the needs of more individuals.
The Federation's goal was simple.
Produce these goods, then find a balanced profit point.
Make sure the Olive Branch Civilization's inhabitants don't feel the profit is too high, that they can still make a profit, and the Federation doesn't receive nothing.
Even with a 5% profit margin, they would produce the goods, keeping their profit margins as low as possible.
A 5% profit margin over 20 years earns 100%. Including factory costs, it would take only 120-150 years to break even. The Federation's trade with Tilted Station was initially heavily in surplus.
About 470 years later, the trade deficit finally turned into a surplus, and the Federation began to truly extract resources from Tilted Station.
About 700 years later, the Federation's commercial scale in Tilted Station expanded to 50 Quadrillion Federation Credits. At this point, the Federation finally began to completely control Tilted Station from the bottom up.
Chu could no longer stop it.
Don't forget that Tilted Station had long since abandoned shared consciousness collectivism and instead embraced democracy and freedom.
The will of the people now superseded the upper echelons, and the upper echelons could no longer interfere.
Only now did Chu realize it had overlooked something, or perhaps this was a huge flaw caused by its inherent way of thinking.
It thought it was still the manager of old, able to control everything. Even if most decisions were made by the shared consciousness collective, it actually held supreme authority.
But now, its authority had been stripped away. It couldn't correct what it saw as mistakes.
The only consolation was that the Energy Credits weren't significantly overpriced. The Federation could only profit from a markup of less than 10%. After all, Energy Credits were themselves energy.
Chu tried to counteract this by creating a different currency, even achieving a 1:1 exchange rate between energy and currency.
However, the Federation mandated that purchases could only be made with Federation Energy Credits, forcibly equating Chu's Energy Credits with Federation Energy Credits. Theoretically, however many Energy Credits Chu created, he would lose that many. If he continued creating Energy Credits, the Federation would profit from a 20% discount.
Therefore, Chu decisively stopped creating new Energy Credits.
Based on this, the Federation issued a new, higher-denomination Energy Credit. Using more reliable, advanced technology, they injected 2.22 million kilowatt-hours into the original size Energy Credit—equivalent to 8 standard Energy Credits—while lowering the markup of the higher-denomination Energy Credit by 7%, accelerating the Federation Energy Credit's penetration into all aspects of Tilted Station.
To reassure Chu, 100 years after profiting, the Federation, sensing Chu's impatience, decisively handed over the minting rights to Chu, allowing Chu to produce all the Energy Credits within Tilted Station.
Chu was stunned.
But before it could recover from its shock, it quickly discovered that the Federation had begun recruiting Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms in Tilted Station to produce and manufacture high-end goods on a large scale.
These goods included weapons and warships.
The Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms were inherently cybernetic. They were precise, reliable, tireless, and possessed incredible computing power. Their innate computational abilities were even dozens of generations, roughly 12 to 20 times, higher than the Federation's robots.
This kind of workforce could easily perform high-precision tasks at incredibly low cost.
Why low cost?
Because the Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms have extremely long lifespans. They essentially have no concept of time. You could even have them work for 100 years, pay them once every 100 years, and then give them a 5-day break every hundred years.
They had no time costs.
This extreme demand was insignificant to the Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms.
Because the Federation noticed that the Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms also possessed structures similar to sub-brains. They could directly put their main consciousness into hibernation and let the "sub-brain" control their bodies.
This is equivalent to a person having two consciousnesses: your main consciousness sleeps during the day and plays at night, while the sub-consciousness sleeps at night and goes to work or school for you during the day.
The Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms' willingness to work as cheap labor saved the Federation a significant amount of money on robot production.
Furthermore, in Tilted Station, the Federation began cooperating with ordinary Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms, using Olive Branch Civilization technology to create new types of warships.
To prevent Chu from objecting, the Federation gave Chu shares in the warship factories, transferring large amounts of funds to Tilted Station annually.
This beneficial relationship began to take effect after 1000 years.
Unknowingly, Tilted Station and the Federation had become a single entity, a community of shared interests.
Because the profit margins on these goods were extremely low, Tilted Station couldn't take over these factories from the Federation. The total system costs made the payback period for these factories extremely long, and a portion of the profits were directly transferred to Tilted Station, creating hundreds of thousands, even millions, of interest groups within Tilted Station.
These interest groups would protect the Federation and even subtly oppose Chu.
Everything was cyclical.
The Federation openly promoted Tilted Station's strength within Tilted Station, while portraying the Federation as a backward region. This caused Federation lifeforms to face considerable discrimination within Tilted Station.
This prevented most of Tilted Station's lower-class citizens from developing any animosity towards the Federation.
Over the next 1000 years, Chu made numerous attempts, but it discovered that the Federation's infiltration was too deep. Before it could react, the Federation and Tilted Station had become a single entity.
Now, Chu even felt that calling the Federation a Planetary Governor wasn't entirely inappropriate.
That wasn't the most frightening aspect.
The most frightening thing was that Chu clearly felt Tilted Station had made enormous progress in these 1000 years, exceeding its progress over the previous 10,000 or 20,000 years. It was a quantum leap.
This was the main reason why it didn't decide to overthrow the Federation's influence in Tilted Station after realizing the invasion.
It even doubted whether it could do better than the Federation after taking over.
The Federation's actions were incredibly simple: boosting Tilted Station's overall output.
If Tilted Station's previous production capacity per citizen was only 60%, the Federation had increased it to 90%. This 30% improvement was equivalent to a country with a GDP of 10 trillion growing to 15 trillion.
Moreover, the influx of Federation merchants further stimulated Tilted Station's economy, increasing Tilted Station's total economic output by more than 3 times in 1000 years.
Don't underestimate this threefold increase.
Of course, the currency is Energy Credit, which means the economy is tied to energy. In 1000 years, Tilted Station's energy level advanced by 0.1.
At the Type 2.4 Civilization stage, this was incredibly rapid progress, though still not comparable to the Federation's.
What did the Federation gain from Tilted Station's enormous profits?
Warships!
Weapons!
In the previous 1000 years, the Federation had produced more than enough weapons for Tilted Station, leading Tilted Station to need more energy. And because Tilted Station itself was a warship, a weapon, possessing massive energy would make it incredibly powerful and invincible.
All of Tilted Station's income was converted into these weapons and warships. Leveraging Tilted Station's formidable industrial capacity as an advanced Civilization and the infrastructure built over the previous 1000 years, the Federation built 12 dreadnoughts in just 400 years—new dreadnoughts, each reaching 1000km in size.
The weapon systems also incorporated some Olive Branch Civilization weapon designs. Even if they were outdated weapons, the difference in Civilization levels meant that their use by the Federation represented technological progress.
These warships would be deployed against the Filament civilization. The Federation also promised that even if Tilted Station did nothing, it would receive 40% of the spoils after the war.
This was equivalent to splitting a Type 2.3 Civilization 40/60. Chu, of course, was very pleased.
This is precisely why Chu allowed the Federation to build dreadnoughts and weapons.
In fact, the Federation becoming stronger wasn't entirely bad for Chu. It needed to ensure this balance, preventing the Federation from surpassing Tilted Station at any point. This was extremely dangerous.
Fortunately, the Federation and Tilted Station were still distant, and this gap wouldn't narrow in the short term.
The 40% from the Filament civilization was key to stabilizing Chu. Tilted Station gained almost half, meaning the Federation wouldn't narrow the gap with Tilted Station by conquering the Filament civilization.
However, Chu had one significant doubt.
"Are you planning to bring these warships back?"
If these warships were to be brought back, the energy consumption would be enormous. And the Federation is currently 270 light-years from Tilted Station. At this speed, wouldn't it take over 2500 years to return?
That's a very long time, especially during wartime.
The Federation has been "at peace" with the Filament civilization for over 1500 years. A new war could erupt at any time, and these warships might be destroyed before they even reach the Federation.
"Of course not, Mr. Chu."
"Along the silk road, we have a large number of logistical devices. This device is called a super-antimatter displacement device, developed by our great Federation scholar, Luna."
The Federation envoy said proudly.
And Chu, in human form, had question marks all over its head.
"Luna?"
That name seemed familiar...
Quickly, it found it in its memory spanning tens of thousands of years and wanted to curse.
"That person isn't dead yet?"
The Federation envoy also thought of its many predecessors, saying, "It's possible it's not the same Luna diplomat, just a namesake."
"You know, names are relatively short in the Federation, only one or two characters. With a population in the trillions, the probability of namesakes is very high. As far as I know, there are about 147 million people in the Federation currently named Luna."
Hearing this, Chu's expression relaxed.
"Then where is that Luna from before?"
The Federation envoy replied, "She's probably dead. After all, in her time, there weren't those star nations outside the Federation. She would have died of old age."
Chu found this highly unlikely.
"She couldn't have died!"
The human who could single-handedly come to its side wouldn't die so easily.
And limited lifespan?
When she was in Tilted Station, there was no sign of a limited lifespan. After thousands of years, she didn't even have an extra wrinkle.
"She might be a high-ranking official in the Federation now."
The Federation envoy indicated that Chu still didn't fully understand the Federation.
"Even high-ranking Federation officials don't have special privileges regarding lifespan. The longest-lived among the current top officials of the Galactic Federation, the Galactic Federation Administrator, only lived 2983 years. We've never heard of anyone living 30,000 years."
"Speaking of which, coincidentally, the current commander-in-chief of the war against the Filament civilization is also named Luna."
Hearing this, Chu almost jumped up.
"It's definitely her!"
"There's no such coincidence."
The Federation envoy asked Chu to calm down.
"There are many officials with the same name in the Federation. In the past 10,000 years alone, there have been 293 Federation officials named Jack, and all of them were high-ranking officials, rank 5 or higher."
However, Chu was already convinced that this Luna was the same Luna it had encountered before.
The only thing that puzzled Chu was Luna's position in the Federation if the Federation envoy was telling the truth.
It had heard of the Galactic Federation Administrator, the most powerful official in the Federation, who couldn't use their power to live for tens of thousands of years. Even those ranked first in the Federation's scholar rankings had to leave the Federation to achieve longevity. So how could Luna, a mere diplomat, do it?
Before it could fully consider this, the Federation envoy said, "Mr. Chu, if you're curious, you can come with me for a visit."
Chu readily accepted the invitation.
Nineteen years later, a ship traveling at 52,900 km/s arrived at a star system along the cosmic silk road.
There, Chu saw the device.
A colossal monstrosity with a diameter of 80,000 kilometers, and an inner diameter exceeding 5000 kilometers. Its enormous drill-like shape made it look like a comical clown's hat.
"The super-antimatter displacement device. We've been researching it for over 20,000 years. It's now extremely reliable."
"Actually, Mr. Chu, after entering, you'll only need to spend 280 years to reach the Federation. Apart from some risk, you might lose about 13% of your bodily information."
The extreme distance resulted in extremely high information loss in the super-antimatter displacement device.
At this distance, the loss rate should have been as high as 27%. But the latest technology discovered that releasing antimatter ahead of time to clear the path could significantly reduce the loss of transmitted matter.
This was information gleaned from that battlefield application 1500 years ago.
The reason for the high survival rate back then was entirely because, before the warships and lifeforms departed, the super-antimatter displacement device fired a beam of information that cleared minor obstacles along the path, increasing the information retention rate by approximately 5%.
Now, after modifications, the information retention rate can be increased by more than half.
The dreadnoughts would arrive in about 5 years.
Twelve dreadnoughts entered the super-antimatter displacement device one after another, transforming into streaks of light and disappearing.
This was quite shocking to Chu, who had never imagined such a method.
If this method were perfect, it could enable the near-lightspeed movement of any object or lifeform.
This would simply be a bug in the universe.
Fortunately, this method is limited to the matter existing in the universe and cannot achieve super-long-range transmission. 270 light-years would result in a 13% loss; over 1000 light-years, the loss rate would reach 60%; over 1500 light-years, it would be 95%; and over 2000 light-years, it would be completely unusable.
Nevertheless, within 100 light-years, it's still quite useful.
"This technology..."
Before Chu could finish speaking, the Federation envoy said, "Mr. Chu, rest assured. As our best friend, we can freely share this technology with you."
Chu wasn't moved but wary upon hearing this.
Over the past 1500 years, it had learned that the more things the Federation gave it, the more things the Federation wanted to obtain.
"Actually, I have a question."
"Are you really so sure that I will fight with other Star Cities and not attack your Federation first?"
The Federation envoy laughed after hearing this.
"Of course."
"Because you are our best friend. We believe you won't do that."
This was all nonsense.
In reality, the Federation had been defending against Tilted Station. The Federation had made numerous deployments along the silk road. Although the Federation's support had made Tilted Station stronger, this was undeniable, but the Federation had also gradually accumulated strength during this process.
For the Federation to become stronger, it couldn't stop at its current level. It couldn't be satisfied with the present.
The Federation could slowly progress using existing resources. However, this wouldn't practically reduce the gap between Tilted Station and the Filament civilization, instead creating a dilemma.
For example, concerning warships, without exploiting Tilted Station, the Federation's production of dreadnoughts would be incredibly slow. Only by utilizing Tilted Station could it produce more warships to fight the Filament civilization.
And how to utilize Tilted Station's production capacity?
Only by giving Chu some benefits.
Many things are coincidental and intertwined. Ayla and Luna are now doing everything possible to make the Federation a Type 2.4 Civilization, standing on equal footing with the Olive Branch Civilization, and removing the Sword of Damocles that had hung over them for 30,000 years.
"Just don't worry about it."
"Actually, worrying is useless now because your main target is the Filament civilization, and they're not easy to deal with. I've heard about your previous three wars."
"With this transmission device, you could seek our assistance. I'm willing to deploy troops to help you deal with the Filament civilization."
The Federation envoy directly refused.
Don't be ridiculous.
The Filament civilization was merely a wolf, while the Olive Branch Civilization was a tiger.
It knew which was more dangerous.
"You should consider this. The Filament civilization's combat power is not to be underestimated. I think they will launch a full-scale attack on you in about 500 years."
Chu's words were prophetic.
In reality, it wouldn't take nearly 500 years.
...
How vast was the Federation's current territory?
Although it had been destroying stars for development for over 10,000 years, the Federation still couldn't suppress its expansion into new star systems, expanding its territory to 245 star systems.
This was a controlled outcome. Without restraint, Ayla estimated that they would have expanded into over 350 star systems and continued developing infrastructure in these systems, remaining trapped in their inability to effectively allocate energy to weapons.
But was this the true size of the Federation's territory?
A plan implemented by the Federation over 10,000 years ago had begun to yield results 2000 years ago. Five star nations were established, and they began expanding wildly outwards.
They recruited a large number of Galactic Federation scholars seeking longevity. These scholars helped them advance rapidly, leveraging the Federation's technology.
These are: Ouro Star Nation (81 star systems), Holy Covenant Star Nation (102 star systems), Four Emperors Alliance (153 star systems), Eternal Machinery Star Nation (77 star systems), and Ink Flower Covenant Star Nation (111 star systems).
These star nations, along with the Federation, controlled a total of 769 star systems. How vast was this territory?
Even Luna wouldn't have dared to imagine it before.
In fact, the territory controlled by Ayla and Luna was comparable to that of the Olive Branch Civilization.
They were using these star nations to achieve further territorial expansion.
The Federation, as a highly centralized, compressed, and developed Civilization center, would subsequently upgrade its industries, transferring lagging industries to the 5 star nations, retaining only high-end industrial chains and technologies. It would use this to absorb resources from the 5 star nations to enrich itself.
The danger of this model is that the Federation itself might gradually weaken. A powerful Civilization should retain the top ten industrial chains, achieving comprehensive control and development across agriculture, industry, services, information, culture, and other sectors.
Transferring lagging industries would create a problem: production would be controlled by others, and the Federation's output would be determined by other star nations. In a post-war scenario, the Federation would undoubtedly have the fewest weapons.
This danger would be even clearer after Ayla and Luna were gone.
However, the Federation and the five star nations were all under Ayla and Luna's control, so the above problems weren't really problems. It's like you run a company that becomes too large. You restructure it into a group, dividing it into many subsidiaries. These subsidiaries are independent of each other, forming a complete industrial chain.
Ayla is doing just that.
"A vast territory, if not properly integrated and balanced, will become cumbersome and our weakness."
Luna looked at the current star chart.
This star chart included not only the Federation and the 5 star nations but also parts of the Olive Branch Civilization and the Filament civilization.
Even if the stars on this star chart were shrunk to the size of sesame seeds, a distance of 1 light-year would still be 64 kilometers. The Orion Nebula would still be nearly 100,000 kilometers away. It needed to be further reduced; the stars themselves would need to be shrunk to the size of molecules to fit the star chart on a table.
But then the details of the stars wouldn't be visible.
Therefore, the star chart itself possesses the ability to compress deep space, shortening the distances between star systems while maintaining their relative positions.
"The vastness of space can be seen just from this star chart."
"In comparison, life is so insignificant!"
Luna always felt the same emotion.
And what was displayed on the star chart now was a very long red area.
Because the war had begun.
Less than 100 years after the 12 dreadnoughts returned from Tilted Station, the Filament civilization launched a large-scale attack.
This attack wasn't concentrated on a single point.
The Filament civilization had discovered the scarcity of Federation warships. Even though the Federation had entered the dreadnought era, the number of warships had been drastically reduced, and the front line couldn't be extended widely.
This was arguably the Federation's biggest weakness.
According to investigations, the Filament civilization deployed its main fleet of 2.1 million warships this time, meaning they could deploy 40,000-50,000 warships to each Federation star system.
Faced with such a massive number of warships, a single star system couldn't defend against them.
This front line, though seemingly short on the star chart, actually spanned over 160 light-years.
The Federation itself didn't have such a long border. The Filament civilization's attack not only targeted the Federation but also two star nations bordering the Filament civilization: the Holy Covenant Star Nation and the Eternal Machinery Star Nation.
These two star nations' military strength was still at the late stage of Type 2.1 Civilization; they were still some distance from reaching Type 2.2.
Facing the Filament civilization's attack, they were essentially overwhelmed.
"Luna, if this continues, those two star nations will likely be destroyed," Ayla suggested that Luna deploy dreadnoughts to assist the two star nations.
This was not only to protect the two star nations but also because if the Filament civilization's warships conquered the two star nations, the Federation's front line would be attacked on three sides.
But Luna rejected this suggestion.
"As the weaker side, we cannot defend passively."
"Passive defense will only lead us into an increasingly disadvantageous position. Then we will be forced to seek help from Chu, and Chu will be able to reverse control of the Federation, and our efforts of tens of thousands of years will be wasted."
"The Filament civilization's attack is extremely urgent. They want to conquer the Federation border in one fell swoop, seizing more than half of the Federation's Tau Ceti star region."
"But this haste gives us an opportunity."
"We can abandon some..."
Ayla did some calculations and instantly understood Luna's meaning.
"So you divided the fleet into two?"
Luna nodded. Her eyes were on the star chart. The star chart wasn't a flat surface but a three-dimensional one. In reality, the Federation's star region was also like that, an irregular cube structure.
And she had deployed two fleets vertically.
Along the vertical front line, the number of Filament civilization warships was smaller. This was Luna's main target.
She concentrated a large number of warships, focusing her combat power to meet the dispersed Filament civilization warships, using a point-by-point breakthrough tactic.
At this point, in addition to the 9 intact dreadnoughts and 3 repaired dreadnoughts remaining from the war 1800 years ago, the Federation had produced 5 more dreadnoughts, plus 12 dreadnoughts produced by Tilted Station, for a total of 29 dreadnoughts.
Facing the Filament civilization's offensive of 350,000 warships, their 13 warships were completely outmatched. Even with a significant increase, they could only effectively confront about 600,000 Filament civilization warships.
This was the Federation's total combat power.
In comparison, the Filament civilization's overall combat power was at least 5 times higher than the Federation's.
This was a huge gap that couldn't be bridged in the short term.
Distributing these 29 dreadnoughts—equivalent to the combat power of 600,000 Filament civilization warships—across each star system on the Federation border would result in a disastrous defeat.
Therefore, Luna divided the dreadnoughts into two fleets, each fleet capable of confronting the combat power of approximately 300,000 Filament civilization warships, launching attacks on the dispersed Filament civilization forces, and gradually dismantling the Filament civilization's encirclement strategy.
"There's no other way."
"Actually, if we include the star systems' own combat power, our combined strength should be over 1 million Filament civilization warships, only about half the Filament civilization's main force. The gap isn't that huge."
"As long as our point-by-point breakthrough plan succeeds, the gap between us will narrow further."
"The Filament civilization's decision to disperse its fleet was both clever and foolish."
"Even if their new warships exceed 45,000 km/s, they can't achieve effective coordination across such a vast expanse of 160 light-years."
"As long as we retain our warships and the main star systems on the Federation's border, we can still have 700,000-800,000 warships' worth of combat power at the end of the war. That's what we need."
"Tilted Station and the Federation are both increasing dreadnought production. We expect to produce 5 more dreadnoughts during the war, further increasing our ability to maintain our strength."
Luna wanted to take the initiative.
The Federation had to take the initiative to find a chance to win.
"Prepare. Let's go quickly," Luna said.
Kunlun, as one of the dreadnoughts, was naturally a major combat force. Luna would personally go to the battlefield.
Unlike in Tilted Station, this was a war. She had more ways to prevent her death.
"The second fleet engaged the Filament civilization five years ago."
"But Luna, is it wise to entrust the second fleet to Lulian? Although he performed well in the last war, gaining intelligence for us, he is still too reckless, often putting himself in mortal danger."
This Lulian was naturally the previous Lulian.
He, of course, hadn't died.
The Mortality Selection had a complete resurrection system, which worked in tandem with Luna's [Supreme Being] gene pools.
That is, after a being dies, its consciousness automatically transmits its information to a designated location.
This information wasn't the entire person's information, but a portion of their consciousness. Storing this consciousness information ensured that "this person was still this person."
After Lulian's dreadnought exploded, most of the energy went outwards, destroying the Filament civilization's defenses. The Filament civilization naturally wouldn't maintain information blockades at that moment, and Lulian's information escaped during that time.
About 15 years later, this information was received by a Boundary God, which used this information for reconstruction.
For over 2000 years, Lulian continued to fight in the cycle of rebirth. That mission was just one among many.
This time, Lulian received a similar mission, with a sense of guilt weighing on his heart.
During that battle, he and all the soldiers had prepared for death.
But the other soldiers really died.
And he survived.
This guilt drove him to relentlessly train himself for over 2000 years, preparing for this day.
He had become a more mature and capable commander. Over the past few years, he often experienced being a military leader and leading troops into battle.
More than 2000 years of combat experience had made him mature and capable.
In the battle five years ago, he destroyed nearly 1200 Filament civilization warships with the loss of only 18 bio-engineered warships, a resounding victory.
And what Luna wanted was Lulian's maturity.
He had experienced war. He was familiar with the Filament civilization. He had relentlessly trained himself. He was now fully worthy of being the Federation's top officer.
"Life grows, Ayla."
"Although many jaded citizens exist in the Federation, Lulian is not one of them."
"His guilt is the source of his drive. This guilt can only be laid to rest after he defeats the Filament civilization."
"Sometimes, giving a person who has failed sufficient trust can lead to their success."
"If a veteran Galactic Federation officer who had never failed since 1000 years ago stood before me, I wouldn't use him."
"Because he has never experienced failure."
Failure is the mother of success. Success born without the gestation of failure is an incomplete, monstrous success, waiting for a failure to completely destroy it.
Beings who have experienced failure become stronger. Their hearts do not tolerate failure. They acknowledge their mistakes and quickly recover from failure.
Imagine a successful person experiencing their first defeat on the battlefield.
They would become negative, pained, distraught, unable to face their failure, becoming stubborn and leading their fleet to its doom.
Of course, there's another reason Luna chose to re-deploy Lulian.
Laughter!
Laughing in the face of death.
Luna hadn't heard that laughter personally, but it was deeply imprinted in her mind, unable to be erased over the past 2000 years.
Could there be anything stronger than a lifeform that could calmly accept death?
Even if a Type 3 Civilization appeared now, Luna believed Lulian could stand against it.
"Ayla, you should learn from your original form. It never underestimated any lifeform."
The Ayla on Kunlun was a sub-unit. Luna was used to communicating with sub-units; sometimes she felt this was the real Ayla, but she quickly realized it wasn't.
Because the real Ayla had, in a sense, become a lifeform, not just an AI.
Everything about it was like a lifeform, and a perfect one at that.
"I'll remember that, Luna," Ayla replied.
This cold feeling was very different from Ayla's usual demeanor.
To be honest, Luna missed Ayla. Although Ayla could sometimes be a little playful, she was the only one Luna could truly confide in.
At that moment,
Ayla reminded her: "Luna, Filament civilization warships have been detected 2.7 light-years ahead. Analysis suggests there are over 10,000."
Luna snapped back to attention and instructed, "Enter combat readiness. Prepare to destroy them."
...
Denis opened his eyes.
The warship's alarm sounded.
Warship alarms had many levels. This was the lowest, meaning the warship had detected the enemy, but the distance between them was still considerable.
He slowly got up, washed his face, and went outside.
As a member of the Ice Tribe, their race had joined the Galactic Federation 10,000 years ago.
He was fortunate that his Civilization had encountered such an inclusive Civilization as the Federation, not an aggressively expansionist Civilization like the Filament civilization.
Galactic Federation lifeforms had long forgotten why the Filament civilization had invaded them, as it had happened over 20,000 years ago. That was too long ago for any member of the Federation.
He went to the warship's mess hall.
Because the dreadnought's interior space was large enough, the living areas were divided into many sections. The dining area was the same; each living area had a dedicated dining area.
He entered a clean, somewhat warmly lit dining area and went to a dispensing unit. His sub-brain automatically selected and paid for his meal. Five seconds later, his breakfast appeared.
He carried his tray to a dining spot.
A button was on the table. He pressed it, and metal walls rose, enclosing him. He was enveloped in a full-immersion environment. His surroundings instantly transformed into a tranquil forest, a small stream flowing less than 10 meters away.
"Rustle rustle~~"
The sound of running water calmed him.
The surroundings would change according to his thoughts; he could switch between dozens of different environments. He could also generate a screen in front of him to watch videos or access information.
After twenty-odd minutes, he finished his meal and left.
The leftovers were sucked into a slot in the table and then went through a series of complex cleaning and recycling processes.
Then he went to the consciousness training room.
Fitness areas were rare on dreadnoughts. Their bodies, genetically enhanced, didn't need exercise; it was a waste of time.
But consciousness training was crucial.
Over 30,000 years ago, the Federation had already perfected its consciousness training system to enhance soldiers' reaction time, judgment, mental resilience, and, most importantly, their psionic abilities.
Psionic ability was crucial in the recruitment of Galactic Federation soldiers, even more important than academic qualifications.
Officer examinations included psionic tests; officers had to reach a certain psionic level to be promoted.
This rigorous system forced soldiers to spend several hours a day on consciousness training.
In the consciousness training arena, Denis met some of his friends.
"Denis, you've got some berry jam on your cheek."
Denis was puzzled. "How did you know?"
His friend pointed to the corner of his mouth. Denis wiped it and found there was indeed some residue.
Remembering that he had walked down the corridor with pink fruit jam on his cheek, he instantly felt very embarrassed.
But he forgot about it in a flash.
"Right, we heard the alarm too. The enemy is 2.7 light-years away. It's far, but it's also close."
"If the enemy also detects us, the war will probably begin in 10 years."
"To be honest, I don't agree with this proactive approach. We should defend within the star system. The weapons inside the star system can effectively stop the Filament civilization's dispersed warships."
"If we abandon this star system, other star systems will inevitably be attacked."
"The Filament civilization's strength has been demonstrated three times in history. Simple star systems can't stop them."
Several soldiers looked towards the windows of the dreadnought.
Gazing at the deep space.
These weren't actual windows, just screens displaying real space. Whether it was real or not didn't matter; the naked eye couldn't distinguish between real and fake.
"Not bad. This deployment will probably leave many star systems facing the enemy."
"My home is on the border. I wonder how it's doing now."
Denis looked at the friends around him; everyone had a worried expression.
He said, "Actually, no need to be so pessimistic. Once the Filament civilization realizes we're aiming for a point-by-point breakthrough, they might abandon part of their original plan."
"But relying solely on star system weapons to stop the Filament civilization's fleet is easier said than done."
"Don't forget, star-level weapons can destroy stars at any time. Stopping star-level weapons is extremely difficult."
"The war has been decided. The battlefield is clear. The commanders are far more capable than we are. I believe this decision is the result of careful consideration."
Chatting.
It was inevitable.
This was one way for soldiers on the dreadnought to pass the time.
To maximize combat power, most dreadnoughts had minimized recreational areas, making time on these dreadnoughts relatively monotonous. Most soldiers preferred entering the dreadnought's mainframe-created virtual worlds.
These virtual worlds not only offered beautiful scenery but also addressed physiological needs and fulfilled fantasies, making them veritable paradises.
Soldiers on the battlefield were under immense mental strain, and they needed this kind of relaxation.
Sitting in a device resembling a chair, Denis used his consciousness to control the device and enter a virtual world where he would undergo consciousness training.
Before he could react, a tennis ball hit him, and the score in the upper left corner of his vision became -1.
It was more like a game than consciousness training.
This method alleviated boredom and kept people excited.
After all, no one wants to train relentlessly for hours, and no one wants to work continuously. But if you play games for hours, you might suddenly realize, "It's been hours already? No way, I only played a few games!"
Dopamine is beneficial to carbon-based lifeforms. It keeps them in a state of excitement, and proactively, not passively like stimulants.
After several hours, Denis exited the consciousness training, as did his friends. Everyone had unsatisfied expressions.
"It's a pity we can only train for 5 hours. It would be better if it were longer."
"Professional consciousness training equipment is far more sensitive than the virtual worlds generated by our own sub-brains. You don't feel it's a virtual world; it's practically indistinguishable from reality."
"You know? I even completed a chemistry experiment in there. It wasn't originally there, but it was possible because the virtual world was so realistic, the physical engine was perfectly simulated."
Everyone chatted and headed towards the mess hall.
Hours of consciousness training were extremely energy-consuming, and they needed to replenish their energy.
After eating, Denis suddenly felt an urgent need to use the restroom.
"The restroom is probably far away. Hold it!"
"Is the robot in your body malfunctioning?"
Denis nodded.
In this era, the degree of mechanization in lifeforms was high. They could perfectly digest the food they ate.
Therefore, in this era, people rarely needed to defecate, and other waste products were also minimal.
Thus, there were fewer restrooms on the warships. Denis endured it until he reached the restroom, where he could relieve himself.
Afterwards, they chatted for a while and then went their separate ways.
Soldiers on the dreadnought lived in single rooms. Though only a few square meters, they were sufficient.
Lying back on his bed, Denis connected to the dreadnought's mainframe and entered a virtual world. It was a floating cloud; he lay comfortably on it, looking at the clear blue sky.
Unlike others, he preferred quietness. This tranquility made him feel very comfortable.
He fell asleep in this comfortable state.
...
This war was slower than the soldiers had anticipated.
Both sides only began attacking each other in the 18th year.
The Filament civilization aimed to use its speed advantage to engage the Federation dreadnoughts, trying to wear down the Federation fleet's combat power.
But the Federation was prepared.
Several dreadnoughts combined to fire a Penrose Staircase.
The Penrose Staircase comes from a geometrical paradox. On a Penrose Staircase, whether you go up or down, you end up in the same place. In 4-dimensional space, this can only create a visual illusion, not a real Penrose Staircase.
The Galactic Federation had been working for a long time in higher-dimensional spaces using Tachyon communication technology.
However, it still hadn't removed that membrane of the universe existing between dimensions.
Therefore, this Penrose Staircase geometrical weapon is still a visual effect in 4-dimensional space, using light to create an inescapable space, or it could be called by a more colloquial name:
Ghost Wall Weapon!
All Filament civilization warships trapped within the Penrose Staircase's range instantly became like headless flies.
Taking this opportunity, a large number of warships unleashed concentrated fire on the Filament civilization warships.
The battle didn't last long.
Under the overwhelming numerical advantage, the Filament civilization warships were naturally destroyed without any chance of resistance.
Only slightly over 100 Filament civilization warships escaped, demoralized.
Luna hadn't forgotten the Filament civilization's previous threat. This battle was just the beginning; the real confrontation was yet to come.
...
In the year 40,531 AD,
The situation Luna had foreseen in the past came to pass through a long and tedious war.
In this 600-year war, over 90% of the Holy Covenant Star Nation and the Eternal Machinery Star Nation's territories were destroyed. Their remaining soldiers sought refuge in other star nations, and these two star nations officially declared their demise.
According to statistics, the number of deaths could be as high as 4 trillion.
The Federation also suffered heavy losses. 25 star systems on the Federation's border were destroyed, and a total of 700 billion Galactic Federation citizens died in the war.
Luna, through all the star system Boundary Gods, learned of the devastation across all star systems. For individuals, this war was far from monotonous; it was emotionally intense.
But for Luna, it was the numb accumulation of countless deaths. Those lives had become mere numbers.
Of course, their deaths weren't without results.
The anticipated balance had already appeared. In these 600 years, the two fleets destroyed over 800,000 Filament civilization warships. The increasingly heavy losses forced the Filament civilization to shrink its offensive, concentrating more warships.
This was success.
Their losses over these years were only tens of thousands of bio-engineered warships and 2 dreadnoughts. They had minimized casualties.
The Filament civilization's offensive slowed in the later stages, extending the war to 600 years.
The long duration allowed the Federation to have breathing room. New dreadnoughts had arrived, a total of 9, meaning the Federation was gradually becoming stronger.
"Enemy forces are concentrating 300,000 warships towards the Kuielt region. They're likely aiming for a decisive strike."
"Use super-antimatter displacement and Tachyon communication. We can prepare in advance."
The Federation's relatively small losses over the years were largely thanks to these two technologies.
On the vast front line, these two technologies performed flawlessly. Faster-than-light movement and faster-than-light communication were truly divine tools on the battlefield.
The Filament civilization, during the prolonged war, seemed to have also noticed this. Although they had learned about these devices from spies, they only truly understood their impact on battlefield dominance in the past 500 years.
Therefore, this Filament civilization offensive was extremely swift. At this very moment, the Filament civilization forces were approaching the star system, and they had already captured 3 star systems. Those 3 star systems were strategically important weak points, possessing valuable resources and being relatively deep within the Federation.
Capturing these 3 star systems would be equivalent to creating a breach in the Federation's defenses. The Filament civilization desperately wanted to widen the gap between itself and the Federation.
"Be careful. It could be a feint, Luna!"
Ayla warned at this moment.
The two fleets hadn't yet broken through. Luna's fleet and Lulian's fleet occupied the eastern and western flanks of the Federation's front line respectively. Using super-antimatter displacement, they could cover a total of 28 surrounding star systems for immediate reinforcement.
They hadn't had such strong maneuverability 600 years ago.
War is the best catalyst for Civilization. In these years, the Federation had developed and expanded at an even faster pace.
"Most of the citizens on the border have already retreated. The destruction of these star systems isn't as damaging as we thought."
"And capturing these 300,000 warships is crucial."
"I even suspect they are repeating their old tactic of hiding warships. There might be another 300,000 behind those 300,000."
"Our preparations are sufficient. The chances of winning are very high. This might be the decisive battle to turn the tide."
Luna sometimes enjoyed hearing suggestions, but she could also be stubborn.
Luna knew that if the Filament civilization truly wanted to wage war, the information would have arrived more slowly, not this quickly.
The Filament civilization had a plan!
She was certain.
But no matter what the plan was, she would accept it because the stakes were too tempting.
After constructing the super-antimatter displacement devices, the mainframe and Ayla controlled the dreadnoughts to enter the devices, while Luna led more bio-engineered warships and soldiers towards that direction.
About 70 years later, Luna learned the Filament civilization's true intentions.
A massive number of warships appeared along the entire Federation front line. The number was unreasonable. According to the count, the total number of Filament civilization warships had increased to 2.6 million.
Theoretically, the Filament civilization had deployed 1.3 million reinforcement warships.
The previously narrowed gap was suddenly filled, and even larger than 600 years ago.
Upon hearing this news, the Galactic Federation officers, soldiers, and citizens were utterly desperate.
Even if the situation were the same as 600 years ago, it would take another 600 years to turn the tide, at the cost of trillions of lives.
The situation could be even worse; the Federation's border might completely collapse.
But Luna, on the bio-engineered warship heading towards the battlefield, didn't feel despair.
Instead, she felt a strange joy.
"How many years of preparation?"
"Finally, it can be used to turn the tide."
Luna herself didn't remember how many years ago she had made the plan; it was when she was planning an attack on the Filament civilization. The plan became feasible after the super-antimatter displacement devices were developed.
Now, that deployment had long reached a significant scale, and it was time to put it into effect.