"The Federation fleet is also retreating. It's clear they intend to abandon the entire Federation border, conserving their forces to protect the citizens in the rear."
"..."
"A large number of starships and ship are carrying Federation elites away. These vessels can't accommodate all life; a significant population remains on the Federation border."
"..."
"Those damn bastards! Why didn't they even take me? I'm the hottest host in the Star City, and I have money!"
"..."
The live broadcasts continue, some programs automatically playing from server-side buffering, others remaining only in despair.
Star City is now littered with abandoned hovercars and ground vehicles. All starships and ships have left. There's no way out. Some fools even try to leave the Solar System in ground vehicles—ridiculous! Those things barely reach a few dozen kilometers per second. How long would it take to leave the Solar System?
And how long to reach another star system?
To receive rescue after tens of thousands of years? What good would that even be?
By then, they might reach a completely alien world.
Each star system within the Federation boasts unique cultures; the differences are often greater than those between races. On a single planet, even distant locations are only days apart.
But in space, the nearest star takes years to reach, even at light speed—at least a year.
This kind of distance creates terrifyingly disparate regions.
Here, those remaining have no hope of escape.
They're plunged into despair.
Some listlessly eat and sleep at home.
Some commit suicide.
Some stubbornly cling to their work, trying to avoid thinking about it all.
Others commit crimes to vent their frustrations.
Goelia stared blankly at the male who had thrown himself on her. Her expression was blank, almost dazed.
How many waves had this been?
She couldn't remember.
Life felt so fragile at this moment. She understood her own fear, and instinctively knew the fear of others. She believed that if there were peace, these males would absolutely be gentlemen.
Therefore, when the male became violent towards her, she didn't feel fear, her eyes even conveying pity.
This pity only further enraged the male on top of her, so much so that he lost his lust.
"What kind of look is that? Are you pitying me?"
He roared.
Goelia shook her head: "We're all here, what's there to pity?"
"We're all waiting for death. If you want to vent, I do too. Come, I won't resist."
This lack of resistance surprisingly turned him away. He turned and walked off.
Because what he needed was release—through violence, bloodshed, the pain of another life—to comfort himself, not a damn consensual encounter.
Watching him leave, Goelia fell into stillness. Her body was still, her mind was still, everything about her was still.
Death?
She often thought about death.
Or perhaps, from the moment every life gains consciousness, from the moment it understands it will die, it can't help but think of death.
This world is beautiful.
Some beings manage to glean something from this beauty; thus, they fear death.
Some beings are too dull to appreciate this beautiful world, finding nothing worth waiting for in the past, present, or future, so death holds no significance for them.
Others sense only the darkness of this world, born into shadow beneath the beauty, with nothing in this world to cherish, so they welcome and embrace death.
Goelia was the second type.
She believed that this world had equal amounts of the first, second, and third types.
Everyone accepts the pain of life, everyone struggles to survive.
She thought this, even occasionally feeling she might have been a saint in a past life. But this was her genuine belief, the essence of the world.
In this world, there's no such thing as unjustified evil.
If it exists, it's not evil, because to the person committing these evil acts, these so-called evil deeds aren't evil in their eyes.
Goelia was contemplating these things now.
Because she had nothing else to do, her choice in despair was to quietly enter her own imagined world, to make herself more pure, more perfect, using this to escape the agony of death.
But this wasn't actually the most agonizing part.
In a Type 0.1 civilization or lower, you might experience the apocalypse after a month, at most a year—a brief period.
But in the Federation, due to its vast expanse and wide-ranging effects, the apocalypse wouldn't arrive in one or a few years, but in thirty.
A long, drawn-out thirty years of pain.
After initial frantic chaos, all life fell silent.
They were exhausted.
Their spirits completely drained.
The frenzied Star City fell into a stillness. Though life and sound were everywhere, it felt empty, like a desert.
...
Thirty years later.
The star system detected the Filament civilization fleet.
The news spread through Star City.
All life took to the streets, looking up.
In their eyes, however, was—longing!
They desperately yearned for death, like a desert wanderer longing for water.
Each being seemed emaciated. Star City had plenty of food, yet a glance showed millions of lives thin as straw.
"Death!"
"Death!"
"Death!"
They cried out.
Why didn't they kill themselves?
Because they were afraid.
Deep down, they desperately didn't want to die. They had once cherished their own lives, cherished the lives of their families.
But they had no choice. Life and death battled in their hearts for thirty long years. How terrifying, how tragic.
This was a—tragedy!
Fortunately, their hope finally arrived.
On their faces was relief, smiles—a different kind of smile.
Luna had never considered that a smile could be so complex.
She really didn't want to look, but she couldn't help but look.
Because this was, without a doubt, the result of her decisions.
"The apocalypse finally fell upon them."
"Thirty years of torment. No, other Star Cities might have waited even longer. Hundreds of billions of lives like that. The power of that suffering is something even a true god couldn't bear."
Luna tried her best.
Over the past few years, she had been relocating the lives on the Federation border.
A very, very large number.
Trillions!
Even after such a long relocation, more than 20 billion remained, and from that 20 billion, tens of billions more escaped, leaving over 10 billion still behind.
This was a number that reflected her helplessness. As a Federation leader, her vision was so broad, she saw the entire star sector, but she couldn't save those small numbers.
War.
It made Luna feel increasingly powerless.
But it also made her increasingly determined.
"The Federation needs to be stronger!"
This wasn't the first time she'd said these words, nor would it be the last.
The bordering star system was ceded to the Filament civilization.
This also meant the Filament civilization officially had a foothold.
They would use this as a springboard to penetrate deeper into the Federation.
It wasn't long before—roughly 400 years—
The Filament civilization launched another massive invasion.
This was incredibly swift; they even planned a surprise attack on the Federation.
However, the Federation's extensive internal surveillance network and strategic placement of detection points thwarted their plan, slowing their advance by at least 20 years.
This star sector served as a Federation stronghold. The Filament civilization clearly couldn't afford a protracted war.
A slow war would only give the Federation time to regroup, so a decisive strike was necessary.
This time, the Filament civilization's attacking fleet numbered 1.5 million warships—a total commitment.
This massive fleet didn't spread out its front like before, but instead simultaneously attacked six relatively close star systems, maintaining mutual support.
After so much fighting against the Federation, they'd learned that the Federation's repositioning speed was too fast over long distances, while their warships were comparatively slow at shorter ranges.
This affected the Filament civilization's battlefield assessment.
It also affected Luna's plans.
"The Filament civilization's deeper attacks are becoming more cunning, which works in our favor."
"Launch all ships. Surround them."
Even if the Filament civilization fleet dispersed, she had plans to counter their dispersion.
But for them, the Filament civilization's current concentration was preferable.
Luna didn't have many more advanced tactics.
In such a vast expanse of space, with civilizations of such advanced technological capacity, ambushes like the previous one were already considered extremely brilliant.
More often than not, space warfare avoided extremely complex tactics, opting for simplicity.
...
Seventy years later.
The Filament civilization fleet simultaneously entered six star systems, leaving the Federation no time to react.
Over the past few years, the Federation had gradually evacuated its citizens to the rear; at this point, these star systems held relatively few inhabitants.
It could almost be considered a surrender.
Whether the Filament civilization was overjoyed or wary, Luna didn't know.
Twenty years later, their encirclement was finally complete.
The speed of the ship was actually much faster than that of the warships.
Due to their smaller size, and the Federation's advanced rocket technology, some smaller ship could reach speeds exceeding 38,000 km/s.
This meant a ship could travel one light-year in less than eight years—something previously unimaginable.
This speed allowed them to quickly reach their designated positions and encircle the Filament civilization.
Encirclement in space requires consideration not only of the surrounding area, but also above and below, making it far from simple.
True encirclement requires a full 360-degree, comprehensive surround.
Fortunately, the number of ship was sufficient.
Even then, they couldn't completely cover the entire area of the heliosphere.
After all, they were trying to encircle six star systems.
Even if those six star systems were close together, they were still several light-years apart.
Therefore, these ship were deployed as close as possible to minimize the distance between them, preventing the Filament civilization warships from breaking through the encirclement by massing together.
This required the ship to have a degree of stealth.
So Luna specifically invested funds to interconnect the ship's power sources, allowing for unlimited energy transmission between closely positioned vessels. This energy connection turned the ship into a single entity, utilizing this energy to create a form of camouflage within the fleet.
It employed a simulated radiation pattern using flowing energy.
Various types of radiation exist in space; this radiation makes the vacuum not truly empty, preventing any enemy from achieving absolute zero detection in space.
In space, remaining virtually invisible is relatively easy.
However, concealing yourself from visible light also means concealing yourself from undetectable light, from natural entropy increase and unnatural entropy decrease, from gravitational pull, and from the object's effect on its surroundings—all these will lead to detection.
The stealth method employed by these ship was a mimicry camouflage using simulated low-frequency space waves, achieved through the aforementioned unlimited energy transmission between vessels. This minimized energy waste, as the directed energy transmission allowed for reuse by receiving ship.
The only downside is that this stealth method wasn't incredibly powerful; it was only slightly superior to standard stealth methods, nowhere near the level of a [Barrier].
But Luna didn't need them to have extremely powerful stealth capabilities; this level was sufficient. As long as the encirclement was reduced to within five light-years, it would be a success.
Luna's fleet was stationed relatively far away. She observed the ship's movements through Ayla's simulated calculations.
Dozens of three-dimensional images were displayed, each with differing transmission processes and results, representing the most likely outcomes.
One by one, she examined them.
"So, our key point is here."
"Although the smaller our encirclement, the better, it shouldn't be minimized to its absolute limit. This is the critical point."
"Going beyond this point would negate the desired effect."
Once the encirclement was sufficiently tightened, the Filament civilization would directly assault it, using large-area weapons. Given the high density of ship, these weapons would destroy a significant number of vessels.
From a cost-benefit perspective, it would then become a test of who could inflict greater losses.
Luna needed the ship to launch their attack before reaching this critical point, forcing the Filament civilization to realize their entrapment.
The Filament civilization's subsequent response would be to choose a direction to break out. Based on the movement of the Filament civilization fleet, she could then make appropriate counter-moves.
The ship, being significantly faster than the Filament civilization warships, along with the inherent distance between them, meant the Federation's ship needed to act swiftly upon reaching this critical point.
Luna could only wait for the Filament civilization's move; the possibilities were too numerous, and she couldn't predict their actions.
The Filament civilization's decisions were undoubtedly based on supercomputers analyzing the optimal outcome—this was what troubled her most.
Although civilizations like the Olive Branch civilization hadn't developed artificial intelligence, their inherent computational power far surpassed the Federation's.
Luna had investigated why the Olive Branch civilization hadn't developed AI, and discovered their beings were artificial intelligence.
This was easy to understand.
If the Olive Branch civilization consisted of mechanical individuals, how could their population reach terrifying numbers—thousands of trillions, even quadrillions?
The true reason was that most of the Olive Branch civilization's beings weren't transformed from true life forms, but were fundamentally artificial creations.
However, these creations were endowed with thoughts, emotions, values, and rights equivalent to other Olive Branch beings. Under these circumstances, the Olive Branch civilization didn't need AI, because if AI existed, how could ordinary beings coexist with it?
This was similar to the Federation granting some robots citizenship while denying it to others—it inevitably created conflict.
Luna hadn't yet encountered a Filament civilization being, leading her to suspect it might also be a mechanized civilization. Predicting the actions of a mechanized civilization was even more difficult to analyze.
Luna waited.
She waited for the Filament civilization to react.
...
The encirclement's precise size was 5.4771 light-years, with a margin of error of 5 AU.
Faced with such a massive encirclement, the Filament civilization fleet orbiting the star system's periphery descended into chaos.
They didn't all enter the star system; only a small number of warships entered to search for energy replenishment, as they were unsure if the Federation had left anything behind within the star system.
Upon detecting the Federation ships, they immediately began checking if these ships were decoys. To their astonishment, they found no evidence of deception.
These ships were real?
When had their enemy acquired so many warships?
If the Federation had possessed this many ships from the beginning, why hadn't they thrown themselves into the war earlier?
The sheer number far exceeded their calculations. Even if these ships weren't large or powerful, they would have reconsidered their incursion into Federation territory had they known.
They didn't know these ships originated from the Federation's civilian infrastructure.
Most of the ships belonged to explorers and Federation corporations; the remainder belonged to individual Federation citizens. Because Ayla prioritized infrastructure development, the cost of goods within the Federation was incredibly low, enabling numerous explorers and corporations to acquire a large number of ships.
Damaged ships could be salvaged and reused. The Federation had an abundance of metals with extremely long half-lives, enhanced by nanotechnological and even quark-level technology. An object wouldn't become obsolete for millions of years.
Over tens of thousands of years, the number of Federation ships had grown steadily. Many were even tens of thousands of years old, though their internal propulsion systems, power sources, and engines had been updated.
The Filament civilization likely couldn't comprehend this level of infrastructure development.
Based on observations, the number of interstellar ships within the Orion Nebula might not even exceed the number of Filament civilization warships.
The Filament civilization was likely a militarized civilization; everything served military purposes.
Similar to the Olive Branch civilization, they were also a militarized society lacking any form of entertainment, with no recreational activities between individuals.
The Federation, however, was an excessively entertainment-oriented civilization.
If citizen happiness could be quantified, the happiness index of the Filament civilization and the Olive Branch civilization might be below 10, while the Federation's would likely exceed 1000—a difference of at least 100 times.
Ayla had expended vast resources on this aspect.
Of course, this wasn't solely Ayla's decision; Luna also played a role.
During the development of Tau Ceti, Ayla even gave Luna a planet to herself. This illustrates the significant influence of human civilization on the current Federation, with rampant nihilism.
Fortunately, this nihilism seemed to satisfy the spiritual needs of many within the Galactic Federation.
Satisfied spiritual needs reduced practical conflicts.
This was one reason for the Federation's long-lasting stability and the great cultural fusion.
The current state of the Federation in all aspects was inseparable from the previous decisions made by Ayla and Luna. These decisions resulted in the current Federation's insufficient military strength, yet also in the vast civilian shipbuilding infrastructure.
It was a combination of advantages and disadvantages.
Once the encirclement reached its critical point, tens of trillions of computing ships unleashed their attack. Individually, their attacks were insignificant, but collectively, the total energy released per second was equivalent to the total energy output of a star over several decades.
Faced with this terrifying, omni-directional energy barrage, the Filament civilization discovered that even with their defenses activated, and even if they could block the energy at a 1:100 billion ratio, their defenses would still be torn apart.
They began to evade.
Using a star's natural resistance to deflect attacks from one side, they then charged toward the opposite direction, blocking less than one-tenth of the overall energy. This minimized damage.
They weren't panicked.
They knew the limits of the Federation's energy reserves, and that the energy reserves of small units like ships would be finite. Therefore, they only needed to evade a few times.
But what they could anticipate, Luna had anticipated as well.
The ships only launched a collective attack in the first round, shifting to precise strikes afterward.
Barrages had become targeted fire.
The Filament civilization retaliated, but they found the Federation ships weren't clustered together, rendering their large-area weapons ineffective.
How large is a "large-area" attack?
1000 AU?
Even then, that's only about one-sixtieth of a light-year. To cover a five light-year cube of space, you'd need 3600 large-area weapons—simply impossible.
Even with 1.5 million warships, a single large-area attack would consume at least 1% of a warship's energy reserves. This means, at most, they could launch 100 large-area attacks.
Against the vast number of Federation ships, it's simply a drop in the ocean.
The entire area to be covered is close to 95 cubic light-years; theoretically, 342,000 large-area attacks would be needed for complete coverage. Forget about the Filament civilization fleet; even the entire Filament civilization, or perhaps even the Olive Branch civilization, might not have enough energy reserves for complete coverage.
Upon realizing this, the Filament civilization quickly made a decision.
Breakout!
This was, in fact, their only option.
The difference in civilization levels wasn't that significant. If a Type 2.5 civilization were encircled, even ten times more Federation ships wouldn't necessarily be effective.
But both the Filament civilization and the Federation were Type 2.3.
Just like in ancient warfare, a besieged army's priority is to break the siege.
But in which direction should they break out?
The Filament civilization didn't choose the weakest point in the encirclement; instead, they chose a strong point.
By focusing their efforts on a frontal breakout, they could draw most of the attention to that area, leaving other areas less defended, thus aiding their escape.
After all, space warfare is different from ground warfare. The Filament civilization could launch attacks against the Federation from a distance.
But this direction...
Kunlun.
Luna received the report.
"Commander, the enemy is attempting a breakout in our direction!"
Upon hearing this, Luna was stunned. It wasn't that she hadn't considered this possibility; it was that the Filament civilization's audacity was astonishing.
Her position was not only the thickest part of the encirclement but also the direction of their planned invasion of the Federation.
Less than 20 light-years behind her lay Tau Ceti.
What the Filament civilization intended was clear.
The Filament civilization likely aimed to capture Tau Ceti, the central star system of this star sector, disrupting the entire sector by destroying the Federation's core.
"But they seem to be underestimating us!"
Luna narrowed her eyes.
This was seemingly her first true head-on confrontation with the Filament civilization.
...
Because the Federation's encirclement was so vast, even a breakout attempt by the Filament civilization would take 18 years.
In the fifth year, the Filament civilization fleet launched large-scale attacks against the frontal ship encirclement. Several rounds of attacks instantly destroyed over 100 billion ships.
Fortunately, these ships weren't piloted by living beings but were AI-controlled by Ayla, each ship's onboard computer following a pre-programmed plan.
Therefore, even under attack, these ships made no evasive maneuvers.
As one ship was destroyed, others quickly replaced it.
Through this initial attack, the Filament civilization learned the nature of these ships, making their breakout attempt more aggressive.
This aggression, however, came at a cost.
From the fifth year onward, their warship losses began to climb steeply, rising from 2,000 ships lost per year to 10,000.
Fortunately, the distance wasn't too long.
For an encirclement of slightly more than five light-years, the radius was less than three light-years.
By the time they reached the edge of the encirclement, their warship losses were only 200,000.
Luna was actually quite frustrated by this.
"If the ships were even slightly faster, or if our weapons were more advanced, the Filament civilization's warship losses would have been at least double."
"Such a pity!"
For a breakout attempt, less than 1/7 casualties were considered excellent.
By the 18th year, the Filament civilization and the Federation's ships were engaged in close combat.
The terrifying attack virtually crushed the Federation's encirclement.
In a mere week, the Federation lost 170 billion ships, while the Filament civilization also suffered significant losses—35,000 warships were reduced to debris.
Space around them was filled with wreckage.
Countless pieces.
If encountered by a space scavenger, it would have been a windfall. Forget the Filament civilization warships; even a single Federation ship, if placed on Earth, would deplete the planet's surface metallic resources.
In other words, a single ship represented several decades of accumulation for a Type 1 civilization, and there were 170 billion of them!
However, given the high intensity of this battlefield, even a space scavenger wouldn't risk their life.
A casual move here could trigger large-area weapon strikes, instantly resulting in annihilation.
After escaping the encirclement, the Filament civilization fleet didn't relax, anticipating what awaited them.
The brutal conflict had only just begun.
As expected.
On the other side of the cosmos, 31 dreadnoughts silently awaited their arrival.
Of course, the ships in other directions of the encirclement had already repositioned themselves to re-establish the encirclement.
Re-establishing this encirclement would take approximately 40 years.
This 40-year period would be the time required for the Filament civilization fleet to break through the renewed encirclement.
In fact, they had another option: to strike the weakest point in the first encirclement, then penetrate deeper into Federation territory, and break out from there.
However, this presented a problem: their established advantage would vanish, and they would have to reconquer the six star systems.
The Filament civilization didn't want to squander this advantage.
Were they reckless?
Not entirely!
Luna had intercepted their distress signals sent after the encirclement was formed.
The Filament civilization quickly deployed at least 500,000 warships to the outer edge of the encirclement to support the besieged fleet.
Since the ships didn't have cloaking capabilities, another Filament civilization fleet was also en route.
Thus, Luna needed a swift victory.
The result was an almost instantaneous engagement, with both sides immediately exchanging fire.
The intensity of the space battle was beyond description. In just ten years, the Federation lost ten dreadnoughts, while even using trillions of Swarm drones only managed to destroy 270,000 Filament civilization warships.
The Filament civilization still had a million warships remaining.
Fortunately, the partially formed encirclement exerted some pressure on the Filament civilization, slowing their advance.
"Initiate electromagnetic interference!"
Luna had prepared for this battle.
While the ships didn't have many types of weapons, one type was sufficient.
Most civilizations obtain information through electromagnetic forces; strong forces, weak forces, and gravity cannot reliably transmit information.
Electromagnetic interference involves flooding an area with a massive amount of photons, preventing information transmission, or at least basic information transmission, within that area.
Advanced civilizations possess powerful communication methods; many high-frequency signals can penetrate interference.
But the photon interference wasn't intended for these advanced communication methods, nor was it meant to hinder communication within the Filament civilization; its purpose was to prevent the Filament civilization from receiving Federation information.
Photons.
Countless photons transformed the area into a blinding white; the Filament civilization warships constantly received these photons, akin to someone continually exploding flashbangs in their faces.
This was only a temporary measure.
The Filament civilization would quickly find a solution.
During this process, Luna ordered the fleet to advance.
She also dispersed the fleet as much as possible, preparing for a large-scale energy build-up.
This energy build-up was unprecedented.
The resulting area of effect was also unprecedented.
This large-scale attack, coordinated by 21 dreadnoughts, 170,000 bio-engineered warships, and numerous other ships, extended to a diameter of 2000 AU.
One strike instantly annihilated 140,000 Filament civilization warships.
The Filament civilization was instantly thrown on the defensive.
Inside the Federation dreadnoughts, countless soldiers rejoiced.
But Luna frowned: "Insufficient. The first large-scale weapon attack served as a wake-up call for the Filament civilization; they'll disperse."
"The encircling ships' energy reserves are low. The Filament civilization likely knows this, so they won't worry too much about attacks from other directions."
"We must eliminate as many Filament civilization warships as possible in this attack; it's our only chance."
Luna had chosen the area with the highest concentration of Filament civilization ships for this attack.
Yet, only 140,000 were destroyed.
"Ayla, calculate our maximum range for one final, all-out attack."
Ayla's calculation didn't return instantly; it took three days.
"Luna, the maximum range is approximately 2400 AU, but it can only be done once."
A large-scale weapon attack with a 1000 AU radius was already considered enormous; the previous 2000 AU attack had required significant support.
Another such attack would severely deplete energy reserves.
A 2400 AU attack would likely destroy no more than 70,000 Filament civilization warships—half the previous number.
Luna fell into thought, weighing the pros and cons.
But Ayla continued: "If a high-purity superconductor were positioned as a medium to transmit the energy of the large-scale weapon, the range could extend to 4400 AU."
This point was a natural energy convergence point, not artificially created.
When the surrounding energy is abundant and evenly distributed, a point will emerge within the space as an energy center. This isn't necessarily at the geometric center of the energy field; for example, the energy center of a circular energy field isn't always at its center.
It can appear anywhere within the circle. Ayla's plan was to utilize this point to amplify the weapon's power.
"Deploy a superconductor construct?"
Luna asked.
Ayla shook her head: "Unfortunately, such a refined superconductor, capable of maintaining superconductivity at the required temperature amidst the intense electromagnetic interference, is virtually impossible to produce."
"The warships do contain such superconductors, but they're too crucial to remove."
"Most of the warship's core systems rely on these superconductors."
"However..."
Ayla looked at Luna.
Luna instantly understood Ayla's idea.
The [Supreme Being] gene pool Luna had used for tens of thousands of years hadn't remained static; it had undergone continuous upgrades.
In fact, under Ayla's guidance, the [Supreme Being] gene pool had been updated approximately every 50 years, resulting in Luna's continuous genetic enhancements.
By now,
[Supreme Being] was far more powerful than before.
To fully utilize the power of [Supreme Being], in addition to core energy storage, every cell in Luna's body had been transformed into a superconductor.
Luna herself was a superconductor.
Upon activating the [Supreme Being] gene pool, Luna's physical form would expand to 270 meters—a significant transformation.
At that height, her mass would reach 19 million tons.
Few constructs other than warships used superconductors on such a scale; this mass exceeded that of some ships.
More importantly, this superconductor could continuously increase her size with additional energy.
Over tens of thousands of years, Ayla had essentially created a "monster" in Luna, capable of physically colliding with ships.
Of course, colliding with ships and colliding with warships are different; 10,000 [Supreme Being] units would be instantly torn apart by a warship.
Luna considered this.
As a superconductor herself, acting as an energy transmission medium wouldn't be dangerous.
There's no record of a large-scale machine's superconductor failing first.
Most importantly, [Supreme Being], as a living being, could exert precise control, maintaining its superconductive state without the limitations of a machine that can only maintain a specific state.
The most crucial factor wasn't temperature, but the electromagnetic influence in this star sector.
Superconductors can ignore most, or even all, electromagnetic interference, but require a relatively stable state. However, the energy fluctuations in this region are intense; the energy levels above and below can differ by millions of times.
The complex situation demands a more suitable, stable, and larger superconductor, which is difficult to produce and usually not carried in excess.
Because it's extremely durable; if such a superconductor fails, it implies the failure of most of the warship's systems, rendering replacement unnecessary.
This made Commander Luna the most suitable candidate.
"Possible!"
Luna readily agreed.
The risk wasn't substantial, and as a living being, she could easily approach the area using a relatively small fighter.
The only concern was that the Filament civilization would detect the fighter and investigate any anomalies.
Time was short.
Less than a year.
Luna boarded the fighter, using the dreadnought's launch equipment to accelerate it to over 40,000 km/s, heading towards the convergence point.
It wasn't that far—less than 0.06 light-years.
Even so, at 40,000 km/s, it still took over five months to reach the convergence point.
During this time, Ayla made preparations.
She refined the large-scale weapon's energy transmission and reception, keeping the fluctuation within 1%.
For such a massive energy transmission, this was remarkably stable.
...
Six months later.
Luna ejected from the fighter into space.
She used all the fighter's energy to complete her genetic transformation into Supreme Being.
As Supreme Being, her appearance was striking.
Not only was her form colossal, but her entire body radiated light, a snow-white skeletal structure covering her form, as if internal lights pulsed within. Because Luna had discarded the only non-superconducting energy storage device in her body, she had essentially abandoned combat in favor of a purely superconductive state, transforming into a living energy conduit.
She opened her eyes. The vision of [Supreme Being] was ten times clearer than the Hubble telescope on Earth; everything surrounding her was in sharp focus.
From the myriad lights, she identified the radiation emitted by the Filament civilization warships.
"They haven't detected me yet; the weapon should arrive soon."
Luna waited.
Approximately eleven days later, a concentrated energy burst struck her body.
Her body began to undergo a terrifying transformation.
Cells proliferated.
In about 0.001 seconds, her size increased by 50 times, reaching 13,500 meters.
This was what Ayla needed.
A truly colossal superconductor capable of handling the large-scale weapon's energy.
About 0.02 seconds later, a pair of golden wings unfurled from Luna's back.
These immense wings stretched over 100,000 meters wide.
"God!"
All Federation soldiers who witnessed this scene uttered the same word.
They felt as if they had truly seen a god standing before them.
From the wings, terrifying energy radiated outwards, expanding from 100,000 meters to 100 million km, 1 billion km, 10 billion km...
Until it reached a terrifying 4400 AU.
This was truly terrifying.
The Filament civilization warships had no time to react before being enveloped by this devastating weapon.
Of course, any reaction would have been futile.
As the weapon's energy traveled faster than light, the Filament civilization warships, unable to exceed the speed of light, couldn't escape.
Light!
Blinding light flashed in Luna's eyes.
This extreme light was overwhelming; without the internal energy and superconductive nature protecting her, she would have been disintegrated by the energy.
She couldn't even open her eyes.
Yet, she forced them open to witness this unforgettable scene.
Even she felt as if she had become a goddess.
Her only regret was that this godhood was fleeting, lasting less than a second.
The light dissipated.
A vast emptiness appeared before her.
Her body rapidly shrunk.
Using the remaining energy, she propelled herself toward the dreadnought.
This was a truly resounding success.
At that moment, Luna felt she had fulfilled all her ambitions, transforming her physical form into an invincible being.
If she could reach this level, the Federation would no longer need warships.
Back in the dreadnought,
Luna was still shaken.
This had been somewhat risky, even though the probability of her death was less than 5%.
Fortunately, it was a success!
Ayla appeared: "Congratulations, Luna. The Filament civilization lost 310,000 warships; this was a decisive victory."
Luna had managed to analyze the Filament civilization warships' dispersion, allowing for a precise strike.
"Yes!"
Luna's response was understated.
Actually, if it were Ayla's true form, even if the dreadnought were destroyed, she wouldn't have put Luna in danger; after all, a sub-unit is still just a sub-unit.
However, this was Luna's decision.
Remaining in a state of complacency, she felt she might forget the initial caution and careful steps taken before establishing the Galactic Federation.
This success meant that even with reinforcements, the Filament civilization couldn't break through their defensive lines.
More time was gained!