Chapter 865: Total War |
When all other methods lost their effectiveness, war became the only method left. There was really nothing more to say about that. Being able to draw terms such as ‘escaping the cage’ and ‘replicates’ from the virtual life’s mouth had already far exceeded Xiao Yu’s expectations.
War had fully erupted. In the period before the outbreak of war, both sides had already made their preparations. Xiao Yu’s defensive line stretched for several light years, and the virtual life side had not focused its attack on only one direction either.
There were simply too many warships. Combined with the formidable mobility of a Level 7 Civilization, even if several tens of billions of warships fought in a conventional manner and swarmed forward all at once, the area occupied by the battlefield would probably not be less than one light year in length.
Numbers against numbers, and Xiao Yu’s side was at a disadvantage in quantity. This would be the first severe test Xiao Yu had faced since leaving the Milky Way.
What had originally been a peaceful star system had now become the domain of warships and the star system’s defense system. This star, together with the several thousand stars Xiao Yu had transported here around it, formed Xiao Yu’s entire defensive position. Xiao Yu had arranged at least five layers of defensive lines, and this star was one of the outermost.
The fleet Xiao Yu had stationed here was responsible for defense over a radius of at least several hundred billion kilometers. At this moment, a fleet had already charged toward it. While still millions and tens of millions of kilometers away, the space-motion distortion weapon had already been activated. Immediately, even the light of the star was twisted, causing the appearance of this star to begin changing when seen from a distance. It was no longer round, but instead began breaking apart into fragments. In one instant it shattered into ten thousand tiny points of light, and in the next moment it seemed to become one distorted strip.
At this instant, the Spatial Cannons fired by the star system’s defense system, together with tens of millions of warships directly controlled by Xiao Yu and controlled by the Supercomputing Centers, illuminated the entire dark universe. These beam-like things were like bolts of lightning streaking across the sky. In the span of an instant, they crossed the long distance and shone directly onto those distant ships.
Once war began, the situation would no longer be subject to anyone’s control. No one knew what direction it would ultimately develop toward.
This was a large-scale war involving more than two hundred million warships. The war situation here was somewhat different from the earlier battle that had involved only a million ships. This was a formal star system defensive war fought while relying on a star system. Here, Xiao Yu no longer had any other scruples or thoughts. All strength that could be used would be used.
The ultra-precise positioning system and the Faster-Than-Light attack characteristics of the Spatial Cannon allowed them, even while remaining in the rear of the battlefield, to launch real-time strikes against enemies tens of millions or hundreds of millions of kilometers ahead. Moreover, most of them operated fully automatically, automatically searching for targets, automatically locking onto targets, and then launching attacks.
The intelligence satellites Xiao Yu had deployed around the battlefield took on all intelligence-related needs. They would relay battlefield conditions to the rear in real time. Then, after automatic analysis by the Supercomputing Centers, without any interference from Xiao Yu and without placing extra burden on Xiao Yu, they would automatically complete all these tasks.
The role played by one supermassive interstellar gun turret would not be lower than that of a Planet-Class ship fighting bloodily on the front line. They had no mobility, and they did not need mobility. As long as the front line did not collapse and Xiao Yu’s defense line was not broken through, they needed to worry about nothing else and only attack.
Aside from the interstellar gun turrets, the star system was also filled with clusters of Spatial Bombs. They were like bloodthirsty sharks. They likewise relied on the intelligence system constructed by the intelligence satellites, and under the command of the Supercomputing Centers, automatically completed attack tasks.
Within the star system, there were also at least tens of thousands of giant docks. In every dock, there were hundreds of thousands or millions of robots waiting at all times. The various resources coming from the planets had long since been processed into ready-made components. As long as any damaged ship still retained mobility and could still make it into these docks, then at most within one hour, Xiao Yu would make it completely renewed and able to drive back to the front line to continue participating in battle.
Before the war began, Xiao Yu had already assigned planets to these stars in advance. Planets meant abundant sources of matter. In fact, every planet in every star system within the defensive position had long since been covered with all kinds of super factories. Xiao Yu was using several thousand stars and the tens of thousands of planets orbiting around them as the driving force to support himself in fighting this enormous war. Moreover, as the war developed, this scale still had the possibility of expanding further.
In contrast, the virtual life civilization did not possess so many advantages. They had come from afar after all. Even if they also possessed the same infinite war potential, the time had been too short, so short that they simply had not had time to construct all this.
Hundreds of millions of warships had already completely collided together. Within this star system, a Star-Class battleship was serving as the flagship. At this moment, it was leading several million ships in a confrontation with the main force corps of this star system under the control of the virtual life civilization. Long lightsabers were waving from the ships of the virtual life civilization, almost forming a gigantic net of light across this stretch of the universe. When these nets of light encountered their own ships, they would automatically leave gaps. When they encountered Xiao Yu’s ships, they would slash viciously across them. This Star-Class flagship was enduring more than one hundred thousand lightsaber cuts at every moment per unit of time.
But its excellent defensive capability was on full display. If the energy obtained through the space energy formula was not enough to support it, then inside the distorted space within it, it had an entire planet stored there. This planet took on most of the energy requirements of this ship. Tens of millions of robots, along with all kinds of automated mechanical devices, under the control of instruction sets, automatically and mechanically carried out all kinds of tasks. Some energy was converted into shields, blocking those hundred thousand lightsabers outside. Some energy was converted into attacks, becoming exceptionally thick Spatial Cannons, like iron rods, trying to pierce through anything ahead that dared to block the way.
Inside a Star-Class battleship was a planet. Inside warships of other classes, according to the size of their internal space, matter of varying sizes was likewise stored. On the battlefield, the influence and destructive power of advanced civilizations upon the universe were fully revealed. Aside from the several thousand stars and tens of thousands of planets Xiao Yu had already transported here, in the darkness and within these ships, matter no less in mass than all the celestial bodies outside combined was likewise stored.
All of this was for the sake of the war now before them.
The nets of light swept back and forth, Spatial Cannons streaked wantonly, Spatial Vortex and space-motion distortion weapons twisted space into a tangled knot, and spatial maze weapons were being activated everywhere.
The giant interstellar gun turrets inside were unwilling to remain idle as well. They would sometimes fall silent, then occasionally, when they detected an opportunity, when the intelligence satellites ahead transmitted back favorable data, they would move once, firing a Spatial Cannon billions of kilometers long, directly piercing through the twisted space and striking some larger or smaller ship ahead. When the opportunity vanished, they would immediately stop again. Countless warships exploded, but the firelight from these explosions rarely managed to transmit out of this region of space, because this region was simply too chaotic. Occasionally, a tiny bit of light would shine through. From the outside, it looked as though stars were constantly being born and dying here, flickering endlessly, dazzlingly beautiful.
Chaos, nothing but chaos. Destruction, nothing but destruction. This was the battlefield situation jointly created by both enemy and ally, yet the development of this situation was not under the control of either side.
Yet this was only a miniature part of the entire battlefield. At least one thousand similar war scenes were taking place throughout the starry sky. The scale of these battlefields varied. Some involved several billion warships, while some involved only around a million. But without exception, all of them were cruel. Such scenes would chill any intelligent life civilization to the core, because no intelligent life civilization would be willing to throw so many lives into this bottomless pit. To them, even the destruction of a single Planet-Class ship meant that at least several hundred thousand well-trained soldiers had died together. But on the battlefields here, the destruction of a Planet-Class ship was nothing more than commonplace.
Xiao Yu’s computational power had already been pushed to its limit. Even so, Xiao Yu still felt somewhat unable to hold on. At this moment, Xiao Yu even felt a trace of private relief. Relief that he had only encountered this war after another great wave of development. If before the war there had been no technological supplementation from the microscopic civilization and the Architectural Civilization, Xiao Yu would have been defeated with extreme speed. Let alone contending against the virtual life civilization, whether he could even preserve his life and flee would have been unknown.
The flames of war ignited simultaneously around several thousand star systems. In some places, Xiao Yu was defeated, and nearby stellar bases would swiftly dispatch reinforcements to rescue them. The second defensive line in the rear would also send forces. In some places, Xiao Yu was victorious, but the virtual life civilization was just like Xiao Yu, and would once again rapidly dispatch forces to continue the assault.
Amid this endless fire of war, Xiao Yu noticed a somewhat strange phenomenon.