Chapter 44: Uninvited Guests
Hundreds of hexagonal warships, like a honeycomb, parted the energy mist of the Great Magic Tide, sailing in orderly formation through the void.
Behind the void, obscured by the overly dense energy mist, a protruding steel port gradually revealed itself as the hive ships drew near. A bright guiding light shot out from one side of the port, illuminating the tip of the leading hive ship.
Guided by the navigation beam, the entire fleet began to turn slightly, decelerating along the beam, and slowly sailed toward the space-time anchor point of the port.
Ahead lay the Frontier Port.
The largest military port of the Spirit Clan Empire on the Silent Void side—the Frontier Void Port.
Originally a civilian port responsible for transshipping supplies to various colonies in the frontier provinces, over the past few centuries, due to the Spirit Clan's continuous investment in void combat capabilities, almost all ports and major fortress worlds had been reinforced and modified. In recent years, this port, once a key transportation hub on the frontier, had been completely transformed into a super-large void fortress.
The mixed fleet of four hundred hive ships seen earlier was merely a small fraction of the military vessels docked at the entire port. The Frontier Void Port could simultaneously dock over five thousand six hundred large hive ships at full capacity, making it one of the most advanced and powerful void ports in the entire Spirit Clan Empire.
But now, even this massive void port was operating at overcapacity, forcing the temporary construction of two smaller auxiliary ports nearby to accommodate the fleet cluster, which had already exceeded ten thousand ships.
All of this was due to the increasingly tense situation.
According to the increasingly sharp and clear reports from the Empire's various frontier monitoring stations, the massive subspace energy fluctuations and echoes detected nearly three years ago had become more distinct. The implications behind this forced the Spirit Clan's high command to make a decision.
Of course, concentrating the entire national fleet in the frontier region would leave the normal void-side territories without long-range response capabilities. But the Spirit Clan knew that as a fortunate young void civilization, if they truly encountered invaders from another star river, they would have little ability to resist anyway. Rather than worrying about events that showed no trend of occurring, it was better to focus on the storm that was absolutely approaching from the Silent Void side.
Prepared and departing from the Origin Mother Star, passing through the Dust Realm to the Red Light Province, then from the Black Fang Fortress to the Frontier Void Port, this small fleet of four hundred ships was not arriving as reinforcements. In reality, their purpose was to transport cutting-edge detection equipment, the pinnacle of current Spirit Clan technology.
The fleet, bearing special military codes, quickly entered the core area of the void inner port through a special channel. The transport ships were rapidly disassembled, and massive detection equipment was separated from the semi-biological hulls. Soon, under the tense arrangements of Spirit Clan soldiers, the 'Subspace Energy Wave Receiver,' shaped like a spire, was successfully installed.
Then, half a day later.
A series of urgent warnings were sent to the Origin Mother Star, the capital star system of the Spirit Clan.
"...We have observed that the gravitational curvature phenomenon around the frontier void has become very pronounced, yet we cannot detect any light or energy fluctuations..."
"...According to speculation, there should be a supermassive dark star capable of blocking light, rapidly approaching our star domain. Their technology is advanced, more powerful than we imagined. And from the current situation, our unknown visitor friends are about to arrive..."
"...Respected Empress, the subspace echoes have become so clear that even ordinary detection equipment can hear them. They have approached the outer edge of our star river, and a series of material distortion phenomena have occurred..."
"...There is every reason to believe that the unknown signal source has left the Silent Void and begun entering the ultra-long dust cloud region at the edge of the star river. Their trajectory has not changed; they continue to travel in a straight line. We have already placed the possible landing points of these signal sources under surveillance..."
From September 27, 1103, a continuous stream of urgent warnings and notifications nearly filled the reception channels of the Imperial Family and the Military Department. According to the most advanced detection equipment, the source of the unknown signals was approaching at an inconceivable speed. Of course, this was not surprising in itself, because according to information relativity, if target A travels at a speed close to the speed of information transmission, then by the time another target receives the information, target A will also arrive immediately.
Faced with this increasingly tense situation, and to avoid the massive losses suffered in past encounters with void behemoth fleets, the Spirit Clan Empire mobilized all its fleets and began constructing temporary fortress bastions at the likely landing points of the unknown signal source. They withdrew half of the Empire's accumulated resources over many years and invested them all here. The next successor to the Imperial Empress, the twenty-fifth Hive Awakener, the Empire's Eldest Princess, had already gone to the front lines along with the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Military Affairs, demonstrating the entire Empire's seriousness about this.
At least, in terms of preparation, the high-ranking Spirit Clan had a clear conscience; they had truly done their best.
Time: Spirit Calendar, September 27.
With the issuance of the highest alert order, the silence of the entire frontier port and fortress cluster was broken.
The Eldest Princess, who rarely needed sleep due to her great strength, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Military Affairs, the frontline marshals, and the Empress and other cabinet ministers far away in the Empire, all received the same urgent notification simultaneously.
But in reality, no notification was needed, because all high-energy psychics above level three felt a wave sweeping in from afar... a wave called terror.
"Alert! We have detected a powerful unknown fluctuation sweeping across the entire star river!"
"Alert! The frontier monitoring station has been hit by an abnormal psychic wave impact; 90% of the corresponding detection personnel have fallen into an incurable soul shock state!"
"Alert! The signal source has approached! They have arrived!"
Boom!
It was only then that the Spirit Clan high command in the frontier port area heard a terrifying roar echoing in the depths of their souls. Except for the Minister of Military Affairs, the strongest among them, everyone else was stunned by the soul-shaking roar, which seemed to contain infinite memories and infinite corrosive power, leaving their thought centers in chaos, unable to think for a moment.
As large insects that derived self-awareness and intelligence from their souls, the Spirit Clan were naturally a race that awakened psychic powers. In fact, most races without physical thought organs used psychic power as their foundational supernatural force, which was also the norm throughout the multiverse—the most widespread supernatural power. Psychic power itself could also be easily converted from other forces; as long as the soul was strong enough, one possessed powerful psychic abilities.
The roar that had just erupted on the soul level instantly made all Spirit Clan understand that the strength of the approaching existence was almost beyond their imagination.
"De... detect the source of this soul roar! I want to know where it is now!"
Only the Minister of Military Affairs now had enough thinking ability. He immediately connected directly to the automatic program of the subspace detection equipment, ordering it to analyze the source of the previous abnormal impact.
But the result was terrifying.
"Un-a-ble to i-den-ti-fy! Warning! Psychic fluctuations are too powerful; the automatic program cannot identify the main source of the psychic fluctuations! Warning! A super-massive subspace oscillation is occurring! Please halt the navigation of all ships and secure them to the space-time anchor points at the port!"
"Optical monitoring lenses restored! Mana monitoring lenses restored! The unknown target is shedding its surface barrier! Image is being transmitted... Transmission successful!"
Soon, the gradually awakening Eldest Princess and others, along with the Minister of Military Affairs, saw the blurry images sent by the automatic detection program.
It was an incredibly massive beast, as grand as a world.
Accompanied by space-time tremors so strong that even the void port could clearly feel them, eight familiar yet unfamiliar void behemoths broke through the material barrier created by the star river's spin, sailing rapidly through the edge dust clouds of the World Star River. They were decelerating, seemingly preparing to land. These behemoths tore through the void, broke through the cloud haze, and shattered the large condensing cloud clusters gathering in the dust clouds, rushing toward the target star domain like barbarians who didn't care about trampling roadside flowers.
"Are those void behemoths... and other fleets?!"
Seeing these void behemoths, all the Spirit Clan high command let out a unified cry of alarm. The behemoth fleet that had once destroyed their territory had reappeared, filling their hearts with anger. But soon, the subsequent images calmed these large insects down.
At the center, surrounded by the eight void behemoths, was a seemingly inconspicuous silver sphere that emitted light brighter than a star. And following this light, three strange fleets emerged from the clouds.
The visible space-time stabilization field was so conspicuous that anyone could tell from the momentum that the eight void behemoths were merely beings driven by the silver sphere and the fleet behind it. The main body of the entire strange fleet was actually that seemingly small silver steel fleet. Their technology was beyond the Spirit Clan's ability to discern; they couldn't tell good from bad.
And in the Spirit Clan's capital star domain, the Origin Mother Star, the nominal Imperial Empress, the actual manager of the entire country, the Imperial Prime Minister, and the cabinet all watched the continuously incoming psychic communications in silence.
"The unknown entity has appeared... It is a strange combined fleet of four parts, some of which are individuals from the void fleet cluster that invaded us before... They are the source of the subspace energy waves we previously detected, approaching our star river."
"According to the images, the mass of this fleet is insufficient to cause the terrifying subspace oscillations of that level. We detected a huge gravitational source but could not identify its true form. We suspect that this is merely the vanguard of the unknown force's true fleet, with its main body still in the Silent Void, not yet arrived. So far, the entire situation is very confusing. The unknown entity does not accept any psychic wave communications and does not respond to any calls. They may be using another type of hyperspace communication device."
At this point, the suggestions from the various monitoring stations clearly split into two factions.
"Empire! Our star river is being invaded by a powerful void force from another world! We face an unprecedented battle! The unknown force is extremely powerful! Before their main fleet arrives, we must strike first!"
"We... might try to adjust the communication band to contact them. Meaningless combat is unnecessary. Before the vigilance and conflict brought by the unknown and confusion cause a clash between both sides, we must initiate a true exchange!"
The brief landing and communication left the entire Empire's high command momentarily unsure of how to choose. They realized they knew nothing about these alien fleets from unknown regions—not their strength, technology, or form of existence. Even the so-called familiar void behemoths were merely seen; they had only 'heard' of their strength, never engaged in an evenly matched battle.
What made the Spirit Clan decide was a series of actions taken by the unknown fleet afterward.
After removing the black information shielding barrier, all actions of the alien fleet could be seen by simple detection arrays. The massive void behemoths broke through the interference of the dust cloud region, leading the fleet to a target star domain. The silver sphere at the center, surrounded by the behemoths, released a translucent halo covering the entire star domain. Instantly, all automatic fortresses and void sentry posts in that star domain stopped operating.
The next moment, even the long-range detection arrays dimmed for an instant. Because the space-time stabilization field was withdrawn, the fleet's own excessively strong energy emission created an artificial 'small magic tide' phenomenon in the Jetram Star Domain.
Then came news that the world barriers of several lifeless worlds had been shattered, along with intense space-time oscillations.
"Highest warning! The barriers of eight lifeless worlds in the Jetram Star Domain have been destroyed! The void behemoths are feeding!"
"A large-scale tear in space-time structure has occurred in the Jetram Star Domain! We have detected extremely complex mana fluctuations! The unknown fleet seems to be constructing a super-massive space-time rift, centered on the Jetram World... They seem to want to build a huge space-time hub, a massive 'Star Gate'! We have also intercepted communication signals between these fleets... They are hungry, mad, and chaotic, as if in a daze after being suppressed for a long time. Now they are filled with joy. It sounds like a carnival!"
"They act quickly, with clear goals. We have no time left. If the space-time hub and Star Gate are all completed, when the main body of the alien fleet arrives, we will have absolutely no chance of victory!"
This terrifying information became the last straw that broke the Spirit Clan high command's decision.
"...Launch... the attack!"