LRAB Page 153
Page 153
The great sage Philus made his decision in less than a second.
It's just a matter of insufficient ammunition. At worst, they can risk entering subspace to travel. Once they shake off their opponents, their faster-than-light travel can resume.
Once faster-than-light travel is restored, they can search for suitable planets in the void of space to plunder and replenish their supplies.
"Yes!" Since the Great Sage has said so, what can the Mechanical Priest do?
He naturally carried out the order.
The next second, the entire Mechanicus Ark-Forging Fleet dropped a large number of void torpedoes, which once again filled the void behind them, awaiting the arrival of the Starfish Fleet.
Starfish are, after all, planets capable of faster-than-light travel and combat, and their detection systems are not to be underestimated.
Although the Empire's Void Thunder can quickly conceal itself from detection after use, it can still be detected immediately upon exiting the capsule.
"Those damned bipedal aliens! They've unleashed another massive barrage of void lightning! Damn it, if my Empire's glory hadn't crumbled, I would have made those guys pay dearly!"
Seeing this, Commander Nord of the Starfish Hunting Fleet angrily slammed his fist on the equipment in front of him.
If their glory hadn't faded, how could they have been tricked by such a petty fleet?
Hearing their commander start lamenting the loss of their empire's glory, the starfish around them could no longer contain their curiosity and asked.
"Commander, you all say that the glory of our Cescar Empire is gone, but how glorious was the empire in the past?"
The Empire's past glory was a word they often heard their commanders use, but they, as young starfish, could not truly comprehend just how glorious it had been.
They had no idea how glorious the empire had once been; these starfish were merely young starfish and fleet commanders created in the last few centuries, and were incomparable to them.
Just as there are immortal beings on the human side, there are also several immortal beings on the starfish side, namely their supreme commander, several fleet commanders, and scientists.
These individuals are immortals, almost immune to the passage of time, and thus they are aware of the former glory of the Cessar Empire.
However, this honor was not publicly announced at all.
Aside from these few immortals frequently recounting how glorious their race once was, they have never explained to the people of the empire just how glorious it was.
Two bright eyes inside Nordstar's abdomen looked at the young warriors around him.
Yes, these old folks keep talking about how glorious their former empire was, but they never tell their young descendants what that glory was all about.
Therefore, it is understandable that these younger descendants are unaware of this matter.
"You ask how glorious we were in the past? Well, I can tell you that speeds of travel like that fleet opposite us, 5000 times faster than light, were common in the empire back then."
"Even their speed is negligible to us; our speed far surpasses theirs!"
"You are all just young soldiers, so you are unaware that the Empire has a reserve of ancient warships, remnants of its most glorious era!"
"Don't be fooled by the fact that this fleet of mechanical lifeforms managed to survive our warships' pursuit. If we need to use the glorious ancestral warships, we can annihilate them in an instant!"
Nordstar's tentacles were raised high, displaying his pride and arrogance. Only an immortal being like him could truly understand how proud and arrogant the former empire had been.
"I can proudly tell you that at our peak, we waged a full-scale war against humanity across the stars!"
Chapter 253 Even if it's become this abstract, we will eventually return to our peak.
"Humans!?" The young starfish officers and soldiers murmured the word. Most of the starfish people were hearing such an unfamiliar word for the first time. What kind of race were humans?
Why is it described as a glorious war between the former empires and humanity in the starry sea?
Their empire possessed ancestral warships, and once those ancestral warships were activated, annihilating the cyborg species before them would be a piece of cake. All these pieces of information were impacting the minds of these young starfish.
Looking at these ordinary starfish soldiers, who seemed somewhat bewildered, Commander Nord of the pursuit fleet was also somewhat disappointed.
It has been too long, far too long. The war between them and humanity ended so long ago that only a few immortals know about it.
These ordinary young starfish have completely forgotten how glorious their past was, and they cannot comprehend what a feat it is to wage war against humans among the stars.
Although they ultimately failed, and in accordance with human nature, they were probably the last survivors of that starfish empire.
Nord was somewhat downcast; they were not native to this galaxy and universe.
They just inexplicably appeared here 1 years ago, and developed into the brilliant civilization we have today, with 40 colonies!
40 colony stars—that's an enormous number.
If this number were applied to the former Cessar Empire, they might not have lost their war against humanity!
Even if the colony they created is very abstract, and even if all 1 of them combined can only barely compare to the production capacity of a single colony during their peak period.
Most importantly, their technology not only did not make any progress in the past 1 years, but actually regressed rapidly.
To date, they can only achieve a maximum speed of 60 times the speed of light. If it weren't for the fact that these few immortals are still alive and have managed to preserve some of their technology and develop the faster-than-light suppressor, the cyborg civilization's fleet in front of them would have wiped them out.
They will have to activate those warships from ten thousand years ago, those warships from the empire's most glorious period.
But that batch of warships was their last glorious peak warships.
Those warships were truly one less to use, and one lost was gone forever.
The warships have been in service for so long that they don't know if they can survive another ten thousand years.
Although they believed that their former empire's technology should be able to last for tens of thousands of years without any problem, what if?
What if these ancestral warships are gone?
If the so-called space necromancers from the mechanical civilizations in this region were to appear within their empire, their existing warships would be no match for them.
Only the warships of the empire at its most glorious period could contend with these space undead.
Those ancestral warships really should only be used in the most critical situations.
Nord let out a heavy sigh, his entire starfish etched with sorrow.
How can someone who has experienced glory endure the current slump?
Ten thousand years have passed, and not only have they failed to restore the glory of the Cessar Empire, they are now reduced to merely eking out a living here.
Sixty times the speed of light! Such a slow speed of travel is something that ordinary civilizations that have just left their home planet and entered interstellar civilization could do, but it took them a full ten thousand years!
At this rate of development, it's truly an unknown what kind of technology they will develop in the next ten thousand years. It can be said that the ancestral warships are their sole source of support.
Not everyone is a top-tier scientist like Zhou Qing, who can rebuild human civilization wherever he goes, as long as there are humans.
Top-tier, all-around scientists like Zhou Qing represent the most precious asset of a race.
They are the cornerstone of civilization and guide its future. Ordinary civilizations, once they lose their technological systems and rely solely on a few immortals, will quickly decline.
"Alright, there's no need to recount the past glories. Even if I told you about them, you wouldn't be able to grasp just how powerful our empire once was!"
"You young people only need to know that we were once glorious and great, and you must strive to achieve the greatness and glory of our race."
For some reason, the starfish in front of him were incredibly abstract, and he couldn't inherit their powerful genetic sequences, but that didn't stop Nord from encouraging them.
What could they do? This civilization was built up by them, a continuation of their starfish civilization, even if these descendants seem so abstract.
They could only grit their teeth and accept it, figuring things would get better eventually since there weren't any powerful enemies threatening them.
Even if their thousand years of development here can only be compared to a single year in the past, it is still the same.
"Oh," the ignorant young starfish could only respond with a simple "oh" upon hearing the commander's words.
It's not that their empire never tells the younger generation about its past glories, but most of them, like their own commanders, will stop halfway through the story, deliberately cutting off the other person's interest.
And they always mention humans, but what kind of race are humans? They don't say a word about it.
The internal discussions inside the starfish warship were limited to their own chat. Meanwhile, the two fleets continued their leisurely standoff, and ordinary starfish warships had quietly arrived in the warp, having already calculated and predicted their positions.
In just a few hours at most, they could completely surround the Mechanicus forging fleet, and then…
Everything will eventually settle down, and the half-human, half-machine fleet that has plagued the entire Starfish Empire for months will be completely destroyed under their attack.
The young starfish thought so, and the naval commander with immortality thought so too. Soon this cyborg life form would be destroyed by them, and then the development of the entire empire could return to normal!
Everything will return to normal, and they can slowly continue developing their technology!
Even if the way those descendants develop their technology is so abstract and so suicidal, 1000 years of their lives can only compare to the development of an empire in a single year.
But that's alright, these leaders are immortal, they believe they will be able to hold on until that day sooner or later!
Chapter 254 Starfish Uses Black Technology Again
“Great Sage, we have detected strange subspace fluctuations ahead. It is highly likely that the enemy has once again used the subspace to reach our front line and is preparing to launch the 12th round of encirclement and suppression against us.”
"This time, the information from the subspace fluctuations is particularly strong! The size of this starfish fleet must be considerable, possibly equal to the combined size of several previous ones!"
The starfish's plan had already been carried out 11 times in the previous four months.
Each time they launched an attack, the casting fleet suffered heavy losses, and now they are about to launch another pincer attack from all sides.
This time, the scale is significantly larger than before.
This news made the great sage Philus somewhat uneasy.
"Since they're not falling for our trap, let's stop fighting them here. Let's open a subspace portal and prepare to force our way out of this place!"
Now that unease has arisen, it must be taken seriously. The Great Sage Philus chose to forcibly initiate a warp jump and then flee this place.
He only wanted to offer Omnisia a victory, and since it was clear that he couldn't offer Omnisia a victory now, he might as well just run away first.
Omnisiah doesn't need this victory. All he needs to do is persevere, wait for Omnisiah to reach his position, and then he can gain glory!
"Understood," the mechanical priest said, choosing to execute the order. Soon, the warships began preparing for a forced subspace jump, a move observed by Commander Nord of the starfish warships that were pursuing them.
"These damned cyborg civilizations, we can't let them escape! Order the warships to overload mode and activate 80 times the speed of light to give chase!"
60 times the speed of light is the limit for conventional warships, but 80 times the speed of light is the true limit within the limit!
At 80 times the speed of light, many starfish soldiers would perish, but destroying this fleet of mechanical lifeforms is far more important than incurring some casualties.
As for why to do it, or whether it's worth it, Nord can simply tell the person asking.
Their previous encounters led them to discover that the cyborg life forms on the other side resembled humans in some ways.
Although it was probably not the human who had waged a full-scale war with them in the Star Sea, all of this still made him somewhat uneasy.
More importantly, the machines on the other side were almost identical to humans, making them their enemies!
Such beings must be eliminated!
He intends to annihilate this mechanical fleet.
Upon hearing his order, the starfish officer hesitated, knowing that if the order were carried out, there would be a significant number of non-combat casualties among the officers and men on their warship.