Star Empire

In the gap formed by the twisted world and the void, these ships whose crystal energy shields were being rapidly disintegrated by the void environment finally reactivated the order field before completely melting.

An endless storm seems to have rolled up in the broken sea of ​​clouds, but no matter how hard these blasphemous shadows that obscure the truth and essence struggle, they cannot escape the fate of being swallowed and destroyed by the void.

In the center of the fragmented world, the violent explosion caused by two huge information focus containing a large amount of information destroyed the last foundation of this time and space that seemed to be composed of a nightmare.

The sea of ​​light and electricity began to collide with everything in space and time like crazy. The huge black-red planet finally began to slow down and gradually integrated into the environment.

Ark Fleet captured some of these details.

However, in the originally brightly lit Ark spaceship, some of the originally stable and comforting lights began to be gradually replaced by uneasy flames. Previous disasters had broken the ship's protection, and pollution had seeped into the Ark. .

…

After an immeasurable burning sensation, Vidoville struggled to wake up from the nightmare.

Before he fell into coma, the last memory he had left was that of the twisted light and black dust mist surrounding his body, the continuous alarms that had lit up half of the starry sky outside the observation window, and the former chief control technician's eyes only filled with murderous intent and rage. , and I have some indescribable pain, as if my whole body is being pinched by a knife...

While in coma, he realized that he had not completely lost the way to perceive the outside world. But at that time, what he still retained was neither his conscious mind nor his subconscious mind, but the torment from his soul.

Strange black and red patterns appeared out of thin air, tearing apart and devouring his soul bit by bit. Not only that, Victorville also felt his own distortion and mutation. The patterns that appeared out of thin air were just like the demons that appeared in ancient fantasy, bit by bit. Pull him into the abyss of corruption and depravity...

Fortunately, this feeling did not last long. As Vidoville became increasingly unsustainable, his own mutation stopped abruptly and began to recover at an extremely slow speed. At the moment when his mind was at the lowest level, a golden thunderbolt suddenly flashed across the originally dark and lightless surroundings, followed by a second, third... Every time the golden light lit up, he could feel that his consciousness would Being pulled closer to reality...

When he opened his eyes, the first thing that caught his eye was the pale golden haze of light spreading from the Mathematical Rate Core. As the haze that obscured his vision faded layer by layer, he quickly understood what was going on. The current situation in the bridge control hall.

Above the console in the bow part of the ship, the floating light screen showing the real-time conditions of the Seventh, Ninth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth Ark has disappeared, and many equipment control panels in the hall are beating. Fire-like golden smoke or chain-like arcs. Since the console clusters around this hall are in a ring shape, the large number of effects produced on these consoles looks like an enchantment has been added to the entire cabin. Many figures I was running before and after, trying to suppress the spread of destruction.

However, these running figures seem to be much sparser than before.

…

Vidoville struggled to stand up. In addition to the distortion caused by the last overload jump, the four crystal rails extending from near the base of the mathematical rate core now had a considerable number of hollow cracks inside them. Some areas of the outer environmental constraint shell of the mathematical rate core have been completely crystallized. Several obelisk-like devices are arranged on the upper edge of the base of the mathematical rate core. The light emitted from the top of the obelisk is emitting light at a certain frequency. Flickering, suppressing the beating and frantic heart trapped inside the protective shell.

"Emergency suppression...the independent operation of this additional model is still under experimentation..."

"Your Majesty the Consul, are you awake?" Vidoville looked out, and Cavinriel was leaning against the slope of the base of the math core, barely smiling to himself.

"Cavenriel, how are you?" Vidoville was startled and thought of stepping forward to check the situation. However, as soon as he took the first step, his legs weakened and he knelt on the ground.

"Don't worry, Archon, I'm fine..." Cavinriel waved his hands gently, "We are lucky to survive..."

"By the way, Cavinriel, how are the others? What's the damage to the fleet?" After his mind got rid of the mania-like disturbance before, Vidoville suddenly remembered his own job and the current crisis. Condition.

"The fleet is now free from the threat of the contaminated world fragment. In terms of personnel... it can only be said that the most important scientific talents are basically not in great condition at present. Isendel and Ikarim are better than you. Awakening early, Zhai Cahir has been exposed to high-intensity crystal energy-derived light. He just finished the observation a few hours ago. His soul state is still stable. Lord Weisruifan and Kaloust have no serious problems. They I have always been in a relatively sober state, but..." Cavinriel paused for a long time before slowly saying, "Please be mentally prepared, the above part is the only "good news" left."

Victorville's heart felt cold. Next, every word of Cavinriel's report hit his heart with an extremely cold feeling:

"It has been determined that we have lost five Arks. Their numbers are No. 7, No. 9, No. 11, No. 12 and No. 13. Ark No. 7 was severely corroded by external pollution and lost control. Ark No. 9 was out of control. Ark #1 self-destructed, Ark #11 was destroyed by an unidentified aircraft, Ark #12 self-destructed for unknown reasons, and Ark #13 impacted and destroyed an unknown celestial body in the fragments of the world.”

"Among the surviving fleets, this ship and Ark No. 15 were severely damaged, and some non-essential functions have been shut down. Ark No. 2, No. 4, and No. 5 were slightly injured. As for the population... we only have 200 million left. Seventy million people.”

"How could the casualties be so heavy?" Vidoville seemed to be hit on the head with a stick and fell to the ground. "After I return to the blockade area, the number of citizens living in the blockade area should be no less than 600 million, and there will be no more than 600 million citizens living in the blockade area." Counting the guards and engineering troops brought to the world's long wall blockade at that time, when we evacuated, we had a population of at least 700 million, but now, more than half of it has been lost in one fell swoop?"

"...Yes, when you were in a situation, that invisible pollution invaded the fleet's command system and communication system, and then spread wildly in the civilian network. At that time, we almost lost control of the civilian communication road--speaking of it Ridiculous, these casualties occurred after our fleet escaped from the fragment of the world whose environment was much worse than a black hole."

"At that time, there was more or less pollution inside other arks. Because of the fallacy caused by the self-discipline detection nodes of the spacecraft body itself, those sporadic contaminations escaped the detection system of the spacecraft. After the trusteeship ended, they tried to restore other levels. During the process of contact, a large-scale communication trend broke out among the surviving citizens of each ship, including but not limited to asking, talking, cursing, saying goodbye, celebrating, etc... The situation at that time was quite chaotic, and even the military was confused. A little unstable..."

"At that time, we had lost control of this part of the civilian communication channel... Perhaps the too strong death wave effect corrupted the will to a certain extent... We even tried to prevent the ship from entering by direct killing. Some die-hards, but in the end it had no effect in stopping it. At this time, we still have a population of no less than 550 million."

"However, the communications of those infected provided a way for the remaining contamination to spread. After the fleet entered the void, because the order field was activated uniformly by the flagship, all the ships were in the same order field. In the order environment, originally in The conventional communication methods that can be used in the universe are also briefly allowed to be used here, but this part of the communication is not completely protected by the crystal energy, so it starts to spread almost instantly..."

"Those terrifying black-red shadows instantly ravaged the interior of all the arks and caused quite serious consequences. On the one hand, there were a large number of casualties, and in part, the pollution spread to the interior of the ship and eroded a considerable amount of equipment. Four of the five arks that were slightly injured were caused by these vicious events that can be called riots. They even maintained intact crystal energy shields after leaving the world fragments, hey..."

"It can be said that the current situation is caused..." Vidoville stood up suddenly, and a depressing aura mixed with violence gradually began to surround him, "Such a heavy loss this time... The power of the death wave interfered This is the main reason for losing our thoughts and corrupting our thinking. But the other part is our terrible thinking inertia, our inability to unify our thoughts and actions in the chaos...!"

"Death Tide?"

"I name those destructive phenomena of unknown origin." Vidoville glanced coldly at Cavinrel, who was holding the ramp, "I think we will need to take measures soon to think about it carefully. , next, how should we decide the future of the Ark Fleet..."

"Time...?!" After recovery, the moment his consciousness regained contact with the main network, there was a violent throbbing in Victorville's heart——

The time from start to finish of these events does not exceed... half a day in the clock's time.

In half a day, the Ark Fleet, which had been sailing for several years, suffered heavy losses in this short period of time.

However, such a strong sense of unreality did not arouse much emotional vibration in the end - even if Vidoville wanted to be afraid, think, and experience violent emotions, the emotional index - was still limited to an obvious range. .

Everything in the past...

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

"I don't know whether we should be called lucky or unlucky..." Directly below the main control hall of the first bridge, a heavily armed force was clearing away debris and dents and corrosion gaps in the corridor. , bending and breaking the bulkhead structural plate, and behind this force, behind another protective door, Vesrifan, Isendel and Zhai Cahir are using remote surveillance to follow up under the protection of several Guards soldiers. to detect the progress of the troops.

"Not long after we proposed the knowledge preservation plan, there were such large-scale casualties and mechanical damage... However, the technical knowledge, technological knowledge and logical knowledge that ensured the survival of our civilization were basically intact. have survived previous disasters..."

Weisrifan looked at the emergency lighting that was extending into the deep and dark corridors one by one, separated from the passages that had been demolished and would never respond after faithfully completing their missions. He opened the door and let out a long sigh.

"Your Excellency Consul, this may be a little inappropriate, but I still want to remind you that this part of the work should be the responsibility of Your Excellency Vidoville." In front of Weisrifan, Eisendel glanced at what was displayed on the screen. The image of the bulkhead became more and more tragic, and then he sighed softly: "You shouldn't come here, it's very dangerous."

"I know that since I decided to come here, I will not be unprepared." Weisrifan looked at the golden obelisk placed by the guarding soldiers.

"He was greatly affected by that kind of unknown external pollution, and the time may be very long. I am very satisfied if he is fine. In addition, we still don't understand a considerable part of the current fleet. At this time, the efficiency can be improved a little bit. .As for the responsibilities... From the day the crystal energy vortex broke out, the responsibilities between us are no longer clear. Now we are not so much the separation of powers, but the gradual integration of responsibilities and obligations and mutual understanding. assist……"

"Report, the detection team has completed the inspection of this corridor, emergency lighting equipment is in place, there is a closed isolation door at the end of the corridor, behind the door is shown in the structure diagram, according to the order to receive crystal energy infusion No. The second bridge and its affiliated areas are within range.”

"Activate the protection, detect the troops, and try to open the door." Weisrifan nodded and reached out to signal the soldiers beside him to activate the obelisk. Under the temporary emergency light sources on both sides of the corridor, the detection troops quickly divided into two groups. He lowered his body and quickly rushed along the bulkhead to the isolation door.

After the team was in place, another obelisk was set up in front of the isolation door. A faint golden light flashed rhythmically on the top of the obelisk, invisibly propping up a protection that could restrict the flow of information to a certain extent. Screen.

"It has been confirmed that the control system of the door leaf has also been offline and the demolition procedure is being carried out."

…

After the light of crystal energy illuminated this small part of the pipeline, the detection team quickly discovered that the shape of the crystalline guide rail had mutated. The guide rail that was originally supposed to be a standard isosceles trapezoid in cross-section, extending straight and turning at right angles, now seemed like a capillary The blood vessels were also curled and deformed, but it was not serious.

Around the guide rail, the soldiers collected a kind of powder that had never appeared before. This powder showed a gray-white color, and emergency observation methods were completely unable to detect any of its structure. The weak movements of the soldiers did not escape Zhai Cahir's true sight, but when he focused his remaining sight on the powder, his face was also confused.

"These powders should still be described as ordered substances, but their structure has undergone considerable changes. The material of these crystal rails is modeled after the former energy-conducting crystal materials, from the chaotic material belt around the crystal energy vortex. It is directly composed of "silicon-like" and "silver-like" produced by mathematically assigned decay. Although they are no longer elements in the conventional sense, they themselves have a fixed information structure, and these powders..."

"I'll just put it bluntly, it's a hodgepodge. I can't understand it. Don't ask for details now. It looks like all the original information has been smashed into pieces and then randomly reorganized. I want to ask Nong. To achieve this degree of randomness, we need to specially set up the assignment rules and mathematical environment. For now, I don’t recommend making a big effort on them - our resource scarcity is close to the end of the country."

"Maybe it has something to do with the black and red patterns that invaded. After all, these crystalline networks also transmit energy and information. This may be caused by the interaction between those black and red patterns and crystals. We will study these in detail later... It is not necessary If so, you don’t have to worry too much." Wei Ruifan crossed his arms and said calmly.

…

On the other side, demolition of the partition door is underway.

A considerable number of the members of the detection force were trained by Eskett, Torres, and Agnas over the course of more than two thousand years. They are relatively experienced in the application of crystal energy. After a little awareness of the situation behind the door, several thin sheets with crystal texture were quickly attached to different locations on the isolation door.

After confirming that the positions of these portable blasting equipment were appropriate, all personnel quickly retreated behind the obelisk at the captain's gesture. The brightness and flashing frequency of the light spots shining on the top of the obelisk also increased slightly, thus providing Troops provide additional protection.

"Detonate!"

As the order was given, several crystal flakes on the gate instantly transformed into balls of dazzling golden light. After the light lit up, it did not stay still in place, but moved as if alive under the mutual influence of each other.

Through enhanced vision and a high-definition video connection, Weisrifan and the others could see clearly. Although those light groups looked as warm and harmless as the Federation's classic pet luminous mica, in these lights Behind the group, an inconspicuous tiny gap marks the sliding trajectory of the light group at all times.

After the light group stopped moving and gradually extinguished at the four corners of the door, with a thickness of nearly half a meter, the metamaterial created using the information environment, and even reinforced by crystal energy infusion, the isolation door quickly collapsed like tofu being cut. It fell down and made a muffled sound on the floor.

"Oh my god..." After the isolation door was removed and the emergency light source installed in the corridor cast golden light into the dark cabin, the scenes in those halls that lost their light, or in other words, after experiencing those black and red two-dimensional patterns The first scene after the contamination and crystal energy was washed away was finally observed by the Federation.

Under the weak flickering of the dim lights, the situation inside the cabin not only shocked everyone, but even Weiss Ruifan, who was monitoring the actions of the frontline troops through the screen, couldn't help but take two steps back in shock and subconsciously covered his mouth. .