Rebirth of the Super Battleship

Chapter 448: Hundreds of Thousands and Nine Hundred

Xiao Yu did not understand by what means that silicon-based civilization once controlled this Neutron War Star, for inside it he found very little space. Overall, the interior of the Neutron War Star was not much larger than that of a County-Class spaceship. Moreover, Xiao Yu also found very few external interfaces within it. This meant that only an extremely small number of intelligent beings were stationed inside to operate it. For such a powerful warship, it was hard to comprehend why so few operators were needed.

The internal space of the Neutron War Star was limited, so the sudden appearance of as many as nine hundred unknown creatures made the interior seem extremely crowded. Yet their actions and cooperation were surprisingly well organized. Xiao Yu observed that in one control room, one of these unknown beings took out a strange instrument and drove it hard into the wall. Behind this odd device were several objects resembling personal computer terminals. Once one end of the device was connected to the wall, the creatures immediately began operating their respective terminals busily.

Some of the creatures were manipulating another type of device, seemingly scanning for something. The tool looked like a vacuum cleaner; when it swept across the walls, clusters of tiny red dots appeared. Then others immediately followed, installing another type of instrument directly on those red dots…

On the data level, Xiao Yu detected a wave of disturbance. It was very strange, as though the central control core of the Neutron War Star had encountered problems. After this fluctuation appeared, several commands Xiao Yu issued to the Neutron War Star through the data channel were unexpectedly rejected.

The Neutron War Star seemed to lack internal defense modules, or if they existed, they had already been damaged. In any case, Xiao Yu had no way of using the ship’s internal systems to wipe out these unidentified invaders.

Thus, Xiao Yu could only watch helplessly as these beings wreaked havoc inside the Neutron War Star.

His mind tightened to its limit. If, at this point, Xiao Yu still did not understand what was happening, then he had no place surviving in the galaxy.

“Guardian Civilization… so this is your hidden method? It turns out all you wanted was to delay for time, to create favorable conditions for this assault. All that talk of sincerity, all that talk of trade, it was all a lie. Pitifully, I was still blinded by you.” Xiao Yu sighed faintly. “A space transmission method based on unknown principles? I have heard rumors that the Guardian Civilization possessed extraordinary abilities for escape. I wonder whether this ability of yours is related to this mysterious transmission technique. To think you could cross billions of kilometers directly from outside the star system and send warriors right into the Neutron War Star itself! But… what are the odds of success for such an operation? Hm, about nine hundred warriors were successfully transmitted into the Neutron War Star. Then how many warriors died, lost in failure during the transmission?”

“This domain belongs to the death rays. The Guardian Civilization cannot possibly possess full immunity to death rays, otherwise, they would have explored this binary system long ago. Now, these so-called fearless Guardian warriors have appeared, but there can only be one explanation, they merely have a temporary resistance to death rays.”

“I just don’t know… how long is the time limit? It can’t be very long. It’s unlikely to exceed five hours. Five hours…”Meanwhile, Xiao Yu’s detection instruments around the Neutron War Star keenly registered many more of these same kinds of creatures. These too were without doubt warriors of the Guardian Civilization, but their transmission had gone awry. Instead of being delivered inside the Neutron War Star, they had materialized out here.

Here, it was the void. The void was saturated with death rays that were lethally destructive to carbon-based civilizations. The personal life-support equipment these warriors carried was insufficient to sustain them long enough to leave this star system, so all that awaited them was death.

Xiao Yu saw countless Guardian Civilization warriors who had failed in transmission. There were roughly over a hundred thousand of them. To be chosen for the mission of seizing the Neutron War Star, they were without a doubt the most elite warriors. Yet these warriors had no chance to unleash their formidable strength. They simply died in vain.

Besides these hundred-thousand-plus doomed warriors, Xiao Yu also saw even more Guardian warriors, about two hundred thousand of them. Their transmission also suffered errors, so they had not been delivered into the Neutron War Star’s interior. They were even more unfortunate than those thrown into the void, for they materialized near the neutron star itself, at distances ranging from hundreds of thousands of kilometers down to just tens of kilometers.

They lacked sufficient initial velocity, so under the neutron star’s immense gravity, they had only one fate, to fall. There was no second possibility. From the very moment they arrived, they were already dead, killed by the neutron star’s overwhelming gravity.

The Guardian warriors were only about 1.2 meters tall, yet even at that size, the tidal forces were enough to kill them. Their feet, being closer to the neutron star than their heads, experienced stronger gravity, while their heads experienced weaker pull. That tiny difference tore their bodies into elongated strips, stretching longer and longer until they resembled noodles, finally falling onto the neutron star.

The tremendous gravitational acceleration granted them extremely high velocities, and such speed meant tremendous kinetic energy. Slamming into the neutron star at that speed, each of them released energy equivalent to a two-hundred-megaton hydrogen bomb. Such a bomb was even more powerful than the most devastating hydrogen bomb ever detonated on Earth, powerful enough to affect the planet’s entire ecological system.

Yet the impact of two hundred thousand Guardian warriors caused no visible disturbance to the neutron star. It was as if a drop of water had fallen into the ocean. The matter of their bodies was swiftly assimilated by the neutron star, merged, and vanished without a trace, as though they had never existed.

Xiao Yu was certain that beyond these three-hundred-thousand-plus warriors, still others had met an even worse fate. They had been directly transmitted into the Neutron War Star, but not into the safe space once carved out by the silicon-based civilization. Instead, they had materialized within the star’s dense crust.

Xiao Yu could easily deduce their fate. He could even reconstruct the entire process in three-dimensional imagery, the moment they burst out of nothingness and appeared inside the neutron star’s layers, they died instantly. On the atomic and even nuclear level, neutron star matter was incredibly dense. In truth, the atoms in neutron star matter were no longer atoms at all, but neutrons, since electrons had been forced into protons, neutralizing the charges and leaving only neutrons.

And without a doubt, the substance of the Guardian warriors’ bodies was still ordinary matter. Ordinary matter, at the molecular and atomic levels, had enormous empty spaces. Thus, at the instant it mixed with neutron star matter, the densely packed neutrons immediately filled all the gaps within their atoms and nuclei, like mercury flooding into a human body. In that instant, they were annihilated.

“Tens of thousands of elite warriors… and yet only a mere nine hundred finally succeeded in reaching the designated area. Guardian Civilization, you invested enormously, with ruthless means… but it was effective.”

Xiao Yu had already detected an abnormal surge of data. This wave was rapidly occupying the Neutron War Star’s control modules in the regions he had not yet mastered. Even his authority over the star’s systems was being challenged.

Xiao Yu’s computational power clashed with this foreign intrusion. In the first instant of contact, he sensed the formidable strength of this data force. Once again, Xiao Yu realized the vast gulf between himself and the power of a Level 6 Civilization.

“Is this the might of photon computers? Hundreds of Guardian warriors linking their portable computing terminals, and they can already cause me this much trouble? Fortunately, my computational power is still stronger than yours. In the short term, you lack the ability to seize the Neutron War Star.”

Xiao Yu quickly compared their strengths. The conclusion, under such a torrent of data attacks, he could still hold on for several hours. But after those hours, the Neutron War Star would inevitably be seized by the Guardian Civilization.

Computational power was only one aspect of strength in the data realm. Processing units, logic structures, program efficiency, all contributed to overall capability. In raw computational power, Xiao Yu surpassed his opponent. But in logic units and program efficiency, he was far inferior. Thus, over time, the Neutron War Star would one hundred percent be taken.

“In this clash on the data level, I wonder if I can hold out long enough for them to be slain by the death rays… Guardian Civilization, this time, I truly made a mistake.”

“First, you used negotiations to stall for time. Then, during that time, you paid such a massive price, letting hundreds of thousands of warriors die in vain, until finally you transmitted nine hundred of them into the Neutron War Star. Such resolve, and such technological might, it is truly terrifying.” Xiao Yu thought silently.