Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 921: Chapter 27: Interstellar Space Station

As an outsider facing the large starship of the Galen Republic, one would probably be shocked at the energy levels it emits at first sight.

Such a damn powerful energy engine!

And at first glance, one would be attracted to the starship’s surface shining with silver energy shields.

No need to say, this is a kind of modified solar sail technology.

Integrating the defense system with the solar sail can alleviate spaceship energy consumption and improve defense recovery.

This is a very ingenious piece of spaceship technology.

But for Gao Gong, what intrigued him the most was the spatial fluctuation emanating from the ship.

This fluctuation gave him a strong sense of threat.

’A phase cannon, huh.’

Gao Gong had heard of ’phase cannon’.

It’s a type of large energy cannon, and a rare space cannon type among energy cannons, operating on the principle of using space anchor technology to confirm enemy space coordinates, then tearing space apart with massive energy to destroy everything within that space range. The higher the level of the phase cannon, the wider the attack range.

Gao Gong felt he was locked onto.

Sure enough, a ship at least 500km away suddenly flashed, like it was hit by a searchlight, and in the next moment, a projection appeared two meters away from the two of them. It was a two-meter-tall giant, looking somewhat like Gao Gong, with a stern complexion, hair standing on end, and stiff features.

This was one of the Gaelte people, the main intelligent species of the Galen Federation, a race of engineers known for their stern and serious demeanor in the Second Stellar Vortex.

”This is a cloned spaceship pilot of the Gaelte, look at his ears,” Vervi whispered.

Gao Gong only then noticed a thin golden mark in the center of the other’s ear, barely visible.

’Using clones extensively in their armed forces, huh, I wonder if there’s a sign of a clone revolution breaking out.’

This cloned Gaelte was probably implanted with a Pan-Galactic Universal Translator, and amidst simple ’sizzling’ sounds, the voice quickly turned into the universal language of the Mechanical Split Star.

”Two interstellar warriors, please present your species ID and civilization code. We will confirm your identity with your civilization’s main body in one-tenth of a planetary time.”

The cloned spaceship pilot paused and said, ”Otherwise, we will mark you as a hostile unit to the spaceship.”

Vervi’s expression tightened. He could feel the shifting gaze subtly locking onto him.

Have I been exposed so quickly?

Gao Gong patted his companion’s shoulder, glanced at the projection, and suddenly said with a smile, ”While I’m not sure how vast the Galen Republic’s civilization territory is, I do know this asteroid belt is not within your jurisdiction. In the public star sea, especially in non-navigation zones, asking people to reveal their identity like this—isn’t it a bit domineering?”

The cloned spaceship pilot looked at Gao Gong and pondered for a moment before saying, ”Through the Galen Republic Veta Council proposal number 1859181, it’s confirmed there is governance responsibility for public areas below the Second Stellar Vortex...”

The other party spouted a long string of space coordinates. Gao Gong pondered a bit; these space coordinates likely covered the entire asteroid belt.

Indeed, the civilization of this star system had known that the mechanical army of an advanced civilization had retreated, and they were making advance claims.

”So, you are here to do mining?” Gao Gong had a flash of insight and asked.

More than 90% of the regions in the cosmos are worthless, but this asteroid belt, rich in various precious ores, was not among them.

The cloned spaceship pilot neither confirmed nor denied it.

”Don’t you have any other objectives, like eliminating some target?” Vervi couldn’t help but ask.

The clone turned to look at him, with a sharp expression passing through his eyes.

Vervi let out an awkward laugh and fell silent, but he secretly found it odd; this guy seemed to have two different attitudes toward himself and his boss.

Do they know each other?

That seems unlikely.

There is no special ’Charm Attribute’ in the game, as one’s poison is another’s honey, and the other party is not within the scope of the ’friend of ladies’ template.

And the only reason is that Gao Gong’s ’Bionic Blood Mark (9/9)’ status is at play.

Bionic Blood Mark (9/9): Possesses the control authority over the universal type bionics of Mechanical Split Star, can implant over 90% of humanoid bionic corporation plugins, has a high probability of gaining goodwill from all ’humanoid machines’, including but not limited to bionics, clones, humanoid AIs, and a small probability of gaining allegiance.

A full-level Bionic Blood Mark, this was the product of Gao’s ’murdered wife enlightenment’.

Undoubtedly, this effect similar to ’alliance leader’ was Ms. Rose’s final gift.

Although the cloned spaceship pilot’s emotion system threshold wasn’t high, since it was an intelligent species, it would naturally have instinctive likes and dislikes.

”We certainly don’t want to conflict with the Galen Federation,” Gao thought and said, ”but our ship is trapped in the asteroid belt. Due to a massive cluster of meteorites blocking the way, we can’t make a space jump to the nearest route.”

The cloned spaceship pilot pondered for a moment and then said, ”I will send a Dominator Level Starship to open up a path for you.”

”That would be much appreciated!”

Soon, the projection disappeared, and a massive ’silver-white mushroom’ from the other’s fleet was heading toward the two of them, while the other Dominator Level Starships were flying in different directions.

Vervi immediately let out a sigh of relief.

”Looks like they aren’t here to eliminate star pirates.”

Gao Gong’s gaze was profound, remaining silent.

As it turns out, specialization has its advantages. With this Dominator Level Starship, players cleared the Asteroid Belt nearly ten times faster.

This starship, resembling a Star Castle, possesses the technology to manipulate energy fields. Blue and white light emanates from its surface, with sparks faintly flashing within the radiance, like a super spotlight. All meteorites within the range of the energy field disappear.

It feels a bit like an engineer operating at full capacity in ’Fusion Mode.’

However, if it were an engineer, they’d be exhausted.

The players emerged one after another from the cabins, rushing to the space windows, pointing at the new NPC factions with great curiosity.

Du Zhaodi was also very interested, staring at the parameters from the sensor of the Great Curved Saber and, after a moment of contemplation, said:

”The energy level of this ship seems to be a notch higher than the Cybertron starship.”

”Yes.”

”It resembles the Interstellar Fortress in the Mother City database.”

”All large starships’ development directions lead to the Star Castle,” Gao said softly, ”The Galen Federation is probably ahead of Cybertron in this area.”

Comprehensive large starships and mechanical ships carrying mechanical life are two completely different directions.

”Interesting.”

Parameters filled Du Zhaodi’s eyes, as if she wanted to record all the data of this ship.

Another 10 days passed

With the final meteorite belt being pierced, led by five Cybertron Starships, dozens of ragged Star Thief ships followed behind. This peculiar fleet pierced through the membrane wrapping the Atlantean Planet System like a steel needle.

Gao once again saw the projection of this cloned spaceship pilot.

”It seems we should bid farewell,” Gao smiled.

The cloned spaceship pilot opened his mouth at the odd fleet, then closed it.

”How are your gains?” Gao inquired openly.

The cloned spaceship pilot thought for a while and said, ”The legislators of the Vita Council will be satisfied.”

”That’s good, our spaceship is about to undergo a space jump. By the way, I still don’t know your name.”

The spaceship pilot pondered and said, ”My name is Sergei.”

...

After bidding farewell to this unique spaceship pilot, the fleet quickly entered jump mode.

Generally, when traveling in the cosmic vacuum outside of interstellar routes, lightspeed spaceships can only initially enter sub-light-speed state and only gradually enter light-speed mode once the gravity field stabilizes.

However, as marked on the star map, the ship is likely to enter the interstellar route three days later without waiting to enter lightspeed mode.

The interstellar route is not much different from the general cosmic vacuum. Without the star map markings, most people would not even realize they have entered an interstellar route.

As a Shipgirl, Du Zhaodi could clearly feel that the ship’s thrusters and main engine had ’relaxed’ quite a bit.

Gao sensed that the space parameters had noticeably stabilized and showed a fixed downward trend.

If the cosmic vacuum is considered a three-dimensional white sheet.

The spaceship is an ant.

And the ant has three ways to get from point A to point B.

One is normal crawling between the two points, from point A to point B, known as lightspeed navigation.

Lightspeed is also the threshold for cosmic travel.

Its advanced version is superluminal travel. The specific operation involves finding a shortcut through the ’three-dimensional white sheet,’ reducing the space’s original distance by a hundredfold, a thousandfold, or even ten thousandfold.

Besides these two methods, there is an ultimate version.

That is folding the ’three-dimensional paper surface,’ overlapping the two points, directly jumping from one point to another.

Wormholes are a natural example in the cosmos.

The ’Star Gate’ technology, developed based on wormholes, allows interstellar jumps, even at star system cluster levels, built upon the third theory.

But in reality, Level 2 Civilization technologies can only achieve lightspeed travel at most.

Even among Level 3 Civilizations, only a small number can fully master ’superluminal technology.’

A minority among the minority can open ’Star Gates.’

So, how can normal colonies and migrations happen over tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of light-years with just lightspeed spaceships?

The standard answer is ’Interstellar Space Station.’

The ’Interstellar Space Stations’ along the route can allow lightspeed spaceships to enter ’superluminal mode’ within a fixed distance through space folding.

Thus greatly reducing the travel time used.

And on the third day after entering the route, Gao and the others saw the ’Interstellar Space Station.’