Days later, on the Starship.
Ou Zhanpeng contacted headquarters to receive the data packet. As soon as he opened the file, he saw the first document highlighted in red and at the top.
A bad premonition suddenly struck him. He clicked on the file and scanned it, then immediately looked up and activated the communication system: "Elder Gong, could you please come to the bridge immediately... Yes, right now... It's very important, the sooner the better!"
A moment later, a flash of light emanated from the portal, and Gong Yiding strode out: "What is it that cannot be discussed over the comms? I'm busy here!"
Ou Zhanpeng clicked lightly, projecting the file in front of Gong Yiding: "Just received the news, the frontline fleet has found three habitable stars, one of which has a primitive civilization, but they are all within the destructive range of a supernova!"
"What?" Gong Yiding's face changed drastically. He instantly read the entire content of the file and then fell silent. After a while, he said, "This is going to be trouble!"
Civilization A completely disregarded the safety of other civilizations, and naturally, it wouldn't care about the survival of humanity. If Civilization A continued to detonate stars, the solar system might be affected.
Ou Zhanpeng's expression was conflicted: "Let's hope Aldebaran is the last one."
He said this because Aldebaran was far beyond the frontline of the star beasts, belonging to the category of finishing off the beast horde if it wasn't completely dead.
And Earth was still over 60 light-years away from Aldebaran, so even if Civilization A ignored other weaker civilizations, the possibility of creating a supernova near the solar system was not particularly high.
"We can't be careless!" Gong Yiding sighed. "Didn't the fleet retreat?"
"Yes, they retreated," Ou Zhanpeng nodded. "Only twelve ships remained to investigate the supernovas, and the group searching for the civilization's planet, there should be over twenty ships."
The continuous supernova explosions covered the star beast frontline facing the solar system. The complete collapse of the beast horde was only a matter of time.
Therefore, after headquarters issued the evacuation order, the vast majority of human warships retreated to the solar system. Including the Starship, there were only over thirty warships remaining at the front.
Although the number was small, it was sufficient to complete the current mission.
Gong Yiding suddenly asked, "How many more days until the sweep is complete?"
"Three days!" Ou Zhanpeng replied.
According to the plan, once the sweep was done here, the Starship would immediately rush to Aldebaran.
The remaining supernovas were also marked with sequences by headquarters. All those that could be scanned and modeled were to be accounted for.
Gong Yiding nodded: "I'll head back. Inform me immediately if there's any new information!"
"Don't worry."
At the same time, at Gliese 667.
A wormhole opened in the void, and the Chuzhou entered through it.
The warship immediately scanned the star system. The captain couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the three stars displayed on the holographic projection: "It's so much like Proxima Centauri!"
Gliese 667 was 22 light-years away from Earth, a triple star system composed of two orange dwarfs and one red dwarf. Not only were the celestial bodies similar to Alpha Centauri, but even the orbital structure was a red dwarf orbiting a binary system.
"Captain, the system scan is complete. Shall we begin the inspection?"
"Begin!" the captain said.
After receiving the order from headquarters, the Chuzhou returned to Earth immediately. The first mission it received was to investigate a star tens of light-years away. Gliese 667 was its second target!
The inspection began from the outermost part of the star system. The warship flew directly to Gliese 667C, conducting a comprehensive and meticulous scan of its two planets.
They were both tidally locked, with one side always facing the star.
But no objective factor was an excuse to relax. The Chuzhou was meticulous until it confirmed that these two planets had no issues before flying into the inner system.
The副舰长 whispered, "Captain, didn't they say red dwarfs are not dangerous?"
The captain's face stiffened: "That's what they said, but who knows if it's true or not? Since we're here, check thoroughly, don't be sloppy."
As he spoke, the warship jumped to the vicinity of 667A. There was a giant planet orbiting the two stars, and a satellite near the giant planet. Once these two celestial bodies were scanned, the Chuzhou would have completed the inspection of the 667 system.
However, as soon as the warship jumped out of the wormhole, before it could scan the giant planet, it discovered that something was wrong. The observation department had detected a flash on that small satellite that shouldn't have been there!
The Chuzhou immediately abandoned the giant planet and prioritized scanning the satellite. The result was that a very obvious crater was found on the satellite's surface. Lava was surging within the crater, and the flash they had previously detected was actually a flowing lava river!
Everyone was shocked by this discovery.
Referencing Io, influenced by the giant planet's gravity, this satellite might indeed have active volcanoes. The problem was that the scale of this volcano was too immense!
It was like a huge lava lake dug into the satellite's surface.
Note that it was a lake, not a mountain, let alone a volcano!
"Did an asteroid hit it?" the副舰长 asked.
"It's possible, but we can't rule out other possibilities!" the captain said.
The truth was so chilling that the military had to keep the truth about the supernova explosions highly classified. Out of the hundreds of people on the Chuzhou, only the captain knew the real situation.
The others only knew that the mission was to explore the target star system, but no one had any idea what exactly they were exploring.
Many even thought it was the prelude to large-scale immigration, so they had to thoroughly investigate all the star systems near the solar system and find all the planets suitable for transformation.
In fact, this mission had been ongoing for a long time. Not only were all promising planets seeded with various floating organisms by human warships,
but the results were not visible in the short term. However, in a few hundred million years, some of these planets would definitely become habitable planets suitable for survival!
The predecessors planted trees for the descendants to enjoy. If the conditions were suitable, subsequent artificial intervention would definitely follow, greatly shortening the time required to transform planets.
Getting sidetracked.
Based on the principle of not letting go of any anomaly, the Chuzhou conducted a more in-depth observation of the satellite.
However, the lava blocked all visibility, and the warship could not observe anything useful.
The captain felt that the lava crater had not existed for long. Helplessly, he resorted to the distance observation method, jumping out a light-day to observe the satellite's condition, and then adjusting the distance based on the observation results.
The result showed that within a observable range of 0.18 light-years, this lava crater had always existed!
It wasn't that they didn't want to extend the distance further, but beyond that, the satellite would be obscured by the star's light, and nothing could be seen.
Given the harsh environment of the satellite, the appearance of a lava lake was already strange, and its continuous existence for over two months without solidifying was also a very unusual phenomenon.
The captain felt it was necessary to continue observing. After reporting the situation to headquarters, the Chuzhou flew near the satellite, aimed at the lava crater, and fired, decomposing and vaporizing a large amount of magma.
The bombing continued for nine days, until a hole was blasted through the satellite. Once they confirmed there was nothing inside, the Chuzhou stopped firing, and the personnel on board breathed a sigh of relief.
Not finding anything was the best discovery.
But it wasn't over yet; the giant planet still hadn't been scanned!
They thought the next step would just be a formality, but the scanning results surprised everyone: on the radar screen, there was a huge polygonal structure. This geometric shape obviously indicated it was not naturally formed!
But who had the capability to build such a thing inside a giant planet?
Others were just curious, even thinking it was a coincidence, perhaps a misjudgment caused by different atmospheric densities.
Only the captain's heart was shaken. After barely controlling his emotions, he immediately reported the results to headquarters – the structure on the giant planet was exactly the same as the ruins discovered by the Starship!
The news reached Earth, and the command center erupted in an uproar.
Everyone instinctively thought that the ruins must have been built on a terrestrial planet. It was only upon receiving the news from the Chuzhou that they realized it was not the case at all.
Not long after, the Starship received a notification from Earth. Ou Zhanpeng and the others were stunned. They huddled together and muttered for a while, all thinking that 130b was not the core of a giant planet, but a terrestrial planet.
Gong Yiding rolled his eyes: "At this point, does it even matter whether it's a terrestrial planet or not? Little Ou, what's the plan from above?"
The Chuzhou had discovered equipment left by Civilization A in Gliese 667 but had not found any trace of Civilization A, nor had the equipment been activated. There should still be room for maneuver.
"The command ordered us to return immediately and find a way to destroy the supernova equipment," Ou Zhanpeng said. "The Chuzhou has already tried, but due to the obstruction of the clouds, existing weapons and equipment cannot destroy the ruins."
"What about nuclear bombs?"
"It's not mentioned in the file, so probably not," Ou Zhanpeng replied.
Gong Yiding immediately looked puzzled: "That doesn't make sense. If the Chuzhou can't do it, the Starship can?"
"Isn't there the Starship base?" Ou Zhanpeng sighed. "The Chuzhou is preparing an asteroid, planning to try and bombard it. If that doesn't work, we'll have to use the base... Oh, right, it also said that the two orange dwarf stars of 667 have smaller masses, and at a distance of over twenty light-years, it's already the limit of the power of a solar flare. Even if detonated, the impact on Earth wouldn't be as significant as imagined."
"Whether the impact is significant or not isn't something decided by words. What if we can't destroy it?" Gong Yiding's face was grim.
He didn't think he was being overly worried. After all, the ruins at 130 and Aldebaran had both experienced supernova explosions. No matter how powerful nuclear bombs were, could they compare to supernovas?
Ou Zhanpeng pursed his lips: "If all else fails, we'll have to dispatch personnel for long-term stationing and try to communicate directly with Civilization A."
Gong Yiding said helplessly: "That's the only way!"
Ou Zhanpeng was also helpless, but he still had an idea: 667 was too far from the beast horde. Since the power after detonation could not threaten the star beasts, the possibility of Civilization A detonating 667 was very low.
In other words, as long as they could block the expansion of the star beasts, Civilization A would have no reason to continue detonating stars, and Earth would naturally be safe.
This could be considered a roundabout way of saving the situation, right?
The Starship was ordered to return to Earth and immediately rendezvous with the base.
They expected to rush to 667 immediately after replenishing supplies, but waiting and waiting yielded no news, making Ou Zhanpeng feel anxious and uncomfortable.
He decided not to wait any longer and directly contacted headquarters to inquire about the situation.
It happened to be Dan Qiuyu on duty. As an old acquaintance, Dan Qiuyu simply replied, "Be patient," and said nothing more.
Ou Zhanpeng was not a particularly sensitive person, but Dan Qiuyu's response made his heart surge. He suddenly realized something was wrong: had something happened again?
It wasn't until the next day that headquarters contacted the Starship base.
Dan Qiuyu still appeared on the screen, but his complexion was significantly worse than yesterday.
Ou Zhanpeng became even more certain of his guess: "Old commander, what happened?"
Dan Qiuyu sighed before speaking: "The frontline fleet has discovered several more pillars. If all of them are detonated, the kill radius will cover at least seven civilizations, including the three administrative stars of the Roel people!"
"No way?" Ou Zhanpeng's mind was in chaos. "When were these things installed?"
Dan Qiuyu shook his head with a bitter smile. Ou Zhanpeng immediately realized he shouldn't have asked so many questions: "Do the Roel people have any clues?"
"No."
"Not the three major civilizations?" Ou Zhanpeng was still unwilling to give up.
Dan Qiuyu decided to explain it all at once: "The Roel people have had contact with the three major civilizations. Although they are more advanced, they are not at this level."
Ou Zhanpeng gasped: "With such a vast plan, who exactly is behind it?"
It wasn't just him who couldn't figure it out; the entire New Bend star domain was struggling with this issue at this moment. Even the human alliance's counterattack had to be temporarily suspended due to this sudden unexpected event.
The command center issued a strict order to all human warships: upon encountering warships or other aircraft of unknown civilizations, they must maintain restraint.
This order was essentially not problematic. After all, humanity had already made contact with civilizations near the solar system. With a little comparison, they would know the identity of the other party, and the possibility of error was extremely small.
"We don't know who the other party is, only that they are more powerful than any known civilization, so I have a task for you."
"Please speak!"
"Go to 667 immediately and use the base to guard that supernova cannon. If Civilization A appears, there might be a chance to initiate a dialogue," Dan Qiuyu said with a grave expression, showing little confidence.
However, the Starship base was the most advanced combat unit of humanity. If anyone had the qualification to communicate with Civilization A, the Foreseer was undoubtedly the most likely candidate within known parameters.
"I understand," Ou Zhanpeng said. "We'll set off immediately!"
At this moment, there was no longer any need to ponder whether Earth was safe. Without resolving the issue of Civilization A arbitrarily detonating stars, humanity had no safety whatsoever.
However, Ou Zhanpeng was also extremely uneasy. Although the Starship base was powerful, it depended on the opponent. When facing an opponent like Civilization A, he truly lacked the courage to confront them head-on.
It wasn't a lack of courage, but a momentary exhilaration in a head-on confrontation. But what about after?
If they lost, humanity would be completely doomed. If they won, the other party would become enraged and could completely crush humanity with little effort, ultimately leading to the same doom.
In either case, the outcome was the same. Who wouldn't consider it?
With trepidation, the Starship base embarked on its journey again, appearing on the outer edge of the 667 star system.
The Chuzhou was still guarding the vicinity of the planet. After a brief exchange between the two sides, the Starship base took over the giant planet, and the Chuzhou departed in a hurry.
667 was not the Chuzhou's last stop; it had to continue to other star systems to continue its exploration journey.