In terms of ultimate goal, the new army and the old army are actually the same: they both try to build bridges.
And if we simply look at the ultimate goal of "weakening the Void Cataclysm", there seems to be no difference between the new army and the old army no matter who succeeds: as long as the bridge is successfully built, the imbalance between the two sides of the Void will drop below the critical value, and the Void The cataclysm will happen in a relatively mild way (although it will still be accompanied by a large number of doomsdays, at least it will not cause mass extinction, and many worlds can be preserved), which is why the new empire decided to abandon the past with Abyss Xiling Common reasons for bridging.
There is only one difference between the new army and the old army, and it is this difference that makes it impossible for us to compromise with them: the radicalization of the new army. They raised the "imperial interests" to a paranoid and distorted level, so much so that they tried to ensure the empire's position at the top of the pyramid by eliminating all life except themselves, and even the Protoss were within their attack targets.
The new army will not share the void bridge with anyone. They do not allow civilizations other than themselves to successfully build bridges. These lunatics will do whatever it takes to make themselves the first batch of super civilizations to successfully build bridges, and then they will use the void The special nature of the long bridge is used to attack and defend, permanently cutting off the possibility of other civilizations building bridges—even including the super civilization on the other side.
And Abyss Xiling is obviously much gentler: she is willing to share the knowledge of bridge building with other civilizations. In order to ensure that the long bridge can be built faster, she is even willing to contribute all her achievements and equipment and facilities. Perhaps she has been from the very beginning. Foreseeing the consequences of the Void Long Bridge being completely controlled by a civilization, she promoted the alliance of the Abyss, Empire, Star Field, and Huron early on, so that even if we only built a long bridge, this bridge also belongs to the four parties. One force, unless the four major forces are stupid enough to engage in internal strife at such a juncture.
Abyss Xiling is willing to tell the special properties of the Void Long Bridge, which at least proves that she has no intention of monopolizing the long bridge—of course she can’t monopolize it either. Races) are all there, and this starting end is not activated instantly. It needs a period of operation to connect the two sides, and then it will take a period of time to slowly distort the void structure (this is the conclusion analyzed by Tavel and other experts, which can be guaranteed to be true and reliable). It is impossible for Abyss Xiling to monopolize the long bridge under our noses through small tricks.
But now there is still a question: the bridge construction needs to be jointly initiated by both sides of the strait, and any one of them can not respond in time will lead to the collapse of the long bridge. It is impossible for the new army not to know this.
Is there any way they can get around this "sync start" limitation
"I have also thought about this issue. There are many possibilities. Maybe they will hijack the communication signal to deceive the Starlink Federation on the other side. Trick the other side to cooperate with them, and then rush over to invade. Time to occupy the activation terminal on the other side, but this possibility is very low, we have been in touch with the ancestors on the other side, and the encryption methods used by both sides are difficult to crack, so the new army should not be able to contact the Star Ring Federation," said Abyss Xi Ling heard my question and began to think. She also thought very carefully on this issue. "The second possibility is that they can really bypass the "simultaneous start" restriction. Maybe they have made a huge breakthrough in bridging technology... But this possibility is even lower. The technical foundation of the new army and the old army is the same. , just a few months. It is impossible for them to break through to this level. Then there is only a third possibility... They may have created a perfect deep-diving ship."
"The perfect deep diving boat?" I raised my eyebrows, and I probably understood what it meant.
"It can dive to the other side without damage or with low damage. It has a huge and stable space container for transporting the launcher. It has a powerful energy device. After reaching the opposite bank, it can supply energy to the launcher, so that they don't need With the cooperation of the super civilization on the other side, they only need to launch a start-up terminal to the other side in advance. Even the process of debugging and synchronization can be omitted. This process is like the early space portal, sending another 'gate' to the target location in advance , and then open the doors on both sides to start teleporting. It is obviously easier to create a perfect deep-diving ship than bypassing the restrictions set by the void."
"The deep submersible boat built by our four families can only float to the other side by luck, and the success rate of floating there is only 1%. Even if it floats, there is only one core cabin left," I rubbed my chin, "The new army Can you have such high technology?"
"Maybe only a breakthrough is needed, maybe they found some clues in some ancient databases, such as Occam's research materials back then," Abyss Xiling knocked on his head, although it was only a mass projection, but She will also use this method to refer to her own memory bank, "When the new army and I split, each inherited the original set of databases, but this copy process will inevitably have omissions, especially when the split is about to be completed. and 'her' have an instant sense of selfishness and regard the other party as an enemy. In this case, we will subconsciously interfere with the database copy to prevent the other party from inheriting complete knowledge. Some information should be torn at this stage, me and 'She' can only inherit half. Now I can still find a lot of fragmentary data in my database, I believe the other half of the data is in the hands of the other party, but I will never know what I forgot, this is a dead cycle."
The self-split of Abyss Xiling has always been something that we can't understand, not why we can't understand, but how the process is. It is difficult for creatures in the real world to understand how a collective consciousness rooted in the network replicates itself and makes the two replicas each have subtle differences in personality. Of course, we can generally regard it as copying and cutting of data , but I believe that the specific process must be much more complicated than that, and may even involve things like chaotic thinking. Neither Tavel's theory nor Bubble's calculations can simulate this process, so we are not sure how much similarities and differences there are between the commander of the new army and Abyss Xiling, and we dare not reverse the original Abyss Xiling based on the current Abyss Xiling What is the character of the first generation of Abyss Xiling? There is almost no exact corresponding connection.
Now, according to the new information from Abyss Xiling, we have confirmed one more point: she and the commander-in-chief of the new army may not even have the same memory bank.
This can also explain why Abyss Xiling, who is supposed to know everything, can't tell what kind of deep diving equipment is in the hands of Qing Qingjun: even if it is her, the memory bank is not omnipotent, and the defect or turmoil of the entire network will also hurt this viewer. A super consciousness that seems to be immortal.
"It's still uncertain what hole cards the new army has. In short, everything is estimated according to the worst case," Sandora pondered for a moment and made a decision, "Let's assume that they really built a perfect deep-diving ship. The other activation terminal is placed in a certain universe on the other side... So now as long as they can successfully activate the activation terminal on this shore, we have nothing to do with them, is that so?"
"They won't be able to activate within seven days," Abyss Xiling said confidently. "On the one hand, my army has not been completely expelled from the core of tranquility. Diving Harbor too, these 'special arrangements' will make it difficult for intruders."
It seems that even with a more docile personality, Abyss Xiling's cunning and carefulness have not regressed in the slightest. Hearing her words, Sandora and I are much more at ease.
at this time. The host computer of the Admiral Empire suddenly sounded the broadcast: The fleet has arrived at the border, and the several-hour voyage ended so quickly. Everyone who was immersed in discussions and thinking seemed to have ignored the passage of time.
Oh, there is one person who didn't ignore: Qianqian, when I turned to look at her, there was already a thousand paper cranes more than one meter high in front of this girl, how boring was this girl just now? Speed up stacking this stuff while driving time, girl, do you eat too much
The Imperial fleet is docked in orbit on a sepia man-made planet that is the sovereign hub of this frontier world. Over the Sovereign Hub, we saw many familiar things: a thick fortress that looked like a stack of discs, as large as a space city, exuding full momentum.
This is exactly the kind of tortoise shell fortress that the imperial army encountered when it attacked the abyss area. Sandora felt that their design had many advantages worth learning, so after the war, the technicians of the Empire created this replica based on the cracked blueprint of the fortress. Although it was a replica, its performance did not decline at all. It's just slightly weaker than the original version in terms of absolute destructiveness, which is unavoidable: normal psionic energy itself is less destructive than abyssalized psionic energy, and its explosive power is also weaker, but it is stable and easy to control. This makes the shield of the replica fortress more powerful and stable, and it can be regarded as making up for the shortcomings of the lack of offensiveness.
And now this frontier universe is also one of the trophies of the first "all-out war", the heavily guarded world that the Imperial Army conquered first. Now it has been rebuilt, and after adding a large number of fortress facilities, it has become the border defense node of the empire.
A set of huge halo devices unfolded at a distance of one light minute next to the Sovereign Hub. The twisted and mysterious halo reflected the scenery of another universe. Opposite was a dark red starry sky: the abyss area, but the territory of the abyss spirit.
"I've helped you choose the best route. All the routes are controlled by the old army, and you won't encounter any interception." Abyss Xiling uploaded a jumping route map to the navigation system, with a strange expression on his face. "Does it feel strange to use the gate of the world in the abyss area to hurry?"
I looked at the gate of the world displayed on the holographic projection, and the corners of my mouth curled up slightly: "I really didn't think about it before, but we are all in an alliance anyway, let's cooperate well this time."
As soon as the voice fell, the shipboard main engine reported that another group of troops was entering the material plane, and I quickly turned my head to look at another group of holographic projections, which showed the space scene on the other side of the sovereign hub: rippling in the deep and dark cosmic space There were layers of ripples of light, as if the endless aurora had condensed into the sea and floated in space. Accompanying the ripples of light appeared an army that was completely different from the "starship + space station" style.
It was a large number of towers and palaces floating in the air, interspersed with many flat boulders that looked like floating islands, and between these things that did not look like space weapons, there were fast-moving Starfield Soldiers: Protoss The army is coming.
The number of this army is difficult to discern, because the Protoss is used to improvising all kinds of things on the battlefield to fight. They can create millions of elemental creatures and other things with a wave of their hands, and I have many combat units. I don’t know whether it is a building or a military unit. I can only see that their brilliant square array covers a large area. The monitor turned its sight 180 degrees and couldn’t find where its boundary is. Only from the size of the array From the looks of it, this is no less than the emperor.
And this should only be part of the Protoss army, and the other part is preparing to attack the far frontiers of the abyss area on other fronts.
Xingchen said that he would send all the active troops in the star field, and it seems that he is really sincere. This is obviously determined to penetrate the abyss area.
I turned my head to look at the group of five protoss not far behind me. Kenser and the other four had already stood up and prepared to report to the protoss battle formation, while Bingtis was reclining on the seat with his eyes closed. Completely entered the state of "imperial official - full-time dry rice", but these five are not the most amazing, the most amazing is...
I looked down at my chest pocket, and Ding Dong was poking his head out sleepily. The little thing looked around, but found that there was no sign of dinner in sight, so he yawned and went back.
I took out this little dot that almost turned into a rice bug. Remind her of the situation at hand.
"Oh, that's right," Ding Dong was dazed for a while before she realized it. She climbed onto my shoulder and waved to Kenser and the other four team members, "Assemble! Assemble!"
The four protoss stood in a neat row in front of me in a flash. Although they were tall, short, fat, and thin, they still showed the full aura of warriors at this moment—you can’t be deceived by their usual sloppy appearance, Ding Dong team Even if they lose the chain again, they are veterans who have truly experienced countless battlefields!
Ding Dong looked at his four subordinates with satisfaction. He looked up again at the Protoss battle formation on the holographic projection, and finally said a very informative sentence: "Hey... Father God said that there are a few of us... Let us just serve as guards by Ah Jun's side."
Everyone: "..."
Bingtis couldn't help but yelled strangely from the side: "I'll go... does the old man really say that?"
"Well," Dingdang nodded, "I just told Dingdang directly through telepathic communication."
I was just about to say how could this be such a joke. But soon calmed down: In fact, it's really nothing. Such a large-scale joint operation, the temporary assignment of a few soldiers can be said to have no effect on the overall situation. Although Ding Dang and they are "professional true gods stepping into society" with priesthood and world management authority, they are better than each other. Off the chain character. They are still equivalent to a group of super soldiers...anywhere will do.
I looked up at the Protoss army that was still emerging from the Aurora Ocean. The breath of Xingchen and Xila was constantly permeating from that glorious ocean, and I turned to look at the Ding Dong team beside me. The expressions on their faces were still as heartless as usual, and suddenly felt that it was not easy for Father God to develop the star field to today...
But my exclamation didn't last long, the system broadcast quickly interrupted the respective thoughts of everyone on the scene: the gate of the world is ready.
This world gate next to the Sovereign Hub is of a special nature. It is not directly connected to the interior of the Empire area, but directly leads to the Abyss area. It is the product of Sandora's "territorial reshaping" plan. This gate is now activated for the first time, but unexpectedly it was opened under the active navigation of the abyss area... It really is unpredictable.
The first part of the "journey" is safe. We will pass through the ruling area of Abyss Xiling and go to the war zone under the escort of those abyss legions. A dense blue glow emanated from the force field grid, and the moment the coordinate-like engine was activated, the large battleship shook slightly like a reflection in the water, and then the huge starship began to accelerate, and the group of small and medium-sized frigates followed like a dense school of fish Huge waves usually followed the mothership. The first fleet entered the gate of the world first and sent back all safety signals, and then other troops began to enter sequentially.
The Protoss troops also have to go to the battlefield through these world gates—although they also have their own equipment and unique methods to travel through the world, since there are ready-made facilities here, naturally there is no need to build another Protoss world-traveling gate.
The moment the Admiral of the Empire passed the gate of the world, the little crow excitedly twisted his body on his seat and let out a cheer of "ga—". Shocked, and then gradually returned to calm, an unstable world full of dark red spectrum appeared before our eyes.
There are not many types of worlds in the abyss area, basically in two extremes, either extremely barren, the whole universe is full of noise and primitive energy, but no material enrichment zone can be found, as if chaos is removed, or there is abundant material and The celestial system, but everything is too active, the celestial system is chaotic and the material order is on the verge of collapse, and there are very few normal worlds outside these two extreme environments. The universe in front of me obviously belongs to the second situation: there are twinkling stars and nebulae like the Great Wall of Space in sight, but most of the stars are in the shape of a diffuse halo, and the stars are too close together, as if the evolution failed, and there is no solid form, then Large areas of nebulae are bright red or orange-yellow, and some bright lines like spider webs can be seen in them. This is an out-of-control star-making movement: although several basic values of this universe can support the material system, they do not Not very solid.
The external monitor turned to the rear of the fleet, and what we saw was a world gate similar to the previous entrance, but the overall appearance was disturbing black and red. The world gate was surrounded by large expanses of space facilities and star ports, and the fallen apostles ... Or the fleet of the Abyssal Apostles is lined up neatly in space, like groups of dormant monsters.
Afterwards, they woke up from their slumber, and naturally came to the flanks of the imperial army, taking on the task of guarding them.
They used to be immortal enemies, but now they advance and retreat together... (To be continued..) RU