Age of Cosmic Exploration
chapter-356

Chapter 356: Prediction and Military Exercise

"…As the strategist group predicted, this will be most likely what the Hope will run into next."

In a war meeting room somewhere on the Hope's fifth floor, every soldier with the rank of major and above from the Defense Unit as well as the unit leaders and vice leaders from the Black Star Troopers were gathered. This was the fifth month after the Hope entered warp drive. In these five months, peace reigned, and with the absorption of the Noah One's military into the Hope, finally, this month was also the military restructuring Guang Zhen was waiting for.

Of course, at the same time as the military restructuring, a group of strategists were thinking about the Hope's future. This was delineated into many different categories. One was the prediction about the Hope's scientific progress. So far, it was already Year 16 according to the Hope Calendar, and the Hope had 246,000 population. The number had almost doubled compared to the population that they started with when they left Earth, which was 120,000.

In these 16 years, the Hope had evolved from a level 1 space civilization to a middle tier level 2 space civilization with access to some level 3 space civilization technology in one fell swoop. This was practically a miracle. If a normal space civilization had to go about this the normal way, it would take thousands of years, but the Hope managed it in such a short amount of time, and not only that, with a small amount of population as well.

Of course, optimistic development now did not mean it would be the same for the future. Therefore, the idea given by the strategist group was for the Hope to become a level 3 space civilization as soon as possible and have no contact with other space civilizations before that. After all, the Hope was the only force available to humanity, unlike other level 2 space civilizations that had access to millions of spaceships. It was a wide discrepancy. Even with so many Homo Evolutis, a war would probably only lead to an escape.

Therefore, until humanity became level 3 space civilization, they had to find a quiet space for humans to self-improve for about 30 to 50 years before they could interact with the other space civilizations without fear.

But… could things really go how they wanted?

After the investigation by many scientists and elaboration by the Thinkers, they had come up with a few most likely future scenarios for the Hope.

First, they would find themselves in space decay. Space decay spread in light speed and everything would be in collapse range. Everything, including the sun, the planets, supernova, and even black holes, would be consumed as the cosmos began its new birth. There was no way to run!

Of course, the ability to be able to travel over light speed in the cosmos was already a confirmed reality. Similarly, using super light speed to communicate and to carry out surveillance was definitely something possible. Furthermore, from the information given by Blue 6, even though level 4 space civilizations and above were extremely rare in space, it did not mean that they did not exist. They would normally have a large amount of low level space race vassals who could provide them with constant supplies or resources and 'soul' as well as act as cannon fodder when they were in a war with other middle tier space civilization.

Therefore, those middle tier space civilizations would be able to detect the presence of space decay when they were travelling in super light speed and they would not hesitate to share the news with their vassal civilizations. In that case, one could imagine… there would be many space civilizations heading towards the fringe edge of the solar system!

The Hope was also heading towards the same destination. This meant that the Hope would be dropped in a pool of alien civilizations when it exited warp drive…

There was also this piece of information taken from Blue 6. There was a great distance to cross between solar systems. The distance was so big that even with wormhole technology or star gate technology, the distance might not be crossable with one warp. This was no longer a distance calculated in several thousand light years but several billion light years!

Therefore, to traverse from one solar system to another, other than high tier space civilizations, everyone had to follow the natural star path.

What star path, Blue 6 had no clue, but it was something that every level 3 space civilization knew a bit about. It was not some valuable information, just the general direction of the path. Some civilizations guessed these were the paths used by the legendary god tier space civilizations while others thought this was a miraculous path formed by the cosmos naturally. Regardless of the type, it was the only way middle to low tier space civilizations could use to travel from one solar system to the next.

Ren Tao, Yao Yuan, and Xiao Niao had a private discussion with the group of scientists. The combined brainpower of two and a half thinkers and the large group of scientists came to the conclusion that the Hope's space warp was temporarily disabled. Perhaps the high tier space civilizations were attempting to prevent the demonized race within this solar system from escaping, so they sealed off the ability to space warp and initiated a space decay for the purpose of 'extermination'. How to initiate space decay and whether it could be stopped were still unknown. The Hope had no inkling to the kind of technological level a high tier space civilization had achieved, so everything was only guesswork.

However, if high tier space civilizations could initiate space decay, then it was logical that they had a method to stop it, or else the space decay's chain reaction would eventually cause the whole cosmos to collapse. No matter how big the cosmos was, the effective range of the space decay was endless. Eventually, the high tier space civilizations themselves would be sucked into it. Therefore, they had to have to way to stop space decay.

Then, when would they stop it?

Everyone came to the same answer… until the whole solar system disappeared!

In that case, then the limitation on the Hope's space warp engine would probably be as large as the solar system itself. In other words, as long as they left the solar system, there was a high possibility that the space warp engine could be used again.

Therefore, the Hope had to get to the star path and use it to leave this solar system!

It was due to this decision that the war meeting was held. It was to discuss the possible danger encountered from when the Hope exited warp drive to when they reached the star path.

After Guang Zhen's vice commander, Liu Bai, made his report, Guang Zhen took the stage to speak. "My fellow comrades, I believe everyone here knows about the severity of the situation. Those who are still confused about the conditions we're facing can look it up on the military website using your personal ID. Of course, due to confidentiality clause, only those with the rank of major or trooper unit leader or vice leader can access the information… In any case, our situation is not optimistic. According to the prediction by the Academy, it will be 30 years of travelling to get to the star path Blue 6 mentioned from the space we are predicted to exit. Along the way, we will pass by 14 shelters and probably rub shoulders with thousands of level 2 space civilizations and one to five level 3 space civilizations.

"I am sure everyone knows about the Hope's current condition. Our energy and material supply are approaching the danger line. Therefore, we cannot use the space warp engine. Even if we could, we would not dare to. In any case, we will have to stop at one of the shelters to refill our supplies, and that will be a big challenge for the Hope."

Guang Zhen then shared a look with Yao Yuan, who was sitting at the front row. The latter nodded imperceptibly and Guang Zhen continued, "Here, we will use the downtime of this escape warp to have a military exercise. The Defense Unit will be responsible to defend the interior of the Hope by setting multi-layer barricades and by using internal siege engines. The Black Star Troopers, on the other hand, will handle external defense using the Space Combat Jet Prototype 011s and the second generation space armors with landing-use exoskeletons that will be released later this year. At the same time, due to the lack of human resources, after a long discussion among the Barracks' higher officials…

"We will be employing our first fully AI-automated military unit. Of course, for precaution, this unit's number will be small and they will only be used as a last resort."

When Guang Zhen reached this point, a 3D image appeared before everyone's eyes. Guang Zhen continued, "This is the map pointing out the area each unit will be responsible for and the unit's individual mission. Of course, the mission might change according to the situation of the war; however, before that, these will be each unit's area to defend. At the end of this month, all Defense Unit soldiers and Black Star Troopers will combine to commit to a military exercise. At the same time, we will inform the battleships of our vassal race to cooperate with the exercise to examine the Hope's current fighting power.

"I know I am sounding like a broken record, but still I have to repeat… The Hope's government is a young, vibrant government system. We do not value nepotism or cronyism but meritocracy. If you have the goods, then the rewards will be yours. This will be the spirit of this upcoming military exercise as well. No matter whether you are originally from the Hope or you are survivors from the Noah One, we will not focus on your original ranking or age or experience but your ability. Therefore, the Barracks decided to open up more major slots to reward the soldiers who manage to perform brilliantly in this upcoming military exercise…

"I anticipate great results from all of you. Dismissed!"