Friends from Afar
0.1 Astronomical Unit is 14,960,000 kilometers, and it would take light 49.9 seconds to travel that distance.
So after the Mount Wudang-Class Warship and Mount Emei-Class Warship, along with 24 Callisto-Class Warship and 100 Escort Ship, accelerated out of the Asteroid Belt, they were detected by the enemy's probes 49.9 seconds later.
At such close range, it is well within the kill range of human Laser Weapon.
Therefore, in accordance with the previously determined strategy, as soon as the Mount Wudang-Class Warship and Mount Emei-Class Warship appeared, they locked their Fire Control Radar onto the eight detectors.
As can be seen, after the two human fleets of warships were detected, the flight trajectories of the eight probes changed significantly.
First, they reduced their speed, then immediately relayed the information about encountering a human warship formation to the fleet behind them, and then took no further action.
It seems that the AI of these eight detectors also knew that they were locked onto by the Fire Control Radar, and that the Unknown Civilization's pre-programmed procedures for this special situation must have been triggered.
Seeing this situation, the captain of the Mount Wudang-Class Warship breathed a sigh of relief. It was certainly good that they could destroy the eight detectors without firing, because the Mount Wudang-Class Warship and Mount Emei-Class Warship formation was meant to be displayed as an open fleet, a feint to the enemy, and of course, the clearer the enemy could see it, the better.
Immediately afterwards, an Electromagnetic Wave signal was emitted from the Mount Wudang-Class Warship toward the Unknown Civilization's fleet.
"Greetings, friends from afar! The Aldebaran Star System is within the sphere of influence of our Human Civilization. Please immediately cease your probe exploration activities, or we will destroy your probes in accordance with the provisions of the Milky Way Galaxy Civilization First Convention."
The content of Electromagnetic Wave signals is very short, but it is appended with a dictionary of Human Civilization, so it becomes somewhat bloated.
Since the goal is to establish contact, the best way is to attach a dictionary when sending a message.
In this situation, it is certainly better to send a message proactively, because doing so would leave the task of deciphering to Unknown Civilization. Then, humans can judge the level of the other party's supercomputer by the time it takes for them to decipher human dictionaries and identify human information.
As for the "human sphere of influence" and the "Milky Way Galaxy Civilization First Convention" mentioned in the information, they are purely fabricated claims by humans.
This electromagnetic signal is essentially a broadcast; it will be received by the detector after 49 seconds and then transmitted to the Unknown Civilization after another 4.1 hours.
Oh, because the Unknown Civilization's fleet was still slowing down and approaching the Giant Gas Planet while the Electromagnetic Wave were being transmitted, the actual time was even shorter than that.
Sending a message takes four hours for the recipient to receive it, and even after receiving it, it takes an unknown amount of time to decipher it before it can be transmitted back, which takes more than three hours. At this point, people suddenly realize that the speed of light is far too slow.
However, there are advantages to being slow. After sending out the Electromagnetic Wave signal, seeing that none of the eight detectors made any rash moves, the two formations did not sit idle either. They immediately pretended to send out detectors to all directions, as if to say, "I have just discovered you and am about to conduct further detection on you."
Judging from the reactions of the eight probes, humanity has gained an important piece of information: this Unknown Civilization is not the kind of warmongering civilization that starts fighting as soon as it is encountered.
This also shows that the universe is not completely dark.
In fact, after learning from 'Silver Mist' that there were still real faster-than-light civilizations in the universe, humanity already believed that the Dark Forest was not the mainstream view. However, considering that 'Silver Mist's' words might be false, humanity has long held doubts about this aspect.
Seeing the way this civilization's detectors are reacting now, it's basically confirmed that the Dark Forest Theory is not the mainstream theory in the universe. After all, the Dark Forest Theory has many prerequisites, including the continuous expansion of civilizations and the constant total mass-energy of the universe, technological explosion, a chain of suspicion, destruction being easier than communication, and the inability to exceed the speed of light.
Moreover, there was the Silver Heart Alliance's previous unbridled broadcasting behavior.
Perhaps Aerospace Civilization exists.
The four hours were spent slowly deploying the detectors by the fleet led by the Mount Wudang-Class Warship.
"Hehe, they should have received the message by now. I wonder how they will react if they suddenly receive a signal and spot us while slowing down." The captain of the Mount Wudang-Class Warship glanced at the time and chuckled.
Meanwhile, on the bridge of the unknown fleet flagship, which was still slowing down, emergency reports rang out one after another.
"Urgent intelligence: A probe has detected an unidentified fleet on the outer edge of the Asteroid Belt."
"Urgent intelligence: The detectors have transmitted information on the number of unidentified fleets: a total of two Quake-Class Warships, twenty secondary battleships, and one hundred small warships of unknown purpose."
"Urgent intelligence: The detector has been locked onto by the fire control system of an unidentified fleet, triggering emergency response procedures. Please issue specific instructions, Captain."
"Urgent intelligence: The system has received a set of unidentified Electromagnetic Wave signals. The self-identification program has confirmed that these are clearly regular signals."
"***...&&&...##￥" A creature immersed in some kind of transparent liquid and firmly fixed to some kind of device by a safety buffer device uttered a curse, but no sound came out.
"Damn it, why did it have to be at this time!" Then, the creature let out another exclamation, but it seemed to still be in some kind of transparent liquid, so all that could be seen was that the part of the creature that seemed to be the vocal organ moved slightly.
On this warship, all living beings are in the same state. Clearly, this transparent liquid is a kind of Acceleration Buffer Fluid; the fleet is in a deceleration state, and the Acceleration Buffer Fluid has been activated as an auxiliary buffer.
Clearly, they hadn't considered this situation during deceleration, which led to the above scene. However, as a civilization with Acceleration Buffer Fluid, it's impossible that they couldn't transmit information within the buffer.
This situation had only been going on for a few seconds when something, of unknown origin, emerged from somewhere and attached itself to the creature's vocal organs.
"Lord Pierce, what should we do? Should we stop slowing down?" A strange scream rang out in the warship's internal communications.
"What's the panic? Keep slowing down."
The creature known as Lord Pierce continued his analysis, "We have already slowed down by twenty-eight units, and we only need forty-nine more to complete the deceleration. We are running out of energy, and even if we turn around and accelerate again, we won't reach the next Star System. We cannot give up halfway!"
"But."
"No buts. Didn't you notice? That unknown fleet didn't destroy our probes immediately. Instead, they sent us a message. This shows they're not the crazy Quell Civilization. Anyway, for now, stabilize and slow down. Also, immediately notify all scientific teams to prepare. Once the slowdown is complete, we'll do everything we can to decipher that Electromagnetic Wave message."