Feints and Reality

"Those despicable humans are just toying with us!" Mo Tuotuo roared angrily, his furious expression and hunched posture making him look somewhat comical. "Lord Pierce, we should crush those damned vermin with our great fleet and turn them into cosmic dust!"

"Please remain calm and Mo Tuotuo."

Pierce, however, remained quite calm. She said something to Mo Tuotuo, then looked at the map in front of her, seemingly deep in thought. "How can I stay calm at a time like this? These humans aren't as evil as the Quell Civilization, but they're even more despicable. They're a cancer on the galaxy. We should wipe them out and then take over the Asteroid Belt, including those two Rocky Satellite!" Mo Tuotuo waved her hands excitedly, then also looked at the galactic map.

"Ah! Two Rocky Planet plus such a large Asteroid Belt, so many minerals and so many resources, they can't possibly use them all. Why can't they give us some? We didn't even ask to own a planet, and they still won't give us one! We have no other choice now. Since they won't give us anything, we can only destroy them and then take it ourselves. Once we destroy them, this entire star system will be ours."

"Lord Pierce, are you worried about their Main Civilization in the nearby star system? Don't worry, as long as we destroy them as quickly as possible, then resupply and leave, their ships are also Tier 1 Civilization like ours, and they can't catch up with us."

"Oh, these despicable humans must be Delaying Time. They must have sent a message to their Main Civilization the moment they discovered us. We can't hesitate any longer, Lord Pierce!"

Pierce remained silent for a long time; he had already anticipated what Mo Tuotuo.

"Yes, Mo Tuotuo. You're right. Perhaps they discovered us a long time ago and have already sent a message to their Main Civilization. Human Civilization is Delaying Time, which means they must have discovered us a long time ago. Our time is indeed running out!"

In fact, placing Tier 1 Civilization in an interstellar space to Delaying Time of the fleet of Main Civilization in another star system is not very meaningful, because the distance is simply too great.

The distance between stars is at least eight light-years. At this distance scale, it would take seven or eight years, or even more than ten years, to send a message. After the fleet receives the message, it would take more than one hundred or even two hundred years from departure to arrival.

The reinforcements from Star System haven't even arrived yet, and they've already finished and left.

Based on this fundamental understanding, Pierce believed that Human Civilization must have discovered the Kun-Tai Civilization long ago, otherwise, whether it took a month, two months, or even a year and a half, it would have been meaningless.

So after basically confirming that humans were Delaying Time, she came to two conclusions.

First, the main fleet of Human Civilization was already on its way long before humanity discovered the Kun-Tai Civilization. Second, humanity may have had probes in this star system and discovered the Kun-Tai Civilization a hundred years ago.

Pierce thought that if it was the first possibility, it might be okay, but if it was the second possibility, it was very likely that there was something in this galaxy that Human Civilization cared about very much.

But no matter which possibility it is, it is not good news for the Kun-Tai Civilization, because the Kun-Tai Civilization really cannot afford to delay any longer.

Her gaze remained fixed on the content displayed on the screen, which was captured by the eight probes that had been intercepted by humans.

From the above, she could easily determine that this Human Civilization fleet also belonged to the Tier 1 Civilization level.

A moment later, Pierce zoomed out the star map to show the entire Aldebaran Binary Star System, then pointed to the Red Dwarf Star Aldebaran and asked, "How much fuel is left on the Residential Spaceship? Is it enough to maneuver here for shelter?"

The Kun-Tai Civilization probe has already explored Aldebaran B and found no Human Civilization fleet there.

She knew that the Kun-Tai Civilization had no other choice, so she wanted to keep the Residential Spaceship far away before the battle started. As long as the Residential Spaceship were away from the danger zone of the battle, she could fight without restraint.

"It's 509 Astronomical Unit away from us. Although the remaining fuel in our Residential Spaceship can get us there, we won't be able to come back. We only have enough fuel for one acceleration and deceleration. We don't have any extra fuel to get us out of Aldebaran B's Gravity," a technician immediately replied from the bridge.

"If we don't need to worry about escaping Gravity, the Residential Spaceship can simply turn around and retreat into the Void. In that case, we only need to perform one acceleration and deceleration maneuver."

Before Pierce could finish speaking, another Kuntai People interrupted, "No, Lord Pierce. We don't actually need to consider moving our Residential Spaceship away from here, because doing so would only waste our limited fuel and make no sense!"

After a pause, the Tai person, also in 'Thai' form, continued, "If our fleet wins, even if the Residential Spaceship are adrift in deep space and can't return, we can still resupply them after we take over this system. But if we lose, it doesn't matter where the Residential Spaceship are."

Upon hearing the word 'lose,' Mo Tuotuo immediately jumped up: 'We will not lose, Taliku!'

"I was merely Chen Shu a possibility, Commissioner Mo Tuotuo," Taliku replied helplessly, then continued to Pierce, "So, Your Lord Pierce, what we should be concerned about now is the fuel problem for our warships. Our 120 warships are facing the same fuel problem, not much better than our Residential Spaceship."

The interstellar space was so vast that the Kuntai People never expected to encounter another Alien Civilization in such a desolate place.

"How much is left?" Pierce asked.

"Three extreme accelerations and decelerations!" Taliku clearly knew all about these and answered her question without even looking it up.

Hearing this answer, Pierce felt a chill run down his spine.

Only three extreme accelerations and decelerations—how could that be enough to fight a war!

Although in Star System, Tier 1 Civilization would not need to accelerate to 15% of the speed of light for maneuvering and then decelerating during a war, extreme acceleration to change the attitude of a warship is something that needs to be done frequently.

Moreover, using frequent extreme acceleration for attitude avoidance consumes more fuel than interstellar travel.

Pierce thought for a moment and said, "In other words, if we were to fight and engage in dialogue, we would only have 533 men to fight for victory."

"Yes," Taliku replied.

533 units of time is equivalent to 76 hours. In other words, once a battle breaks out, the Kun-Tai Civilization fleet can maintain high mobility and evade time for 76 hours.

Pierce struggled internally for a while before resolutely saying, "Pass the word: transfer all the fuel from the Residential Spaceship to the warships, leaving only enough to keep the ships running. Tell all the warships to prepare for battle! Until we've finished transferring the fuel, try to stall them, but don't make it too obvious."

First of all, I apologize to all the readers who have been following my work. I've been so busy these past two days that I haven't had time to update or send a leave notice. I haven't stopped updating, and I haven't asked for leave; it's just a bit late. By the way, I probably won't be able to update until the evening tomorrow either, but I'll try my best to make up for it.