Nair Fleet
This distance is roughly equivalent to the distance between the sun and the Kuiper Belt —very far, but from the perspective of Level 2 Civilization, it's quite close.
There are two reasons why it was only discovered at such close range.
Firstly, the fleet is highly stealthy when it is not accelerating or decelerating. Secondly, the direction from which this fleet came is not in a region of primary concern to humans.
Since outer space is three-dimensional, a fleet can enter Star System from more than just the ecliptic plane of that star. The farther away from the star, the larger the space becomes, and the difficulty of detection increases exponentially.
The news that a fleet from outside the star system had intruded immediately drew the attention of humanity's high command, and everyone became tense.
"What happened? Have you found out? Where did the fleet come from? And what is its size and level of civilization?" The doors of the Lyra Command Center opened, and Yue Yuan's figure floated in.
When Yue Yuan arrived at the Command Center, there were already many members of the Think Tank there, and other relevant personnel were filing in through the main entrance.
Before the words were even finished, someone who already knew the situation replied, "Commander Yue, it's been confirmed. It's from the direction of the Pot Lid Vastness Star. According to the images of the fleet slowing down captured by the probes, the fleet numbers around a thousand ships, including about seven hundred Lake-Class Warship and over three hundred other types of spaceships. If there are no surprises, it should be the Nair Civilization fleet coming. We just don't know why they're here."
"The direction of the Pot Lid Vastness Star? The Nair Civilization?!" Yue Yuan frowned, and at the same time slowly pressed his body against the main seat to fix it in place.
When he received the message, he thought a lot. He had assumed that he had encountered some other civilization, just like when he met Kuntai. He had prepared for the worst and thought that the chances of it being the Nair Civilization were the smallest. But he never expected that it would actually be the Nair Civilization.
Upon hearing that it was the Nair Civilization, the tense nerves of everyone present relaxed considerably, although many experts and scholars frowned.
It seems that these people also find the emergence of the Nair Civilization very strange.
Sure enough, a scholar spoke up, "Chief, I feel that the Nair Civilization is a bit strange. Logically speaking, we had a fairly good relationship with them before. They should have notified us in advance if they were coming. Why did they come so quietly? If they hadn't slowed down, we wouldn't have discovered them so quickly. Who knows what kind of bad idea they are planning!"
One member of the Think Tank chimed in, "Yes, we established communication with them a long time ago. They could have easily sent us a message before they even set off. There's definitely something wrong here."
Another member of the Think Tank nodded in agreement. "Could it be that they regret handing over the 'Research Team' to us? That shouldn't be the case. We acquired it through legitimate channels. They have no reason to cause trouble, unless they've seen through all our intentions. But how is that possible? They've never been in contact with other civilizations. How could they know that the Milky Way Galaxy Basic Common Sense Information that we gave them was fake?"
Seeing that everyone was thinking in this direction, an expert shook his head and said, "Maybe they simply don't know we're here. You know, it took us ninety years just to travel from the Pot Lid Vastness Star to this star, and we've been here for over a hundred years. I guess even the Nair Civilization couldn't have imagined that we'd still be here after so long! And think about it, when we left, the Nair Civilization at most only knew the direction we were traveling in. We didn't tell them our destination, so they most likely didn't know we would stay here."
"No, I'm more inclined to believe they knew, because we didn't change course at all during the voyage. And while Level 2 Civilization can travel longer distances through a period of hibernation, the risks also increase significantly. Staying for a hundred years is not uncommon for a Level 2 Civilization. Therefore, my view is that they knew our destination and are definitely up to no good." Another scholar expressed his opinion.
"What's the point of you guessing here? There's too little information. I think we should send them a message first and ask what's going on!"
"Do you even need to tell me? The inquiry has already been sent out, it just hasn't 'flown' over yet."
Since the two sides are now only fifty Astronomical Unit apart, and the Nair Civilization is clearly heading for the White Giant Star, they will definitely discover the human fleet soon.
With this in mind, after learning that it was the Nair Civilization, humanity sent them an inquiry.
The last person is also right. After all, the two sides are still fifty Astronomical Unit apart. Information travels at the speed of light, and a round trip would take at least 13.8 hours.
So unless the Nair Civilization fleet sends a message in advance, we can only wait.
Of course, we can't just sit and wait. Since the intentions of the newcomers are still unclear, the human fleet naturally has to take appropriate countermeasures.
Therefore, Yue Yuan immediately instructed Man Yuemei, who had just arrived at the flagship of the Second Fleet, to lead the Second Fleet to adjust its posture and advance ten Astronomical Unit toward the direction of the Nair Civilization fleet.
Due to the orientation of the Nair Civilization fleet entering the White Giant Star, once the Second Fleet arrives at its designated position, if the ecliptic plane of the White Giant Star is used as the plane, then the Second Fleet will fly upwards.
Meanwhile, the First Fleet, to which the Lyra belonged, moved toward the Residential Spaceship Cluster, adopting a protective posture.
Following this, Yue Yuan also instructed relevant departments to issue a yellow alert, ordering all personnel still on the Great White Star to return to their Residential Spaceship as soon as possible, and to ensure that all types of spaceships and Work Platform were ready to be reassembled at any time.
In the event of a conflict, it is essential to ensure that the Residential Spaceship Cluster and other non-combatant ships are kept away from the danger zone.
However, to humanity's surprise, while waiting for a reply to the sent message, another probe discovered another fleet that had begun to slow down.
Before humanity could take any further action, the probe discovered that a third fleet had begun to decelerate.
Similar to the first fleet, if we reverse the course from the decelerated heading, and there is no major change of course midway, then these three fleets all come from different star Star Sector of the Nair Civilization.
However, there is one difference: the number of the latter two fleets differs significantly from that of the first fleet. Judging from the deceleration plumes, the second fleet has around 700 ships in total, including over 400 Lake-Class Warship and around 300 other types of spaceships. The third fleet, on the other hand, is much larger, with a total of approximately 2,700 ships, but only around 900 battleships; the remaining 1,800 are most likely other types of spaceships.
If it were all warships, humanity would find it quite reasonable and assume, as they expected, that they were there to cause trouble. But the presence of so many other types of spaceships is rather strange.