Courting Death
Seemingly anticipating humanity's intentions, the Crimson Flame Civilization fleet, currently engaged in battle with the human First Fleet, consciously deployed smaller ships to intercept them after the human side frequently dispatched large numbers of Probe Spaceship. However, at this point, they were already at their limit, and a mere few hundred thousand interceptor ships were simply no match for the sheer number of human Probe Spaceship.
So, in less than half a month, Yue Yuan received the latest intelligence from the detector.
Just as Man Yuemei said, the Interstellar Transaction Market side really did run away, but their original planetary base was not destroyed.
Seeing this situation, Yue Yuan immediately ordered the Strong Artificial Intelligence on the Lyra to launch a surprise attack on the already exhausted fleet. He wanted to eliminate this fleet as soon as possible.
Having just assigned tasks to the Strong Artificial Intelligence, Yue Yuan again addressed the Communication Department aboard the Lyra: "Send a notification to the Thirteenth Planet, instructing the base to expedite the preparation of supplies and fuel for the First and Second Fleet, and to ensure the base is ready to depart at any time."
Now that it's confirmed the Crimson Flame Civilization has fled, humanity must take further action. These actions are essentially of two types: one is to pursue them until they are annihilated; the other is to end the war and have the three fleets return to the star system where the Civilization Main Body resides.
Yue Yuan's idea leaned more towards the first one, because if you don't cut the weeds at the root, they will grow back in the spring breeze. Since they had already made contact with this civilization that was masquerading as an Interstellar Transaction Market, they should completely eliminate it instead of letting it leave.
Letting go of a civilization that is on par with humanity, Nanotechnology surpasses ours, and which has a deep-seated hatred for us, is suicidal. Who knows, one day they might be the first to break through to Level 4 Civilization and then search for humanity across the entire star system. That would truly be the end for us.
Therefore, Yue Yuan's idea was either to destroy this civilization whose name he didn't know, or to turn them into something like the Kun-Tai Civilization that served humanity.
After this battle, if the First and Second Fleet want to travel across stars again, they must refuel and replenish various supplies here. Compared to rebuilding here, the base that humans have already built is naturally faster.
After giving instructions on a series of preparatory measures, Yue Yuan focused his attention on destroying the fleet in front of him.
Of course, it didn't require much effort, since the Second Fleet had already arrived to join them. Under the combined attack of the two human fleets, their main force was completely destroyed in just one month.
Now, humanity can declare victory in the war, but it will take some time before the dust settles.
Several days later, the First Fleet and Second Fleet human fleets finally arrived at the core area of the original Crimson Flame Civilization. At this time, the probes that were already conducting landing explorations on various planets also transmitted detailed images of several bases back to the crew of the Lyra.
Only now has Yue Yuan truly seen the real situation of the so-called core area of Interstellar Transaction Market.
The core area of Crimson Flame Civilization consists of three planets, each covered with numerous buildings.
From an aerial perspective, each planet's surface is dotted with futuristic semi-circular buildings, connected by transparent passageways. A closer look reveals the rails used for transportation within these passageways.
From the interiors and the vehicles that have ceased operation inside, one can roughly distinguish which part of the semi-circular dome was used for residential purposes and which part was used for industrial production.
The residential building clusters, industrial building clusters, resource extraction bases, and so on are all well preserved. Even the Orbital Mass Accelerator standing on the ground have not been removed, and multiple Space Elevator are still suspended in orbit.
Seeing this, some human experts believe that the reason they didn't destroy the bases before leaving was because they were in a hurry. However, this is just one explanation. Other experts have considered it more deeply. While the other side did indeed leave in a hurry, that's not the reason they left intact bases. They believe the most likely reason they didn't destroy the structures was to avoid the commotion caused by destroying the bases being noticed by humans.
Indeed, if they had blown up all those buildings and destroyed the base before they left, the First Fleet of humanity, which was engaged in battle, would have certainly noticed the commotion. This would have greatly increased the likelihood that their escape would have been exposed.
Aside from these two viewpoints, Yue Yuan felt that the other side leaving behind an intact base also served another purpose: to delay humanity's pursuit. After all, compared to a destroyed planetary base, an intact base would certainly be more attractive to humanity.
Some people will definitely think, "That's a base that a civilization of the same level has been operating for hundreds of years. Maybe we can find something by exploring it?"
That's the power of temptation.
Well, seeing this scene, Yue Yuan already felt a desire to explore the interior of the base.
Sure enough, after a while, the Second Mate on the Lyra suggested, "Commander Yue, the main civilization of the enemy has successfully escaped. As a sub-civilization of the same level, if we want to catch up with and destroy them, a long chase is inevitable, just like when that Artificial Intelligence Consciousness chased us and the Nair Civilization."
On the other hand, if we only pursue and destroy them with our fleet, we will inevitably become disconnected from our Main Civilization for a long time, which I think is unwise. However, if we take our Main Civilization with us in the pursuit, it will put Main Civilization in danger, because we don't know if this civilization, whose research into Nanotechnology is even more advanced than ours, will break through to Level 4 Civilization before us in the process. Therefore, my suggestion is not to pursue them. Our mission has actually been accomplished. Although we didn't obtain the Life Elixir with a 5,000-year effect, we did obtain two other types, and we've destroyed this so-called Interstellar Transaction Market, which can be considered revenge for those Dog-Headed People. In addition, we also found a Level 4 Civilization artifact, which is an unexpected bonus."
Upon hearing this, Yue Yuan fell into deep thought. His first thought was naturally to pursue them and eliminate them completely, but thoughts are one thing, and making a decision requires careful consideration.
Actually, the Second Mate missed mentioning one factor: the lifespan of these people. If they were to go on the pursuit after a short rest, even though they could hibernate during the voyage, they would have to wake up and fight every time they reached a star. Based on their previous experience in pursuit battles, these people might not even live long enough to eliminate the enemy.
As various possibilities flooded his mind, Yue Yuan was actually quite conflicted, and he couldn't make a decision right away.
Just as he was about to gather opinions from everyone to weigh the pros and cons of pursuing or not pursuing, a message from the Second Fleet gave him a jolt.
The Probe Spaceship the Second Fleet had previously dispatched to probe the enemy's trajectory have returned with news. From the enemy's Magnetic Propulsion trajectory data, humanity has obtained the main route of the Crimson Flame Civilization Main Body.
Judging from their flight path, the fleet carrying the main body of the Crimson Flame Civilization was heading exactly towards the star where humanity's rear base was located back then.
Before humanity arrived at this so-called Interstellar Transaction Market, they chose a nearby star and placed a Strong Artificial Intelligence there to develop a fleet. The original purpose was actually to prepare for a possible retreat in case of war failure, allowing them to withdraw to this rear base and use the warships produced over the years to launch a counterattack.
Unexpectedly, the Crimson Flame Civilization Main Body is actually heading towards that star; it's practically courting death! After receiving this news, Yue Yuan stopped worrying about whether to pursue them or not. As the saying goes, "If you don't take what Heaven has given you, you'll suffer the consequences." At this moment, he should boldly shout, "It is appropriate to pursue the defeated enemy, not seek fame like Xiang Yu," instead of saying, "Don't pursue a fleeing enemy."
As for whether those 70 million spaceships still include a large number of warships, humanity was no longer worried about that the moment the Crimson Flame Civilization fled. After all, if there were still forces resisting, they wouldn't have needed to run away.