Pursuit

A fleet is fully equipped, consisting not only of warships, but also of various types of robots and small spacecraft with different functions on each warship, as well as spacecraft used for planetary exploration.

A single Sea-Class Warship can be three kilometers long, while the Lyra reaches a length of five kilometers. Such a massive size can easily accommodate various supporting facilities, even production lines. It can be said that each Sea-Class Spaceship is a city in itself.

As the exploration deepened, the three planetary bases left behind by the Crimson Flame Civilization gradually came into view of humanity. This process was relatively recent, given the sheer number of robots deployed by humanity.

During this process, human exploration robots were attacked by the base's defense system, and many robots perished. However, humans did not care because there were plenty of robots.

After about six months of exploration, humanity finally turned the bases on the three planets upside down.

Six months is a very short time. After all, the Crimson Flame Civilization has been operating on these three planets for hundreds of years, leaving their traces and facilities in almost every corner. If humanity didn't have a massive number of exploration robots, it really wouldn't have been able to complete the exploration in such a short period of time.

Unfortunately, in subsequent explorations, aside from obtaining answers about the functions of various buildings of the Crimson Flame Civilization, humanity was unable to glean any further useful information from these planetary bases.

Since we can't get any useful information, there's no need to stay here any longer.

Yue Yuan immediately ordered the fleet to return. The First Fleet and Second Fleet needed to replenish supplies and fuel before setting sail, so their destination was the Planet Thirteen Base.

When he left, Yue Yuan did not order the destruction of the three planetary bases left by the Crimson Flame Civilization. It was not because he was being merciful, but because there was no need for it.

Destroying it would be a waste of time.

The First Fleet and Second Fleet then spent a year replenishing supplies, refueling, and carrying out maintenance and repairs before it was time to leave.

"Commander Yue, the First Fleet, the Second Fleet, and the Third Fleet are ready. The Strong Artificial Intelligence at the four planetary bases has completed the collection of facilities and equipment in their respective areas of responsibility and is ready to set sail at any time."

"3 minutes until departure, destination: JM18756"

After a brief announcement, the Great Fleet comprised of the three human fleets officially embarked on a new route, or rather, a route to pursue the Crimson Flame Civilization.

Like the Crimson Flame Civilization, the humans did not destroy their original bases when they left. However, there was one difference: the humans moved much more cleanly. Almost everything except some temporary buildings, such as facilities built with reinforced concrete, was packed up and taken away by the humans.

Human facilities are designed with modularity, foldability, and mobility in mind. In other words, the mining bases of Human Civilization are essentially landing ships that, after landing, are assembled into facilities with different functions according to a predetermined procedure.

Just like the combination of "I will form the body, I will form the head, I will form the arms", humans have been able to easily make these large machines perform such realistic transformations.

Three minutes passed quickly, and the three fleets, reorganized into a Great Fleet, finally embarked on their journey.

More than 12.2 million Magnetic Propulsion units were activated in succession, and under unified command, the propulsion gears of each warship were set to the same position. At this moment, a strange physical phenomenon appeared at the end of the Magnetic Propulsion, which could only be detected by Level 3 Civilization, and a powerful force was generated.

There was no dazzling light, no captivating colors, and no passionate interplay of light and heat; all that existed was the unseen phenomenon of instantaneous monopole phase transitions and the faint metallic sheen reflecting the light of distant stars.

The sight of over 12.2 million human warships setting sail simultaneously may not seem as awe-inspiring as it was back in the Level 2 Civilization, but its grandeur is undoubtedly much greater.

As if nothing had happened, they accelerated from a relatively static state toward the same direction of the starry sky. Technological advancements have made human fleets increasingly futuristic. Such fleets, in terms of stealth alone, are more than capable of defeating any Level 2 Civilization.

In fact, humans are now completely unable to detect the Crimson Flame Civilization fleet through optical means. A year and a half is enough time for the Crimson Flame Civilization Main Body, which left earlier, to disappear from the sight of any Low-level Civilization.

But that doesn't mean humans can't find them.

Before the Great Fleet set sail, humanity had already dispatched some advance warships to conduct scattered reconnaissance in the direction where the Crimson Flame Civilization fleet had disappeared, much like scouts sent out for military operations.

The human Great Fleet uses the detection information fed back by these warships to plan its course, thereby enabling it to track the Crimson Flame Civilization's fleet.

Fleets employing Magnetic Propulsion Technology will have more pronounced tracks and remain detectable for longer periods due to greater thrust. To date, humanity lacks the technology to erase these traces of phase transitions.

Similarly, neither could the Crimson Flame Civilization, or rather, neither could Level 3 Civilization.

The Crimson Flame Civilization Main Body has more than 70 million ships. The tracks left by the Great Fleet are very obvious, and even though more than a year has passed, humans can still detect them easily.

The pursuit into space was actually quite unremarkable; it was nothing more than waves of Probe Spaceship searching for tracks ahead, while the fleet behind steadily kept up with the opposing fleet.

The target star is twenty light-years away. The human fleet needs to accelerate to 50% of the speed of light, and then reduce its speed back to its initial level upon arrival. From an external perspective, where the human fleet appears stationary, this process would take forty years. However, for humanity itself, the journey to the destination took only thirty-five years.

This process can be described as time dilation for a static Observer, or as a shortening of the distance traveled by humans; this is the so-called Time Dilation and Length Contraction Effect.

The effect occurs during the fleet's acceleration and deceleration, rather than during the 50% speed of light journey. Therefore, the key physical quantity for the Time Dilation and Length Contraction Effect in humans is not speed, but acceleration.

The reason for this is that speed itself has no meaning after losing the frame of reference. When the fleet is traveling at 50% of the speed of light, you can also say that the fleet is stationary.

Because the speed of light is constant, no matter how fast you go, you are stationary to light.

In other words, if A moves away from planet B at 50% of the speed of light, it is also true that planet B moves away from A at 50% of the speed of light. But why is it that after their speeds synchronize again, A eventually becomes younger than B? That's because the acceleration and deceleration process occurs in A.

This has been verified by humans since Earth Era, and there are no problems. But it's important to understand that the cause of all these changes is acceleration.

Acceleration is what changes the properties of spacetime.