Fortune Turns Against Them
Decades of sailing forced the already aging crew to hibernate once more. After the fleet completed its relative acceleration, everyone on board the Lyra entered hibernation.
Originally, Yue Yuan planned to wait a few years to see if he would grow old with time, thus verifying his conjecture.
Unfortunately, he was not currently in the main part of Human Civilization, and he still had a mission to complete, so he had to give up the idea of conducting experiments while awake and went into hibernation with everyone else.
Ultimately, it's because he doesn't dare to take unnecessary risks. Although Yue Yuan discovered that his appearance hadn't aged, if something unexpected happened and he really died on the way, that would be a huge joke.
Time, this physical quantity defined by humankind, is slowly passing by.
After Yue Yuan also entered hibernation, an unseen scene was unfolding less than a light-year away from the human fleet.
That's right, this is the Crimson Flame Civilization Main Body.
This is a fleet consisting of 70 million Residential Spaceship and more than 3 million warships, which is currently sailing towards the same goal as humans while remaining relatively stationary.
They had already completed acceleration, and the main Magnetic Propulsion of their spaceships and warships had been shut down, but their individual lives did not enter hibernation like humans; instead, they remained fully conscious.
This is true for all living beings; they seem to be unaffected by lifespan.
Among these individual beings, there was a group of individuals gathered together, discussing something inside a spaceship cavity that looked like Conference Room.
"Great Commander, Earth's civilization will definitely catch up." A creature not much larger than a cat emitted a sound wave that was difficult for humans to discern.
This organism's surface is somewhat different from the life forms that humans have found in their Spacesuit before. It has an extra layer of something that looks like gel and is somewhat sticky, resembling their clothing.
All living beings here are pretty much like this, perhaps it's their uniforms.
"Yes, this is a troublesome matter. If we had known this would happen, we should have left them some technological data and the Life Elixir with five thousand years of efficacy that they purchased before." Another life form said, "I think the ultimate goal of Earth's civilization should not be those life forms that we killed back then, but technology. The reason you are so sure that they will catch up must also be due to this consideration."
Other life forms of the Crimson Flame Civilization also joined the discussion.
"There's some truth to that, but unfortunately, there are no 'what ifs.' We left without leaving anything behind, and it's too late to say anything now."
"How hateful! Once we successfully break through the Magnetic Propulsion Miniaturization Technology, we will make this Earth civilization pay the price."
"Now, instead of saying such useless things, we should think about how to overcome this difficulty. Our entire civilization is here. If Earth's civilization catches up, our Great Civilization will be in danger of collapse."
"The Administrative Officer is right. We should now consider how to escape this dangerous situation. Given the current situation, we have already fallen out with the local bullies in this star system, so we certainly cannot stay here any longer. Therefore, I suggest that after we reach our target star to resupply, we should not think about causing trouble for Earth civilization. It is already good enough that they are not looking for us. So after we finish resupplying, we should set sail directly. For safety's sake, I suggest we return along the route we came from."
At this point, their new Great Commander added, "That won't do. If they really catch up, our resource replenishment speed may not be faster than theirs. You should have noticed that they are stronger than us in many aspects, such as resource extraction, fleet maintenance, and warship manufacturing. So if they keep pursuing us, they will eventually catch up with us."
"The Great Commander makes a good point. In that case, I have an idea. We can divide the Main Civilization's Residential Spaceship into several batches and send them to escape in different directions in space, then rendezvous at a pre-arranged star. As far as we know, Earth civilization only has three fleets. If we divide the Main Civilization's Residential Spaceship into ten squadrons, they certainly won't be able to pursue us simultaneously!"
As long as one of our fleets manages to escape, the flame of our Great Civilization will remain and can continue to exist. As for the idea of counterattacking Earth's civilization, frankly, we should first think about how to survive."
"Great Commander, the Science Officer is right. Although this method will temporarily halt our Main Civilization's technological progress, it is still safer than everyone running together."
This Great Commander was quite Great Commander. After listening to the speeches of many individual life forms, he directly issued a sound wave, "Then let's do it this way. After reaching the next Star System and completing the resupply, we will split up and run."
Although he was the new Great Commander, his words carried absolute weight. Therefore, after he finished speaking, the meeting, which had lasted for several hours, came to an end.
At the meeting, they not only reached this decision, but also planned the duration of the Crimson Flame Civilization's voyage. The first step was to cancel the hibernation of scientific researchers and engineers, allowing them to continue to focus on researching the Magnetic Propulsion Miniaturization Technology. In contrast, ordinary life forms must hibernate, with the aim of freeing up resources for research and experimentation.
Secondly, there was the issue of detecting whether Earth's civilization's fleet was pursuing them; they were eager to know if there was another fleet chasing them.
Therefore, the Crimson Flame Civilization decided to allocate one million ships from its remaining three million warships, and then slow them down to see if they could detect the pursuing Earth Civilization fleet.
Finally, there is the post-war summary.
However, what they didn't know was that a huge fleet was already waiting for them at their target star.
Previous human estimates were roughly correct. Within this Star System, the Strong Artificial Intelligence left behind by humanity has silently built 30 million warships for humankind and continues to grow stronger over time.
However, it will be more than thirty years before they arrive at this Star System.
Before that, their slowed-down squadron brought them their worst fear: they encountered a pursuing human fleet.
Needless to say, the one million-ship squadron was completely annihilated by the human fleet in a single encounter. However, the squadron's mission was accomplished, as it did detect the human fleet and relayed the information to its Main Civilization's fleet.
This incident almost caused the Crimson Flame Civilization to split up and flee prematurely. In the end, their new Great Commander, considering the research and development of Magnetic Propulsion Miniaturization Technology, suppressed all the voices advocating for a direct split-up and insisted on the original plan to split up upon reaching the target star.
This new Great Commander probably never imagined that while his persistence would lead to the successful development of Magnetic Propulsion Miniaturization Technology in just thirty years, just as planned, it would also plunge the Crimson Flame Civilization into the Abyss of failure.
"Great Commander, we have arrived."
More than thirty years later, a sound wave appeared on the flagship of the Crimson Flame Civilization. They were no strangers to this kind of interstellar travel, but this time they had a feeling of Escape from the Jaws of Death and that time was of the essence.
The human fleet that follows will arrive in a little over a year, and they only have one year to resupply.
"Quick! No need to choose anymore, let's go with this Rocky Planet that's closest to us. Let the engineering fleet go first; we need to resupply all our ships within six months." The Great Commander's words raised the sense of urgency to another level.
However, no sooner had he spoken than a clearly panicked voice came from inside the flagship. "Great- Great Commander, the fleet, the fleet, it's the fleet! My God, there's an Unknown Civilization here!"