The Orange Star Civilization Thought Victory Was Assured

In principle, that was true. For example, Human Civilization's First Fleet was not carrying out such inefficient attacks right now, and the Orange Star Civilization fleet, which was still advancing at full speed, had not opened fire either. After all, their speed was already the limit for a Level 4 Civilization. Even if they launched Warp-propelled weapons at this time, those weapons would not be any faster.

This differed from the principle that the speed of light was constant. To give a simple example, if an object traveled at half the speed of light and emitted a beam of light, that beam would not exceed the speed of light. Light would still travel at 300,000 kilometers per second. The speed of light did not change with the reference frame.

Warp had, after all, already surpassed the speed of light, so it could not be measured by the principle of constant light speed. Of course, light emitted by a ship in Warp still traveled at light speed, and a ship in Warp would still measure light speed as unchanged. Light did not change because of the reference frame.

But Warp Weapons were different. This was not due to the constancy of light speed, but rather a matter of Warp power. The principle of Warp Speed Travel was to generate a Warp Bubble that enveloped the warship while distorting spacetime, then create different degrees of spacetime curvature at the front and rear ends of the Warp Bubble, allowing spacetime to drag the ship forward.

A Warp ship's forward movement, reverse movement, lateral movement, turning, and other maneuvers were all based on this.

The amount of spacetime distortion an engine could produce was its Warp power. Therefore, however advanced a civilization's Warp technology was, its weapons could only reach that same level.

Thus,