The Other Shore Civilization's probe was actually no better than Empire-made probes in terms of structural strength. Aside from its Abyss protection technology being a mystery to us and the many inexplicable properties of its materials, it was not any tougher than Empire-built equipment. In theory, something like that should not have posed a threat to the Control Center.
No matter how fast it came flying in, it would have been useless. Even if it exceeded the speed of light and possessed infinite mass, it would not have mattered—this was not a matter of speed, but of "level." Our Control Center had Psionic Shields. Psionic Shields could indiscriminately defend against all external threats. Since psionic energy stood on the same level as the entire world on the Void Stairway, everything within the world would be weakened by a Psionic Shield. Concepts like "speed" and "kinetic energy" were defined only within the scope of the universe, so even if that thing struck the platform at light speed, most of its velocity would instantly be burned away, followed by its body—it could not even get through the first layer of shielding. Of course, it might have used an energy source on the same level as psionic energy, allowing it to offset part of the shield, but I did not believe such a tiny probe could carry enough energy to melt through two layers of shields.
It should have crashed outside the Control Center instead of punching through all its defenses, detonating the energy core, and then surviving in nearly intact condition—but all of that depended on the Control Center having its shields activated.
"You're saying the Control Center's defensive systems went offline before the explosion?" I stared at Sandora in disbelief. She could have joked about anything else. How could Empire equipment