Twin Stars' Central Administrative Star, Joint Council.
Besides the councilors who wielded real power, several leading scientific scholars from Twin Stars were present as special guests.
"You are all luminaries of the scientific community. What are your thoughts on this trade list? Specifically, can we glean any intelligence about the Ante Empire from it?" Chairman Kruze asked.
An elderly Winged Race scholar with a long beard cleared his throat. "Ahem! Mr. Chairman, esteemed councilors, we have just completed a preliminary assessment of this list.
"The most valuable part is undoubtedly the 'phantom energy' technology tree in the technology category!
"Based on their performance in several battles in the Solar System and the Proxima Centauri System, we can roughly infer that this is an entirely new scientific field, most likely involving an unknown form of advanced energy technology.
"What we can determine at present is that it can at least be used for communications, and is virtually immune to all our methods of interference. We also suspect that it may allow ultra-long-range communication across the Solar System Wormhole, over distances exceeding four light-years!
"Relying on this technology, they deployed large numbers of remotely operated unmanned machines against us, keeping casualties among their own personnel close to zero.
"That alone qualifies 'phantom energy' as a strategic-level technology.
"As for military applications in other fields, our limited intelligence prevents us from making any judgments at present.
"One point worth noting is that their Silver Fleet clearly possesses combat capabilities far beyond those of conventional warships. Our current technology cannot readily explain the source of that power. Perhaps those ships are a practical application of phantom energy technology!"
"Hmm..." Chairman Kruze nodded, signaling for the scholar to continue.
"Next, we analyzed the item on the list that best represents their technological capabilities-the mecha.
"The