Bular

Although Bular spoke with great confidence, even with absolute certainty, he still felt somewhat uneasy until the matter was settled, but he certainly couldn't show it. He had actively sought this mission; he was young, not even a hundred years old, yet he had already been promoted to major general.

However, there are only two paths to further advancement: accumulating seniority or making significant contributions. Bular has great ambitions; he wants to climb higher, so he cannot choose the path of accumulating seniority. The Telo Empire also has a powerful subordinate force in the outer circle. Although it has a few enemies and many hidden dangers, it is generally stable, and there is basically no opportunity to make significant contributions.

This time, the Empire accepted the mission to "invite" the Rat-folk Race and Zerg to join the Alliance. However, after careful consideration, General Wheeler, the Legion's commander-in-chief, decided not to use the previous invitation method, but to offer a genuine invitation.

Bular understood General Wheeler's thoughts, but it also dashed his hopes of gaining merit through a resounding victory. Therefore, they had to find another way.

Just then, General Wheeler was looking for a liaison officer with a decent rank and position. But such missions deep behind enemy lines were extremely dangerous, potentially a death sentence. Although successfully completing the mission would certainly earn him a great deal of merit, if rank wasn't a requirement, plenty of Telo would risk their lives.

However, the requirement of social status and position prevented them from doing so, and the Telo who met the requirements were already in high positions of power and had no need to risk their lives at this time.

Just as General Wheeler was raising his price, Bular stepped forward. Although his former rank as a brigadier general was somewhat inadequate for such cultural exchange, Bular became the only option when no one of higher rank stepped forward.

The brigadier general was promoted to major general. Before he even set off, Bular was promoted, which can be considered as receiving some merit in advance, so let's slightly elevate his status.

In fact, General Wheeler meant that the mission was quite dangerous, and whether he would return was uncertain. He suggested that all the mission merits be awarded in advance and that he be promoted to lieutenant general. This would also demonstrate the importance that the Teler Empire attached to this exchange. However, this idea was met with strong opposition from everyone, and in the end, the plan had to be abandoned.

However, Bular was quite satisfied with this mission. To be able to be promoted two ranks at the rank of general or above was a rare opportunity. Although the mission seemed to be extremely dangerous, according to his analysis and intuition at the time, it was actually quite safe.

After setting off, he was constantly on edge, ready to flee at any moment. Even facing a military court-martial was better than dying outright. But after the formation smoothly bypassed the Big Horn and White Grub Star System, he felt much more at ease. It seemed like things were probably going to work out.

Early warp drive technology, due to the poor stability of the Warp Bubble it creates, is highly susceptible to external interference, making it relatively easy to intercept. Simply creating an unstable gravitational field in front of them can disrupt the operation of the warp engines. The interfering gravitational fields can, at best, pull the warship out of the Warp Bubble, and at worst, annihilate it into dust.

While it's easier said than done, it requires a similar level of technology. First, one must be able to observe the fleet within the Warp Bubble. This is easy to understand; how can you intercept something you can't even see?

Secondly, it is necessary to be able to accurately calculate their flight path and position. Due to differences in warp drive technology, the parameters vary from civilization to civilization, and even from stage to stage, and from factory to factory, resulting in performance differences in the actual products.

If the speed of a warship cannot be accurately calculated, calculating its position is utterly impossible. Even a slight error can lead to a huge mistake; for a warship with a speed measured in light-years, traveling millions of kilometers in an instant is not an exaggeration.

Finally, the position must be calculated, and the attack on the warship must be precise. One method is to calculate the lead time and set up a trap. However, this requires the trap to be extremely well concealed. If it is detected in advance, the warship will deviate by tens or hundreds of thousands of kilometers from its original route in just a few seconds.

At this distance, unless the trap is made large enough or powerful enough, it can only attack the warship, but doing so would make it difficult to achieve concealment, creating a contradiction.

Another method is direct attack, a common approach used in wars between advanced civilizations. However, it requires a technological advantage. For example, if Party A's warship travels at twice the speed of light, while Party B's Gravity Bomb travels at three times the speed of light, then Party B's bomb can catch up with Party A's warship through sheer force, forcing Party A's warship to break free of its Warp Bubble.

Therefore, the ease with which interference occurs only applies to the party with a technological advantage. As technology advances, the technologically disadvantaged party may not even have the ability to escape when facing the advantage.

However, this does not mean that the technologically inferior side has completely lost the possibility of confronting the superior side. Before warp drive technology develops to a certain level, the star system is a no-go zone for them, because the star system contains many huge gravitational sources, which are natural interference traps. Unstable Warp Bubble are very vulnerable in the face of such gravitational sources.

At this point, if the performance of the weapons on both sides is not significantly different, the technologically inferior side still has a fighting chance. Of course, if the technologically superior side is several levels ahead and has completely solved the problem of Warp Bubble stability, then their warships can still maintain extremely high speeds within the star system.

However, what Bular couldn't understand was that the Swarm obviously couldn't reach that level, but he had a premonition that the Swarm could intercept his own warships that were in Warp Bubble.

Although I have great faith in my intuition, if my guess is wrong, I will face the next hurdle. Only by overcoming this hurdle can the mission be considered truly secure.

When the warship fleet approached the asteroid belt outside the Origin Star System, it deliberately broke out of the Warp Bubble. This was not only to avoid causing unnecessary misunderstandings, but also because, as mentioned earlier, the Telo Civilization's rudimentary warp technology was not yet capable of navigating within a star system.

This is the second hurdle. In the sub-light-speed environment of the galaxy, their formations have no firepower advantage, no numerical advantage, and even if they have a slight speed advantage, they are easily surrounded by a large Swarm.

Whether the Swarm is truly willing to negotiate will depend on this one move.

The Telo warship, having slowed down, glided slowly through the asteroid belt, its weapon and radar systems completely silent. Bular was gambling; although this was slightly humiliating, charging weapons and randomly scanning radar on someone else's territory was extremely impolite, and could even be seen as provocation. Since he genuinely wanted to negotiate, he might as well lower his stance. As long as he could complete the mission and return alive, what did a little face matter?