The Galactic Alliance Is in Deep Crisis

Beint had insomnia...

He had recently developed Swarm Biological Syndrome. After learning of certain things the swarm organisms had done, sufferers of this condition would fall into varying degrees of negative mental states for extended periods.

Swarm Biological Syndrome had existed before, with starship crew members as its primary victims. Later, when the swarm organisms ravaged the galaxy, cases of this illness also surged dramatically on administrative planets.

As for how Beint had contracted this condition...

It was during a military conference, when he witnessed how the swarm organisms had controlled a star in the midst of an eruption through a completely unreasonable method...

Ever since then, Beint had suffered from insomnia, often accompanied by headaches. Medical examinations determined that his pain was not physical, but caused by a mental disorder.

"Mr. Beint, have you been feeling any better lately?"

A molluscoid alien resembling a blue slime, with a single eye, entered Beint's medical room carrying gifts.

Seeing his visitor, Beint did not waste time on pleasantries. Instead, he asked the question that concerned him most.

"None of that matters, Radis. How is the situation at the front?"

"Do you want to hear a lie, or the truth?"

As he asked, Radis extended several tentacles from his soft body and placed the gifts he had brought to visit his old friend on the table.

"The truth, of course. If I wanted good news, why would I ask you? I could just deceive myself," Beint said unhappily.

A sophisticated lie could use the truth to mislead someone and achieve the purpose of deception. By asking that question, Radis was naturally reminding Beint to pay attention to his condition.

Radis said, "It doesn't look good. The Dias Empire has completely fallen. More than half of the Banner Coalition's starfields have now become areas ravaged by the swarm. Fortunately, the Alliance fleet's losses have not been severe. Since the Alliance fleet joined the battlefield, the swarm organisms' advance has slowed considerably."

After learning about the current situation from his friend, Beint let out a sigh of relief. When he had first seen the swarm organisms withstand a stellar explosion, he had felt as though he had plunged into an ice cellar.

The situation was not good, but it was not too terrible either. At the very least, there had been no full-scale rout.

"Has the Alliance reverse-engineered the principles behind the swarm organisms' ability to restrain stellar explosions?" Beint asked impatiently.

"We've figured out the general principle," Radis said.

Radis explained to his friend the principle behind the swarm's black curtain that blocked stellar explosions.

"By using the property of psionic power acting directly on spacetime, they create a region where spacetime is stretched infinitely—a spacetime structure similar to a black hole."

"A black hole? No, that makes no sense. Those swarm organisms could clearly stretch those black things however they wanted," Beint questioned.

Beint was not a scholar specializing in celestial bodies, but as the fleet's supreme commander, he naturally needed an in-depth understanding of every type of celestial body in the universe. Otherwise, he would not be able to use the cosmic environment to create favorable battlefields for his fleet.

If black holes could be kneaded flat or rolled round at will, then pulling the singularity out from inside a black hole in an instant would be a simple matter for the swarm organisms.

Just imagining it made Beint feel deeply powerless.

Seeing that his friend had misunderstood, Radis explained, "It is a spacetime structure similar to a black hole. That does not mean it is actually a black hole, because the structures formed by psionic power acting on spacetime do not contain singularities like black holes do."

"At first, there is nothing inside. Only after matter falls into it does a singularity appear."

"That is why the swarm organisms can stretch those black-hole-like spacetime structures freely. There is no singularity inside to stabilize them; they are merely regions of spacetime with no mass present."

"Matter tells spacetime how to curve, and spacetime tells matter how to move. In the past, it was the singularity of a black hole that told spacetime how to curve into a black sphere. Now, psionic power first curves spacetime into a black sphere, then allows matter to fall inside and form a singularity."

Beint understood, but his concern had not diminished in the slightest. Even if they were merely black-hole-like spacetime structures, none of the Galactic Alliance's known weapons could cross that spacetime gulf and strike the enemies behind it.

The enemy could attack them at will, while none of their attacks could affect the enemy. The outcome spoke for itself.

Radis saw his friend's concern and added, "But don't worry. A way to counter it has already been developed."

"How?"

Beint, who had been somewhat dejected, immediately perked up, as though he had found an oasis in a parched desert.

Radis said, "Just feed matter into it. As matter is added, a singularity will form inside the black-hole-like spacetime structure. The swarm organisms will find it increasingly difficult to use such structures. Once the singularity's energy level exceeds the swarm organisms' psionic power, they will completely lose control over that kind of spacetime structure."

"So, the Alliance can retake the Dias Empire's starfields, as well as those fallen regions of the Banner Coalition?" Beint asked excitedly.

Mindful of Beint's condition, Radis hesitated and asked, "...Do you really want to know?"

"Just tell me," Beint urged.

Radis replied, "The swarm organisms' industrial capacity appears to be gradually catching up with the Alliance's. Every sign currently indicates that their mobile Nestworlds are increasing at an extremely rapid rate."

"As for the reason, I believe you guessed it long ago. The swarm organisms have begun extracting stellar matter on a massive scale."

"The swarm organisms' technological development model differs from ours. They do not need to rely on armies of war machines. Their productivity grows with the increase in their numbers. Quite a few stars have already gone dark."

"The Alliance now has only one way out: achieve a new round of industrial innovation, so that Alliance technology can be deployed more conveniently and swiftly. Otherwise, relying solely on massive artificial constructs, I fear..."

Within the occupied starfields of the Dias Empire, countless fire trees had grown on the stars across half a starfield. These fire trees were naturally stellar jets formed by the planetary organisms using psionic power to extract stellar matter.

The massive increase in planetary organisms had caused the swarm to exert ever stronger control over the regions it occupied.

And ever since they had imitated the Galactic Alliance by setting up large numbers of gravitational interference points throughout occupied starfields, the Galactic Alliance fleet could no longer, as it had in previous small-scale engagements, easily use faster-than-light travel to break into the heart of swarm-controlled starfields and launch sneak attacks by detonating stars with microscopic black holes.

Small-scale battles had been confined to the edges of the starfields.