The chaos of the Kree Empire battle group lasted for quite some time. The fleeting but terrifyingly strong unknown energy signal was like a cold needle, piercing their original unswerving offensive posture. In the flagship command room, Commander Ronan's adjutant, a stern-faced Kree elite, was looking at the remaining readings on the sensor, his brows furrowed.
"What are the results of the analysis?" The adjutant's voice sounded like metal friction.
"It cannot match any known energy signature in the database, Commander." The technical officer's voice carried a subtle tremor. "The energy peak briefly exceeded the theoretical upper limit of the sensor. Its release pattern... does not match any conventional engine or weapon system. It is more like a... natural phenomenon, but it happened extremely unnaturally."
"Natural phenomenon?" the adjutant snorted coldly, "An unexplainable ultra-high energy phenomenon occurs in the airspace about to contact the enemy? This coincidence is enough to stop any commander."
"Multiple units of the battle group reported brief interference with sensors, and some systems were restarted. No structural damage was found." Another officer reported.
The adjutant stared at the position of the disappearing light spot on the star map and was silent for a moment. The order to attack was issued by Supreme Council, and the target was this planet in a remote galaxy that was said to have lost its strongest protection. Intelligence showed that the "abnormal individual" who had made countless advanced civilizations avoid it had left.
But the signal just now... although its source could not be confirmed, the energy level it showed made him instinctively wary. In the vast and dangerous universe, recklessness is often the prelude to destruction.
"Order the fleet to move to the third backup assembly area." The adjutant finally ordered, and his voice regained absolute calm. "Release more reconnaissance units and scan the entire range from Oort Cloud to Kuiper Belt. I want to know what it was just now and whether it has a follow-up. Until the situation is clear, suspend the advance to the inner layer of Solar System."
"Yes!"
Kree Fleet's huge body began to slowly turn in the void, like a group of disturbed bloodthirsty sharks, temporarily retreating, but still surrounding the prey, waiting for the next opportunity to attack. They slowed down and became more cautious, but the threat was not eliminated, only postponed.
On Earth, the tense atmosphere has not been relieved by the temporary retreat of Kree, but has become more complicated.
"They stopped, but did not leave." Hill looked at the data returned by the sensor, his tone did not relax at all, "They are re-evaluating. That energy signal just now... they must have captured it."
"So they suspect that he may not have left or will come back?" Natasha leaned against the wall with sharp eyes.
"At least it creates uncertainty for them." Fury interfaced, scanning everyone in the conference room with one eye, "But this double-edged sword is also hanging over our heads. We cannot explain that signal, let alone copy it. Once Kree determines that it is just a coincidence, or has nothing to do with us, their attack will only become more fierce and decisive."
"We gained time, but not much." Tony concluded, sliding his finger quickly on the virtual interface, "'Planetary Defense Initiative' must speed up again. Banner, we need a stable output solution for your energy matrix, and we need it now!"
Bruce·Banner took a deep breath from the other side of the screen. "I'm trying my best, Tony, but it takes time! The risk of forcibly breaking through the technical bottleneck is too great!"
"We have no time!" Tony's voice rose a bit, "Either we take a risk, or we wait for Kree's battleship to drive over our heads! Which one to choose?"
The meeting once again fell into fierce debates on technical details and tremendous pressure. They obtained a breathing space through an accidental and uncontrollable "passing by", but this opportunity was like being built on quicksand and could collapse at any time.
At this moment, Xiao Han had already forgotten Solar System and even Kree Fleet behind him. All his attention was focused on the distant target coordinates ahead.
The spiral arms of Milky Way slowly rotated behind him, the stars in front became sparse, and the temperature of the cosmic background radiation seemed to be lower. This was already the edge of Milky Way, desolate and silent.
The coordinates emitted by the passive echo are extremely accurate, pointing to a seemingly empty void. But under the Super Vision of Xiao Han, that void is not empty.
A huge, almost completely transparent structure is suspended there. Its shape is more complex and twisted than the previous monitoring station, and it almost blends into the background starry sky. Only extremely subtle differences in energy refractive index can be captured. It shows no signs of activity, like a transparent jellyfish dormant in the deep sky, ancient and silent.
Xiao Han can feel that the diffuse, monitoring energy field is more intense here. This structure is obviously a higher-level node.
He flew directly towards the transparent structure without any detours or hidden plans.
The moment he entered a certain critical distance, the structure seemed to be awakened. The transparent surface suddenly lit up with countless complex lines of faint blue. These lines were not fixed, but were swimming and combining like crazy like living creatures.
No warning, no scan. This time the response was immediate and deadly.
The space around Xiao Han was instantly frozen and locked, and the density increased sharply, trying to squeeze him into the most basic particles. At the same time, dozens of energy fields with different properties were generated at the same time, superimposed on each other, attacking from the molecular level, the energy level, and even more abstract levels. The gravity was distorted, the flow of time was abnormal, and even Causality Law experienced minor disturbances.
This is a complex and deadly defense system that can destroy an interstellar civilization in an instant.
However, when all these attacks touched the invisible Biological Force Field around Xiao Han's body, they were like waves hitting a rock, shattering and dissipating silently, unable to even stop him for a moment.
Xiao Han didn't even bother to raise his hand. He just continued to fly forward, his eyes locked on a constantly flashing and calculating energy source at the core of the structure.
His existence itself is like an absolutely solid and unshakable Reality Baseline point. All abnormal laws and attacks imposed on him are forcibly "calibrated" back to the normal state of the universe at the moment of contact.
The attack of the transparent structure became more crazy, and the flashing frequency of the blue lines reached the extreme, as if a machine trapped in an infinite logical loop, unable to understand the phenomenon in front of it. It mobilized more energy, trying to build a more powerful attack mode.
It's too noisy.
Xiao Han's patience is exhausted.
He still didn't make any obvious attacking moves. He just blew out a breath towards the core of the structure.
Freezing Breath.
It was not directed at a specific target, but a diffuse, absolute zero-degree cold current swept across the entire huge transparent structure in an instant.
The crazy flashing blue lines solidified instantly, like a frozen circuit. The nearly transparent material of the structure itself lost all activity under the absolute cold and became extremely fragile. All energy flows, information processing, and defense mechanisms inside were forcibly suspended and frozen at this moment.
The next second, Xiao Han flew over it, and the invisible Biological Force Field expanded slightly.
The huge structure frozen by the extreme cold was like an ice sculpture being gently tapped. It made a subtle cracking sound from the inside, and then silently disintegrated into countless tiny, shimmering ice crystal powders, which spread evenly and formed a short and strange Stardust cloud under the dim light of the distant star.
The energy source at the core has long been extinguished.
Another source of noise has been eliminated.
Xiao Han is suspended in place, with full perception, alert to the possibility of passive echo alarms appearing again.
This time, there was silence all around. No additional information was sent out. This higher-level node seemed to have higher intelligent judgment, or a different mechanism, and did not trigger the alarm when it was destroyed.
He scanned the area carefully, Super-Brain processing the residual information carried by each scattered grain of ice crystal dust.
The information was more and clearer than the last monitoring station. He got more fragments about the so-called "Guardians" civilization - an ancient race that had long disappeared in the long river of time. They were committed to maintaining the "baseline stability" of the universe, leaving behind these automated facilities. He also got a larger monitoring network node map spread across the galaxy.
And, a final, highest-authority instruction: when the network cannot handle the "base exception", all information will be aggregated to "Final Silence Vault".
The coordinates of "Final Silence Vault" are not within Milky Way.
Xiao Han looked toward the deep, dark universe beyond Milky Way. Trouble seemed further away than expected.
He was silent for a moment. For permanent tranquility, it seemed necessary to conduct a more distant "cleaning".
Behind him, the Stardust cloud formed from the remains of the ancient monitoring station slowly drifted away, reflecting the cold light of the distant stars, like a silent elegy, commemorating another stupid creation that tried to disturb his peace.