510.2 light-years from the Kepler-452 Stellar System.
With a violent explosion, the Reconnaissance Squad of three Spherical Probes vanished into the vast universe.
The embers of the explosion slowly faded. As the temperature dropped and time passed, the once-dense, active particles continued to cool and grow sparse.
All that remained to bear witness to the explosion were countless shattered fragments hurtling in every direction.
The Command Center aboard [Earth].
The atmosphere was grim.
"How long until the nearest probes arrive?"
Zhao Zijie's question rang out.
"Ten minutes!" a crew member reported loudly.
At that, Zhao Zijie turned to Lü Yongchang beside him. "Professor, do you think they..."
"They aren't here with good intentions."
Lü Yongchang's tone was heavy. "Those three probes were older models, practically obsolete. Their maximum cruising speed was only 30c, and they weren't equipped with Tachyon Radar, so they had no means of detecting warp strikes."
"I just reviewed the final footage transmitted by the probes as they were hit. From that, we can essentially determine that they suffered a warp strike."
"That means they must be a level five civilization or higher."
"They attacked without a word. They're definitely not going to be easy to get along with."
Zhao Zijie nodded silently. "That's what I thought, too."
As he spoke, he turned toward a distant porthole.
Outside, the azure planet continued its quiet rotation, just as it always had.
Nearby, large numbers of warships and drones were slowly departing from the enormous spaceports.
Far in the distance, a vast spherical planet 6,500 kilometers in diameter was slowly leaving its original orbit.
Its powerful spacetime fluctuations formed a towering peak on the highly sensitive Tachyon Radar.
It was Human Civilization's ultimate weapon-the Planetary Fortress [Chiyou]!
Following the breakthrough in Warp Drive technology, starships could now disregard