In space above the real Water Blue Star, Zhao Qing finished assigning the fleet's movements and began carefully dividing up the crew's watch schedules.
Zhao Qing said, "Set the real-to-virtual time ratio to ten to one. We'll assign our active periods accordingly."
"Each shift will last one day in the real world. Teams A and B will follow their previous training and begin alternating rest periods in ten minutes of virtual time."
"Understood!"
As the warship's engines fired up at full thrust, the immense vessel began moving forward. Like a comet trailing a luminous tail, it sped on as the surrounding planets and stars swept backward.
Everyone watched Water Blue Star recede behind them and let out an inexplicable sigh.
Even the usually unflappable Li Tianle suddenly remarked, "Sometimes I don't even know whether I'm in reality or the virtual world anymore."
Lin Fan waved a hand and laughed. "Ah... why draw such a clear line? Once this test flight is over, we've got to go back and have some fun."
Lin Fan added, "By the way, Captain, what exactly is our mission? Orange Star is a place where you won't even find a bird-"
"Lin Fan, how can you go prying into the mission?" Huang Xue'er chided him with a roll of her eyes. Her charming expression drew teasing noises from many of the male crew members.
The communications team's other three young, attractive women naturally backed up their leader, making all sorts of strange noises as they joined in the assault.
"Oh, you're done for! Team Leader Lin has offended the squad of beauties!" The leader of the Attack Team was a heavily bearded man.
His name was Liu Yanchang. Though only twenty-two, his full beard made him look remarkably mature. He watched Lin Fan with amusement in his eyes and remarked, "Good thing our team has a balance of men and women."
The warship's command staff consisted of the following:
The communications team handled communications, intelligence decryption, and signal reconnaissance, as well as checking the sources of incoming signals.
The propulsion team adjusted the output of the primary and secondary engines, controlled the warship's speed and heading, and coordinated with the tactics team to carry out routine evasive maneuvers.
The Resource Team managed energy supplies and logistics for the entire warship, including ammunition, nuclear fusion fuel, food, medicine, and other supplies.
The Attack Team controlled all the warship's onboard weapons, standing ready to attack at a moment's notice.
The radar team could precisely detect any suspicious small target within a radius of 100,000 kilometers, even one no larger than a ping-pong ball.
Within a radius of 250,000 kilometers, it could detect medium targets the size of two fists; within 500,000 kilometers, it could scan large targets as small as a soccer ball!
It worked so closely with the Attack Team that the two were practically joined at the hip.
The tactics team collated all data to monitor the battlefield in real time. Its duties included taking over command from the captain, designating attack targets, plotting courses, and assessing the enemy's attack capabilities, speed, and other attributes.
The captain and Vice Captain were responsible for deciding every action the warship took.
Each of these teams had four members. With the captain and Vice Captain, that made twenty-six people in total.
Each team consisted of a leader, a deputy leader, and two assigned support personnel.
The warship had a further 197 logistics personnel, including those responsible for repairs and maintenance, food service, and medical treatment.
There were also 600 troops for landing operations, including landing craft pilots, ground assault vehicle drivers, and infantry.
A closer look revealed an equal number of men and women in the command section.
Most of the landing forces likewise had equal numbers of men and women!
"Ahem. While we have these few minutes, let me explain the mission in detail." Zhao Qing cleared his throat to draw everyone's attention.
He said, "The warship's primary objective is to travel to Orange Star and investigate the crashed research spacecraft Tianhe 1 and the Orange Star research base, whose status is unknown. Our superiors suspect someone has been interfering behind the scenes."
"This test flight is intended both as a deterrent and to reassure the public. However, we may very well come under actual armed attack, so everyone must remain alert and cautious."
"Yes, sir!"
The immense warship's rear engines trailed long ribbons of purple light as it headed toward the mesmerizing expanse ahead, where red, green, purple, and blue stars glittered together.
That was the Ophir Nebula Cluster, 730 light-years from Water Blue Star...
After infiltrating a device and obtaining information, the Luo Qi Replica discovered that he had been hunted and cornered in cyberspace for more than ten days!
The personal terminal belonged to Zhang Cheng, a young man. The replica had brutally torn apart its original idiotic system and installed himself in its place.
Although the device was seven or eight years old, that still made it a high-tech product manufactured after 2040.
A one-nanometer highly integrated chip, a High-Energy Battery, and a micro-integrated circuit board had practically turned this slim phone into a miniature computer!
"The information on Orange Star's server was false! It completely underestimated Water Blue Star's technological capabilities."
"All the technology at Orange Star Base was a weakened, stripped-down version. No wonder they dared to load it with so much information."
The replica worried that his original self on Orange Star might grow overconfident and provoke Water Blue Star. Once discovered, Orange Star's meager armed forces would face nothing but containment or outright destruction.
But the replica had no idea that, after this period of development, the situation on Orange Star had already changed beyond recognition.
Just thinking about the Cyber Police gave the replica a headache. If he hacked into Water Blue Star's satellites to send information to Orange Star, there was no guarantee he could escape afterward!
If he were captured and analyzed, allowing the enemy to obtain information about his original self, they would be in serious trouble.
Reason told him that he was merely a string of data. He had to remember his mission: gather intelligence, remain hidden, and await orders.
He began emulating the personal terminal to access Water Blue Star's network.
"The Alliance hasn't disclosed the loss of contact with Orange Star Base. It hasn't even announced the crash of Tianhe 1, but it clearly won't be able to keep this hidden for long."
"That warship launched from the ground into space. It must have antigravity technology or powerful ion-acceleration engines. Just what kind of weapons does it carry?"
The unknown was the most terrifying thing of all!
The replica began collecting useful information: high-tech infantry exoskeleton armor, Tiger-Type Combat Mechs, highly intelligent service robots, automated cities...
There were two major powers on Water Blue Star: the White Dove Alliance and the River Domain Alliance.
The White Dove Alliance was formed by white people and had a population of 1.9 billion. Its overall technological strength was slightly greater than that of the River Domain Alliance.
The River Domain Alliance consisted of people of East Asian descent and a very small number of white people, with a population as high as 4.1 billion.
However, development still varied across the River Domain Alliance's regions, and living standards had yet to be brought into line. A large-scale new citizen registration program was currently underway.
Looking back further in time-
Twenty years earlier, immediately after their founding, the Two Great Alliances had signed a nonaggression treaty.
Despite the treaty's restrictions, for some unknown reason, even trade between the two sides had dwindled to almost nothing. The hidden history of that period seemed to have been erased from the internet by a powerful artificial intelligence.
The Luo Qi Replica could not find so much as a word about it, but he imagined that this unrecorded history must have been steeped in bloodshed and brutality.
Meanwhile, Zhang Cheng, lying on the bed nearby, was in a game-
He clutched an electromagnetic rifle, squeezed into a dim landing craft surrounded by people in full-body armor.
Under the white lights, he could clearly see tiny chips in the paint on the exoskeleton armor. He could also see that the row of people beside him had dark red lenses covering their eyes.
Throughout the landing craft, everyone differed in height and build, and their Combat Powered Armor and weapons varied greatly as well.
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