Final Defense Protocol

The computer screen quickly went black, then an enormous image of Sima Xiaochuan's face suddenly popped up.

Holy shit!

Xi Yan jumped in fright.

"Time limit exceeded. Executing psychological punishment protocol."

"You bastard, you're still dumping bodies in 2200?!"

"To be precise, it is the end of 2199."

After watching for half a Kun-hour, Xi Yan was left reeling by the psychological assault. He took a moment to recover, then opened [Empire One-Click] to get to work.

Yet his thoughts still lingered on the information he had read about this world.

This was the world of Stellaris. There was no doubt about that.

Just like in the game, his Interstellar Human Military Junta possessed the starting technologies on the tech tree. It had only just ventured beyond its home system, with territory spanning a single star system and one colony.

Its large military vessels capable of faster-than-light travel consisted of three corvettes, along with one construction ship and one science ship, both equipped with level-one Hyperdrives.

A standard start.

Xi Yan also took note of the Interstellar Human Military Junta's history.

(For plot reasons, the timeline will be slightly different.)

His empire had only been founded twenty years ago, making it a very young interstellar empire.

Human civilization originated on Earth. In the early twenty-second century, faster-than-light travel technology was successfully developed, allowing humanity to travel faster than light through the Hyperlanes built by ancient civilizations throughout the Sea of Stars.

In the same century, the United Nations of Earth was officially established, with fanatic egalitarianism and xenophilia as its dominant ethics. It embarked on interstellar expansion early on.

At the end of the twenty-first century, before FTL (faster-than-light travel technology) existed, humanity discovered a small, unstable wormhole in the Oort Cloud. It launched the Ulysses Project, building six enormous sublight arks to explore through the wormhole.

(Why send people through without properly investigating it first?)

(A salute to the United Nations of Earth, the legendary nation bold enough to toss 1.5 million people straight into a wormhole without knowing where it led.)

Each of the six enormous arks carried approximately 250,000 people. They were the United Nations of Earth's first colony ships.

However, after they entered the wormhole, it rapidly collapsed, cutting all six arks off from the United Nations of Earth.

One of those arks, the Autumn Chrysanthemum, lost contact with the fleet and trudged along at sublight speed until it found a new colony site in the Deneb System. It named the planet United Star and established the Human Federation.

In 2170, in opposition to the United Nations of Earth's increasingly severe internal conflicts and radically different ideologies, everyone who did not embrace fanatic egalitarianism and xenophilia rose up, rallying beneath Marshal Xi Lie's banner...

Marshal Xi Lie then led the United Nations of Earth's fleet in a defection.

After ten full years on the run and at tremendous cost, they finally reached the Cybrex Alpha System and established the Interstellar Human Military Junta.

Wait a second. Which system?

Xi Yan had been reading the history with a smile, mocking the United Nations of Earth's incompetent governance, until he came across a familiar name.

"The Cybrex Alpha System? I live here?"

"Wait! I remember, isn't this..."

An unbelievable thought sprang into Xi Yan's mind. He leaped out of his seat, vaulted over the desk, and pressed himself against the floor-to-ceiling window.

His view opened up at once.

Under Xi Yan's stunned gaze, the buildings and land near the distant horizon grew progressively smaller, rising to a terrifying height!

A gigantic Ring World-densely packed silver buildings clustered along the ring-shaped structure spanning the sky, encircling a dazzling central star that filled more than half the heavens-was reflected in Xi Yan's dark eyes.

"A Ring World start! It's a Ring World start!"

"I'm set! And I'm screwed!"

The ancient precursors, the Cybrex Civilization, had built this megastructure: a structure orbiting a star, divided evenly into four sections, each a colony capable of housing hundreds of billions of people.

[Ring World]

Yet the precursors had long since vanished into the river of history, and the Ring World they had built was on the verge of collapse, until fragile humanity arrived bearing civilization's flame and founded a colony on the only habitable section left.

Repairing the remaining three Ring World sections required the rare technology [Mega-Engineering], something his [Interstellar Human Military Junta] naturally could not accomplish on its own.

Still, one thing puzzled Xi Yan greatly.

How had they managed to find the Ring World in the Cybrex Alpha System?

Cyberlex Alpha was the precursor civilization that had built this Ring World. Normally, it took at least a decade to decipher the relics the precursors had left scattered across the universe before their Homeworld System could be located.

So how had they found it?

Xi Yan could not figure it out.

He checked the detailed historical records... Oh, the fleet had not followed the normal Hyperlanes between systems. Instead, it had veered slightly off course and stumbled into this place.

Just how lucky did they have to be...

The rest of the history was straightforward. The rebel leader, Marshal Xi Lie, the Interstellar Human Military Junta's previous Marshal, had organized the clearing of this Cyberlex Ring World's Alpha Section and established a colony.

He was Xi Yan's father in the world of Stellaris.

Xi Yan covered his forehead.

He still had no memories whatsoever of this former Marshal.

If he had crossed over in his own body, why did his nominal father share his surname? And why had a nation that should not exist in Stellaris appeared here?

If only his soul had crossed over, where were the original owner's memories?

Xi Yan knew nothing. He hesitated for a while, then continued reading the history.

Whatever the case, I'm already here...

"On December 12, Cosmic Era 2199, the first Marshal, Xi Lie, suffered a recurrence of his old injuries. Resuscitation efforts failed, and he passed away that day."

"Marshal Xi Lie had only one son, Xi Yan. In accordance with our military traditions, he shall succeed to the position of Marshal, assisted in governance by five generals."

"Marshal Xi Yan assumed the position of Marshal of the Interstellar Human Military Junta on December 27, Cosmic Era 2199."

The historical record ended abruptly there. Xi Yan no longer had the heart to read the more detailed accounts.

"Sigh. Since I'm here, I might as well make the best of it. With the title of future Marshal on my shoulders, I can't lose!"

Xi Yan gave himself a pep talk.

Even after being nerfed once in the game, a Ring World start was still easy mode. But as the saying went, the best start was having a neighbor with a Ring World start.

Possessing a treasure made you a target. Xi Yan had to protect his Homeworld System.

But the Cybrex Civilization...

Wasn't his AI called Cybrex Beta?

At that thought, Xi Yan called to his AI. "Beta, what's your connection to the precursor civilization here?"

Beta quickly replied, "The Cybrex Alpha Civilization was my creator."

"Under the protection protocol, my duty is to protect the organic civilization that awakens me."

Xi Yan rubbed his smooth chin.

The Cybrex Civilization had once been incredibly glorious, and it had an entire event chain. The story behind it could not be explained in just a few words.

Xi Yan thought for a moment, then asked quietly, "Then do you know about the [Contingency]?"

!!!!!

Beta spoke up instantly.

"Contingency detected. Final Defense Protocol activated!"

In an instant, red lights flashed throughout the office and alarms blared.

Xi Yan's eyes widened. "Oh crap. I think I said the wrong thing!"