"Regardless of the mechanism, the computer technology of Mechanical Civilization is always based on electromagnetism. Powerful electric current is their greatest threat, so they would definitely take various defensive measures when building warships. No matter how powerful the current released by the Demon Scorpion warship is, it shouldn't be able to penetrate it."
"That's true, but the swarm's corrosion opened channels for electricity. If these warships hadn't been combined, the losses wouldn't have been so great. But once they were combined, with their internal structures interconnected, if there was even one leak on the outside, the current would spread throughout the entire assembly. Perhaps they themselves didn't realize that such tiny insects could cause them so much damage."
Have all mechanical consciousness vanished?
"It's dissipated. I had Academician Xiao check it with me, and we confirmed there were no oversights. We also physically isolated the mechanical warships to prevent any surviving mechanical consciousness from disrupting our fleet network."
"Well done, Qin Yin. Now that Academician Zeng and the others are not here, you'll have to shoulder the responsibility of fleet technology. Thank you for your hard work."
"It's just that the Demon Scorpion Civilization's attacks were too powerful. The Mechanical Civilization's warships no longer have any analyzable technology left. Apart from the armor, there isn't much other technology we can utilize."
"This Demon Scorpion Civilization... well, let's just say we have some; it's better than nothing."
"General, when will Academician Zeng and the others be able to return?"
"It'll be soon, it'll be soon. I'm even more anxious than you, but we must have faith in Academician Zeng and his team. At least I can tell you now that Academician Zeng and his team are doing very well. However, they must have encountered some major difficulties. This is both a challenge and an opportunity. If we manage the fleet well, Academician Zeng and his team will be able to solve the problems smoothly."
"Yes, I will."
"Go."
Goodbye, General.
After Qin Yin left, Hu Yu looked up at the sky. Across a distance of more than 50,000 light-years, Hu Yu seemed to see a group of busy figures.
In the Matter River, Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong have established a defense system spanning the entire Matter River. Although faster-than-light travel and four-dimensional communication are not possible here, matter is exceptionally abundant. What they need to do is have robots collect this matter, then create more robots, and use more robots to turn more matter into offensive weapons.
This place has been built over 10,000 years and is just as busy as JD6, only on a smaller scale. Using the abundant resources here, Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong not only produced various kinetic weapons and energy balls, but also restored the number of Reaper to 100,000.
Since this was a small team operation, apart from the academicians, there were only a few hundred other logistics support personnel. These few hundred people were also very busy, as they had to take care of the entire team's food, clothing, accommodation, and transportation. Only Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong, along with a guard team of two hundred people, were able to spare time.
These 202 people have now become skilled workers, shuttling back and forth in the Matter River, dealing with various problems with machinery and equipment. Many of these soldiers only began to learn these things after arriving in the Matter River.
Fortunately, we had planned ahead and prepared sufficient machinery and equipment; otherwise, we would have been left only to sigh in despair. Although the construction work is slow now, it is proceeding in an orderly manner. After the Reaper was restored to 100,000, no more were manufactured because these Reaper were only simplified versions. They were good for confusing swarms or enemies, but in actual combat, they were not as good as a Star System-Level Civilization warship. Building warships is a huge project that cannot be carried out by 202 people. It is already quite good that we have been able to produce these prototypes.
Since warp drive is not possible here, some low-cost, old-fashioned weapons were brought out again, such as electromagnetic railguns, high-temperature armor-piercing projectiles, and high-energy lasers. These weapons can be considered crudely made, not only simplifying many functions but also greatly increasing energy consumption. Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong would even do things like paying several hundred percent of the energy to increase the power by one percent.
Because energy is abundant here, and with no other effective weapons to deal with the swarm, high temperature is the only way. Under extremely high temperature and normal pressure, no matter can remain stable, and the insects are no exception. As long as the temperature is high enough, it can still cause fatal damage to them.
Besides forcibly accumulating energy to increase attack power, the most important thing is to ensure a sufficient number of personnel. Due to limited personnel, weapons have to be simplified. For example, precision strikes are not necessary here because the main enemy is the swarm. There is no need to aim when dealing with the swarm. Weapons only need a simple scanning system and a reliable fire control system, which is sufficient.
Under the watchful eyes of the academicians, one hundred Reaper once again entered the danger zone, which resembled a giant hand. The shape and area of the danger zone had remained remarkably stable, changing by less than one kilometer over the past ten thousand years—almost unchanged on this scale.
Another Reaper had already extended half of its bow into the danger zone. The academicians usually conducted observations from the bow. Over the years, hundreds of Wildcat ships had been lost. After Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong built a simple industrial system, they manufactured tens of thousands of small, simplified versions of the ships. These ships were also lost without exception. Less than one in ten thousand were able to return, and they all stumbled out by chance.
The academicians also tried some other methods, which did indeed allow the Wildcat to run a little further and return, such as using ultra-long ropes to enhance the power of electromagnetic waves, or using various electromagnetic wave relay devices, deploying one every few hundred kilometers, or using gravitational waves, etc. However, such research was meaningless and could not help to understand what caused the spacecraft to lose contact in this danger zone.
The reason for using only a limited number of Reaper warships this time is that the Reaper are more advanced, and the academicians have gained some confidence. When the Reaper are more than 10,000 kilometers away from penetrating the danger zone, as expected, they can only maintain contact with the Reaper through relay equipment.
These one hundred Reaper were programmed not to return, but to continue moving at high speed in one direction. Except for the equipment and components related to navigation, everything else on these Reaper was removed to store energy, and an energy collection device was added. When the Reaper ran out of energy, they could collect Basic Energy from the surroundings. This was a super voyage to verify a hypothesis that the academicians had never dared to imagine before.
The danger zone is different from the outside of the Matter River. Warp drive is not possible outside the Matter River, but the danger zone is empty, allowing for warp drive, and the speed of warp drive here is even greater than outside. The Reaper here can reach speeds of 5000 times the speed of light.
The only thing left to do after deploying the relay equipment hundreds of light-years away is to wait. As for how long, the academicians don't know either; it could be a year or two, or it could be tens of thousands of years or even longer.