"That's not surprising. I mentioned this at the beginning; the mechanical entities will definitely target areas and celestial bodies occupied by lower-level insects."
"That's strange. How can Mechanical Civilization keep tracking us even though we're hundreds of light-years apart? I've been trying to figure it out for the past few days. We've already avoided all kinds of celestial bodies in the airspace we're traveling through. Logically speaking, it's impossible for Mechanical Civilization to track us so accurately."
"You suspect that the camouflage satellites we released along the way were discovered? That's why the Mechanical Civilization has been tracking us all this way?"
"We had our suspicions, but it's strange that none of our satellites were destroyed."
"Indeed, if Mechanical Civilization discovers our camouflage satellites, they will absolutely have to destroy them."
"Chief of the General Staff, we haven't done much research on tracking. In the past, we relied on a large number of satellite devices and various miniature spacecraft to detect who we were looking for. The Mechanical Civilization doesn't have these devices, yet it was still able to track us. This is something worth considering."
" Old Gao, stop keeping me in suspense and just tell me."
"I suspect that our warp drive might have allowed the Mechanical Civilization to track us. The spatial fluctuations caused by the warp drive are very noticeable and will continue to be transmitted until the energy dissipates. The Mechanical Civilization may have been using these spatial fluctuations to track us all the way, and they just couldn't shake us off."
"You mean, we should shut down the warp drive and switch to a conventional engine?"
"We can try it. The spatial fluctuations caused by conventional engines are countless times smaller than those caused by warp drives. We can split a portion of the fleet to continue using warp drives, spreading the fleet out as much as possible to create the illusion of a large fleet advancing. The rest of the fleet can switch to conventional engines to advance a distance, and then continue advancing using low power. However, even if the Mechanical Civilization is tracking us by spatial fluctuations, this tactic won't work for long; it can only buy us a little time."
"As long as we can buy time, that's all that matters. What we lack right now is time. Send another 10 billion ships off course to deviate from our original course, while the rest of the fleet continues on its original course."
"Should we switch? The detached fleet should maintain its course, while the other fleets detour."
"No need. What appears real may be real, and what appears real may be fake. Only by mixing truth and falsehood can we confuse the Mechanical Civilization. Normally, it would be reasonable for the fleet to adjust its course now to shake off the Mechanical Civilization's pursuit."
Ten billion Reaper were separated again. These warships turned 45 degrees in the air and headed in another direction, while the remaining 50 billion Reaper activated their conventional engines and continued their journey toward the Matter River.
Ten days later, all 50 billion Reaper gathered behind a massive star, forming a dense formation and activating their warp drives again. Spatial fluctuations would be partially blocked by this massive star. Although this wouldn't do much good, every little bit helps, and every bit of reduced spatial fluctuations increases the chances of survival.
The separated 10 billion Reaper left behind multiple satellites connected to the main fleet after traveling 50 light-years. These satellites will be used to detect the trajectory of the Mechanical Civilization's fleet. Although they will not transmit information, the existence of the channel will indicate whether the Mechanical Civilization's fleet has passed by. Once the Mechanical Civilization's fleet is detected, these satellites will initiate a self-destruct program, and the main fleet will know that the Mechanical Civilization's fleet has been led astray.
The number of satellites that self-destruct can indirectly reflect the size of the Mechanical Civilization's fleet, whether the entire fleet has been led astray or only a portion of it. This time, one of these satellites will risk using a four-dimensional channel to transmit the information about the Mechanical Civilization's fleet collected by all surrounding satellites to the main fleet.
In addition to these satellites, a large number of self-destructing satellites were also deployed along the main fleet's route to make it clearer whether the Mechanical Civilization's fleet had tracked them down.
Sure enough, not many days later, one of the satellites released by the separation fleet sent a message, but the message was incomplete. Stabilizing the channel and transmitting the message both take time. The bugs clearly discovered this fluctuating four-dimensional channel and cut it off directly.
Wen Zhonghua immediately ordered the fleet to enter full-speed heading mode. In case the insects were attracted, it would be safer to get closer to the Matter River. However, the insects did not descend. According to the information transmitted by the satellite, the Mechanical Civilization fleet consisted of as many as 100 billion ships, and they were chasing after the separated fleet.
Meanwhile, the self-destructing satellites in the main fleet's course remained intact, much to Wen Zhonghua's relief. Finally, they had a little time. These 10 billion warships would buy the fleet at least ten days. Ten days was enough to travel hundreds of billions of kilometers, even in the Matter River. Hundreds of billions of kilometers in the Matter River were not comparable to hundreds of billions of kilometers in the normal universe. Warp drive was not possible there, and the presence of numerous meteorites provided excellent concealment.
Just as the separated fleet was about to be overtaken by the Mechanical Civilization fleet, they randomly fled. However, this setting was now ineffective. The Mechanical Civilization's warships not only had a technological advantage but also a numerical advantage, ten against one. Although the process was relatively complicated, the battle still ended in less than 24 hours.
Upon discovering that these warships were not the main fleet of Human Civilization, the Mechanical Civilization fleet immediately changed course and returned to the coordinate space where the fleet had split. After carefully analyzing the spatial information here, the Mechanical Civilization fleet once again embarked on the pursuit. At this moment, the Reaper were already close to the Matter River.
Large swarms of insects still lingered around the outer edge of the Matter River. The Reaper fleet completely ignored the insects, blasting a path through the dense swarm, and circled around the open area outside the Matter River before entering it from near the coordinates where Li Zhixiong Matter River first emerged.
Less than ten days after the Reaper fleet entered, the Mechanical Civilization's fleet arrived. They lingered outside the Matter River for a long time but did not enter. Instead, they divided into several parts outside, closely monitoring the Matter River. The swarm of insects on the outer perimeter only gathered more and more, but no insect dared to take a single step forward.
The Reaper fleet sailed through the Matter River for several years, destroying meteorites of all sizes along the way. Two years later, the fleet gradually slowed down. Instead of sailing in a straight line through the Matter River, it meandered along the way. When it passed a huge meteorite with a diameter of more than 300 meters, Wen Zhonghua's Reaper crashed into it.
The meteorite immediately disappeared into the Matter River, but in reality, it entered the massive muzzle of the Reaper's spatial cannon. The meteorite was immediately caught by the force field to prevent a violent impact. After stabilizing, a small door appeared on the meteorite, and Academician Liu Bo, Chen Peng, and others quickly entered the Reaper through the small door.