"Do these silly tree-men think the warship is taking them on a trip?" Hu Yu sighed inwardly. But then Hu Yu thought to himself, "If an alien warship were to land in an ancient human society and say it wanted to take humans away, these primitive people might just rush to join it like the tree-men."
The warship, now fully loaded, quickly entered deep space. The frigid temperatures of space immediately seeped in through several holes in the warship, freezing all the creatures inside, including the treants, solid within seconds.
For the next two years, the warships will navigate automatically according to the signal guidance until they leave the defense zone of one light-year. The routes are few and busy, and it will take 5,000 warships a year at the fastest and three years at the slowest to leave the defense zone. Hu Yu has already transferred control of the Si Luo to another operator. He has many things to do, especially the construction of new warships. He will only personally control the Si Luo when he is in the Wind Star territory.
Academician Zeng, through his analysis of the Wind Star Civilization's warships, concluded that the Wind Star Civilization's warships were not only numerous and large among civilizations of the same level, but also had almost no weaknesses in their attack and defense capabilities. They also used powerful antimatter and gravitational fields for attacks, supplemented by powerful laser cannons. If one wanted to defeat the Wind Star Civilization's fleet, one would have to launch a strong attack using more and more powerful warships than the Wind Star Civilization.
However, the Wind Star Civilization is a Advanced Star System-Level Civilization has been operating for over 50,000 years. Humanity is currently only Mid Star System-Level civilization in terms of military technology, and is already half a level behind in terms of civilization level. Coupled with the time difference, it is almost impossible to accumulate a fleet capable of defeating the Wind Star Civilization in just 500 years.
Since a direct attack was not feasible, Academician Zeng set his sights on the surrounding stars and a Cepheid variable star, also known as a neutron star, a thousand light-years away.
Cepheid variable stars are the lighthouses of the universe and a measuring stick for the heavens; they are the final products of stellar evolution. Early humans relied on the period-luminosity relationship of Cepheid variable stars to determine the distance and position of their galaxies.
The Sun's brightness changes almost steadily, with only a fraction of a percent change within its 11-year Sun cycle. However, Cepheid variable stars are different; their brightness changes very significantly, and the greater their brightness, the longer the period of change, exhibiting a highly regular pattern. Scientists have determined the relationship between the brightness changes and the period of Cepheid variable stars, also known as the period-luminosity relation.
If two Cepheid variable stars have the same period of light variation, they can be considered to have the same brightness. Knowing the distance of one Cepheid variable star, we can estimate the distance of the other Cepheid variable star based on the period-light relationship. Assuming that the brighter one is 100 light-years away from Earth, and the other is one-hundredth as bright, we can roughly conclude that the dimmer one is ten times farther away than the brighter one, or 1,000 light-years away. This estimation method is not very precise, but it was sufficient for early humans.
Cepheid variable stars are very small, with a diameter of only about 20 kilometers. The enormous pressure of the final explosion of the star crushes the atomic nuclei in the core, destroying the atomic structure. Electrons are trapped in protons and become neutrons. This structure makes their density extremely high. A small spoonful of this has a mass of more than 100 million tons. You would need to compress the Earth into a sphere with a diameter of 20 meters to achieve this density.
Cepheid variable stars eventually become black dwarfs after exhausting their energy. However, the Cepheid variable star in front of us is in its prime, releasing enormous energy into the surrounding universe every moment. Academician Zeng is considering whether it is possible to drive this Cepheid variable star, send it into the territory of the Wind Star Civilization, and then detonate it. Although Cepheid variable stars are products of the final stage of stars, the energy of their explosions far exceeds that of stars. The energy produced by the explosion of a single Cepheid variable star would light up the entire Milky Way, creating the largest light show in the universe. Even Star System-Level Civilization do not yet have the qualifications to appreciate this light show up close.
Destroying the Wind Star Civilization using Cepheid variable stars seems simple and quick, but how to transport, protect, and send the Cepheid variable stars into their territory without the Wind Star Civilization's knowledge are all incredibly difficult tasks. Furthermore, preventing the explosion from causing deep damage to the Wind Star Civilization would render humanity's efforts futile, as they wouldn't obtain the Wind Star Civilization's complete technology tree. And what about those thousand-plus civilizations? How could they possibly avoid the explosive impact of the Cepheid variable stars without any protection? If possible, Hu Yu still hoped to save them. Most importantly, such a large-scale operation would inevitably attract the attention of advanced civilizations throughout the Milky Way. Once these advanced civilizations discovered humanity's existence, the consequences would be unpredictable.
These problems will ultimately fall on Academician Zeng and his team. There is still plenty of time, and there will always be a solution. Humanity cannot win a protracted war against the Wind Star Civilization. Their logistical support is too strong. Once war breaks out, Wind Star can deploy more than 200 billion people to maintain its logistics. Therefore, Hu Yu can only fight a quick battle and defeat them in one strike.
The new warship was designed to be the same size as the Wind Star Civilization, exceeding 3,000 meters in length. The thickness of the various armor layers on this giant warship alone exceeded 100 meters, especially the bow, which was vulnerable to attack and had a thickness of over 200 meters, far exceeding the 50-meter thickness of the Wind Star warship. In interstellar warfare, the thickness of armor often determines a warship's survivability. The irregular distortion of space by force fields and anti-gravity protection also have energy level limitations. Once even a small amount of energy from an enemy warship penetrates the warship, even the aftershocks of the energy would far exceed the megaton yield of a nuclear weapon explosion in Earth's era. Armor that is only a few meters thick is no different from paper.
However, thicker armor means greater mass, higher power requirements, and more energy. If we weren't currently in the dominant position and could postpone launching an attack at any time, we wouldn't be building warships that are almost solid iron rods. At present, the fleet's protection technology has not yet made a breakthrough, so we can only adopt this primitive and clumsy method.
The new fighter jet is named Wind Master, its meaning quite clear: to attack the Wind Star Civilization. The construction difficulty of the Wind Master is more than a hundred times that of the Stealth Killer. Not to mention anything else, the material consumption alone is a thousand times greater than that of the Stealth Killer. The remaining minerals from the five planets in the JD3 Planetary System are far from enough to produce enough Wind Master. According to discussions between Hu Yu and the academicians of the Academy of Academy of Sciences, at least 50 million Wind Master need to be built. This project will last at least 500 years, with an estimated investment of 2 billion workers, 20 billion robots, and more than 10 billion other large-scale machinery and factory equipment. This is the largest construction project in human history, but this is not the end. Future projects will only become more massive and more awe-inspiring.
On Planet Three, houses of all shapes and sizes have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. After more than 50 years of renovation, Planet Three is now perfectly suitable for ordinary people to live on. There are no longer dense urban buildings. All the houses are scattered around in family units, with most houses more than 100 meters apart. The houses are surrounded by lush green plants, rivers and lakes, blue skies and white clouds, birdsong and fragrant flowers, making for a very beautiful living environment.