The fleet stayed on Lighthouse Star for two days, receiving various exploration equipment from Tarrokov. Huge alloy containers were transported by ground vehicles to the Black Star Army's transport ships and stacked neatly.
These are all exploration supplies provided by the Empire, such as stargate equipment, user-friendly planetary fortress expansion packs, and cosmic monitoring buoys used to improve star maps and provide dynamic environmental monitoring capabilities. They are all military equipment and will not circulate in the regular interstellar market; at most, they may occasionally appear on the black market.
Han Xiao had Phillip take inventory and received approximately 500 sets of stargate equipment, 6,000 user-friendly planetary fortress expansion packs, and 15 billion cosmic monitoring buoys. These were not gifts but mission tools borrowed from him, enough to last him for a while.
In addition, Tarrokov dispatched an Imperial fleet that was temporarily incorporated into the Black Star Army to assist him in exploring the Gaolu Star Cluster. The commander was a major general under Tarrokov named Seniko.
Tarrokov, stationed on Lighthouse Star as commander-in-chief, dispatched several Imperial fleets, each with its own commander. Seniko was Tarrokov's trusted subordinate and one of the Imperial cadres stationed in the Shattered World that Han Xiao remembered; he had some recollection of her.
As partners in the future exploration phase, Han Xiao met with Seniko and reached a simple consensus on cooperation. Seniko stated that he would not interfere with the Black Star Army's exploration plans; their main role would be to provide assistance.
After two days of preparation, the Commander-in-Chief finally announced the start of the formal operation. The various fleets stationed on Lighthouse Star parted ways and headed to their chosen star clusters.
The Renault Star Cluster was explored by the War Realm and the Krent, the Gaolu Star Cluster by the Black Star Army, and the Crown Ring Star Cluster by the remaining Imperial direct fleets. Comparatively, the Crown Ring Star Cluster had the most personnel exploring it, while the Gaolu Star Cluster had the fewest.
The Black Star Army fleet, together with Seniko's fleet, marched in a grand procession towards the southernmost border system of the Gaolu Star Cluster.
Before setting off, Han Xiao had already informed all members of the legion's exploration plan, including millions of players.
He put all sorts of tasks on the faction mission list, including exploring planets and deploying buoys, which are further subdivided into different areas. There are numerous missions, but each has a limit on the number of players, providing millions of Legion players with options.
The various exploration tasks sparked discussions on the forums because the main quest mechanism of Shattered World is based on a point system, which is divided into individual points and team points. Different exploration tasks give different points, depending on the actual gains. Players can only guess and analyze at this time, but they still enjoy it.
On the forum, players generally believe that exploring planets is theoretically the most rewarding activity. Activities such as discovering resources, finding life, excavating planetary history, and mining resources all offer points rewards, and the process is full of unknown fun.
From the players' perspective, other tasks such as deploying monitoring buoys, setting up stargates, and building outposts are considered manual labor, and currently the fewest people choose them.
Han Xiao knew that once players figured out the exploration process, guilds would start to compete openly and covertly. Large guilds hoped to use resource-rich planets as their resource points. Although they could only get a small portion of the total resources mined, which was just like getting a little something extra, it was still extremely generous considering the average wealth level of players.
In the past, there were two main reasons for the chaotic battles between players from different countries Shattered World: factional conflicts and the struggle for planetary resource points. Now, however, millions of players belong to their own factions, so there are no factional conflicts. Therefore, the struggle for resource points is the only reason for these battles.
Han Xiao knew that in order to compete for planets with rare resources, guilds were fiercely competing and frequently waging guild wars to seize each other's "territory." Although it hadn't reached that stage yet, he was aware of it, especially since there were club guilds from different countries within the legion, making competition inevitable.
He promoted social interaction between new and old players, and another purpose was to plan ahead and minimize the impact of competition between guilds from different countries on ordinary players. Ordinary players inevitably fight each other for fun, but he wanted to prevent obvious hostility among ordinary players. That's why he used two tasks to farm faction contribution points to encourage players from different countries to actively make friends.
As long as there are no obvious rifts among the players, guild competition won't be a loss for him. After all, players' equipment will have to be repaired if it gets damaged, which will actually encourage spending.
After sailing for some days, the various fleets entered their designated positions and officially began their respective exploration operations.
The Black Star Army's exploration team arrived at the southernmost border star system of the Gaolu Star Cluster and, as planned, built the first transit station to connect to the Dawn Star Cluster.
The Engineering Department used a user-friendly planetary fortress expansion pack on a desolate planet at the edge of the star system—the transport ship opened its drop bay, and hundreds of thousands of giant mechanical bases with built-in space thrusters flew out, looking like steel nails—these were fortress nodes.
The fortress nodes arrange themselves in outer space, with equal spacing between them, forming a large net that covers the entire planet.
Immediately afterwards, the thrusters of these fortress nodes spewed out surging orange-yellow tail flames, breaking through outer space like hundreds of thousands of space-based gravity weapons, crashing onto the planet's surface, all deeply embedded in the crust, raising boundless dust.
Next, all the fortress nodes were activated, their tops glowing crimson, and they began to alter the planet's atmosphere and terrain. Each node vibrated, unleashing shockwaves that triggered rumbling earthquakes, tore apart the underground rock layers, and injected large amounts of metal structures.
Silver and gray metals continuously extend from the nodes, spreading across the land, covering the soil, and transforming the planet into a metallic surface. Following a pre-programmed sequence, these engineered alloys with nanoscale modification capabilities automatically deform and assemble, and bases, fortresses, and warehouses rise from the ground.
Several dozen hours later, the initial transformation was completed. The barren, yellowish-black planet had been completely transformed into a silver-gray planetary fortress, becoming the first stronghold of the Gaolu Star Cluster.
The Imperial engineering ships were also busy, using traction beams to drag massive stargate components section by section, assembling the stargate next to this outpost.
An unactivated stargate appears as a hollow, giant mechanical ring. Once activated, the inner ring lights up with blue lights, like indicator lights, releasing spatial energy and connecting to one of the stargates near the Lighthouse Star according to pre-set coordinates.
After the activation process is completed, the hollow part of the mechanical ring transforms into a wormhole-like blue vortex, becoming a fully formed stargate.
Apart from the troops that stayed behind to build a base, the others dispersed, with some deploying space monitoring buoys in the surrounding areas and others exploring unknown planets.
A star system is divided into about ten star sectors, and at this time, the main force of the Black Star Army began to explore the first star sector.
According to the plan, Han Xiao Faction a special task force led by Hadavy, carrying 150 sets of stargate equipment to operate independently. Their goal was to cross more than a dozen star systems to reach the eastern part of the Gaolu Star Cluster and establish a long-distance stargate passage.
The task force is equipped with advanced high-warp transport ships, with a warp speed limit of 14.1. They will continuously jump at their maximum speed, and it will take about four months to traverse such a long distance to reach their destination.
Once the task force establishes a long-distance stargate, the four-month journey can be shortened to a few hours—because it's not a direct stargate, and they'll have to transit through more than a dozen star systems, so some extra travel time is needed.
Countless legion members worked together, and Han Xiao himself was not idle either. He boarded the main ship and led a group of regular legion warriors and legion players to conduct on-site exploration of a planet in the center of this star sector.
In his memory, this planet was a trading hub in his previous life, one of the gateways to the Gaolu Star Cluster, and had considerable mining value. Moreover, it did not have a harsh environment and was a habitable planet inhabited by indigenous civilizations.
Currently, this planet doesn't have a name, only a number, so it's a good opportunity to claim it in advance and begin development.
The outer edge of the Shattered Star Ring.
Here, with Tu Shu, lies the edge of the Explored Universe, separated from the Shattered World by a long, Desolate Universe Belt.
Fleets departed from the border from different directions, transforming into streaks of light that leaped into the Desolate Universe Belt, heading straight for the Shattered World.
News of the Crimson Dynasty's development of the Shattered World had already spread throughout the Galaxy. Although the Empire had explicitly prohibited other civilizations from entering, a single agreement could not deter the advanced powers, all of whom wanted to bypass the Empire's monopoly and enter the Shattered World ahead of time to seize the initiative.
These fleets were not the first; they came from different civilizations and organizations and concealed their identities to avoid being discovered by the Empire.
Unable to use the Empire's stargates, they could only smuggle themselves to the Shattered World, carrying stargate equipment, intending to secretly establish a secret stargate passage to avoid the Empire's surveillance.
Even if these fleets have high warp speeds, it would still take them a very long time to cross the Desolate Universe Belt and reach the Shattered World.
Most of these illegal immigrants are driven by profit, while a small minority have ulterior motives.
One of these groups consisted of loyal members secretly dispatched by the Arcane Church.