167: A dazzling star map

"Celestial Orrery Strike!" The Chief Technologist's voice was filled with horror. The legendary superweapon that could reshape stellar trajectories, trigger supernova chain reactions, and even locally restart space-time! It actually existed and had been launched!

The strike was not a direct energy bombardment. The first wave of ripples swept across several resource systems on the Human Federation's frontier. The stellar orbits there underwent minute but fatal shifts, planetary environments changed drastically, and several mining bases were reduced to ruins in the sudden gravitational disturbances and radiation storms.

The second wave of ripples acted directly on the Firmament Network at the edge of the Eye of Terror. The powerful space-time distortion attempted to tear apart and dismantle the stable structure of the Nullifier network. The network load spiked instantly, and synchronization failures appeared in some nodes.

But the most fatal blow was aimed directly at Ark World and Keystone-1! If hit directly, it would be enough to trigger the collapse of the entire system's spatial structure or cause the stars to step into destruction prematurely!

"Activate all Reality Stability Anchors! Overload them! abyss of order, maximum power output, stabilize the space-time of the core regions!" Han Zhe commanded sharply. This was the most direct and terrifying extermination strike the Human Federation had faced since its founding.

The Purification Dome generators and Reality Stability Anchor arrays spread across the Human Federation's territory operated at overload simultaneously. The dark gold light of order acted like a final dam, stubbornly holding back the invisible space-time distortion force that could annihilate stars.

The two forces grappled silently on a cosmic scale. Space itself groaned under the unbearable weight; light distorted, and gravity became anomalous.

"Cracks have appeared in the Keystone-1 peripheral stabilization field! Stellar Stabilizer No. 3 has overloaded and exploded!"

"Ark World's Seventh Starport has broken off due to space-time shearing!"

"Eye of Terror network node clone batch-7 synchronization has failed; the Order Field is collapsing locally!"

Loss reports kept coming in. The combined strike of the Necron Dynasties had a power and precision far exceeding expectations.

"adjudicator! Analyze the strike pattern! Find countermeasures or interference methods!" Han Zhe roared aboard the violently shaking the arbiter.

"Analyzing..." The adjudicator's voice remained stable, but it was clear that it was invoking unprecedented computing power.

Celestial Orrery Strike Principles: By manipulating specific space-time nodes, it triggers space-time structural resonance across interstellar distances to achieve long-range pinpoint destruction. Its energy transmission relies on the underlying space-time structure of the galaxy itself, making it difficult for conventional defenses to completely block.

Weakness Speculation: The attack requires extremely precise calculations and synchronization of multiple nodes, placing high demands on the space-time stability of the transmitting end. Furthermore, during transmission, its energy interacts with massive celestial bodies and strong energy fields along the path.

Countermeasure Recommendations:

1. Source Interference: Immediately launch special missiles carrying high-intensity logic viruses and space-time disturbance shells toward the control zones of the Ouroska and Thanatos Dynasties. Attack their potential Celestial Orrery control nodes or power facilities to disrupt their synchronization and calculations.

2. Path Deflection: Outside our core regions, select several controlled, non-essential systems or large celestial bodies (such as gas giants or black hole accretion disks) and actively overload their Purification Domes. This will create violent, unstable space-time tension fields to act as shields, deflecting or absorbing part of the strike energy.

3. Network Resonance Counteraction: Utilize the Firmament Network itself to attempt inverse resonance with the incoming space-time ripples. Instead of direct resistance, guide the energy to circulate and dissipate within specific loops of the network, or even attempt to channel some of the energy into the Siphon Protocol to convert it for our own use (extremely high risk).

"All approved! Execute immediately!" Han Zhe did not hesitate for a moment.

The Human Federation's war machine once again demonstrated its terrifying adaptability and execution. Diting Units and lurking fleets hidden deep in enemy territory, disregarding the risk of exposure, launched lethal interference weapons at suspected Necron key coordinates.

Frontier system defense Commanders received their orders and, with tears in their eyes, initiated sacrifice protocols, overloading the defense energy fields of several systems to the brink of collapse to artificially create violent space-time turbulence zones.

Meanwhile, the Firmament Network before the Eye of Terror began a dangerous resonance under the adjudicator's extreme control. The light of the network nodes pulsed at complex frequencies, actively meeting the destructive space-time ripples and guiding them into a meticulously designed energy circulation labyrinth composed of multiple nodes. Simultaneously, the network core reactivated the Siphon Protocol—but this time, the target was the pure and violent space-time manipulation energy of the Necron weapon!

This was a soul-stirring tug-of-war occurring at the level of cosmic rules.

Frontier systems were continuously annihilated or turned into inaccessible space-time turbulence zones after serving as shields; Firmament nodes were constantly overloaded and destroyed in extreme resonance; and Necron Dynasty control zones erupted in internal chaos due to the interference attacks.

Ultimately, at the heavy cost of more than ten systems being completely destroyed, thirty percent of Firmament nodes severely damaged, and Ark World and Keystone-1 suffering heavy blows (though their cores remained intact), the combined Celestial Orrery strike from the Ouroska and Thanatos Dynasties was forcibly withstood by the Human Federation using this near-suicidal and gambling method. The terrifying space-time ripples gradually weakened and dissipated.

"Strike stopped. Detected energy disorder at the Necron transmitting end; synchronization interrupted." providence's voice carried the exhaustion of a survivor.

"We held them off." Alpha-01 looked out the porthole at the battered but still standing fleet and the damaged but still glowing Firmament behind them, letting out a long sigh of relief.

Han Zhe stood silently in the Keystone-1 Command Center, looking at the large gray areas on the star map representing losses, and the still gloomy ghostly green toward the Necron Dynasties. There was no joy of victory in his eyes, only a deeper coldness and determination.

"Ouroska... Thanatos..." He whispered the names of these two dynasties, his voice like ten-thousand-year-old ice. "You sent the Celestial Orrery... then, as a return gift..."

He looked up, his gaze like a blade, sweeping across all the surviving high-ranking officials in the Command Center:

"Initiate the preparatory phase of the Final Liquidation Protocol. Targets: the Ouroska Dynasty and the Thanatos Dynasty."

"Study the Celestial Orrery attack data. We must master this power or find a way to destroy it completely."

"Concentrate all resources to repair the Firmament Network and upgrade defenses. Simultaneously, accelerate the Extra-Galactic Star Sea Seeding and the Pastoral Plan. We need more strategic depth and resources."

"adjudicator, I want you to produce a plan to completely exterminate these two dynasties within a year. Whatever the cost."

"Yes."

The ancient order of the galaxy, after experiencing the temptation of Slaanesh and the destructive strikes of the Necron Dynasties, had escalated its hatred and confrontation with the Human Federation to a level of life-and-death struggle involving the very survival of their civilizations.

After enduring successive heavy blows, the Human Federation did not collapse; instead, its cold will was tempered to be even harder and more extreme.

The horn of counterattack had already sounded silently. Next time, when the Human Federation's military might pointed toward Ouroska and Thanatos, it would no longer be a gradual weakening, but a war of extermination in a head-on clash.