179: Time's Bond

The next seventy-two hours were among the most tense moments of technical research in the history of the Human Federation.

The Tomb of Time Research Station on The Other Shore-1 and the central computing array of Keystone-1 operated at near-full capacity. Countless scientists, engineers, and adjudicators worked together, conducting billions of simulations in virtual space.

The goal was not to understand time, but to crudely exploit known principles of spacetime instability to create a brief, directional time trap at specific points.

Finally, at the last moment before the Necron Fleet was expected to complete its assembly and launch an attack, the plan was finalized.

The Time Tether deployment units were ready.

A total of twelve units would be deployed at seven predicted primary Necron jump nodes and five critical lane intersections. The Chief Technologist reported, his voice hoarse but filled with the excitement of achieving a miracle, that each unit consisted of a specialized Time-Anchoring Generator (reverse-engineered from STC-Ω Shield principles) and a Reality-Stabilizing Field Overload Module.

When a large-scale phase-jump energy signature was detected, the unit would overload and activate, creating a Time-Stasis Bubble or a Unidirectional Time-Flow Loop with a radius of about five light-minutes and a duration of three to five standard seconds within the target area. The effect: ships entering the area would have their internal time flow briefly frozen or trapped in a tiny loop that prevented forward progress, causing their jump process to be interrupted and ship systems to be briefly disrupted due to time desynchronization.

“Warning: The units are single-use consumables; the core will overload and be destroyed upon activation. The Time-Stasis Bubble itself is unstable and may be broken prematurely by powerful external energy impacts. Furthermore, this technology causes slight damage to the spacetime structure and should not be used frequently,” the adjudicator added.

“It is enough.” Han Zhe looked at the twelve markers on the star map representing the forbidden time technology about to be deployed. “Deploy them secretly at once. Alpha, order the Firmament Defense Fleet and the Garrison Fleets to enter maximum combat readiness, but hold your positions for now and wait for the Time Tethers to take effect.”

“Yes!”

The Necron Fleet's offensive arrived as scheduled. The massive metal fleet, emitting a cold, eerie green light, was like a steel glacier surging from the darkness, pouncing toward its predetermined targets along precisely calculated phase-jump paths.

At the outer nodes of the Firmament Network, at the moment hundreds of thousands of Necron ships were about to complete materialization, Time Tether-1, deployed at a jump terminus, activated silently.

There was no light, no thunderous roar. There was only that patch of space, which froze with extreme abruptness for a single instant.

The Necron ships, just emerging from phase and still carrying energy ripples, became like images where the pause button had been pressed, stiffening in the void. The energy patterns on the hulls stopped flowing, and the light from the muzzles froze at the moment of flickering. This solidification lasted less than four seconds, but for a precisely coordinated fleet jump, it was fatal.

The ships jumping in behind them suffered a chain reaction due to the sudden appearance of the roadblock ahead and minor disruptions in their own systems caused by temporal confusion.

Some ships failed their jumps and were cast into the Warp's turbulent flows; some ships experienced minor phase overlapping with each other, resulting in structural damage. The entire jump sequence was disrupted, and gaps and chaos appeared in the originally disciplined offensive formation.

The same situation played out almost simultaneously at the other six preset jump nodes. Some areas experienced time stasis, while in others, time fell into a loop lasting about three seconds that could not progress, causing the Necron ships within to repeatedly cycle through the state of the last microsecond before jump completion. It was only when the Tether units overloaded and were destroyed that the flow of time returned to normal, but the ship systems had already generated a massive amount of erroneous data due to this bizarre loop.

Of the twelve Time Tethers, only nine successfully triggered and produced the intended effect. The other three missed their targets, either due to deployment deviations or because the Necrons chose alternate jump paths.

However, the success of the nine was enough to tear several critical temporal rifts into the multi-dynasty coordinated simultaneous offensive meticulously planned by the Silent King.

“Large-scale chaos and delays detected in the enemy fleet's jump sequence! Enemy formations in some sectors are scattered, and coordination has failed!” the monitoring officer reported excitedly.

“Now is the time! All defense fleets, according to the predetermined plan, concentrate fire and attack the enemy fleet clusters caught in chaos or isolation by the Time Tethers! Prioritize the destruction of their command ships and large carriers!” Alpha-01 seized this fleeting opportunity and issued the counterattack order.

A dark-gold torrent erupted from the Firmament's defense nodes and Garrison Fleets, accurately striking the Necron Fleets that had temporarily lost coordination or were even dazed due to the temporal disruption.

Having lost the advantage of synchronization, even the powerful Necron Fleet fell into a passive position locally.

The battle remained brutal. After the initial chaos, the Necron Fleet adjusted quickly, demonstrating terrifying resilience and combat power. Their fire remained precise and lethal, and the World Engine's strikes could still tear through the Human Federation's lines of defense.

But the precious window of time gained by the Time Tethers allowed the Human Federation to concentrate superior forces, forming localized numerical advantages that gradually wore down and defeated one Necron splinter fleet after another.

By the time the Silent King’s main fleet finally broke through the interference and arrived at the intended battlefield, they were not facing the expected hasty defense line of the Human Federation. Instead, they faced the main force of the Human Federation, which had already preliminary digested the results of the ambush, readjusted its deployment, and was waiting in full battle array.

“Ultra-large-scale signals from the Silent King’s direct fleet detected! They are approaching the Firmament core sector!”

“They are finally here,” Han Zhe said coldly. “Alpha, execute the second plan. Firmament Network, activate Overload Resonance! Void Siphon Extragalactic nodes, prepare for energy backflow! We are going to give this ancient monarch a greeting gift he won't forget!”