112: Amira's observations

In the S-92 Galaxy, on the scarred wasteland of the third planet.

The invisible yet crushing gravity lock finally showed a hint of loosening.

Although the grace vessel battleship still could not take off, at least the winged Angel people warriors around the warship no longer had to walk pressed against the ground like terrestrial animals.

Amira Radiance stood alone on the highest observation tower of the grace vessel, her golden hair dancing in the dry, static-filled air. She looked up at the sky obscured by the silver-white warship, her heart filled with complex emotions.

The massacre from a few days ago—or rather, the unilateral garbage cleanup by the Faleim People—had completely shattered the pride of this haughty Archangel.

Just when she thought this suffocating standoff would continue for a long time, a psionic beam from the firmament connected to her consciousness once again.

It was Trier.

"Commander Amira Radiance," Trier's voice still carried that annoying arrogance and nonchalance, "Consider yourself lucky; I'm going to tell you some good news."

"The Central Council has discussed and agreed to give the Angel Empire a chance to state its case."

"We will invite you to Faleimland, the capital system of the Faleim Scientific Conglomerate. There, our highest authority, and..." Trier's voice paused slightly, carrying a hint of irrepressible reverence, "Our Great Guide will meet you in person."

"Go to your home planet?" Amira's heart skipped a beat. This was not just a diplomatic ice-breaker, but an adventure deep into the tiger's den.

"But, my warship..." Amira thought of the scarred grace vessel, her eyes filled with worry.

"Your warship can't fly, and it's not worthy of flying into our home system." Trier interrupted her bluntly, "And since the task force's warships just performed a jump to clean up that garbage, the engines are in a cooling and recharging phase, leaving only conventional Warp Drive capabilities."

"We don't have time to waste decades with you at sub-light or low-multiple speed of light travel."

Trier's psychic consciousness projected an image. He pointed to a giant spacecraft in the orbit of the third planet in the image; it was the engineering ship that had recently completed the construction of the S-92 Galaxy stellar base.

"You will take that engineering ship to Faleimland. As for your grace vessel..."

"We will lift the communication blockade in this area, and you can contact your people. At the same time, we will airdrop a batch of high-purity crystal ore and nano-repair materials to you. In exchange, you must set off immediately, alone."

This was an offer that could not be refused.

Amira took a deep breath, a flame of determination burning in her golden pupils.

"I accept."

Half an hour later, a small Faleim shuttle landed on the deck of the grace vessel, picking up the royal member of the Angel Empire.

When Amira Radiance boarded that Pathfinder-class engineering ship, she felt as if she had stepped into a completely alien world, a labyrinth composed of cold steel, flickering light paths, and absolute order.

In the warships of the Angel Empire, everything was sacred and spiritual. The walls were engraved with complex prayer scriptures, the air was filled with soothing incense, the power core was a giant psionic crystal emitting warm light, and standing in front of the console were psionic envoys whispering incantations.

The warship was not just a weapon, but a mobile temple.

But here, on the Faleim People's ship, Amira could not feel even a shred of "spirituality."

The interior corridors of this ship were spacious and bright, the walls made of a silver-gray synthetic material she had never seen before, cold to the touch and extremely hard. There were no idols or scriptures, only countless holographic light bands flashing with data streams moving rapidly across the walls and ceilings.

"This way, please, Madam."

Guiding her was a spherical robot floating in mid-air. It spoke in standard Angel language, but that expressionless, electronically synthesized voice made Amira feel completely uncomfortable.

She followed behind the robot, her sharp eyes curiously scanning the surroundings.

When she passed an open maintenance workshop, she stopped, looking at the scene in front of her in astonishment.

Several automated engineering robots with eight mechanical arms were repairing a damaged thruster component. The ends of those mechanical arms sprayed blue lasers and femto-sprays, and the damaged metal surface was rapidly reorganized and healed at the microscopic level.

The entire process was maddeningly precise, without a single wasted movement, and without any psionic fluctuations.

The Angel Empire did not lack material technology, but the materialistic civilizations Amira had encountered were not even as advanced as the Angel Empire in material technology, which made it hard for her to imagine a civilization that could achieve precision repairs that even high-level alchemists found difficult without using psionics.

The Angel people could only deeply observe the microscopic realm and perform precise operations in the shimmering world by using psionics; without psionics, their material technology level stopped at the nanoscale.

"This is atomic printing and femto-repair technology." The spherical robot explained, though it did not understand the guest's surprise, "Very basic maintenance means."

Amira felt a deep sense of absurdity.

Basic? Such miraculous means were just basic in their eyes?

Subsequently, she was taken to the bridge, which looked more like a massive data processing center. Dozens of Faleim crew members sat in front of circular consoles, their fingers dancing rapidly in the void, manipulating complex charts and parameters on the holographic interface that made Amira dizzy.

"Welcome to 【World Forger 27】, I am the captain."

An older Faleim engineer turned around. He wasn't wearing a military uniform like Trier, but rather simple work clothes.

"Please sit down, Ms. Amira."

"Although our super inertial dampers are advanced, the moment of jumping might cause a little discomfort to your semicircular canals or similar balancing organs of your race."

"Jump?" Amira frowned, sitting in a chair that automatically conformed to her body curves, "Don't you need to pray before Warp Drive? Don't you need to soothe the emotions of the warship?"

In the navigation technology of the Angel Empire, entering a superluminal state—that is, Warp Drive—was a sacred and dangerous matter.

The spaceship needed to consume huge amounts of energy to build a stable warp bubble. Every voyage required the bishop on board to pray for a long time to pray that the psionic output fluctuations would remain stable and that the warp bubble would not collapse accidentally.

Moreover, even with their most advanced Warp Engine, crossing a distance of nearly a hundred light-years would take at least two years.

"Prayer?" The Faleim captain showed an expression of looking at a primitive, "No, we don't need that; we only need coordinates and energy."

He turned around and tapped a red virtual button with his finger.

"Jump Drive charging complete."

"Coordinates locked: Faleimland System."

"Initiate."

Amira subconsciously grabbed the armrests, prepared to wait for several years on the ship.

However, nothing happened.

There was no violent vibration, no twisted starlight outside the window, and no dizziness like when first wrapped in a warp bubble.

Just in the blink of an eye, it was like a frame jump in a picture.

The dark red S-92 star and that desolate starry sky outside the window disappeared instantly.

Replacing it was a dazzling, suffocatingly prosperous sea of stars.

"We have arrived." The captain's calm voice sounded.

"What?" Amira jumped up from the chair, her wings spreading due to extreme shock, almost hitting the ceiling.

She rushed to the huge porthole, staring fixedly at the scene outside.

This was impossible! This was absolutely impossible!

One second she was in a desolate place nearly a hundred light-years away, and the next second she arrived in a completely strange system?

No time needed? No process needed? Teleportation?

This was a power that only gods could master!

"This is a jump." The spherical robot floated to her side, mechanically adding, "Folding space, point-to-point transmission. By the way, this engine is standard equipment on every ship of ours, including engineering ships like ours."

Every ship... standard equipment...

These two phrases ruthlessly shattered Amira's worldview.

This civilization actually installed this god-like technology on civilian-level engineering ships?

However, what made Amira's soul tremble even more was the panoramic view of the Faleimland System gradually becoming clear outside the window.

If the S-92 Galaxy was a desolate Gobi, then this was a steel kingdom flowing with "milk and honey."

The holy fire of the star emitted a stable and warm light, and around it orbited countless artificial celestial bodies.

Amira saw that huge stellar base, the Fortress of Heaven built by the Faleim People; it was like a planet forged of metal, swallowing and spitting out tens of thousands of ships. Those ships formed neat long dragons in space, busy and orderly like red blood cells in blood vessels.

She saw that magnificent giant shipyard in orbit, countless mechanical arms busy within, sparks flashing as brand-new warships were produced like products on an assembly line.

And in the deeper parts of the system, a fleet so massive that it made Amira feel suffocated was quietly moored in the void.

That was the Third Interstellar Expedition Fleet of the Faleim.

Looking around, as far as the eye could see, there were warships everywhere.

One hundred Titan flagships over three hundred kilometers in length were like one hundred towering mountains—or rather, mountains were far from enough to describe their vastness—their main gun calibers were large enough to stuff many Angel flagships inside.

Five hundred strangely shaped Paradox-class battlecruisers exuded a dangerous aura.

And those ten thousand battleships, and countless frigates and destroyers...

The number of this fleet...

The size of the warships in this fleet...

Only one sentence could come to Amira's mind: "Our fleet will blot out the sun, no matter how many suns there are in the sky."

But all these combined were not as shocking as the super giant object moored in the center of the fleet.

That was a... no, that could no longer be called a ship.

That was a moving world, a satellite made of metal.

Its length exceeded two thousand kilometers, and it was entirely deep black-silver. (The Moon's equatorial diameter is 3476.2 km)

Its surface was covered with dense turrets, hangars, and shipyards, like a steel behemoth crouching in the sea of stars. Even just parked there silently, the gravitational waves it emitted were enough to distort the surrounding space.

That was the super weapon of the Faleim Civilization—the Dominator Combat Platform.

"Almighty God..."

Amira Radiance's legs went weak, and she almost collapsed to the ground.

Her proud psionic perception told her that the energy contained within that huge object was millions of times more terrifying than any miracle she had ever seen.

If this fleet sailed into the Orion or the Perseus Arm... The Iofer Federation? The Angel Empire?

In front of this power from another dimension, they probably wouldn't even count as dust.

"Welcome to Faleimland, Ms. Amira."

The captain's voice sounded behind her, carrying the pride and arrogance of being a part of this great civilization.

"The Great Guide is waiting for you."

Amira raised her head with difficulty. The humiliation she felt from being forced to lower her head had vanished at this moment.

In its place was reverence from the depths of her soul.

She finally understood where Trier's arrogant confidence came from.

This was indeed not an equal exchange; setting aside faith, it was more like a pilgrimage.

Offering her humble respect to the true hegemon of the sea of stars, to that great existence known as "the guide".