Super Mothership
The densely packed, tentacle-like roots writhing on the creature made it clear that it was still alive even after entering space.
After the Immortal left Kara’s orbit, Isabel’s pursuing fleet had already begun receiving optical images of it.
The joint optical imaging system established by multiple Gemini warships was extremely sharp — even at such a vast distance, the clarity of the images was impressive.
Although they weren’t quite 4K quality, they were more than enough to clearly make out the general shape and appearance of the Immortal.
“If such a powerful space creature could somehow be bred and controlled by us Gemini, then our military strength could certainly rise to a whole new level!”
As a soldier, Isabel’s first thought was of its military value, and she was very tempted by the prospect.
The premise, of course, was that she could capture the creature relatively intact — but even its corpse would surely have immense research value.
Thinking further, and recalling their previous analysis of the Water of Life, Isabel even boldly speculated whether that miraculous water might have some connection to this massive creature before her.
After all, it was perfectly normal for rare natural treasures to be guarded by some powerful beast.
Just then, her adjutant spoke up, pulling her out of her thoughts.
“Commander Isabel, the military’s appointment order has arrived. Given the current complex situation in the Proxima system, they have approved you as the acting fleet commander for now. At the same time, the military will expedite dispatching a new flagship and a senior Sea Clan commander to take over Gustav’s duties.”
Hearing this, Isabel wasn’t surprised; she merely nodded calmly.
As long as she had formal authorization from the military, the Sea Clan fleet wouldn’t dare openly defy orders — at least the enemy wouldn’t be able to keep disrupting their fleet deployments in Gustav’s name.
“By the way, has the predicted course of that space fortress been calculated yet?” Isabel asked again.
“Yes, Commander. This is the approximate enemy course projected by the AI based on the gravitational model of the Proxima system’s celestial bodies.”
A virtual star map of the Proxima system appeared before Isabel. A red solid line marked the Immortal’s current path, extending forward as a dashed line.
“…This… are you sure the course calculation is correct?” Isabel frowned at the strange trajectory.
Because the Immortal’s route curved forward and then… plunged straight into the surface of Proxima’s star.
This suggested that if the creature didn’t alter course, it would crash directly into the star.
Proxima was a red dwarf star in its main sequence phase. Although its surface temperature wasn’t as high as the Sun’s, it was still around 4,000°C. Even just approaching it would be enough to roast any craft into a cosmic sweet potato — crispy on the outside and tender inside.
“It’s been checked repeatedly… there… shouldn’t be a mistake,” the adjutant replied, a little uncertain himself. After all, a trajectory that close to the star’s surface seemed almost suicidal.
Could it be a fake course meant to mislead us?
But at the vast scales of space travel, even a tiny deviation meant a massive difference. And changing speed and direction consumed enormous fuel. No one would deliberately take a fake path just to mislead pursuers — not even to throw them off.
Moreover, the AI’s course calculations were extremely precise. The more frequently you changed course, the easier it was for the pursuers to cut the distance by taking a more direct route. So fake moves to shake off pursuers simply didn’t exist in space chases.
Isabel’s gaze followed the projected path forward.
The dashed line skimmed past the star’s surface and continued forward, circling around Proxima before heading straight for the Solar System wormhole.
“The enemy is probably trying to use the star for a gravity slingshot, accelerating toward the wormhole to link up at the battlefront — that must be it…” Isabel analyzed in her mind while watching the star map.
This analysis basically fit her earlier guesses.
A lone space fortress, no matter how strong its defenses and firepower, couldn’t hold out indefinitely — it was only a matter of time before it fell.
Besides, once the Immortal left Kara, it was like an isolated force deep behind enemy lines. Without fuel and supplies, it couldn’t last long against the Gemini fleet’s encirclement.
The Proxima system was now under Gemini control. For this fortress, the only way to break through was to reach the Solar System wormhole — only then could it receive continuous logistical support from the Solar System and truly become a sword thrust into the heart of Proxima.
This journey was like a Long March through twenty-five thousand li: if it could break through the Sea Clan fleet blockading the wormhole and successfully link up with the United Front’s mecha army, it would be a strategic victory.
The Immortal would then become an active and vital piece on the board.
In that case, Nie Yun would gain a solid beachhead in the Proxima system, and with the full support of the Solar System as a rear base, he’d be able to stand toe-to-toe with the entire Gemini Expeditionary Fleet.
At this point, Isabel had basically discerned Nie Yun’s strategic intent. She had to admit — it was a bold plan, and an equally bold course.
“Gravity slingshot acceleration,” in astronautics and celestial mechanics, is a method of using the gravitational field of a planet or other massive body to accelerate a spacecraft. By swinging around the celestial body and changing trajectory, the craft is flung toward its target with greater speed.
In theory, the smaller the radius of the chosen orbit around the celestial body, the greater the acceleration effect that can be achieved.
However, when the two bodies get close enough, the accelerated object is subjected to the immense tidal forces of the star, and if the structural integrity of the craft is insufficient, it can even tear itself apart.
This critical distance is known in astrophysics as the Roche limit.
Judging from the Immortal’s current trajectory, in order to pull off this near “edge-ball” gravity slingshot maneuver, it would not only have to endure massive tidal forces, but also face the star’s extreme radiation and heat.
This was essentially a death course.
Even the well-informed Isabel couldn’t help feeling puzzled.
Could it be that the enemy went to all this trouble to haul this biological fortress out from underground on Kara just to give it a grand “stellar cremation”?
“Commander Isabel, our detection equipment has picked up strange changes in the enemy’s biological fortress!” the adjutant suddenly interrupted her thoughts.
Isabel looked up, slightly confused. “Changes?”
“Yes, Commander, please look — these are optical images we’ve been taking every 30 minutes.”
As the adjutant spoke, a series of images appeared before Isabel.
There were a total of 10 pictures, each showing a distant view of the Immortal.
By comparing them, Isabel indeed noticed with her own eyes that the Immortal’s silhouette was undergoing dramatic and astonishing changes…
…
At this moment, the Immortal’s canopy had already spread to cover over a hundred kilometers, shading the sky like an enormous umbrella. A lush green was rapidly budding across its crown.
These newly grown leaves greedily absorbed energy from the intense stellar radiation — energy hundreds of times more violent than within an atmosphere — replenishing the creature’s own consumption.
In contrast, its roots were shrinking rapidly, as huge amounts of nutrients flowed into the canopy.
There was no doubt that the Immortal was evolving its energy-harvesting organs to adapt to its new environment.
In fact, for the Immortal, which possessed virtually unlimited evolutionary potential, the harsher the environment, the more it stimulated its evolutionary capabilities. The miraculous Water of Life would automatically help it evolve ever stronger environmental adaptations.
This was a secret the Immortal had revealed to Nie Yun of its own accord, in order to prove its value.
Naturally, Nie Yun was very fond of such an outstanding subordinate. So, to further develop the Immortal’s potential, he arranged an extreme trial for it…
Immortal: “…” (⊙_⊙?)
This path… seems a little off somehow?
There are thousands of roads, but safety should always come first, boss!
TL Note- Safety....
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