Super Mothership
Three days later, nearly a thousand warships gathered at Sentinel Star began their departure, the vast fleet moving in grand formation toward the frontlines…
Nie Yun stood by the porthole, watching the enormous fleet stretching endlessly into the distance.
“Looks like… they’re planning to give the enemy a little surprise.”
A fleet of this size wouldn’t normally deploy all at once unless it was intentional. It was obvious that the Gemini civilization had deliberately held back several waves of forces, hiding their true strength, and now intended to unleash everything in one devastating strike.
His gaze shifted toward the rear of the main fleet — an independent formation of about 500 ships.
A vast, pale-blue light curtain spread slowly like an aurora, and the ships within it gradually faded from sight.
Hundreds of warships activated optical cloaking simultaneously; after a ripple of glass-like light, the entire fleet vanished from view…
“Tactical assessment complete: Gemini is using the special formation of their main fleet to generate a gravitational wake, shielding the cloaked fleet behind them. A fleet within the gravitational wake has a greatly reduced chance of being detected by forward-facing radar.”
Codename raised a hand, projecting a holographic image that clearly displayed the gravitational wake, within which the hidden fleet was perfectly submerged in a spiral flow pattern.
“Oh? Advanced stealth tactics, huh…” Nie Yun arched an eyebrow in interest.
As expected of an old interstellar civilization — they could even manipulate gravity itself to fool enemy sensors.
With one fleet visible and one concealed, even if the Wolf Civilization detected them early, they would likely misjudge the true scale of the force — increasing the element of surprise when the attack came.
However, this kind of concealment tactic had its flaws. It required a massive main fleet for cover and could only evade frontal radar scans.
Still, its strengths outweighed its weaknesses. This was the first space formation Nie Yun had ever seen that produced such a special tactical effect — and its development potential seemed impressive…
“Can you reconstruct and analyze the tactical model’s principles?” Nie Yun asked.
“Model analysis complete… I’m sorry, the answer is no!
This stable gravitational wake requires multiple specialized warships at precise nodes to emit gravitational particles of varying density. Without the proper field-fluid dynamics equations, even with my processing power, analyzing this model would take over a hundred years!
However, if I could obtain samples from a few of those special warships, my calculation time could be greatly reduced.” Codename replied.
“Heh.” Nie Yun couldn’t help but chuckle at that final suggestion.
This little trickster…
Did it really think he could just snatch a few specialized ships from among hundreds without anyone noticing?
Though currently hidden within the main fleet, and technically capable of releasing mechanical insects quietly, Nie Yun had no such plans for now.
For one, this war had nothing to do with Earth civilization’s interests — his mission was purely intelligence gathering. The smaller his footprint, the fewer traces he’d leave behind.
Moreover, even his ability to multitask had limits; he couldn’t be everywhere at once.
But beyond those concerns, there was another reason — a new technical issue.
Although the Legion’s Third Fleet had already undergone the “Silver Revolution” and fully fallen under Nie Yun’s control… his actual command over it had, paradoxically, weakened.
The reason was simple — distance.
As it turned out, after a long and arduous journey, the “special operations squad” now more than a thousand light-years away from Nie Yun was still within his sensory range — yet as the distance grew, the energy required to maintain real-time communication between them had reached a level Nie Yun could no longer ignore.
Through this ever-increasing separation, Nie Yun continued to gather valuable experimental data on the maximum communication range of his mechanical insects.
The reassuring part was that even over a thousand light-years of distance couldn’t sever his link with them. The connection between Nie Yun and his mechanical swarm had completely withstood the test of space itself.
The troubling part, however, was the energy cost of communication — a problem that had now appeared before Nie Yun for the very first time.
Simply put, the energy consumption required for the mechanical insects to communicate was positively correlated with the square of the distance, roughly expressed as y = ax² + b.
Because the coefficients a and b were extremely small, when the distance X was within the Solar System or nearby star systems, the energy cost was practically negligible — barely a drizzle in Nie Yun’s eyes.
But now, in the Storm Galaxy, with X multiplied hundreds or even thousands of times, the energy consumption had skyrocketed tens of thousands of times — enough for Nie Yun to finally feel some strain.
It had to be remembered that the energy used to control the mechanical insects wasn’t just ordinary energy — it also required Nie Yun’s own mental power.
For a man who now stood shoulder to shoulder with the Sun itself, ordinary energy expenditure meant little, even when multiplied by ten thousand. But the sheer mental effort required for long-distance control gave Nie Yun a genuine sense of “being stretched too thin.”
Because most of his focus remained on the Solar System, Nie Yun often had to keep the majority of his “special ops squad” in a dormant or silent state, only directing a small number of mechanical insects at a time to reduce energy drain.
“Looks like this tech won’t be mine anytime soon… In that case, let’s at least plant an eye here.” Nie Yun rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
The next moment, the Fallen Angel silently released dozens of silver micro-probes.
Each of these tiny probes weighed only a few dozen grams. Floating like cosmic dust, they were soon left drifting behind the Gemini fleet formation…
Although his operational capacity had diminished, it was still necessary to leave behind a few hidden “eyes” near Sentinel Star before departure.
Even though Sentinel Star lay deep in the rear of the frontlines, as the main logistics hub, its flow of supplies and warship deployments would give Nie Yun a clear picture of Gemini’s resource allocation and wartime mobilization.
As the saying goes, “Before the army moves, the grain must arrive first.”
Intelligence from Sentinel Star would be crucial for assessing Gemini’s strategic and tactical intentions.
Five days later…
Nie Yun had just arrived at the wormhole front when he witnessed a spectacular scene — hundreds of warships deactivating their cloaks and, together with swarms of aerospace weapons, plunging headlong into the wormhole.
The counteroffensive had begun — immediately, without a single pause.
The moment reinforcements arrived, the operation commenced.
Nie Yun, too, began carrying out his assigned mission alongside the Legion…
Mobile Defense.
In simple terms, it meant performing high-speed patrol and defensive maneuvers across a wormhole passage area spanning over 100,000 square kilometers.
As the wormhole connecting the two sides continued to expand, Gemini’s original fixed defense fortifications could no longer hold such an extended battlefront. Therefore, in addition to extending the defensive line, mobile “firefighting units” had to be deployed to handle emergencies wherever they broke out.
This type of mission offered a high degree of freedom, but once a section of the defense line fell into crisis, the commanders would, without hesitation, dispatch these mobile units to plug the gaps.
In terms of risk, the mission was hardly safer than fixed defense — everything depended on luck.
“Haah~ what a peaceful day…” Nie Yun yawned, slipped on his headset, and shifted into a more comfortable position.
Through the earpieces came a soft, melodious song:
A glass of red wine with a movie,
On a weekend night,
I turn off my phone,
And curl up on the sofa…
On the other side of the wormhole, the battle was likely already raging beyond imagination — but the ever-“low-profile” Nie Yun had chosen, for now, to simply lay low and wait things out.
TL Note- Happy Diwali everyone, celebrate safely and enjoy your day.
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