In the middle of the universe, a huge fleet of ships rushes forward at a speed of three thousand kilometres per second relative to the ε Eri system. Yet with no obvious reference point here, they looked like they were standing still.
But by observing the redshift and blueshift, Hawke was sure that he was really moving and not standing still.
The light of the star in front of Hawke began to turn blue, while the light of the ε Eri galaxy behind Hawke became somewhat redder. This is a redshift and a blueshift, because Hawk is travelling fast forward, fast approaching the star in front, so the star in front will glow bluer, and in contrast, because Hawk is moving away from the star behind, so the star behind will glow redder.
In the middle of this vast void, Hawke's fleet is a busy scene. Hawke has created countless droids with basic power structures, shuttling back and forth between the large transports and the large foundry ships, carrying vast quantities of materials into the foundry ships, where an even greater number of droids are busy. They processed, manufactured and assembled these materials through a series of means to create an airship to replenish into Hawke's fleet.
The number of ships in Hawke's fleet was growing by the hour.
Seventeen years had passed since the hydrogen bomb flash was observed, and the total number of ships in Hawke's fleet had grown to 110,000, with over 90 large transports having been emptied of their materials and turned into ships. Hawke then began work on the transformation of the transports.
Each of these transports could be converted into three county-class ships, so naturally, Hawke could not waste the materials.
It had been twenty-one years since Hawke had left the Epsilon Eri star system. In these twenty-one years, Hawke had sailed out a total of two trillion kilometres, almost one-fifth of a light year.
"Three more years ... three more years, and if the Luca fleet hasn't come after me, I'll be basically safe." Hawke pondered silently.
"Once we reach the Tenkura Five star system, it's time to start work on a new fusion engine. The current engine power, and fuel utilization, is not sufficient to support my ship to reach a speed of five percent of light. This means that I will have to develop more efficient engines."
Although the Lucca civilization was a level three civilization, their speed of travel did not reach five percent of the speed of light either. Hawk specifically asked Lucca II about this, and Lucca II's answer was that they were only a third-level primary civilization, and the kind that had just stepped into the third level, and they would probably need a few hundred years of development before they could increase their ship's speed to five percent of the speed of light.
The pinnacle of Level 3 civilisations can even reach a speed of 50 per cent of light, which is 150,000 kilometres per second. Fifty percent of the speed of light can be considered the limit of a ship's regular navigation, and only some special small ships, or weapons or something like that, can exceed this speed.
To break through this limit, one would have to find another way.
"A level four civilization, without a doubt, is one that has mastered a new type of energy source, as nuclear fusion energy is definitely not enough to support the massive energy requirements of FTL navigation. Well ... a level four civilization, most likely, obtains energy through the decay of matter at the proton-neutron level, a method that is more than ten times more efficient than nuclear fusion. And ... within a thousand years, I'm confident that the technology to obtain energy through this method will be worked out! Within a thousand years, upgrade to a level four civilization!" Hawke thought with confidence.
"Luca Two, today you will tell me about the composition of civilizations in the universe." With the work at hand over, Hawke was in the mood and summoned Luca Two out.
Luca Two replied respectfully, "Master, I wonder what aspect of information you would like to know?"
"Well ... what different types of civilizations are there in the universe, no, in the galaxy I guess?"
"Within the Guardian Alliance, civilizations are roughly divided into these types, the first is the technological civilization, where intelligent beings gain evolution through the development of technology. The second type is the fae civilization, where the fae civilization evolves by developing itself, and a fae civilization of level three or higher has the ability to launch interstellar voyages with its own body. The third type of civilization is the mechanical civilization, which is developed by the intelligent computers left behind after the demise of the technological civilization. The mechanical civilization usually has an extremely large number of warships that roam the universe like locusts, but they generally do not have the ability to evolve. Ah, this of course is not about you, please don't misunderstand." Luca II said, suddenly a little frightened.
"Nothing is wrong, go on." Hawke said with some amusement.
"Those are the three main types, but there are also special beings in the galaxy that are not civilizations, but possess certain characteristics of living things. For example, the nightmare of all civilizations, the Ghost Race ..."
"Ghost race?" This was the second time Hawke had heard the term and couldn't help but be very interested.
"Yes, the Ghost Race. Ghosts are a special kind of being, they have no physical body, just a piece of existence similar to radio waves, they are bloodthirsty and powerful, they can evolve by devouring the souls of intelligent creatures. In the past 70 million years, the total number of recorded civilizations that have been exterminated by the Ghost Race has reached more than three thousand, and there is even a Class 5 civilization among them."
"Ghost race?! How is it so similar to the Jupiter Spirits?" Hearing Luca II's explanation, Hawk had a flash of light and suddenly recalled the Jupiter Spirits that were imprisoned by themselves.
Even now, there were still some Jupiter spirits existing on top of Hawke's ship. However, ever since Hawke had acquired more advanced material casting technology, Hawke had given up the practice of using Jupiter Spirits to strengthen the material. Those Jupiter Spirits were also put into storage by Hawke and hadn't been bothered with them for a long time.
"The Ghost Race is a common enemy of both technological and fey civilisations, and mechanical civilisations are disdainful of the Ghost Race because of their lack of souls. Every time a sighting of the Ghost Race triggered a massive siege throughout the galaxy, and thirty million years ago, when faced with an exceptionally powerful Ghost Race, the Scavenger and Guardian civilizations even had a precedent of joining forces against it, and just like that, the two civilizations even almost suffered a tragic defeat, and in the end, it was the Scavenger civilization that sent out its neutron battlestars to exterminate that one Ghost Race." Luca II explained in detail.
Hawk pondered silently.
"I wonder if the Jupiter Spirits are the Ghost Race ... If they really are the Ghost Race, then the fun is over, and I've actually imprisoned something so powerful? I can't let the Lucantian know about this, I'll take my time to study it myself." Hawk made up his mind, and at the same time, asked another question.
"How did the Ghost Race come into being?"
The Lucan II shook his head, "I don't know. But there is some sort of pattern to the appearance of the Ghost Race; they are always found for the first time in places that had civilisations, but were extinct. The latest research suggests that the formation of the Ghosts may be linked to extinct civilisations. Once in a thousand extinct civilisations, a ghost race will appear. This time, for example, the ghost race was found around a yellow dwarf star. The third planet of that yellow dwarf once held a technological civilization."
Hawke's heart jumped and he immediately asked, "A yellow dwarf star? Give me the specific parameters of this yellow dwarf star."
Luca II did not dare to be slow, and immediately transmitted a piece of information to Hawk.
Hawk saw that the yellow dwarf, located in the third cantilever of the Milky Way, was 1.39 million kilometres in diameter, had a mass of 2x10^30 kilograms, a stellar spectral classification of g-type main sequence stars, an absolute magnitude of 4.83, a surface temperature of 5778k, eight large planets, and a third planet that once had a second-tier intermediate civilization, but the civilization had been exterminated... ...
"This is the sun, the sun that nurtured my growth." Hawk thought silently.
Hawke maneuvered the robot and removed the box that held the Jupiter spirit. Through the camera, Hawke gazed at it silently.
"Could ... you all be the spirits of my people who refuse to rest after they die? On top of Jupiter, I had also wiped out so many Jupiter spirits ... sorry, I really don't know."
At this moment, Hawke's heart was filled with mixed feelings, not knowing what to feel.
Hawke barely calmed his mind and put this matter to the back of his mind for the time being, instead he continued to ask, "Besides the Ghost Race, what other existences are there in the galaxy?"
Luca Two replied respectfully, "There are also certain unknown and terrifying beings. I once heard that hundreds of thousands of years ago, a powerful fleet of 100,000 ships from the Guardian civilisation was once suddenly lost around a certain star in the First Cantilever. The Guardian civilisation sent a follow-up fleet of scouts, but again they all disappeared. I don't know what happened, except that the Guardian civilisation classified that star's sphere of influence as extremely dangerous with a danger level of five. And in the galaxy, there are hundreds of dangerous areas of level four and above, all of which may contain unknown and powerful creatures."
"Where is the nearest dangerous area to me?" Hawke asked.
"En ... is an evacuated star cluster, known in your civilization's system as the Pleiades, roughly four hundred and fifty light years away, with a danger level of four, heavy danger. There was once a fleet of a class five civilisation that was passing through there when all the creatures in the fleet died for unknown reasons, but the ship was unharmed. It is still unknown what the cause was." Luca II replied.
"In the universe, it's still dangerous." Hawk sighed, "I will continue to be strong, to avenge human civilization, and to let my people, rest in peace ..."