Colonia Storm Tour

If the Ring Messenger discovers that they have been hiding on the back of the Azure Moon, they might just take the opportunity to search the back of the Azure Moon as well.

The base on the back of Cangyue is like a hidden fleet beacon. If this hidden fleet beacon is destroyed, then there will inevitably be a delay in contacting Alice and the others who came to this world, and they will also suffer from a lack of information. His initial location when he came to this world was near Cangyue and Aquamarine.

From the most feasible theoretical perspective, if Alice wants to open a wormhole between the two worlds, she should establish the other end of the wormhole based on her own coordinates. Therefore, the importance of the base on the back of the Azure Moon is particularly important.

"It is ready and set up so that when any Foehn Wind Fleet enters the detection range, it will immediately submit a report after identity verification."

Walker.com AI responded.

"All fleet, listen up! Warp to the designated coordinates in Saturn's orbit."

Lin Haiyuan currently has 20 Kodiak warships at his disposal, plus the Colonia flank air base, making it a fairly substantial fleet.

"Yes, Master."

Walker.com AI responded.

The 20 Kodiak warships that retreated to the back of the Azure Moon and the Colonia's flank air base entered the warp space at the same time and disappeared from their current location. The pale flashes released the instant they entered the warp space briefly illuminated a dark area on the back of the Azure Moon, and no human-made objects could be seen on the back of the Azure Moon in that flash.

The Athena device's base version, the "Invisibility Tower," appears to have accomplished the important task of optical invisibility very well.

After the Kodiak warships and the air base on the flank of Colonia warped to Saturn's orbit, the planet Aquamarine, which had already transformed into a virtual world, saw a large number of Sage Ships, Destroyer Ships, Decay Ships, and Sky Tyrant Carriers emerge from the surging cluster of virtual mist a few minutes later from the side of the planet facing away from the star.

These menacing warships seemed poised to eliminate any obstacle in their path, but their intended adversary had already warped away, rendering their attack futile.

The lord who successfully transformed Aquamarine into the agent of the virtual world offered all the consciousness on Aquamarine to the end of the cycle of the virtual world through a complex sacrificial ritual.

Compared to those warship fleets composed entirely of psionic energy that only have shields and no armor and lack offensive capabilities, the Agents prefer the Protoss warships they create themselves. The shields and armor achieve a good balance, and there is no tragic situation where the entire ship becomes a naked body and dies in one shot when the shields are destroyed.

After resolving the issues on Aquamarine Star, he now needs to deal with the ships of an unknown human force that have been causing him a lot of trouble with their "big moves."

By sacrificing all consciousnesses on Aquamarine Star, whether possessing or lacking psychic potential, to the end of the cycle of the Void Realm, the Agent intends to deal with that irritating enemy.

"Huh? Where did the person who interrupted my good time go?"

The Executor's face, hidden beneath his armor, was fierce and twisted as he stared at the screen with a menacing glint in his eyes. The screen did not show the Ark flagship or the other unknown forces' warships that he wanted to see.

"Warp signal detected. The target designated by the Executor has warped away."

The Void Crystal Core delivered another piece of bad news.

"Oh ho ho, that damn thing got away again! But don't worry, even if I chase you to the edge of the universe, I'll still cut your head off and use it as a chamber pot!"

The executor made some seemingly powerful and threatening remarks.

What's funny is that the agent who is the one who makes the contract with the End of Reincarnation doesn't need to excrete, so the urinal is basically just for decoration.

"Continue the pursuit, search, and destroy them. Those damn bastards are definitely in the nearby planetary system!"

He believed that the unknown human ships that left must have colonies or outposts nearby, otherwise how could they have accidentally discovered the existence of the Ring Messengers or appeared by such coincidence?

Destroying colonies and outposts to transform rocky planets into virtual worlds was something the Ring Messengers were destined to do.

This massive fleet of Ring Messengers traveled at sub-light speed within the planetary system for some time until it was fully revealed in the space of the White Sun System. Then, a huge white-pink Mother Ship slowly emerged from the illusory mist, and the entire fleet was enveloped in a layer of white-pink energy before disappearing into the planetary system.

After "disappearing," this massive fleet was flying in a "space" constantly propelled by white pulses and countless beams of light.

This fleet has entered a psionic leap state, advancing through the basic structure of reality towards another planetary system on the star map, to search for, destroy, and then transform rocky planets inhabited by life into virtual worlds.

Frozen planets, molten planets, barren planets, and highly toxic planets are generally not among their targets because they lack visible life and civilization.

The planet Aquamarine in the White Sun System, a world teeming with life, has become an inaccessible virtual realm. Anyone without the ability to fight against this virtual realm who enters the mist will only face a one-way trip.

However, apart from Aquamarine Star, which has become a virtual world, and the satellite Cangyue, which has established a base on its back, the rest of the Baiyang System appears unchanged.

The sun remained silent, emitting bright white light that spread in all directions, illuminating everything within the planetary system surrounding it, including Aquamarine, which had already become a virtual world. However, the comforting sunlight could never penetrate the virtual mist to reach the oceans and land of Aquamarine, as the virtual mist effectively blocked and absorbed the white light from the star.

The satellite network moving towards the star-facing side of the planet was fortunate enough to avoid the swarming fleet of the Ring Messenger, so the Ring Messenger failed to detect these invisible, twinkling little satellites.

Meanwhile, the Colonia flanking fleet, which had already warped into Saturn's orbit, also received a report from Aquamarine's GLONASS satellite system.

"Master, our GLONASS satellite system evaded the swarming Ring Messenger fleet by changing its orbit in time. An extraordinary Mother Ship appeared, and then the entire Ring Messenger fleet warped away from this White Sun System."

Walker.com's AI compiled the intelligence into a simple report.

"It seems they've made up their minds to let us leave the Baiyang System. They don't yet have the capability to detect signals generated by faster-than-light travel throughout the entire galaxy, so the detection range is much shorter than we imagined."

Lin Haiyuan felt fortunate about this. If the Ring Messenger's warship was equipped with a gravity detector or a subspace detector, it would not be difficult to find them at a suitable distance. If a station-based gravity or subspace detector was established, their whereabouts would be impossible to hide, as the gravitational and subspace fluctuations caused by the ship would be difficult to conceal.

"Given the possible existence of distorted consciousness, and the possibility that more Ring Messenger warships may fly out of this virtual world, our operations in this planetary system should remain covert and cautious."

Walker.com AI suggested.

"Then we should operate covertly within the planetary system and avoid approaching Aquamarine, which has now become a virtual world, as much as possible."

As for the possibility of causing a huge commotion on Saturn that the entire planetary system would know about, that was not within his consideration. At present, he only had "shattering the planet" as a way to make a big commotion, and even that was not feasible.

"Let's begin now. Locate the position and coordinates of that floating continent, conduct a thorough scan and observation, and prepare for the operation."

Lin Haiyuan still needs to find the exact location of the floating continent. The location he sees in his mental vision is only a rough one, and a rough location cannot be used as a precise location. The old saying "a miss is as good as a mile" is very apt.

The floating continent created by the unknown ancient pioneer civilization may seem large, but that is merely an illusion built upon Earth's imagination.

The Earth has a diameter of 12756 kilometers, while Saturn has a diameter of 120540 kilometers. This means that in terms of diameter, the entire Earth is only about one-tenth the diameter of Saturn. If we put "Asia" or "North America," which have a place on Earth, into the Earth, they are still insignificant compared to the entirety of Saturn.

Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether the floating continents created by the ancient pioneer civilization were the size of a continental "continent" on a land planet.

From a human perspective, placing a landmass of similar size to small countries like New Zealand and Iceland as the site for the experiment would be most suitable. However, this is still human thinking. After all, the unknown ancient civilizations may not necessarily be creatures that look like humans. They are more likely to have bizarre appearances or even be like tin cans. Therefore, their thinking would not be like that of humans.

It is not an easy task to measure the thinking of extraterrestrial beings using human thinking.

"Yes, Master."

Walker.com AI responded.

The Griffin special operations ship has gone to the designated location to search for the floating continent created by the ancient pioneer civilization and placed in Saturn's atmosphere. It will report back immediately once it receives a response.

So Lin Haiyuan sat in his office chair and silently looked at the data he often looked at to pass the time.

At this approximate location he indicated, the Griffin Special Operations Ship's six plasma thruster engine nozzles emitted faint plumes of flame as it soared above Saturn's atmosphere. The ship's onboard scanning array continuously scanned the Saturn below, searching for the floating continent that Lin Haiyuan had seen indicated in his mental vision.

This floating continent appears extremely small compared to the massive size of Saturn. Therefore, finding this floating continent in a general direction is not an easy task, especially since no regular communication signals that could be considered organic life or machines have been detected. So, relying on regular radio waves to locate a floating continent is useless and only applies to planets where civilization exists.

The Griffin special operations ship, controlled by WalkerNet's AI, scanned the designated area for possible floating continents, leaving behind several faint and fleeting tracks formed by special plasma thrusters.

After arriving in Saturn's orbit, the Colonia Flanking Air Base, along with 20 Kodiak warships controlled by Purifiers, headed at a constant speed towards the orbital area of ​​the floating continent. As a precaution, the Colonia Flanking Air Base and the Kodiak warships would not follow the Griffin on its exploration mission.

The lady named Exile mentioned finding and freeing her, which means there is a 99% chance that she is "sealed" somewhere on that floating continent. Logically speaking, a seal not only has the barriers and instruments required to seal the designated object, but also guards left behind to prevent anyone from breaking the seal.

The equipment and firepower of these guards are unknown to the Foehn, and it is also unknown whether they have planetary defense weapons for defending against orbital bombardment. Therefore, before the situation of the floating continent is known, the Colonia flank air base and the Kodiak warships should try to avoid contact with or approach the floating continent.

After searching alone for some time, the Griffin special operations ship finally discovered the floating continent in the central region of the approximate location shown in the "Saturn" mental world.

From the probe's perspective, the jagged, cold white light reflected by this floating continent, whose surface is frozen into permafrost, is much more noticeable than the light reflected by Saturn itself. In addition, various measurements have proven that the floating continent in that region is different from the gaseous atmosphere.

"Master, the floating continent that was revealed in your mind's eye has been confirmed to have been discovered by the Griffin Special Operations Ship."

Walker.com AI immediately reported to Lin Haiyuan.

"Found it? Hmm, has the Griffin been subjected to detector illumination or some kind of weapon attack?"

Lin Haiyuan was most concerned about whether the Griffin had been attacked, and if so, what he needed to find and decide whether to launch a proper intercontinental ballistic missile for bombing.

"Currently, the Griffin Special Operations Ship has not been illuminated by detectors or attacked by weapons. Further reconnaissance of the entire floating continent is needed before any preliminary conclusions can be drawn."

Walker.net's AI did not receive any warning signals or detect any attack from the floating continent.

"Okay, then let's continue the reconnaissance and organize the information about the floating continent detected by the Griffin and project it onto the holographic projection."

Lin Haiyuan nodded, picked up Hei Yu who was standing to the side and put him in his arms, then reached out and placed his right hand on the table.

A holographic projection was generated in front of Lin Haiyuan, and then an image and a small amount of text appeared in the holographic projection. The text marked on the diagonal lines extending from the image silently explained the corresponding situation and content.

After locating the floating continent, the Griffin Special Operations Ship changed its previously set course and immediately accelerated towards it. The plasma thrusters emitted increasingly bright tail flames and wakes as the acceleration percentage continued to rise, and the flight speed was much faster than before—the Griffin Special Operations Ship had not previously entered stealth mode.

Acceleration in space is much easier than in the atmosphere because there is no obvious air resistance.

As the Griffin accelerated toward the floating continent, the Colonia's flank air base received more and more valuable scanning information.

Minutes later, a floating continent, consistent with the detection results, appeared in front of the Griffin Special Operations Ship.

Images captured by the cameras and detectors of the Griffin Special Operations Ship were transmitted back to the Colonia Flanking Air Base, where Lin Haiyuan saw the scenery he had seen in his "dream" through a holographic projection.

The frozen earth and mountains, the solid ice and permafrost reflecting the starlight and the blue-white glow of the sun peeking out from the "horizon," formed a mirror-like cold light. Shadows were formed on the back side where the light could not reach. Sparse ice clouds passed through the earth or mountains like a fleeting ephemera. On the ground, there were only what appeared to be dense meteorite craters and nothing else outside the permafrost layer.

"This is exactly the same as the floating continent I saw in my mind's eye. If the entire floating continent is like this, with nothing on the surface, then perhaps we don't need to worry about possible attacks...maybe."

Lin Haiyuan couldn't be sure if there were some "good guys" hiding underground on the floating continent. After all, the floating continent wasn't a thin piece of cloth like a flying carpet, but a real crust with enough thickness to support the existence of underground objects and the establishment of nests or bases. These "good guys" could be insects with extremely strong vitality and evolutionary ability or machines with excellent cold resistance. The former would be more troublesome, while the latter, those metal cans, would be relatively easier to deal with.

After all, they are experts at dealing with mechanical fumaroles, and powerful electronic warfare methods are effective against those defensive machines to varying degrees. Therefore, dealing with machines is much easier than dealing with insects. At least with insects, you can only paralyze them with stasis rays or simply blast them to death with bullets, explosives and plasma.

As for how a floating continent avoids being pulled down by its own gravity and maintains stability while orbiting the atmosphere, that is another highly technical and complex topic.

After confirming the orbital airspace above the nearby floating continent, the Griffin Special Operations Ship, under the control of WalkerNet AI, began to open the entrance and exit of the multi-functional delivery pod and accurately "launch" satellites to form a satellite network around the floating continent. This network has both reconnaissance and orbital strike capabilities, ensuring that anything that appears can be immediately destroyed once it is detected by the guidance system.

However, the use of intercontinental ballistic missiles must be restricted at the same time. No one knows whether the sound waves and force generated by an ICBM would destabilize or disintegrate this continent. After all, the description of an unknown ancient pioneer civilization already proves that the floating continent has a very long history. In simpler terms, it has a "shelf life".

While no visible facilities for a stable floating continent have been seen, the use of strategic nuclear missiles should be avoided as much as possible before the stability of this continent is confirmed. Deploying tactical nuclear weapons should be acceptable, as a smaller yield means less damage and less disruption to stability.

"Now that we've come this far, since this floating continent was created by an ancient pioneer civilization, and Ms. Exile said there would be good things on it, what can I find on this barren surface?"

Lin Haiyuan couldn't see anything good on that frozen, barren ground that would please him.

Most importantly, no clues were found regarding the Exile's exact location. She only pointed out the location of this continent in her mind's eye, and no further information was known.

There will be no double update today.

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Based on the equipment we can currently conceive of for constructing a floating continent, excluding the psionic powers of idealistic fools, it would require a massive power supply system + anti-gravity device + attitude control nozzles to ensure levitation against gravity and maintain a fixed orbit to prevent drifting off course, as well as sufficient strength to withstand winds exceeding 1000 miles per hour...

If you think about it carefully, building an orbital defense platform is already the most cost-effective option. If you aim higher, you could build a ring world or a habitable world. However, establishing a floating continent on a gas giant is the least cost-effective option, and even if you have the technology to do it, the returns don't seem to be high.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Vanishing into the Void (VII)

The process of exploring the floating continents then becomes simple and tedious, because it requires waiting for the reconnaissance/strike satellite network built on the corresponding floating continents to be fully established and for subsequent detailed scanning. The scanning items are quite complicated, and all of this takes a certain amount of time to complete.

After gazing at the frozen "vast land" and "lofty mountains" for a while, Lin Haiyuan felt a little drowsy.

"Oh right, I haven't had a proper sleep yet. It's... noon now, perfect time for a nap."

Lin Haiyuan got up from the chair, holding Hei Yu, straightened his clothes, then sat back down and adjusted the backrest to recline, while simultaneously lowering the brightness of the entire command room to its lowest level.

He doesn't like light in his sleeping area because he can still feel the light when he's trying to fall asleep with his eyes closed, which makes it difficult to fall asleep, especially if there's noise.

After preparing for sleep, Lin Haiyuan would urge his mind to naturally enter a deep sleep, ensuring a short but high-quality sleep.