159. Chapter 159, Star Tunnel

Author: red heart cloth

Chapter 159, Star Tunnel

In this vast universe, if you want to travel across galaxies, the most important reliance is the astral tunnel.

An astral tunnel connects two galaxies, compressing the distance of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of light-years into a journey of a few days, a dozen days, or at most a month or so.

Spaceships and starships that have the ability to enter astral tunnels essentially enter a hyperspace state after entering the tunnel.

The normal way for a starship to sail in the universe is to sail within the star system at sub-light speed, fly from one transition point to another, then enter the astral tunnel, arrive at another galaxy, and then find the next one.

A transition point...

This requires star charts and navigators.

The latter are specially trained psykers.

Only they can identify the specific location of the star tunnel transition point in the void of the universe and guide the ship through the tunnel to the opposite side of the tunnel.

At the same time, the so-called star chart also has meaning.

The star map shows many star fields connected by astral tunnels. Two adjacent star systems may actually be very different in a physical sense. Perhaps two star systems that are physically similar are only a few dozen light years away.

distance, but since there is no direct connection with the astral tunnels, navigation between each other requires jumping through multiple astral tunnels, so they are very far apart; in the physical sense, they may be tens of thousands of light years apart.

Two star systems are connected by a star tunnel, so they are two similar places on the star map.

In the human empire, the physical distance between galaxies is of little significance. Without astral tunnels, relying solely on the power of the spacecraft itself and sailing at sub-light speeds, communication between two galaxies no matter how close they are is unrealistic.

Of course, physical distance cannot be completely ignored. Some monsters and monsters can really endure countless years of time, slowly fly out of the void of the universe, and actually fight their way out.

The territory of the empire is divided into: space domain, star domain, star sector, galaxy. These four-layer structures are all based on the star map. The dense star tunnels are like a huge network, connecting the territory of the entire empire.

stand up.

There are three astral tunnels in the Nuo Xiao Galaxy. Tunnel No. 1 connects to the Koroga Galaxy, Tunnel No. 2 connects to the Black Arrow Galaxy, and Tunnel No. 3 connects not the Pegasus Sector, but the Shenjun Star Sector next door.

The Pegasus Star Region and the Divine Horse Star Region both belong to the Dragon Eagle Star Region and are both under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Universe Region.

Wang Jiarong's caravan came exactly from Tunnel No. 1. They had just completed a business in the Koroga system.

Originally, her plan for this voyage did not include a remote place like Angry Owl. Wasn't this Yelicia conveying her cousin's needs to her?

After thinking about it for a while, it wouldn't be a big problem to take a detour to the Raging Owl Galaxy, then go from Tunnel 2 to the Black Arrow Galaxy, then transfer back to Koroga 3, and then back to the capital Wing Star.

If you run a little more distance and travel to two more planets, you won't lose money - you won't make much money at most, just support your cousin who you used to hang out with when you were a kid.

It takes five days for the fleet to travel through the star tunnels from the Koroga galaxy to the Raging Owl galaxy. The first four days are nothing major. As always, you can see bizarre scenes outside the window, but in fact, as long as you don't leave the ship

Within the ship area, don't risk your life by releasing any detectors or the like, otherwise there won't be any danger.

But on the fifth day, the navigator on the 'Beautiful Maiden' reported news that they detected an abnormal signal in the astral tunnel. It seemed that there was a fleet following them, also in the astral realm.

Walking through the tunnel.

This made Wang Jiarong very uneasy.

The tunnel from Koroga to Raging Owl is a deserted one. It is not a busy waterway. Even the empire is too lazy to build any checkpoints at the jump points on both sides.

Apart from the destruction of the Raging Owl Star, this situation has been going on for hundreds of years.

Besides her fleet, who else would pass through here?

Going to the Shenjun star area next door?

That’s not realistic. The prosperous hive world of Koroga has a direct route to the Star of the Star. No one will go to the Star of the Star through the Raging Owl Star. No one will take a detour and do something that is more costly.

.

So what's going on with this fleet?

During interstellar navigation, you need to be vigilant for any anomalies.

The empire's space is not really that safe.

Pirates are the most common threat, but there are always threats from other aliens.

The Empire calls all non-human races aliens and is committed to annihilating all intelligent races except humans.

Not to mention that when traveling through the astral tunnel, it is easy to encounter some... supernatural events. For example, a ruined ship crashed in the astral tunnel. During the voyage, dozens or hundreds of people were missing from the ship.

Individuals, sometimes even dozens or hundreds of people...

These things are even somewhat commonplace.

But now, after they clearly noticed that there was more than one ship following them in the same astral tunnel, they had no choice but to be careless.

After completing the astral jump, they did not dare to stay any longer and chose to immediately switch to engine mode, gradually accelerating, trying to reach the upper limit of sub-light speed, and headed towards the Raging Owl Star.

Wang Jiarong knew that Ye Lixia's cruiser was docked in the orbit of the Raging Owl. After reuniting with the Quintet, her merchant ship would have strong security protection.

To this end, she also ordered the astropaths on the ship - which is also a profession of psykers after special training - to try to communicate with the Quintet.

However, the Astropath brought her quite bad news: they could not contact the Quintet.

The star language message has been sent, but there has been no response.

This situation further deepened Wang Jiarong's anxiety.

If they can't be contacted, there are only two reasons: either their astrological messages are blocked and cannot be transmitted, or the Quintet cannot receive their messages.

None of which is a good thing.

When the ship leaves the transition state and resumes regular sublight navigation, it will take a certain amount of time for the engine to accelerate.

Now she just hopes that this acceleration process will pass quickly. For this reason, she has urged the mechanical priest in charge of the engine many times.

At the same time, she also ordered that the entire fleet enter a first-level combat readiness state and must be prepared to face the enemy at all times.

The 'Beautiful Maid' is equipped with 11 M-class 'Hot Hammer' macro cannons ready to go. The other three frigates are each equipped with 15 S-class 'Defender' rapid-fire cannons.

3 M-class specification 'Retribution' cluster laser cannons.

These naval guns, as well as the operators behind the naval guns, and the meditator array of the fire control system and navigation system, have all entered the highest combat readiness state.

The so-called cogitator array refers to a collection of 'wetware' composed of specially trained psykers, or even ordinary people, under the cogitator technology, and combined with basic mechanical calculators to assist ship operations.

, auxiliary artillery for calibrated shooting.

But even though she had made all the preparations before the war, Wang Jiarong was still praying to the emperor, hoping that bad luck would not really befall her.

It's definitely best if nothing happens. As for the current tension and extra preparation, it doesn't matter if it goes to waste.

However, not every prayer can have corresponding good results.

"They're coming out..." The navigator's voice sounded in Wang Jiarong's ears.

She quickly returned to the main console, and the screen cut to the opposite direction of the starship's travel.

In the void, many ships are gradually taking shape.

In fact, the distance between the two sides is already more than 50,000 kilometers.

However, this distance is still too close in space.

Through the meditator array zooming into the virtual screen in front of them, the identities of the ships that followed them, passed through the transition point, and entered the real universe were very obvious:

A fleet of green-skinned orcs!

This can be distinguished from their exaggerated and chaotic appearance, like a pile of rubbish randomly spliced ​​together. Only the battleships of the green-skinned orcs will develop this virtue.

However, it is ugly, the painting is messy, there is no beauty in the traditional sense, and the appearance is too rough to be a technological product... However, it is indeed a serious interstellar battleship.

"One, two, three, four... twelve greenskin battleships... Who can tell me why there are so many greenskins here??"

Wang Jiarong lost her composure.

However, no one could answer her question.

The senior managers of the caravan on the console are not ignorant. These orc ships that appear later are not easy to deal with.

In the starry sky, there is one most intuitive way to judge the strength of a starship: look at its size.

Of course, it cannot be 100% accurate, and there are countless exceptions that can prove this. However, when the difference in technical level is not that big, generally speaking, the bigger the battleship is, the stronger it is. This is the information that holds true in most cases.

At present, four of the twelve green-skinned warships are as large as destroyers in the fleet of the Human Empire; the remaining eight are at least equivalent to the size of frigates.

And the huge, outward-flaring cannons on these ships also adhere to the style of the green-skinned orcs: caliber comes first!

Wang Jiarong tried hard to keep calm and gave the order: "The engine team accelerates with all its speed. We must try to get rid of these green-skinned orc fleets before they speed up."

"All fire teams, fire at the greenskin fleet with full force! Concentrate firepower on a single target! Try to cause as much damage as possible!"

"yes!"

Everyone on the ship, who doesn't know that the critical moment has come? No one dares to be lazy when their lives are at stake.

Keeping distance and trying to escape is of course the right choice.

The 'Beautiful Maid' is larger than the average main destroyer, but most of the space is used as a cargo warehouse. The strength of the void shield it is equipped with and the strength of the ship's armor itself can barely reach the level of a destroyer, but it has the most firepower.

Probably less than half the size of a normal destroyer.
To be continued...