In the vast Milky Way, if you want to make a long-distance voyage, you must enter the subspace inevitably.
That is a field that is difficult to describe in human words. In that field, all the laws of physics will be invalid, including time and space. Because of this, it takes thousands of years to travel in the physical world, and it may only take in the subspace. Days.
It is a non-three-dimensional, non-planar, and non-linear field. Even the most knowledgeable mechanical educator can hardly get a glimpse of the mystery.
It is the well-being of mankind, and it is also the curse of mankind.
Human civilization has been glorious because of it, and because of it, it is on the verge of extinction. If you have to find a description, then the subspace is like a vast ocean, and human beings are always in contact with shallow water.
In its depth, there is a horror that cannot be accepted by reason.
Chaos Demon, this is the official unified name of the empire for those indescribable horrors. Whether it is true or not, they have indeed plagued humanity for tens of thousands of years.
Until now, the Inquisition, the State Church, and the Astarte Order are still vigilant against these non-physical threats.
And the ones that are most vulnerable to the attack of the Chaos Demon are the ships that actively enter the subspace.
In the long history of the human empire, countless ships disappear every day in the waves of subspace. Some of these disappeared ships will be lost in the gap of time forever, and some will be sent away from Asia at some time. Space, they are often given back to the physical world as a dangerous "gift".
In order to protect the safety of subspace navigation, Geller's position was invented in the eighteenth millennium. Its core is a comatose psionicist. After activation, it can form a bubble film that isolates the power of subspace. In this bubble film Only the inner humans can be free from the intrusion of those evil forces.
But this is not absolutely safe. Once you enter the subspace, half of your foot has already stepped into hell.
Because Starfire is the only hope of the battle group, Soshyan repeatedly ensured the normal operation of Geller's position before entering the subspace. After the warship started the subspace engine, he still kept the warship on alert.
There must be no mistakes on this journey.
"The commander of the battle group, we have counted the number. At present, we have a total of 33,672 mortal servants, 51,854 aircraft servants, including 8,821 technical servants, 10031 technical servants, and 8,250 armed servants, which can form four combat battalions. There are 13110 armed pilots, but our stock of light weapons is insufficient. Most of them are live ammunition weapons, with only a few standard laser rifles."
Lothar, who was appointed as his deputy, reported to Soshyan on the bridge about the current staffing situation of the Wildfire.
"There are currently ten choirs and three mechanical priests. They are responsible for the engine room, the main weapon deck, and the Geller stand generator. They each have some apprentices and servants. I didn't count them."
Soshyang's fingers tapped on the guardrail of the captain's platform, and he was calculating and thinking.
For a strike cruiser such as Spark, although such a staffing arrangement can ensure the operation, it is obviously not enough.
Starfire belongs to the Vanguard-class cruiser, which is also the most widely used strike cruiser of the Starfighter Corps. Its design emphasizes thrusters and loading capacity, allowing the Vanguard-class to operate independently for a long time without supply. But the attack ability is relatively weak.
Moreover, the Armed Configuration of the Spark is still the weakest, only the large light spear array plus the macro cannon to cooperate with the attack boat launching cabin.
But even so, as a huge ship with a length of 8 kilometers and a width of 1.2 kilometers, the Xinghuo should be equipped with more than 100,000 crew members in principle.
But the Sable Sword has already allowed Soshyang to take away those who can take it away, and he can't get an inch.
"You said, after we get to Ma\'Kande 2, can we add a batch of manpower."
Lothar shook his head.
"Although Ma\'Kande 2 is not a very important casting world, it is still under the jurisdiction of the Mechanical Church. We were able to order from there only because once helped a mechanical bishop find a certain STC fragment, the bishop After the event is completed, he promised to provide the battle group with two hundred years of equipment supplies. This is also the last batch."
"For two hundred years, can't we give us some slave labor out of sentiment."
"Team commander, you may not know the logic of the people taught by the machine. They only talk about exchange, not friendship."
"Is this..."
Soshyan thought for a moment and said:
"In any case, Ma\'Kande 2 is likely to be our last resupply opportunity in the near future. We have to find a way to obtain as many resources as possible, whether it is materials or manpower."
"The bishop doesn't know if he is still alive. If he is still there, there may be some opportunities for him to change."
Soshyang nodded and patted Lothar on the shoulder.
"Here you are in charge first, I will go around other areas."
"Yes."
After leaving the bridge, Soshyan turned to the rear deck, where the interstellar warriors lived and trained.
Spark is divided into three layers. The upper deck is responsible for the control of the ship and the carrying of interstellar warriors. The middle deck is the weapon deck. The main weapon systems are there, including the flight deck. Combatants and technicians also live here.
The lower deck is generally called the slave deck. The servants and slave laborers are mostly crowded in this dark and dangerous place. They are mainly responsible for the power system and the energy system.
Because the sailing time of the interstellar warriors is sometimes very long, even if they will not anchor in the port for hundreds of years, the slaves and sailors also set up their homes on the ships and thrive.
Many have even served for several generations, forming small families, which is also a major feature of the empire.
As for the interstellar warriors, under normal circumstances, they will not set foot on the lower deck or even the middle deck. Most of them have their own independent space.
The light on the rear deck was darker than that on the bridge, and Soshyang made a whirring noise as he entered there.
A dozen hard-wired fighter servants, distributed in the spacious aisle, immediately aimed at Soshyan with their weapons after coming in.
The new war team leader ignored them and moved forward, and after a while, they returned to their original positions like weird puppets-the threat assessment scan was completed.
Then, the servant in the cloak quickly walked through the shadow of the hall and bowed. Soshyan waved his hand to disperse them.
This is a temporary training ground. Almost all interstellar warriors are trained here. At present, the main training direction is fighting and close combat.
It stands to reason that these trainings should be carried out under the guidance of veterans or instructors, but now there is no such role. New recruits can only train alone or train each other.
Soshyang saw two shirtless soldiers throwing each other to the ground, and farther away, two soldiers were competing in swordsmanship.
I have to say that their skills are too immature. Soshyan had imagined how long they could live if they were put on a battlefield like World Engine.
The result is not optimistic.
The more deadly point is that he himself has no confidence to teach these recruits.
In addition to training with comrades in arms, the interstellar warriors could also choose to use training robots, but there happened to be no such facilities on the Spark. Soshyang could only find a way to get some from the Ma\'Kande-2.
At this time, the trained recruits also noticed the presence of the battle group leader, and stopped their actions one after another.
"Sir!"