The two fleets, from the early days of the engagement until now, are communicating for the first time.
Hyper-range communication is based on the principle of quantum entanglement, which means that a pair of quanta in an entangled state are separated, one on each side, in order to be able to communicate with each other. Therefore, the hyper-range communication apparatus must be one-to-one. Hawke did not have a dedicated hyper-range communication apparatus installed on top of the Lucca ships, so naturally there was no way to contact them through hyper-range communication means. In this case, the traditional means of communication came in handy.
The message was followed by a dictionary message, which was designed to allow the Lucca civilisation to decipher the meaning of its message.
After sending this message, Hawke began to wait quietly.
In war, the most important thing was always logistical supplies, whether it was a planetary ground war or an interstellar war, it was all the same.
For example, in the current situation, Hawke could dismantle the ship to obtain sufficient energy to keep accelerating, while the Lucca civilization with its sparse number of ships could not do so. So, if they keep on chasing, one day Hawke will catch up with them.
This reasoning is simple, Hawke knows it, and naturally so does the Lucca civilisation. So, at the moment, the situation really only left these two possibilities, the Lucca civilization's fleet, either die or surrender, there was no third possibility.
An hour passed slowly. Hawk did not receive a message from the Lucca civilization, instead, he saw that their ships began to slow down and, gradually, arranged themselves into a battle formation.
"Still not convinced?" Hawk sneered, and also manoeuvred his own ships into battle formation and charged up.
It was a battle of 40,000 airships facing 3,000 airships. The difference in technology was overshadowed by the number of airships. In the midst of this battle, Hawk was given an absolute advantage.
The battle went on for a full hour, and the number of Lucca ships, reduced to less than two thousand, while Hawke, still had thirty-five thousand ships left.
It was at this time that Hawke received a message over the radio waves.
At the same time as the message came through, the 1,900 or so Lucca ships began to retreat with great silence. Hawke did not stop them, and let them leave the battlefield. In the middle of the cosmic void, a few thousand kilometres apart, the two fleets silently confronted each other.
This message was followed by a dictionary message as well. Through the dictionary, Hawke quickly deciphered the meaning of the message.
"Strange mechanical civilisation, I must say that you have indeed won this war. Survival is the first instinct of living beings, and in order to continue living, we choose to surrender. However, we have a few conditions that we would like you to consider."
Hawke sneered and sent over a message, "Go ahead, I will consider them carefully."
There was a pause and a radio wave message came back.
"First, secure our living conditions to the maximum extent possible. We only have a few tens of thousands of people left and it doesn't take up too many resources. Secondly, please grant us the maximum amount of freedom that you deem safe. Thirdly, if our civilisation asks for our redemption, please do so. Believe us, our civilisation will then offer you a price that will be sufficient to make your heart sing. This is our condition, and at the same time, we will pay several prices, firstly, the technology we possess, the intelligence, will be shared with you, and secondly, if you provide us with sufficient conditions for scientific research, we will contribute our intelligence and work to develop your technology. Also, when facing another strange civilisation, we will act as your staff team and provide you with a response plan that meets the needs of your interests."
"These are our conditions and the price we can pay. I hope you will understand that we are valuable and that ensuring our survival will do you only good and not harm."
Looking at the message, Hawke was lost in thought.
"It seems that what they say is not unreasonable. If they're not lying, this option, it's not unacceptable. It's only a few tens of thousands of people, so the big deal is that I'll just build a City ship without weapon systems just for them. It would indeed be more beneficial to keep them than to kill them. Those ships of mine they took out could have been built in a few decades by finding another well-stocked star system, instead I, at least, took out tens of thousands of their population."
With that in mind, Hawke sent them a message over.
"I am glad of your wisdom, it avoids another loss for me and you. I accept the terms. However, as a sign of your good faith, I ask that you first remove the ship's energy shields and then, destroy all energy cannon muzzles."
Hawke hoped that he could get these resources with the least amount of effort, but that didn't mean Hawke was a fool. The dark jungle of the universe made it necessary for Hawke to speculate on others with the utmost malice. Until he could ensure his own safety, Hawke wanted to keep the situation firmly in his hands.
The Lucan civilisation was silent for five minutes, then Hawke received a message.
"As you wish."
Hawke saw that the Lucca ships, several thousand kilometres away, had suddenly all lost the light ink-coloured energy shield that had enveloped them. Seeing this scene, Hawk breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.
Without the energy shields, the combined strength of the Lucca ships had dropped by at least 40 per cent.
The distance between the two fleets was only a few thousand kilometres, and at that distance, it would only take a few tenths of a second for Hawke's energy shells to hit them. This action on their part showed enough sincerity.
Next, Hawke saw that all the various weapons, energy cannons, laser cannons, hydrogen bomb launchers and so on, that had been equipped above the surface of the ship, had all been removed.
The Lucca civilisation had unarmed itself.
After this war, Hawk already knew quite a bit about their ship construction, what weapons were equipped on what tonnage of ships and where they were located. Therefore, it was impossible for them to fake this aspect of dismantling their weapons.
After this was done, Hawke received a message, "We have removed the energy shields and weapon systems as you instructed, what else do you require next?"
"I am going to send droids to land on your ships and check if your ships have any weapons left. Please open the docking ports of your respective ships, and, cooperate with the droids."
Hawke calmly sent over a message.
It was important to be careful, to speculate on the rest of the civilisation with the utmost malice, and not to believe anything they said. This was a principle that Hawke had long established in his dealings.
"This is an excessive request of yours, but to show our sincerity, as you wish." The Lucan civilization replied.
Hawk quickly modified a group of robots and, after equipping them with all his testing instruments, had the robots divided into more than 1,900 ships, corresponding with the still surviving Luca ships. The droids were then manoeuvred towards the Lucca ships, slowly approaching them.
In order to show his sincerity, Hawk dismantled the weapon systems of the village class ships that needed to approach each other in front of the Lucca civilisation. It didn't matter if they were wiped out, Hawke could afford to lose this number.
More than 1,900 village ships slowly approached the Lucca ship, which then opened the docking port, through which Hawke commanded two million robots, divided into more than 1,900 batches, to land on the Lucca ship.
For the first time, Hawke saw the inner workings of the Luca civilization's ship.
The Lucca civilisation seemed to be a civilisation that survived in the x-light band, which was fundamentally different from humans.
Light is a broad concept that includes both visible and invisible light. In terms of frequency, from low to high, it can be roughly divided into four categories: infrared, visible light, x-rays and gamma rays. Within these four, only visible light can be perceived by humans.
But for the Lucca civilisation, it seems that x-rays are the only visible light. Within the Lucca ship, Hawk saw something similar to human lighting devices and the like, but human lighting devices emitted visible light, the lighting devices of the Lucca civilization, emitted x-light.
"There's nothing strange in a big world." Hawke sighed and manoeuvred the robot, continuing on.
Hawk saw the Lucanian for the first time.
The appearance of the Lucanian, surprisingly, was extremely similar to the appearance of aliens depicted in human science fiction movies, all with large heads, large eyes, tiny torsos, and an average height of about one meter four, with arms and legs just like humans.
Looking at the very sci-fi look, Hawke had an urge to laugh.
From their faces, Hawke seemed to detect an emotion called "grief and anger". But Hawke didn't pay any attention to it, and continued to concentrate on his examination.
Since they had wanted to capture him in the first place, they had to be prepared to be defeated and captured by themselves.
Here, Hawk also visited the Lucca civilisation's energy shield system. That was made up of countless tiny instruments distributed on the inner walls of the ship's shell, the exact working principle of which was still unclear to Hawke, but Hawke was not in a hurry to analyse it now. As long as the Lucanians were captured successfully, there would be plenty of time to study them later.
Hawk patiently and meticulously inspected every corner of the Lucan ship, and after completing the inspection, even removed all the hydrogen bombs and all the energy sources on the Lucan ship, except for those necessary to keep it running. There was only one reason for this, and it was still for safety. Even if they still had hidden weapons systems, without energy they would not be able to make any waves.
The Lucanians had protested against this, but Hawke had blandly rebuffed it.
After a few days of inspecting the ships, Hawke left satisfied, and then he issued a new order.
"Next, I will convert fifty county ships for you to live in. In the meantime, please return to the ε Eri system under the watchful eye of my ships."