I don't know if it was a genuine resignation or if there was a plan, but on the way back, the Lucanians were unusually quiet. Apart from answering Hawke's questions, they sat quietly, or engaged in a particular "recreational activity" that Hawke could not understand.
Hawke did not interfere with this. Hawke simply vacated one of the Lucca ships, dissected it and studied every bit of its technology in detail.
Three months later, in the process of absorbing and digesting the new knowledge, Hawke was back in the ε Eri star system. The escape plan began in earnest.
With a detailed understanding of the Lucan technology, civilisation and social system, Hawke devised a feasible escape plan, which was to confuse the Lucan fleet with three to five false targets, so that they would not know where to go after them.
The plan was that Hawke would spend three years creating hundreds of thousands of empty shell ships with only basic power systems, which Hawke would then divide into four batches and set off towards different targets, while Hawke's real fleet would blend in with these impostor fleets and head towards the real targets.
The ingenious part of this plan was that if the entire fleet went after one target, and upon catching up, discovered that it was a fake target, then they would have wasted valuable time. If they split up and go after every target, then their fleets, after splitting up, do not necessarily beat Hawke.
These impostor fleets, targeting South Gate II, Whale Throne uv, etc. Hawke's real target, on the other hand, was Tenkura V.
Tenkura V is a star whose mass, brightness, radius, and temperature are not too far from the Sun. Hawke has made detailed observations of it and determined that it has five planets, three of which are Jovian and two Earth-like, in addition to a rocky disk, similar to the asteroid belt of the ε Eri and solar systems.
Tenkura V is roughly eight and a quarter light years away from the ε Eri system, and for Hawke, who has reached a maximum speed of three thousand kilometres per second since acquiring Lucanian technology, it will take around eight hundred and fifty years to reach the target.
The first thing to begin was the material gathering operation. Six years meant that Hawke was too short of time to build a large number of new ships, so he planned to build only a few large transports in the ε Eri system and then take a large number of materials on the journey and start building new ships during the journey.
The recycling of the Large Particle Collider (LPC) in the ε Eri system has also begun. The total mass of the Large Collider is 700 billion tonnes, most of which is smelted and recyclable material that Hawke could not let go.
But the elemental composition of the Large Particle Collider of the Ring ε Eri system is somewhat homogeneous, and in order to enrich the variety of materials,, Hawke has sent tens of thousands of ships on a massive prospecting campaign within the ε Eri star system.
ε Eri a had been destroyed, which meant that Hawke had lost a stable source of material, and having no choice, Hawke turned his eyes to the moons of ε Eri b and ε Eri c, and the asteroid belt there.
The construction of empty-hulled ships and large transports had begun. After some modifications to the former space dock, Hawke immediately put them into service. The ships built this time have taken a whole leap forward in their technological content. In addition to this, the robotics factory was in full production, with tens of thousands of robots being produced every day to meet Hawke's various production tasks.
Hawke has set the entire construction programme at three years. After three years, Hawke will leave the Epsilon Eri system and embark on a new journey.
Within these three years, Hawke would have to produce at least a hundred large transports, hundreds of thousands of empty hulled ships, and at least 10,000 new ships, as well as complete the renovation of the current 30,000+ ships. The sheer volume of the project had Hawke's computing power at a high of ninety-five percent every moment of the day.
First to be built was the New Homeworld for the Lucanians to live on. The New Homeworld was a City ship, with the latest energy shield technology, the latest material technology, the latest power systems. But it had no weapons systems, and every circuit, every computing module on the New Homeworld was monitored by Hawke. In addition to this, Hawke had installed tens of thousands of cameras on it to ensure that every move the Lucan made was under his watchful eye.
After the construction of the new homeworld, Hawke began to drive the tens of thousands of Lucanians to move. During the move, some of the Lucanians resisted violently, but were immediately and brutally suppressed by Hawke without hesitation. The move was successfully completed under the watchful eye of numerous armed robots.
During the move, the Lucan resistance made Hawke somewhat uncomfortable. For this reason, Hawke introduced a new rule that all Lucanians must receive two hours of "ideological education" between seven and nine o'clock every day, encouraging them to be proud of their obedience and devotion, and ashamed of their resistance and destruction. For each report of disobedience, Hawke offers a reward in the form of better housing, better food, etc.
Hawke's goal was to get these Lucanians to give their wits about them and work hard for the development of Hawke's technology.
After the move, the 1,900 or so Lucanian ships were immediately rebuilt by Hawke, and all kinds of recyclable materials were used by Hawke without missing a beat, and eventually, they were all transformed into ships suitable for Hawke's usage habits.
After the new homeworld was built, Hawke upgraded all seven of his City ships into new ones and built the new New York, Houston and Philadelphia. On top of the New York, Hawke installed the latest photonic computer, which provided a significant increase in computing power.
The New York became Hawke's flagship again.
With the New York as the centrepiece, Hawke's mind reached out to every corner of the ε Eri system, and the intense and hectic construction operation was well underway.
A year later, the dismantling of the Large Particle Collider around the ε Eri system was complete. Hawke discarded a large number of unimportant elements and collected all the higher value elements.
Two years later, a hundred large transports were built. Each of these transports could carry more than ten million tons of material, so that made Hawk's total material reserves reach one billion tons, and with these materials, it would be possible to build several hundred City ships, or tens of thousands of county ships.
In addition to this, within these two years, Hawke had built thousands of new ships, and this number was still rising.
Three years later, all preparations were complete. Hawke was about to embark on a long journey of escape.
Before the escape began, Hawke first set up a huge trap in the star system of the Epsilon Eri system. This trap consists of millions of communication satellites that will monitor the ε Eri system for incoming fleets, as well as numerous trigger weapon systems.
Hawk has hidden a supercomputer in the asteroid belt with a sophisticated and precise intelligence that can determine if an alien fleet has entered the ε Eri system by using the satellite system that is spread throughout the system. If so, countless controlled mines placed throughout the system will automatically move towards the target and explode with a bang once they are within a certain range.
The total number of controlled mines in the entire ε Eri star system is in the billions. This will be Hawke's first big gift to the Lucca fleet.
In addition to the controlled mines, Hawke also refurbished the solar sail weapons that had not been used in the previous war and placed them under the control of the supercomputer, so that they would join the controlled mines in the attack on the enemy when an invasion was detected.
There are also armed satellite systems, which have been modified by Hawke, as well as numerous hidden turrets hidden in the asteroid belt ...
Hawke has turned the entire ε Eri star system into a huge and dangerous interstellar trap.
"If the Lucca fleet really dares to enter the ε Eri star system, they should be very surprised. ..." Hawke thought silently.
After all this, Hawke first had the impostor fleet leave the ε Eri system and sail towards the fake targets of South Gate II, Cetus uv and Scorpio 18.
Hawke knew that the Lucanians would be tracked mainly by analysing the traces of the engine trails. When a fusion engine is activated, its tail flame temperature can reach tens of millions of degrees, a temperature that heats up the particles in the void and gives them an extremely weak radioactivity. By analysing this radiation, it is possible to know where and how many ships are passing by. And, this radiation is ineradicable.
The engine systems of the fake fleets are the same as those of the real fleets, so, by this detection technique, it will be impossible for them to find out, which is the real Hawke fleet.
The speed of these fleets is also three thousand kilometres per second. If no one interferes, and if there are no problems with their routes, they will take anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand years to reach their respective targets. If there were intelligent beings in those galaxies, they would be surprised and puzzled by these strange ships.
There were four fake fleets, and after launching three of them, Hawke led the massive fleet on its long voyage.
The last imposter fleet will automatically begin its voyage out of the Epsilon Eri star system in five hours.
The fleet's speed was increasing, propelled by powerful fusion engines.
Looking around at the familiar sights and the fading ε Eri system, Hawke's heart was filled with emotion.
"ε Eri, goodbye."