Chapter 159, Astral Tunnel
In this vast universe, if you want to travel across galaxies, the most important thing to rely on is the astral tunnel.
An astral tunnel connects the two galaxies, compressing the distance of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of light-years into a voyage of a few days, a dozen days, or at most a month or so.
Spaceships and starships that have the ability to enter the astral tunnel, after entering the tunnel, essentially enter the hyperspace state.
The normal state of a starship sailing in the universe is to sail in the star system at sub-light speed, fly from one transition point to another transition point, and then enter the astral tunnel to another galaxy, and then find the next a transition point...
This requires a star map, and a navigator.
The latter are specially trained psykers.
Only they can distinguish the specific location of the transition point of the astral tunnel in the void of the universe, guide the ship through the tunnel, and reach the opposite side of the tunnel.
At the same time, the so-called star map also has meaning.
The star map shows the many star fields connected by astral tunnels.Two adjacent star systems may actually be very different in the physical sense.Maybe two star systems that are physically close are only a few tens of light-years away, but since there is no astral tunnel to directly connect with each other, traveling between them requires jumping through multiple astral tunnels, so there is a distance between them. It is very far away; and in the physical sense, two star systems that may be separated by tens of thousands of light-years are connected by an astral tunnel, so they are two similar places on the star map.
In the Imperium of Man, the physical distances between galaxies mean little.Without astral tunnels, relying solely on the power of the spacecraft itself, traveling at sub-light speeds, communication between the closest two galaxies is unrealistic.
Of course, physical distance cannot be completely ignored.Some monsters, monsters, and monsters can really hold back for an unknown number of years, slowly flying through the void of the universe, and really come out.
In the territory division of the empire: space domain, star domain, star area, galaxy, these four layers of structure are all based on the star map.The dense astral tunnels are like a huge network, connecting the entire empire's territory.
There are three astral tunnels in the Nuoxiao galaxy. The first tunnel connects to the Kologa galaxy, the second tunnel connects to the Black Arrow galaxy, and the third tunnel connects not to the Pegasus star area, but to the next-door Shenshun star area.The Tianma star area and the Shenjun star area belong to the Dragon Eagle star area, and both are under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Universe.
Wang Jiarong's caravan came from Tunnel No. [-], and they just completed a business in the Kologa Galaxy.
Originally, her plan for this voyage did not include such a remote place as Nu Xiaoxing. Didn't Yelicia convey her cousin's needs to her?
After thinking about it for a while, it is not a big problem to take a detour to the Fury Owl galaxy, then go to the Black Arrow galaxy from the No. [-] tunnel, then turn back to Kologa No. [-], and then return to the capital Flying Wing.
If you run more distance, and run two more planets, you shouldn't lose money—at most you won't make much money, just support your cousin who played with you a lot when you were young.
From the Kologa Galaxy to the Raging Owl Galaxy, the fleet will have to travel through the astral tunnel for five days.Nothing major happened in the first four days. As always, we could see strange scenes outside the window, but in fact, as long as we didn't leave the range of the ship and didn't let out any detectors, there would be no danger.
But on the fifth day, the navigator on the "Beautiful Maiden" reported a news. They noticed an abnormal signal in the astral tunnel. It seemed that there was a fleet following them, also in the astral world. Walking through the tunnel.
This made Wang Jiarong very disturbed.
The tunnel from Kologa to Fury Owl is a deserted one, not a busy waterway, and even the empire didn't bother to build any checkpoints at the transition points on both sides.
This situation has been going on for hundreds of years, except for the ruin of Fury Owl Star.
Apart from her fleet, who else will pass through here?
Going to the next door to the Shenjun Star District?
That's not realistic, the prosperous hive world Kologa has a direct flight route to the God Steed star area.No one would go to the Divine Steed Galaxy through the Star of Fury, and no one would do detours and more costly things.
What about this fleet?
During the interstellar voyage, all abnormalities require vigilance.
Within the universe of the empire, it is not really that safe.
Pirates are the most common threat, but threats from other xenomorphs have never been less common.
The empire refers to all non-human races as aliens, and is committed to eradicating 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 hulk ship crashed in the astral tunnel. During the voyage, dozens or hundreds of people were missing on the ship, and sometimes there were dozens or hundreds more people...
These things are even somewhat commonplace.
But right now, when they clearly sensed that there were more than one ship following them in the same astral tunnel, they couldn't help being careless.
After completing the astral transition, they didn't dare to stay longer. They chose to switch the engine mode immediately, accelerate gradually, try to pull the speed to the upper limit of the sub-light speed, and headed for the angry owl.
Wang Jiarong knew that Yelicia's cruiser was docked in the orbit of Fury Owl.After rendezvous with the 'Quintet', her merchant ship has strong security protection.
For this reason, she also ordered that the astropaths on the ship—this is also the profession of psykers after special training—try to communicate with the 'Quintet'.
However, the astropaths brought her rather bad news: they could not contact the 'Quintet'.
A star language message has been sent, but there is no response.
This situation further deepened Wang Jiarong's anxiety.
If they can't get in touch, there are only two reasons: either their star language messages are blocked and cannot be sent out, or the 'Quintet' cannot receive their messages.
Neither one is good.
The ship is leaving the state of transition and resumes normal sub-light speed voyage, which requires a certain amount of time for the engine to accelerate.
Now she only hopes that this acceleration process will pass quickly, for this reason she has already urged the mechanical priest in charge of the engine work 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.
On the 'Beautiful Girl', there are 11 M-class 'Hot Hammer' macro guns ready to go.The other three frigates are also equipped with 15 S-class 'defense' rapid-fire guns and 3 M-class 'retribution' cluster laser cannons.
These naval guns, as well as the operators behind the naval guns, the thinker array as a fire control system and navigation system, have all entered the highest combat readiness state.
The so-called contemplative array refers to a collection of 'wetware' composed of specially trained psykers, or even ordinary people, under the contemplative technology, which cooperates with basic mechanical calculators to assist ship operations , Auxiliary artillery for calibrated firing.
But even though she had made all the preparations before the battle, Wang Jiarong was still praying to the emperor, hoping that bad luck would not really happen to her.
It is definitely the best if nothing happens. As for the current tension and extra preparations, it doesn't matter if they are in vain.
However, not every prayer has a correspondingly good result.
"They came out..." The navigator's voice rang in Wang Jiarong's ear.
She quickly returned to the main console, and the screen cut to the opposite direction of the starship.
In the void, many ships are gradually showing their figures.
In fact, the distance between the two sides is already more than [-] kilometers apart.
However, this distance is still too close in space.
Through the array of contemplators zooming in on the virtual screen in front of them, the identities of the ships that followed them, crossed the transition point, and are entering the real universe have been revealed very clearly:
Fleet of green orcs!
This can be distinguished from their exaggerated, messy appearance, like a pile of garbage spliced together at random.Only the warships of the green-skinned orcs can develop this virtue.
However, the ugly is ugly, the painting is messy, there is no aesthetic feeling in the traditional sense, and the appearance is rough and not like a technological product... However, it is indeed a serious star warship.
"One, two, three, four... Twelve green warships... Can anyone tell me why there are so many green skins here??"
Wang Jiarong lost her composure.
However, no one was able to answer her question.
The middle and high-level managers of the caravan on the console are not uninformed.The orc ships that appeared later were not easy to deal with.
In the starry sky, there is the most intuitive way to judge the strength of a starship: by its size.
That's certainly not [-] percent accurate, and there are countless exceptions to prove it.However, in the case where the difference in technical level is not that big, generally speaking, the bigger the battleship is, the stronger it is, which is true in most cases.
And right now, among the twelve green-skinned warships, four have reached the size of destroyers in the fleet of the human empire; the remaining eight are at least as large as frigates.
And the huge, ostentatious cannons on these ships also uphold the style of the green-skinned orcs: caliber comes first!
Wang Jiarong tried her best to keep calm, and gave orders: "The engine group is accelerating at full speed, we must try our best to get rid of these green-skinned orc fleets before they speed up."
"All firepower groups, fire at the Greenskin Fleet with full force! Concentrate your firepower on a single target! Do your best to cause damage!"
"Yes!"
The whole ship, who doesn't know that the critical moment has come?No one dares to be lazy when their lives are at stake.
It is of course the right choice to distance yourself and try to escape.
The 'Beautiful Maid' is larger than the average main destroyer, but most of the space exists as a cargo store.The strength of the equipped void shield and the strength of the ship's armor itself can barely reach the level of a destroyer, but the firepower is at most only half of that of a normal destroyer.
The other three frigates are normal frigate specifications, at most they only carry some cargo.
Against the 4+8 configuration of the Green Fleet, it is hopeless to confront them head-on.
Opening fire is just a casual fight, the key is to look at running.
And in the case of running for their lives at full speed, it is of course impossible for them to adjust the hull so that all the firepower can be directed at the enemy.In fact, if you shoot at the back at this moment, only one-third of the firepower can be exerted.
However, those green-skinned ships had just left the astral tunnel.The energy shield on the hull has been turned on, but obviously the power has not yet been maximized.
When I just jumped out of the astral tunnel, the starship was relatively fragile.
Because of this, the three rounds of concentrated firepower directly destroyed a green-skinned frigate.
The energy shield of the green-skinned starship was overloaded, and it turned from blue light to dangerous red in an instant.A large number of shells passed through the overloaded energy shield and hit the hull.The armor was shattered, and the hull was severely damaged. Even if you zoomed in on the camera, you could see many green-skinned orcs flying out of the damaged hull.
This green frigate has basically lost its ability to fight.If the greenskins won the battle, they might be able to recover the ship and repair it, but at least in this battle, the frigate could not pose any threat.
After winning the flag, Wang Jiarong was somewhat cheered up, and the morale of the entire caravan was also slightly improved.
However, this is almost the only good news in the future, and the bad news is one after another.
When they focused their firepower on the second greenskin ship, the greenskin fleet had already gotten rid of the fragile state it had just completed the transition.This not only means that the energy shield on their ship has started to operate at full power, and it is not so easy to be penetrated, but it also means that the weapon system on their ship has also begun to operate normally.
The eleven green-skinned starships that were still functioning normally opened fire at the same time.
The kinetic energy cannon and the green laser cannon all fired violently.
The style of the green-skinned ships is consistent with the style of their entire race.The number of various types of artillery on a ship is generally much larger than that of human warships of the same level, and the caliber will generally be larger.But at the same time, the characteristics that the accuracy is generally much worse than that of human naval guns have also been perfectly inherited.
But the distance between the two sides is really too close, and the Kung Fu distance at this moment is at most about [-] kilometers, but this is still almost a face-to-face confrontation for a space naval battle.
The human side will suffer greatly.
On the four ships under Wang Jiarong's command, almost at the same time, there were blue lights flashing around them at the same time, which was the appearance of the void shield after it came into contact with firepower.
In a blink of an eye, the void shields around the four ships all showed signs of turning purple, which was a sign of imminent overload.
(End of this chapter)