Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station.

Chapter 447 The Empire’s Counterattack

The outcome of the new battle plunged many people into deep despair.

No one knew how to deal with a fleet that was more powerful in a single ship and could expand its own fleet from the wreckage of the enemy.

What's more, this is when the empire is still facing an equally powerful enemy.

However, the Minister of Psychic Power did not have such an idea.

After he saw the capabilities of nanomachines, it was even more impossible for the hope in his heart to be extinguished.

Because he discovered that the abilities of nanomachines were extremely similar to Chen Ming's psychic powers.

Not only the style of capabilities, the combat strength of the ships, the pure mechanical structure they possess, but also the seemingly endless number of ships, all seem to be a fleet under Chen Ming's command.

However, they do not have the terrifying production efficiency like the Zerg, which gradually increases with the expansion of the nest size.

Production and assimilation seem to be two ways of doing things with different efficiencies for nanomachines. The efficiency of normal production of warships is not as fast as assimilation in an actual battle.

At least it would not be the case that a cruiser or even a main ship was just destroyed and then completely assimilated by nanomachines in a few minutes and became a part of the nano fleet.

This can be seen from the recent battle commanded by the commander of the 14th Legion and the fact that the number of nano battleships in the nano fleets observed by the Empire from different nano planets was far lower than expected.

The minister didn't understand why this happened, but it was one of the few good news at the moment.

Although this good news does not seem so good considering that nano battleships already have a production efficiency far exceeding that of normal battleships, nano has an exaggerated efficiency in assimilating planets, and every planet can carry out industrial production.

But this at least means that these nanoparticles have shortcomings and are not perfect.

And there's one more thing.

That is, the nano fleet is not like the warships controlled by Chen Ming himself, which have almost infinite ship repair efficiency and can be repaired from a pile of destroyed debris.

When the nanorobots of each nanowarship are worn out and unable to support the warship, it is equivalent to the warship being destroyed. There is no way to return to the battlefield almost unconditionally like Chen Ming did.
They also do not have truly unlimited firepower output like Chen Ming's fleet.

In terms of single-ship combat capability, it does exceed the ordinary warships of the empire, but it is still far behind the warships operated by Chen Ming.

In terms of strength, it is weaker than Chen Ming's.

Putting all this information together made the minister feel that the nano fleet led by the Queen was almost completely suppressed by Chen Ming's psychic power.

No matter how powerful the Queen's psychic power is, it cannot change this fact.

In the minister's opinion, unless a single psychic is powerful enough to destroy the entire empire by himself, he has no capital to threaten the empire.

After all, individual power is too weak in the face of the collective.

Even the Queen is the same.

If she didn't have those nano fleets, she would be just a lamb to be slaughtered by the Empire.

Moreover, if she could really destroy the empire single-handedly, then she really did what the minister heard the military chief say at the meeting two days ago, and there was no need to slowly expand the nano planets.

Therefore, the minister was extremely confident at this time that as long as Chen Ming could come back, the empire's current predicament or desperate situation would be completely overcome.

only……

The minister took out the terminal and tried to contact Chen Ming.

Of course, there was no response.

Chen Ming is still out of contact.

The minister put away the terminal with some disappointment and sighed.

This action can be said to be the one he does most frequently in recent times.

He looked at the current time, got up and went to a special floor of the office building to attend a new online meeting after the failure of the exploratory battle.

Through the simulation device, the minister quickly returned to the previous online meeting room.

What was different from before was that this time there was a moving countdown hanging on the wall on one side of the conference room.

The time shown above shows that there are still more than seven days and more than ten hours left, which is close to eight days.

There were already about twenty people sitting in the conference room. Someone explained to the new minister, "This is the time we estimated to reach the border of the Empire based on the current expansion rate of the nano-planet and the Empire's data on the star systems that are about to be assimilated."

“This time may be advanced, but it will not be delayed.”

The minister nodded and stared at the countdown for a long time.

It was like the sword of Damocles that could fall at any time, threatening him and the empire.

There is currently no way to remove the sword.

The minister sat down in his seat and looked around. The atmosphere in the meeting room was even worse than before.

If the Nanocluster had not chosen to expand slowly, rather than letting the Empire face this trouble directly, someone would have collapsed long ago.

People in the conference room gathered quickly.

The head of the military department was less enthusiastic than in the previous two days and was the first to speak at the meeting: "We have a clear understanding of the combat effectiveness of the nano fleet."

"Basically, we can say that as long as they expand and engage in direct battle with us, we will definitely lose."

"With our current technological level, there is almost no effective way to effectively strike their fleet, except to crush them with at least twice the number of fleets."

"In terms of fleet and ship strength, the Titan class that is still under construction may be able to do it, but once the Titan class battleship is damaged in battle, the few means we have will lose their effectiveness."

"This is news that everyone has already known. You should all be having a headache now."

"But...I still have some bad news that you don't know."

"At the beginning, the scale of the nano fleet that passed through the wormhole was only close to the permanent military force of an ordinary star field."

"We have missed our best opportunity."

As he said this, the military chief glared at the man who had questioned him last time.

But there is nothing to say about this. Even if the authority is really given to the military, it is impossible for them to really gather the entire empire's available manpower and all psychics to attack the Queen on the day the Queen arrives.

It’s really hard to say who wins and who loses.

So the military personnel just glared at him and continued, "But as of today, the size of the Nano Fleet is unpredictable. It is at least one-tenth of the Empire's standing military force."

"Don't think this number is small. How many star regions does the Empire have? How many star systems have they occupied to date?"

"The production efficiency of those nano planets is very high, and the speed of replenishing the fleet is much faster than the speed at which we replenish our fleet."

"And as the number of planets they control increases, the number of warships they produce will increase."

"In a few days, when the number of the nano fleets really overwhelms ours, we really won't have the slightest hope of turning the tables."

“But it’s still there.”

"According to our parallel investigations over the past two days, we found that the growth of the nano fleet is not exponential, but linear."

"The only means they have for expanding the nanoworld is the Colossus."

"I doubt whether their queen would have come to the Empire to steal one if Chen Ming's colony hadn't used the Colossus to try to destroy the stargate, giving them the opportunity to replicate the Colossus."

"We have ways to curb their expansion. This Colossus can definitely become our target."

The Minister of Psychic Powers couldn't agree more with this view.

Although he thought that the production efficiency of nano planets was not as high as the efficiency of nano ship conversion in battle, that was also relative.

It would be great if we could find a way to dismantle the Colossus and delay the expansion of the nano planet for a day or two.

If the production efficiency of nanometers was lower, the reconstruction of the Colossus would be slower and it would be a pleasant surprise if it could delay the reconstruction for a few more days.

With only eight days left before facing the Queen, the time gained was extremely important.

But someone brought up the last meeting again: "Where's the Queen? What are you going to do?"

"You haven't found a Nanocolossus yet, and you're still thinking about the Queen?"

The head of the military department's face darkened and he asked back. However, he still said a plan that seemed to have been thought out before: "If you want to deal with the Queen, there is only one choice, gather the power of the top psychics in the entire empire and attack together."

"We can't just find a few psykers and try to deal with it. That would be the same as giving up our lives."

However, the plan of gathering the top psychics in the entire empire is not feasible at present, and the threat of mechanical superbodies still remains.

Once the Mechanicals notice the movements of the Empire's psykers, the superbodies will cause heavy losses to the Empire in a very short time.

Therefore, if we want to target nano, we must start from other aspects first.

After two sentences, the topic of the Queen was temporarily ignored.

The military leader said again with some preparation: "Not only the Nano Colossi, we must also try to clean up those Nano Planets later to further reduce their productivity."

"It is necessary for our Colossus to move as well. This is the Colossus' job."

Everyone in the meeting room discussed it briefly and had no objection to this idea.

This is indeed an effective way to suppress the productivity of the nano fleet.

The only possible consequence would be the same as destroying the Nano Colossus, that is, the Queen would change her current way of doing things and attack the Empire directly.

But this is not a problem at all, it is just something that is bound to happen sooner or later.

Rather than being afraid of the consequences of doing so, it is better to give it a try.

Someone suggested: "There is also a Colossus in Chen Ming Colony. Do you want to borrow it?"

"You can give it a try, but I'm not optimistic about the effect of neutron torrents on nanomachines."

"An extra option won't hurt."

After the plan was passed and handed over to the military for execution, the head of the military suddenly glanced at the Grand Archon.

As if he understood something, he suddenly changed the subject and said, "By the way, it is actually necessary to plan a plan against the Queen as well."

"At present, we all know that the Queen's psychic power is far stronger than that of any other psychic, so our psychics must cooperate to target her."

"Our top psykers don't usually cooperate much, especially in combat. So, if their abilities conflict, appearing together in front of the Queen might even have a negative effect."

"We need to organize ourselves to a certain extent, build a qualified team, and be ready at all times to carry out the decapitation plan when necessary."

The plans for nanocolossi and nanoplanets are both theoretically feasible and the approximate results can be predicted.

But it was obvious that no one present would approve the Queen's plan so easily.

"Let's not even talk about beheading her. How can we behead her when we don't even know where the Queen is?"

The military chief replied confidently: "We actually have a solution to this problem."

"Our military has been cooperating with the Fanchao Research Institute to conduct research on a secret project. The name of this project is the Sentinel Array."

"This was a project initiated one month after Chen Ming brought back the cosmic star map. The research was completed some time ago, and the technology was only completely completed recently."

Sentinel array.

A special Megastructure that has the same specifications as a Megadock, but has different abilities and effects.

The effect is to conduct long-range, ultra-high-precision reconnaissance at the imperial level.

As long as it is within the radiation range of the Sentinel Array effect, everything from the structure of galaxies and star clusters to the biological populations and natural resources on the surface of the planet can be clearly seen.

This technology was originally intended to target the mechanical race. As long as the mechanical race still exists around the empire, the empire will be well aware of all of their movements.

As long as the war between the Empire and the Machines continues, the location of their Omega Cores will soon be locked with the help of the Sentinel Array.

And now, the results of this technology can be used on the survivors.

"And then? I still can't beat him."

"Beheading the Queen is not the first goal. This is just preparation. If we are not prepared, we won't even have a chance to fight the Queen."

The Grand Archon, who had been silent for a long time since the beginning of the meeting, ended the debate and completely determined the tone of the Empire's targeted strategy toward the survivors.

Destroy the Nano Colossus.

Cleaning up the nano planet.

Behead the Queen.

The three lines are advancing in parallel.

This is not because the Grand Archon is arrogant, but because the Empire cannot win if it does not do this.

Half a day later.

The sentinel array built in a hidden galaxy belonging to the military of the empire was officially launched after a series of careful preparations.

The array pinpointed the exact location of the Relict Queen and her Nanocolossus within minutes of activation.

The Queen's Car is now hovering in the galaxy where the wormhole is located.

Her vehicle, like any nanoship, does not require a large dock to maintain it.

Because each nanoplanet has all the functions it should have and will transform with the changes of the nanomachinery on the planet.

Each planet can be a ship production center or a dedicated ship repair center.

The Nano Colossus is at the edge of the galaxy occupied by the survivors, moving towards the Empire.

The Queen's star field does not expand in a spherical shape, but in an egg shape.

The tip gradually extends towards the empire.

This gave the Empire an excellent opportunity to launch a surprise attack.

after one day.

The operation against the Nano Colossus has officially begun.

A joint fleet composed of several powerful imperial armies took the initiative to launch an attack on the galaxy where the Nano Colossus was located.

Relying on its absolute numerical advantage, the Empire's fleet barely managed to turn the tables in this battle.

The Nano Colossus was not dragged into the war, but instead headed to other nearby galaxies under the escort of the rest of the Nano Fleet.

Of course, this is also in the plan.

A level 6 psychic is deployed at all of the Nano Colossi's retreat routes, with the sole goal of destroying the Colossi.

The direction in which the Nano Colossus actually evacuated was exactly Hu Yi, who was caught by Chen Ming before, then forgotten by Chen Ming, and finally ran to the president's side.

His psychic power has a very good targeting effect on nanomachines.

The entropy reduction of its spiritual energy after constructing an absolute zero temperature zone is completely irreversible in causing structural damage to the nanomachinery.

And the moment the nanocolossus stepped into the ambush range.

The sudden extreme cold completely destroyed the entire nano fleet, including the nano colossus.

The fleet that Hu Yi was in quickly dismantled the Colossus and evacuated. The Imperial Fleet, which was used to attract the main force of the Nano Fleet, also took the opportunity to end the battle and also chose to evacuate.

The Queen did not appear during the entire process.

And the nano fleet does not seem to have the ability to replenish a new Colossus in a short period of time.

For the first time, the Queen's steps seemed to stop.

But just as this news was transmitted back to the empire, another piece of news was also delivered back.

Under the surveillance of the Sentinel Array, a nano fleet of three battleships was leaving their star region and approaching the Empire.

(End of this chapter)