As the Commander of the Custodes, Trajann was naturally known to everyone, and no one would intercept him. The Iron Men even allowed him to proceed unimpeded to Noah's command center.
When he arrived, Noah was already aware of Trajann's presence.
"You've arrived?"
"You did an excellent job with the Tyranid Swarm this time. Humanity has gained a new batch of fresh forces because of your actions, and they will become our best shock troops. Moreover, we can use them soon."
Noah did not turn his head; his gaze remained fixed on the moon of war that was being constructed. A planet-sized warship like it was considered a top-tier force in this Milky Way Galaxy.
Trajann said nothing, instead waiting for Noah's next words, as he knew very well that the Warmaster would not have recalled him merely for praise.
"The main reason I've called you back this time is for a war that needs to be fought. I will personally command this war. From now on, the Custodes can rest for a period until I issue the call to arms!"
"Your resting place will be on the planet-sized warship you see before you. I will name it..."
At this point, Noah fell silent for a moment before speaking again.
"I will name this warship europa vii!"
The opponent was similar to a Starfish, and this form reminded Noah of the Starfish that had once attacked a human planet.
europa vii was both a memorial to the planet destroyed by the Starfish and a statement of his current attitude.
"Yes!" Trajann had no objections or dissatisfaction with Noah's words; he simply followed orders.
The Emperor did not require him, the Commander of the Custodes, to do anything, so for him, following the Warmaster was what he needed to do most. As for other matters, they had nothing to do with him.
After Trajann left, Noah once again continued to construct the planet-sized warship. It would be completed soon.
Noah had made extensive preparations for the upcoming advance into the Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy. A large amount of supplies was continuously being sent to the planet's surface.
At the same time, to meet the needs of combat, Space Marines entered the interior of this giant planet in droves.
A planet-sized warship was not just a warship; it was a planet!
According to the Imperium of Man's abstract living standards, a planet-sized warship could accommodate at least trillions of people!
This was even a conservative estimate. After all, some things could be achieved in the 2k era. A certain country had a city called Hangzhou, where the population density was 749 people per square kilometer.
Ancient Terra had oceans, and its land only accounted for 29.2% of the total area, or 149 million square kilometers. Even if only this 149 million square kilometers were used for calculation, it could accommodate over 100 billion people!
If all 510 million square kilometers of land were used to house people, then without a doubt, at least 500 billion could be accommodated.
Of course, in the 2k era, this was only true for a few cities with large populations and was not universally applicable. However, for interstellar civilizations, this became universally applicable.
Interstellar civilizations didn't need such complicated living arrangements. They only needed some simple places to produce enough food and other facilities, and they could stack them in layers. With a 500-meter limit, they could at least build two layers on a planet.
Even if everyone occupied a portion of land and lived comfortably, a single planet could basically house trillions of people!
And planet-sized warships like the moon of war and europa vii actually had usable sub-surface layers.
This meant that if Noah wished, he could even house 1.5 trillion people while ensuring the quality of life for the citizens above!
Moreover, these 1.5 trillion people, with the aid of its technology, could even be self-sufficient!
Of course, this was a relatively extreme situation. Noah would not do such a thing. The planet's population would not exceed 20 billion, with the majority being various equipment and material reserves.
Most importantly were the reserves of stargate components and accessories. This was the most crucial item. After all, when traveling to another satellite Milky Way Galaxy, one couldn't always rely on warships to directly traverse the 160,000 light-years of void.
If a stargate could be built there, then without a doubt, human forces could be rapidly mobilized and intervene in local wars.
A small moon of war alone would find it very difficult to directly destroy an interstellar civilization.
However, if there was a stargate as a logistical supply channel, coupled with the vast resources and legions of the Imperium of Man, then without a doubt, they could very easily bring the entire Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy under their control!
Humanity would gain another resource-producing area besides the Milky Way Galaxy, and that region would not be subjected to too many incursions and attacks from the Warp.
Aside from not having lighthouses in the Warp to illuminate their Warp travel, the rest were not major issues.
Therefore, in Noah's view, since the Adeptus Mechanicus had already reached the Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy and was in conflict with local interstellar civilizations there,
then the Imperium of Man should naturally expand its territory, increase its control, and acquire more resources afterward.
And by the way, look for traces of C'tan or Old Ones, especially the C'tan.
After all, these beings were purely energy-based. If they could be found and if there was an independent race, then humanity would burn them and make them into a new kind of xenos.
Although Noah knew that the Necrons should have also launched large-scale attacks on the C'tan, such a race should not have been completely annihilated by the Necrons.
The universe is so vast. Although the Necrons have indeed achieved speeds far exceeding the speed of light, capable of traversing the universe, the size of the universe is not something that can be fully explored merely by exceeding the speed of light.
Noah believed that this vast universe would definitely contain other treasures. He wanted to find the C'tan, burn them into xenos, and train local Psyker Legions!
In addition, he also wanted to find these fellows and make them the energy core of his engines!
At this moment, although Noah was building the moon of war, his mind was constantly flashing with the C'tan energy within the Necrons' warships.
Singularity energy was good, but C'tan energy seemed to be more environmentally friendly and convenient. Most importantly, it was cheap!
Just for the sake of being cheap, Noah wanted to try and find them, then can and bottle them, and put them into his warships to burn as energy!
A few days of rest passed in the blink of an eye. When the last component of the moon of war was installed, and the secondary singularity was placed within it, this first planet-sized warship in the history of the Imperium of Man began to move.
By this time, its interior was already loaded with a large amount of troops, supplies, and warships. Five Patrol Fleets entered the internal core of the warship to dock. A large amount of supplies were stored inside the planet-sized warship, and warships could be built by temporary shipyards and directly deployed into battle.
What is a planet-sized warship?
A planet-sized warship is different from the Necrons' world engine and other equipment. It is also a large warship that integrates production, capable of producing warships while fighting.
It can produce anything from ordinary frigates to battleship.
Even in necessary situations, it can directly begin producing titan-class warships. This warship can be said to be all-purpose; not only does it possess powerful combat capabilities, but it also has considerable industrial capacity.
When the planet-sized warship, europa vii, began to move, even Noah, a Scientist who had grown accustomed to large warships in the Federation, was genuinely delighted.
Finally, he said, finally, there was a truly military-grade warship that could be put into combat. Don't let the large size of a planet-sized warship fool you into thinking it's the hardest to build; in fact, among large warships, planet-sized warships are the easiest military warships to construct.
Other warships require a large amount of high-tech equipment, which needs many cutting-edge technologies to build. At this time, even with Noah's assistance and support, the Imperium of Man could not produce these things, after all, the foundation was there.
However, planet-sized warships are different. Due to their sufficiently large size, enough equipment can naturally be crammed into their vast area.
Although a planet-sized warship is roughly the size of Terra, it might not be as good as a regular Federation military satellite-grade warship with a block of nine after it's built.
But so what?
At any rate, this warship has already met the standard for a military-grade warship; it can now be considered a true military-purpose warship. Its combat power has reached the standard.
Having completed the construction of the moon of war, Noah did not remain in the main control room. Instead, he waved and called over his two students.
"Cawl, Vita, this main control room will be yours to research. All the technology within it will be open for your study and research. I will personally lead humanity's army to secure greater benefits for humanity."
While delighted, Noah did not forget his two students. Therefore, he made arrangements for them, indicating that they could research this planet-sized manufacturing shipyard.
Cawl and Vita were incredibly excited to hear this. This was a planet-sized shipyard! In the entire Imperium of Man, only Noah could build such a thing. This entire project was directed by Noah, with artificial intelligence handling the production.
The resources poured into this project were astronomical. To create this planet-sized shipyard, World 108, Noah's and his 28 worlds, all surplus resources, and over half of the resources that needed to be stored in the Imperium of Man's Hazy Starfield were all poured into this one location.
This was a top-tier facility that integrated a vast amount of technology. To be able to research it now was incredibly exciting for them!
However, despite his excitement, Cawl still managed to suppress his inner ecstasy.
"Teacher, please allow me to accompany you. Rather than staying here to research this planet-sized shipyard, I'd rather go with you, as I truly don't understand these technologies."
Cawl was well aware of his capabilities and what he could do. He knew that staying here alone to research this planet-sized shipyard was simply nonsense; he wouldn't be able to comprehend anything.
And Vita, who had originally been somewhat pleased, quickly followed suit and spoke up after hearing Cawl's words.
"Me too, Teacher, please let me go with you."
Upon hearing this, Noah, who had been about to leave, stopped and looked at his two students.
After a moment of thought, he made a decision.
"Very well, then follow along. It'll be a good opportunity to teach you some things on the way. Your foundations are too weak; you really should seize this time to properly reinforce them."
Since his students wanted to learn, Noah naturally had no reason to refuse. After all, what he wanted was a Scientist who could stand on his own, not just an ordinary researcher.
He wanted a Scientist leader, a Scientist leader who could stand on his own to research specific technologies, not a researcher who could only conduct research under his command.
Although Cawl's abilities and skills in many aspects simply did not meet the standards Noah desired, that's not how it works.
After all, among the short, pick the tallest. As long as they can adequately learn knowledge and become independent Scientists, that's enough.
Noah's agreement made both Cawl and Vita exceptionally happy.
Originally, they could only receive Noah's guidance and learning opportunities weekly or monthly, which were quite limited. But now, it was different.
Now that they were on the moon of war, they were destined to receive a great deal of instruction. Noah, being idle anyway, would likely be filling their minds with knowledge almost every day.
"Alright, don't just stand there. Go pack what you need to bring. We're getting ready to leave."
Looking at his two students, whose joy was clearly visible on their faces, Noah impatiently urged them on, then took another step and departed.
Taking students along was merely a small interlude, and it would also serve to alleviate boredom on the journey.
After Noah left, Cawl and Vita exchanged glances and then both left the main control room. They needed to pack their necessary belongings.
This trip was destined to be a long journey, and some of their accumulated treasures still needed to be brought along. Every tech-priest, especially within the Mechanicus Ark, had STC templates they had inherited through their archaeological studies.
Although these STC templates no longer seemed as important with Noah as their teacher, knowledge is still knowledge.
Most importantly, with the opportunity to ask Noah, some technical black boxes that they had never understood before could also be deciphered with their teacher's help.
The excitement of Vita and Cawl was uncontrollable and undisguised. They had already begun to fantasize about mastering more knowledge.
Even Cawl, who had lived for a full ten thousand years, was incredibly excited by such news!!!
With everything ready, the battleship slowly began to move.
From the outside, Europa No. 7 looked like a metal planet made of metal, but the very next second it moved, it accelerated its speed to 200,000 times the speed of light.
Its speed continued to increase, making it hard to imagine a planet could move so fast.
Yet, during its superluminal travel, the people inside still lived their lives as usual; their time remained 24 hours, enforced by powerful technology.
No matter how fast the superluminal speed, it could not affect the conditions inside the battleship.
This was something the Necrons' technology could not achieve, as the Necrons simply had no such thoughts or troubles.
In the beginning, the Necrons were at a disadvantage, a three-to-seven split, in their war against the Old Ones.
However, later, as the Necrons became mechanized beings whose mechanical bodies could ignore the effects of superluminal travel, they gradually gained the upper hand on the battlefield and eventually defeated the Old Ones.
The Necrons have mechanized bodies, so they don't have the trouble of superluminal effects, which means they wouldn't research this technology, and they couldn't develop it either.
The Necrons don't have this technology, but humanity does!
Humanity possesses various foundational technologies, ensuring its battleships can freely navigate the Milky Way Galaxy, and even soar through the universe at will.
Just as Noah was leading his fleet towards the Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy, the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet in the Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy was also under siege by the Starfish race.
"Archmagos Phylarchus, we have received a reply from the Imperium of Man; we will receive support from the Imperium of Man.
The Imperium of Man bids us persevere, for this is the will of the Omnissiah."
"The Omnissiah will personally lead a fleet to support us and deliver us from suffering!"
"The Omnissiah personally praised us for our spirit of exploration; he thinks highly of us!"
The Adeptus Mechanicus priest responsible for reporting this information, spewing oil, excitedly expressed his inner excitement with his mechanical voice, and conveyed the Imperium of Man's message to the Magos.
Hearing this, Archmagos Phylarchus was also immensely excited, continuously reciting binary canticles.
For the Omnissiah to personally come and rescue their small Adeptus Mechanicus fleet, what an honor was that?!
Such an honor made Archmagos Phylarchus feel that his entire life had been worth it.
After all, the Omnissiah had truly praised them personally, calling them adventurous.
The immensely excited Archmagos Phylarchus looked at the Starfish race fleets besieging him, and suddenly felt no fear.
What was there to fear?
These Starfish race merely relied on the sheer number of their fleets, and some absurd technology that actually suppressed their superluminal travel, limiting them to only 70 times the speed of light; otherwise—
"Hmph!" Archmagos Phylarchus snorted disdainfully. If it weren't for their black technology that could restrict their superluminal travel, they wouldn't need to request aid from the Omnissiah; their Adeptus Mechanicus Ark Fleet alone would be enough to make these Starfish race suffer!
"The Omnissiah is coming, and the Omnissiah personally called us enterprising people, so we must not disappoint him!"
"Order the fleet to fight while retreating. As soon as their shields fail, we will rush in and destroy their pursuing fleet. I will use them to declare our victory!"
Archmagos Phylarchus was very excited. He felt that since the Omnissiah was about to arrive, he shouldn't just run all the time; he had to attack proactively!
He wanted to achieve victory to celebrate the Omnissiah's imminent visit, which thrilled him!
Under the command of their Magos, the Adeptus Mechanicus Ark Fleet began a new maneuver, slowly reducing its speed to allow the Starfish race's fleet to catch up and launch an attack.
But how could the Starfish race not see through such a simple plan from the Adeptus Mechanicus?
Sessarsal—that was the name of the Starfish race's species.
The Sessarsal race looked like an underwater Patrick Star, but unlike Patrick Star, they were a highly warlike and aggressive nation.
Although this race and civilization were not as vast as the Imperium of Man, their numbers were considerable; the entire civilization occupied almost the entire Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy, possessing over 400,000 planets as their colonies.
They had also developed a large amount of AI technology and superluminal travel technology, and more importantly, they also mastered Warp travel technology. Furthermore, because the Chaos Gods of the Warp generally do not interfere with matters outside the Milky Way Galaxy, Warp travel outside the Milky Way Galaxy can be said to be extremely effective.
However, their Warp travel could only be considered on par with humanity's Warp travel; they also relied on the astronomican.
But the good thing about this civilization was that there were no Chaos Gods of the Warp in their region of the Warp.
Moreover, 10,000 years ago, they obtained some technology from the Necrons and some ancestral remnants they possessed at the beginning of their empire's founding, which allowed them to create the astronomican in the Warp.
Besides, as a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy happened to be within the protection range of the Necrons.
This led to the Starfish race's development being remarkably smooth.
Apart from occasionally having to fight with the Necrons, which gave them a bit of a headache.
But overall, life was very good, a good life that only changed slightly after the oil-men ran into their galaxy.
"Commander, the unknown race's battleship ahead has slowed down; it seems they want us to catch up and attack them. What do you think?"
"Since we've already figured it out, should we still play into their hands?"
Facing his subordinate's report, Nord, the Starfish Commander in charge of this pursuit fleet, merely glanced at his subordinate and retorted.
"But, Commander, aren't we supposed to pursue and destroy the enemy? If they slow down and we don't catch up, how will we complete our mission?"
The subordinate, of course, knew how absurd this situation was and what consequences they would face if they did that, but he had no choice.
Their mission was to eliminate this unknown race's fleet. Now that the enemy fleet had finally slowed down, they could catch up.
What were they waiting for if not to seize the opportunity to attack?
Even knowing it was the enemy's plan, they could only grit their teeth and go for it.
"No need to rush. Our Star-net Core has already calculated the galaxy they are heading to, and a fleet has already gone ahead via Warp travel to intercept them."
"We don't need to incur extra casualties; we just need to follow right behind them."
Nord answered his subordinate's question.
"Once we catch them, I definitely want to see what kind of race they are. In our part of the galaxy, I've never seen such a unique race that can fly so fast."
"Their technology might have some reference value; you can study it. I really didn't think your research capabilities would be so weak; it's simply a disgrace to our ancestors' prestige!"
"Even now, the conventional speed limit is a mere 60 times the speed of light; you truly are!"
Saying this, the Starfish Commander used one of his feet to harshly kick his adjutant next to him; he was very displeased.
The Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Fleet began to move slowly forward.
Their speed began to drop to 50 times the speed of light, so that the Starfish race's warships behind them could also engage their superluminal travel and catch up.
At the same time, 50 times the speed of light was not something the Starfish race could achieve at will. Although these Starfish race warships could reach 60 times the speed of light when entering extreme speed navigation mode, reaching 60 times the speed of light would consume a large amount of energy and destabilize their shields.
The Adeptus Mechanicus warships were suppressed by the Starfish race's superluminal inhibitor, only able to travel at 70 times the speed of light.
That was merely the opponent's superluminal inhibitor suppressing their speed, but their energy consumption was not reduced; they could still travel that fast.
The Adeptus Mechanicus's energy core could still power the warships forward, while the Starfish race could not.
Archmagos Phylarchus's idea was very simple: let the opponents reach 60 times the speed of light to catch up, then heavily consume their energy and destabilize their shields.
However, these Starfish race did not follow his wishes; they did not enter the ultra-extreme mode of 60 times the speed of light, but instead continued to maintain 50 times the speed of light, merely trailing far behind the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet.
"Archmagos Phylarchus, those damned xenos have not caught up; instead, they continue to trail behind us, maintaining a speed comparable to ours."
Hearing this, Archmagos Phylarchus glanced at the scout on his warship, confirmed the opponent's status, and then spoke.
"Release the Void Torpedoes. Since they are unwilling to catch up and fight us, then we'll set some traps for them ahead!"
"This..." Hearing this, the Tech-Priest was a little conflicted.
"Magos, we have been fighting for too long and have consumed too many Void Torpedoes. If we waste Void Torpedoes now, in case we encounter their full pursuit from all directions again and are forced into combat, it will be difficult for us to rely on Void Torpedoes to hinder the enemy's pursuit from behind."
From the time they sent out a message requesting imperial support until Noah personally led a fleet to rescue them, the Adeptus Mechanicus warships had been fighting here for over four months.
The Forge Ark Fleet did not request support from the Empire immediately upon encountering an attack; after all, it was initially just some ordinary xeno civilizations. How could they suddenly request aid from the Empire?
The Ark Fleet requested aid only because the Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Ark Fleet was struggling in subsequent battles and therefore requested it.
"Then use a little less, but at least create some burden for them!"
"At worst, we risk opening a Warp lane again and making a jump through the Warp. We now have 5000 times the speed of light engine. Even if we get lost in the deep void of normal space, we can find a place for resupply!"
"As long as we can find any xeno civilization's planet, we can go and plunder it!"
Archmagos Phylarchus made his decision after only thinking for less than a second.
It was merely a matter of ammunition shortage; at worst, they would risk entering the Warp for travel. As long as they shook off the enemy, their superluminal travel could resume.
Once superluminal travel resumed, they could search for suitable planets in the void of space to plunder and resupply.
"Yes!" Since the Magos said so, what could the Tech-Priest do?
He naturally carried out the order.
The next second, the entire Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Ark Fleet dropped a large number of Void Torpedoes, once again scattering them in the void behind them, awaiting the arrival of the Starfish race fleet.
The Starfish race, being a species capable of superluminal combat, their detection systems were not to be underestimated.
Although the Empire's Void Torpedoes could quickly conceal themselves after deployment to prevent detection, they could still be detected when first launched from the hangar.
"Those damned two-legged xenos, they've deployed a large number of Void Torpedoes again. Damn it, if it weren't for our Empire's glory being no more, we would definitely make these guys pay dearly!"
Commander Nord of the Starfish race pursuit fleet, seeing this situation, angrily slammed the equipment in front of him.
If their glory were not gone, how could they be toyed with by such a petty fleet?
Hearing his Commander once again lamenting the lost glory of their Empire, the surrounding Starfish could no longer suppress their curiosity and asked,
"Commander, you all say that the glory of our Sethsal Empire is no more, but how glorious was the Empire's glory once upon a time?"
They often heard the Commander and others talk about the glorious past of the Empire, but how glorious it actually was in the past was not something these young Starfish could understand.
They did not know how glorious the Empire once was. These Starfish were merely young Starfish created in recent centuries, and a fleet Commander, there was no comparison.
Just as humans have Immortal, the Starfish race also has several Immortals, who are their supreme Commander, several fleet Commanders, and Scientists.
These individuals are all Immortals; they are almost impervious to the ravages of time, and thus they know the former glory of the Sethsal Empire.
However, this glory had not been publicly disclosed in any way.
Aside from these Immortals who often spoke of how glorious their race once was, there was no explanation given to the entire population of the Empire about how glorious it truly was at that time.
Nord, the Starfish race, with two bright eyes in his abdomen, looked at the young warriors beside him.
Yes, these old-timers kept talking about how glorious their former Empire was, but they never told these young descendants what that glory actually entailed.
Therefore, it was understandable that these young descendants were unaware of this matter.
"You ask how glorious we once were. I can tell you that 5000 times the speed of light travel, like that fleet opposite, was common throughout the former Empire."
"In fact, such speeds, in our eyes, were merely insignificant. Our speed far surpassed theirs!"
"You are all just young soldiers, so you are unaware that within the Empire, there are reserves of ancient warships, warships left over from our most glorious period!"
"Don't think that this fleet of mechanical lifeforms can miraculously survive our warships' pursuit. But if we need to deploy the glorious ancestral warships, we can annihilate them instantly!"
Nord, the Starfish race, raised his tentacles high, displaying his pride and arrogance. Only Immortals like him truly understood how proud and glorious the Empire once was.
"I can proudly tell you that at our peak, we engaged in total war with humanity across the star seas!"
"Humans!?" The young Starfish officer and Soldiers murmured the word. Most Starfish were hearing such a strange word for the first time. What kind of race were humans?
The former Empire and humans once waged a full-scale war across the stars. Why was this called so glorious?
Their Empire possessed Ancestor Warships. Once those Ancestor Warships were activated, annihilating the semi-mechanical species before them would be effortless. All these pieces of information bombarded the minds of these young Starfish.
Looking at these ordinary Starfish Soldiers, somewhat bewildered, Nord, the commander of the Pursuit Fleet, was also a little disappointed.
It had been too long. Too much time had passed. The war between them and humans had been so long ago that only a few of them, the Immortals, knew of it.
These ordinary young Starfish had completely forgotten how glorious their past splendor was. They also couldn't comprehend what an epic feat it was to engage in battle with humans across the stars.
Although they ultimately failed, and even, according to the usual human style, they were probably the last survivors of that Starfish Empire.
Nord's mood was somewhat low. They were not the indigenous inhabitants of this galaxy and universe.
They just inexplicably appeared here. Ten thousand years ago, they appeared here and developed this brilliant civilization: 400,000 colony planets!
400,000 colony planets—what an enormous number this was.
If this number had existed in the former Cessal Empire, then perhaps they would not have failed in the war against humans!
Even if the colony planets they had created were quite abstract, and even 10,000 of them combined could only barely compare to the production capacity of a single colony planet during their peak.
Moreover, the most important thing was that their technology, in 10,000 years, had not only not made any progress but had rapidly regressed.
Now, they could only achieve 60 times the speed of light at most. If it weren't for a few of them, the Immortals, still being alive and preserving a portion of their technology to develop the FTL inhibitor, the semi-mechanical civilization's fleet before them could have annihilated their fleet.
They would have to activate those warships from 10,000 years ago, those warships from the Empire's peak.
But that batch of warships represented the peak of their final glory.
Those warships were truly one less with each one used, one less with each one lost.
The warships had been in service for an increasingly long time. They weren't sure if these warships could last another 10,000 years.
Although they believed their former Empire's technology should be able to last for several tens of thousands of years without issue, what if?
What if these Ancestor Warships were gone?
If those mechanical civilizations in this area, the so-called Necrons, appeared within their Empire, then with their current warships, they would not be a match for the Necrons.
Only those warships from the Empire's most glorious period could contend with these Necrons.
Those Ancestor Warships truly must not be used unless it's the most critical situation.
Alas!
Nord let out a heavy sigh, and the entire Starfish exuded an air of sadness.
How could one who had experienced glory endure the current trough?
In 10,000 years, they had not only failed to restore the glory of the Cessal Empire but had also reduced themselves to merely clinging to survival here.
Sixty times the speed of light—such a slow flight speed—even ordinary civilizations that had just left their home planet and entered interstellar civilization could achieve that, yet they had taken a full 10,000 years!
At this rate of development, what kind of technology they could develop in the next 10,000 years was truly an unknown. It could be said that the Ancestor Warships were their sole reliance.
Not everyone was a top Scientist like Noah. He could rebuild human civilization wherever he went, as long as there were humans.
Top-tier, all-around Scientists like Noah represented a race's most precious asset.
They were the cornerstones of civilization and also guided its future. Once an ordinary civilization lost its technological system and relied only on a few Immortals, rapid decline would inevitably follow.
"Alright, there's no need to dwell on past glories. Even if I describe it to you, you wouldn't be able to grasp how powerful our Empire once was!"
"You young ones only need to know that we were once glorious and great. You must strive to achieve the greatness and splendor of our race."
He didn't know why these Starfish before him were so abstract and unable to inherit their powerful gene sequence, but this didn't stop Nord from encouraging them.
What could they do? This civilization was literally brought up by them from scratch; it was the continuation of their Starfish civilization, even if these descendants seemed so abstract.
They could only grudgingly accept it and develop slowly. Anyway, there were no powerful enemies threatening them, so things would eventually get better.
Even if their development here for a thousand years could only be compared to one year of the former Empire, it was still true.
"Oh," hearing the commander say this, the naive younger generation of Starfish could only respond with an "oh."
Their Empire wasn't entirely silent about past glories to the younger generation, but most, like their commander, would stop halfway through, deliberately cutting off interest.
And each time, humans would be mentioned, but what kind of race were humans? They wouldn't say a single word.
The internal discussions within the Starfish warship were limited to their own conversations. At this time, the two fleets were still slowly trailing each other, and within the Warp, ordinary Starfish warships had quietly arrived at the positions they had calculated and predicted in advance.
In just a few hours, they could complete the encirclement of this Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Fleet. By then... everything would be settled. This semi-human, semi-mechanical fleet that had troubled the entire Starfish Empire for several months would be utterly destroyed under their attack.
The young Starfish thought so, and the naval commander, who possessed immortal characteristics, also believed the same. Soon, this semi-mechanical life form would be annihilated by them, and then the entire Empire's development could return to normal!
Everything would return to normal; they could slowly continue to advance their tech tree!
Even if their descendants' method of advancing the tech tree was so abstract, so suicidal, with 1,000 years of development only comparable to one year of the former Empire.
But it didn't matter. These leaders of theirs were Immortals. They believed they would eventually endure until that day!
Magos, we have detected strange Warp fluctuations ahead. It is highly likely that the enemy has once again used the Warp to reach our front lines, preparing to launch their 12th encirclement operation against us.
This time, the Warp fluctuation signals are particularly strong! The scale of this Starfish fleet must not be underestimated; it could be the sum of all previous encounters!
The Starfish's plan had already been executed 11 times in the previous four months.
Each time their encirclement appeared, it caused significant losses to the Forge Fleet, and now they were about to conduct another pincer movement, a four-sided encirclement.
Moreover, the scale of this one was clearly much larger than before.
Such news made Archmagos Phylarchus somewhat uneasy.
"Since the enemy isn't falling for it, we shouldn't continue to entangle with them here. Open the Warp channel and prepare for a forced Warp disengagement from this location!"
Since uneasiness had appeared, it had to be treated seriously. Archmagos Phylarchus chose to forcibly initiate a Warp jump and then escape from this place.
He merely wanted to offer a victory to the Omnissiah. Since it was clearly impossible to offer a victory to the Omnissiah now, he might as well escape first.
The Omnissiah did not lack this one victory from him. What he needed to do was to persevere, wait for the Omnissiah to arrive at his position, and then achieve glory!
"Understood," the Tech-Priest chose to execute the order. Soon, the battleship began preparing for a forced Warp jump, an action observed by Nord, the Starfish battleship commander who was pursuing them from behind.
"These damnable half-mechanical civilizations, they want to escape! They must not be allowed to escape! Order the battleships to enter overload phase, activate 80 times light speed, and pursue them!"
60 times light speed was the limit for conventional battleships, but 80 times light speed was the true limit among limits!
Many Starfish Soldiers would die under such superluminal speed at 80 times light speed, but compared to suffering a few casualties, destroying this fleet of mechanical life was far more important.
As for why this was necessary, and whether it was worth it? Nord could directly tell the questioner:
It's worth it!!!
Previous skirmishes had revealed that the half-mechanical lifeforms on the other side had life forms somewhat similar to humans.
Although they were likely not the humans with whom they had waged a full-scale war in the star sea, all of this still made him uneasy.
More importantly, the enemy's machines were similar to humans, which meant they were their enemies!
Such existences must be eliminated!
He wanted to destroy this mechanical fleet.
Hearing his order, the Starfish officer hesitated, as executing this order would result in a large number of non-combat personnel losses among the officers and crew on their battleship.
"Commander..." Nord impatiently cut off his subordinate almost immediately.
"Do not voice any opinions. Execute the orders I give. If you cannot execute them, then you can step down from this position. I do not need someone who cannot carry out my commands."
"Yes," the subordinate timidly replied. These Immortals-level commanders had existed since the empire's inception.
Even though their fleet commander merely led them in pursuit, it was important to remember that the fleets between Red Stone Town, including those entering the Warp, were also under this commander's charge.
He was also one of the civilization's original founders, so his orders were almost impossible to defy.
The Starfish subordinate had no choice but to carry out the order, even if the outcome of such an order would result in at least a 50% loss of Starfish officers and crew throughout the entire fleet, regardless of the circumstances.
One second later, the speed of the Starfish battleships began to increase dramatically.
They easily broke through the 60 times light speed previously detected by the Adeptus Mechanicus, heading towards 80 times light speed, and rapidly closed the gap between themselves and the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet.
"Alert! Enemy fleet speed has surged to 80 times light speed!" The Tech-Priest's warning was reported abruptly.
Archmagos Phylarchus was greatly astonished upon hearing this news.
Even though he had already become a half-human, half-mechanical construct, an expression of shock, dumbfounded, could still be seen on his mechanical face.
"How is this possible? This is impossible! How could they break through 80 times light speed? In our previous attempts, they only reached 60 times light speed!"
"No time! Is the Warp channel open yet? We need to evade immediately, otherwise, once they entangle us, we will have nowhere to escape!"
Now was clearly not the time to investigate why they could achieve 80 times light speed. The most important question now was whether the Warp tunnel would open and if they could timely hide in the Warp and immediately escape from this place.
"According to estimates, it is not possible. We cannot escape this place before the enemy's attack arrives.
We will probably need to leave a portion of the battleships to obstruct the enemy's advance, or we can disregard their attacks and continue to rush into the Warp channel."
"However, it is difficult for us to confirm whether the enemy can maintain our Warp channel and then rush in with us, engaging us in the Warp."
The Tech-Priest quickly reported the results predicted by the intelligent AI to Archmagos Phylarchus.
Leave a portion of the fleet to block, and the remaining fleet escapes into the Warp?
This choice was clearly very humiliating, but it was clear that the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet had no choice at this moment, so he made his decision.
"Leave 1/4 of the fleet to block the enemy, and the rest continue to open the Warp channel at the fastest speed and then escape from this place!"
"No sacrifice is too great to accept. We must leave this place and report all details to the Omnissiah, preparing for the Omnissiah's arrival."
"More importantly, the 60 times light speed we previously reported to the Omnissiah is clearly problematic. We must rectify our mistake and absolutely not allow the Omnissiah to receive such erroneous intelligence."
Archmagos Phylarchus's thinking had long shifted from bringing victory to the Omnissiah to reporting the news that these Starfish could achieve 80 times light speed to Noah.
Although 80 times light speed and 60 times light speed only differed by 20 times, such a speed in fleet combat, especially when they had equipment to suppress superluminal travel, would absolutely be fatal.
The speed of a battleship could affect the outcome of a battle on a very large scale.
The Adeptus Mechanicus fleet detached a portion, which ceased its advance and instead turned to launch an attack.
They were tasked with covering the main fleet's retreat, and thus they were resolved to fight to the death.
However, as the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet prepared for a counterattack, Starfish Commander Nord immediately saw through their intentions.
"In Human Citizen terms, this is like a warrior cutting off his own arm, but what does it matter? You won't escape!"
As a fleet commander who had experienced many interstellar wars and was extremely proficient in fleet combat, he knew exactly how to fight.
Even though the Adeptus Mechanicus had made the move of a warrior cutting off his own arm, such an act seemed incredibly weak to Nord at that moment.
"Detach a portion of the fleet to monitor this enemy fleet, and the rest will continue the pursuit, ignoring their attacks!"
"They absolutely won't be able to do anything to our shields for a while; we just need to catch up and engage their fleet!"
Nord knew what their shields meant. They had lost a lot of technology, but some shield technology had still been preserved.
Their energy shields had demonstrated extremely powerful combat capabilities when defending against enemy attacks.
It was merely a matter of ignoring the enemy and continuing to attack their main force, allowing the enemy fleet to launch some attacks on their own warships; such losses were completely acceptable.
The Starfish fleet ignored the Adeptus Mechanicus fleets that had turned to attack them, employing a wave of cold violence.
No matter what weapons the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet used to attack the Starfish fleet, even if a Starfish warship was destroyed under the Adeptus Mechanicus warships' assault, the entire fleet still ignored them.
These Starfish fleets had only one goal.
That was to pin down the entire Adeptus Mechanicus fleet, thereby allowing the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet to fall completely into the encirclement and be destroyed by them!
"Damn it!" Archmagos Phylarchus angrily slammed the control panel in front of him.
For an Adeptus Mechanicus Magos to slam his warship's control panel, how abstract a thing was that? From this, one could see how much of a headache he was experiencing at that moment!
The Starfish warships were rushing towards their main fleet regardless of the cost, as if everything had already been decided.
His Forge Fleet had previously intended to use these Starfish as a stepping stone to achieve victory and offer it to the Omnissiah, but now these Starfish were watching him, an Adeptus Mechanicus Magos, make such a move, preparing to completely destroy his entire fleet.
He was merely a Magos; he was ultimately no match for these normal fleet commanders. The Starfish fleet's feigned weakness had caught him completely off guard.
As time slowly passed, the two armies finally engaged in battle!
"Fight back and engage them! Even if everyone dies here, we must not be cowards, for the glory of the Omnissiah!"
Since there was no escaping, then he would not run; he would fight back!
As a Magos, he had to prove to the Omnissiah that he was not a coward. For the glory of the Omnissiah, he would fight these xenos to the death.
But even though he had prepared for a desperate fight, he still felt a pang of anguish when engaging the xenos.
This fleet was the greatest asset of his own Forge World. Now, the entire exploration fleet was suffering insane losses, and more importantly, many of his naval strategies were completely unusable in this battle.
The opponent's shields were also effective against low-speed targets, which led to their ultimate battleship boarding tactics being completely unresolvable.
These xenos simply wouldn't engage in boarding actions; they relied on warship-to-warship bombardments.
Such battles, even after Noah's appearance, had begun to become common in the Imperium of Man, but how could traditions spanning tens of thousands of years be so easily changed?
Archmagos Phylarchus was extremely anxious facing the current battle situation.
Meanwhile, in the Warp, Noah was leading his fleet towards his location. Although on the surface it seemed that the Starfish and Adeptus Mechanicus fleets had not been fighting for long, in reality, more than ten Terra days had already passed.
At this point, Noah's fleet was only a day's journey away from the battlefield where the Adeptus Mechanicus was engaging the enemy.
Reinforcements were actually already on their way, and Noah had also already seen the situation on the battlefield.
"classmate xiao hui, enlarge the target. Why do these warships look so familiar?"
It had been several years since he had arrived in the Warhammer Universe. He didn't know why, but when Noah saw the design of the fleets that were chasing the Adeptus Mechanicus, he felt a strong sense of familiarity.
"I always feel like I've seen this warship design somewhere before, classmate xiao hui, pull up my database and compare the warship styles."
A Scientist's mind was very useful, but there was simply too much knowledge in a Scientist's mind. For some unimportant things, Zhou Qing generally chose to archive them.
Instead of thinking about the problem himself, it was better to directly hand it over to his AI and have him retrieve it from the database.
"Received. The enemy warship design has been entered into the database and is being compared. Comparison complete. There are a total of 1,996,543 similar targets."
"Further optimization and comparison are underway. Comparison complete. I have selected the most similar targets and performed an analysis."
"Analysis results are out. The most likely similar warship form is the C'tan Empire warship style."
"Those Starfish?" Because the enemies of this empire also looked similar to Starfish, and classmate xiao hui had directly shown him which empire's warships these ships resembled.
This allowed Noah to immediately pinpoint the target.
"If there are no surprises, it should be that Starfish Empire. The database marks them as a kill-on-sight target!"
"Human Citizens who encounter these Starfish have the obligation and the right to turn them into canned goods or eradicate them all!"
Noah lowered his head and looked at his ship's display room, especially the name of this moon of war, Europa No. 7.
"This is truly a case of enemies meeting on a narrow road!"
"I didn't expect that even after appearing here, I would still encounter these damned Starfish!"
Noah couldn't help but murmur. He hadn't expected that after appearing in the unfamiliar Warhammer Universe, he would still encounter such an abstract situation.
He had almost changed universes, and he could still encounter these Starfish, the former enemies of humanity?
"Trajann, order our forces to prepare for battle. We must make a concerted effort to eliminate all these Starfish. This is what we need to do most next!"
Regardless of whether the other party was the former enemy of the Terran Dominion, just because they resembled Starfish, and even their warship designs were somewhat similar, they should be sent to their deaths.
"Yes, Warmaster!" Trajann chose to obey the order, but after relaying it and returning to stand behind Noah, he couldn't help but ask.
"Warmaster, I just heard you conversing with your AI. Do you have some understanding of the xenos we are about to face?"
Anyone with a sound mind, after hearing the content of Noah's conversation with his AI, would most likely conclude that Noah should have some understanding of that xenos.
"Yes, but it can also be said no."
"I do have some understanding, but the xenos civilization I know shouldn't be this weak."
At present, it can only be confirmed that these Starfish resemble the others, but it cannot be definitively said that these Starfish are the enemies he once encountered. Therefore, Noah did not claim to fully understand.
????
Trajann was full of questions, not understanding the meaning of Noah's words. What did he mean by "I do have some understanding, but I cannot yet confirm if it is the one I know. Not this weak?"
"Weak?"
"Weak?"
Trajann glanced at the data sent by the Adeptus Mechanicus, then recalled the weapons and equipment once possessed by the Imperium of Man, and finally shook his head helplessly.
Weak?
How was it weak?
Then Trajann looked at the cruiser (warship class) beneath his feet, the Europa No. 7 moon of war.
Alright, if compared to the warships the Warmaster brought out, then 60 times the speed of light was indeed insignificant, and could be considered weak.
Trajann was a bit confused, but this was not a problem.
He was just a mere Commander of the Custodes; all he needed to do was obey Noah's orders.
As for everything else, it had nothing to do with him; he didn't need to care.
After all, he was just a military general. As for how strong the opponent was and how to fight them, these were matters for the Warmaster to consider.
Trajann withdrew his curiosity and prepared to execute the battle plan, while the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet was already in dire straits under the attack of the Starfish fleet.
Their numbers were rapidly decreasing, and the Starfish's attacks were becoming increasingly fierce. Several massive Mechanicus Arks huddled together, using their void shields—a top-tier defense—to strenuously resist the enemy's assaults.
Meanwhile, ordinary destroyers, strike cruisers, and other common warships were frantically deploying numerous traps to impede the enemy's advance, creating minor obstacles on their path to delay them for longer and inflict more damage.
The Adeptus Mechanicus fleet was almost at its breaking point. Just turning back and engaging the pursuing fleet wasn't the biggest challenge for the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet; the greatest difficulty was the Starfish fleet that suddenly appeared behind them.
"Magos, I fear we cannot hold out much longer. We have failed the glory of the Omnissiah!"
The priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus bowed their heads, somewhat afraid to look up at their Magos.
The Omnissiah was coming to rescue them personally, yet they couldn't hold on until the Omnissiah's arrival. What a sorrowful fate!
Just as the remaining members of the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet felt a surge of grief and indignation, a massive Warp passage opened once again behind them.
The battle between the two sides also ceased due to the appearance of this colossal Warp passage.
Because this Warp passage was simply too large. Under normal circumstances, a cruiser (warship class) is only about 20 kilometers in size, and even the Adeptus Mechanicus's Mechanicus Arks are similar. Although Starfish warships are somewhat larger, they are not much different when titan ships are not deployed.
This pursuing fleet was only chasing the Adeptus Mechanicus; how could there be a planet-sized warship? Precisely because of this, the Warp passages they opened were actually of a limited size.
However, now in the void of space, a gigantic Warp passage opened, large enough to accommodate an entire planet's journey. Such a massive Warp storm caused both warring parties to cease their hostilities.
The commander of the Starfish pursuit fleet, Commander Nord, felt a very bad premonition.
Such a Warp passage clearly indicated the scale of a planet-sized warship. In the 10,000 years they had been there, the only civilization they had encountered that possessed planet-sized warships seemed to be the Necrons, those liquid mechanical lifeforms.
However, these liquid mechanical lifeforms almost never traveled through the Warp; they always traversed through real space. Therefore, the presence of the Necrons could be ruled out.
Who could it be?
Commander Nord furrowed his brow. It was hard to imagine the central part of a Starfish being able to furrow a brow—how abstract was that?
"All fleets, cease attacking this semi-mechanized lifeform fleet! Prepare for battle!"
"Make sure battle preparations are complete. If it's an enemy, immediately charge and engage!"
The commander first issued this solemn order to all the warships.
And after this order was given, he disconnected from all warship command systems and instead connected to a secret communication system.
"regent Strande Sharpbeak, we have encountered a massive Warp passage. The opponent should possess a planet-sized warship!"
"We cannot currently determine the combat power of the planet-sized warship, nor can we determine their friendliness or hostility towards our empire. However, our empire now controls almost the entire galaxy; their arrival will surely lead to war with us."
"I request that we now activate a fleet of Imperial warships from when we first arrived in this galaxy!"
"We need these warships to escort our descendants."
Regardless of the civilization, the sheer size of planet-sized warships represents their combat power. Facing such warships, the current existing Starfish Empire warships are absolutely no match for them.
Therefore, for these Starfish, the best solution was to activate the warships from the fleet they brought when they first arrived in this galaxy.
Use such warships to confront planet-sized warships, use such warships to confront planet-sized warships.
The Starfish's private communication channel was not as abstract as the communication they currently displayed. This communication system could communicate across the entire galaxy without any delay.
At least within a range of 200,000 light-years, there would be no delay when they communicated.
These devices were relatively difficult to maintain, but for the Immortal leaders of the Starfish Empire, equipping themselves with such devices was not a problem.
"I understand. I will activate a batch of warships to support you. I hope they don't intend to fight us!"
Uld Sharpbeak, the leader of the Sethsar Empire, responded to his old comrade's request almost immediately after receiving the message.
The Starfish Empire activated a batch of warships that had existed since they arrived in this universe. The number was not large, merely two battleships (warship class), one titan warship, and more than 10 destroyers and frigates.
Such a fleet would have only been considered a patrol fleet in the former Starfish Empire. It wasn't that these Starfish didn't want to activate the planet-sized warship moon of war; it was mainly because if the moon of war were activated, it would be too difficult for the current Starfish Empire to bear the cost.
Just as Noah had amassed a large number of resources to create the moon of war and establish a secondary singularity.
The moon of war in the normal conventional sense would not be equipped with a secondary singularity energy source.
To sustain the moon of war's combat and maintenance needs, the Starfish Empire would need to expend a large amount of energy and materials.
Under normal circumstances, the Starfish Empire could accept this, but once the moon of war was activated and needed to be deployed into battle, it would be an unbearable expense for the entire Starfish Empire.
A titan ship was enough; their titan ship was already capable of confronting weaker Necrons world engine.
Deploying a fleet centered around titan ships, theoretically, even if they couldn't defeat the enemy, they should at least be able to make them think twice.
The Starfish made what they considered the most appropriate decision, after all, not every civilization was like humans, acting like rabid dogs.
They never thought twice. They had only blown up a small Europa No. 7 colony before.
Those damned humans were like madmen, starting a full-scale war with their entire Starfish Empire!
Especially that crazy Terran Dominion; they had clearly bombed a colony of the Earth Alliance, and who knew why this Terran Dominion suddenly went mad, bringing a Colossus to their colony and forcibly blowing it up.
Although this battle occurred ten thousand years ago, the Starfish Empire still felt a headache whenever they thought of that rabid war with humans.
This was the nightmare of all Starfish Empire immortals. In that war, the Empire was almost on the brink of collapse. If they hadn't, by accident, appeared in this galaxy, they would probably have been buried along with the entire glorious Empire.
The Starfish fleet was activated and prepared to go for support. At this moment, Noah's battleship also slowly emerged from the Warp. But when the enormous moon of war appeared before the Starfish, Nord, the commander of this Starfish pursuit fleet, was stunned.
moon of war!!!?!
He recognized immediately what the warship appearing before him was.
That was the moon of war, that was a planet-sized warship!!!
"How is that possible?!"
"How could the moon of war appear in this place!"
Nord could not believe the type of warship his own warship had detected.
That was the moon of war. That thing was completely different from the Necrons world engine they had encountered before; it carried Colossus weapons.
It could directly destroy an entire star system by attacking its star. This level of planet-sized warship was completely different from the previous Necrons warships.
More importantly, the moon of war's shields were astonishingly thick. Attacks that could destroy an entire star system would merely cause its shield energy bar to drop a little, while the warship itself could still operate normally.
Possessing the moon of war meant that the opponent was definitely a normal interstellar civilization. If the opponent was a normal interstellar civilization, then what would they, the Starfish, do? Wouldn't they be completely doomed?
Nord was in a lot of pain, and his pain reached its peak the next second.
He saw the emblem on the moon of war. Besides the double-headed eagle of the Imperium of Man, Noah had also added the single-headed Aquila of the Terran Dominion to the moon of war.
Humans!!!!
They chased them here??
"Humans!!!" Commander Nord's tentacles trembled violently in fear, "This is impossible! How could they also have come to this universe!"
The moon of war Europa No. 7 slowly unfurled its weapon arrays, the Terran Dominion Aquila emblem on its hull shining brightly under the starlight.
This emblem was as familiar as a nightmare to the Starfish.
Although he had just been reminiscing about the glorious achievements of his once great nation, having launched a full-scale war against humanity across the stars, behind this Merits was a crushing defeat!
Before his transmigration, the wars between the Starfish Empire and humans were almost always losses with few victories. The few historical counterattacks were quickly pushed back by the human army.
Just as they had previously used Colossus weapons to directly cleanse powerful human colonies, humans, when attacking their colonies, also used Colossus weapons without hesitation, easily wiping out all life on their planets.
In the ten years before they transmigrated, the Terran Dominion had eliminated over 1470 star systems under their control, with each star system being completely destroyed and turned into a black hole by the Terran Dominion.
Their Colossus continuously attacked their most important colonies, destroying their ascended colonies and cutting off the Starfish's last resistance.
Especially that Terran Dominion Navy Grand Marshal, Darius Kyle Kane, whom all of them called the Executioner.
(The title of this Grand Marshal's book is: After Serving in the Human Union in Stellaris, Returning to Warhammer. The author of this book has a large number of drafts, so feel free to follow along.)
That guy was a top Grand Marshal of the Terran Dominion. His Home Guard Fleet carried out a brutal pursuit against their entire Starfish Empire.
His personal flagship was the quasar battleship, Eternal Spire. The human army had virtually swept away all resistance from their Starfish Empire.
From small planet-sized warships to large quasar battleships, almost none could gain any advantage against that Grand Marshal.
Before their transmigration, that Grand Marshal had almost destroyed two-thirds of their Starfish Empire's military power, with the remaining one-third also being progressively destroyed.
As the former Navy Commander of the Starfish Empire, he was well aware of how powerful the Terran Dominion's fleet was. Just seeing this emblem for the first time, Commander Nord, who had originally been quite calm, was now utterly panicked.
"Retreat, retreat, we must retreat, retreat immediately!!!"
No one knew why such a terrified expression could be seen on a Starfish's face, but compared to his expression, his actions were even more direct. The Starfish fleet, which had been pressing towards the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet, immediately began to retreat without a word.
Leveraging their technology, which was superior to that of the humans, these Starfish fleets almost instantly forced open Warp channels for an emergency jump.
Starfish's fleet could be said to be extremely efficient in its actions.
They immediately retreated, leaving behind only a few warships that hadn't had time to turn back and didn't make an emergency jump.
Starfish's decisive action caused Noah, who was commanding the fleet from within his warship, to feel a hint of confusion.
"What's going on? Why did these Starfish just run away? Were they scared by the size of the moon of war?"
Noah didn't understand why these Starfish ran so fast.
Although his moon of war looked quite large and its combat power was indeed impressive, the enemy shouldn't have just fled without a word, especially since some destroyers and frigates didn't even have time to leave.
"They must have been scared by us, Warmaster."
Even Noah was confused by Starfish's unique behavior, let alone Trajann. After the Starfish fleet retreated at light speed, Trajann was also stunned.
"But then again, Warmaster, although they feared us and fled, their technological level is indeed quite high. Just now, they almost immediately opened a Warp channel and escaped. Such speed can definitely be called a formidable opponent..."
Trajann still had some foresight. The Starfish fleet could be said to have immediately opened a Warp channel and escaped. Such a technological standard is definitely high, as the Imperium of Man's technology cannot yet achieve this.
"This kind of technology is not considered high-end; it's just standard equipment on some warships. It's mainly because our current production capacity is limited, so we haven't been able to equip all warships yet."
"Alright, since those Starfish have fled, let's not worry about them for now. Let's first go see how that Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Fleet is doing."
"Trajann, I'll leave it to you to command the Patrol Fleet to set up defenses to prevent those Starfish from making a surprise counterattack."
Although Noah was very confused about the enemy's direct flight, he didn't delve into it. Instead, he prepared to first appease the Adeptus Mechanicus personnel under his command.
These Adeptus Mechanicus members who dared to go out and explore were definitely valued by Noah. They were the vanguards and backbone of humanity's outward exploration.
Compared to those Starfish aliens, appeasing his own vanguards first and confirming their losses was what Noah valued more at this moment.
Trajann immediately withdrew, resuming command of his Patrol Fleet to set up defenses around the area, and Noah also immediately connected with the Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Ark.
When Noah's face appeared on the Forge Ark's display, all the Adeptus Mechanicus members on the Forge Ark immediately knelt on one knee and offered the aquila salute.
Archmagos Phylarchus was even more excited; his huge body knelt directly on the ground, and he continuously broadcasted and recited binary hymns praising the Omnissiah.
In their eyes, Noah was the Omnissiah, and the Omnissiah personally came to save his followers, which made these Adeptus Mechanicus members all extremely excited and thrilled.
"Rise, there's no need to kneel on the ground. I don't like you speaking to me while kneeling. Stand up and hold your heads high."
Noah didn't like seeing his fellow human beings kneeling on the ground, even if these fellow human beings of the Adeptus Mechanicus had modified themselves to be half-human, half-machine.
Upon hearing this, the Adeptus Mechanicus followers all stood up immediately as if they had received a sacred decree, without the slightest hesitation.
Because these were words spoken personally by the Omnissiah.
Any act of having an opinion or wanting to object after the Omnissiah had spoken personally would undoubtedly be blasphemy; it would be heresy.
Don't look at their doctrine telling them to kneel, but if the Omnissiah tells them to stand up, they must stand up.
If anyone dared to cling to old customs and insist on kneeling in front of the Omnissiah, then he would be blaspheming the Omnissiah's will.
Archmagos Phylarchus struggled to support his huge mechanical body and stood at the forefront before Noah.
"Archmagos Phylarchus, I remember that's your title, correct? Your performance this time was excellent. You persevered until my arrival, especially by setting off early to explore the world outside the galaxy. This is very good!"
"I am very pleased that you did this. You have not lost our human spirit of exploration. Only by being enterprising can a civilization be vibrant and move forward."
"As a reward, you can now make one request to me, and I will fulfill it as much as possible."
Since the Magos had rendered meritorious service, he naturally deserved commendation. Noah would not be stingy with his knowledge and experience. As long as the other party asked, and as long as he could do it, Noah would give it to him.
"As for you all," Noah's gaze turned to the other Adeptus Mechanicus cultists, and he spoke.
"I will also give you the rewards you deserve!"
"Humanity will not be stingy. Humanity will not be stingy in rewarding those who have contributed to humanity."
"Praise the Omnissiah!" The entire Forge Ark erupted in deafening cheers.
The Tech-Priests were so excited that their mechanical parts trembled.
And some particularly excited Tech-Priests even directly sprayed their machine oil from their bodies; spraying machine oil could hardly describe their current excitement and joy.
The Omnissiah had not forgotten them, and the Omnissiah was actually willing to give them rewards. This was their glory; this was their honor.
Exhilaration filled everyone's hearts, and facing Noah's inquiry and willingness to fulfill his request, Archmagos Phylarchus already had an answer in his heart.
He reverently said, "Supreme Omnissiah, your humble servant has only one request—please allow me to continue exploring unknown star systems and expand humanity's territory!"
Noah nodded in approval: "Very good. I will bestow upon you the title of 'Explorer Magos' and equip you with the most advanced exploration fleet."
"I cannot disappoint your willingness to explore outwards. Coincidentally, your mechanical Forge Fleet has also suffered heavy losses, so I will assign you new warships."
"With new warships, you can continue to explore outwards, expand humanity's territory, and find more rare resources!"
Noah announced the reward for the Magos, and after announcing it, he once again turned to the other Adeptus Mechanicus members.
"All personnel involved in this expedition will receive priority access to new mechanical modification technology. You will be the first to be honored with an upgrade to 'Exploration-class' mechanical bodies."
The modifications of these Adeptus Mechanicus members were truly unsightly, and Noah decided to help them.
Fervent binary hymns rang out once more.