Chapter 161: The True Limits of War Among the Stars

Why is it that wars are so rare between the second-tier civilizations of the Wasteland Alliance?

And why do their borders almost never change?

Sure, part of the reason is the Alliance itself, but that’s not the only factor, nor is it even the most important one.

After all…

Even if the Alliance forbids its members from waging war on each other at will—so what?

People will always find more excuses than there are rules.

The real deterrent is the technological limits of second-tier civilizations.

Unless one side holds overwhelming power, it’s almost impossible for war to break out.

Aside from the cosmic currents, nobody has a better way to cross between two star systems—and when it comes to controlling those currents, the defenders have a massive advantage.

With just two or three thousand warships, they can fend off seven or eight thousand attackers thanks to that edge.

How are you supposed to fight a war like that?

Even if you throw caution to the wind and launch a full assault, maybe you manage to take over one star system, but at the cost of half your civilization’s entire fleet…

All gone, just like that.

When you’re left weakened, who knows if your enemy will just take it back?

And what about the other second-tier civilizations on your border? Won’t they seize the chance to grab a bit of your territory?

That’s why technology really sets the limits.

It’s also the reason Tuoba hesitated.

He knows that once he leaves, if the Totran Kingdom sends in a few thousand warships…

There’s a good chance he’ll never be able to reclaim this place again.

If it were just another ordinary planet, he might let it go. But Okka…

Tuoba truly can’t make up his mind.

But he can’t deny the other point Lin Yu brought up—it’s eating at him too.

If he keeps getting bogged down in Okka, those other sixteen families surrounding the inner core are likely in danger.

If things spiral that far, he could find himself caught between Totran Kingdom and Sadik, with no way out.

In the end, he made his final choice.

He didn’t follow Lin Yu’s original plan. Instead, he decided to take a gamble—crush the Totran Kingdom first, then regroup with the other families.

Taking this route brings some risk, but if he pulls it off…

He won’t have to choose one or the other; he could have both.

——

Three days later.

Tuoba issued an ultimatum to the Totran Kingdom—either retreat or face open war.

He gave them just twenty-four hours to decide.

The outcome was obvious.

There was no way the Totran Kingdom would give up Okka, a strategic territory they’ve coveted for centuries.

So war broke out at last.

On one side stood 6,300 warships, on the other, 8,200.

In the vast emptiness of space, the two massive fleets drew closer and began bombarding each other with railgun fire from millions of kilometers apart.

Don’t let Tuoba’s lower numbers fool you. His Seawolf-class warships held the clear edge—in both the number of railgun batteries and the speed of their projectiles. All told, his side’s railgun strength was about forty percent higher.

So, at the start of the battle, Tuoba’s smaller force actually gained a slight advantage.

Of course, that advantage was pretty slim.

Meanwhile, Lin Yu was already receiving reports on the situation.

It was a development he’d half-expected, but still, he frowned.

He knew that by making this choice, Tuoba’s odds of losing everything had climbed as high as 87 percent.

The staff had crunched the numbers on that a while ago.

Lin Yu didn’t doubt they could beat the Totran Kingdom—but Sadik was still waiting in the wings, with over ten thousand warships.

And if Tuoba’s fleet took heavy losses, all he’d have left would be his own battered ships and the ragtag forces of the other families.

Their odds of winning a final showdown would be bleak.

In desperation, Tuoba might end up trying to force the Human Federation to intervene.

And what would he use as leverage? The Federation’s own existence, plus the territory Lin Yu had originally bargained for.

The worst part was, right now, the Federation would probably have no choice but to play along.

If Tuoba really failed, all the Federation’s work from the past twenty years would go up in smoke.

But even that wasn’t the biggest headache.

The real problem was—there was simply no way to help.

Even the Federation, if it wanted to reach the Xitoris Kingdom’s inner zone, would have to ride those cosmic currents. It’d take years just to get there.

Now that was the heart of the problem.

Hmm?

Just then—

The smart computer on Lin Yu’s wrist suddenly projected a display.

An incoming communication.

It was Lu Bo. Lin Yu answered the call right away.

“Lu Bo, what’s up?”

“Do you remember that artifact we got from the Klein—the one from a higher-level civilization?”

“Yeah. We ended up with three things: a cube holding technical records, a hyperspace engine core, and thirty-two Zero-Point Modules.”

“Exactly. A while ago, the Earth’s sphere started a new project—using the hyperspace engine core, and the data from the cube, to build a complete hyperspace engine.”

Lin Yu nodded along.

He’d heard bits about this project before.

The toughest part—the core—was already in hand. The other parts were still tricky, but the Federation could probably handle them.

So the idea was to build a full hyperspace engine out of what they had.

They’d run experiments and keep digging into the tech at the same time.

Having a working prototype would make it so much easier to test everything out.

“So, did you get it running?”

“We did. Thanks to having the core ready-made, ninety-nine percent of our problems disappeared. The finished engine has already left the Solar System and it’s headed to Proxima.”

“So you’re saying your side’s lab is taking over?”

“No, Federation Fleet Headquarters has decided it should be installed on the Houyi.”

Wow. Going straight for the main ship, huh?

They were really planning to put it on his warship?

“Lin Yu, this decision went through the higher-ups.”

“First, normal energy sources can’t power a hyperspace engine. But the Houyi has three sets of Zero-Point Modules. Run them together, and their combined output jumps to four hundred seventy-five percent of a single module—more than enough to fuel the hyperspace engine at full power.”

“Second, with things the way they are on your end, you need this engine more than anyone.”

“Instead of using a test ship, the top brass decided to just install it on the Houyi and set up a lab inside. The ship is big enough—worst case, you lose a mechs brigade and free up some space.”

“This way, we keep researching while the Houyi itself gains star-hopping capacity on par with a level-four, no—beyond even fourth-tier civilizations.”

He had to admit…

Lu Bo had a point.

Once the Houyi gets its hyperspace engine—

All those worries he’d had just now—

Would…

Disappear completely.