Chapter 377: Voyage Beyond the Solar Frontier

Du Qiu nodded and said, “Since we’ve already left the Solar System, naturally we must seek the reason behind the creation of our intelligent species.”

“And of course, there’s something else—whether any relics exist in the Pleiades system. If we can acquire any remaining technology, it would be a huge boost to our own advances.”

Suddenly, Liu Yaofeng patted his thigh and exclaimed, “I just remembered—we should send an exploration team to investigate the relics of the Tur Fleet outside the Civilization Bastion. Let’s find out what kind of civilization Tur really is and just how advanced they became.”

“Not bad—without Liu Yaofeng’s prompt, we might have completely forgotten. Who knows, the Tur Fleet could turn out to be a hidden treasure.”

The meeting quickly finalized the details, and everyone set off to attend to their respective tasks.

Before long, the massive fleet stationed here split off a flotilla led by Rin Feng, comprising one mothership, 3,000 main ships, and 1,000 transport ships loaded with resources bound for the Solar System.

This flotilla was meant to reinforce the special task force and also to bring back a group of researchers tasked with exploring the remnants of the Tur Fleet’s warship formation and studying Tur Civilization.

The research team was headed by Ding Shaoqiu.

After the flotilla departed for the Solar System, the main fleet, under Song Yuanting’s command, sped toward the first node near the Alcyone system.

Standing on Earth, Alcyone is the 13th brightest star in the night sky. Preliminary observations indicate that its diameter is 38 times that of the Sun—an orange giant already in its red giant phase, an aging sun indeed.

In fact, this star system is far from tranquil. A red giant in its expansion phase can wreak havoc on its surrounding planets.

It was chosen as a navigational node precisely because of its distinct features, making it easy to identify during interstellar travel.

After careful observation, Dream Technology determined that the star system designated Lishi-1—located about 12 light years away—was the true safe haven.

Research from the Astronomy Institute suggested that this system has seven planets: four terrestrial and three gas giants.

None of these planets show any signs of life.

Lishi-1 is a star slightly larger than the Sun, with roughly 3 billion years left; much like our Sun, it’s in its prime.

Here, Dream Technology can progress without worrying about natural disasters in the star system.

The distance from our current station to Lishi-1 is 66 light years, and at the fleet’s speed, it should take about 1.65 years to arrive.

The supplies carried by the Dream Technology fleet can sustain them for roughly three years of extended travel.

Even though the journey is conducted at faster-than-light speeds, the fleet periodically exits its warp bubble every 3 light years to return to normal space, leaving behind a meteor detector.

Clearly, Dream Technology intends to establish a detection network stretching from the Solar System to the Pleiades.

While the main fleet headed for the Lishi-1 system, Rin Feng’s reinforcement fleet had already raced back to the Solar System.

Along the way, the reinforcement fleet even made a stop to deploy meteor detectors.

This ensured a stable communications link between the main fleet and the forces stationed in the Solar System.

Although the current hyperspace communication technology in these meteor detectors can cover a range of 10 light years,

space remains full of uncertainties.

Furthermore, these meteor detectors are comprehensive monitoring devices that can observe and track within a one-light-year radius, not just serve for communication.

Once Rin Feng’s fleet reached the Solar System, it split into two groups—a fleet of 1,000 main ships led by the mothership flew directly to the Tur Fleet’s location;

the remaining reinforcement fleet headed toward Mars, merging with Longtar’s forces to establish a full blockade around the red planet.

Rin Feng himself did not go to Mars; the task of blockading Mars and eliminating the Dark Matter Lifeform simply didn’t interest him.

Earlier reports about the Dark Matter Lifeform had already been circulated among the commanders, but Rin Feng felt exploring the Tur Fleet was far more intriguing.

Besides, with Longtar on Mars, Rin Feng’s presence there would have merely been to follow orders.

With that in mind, Rin Feng decided to join Ding Shaoqiu’s team to study the Tur Fleet.

As the fleet approached the Tur Fleet, they shut down their engines and entered a hovering mode.

They were still 5 million kilometers from the graveyard of the Tur Fleet when a squadron of space fighters and landing ships was deployed.

They first flew toward the largest warship in the Tur Fleet—a super warship approximately one-third larger than Dream Technology’s current Azure Dragon-class mothership.

The Tur Fleet’s warships in the void remained unchanged from when they first appeared near the Solar System.

Such is the nature of space: objects left undisturbed can remain unchanged for millions of years.

All these warships from Tur Civilization show uniform signs of particle erosion, as if some mysterious particles had brushed over them.

The fighters and landing ships sent by Rin Feng gradually closed in on what appeared to be an entry point on the warship.

Once the landing ship drew near, it deployed robots which, aided by space cables, advanced toward the access point of the Tur super warship.

Faced with a sealed entry, the robots immediately used a laser cutter to forcefully breach the Tur super warship.

Cold, unyielding metal—robot sensors revealed that this material was harder than the alloy used in Dream Technology’s current warship hulls.

Even so, the laser cutter mounted on the robots wasn’t ordinary; it was connected by an energy conduit to the landing ship.

In other words, this laser cutter possessed power beyond imagination.

When the brilliant laser flashed, a massive metal block was sliced away, revealing a 10-meter-diameter circular opening.

Instead of discarding the cut metal, the robots passed it to a waiting unit which then transferred the 5-meter-thick block back to the landing ship.

With such premium material, Dream Technology would undoubtedly study it in great detail.

After opening the entry point, more robots streamed into the Tur super warship and, as they delved deeper,

they finally discovered the sentient beings of Tur Civilization.

Astonishingly, these creatures resembled octopuses with eight arms, their heads nearly three times the size of a human’s.

Or rather, it was as if their head and body were one continuous mass.

From this circular mass, eight limb-like extensions protruded like tentacles.

Notably, four of these tentacles were short and thick, seemingly designed to support the massive structure.

The other four, slimmer appendages likely served as arms; their tips were forked like elongated fingers, each ending in four digits.

At this point, all these Tur beings lay sprawled on the ground. Ding Shaoqiu made these deductions after reviewing the images transmitted by the robots.

“Commander Lin, when can we deploy our personnel into this super warship?”

Rin Feng stroked his chin and replied, “No rush. We must first ensure that the entire warship is secure and conduct thorough biological tests to rule out any lethal alien microbes. Only then can we allow your team to enter and work inside.”

He continued, “Until that’s done, your researchers must remain on our warships. Only after any alien organisms or items pass our safety checks can they be brought aboard.”

This bio-safety protocol was devised by Du Qiu, who retrieved it from the remnants of a Ge Ya Civilization warship in Dreamland.

On that warship wreckage, Du Qiu encountered an alien corpse strikingly similar to the small-gray aliens that once circulated widely on Earth’s internet.

Du Qiu couldn’t help but wonder: could it be that these small-gray aliens had once visited the Solar System?