Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones-Chapter 360: Interception

Tom knew that all the changes happening in the vast deep space were probably related to some kind of manipulation of space.

It seemed that only spatial influences could create such incredible changes.

Tom quietly watched these changes. Although he completely did not understand the principles behind them, he instinctively felt the grandeur and terror of this war.

At this moment, he felt as if he had transformed into a beast from ancient Earth.

Within a beast’s understanding, signs of greater strength were larger size, sharper teeth and claws, faster speed, and thicker fur.

But one day, this beast saw a war between modern human worlds.

Separated by tens of thousands of kilometers, an entire city of the opponent could be directly destroyed; a single cannonball could flatten a mountain, and no matter how tough the fur, a mere bullet could pierce it.

Everything he had relied on in the past—teeth, claws, fur, size, speed—was worthless in this entirely new system of evaluation.

Tom truly felt his own weakness and insignificance.

"It seems that on the other side of the Milky Way, the war between the Destroyer Civilization and the Perseus Alliance has entered its most intense phase..."

Tom silently sighed.

The super strategic weapon mastered by the Destroyer Civilization, the Heavenly Disaster of Destruction, was an existence that the Red Star Alliance and the Demonic Eye Nation both greatly feared.

Unless it was ensured that the Destroyer Civilization could not use it again in the short term, the two Space-level civilizations would not dare to start a war.

Now that the war had begun, it meant that they had already received intelligence confirming that the Heavenly Disaster of Destruction had been activated.

"Under the attack of such a strategic weapon, I wonder what the situation of the Perseus Alliance is like."

At this very moment, perhaps the light and radiation carrying that Heavenly Disaster of Destruction had already traveled for hundreds of years in the vast deep space.

But because the distance was too great, Tom still had not observed it. Instead, the light from the closer war between the Red Star Alliance and the Demonic Eye Nation was observed by him first.

The war had already begun, and this star field was no longer safe. Under such circumstances, continuing to pursue the Purple Moon Civilization carried great risk.

But...

Tom still did not change his previous decision.

"At worst, I’ll be affected, the Main Fleet will perish in this star field, and then I’ll start over relying on the clones hidden in other places.

You Purple Moon Civilization... are dead, I said it!"

A hurried few decades passed. Tom hid beside this ordinary, inconspicuous star and once again completed the material collection work. His material reserves and combat power once again reached their peak.

The fleet set sail again.

Following the Purple Moon Fleet’s route, observing the extremely hidden traces left in the deep space, surrounded by the endless stars of the Milky Way, this fleet once again entered this star field that was no longer safe.

Time quietly flowed by. In just over seventy years, Tom tracked down a solar system.

This solar system showed extremely obvious industrial traces. Observing with the occultation method, Tom observed numerous industrial standard gases in the atmospheres of those large planets.

In addition, those planets also had obvious traces of having been subjected to large-yield hydrogen bombs.

This clearly meant that in the previous years, the Purple Moon Civilization Main Fleet had docked here and carried out large-scale industrial construction activities.

In order to improve efficiency and speed, during this stop, they even disregarded "environmental protection."

Anyway, you Bluetoth Civilization will always track us here, so there’s no point in implementing environmental policies anymore. It’s better to save some effort.

Tom’s massive fleet also entered this solar system. After an inspection and another material replenishment, they continued to track the Purple Moon Civilization Fleet in the direction it had left.

This time, the tracking was even more difficult than before.

Because this time, the Purple Moon Civilization Main Fleet left fewer and more hidden traces: the propulsion power during random maneuvers, and the markers of intelligent civilization fleets that diffused into space for various reasons, such as accidental gas leaks, tiny debris falling off spacecraft, paint fragments, etc., were all scarcer, more concealed, and harder to observe.

They had probably figured out the reasons for their exposed routes, and this time, the Purple Moon Civilization Main Fleet was even more thorough.

But within Tom’s search network, which had a radius of trillions of kilometers, those subtle clues still gradually revealed themselves and could still be tracked by Tom, though it was much more troublesome and difficult than before.

This even forced Tom to once again reduce his speed, from 85% of the speed of light to about 80% of the speed of light, in order to keep up again.

In the midst of the seemingly endless tracking, Tom once again detected that the Purple Moon Fleet’s trajectory began to deviate towards a certain solar system.

Tom then moved his long-range observation capabilities to this solar system. After some observation, he indeed discovered a large number of industrial traces in this solar system, as well as traces of large-yield hydrogen bomb bombardments!

However, these traces seemed somewhat different from those observed in previous times.

Their intensity was too high. And quite obviously, once industrial construction activities ceased, the concentration of those industrial markers would slowly decrease, and their impact on stellar light would also decrease.

The same was true for hydrogen bomb bombardments.

In the early stages of a bombardment, a planet would show obvious characteristics, such as an increase in surface temperature, intensified plate and volcanic activity, and so on.

But as time passed, they would always slowly calm down.

And this time, the concentration of industrial markers and the surface temperature of the planet were both so high. All these clues combined seemed to indicate that...

The Purple Moon Fleet had just left this solar system not long ago!

Tom’s spirits lifted, and he immediately controlled the deep space observation system to comprehensively scan this star field.

With this scan, he actually discovered a dim light point.

It was hidden in the vast deep space, extremely dim. If Tom had not specifically searched this star field, it would have been impossible to discover it.

At this moment, Tom’s breathing was a little quick.

That was the Purple Moon Civilization Main Fleet, no mistake!

Moreover, it was in the acceleration phase of its departure, with all engines firing at full power. The reason it was so dim was simply because their exhaust was directed towards that star, and not towards him.

The Purple Moon Fleet’s speed was not yet high, only tens of thousands of kilometers per second, and there was still a long time until acceleration was complete.

Since that’s the case, since that’s the case...

Then adjust the course and intercept them directly!

Using an extremely low-power propulsion mode, and with the current distance still several light-years away, Tom was confident that his fleet would not be discovered by the enemy.

At this moment, his fleet, traveling at 80% of the speed of light in an inertial cruise state, and the Purple Moon Fleet, currently traveling at only a few percent of the speed of light and continuously accelerating, had their extended trajectories meet quietly in the vast, deep deep space after extending for hundreds of trillions of kilometers.

That intersection point was where the two fleets would meet!

Silently, the fleet’s course was adjusted and it began to travel towards that intersection point.

During this process, Tom continuously monitored the Purple Moon Civilization Fleet closely, ensuring that any minor changes concerning them would be detected by him immediately.

Time slowly passed. When the distance between the two sides shortened to less than one light-year, Tom finally made his next move.

Within the fleet, every spacecraft adjusted its attitude, then began full-power propulsion towards the intersection point.

The deceleration maneuver began.

When the two fleets met, if no adjustments were made, his fleet’s speed would still be 80% of the speed of light, while the Purple Moon Fleet would only be about 40% of the speed of light.

His side had to decelerate to ensure a rendezvous. Of course, once his side began decelerating, its exhaust plume would certainly be detected by the enemy, revealing his presence.

But it didn’t matter. At this point, everything was an open book.

So what if his presence was detected! Anyway, they couldn’t escape.

At this moment, the light carrying his fleet’s deceleration maneuver began to propagate through space at the speed of light, and after about a year, it reached the Purple Moon Fleet’s deep space detection telescope.

On the spacecraft.

"What?! Again!"

Purple Moon Leader slammed his hand on the table, his voice even distorted by excessive emotion.

Facing the emotional Head of State, the secretary who came to report was filled with fear, but could only bite the bullet and continue: "Yes, yes, Head of State.

The Deep Space detection team has repeatedly compared and analyzed, and has 100% confirmed that the exhaust plume was released by the Bluetoth Fleet.

They are decelerating at full power at a speed of 1 m/s^2. According to the enemy’s deceleration rate and heading, and our acceleration rate and heading, the two fleets will eventually meet in approximately two years, at the same speed..."

"They’re really like sticky bugs, can’t shake them off, can we...

Now, the war between the Lord and the Red Star Alliance has begun, and this entire star field is the battlefield of Space-level civilizations! It’s already so dangerous here, and you Bluetoth Civilization aren’t thinking of escaping quickly, you still want to chase us?!

Are you effing crazy?! Just for those few human captives, is it really worth it for you? We’ve already paid such a huge price, your anger, no matter how great, should have subsided by now, right?

Sticky bug, XX#$X , Bluetoth, why don’t you just die!!!"

Purple Moon Leader gnashed his teeth, like a wind-up toy, pacing back and forth in the spacious office while cursing angrily through gritted teeth.

At this moment, he wished he could jump out and flatten this damned Bluetoth Civilization’s fleet with one slap, then throw them all into a grinder to be ground into powder, and then throw them all into a black hole.

Nothing less would suffice to vent the frustration and rage in his heart.

But after a moment of venting and anger, he still had to force himself to calm down.

Another meeting, involving all the civilization’s high-ranking officials, was convened.

After a relatively long and intense debate and analysis, the final conclusion was reached.

"The encounter between the two fleets is now unavoidable.

Any attempt to escape at this stage, such as changing course, accelerating again, or stopping acceleration, would be a waste of resources.

Because if our fleet changes course, the enemy can also change course based on our fleet’s movements, and we will still eventually meet.

Secondly, our fleet’s overall strategy is still primarily to avoid entanglement with the enemy and to shake them off as quickly as possible.

Combining these two points, our only viable plan is...

To continue accelerating with all our might. Whether now or after the fleets meet and war breaks out, we must constantly accelerate, until our fleet’s speed exceeds 85% of the speed of light—this is the maximum speed of the Bluetoth Fleet—and then, rely on our higher speed to shake off the enemy.

But this implies a problem.

From the moment the two fleets meet until our speed increases to 85% of the speed of light, there will be approximately 4 years in between.

During these 4 years, the two fleets will maintain synchronized acceleration and a relatively static state.

In this process, we will face the enemy’s full-scale assault.

We must endure these 4 years, not allowing the enemy to inflict significant damage on us, or even to consume too many of our resources and fuel, only then can we ensure that our subsequent voyage remains unaffected!

4 years, we must persevere for 4 years! I believe that during these 4 years, we must do our utmost, with all our might, to defend, defend, defend!

As long as we hold out for these 4 years, the Bluetoth Fleet will be left behind due to insufficient speed!

We will then be able to travel all the way to the spatial gate opened by the Demonic Eye Lord, enter the Demonic Eye Nation, and completely escape the threat!"

Purple Moon Leader surveyed the surroundings of the meeting hall, his blood-red eyes filled with violent killing intent.