Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones-Chapter 369: Standoff

After a quick analysis, only one possibility presented itself to Tom.

Is this... a gravity weapon?

Tom suddenly recalled the scene when his side encountered the Silicon-Based Disaster, and the Cloud Civilization appeared, relying on some gravity bombs to instantly eliminate all of those Disasters, whose combat power exceeded that of peak Strong Nuclear, and which he had been helpless against.

The power of gravity weapons had left an extremely deep impression on Tom at that time.

He never expected to witness the power of such weapons again, this time from the Purple Moon Fleet.

Has the Purple Moon Civilization advanced to a Gravity Civilization?

No, that’s impossible. So little time has passed since they last parted, and the Purple Moon Fleet’s situation was extremely dire, with massive population losses and insufficient material reserves. How could they possibly complete such a crucial advancement under these circumstances?

These weapons currently appear to be extremely crude and primitive. Their lethality, range, and other aspects are vastly inferior compared to the gravity weapons used by the Cloud Civilization back then.

But they are indeed gravity weapons!

There’s no other possibility!

Then, then...

Considering that the Purple Moon Civilization came to the Pegasus G76 star system most likely to detonate a supernova and save the Space-level Demonic Eye, combined with the unique existence of the Demonic Eye Civilization and the "crudeness" of these gravity weapons, the true answer is almost obvious.

It must be that the Space-level Demonic Eye somehow contacted the Purple Moon Civilization, and while assigning them the task, to ensure they had sufficient capability to complete it, it also handed over the relevant technology for these primitive gravity weapons!

Tom saw that even though the Purple Moon Civilization currently only possessed simplified, primitive versions of gravity weapons—otherwise, the technology for such weapons could not be mastered by the Purple Moon Civilization, which is only at the Strong Nuclear stage—they still demonstrated combat power that almost completely overwhelmed him.

His proud variable energy shield was useless against these gravity-related weapons.

His Strong Nuclear armor, meticulously refined and researched countless times, was still kneaded like dough under the immense gravitational force.

His super maneuverability, specifically designed and repeatedly optimized through propulsion devices, became a disadvantage in the face of these gravity weapons.

The stronger the power, the greater the interaction force, and the more easily the battleship’s hull would be torn apart!

Under the suppression of these weapons, even Primal’s advantage was negated.

It wasn’t that Primal’s intelligence was inferior to the Purple Moon Civilization’s AI; rather, no matter how high the intelligence or how exquisite the tactics, they still needed those unmanned battleships to be effective.

But the current situation was that even Primal’s most exquisite tactics simply couldn’t be executed.

Clearly, if this unmanned fleet maneuvered forward to encircle, it could form a local advantage. But under the suppression of gravity weapons, this unmanned fleet couldn’t even break through the blockade to encircle, let alone withstand the enemy’s attack.

How could they fight like this?

Tom’s heart gradually sank.

He had originally thought the Purple Moon Civilization coming to the Pegasus G76 star system was them walking into a trap. But now... it seemed he was the one walking into a trap?

Tom gritted his teeth.

Retreat!

The massive fleet immediately disengaged from the battlefield at all costs, suffering heavy casualties, and then retreated towards the gas giant planet he occupied, designated G76d.

At the same time, the rocky planet designated G76c was also directly abandoned by Tom. The industrial facilities that had been so painstakingly built were directly destroyed, and all battleships, spacecraft, and so on, were completely withdrawn to the gas giant planet G76d.

The Purple Moon Fleet followed closely, surging forward.

At this moment, Tom had no choice but to abandon his original plan of not using the Flying Star for now, and instead building a local industrial system based in the solar system to acquire large amounts of resources.

With the disastrous defeat on the front line, his side would inevitably face an all-out siege from the Purple Moon Civilization, and resource consumption would inevitably skyrocket.

Waiting for the industrial system to be built before acquiring resources would be too late.

Fortunately, the Flying Star was still available for use at this moment.

Thus, while continuing to maintain the rapid construction of the local industrial system, Tom also launched large-scale resource extraction missions on the Flying Star.

Factories were rapidly constructed in the vast space, and hundreds of billions of robots quickly took their positions, beginning production at the highest efficiency.

Battleships, both manned and unmanned, military satellites, gun turrets, and space mines quickly appeared in space.

In just over two months, the short period during which the front-line fleet retreated and the Purple Moon Fleet followed closely, a massive defense line had already begun to take shape.

This was Tom’s only, albeit forced, way to withstand the Purple Moon Civilization’s siege at this stage.

Relying on a more powerful industrial base and a larger interstellar defense line, exchanging quantity for time to offset the Purple Moon Civilization’s new weapon advantage!

When Tom’s front-line fleet fled back to planet G76d and joined the defense line, the closely following Purple Moon Fleet also arrived and immediately launched an offensive.

A more brutal interstellar war unfolded around this planet.

It seemed that because the performance of the Gravity Cannons had been verified, and more ways to use them had been summarized and optimized in the previous phase of combat, this time, the Purple Moon Fleet unleashed even greater combat power during the siege.

One spacecraft after another, painstakingly manufactured by Tom, were not destroyed by lasers or energy cannons, nor by interstellar missiles or hydrogen bomb explosions, but were twisted into pretzels by the completely invisible and intangible gravity, utterly ruined. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

One space mine after another painstakingly locked onto targets, swarming like piranhas, trying to exchange their lives for the enemy’s death. But before they could even get close to the enemy battleships, under the influence of area-of-effect gravity weapons, they were either directly flattened, or detonated prematurely, or simply made no sound at all, dying silently.

Interstellar missiles, unmanned battleships, military satellites, spy satellites, interstellar gun turrets...

Even with defensive advantages, industrial advantages, and numerical advantages, from the very beginning of the war, Tom was still irresistibly plunged into a disadvantage, completely suppressed.

The rate of loss for various combat equipment was astonishing. Often, a batch of spacecraft would just be thrown into the battlefield, and the next moment they would be completely expended.

But...

Tom had no other choice.

All he could do was use his more massive industrial strength to produce more combat facilities at the fastest possible speed, then throw them all into the interstellar battlefield, letting the opponent destroy them.

At this moment, although I am like a fish on a chopping board, completely unable to parry your attacks.

But... even if it’s a fish, it still takes time for you to kill it. As long as there are enough fish, they will always be able to stall you.

At this moment, the situation in the interstellar battlefield temporarily stabilized.

Relying on sheer numbers, Tom temporarily held off the Purple Moon Civilization’s offensive, but his heart remained heavy.

He knew very well that just as he was building his industrial system, so was the Purple Moon Civilization.

Once the Purple Moon Civilization completed its industrial construction and acquired sufficient materials, the number of battleships they could deploy would inevitably be even greater.

At that time, he would face an even more ferocious attack.

Although his industrial construction speed was fast, the scale of industrial construction he needed was also larger than that of the Purple Moon Civilization.

The Purple Moon Civilization’s industrial construction speed was slower, but the scale of industrial construction they needed was also smaller than his.

Overall, the Purple Moon Civilization might even complete their industrial construction before him!

At that point, utter disaster would await him.

"Faster, it must be even faster!"

At this moment, not only the clones under Tom’s control, but also all the intelligent beings of various races, totaling over a hundred billion, joined the battlefield.

In addition to warriors of various races operating battleships, engineers and workers of all races also fully joined the logistics and production tasks.

Tom did not conceal the current situation from the intelligent races during this process, but always promptly reported any external changes.

The intelligent beings also knew what kind of enemy they were facing at this moment, and they understood the current situation.

Once their side was defeated, not only would everyone face being assimilated into Demonic Eyes, but the Red Star Alliance would also be destroyed by the Destroyer Civilization, and the entire Milky Way’s situation could change because of it.

The situation had reached this point; if they didn’t fight with all their might, what else could they do?

Then let’s fight!

One hundred billion consciousness links, and over one hundred billion intelligent beings, all went all out.

Under these circumstances, Tom’s industrial construction speed truly reached an incredible level.

A massive factory capable of producing a billion space mines annually could be built in just a few days;

A vacuum pipeline tens of thousands of kilometers long, connecting thousands of factories, could be completed in less than a month;

A massive seawater electrolysis plant capable of producing one hundred million tons of hydrogen per year would be completed in at most two months.

Time quietly slipped away.

Spy satellites scattered in space showed that the Purple Moon Civilization had initially completed the construction of its industrial system.

Materials, like mountains and seas, poured into the final production factories.

Soon, a massive fleet, composed of hundreds of thousands of newly produced battleships, heavy transport ships, unmanned battleships, auxiliary combat facilities, and so on, began to take shape, and immediately started moving towards G76d, hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

The Purple Moon Civilization completed the construction of its industrial system one step ahead of him!

Fortunately, fortunately, it would still take them one or two months for their fleet to arrive here.

Several days passed. With the completion of the last batch of 3,000 large factories, Tom finally breathed a sigh of relief.

His own industrial system was also completed!

At this moment, the productivity of the numerous clones and intelligent beings immediately shifted from construction to production.

The production rate of various combat equipment immediately surged.