Chapter 679: Star Gate

The Exotic Hotel sailed slowly under stealth, using the chaotic magnetic and gravitational environment near the brown dwarf to further conceal its trail as it carefully approached the area with heavy signal feedback.

In the dim starlight, Yüsheng first saw a cluster of lights flickering in the darkness—red and orange lighting systems anchored in space, with prominent holographic navigation markers nearby.

Immediately after, the ship's external monitors captured some space structures further out.

Sentry gun platforms of various sizes floated in space, and between them, flickering wide-area shield generators, energy broadcast towers, and reactors powering the numerous space facilities could be seen. A large fortress-style space station sat at the center of the sentry gun array, its outline blurred by a thick energy shield; it seemed to be the command center of this defensive line. Many ships of all sizes could be seen patrolling around the fortress—among them, two large vessels were the 'Dark Star'-class missile cruisers Yüsheng had seen once before.

And within this layered protection of countless gun platforms, fleets, and armed space stations, under the dim glow of the brown dwarf, Yüsheng finally saw the form of the 'star gate.'

It stood there majestically, its scale far surpassing any ship or even any space structure. Its massive main structure was a ring-shaped megastructure spanning the starry sea. Lights flickered on the surface of the giant ring, and a multitude of antenna systems for stabilizing spacetime, directing ship jumps, and receiving deep-space signals stood tall, looking like countless endless towers. At the 'front' of the giant ring was a smaller ring-shaped opening, seemingly a passage for regular ships, with a flickering red light curtain floating inside. At that moment, a fleet was departing through that passage, jumping into deep space along the navigation lights.

Even from such a great distance, and even seeing the details of that space megastructure only through the Exotic Hotel's external monitors, Yüsheng could still clearly feel the star gate's immense size and oppressive presence—he did a rough calculation and found that the entire Blackstone Station could be tossed into the giant ring, with plenty of room to spare.

"Oh my Puppet Ancestor..." Even Ailin, who had no concept of spaceships or space stations, exclaimed. The little thing scrambled up from her seat, stood on the armrest, and stared wide-eyed. "What the hell is this... and what's all this around it? Wait, wait, Yüsheng, the defensive firepower here might not be inferior to ours..."

The holographic projection in the control hall clearly showed the distant star gate. Yüsheng sucked on his teeth as he looked at the megastructure and the heavily armed layered defenses around it. "No kidding. Say something we don't know."

"...So we're going to have the Borderlands Fleet assault this head-on?" Ailin turned her head. "Can't we go around it? Bypass this thing and attack the Hermitic Order's home territory... space looks wide enough to me."

As the little puppet's words faded, the holographic projection beside the captain's seat suddenly lit up, and Luo's figure appeared in midair. Her voice came through the communicator: "Starship jumps must target a gravitational anchor, because strictly speaking, a ship's jump is not a 'flight' process, but a 'fall' process in an artificial spatial drop—a mass must fall toward a clear 'landing point.' One of the functions of facilities like star gates is to serve as an artificial large-scale gravitational landing point to guide long-range ships.

"Without a landing point, a normal jump engine won't even start. Even if it is forced to start for some reason, the ship will fall into an endless jump state, and perhaps only on the day all things end will it 'fall out' of the uniformly closed warped space due to the dissolution of the material world.

"Of course, we could choose other massive celestial bodies as 'anchors,' but we know nothing about the distribution of celestial bodies within the Hermitic Order's sphere of influence, and even if there are other anchors... I'm sure they're all packed with anti-air cannons."

She paused here, then added: "The ability to clearly survey all gravitational anchors within one's sphere of influence and to build effective control forces at these anchors is the foundation for a star organization to establish actual control over its territory—so don't think about going around it. You can't. The Hermitic Order has been rooted here for so many years not because of their so-called 'Blessing of the Saints.'"

Yüsheng stroked his chin in silence, staring fixedly at the holographic image, seemingly lost in thought. Beside him, Ailin let out a drawn-out 'oh'—with an air of having listened but not understood, and even if she didn't understand, she was still confident.

Huli, on the other hand, had clearly kept up with Luo's pace. She frowned and thought for a moment. "If the Borderlands Fleet attacks from here, they'll definitely run into those layered defense forces... Taking this star gate will cost many lives."

"This is war; there's no war without deaths," Luo sighed. "So the ideal scenario is actually to crack the Hermitic Order's star gate code—with the star gate code, there's a chance to have a small unit directly pass through that 'gate' and appear behind the enemy's defensive line, minimizing losses. But star gate codes have always been the core lifeline of major powers, and their authorization process is often directly controlled by the homeworld. Obtaining this code is probably no less difficult than a frontal assault on that armed star fortress.

"But on the other hand, as long as we can capture this star gate, the Borderlands Fleet will effectively occupy a 'projection point' inside enemy territory. Subsequent main forces can continuously enter the Hermitic Order's homeland directly from here, without going through the long jump journey. If there are other military nodes within the Hermitic Order's control area directly connected to this star gate, their coordinates will also be exposed—and they'll need three to four times the troop strength to plug this 'hole' again.

"So for most small and medium interstellar powers, once a star gate is captured, it's basically the sky falling—unless it's an old power like Arglaid or Feiyu, which have great depth and profound foundations, or an oddball like the Borderlands, which controls the 'cosmic traffic hub' and doesn't play by the rules at all."

Yüsheng quietly listened to Luo's explanation. This knowledge was completely different from what he had seen in those superficial captain's manuals, and it gave him his first intuitive understanding and feeling of the 'order among the stars.' He still looked at the space structures in the holographic projection, but now with more thought in his eyes—if anyone knew him well, they would immediately recognize this as the sign that the Borderlands' idea generator was about to come up with another idea.

Luo was obviously unaware of this, so she continued rattling on: "You can't go any further—the Exotic Hotel's stealth capability is strong, but the star gate's scanning system is even stronger. Going further might trigger the alarm...

"I suggest you light a beacon on the far side of that brown dwarf and first report the location to that poker face—the Borderlands Fleet will take a long time just to reach the Dark Stream Nebula from the rear, and then they have to pass through the outer gas clouds and gravitational fault lines of the Dark Stream Nebula. During that time, that 'Dark Star' cruiser will certainly have already reached the 'Holy Realm' with the Angel Catalyst. You'll have plenty of time to infiltrate that planet and find the 'Eden Gate.' Once you've dealt with the Eden Gate, notify the Borderlands Fleet to officially launch the attack..."

Yüsheng still didn't speak, just continued stroking his chin and staring at the star gate, his eyes growing brighter.

Luo: "Uh... Boss?"

Ailin finally noticed something and turned to look at Yüsheng.

Huli also turned to look at her benefactor.

The two said in unison: "Wow!"

Luo was startled: "Wh-what?"

"Yüsheng (benefactor) has an idea!"

Luo: "...?"

In the midst of this commotion, Yüsheng finally broke the silence thoughtfully: "Luo, you just said that if we could have a small unit jump directly out of the star gate, we could attack from behind the defense forces...?"

"Yes, but the precondition is to obtain this star gate's authorization code and deceive the armed star fortress's surveillance for a short time..."

"What if we just jump the main forces directly?" Yüsheng pointed at the holographic projection. "That 'main gate' is huge. I feel like the entire fleet could even come in sideways."

Luo was stunned for at least three or four seconds: "...What are you saying?"

Then she continued, completely bewildered: "If—if that were really the case, there wouldn't be any need for tactics. A main fleet jumps directly into the blind spot of the defense line, two volleys of firepower and that star fortress is gone. The surrounding sentry gun platforms are clearly heavy fixed cannons, definitely safety-locked and unable to fire toward the star gate... There would only be a few defense units that couldn't react in time. Even a pig could win as the commander. But we don't even have the star gate's authorization code..."

"Do you think there's a possibility," Yüsheng interrupted Luo, raising both hands to form a frame in front of his eyes, framing the space megastructure in the holographic projection. "That a star gate... is also a door?"

Luo: "...?!"

Beside him, Ailin immediately jumped off her chair in excitement, ran over to Huli, and raised her hand. Huli lowered one of her tails, and the two high-fived (tail-slapped): "Yay!"

At this point, Luo finally realized what she had heard. Her long pointed ears perked up for the first time (Yüsheng also discovered for the first time that her elven ears could actually stand up): "This damn well works?!"

"I've been meaning to say, you're an elf—elves should speak more elegantly," Yüsheng said as he stood up from the captain's seat, clapped his hands, and looked at the star gate with grand ambition. "I observe that this gate is truly magnificent. Leaving it to a bunch of cultists is indeed a waste of a treasure—how about we just swipe it? What do you all think?"

Ailin and Huli clapped enthusiastically, and even the daydreaming Luna suddenly turned her head and nodded vigorously: "Yeah, right!"

(End of chapter)