Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 159

159. Chapter 159, Star Tunnel

In this vast universe, the most important thing to rely on for cross-galaxy navigation is the Star Tunnel.

An Star Tunnel connects two galaxies, compressing the distance of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of light years into a journey of a few days, more than ten days, or at most a month.

Spacecraft and starships that have the ability to enter the Star Tunnel essentially enter the hyperspace state after entering the tunnel.

The normal state of a starship sailing in the universe is to sail in the star system at sub-light speed, from one jump point to another, and then enter the Star Tunnel to another star system, and then find the next jump point…

This requires a star map and a navigator.

The latter is a specially trained psychic.

Only they can distinguish the specific location of the Star Tunnel jump point in the void of the universe, guide the ship through the tunnel, and arrive at the other side of the tunnel.

At the same time, the so-called star map has meaning.

The star map shows many star fields connected by the Star Tunnel. Two adjacent star systems may actually be very different in physical terms. Maybe two star systems that are physically close are only tens of light years apart, but because there is no star tunnel to directly connect them, they need to jump through multiple star tunnels to travel between them, so they are very far apart; while two star systems that are physically tens of thousands of light years apart may be connected by a star tunnel, so they are close to each other on the star map.

In the human empire, the physical distance between star systems is not very meaningful. Without star tunnels, relying solely on the power of the spacecraft itself and traveling at sub-light speed, communication between two galaxies is unrealistic.

Of course, physical distance cannot be completely ignored. Some monsters can really survive for who knows how many years, slowly fly from the void of the universe, and really kill their way out.

In the empire’s territorial division: the universe, star field, star region, and star system, these four-layer structure are all based on the star map. The dense star tunnels, like a huge network, connect the entire territory of the empire.

There are three star tunnels in the Angry Owl Galaxy. Tunnel No. 1 connects to the Korojia Galaxy, Tunnel No. 2 connects to the Black Arrow Galaxy, and Tunnel No. 3 connects not to the Pegasus Star Region, but to the Shenjun Star Region next door. The Pegasus Star Region and the Shenjun Star Region belong to the Dragon Eagle Star Region, both under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Universe Region.

Wang Jiarong’s caravan came from Tunnel No. 1. They had just completed a business in the Korojia Galaxy.

Originally, her plan for this voyage did not include a remote place like the Angry Owl Star. Didn’t Ye Lishia convey her cousin’s needs to her?

After thinking about it, it would not be a big problem to make a detour to the Angry Owl Galaxy, then go to the Black Arrow Galaxy from Tunnel No. 2, then return to Korojia No. 3, and then return to the capital Feiyi Star. It shouldn’t be a big problem

to run a little more distance and two more planets. It shouldn’t be a loss – at most, it won’t make much money, just consider it as supporting the cousin who played together when they were young.

It takes five days for the fleet to travel through the star tunnel from the Korojia Galaxy to the Angry Owl Galaxy. There was nothing serious in the first four days. As usual, you can see strange scenes outside the window. But in fact, as long as you don’t leave the range of the ship and don’t send out any detectors, there will be no danger.

But on the fifth day, the navigator on the “Beautiful Girl” reported a message that they detected an abnormal signal in the star tunnel. It seems that there is a fleet following them and passing through the star tunnel.

This made Wang Jiarong very uneasy.

The tunnel from Korojia to the Angry Owl Star is deserted and not a busy shipping route. Even the Empire is too lazy to build any checkpoints at the jump points on both sides.

In addition to the ruins of the Angry Owl Star, this situation has lasted for hundreds of years.

In addition to her fleet, who else would pass through here?

Go to the neighboring Shenjun Star District?

That’s not realistic. The prosperous hive world Korojia has a route directly to the Shenjun Star District. No one will go to the Shenjun Star System through the Angry Owl Star. No one will do something that is more costly and detours.

So what is the situation with this fleet?

During interstellar travel, all anomalies need to be alerted.

The empire’s space domain is not really that safe.

Pirates are the most common threat, and threats from other aliens are never rare.

The empire calls all non-human races aliens, and is committed to eliminating all intelligent races except humans.

Not to mention that when traveling through the star tunnel, it is easy to encounter some…supernatural events. For example, a wrecked ship crashed in the star tunnel, dozens or hundreds of people were missing from the ship during the voyage, and sometimes dozens or hundreds of people were added…

These things are even a bit commonplace.

And now, after clearly realizing that there is more than one ship following behind them in the same star tunnel, they can’t help but be cautious.

After completing the star jump, they didn’t dare to stay any longer, and chose to switch the engine mode immediately, gradually accelerating, and trying to pull the speed to the upper limit of sub-light speed, and go to the Angry Owl Star.

Wang Jiarong knew that Ye Lixia’s cruiser was docked in the orbit of the Angry Owl Star. After reuniting with the Quintet, her merchant ship had strong security protection.

For this reason, she also ordered the astropath on the ship – this is also a profession after special training for psychics – to try to contact the Quintet.

However, the astropath brought her a very bad news: they could not contact the Quintet.

The astropathic message had been sent, but there was no response.

This situation further deepened Wang Jiarong’s anxiety.

There are only two reasons for not being able to contact: either their astropathic message was blocked and intercepted and could not be transmitted, or the Quintet could not receive their message.

Either one is not a good thing.

When the ship leaves the warp state and resumes the regular sub-light speed navigation, it takes a certain amount of time for the engine to accelerate.

She now only hopes that this acceleration process will pass quickly, and for this reason she has repeatedly urged the mechanical priest in charge of the engine work.

At the same time, she also ordered the entire fleet to enter the first-level combat readiness state and must be prepared to face the enemy at any time.

The ‘Belle Maiden’ was equipped with 11 M-class ‘Heat Hammer’ macro cannons ready to go. The other three frigates were each equipped with 15 S-class ‘Defender’ rapid-fire cannons and 3 M-class ‘Retribution’ cluster laser cannons.

These naval guns, as well as the operators behind them and the Thinker arrays that served as the fire control system and navigation system, were all in the highest state of combat readiness.

The so-called Thinker Array refers to a collection of ‘wetware’ assembled under the Thinker technology by specially trained psychics or even ordinary people, which, in conjunction with basic mechanical calculators, assist in ship operations and assist in calibrating artillery firing.

But despite having made all the preparations for the war, Wang Jiarong still prayed to the Emperor, hoping that the bad luck would not really befall her.

It would be the best if nothing happened. As for the current tension and extra preparations, it didn’t matter if they were wasted.

However, not every prayer would have a corresponding good result.

“They are coming out…” The voice of the navigator sounded in Wang Jiarong’s ears.

She quickly returned to the main console, and the screen cut to the opposite direction of the starship.

In the void, many ships were gradually showing their shapes.

In fact, the distance between the two sides was more than 50,000 kilometers.

However, this distance was still too close in space.

Through the Thinker Array, the virtual screen in front of them showed that the ships that followed them, crossed the jump point, and were entering the real universe had already revealed their identities very clearly:

the fleet of the green-skinned orcs!

This can be distinguished from their exaggerated, chaotic appearance, like a pile of garbage randomly spliced together. Only the green-skinned orcs’ warships would grow into this virtue.

However, ugly as it is, with messy paint, no traditional sense of beauty, and a rough appearance that doesn’t look like a product of technology… However, it is indeed a serious interstellar battleship.

“One, two, three, four… twelve green-skinned battleships… Can anyone tell me why there are so many green-skinned battleships here?”

Wang Jiarong was a little out of control.

However, no one could answer her question.

The middle and senior managers of the caravan on the console were not ignorant. These orc ships that appeared later were not easy to deal with.

In the starry sky, there is a most intuitive way to judge the strength of a starship: look at the size.

Of course, it is not 100% accurate, and there are countless exceptions to prove this. However, when the difference in technical level is not that great, in general, the larger the battleship, the stronger it is, which is a message that is true in most cases.

At present, of these twelve green-skinned battleships, four are the size of destroyers in the human empire fleet; the remaining eight are at least the size of frigates.

The huge, ostentatious cannons on these ships also adhere to the style of the green-skinned orcs: caliber first!

Wang Jiarong tried to keep herself calm and gave orders: “The engine group is accelerating at full speed. We must try to get rid of these green-skinned orc fleets before they speed up.”

“All firepower groups, fire at the green-skinned fleet with full force! Concentrate firepower on a single target! Try to cause damage!”

“Yes!”

Who on the whole ship doesn’t know that it’s a critical moment now? No one dares to be lazy when their lives are at stake.

Pulling distance and trying to escape is of course the right choice.

The “Beautiful Girl” is larger than the average main destroyer, but most of the space exists as a cargo hold. The strength of the equipped void shield and the strength of the ship’s armor itself can barely reach the level of a destroyer, but the firepower is at most less than half of that of a normal destroyer.

The other three frigates are normal frigate specifications, and at most they only carry some cargo.

Facing the 4+8 configuration of the green-skinned fleet, a head-on confrontation is hopeless.

Opening fire is just a matter of doing nothing. The key is to run.

When they are running at full speed, they certainly cannot adjust the ship to make it easier for all the firepower to hit the enemy. In fact, if they fire at the back now, at most only one-third of the firepower can be exerted.

However, those green-skinned ships have just left the star tunnel. The energy shield on the hull has been turned on, but it is obvious that the power has not been maximized yet.

When they just jumped out of the star tunnel, the starship was relatively vulnerable.

Because of this, three rounds of concentrated firepower directly destroyed a green-skinned frigate.

The energy shield of the green-skinned starship was overloaded, and in a blink of an eye, it turned from a blue light to a dangerous red. A large number of shells penetrated the overloaded energy shield and hit the hull. The armor was shattered and the hull was seriously damaged. If you zoom in to see it, you can even see many green-skinned orcs flying out of the damaged part of the hull.

This green-skinned frigate has basically lost its combat capability. If the greenskins won the battle, they might be able to recover the ship and repair it, but at least in this battle, this frigate could not pose any threat.

The victory at the beginning inspired Wang Jiarong a little, and the morale of the entire caravan was slightly improved.

However, this was almost the only good news in the future, and the bad news came one after another.

When they turned their firepower to the second greenskin ship, the greenskin fleet had gotten rid of the fragile state when they just completed the jump. This not only means that the energy shields on their ships have begun to operate at full power and are not so easy to be penetrated, but also means that the weapon systems on their ships have begun to operate normally. The

eleven greenskin starships that can still operate normally opened fire at the same time.

Kinetic artillery and green laser cannons all fired fiercely.

The style of the greenskin ships is consistent with the style of their entire race. The number of various types of artillery on the ships is generally much larger than that of human warships of the same level, and the caliber is generally larger. But at the same time, the characteristic of generally being much less accurate than human naval guns was also perfectly inherited.

But the distance between the two sides was too close. At this moment, the distance was only about 70,000 kilometers at most, but for a space naval battle, it could still be considered a close-range bombardment.

The human side would suffer a great loss.

Almost at the same time, blue light flashed around the four ships under Wang Jiarong’s command. That was the appearance of the void shield after being hit by fire.

In the blink of an eye, the void shields around the four ships showed signs of turning purple, which was a sign of imminent overload.

(End of this chapter)