The basic unit is constructed and the loop is exited.
The secondary frequency regulator is connected and the wetware host is online.
As the solar panels unfolded, the operating state of the entire host computer changed from extreme energy saving to normal operation, and the advanced AI consciousness originally stored in the biochip began to load and take over the operation of the entire system.
The endless darkness was broken, and white light scattered from the edge of the sight.
Bai Yi also woke up at this moment.
After a brief initial period of panic, he fully understood his situation.
Although he didn't know why, it was obvious that he had traveled from the Blue Star hospital bed in 2023 to a cutting-edge computer and merged with the AI consciousness that already existed in it.
It is Defense Era 1996.
Around 1,000 years ago, humanity discovered a jump drive capable of traveling faster than light through the subspace layers, allowing them to transcend the solar system. Subsequently, through a 7,500-year-long Great Crusade, humanity unified the galaxy. After the last star system in the Milky Way was planted under the flag of the United Nations, the Galactic Era began, with Earth's zero longitude, or Greenwich Mean Time, as the universal standard time for the galaxy.
The Galactic Era lasted approximately 4,500 years. During this period, the galaxy experienced unprecedented stability, and the various races, primarily humans, began to rapidly recover from the trauma of the Great Crusade. The population exploded, and technology and the economy advanced rapidly. Signs of intelligent life were evident in every corner of the galaxy, and its prosperity surpassed anything seen before the Great Crusade.
In the final millennium of the Galactic Era, humanity began preparing for further outward expansion. They first launched subspace probes into several nearby extragalactic systems. These probes maintained contact with the Milky Way via tachyon beams, exotic particles with negative mass. Just as objects in the conventional universe can never exceed the speed of light, tachyons with negative mass can never fall below the speed of light.
It took the probe 600 years to reach the Large Magellanic Cloud, the closest cloud to the Milky Way, and immediately broadcast in the direction of the Milky Way at maximum power after escaping the subspace layer.
By the time humanity received this tachyon beam, which spanned 160,000 light-years, it was already 350 years later. Over these 300 years, the Milky Way had assembled an immense fleet, countless times larger than that of the Great Crusade. The outermost frigates alone could obscure the entire surface of the sun.
The keels of several giant ecological spaceships built specifically for the colonization plan have also been laid. Each of these giant spaceships is as big as the moon, and a full set of industrial assembly lines and supporting metallurgical equipment are installed in the vast space inside.
However, as the signal was analyzed, the entire fleet fell into confusion.
The probe has arrived at the edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud and is now floating directly above the star disk. Looking down, it should be able to see countless twinkling stars.
But the reality is that the entire galaxy is dark in the visible light band, and the darker it gets towards the center of the galaxy. Except for some extremely bright pulsars, most stars are obscured from view.
However, the confusion did not last long, as this emotion quickly turned into panic.
Humans have discovered the reason why the light of stars fades.
A huge crystal structure similar to a Dyson sphere surrounds the entire star. Most of the light emitted by the star is blocked by this structure, and only a small part can escape from openings on the surface.
The escaping light refracts off the bluish-purple crystal surface, making the star look like a bizarre, colorful ball of thorns.
People even discovered a half-built crystal Dyson sphere, with many crystal spaceships made of the same material moving back and forth around it, as busy as a construction site.
There are two prevailing theories about these crystals in the galaxy. One is that they are spaceships from an unknown alien civilization. The other is that the crystals themselves possess consciousness, a strange life form born from the universe.
The two theories have an evenly matched number of supporters, and neither can convince the other. The United Earth Government has also attempted to contact the ships named Crystal Storm, but so far, any attempts at communication have only resulted in a fatal counterattack.
All the detectors were torn into pieces by the high-energy rays emitted by the crystals after they actively sent out signals.
At the same time, humans have discovered signs of crystal storm activity in almost all galaxies within 2 million light years, and these galaxies have become dim and decaying without exception.
The latest tachyon deep space telescopes have confirmed this result and discovered curvature fluctuations left by large-scale entry and exit of subspace between major galaxies.
Crystal Storms are highly technologically advanced, but they cannot communicate. They are destructive to all life forms other than their own kind, and their behavioral logic is like the most rigid computer program.
Capture a star system, build a Dyson Sphere, expand your fleet, and move on to the next one.
This has been the consensus of scholars for over a century. Outside of a few cultists and animated series, no one harbors any illusions about these crystals.
The colonization plan was urgently halted, and the future of the entire Milky Way was bleak. Although no subspace tracks pointing to the Milky Way had been discovered, if the Crystal Storm continued to expand at this rate, it would only be a matter of time before it reached the Milky Way.
Based on this, under the leadership of the United Nations on Earth, the Galactic United Defense Front was established and the concept of a pan-galactic protection circle was proposed.
The concept aims to establish a total of 15 million fortress star systems at key nodes within the Milky Way, and 40 million fortress star systems at the edge of the galactic disk. Furthermore, because space combat is a 3D battlefield with a z-axis, artificial fortresses consisting of giant deep-space islands will be constructed above and below the galactic disk to defend against any potential enemy intrusion.
The plan envisions investing 400 billion units of labor and using two millennia to convert 10% of the galaxy's mass into defense facilities and two fleets.
Such a radical plan immediately caused an uproar as it was proposed, but as the Large Magellanic Cloud dimmed at an accelerated rate, the plan was eventually passed in the Galactic Senate with a narrow vote of 103 in favor, 102 against, and 2 abstentions. The number of fleet groups that needed to be built was also increased from two to three.
After various details were finalized, the defense plan was made public to the entire galaxy. At the same time, at the strong request of a scholar born in the former Paris region of France on Earth, the name of the plan was changed from "Maginot Plan" to "Great Wall Plan".
The galaxy enters the era of defense from this moment on.
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