At this mont, three "suns" suddenly appeared in this vast and deep space.
And because these three suns were too close, they converged into one when viewed from a slightly greater distance.
A radiating sun brazenly unleashed its heat and energy, its light so intense that it completely obscured the full-power thruster flas of 100 comprehensive spacecraft.
This sun rapidly dimd a few seconds after appearing. But the "dust" — composed of the aerospace carrier's hull and its loaded materials, completely vaporized by the hydrogen bomb explosion — still possessed extrely high temperatures.
According to the principle of blackbody radiation, when the temperature rises to a certain degree, an object will begin to emit light and radiate heat to the outside.
At this mont, because it had not yet spread for too long, this interstellar dust cloud's density was still quite high, and its temperature was quite elevated.
Thus, this nebula replaced the previous "sun," continuing to emit a faint blue light into the universe.
But this faint blue light did not last too long either. As their volu rapidly expanded and their temperature rapidly decreased, the faint blue light turned bright white, then yellow, then red and dark red, before finally being completely diluted and disappearing.
The entire process lasted less than five hours.
The 100 comprehensive spacecraft, accelerating at full power in different directions, also reached their acceleration in less than five hours.
In fact, to be safe, it was only four and a half hours.
Before this nebula completely dimd, the acceleration had already stopped, the engines were completely shut down, and they entered an electromagnetic silent state.
Within a fleet, the largest and lowest-acceleration spacecraft is undoubtedly the aerospace carrier. The next would be these large comprehensive spacecraft.
And when there was an aerospace carrier before, the fleet's maximum acceleration could reach 21 m/s^2. Now, without the aerospace carrier dragging them down, coupled with full-power propulsion at all costs, the acceleration of these 100 comprehensive spacecraft reached 80 m/s^2.
Four and a half hours of acceleration provided each of these comprehensive spacecraft with an acceleration of approximately 1,300 kiloters per second in different directions.
The distance between the two furthest spacecraft reached about 21 million kiloters, and they were still moving away from each other at a speed of 2,600 kiloters per second.
Originally, this mutual separation had no aning.
Even if there were ten thousand spacecraft, the bright thruster flas during full-power acceleration would expose the flight path data of every single spacecraft, ultimately allowing the Purple Moon Fleet to track them down one by one.
But now, the bright thruster flas during acceleration have been obscured by the hydrogen bomb explosion and the light from the aerospace carrier's vaporization.
Originally, even so, it would have been aningless.
Even if the brightness of the thruster flas was obscured, the thruster fla trails would still exist.
Detecting the thruster fla trails would still allow their flight path data to be determined.
But now…
The interstellar dust cloud ford by the vaporization of the aerospace carrier, continuously expanding at high speed, spread to this area.
At this mont, the radius of this interstellar dust cloud has reached 21 million kiloters, roughly spherical, with a total surface area of approximately 5.5 quadrillion square kiloters.
A total mass of 1.8 billion tons expanded outwards in a spherical shape; when its radius reached 21 million kiloters, on average, the mass passing through every square centiter of this large sphere's surface was approximately one 327 billionth of a gram.
This mass seems very, very small, but if converted into particle count, it is an extrely astonishing number.
There are approximately 100 billion particles!
And at this mont, in the interstellar space where the fleet is located, the normal average particle density is only 0.001 particles per cubic centiter!
The so-called thruster fla trail, in essence, is the interaction between the high-speed plasma ejected by the engine and the interstellar dust particles. By analyzing the abnormal kinetic energy, direction, energy level, etc., of the interstellar dust particles in a certain area, one can determine whether a fleet has passed through that area recently.
But now…
These interstellar dust particles, which were only about 0.001 per cubic centiter and carried the thruster fla trails, were subjected to an indiscriminate bombardnt of 100 billion particles per square centiter.
The thruster flas of these 100 comprehensive spacecraft, accelerating at full power, not only had their light completely obscured by the hydrogen bomb explosion, but their thruster fla trails were also completely erased by the high-temperature plasma flow ford from the aerospace carrier!
This thod of eliminating thruster fla trails cannot be used by large-scale fleets.
The reason is simple: large-scale fleets occupy too much space and require too much mass to consu. And in interstellar space where resources are so precious, how much material is available for such squandering?
Furthermore, even if there were enough materials to squander, it would only provide temporary concealnt for a short ti. Large-scale fleets themselves are already large enough targets and cannot be concealed by a re few hours.
This thod is only applicable to the current situation, where the total fleet size is only 100 comprehensive spacecraft, and each spacecraft is separated and independent.
Even so, this "thruster fla erasure" ca at an extrely heavy price.
Even if these spacecraft eventually reach their destination, they will completely lose hope of returning due to insufficient resources and fuel.
But at this mont, no one, including Heirlan, cared about these things anymore.
At this very mont, only one thought remained in Heirlan's mind.
Go to that solar system! As long as they can reach that solar system, all this sacrifice will not be in vain!
In the vast and deep space, the short four and a half hours of full-power propulsion had ended.
The gravity, which was as high as 8.16 tis that of Earth, suddenly disappeared. Every intelligent life form, including Heirlan, suddenly broke free from their seats, gasping for breath.
Such high gravity was like torture.
Fortunately, it only lasted for a few hours. Any longer, and bones would probably have been broken.
As soon as the acceleration ended, Heirlan imdiately got up and stumbled to the control panel. He breathed a sigh of relief only after realizing that the "stardust impact" ford by the aerospace carrier's hydrogen bomb explosion had already swept past their spacecraft.
The thruster fla trails from the previous acceleration phase had been completely cleared. At this mont, the spacecraft had also entered a state of complete radio silence.
The engines were completely shut down, no longer emitting any radiation or leaving any traces. Even the energy shield, which protected against interstellar particle bombardnt, was set to its lowest intensity, emitting only a very faint glow that was invisible from a slight distance.
The 100 comprehensive spacecraft, like 100 lifeless rocks, continued to move away from each other in different directions at a speed of 1,300 kiloters per second, in addition to their original 85% of light speed.
Heirlan knew that from this mont on, it was truly a matter of fate for each.
Ti quietly passed, and in the blink of an eye, the hundreds of billions of kiloters between the two fleets were crossed, and the Purple Moon Fleet arrived near the hydrogen bomb detonation point.
At this mont, the distance between their two furthest spacecraft was already about 17 billion kiloters.
Is 17 billion kiloters considered far?
In this interstellar era, where cruising speeds are often 70% to 80% of light speed, it is clearly not far.
But the crucial question is…
The Purple Moon Fleet did not know in which direction within this 17 billion kiloter range their 100 spacecraft were.
Pursuit and search are two different concepts.
And searching also takes ti. For every second that passes, the radius of the area they need to search expands by 1,300 kiloters.
Through an optical telescope that did not need to emit any radiation, Heirlan quietly watched the movents of the Purple Moon Fleet.
After slowing down slightly, they began to conduct an inspection at the hydrogen bomb explosion point.
Slowing down took three days.
Good, the radius of the search area expanded by 330 million kiloters.
Clearly, they were trying to find so traces of their fleet at the explosion point. Equally clearly, they would not find anything there.
Because all traces had been cleared by the light and radiation of the hydrogen bomb explosion.
After staying there for about two days, the Purple Moon Fleet seed to finally confirm this point.
Good, the radius of the search area expanded by another 230 million kiloters.
The Purple Moon Fleet arrived at the location where their spacecraft began accelerating and once again started their inspection there.
This ti lasted even longer, a full 15 days.
The radius of the search area expanded by another 1.7 billion kiloters.
The Purple Moon Fleet seed to finally confirm that the only way to find their spacecraft was to conduct a carpet search of this airspace.
And this required advance deploynt and arrangents, needing to delineate search areas and dispatch search forces.
This took about five days.
The radius of the search area expanded by approximately another 580 million kiloters.
Nurous probe satellites and combat spacecraft began to spread out, conducting a carpet search.
The mont of true fate decision had arrived.
Heirlan sat in his seat, quietly watching the large screen, awaiting fate's judgnt.
Regardless of the outco, they had no ability to interfere. The only thing they could do was accept.
The public communication channel, based on Stellar Communication Technology, was silent.
Ti quietly flowed, and in the blink of an eye, several days passed.
When the radius of the search area once again expanded by about 7 billion kiloters, there was a ssage in the public communication channel.
"Ship 37 reporting, our side detected traces of a Purple Moon warship 9.7 million kiloters away. After comprehensive judgnt by Primal, our exposure probability has risen to over 99.95%, exceeding the trigger threshold.
Based on previous agreents, to prevent our side from being captured by the enemy and leading to intelligence leakage, our ship will initiate the self-destruct program.
Fellow compatriots, goodbye, I wish you… good luck."
On the large screen, the green square numbered 37 turned red.
In the depths of the distant starry sky, a faint flash of light also ca from the location corresponding to Ship 37.
Heirlan watched quietly, without the slightest ripple in his heart.
There was nothing to be sad or sympathetic about.
This situation had long been anticipated.
Even though the radius of the search area had now increased to over 50 billion kiloters, it was still too small for the Purple Moon Fleet.
It was impossible to expect all spacecraft to escape. So spacecraft would always be discovered by the Purple Moon Fleet, and then they would initiate their self-destruct programs.
This ti, it was rely Ship 37's bad luck.
The next one to be discovered and self-destructed might very well be the No. 1 ship where he was located.
After only 16 hours, when the search radius had expanded by only about 75 million kiloters, information ca again through the public communication channel.
"No. 55 Ship reporting…
Our ship will initiate the self-destruct program. Good luck, my compatriots."
"No. 46 Ship reporting…"
"No. 7 Ship reporting…"
"No. 89 Ship reporting…"
"No. 32 Ship reporting…"
…
Inside the No. 1 Ship, everyone was silent, waiting.
Fortunately, after the rapid increase in the number of ships found in the initial stage, its growth rate had now slowly decreased.
At this mont, out of the 10 tis 10, a total of 100 squares, more than half had turned red. Among the remaining small half of green, squares were still constantly turning red.
It took the Purple Moon Fleet more than three years to find these more than 70 comprehensive ships. And during these three years, the search radius expanded by another 135 billion kiloters.
The remaining less than 30 comprehensive ships, each about 10 kiloters in size, were now scattered in this deep space, where the total radius had expanded to about 200 billion kiloters, and the total volu reached 335 quintillion cubic kiloters.
If this expanse of deep space were considered the size of Earth, then what the Purple Moon Fleet was doing was trying to find more than 20 specks of dust, each with a length of only 3.45 femtoters, in a space as vast as an Earth.
Even PM2.5 dust particles, which are barely visible to the naked eye, are 7.25 trillion tis the size of these specks of dust.
It was truly countless tis more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack.
But… this was still not impossible for a Strong Nuclear peak civilization.
The long search was still ongoing. The tens of millions of modified spy probes, as well as ten thousand warships and hundreds of thousands of unmanned warships, were still tirelessly searching this expanse of deep space, circle after circle.
Slowly, more than a dozen comprehensive ships were found by this large-scale search. Correspondingly, more than a dozen squares turned from green to red.
Ti slowly passed until the search radius expanded to one trillion kiloters—this was both the limit of their Stellar Communication Technology and roughly the limit of the Purple Moon Civilization. On the large screen, the number of green squares remained fixed at 15, no longer decreasing.
Perhaps it would still decrease. But Heirlan knew that even if their ship was searched again, he would not be able to get the news.
Heirlan still kept the ship silent and waited for another two years.
At this mont, the search radius had exceeded 1.082 trillion kiloters.
This number could already be confird to have exceeded the Purple Moon Civilization's Stellar Communication Technology distance limit.
Heirlan finally breathed a long sigh of relief.
He knew that he was most likely safe.
Because beyond the Stellar Communication Technology distance limit, such a large-scale search was almost unsustainable and impossible to conduct.
It was highly probable that the Purple Moon Fleet's search had ended.
More than twenty years of suppression, more than twenty years of tornt, finally ca to an end at this mont.
Looking at the squares on the large screen that had permanently turned red and could never return to green, listening to the background noise in the public communication channel from which no more information from his compatriots could co, at this mont, even Heirlan couldn't help but shed tears.
But now was still not the ti to act rashly.
Although the Purple Moon Fleet had most likely stopped searching, if they activated their thrusters, the light from the exhaust plu could still expose their whereabouts.
Heirlan cald himself and waited for another ten years. It was not until if he did not change course, he would truly miss his destination and never be able to reach it, that he finally initiated the first propulsion in decades.
A bright exhaust plu sprayed out, slowly pushing the massive ship to change its course, correcting the previous deviation from its route.
He looked at the vast and boundless deep space, but saw nothing but the stars.
He saw no trace of the Purple Moon Fleet, nor any trace of their ships activating propulsion.
"My compatriots… where are you? Are you still alive? Are you also heading towards our destination?
Can we reunite at our destination?"
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