Chapter 151: The Neutron Star Fragment

When Mal finished outlining his grand strategy, the senior executives of the Viridian fleet were left entirely stunned. Though many of them were not scientists, their extensive lifespans had granted them a vast wealth of knowledge.

​They understood the technical jargon perfectly well, and the implications left them experiencing a profound sense of madness… and terror.

​”This plan… is theoretically feasible!”

​After running a detailed mental simulation, a senior scientist stammered, his mind reeling. He was trembling slightly, his leaves expelling thick plumes of white mist, a biological response indicating extreme excitement. Releasing stress mist in a formal setting was usually considered a severe breach of etiquette, but since everyone in the room was currently doing it, protocol was temporarily ignored.

​Hearing this confirmation, Mal immediately stood up and declared loudly, “Therefore, if we execute this plan, we can completely annihilate the enemy!”

​”We are fully capable of exacting our revenge!”

​”…But what about The Federation?” a conservative elder asked hesitantly. “They will try to stop us. They could ruin the entire operation!”

​To the Viridians, the Federation remained an unfathomably powerful empire. And now, they had undeniable proof: the Federation had easily tracked a stealth fleet that the Viridians’ own sensors had completely missed.

​Only after the Federation transmitted the exact coordinates of the incoming armada did the Viridian telescopes detect a faint, anomalous trace. The signature was so microscopic that it would have been practically invisible without knowing exactly where to look. However, by analyzing specific gravitational lensing phenomena in that sector, they confirmed there was indeed a massive, rapidly moving source of mass!

​The Viridians had no reason to believe the Federation would intentionally deceive them. The number “13” and the apocalyptic scale of the spaceship perfectly matched the trauma burned into their memories. It wasn’t a fabrication.

​That was the Annihilator super-fleet, the mortal enemy of the Viridian Empire!

​”…I will offer the Federation ample compensation to look the other way… yes, I will offer them a Treasure of Gaia!”

​”Such a tribute will be more than enough to buy their non-interference. I will bear full responsibility for the consequences!” Mal ground his teeth. The weight of the decision placed immense pressure on him, but the flames of vengeance burned too fiercely; he had to see this through!

​”But…” Several conservative elders moved to object, feeling the gambit was far too risky. While the Viridians were highly intelligent and possessed robust lifespans, their rigid adherence to protocol often made them overly cautious and weak. Moreover, wasn’t offering a “Treasure of Gaia” as a bribe an incredibly steep price?

​Mal slammed his hand against the table and shouted, “Enough!”

​”We Viridians will no longer be easy prey. Since the Annihilators want a war of extermination, we will give them one!”

​”Our ancestors will protect us, and Gaia will watch over us! Half a million of our kin were slaughtered. If we have the power to avenge them but choose to cower, their souls will never find peace…”

​”…We must use the ashes of our enemies to appease our five hundred thousand dead! We must wipe them out in a single, decisive strike!”

​Mal roared with fury, his impassioned speech instantly resonating with the room. Many of the more radical Viridians joined in, chanting, “Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!”

​The Viridian social system was deeply rooted in bloodlines and clans. With a total empire population of only thirty million, nearly everyone was related in some way. The thought of half a million cold corpses floating in the void filled them with a blinding rage. Even the most cautious elders dared not speak against the tide; in the face of such overwhelming racial grief, dissenting was dangerous.

​”Failing to distinguish right from wrong” was a serious cultural offense, one that could easily strip an elder of their rank!

​”We will use this very flagship to lay the trap and utterly destroy them!” Mal declared, his voice dripping with murderous intent.

​The Viridians naturally had a reason for their sudden, overwhelming confidence. They possessed an ultimate weapon:

​A neutron star fragment!

​This fragment of degenerate matter was securely stored in the exact center of their spaceship, serving as the vessel’s artificial gravity anchor. Despite the ship’s colossal, 150-kilometer size, much of the interior was actually hollow. The inner decks closest to the core were uninhabitable due to the crushing gravity. The outer decks, however, experienced a perfectly calibrated gravitational pull, allowing the crew to feel as if they were walking on their home world.

​After the emergency meeting concluded, a group of Viridian executives rushed to a heavily shielded observation room to view the core.

​Suspended in the very center of the spaceship was a bizarre, ancient artifact. Its core consisted of eight metallic spheres rapidly orbiting a microscopic neutron star fragment. These eight spheres constantly emitted invisible spatial fluctuations that perfectly stabilized and immobilized the exotic matter.

​Normally, if a piece of a neutron star was physically severed from its parent mass, the sudden lack of overarching gravity would cause the degenerate matter to violently expand and detonate. If somehow prevented from exploding, it would instantly collapse into a perfect sphere to minimize its surface area.

​The strange quantum fluctuations emitted by the eight orbiting spheres forced the fragment to maintain its hyper-dense state, preventing it from expanding or leaking lethal radiation. Only its gravitational waves were permitted to escape the containment field and interact with the physical world.

​Even more miraculous, the Viridians could use this device to completely toggle the gravity on or off!

​This god-like piece of technology filled the Viridians with absolute awe. All the apocalyptic kinetic energy of a neutron star fragment was perfectly “frozen,” as if time itself had stopped within the containment field. It was an engineering marvel they couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

​Naturally, this containment device wasn’t built by the Viridian Empire. It had been scavenged from the ancient ruins of a god-tier civilization… an ancient empire that had crashed on the Viridian home world eons ago!

​Based on extensive archaeological records, the Viridians believed their entire species had been biologically engineered by this precursor race. Therefore, they reverently referred to them as the “Gaia Civilization,” viewing themselves as the Children of Gaia.

​While the concept of a literal, physical creator might be a difficult philosophical concept for humanity to swallow, the Viridians accepted it as a natural, fundamental truth of the universe.

​Viridian scientists theorized that this captive neutron fragment was originally the central power reactor for the ancient Gaia vessel. However, because the containment device was partially damaged in the ancient crash, its primary energy-extraction functions were broken. Only the rudimentary gravitational toggle still worked; they couldn’t siphon its raw thermal power.

​Even after tens of thousands of years of scientific advancement and joining the ranks of interstellar empires, the Viridians still couldn’t decipher a single line of the device’s code. This stark reality proved that the technological chasm between them and the ancient Gaia’s was even wider than the gap between humanity and the Viridians!

​”This containment field relies on generating absolute, localized pressure to maintain the degenerate state of the neutron fragment… which means we can actively feed matter into it.”

​A Viridian scientist operated a remote terminal, mechanically tossing a small rock into the containment chamber.

​This simple action terrified the observing elders, who instantly panicked, fearing the containment field would collapse and obliterate the ship, Sedna, and everything around them!

​However, there was only a brief, microscopic flash of light. Once the rock passed the threshold of the eight spheres, it was violently compressed into degenerate neutron matter at the subatomic level, seamlessly merging with the core fragment. The process emitted a faint glow, without so much as a wisp of smoke.

​Seeing the elders’ lingering terror, Mal explained bluntly. “This device was designed by the Gaia Civilization as an energy source. The fragment is supposed to slowly burn and release power… but it is broken. Because the energy relays are damaged, the fragment can neither expand nor release standard thermal energy. Only its raw gravity escapes the field.”

​”…These eight metallic spheres keep everything perfectly locked in a state of suspended animation.”

​”But we can actively feed raw matter into the field, causing the fragment’s mass to grow larger and heavier!” Mal said, his voice trembling with manic excitement. “What do you think would happen if we plunged this device directly into the core of a star?”

​This was his insane, apocalyptic plan: to throw the Gaia artifact, containing the neutron star fragment, directly into the Solar System’s sun!

​The interior of the star would provide a near-infinite supply of raw plasma to absorb. The eight spheres of the ancient artifact would continuously compress the star’s matter, preventing the rapidly growing fragment from prematurely detonating.

​”As it gorges on the star’s mass, the neutron fragment will grow exponentially heavier. But… even the miraculous artifacts of the Gaia Civilization have their structural limits. Once the fragment absorbs enough mass to exceed the field’s absolute maximum containment threshold, the device will catastrophically fail!”

​”When the artifact shatters, the massively bloated neutron fragment will be violently released from suspension. It will instantaneously expand and detonate inside the star’s core… triggering an immediate, artificial supernova!”

​A look of absolute, terrifying madness flashed in Mal’s eyes.

​This was their ultimate revenge. Not even the Annihilators’ invincible spaceships could survive the point-blank detonation of a supernova. They would be reduced to subatomic ash.

​Unless, of course, the Annihilators possessed the power of literal gods!

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