The Enemy in the Black Depths of Space

"Beep beep~ Beep beep~ Beep beep~"

Yan Xia woke up and immediately crawled out of the hibernation pod upon seeing the red lights all around him.

"Ella, what's going on?"

Ella's voice, which hadn't changed for centuries, sounded.

"Yan Xia, we are under attack by an extraterrestrial civilization."

"Their weapon systems are too powerful, and our alloy hull is quickly melting under their laser weapons."

Yan Xia looked at the time in the lower right corner of the screen, it was the year 2806.

He had been asleep for such a long time.

He hurried to the cockpit and saw Ella, the white-haired AI, seemingly piloting the spacecraft skillfully at the control panel.

It appeared to be... a holographic projection.

His attention was quickly drawn to something on the screen.

It was a fleet consisting of seven ships.

The main ship was oval-shaped, like a huge suspended olive in space. It displayed intricate crimson patterns flowing across its surface, resembling white tendrils extending from the ship.

Each tendril was thousands of meters long, and upon closer inspection, they were made of crystals, like fiber optic cables.

A series of azure lasers shot towards them from those tendrils.

Another laser hit the Hope spacecraft, causing the entire hull to shake.

"Can we fight back?"

As he walked towards the screen, he quickly realized that their initial plan did not include weapons on board the Hope spacecraft.

In other words, they could only passively endure the attacks.

He wondered if Ella had developed any weapons during this long period... but the answer was no.

Ella turned her head to look at Yan Xia. Though petite, her expression resembled that of a commander or a ship girl.

"Yan Xia, we lack weapons, and the enemy civilization is not on the same level as us."

"The enemy is 0.7 astronomical units away from us, and their main ship is closing in on us at a speed of 625 km/s."

"I need your command."

The enemy was highly proactive, likely because they hadn't detected any offensive weapons on the surface of their spacecraft.

Just as they were talking, another laser struck the hull.

The entire Hope spacecraft trembled violently, and an explosion occurred somewhere on the ship.

"The hull has been breached, Yan Xia."

Ella's face turned pale.

"Damn it, quickly seal off the cockpit and prevent the air from escaping."

At this moment, they could do nothing but passively endure the attacks.

Yan Xia looked at the signal radar on the screen with a nervous expression, showing the position of the enemy ship behind them.

Fortunately, as the distance increased, it became easier to evade the lasers.

The chase continued for 21 days.

The distance between them had already reached 350 million kilometers, and the enemy ship had stopped pursuing them, resorting only to weapon harassment.

"We've finally shaken them off!"

Yan Xia finally breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't slept well for 21 days.

The Hope spacecraft was now in a pitiful state, with one-fifth of the ship completely destroyed.

"Not considering weapons from the beginning was indeed an oversight. After all, the universe is so vast, and I never thought we would encounter an extraterrestrial civilization."

He became more cautious and planned to install some main cannons on the Hope spacecraft in the future.

They needed to have at least some ability to fight back.

"Based on their mode of attack, it seems this civilization is adept at laser weapons."

"Oh, by the way..."

Yan Xia suddenly remembered a long time ago when he narrowly survived being hit by a laser beam when he went to the asteroid belt after the destruction of Earth.

Perhaps that laser beam came from this civilization.

If it was on the path between Earth and Proxima Centauri, could it be the legendary Trisolarans?

"Analyze the probability of this extraterrestrial civilization originating from Proxima Centauri."

This question is crucial.

However, Ella shook her head and gave a completely opposite answer to his speculation.

"2.38%. The enemy's ship is not fast, and their primary form of attack is lasers. Analysis indicates that their civilization level is at the early stage of Level 1, not even reaching Level 1.2."

"A civilization like this lacks the long-range interstellar travel capability in light-years. If they were from Proxima Centauri, there would be no need for them to come here. Even if they did come here, they would possess an elite fleet."

"After comparing the laser directions from 769 years ago, it is determined that their departure direction overlaps with the direction of the enemy ship."

"Analysis complete. The home planet of this civilization may exist in this region of space. Furthermore, this civilization's development rate is extremely slow, with their civilization level only increasing by approximately 0.1 levels in 769 years."

Yan Xia observed the space outside through the screen.

They were in the vacuum zone between stars. Could a civilization truly emerge in such a place?

The previous discovery on Jupiter's moon had already confirmed the widespread existence of life in the universe.

If Level 1 civilizations existed in such places, how many civilizations were there in the universe?

Nevertheless, he trusted Ella's analysis.

"Beep beep~ Beep beep~"

At that moment, the alarm sounded once again.

"Yan Xia, enemy fleet detected ahead to the right..."

Yan Xia looked and indeed saw a fleet of ships similar in form to the ones they encountered before, numbering over ten.

As soon as he spotted them, their lasers had already arrived.

Hundreds of laser beams poured towards them, engulfing the entire screen in blinding light.

"The enemy couldn't have been ahead of us. It's only possible that they were already developing in this region, and we are still within their territory."

"Continue to evade."

It seemed that this extraterrestrial civilization had no intention of letting them go.

"Ella, what is our current civilization level?"

Yan Xia's thoughts had already shifted.

This civilization was extremely unfriendly, with strong aggression. Once they discovered them, they launched an attack. If the lasers had been a bit stronger, he might not have woken up from hibernation.

Since the other side was being impolite, he wouldn't hold back either.

"During the 664 years you were in hibernation, I never stopped the development of civilization. Our current civilization level is 1.3."

"However, as a wandering civilization, we do not have a well-established and vast civilization system. Even if we encounter civilizations lower than us, we won't have the advantage."

"I suggest developing a fleet first before completing the plundering, colonization, and destruction of other lower-level civilizations."

Ella seemed to have also sensed Yan Xia's thoughts, and the virtual characters donned armor.

They had entered the Level 1 civilization sequence since they mastered controlled nuclear fusion years ago. After several hundred years of development, they had only reached 1.3 because they were too limited and lacked vast resources for a quantitative change to become a qualitative one.

And this 1.3 level was most likely still in the theoretical stage.

Since their civilization level was now higher than the enemy's, Yan Xia had already made his decision.

"Ella, produce probes to investigate the territory range, civilization type, and life forms of this civilization."

"We must know our enemy."

Upon receiving the command, Ella quickly began production of unmanned reconnaissance ships.

Yan Xia named this reconnaissance ship the "Peregrine Falcon."

After shaking off the extraterrestrial civilization's ships once again, half a month later, the Peregrine Falcon was produced. It was 10 meters long, shaped like a shuttle, entirely black with an absorptive layer, and equipped with 12 cameras on its head.

Its primary ability was stealth.

This stealth was not optical technology but signal shielding, rendering the ship undetectable by the enemy's electronic devices.

As Yan Xia watched the Peregrine Falcon fly into the depths of space, his expression became grave.

This would be his first interstellar war, a war between civilizations.

He had no choice but to do so. Although any civilization might have a compassionate side, that compassion would only be shown to beings completely subservient to their own civilization.

The alien civilization had already discovered them, and they were likely to continue the relentless pursuit. It was now a matter of life and death.