Chapter 48: The Forbidden Zone, The Formation of the First Legion of the Civilized Federation

The "Italian Cannon Project" was a stellar-class orbital cannon project that Ella had been working on.

This main cannon relied on the Dyson Cloud for energy, capable of drawing up to 72% of the Dyson Cloud's energy to power a high-energy laser particle cannon when needed.

As the saying goes, bigger is better!

Ella fully understood this principle.

From a cosmic perspective, this stellar cannon was a colossal structure, entirely ice-blue in color. It was an astonishing 181 kilometers long, 39 kilometers wide, and 42 kilometers high. Despite extensive lightweight design efforts, it still weighed an incredible 4.29 billion tons.

Its single-shot energy output reached 20 billion billion tons of TNT equivalent, or 8.4 x 10^26 joules, equivalent to the energy released by two stars in 1.4 seconds.

This was also equivalent to the total energy produced by the first phase of the Dyson Cloud in 3.4 minutes.

This was not much for a 1.9-level civilization like the Civilized Federation.

Similar to the dark matter cannon of the Kate Civilization, the energy utilization efficiency of this weapon was pitifully low.

But this was not an isolated case.

Ella suspected that all top-tier 1-level civilizations would encounter the same energy deficiency problem.

This was due to material limitations.

Even greater energy output would directly cause the stellar-class orbital cannon to shatter.

To achieve a breakthrough in materials, one must enter the 2-level civilization.

Therefore, the gap in energy between 2-level and 1.9-level civilizations was secondary. The real technological gap could result in a hundredfold or even a thousandfold difference.

This was why Yan Xia was so cautious.

The enemy civilization had demonstrated technology at the initial stages of a 2-level civilization.

"Main cannon adjustment, target Long Snake Starfield, coordinates Proxima Centauri A, declination 12º6′N, right ascension 6h11m08s."

"Main cannon charging..."

"Electromagnetic energy constraint device activated..."

"Secondary auxiliary stabilizer activated..."

"Electromagnetic dark matter acceleration track ultra-low-temperature cooling..."

"Open the electromagnetic field to isolate stellar and other cosmic ray disturbances..."

"All systems ready."

"Fire main cannon!"

There was no preamble, as the preparation time had already been too long.

This was an interstellar attack, and a deviation of more than 1 millimeter in the cannon's angle could result in a missed target.

Ironically, the energy required for the preparation of this shot was even greater than the energy of the projectile itself.

Yan Xia's eyebrows furrowed at this data.

"Indeed, it's still far from sufficient."

Ella had been exploring strings for centuries and had tasked all scholars in the Civilized Federation with the same mission.

However, they were still groping in the dark.

But this was the only option.

Yan Xia did not have a system like those in novels, and even if he did, receiving a string-related technology would still require the entire civilization's industrial level to advance to the point where they could manufacture equipment to detect and study strings.

Only then could they begin research and development on other equipment.

This process would still take hundreds or even thousands of years.

Unless a system could provide all the necessary equipment out of thin air, there would be a problem of technological disconnection.

For example, if you were given a photolithography machine, you could make chips, but you wouldn't understand how they were made; you would simply be following the machine's instructions.

Therefore, there are no shortcuts in technological development.

Yan Xia could only rely on Ella and all the scholars in the Civilized Federation working on this problem.

The Long Snake Starfield was 0.317 light-years away from Alpha Centauri.

Eight months later, Yan Xia received images of the Long Snake Starfield after the attack.

It was a long distance.

However, the lack of any fluctuations in the data told the whole story.

The data showed that the area had become an energy-dead zone, where matter that reached the starfield did not explode but quietly dissipated.

The vast gap in technology made Yan Xia even more determined to implement another plan.

He called upon the entire Civilized Federation to recruit soldiers.

After the invasion of the Ghost Life, the Civilized Federation was in a state of rebuilding, and Yan Xia had expected to resort to mandatory conscription. However, the number of volunteers far exceeded his expectations.

On the first day, there were 8 million applicants.

The number increased to 10 million on the second day.

This was in stark contrast to the Kate Civilization's response to the Civilization Tower, as they were isolated and believed the tower was backed by an overwhelmingly powerful civilization.

However, in this case, the Kate Civilization, with its rich emotional depth influenced by human culture, felt backed by the mighty Civilized Federation and believed they could win.

This was a revival!

The "epidemic" had claimed too many lives.

The Kate tribe and the Baiyan tribe, with their human-like emotional depth, needed to vent their grief.

This recruitment drive resulted in 16.1 million Kate tribe soldiers, 3.42 million Baiyan tribe soldiers, and 10,000 human soldiers.

Although the number of humans was the smallest, their proportion was the highest.

These 19.53 million soldiers formed the Civilized Federation's first legion - the Spirit Legion.

The name was chosen to honor the 2.8 billion spirits of those who had perished in the epidemic.

Upon formation, the Spirit Legion underwent five years of military training to ensure all soldiers had basic combat capabilities.

Ella also prepared a large number of first-generation mechs and picometer robots to enhance the army's individual soldier capabilities.

Five years later.

The number of soldiers in the legion had decreased to 1.175 million.

The Spirit Legion was fully equipped with first-generation mechs and 100 billion picometer robots. Each soldier was armed with a high-energy dark matter gun, five matter-antimatter annihilation tactical bombs, and one suicide super-energy backpack.

Every 1 million soldiers formed a fleet, for a total of 11 fleets, all of which were main fleets without any backup.

Each fleet was accompanied by one 7,500-meter-class flagship, two 4,400-meter-class secondary ships, sixteen 3,100-meter-class battleships, twenty 2,000-meter-class star cruisers, fourteen 2,800-meter-class frigates, and twenty-one 2,500-meter-class destroyers, for a total of 74 ships.

The Spirit Legion's command ship was a 10,000-meter-class legion flagship, accompanied by eighteen 2,800-meter-class frigates, making a total of 833 ships in the legion with a combined energy capacity of 7.4 x 10^29 joules.

In the same year.

The Spirit Legion boarded their ships.

Carrying their hatred, the Spirit Legion set out for the forbidden zone!

The year was 6779 CE.

This was the Civilized Federation's first expedition, and no one could predict the enemy's strength. The soldiers knew that the chances of survival were slim, but none of them backed down.