Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones-Chapter 287: Flying Star

The alliance had fundamentally changed the nature of the Havilah Civilization.

With the Black Mountain Civilization’s industrial capacity—a force so vast and tireless that it was unimaginable to organic civilizations—the shackles of logistics were shattered. Tasks such as heavy industrial production, deep-core resource mining, and the endless churn of energy supply, which would have originally required billions of personnel and massive societal effort, were now entirely undertaken by the machines.

The Havilahs were no longer workers. They were no longer miners. They were a race of pure warriors.

Freed from the burden of survival, they could pour every ounce of their society’s resources into the academy of war. The number of active battleships they could control simultaneously surged to a terrifying 3.2 million!

It was a suffocating number.

What an immense combat power it was to control 3.2 million battleships simultaneously. The coordination, the firepower, the sheer wall of metal... Within the known scope of Strong Nuclear level civilizations, who could possibly stand against them? 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

’It is a pity,’ Heimerlan thought, gazing at the fleet data scrolling on his retina. ’It is a pity that we only possess this combat power for a short period. This power is borrowed.’

If they could completely subdue the Black Mountain Civilization, strip the AI of its autonomy, and enslave it to their will... then the galaxy would be their backyard.

Heimerlan gently shook his head, concealing a hint of greedy desire deep in his eyes.

Full-scale preparations for war had begun. The mobilization was absolute. But besides the large-scale cultivation of 1.2 billion warriors and the production of new types of battleships led by Akakenu AI, Heimerlan was shocked to discover that the AI was synchronously carrying out another construction project.

It was a project of madness.

Under the silent transport of countless heavy transport ships and large aerospace carriers, rivers of materials converged in what was originally empty space. They were welding together the bones of a giant.

Day by day, hour by hour, this "planet" was slowly developing, constantly growing larger like a cancerous tumor made of steel and circuitry.

Finally, the work was done. A massive planet with a radius of 100 kilometers and a total mass of approximately 1.7 quadrillion tons suspended before Heimerlan.

This was not a hollow station. It was a dense, solid fortress.

This massive planet, entirely "artificially" constructed by Akakenu AI, possessed such mass that it generated its own significant gravity field. It had a surface gravity acceleration of 0.011 m/s², which, while low, was enough to completely attract and fix objects and dust to its surface without magnetic aids.

Its escape velocity reached approximately 50 meters per second; any object needed to exceed this speed to escape from its gravity field.

It was a death star in the truest sense. Such a colossal macroscopic celestial body was entirely composed of refined resources, compressed energy cells, spare parts, and layers of armor plate extracted by Akakenu AI.

The industrial production capacity implied by this single object left Heimerlan deeply shaken. He had refreshed his understanding of the AI’s power multiple times, but this... this was god-like.

"I was inspired by the Human Civilization’s escape process," the voice of Akakenu echoed, flat and devoid of pride. "And thus, I built such an artificial planet."

"It hasn’t been too long since Human Civilization dismantled planets to clear the electromagnetic disaster on their star; they should not have had time to construct an escape vehicle of this magnitude yet."

The AI continued its cold analysis. "Based on time constraints, it’s more likely they will choose to hold their ground within the Lyra G16 Solar System to counter our attack."

"Upon reaching the system, our initial strategic objective will definitely be to seize a planet to obtain sufficient resource supplies. However, during that phase, we will be vulnerable. We will not have any large planets from which to immediately acquire resources."

"Since that is the case," Akakenu concluded, "then we will bring our own planet. We will bring our own ground. This way, the initial resource bottleneck will be broken by us."

"Now, with this artificial planet... set sail! Go to the Lyra G16 Solar System, destroy Human Civilization, and fulfill the agreement and promises between us."

The order was given.

Countless gigantic thrusters, installed all over the crust of the artificial planet, ignited simultaneously. It looked like a meteor shower engaging in reverse. The massive fleet also began to gather, encircling the steel world like a swarm of angry hornets protecting their hive.

The acceleration process began.

At this moment, under the blinding illumination of the tail flames from countless thrusters, the massive gaseous planet behind them—the one that had served as their base—was completely lit up.

The sheer energy output was catastrophic. Under the fierce high-energy particle bombardment and heat from the fleet’s departure, the gas giant’s clouds began to churn violently. Hurricane-force winds, screaming at several times the speed of sound, began to tear the atmosphere apart.

But the Black Mountain Civilization did not care about what they left behind.

One hydrogen bomb after another exploded on the other planets in the system. The massive industrial facilities covering almost all rocky surfaces were instantly reduced to ashes. It was a scorched earth policy on a stellar scale. They left nothing but ruins.

The "second sun" formed by the convergence of countless thruster tail flames gradually dimmed as it moved away, finally disappearing into the vast, uncaring starry sky.

This solar system, after experiencing a brief, violent prosperity, once again returned to dead silence.

At this moment, light-years away in the Lyra G16 Solar System.

Tom was unaware of the monster heading his way. He was still engaged in massive industrial construction and production tasks with no upper limit and no stopping time.

He was a machine of creation.

Time slowly passed. In space, the number of large, medium, and small manned battleships, unmanned battleships, and numerous unmanned combat facilities continuously increased.

On the surface of his planets, the number of factories, control bases, and supercomputing hubs multiplied like bacteria.

At this moment, the number of manned battleships under Tom’s command alone had already increased to over 4 million.

The vast majority of these were the agile Mercury-class battleships. In addition, the heavy-hitting Venus-class battleships reached 200,000, the capital Earth-class battleships numbered 5,000, and the number of newly developed, pinnacle-tech Mars-class battleships also increased to 80.

The logistics of this fleet were mind-bending.

To control these 4 million battleships in total, Tom needed to deploy approximately 600 million clones.

Calculating that one large control base could accommodate about 200,000 clones, Tom needed to build 3,000 large control bases just to house the pilots.

The supporting energy factories, supercomputing bases, rest bases, material factories, etc., were countless. The infrastructure required to keep 600 million minds synced and alive was an empire in itself.

To allow these 600 million clones to operate the battleships with peace of mind, Tom had to deploy approximately 200 million more clones just for logistics and base maintenance.

In addition, even during wartime, the massive industrial production and material supply tasks could not stop; on the contrary, they needed to be strengthened to replace losses.

Calculated this way, even if Tom’s maximum consciousness connection count had increased to 3.5 billion, supporting the current scale of combat was still slightly tight.

However, the full utilization of 3.5 billion maximum connections also brought about an almost unprecedented increase in combat power.

At this very moment, Tom’s combat power had truly reached its peak.

He was a god of war in the flesh. Without any restrictions, without any negative shackles, without any internal politics or dissent—he was a unified will.

Tom truly felt that he was unprecedentedly powerful at this moment. The hum of the Unified Force Field and the roar of 4 million engines were his heartbeat.

"With my current peak state, I will confront this equally unprecedentedly powerful enemy and thoroughly resolve my survival hidden dangers."

Tom truly made up his mind. He was ready.

Time was still quietly passing, and Tom was still tirelessly stockpiling more manned and unmanned battleships.

It was under these circumstances—at the height of his confidence—that the sensors pinged.

Tom suddenly discovered a dim, anomalous "star" deep in the distant starry sky. It shouldn’t have been there.

He focused his long-range optical arrays. After further observation and spectral analysis, Tom’s heart grew heavy. The confidence froze.

He clearly observed three different types of tail flames burning against the black backdrop of the universe. Moreover, he was intimately familiar with all three types.

One signature belonged to the Mechanical Disaster fleet.

One signature belonged to the Havilah Civilization fleet.

And the last one... the massive, slow-burning exhaust of a Flying Star.

The realization hit him like a physical blow.

The Havilah Civilization and the Mechanical Disaster had allied! And their alliance had not just brought a fleet; they had created a mobile fortress, a Flying Star, intending to bring it all the way to this solar system!

Having a Flying Star meant that the enemy brought their supply chain with them. At least in the early stages of the war, the opponent would not be limited by insufficient material supply or the need to capture a planet.

The alliance between the Havilah Civilization and the Mechanical Disaster meant something even more terrifying.