Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones-Chapter 328: Alive?

This immediately sent a cold shiver down Tom’s spine.

A malfunction was nothing. A communication disconnection was also nothing. But when these two were combined, it became somewhat unusual.

The communication connection was clearly broken, and I wasn’t controlling the ship, so why did its thrusters activate? Why did it deviate from the formation?

At this very moment, who was controlling my ship?

With technology developed to this point, Tom was certain that, at least in the Strong Nuclear stage, there was no technology that could interfere with superluminal communication based on quantum entanglement, let alone directly invade an enemy battleship and seize it for one’s own.

However, as for whether higher-level civilizations possessed this technology, Tom was unsure.

So, at this moment, if his Mercury-class battleship was being controlled by some external force, wouldn’t that mean that to achieve this, it would almost certainly have to be an existence superior to a Strong Nuclear Civilization?

Had some advanced civilization approached him?

Tom immediately raised all ships in the main fleet to the highest alert status. Energy shields were instantly activated to maximum power mode. Various battleships, originally stored between the aerospace carriers, detached from their berths and began to form up while in an inertial cruising state at 80% light speed. At the same time, all detection equipment was activated, fully scanning and searching the surrounding starfield.

Tom also dispatched a small fleet to pursue the Mercury-class battleship that was currently breaking away from his fleet.

It must be captured and thoroughly inspected!

But at this moment, something even more horrifying happened to Tom.

One warning message after another appeared in the various remote control bases located within the habitation ships.

At first, it wasn’t too fast; only dozens of ship disconnection warnings appeared in an hour. But then it became faster and faster, increasingly rapid.

Eventually, dense warning messages even merged into a single block, completely occupying the entire large screen.

In just one day, a staggering 400,000 ships lost contact!

These ships were of various types: some were battleships, some industrial ships, some supply ships, and also logistics support ships, minelayers, communication ships, and the like.

The only ones missing were the habitation ships.

And, every ship that lost contact, without exception, performed the same action.

The moment they lost contact, they would immediately activate their thrusters, skillfully avoiding nearby ships, and move away from the main fleet, eventually stopping about 10 million kilometers away from the main fleet, where they would reassemble.

During the process of these disconnected ships leaving the main fleet, Tom had many opportunities to attack.

But Tom... dared not attack.

The reason was simple: this was the heartland of his main fleet, where countless targets of extremely important strategic value were gathered, such as habitation ships, supply ships, aerospace carriers, and so on.

Fighting here could very likely affect them.

Also... what if these ships that had lost contact with him were controlled by some advanced civilization?

It was not currently using these battleships to attack him. What if his attack angered them, leading to unpredictable consequences?

Considering all these reasons, Tom finally decided to wait and see.

Under these circumstances, a full 400,000 various ships reassembled into a fleet. After that, Tom saw that the fleet finally made a move.

One supply ship and logistics support ship after another automatically opened their warehouses, various intelligent machines automatically began operating, and numerous battleships automatically docked in their berths, beginning a series of procedures such as fuel replenishment and combat material resupply. Everything was orderly and extremely efficient, even matching the efficiency when Tom himself was in control.

Tom was very familiar with these procedures. He had done the same before every battle.

But now, none of this was under his control!

That fleet seemed to be preparing for war!

Who was the target of the war? It seemed... it could only be himself! Because in this starfield, apart from himself and that fleet, Tom had not observed any other targets!

"Damn it, this is uncanny..."

Tom’s heart was heavy. Left with no choice, Tom also had to begin his pre-battle preparations.

Time passed quickly, and the pre-battle preparations were soon completed. Then, the fleet that had broken away from his main fleet began a rapid advance, charging menacingly towards him. At the same time, various weapons—energy cannons, laser cannons, missiles, etc.—began firing simultaneously.

"They’re attacking me already? What in the world is going on?!"

Left with no choice, Tom could only maneuver his fleet to engage in battle.

In the vast void where no macroscopic celestial bodies existed within a few light-years, two fleets with completely identical styles and specifications began a somewhat bizarre interstellar battle.

Not long after the fighting began, Tom discovered another thing that made him even more terrified.

Tom deliberately maneuvered his battleships to specifically target the enemy’s communication systems, successfully destroying the communication systems of at least a thousand combat, supply, and logistics support ships.

But what horrified Tom was that even after losing their communication systems, those ships were still... still fighting, and seemed to be completely unaffected!

This was somewhat unusual.

If it was because an advanced civilization had intervened, taking control of his ships through some unknown means, that would still be understandable.

But now, even the communication systems were gone; neither superluminal communication nor electromagnetic wave communication could be performed. How was that advanced civilization controlling his ships at this moment?

Even if you advanced civilizations have more advanced communication methods, these ships would still need corresponding receiving equipment and hardware, right? Now that they don’t even have the hardware, why are these ships still being controlled?

Something’s wrong, something’s wrong...

Tom’s countless brains simultaneously pondered rapidly.

After reviewing the "enemy" fleet’s operational mode once more, observing the battleships that seemed to maneuver and fight autonomously without relying on communication, watching the intelligent machines and ships that autonomously retrieved supplies, autonomously replenished fuel, autonomously resupplied combat materials, and autonomously repaired damaged parts, seeing all this in perfect order, a startling, yet somewhat absurd, conjecture gradually emerged from Tom’s mind.

The moment this conjecture surfaced, the clone where Tom’s consciousness resided even began to have a dry throat.

"Damn it, these battleships and ships, they haven’t... ’come alive,’ have they?"