Rebirth of the Super Battleship
Chapter 237: Tachyon Torrent

Xiao Yu frequently engaged in these quiet moments of lurking within the forum. The problems discussed by the scientists often provided him with meaningful inspiration.

Just as Xiao Yu was buried in the ongoing construction tasks, a communication request reached him. Upon accepting the call, he heard the message.

“Reporting to Master, Issue Number 256 has now been resolved. The detailed solution is as follows…”

“Hmm, very good. Send it to me now. I’ll verify it. If the solution proves viable, you’ll receive a reward from me,” Xiao Yu replied.

“Your most loyal servants Species Number Thirty-Nine, are honored to serve you.”

Issue Number 256 concerned improving the reliability of returning tachyons within the Faster-Than-Light detection module. Once solved, the performance of Xiao Yu’s FTL detector would improve by at least 20 percent. It was one of the more important issues as of late.

After receiving the document from Species Thirty-Nine, Xiao Yu immediately began verifying it. Within the massive ground-based laboratory, he operated a variety of precision instruments, executing a series of steps to collect data and perform calculations…

“Reporting to Master, Issue Number 2,957 has now been resolved. We have compiled the solution into a document, as follows: … This document was collectively contributed by all 205 scientists of Species Number Fifty-Eight.”

“Reporting to Master…”

Throughout the construction of the negative matter cannon, old problems were continuously resolved, while new problems constantly emerged. Some were solved by Xiao Yu himself, others were delegated to scientists of various intelligent civilizations.

Through this ongoing process, the construction of the negative matter cannon progressed steadily. Its size had already surpassed that of Xiao Yu’s largest ship, the Beijing.

This meant a total mass of several tens of millions of tons. Inside, there were billions of circuits, various maintenance tunnels, retrofit passages, countless modules and components, and over a million autonomous robots actively working within and across its surface.

Although vast automation had been employed, the power of this negative matter cannon still couldn’t be considered outstanding. However, the computational power it consumed was already more than double that of two Beijing-class ships combined.

Time passed slowly, and all remained calm. That strange star still lingered silently in space, showing no signs of change. The Molian Civilization’s fleet had not given chase.

Xiao Yu was very fond of this peaceful, tranquil atmosphere.

“If I could conduct my research in an environment like this, without worrying about being hunted, without needing to hide across the galaxy, how wonderful that would be,” Xiao Yu thought with deep emotion.

Another twenty years passed.

The construction of the first negative matter cannon was finally complete and had now entered its final phase. Over the course of the build, Xiao Yu encountered more than 70,000 new problems. The resulting research data, experimental logs, and solution documents together would occupy dozens of times the total data capacity of all Earth era storage devices. These problems were all overcome through the joint effort of Xiao Yu and the scientists from over a hundred races. Xiao Yu meticulously sorted and categorized all this data, storing it securely within his vast database for future reference.

With the main structure of the first negative matter cannon complete, Xiao Yu’s computational capacity was significantly freed up, and the scientists under him finally enjoyed a rare period of rest. He granted them an extended vacation so they could recharge and be in top form for future assignments.

Over these decades, the population of the more than one hundred intelligent races had steadily expanded. Their combined numbers had already surged into the millions. This figure excluded the low-level organisms created through biological technologies. If those were counted, the total would be dozens of times greater.

“Staying within this star system is manageable, but if I ever plan to leave it, how to transport and protect them becomes a real problem. This population is an extremely valuable resource, abandoning them is absolutely out of the question. Perhaps, once tachyon research reaches an advanced stage, it will be time to begin constructing Nation-Class starships.” Xiao Yu pondered silently.

After the main structure of the negative matter cannon was completed, what followed was the refinement of its internal systems and the calibration of its various modules. This process took Xiao Yu one full year. At the end of that year, construction of the negative matter cannon was officially declared complete.

“Well then, let’s begin the first live firing test of the negative matter cannon! All relevant scientists, return to your posts. After the test, a large volume of experimental data will be handed over to you for analysis…”

Xiao Yu issued the command.

“Understood! Species Number Three acknowledges!”

“Understood! Species Number Seventy-Seven acknowledges!”

“Understood! Species Number Nine acknowledges!”

In an instant, Xiao Yu received responses from the various species. Within the ground base, countless strange-looking beings moved about busily, each heading toward their designated positions.

“You should all be familiar with the current state of the negative matter cannon, so here is some relevant data for this test. Review it now, the test will begin in three hours.”

The target for this test was a County-Class spaceship equipped with a Force Field Shield. After several decades of rapid technological development, Xiao Yu’s tech had experienced a breakthrough on every front. Today’s Force Field Shields were far superior to those of the past. In fact, a new generation of shields based on antimatter technology was already under development. Once those were completed, even conventional shields would reach nearly half the current strength of a Four-Dimensional Shield. Of course, by that time, Xiao Yu’s energy technology would likely advance further still, and the Four-Dimensional Shield would become even more powerful.

Under Xiao Yu’s command, the briefing document was duplicated tens of thousands of times and distributed to every scientist present.

Time slipped by slowly. In the final three hours before the test, Xiao Yu ran a final round of diagnostics on the negative matter cannon, checking module connections, energy conduits, the power supply chambers, the Faster-Than-Light detection modules, and more. Once everything was confirmed to be functioning normally, Xiao Yu gave the launch order.

“First live firing test of the negative matter cannon, initiate!”

With this command, in the massive weapon which was over ten kilometers long, six kilometers wide, and three kilometers tall, more than six thousand energy supply chambers, located throughout its internal structure, simultaneously triggered matter-antimatter annihilation reactions. These reactions released immense amounts of energy, which were immediately captured by energy collection units and transmitted through energy channels to the appropriate subsystems. Powered by this energy surge, countless instruments roared to life…

The County-Class target ship had already entered Faster-Than-Light flight. Within a star system, this was highly dangerous, gravitational interference from the star could destabilize the gravitational generator, throwing off the curvature flight trajectory and making position-locking impossible. But since it was a target vessel, destined for destruction, Xiao Yu had no reason to worry.

In fact, once the County-Class ship entered curvature flight, Xiao Yu lost all positional data on it. The star’s gravitational pull threw it into a chaotic, uncontrollable spin, drifting like a headless fly.

“No matter, I’ve got my Faster-Than-Light detection instruments,” Xiao Yu thought confidently as he maneuvered the massive negative matter cannon to begin spatial detection.

Inside the Faster-Than-Light detection module, fueled by an enormous power supply, a large number of particles referred to by Xiao Yu as a3-type tachyons were generated through a mysterious reaction. Upon creation, these particles were immediately fired out. Due to their unique properties, any sub-light-speed matter returned vastly different response functions compared to objects in curvature flight. This allowed them to easily distinguish targets from background objects.

There were tens of thousands of such detection modules installed across the negative matter cannon, enabling full 360-degree, no-blind-spot, omnidirectional scanning of space.

While the FTL detection modules scanned the surrounding space, the attack module of the negative matter cannon was also preparing rapidly. A vast number of g7-type tachyons were generated. Rather than being immediately fired, they were confined by powerful magnetic fields near the muzzle, orbiting in superluminal circular motion, and their numbers continued to grow.

In Xiao Yu’s mind, complex analysis was underway, decoding the return functions of the a3-type tachyons.

“Target acquired!” At that moment, a particular data stream drew Xiao Yu’s attention. After a brief analysis, he quickly determined the target’s parameters and locked onto it without hesitation.

“Good, lock confirmed… fire!”

Xiao Yu issued the order.

Unlike traditional weapons, the muzzle of the negative matter cannon wasn’t a standard fixed barrel. Instead, it functioned as a containment chamber for the tachyons. Once the target’s position was known, the weapon could instantly attack without needing to adjust angles or reposition the barrel.

This design was essential, ships in curvature flight moved far too quickly. If the cannon relied on traditional targeting, it wouldn’t be able to keep up. By the time a lock was made, the ship would have already moved on.

As soon as the FTL detection module locked onto the target, it transmitted the coordinate data via superluminal communication to the firing module. The quantum computer processed the data within a few Planck time intervals and unleashed a torrent of tachyons toward the target.