My empire of stars

September 23, 2038

The Empire held a memorial meeting in the central square of the ring world. All senior military officers and government officials of the Empire were present, as well as millions of Imperial citizens who spontaneously came to see him off.

In the huge endless square, all the people who came to see him off were dressed in white robes and stood silently around the square holding white flowers.

"Last month, in the decisive battle against the evil Corruptor civilization, the heroic warriors of our empire sacrificed their precious lives in a foreign land for the safety of their motherland!"

"They fought the evil invaders to the last drop of blood! They! They are the heroes of the empire!" Li Mingze, also wearing a white funeral robe, stood in the center of the square and said with a heavy voice, covering his heart.

At this moment, light rain began to fall from the sky, as if crying to see off the heroes. People stood silently in the drizzle, letting the drizzle soak their clothes, and the rain and tears on their faces dripped to the ground.

"Send the ashes of all heroes to the Tower of Heroes!" As Li Mingze waved his hand, the ground in the square began to shake violently.

A gray square obelisk with a length and width of one hundred meters slowly rose from the ground. As the obelisk rose, everyone could see that it was densely engraved with names.

These are the names of the martyrs who have sacrificed their lives since the empire set foot in the starry sky. After the empire colonized the ring world, Li Mingze started the construction project of this Tower of Heroes.

It was not until recently that the Tower of Heroes was completely completed. The huge 10,000-meter-high obelisk tower increased layer by layer, and the widest base was five kilometers wide! The names, birthplaces, and ID codes of up to five billion martyrs can be engraved!

The millions of martyrs who have sacrificed their lives in the empire now only account for the spire of the entire tower.

As the national anthem played, each group of four soldiers carried a gray rectangular metal box two meters long, one meter wide and one meter high, and walked into the square in a long queue.

Each metal box contains the ashes of a hundred martyrs. Even if there are no ashes, there are relics from his life.

Four long queues entered the square from four directions, each of which was twenty kilometers long!

Soldiers wearing black power armor and white robes solemnly delivered the metal box containing the ashes of their comrades to the open space under the Tower of Heroes.

Mechanical arms stretched out from the ground and sent these metal boxes into the interior of the Tower of Heroes.

"Let us pay the last military salute to these soldiers!" Li Mingze said, raising his arms and saluting the Tower of Heroes.

The millions of imperial citizens and soldiers who came to see him off immediately saluted the Tower of Heroes. The citizens of the empire in front of the TV also stood up and saluted. At this moment, the people of the entire empire were mourning the passing of the heroes.

The family members of the heroes who had been crying in front of the TV stopped crying one after another.

"Child (husband, father), can you see it in the sky?"

"If you can see it, I believe you will not regret your original choice and join the Imperial Fleet!" The family members shed tears again looking at the photos of their loved ones in their hands.

As the last urn was placed into the Tower of Heroes, the huge Tower of Heroes sank to the ground after a slight vibration, until finally only the topmost 100-meter-high obelisk was exposed.

Li Mingze took off the white top hat on his head and bowed to the Tower of Heroes before turning and leaving. Qiuyue and Tianyi also bowed and followed.

Everyone in the square also placed the flowers in their hands around the stele tower, turned around and left the square in an orderly manner.

Li Mingze sighed as he walked. Tianyi behind him shook his head when he heard his sigh. She knew that Li Mingze felt uncomfortable now, so it was better to let him be alone.

"I hope this Tower of Heroes will never be filled up." Li Mingze suddenly stopped, turned his head and looked at the top of the Tower of Heroes and sighed.

"Your Majesty, you won't fill it up." Tianyi patted Li Mingze's shoulder and consoled him.

Tens of days later, in the Imperial Academy of Sciences.

"Did you also watch the memorial service last month? What do you think?" Li Mingze stood in the conference hall of the Academy of Sciences and looked at the many scientists and found that there were many new faces among them, presumably the new human beings.

"Your Majesty, we can no longer let our people sacrifice so needlessly. The way we fight must be reformed!" A scientist said to Li Mingze.

"Yes, reform is necessary. We must promote the unmanned warships!" A young scientist also expressed his opinion.

"Unmanned operation is certain, but how do we solve the problem of robots not being able to adapt?" Li Mingze frowned and knocked on the table in front of him.

"Your Majesty, I think we can let Master Tianyi create some controllable intelligent life."

"Then we build dedicated shipboard computers and confine these artificial intelligences to the shipboard computers, just like Alpha in the Dreadnought!"

"We can use their underlying code to completely control them!" A scientist suddenly raised his hand.

"Oh? How about Tianyi? Is this plan feasible?" Li Mingze asked Tianyi beside him.

"It's feasible. After mastering the underlying core code of the dreadnought artificial intelligence Alpha, I have mastered how to restrain these artificial intelligences!"

"If we start with software and hardware together, and then instill the simulated memory of being loyal to the empire, coupled with my level suppression and innate ability to control them, we will definitely be able to ensure that everything is foolproof!" Tianyi replied with certainty.

"Very good! After we turn the shipboard intelligent beings into human beings, we will then transfer the authority of some weapons and defense equipment to these intelligent beings."

"In this way, each of our warships only needs two captains, a captain and a few officers on the bridge to control a warship! Maintenance and other matters can be completely left to the artificial intelligence itself!" Li Mingze clapped his hands and said, the empire seems to be here. Take a path towards opening up life with artificial intelligence.

"Your Majesty, instead of letting Mr. Tianyi create an artificial intelligence that is not controllable, we should integrate humans into the battleship." A scientist wearing black-rimmed glasses adjusted his glasses and said.

"Keep talking." Li Mingze nodded.

"Now that our empire has experimented with the combination of human brain and machine on special combat mechas, this technology has become mature and can be copied and used."

"We can completely replace the battleship's super host with an artificial super brain, and put volunteers' brains into this super brain for connection."

"Integrate the volunteers with the warship, and control the warship as if they were their own bodies. Coupled with the assistance of shipboard low-level intelligence, we can completely make a warship only need two pilots." The scientist habitually helped Adjusting his glasses caused a reflection.