Star Empire

what happened.

"I?"

……who I am?

Do I exist? Who am I?

This is where?

No body, no soul, no boundaries, no self.

It's hard to say...if this can be considered a real thing.

The life array that cultivated souls was destroyed by powerful external artillery fire, and the souls that once lived in it were blown away by powerful explosions. They were scattered all over the world. They were about to take shape, but now, these fragments have been fragmented beyond repair.

But even so, these soul fragments do not seem to have completely lost their activity. They don't know how they maintain their vitality, which restores a certain connection between the fragments. These weird soul fragments are floating throughout the empire, feeling the changes in the world in their own way.

Within the vast territory of the empire, countless different events occur every moment, countless different phenomena are recorded, and countless different opinions and thoughts rise and fall in the infinite.

In the vast ocean formed by the attributes of existence, some details occasionally show extremely brief stagnation. These details may be the briefly deleted light in the afterglow, but they may be short-term tremors in the torrent of information output by the ship's power furnace. , it may be an extremely small distortion in the space, or it may be an expression, a series of words, a symbol that briefly twitched several times without anyone noticing.

They are too weak, too thin, and too plain. Even the disturbance caused by ordinary information collision is enough to completely and completely cover them. And this effect is so weak that it is impossible for the void survey radar to detect even a trace of them.

But why does this happen?

Is it possible...that this is some kind of natural phenomenon? Has one or a few of the countless hidden possibilities that the empire as a whole just begun to materialize?

Or maybe... this is something more specific, such as... some form of aggregation of countless fragments left behind by countless lives and existences over a long period of time? But why are there such fragments? Why such a summary? What will be the aggregated result?

In the formless void, a fog is wandering throughout the empire, carrying out actions that may not be called thinking, and exploring the boundaries of "me".

The term "a ball" may not be accurate - "it" has no exact shape. Even if we look closely, it is impossible to determine whether such an individual actually exists. It does not exist anywhere, but it is everywhere in the Empire. It is diffused throughout the Empire.

Occasionally, it will wake up and "try" to contact the real world of order. But most of the time, it is dispersed in the endless ocean, with no clear self-boundary.

How vast is the empire for an isolated consciousness? And the fragmented consciousness is scattered throughout the empire. If it wants to condense itself enough to be able to think like it was once familiar with, the probability is so low, and the chance is so slim?

Over millions of years, tens of millions of years, the traces and impressions of the ordered world may be just the briefest and vaguest silhouette of the most trivial details in a certain world. Such a degree of fragmentation makes even the precursor of consciousness formed from chaos quickly lose the little bit of logical thinking it once had, as well as the basis for its own thinking.

In the beginning, "it" still had the ability to make some attempts - to try to organize potentially useful information extracted from fragments of speech. But with the constant impact of time, this chaotic precursor of consciousness soon lost the ability to think in confusion.

It still twitches occasionally, and occasionally catches the tiniest fragments, but it has lost the ability to sense it all. It can only drift with the flow and no longer has any initiative and vitality.

In a daze, the passage of time and the evolution of space are like empty light and shadow. They flow silently from the surroundings, leaving no clear traces.

In the time that has passed, in the time that is changing, in the time that has not yet come, changes are happening all the time.

The flames of war are expanding, spreading from several worlds, from several fleets, from several points. They are extremely contagious and will burn wherever they hit. When the scale of this war reached its maximum, more than one-tenth of the empire's territory was struggling in the sea of ​​​​fire formed by crystal energy, arcane magic, and white matter. After reaching this scale, there seemed to be a brief stalemate between the two sides. However, after this brief stalemate, the flames of war quickly faded away, faster than anyone expected. When everything finally returns to silence, all that is left is a series of unsolvable mysteries, countless gaps that are difficult to fill, and a mess.

But the story doesn't end there, nor does time stop.

After the war subsides, the shadows brought by the war will be long and terrifying, but these negative things will eventually be washed away by the positive pursuit of a better life by intelligent life.

The crack that spewed blood into the void was gradually blocked. In the reality where cooperation and confrontation coexist, scars will eventually be healed, and they will inevitably be healed. The broken wreckage was quickly swept away, and the twisted space was abandoned or reshaped.

Under the bright starlight, everything here finally returned to its former glory and prosperity. After that, the wheel of development did not stop there, but continued to move forward.

In the void, the boundaries of order began to expand again, and countless nodes used themselves as a basis to build bridges to the outside world, to the darkness that was once known and now is. More worlds are created, more unknowns are discovered, more stories are recorded... In the process, "everything" becomes more practical and broader than before.

In the process of the bright border extending outward, some light points left the border. They left the world of order at a speed that far exceeded the expansion of order, and left the harbor where they once belonged. They sail towards the depths of the void, to the vastness and nothingness of the final level beyond the distant order.

Each leap they make covers unimaginable distances, and each leap leaves new wounds on their bodies. Injuries and illnesses quickly add up, eventually forcing them to stop and settle into order.

After repeating this process several times, some light spots were extinguished in the boundless nothingness and vastness, while some were still repeating the painful but mission-containing journey. Others have decided not to move forward for the time being. They stay in place and let the inner strength they carry be released.

They are virtual point jumping ships, and they are also seeds - seeds that carry the continuation of the empire's civilization, cultural diffusion and existence stability.

This is a risky move - after leaving the support range of the empire itself, the virtual point jump ship's long-distance navigation ability in the void is stronger than most of the empire's vehicles, which means that the virtual point jump ship can quickly move away from the empire , far away from the empire's support limits and reaction limits.

As a result, these ships and the people on board can no longer expect to receive support or any services from the Empire itself, and soon even maintaining communications will become extremely difficult.

Under this circumstance, if these seeds still hope to exist completely and independently, they must be prepared - be prepared to be unable to contact the Empire, be prepared to be unable to obtain any services from the Empire, and be prepared to The system of permissions owned had to be prepared separately from the Empire.

And if we really cut off contact, cut off affiliations and become independent, the impact will be unpredictable - weakness may be the best result, and the worst result is to break with the former mother civilization, which is...

never mind.

Deep in the void outside the empire, some sporadic points of light began to light up, and the light extended in the darkness, like expanding roots. The seeds decided to take root in the unknown soil, and now they began to try to draw strength on their own, sprout and grow.

In these places... it is extremely difficult to contact the empire, but here... there is still sunshine, and the sunshine is still very bright, like the gaze of a mother.

...Where will the end of the sun be?

In the sea of ​​stars formed by the world of order, some stars are exceptionally bright, and some stars appear a little dim. The bright stars gather together more densely and regularly, and on a larger "void scale", the correlation between them is enough to make them present a larger-scale actual structure.

The ordinary worlds sandwiched between the bright giant world structures generally appear sparse and scattered.

As the borders continue to push outward, the empire's contact and interaction with the dark spots in these bright veins are gradually increasing.

The first formal establishment of diplomatic relations, the first joint civilization circle, the first cooperation, the first overt conflict, the first arbitration, the first judgment, the first sanction, the first warning of force, the first An official declaration of war, the first official war, the first official extermination order... As history progresses, more firsts will be recorded in the annals of history.

During these events, the empire no longer forced other worlds of order to meet its demands by using large-scale cross-era technologies to distort and tamper with everything. The empire accepted its shortcomings and accepted the objective reality that contradictions and conflicts were an inevitable part of an orderly environment. The Empire understands that their presence does not mean that they are unforgivable.

In addition, the empire has also gained a deeper understanding of what the concepts and words used by some "mortal creatures" actually mean - in the past, perhaps because of the lack of this part, the empire has never learned to communicate with mortals. Good communication.

Now, this ravine is slowly beginning to be filled.

While this step of communication unfolded, the empire also learned the importance of some properties and meanings, such as the evaluation of history, the view of culture, and the characterization of behavior...

They have been integrated into the imperial system, but while helping the empire to further understand mortal civilization and mortal life, after they enter the empire as practical information, their possible impact on the imperial thinking and the existence of the empire will take a long time and a wide range of research. Only through in-depth investigation can we get further clarity.

The Empire may learn many other things from these records of interactions.

Over a long period of time, many ancient cultures that have been passed down in mortal civilization have overcome the barriers of time and space and continue to exist to this day. However, from the perspective of the Empire, there is also confusion in the reasons and reasons for their existence to this day. These "past cultures" have not experienced changes in time and evolution in every era, and they cannot always guarantee that they can integrate into the times and be needed by the times.

As a result, the empire further realized that reality is not perfect. New things do have strong vitality and can replace old things, but old things also have reasons why they can persist tenaciously. If it wants to innovate and maintain the advancement and enthusiasm of civilization, the empire needs to proactively examine these inheritances and make choices based on actual conditions.

After understanding this, the empire began to dare to make some essential modifications, deleting some concepts from ancient times that were no longer applicable to the contemporary environment, or completely changing the phenomena and essence behind these concepts so that they could be integrated into the current environment. In times and circumstances...

At the same time, the changes brought about by more interactions are not limited to the interactions themselves. While they are enriched, they also melt to a certain extent the "heart barriers" formed due to historical reasons in various parts of the empire. While further expanding exchanges, all aspects of the empire also began to examine the similarities and differences between themselves and other life forms and civilizations, and everyone also further examined themselves on the basis of the original - examine what they have, examine what they have already What was accomplished.

Once upon a time, when the war ended and countless beings in the empire were silently licking their wounds in pain, an atmosphere of despair began to quietly spread throughout the empire, that is, "before reaching the limit of omniscience and omnipotence, everything will Since efforts and changes cannot guarantee absolute results, they are essentially just driving the problem to a dead end - a dead end that is impossible to reverse once it breaks out.

In the end, all efforts and all changes are not pushing life and reality forward, but almost forcing the empire and its sentient beings to eternally face unsolvable problems that cannot be solved in the end." And - Who wants this?

After new perspectives and new ideas poured in, everyone in the empire began to try to change their perspective. They no longer only stared at the difficulties and shortcomings forever. Everyone's eyes looked at the other side, at the problems that had been solved and the achievements that had been achieved. , the height that has been achieved - this took a long time, and the beings of the empire have gone through many detours.

What is worth noting is that no one has mentioned doing this in the past years, and it is not that no one has not done so, but such an event that aroused such a large-scale trend has never happened in the past.

They are enough to be recorded in history.

While changes occur internally, external changes will not stop due to changes in attention, and the boundaries of order are not always peaceful.

There are many phenomena and entities in the void. For the void, they may not be good or malicious, but for the ordered life with one-sidedness and self-standpoint, they will inevitably be labeled as good or evil. Tag of.

For the empire, most of them may face several common endings - if the good intentions are beneficial, the empire will study them and maybe even make use of them; if the good intentions are not good, the empire may not kill them all; If malice is beneficial, the Empire may use more violent methods in studying them, but malice is detrimental...

Except for a few samples that will be heavily sealed and kept in remote corners with heavy military guards, the Empire will try to kill them all - however, in this regard, the Empire cannot always achieve what it wants, and the obstacle between achieving its wishes and being unable to do so The biggest obstacle between them is the empire's old rival - the Death Tide.

Regarding the death tide, the empire cannot recognize its essence, because no matter how it is observed in any way, when the information carrying the mission comes into contact with the death tide, they will be completely destroyed by the death tide. The empire's observation results of the death tide are not so much the observation results of the death tide, but rather the "observation results of the destructive effect of the death tide".

Dead tides are like invisible fires, and to deal with such fires, one can only judge its scope and take measures by determining the burned debris and burning debris.

The influence of various effects makes the empire can only guess its nature in an approaching way, and the guess about the death tide... The guess that is most consistent with realistic observations and ancient data may be that the death tide is order, existence, reality... everything The "opposite" of everything.

There are various ways in which the death wave breaks out. A small death wave disaster may just be one or a few doors that will not survive in the world of order for too long, while a serious death wave disaster spews out enough pollution to destroy one or several worlds. , as for the most advanced and serious fault zone disaster...

The Great Fault Zone can swallow countless frequencies and plunge countless worlds into chaos and madness. When they are torn from the wreckage of countless worlds and activated, everything will tremble with their presence. Order is like an out-of-focus photo, struggling in a silent roar. And if you want to fight against them, even if you give them the highest degree of attention, the whole empire needs to go all out.

In the erosion of war and pollution, some parts of the empire's borders will be cut off, and some parts will be lost. And in the depths of the void far away from the empire, the seeds of civilization that have sprouted are not immune - they may lose the protection of the sun, be dragged down by themselves, and "burned to death" by their own power, or... they may be located somewhere. On the path of a fault zone, they will not have any perception or memory before they die instantly.

During this period of time, if they were judged by life from the empire itself, then perhaps the most painful possibility is that some satellite civilizations were lucky enough to escape several attacks from the Great Fault Zone, but in each fault zone When passing by, the information possessed by the "satellite civilization" formed by the seeds will be "taken away" again and again.

After this phenomenon continues several times, the level of those satellite civilizations may continue to decline, from mastering crystal energy to mastering crystal energy, then to being able to use crystal energy and coexist with crystal energy... until finally , most of all this may be forgotten, and as the level of technology continues to decline and everything continues to be forgotten... it will be difficult for them to have any connection with the empire.

Technology, history, purpose, mission... As all of these are gradually lost, the vitality contained in the "seed" may not be extinguished, but the final result is no longer what the being who once sowed the seed expected.

While the fault zone affects the empire, it will also affect other civilizations covered by the empire.

However, part of the impact... initially does not come from the disturbance of the fault zone, but from the actions of the empire - when the empire carries out large-scale mobilization of arms, the void will be filled with all kinds of things. Radar scanning waves and communication waves, these means of communication that coordinate fleets across the empire, may touch and interact with the world barrier.

When the scale is large enough, they may be superimposed with the tracks left by fleets and giant jump facilities. These track-like effects have the ability to directly change the underlying foundation of some native worlds. However, for the world of the Imperial Territory, these disturbances are very slight.

Therefore, after several large-scale operations, the empire truly and completely noticed the problems and made the decision to make necessary adjustments...

…

Countless fragments have slowly flowed along with the long river of development over a long period of time.

In the long river, countless nails were driven, and these nails seemed to be able to stabilize the river and river banks, making them strong and stable. And near these giant nails, traces of these scenes remain in those ubiquitous eyes.

No one noticed, maybe not even the fragments themselves noticed that they were coming together, interacting, and helping each other to form.