Star Empire

Compared with other large areas, the upper area of ​​the Black Gate Fortress is somewhat special - it is self-contained and is not connected to other parts of the fortress.

The main part of the upper region is a huge sphere with a diameter of a hundred stars and light-years, and three thick rings with a diameter of a thousand stars and light-years. Since this incomplete field of order does not have the heart of the world, the world circuit has lost the convenient backdoor for intervention and control. Therefore, this sovereign hub had to be equipped with a huge number of calculation arrays to ensure that it could accurately control this long-dead order of time and space.

Around the main part, there are many supporting facilities, which are all placed on floating island platforms with uniform specifications.

As for the content of these supporting facilities?

A shield is still a shield, and a battery is still a battery.

The upper area is the entire fortress's frontline against dangers from the world of order. While protecting the main structure of the Black Gate Fortress in the Dead Tide Domain, the upper-level area needs to provide continuous computing power support for the order field where the Black Gate is located.

No matter how inert the Black Gate is and how exaggerated its silence is compared to other normal Death Tide Gates, in the final analysis, the Black Gate is still the Death Tide Gate. It also connects to the Death Tide realm, and it will Releases the destruction of the death wave, this as its essential attribute will not be changed.

It is undeniable that the Black Gate and the Black Gate Order Field may have existed for a long time before being discovered by the Empire. It seems that the Empire is overestimating its ability to worry about whether it can continue to exist stably. However, considering the huge impact that Black Gate Fortress itself may have, the possible disturbance caused by the foreign enemies that Black Gate Fortress needs to fight, and the need for their own safety, the builders of this fortress finally decided to build a powerful special version of the world. The circuit is always there to provide an extra layer of security for the imperial beings working in this field of order.

The middle-level area "below" the upper-level area is the bridge connecting the main body of the Black Gate Fortress in the Dead Tide realm with the external order environment. At the same time, the middle-level area is also a large-scale port and material transfer station.

The middle-level area needs to be able to connect with the huge Linyuan Ship and receive supplies from the Linyuan Ship. It also needs to be able to transport these supplies to the depths of the fortress through vertical passages with a diameter of less than three light years.

This is not a simple matter. The main structure formed by the lower area and core area of ​​​​the Black Gate Fortress located in the Dead Tide Domain is quite huge, and the size of many prefabricated components used to build them far exceeds the size of Samsung Mingguang Nian. And here it is not allowed to transport these giant components in the form of information flow through information activation.

Due to various restrictions, many previously feasible roads here have been completely blocked. So, in order to solve these problems that have to be solved, some new technical means or a more flexible mind are needed.

So far, the middle-level zone has withstood the test of time and completed all tasks, which makes everyone feel relieved.

But there are also disturbing phenomena that are getting worse as time goes by - monitors from upper-level areas report that whenever they get closer to the "black door", they always feel strange maliciousness coming from them. Spewed out from the huge shaft in the center of the middle area, and the weird, chaotic and unspeakable feeling brought about by this malice was becoming more and more solid and thick.

If this continues, perhaps one day, the three rings that monitor the safety of the void around the Black Gate Order Field will have to stop operating.

Star Empire Expedition Chronicle 1 372 026 857 209, Black Gate Fortress, Middle Region.

A carriage that looks like an armored box is speeding on the track, and there are tens of millions of similar tracks lined up next to the track of this carriage. From time to time, there are afterimages on those tracks that just appear from the front and then disappear - they are going to the port again to transfer various supplies shipped by the boat of Linyuan.

Such a scene has become so familiar to escort 1-3-22-4513358. No matter how the surroundings change, it has nothing to do with him. He has only one mission - to ensure that the materials he escorts can safely reach the central shaft of the middle area. There, these materials will be distributed, received by various regions, and eventually distributed to every specific individual like him.

The carriage carrying the consignment is 100 meters long, 30 meters wide and 30 meters high. However, such a small carriage can transport giant building components that are hundreds of light years long - to be more precise, the cargo in this carriage is a storage disk that stores all the information about the giant building components.

Just like using a joystick to launch a giant ship that can fly through the void, this is also a technology that is easy to use under extreme conditions but has an unusual style.

The carriage drove toward the central shaft at the highest speed currently possible on the track. The cargo connection area and cargo storage-transformation area that were shaped like giant tuning forks and protruded from the shaft's mouth had been left far behind. to the back.

The moment the huge dome above the central shaft appeared in his field of vision, escort 1-3-22-4513358 changed the power output of the car body. The car begins a rapid and smooth deceleration, and if the calculations are correct, it will stop almost perfectly just outside the edge of the central shaft.

At the end of the track, a lift is waiting.

The carriage transporting goods is gently leaning against the elevator. The escort 1-3-22-4513358 started the equipment and slowly moved the storage disk from the inside of the car to the lifting platform.

During this process, the shield of the parcel storage tray was smoothly transitioned. After inspection by the two escorts, they both determined that the shield remained intact during the handover of the goods and did not turn off and restart in an instant.

Taking advantage of the process of checking the shield, they nodded quickly, and in the process glanced at each other quickly from the corner of their eyes: the other party's work clothes had one (three) identification lines, and the other party's face was clearly identifiable. , the opponent has a head, a pair of arms and a pair of legs, of which the head is the shortest and the arms are the second. The other party showed no physical defects, and no gelatinous substance or pink light leaked out.

Both parties involved in the handover were normal.

The next step is to determine whether the current handover environment is normal - for example, determine whether the current environment is stable, whether there are signs of reality being distorted, whether there are gelatinous substances or traces of corrosion of unknown origin on the escort vehicle, and whether there are any sources. An unknown entity is approaching here. Are the clocks on both sides currently at the same time?

After completing this series of inspections, the two escorts jointly recorded the escort operation.

No abnormality occurred.

The cargo handover operation was successfully completed, the escort carriage began to move away from the central shaft, and the lifting platform on the edge of the central shaft also began to rapidly descend into the depth of the shaft.

This track has done its job again.

The two cargo connection areas and the cargo storage-transformation area, which are located on the same straight line with each other, both have tens of millions of tracks that are parallel to each other and connected to the central shaft.

When escort 1-3-22-4513358 unloaded the cargo from the carriage he was escorting, such a cargo handover operation was also successful at the end of tens of thousands of tracks.

This scene is repeated thousands of times per year on each track, ever since the construction of the Black Gate Fortress began. The establishment of the Black Gate Fortress may have happened more than 200 billion years ago.

Anyway, it must have been a long time - this is everyone's consensus. This can be seen from the life safety regulations in hand.

Life safety protocols In the beginning, it was non-existent. However, over a long period of time, many things that are not easy to understand seem to have happened in the Black Gate Fortress. In order to equip everyone with the ability to deal with these things, the headquarters of the Black Gate Fortress and the regional headquarters began to issue safe living regulations. , from a piece of paper, to a pamphlet, to a thick book.

But it doesn’t matter.

Escort 1-3-22-4513358 has returned to the tip of the "tuning fork". There he loaded a new shipment. Naturally, he also went through the security inspection process again - so far, in a complete cargo escort cycle, the time required for security inspection has been more than three times longer than the time required to escort the goods. However, there is really no way around this.

Carrying out safety inspections carefully is not only responsible for yourself, but also for all your colleagues working here, and for the entire fortress.

Every imperial being has ample time to adapt to new changes. In the long-term periodic activities and depressive atmosphere, no matter how sensitive an individual was to time, he will gradually feel numb in the end.

This is true even for those who dedicate their time to proofreading.

It is the job of escorts to ensure the safety of the materials they escort; it is the job of calibrators to ensure the accuracy of the clocks they are responsible for.

The main structure of Black Gate Fortress spans the two realms of order and death tide. Because of this situation, it is not only necessary but also crucial to ensure that the different parts of the fortress in the two realms have a unified time flow rate.

A long time ago, when the Empire first began to explore the Death Tide realm, thousands of deep-diving ships that ended tragically left deep memories and painful lessons for the Empire. The empire can no longer have accidents because it fails to take this issue into consideration.

In the central shaft of the fortress, there is a huge vertically extending passage. Its lower end is directly connected to the lower area and core area of ​​​​the Black Gate Fortress. Its upper end branches into three forked roads in mid-air. These three forked roads finally Connected to the dome roof above the shaft.

Each of the three connection points has a platform very close to the dome roof. The platform is wrapped by several layers of transparent hemispherical shields. The interior of the platform is extremely simple - there is only a huge cube filled with countless mechanical structures standing in the center of the platform.

These giant cubes record the flow of time in the current situation with the highest accuracy the Empire can achieve.

Once upon a time, or rather a long, long time ago, these giant machines did not require operators. But starting from unknown time, whenever the pointers inside these giant devices passed a certain amount of scales, these devices would experience abnormalities, and the number of abnormal occurrences gradually became more frequent and the severity became higher and higher.

When recurring problems become too serious for automated equipment to handle on their own, workers appear on these platforms.

Calibrator 7-12-37698 stared at the giant clock in front of him.

He knew what his job was - he needed to manually eliminate the deviations in the clock system after the clocks had gone haywire. At the same time, he also needs to contact the lower areas and core areas of Black Gate Fortress to convey the calibrated time information to them.

In addition, don't look too much, don't think too much, and work hard. This is the consensus and code of conduct of all the imperial beings working in the Black Gate Fortress.

Living in such a single environment for such a long time without communicating with other people, and having to repeat boring work over and over again.

The calibrators who were waiting next to the clock, their concept of time was more or less distorted under this huge pressure - they formed a periodic body memory, which is as accurate as the one next to them. A giant clock.

However, they lose sensitivity to longer periods of time. They cannot understand how long a thousand years or even a hundred years are. For them, time has become a string of numbers. That string of numbers is a quotient, with the length of a period of time as the dividend, and the length of the period they have memorized during their work. is the divisor, the quotient obtained by dividing the two.

I don't feel much about the string of numbers that are getting longer and longer, but one thing is certain. The time that has passed must have been very long.

Calibrator 7-12-37698 knows that Black Gate Fortress is basically isolated from the outside world.

However, this is indeed not absolute.

In the past time, the outside world has sent in some information more or less. Some of this information clarifies new technical ideas and new technological creations, and some of it roughly describes major events happening in the outside world.

What kind of thing is considered a big thing?

New regions were established, and several emperors were impeached. The popularization of counter-emergence rituals met with fierce opposition from the people of the empire. The imperial fleet began to undergo a large-scale and extremely profound reorganization. The huge mobile fleet was reorganized from its original state. Some were dismantled from the Imperial fleet that specialized in positional warfare, and the Empire built a new AC-XM-13 leader-class flagship-class beacon guide ship. The ELC-XM-18, which has been under review for a long time, should resume construction. The Ming-class self-sacrificial attack lead ship and the ELC-XM-25 Longinus-class self-sacrificial attack ship began to roll off the production line in large quantities.

The world outside doesn't look good.

Calibrator 7-12-37698 squatted down, and while holding his head with both hands, he pressed one side of his body tightly against the outer armor of the giant cube clock. The chaos of time struck as expected. In the chaos, he could only use this method to protect his mind and senses as much as possible until the chaos of time came to an end.

When he was able to stand firmly again, calibrator 7-12-37698 first checked himself - there were eight identification lines on his work clothes, his face had not become slimy, and there was no mucus or gel flowing out. He still has a head, a pair of arms and a pair of legs, of which the head is the shortest and the arms are the second. The work clothes were in good condition and were not broken. The ground under his feet was made of light golden, smooth and solid crystal energy material. The ground did not become sticky or soft, and the ground did not move. There was no unknown liquid leaking from the ground.

After confirming that there was nothing abnormal about himself and the environment he was in, Calibrator 7-12-37698 opened the armor shield beside him, exposing the input device that could correct the deviation of the giant clock in front of him. When he saw these devices, he felt familiar, neat, light, solid, and stable.

He saw that these devices did not drip water, seep out unstable light or gel, or have any inexplicable derivatives attached to them.

Everything is correct.

Calibrator 7-12-37698 is already familiar with everything that follows. He deftly pulls levers, pumps pedals and pushes buttons.

However, the feedback that should appear immediately was not delivered as scheduled.

".What's going on?" After realizing that no one responded to his calibration message, Calibrator 7-12-37698 once again repeated what he had done before.

However, just after he completed the second operation, a violent strange feeling came from all directions in an instant - the giant clock in front of him did not seem to be connected to the lower area, but to a Completely unfamiliar weird location.

The surrounding scene seemed to be replaced in an instant.

Calibrator 7-12-37698 felt that he had lost all sense of direction. The pink light that suddenly surged out around him was extremely delicate. They could penetrate his work clothes, his shield and body, and the layers of blood in his body. The defense system also penetrated and melted his own mind.

Before he was completely torn apart, calibrator 7-12-37698 discovered that three of the special identification lines on his work clothes were missing, and now there were five in total.

"Heimen Fortress-Heimen Fortress Intermediate Region Headquarters jointly announced that starting from the issuance of this notice, all calibrators must apply for calibration in advance according to the method mentioned in this life safety regulation before calibrating the region clock. Before you After sending a proofreading request, the time it takes for the other party to respond should not be longer than three seconds. If the other party fails to respond within the specified time, you should try to call again, but the number of calls should not exceed four times. If an unexpected situation occurs, please You do not perform the next time correction and report the situation to your immediate supervisor immediately.”

"Heimen Fortress-Heimen Fortress Intermediate Region Command jointly announced that you have no colleagues or friends, and you do not know anyone around you, except your boss. Please reject the request to work with you, regardless of Whoever made this request, please refuse.”

"The Black Gate Fortress Middle Area Command announces that starting from the issuance of this announcement, if you think it is necessary, you can use violent means to ensure your own safety and expel any targets you think are dangerous."

"The headquarters of the Fifth District of Black Gate Fortress declares that you should not show malice towards your colleagues, you should not beat them, and you should use violent means to ensure your own safety, but violent means are not encouraged."