In the void, the Oberon-class battleship Meteorite was leading the fleet through a stardust zone located on the edge of the extreme star field, but unexpectedly it hit a strange warship.
They are an exploration fleet from the Forged World Riza, which has just left the home planet.
As a main battleship, although the Meteorite is not as good as some of the ancient and powerful warships in the empire, it is still a highly mobility and well-equipped warship. The weapons manufactured by Riza make its power impossible to be measured simply by tonnage.
Her sister ship "The Third Quadrant" is slower and less maneuverable, but more powerful, with a huge Rizza plasma nova on the bow, enough to blow the cruiser in half. The nova cannon replaced the explosive shell used by the Martian nova with a highly unstable plasma macro cannon shell, making it much more energy than the latter. However, weaponizing such a large plasma would pose risks in itself, because an overheating system could cause damage to the weapons and the spacecraft itself.
All warships are painted with dark red Mars, and are decorated with the Riza logo made of plastic steel as a heraldic emblem of pride.
Several escort exploration ships of the exploration fleet are alerted around the two main battleships. They are smaller battleships, but they can tolerate the most extreme cold in deep space, used to explore harsh areas and resist the worst stellar radiation and meteorite impacts. They are also powerful frigates that can withstand enemy artillery fire, and agility is enough to defeat slower big guys.
The light cruiser Ship was converted into a mobile experimental ship, and its macro cannon array was dismantled and replaced by aberrant research laboratories and substance analysis devices to study anything the fleet might find.
The entire deck was tightly sealed, and it was used to study the relics of the aliens, and a sage was responsible for the command of the spacecraft.
The reason why Riza dares to study alien creation so boldly is related to its long-term struggle with Mars. Because Riza's in-depth research on plasma technology has led to constant conflicts with the orthodox Mars. The conflict between the two sides has not stopped since the age of the Great Rebellion. Therefore, for the sages of Riza, the precepts of Mars are just something more advanced than waste paper. Of course, the Crimson Agreement is the bottom line that all mechanical believers cannot touch. Riza has always done a good job in this, and Mars has not caught any handle.
The Storm is usually protected by the giant volcano.
The Volcano is a bulky armed casting spacecraft carrying a huge casting and storage factory. When it converts the loaded cargo and chemicals into fuel or components for use by the rest of the fleet's warships, a dazzling plume of plasma flames passes through the vents and ejects along its hull.
The ship's commander, Tammy Poulson Sage, is part of the ship, just like its chemical storage tanks and plasma fusion engines.
The last component of this fleet, and the largest part, is a collection of small expedition ships, armed merchant ships, technical guard transport ships, cargo ships and small aircraft carriers, known as the "ring band group".
They fly around large warships in nebula, acting as mobile laboratories, reconnaissance ships, and cargo ships.
If the crew on the frigate is slaughtered, the ships can try to retake it, and their crew can replace the dead.
In naval battles, the ring-belt fleet can transfer the targets of enemy ships, surround the enemy formations from the flanks, and disperse the enemy's firepower. These flexible ships are also essential in tasks such as exploring hidden areas.
The master who controls the entire fleet is Riza's famous sage of exploration, Dij Katona.
Now he is facing a decision.
Nebula gathered around the fleet, extending outwards an overlapping area of deadly radiation, throwing out flares of juvenile stars.
However, one advantage of the fleet is that it has collected thousands of years of knowledge of voids, allowing them to pass through outer space at a faster speed.
It approaches the boundary of the hidden area of the target spacecraft, and hundreds of sensor arrays scan to collect images of the spacecraft and the flashing energy signals therein.
All information is filtered into the thinking array, a cave-like appendix room is opposite the bridge library, filled with various information different from books or data boards: stone tablets piled against the wall, symbolic statues and paintings, all read using sensory senses, mostly parchment paper spitting out from automatic quills covered with jagged signal lines and screens showing data torrents.
Dij Katona looked over the shoulders of a tech priest, watching the data being sorted into the first image of their prey.
The sensors of the frigate depicted a ship, a strike cruiser so much that they checked it over and over to make sure it was accurate.
The closest image to the fleet is a composite holographic image, and the sensors that contribute such a clear image have been broken by stardust—the connection received by the sensor dome is a distance ahead of the fleet, with the outline of the strike cruiser shrouded in the blurred shadow of stardust.
Suddenly, a technical priest spoke:
"This is an Astat strike cruiser."
He parsed the torrent of data and then said in surprise:
"It seems to be quite broken, but it does not produce abnormal subspace fluctuations, and it is not a waste ship."
“Too much interference cannot provide more data.”
Dij Katona examined the blurry image of spinning on the holographic unit, and then said in a hoarse mechanical voice:
"If it were an Imperial spacecraft, then he should have responded to us rather than trying to escape."
He pointed to a long section of the hull of the spacecraft, located in the upper part of the hull, where there should have been a sign, but it was erased.
"Only traitors will erase the logo, especially those rebellious Astartes."
Dij Katona spitted out the last word, and his attitude was like evasive meal.
"Prepare to enter all data into the turret and restore it to an atomic state."
"Affect the order, great sage."
Dij Katona strides through the data nest, his mechanical feet clattering on the marble floor. His highly-intensified body looks like a multi-armed ostrich from a distance, and he feels "excited" every time he fights close to the vicinity.
Although his sensors told him that the temperature inside his body was even much higher than the highest temperatures of ordinary humans, since he had given up most of his body's weaknesses, these were no longer important to him.
His heart is synthetic, his legs and most of his organs are the same, his face is rebuilt with synthetic muscles, the eyes are partly a triangular slit, the nose is flat, and above the hideous mouth is a simple rectangle, which looks like a green glow on the forehead, just like a third eye, with a nest of metal lines and probes hanging behind the head.
Only his mind is complete, which is irreplaceable, but the rest of the body is almost completely abandoned, after all--
Only steel can last forever if flesh and blood are weak.