Chapter 365: The Sword of Damocles

"The Southern Hemisphere... Repurpose our orbital satellites and submersibles to sweep the Southern Hemisphere immediately!"

Cutting through the murmurs of the room, Jason decisively issued a series of orders to the command center.

"Second, we must verify the authenticity of this intel with that captured general! Send our top psychologists to interrogate him and rule out any possibility of deliberate deception!"

Following his commands, the conference room gradually fell into a heavy silence. Almost everyone was frantically flipping through data tablets or struggling to think through the rising panic.

A UFO... Were there actually other extraterrestrials hiding on this planet?

As for the oceanic search, deep down, everyone knew the chances of immediately finding anything were incredibly slim. The ocean was far too vast. With their current resources, comprehensive monitoring was virtually impossible—especially if an advanced adversary was running silent in some lightless corner of the deep sea.

"Wait, the UFO flew away?!"

Why launch from the ocean and leave the planet? That was the most baffling detail.

But it didn’t take long for the strategic think tank to arrive at a chilling explanation: The Warp Drive!

Under normal circumstances in physics, the absolute speed limit for transmitting information is the speed of light. Whether using electromagnetic waves, neutrinos, or gravitational waves, nothing can move faster than light in a vacuum. It is a fundamental limitation of relativity.

However, for a highly advanced interstellar civilization, there was another, vastly more expensive method of communication that bypassed this limit entirely: using a starship’s Warp Drive to travel faster than light and deliver the message in person!

Space itself can expand faster than the speed of light. The observable universe is 93 billion light-years in diameter, yet it is only 13.8 billion years old.

This means that space expanded faster than light. Therefore, a Warp Drive warping local space doesn’t violate relativity; it operates on a similar principle.

"...A small scout ship realized it lacked the capacity to capture the Gaia entity, so it flew away to summon its main fleet. Using a Warp Drive to physically carry the message is infinitely faster than broadcasting a light-speed radio signal across the galaxy!"

This hye Federation’s mothership, the Deep Space, actively taming and educating the Gaia entity... what would they do?

It would inevitably result in a merciless, preemptive strike!

The strategic value of a single Gaia organism was more than enough to trigger a full-scale interstellar war!

Light-speed weapons might already be hurtling toward them, and the Federation would have absolutely no way of knowing. Because the projectiles travel at the speed of light, they are physically impossible to detect before the exact moment of impact. The fleet could be obliterated in the next minute... or the very next second!

An unparalleled chill ran through the room, plunging the Department Heads into silent chaos. The terrifying realization that a relativistic kill vehicle could be directly overhead, perhaps mere seconds from impact, sent shivers down their spines.

Twelve years was far too much lead time. How far could a scout ship travel using a Warp Drive in over a decade?

No one knew exactly how advanced this unknown civilization was, though it was highly probable they were vastly superior to the Federation. Humanity could currently travel at three times the speed of light. What if the enemy could travel ten times faster? Twenty times?

Their main fleet could already be on its way, perhaps decelerating at the very edge of the star system right now. Could humanity still escape? If the Deep Space was destroyed... how would the crew survive?

These intrusive thoughts plunged everyone into an abyss of despair. The sudden, existential weight of the crisis was suffocating enough to crush a man’s spirit.

Arthur Lambert’s lips trembled, cold sweat pouring down his back. He was completely at a loss for words. It is simply human nature to freeze in the face of absolute, unavoidable annihilation.

Austin’s pupils dilated slightly as a chill ran down his spine. As the Head of Security, his mind was already running simulations of various interstellar combat scenarios... but he knew the Federation forces were vastly outgunned.

It wasn’t just the two of them; almost the entire command staff was paralyzed by the sheer magnitude of the threat.

Run! Abandon everything! Forget about securing the Gaia entity!

The primal instinct of every person in the room was to immediately evacuate back to the Deep Space and engage their warp drives. If they didn’t flee right now, humanity’s first true interstellar war was imminent and it would likely be their last.

If they delayed any longer, they would be permanently trapped. Everyone knew that a starship required crucial buildup time to accelerate and transition into faster-than-light travel. Generating a warp bubble wasn’t instantaneous!

The conference room remained dead silent, filled only with the sound of rapid, heavy breathing. No one dared to speak first; they were too terrified to even form a coherent sentence.

Ultimately, Jason was the first to break out of the paralysis. Although his own heart was pounding in his chest, he knew he couldn’t let this panic spread any further.

This was potentially the greatest existential threat the Federation had faced in nearly a century!

He needed to ground his command staff. From a logical standpoint, the enemy scout had been gone for twelve years.

Taking a few extra minutes to formulate a rational strategy wouldn’t change anything. The statistical probability of a relativistic laser vaporizing them in this exact minute was astronomically low.

He slammed his fist onto the metallic table with a loud bang, snapping everyone out of their daze.

Jason’s expression was incredibly stern. "Alright! Ladies and gentlemen, pull yourselves together. These are all worst-case theoretical conjectures, even if they are highly probable. Whether we are dealing with a localized underwater civilization or an incoming alien armada, we require concrete verification!"

"First, we must double-check the authenticity of this intel with the native prisoner. If his account proves undeniably true, then yes, our civilization has suddenly been plunged into a monumental crisis, and our survival is at immediate risk."

"Faced with an unknown and highly advanced adversary... I’m sorry, everyone. If push comes to shove, we will have to abandon this planet."

He paused for a moment, his face etched with bitter frustration. He was incredibly unwilling to back down.

The cognitive conditioning of the Gaia entity was proceeding flawlessly. The Federation was on the verge of securing a massive, unprecedented leap in industrial productivity.

If they successfully claimed this planetary biological factory, humanity could potentially elevate itself to a Tier-3 civilization in a fraction of the expected time.

Furthermore, studying an organism with an entirely alien structural paradigm would trigger a revolution in human biology.

But now, this catastrophic variable had completely upended their plans.

The most terrifying aspect was the absolute uncertainty of the enemy’s arrival time. They had no idea if the strike would come in the next second, tomorrow, or next year. It felt like the Sword of Damocles was hanging directly over their necks, and the thread could snap at any moment.

The threat of instant, unknown death was deeply paralyzing. But as the Supreme Commander, Jason had to remain rational.

For the sake of humanity’s continuation, he could not gamble the fate of his species on a whim. What were their odds of victory? What were their odds of failure? Everything was a blank variable.

If an interstellar war broke out today, there was a severe risk of total annihilation. The Federation’s resources were strictly limited.

"Are we really just going to run away?"