Chapter 246: 239 Contact Teizene (Part 1)
The news He Qiu recently brought made Bai Zhongqi feel somewhat tense, as the scale of the fleet the Teizene sent to the Danlu Interstellar Cloud was even larger than they had previously announced. In the message about the recovery of Harass, the Teizene Empire stated they would send a fleet of a thousand warships, but the intelligence He Qiu had obtained showed that the Teizene had dispatched a large fleet of over a thousand warships, plus several dozen ships in each of the follow-up mobile fleets.
The Teizene civilization's covetousness for the Danlu Interstellar Cloud might need to be reassessed. These Lizard People were even willing to sell off planets in the frontier regions in exchange for more military funds and resources. Militarily, the Teizene Empire had a vast army and war machines, but sending such a large scale of troops thousands of light-years away to carry out a mission required a massive supply of logistical support. Additionally, the Teizene's capability in planet development and utilization was lacking, having even outsourced the work of planet construction to other civilizations.
Bai Zhongqi quickly began to strategize in his mind, "The Teizene fleet is already en route, but it seems to be just an advance fleet. Larger scale fleets are likely still in the preparation phase, or they might rest in another star region after departure, waiting for logistical support to arrive before they have the capacity to continue this invasion."
In fact, Bai Zhongqi's speculations were very close to reality. Essentially, any civilization's warfare against another civilization would go through a period of preparation. The Teizene's assault on Earth from thousands of light-years away demanded an even greater magnitude of preparations.
Unlike the Iridium Star civilization, which seemed to have an unfair advantage, their fleets could use Atomic Substance Construction equipment to produce various supplies they needed, such as ammunition and military provisions, wherever the fleets went. But for more common military civilizations like the Teizene, waging war in the universe was somewhat similar to wars on Earth. Fleet movements were constrained by their supply lines; if the supply lines were too long, then the entire fleet could be at risk.
The Teizene civilization differed from others in that they had the practice of supporting war through war. Wherever these Lizard People went, they would leave behind endless slaughter and suffering. They would directly plunder creatures from the planets they passed as their own food, seize their goods, and transform them into war capabilities.
This time, the Teizene wanted to be cautious in defeating the Iridium Star, a civilization of a higher level than theirs, so they sent more warships. However, this also created more challenging supply issues. It was absolutely impossible for the Teizene to jump from the Box Star Territory to the Danlu Interstellar Cloud in one go. During their journey, they would stop at least a few times to plunder nearby planets, replenish what the fleet needed, and then continue their mission.
"It seems, then, we might have a bit more time on our hands."
However, the next piece of news from He Qiu made his mood tense again.
"These Teizene aren't usually around Bupinga. A few months ago, they made a big deal there, exchanging a Wrap8 engine with the Borke Civilization, and now they're back to raise military funds again," He Qiu said, completely unaware of how much of a shock this news was to Bai Zhongqi.
Previously, Bai Zhongqi had prepared an anti-invasion timetable based on the Wrap7 as the standard measure of speed—information from the Teizene themselves.
But the Teizene had already updated and retrofitted the main engines of their warships a few months earlier, using the technology of the Borke Civilization to upgrade ships originally equipped with Wrap7 to Wrap8 capability. Wrap8 meant that the warships could reach 1000 times the speed of light, reducing the time it took from the Box Star Territory to the Danlu Interstellar Cloud to just a little over a year. Find exclusive stories on My Virtual Library Empire
"These damn Lizard People, they've been exchanging information with us all along but deliberately concealed such vital information. Could it be that they have seen through my deceit? Yet, they still incessantly request intelligence from the fake Harass." Bai Zhongqi couldn't help but ponder,
Once he calmed down, Bai Zhongqi realized that this twist didn't significantly alter his timetable. The Teizene's actions were relatively swift, but after all, it was a long-haul rush of thousands of light-years, and the Teizene Empire had also expanded the size of its fleet. Just preparing the logistics was a killer. The Teizenes would stop several times during their journey, partly to hunt for themselves and partly to wait for subsequent supplies to reach them.
Therefore, the two-year preparation period that Bai Zhongqi had predicted should not have too many variables.
Bai Zhongqi reviewed the main needs of the Teizenes for this trade with Bupinga, with energy storage batteries being the most in demand. Most Teizene weapons, from light rifles to fighter jets, required these energy storage batteries for power. The technical level of the energy storage batteries they bought was not high, not to mention the standard of Energy Wallets, even the concentrated batteries given to Earth by Iridium Star were far inferior.
The Teizenes themselves didn't have high energy technology, so they could usually make do with their lower-quality products, but at critical moments, they needed a batch of better energy-supply devices.
The rest of the items were a mixed bag, including optical search detectors, various sensors to be worn on soldiers or mounted on vehicles, robots, and equipment for engineering, maintenance supplies for warships and fighters, and even a considerable amount of textiles.
This even made Bai Zhongqi suspect that Teizene perhaps had no concept of a strategic reserve warehouse.
He Qiu said, "It seems that the Teizenes, who are used to bullying weaker civilizations, have picked an opponent that is nearly their equal this time. Usually, they wouldn't need such high-end goods, but this time they can choose the best, and they do use the best, clearly indicating that their opponent is not to be underestimated."
Bai Zhongqi nodded.
"Get in touch with the Teizenes, we want to do business with them. Buying their planets is too troublesome, we, the Eagle Shield Civilization, aren't much interested in an exclave in the universe, and their asking price is too high, not in line with our interests. However, I am quite interested in acquiring a batch of the slaves they're selling."
He Qiu naturally knew that his patron couldn't possibly afford a planet, as even the cheapest planet up for sale by the Teizenes was valued at 20 million Pulun.
When He Qiu heard Bai Zhongqi express interest in buying slaves, thinking he understood something, he quickly said, "As for slaves, the prices aren't very high, and the Teizenes have brought in some fine merchandise this time. Have you heard of Feiju Star, boss? The Feiju people are a group from the Primate Clan with cat ears and tails. I heard that during the second period of civilizational prosperity, Feiju was a High-Level Civilization, but I don't know why it has fallen so far that it's not even an Interstellar Civilization anymore. The Teizenes have conquered Feiju Star and discovered that selling these rare Primate Clan members is more profitable than consuming them. Some customers who bought these Feiju Star slaves said they were satisfied after using them..."