The quark robots themselves had no offensive capabilities.
But they could manipulate the microscopic realm.
And at the microscopic level, actions themselves possessed considerable energy.
The spirits' attacks were purely microscopic, far less unpredictable than conventional warfare.
Their terror lay in their microscopic penetration.
Mechs and modern military equipment possessed microscopic defenses, though minimal.
Yet, the spirits could instantly penetrate these defenses, claiming lives.
This made them devastatingly effective.
Macroscopic weapons were primarily electromagnetic; they had little effect on the microscopic world.
It was like trying to contain Earth with a bag—the bag wouldn't contain a microorganism.
The spirits' quantum nature was distinctly artificial; they didn't consist of any known particles and weren't affected by the fundamental forces.
Upon contact with the quark robots, a strange fusion occurred.
Quark robots were in a quantum state; though divisible, the Federation had used technology to make them almost a single entity.
Similar to a neutron star.
Under immense gravitational pressure, the entire star becomes a single neutron.
Two quantum entities occupied the same space, overlapping.
The quark robots reacted instantly.
They disintegrated.
Quark robots could disintegrate and then reassemble.
This disintegration, like fission, released considerable energy.
However, the spirits weren't affected by the fundamental forces; the energy released during disintegration had no impact on them.
But the quark robots had an advantage.
They could process information; while their storage capacity was limited, their proximity to their host (less than 1 cm) allowed them to access the host's resources for analysis.
The analysis revealed a method: manipulating the underlying dimensional string forces.
String forces were the power generated by string vibrations; artificial particles were essentially applications of string manipulation.
Opened strings and closed strings were like 0s and 1s in a computer.
Combining 0s and 1s created various forms.
This manipulation process was called string encoding; the result was artificial particles.
To achieve microscopic manipulation, the quark robots needed to utilize strings.
Upon disintegration, the quark robots simultaneously encoded random strings.
These were strings that transitioned between open and closed states; they could disrupt the structural stability of other strings in the microscopic realm.
This altered the string vibrations, changing energy levels and causing artificial particle collapse.
This should have worked perfectly.
But the quark robots' disintegration and random string encoding had no effect on the spirits.
The quark robots observed that some of their matter was completely absorbed.
Quark robots had a simple structure; they required energy to function, and they themselves were energy.
A part of them had been absorbed by the spirits.
They instantly understood something.
The spirits consumed energy.
They had never examined the bodies of those killed by the spirits, preventing an understanding of their nature.
At the microscopic level, the quark robots observed.
Consuming energy and absorbing energy were different concepts.
Generally, microscopic energy absorption was a form of theft—like stealing an electron from an atom's orbital.
Some artificial particles could do this.
Their electron orbitals were specially designed to be very close to the atomic nucleus, resulting in stronger weak forces and more electron orbitals (thousands or tens of thousands were common).
Some artificial particles could even steal protons and neutrons, destroying the atom.
Consumption, however, was a process the quark robots had never encountered before.
Though their computing power was lower than many servers or DataNodes, it was far greater than the human body's.
They could analyze the observed phenomena.
This analysis was based on their host's knowledge systems.
Fortunately, most Federation soldiers had received Federation university educations; even if they forgot, their auxiliary brains stored vast knowledge.
The quark robots could access this knowledge.
The quark robots concluded that.
The spirits weren't quantum states but super-condensed hyper-states.
They weren't particles but camouflaged spaces.
Macroscopic spatial traversal was extremely difficult, but microscopic traversal wasn't affected, or perhaps the effects were different.
Microscopic spatial traversal was easier than macroscopic traversal.
It was even possible to create microscopic, self-contained spaces similar to Calabi-Yau manifolds.
Stability was another matter.
The quark robots believed the spirits' detectability stemmed from their instability.
Their internal energy was dissipating.
The robots detected tiny photons escaping from their surface; this escape was phased, particularly pronounced after energy absorption, becoming macroscopically visible.
Theoretically, a space should be subject to gravitational forces.
But gravity was relatively weak; influencing a space at the microscopic level was difficult.
The inability to generate immense gravitational forces at the microscopic level was another factor.
What the quark robots didn't understand was the spirits' purpose.
If the spirits were spaces, they were unlikely to possess intelligence.
How did they act?
If they simply absorbed energy, then at the microscopic level, the energy in rocks and soil would be no different from that in a living being.
Were they absorbing specific types of energy?
The quark robots didn't think so.
They observed the spirits absorbing electrons.
The absorption of these common fundamental particles implied no selectivity.
Perhaps their technology far surpassed the Federation's understanding, allowing them to pack computing power structures similar to quark robots into tiny spaces.
Or perhaps they lacked intelligence, receiving coordinates from another entity.
From the start of the battle to superposition, disintegration, and calculation, the process took less than a second.
And the battle was already over.
At the very last moment, it transmitted its analysis.
Less than a second.
After deploying their energy shields and releasing the quark robots, as Lkam had instructed, the soldiers died instantly.
Just as everyone felt it was futile, a message arrived.
The Federation soldiers were initially relieved, finally understanding the entities' nature, then terrified.
Neutralizing them was an immense challenge.
Even modern warships would struggle to defeat them at the microscopic level.
They were too small, requiring macroscopic gravitational forces for elimination.
The problem was.
How to ensure containment by micro black holes?
Micro black holes could generate macroscopic gravitational forces, but it was impossible to coat an object with black holes; their stabilization was another issue.
So these entities were—insurmountable!
Especially for the soldiers currently being pursued.
The quark robots' message completely destroyed their last line of defense.
Several soldiers were overtaken and silently killed.
"How did the Star Nation alliance get this?!"
The soldiers could only focus on escape.
Minefields hampered their speed; they had to avoid them.
The entities harvested lives like scythes.
A soldier suddenly spoke, "I'm next. We can't escape; we're going to die."
"Let me try to destroy these things."
His body underwent a dramatic transformation.
He became a hundred-meter-tall white ox with two heads.
Gene pool activation.
Federation soldiers commonly possessed gene pools, used on the surface, giving them an advantage over the Star Nation.
This was one reason for the underground battlefield.
Underground, large-scale gene pools were ineffective.
Communication jamming further weakened their use.
Gene pools required machinery; after activation, the mech couldn't contain the enormous body, paralyzing the internal machinery.
The soldier clearly knew this.
After activating his gene pool, his body rapidly shrank.
This was a self-destruct mechanism.
Using his quark robots, he initiated a chain reaction, transforming himself into a bomb.
Such an explosion would release the energy equivalent of tens of billions of tons of nuclear explosives.
Enough to collapse the entire X12 space.
But the surface communication jammers prevented this.
The jammers instantly intensified the interference, limiting the blast radius.
The maximum yield of an underground explosion wouldn't exceed a million tons of TNT equivalent.
The result was.
The white ox gene pool transformed into a blinding flash of light, which was then suppressed; the nuclear yield was dispersed at the particle level.
Most of the energy, originally outward-bound, was now inward-directed, neutralizing the explosion.
While a powerful shockwave was generated at the epicenter, its outward force was minimal.
This concentration actually helped the explosion.
The more concentrated the energy, the greater the chance of damaging the entities.
Seeing the explosion.
The Lieutenant Colonel took a deep breath and sent a message to headquarters.
"Request data analysis; were the entities destroyed?"
...
At headquarters.
The Legion Commander observed the fluctuations on the surveillance equipment.
At the peak of the explosion, the monitors went blank, then instantly restored their functionality.
The explosion, though powerful, was essentially nuclear—strong and weak forces—causing macroscopic damage via neutrons and photons.
It was clear, even without observation, that the explosion's effect was limited.
Indeed, the surveillance equipment showed.
The spirits, having passed through the nuclear blast, continued approaching the Federation soldiers.
The Legion Commander confirmed that these entities had a specific target, not simply energy absorption.
The quark robots' assessment was correct.
He needed to consider how to eliminate them.
But his conclusion remained unchanged.
They couldn't eliminate them.
Their only option was evasion.
These entities were unstable and would eventually collapse; delaying them was crucial.
"Wait, their speed!"
The Legion Commander noticed something unusual.
If these entities were spaces absorbing fundamental particles like electrons, why were they so slow?
The soldiers' speed was under 200 m/s; even if slow, these entities shouldn't be this slow.
Were there other limitations? Other factors?
The Legion Commander didn't try to analyze this; he forwarded the question to the surface server.
The server's response was simple.
[If the initial quark robot assessment is correct, and there are other mechanical structures within the space, then the entities' speed is reasonable.]
[However, I doubt such technology exists. How would a self-contained space communicate with the outside world? What's its operational logic? Does it use escaping photons for reconnaissance? But they're too small.]
[Therefore, I lean towards the second conclusion: it's guided to consume specific targets, but its speed is inexplicable.]
[The most reasonable explanation is that the entity has a speed limit, not that it has reached its maximum speed.]
[The purpose of this speed limit is to prevent instantaneous expansion; without it, the entity could kill all life on Planet E in seconds.]
From a product design perspective, this was unconvincing.
Limiting a powerful entity was illogical.
But from a military perspective, it had a clear purpose.
There were many possible purposes; the Legion Commander couldn't determine which. He only wanted to know the answer to one question.
"Could the Star Nation alliance possess this technology?"
[No. No such technology exists in the known database of human civilization servers; spatial manipulation is a human weakness.]
The answer was clear.
The Legion Commander recalled a war from millennia ago.
It had been similar; the Federation aimed for a decisive victory but suffered massive casualties, forcing a retreat.
This was the second time.
He looked at the map, stunned.
"The last time was also in this area!"
...
The engineering crew quickly resolved the system issues—in just over two hours.
None of Simali's soldiers died.
Once the mech systems were restored, they automatically re-attached to their bodies, forming a layer of armor similar to a metallic bodysuit.
The armor had a noticeable thickness of about 1 cm.
Federation mechs were thinner, only 6 mm.
But Federation mechs were far superior.
They used cellular mechs in addition to external armor.
Cellular mechs originated around 26,000 CE, designed by a human named Ziao.
That was a long time ago—about 200,000 years.
Cellular mechs had been used before, but their dispersed and thin nature resulted in insufficient defense, making them unpopular with the military.
It wasn't until the Neo-Federation era that cellular mechs, combined with external armor, became the new standard.
After the mechs were repaired, Simali didn't advance but ordered a retreat.
The Federation had planted explosives across the surface; advancing would likely result in annihilation.
Simali had a plan.
After the retreat, he immediately contacted all strongholds in X12.
"The Federation forces in X12 have been eliminated."
The concise message left ample room for speculation.
The other Star Nation strongholds wouldn't believe such a claim easily, but Simali was a convincing liar.
After sending the message, he openly discussed it with others.
"What's with those Star Nation soldiers? Such pushovers?"
"Just a small Federation unit; easily wiped out, like tissue paper."
"Are these even soldiers? They should send a message to space saying they want to go home to their mothers."
This seemingly accidental information infuriated the other Star Nations.
They accused Simali of exaggerating his accomplishments.
Simali responded sarcastically.
"Why don't you send someone to check?"
"Surely, with tens of thousands of soldiers, someone's brave enough to look?"
He was goading them, making them scout ahead and reveal the truth.
If the Federation soldiers were dead, he'd gain a reputation.
If they weren't, he'd save time and resources.
It was a win-win situation.
They fell for it.
A scouting party was dispatched.
After five days of mine clearing, they reached the Federation base camp. It was silent; there was no one there.
After breaching the base's defenses, they found it filled with Federation corpses.
They even found the Legion Commander's body.
This news sent shockwaves through the Star Nation.
"How did he do it?" everyone wondered.
When had the Matriarchy star nation become so powerful?
It didn't make sense.
Simali grinned.
"Indeed, the spirits are invincible."
"The Federation couldn't stop them."
"I can go home."
Confident, Simali began transporting power generators from other Matriarchy star nation bases.
Speed was essential.
He couldn't give the Federation time to react.
Within a week, he transported three generators, and two more corps joined, bolstering his numbers.
The three Lieutenant Colonels now fully supported Simali.
They didn't know what weapon Simali possessed, but he promised to take them off Planet E.
They wholeheartedly supported him, even trying to convince other Lieutenant Colonels to join.
Simali seized the opportunity and began promoting himself.
He knew the spirits' range was limited and, even with them, he remained vulnerable.
A solo offensive was impossible; he needed the entire Star Nation alliance to coordinate.
Therefore, he needed to become the true commander of Planet E.
The Army Commander.
This was a new rank, above Legion Commander.
Simali aimed to become Army Commander.
He needed a decisive victory to prove his capabilities.
He now commanded over 6000 soldiers, matching Luna's peak force on Planet E.
"We have four generators, four attacks."
"Where should we strike?"
These targets needed to be decisive, slowing the Federation's advance without causing collapse.
After discussing with the Lieutenant Colonels, they chose four targets.
Once the four generators were fully charged, he launched another offensive.
This time, the entire world watched.
Other Star Nations focused on him, awaiting the results.
The results were clear.
Simali achieved easy victories.
The battles were exhilarating.
He'd been suppressed by the Federation for too long.
He was almost manic; he felt he could attack more frequently and intensely.
After conquering these small spaces with his 6000 troops, Simali gifted them to larger Star Nations, gaining their favor.
The Matriarchy star nation was mid-tier in the Star Nation alliance.
Some larger nations were ten times stronger, forming the main force on Planet E, maintaining tens of thousands of troops.
Gaining their favor was only the first step.
Simali aimed to become as influential as those larger nations.
Only then could he gather more forces.
People needed to see the value in supporting him.
After this, Simali launched a second offensive, targeting a large space.
Using eight power generators, he swiftly secured half of that space.
The battles were decisive victories; there was no suspense.
Simali's troops simply collected corpses.
His relentless advance propelled his reputation to its zenith.
The Federation's retreat and subsequent offensive elsewhere, resulting in continuous losses, further solidified his position.
Simali finally achieved his goal, receiving requests for assistance from other Star Nation Lieutenant Colonels.
The true advance began.
...
On the underground battlefield.
Simali divided his forces into three corps.
These corps launched offensives from spaces X4, X12, and X13.
The X4 and X12 corps were to tie down Federation forces.
Their main objective was to prevent Federation troops in spaces X2 and X8 from advancing.
Simali, leading the main force, would capture X13.
In 217,113 CE, the war began.
Simali's forces quickly captured X13 within 13 days, initiating the counteroffensive.
Other hesitant Star Nation forces joined the counterattack.
Simali's power and reputation reached their peak.
Sixteen days later, the Federation counterattacked, bypassing Simali's forces and attacking other Star Nation spaces.
The Star Nation alliance suffered heavy losses, exceeding 20,000 casualties.
Simali's reputation took a hit.
Hesitant Star Nations retreated again.
Simali couldn't counter this Federation tactic, especially given the other Star Nations' attitude; this angered him.
He cursed their cowardice.
The spirits were effective only in individual engagements; their range was limited—their weakness.
The other Star Nation forces hadn't become stronger because of Simali; their decision was understandable.
This significantly slowed Simali's progress, increasing his risks.
His original plan was shattered; he needed a new one.
It was simple: accelerated conquest.
Simali began a cycle.
Charge, attack, deploy spirits, consolidate, charge…
His tactics were brutal; he simply charged forward, without any strategy.
Wherever Federation forces were located, that's where he attacked.
Charging took a long time, preventing continuous attacks.
After 1 year and 4 months, Simali captured four underground spaces, but the Federation also captured seven.
They were losing ground.
But the Federation's resources weren't infinite; Simali's power generation was practically limitless.
With resources, he could generate unlimited power.
He could convert electrons, protons, and neutrons into electricity.
The Star Nation still used electricity, but pure photon-based devices were emerging.
Using fiber optics for energy transmission.
Photons and electricity were similar; the energy storage devices simply converted energy into electricity or photons.
The power of both depended on photon frequency and charge flow.
In addition to electricity, there was electron energy, where the kinetic energy of electrons determined power.
Photon energy had a significant advantage over electrical energy (current and voltage): vacuum propagation.
Electrical energy required a medium for charge transfer and couldn't propagate in a vacuum; photon energy could. It could be considered a secondary energy source, or even a quasi-secondary one.
Photon energy, conceptually, was natural energy, unlike the significant difference between electron energy and electricity.
The Federation had transitioned to electron energy long ago, using pure electrons as an energy source. A large energy storage device could be considered an artificial giant atom containing a vast number of electrons.
A battery was essentially an atom.
During an offensive, Simali captured a Federation stronghold and installed a Federation power generator.
This eliminated the need for a direct connection to his body for summoning.
The generator simply needed to emit electrons or electron pairs towards the target location.
The Federation had subtle distinctions between single electrons and electron pairs, corresponding to different energy transfer levels.
The underground communication interference limited transmission to 50 meters, sufficient for Simali.
The Federation generator's efficiency and storage capacity far exceeded their own.
This significantly increased Simali's attack speed.
Six months later, he'd conquered eight spaces, reaching X16 from X1.
The Federation forces were steadily losing ground, eventually resorting to avoidance.
Whenever Simali attacked a stronghold, they quickly retreated, leaving only two or three soldiers to operate the equipment.
While Simali attacked, the Federation occupied his rear areas.
This created a strange equilibrium, lasting seven years.
What was expected to be a swift victory had become a protracted war.
Simali was furious.
But helpless.
He finally set his sights on the Federation's surface base.
Since the Federation was playing hide-and-seek underground, he would strike at their heart—destroying the Federation's main base on Planet E.
Without their main base, the Federation would become trapped underground.
In A.D 217,122.
Simali declared an attack on the main Federation base.
This base, 600 meters underground, occupied a volume of 5.877 billion cubic meters—approximately a 1.8-kilometer cube.
It was the largest base on Planet E.
The Federation only had one such base; the others were outposts.
The base itself was relatively flat.
It was located within a vast excavated cavern.
The Star Nation alliance had never attacked it, or perhaps those who tried were killed.
This was their first glimpse of the Federation's main base.
Then came the shock.
"I swear, this is a city," Simali exclaimed.
It was an underground city within a cavern—with skyscrapers, roads, and shops.
The Federation had built this city as a base to maintain morale.
Clones and artificial humans acted as NPCs, playing various roles to alleviate stress.
It was a virtual reality within the real world.
Simali and the Star Nation alliance were filled with intense resentment.
There's a saying: When you play a game, you never know what your teammates are doing.
This applied here as well: On the battlefield, you never know what your enemy is doing.
"Attack! Destroy everything!"
Simali gave the order.
The Star Nation alliance's fighting spirit had never been higher.
They had never wanted to kill more than now.
Simali used ten power generators to summon an unprecedented number of spirits—over 100,000.
These spirits surged towards the Federation base.
The clones and artificial humans were pierced, falling one by one.
It looked like they were being harvested like wheat by an invisible scythe.
Then, the Star Nation soldiers charged in, witnessing the decadent city and leveling it with artillery fire.
No building was spared.
"Secure this; sever the Federation server, and we win."
"The surface equipment and the electromagnetic cannons are server-controlled; this means we can leave Planet E," Simali said, suppressing his excitement.
The other Legion Commanders were jubilant.
This was their final battle.
Escape!
This long-held hope was now a reality.
The city was rapidly destroyed, revealing a circular dome structure at its center—the true base.
Simali saw this and felt a new challenge.
"The spirits only kill living beings, not inanimate objects."
"The base is server-controlled; how do we destroy the server?"
This was why Simali hadn't attacked the base before.
The server was the most powerful element in this war.
In terms of both combat power and authority.
A server could entirely control a war.
Soldiers were merely executors of the server's commands; they were expendable war machines; a soldier's value was roughly equivalent to a robot.
The Federation granted unique rights to living beings, offering a degree of protection.
But that was all.
"The server represents the Federation's pinnacle technology, accumulating over 200,000 years of scientific advancements."
"I think only brute force will work," Simali said.
No one here had ever destroyed a Federation server.
They all felt helpless.
Simali could only watch.
For hours, they destroyed the surrounding entertainment district; the casualties were insignificant.
Then, he received a new message.
[The spirits have evolved; you can now direct them to absorb energy from any object.]
Simali was overjoyed.
It was like receiving a gift.
He was naturally suspicious; the spirits might be intelligent, and he, their tool, not the other way around.
But Simali refused to consider this.
He knew that without the spirits, he would die.
His desire to return home might never be fulfilled.
The spirits had given him a chance to survive; that was enough.
Even if he was being used, it didn't matter.
Simali's mindset reflected that of most of his followers.
The spirits were anomalous, not of the Matriarchy star nation, nor of human civilization.
Even the Federation's elite soldiers were helpless against them.
"Don't worry; I have a plan," Simali said calmly.
He approached the base.
He now had control over the spirits.
They wouldn't dissipate from lack of energy.
He directed the spirits to absorb surrounding energy and advance towards the Federation base.
They quickly penetrated the outer layers and entered the interior.
Simali ordered them to absorb all the base's energy.
As time passed, the base lights flickered, then died.
Standing in the ruined streets, Simali felt everything was under his control.
It was exhilarating.
"Let's go into the base," he said cautiously.
He sent a soldier ahead to confirm the base was inactive before approaching with the others. He and the other Legion Commanders stayed behind.
Upon reaching the base, soldiers in massive mechs approached the walls.
A laser-like device, similar to a lightsaber from Star Wars, emerged from a mech's arm, cutting into the Federation base.
Due to the power outage, the base's defenses were severely weakened; the laser sliced through it like butter.
The Federation base's walls, only about 2 meters thick, were easily breached.
The soldiers were stunned by this.
It was a humiliation.
The Federation hadn't anticipated an attack here.
Such thin walls couldn't even stop a mosquito.
Inside, it was eerily silent.
Then, Simali noticed his internal quark robots reactivating; it wasn't the base's interference but the Federation's jamming equipment shutting down.
While still affected by their own jamming, the interference was minimal.
The base server had shut down.
The server consumed vast amounts of energy; without power, it would fail.
"We won?" a soldier asked incredulously.
The other soldiers felt a surge of emotion.
"It seems so!"
Soldiers, even the youngest (over 2000 years old), wept with joy.
Simali felt his body relax.
"Finally free."
A familiar voice spoke beside him.
"Yes, finally free from this place."
Simali reflexively turned to see who was there.
A familiar face.
Luna!
He was startled.
"Lieutenant Colonel, weren't you dead?"
Luna smiled. "Who said I was dead?"
"I just wanted some peace and quiet; after all, being in that surface fortress was nerve-wracking."
Simali didn't believe a word.
Everyone had seen Luna blown to pieces.
If that was a ruse, Luna might be working for the Federation.
This thought made Simali's eyes widen.
He didn't want to believe it, but he had to.
"So you came here to enjoy yourself?" Simali backed away.
The others noticed; they looked at Luna, some recognizing her.
They were just as shocked as Simali.
"Clever."
"It's not a bad environment, but I didn't come here to enjoy myself."
"With those things around, how could I?"
Those things.
The spirits!
Simali had initially believed the spirits were Luna's plan, then doubted it. Now, he suspected it was her plan all along.
He never expected his final enemy to be Luna!