Flagship, *Trisolaris*.
This was the final fortress of the Trisolaran civilization, cobbled together from the wreckage of their homeworld using everything they had left.
The Princeps's consciousness floated quietly in the center of the bridge. Through the massive viewport, he gazed at the rapidly shrinking, riddled homeworld.
The light of the three suns coated it in a dismal layer of gold for the very last time.
'Goodbye, homeworld.'
A complex mix of sorrow, humiliation, and relief surged within his cognitive core.
Although the road ahead was long and fraught with unknown dangers, they had, after all, escaped.
As a civilization, surviving meant there was hope.
The universe was so vast; no matter how far humanity's reach extended, it could not possibly touch every corner.
As long as they could complete this warp jump, they could temporarily vanish into the dark forest, becoming an unknown seed waiting for the day to sprout once more.
The Princeps forcefully suppressed all stray thoughts, preparing to issue the command for the fleet's first collective warp jump.
However.
Just a second before his command was sent out.
An alarm blared without warning across the escape fleet's public channel!
"Warning! Warning! Ultra-high energy spatial disturbance detected!"
"Massive unknown fleet appearing in the forward flight path!"
The Princeps's thoughts instantly froze.
He abruptly "looked" out the viewport.
The cosmic space ahead seemed to be violently torn open by a pair of invisible, giant hands, revealing hideous rifts.
Space shattered like a broken canvas.
Then ten ships, a hundred ships.
Tens of thousands of pitch-black, colossal warships, looking like ferocious prehistoric beasts, emerged from the darkness!
Densely packed, they instantly blotted out the starlight ahead.
Their cold, aggressively designed hulls and the terrifying, eerie blue halos flickering at their muzzles all declared their identity.
Humanity's Dreadnought Fleet!
They had been waiting here for a long time!
Like a pack of patient hunters, they tightened the snare of death just when their prey was at its most relaxed and hopeful.
"How could this be..."
"How could they be here... This is impossible..."
The Princeps's cognitive core nearly fractured from the extreme terror and despair.
It was over.
Everything was over.
This so-called escape was, from the very beginning, a grand execution prepared for them by humanity.
"Hurry!!"
"Connect to the human fleet! Immediately! Right now!"
Disregarding every shred of dignity, he adjusted his tone to be as humble and harmless as possible, broadcasting a plea toward that storm cloud of steel.
"This is the Trisolaran civilization!"
"We have completely abandoned Earth! We are willing to submit!!"
"We are willing to hand over all our civilization's technology! All our knowledge! Everything! We only beg... we only beg that you spare a single spark for our civilization!"
This signal, full of groveling and begging, echoed through the cold universe.
...
Human fleet flagship, *All Tomorrows*.
A deadly silence filled the bridge, which was as vast as a city plaza.
Li Wei, dressed in a crisp black general's uniform, stood quietly with his hands behind his back. He watched the main screen display the groveling surrender signal, translated in real-time into human language.
The corners of his mouth curled into a cold, emotionless arc.
It was like watching a beast that had fallen into a trap making its final, futile struggle.
He raised his hand and connected to the highest encrypted communication line with Earth.
"Chairman, the net has been closed."
Luo Ji's holographic projection silently appeared in the center of the bridge.
He still wore that same placid expression, dressed in a simple white lab coat. His background still appeared to be the study in the Spark Base deep within the Nevada desert.
His gaze crossed a distance of four light-years, landing on the chaotic Beggar Fleet piled together like garbage on the screen.
That gaze was terrifyingly calm.
As if looking at a herd of livestock waiting to be slaughtered.
"Submit?"
Luo Ji's voice echoed throughout the universe via the quantum broadcaster.
The voice was not loud, but it was cold enough to freeze everyone's soul.
"It is too late for that now."
He paused, calmly stating an ending that had been written long ago.
"The moment your civilization set its sights on Earth."
"Your fate was already sealed."
Luo Ji's gaze seemed to pierce through the screen, through four light-years of space-time, directly meeting the thoughts of the despairing Princeps aboard the *Civilization Ark*.
"This is not a war."
"Nor is it a negotiation."
Luo Ji slowly raised his eyes, the reflection of the Trisolaran fleet mirrored in his dead, silent pupils.
"Now."
"In the name of the supreme leader of human civilization."
"I hereby pass the final judgment on the Trisolaran civilization."
As his words fell.
Luo Ji's holographic projection vanished.
Li Wei slowly raised his hand, his eyes filled with fanatical loyalty and cold murderous intent.
He issued the command that had been prepared long ago, the command that represented the ultimate end.
"Release."
"[Purification Protocol]."
"Yes, Commander!"
The order was given.
The belly armor of the sky-blotting Dreadnought Fleet silently slid open.
What was revealed were not ferocious gun barrels, nor dense missile launch pods.
Instead, it was a honeycomb-like matrix shimmering with an eerie light.
There was no artillery fire, no beams of light, not even any energy fluctuations.
Only countless particles, completely invisible to the naked eye and as insignificant as the most trivial cosmic dust, were silently released.
They rapidly converged into a thin "cloud."
Then, they slowly drifted toward the Trisolaran escape fleet, which was already completely submerged in panic and despair.
"What is that?"
Aboard the flagship *Civilization Ark*, the Princeps "looked" in horror at the "dust" drifting toward his fleet.
No energy reactions were detected.
It was like... like ordinary dust?
'What does humanity intend to do with dust? Humiliate us?'
The next second.
He understood.
And this realization was ten thousand times more terrifying than being blasted to pieces by a main cannon.
The moment the leading edge of that "dust cloud" silently touched the first Trisolaran escape ship.
That ship, built from precious materials, began to "melt" without any warning.
No!
That wasn't melting!
It was a decomposition starting from the most fundamental atomic level!
The sturdy alloy armor, the complex life-support systems, the precision power engines...
Everything was turning into the most primitive, chaotic stream of particles at a visible rate, becoming part of the smoke.
The Trisolarans inside the ship didn't even have the chance to let out a telepathic shriek.
Their organic bodies, along with the life-support fluids they were submerged in, were decomposed and annihilated together.
This smoke was an endless swarm of nanobots.
A weapon designed to target an entire civilization—the Nano Plague.
The Trisolaran civilization was about to undergo a complete and utter formatting.