Chapter 4040  Arrived Day

[Aw man, it's today!]

[I can't wait to see it.]

[Honestly, after everything that happened a month ago, I'm not even sure if I want us to explore the universe. It's so scary.]

[That's exactly why we got to do it!]

Human civilization buzzed with excitement as the day of the launch into interstellar space arrived. The events of the month prior had shaken human civilization. The notion of aliens and alien civilizations had made many people wary about exploring the cosmos. However, it also made for a large number of people who were extremely excited for Gaian Civilization to explore the cosmos. The news of alien civilizations had actually made them want to explore the cosmos even more than they would have if it was devoid of life. The notion of aliens was one that people had romanticized for many years, and despite coming close to destruction, many people couldn't help but regard aliens as a positive development, especially since Gaian civilization's military might had managed to protect them from two devastating invasions. The breakthrough of Rui to the Transcendent Realm had also become public news over the past month as the people of Panama celebrated his breakthrough to Transcendence. Even though most people had no idea what Transcendents even were or what they were capable of, the fact that their greatest protector had grown this much stronger was even more reason to be fearless about traversing the cosmos. Morale in human civilization had managed to remain high despite the confirmation of hostile aliens. Partly because people had grown used to a lot of tumult. Even if the past six years had been relatively calm and smooth, there had been a world war prior to that. And several other harrowing experiences prior.

Events such as the Unfolding had increased people's tolerance for the unfathomable. And in comparison to that, alien life felt more understandable. Especially so since the seven civilizations of Gaia had gone out of their way to market it well to the rest of the world. Six years of constant messaging and campaigns to earn the support of the people had made people very enthusiastic about the launches into the cosmos.

It was in that environment that the day of the first launch had arrived. Project Interstellar was composed of a series of launches of fleet carriers, each to a distant star system, where they would commence a series of operations, starting with surveys and scans of the solar and star systems to which they had been deployed.

The ships would gather all the data that it could and deploy it back to the Panamic Space Organization, which would then analyze the data to decide what steps ought to be taken next. Based on the detailed analysis of the elemental, chemical, and mineral make-up of the solar or star system they were sent to, they would be tasked with different commands.

They could commence mining operations if there were large amounts of minerals within planets and in asteroids, if any. They could terraform planets if the potential Gaia-like planets detected could be viably terraformed by existing technology to become like the kind of world that could harbor colonies. Depending on the star, they could also erect Dyson Spheres to start siphoning energy.

Although a lot of data had been collected on the star and solar systems closest to Sol, spectrography ultimately had its limits, and the decision about what operations needed to be conducted could only be decided after a thorough survey and scan of the star system and solar system were conducted.

Thus, each fleet carrier needed to be prepared to undertake any kind of mission depending on the situation and circumstances it found itself in. They were especially designed to be able to have fluid accommodation, relying on cutting-edge nanotechnology inherited from the true world and integrated into their own esoteric technology by teams lead by Julian's department. They were called omni-ships, endowed with the power to undertake any mission should the circumstances have demanded it. Each omni-ship carried the necessary information and technology to undergo the changes needed to eventually specialize in whatever configuration was demanded of it. They were also designed with self-sufficiency in mind. They possessed a black hole energy core, a core that contained mini-black holes that could swallow up matter and spit out energy in the form of Hawking Radiation. An energy generation system that could run infinitely.

Of course, it came with risks; every time the ships moved, the singularities needed to be moved with them, which itself took massive amounts of energy and greatly reduced mobility. It was one of the largest disadvantages of black hole generators and why they weren't widely adopted. The rotation of Gaia, its revolution around the sun, and even the solar system through the Milky Way meant that even black hole energy generators on Gaia constantly needed to exert great force to keep their black holes in place. Negatron matter helped, but not by too much.

On top of that, in order to expand operations for any particular mission, whether extraction or conversion, more and more energy would be required. Thus, each omni-ship was equipped with a large number of Dyson units within them to eventually form quasi-Dyson spheres that could supply them with the energy needed to expand their operations.

On top of that, the omni-ship possessed an in-house manufacturing factory wing that could allow it to produce pre-designed units of any kind of frigate or spacecraft of a wide variety of purposes. Regardless of what mission an omni-ship was ultimately endowed with, it would need to manufacture a large number of spaceships and spacecraft to expand across star and solar systems.

They were even equipped with defensive measures, including many Martial Sages who were interested in exploring the cosmos and finding new real estate.

The Panama Continent had obtained thousands of Martial Sages who were all kept in check by the strongest Martial Sages, now Martial Transcendent. There was so much internal pressure that was held together by so much external pressure that many Martial Sages had sought to leave Gaia herself and move elsewhere.