Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 803

Chapter 797, Linking Our World

: Everything is always difficult at the first step.

Jason Morgan, leading the Fox Moon Star Region’s ships, mastered a relatively safe method of traversing the Astral Tunnel through subsequent testing.

A church filled with Emperor statues and inscriptions of the Holy Word, staffed by a state-religious choir, and equipped with a blessed Astral Field generator constituted the most basic configuration.

Furthermore, sufficient blessed holy water and a cleanup team on board to constantly combat signs of corruption and eliminate any evil spirits invading the ship were essential. Only with the choir, church, and blessed Astral Field could the evil phenomena, and even invading demons, be weakened to a level that could be resisted, allowing the ship’s guards, in their mortal form, to use the holy water to eliminate the enemy.

It was only after developing this method that Jason Morgan finally understood with deep emotion why all ships were designed and constructed with churches on board.

To be precise, he had known about this before. At his level, listening to the design intent explained was certainly sufficient.

It’s said that churches were used to pray to the God-Emperor for the ship’s safety during interstellar voyages. However, faster-than-light travel via astral tunnels is a relatively mature solution.

While some uncanny incidents do occur occasionally, overall safety is guaranteed.

Back then, while I understood the church’s purpose, without having been physically assaulted, I didn’t fully grasp it. Perhaps providing the crew with a place to rest during the long voyage was more important than simply ensuring safety.

I’ve always felt that, despite the size of a starship, every inch of space is precious. Reserving a large area for a church, and then lavishly decorating it, is completely unnecessary. Sometimes I wish it were demolished.

During actual ship operations, when cargo and passengers are particularly heavy, there are reports of cargo being piled up inside the church. Often, there are no consequences.

This further underscores the church’s true purpose.

Fortunately, these designs weren’t discarded during subsequent shipbuilding due to their current uselessness. Instead, they were largely retained, adhering to tradition and due to the limited ability to alter the ancient blueprints.

Now, they’re all being put to use.

The bronze organs inscribed with the Emperor’s words are more than just spiritual sustenance—each pipe is a resonator for reality anchors, and the pitch variations of the choir’s arias are a sophisticated formula for using sonic frequency to counteract the increasing entropy of the Warp.

Beneath the pedestal of the icon, buried in varying numbers, are heroic statues of varying sizes. These figures are all legendary figures of the Imperium, and they serve alongside the Emperor’s statue.

According to naval tradition, many crew members who have served long on board or made outstanding contributions are buried within the chapel. Each grain of these former crew members’ ashes acts as a miniature anti-Warp generator, resisting the encroachments of the Warp.

The stained glass inlaid in the dome is more than just decoration. When the astral tide surges, the scenes depicting the Emperor’s conquests ooze liquid light, scorching the whispers that seep into reality into scorch marks.

It is this brutal wisdom, transforming faith into a physical barrier, that allows flesh and steel to navigate the void.

But maintaining this system comes at a cost. With each interstellar voyage, the choir members’ vocal cords grow coral-like crystals, requiring long periods of recuperation and even surgery. The church floor tiles must be recalibrated and cleansed with blessed holy water every time they withstand a warp shock. The blessed astral shields also require constant replenishment of holy oils for maintenance.

The larger the ship, the more churches, the more clergy, and the more blessed astral shields…

all of these are additional costs and require additional time to resolve.

Currently, the largest ship Jason Morgan can maintain is roughly the size of a cruiser.

Forget about escaping a massive vessel like the Great Belly. Only medium-sized transport ships could be used to deliver supplies and personnel,

but that was enough.

The most crucial issue was the six severely affected worlds.

The urgently needed relief supplies and bomb suppression troops, once they arrived at the target planets, put the immediate needs to rest.

Thus, the disasters caused by the appearance of the Scarlet Scar throughout the Fox Moon Star Region had been effectively contained.

Relatively normal social order had been restored throughout the entire region.

This was what Jason Morgan was most pleased about.

Of course, there was always a gap between the situation before the disaster and the situation before.

His biggest headache was that the entire region’s economic curve remained below the recovery line. The costs

of each cargo ship, the singers required, the blessed astral field generators, the consumption of holy oil and holy water… these were considerable, but they were only a small part of the problem.

The biggest problem was that, no matter what measures were taken, astral navigation was ultimately severely impacted.

This directly led to a severe setback in the economic development of the entire region.

Transportation is the lifeblood of industry. At best, the blood flow could barely be managed, but it was still a long way from complete.

This was a problem Jason Morgan had absolutely no solution for.

He could only console himself with a wry smile:

“I’ve done all I can. Now it all depends on whether the Governor has a solution…”

The Governor he was thinking of was, of course, Gu Hang.

Old Alliance members like him always had a strong, almost blind, trust in Gu Hang.

And Gu Hang, in most cases, lived up to that trust. And

just like that, the savior to solve the Fox Moon Star Region’s final problem had arrived.

Thirty-five transport ships, escorted by an equal number of warships, pierced the crimson sky.

They leaped out of the astral tunnel, their engines gushing from their rear, emitting azure flames that burned away the pursuing red and purple Warp tentacles.

As the fleet officially entered the Fox Moon Star Region’s borders, Jason Morgan, despite having received the news long before, could hardly contain his joy.

He knew what these ships were doing—installing the Thunder Torch.

A few months ago, while he was still focused on resolving the problems in his own star region, a call from Alliance Central reached him.

Thanks to General Gu’s leadership and the support of the Storm Mage Corps and the Psionic Order, Alliance Central maintained smooth communication with its subordinate regions.

Jason Morgan learned of the existence of this miracle, the Thunder Torch, through contact with Alliance Central.

This device, personally crafted by Alliance leader Gu Hang in collaboration with the Alliance Research Institute, is a device. Installed on a planet, it affects all interstellar tunnels within the same solar system. As long as a Thunder Torch tower exists at the other end of a tunnel, the two interstellar tunnels will be connected by lightning.

Alliance commentators jokingly refer to this as “energizing” the tunnel.

When Alliance ships pass through these tunnels, lightning and thunder can often be seen from the observation windows, eliminating all traces of evil.

It’s not quite the safest it once was, but it’s close.

The protective rituals that once required constant maintenance now only need to be activated at the beginning and end of a warp to ensure safety.

The risks involved are greatly reduced.

Gu Hang witnessed the massive Warp explosion “with his own eyes” right after the disaster struck, before it even reached Alliance territory.

From that explosion to the moment the Crimson Scar tore through the empire and spread to the Alliance, only a month or two passed. During this time, Gu Hang implemented numerous measures.

Not only did he warn the Imperial Center and demand that the entire Alliance prepare for disasters, but he also personally undertook many tasks.

The most crucial of these were communications and navigation.

Both of these issues could essentially be addressed through the Thunder Torch.

This strategy was learned from the great achievements of the God-Emperor when he first established the Empire.

Previously, the Imperium’s only means of faster-than-light travel was through the Warp. It wasn’t until the Emperor’s ascension that the Astral Tunnels were established. A far safer and more reliable method than subspace travel emerged, quickly replacing the previously risky and unstable Warp travel.

Gu Hang researched and pondered the Astral Tunnels, debating

their origins. They were incredibly ancient. Even the Eldar’s astral travel methods, and even the Astral Gates used by the Dark Eldar’s Veiled Cities, were closely related to Astral Tunnels.

However, over the ages, they presented numerous problems.

How the Eldar resolved these issues remains unknown. But during that era, the Emperor undertook a massive and secretive project. To this day, the project remains undeciphered, but Gu Hang knows that the massively expensive project, spanning hundreds, if not millions, of years, is connected to the Astral Tunnels.

The final, most crucial, and grandest symbol of its completion is the Emperor’s Ascension.

After his ascension, he holds his place within the Warp, becoming the fifth of the “Four Evil Gods.” From then on, a vast, cold sun reigns within the Warp. Combined with the Emperor’s previous efforts to reinforce and construct the Astral Tunnels, all the tunnels are now supported, allowing humanity to utilize these previously unusable ancient wonders.

Now, this violent Warp explosion has destabilized these ancient wonders.

This is the crux of the matter.

Given these circumstances, Gu Hang’s task of reconstructing a safe method for faster-than-light travel is practically impossible.

The only option left is to leverage the Emperor’s already established mechanisms, shifting the problem from “reconstructing new FTL travel” to “stabilizing the Astral Tunnels.” This would be a much easier task.

Gu Hang, while self-proclaimed incompetent, wasn’t one of the “Four Evil Gods,” but even by the standards of the entire Warp, he was only slightly below them, or even slightly below.

More crucially, unlike those “natives” of the Warp, he existed within the real universe. He was the leader of an entire force within the real universe, and his anchor in reality held a far greater advantage than any purely Warp-bound entity.

His Storm Kingdom inherently had a deeper connection to reality.

Combining these factors, Gu Hang had diligently collaborated with the Alliance Research Institute over the past few months, meticulously developing the “Thunder Torch Tower.”

Essentially, the idea was to establish a structure connecting the Storm Kingdom to both planets, allowing them to interact with each other, find a tunnel to the astral plane, and, with the Storm Kingdom’s power, build a protective shield.

From there, things went relatively smoothly.

With the Wrathful Owl and Pegasus sectors as their core, all available industrial capacity was dedicated to the construction of these “Thunder Torch Towers.”

The first batch of Thunder Torches, carried by dozens of “Electrified” fleets, departed from Wrathful Owl Star, escorted by warships, and deployed one by one. While

Thunder Torches weren’t simple to construct, the Alliance’s production capacity was superior.

As world after world reconnected with the Alliance’s central authority, interstellar travel became stable, and related technologies were widely disseminated, production skyrocketed.

The Alliance’s “Electrified” fleets could naturally carry a whole batch of Thunder Torches at once, select a route, and reconnect worlds one by one.

While some worlds inevitably suffered significant impacts during this process, Jason Morgan’s achievements in the Fox Moon Star Region were not an isolated case. While he was considered one of the better performers, the others, who performed less well, were not terribly so.

The total losses were considered acceptable

, even slightly better than the Alliance’s initial optimistic projections.

Given this, Gu Hang was generous with his rewards.

He spoke with almost every leader of the world, the head of the star zone, and the head of the star field who did a good job.

Not only verbal commendations, but also medals and higher rank promotions.

Meritorious officials should be rewarded.

Those worlds with worse conditions are basically located in the northern part of the Spider Web Universe. After all, it is the farthest area from the Dragon Eagle Star Field.

Even the alliance’s rescue operation is not limited to its own core territory.

The Eastern Universe is also within the alliance’s rescue range.

In the seventh month after the disaster, the entire alliance was reconnected, and 60% of the Eastern Universe was also connected.

By the thirteenth month, the entire Eastern Universe was also connected.

And the alliance’s actions, even at this stage, have extended beyond the two traditional spheres of influence of the Eastern Universe and the Spider Web Universe.

(End of this chapter)