Across the silent void of space, the three gargantuan, million-cubic-kilometer storage vaults suddenly shuddered. From all six faces of each monolithic cube, wide structural tunnels extended smoothly outward into the vacuum. Seconds later, hundreds of trillions of True-Nano Main Frames surged through the exit corridors like liquid silver rivers, drawing massive streams of refined metals and elemental crystal nodes directly from the internal reserves to begin assembling ships anchored at the tunnel mouths.
Layer upon dense layer, fresh nano-mainframes swept over the burgeoning hulls, packing high-density composite plating into place and expanding the superstructures at a terrifying velocity. Two thousand kilometers... five thousand kilometers... twenty thousand kilometers... fifty thousand kilometers...
Finally, as the length of each vessel touched the one-hundred-thousand-kilometer mark, the relentless expansion abruptly halted. The colossal structures vibrated intensely as their internal nanite networks stabilized, locking their molecular bonds into a rigid, unified frame. At this immense scale, the structural bonding of the 1-nanometer mainframes had reached its absolute physical limit; exceeding this length would degrade the cohesion between individual nanobots, risking hull dispersion under maximum momentum.
Observing the process through his unified neural perception, Keon nodded with quiet satisfaction. Each vessel settled into a sleek, elongated spheroid geometry... one hundred thousand kilometers in length, ten thousand kilometers in width, wrapped in an outer protective hull a full thousand kilometers thick, and powered by a central energy core spanning five thousand kilometers in diameter.
'Very well... a hundred thousand kilometers,' Keon mused, calculating the scale differential against his previous thousand-kilometer vessels. 'A hundredfold increase in operating scale... not bad at all.'
He surveyed the gargantuan ships stationed around the six faces of each vault, then redirected his attention to the thousands of older, thousand-kilometer vessels scattered across Star System One. 'Let's consolidate all existing assets into this new standard.'
With a single directive dispatched through the Neural Nexus, thousands of older ships altered course simultaneously. Accelerating toward precise convergence coordinates, they merged seamlessly into new one-hundred-thousand-kilometer super-vessels. Concurrently, the three deep-space storage vaults escalated production to maximum output, materializing six complete ships every single second across their exit faces.
'At this rate, utilizing all extracted resources across Star System One, I will produce roughly six hundred thousand of these NARS 2.0 vessels,' Keon calculated, running logistics projections across the remaining raw materials in the orbital vaults.
'Six hundred thousand is more than sufficient,' he thought, a cold clarity settling over his central processor. 'Operating at full capacity, each ship can extract thousands of cubic kilometers of landmass and minerals in a single pass. Merging the remaining planetary shells into UHS1 will take very little time.'
As Keon retracted his active focus, a cascade of system alerts materialized directly within his interface vision.
[System Notification: Maximum Operating Size Change Detected.]
[Operating Size: 1055 Kilometers -> 100000 Kilometers]
[Swarm Force: 10 Trillion Kiloton -> 500 Million Teraton (500 Quadrillion Kiloton)]
(Note: Standard metric prefix scale: Ton, Kiloton, Megaton, Gigaton, Teraton, Petaton, Exaton, Zettaton, Yottaton.)
[Level Increase Detected: 61 -> 62]
[Free Attributes: 62]
[Level Increase Detected: 62 -> 63]
[Free Attributes: 63]
...
[Level Increase Detected: 68 -> 69]
[Free Attributes: 69]
[Level Increase Detected: 69 -> 70]
[Free Attributes: 70]
[Total Free Attribute Points: 594]
'Nine consecutive levels... excellent,' Keon thought, his green optical pupils flaring with intense light as he reviewed the exponential rise in force value. Though the underlying system metrics calculated force from an abstract dimensional baseline, a nine-level leap provided invaluable momentum for his overall progression.
Without hesitation, Keon allocated all 594 free attribute points directly into his Nano Main Frame parameters, initiating another structural refinement across his global network.
[Force +59.4 Nanogram]
As the systemic updates settled across the network, the newly constructed NARS 2.0 super-vessels detached from the solar assembly corridors, their monumental silhouettes gliding through the dark expanse toward their designated targets across the star system.
Upon appearing beside UHS9, the first vessel anchored itself at a critical Lagrange vector to neutralize the massive gravitational disturbance between them. Keon glanced through his omni dynamic perspective, evaluating the spatial proportions. The ship loomed twice lengthier than the planet's diameter, though its width remained safely under the planet's circumference. UHS9 was stripped and barren... an atmosphere-less icy shell whose rich diamond core had long been extracted, leaving behind only a thick crust of ice sheets and deeply trapped chemical compounds.
The middle section of the ship squirmed as layers of nanobots spun outward, constructing a massive, thousand kilometer wide tunnel that extended directly toward the world below. With a loud, echoing shudder, the tunnel dug deep into the planet's icy crust, causing both the ship and the planet to shake in unison.
"Material Assimilation!"
Activating the sub talent, an artificial gravitational field radiated from the ship, funneling down the length of the conduit. The planet's remaining resources… shattering ice sheets, frozen chemical deposits, and pockets of pressurized gas broke free, flash-vaporizing into a blinding, churning torrent as they fell upward through the tunnel toward the ship at an alarming rate.
Keon retracted his gaze as he noticed the planetary mass rapidly diminishing under the high-capacity extraction of his material assimilation sub talent. 'This talent is really a horror at planetary scale.'
Shifting his attention back to local coordinates, he surveyed the twelve colossal, thousand-kilometer towers positioned at strategic locations across UHS1, paying particular attention to the monoliths anchored across the northern hemisphere's frozen oceanic beds.
'Next, I have to increase the height of these towers to a maximum of one hundred thousand kilometers, so that when these super-ships anchor near UHS1, they will perfectly avoid any gravitational disturbance,' Keon calculated, his processors evaluating the orbital mechanics. 'Although the ships could manage the variance by actively compensating with engine thrust, I prefer not to take unnecessary risks.'
Without delay, Keon transmitted a directive through the Neural Nexus to initiate the maximum expansion of the twelve towers. Much like the other worlds in the star system, UHS1 had already been stripped bare of its raw industrial wealth; only essential landmass, water reserves, vital gases, and fundamental agricultural minerals remained within its crust to support biological life.
Immediately upon receiving the command, the sprawling mechanical infrastructure covering the surface of UHS1 shuddered. Swarms of True-Nano Main Frames began channeling all stockpiled surface resources directly toward the twelve equatorial tower bases. Layer upon dense layer, the nanites surged up the towers, driving their height and width upward at a terrifying velocity while maintaining a precise two-to-one structural aspect ratio. Twenty thousand kilometers... thirty thousand kilometers...
Upon reaching forty-five thousand kilometers, the growth of each tower abruptly halted. Keon's optical pupils flickered as he realized the surface reserves gathered across UHS1 had been completely exhausted. Glancing across the planetary landscape, he observed the remaining surface installations, auxiliary operational hubs, and subterranean research networks maintained by his nanite swarms.
'Except for the specialized vaults housing magic crystals, elemental nodes, and rare materials, dismantle and merge all remaining surface structures, operational bases, and underground transit tunnels directly into the twelve towers,' Keon commanded thoughtfully. 'I was already planning to clear these surface clutter structures, as their presence would only act as an impediment during the Great Merging Plan.'
Through his dynamic perspective, Keon watched as the twelve towers seemed to devour their surrounding infrastructure. The True-Nano Main Frames squirmed like vast liquid silver tides, dissolving surface facilities and subterranean networks in seamless waves. Reinvesting this vast material volume, the towers resumed their upward surge: sixty thousand kilometers...
Passing through the upper atmosphere and piercing into deep space, the colossal towers pushed past orbital boundaries. A quiet sense of profound accomplishment stirred within Keon's processing core as he witnessed the planetary transformation... a testament to absolute engineering authority over physical matter. As the towers expanded, his sensors detected a minute shift in the planet's rotational momentum caused by the immense angular mass.
'Such rotational variance will naturally normalize once the overall mass of the planet increases during the merger,' Keon reasoned silently.
The expansion finally concluded as each tower locked at exactly one hundred thousand kilometers in height. Seen from the vacuum of space, they resembled monolithic hollow pillars crowning the world. 'If they were not anchored at precise, geometrically balanced equatorial vectors, the sheer mass of these towers would have severely fractured the planetary crust,' Keon analyzed. 'Even now, they exert significant pressure on the planet's central core.'
Redirecting his perception back toward the harvesting fleet, he observed that UHS9 had completely vanished from orbit. Eight super-vessels had thoroughly excavated every atom of remaining material from the icy world and were now setting course back toward UHS1.
'These extracted resources consist primarily of water ice, hydrogen, helium, and complex carbon compounds,' Keon thought, calculating the atmospheric integration ratios. 'I will integrate the ice and beneficial plant-sustaining gases into UHS1's biosphere while discarding all volatile or hazardous compounds toward the gas titans.'
His optical sensors turned across the system, locking onto the distant, massive silhouettes of UHS3 and UHS4 floating silently in the cosmic void.
…