Is Unlocking the Stellaris Tech Tree in Star Rail Really Okay? [269]

Belobog Primary Military District, Psionic Army A001 Aviation Corps Division.

This was the largest psionic army unit on Jarilo-VI. In terms of psionic talent, combat strength, and weaponry, it ranked among the elite of the psionic forces.

Under the deliberation of Chen Lin and several high-ranking officers, the Belobog government had meticulously structured its newly formed military. All combat units below the Dispersal Layer were classified as ground forces.

This served as the foundation for a fully developed and comprehensive new military system.

War had always been difficult, and capturing fortified positions was even harder. Even in the spacefaring era, the only difference was that castles on land had been replaced by various defense outposts and planetary strongholds. Trying to occupy an entire planet using only ground forces? Even the most elite armies would be insufficient for such an undertaking.

Once a battle reached a prolonged stalemate, the time cost could stretch into years or even decades. No matter how skilled the commander, they would find such a war frustrating and daunting.

Thus, Chen Lin proposed a strategy—"Scorched Earth Occupation."

What did that mean? The core principle was simple: if necessary, prioritize strategic locations over populations.

For example, if a ground force suffered heavy casualties while failing to seize a target, they would simply withdraw from the planet. The fleet would then conduct intensive bombardment until there was no life left on the surface. Or, if a conquered planet's local population formed a resistance and engaged in guerrilla warfare, the response would be complete extermination—no exceptions.

Mercy had no place in warfare. Chen Lin was no saint. He had already given his enemies the chance to surrender. If they refused to comply and continued resisting, then they would be eliminated. After all, he was on a tight schedule—there was no time for drawn-out conflicts. Once the battle was over, he could simply send in a colonial team to rebuild.

This philosophy naturally extended to potential naval conflicts during planetary landings.

If, in the future, the army encountered resistance on the seas, their orders were straightforward: avoid any area with a naval presence. Every enemy force on the oceans and all coastal fortresses would be subjected to indiscriminate orbital bombardment.

The bombardment process was divided into three phases: Intimidation, Lethal Strike, and Annihilation.

Before each phase, a surrender ultimatum would be issued. In other words, Chen Lin's forces would only ask for surrender three times. After the third refusal, no further negotiations would be accepted. The entire army adhered strictly to the doctrine:

"Surrender before persuasion, and you will be richly rewarded. Surrender after persuasion, and you will be spared. Refuse three times, and your land will be reduced to rubble."

Of course, for now, this was all just theoretical—Chen Lin had yet to engage in any external wars.

As evening fell, the sky darkened, but within the military district, it was as bright as day. From a vantage point several kilometers above, one could glimpse this radiant gem on the outskirts of the sprawling city.

The vast military grounds featured elevated landing platforms spaced at one-kilometer intervals. Each platform measured 350m × 350m and could accommodate any model of aerial vehicle used by the airborne forces. If necessary, a single platform could even support a dozen fighter jets simultaneously.

And yet, despite their immense size, there were 750 such platforms in the A001 Aviation Corps Division. Each was protected by an independent psionic shield, automatically distinguishing friend from foe. When under attack, these shields would lock onto assailants and retaliate with tracking arc strikes—a system requiring minimal manual operation, significantly reducing the army’s workload.

Such a practical psionic shielding system was the work of Serval. Across the entire Jarilo Sector, no one could claim to surpass Serval in the study of psionic shielding.

After all, even the planetary shield generator protecting Jarilo-VI was one of Serval’s creations. To put its strength into perspective—if 20 destroyers and 3 cruisers concentrated their full firepower on a single point, it would take them two full days just to breach the first layer of shielding. And that wasn’t even considering the additional city-level shields protecting individual settlements.

If an enemy wanted to launch an orbital strike on Jarilo-VI, they would have to penetrate a total of fourteen shield layers.

Fortunately, in peacetime, only two layers remained active—one at 55km above the surface as a planetary shield, and another protecting each individual city. Thanks to Serval’s continuous improvements, energy consumption had been significantly reduced. A single large power station and a hundred psionics were now sufficient to maintain operations, with surplus energy still available.

【The delegation has arrived at coordinates (G71.2 P31.7 L71.9). The FTL inhibitor has been reactivated. Landing procedures will commence in 10 minutes and 21 seconds…】

From the towering Air Command Headquarters, reports on the Xianzhou delegation’s movements were transmitted every few seconds. The designated airspace had been completely cleared, and a dense patrol of warships now safeguarded the area. Any unidentified vessel approaching the delegation’s fleet would be immediately destroyed—no warnings given.

Of course, such strict precautions were merely a safeguard.

Within the Jarilo Sector, Chen Lin’s outposts instilled terror among interstellar pirates. Whenever his forces appeared, pirate crews fled as if they had seen ghosts, terrified that Seele would uproot their entire existence—families and all. Thanks to this, security within the sector was exceptionally high, and the likelihood of an unexpected incident was slim.

Inside a military conference room, Clara sat on Bronya’s lap, excitedly recounting everything that had happened during her day out with Chen Lin.

Bronya listened with a warm smile, nodding along. Whenever Clara struggled to find the right words, Bronya helped her continue the conversation, ensuring her enthusiasm never waned.

Meanwhile, outside on the landing platform, Pela was overseeing the ceremonial guard of the Honored Guardians, repeatedly drilling them on the training they had undergone for over a year.

Beyond them, Gepard led a unit of psionic ground troops to maintain order. Behind them gathered a swarm of reporters, carefully adjusting their equipment, eager to capture the perfect shot for tomorrow’s headlines.

Additionally, countless civilians had arrived to witness the arrival of the distant Xianzhou emissaries, curious to see what these travelers from across the stars looked like.

At the entrance of the command building, Phantylia stole a glance at Chen Lin, standing in front of her. Her eyes filled with confusion.

Ever since they had arrived, Chen Lin had been gesturing at the air, his fingers moving as if interacting with something invisible. The problem was—his terminal wasn’t even turned on. There was nothing in front of him at all.

This was seriously baffling.

Finally, Phantylia couldn’t hold back her curiosity anymore.

"Master, what exactly are you doing?"

"Looking at a God's-eye view," Chen Lin replied without turning his head.

"God’s-eye view...? What’s that?"

Intrigued, Phantylia tiptoed closer, trying to see for herself.

Ever since she had discovered Chen Lin’s ‘ultimate’ secret, she had gradually shifted from shock and fear to an entirely different mindset. After all, what was done was done—rather than worrying, she might as well focus on the benefits.

Being his dog… actually doesn’t sound so bad.

According to Chen Lin, only three entities knew he was the ‘Will of the Empire’— Phantylia herself, the preserved essence of the Kruz Civilization, and Saik inside the X-Fang Box. Even his wives didn’t know.

Which meant—she was the most trusted of them all!

Compared to when she first arrived, she had clearly grown bolder.

"Eh? But I don’t see anything..." she murmured.

"If you could see it too, I’d be the one who’s shocked."

Chen Lin raised a hand and gently pressed down the fox ears that had been rubbing against his cheek. His voice was calm as he said, "I can see everything happening in the entire Jarilo Sector at any given moment. Otherwise, how do you think the fleet knew which areas were infested with pirates back then?"

"Wow! So that's how it was! A few days ago, First Madam was talking about this," Phantylia exclaimed. "She said you had everyone avoid certain regions during exploration. Turns out, it was because of this~"

The reason Phantylia knew so much from Bronya was largely due to the tragic backstory she had fabricated for herself. It was pitiful enough that Bronya often chatted with her late into the night—to the point where they sometimes even shared a bed.

When Bronya had free time, she would also invite Phantylia to go shopping or sightseeing with her. After several months, the two had naturally grown close.

Phantylia wasn’t stupid—getting on good terms with her master's wife had been her biggest concern. Now that she had the opportunity, of course, she wouldn't waste it. With her well-executed display of vulnerability and charm, she had successfully cleared her first major hurdle—winning over the First Madam.

Now, the only remaining challenge was Seele. When it came to the battle-hungry Second Madam, Phantylia had no idea how to proceed for the time being, so she decided to wait and observe.

Realizing that no matter what he did, the head resting on his shoulder wasn’t moving, Chen Lin simply gave up and ignored it.

"Pirates may be numerous, but their hideouts are small. I originally planned to deal with them myself later, but I didn’t expect Seele to take the forces I gave her and just plunder all the pirates outright. In the end, her name became legendary among them—just hearing it was enough to make them tremble..."

"Not to mention, the loot she brought back was quite the surprise—various technological blueprints, star system maps, and even rare minerals that are scarce across the entire universe."

That’s right—the spoils Seele had seized included countless exotic ores and precious resources. While ores themselves were nothing special, those rare materials were of great importance to Chen Lin.

Phantylia pondered for a few seconds.

"Interstellar pirates have been rampant since the earliest memories I have. Many of them were once soldiers—some even the former leaders of fallen civilizations. After losing their homes, they had nowhere to go, and over time, they became pirates."

"They usually establish bases in remote, complex star systems, using whatever military strength they still have to raid isolated merchant ships—either for direct loot or hefty ransoms. The profits allow them to purchase weapons and slaves on the black market, strengthening themselves and annexing smaller pirate factions."

"Later, due to a… certain twist of fate, I caught the attention of Nanook the Destruction…" She coughed abruptly, correcting herself, "I mean, that damned Aeon of Destruction. Since we Lord Ravagers help those who seek destruction achieve their desires, I naturally set my sights on these ever-growing bands of pirates."

"But unfortunately, they’re all useless trash. They hoard vast amounts of wealth just to sit on their tiny territories, refusing to consolidate their forces. Their vision is short-sighted at best. Even if they manage to seize a planet, they lack the means to develop it, and sooner or later, they provoke the wrath of civilized factions and get wiped out."

For a pirate faction to successfully capture a planet, their military strength must be at least somewhat decent. But since their entire existence revolved around looting, they made money fast and lost it just as quickly. If they didn’t stockpile enough wealth, they wouldn’t even get the chance to recover from setbacks.

Thinking along these lines... those organized pirate groups were nothing but fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

A thought sparked in Chen Lin’s mind. "Are there many pirates along our route to Luofu?"

Phantylia chuckled. "Isn't that obvious~?"

"In that case, establishing a secure trade route to Luofu sounds like the perfect job for us. Especially when it comes to those rare resources that are worth more than gold..."

"Speaking of rare resources—Master, there’s something I wanted to tell you."

Phantylia leaned in slightly and lowered her voice. "This morning, when I went to inform the IPC about your banquet invitation, I happened to overhear something interesting. Apparently, one of our neighboring civilizations has discovered a type of natural gas that even the IPC considers highly valuable…"

She faithfully recounted everything she had eavesdropped on during the corporate meeting.

At first, when Chen Lin heard it was just natural gas, he didn’t think much of it. Jarilo-VI had more of that than it could ever use.

But when Phantylia mentioned that this gas had unique properties that made it exceptionally efficient for energy devices, his interest was immediately piqued.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Of course! Not to mention they had no way of detecting me in the first place, but even if they did, there’s no way they could orchestrate a deception of this scale in such a short time."

Phantylia smirked. "So, Master—do you think this 'natural gas' from Stellube is actually useful?"

Thump… thump-thump!

Chen Lin could hear his own heart pounding. He swallowed hard and muttered, "What do you mean theirs? It's been ours since time immemorial."

At that moment, Phantylia knew. Her master was very interested in this gas.

She might not fully understand why—after all, some of Stellaris’ technology was downright absurd. Many of the most critical advancements relied on large quantities of rare resources.

With the Sky Fortress nearing completion, Chen Lin had reached a bottleneck. Breaking through it required an influx of rare materials.

From here on out, countless buildings, weapons, and research projects would depend on these scarce resources. If his stockpile was insufficient, his only alternative would be to purchase them from Paradox Corporation’s market at an outrageously inflated price.

But Jarilo-VI’s economy wasn’t nearly strong enough to support large-scale external purchases. After all, just gifting Luofu a few hundred units of food had translated into millions of tons of grain in actual shipments.

If he had to buy rare resources from across the galaxy… how long would that take?

The best solution was simple: Find them. Extract them. Own them.

In the Stellaris universe, this category of rare gas was classified as "Exotic Gas."

There were a few questionable naming choices involved. He had once debated this with his roommates, and they had ultimately concluded that "Exotic Gas" wasn’t actually "natural gas"— rather, it was a special category of unique gaseous substances.

Exotic Gas was primarily used in construction and described as:

"A versatile material used primarily for powering advanced energy weapons and energy fields. Some refined forms are also used as ship fuel or processed into recreational DP."

And that… matched exactly with what the IPC had discovered.

Chen Lin made up his mind.

In a few days, he would have Seele dispatch a research vessel into the Imaginary Quantum Space. This ghost ship would covertly scan the entire planet’s resources…

No—the entire star system’s resources!

If it turned out he had misjudged the situation, he would simply drop it and move on.

But if that planet really contained the Exotic Gas he needed…

Then things would be different.

Anyone who dared contest him for it would become Jarilo-VI’s greatest enemy.

---

T/N: ermm i forgot what the planet was called hehehe

This is a fan translation of 在星穹铁道点群星科技树真的没问题吗? by 杏雨诗韵 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!