This way, when the Mechanical Disaster fleet returns in the future, they can retrieve these probes, conveniently read the information, and then know what Tom did in the star system during this period, and even… know which direction his fleet escaped to.

Just as it's impossible for even the Mechanical Disaster fleet to completely eliminate their spy probes, it's even more impossible for Tom to eliminate the spy probes left behind by the Mechanical Disaster fleet.

Space is too vast, and spy probes are too small.

Deep space will completely conceal their tiny forms, preventing them from being detected by the outside world.

Furthermore, the Mechanical Disaster fleet will certainly do this, because it costs nothing and is very effective.

So what should Tom do?

If the main fleet and the decoy fleet separate within the star system, it will not achieve any disguise effect, because those probes will surely detect which one is the real main fleet and which one is the decoy fleet.

In response to this situation, Tom devised a countermeasure.

Since separating within the star system would expose the main fleet and the decoy fleet, then…

I won't separate!

My decoy fleet and main fleet will maintain the same course and escape together!

I will separate only when I reach the depths of space where you cannot detect me!

The reason for this approach is that Tom can confirm one thing.

That is, the probes that the Mechanical Disaster fleet must have left in the Pegasus V342 star system cannot possibly have long-term acceleration capabilities, and cannot possibly continuously track his fleet for close observation.

The reason is simple: his fleet needs to accelerate to 8% of the speed of light.

During this process, the thrusters need to operate at full power for more than a decade.

And this will consume a huge amount of fuel.

Even if those spy probes have enough fuel, enough fuel means enough mass, and providing propulsion and acceleration for such a huge mass will result in an extremely bright exhaust plume.

Spy probes survive in space mainly by relying on stealth, and a bright exhaust plume will lead to their exposure.

So, this situation will arise: if your probes follow my fleet, they will inevitably be exposed, and I will certainly be able to destroy them.

If your probes do not follow my fleet, they can continue to remain hidden, but they will get further and further away from my fleet, so far that, apart from the exhaust plume's light, they will no longer be able to see the fleet's details and will be unable to distinguish which one is the true main fleet and which one is the decoy fleet.

Since you cannot distinguish them, I can truly separate the decoy fleet from the main fleet.

Even if your probes genuinely observe the fleet splitting into six, heading in six different directions, you will no longer be able to determine which one is the true main fleet.

Because even the decoy fleet has the same propulsion power.

The most ingenious part is that once the course changes, the exhaust plume's direction will also change, no longer pointing towards the star system.

Because they have extremely high directivity, and due to the considerable distance at this point, your probes remaining within the star system will not even be able to see the exhaust plumes anymore.

If you want to ascertain the fleet's course, you can still only go to the separation point to physically inspect the exhaust traces.

If you want to determine which fleet is real, you still have to track each fleet individually.

This way, the spy probes left by the Mechanical Disaster fleet within the Pegasus V342 star system will lose their effectiveness.

It was due to this consideration that Tom allowed a total of six fleets to depart together.

As the intense propulsion continued, as the speed gradually increased, and as the fleet slowly moved away, the light of Pegasus V342 gradually dimmed, and the countless massive planets, asteroids, comets, and other celestial bodies slowly disappeared from Tom's field of vision.

Over the past few centuries, his full efforts seemed to have caused no externally visible impact on this star system.

No matter how powerful Tom's industrial capabilities were, compared to these natural celestial bodies, they were still too insignificant.

"Good, good…"

Tom sighed, casting his gaze towards the distant and vast expanse of the universe.

Time flowed by, bit by bit, and in the blink of an eye, ten years had passed.

At this moment, the distance between the fleet and the Pegasus V342 star system had increased to approximately 3 trillion kilometers, or about 0.32 light-years.

The speed had accelerated to about 6.3% of the speed of light, not yet reaching the planned 8% of the speed of light.

At this point, the fleet had not yet left the Pegasus V342 star's gravity boundary.

Although it was vast and empty here, Tom knew that in those corners that even he could not detect, there might be tiny celestial bodies still held by the gravity of this massive star, still rotating around it.

However, for detection devices, a distance of about 0.32 light-years was already far enough.

So, let's carry out the fleet separation work here.

Following an order from Tom, a total of six main fleets quietly changed their thrust directions.

Thus, in the next moment, the six fleets that had accompanied each other for ten years went their separate ways, flying in different directions, and the distance between them grew further and further.

Another approximately 3 years passed in a hurry.

At this moment, Tom, who was in the main fleet, could no longer see the traces of the sub-fleets.

At this point, the fleet's speed finally accelerated to the planned 8% of the speed of light, and the distance from Pegasus V342 also reached about half a light-year.

At this moment, Tom's fleet entered inertial navigation mode.

After flying for some more time, Tom's fleet activated random maneuver mode.

At the same time, if his preset program did not malfunction, those decoy fleets should have also activated random maneuvers.

Numerous thrusters were again activated at low power for a total of 10 days, applying an approximately 5 kilometers per second course deviation to the fleet in a randomly selected direction, and then shut down again.

In the future, Tom would conduct multiple random maneuvers, striving to make his fleet's course untraceable.

Time continued to pass slowly.

Forty-six years later, Tom received a clone consciousness link from the Pegasus V342 star system.

At this moment, the distance between Tom and the Pegasus V342 star system had expanded to about 3 light-years.

This meant a 3-year communication delay, which is to say, this consciousness connection from the clone in the Pegasus V342 star system had begun 3 years prior.

And the condition for waking up the hibernation clone was the observation of the suspected Mechanical Disaster fleet approaching.

This seemed to mean… the Mechanical Disaster fleet's return was more than a decade earlier than he had originally anticipated.

Tom sighed inwardly.

"Fortunately, over these years, I have always given my all and never slacked off, which is why I was able to narrowly escape before the Mechanical Disaster fleet arrived…"

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