Age of Cosmic Exploration, 3

by Zhttty

  Hidden from the truth, the public had nothing but anticipation towards rebuilding a life on this new home planet. Their only worry was the virus because that was the only information that was revealed. However, it might be an exaggeration to call it a worry, because at the end of the day, the public had full faith that the government would overcome the problem. After all, technology was improving tremendously right before their eyes. They wouldn’t be surprised if the Hope Weekly suddenly announced that the Academy had found a way for mankind to achieve immortality!

  In conclusion, the general public on the Hope had high hopes for their future. The remaining pockets that thought otherwise were either hidden doomsday cultists or people who were privy to the truth.

  Among those who were in the know, they barely had time to eat in those 3 days. Every waking second was spent researching the meat monster. A combination of fear and hope contributed to a total of 79 feasible plans for Yao Yuan to choose from!

  "They want to create ‘that’ thing in such a short amount of time? Have they finally lost it? Its key technology hasn’t been fully understood, and realizing this plan requires 13.4 times the energy required for a space warp. In other words, we need at least 5 giant polymerized reactors to make this plan work. Do they think we can complete all of this on such short notice?"

  Yao Yuan slammed the files on his table. His mental state had been strung taut by the pressure that had accumulated over the past 3 days. If it was someone else, the person would have cracked under pressure by then. Yao Yuan, though, only fumed silently, a testament to his mental stability.

  Yao Yuan was not afraid of combat or even death, but he found himself to be apprehensive of the momentous pressure he was placed under.

  After all, it was almost miraculous that the Hope had managed to find a perfectly preserved planet with a sustainable environment in its more than a hundred warps after they left Earth!

  Blinded by the prospect of a new home, information about this new planet was rashly released through the Hope’s media before the organic spaceship was discovered. The public’s great desire to see, touch, and feel the new planet for themselves was the source of Yao Yuan’s enormous pressure.

  Sitting before Yao Yuan was Guang Zhen. He held in his hands the military’s proposed plan. When he saw Yao Yuan fuming, he laughed conciliatorily before pushing the plan forward, adding, "Stop giving yourself so much pressure, Ol’ Yao. Our current condition is already more than satisfactory. If not for you, human civilization would've been long gone by now."

  Yao Yuan gulped down his cup of tea and sighed audibly. "Ol’ Wong, you’re right. I’ve been under a lot of stress lately… But I think you can see why… This planet… this planet is our second chance, so we’ll have to protect it no matter what. Do you know that based on the HD pictures taken by Ying and the data collected before the activation of the creator’s particle, the Academy has already come up with the speculation that… this organic spaceship spreads via mitosis, like bacteria."

  "It spreads?" Guang Zhen was startled.

  Yao Yuan nodded. "Yes, it spreads. We’ve been carrying out 24-hour surveillance on the thing for the past 3 days. The Academy came over with a report this morning. The creature has gotten about 30 meters thinner, but its coverage has gotten wider. You know what this means, right?

  "According to their calculations, the creature will have covered the entire moon in the next 30 days, and I believe that after that, it’ll definitely find ways to come over to this planet!"

  Guang Zhen’s face sank, then he asked hurriedly, "Is it possible that the Academy miscalculated? This is a whole planet-sized moon we’re talking about. It sounds impossible that it’ll be completely digested in just a month!"

  Yao Yuan chuckled bitterly. "I had the same suspicion, so I purposely used the supercomputer to simulate the situation of Moon 2 1 month from now. Do you know what I saw?"

  Guang Zhen knew the question was rhetorical, so he sat quietly. Yao Yuan added, "This creature… After it covers the moon, it’ll swallow it whole! Like a snake, it gobbles a planet several times bigger than itself whole and then takes time to let its internal digestion system take care of the valuable resources before disposing the rest as waste material! It doesn’t drain the moon slowly but swallows it in one go!"

  Guang Zhen could feel sweat pouring down his face. He tried to say something, but he was at a loss. Yao Yuan, though, was not done. "Of course, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, since it would take millennia to slowly drain a planet dry. Its method is much more efficient. After Moon 2 is swallowed, this planet will most definitely be its next target… If that’s true, we have another problem to worry about. If the creature ventures close to this planet with Moon 2 still in its body, it’ll definitely lead to a cataclysmic disaster. The binary stars will clash and shatter upon impact. Then again, when the stars got close enough, the gravitational forces between the 2 stars will create a fluctuation big enough to tear the Hope asunder! We won’t even live to see the planets clash.

  "Hopefully, the creature has enough common sense to not attempt something suicidal. However, this doesn’t mean that we’re safe… Ol’ Wong, this is a picture taken by Ye Mu an hour ago. Keep this to your eyes alone," Yao Yuan warned as he retrieved a picture gingerly out of his drawer and handed it to Guang Zhen.

  Guang Zhen accepted the photo and noticed instantly that the picture was taken with a high-power camera. The Barracks had similar equipment, but they weren’t as powerful. This was clear because the details on this photo were much clearer than the ones taken by the Barracks. Guang Zhen could even see the several meters big pebbles clearly.

  On the picture, a lively, organ-like creature was splattered onto the planet surface. Interspersed among the creature were several spheres of varying sizes. The spheres were dark brown in color and had a collagen-like shell. It was hard to tell what their uses were.

  "This is the second picture taken 30 minutes ago…" Yao Yuan passed over another photo.

  Guang Zhen’s expression changed the moment he laid eyes on the picture. There was murderous intent in his steely gaze.

  The spheres had cracked open in the second picture. Several winged, fleshy monsters had crawled out from within. In the picture, some were already in flight, while others that were obviously newly hatched monsters gathered around a gash on the planet's surface, licking some sort of green liquid that had pooled there… "This is the third picture sent over by Ye Mu several minutes before you arrived," Yao Yuan said as he passed over the last picture.

  This last picture wasn’t as magnified as the previous two, for the intention was to capture the entire landmass in profile. Spread across the landmass were… millions upon millions of such egg-like spheres!

  With a heavy countenance, Yao Yuan added, "I have reasons to believe that this organic spaceship is preparing for assault. I dare say these fleshy, winged creatures are their equivalent to our combat jets. In 2 to 3 days, there will be millions of these creatures. Even if the spaceship itself doesn’t come close to us, do you think we can stop these creatures?"

  Guang Zhen went silent for a long time before finally saying, "Then what should we do? Give this planet up?"

  Yao Yuan stood up to pace the room. "No, surrender is not an option. We might not encounter a planet like this again in our lifetime… We will fight even if this might be our last stand!"

  Guang Zhen lifted his head and leveled a serious glance at Yao Yuan. "But how can we fight? Ol’ Yao, where there’s life, there’s hope. I’m more than willing to fight alongside you to my last breath, but if you are to drag the entirety of the Hope in this doomed battle… I…"

  Yao Yuan matched his gaze. "I understand. When I took over the Black Star Unit, I did say that if I ever issue a death-seeking order for my own benefit, you have the right to execute me. I haven’t forgotten… I should rephrase, because I believe we still have a trick up our sleeves that could lead us to victory."

  "
Huh? What trick? If it could guarantee this planet’s safety and humanity’s continuity, just say it. Even if it requires my life, I’m willing to give it." Guang Zhen straightened himself.

  Yao Yuan laughed. "What use do I have for your life? I still need you alive to act as my second-in-command… In any case, it’s impossible to create ‘that’ thing with such short notice. We don’t have the technology nor the power supply to make the plan successful. Of course, with the engineer bots, we could rush to build 5 extra reactors, but without the key technology, it’ll all be useless, so we have to let ‘that’ thing go for now.

  "Our real trump card is this…"

  Yao Yuan then handed Guang Zhen a faded report.

  Guang Zhen flipped through it immediately. The report had nothing of note but one thing… the executive order to dismantle the crystal reactors and to preserve alien plants.

  -------

  Please visit www.webnovel.com to read advanced chapters!

  Chapter148 Tricked!

  Ying led Zhang Heng, Ren Tao, Ebon, Liu Bai, and 5 Survivors, so 10 Black Star troopers in total, to the surface in the shuttle on the 3rd day after the activation of the creator’s particle. It was dusk and thus the time to take over the surveillance shift from Ye Mu’s unit.

  As Ye Mu was getting on the shuttle to return to the Hope, Zhang Heng ran to catch up to her. "I’ve spent years looking for you. Now that we finally meet, are you seriously going to ignore me?" Zhang Heng asked.

  Ye Mu turned to glance at Zhang Heng. Born of an Asian-European heritage, Ye Mu had exotic and handsome features. A short scar ran in the middle of her brow, but instead of ruining her face, it lent her an air of valiance. She replied lightly, "Is there anything you need from me, Lieutenant?"

  A self-conscious Zhang Heng mumbled as if to himself, "I’ve been meaning to thank you. If not for your help a few years ago on the meteorite base, I wouldn’t be standing here today. I meant to find you to thank you personally after I woke up at the hospital…"

  A faint blush rose to Ye Mu’s face. She interjected, "I’m sorry, but that was so long ago that I’ve forgotten all about it already. Is there anything else, Lieutenant?"

  Zhang Heng stared blankly at Ye Mu for an extended period of time before sighing. "No, there’s nothing else. I’ll get out of your unit’s way now."

  Ye Mu saluted and led her team to the shuttle without a backward glance.

  Zhang Heng stood watching the shuttle drift away. After some time, he heard Ebon’s mocking laugh beside him. Then he felt a harsh slap on his shoulder before Ebon’s baritone voice drifted down. "Actually, we knew you’ve been searching for her all these years, but… since Ol’ Wong said she’s not a good pair for you, we’ve been keeping it under wraps. You only have yourself to blame since you couldn’t pick up the courage to ask any of us or to directly flip through the army log."

  "What do you mean by not a good pair?" Zhang Heng questioned.

  Ebon’s tone turned serious. "She’s an elite soldier of an Eastern European sect. They were trained to kill since they were young. It’s a miracle that she still has traces of humanity left… Don’t look so shocked. Many of us from the old Black Star Unit are just like her. With the exception of Ol’ Captain and Ol’ Wong, our lives are spent killing. Our brains are wired to think like a humanized weapon. And she’s just the same…"

  "…I heard she has a brother," Zhang Heng said to no one in particular.

  "That person is technically not her brother." Unexpectedly, it was Ying who came over to explain. He added in an uncharacteristically gentle voice, "The guy is the son of her former comrade. She fell during one of their skirmishes. The guy’s mother died to save Ye Mu’s life, so ever since, she has been taking care of the guy on her behalf."

  "But the person is too close to her age to be her adopted son! Don’t tell me… she’s already in her fifties?!" Zhang Heng exclaimed.

  Ying shook his head. "When she joined the Hope, she was only 21, and the guy was 17. I heard that she adopted him when he was only 8, so yes, they’re more like siblings than parent and child."

  "17? That means she has been his sole caretaker for… 9 years. Since she was 12? How does a 12-year-old managed to do all that…" Zhang Heng said disbelievingly. However, he looked at Ebon’s and Ying’s serious expressions and knew that they weren’t kidding.

  "That’s right. She joined her sect when she was 10. No wonder she has such an imposing aura. Call it the shared intuition of the predator, but whenever she’s close by, I get unconsciously alert. Many others in the military have told me the same," Ebon added.

  (So she… had her first taste of killing when she was 10. I can’t imagine what her life’s like…) Ying addressed him. "Zhang Heng, don’t take this the wrong way, but even though you’re part of the Black Star unit, deep down in our hearts, we all know that you belong to a world different than ours. I would die for you, but there’s just a gap that it’s impossible to cross. Girls like Ning Xue and Mao Miao belong to your world; you guys share the same world vision. Know your boundaries, or else it’ll be you that will end up getting hurt, understood?"

  Zhang Heng balled his hands together, but he uttered no retort. Within his heart, other than the previous appreciation and curiosity about this woman by the name of Ye Mu, a new sense of empathy emerged.

  Then everyone went back to work. The surveillance unit was tasked with taking pictures of Moon 2 at 30 minute intervals, while the rest was spent lying on the grass waiting for stuff to happen. So far, the diagnostic on the planet’s atmosphere and virus was still progressing, so the team had to be in spacesuits because no one was allowed to have direct contact with the planet’s environs for the sake of safety.

  The true enemy of the day was boredom. Time was spent literally staring at clouds in the sky. Even though the spacesuits came with 1 TB storage, making it possible to upload movies or music into it, no one dared to do so for fear of Ying’s wrath. When the situation required it, Ying could be more heartless than Yao Yuan, and no one dared to test the extent of his wrath.

  Time whiled away until it was almost midnight and the team started to nod off. The only person fully awake was Ying. To preserve his energy, he only used his seeker’s power during the photo sessions that occurred every 30 minutes. Regardless, it was impressive that Ying had managed to maintain full alertness while everyone else, including those who weren’t using their powers, were already leaden with tiredness.

  Zhang Heng found himself drifting into his dream when he was suddenly assaulted with a tense warning. He shot up into a seated position so drastically that the gun that sat in his grasp flew out into the air.

  "Danger! Everyone be prepared, danger incoming!" Zhang Heng yelled at the top of his lungs.

  The rest of his team came to their senses immediately. No one doubted Zhang Heng’s capability as the Diviner. Ying reacted the fastest; with an arch of his body, he sprung up to train his gun at the sky as he activated his power. He whispered, "Where’s the danger? From the sky? Around us? Is it the mutated meat ball? Or a threat from this planet?"

  Zhang Heng had paled considerably. His eyes wandered their surrounding aimlessly, adding, "Not from the sky, it’s coming from around us. I’ve never felt so disgusted in my life. I feel like I’m being slimed all over with guts, blood, and offal. The feeling also won’t recede."

  With that, everyone knew what he was referring to… the meat thing on Moon 2!

  Ying whipped his head upwards. The sky was empty, not even a cloud in sight. With his seeker’s power, he could see the creatures still crowding the meat monster on Moon 2; they were inactive. He yelled, "Everyone return to the shuttle, but don’t let your guard down. Liu Bai, I need you to take a look at Zhang Heng; he’s not doing so well. Ren Tao, tell me, what do I need to do now?"

  Ren Tao issued a bitter laugh. "Why does every single one of you sound like Yao Yuan? I can’t help you if we don’t know anything, okay?"

  Ying glared at
Ren Tao and shouted, "Ebon, come with me! Ren Tao’s right, we need information. Where is the source of malice, how will the enemies from Moon 2 appear? There are too many unknowns… Liu Bai, you need to bring Zhang Heng back to the Hope. Then report to Yao Yuan immediately and tell him we need back up!"

  Liu Bai saluted and carried the limp Zhang Heng in his arms as they rushed towards the shuttle.

  The expressions of the 5 Survivors instantly soured. The shuttle was their only way back; if there was apparent danger, why couldn’t all of them just retreat? Now they were trapped.

  As if reading their minds, Ren Tao warned, "Don’t even dare to think of running. This hole is the only way to reach the Hope. If there is an actual alien threat, we’ll have to keep this entrance safe with our lives. Don’t you guys get it? If this entrance is lost, all our families and friends will die trapped in the ship!"

  Simultaneously, he ran to the shuttle and yelled, "Liu Bai, tell Yao Yuan, we were tricked! The creature on Moon 2 had already sent over its underlings when the sun was still high in the sky. Their traces were covered by the planets’ rotation. We forgot to account for the back of the moon that was hidden during the day."

  Liu Bai didn’t verbally respond, but he waved his hands to signal that he had heard Ren Tao. 10 seconds later, the shuttle door closed and it descended down the hole.

  Ebon and Ying scanned their surroundings with their weapons out. Ying had a Gaussian sniper rifle, and strapped onto his back was an electromagnetic sawblade. Ebon had a mini Gaussian rail cannon in his hands and a sawblade on his back. However, to match his size, Ebon’s sawblade was so ludicrously big that it looked like a cardboard cutout.

  Before the pair could begin their recon, they found themselves blanketed by shadows. Under the 2 moons’ weak light, the shadows materialized into monstrous silhouettes… Their attackers had sturdy exoskeletons, scythe-like claws, and mouths that extended to 6 gaping cavities. The smaller among them was about 1 meter tall, while the bigger ones were more than 6 meters in height. There were more than a million of them, and each one occupied a different form… "As Black Stars!" Ying yelled.