Age of Cosmic Exploration, 4

by Zhttty

  A dilapidated Ren Tao stood behind Guang Zhen when he gave these orders. The rest of the troopers didn’t look so dandy either. Their space armors were either chipped or shattered.

  This second alien assault was, in terms of scale, much greater than the previous one. The monsters had also gotten more vicious, especially with the addition of the centipede monsters. Their strong pincers could even punch through the space armor. Even though none of the troopers were seriously injured thanks to their impressive reflexes, their broken armor meant they were exposed to the viruses and bacteria in the air.

  Ren Tao gazed at the burning mountains of corpses with muted feelings. Then he turned around to face Gaung Zhen. "Then… it’s time for us to return to the Hope. If luck would have it, maybe we’ll fight alongside each other again."

  Guang Zhen understood what he meant. The troopers would now have to be quarantined. Other than studying the alien, the pathology department was still looking for a vaccine for that planet.

  Like how it was on Planet Sahara, the germs on this planet might not be as stringent as Earth’s Ebola or AIDS, but because of the difference in environment, mankind didn’t have immunity against even the common cold virus equivalent of this planet. Of the contaminated soldiers, one had already passed away, and others were still in ICU.

  Ren Tao, Zhang Heng, Ye Mu, and the 7 Survivors were about to join their ranks. They too had been contaminated. They would spend the rest of the war in quarantine until they were cured… or until they were dead.

  Guang Zhen was at a loss for words; therefore, he gave the troopers a silent salute. He then watched the 10 brave individuals step onto the shuttle and disappear down the hole.

  Bo Li approached him. "I too shall return to the Hope, because plans for the final combat strategy have already been completed. I’m going to go try it out with more analysis and simulated tests."

  Guang Zhen looked Bo Li in her eyes and said sternly, "You better prepare to face Yao Yuan first. Do you know how many rules you’ve broken being here? Who knows how mad he’ll be when he hears of this. The least he will do is imprison you."

  Bo Li pouted slightly and said calmly, "Does he not need the Whisperers anymore? What else can he do? Hit me? Anyway, I have to go." She turned without giving Guang Zhen another look. Accompanied by a soldier, she too got on a shuttle.

  Just as Bo Li’s shuttle lifted off ground, about 100 combat jets shot through the ozone layer and seared their trails in the sky. Their speed eased as they got closer to the ground. They were welcomed with a series of cheers when they landed near the hole. The troopers’ appearance brought massive relief, and more people finally managed to relax and take a rest.

  The second war between mankind and the alien ended…

  With a victory for mankind!

  But this was not the last time. These two would cross swords…

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  Chapter162 A Slap on the Face

  Yao Yuan was extremely tired. After all, he hadn’t rested since not this latest combat but the one before it. He had stolen some shut-eye here and there, but those were barely enough to keep him fully alert and awake.

  The exhaustion piled on to a stage where he couldn’t take it much longer.

  But take it he must. After he disembarked from the combat jet and entered the Hope, he crossed path with soldiers that also were returning from the temporary base. He didn’t stop them to ask for an update but allowed them to continue on to their residences or the canteen. He only requested them to send for their battalion commanders.

  "…In other words, more than 200 soldiers died?" Yao Yuan sighed. Suppressing the burgeoning sadness in his heart, he continued, "What about others? Major Wong and the Black Star Troopers?"

  A second-lieutenant replied, "Major Wong is still up there taking control of the situation. I don’t think he’ll be down here any time soon. The troopers… well, the troopers’ armor was broken during combat. They were still up there when we came down, but I suspect they’ll be here soon."

  Yao Yuan frowned, but he didn’t pursue the line of questioning. He ordered the commanders to take good care of their soldiers. Then he rushed to the shuttle hangar. Unsurprisingly, he saw Ren Tao, Zhang Heng, Ye Mu, and the Survivors in the area. They were already in new spacesuits, being readied to be sent into quarantine.

  Yao Yuan walked toward the few of them and sighed. "Don’t worry, we will definitely manufacture a vaccine. You’ll be safe."

  Ren Tao shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, death is God’s decision… But Yao Yuan, if I die, please spare Chou Yue the details. She has been through enough, and help me take care of her."

  Yao Yuan nodded solemnly. "I promise. As long as this ship still runs, she’ll be safe."

  Ren Tao chuckled lightly. He waved before turning to head towards the 4th floor quarantine rooms. The rest only saluted before walking past Yao Yuan. When they were at the exit, Ren Tao suddenly turned, "Forgot to tell you a good news. Framework for the final strategy has already been done. There’re still some flaws, but this is the only plan that I’ve heard so far that has a chance at beating the alien."

  Yao Yuan was stunned before breaking into a huge smile. "What plan is it? Hey, tell me about the plan before you go."

  "I’m sure she’ll tell you personally. After all, she braved the battlefield just for this." Ren Tao laughed loudly before disappearing down one of the corridors.

  Yao Yuan mumbled to himself, "She? Braved the battlefield? What did he mean?"

  "He meant me."

  Bo Li was in the area when Yao Yuan and Ren Tao conversed, so she overheard everything.

  Yao Yuan turned around in shock. He was greeted by Bo Li’s empty expression, and his eyes narrowed when he saw the alien robot that accompanied her.

  "You just came back from the battlefield?" Yao Yuan asked chillingly.

  Bo Li, though, was unfazed. She stared straight ahead at Yao Yuan as she replied, "Yes, I just returned from the battlefield."

  "…why were you up there?" Yao Yuan was livid; he was almost shouting at that point. "Don’t you know about the marshal law? It’s a freaking war up there! Why were you presenting yourself as a gift to our enemy? You should know better!"

  Bo Li shrugged. "I needed Ren Tao, who was up there, to help me complete the plan…"

  "Don’t interrupt me!" Yao Yuan growled. "I’ll have you confined! Until the war is over… No, not even then will you be out! You need to learn a lesson! And where are the people watching the shuttles? How could they have let you through? I’ll have all of them in the military court!"

  Bo Li frowned but continued lightly, "You think those people… can stop me from going to the battlefield if I want to go? Plus, I didn’t die, did I? Plus, if it’s necessary, I’ll be doing this again…"

  The sound was crisp as Yao Yuan’s hand landed on Bo Li’s face. The girl froze with her hand unconsciously shielding her face. She didn’t cry, but the rims of her eyes were red. After an uncomfortable silence, she forcefully tossed the tapes in her hands to Yao Yuan before turning and saying, "I understand. The confinement rooms are at the 5th floor, aren’t they? Don’t need to get soldiers to detain me, I’m going." As she walked away, Yao Yuan saw her shoulders shaking and tears falling to the floor.

  Yao Yuan wanted to say something and pull her back. However, he sighed before putting his hand down. He waved a patrol over. "Send 4 soldiers to protect her, but make sure they don’t allow her back onto the battlefield again. And tell her she doesn’t need to be confined and send her to her lab. Also, remember to shut down her robot’s power source and get her a pack of ice for her face."

  The patrol saluted before running to catch up with Bo Li.

  Weighted down by the tape in his hand, Yao Yuan exhaled with frustration as he walked to the war room.

  "I’ll leave this with you. Start analyzing the details in it immediately. I’ll allow the
use of our central mainframe because I need the simulation to be as precise as possible, the password is xxxxx… Wake me up in about 5 hours, and do not disturb me in the meantime. Also, tell Professor Ivan and Saburo to stop working on the aliens and transfer their attention to manufacture the vaccine."

  Then Yao Yuan dragged his overworked body back to his room. He had reached his limit both physically and mentally, so he slumbered the moment he hit the bed…

  It was a dreamless sleep until a loud groan woke him up. He stretched into a seated position and grabbed the communicator that sat on the table beside him.

  Then he heard a female moan. He tensed and leaped out of bed, ready to take down the threat. A second later, he saw the lithe figure that lied in his bed. It was Ji Jie.

  Ji Jie was in her undergarments and was sleeping in the fetal position. The groan Yao Yuan heard was probably hers. Yao Yuan stood up and frowned at her sleeping figure.

  "…Sigh, I’ll have to remind her of this when she wakes up."

  Yao Yuan believed that she had ventured wrongly into his room in her tired state. As part of the Black Star Troopers, she must have been incredibly tired after their mission, so Yao Yuan didn’t have the heart to wake up her for a talking to there and then.

  Yao Yuan retreated to the living room, his communicator in hand. "This is Yao Yuan. How is the plan coming along? You have all the data tabulated? Wonderful, I’ll be there in a minute."

  Yao Yuan rushed to the war room. When he arrived, Guang Zhen and many others were already there. "Then let us see the simulation," he announced as he strode into the room.

  The expert that stood on stage nodded. "Yes, Captain. This here is the ultimate battle plan provided by Thinker Ren Tao and Whisperer Professor Bo Li.

  "…Based on the surveillance data we got before the creator’s particles were up, the 4 polymerized reactors inside the mother nest was constructed using cellular restructuring. They’re not stabilized in heavy waters like ours. In other words, if we can overload these reactors, the reactors will implode upon themselves.

  "Nevertheless, for a creature as big as the mother nest, the implosion of 4 reactors still won’t fully devastate it. Based on our findings, the damage won’t be great enough to cause it fatal damage; however…

  "After the reactors are destroyed, the monster will lose its main source of energy. It’ll need 1 hour to recreate a small-sized reactor and 3 hours to create a big one. Before then, it won’t have enough energy to conduct space travel."

  "And how is that going to help us?" Yao Yuan asked, hoping to get to the point.

  The expert pressed something into the panel. A 3d image showed itself in the room. In the image, the mother nest had already lost its 4 reactors and was floating still in space.

  "Then, we will launch a giant propeller device into the mother nest. The device will be inserted into the alien body, so the surrounding monsters won’t be able to attack it. We’ll use the propeller to send the nest into the sun!"

  In the image, a rocket-shaped propeller was shot into the nest, pushing it towards the sun.

  Yao Yuan’s frown deepened as he contemplated over the plan. He shook his head. "This won’t work. For one, there will definitely be monsters inside the nest itself. They will demolish the propeller from within. For another, the size of the nest is too big. Even with a high powered propeller, we’ll need about 5 hours to send it into the sun. Within the time, it will have reconstructed a new reactor."

  The expert tutted, "And this is where the brilliance of the plan shows itself…

  "The surface of the propeller will be covered with a layer of alien plant. No matter whther it is the alien that absorbs the plant or the plant that absorbs the alien, at least several hours will be spent on this altercation. It will delay the mother nest from reconstructing the reactor. This way, we will have enough time to let the propeller reach a sufficient acceleration to complete this plan…

  "A win-or-lose, all in type of ultimate battle plan!"

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  Chapter163 Operation Celestial Wolf!

  "This is one crazy plan."

  Yao Yuan sighed deeply after a 10-minute contemplation.

  Everyone knew that after the alien absorbed the alien plant, it would evolve to a super organism, one that could digest everything, minerals, energy… Mankind would truly be hamstrung then.

  However, the plan, as crazy as it may seem, was also the only proposed plan that could work…

  The alien’s strength lied in cellular construction and regeneration. Using a singular cell, it could create a sea of monsters with sufficient nutrients.

  The alien had almost absorbed Moon 2, so it shouldn’t have to worry about the lack of nutrients. It could produce millions of alien monsters easily. It didn’t even have to rely on the monsters to destroy the Hope; it could do that with its enormous size.

  Getting into close proximity with the Hope’s planet would create such a disturbance in the gravitational fields that it would shred the spaceship into pieces. Unlike the mother nest, mankind couldn’t regenerate when damaged.

  Therefore, the Hope had to eventually warp or suffer a monumental loss. Yao Yuan believed there was no third option.

  However, the third option had arrived wrapped in a package of craziness. It sounded insane, but it might just prove to be successful!

  Simulations from the central mainframe provided 2 possible outcomes. One had a chance possibility of 6.7 percent while the other 92 percent. The biggest key difference was obviously the alien plant. If the mother nest managed to absorb the alien plant in less than 2 hours, it would be able to completely infuse the DNA of the plant throughout the nest in less than 1 hour. It would then use its newly acquired power to digest the propeller. It would escape the fate of being shoved into the sun easily.

  However, if the altercation between the two lasted more than 2 hours, the propeller would have reached so much acceleration that the alien wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop it. Even if it did end up absorbing the alien plant, it would be too late. Pushed by the inertia of the acceleration and pulled by the gravity of the sun, it would be heading straight for its death.

  Of course, there were other minor kinks to work out in the plan. The first was the protection of the propeller before it could get lodged inside the mother nest. A special unit needed to escort the propeller through the monster crowd around Moon 2 as the propeller traveled to its target. The propeller was extremely fragile, so a team of combat jets would have to be deployed to protect it from harm.

  Secondly, the 4 reactors within the mother nest had to be blown up. The combat jets would be needed again. The millions upon millions of monster that guarded the nest would be a high wall to climb. Even Yao Yuan had doubts about whether the combat jets could succeed in this hard mission.

  The discussion continued with everyone arguing their thoughts. More data was churned out by the central mainframe, but… the biggest issue was the absence of the plan’s original creators. Ren Tao was in quarantine, passed out from fever.

  Bo Li had locked herself up in her room and refused to answer to any pleadings and calls. Yao Yuan warned against any efforts to drag her out by force, telling everyone to let her be.

  3 hours later, as the Homo Evolutis roused from their slumber, Yao Yuan had decided to carry on with the plan, calling it Operation Celestial Wolf. It was a mission that had humanity’s future on the line. If it was a success, they would have themselves a new home planet.

  But if they failed, they would have created a space monstrosity and hopefully would be able to warp away before they themselves were absorbed.

  "The giant propeller prototype is ready, Sir. It was built using Professor Bo Li’s latest set of data. Its speed and acceleration are 10 percent better than normal propellers, but it still has its flaw, the most notable being its instability."

  It was one of the scientists f
rom Bo Li’s lab that provided the explanation. He was right that the propeller had some stability issues, but according to the simulations, those issues would only manifest themselves after a 10 hour activation. It was relatively stable within the first 10 hours of its activation.

  "This is not the time to be picky; we’ll just have to trust this prototype," Yao Yuan said solemnly as he took in the several hundred meters long and 30 meters wide propeller device that took up most of the lab. Compared to the size of the mother nest, it would still be tiny, but it had enough power to pull the plan off. As long as the alien plant wasn’t absorbed within 2 hours, victory belonged to humanity!

  Then Yao Yuan continued to survey other preparations. To prevent the alien plant from directly digesting the propeller, its surface had to be covered with a thin layer of energy crystal. This too was another lengthy and exhaustive project. The Hope’s ready store of energy crystals wasn’t large enough to cover the large surface, so they had to use the alien plants to create more.

  Then came the modification to the front of the propeller. It needed to be sharp enough to pierce through the mother nest’s surface and serrated enough to hook onto its flesh. Furthermore, the particle flux on its combustible end couldn’t end up inside the fleshy folds of the alien, or it would affect acceleration.

  In the meantime, surveillance on Moon 2 continued. The excavation project had almost reached its end; there was only about 300 meters to go before the Hope could prepare to lift off. For that purpose, the temporary base had to move its location. It was uprooted to a location several meters away from the opening. That too was a tiring project.

  Then, 2 hours before the initiation of Operation Celestial Wolf, the surveillance team on Moon 2 came back with reports on the alien’s suspicious developments.