Age of Cosmic Exploration, 4
Page 2
The first battle between mankind and the fleshy aliens had reached an end, but everyone on the battlefield knew… this was only the beginning!
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Chapter153 The Birth
"…So far, we’ve lost 2 transport shuttles and 3 Black Star Troopers. 12 troopers had to be quarantined because their armors were punctured and they exhibited allergy symptoms after being exposed to the planet’s air. This ends the battle report."
Yao Yuan handed the command over to Guang Zhen in the middle of combat. He had him set up a temporary base around the opening that led to the Hope. The base, a product of the 4th revolution, was fully-automated and electromagneticly shielded. Now, even if they were swamped with a sea of aliens, there was nothing to worry about as long as the base’s energy and ammo didn’t run out.
Yao Yuan led the Black Star Troopers to the Hope. The troopers had truly shone in this battle, so much so that Yao Yuan himself was pleasantly surprised by the troopers’ capability. They had gone beyond their intended use of being an elite force. Yao Yuan found new understanding and respect for the Homo Evolutis.
The objective of the day was to find ways to save the 12 infected troopers whose bodies were covered with red spots. The other Black Star Troopers were given a well-deserved rest because Yao Yuan knew that this was going to be a drawn out battle… There was 1 trooper though that didn’t have the luxury of rest, and that person was unsurprisingly Yao Yuan himself. He dragged his tired body to the war room to have a meeting with war experts and scientists. A combat video was played on the screen, and after it finished, he walked to the podium and said,
"First, it’s obvious that the aliens have the advantage in numbers. If we had stumbled across them when we were still in our 3rd revolution, we would be indubitably swamped… Thankfully, the power of the Black Star Troopers was greater than most of us expected. With designs from Professor Bo Li, the combination of Homo Evolutis and Space Armor Prototype 1 has proved to be undefeatable.
"However!"
Yao Yuan pointed at the still image behind him. "There are so many aliens, but we only have 140 Black Star Troopers in total… Now after 3 deaths and 12 infections, we’re left with 129 troopers! These 129 troopers aren’t made of steel; they too will get exhausted, especially after a long battle!
"So what do we do next? I’ve ordered for a temporary base to be built aboveground, but that is merely to stall the enemies. The alien spaceship is still a threat! You all have seen what is happening to Moon 2; do you hope the same will happen to this planet?!"
Yao Yuan stopped to take a look at his watch. "8 hours from now I’ll send 6 Homo Evolutis in the Space Combat Jet Prototype 003 to survey this whole planet from the skies. Simultaneously, I want an answer by then on whether the previously discussed proposal on the alien planet is usable!"
The room shuffled into motion. After some time, Ivan pressed the button to speak. "Captain, I reject the plant proposal! First, we still have no idea what species this alien on Moon 2 is. Is it an organic spaceship, and if that’s the case, is an intelligent life form guiding it from within? Maybe, this is all a misunderstanding because they’ve not seen a mechanically advanced civilization before. We might lose a valuable ally if we launch an attack too rashly. Furthermore, the alien spaceship might be more advanced than the plant for the plant to be of any use…"
Yao Yuan interrupted Ivan. "Professor Ivan, with all due respect, I fear you’ve missed out on 2 important points. No matter whether this thing is an organic spaceship or an intelligent life form, the moment we were ambushed, this became a war! 3 of our men were killed, do you understand?! Don’t reject for the sake of rejecting; a government that is all talk but no action will not survive!
"Since this is a war, communication will only happen when one of us has the other under control! Humanity depends on the last tens of thousands of us surviving. What kind of precedent will we set if we are to surrender and run now? How is the public going to feel protected when its military won’t pick up arms to protect its own people? Do you think humanity can survive with such a mentality?"
Yao Yuan paused to let his argument sink in. "Secondly, I’m more familiar with the habits of the alien plant than you are, Professor Ivan. First, they are harmless to human contact but will consume any other substance to create sand! We’ve seen this in action ourselves through the many experiments conducted by the Academy, haven’t we?
Of course, there is a possibility that the plant won’t harm the alien because it is an intelligent and sentient life form unlike the rats, rabbits, pigs, goats, and cows that we’ve tested the plant on… This is why we have these!"
Yao Yuan turned to the operator and nodded his head. Then a 3D image appeared in the middle of the room.
The image showed about 10 squirming, injured alien creatures. They showcased incredible vitality because despite their bleeding wounds, they bounced again and again against the electromagnetic cage, sometimes even venting their aggression on each other.
"We’ve managed to capture these creatures using the power of the Diviner among the heaps of broken guts and sinews. I’ll hand them over to the Academy, but please be very careful because they are extremely dangerous! To be safe, I’ll assign a trooper to guard over a creature. They’ll be around whenever you conduct the experiment."
Yao Yuan continued, "There are another 16 hours to the next war room meeting. The troopers will spend the next 8 hours resting and will gather here after the other 8 hours to listen to the result of the Academy’s experiments. Hopefully, we can come to a conclusion by then…
"Dismissed."
Chou Yue set the ceramic bowl she had in her hands down carefully. The bowl contained a meal of porridge seasoned with century egg and meat floss. Beside the bowl of piping hot porridge was a plate of kimchi and a salted egg.
Chou Yue sat looking not at the scrumptious meal but the clock that hung before it. It had been almost 8 hours since he had slumped into the room… so he should be awake soon.
Before long, Ren Tao ambled out of his bedroom, rubbing his eyes. Taking in Chou Yue, that sat on the sofa, and the meal assembled before her, he smiled. "Hey, it’s my favorite breakfast. What’s the occasion?"
Chou Yue pouted, "I feel like eating light lately. Why, do you object? Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with you!"
Ren Tao smiled understandingly in return and moved to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He then sat down opposite Chou Yue to eat.
Chou Yue’s mouth curved involuntarily upwards as she watched him wolf down her cooking, but she quickly caught herself. She asked casually, "How fierce is the combat above?"
Ren Tao answered, "It’s nothing serious. We’re on the defense at the moment, so everything’s just routine… a group of men shooting their loads."
Chou Yue scoffed. "Could have told me that without giving me the mental image… Truthfully, the combat’s not going well, is it? I’ve been receiving danger warnings and a suffocating sense of malice with my power even though we’re several thousand meters underground… Right, when I was out buying ingredients, I saw Zhang Heng. He was leaving the hospital to head towards the Captain’s residence."
"Oh, he’s awake?" Ren Tao was startled. He mumbled something to himself before smiling at Chou Yue. "Don’t worry, the combat above is really not that serious… Plus, I’ll be protecting you."
"Yes, I believe you will…"
At Yao Yuan’s place, Zhang Heng was shell-shocked to see Ji Jie saunter out of Yao Yuan’s bedroom. The girl was in her pajamas, yawning as she strode across the living room towards the bathroom. Maybe she was still fuzzy from sleep, because she didn’t appear to notice Zhang Heng standing there, staring gob-smacked at her.
"…Impressive," Zhang Heng whispered under his breath, but it was still loud enough for Yao Yuan to hear him.
"Get your head out of the gutter. She was too traumatized by the dis
gusting aliens that she had trouble sleeping. She’s still a young girl and is living alone, so when she came to me, I lent her one of my rooms…"
Yao Yuan explained nonchalantly before turning serious to ask, "So, the monster’s malice… comes from its unfettered desire to consume us humans, our technology, and the Homo Evolutis?"
Zhang Heng replied, "That’s right. When I was up there, I felt swallowed by that desire before fainting. And in my dream, I saw how the monster was born…
It was truly a nightmare…"
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Chapter154 Evolution
"First there was a vast emptiness, not unlike the space currently around the Hope.
"Within this emptiness, there was a glob of writhing mass of meat. It was unexpectedly huge. Based on my speculation, it was as big as several Earths combined. Furthermore, it was emanating rays of eerie light…
"As the rays shot at the folds of flesh, the meat started decaying and breaking. Bones and sinews started falling apart from the mass of meat. Yes, I felt that it was dying, dying from old age…
"But the process took a long time, taking perhaps several millennia to complete. Using curvature navigation to travel through space on its last legs of life, it stumbled upon a life-supporting planet. It disintegrated just before entering the planet. The excess muscles and weight were abandoned into space while the glob at its disgusting center shot into the planet.
"The growth process that followed was equally long. After another several millennia, a native civilization appeared on this planet. It was an aquatic civilization. With technological advancement came an issue that similarly had troubled us: natural pollution. However, since they survived by ways of water, the effect of the pollution was viscerally felt. Therefore, when they reached the end of their 3rd revolution, their scientific focus was on technology that could reduce pollution. Then…
"When they reached 4th revolution, they had to focus on space travelling technology because the pollution had become too serious for them to undo. When their first spaceship traveled beyond their planet’s orbit… they found a neutron star surging towards their planet."
Yao Yuan stood up in shock. "Wait, a neutron star? You sure? Why was this civilization attacked by a neutron star too? Could it be that it was similarly targeted like Earth?"
Zhang Heng shook his head listlessly. "Who knows? The dream I had described things that happened millennia ago… Plus, I can’t really explain anything because it was all in a dream. Anyway, let me continue. The civilization too was hamstrung by the sudden appearance of the neutron star. Finally, as a last resort, the civilization pooled together to build a large spaceship with their early 4th revolution technology. However, around that time… the glob that hid itself in the planet’s core hatched. Its product was a clot of bacteria, festering like an ugly wound.
"In its weak, initial stage, it could only survive by absorbing the buried plant and animal bodies around it. However, with each absorption, parts of dead bodies’ DNA were translated into the bacteria’s genetic coding. Gradually, the bulk of the bacteria grew.
"Finally, it grew to such a size that it couldn’t hide from the planet’s native civilization anymore. After running out of ideas, the civilization decided to use an H-bomb to blow the bacteria mass up in one go…
"However, things didn’t go as planned. The alien had already released parts of itself into the water source. The bacterial pieces seeped through the ground into the surface water source… Since the natives were aquatic organisms, they were easy pickings for the alien bacteria. They were slowly digested and consumed by the bacteria. From that, the mass of muscle essentially absorbed their technology. It learned how to fire bullets from within its body, how to create electromagnetic shields, and even how to build polymerized reactors. Like many of our myths, the sea granted it an unlimited force of life. It started to reproduce itself in the sea into the monsters we saw aboveground…
"Several years after that, the mass of meat fully digested the planet and left its star system. It started trawling the cosmos for more life-supporting planets to consume. This process repeats ad nauseam until finally it finds itself in this star system."
Zhang Heng leaned back in his chair to take a breath. Ji Jie, who had sat down beside Yao Yuan while Zhang Heng was talking, joined Yao Yuan in his musings.
"Let me confirm. When the meat alien was born, it didn’t know any science, right? And the creatures that it produces are coded with the DNA it previously consumed?" Yao Yuan asked.
Zhang Heng nodded. "You’re correct. Initially, the meat alien was a blank paper. The more organisms it consumes, the more varied the creatures it can produce. Similarly, the more civilizations it consumes, the greater its technology becomes."
Yao Yuan frowned. "But this is weird. Based on what you said, the alien’s mother, before it perished, had to be a level 3 civilization because it could conduct curvature navigation. So how come this meat alien doesn’t have access to those technologies?"
Zhang Heng responded, "Because the mother had gone down the wrong evolution path!"
"Wrong evolution path?" Yao Yuan and Ji Jie asked in unison.
"Yes!"
Zhang Heng explained, "The impression I got from the mother is that this species has a limited lifespan. Therefore, to increase its livelihood, it has to keep on consuming to become stronger and more technologically advanced to stave off death and decay. This is because the consumed civilization will help it improve to a level where its lifespan can be indefinitely increased. However, it is not always that the civilization it consumes will align with that purpose. For example, the mother might be incredibly strong in plant evolution, but that technology has nothing to do with animal cellular resuscitation and revival…
"To borrow an online game analogy, the mother had made the mistake of leveling the wrong skill tree. Unlike in the games though, reality doesn’t allow a reset. Therefore, to prevent its offspring from inheriting its mistakes, the offspring had to start anew. There are different colonies of this species flying through space, and only the strongest among them will survive to reach eternity."
An exasperated Yao Yuan shook his head. He added, "Alright, let’s sum up all we have said so far. First, this meat alien depends on consumption of DNA to produce a monster army to protect its main body, is that right?"
"Yes," Zhang Heng confirmed.
"Secondly, it also relies on this consumption to increase its technological level. For example, the reactors we saw came from the aquatic civilization. Is that true?" Yao Yuan continued.
"There is somewhat of a difference. This meat alien has a central consciousness that allows it to combine the technology it has absorbed and the monsters that it can produce. In my dream, I saw cannon monsters, bomber monsters, explosive monsters, Gaussian rifle monsters, and the like…"
Yao Yuan nodded. "This means the more varied the DNA and the greater the civilizations it absorbs, the more diverse the types of monster it can create… Also, its current technological level is at the early 4th revolution, right? Could that improve if we leave it on its own?"
"The ability to conflate DNA and technology aside, this alien doesn’t have a creative mind. All of its technological increases came from the consumption of other civilizations. Currently, it is definitely in its early 4th revolution, so technology-wise we have the upper hand," Zhang Heng replied.
"Is that so…?" Yao Yuan asked suddenly, "Then does it have any weaknesses? Is that revealed in your dream?"
"Sadly, no." Zhang Heng paused before adding, "It doesn’t appear to fear anything, not a new virus, bacteria, plants, or animals. This is because it can consume the organism to restructure its own genes. It might be harmed initially, but that contact will allow it to create antibodies out of the consumed DNA. It can consume and absorb everything and anything…"
Upon hearing that, Yao Yuan had a flashback to the monsters�
�� retreat and their deliberate deed of retrieving the monster carcasses… Since the monsters had a central consciousness, this meant that the main body had an intended purpose for the carcasses. Could it be that the bodies could be used to create stronger monsters?
Yao Yuan had a sneaking feeling that he had forgotten something important… Suddenly, his communicator rang. He was startled but picked it up quickly, saying, "This is Yao Yuan. What’s wrong?"
"…Captain, could you please come to the biology lab…
"The monster cells have consumed the alien plants to evolve into an abnormal individual cell!"
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Chapter155 Supercell
The update from the bio lab was devastating.
The Barracks had provided many war plans to deal with the alien on Moon 2. The 3 most feasible were: one, to build a giant H-bomb. The Barracks intended to utilize 1/3 of the planet’s water as hydrogen raw material and heavy water to build a giant H-bomb. An H-bomb that size should be able to blow up Moon 2 with the alien still attached to it.
However, the plan had multiple difficulties. First was to draw such an amount of water there had to be constructions of several enormous buildings, like nuclear fission plants and fission energy generators. The buildings themselves also had to be manned by trained personnel. The entire process would take about 10 years.
Moon 2 would be drained way before that, so the first plan was a fail.
The second plan was to create ‘that’ thing. This thing was the ultimate weapon of the 4th revolution, a weapon of mass destruction that was on a different scale compared to the 3rd revolution H-bombs. The thing was called the Genesis, an electromagnetically based tactical weapon!
Using the core 4th revolution technology, electromagnetism was employed to create micro heatwaves. The heatwaves were then amplified through reflective mirrors. Through the energy of a large polymerized reactor, the heat waves could be multiplied to form a heat ray that was more than several thousand meters wide. This was the ultimate weapon from mankind’s 4th revolution, an energy weapon that had heavy inspiration from 5th revolution technology!