Age of Cosmic Exploration

It had been 3 days and 3 nights since the creator’s particle was activated.

Within these 3 days, the Hope’s public went on with their lives like nothing had happened. They reported to work every morning, gossiped with one another during breaks, and returned home to have dinner with their family after work. Their main topic of conversation was, of course, the Earth-like planet, the planet that they could one day call home.

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.