Civil war …
Gwen stood on the edge of Melita's back as he looked past the massive draconic wings and stared for a long time at the distant 'horizon' where the port was torn apart and the wreckage of the spaceship that was blasted into three sections by some powerful weapon. The scale of the wreckage was so shocking that even a piece of it floating in the void was almost the size of a castle. And just thinking about how indestructible it was when it was intact, the power that destroyed it was even more terrifying.
Indeed, only the weapon of the Voyager could destroy their own legacy so completely.
"I've carefully observed the wreckage." Melita's voice came from the front. "Some of them were destroyed without resistance. The spaceships are docked in the port, and the defense weapons of the nearby facilities are still locked, while some … were destroyed in the internal melee. The port attacked the spaceships, and the spaceships bombed the port. The wreckage was mixed into a pile, and there are traces of collisions … It feels like the command system here has suddenly gone mad and fought with itself, and the result of this terrible 'civil war' is that there is only one intact spaceship left in this' mother port '…"
Gwen listened quietly to Melita, and for a moment he did not know if he should be relieved that the sentinels were seriously damaged in the system conflict, or be shocked by the terrible destruction before him. He only had a complicated expression and a low voice. "You're right … the command system here has indeed gone mad."
"Indeed gone mad?" Melita tilted her head slightly. She was not in the hut before, so she did not know the message left by the elven twins. "What does this mean?"
"… The mother port you see in front of you is the 'Sentinel', and those destroyed spaceships should be the 'execution and investigation mechanism' under the control of the Sentinel." Gwen sorted out the information he had just received in his mind as he slowly said, "This ancient system was built by the Voyager 1.8 million years ago, but at least a thousand years ago, it had been contaminated by the reverse tide, and the Sentinel's originally mechanized system had a mind, a mind full of malice …"
With a deep voice, he recounted everything he had seen in the hut. Not only did he include the Sentinel's origins, but he also included the Elven Twins and Modiel Werde. During his narration, Melita appeared especially solemn and silent. Apart from flapping her wings to maintain her flight from time to time, all her energy seemed to be immersed in the shocking truth and the massive amount of information that Gawain had brought.
While he could not see Melita's face from this angle, Gwen could feel the emotional changes of the blue dragon lady. She was obviously shocked and seemed to be frightened.
"That's the basic situation," Gwen finally said. "Now we have made some speculations based on the information we have. We think that the Reverse Tide who had escaped from the tower is now being held back by the Mistress of the Night, and the Sentinel, who has successfully entered the real world, may be taking a new action because they have been unable to rendezvous with the Reverse Tide. This action is most likely related to the changes in the Deep Blue Network."
"Speculations …" Melita said slowly, and then she was obviously disappointed and even had serious self-doubt. "At least a thousand years ago, the contamination had leaked out … Then what has Tarlonde been monitoring all these years …"
Monitoring loneliness — Gwen almost said this subconsciously, but considering that Melita was likely to lose her mind on the spot, he did not dare to say it out loud.
"Tarlonde's monitoring at least ensured that the Reverse Tide could not directly spread out in the real world. If this is destined to be a disaster, then this disaster has been delayed by you for 1.8 million years." Gwen thought for a moment and shook his head. "The spread of the Reverse Tide in the Voyager's Legacy should be unavoidable. Neither you nor your gods could have monitored the Sentinel system, so you have done all you can."
"But this disaster was planted by us Giant Dragons in the first place," Melita said very soberly. As a Giant Dragon, her pride made it impossible for her to avoid the mistakes that her clan had made. "If we had not rashly started the Reverse Tide Plan, we would not have created such an out-of-control monster in the Voyager's Legacy, and all this would not have happened at all …"
At this point, she paused for a moment and said slowly in a particularly solemn tone, "If the final battle breaks out, the Giant Dragon clan can be the vanguard … This is what Speaker Andal wants me to convey."
"… You don't have many 'people' left," Gwen said faintly. "If you continue to fight like this, you may be wiped out."
"We are just surviving. According to the original plan of the Dragons, we should have died during the coming of age ceremony," Melita said, shaking her head slightly. "And for the Giant Dragon, abandoning the responsibility is no different from death."
Gwen did not say anything more, and there was no need for him to say anything more. Melita's attitude at this moment not only represented that she was a 'person', but it also represented the will of the entire clan behind her. The Giant Dragon … This special race had always been tenacious and united. They could endure for more than a million years for the coming of age ceremony, and engrave the plan of extinction in the bottom of every member's mind. So when they made a new decision … no one could persuade them otherwise.
What's more, this was indeed the consequence of their actions a million years ago.
"Anyway, now we finally have a clear timeline," Gwen said slowly. "The infection of the sentinels and the Reverse Tide, the process of losing control is no longer as confusing as before."
Melita nodded slightly. At the same time, a clear timeline was gradually outlined in her mind.
At least a thousand years ago, the body of the Reverse Tide was still trapped in the tower, but its corruption had begun to spread through the Voyager's Legacy and contaminated the Sentinel system in the deep sea. Then, an experiment accident occurred in the Kingdom of Gondor, and the sisters Rayna and Firna were teleported to the Sentinel's mother port in the accident. They were captured and cloned by the Sentinel, who had lost control of their memories, and were then trapped in the wreckage of the Giant Reincarnation Tree. The Sentinel transferred its mind into the body of one of the Elven Twins, and successfully broke free from its own program and entered the mortal world.
In the hundreds of years after that, the Sentinel lay dormant in the human world, and its identity changed from an academic consultant of the Rebellion to a dark priest of the Order of All Things End. The sisters Rayna, who were trapped in the Sentinel's mother port, gradually found out the truth, recovered their memories, and realized the threat of the Sentinel.
Six hundred years ago, Modir entered the Tower of the Reverse Tide and was contaminated by the Reverse Tide. He was then rescued and purified by the Dragon God, but the effect of this purification was questionable. In the next ten years, Modir continued to adventure around the world until he went missing on an adventure to the north of the continent. Now it was known that he actually fell into the Sentinel's mother port in the deep sea, and appeared before the trapped Elven Twins. At that time, he had begun to come into contact with the power of the Mistress of the Night and showed signs of memory instability. The Elven Twins told Modir about the Sentinel's warning, but the latter then split. Half of the Elven Twins carried the Sentinel's warning into the Mistress of the Night's divine kingdom, while the other half returned to the mortal world and began to wander without memory.
At the same time, during this period of time, Reverse Tide's real body finally broke free from the seal of the tower with the help of the Dark Blue Crevice. It was not certain whether Reverse Tide had taken any other actions after breaking free, but one thing was certain: Reverse Tide should be trapped in the Umbra Divine Kingdom at this moment.
What happened after that … was the Order of All Things End stirring up trouble everywhere in the old Ansu, while the Sentinel, who turned into the Elven Twins, quietly planned its sinister plan. Until Cecil rose and the Order of All Things End truly fell, the Sentinel could no longer find help in the human world, so it retreated into the Gondor wastelands and continued to stir up trouble …
While Melita was deep in thought, Gwen did not speak again. But he was not in a daze, but in a focused state, sinking his consciousness and communicating with the surveillance satellite in the orbit of the planet and the Firmament Orbital Station.
The 'deep sea' environment could not interfere with the advanced legacy of the Voyager. Even though Gwen and the Firmament Station were separated by many layers of different dimensions, he still successfully contacted his true form and the orbiting space station. After a slight dizziness and a sense of 'spiritual detachment', his vision gradually expanded, and the familiar satellite monitoring interface and the interactive interface of the Firmament Station appeared in front of his' eyes' at the same time.
Gwen calmed himself down and began to perform an operation he had done many times before. "Firmament, activate all online facilities, including the surface units."
The next second, countless blue light spots and a huge star ring appeared above the planet diagram in front of him. Those were the satellite array, the space station group, and the Firmament Station itself in space. After a moment of delay, the projection of a tower representing the orbital elevator also appeared on the planet's surface. These were all the facilities that the Firmament Station could contact at the moment.
Of course, most of them were only "connected". The ancient satellites and space stations that had been shut down were basically unable to perform any tasks. Compared to the Sentinel system in the deep sea, the status of the conventional satellites was obviously much worse.
Perhaps only the Firmament Station was in a better state, but Gwen's control over it was limited.
Gwen silently looked at these flashing projections in front of his' eyes'. After a moment of contemplation, he once again contacted the main control system of the Firmament Station. "Is there no more connection facilities?"
The main control system of the Firmament Station sent a cold and mechanical response in the depth of his consciousness. "The list has been activated."
"… Checking level system, codename 'Sentinel'." After a moment of silence, Gwen asked again.
"… Error, Sentinel system is offline, unable to determine status."
Gwen's heart skipped a beat. The Firmament Station's reply was not 'no such information' but 'Sentinel system is offline'. This meant that under normal circumstances, there should be some kind of communication protocol between the main control system of the Firmament Station and the Sentinel system!
His mind raced, thinking about what could be useful in front of him and whether there was a 'key point' between the Sentinel system and the Firmament Station that he could intervene in. He knew that he had to be very careful because the Sentinel system and the Firmament Station were on the same level, and the Firmament Station authority that he obtained through the 'bug' might not be able to deal with this situation. On the other hand, the 'reverse tide' that contaminated the Sentinel system was a huge threat to the Voyager's legacy. He did not know whether a 'foreign soul' like himself would be affected when facing this kind of pollution.
If he was not careful, Gwen would also be screwed over.
While thinking, he continued to communicate with the Firmament Station. "Has the Sentinel sent back an error log?"
The Firmament Station continued to give a cold and mechanical response. "Invalid query. Level systems do not need to send error logs to each other."
"When was the last communication from the Sentinel system?"
"System backtracking … The last data communication was 1355 planetary revolution cycles ago."
1355 years ago … This was probably the real time when the Sentinel system went out of control, and also the time when the reverse tide pollution spread to the deep sea.
Gwen silently noted this new clue in his heart, and then deliberated for a while before he spoke again. "… If there is some kind of evidence that proves that the Sentinel system has a fatal failure and must be destroyed to prevent the whole system from collapsing, what should I do?"
He waited expectantly, but the cold and stiff Firmament Station did not respond to his special question.
This might be beyond the Firmament Station's ability to deal with, or perhaps … he had not found the 'key point'.
He continued to try, trying to dig out more secrets about the Sentinel system from the limited response of the Firmament Station, and a feasible plan to destroy the out-of-control system.
After a long time, Gwen opened his eyes on Melita's back. He saw the steel ground below was slowly moving backward, and right below was a 'tower forest' built on an alloy platform, composed of countless silver-gray and pale gold prisms. Electric arcs flashed in the depths of the tower forest, and ancient lights lit up the surroundings. Melita's voice came from the front. "You've woken up from your 'meditation'?"
"Ah, yes."
"I heard that you occasionally meditate like just now," Melita said. "After meditating, you'll solve a lot of problems. Is it the same this time?"
"… In the face of today's super trouble, one meditation may not be enough," Gwen said helplessly. At the same time, he was a little curious. "What's down there?"
"The center of the entire 'mother port'. I'm actually looking for the control center here, but that place looks like an energy node … This' mother port 'is too big. We may not understand its structure in a thousand years. "
Gwen did not say anything. He just silently looked down at the 'tower forest' flashing with electric arcs. He heard Melita's voice again. "Say, if we blow this place up, can we destroy the entire 'mother port'?"
"First of all, I have a question — what do you use to blow this thing up?" Gwen sighed. "Use the magic of friendship?"
"… Although I don't know what the magic of friendship is, I guess the most powerful magic and weapon in the world won't work," Melita said helplessly. "Let's not talk about the scale of that thing first. The strength of the energy floating around it is more than the combined power of Tarlonde's Great Shield in the past. I can't think of any weapon that can break through the energy barrier below … Not to mention, this' mother port 'may still have some kind of automatic counterattack mechanism left …"
The blue dragon lady shook her head as she spoke. "We can fly around here now, maybe because we haven't done anything threatening. But once we show some kind of hostility, the 'immunity' function of this mother port will probably be activated …"
Gwen scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Immunity, huh …"
(End of Chapter)
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