The lunar base already knew about the fierce battle taking place on the Zenith. It was not that there was a problem with the drone cluster's signal blockade, but as long as one was not blind, one could see a large number of flickering light spots around the bright spot in space. A slightly more sophisticated optical observation equipment was enough to clearly see that the space station in the high orbit of the mother planet was being "besieged" by a group of unknown weapons of war.
War was inevitable. At least in the eyes of the people on the lunar base, they were in a new war.
In fact, the moment the drone cluster blocked the Zenith's communication network, the lunar base had issued a high security alert, and thousands of optical observation stations and radar antennas turned in that direction. The inhabitants of the Moon tried to figure out what was going on, but other than optical observation, all other means of communication, including all secret channels and emergency communication channels, were just clutter, and the radar sent back a completely unrecognizable distorted signal.
Without the convenient means of communication and radar observation, the Executors on the moon found that they could only rely on their eyes to understand the situation on the battlefield in the distance. These advanced artificial intelligence lifeforms felt as if they had suddenly fallen into some kind of ancient era, and had to use the most primitive means to gather information and formulate a strategy. Just like what was recorded in the Great Think Tank, humans in the Middle Ages relied on waving flags, lighting fireworks, and "looking at me" to send signals on the battlefield. And now, the Executors were doing the same. This caused the orderly society on the moon to be in a rare state of panic.
But under the control of the Cortex Prime in the fortress, order was quickly restored. A series of response orders were issued from the fortress. A large number of space fighters took off from the lunar base, and the rarely used fast gunships roared out of the spaceport. According to the optical observation results, the Zenith was besieged by a mysterious enemy that was extremely agile. Heavy battleships and heavy gunships were probably useless against it. Only a large number of rapid-fire cannons could deal an effective blow to those monsters. So the troops that took off from the lunar base were basically this kind of fast unit.
Of course, the more important reason was that the Executors did not have many heavy spaceships at their disposal. In the process of fighting against the planet devourer, the heavy spaceships that could only carry out space bombing missions were almost useless. As early as a decade ago, these antiques were almost obsolete.
Hao Ren naturally saw the reinforcements rising from the surface of the moon.
The cleverly camouflaged attack craft (Lily gave the craft a temporary name of "Trojan Horse") was approaching the moon according to its predetermined trajectory. Although it did not come into direct contact with the reinforcements taking off from the moon's surface, the appearance of such a damaged craft landing was undoubtedly quite eye-catching. Therefore, Hao Ren was worried that the "Trojan Horse" would soon be seen through, but as time went by, he found that his worry seemed to be unnecessary.
The aircraft was passing through all the identification checkpoints, even though it did not have a real pilot.
In the cockpit of the spacecraft, the MDT was sitting on the seat. The MDT projected a vivid holographic image of the original pilot of the spacecraft. This was to deal with the automatic image acquisition equipment on some inspection platforms. On the screen in front of the pilot, the conversation between the lunar security system and the onboard computer was continuously displayed.
"Tower XX is calling Flight Unit XXXX. Submit identification code."
"Flight Unit XXXX has submitted identification code. Request to pass through Barrier No. 1."
"Flight Unit XXXX is calling Flight Unit XXXX to record the reason for your behavior."
"Flight Unit XXXX is responding. I was attacked on the Zenith battlefield and lost the ability to fight back. The space station was blockaded by the enemy and could not return to the station for maintenance. Therefore, I have to urgently go to the lunar base to perform maintenance procedures."
"Tower XX is relaying instructions. The Cortex Prime has listed the Zenith's intelligence as a high priority. Please upload the battlefield recorder."
"Flight Unit XXXX understood. Uploading the battlefield recorder …"
On one side was the onboard computer, whose core program had been modified by the autonomous robots, and on the other side was the customs AI of the lunar security system. The two computers, which were not very intelligent, were chatting with each other in an automatic question-and-answer program.
Hao Ren had long anticipated that the Zenith would be highly regarded by the Cortex Prime on the moon, so he had prepared a detailed battlefield record in the onboard computer in advance. Now, it seemed that the battlefield record had come in handy.
During this process, the "Trojan Horse" finally passed all the air traffic control barriers and slowly descended above a building complex composed of a large number of hemispherical domes on the moon. One of the domes in the building complex received a request to enter the port, so the hemispherical dome immediately opened a circular hole big enough for a fighter jet to enter, and a large number of operating mechanical structures could be seen in the hole.
This was the automated maintenance factory built by the Executors.
"I didn't expect it to be so easy," Hao Ren could not help but say to N-6 as the spacecraft slowly descended into the domed building. "The entire process is controlled by the automatic system, and it doesn't seem to be particularly intelligent. If you had arranged for some advanced AI, such as a bionic robot like you, I am afraid it would not be so easy to sneak in. At least you could have asked some more flexible questions. "
"But that would greatly reduce efficiency and waste the life of our logic circuit," N-6 shook her head. "The automatic system is enough. It is efficient, fast, and can process large numbers of incoming and outgoing data. If it were not for the emergence of people like you who are far more technologically advanced than us, the automatic identification system would not be so easily deceived. And if it were an opponent of your level, I believe that even if the identification system is upgraded, it would be useless. You can easily come up with a new response plan."
The robot lady's logical judgment was so simple and straightforward, and she did not feel embarrassed by the fact that her race was in a weak position at all. It was as if she was just stating the facts, which made Hao Ren a little embarrassed.
"Ahem, in fact, if it is not necessary, we would like to establish communication with a survivor civilization like yours through normal channels," Hao Ren said, rubbing his nose. "But I really have no choice."
At this time, Lily glanced at the screen hanging in the cabin. "Mr. Landlord, Mr. Landlord, we are flying in … It seems that something is coming."
After entering the dome, the spacecraft's control was automatically taken over by the building's maintenance system. To prevent triggering an alarm, the MDT did not stop the process. At this moment, Hao Ren looked outside and saw the Executor was being grabbed by a set of powerful robotic arms and sent to a metal platform. A large number of servos were rising from the ground around the platform, and each small robotic arm was equipped with a red electronic eye. They were moving around the battered spacecraft to check the damage of the war machine and to come up with a repair plan. If this went on, they would soon discover the abnormality of the spacecraft.
But Hao Ren had already prepared for this. As the maintenance platform was activated, the hatch of the spacecraft opened a small gap, and a blue light rushed out in a blink of an eye. It was so fast that the nearest robotic arm only slightly tilted its steel head, and the electronic eye on the claw blinked twice, and the blue light was just a normal lens reflection.
But the MDT had quietly flown to the corner of the maintenance workshop. Based on the information provided by N-4, it easily found the hexagonal metal device installed on the wall. This was the control center of the maintenance workshop, and it was also connected to all the automated systems of the entire nearby complex.
The MDT stuck itself on the surface of the metal device, and a large number of data and graphics immediately refreshed on the front of the metal device. With the injection of foreign code, the threads on the screen changed from green to red, which meant that they were reporting errors, and then everything returned to normal.
At least on the surface, it looked normal.
"The virus has taken effect, partner," the MDT said. "The infection area is expanding. You can come out now."
The belly of the Trojan Horse made a slight mechanical friction sound, and then the camouflage armor plate flipped open. Hao Ren and the others jumped out one by one. They swaggered around under the watchful eyes of a large number of electronic eyes, but the surrounding robotic arms did not respond.
Lily curiously poked the nearest robotic arm with her claws. The robotic arm then moved aside sluggishly, but other than that, there was no other reaction.
"Stop poking, these things won't respond." Hao Ren patted Lily on the head to calm the husky's curiosity. "The MDT has injected a virus into all the systems of this maintenance center, and now they believe that they are performing a complex but smooth maintenance program."
"The virus can't provide cover for too long," N-6 reminded. "According to the protocol, the pilot of this attack plane needs to report to the nearest barracks within an hour and execute the combat data extraction program. So we only have an hour. After that, the Executors will know that there is a problem here, and so will the Cortex Prime."
Hao Ren nodded. "That's enough. We just need to get out of this place."
All the systems in the maintenance center had been infected by the virus. As the Executor society was based on artificial intelligence and automatic control systems, everything in the maintenance center was controlled by computers. So Hao Ren and his team almost left the place openly. Except for some patrolling soldiers, they did not have to worry about any surveillance equipment.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
