"This one looks familiar." The puppet lay on my lap, looking at the image projected by the MDT. The probe in the deep space had approached the target as ordered. It was now following the bright flame in front of it at the same speed. The intense energy interference caused the image to shake occasionally. The probe AI was trying to get as close to the core of the flame as possible to send back the clearest image.
The image was now at the clearest in theory. I could see that the radiant fireball had a glaring bluish-white color. At its core was a cluster of crystallized substances that looked like crystal dust. The crystallized substances were connected by some sort of translucent structure. It was a core that was half matter and half energy. This familiar structure, as well as the intense energy interference …
This was an EOP-03 that had been activated and was orbiting the planet. It was not the local artificial sun!
"Let's go and find Sandora!" I picked up the puppet and put it on my shoulder. I strode towards the door. As I passed through the door, I heard a loud bang above my shoulder. Then, the puppet fell backward.
I turned to look and noticed something. The gate of the battleship's lounge was two meters tall, and I was 1.85 meters tall. If the little doll sat on my shoulder, it would definitely be more than two meters tall. The doll girl seemed to be angry, and her single-edged canine teeth glinted coldly.
It was not the first time I had made this mistake. The door frames at home were almost all damaged because of this. But it seemed that the gate on the battleship was much stronger than the door frame at home. Similarly, Lamp was now even angrier.
A moment later, I came to the bridge of the Admiral of the Empire. Sandora and a few senior generals were analyzing the space readings, looking for the specific location of the space fold where Halland was hiding. The five Protoss Cops were looking at the equipment, not knowing what was going on. Elson was discussing with his sister whether the tactical radar could receive the movie channel. Icetis was the first to notice me. She looked surprised. "Why is the child hanging up again?"
I smiled awkwardly and raised my right hand. Xiao Deng was biting my wrist as if she was a small fish on a hook. I shook her hand twice, and the little girl fluttered in the wind. Even if she died, she wouldn't let go.
"Just a small problem. She will probably be hanging up for half a day. She will have to open her mouth when it's time to eat. Okay, let's not talk about this. Sandora, I found something." I ignored the little body hanging on my wrist and transferred the MDT in my hand to the projector on the officer's platform. "The Deep Space Probe found something terrible in the sky above the native planet. Could it be Halland's doing? Did he use it to threaten the natives?"
Right now, I was eager to find evidence of the Fallen Apostle threatening the local natives or destroying world peace. Halan leading his destructive army in this universe was simply too incongruous. If I didn't find any traces of his destruction, I would feel sorry for my worldview. This mentality was probably the same as squatting in a three-leaf bush and trying to find a four-leaf clover. It was an incurable disease with full-body spreading obsessive-compulsive disorder in the middle and late stages …
The image from the Deep Space Probe immediately attracted the attention of everyone on the officer's platform, including the five Protoss Cops. Of course, although I could not understand their motives, they looked pretty good.
Shadora adjusted the angle of the probe and said, "EOP-03. But why does this model look so weird? It's much bigger than the regular model, and the core structure is different too." Shadora retreated the probe and observed the deadly asteroid incendiary bomb from a distance. "It's cruising along the low-Earth orbit. It doesn't seem to have received the order to land yet. There's still a chance of success if we intercept it now."
"Of course, we have to stop it," the elder sister said without hesitation. "It must have been left by Halland. He has finally attacked the natives. I will go there myself. My probabilistic ability should be able to stop the bomb from activating. "
"Wait!" Just as the elder sister was about to intercept the asteroid incendiary bomb, Sandora suddenly saw something on the image. She immediately waved her hand to stop her. "That's... the natives' spaceship? Probe, go over there. "
Something we did not expect appeared on the image. From the dark gray planet below EOP-03, several strange-looking spaceships were suddenly launched. The spaceships looked like elongated ellipsoids with complex energy patterns floating on their surface. I could not tell whether they were battleships or something else. These chubby spaceships were a few kilometers long. They must have anti-gravity technology to be able to take off from the atmosphere. We watched in confusion as these spaceships flew straight toward the asteroids in low-Earth orbit, like a small group of moths flying toward a blazing sun. Of course, this sun was a little too small. We thought these spaceships were launched by the natives in an attempt to intercept the deadly weapon. If that was the case, EOP-03 would undoubtedly explode, and it would be too late for us to do anything. The elder sister exclaimed softly, and Sandora let out a sigh. However, just as we were imagining the tragic scene of the planet melting in an instant, an incredible scene appeared.
The several fat ellipsoidal spaceships were parked safely near EOP-03. The bomb did not react to these large space entities at all, as if its detonator and AI had been turned off. The spaceships followed the bomb for a while before their outer shells slowly opened up and turned into several cross-shaped structures. The inner walls of the ellipsoidal spaceships flickered with a faint blue light, looking like a charged prism. Then … then they followed the terrifying bomb and moved along with it!
"This is … Is this collecting energy from EOP-03?" Sandora gaped, and even Her Majesty the Queen could not help but stare blankly. "Probe, read the energy readings of the bomb."
Soon, we collected the energy readings of the outer layer of EOP-03. Just as Sandora had guessed, when the prism spaceships unfurled their 'sails', the energy readings of the outer layer of the bomb fell steadily. Believe it or not, the core of EOP-03 began to replenish the energy for the outer layer. Believe it or not, this had achieved a dynamic equilibrium. The strange bomb should have exploded under such circumstances, but it actually began to steadily release energy!
"These spaceships are shining their light on the ground and projecting the energy they collected to the receiving station on the surface of the planet." Sives looked at the other information transmitted by the probe and said in surprise, "This is a collection system. It is providing energy to the human settlements on the surface of the planet, even though... even though its energy source is a little shocking."
"Is there still no movement from Halland?" Sandora suddenly looked up at Sives and asked a very unexpected question.
"Yes, Your Majesty. The fleet of the Fallen Apostles has completely stopped responding. I have no idea what they are doing."
"Prepare a spaceship for me. I want to personally go to that planet and make contact with the natives." Sandora stood up, her face full of curiosity. "I had originally planned to make contact with them in a few days, but now it seems that this world is quite interesting."
"I will go with you." I stood up as well. "I can look after them."
Actually, I did not say everything. More importantly, I was also quite curious about how those crazy natives managed to do such a sensational thing! Collecting resources from EOP-03?! Not even Tawil dared to think of such a thing!
"Your Majesty, will this be dangerous?" Sives was worried. "Halland's army could be at any time..."
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. That fellow should not appear for the time being. Xiaoxue, will you be alright?"
Sandora looked at Xiaoxue, who closed her eyes and shook her head. "There is no need to worry about the future of this trip. Dad, are you really not going to bring me along?"
"Cut the crap. Stay at the back and watch the house," I said decisively. I would not bring too many people on this trip. It would be enough for me and Sandora to check out the situation. After all, we were not going there for fun. There was no reason for us to bring our entire family along for an investigation. Moreover, we did need someone to watch the back. I saw that the few little ones were also eager to go, so I decisively shoved them all to Big Sister's side. It was not that I could not understand their feelings, but this universe was not safe. It could even be said to be very dangerous. Halland was lurking somewhere in the space. Both sides were now in a strange state of equilibrium. Sandora and I could guarantee that we would be able to go back and forth safely because I was confident in my Void power. However, if we were to bring a bunch of little kids along, the situation would not be so certain.
It was one thing to train, but another to lead the kids through landmines — I could not do it.
A small shuttle quickly departed from the Admiral of the Empire. Sandora and I set off for the intrepid native planet to check out the situation. There were only three people traveling with us: Vega, and the Asida and Asidora sisters.
Scorpion Soldier Vega was a bodyguard. Although I did not think it was necessary to bring a bodyguard — because I did not know if it would be me and Sandora protecting the bodyguard or the bodyguard protecting the two of us — this reason was rather hurtful. Given Vega's stubborn character, she would certainly not accept it. She showed her determination with her duty as a soldier and her iron blood loyalty. So, Sandora and I had no choice but to bring her along. As for the Asida and Asidora sisters, they were really there to prevent any unexpected situations.
The pair of Dimensional Twins were like a jack of all trades in this kind of mission. They could attack or retreat at will. If the situation called for it, they could instantly summon an entire fleet to help. If they needed to retreat, they could lead everyone back safely. Not only that, there was nothing that could hinder their teleportation ability. I felt that they were basically instant AOE Hearthstones that didn't even have a cooldown. I couldn't think of a class more suitable for exploring maps than them.
On the way, Sandora also shared her opinion, which made me more aware of the strange nature of the EOP-03.
"First of all, as a bomb, EOP-03 can't operate stably as an energy source," Shadora explained. "The bomb in orbit has already released the surrounding radiation clouds, so it's in an activated state. This kind of bomb will explode at any time when it's activated, and it can't operate for a long time. It has to detonate within a certain period of time, just like a grenade that has already gone off. So I don't think anyone can use the EOP-03 as an energy source. "
"Secondly, we can now rule out the possibility that the bomb came from Halland. Let's not talk about why it can release energy stably like an artificial star. In short, the local natives are absorbing psionic energy from the EOP-03. They have a specialized collection spacecraft, and the collection process looks familiar. This is not something that can be mastered in a day or two. I don't know how long this bomb has existed in this universe. It existed before Halland came here, and the local natives are familiar with it. It has even become a part of their lives. "
"Finally, the model of the bomb is very strange." Sandora exhaled softly. "The EOP-03 does have many variations to meet different power requirements, but I have never seen this kind: it is so big, but the energy intensity does not seem to be very high. Forget it, I won't understand these things in a short time. Let's hope we can find the answer when we arrive at our destination."
The shuttle took only a moment to reach our destination: we were above the grayish-black planet.
It was dark in space, and there were not many stars in this dying universe. The only bright celestial body was a red dwarf two astronomical units away from us. It was a warm and brilliant sun a long time ago, but now it only emitted a dark red light that was many times dimmer than before. There were some obvious dark areas on the surface due to the uneven temperature. The accumulation of heavy elements and the continued weakening of the core reaction had caused the volume of this gaseous planet to plummet. From our perspective, it was not much bigger than a peanut.
The remaining stars in the universe were basically like this.
After a star becomes a red dwarf, the celestial system around it will undergo catastrophic changes. The exponential decline of the star's energy radiation will destroy all life in the original habitable zone around it. If you want to survive around a red dwarf, you have to be very, very close to the latter. The habitable zone of a red dwarf is ridiculously close, and the rocky planet below us is obviously too far away from its dark sun. So, it has its own special energy source — an EOP-03 bomb that fell into this world at some point in time.
The bright psionic fireball was orbiting the planet less than ten kilometers in front of the shuttle, and the egg-shaped energy harvesting ship around it kept pace with it. Our shuttle was in stealth mode, so the locals would not notice us. I turned on the shuttle's projection device and looked at the surface of the planet below. What I saw was a colonized planet that had been deeply modified.
An endless stretch of tall buildings covered almost every corner of the planet. These buildings were of the same style. They all had round, eggshell-like domes and prisms with angular bodies. I had never seen such a style of straight lines and arcs before. As it could no longer receive sufficient light from the sun, the planet was illuminated by artificial lights. The fusion devices used for illumination (and may also have the function of heating the planet's atmosphere) were suspended above the atmospheric dome, arranged in a matrix and synchronized with the planet. These things reminded me of the artificial sun array in the ruined world, but the fusion furnaces in front of me were obviously more advanced, and they were well maintained. The array of fusion furnaces looked like they had put on a jewel-encrusted gauze coat. The surface of the planet looked prosperous, with endless traffic. Below the atmospheric stratosphere was a busy three-dimensional transportation network.
On this planet, I only saw the words "peace and stability" and "business as usual." The natives here seemed to have no idea that a group of uninvited guests had entered their universe. Halland did not disturb them, and the large-scale invasion of the Imperial Army did not attract the attention of the natives. Of course, it was also possible that this planet was purely a colony, and the civilians and guards here were completely unaware of the above.
Speaking of which, we had not officially contacted the natives of this universe. They had already spread across the entire universe, so of course they had the ability to see the sudden appearance of the Imperial Army at the edge of the universe. But they did not seem to have any reaction, which was really strange.
"The life forms of the natives are highly humanoid. We can openly land, or we can blend in with the natives first." Sandora looked at the collection report of the probe and waved her hand at me. "Of course, I think we can just blend in and find their database. There is no need to contact the planet's government now."
Everyone nodded in agreement. So, we remained invisible and landed in a giant city on the surface of the planet that looked to be the most prosperous place. Sandora put away the shuttle and activated her Mind Interference Field. This force field ensured that the natives would not be surprised by our sudden appearance, and it would allow them to ignore our "strange clothes".
Just like that, the natives around us did not think that there was anything to be surprised about a few strangers appearing out of thin air in the square. I took the opportunity to look around. I was now at a civic gathering point in the city. It could also be some other facility, but it looked like a square. The square was filled with people, and the clothes of the natives were, of course, strange to me. It looked like a variety of robes or hooded cloaks of different lengths, and the color was mostly black. The texture gave the feeling that it was a mixture of fabric and plastic: soft, but with the luster of plastic. This kind of traditional dress looked a little lifeless, and it gave me the feeling that the FFF group had come out to parade.
Of course, this city was not lifeless. There were many residents here, and the pedestrians could be said to be bustling with activity. And no one expressed any surprise at the slowly gliding EOP-03 in the sky.
The scene was really too strange.
"What is that?" Sandora looked around and directly grabbed a woman who happened to walk past us. There was a golden halo in her eyes, and she used Mind Interference to control the woman in front of her. After that, she raised her hand and asked the orbital bomb in the sky.
The woman who was grabbed by Sandora was stunned for a moment. Then, she instantly ignored the inappropriateness of the question and answered as if it was as natural as answering the weather today.
"Energy furnace, the energy furnace that the Supreme General left for us."
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