Today was the second day after we returned to the Divine Fog planet.
The Divine Fog planet's boundless helium-nitrogen-hydrogen ocean floated a large cluster of new buildings. The soldiers who participated in the Battle of Kepru would definitely be very familiar with this magnificent cluster of buildings: the City of General.
After understanding that the Mobrador system would inevitably become the frontline, we built a second base here. The Empire General sank into the clouds twenty thousand kilometers behind it, unfolding into a steel fortress on the surface of the vast ocean under astonishing pressure. With this fortress as the center, more munitions factories and beacons were being built in full swing. Currently, they were already in their embryonic form. These flickering buildings were like ghosts floating on the ocean under the dense rolling clouds of the Divine Fog planet.
We had already sunk the 'Mausoleum' beneath the City of General, turning it into an undersea ghost city. After some simple research, the Empire technicians found a way to control this doomsday fortress and completely repaired it. They were surprised to find that the structural strength of this ruin was still at its maximum. If necessary, it could even sink near the solid core of the Divine Fog planet, relying solely on its shell to survive the terrifying pressure. It was a pity that when the apocalypse came, the ancient Mobrador didn't even have time to sink to the core. The terrifying armored scorpions destroyed the fortress' control system before the resistance inside could react.
The Empire General itself contained several research centers. After the City of General was unfolded, they combined according to a temporary program to form a large joint research center. The space inside this research center was even larger than it looked from the outside. With the help of space expansion technology, it could even undertake the task of disassembling a starship the size of the Empire General. Now, the Empire technicians here were busy analyzing a new sample: the captured Vengeance Army mothership.
The Eternal-class battleship that had lost a third of its structure in the self-destruction had already been dismantled. Fortunately, this kind of starship's bow was basically the main cannon structure. The self-destruction only destroyed this part, and the rest of the ship was perfectly preserved.
Countless research platforms floated in the dark isolated space. Each of these circular, gravity-free platforms could be seen as an independent research center. They were equipped with complete analysis and testing sets and uncertain interfaces to deal with different testing needs. The valuable parts of the ship were placed independently on the platforms and scanned by specialized technicians or analysis probes. Now, in front of Sandora and me was a huge spherical structure. It had a silver-white metallic luster and a diameter of tens of meters. Its surface was covered in hollows like a honeycomb, making it look like a giant soccer ball. Some of the hexagons on the surface of the 'soccer ball' were open, revealing dark holes underneath. According to the signs beside the holes, these openings should have been prepared for physical cables.
This seemingly unassuming metal ball was actually the mainframe of the Eternal-class battleship. Although its appearance was regrettable, it had the best tactical core and spaceship coordination module of all conventional warships. For a warship that was more than 70 kilometers long and had countless facilities and auxiliary equipment, the spaceship coordination module was the primary standard to measure whether the warship could maintain combat effectiveness in the case of attrition. This mainframe could ensure that the Eternal-class battleship could fight autonomously even if all its crew died. This made the Eternal-class the only large warship in service in the Empire that could be piloted. Of course, the mainframe was not a special unit like the Schilling mainframe, and the design restrictions prevented it from developing a personality. This prevented the Eternal-class from formulating the wrong tactics when it was too bored, and it also gave the three hundred officers and men in the command center something to do. At least that was how I understood it.
Tawil's translucent mass projection stood beside me, holding an information terminal that was almost as iconic as her glasses, while the other hand controlled several probes to wander back and forth on the surface of the metal ball, connecting some uncertain interfaces to it. Those interfaces were magical little things that could adapt and read almost any terminal that could produce information flow, including the information quantization ports commonly used by the Empire and USB2.0.
Blue light wandered along the hexagonal concave lines, and the gravity-free platform began to broadcast an audio signal read from the mainframe. "External information connected. Mainframe initialized. Current status: host detached. Determined to be the first activation of the mainframe. Please load initial tactical intelligence and warship matching code. The ship's mainframe is ready. "
"It's been completely reset." Tawil pressed her hand on the surface of the massive metal ball, and circles of pale blue light rippled from the point of contact between her hand and the surface of the ball. "This is a very troublesome situation. Clearly, the avengers had reset the memory core of the mainframe before detonating the ship. Aside from the self-destruct code loaded on the core as firmware, the mainframe is now as clean as if it had just come off the production line. I've tried different methods to scan this thing, but it's been completely erased. "
I didn't know much about these advanced things, but it was easy to understand what Tarver was trying to say. Seeing how even the most outstanding researcher was at a loss, I knew that it would be impossible to analyze anything from this giant machine.
The surface of the mainframe that was in an active state was floating in a pale blue light, which made the huge metal ball look exceptionally beautiful. It was the mainframe's psionic shield. Because it was the most important device of the starship, the mainframe had its own armor plate and energy shield. Now, its shield had been restored, but because the basic program hadn't been loaded, the mainframe could only maintain the lowest level of shield value. It looked so thin that it looked like it was about to extinguish. I thought for a moment and called Bubble through the mental link.
A little girl holding a huge pillow appeared in front of me with an unhappy look on her face. Bubble raised her leg and gave me a princess kick. "What are you doing? I'm making up for it!"
"Look at this." I turned the little loli's head ninety degrees so that she was facing the massive metal ball. "Do you recognize this?"
"The mainframe of an Eternal-class starship? What's so special about it? " Bubble rubbed the pillow against her face. "Although it looks like a ball, it can't be used to catch small monsters."
I staggered. "Ahem, don't interrupt. This is the mainframe of the Revenge Army's battleship. However, its memory core has been reset. If you have the ability to analyze information, can you analyze something from it? After all, you are considered close relatives. "
I asked with high hopes. No matter what, Bubble was a powerful Schilling mainframe. She should be able to handle all kinds of data with ease. Tawil might not be able to read the mainframe's memory from a hardware point of view, but the Schilling mainframe's ability to directly control information might be able to scan something. More importantly, since they were both called mainframes, Bubble might be able to communicate with this silent metal ball and get some information from it. However, Bubble was stunned when she heard what I said. She glared at me with a gloomy face and gritted her teeth. "I say … my child's father, although I am called mainframe, I am not the same thing as this big lump of metal!!"
I was speechless.
"However, it won't take much effort to scan it. The Schilling mainframe has an advantage when it comes to analyzing data from such a low-level logic machine."
I thought to myself that Bubble could really take a long time to speak. Just like Tawil, she pressed her hand against a hexagonal hole on the surface of the metal ball to directly read the feedback signal from the mainframe. A blue ring of light spread out, indicating that the information flow had begun. The only thing to complain about was that due to the height restriction, Bubble had to step on a pillow and raise her hands high in order to reach the bottom of the metal ball's data interface. It looked like the World Cup.
"Error, no feedback signal."
After a few minutes of communication, the mainframe responded to Bubble's reading request with nine punctuated words. This caused the latter's expression to instantly distort. Then, the furious little girl started punching and kicking in front of me and Sandora. She jumped up and down, beating the innocent mainframe into Sakyamuni. Tawil stepped forward to check the dents on the surface of the metal ball. Bubble curled her lips. "Don't waste your effort. The core was destroyed and reset. There was absolutely no information left behind. I'm guessing that the other logic machines that you retrieved from the starship were in a similar situation. Before those guys self-destructed, they eliminated all data devices that could expose their secrets. Perhaps it was to prevent information about their headquarters from being leaked. What a watertight plan! "
After Bubble said that, it seemed that she still hadn't vented her anger. She took out a large-caliber handgun and turned around to shoot. The mainframe's energy shield, which had already been operating at its lowest level, was finally extinguished. Even though I knew that this little girl had violent tendencies, it seemed that she was currently in an exceptionally bad mood.
Out of concern, I casually asked Bubble. In return, Bubble replied tearfully, "Ji and Skyline aren't together. How am I supposed to believe in love in the future?! My child's father, please comfort me … "
I decisively kicked her back to the teleportation door.
The mothership's mainframe had been completely reformatted. This meant that my original plan to use this as a breakthrough point to find the Revenge Army's main headquarters fell through. However, this also gave me some information: the Revenge Army's "madness" didn't affect their tactical judgment. During the ambush on the Divine Fog Planet, the Revenge Army had displayed a high degree of discipline and commendable multi-unit cooperation. Although it seemed crazy to self-destruct after losing the battle, they still remembered to delete all confidential information before self-destructing. This also meant that the Revenge Army still possessed some degree of rationality. Right now, I still couldn't be sure if this judgment was based on the warship's captain's thinking or a fixed tactical procedure. However, I could basically rule out irrational situations like the Great Nebula.
This could only be said to be bad news. Compared to the irrational and crazy spaceships of the Great Nebula, an enemy that still maintained tactical intelligence was obviously more difficult to deal with.
"Sives, what else have we collected of value?"
Sandora looked around, her gaze sweeping past the gigantic warship fragments in the distance. At the same time, she spoke to the air. Sives' holographic projection immediately appeared in front of us. "At present, we have confirmed that the Revenge Army hasn't been infected by the Chaos Abyss. Their ship's structure is all normal. There are no additional autonomous combat devices like the Holy Church's Garrison Army, and there are no functional defects. In the warship's command center, we found many corpses of the Revenge Army's soldiers. They had all died at their posts, maintaining the posture they had at the last moment of battle. There were no signs of abnormal movements, showing a high degree of discipline. The corpses of two war engineers were found in the warship's energy matrix area. Before they died, they should have been busy manually increasing the energy level to ensure that the self-destruction process would be faster. All signs showed that they had died in a completely orderly and compliant manner. Of course, there were no signs of mutation or infection on their bodies. So far, the only abnormalities we found were the two Revenge Army soldiers. Their corpses were located under the coordinates of the engine base. That is a sealed area, and non-technical personnel are forbidden from entering. Normal soldiers would not enter that area for no reason. Their actions are illogical, and this contradicts our initial judgment of the Revenge Army's' completely conscious'. "
Sandora frowned in deep thought, but it was obvious that the information we had now was not enough. In the end, she sighed softly. "Have you obtained any information from the memory cores of those soldiers?"
"I'm very sorry, Your Majesty Sandora. Just like what happened before, all the souls of the dead have dissipated, and their memory cores are empty. The Revenge Army is obviously operating under an absolute logic. Once the situation gets out of hand, they will first destroy themselves. This method … "
"This method is as if they were facing the army of the Abyss." Sandora said solemnly. "They treat the normal Schilling compatriots as the Abyss. This is really sad. Continue with your work, and report back immediately if there's anything. "
Tawil nodded, and the holographic projection flickered in the air before disappearing. Tawil was still tormenting the mainframe that Bubble had just beaten up. Even though Bubble had announced that the steel ball was worthless, Tawil still wanted to dig out some secrets from it. Women were always a little nosy, and at most, they behaved differently depending on their profession.
"I will check the navigation records of this starship, but the best case scenario would be to trace back to the navigation marks when the starship entered the main material plane," Tawil reported. Sandora nodded, indicating that she understood.
Sandora wanted to stay in the research center for a while longer, so I went to the upper platform of General City. This place was originally part of the corridor where the Admiral of the Empire resided. After General City was expanded, most of the corridor that was originally located in the center of the starship became the upper platform of the city. It could be considered a viewing platform for the officers. Half of the hundred-meter-wide platform was covered by a transparent energy shield, like a layer of glass. I stood inside the shield and looked at the spectacular scene outside.
The lower atmosphere of the Divine Fog Planet was not calm. Hurricanes and low-hanging chaotic clouds wreaked havoc in the vicinity, forming a crazy hellish scene. Outside the thin shield, there was a terrifying pressure that could flatten any tank on Earth into a metal pancake. The nitrogen-helium-hydrogen atmosphere transitioned from gaseous state to liquid state under this strong pressure, forming the turbulent "ocean" below us. In other words, the composition of the ocean on the Divine Fog Planet was actually the same as the atmosphere. Strictly speaking, the "sea level" where General City was located was the "gaseous state" and "liquid state" on the surface of the Divine Fog Planet. At a thickness of about three kilometers, the atmosphere here was in a state of transition between gaseous state and liquid state. The endless storms and huge tsunamis for hundreds of millions of years were the result of the rapid changes in these two states. This was an unimaginable and indescribable spectacle on Earth. Currently, even the sturdiest spacecraft created by humans wouldn't be able to last more than fifteen minutes in such an environment.
In this humid environment that was completely different from Earth's atmosphere, the sky outside the shield was sprinkled with curtains of "rain". Even with the powerful lights of the fortress, the visibility on the platform outside was no more than fifteen meters. Some blurry shadows wrapped in blue halos flashed past the thick curtain of rain. Those were the patrolling aircrafts that were passing through the base. This wasn't the most dangerous base that we had ever built. Back then, the nuclear storm in the Red Giant Fortress was a few hundred times scarier than this. However, in terms of the scenery, the violent storm in the gas giant planet was even more thrilling. I recalled the experience of Shallow Shallow dragging me to experience the wind and rain outside the shield on a whim yesterday afternoon. The two of us set off from the North Pole Cloud Belt and were pulled back by Sandora from the cyclone at the North Pole a few hours later. That was an unforgettable experience. It gave me a deeper understanding of Shallow Shallow's destructive power. It also proved one thing: it was best not to travel together when two people with no sense of direction.
"The storm outside is even stronger than yesterday," a gentle voice suddenly rang in my ear. I turned around in surprise and found my elder sister looking at me with a gentle smile. She gently stroked my hair, just like how she used to do when I was young. The only difference was that when I was young, I would often stroke my head again, but not anymore. "The Holy Pope has announced the news of the war. However, the transfer of power will be done privately with the Allied Government. The ordinary people don't know about it."
"Even if there are people who know about it, they probably don't have time to care about the transfer of power among the 'mortals.'" I smiled. "How is the society in Mobrador now?"
"It's a mess, but I don't care." My elder sister smiled. It was a subtle, warm smile that made one's liver tremble. "Zaku is right. Mobrador has been peaceful for too long. Moreover, they have too much faith in the Sage's blessing. Now, including the head of the Allied Government, everyone is in a mess. The enemy hasn't even reached the Divine Fog Planet's defense line, but it's like the end of the world has arrived. I wonder how chaotic the entire world will be when the Vengeance Army really reaches the sky above Mobrador's main planet."
"Perhaps this is a chance for them to break out of their predicament. After all, their ancestors were Sandora's servants. It would be too disappointing if they were suffocated to death by the greenhouse environment." Looking at the raging storm outside the shield, I was overwhelmed with emotions. Suddenly, I felt like composing a poem.
You guys must have guessed that I didn't even manage to compose a fart in the end …
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