Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Strictly speaking, the lunar base was not a base but a covered reinforced and weaponized moon. The natural satellite had turned into a steel fortress after thousands of years of construction. It was suspended in space as it pointed its cannons and guns in the direction of the home planet from afar.
The exiles, who were previously expelled from their home planet, had been watching their home for thousands of years, hoping that one day they could return to the land where they once flourished. But their home planet had now become their enemy.
It was hard for the society of survivors, who were living in such a situation, to have any sense of vitality that a healthy civilization manifested.
The lunar base was a disciplined barracks. Factories and barracks accounted for 70% of all facilities. Mining structures and war machine assembly plants lined the steel surface. It was here that the Executors, the highly-intelligent bionic robots, were mass-produced. After a short period of adaptation and preparation, the bionic robots were sent to the Zenith. And after an even shorter period, over half of these expendable robots would end up in the crusher.
It was almost a miracle for executors like N-4 to have served more than 10 years. More of them were like N-6, after going to a First Born bombing mission and being shot down, they became a pile of debris on the home planet.
Had it not been for Hao Ren appearance, N-6’s existence would have ended when her spacecraft crashed.
N-6 carefully avoided a group of patrol craft flying over the avenue before poking out her head to look around. A strange thought suddenly came to her mind; it was about the world in which she lived, the life of the executors, and her destiny.
N-6 was thinking about her destiny for the first time. But she somehow believed that it was a waste of energy.
Perhaps it was precisely the “problems of the flesh” that the old executors always talked about? N-6 curiously checked her logic circuit. She knew that there would be a big difference between those who have served for a long time and those who have just rolled out from the factory. Even if one did not download any new logic program from the Bibliotheca, this difference would somehow crop up over time. N-4 had once talked about this topic with her and called it experience and emotional development. N-6 could not wrap her brain around it at that time, but now, she felt like she had begun to understand these things.
After some time, the logic circuit would start to generate some codes that were alien to the native program.
“Everything is automatic here.” Lily looked around curiously with the images of the steel structure in the distance reflected in her golden eyes. “It is dead silent.”
“Is it not normal?” Hao Ren said. “This society does not need entertainment nor private enterprises. All we saw on the way were factories and barracks. The newly produced soldiers and war machines are in the warehouses and sent to the frontline by transport planes later. I cannot imagine how such a society could build a bustling city with people hanging out leisurely.”
Vivian’s brows knitted together. “But the Executors have feelings too. At least people like N-4 has emotions, and N-6 is not bad either.”
Y’zaks nodded. “That’s right. They have everything they need to build a normal society except that they could not afford this luxury.”
Hao Ren did not delve into this topic. He looked up and ahead. A hill was right ahead, which was not far away. It was the fortress that N-4 and N-6 had been talking about.
The fortress was round and made of steel. It would look like a round cake with a smooth edge and a slightly sunken center when looking down from above. A series of black cubes adjoined the fortress, and large metal pipes and promenades extended from the cubes connecting to a central point where a cylindrical alloy building of hundreds of meters was. The building that had no doors or windows and was as dark as a prison was the place where humans lived. It was called the Ultimate Palace.
It did not look like a palace for the creators, but it was where the beliefs and faith of the Executors belonged.
The black cubes on the edge of the fortress were part of the Cortex Prime. They were the upper structure of the thirteen computer servers. And the main body of the black cubes and more secondary servers, which were more complex, were beneath the steel earth and also connected to the Ultimate Palace. Just as N-4 said, a server room with thirteen computer servers was in the palace, which was the location of the interactive interface and control center of the Cortex Prime.
It was useless to try to hack or destroy the black cubes. Hao Ren’s target was the computer room in the Ultimate Palace.
The map had detailed features of the routes, but it was not easy to get close to the fortress without being spotted. The First Born, whom the Executors called the Planet Devourer, had never carried out sophisticated tactics such as spying and sabotage, but the humans who designed and built the lunar base still habitually set up multiple layers of checkpoints and patrol teams around the fort. The Cortex Prime, which took over the management of the lunar base, had inherited and expanded these designs.
There were many patrols and sentinels along the way. Some Executor guards rode on small combat vehicles, and some in fixed checkpoints operating the electronic monitoring stations. There were also many little gadgets called the Patrol Craft, which was a kind of disc-shaped smart aircraft. At only the size of a basketball, Patrol Craft usually operated in groups of three or six and was distributed throughout the moon and more around the fortress.
These Patrol Crafts were the eyes and ears of the Cortex Prime.
It was not difficult to eliminate these “eyes and ears”; a transcendent husky with a piece of brick could wipe out all the sentry posts. But that would inevitably alert the entire lunar base. By then, Hao Ren’s team would probably drown in the sea of Executors.
His teammates were the gold medalists in combat. But even the best god medalist was not invincible. Even if a bat of Vivian could immobilize a hundred ordinary Executor soldiers, but faced with a million troops, she would soon find that she was running out of bats.
Hao Ren trod his path very carefully. N-6 was guiding them to circumvent the surveillance cameras while the MDT alerted them of the nearby patrol units. With these helps, the team was able to maneuver close to the fortress safely.
At first, Hao Ren wanted to let the MDT go farther ahead and then teleport them. But the moment the MDT activated the portal, it sensed at least 70 radar signals locked onto it. So, the MDT could only give up the idea.
The Executors had not developed spacetime technology, but their radars were not blind. The abnormal energy burst and electromagnetic radiation before the portal opened were enough to alert the Cortex Prime. Considering the stun and disorientation after the teleportation could momentarily affect the combat strength of the team, Hao Ren must give up this risky approach.
Fortunately, the chaos that Hao Ren had orchestrated in and around the Zenith had helped draw the attention of the Cortex Prime and the forces on the lunar base, leaving only part of the Executor forces behind on the lunar moon.
The team managed to come before the black steel fortress without a hitch.
“The fortress was built on top of the crater. At first, it was only an underground alloy bunker at the bottom of the crater.” N-6 looked proudly at the black fort in front of her. “Since then, it has undergone many transformations and enhancements over thousands of years. Now, apart from this circular contour, it basically does not look like what it used to be. Sensors and electronic eyes of the Cortex Prime have now covered the entire outer shell. The entire wall is made of activated metal, and the Cortex Prime can sense any contact with the external wall in real-time. How do you deal with this?”
Y’zaks looked at the black wall not far away and asked, “Could we go in from above or below?”
N-6 shook her head. “A repulsive shield is in the air. It is not as advanced as your shield technology, but it is laid with sensors. The Cortex Prime will immediately sense if there is an intruder. Going in through underground is unworkable because there is also a hemispherical activated metal shell there. You cannot possibly sneak in.”
Vivian thought for a moment and said, “It sounds like the entire fortress is shrouded in a shield. Do not tell me this thing can detach from the lunar base.”
N-6 glanced at Vivian and said after two seconds of silence, “You have guessed it right. The entire fortress has been indeed designed to be detachable from the moon. This great project was completed 3,000 years ago. Enhancement work is continuously carried out until this day. It is so designed to preserve the last seeds of the survivor society in a worst-case scenario. If the Planet Devourer brings down the lunar base and destroys the Zenith space station, the fortress will detach from the moon and escape into space. It is a new Zenith Ark by which humans and the Cortex Prime retain a glimmer of hope to find a new home in the universe.
“At the same time, the Executors have built annihilation reactors inside the moon. The annihilation reactors are powerful enough to push the entire moon out of the orbit. If the day where the fortress is forced to detached from the moon indeed comes, the Executors will blow up those annihilation reactors, and the moon will crash into the home planet. We do not know if this will eventually kill the Planet Devourer, but at least we can go home.”
Everyone broke out in cold sweat upon hearing the plan. “Are you crazy?” Lily asked.
“We just want to go home.”
