Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Finding a path towards the brain of the First Born was not difficult, and in reality, the brain area was sure to be near the core of the planet. Once you were digging in the right trajectory, you would not be too far off. With the nervous system mapped after a planet-wide scan, locking on to the brain was a simple task.
Technically speaking, it was easy, but Hao Ren still proceeded with extreme caution.
The First Born planetside was brain dead, but that did not mean that it was not a threat. Those tentacles, the protector of the main body, equipped with means to eradicate any outside threats could operate autonomously even without the control of the brain. They would automatically destroy any threats around it and block all access towards the planet’s core. If not for that, the Executor’s war to reclaim their homeworld would not have become such a meat grinder.
Those defensive tentacles were only one of the headaches they needed to deal with. More came the deeper they got to the heart of the planet.
A planet infested by the First Born is different from most planets, these massive mythological creatures, just by existing on a planet will alter the entire planet’s internals. From the crust downwards, the deeper it gets the worse the alteration will be. The physical laws will get twisted and massive supernatural zones will be formed. Under the writhing grip of the First Born’s tentacles, chaotic energy fields were everywhere, and the tides of energy replaced the magma surge, and at times, even nightmares were made manifest, and this was most common closest towards the nervous system of the First Born.
The First Born within the planet was not a young one, and was a full matured First Born, not to mention with a brain that was out of control. Its brain dead state reduced its offensive capabilities, but greatly increased the danger within its body.
Hao Ren had already came into contact with more than one First Born and was naturally understood the various traits of this mythological creature. And based on experience, he needed to do a surface scan to map out the spread of the First Born’s main tentacles and from there find a suitable entry point.
This data was not hard to come by, Nolan had already sent out loads of probes to scan the entire planet’s crust data while she was grounded, and have also learned the general situation surrounding every exposed tentacle on the planet’s surface. After collating the data, Hao Ren noticed the crust had a number of very obvious, terribly so, ‘rifts’.
These rifts seemed to have passed through the main continents and oceans, and while they may look ‘healed’ from the surface and was covered by layer upon layer of rocks, mud, sea water and plant life, there were still various rifts internally, and based on the holographic projection, these shadow of the rifts meant that the planet’s ‘internal injuries’ were particularly garish.
These unnatural situation was not caused by normal tectonic movements.
Hao Ren recalled something that N-4 had mentioned. That meteorite storm that changed everything. Before the storm that caused the First Born to go brain dead, the First Born did one opened the crust before, and it looks like the First Born was wounded even more than expected from the bombardment, and it never did totally reseal the rifts across the planet.
This led to everyone agreeing that this rifts were the best entryway: No matter how strong a being is, an open, unhealed wound is the weakest point.
The Petrachelys darted silently across the atmosphere as it flew above one of the rifts and used the onboard radar system to scan the rock formations deep within the planet. Hao Ren stood on the bridge as he monitored the images that Nolan had displayed real time as she scanned the area.
A sudden shadow within the clouds caught his attention.
“An outer space debris. No threat detected, and is not within our flight path.” Nolan quipped. She was now fully armed and armored and a mere debris did not concern her.
But everyone else looked at the massive object that was slowly breaking through the clouds.
It was a massive spherical structure with thick metal edge with metal support structures around it. Twelve imposing black structures held the entire structure together like a group of silent guardians. This was clearly the fortress on the moon.
The thick clouds tore apart as shreds of it landed on the fortress before disappearing under the extreme heat. The fortress was clearly not slowing down as it made atmospheric entry, it was covered by a layer of scorching crimson light as the high-speed friction and violent shock damaged its ring walls and main beam. This ancient building (or spaceship) was disintegrating as it approached the planet and the first to fall off was the armor plating on the outer ring walls, as its main servers started going ablaze one by one and exploded into a massive fireball in the sky with molten metal rained across the land…
Lily was shocked by the scene before her. “Isn’t that the fortress?! What is the Cortex Prime doing?!”
“The Cortex Prime has already shut down, this is the automated system it left behind that is controlling the fortress.” The MDT explained quickly. “So that initial quake when we left was not some self-destruct system.. it was preparing to take off!”
Within everyone’s stunned gaze, the massive fortress was slowly descending to the edge of the horizon and was coming apart in the process. The First Born tentacles would of course not sit idle and it took the ‘slow’ falling objects to be another close-range bombardment and saw a massive ‘ridge’ broke through the ground as a black-greenish tentacle bolted out of it, and following that, an invisible energy field and high-powered beams started blasting out of the tentacle violently towards the fortress in the sky.
Hao Ren had a rough idea of the fortress’ intentions and he gently knocked on the control dais. “Protect it. Deploy the droids as well.”
The high-powered laser beams struck against the fortress, already damaged by the atmospheric entry came out even worse. The remaining reflector shields flickered for a moments before going dead, and its outer ring walls even broke into three parts as entire servers fell from the main body towards the planet’s lush lands.
The spoke-shaped main beam too was slowly coming apart but it still managed to unleash its last counterattack: Countless of cannons installed on the fortress walls roared and with the presets these patiently stockpiled weapons spat out every last bit of lead and power towards the Devourer’s tentacles, and massive explosions shook a good part of the continent.
The counterattack seemed to have ‘enraged’ the tentacles on the planets surface as many more sub-tentacles appeared from the rift and hammered the fortress with an intense anti-air barrage.
At the very same moment, the covering fire from Petrachelys and the droid swarm struck.
The overwhelming firepower temporarily blunted the First Born’s counterattack as the fortress slowly fall in its set trajectory. About ten percent of the First Born’s anti-air barrage broke through the droid swarm’s cordon and stubbornly attacked the fortress. The latter by now had no other ways to counterattack or to defend itself and could only use its powerful frame to withstand the merciless barrage.
Countless of debris fell off its outer layer as the thick armor and buffer structures stalwartly protected the core of the Inevitable Palace.
Finally, the last of the structure failed, and the fortress could no longer be called one, it was now a ball of inferno dragging a smoking husk with metal debris falling of it.
However, within the burnt-out husk, a flash of light darted out and a twisted metal cabin – it was originally a circular hall – blasted out from the center and Hao Ren clearly saw a translucent glass container being shot out of the husk.
The test-tube like container was miraculously intact and only exploded about a few hundred meters from the surface as globs of flesh-like cells rained across the land.
From this altitude, it was impossible for the First Born to intercept it, and these exiles who had left their homeworld for thousands of years had finally fulfilled the dying wish of their people. They were home.
At the very end, the Cortex Prime had finally completed its mission.
Hao Ren sat quietly on the bridge as he looked at ancient and stubborn A.I used this sort of method to complete its swan song, its curtain call. The droid swarm had disengaged as ordered and as the last piece of the fortress was taken out by the tentacles, the heavens and earth turned quiet again.
Only the charred land and the parched sky was proof of this ever happening.
“MDT, record this. Civilization of the Plane of Dreams, you set the serial number. In the New Imperial Calendar year 10090 day 312. Subject replacement completed. The original humans are now extinct, and the civilization is inherited by their descendants, the Executors. Civilization to be marked as continuing.
“Record complete.”
“Boss, I have found the best insertion point.” Nolan’s voice rang across the bridge. “We have reached the skies above on of the massive rifts. The battle earlier caused some extreme movement activity and a new tear was formed, plus many tentacles were destroyed during the fight, and this is where the defense is the weakest.”
A holographic projection showed the scan data of the area as a massive rift valley was marked on it. It was not too far from where the last piece of the fortress had fallen.
Hao Ren nodded. “Let the droid swarm lead the way. We’ll make our entry there.”
