Interstellar Survival: Invasion

"Three years ago, something happened in the Midstar Army. Because of that incident, everyone in the Midstar Army suspected that the empire might have even more secrets and that we might be guarding a terrifying slaughter factory instead of the so-called operation to harness energy," said Commander Herbert.

Everyone gathered around the commander and listened silently.

Herbert paused slightly, glanced at everyone, and continued, "A soldier named Dirk, who was in the Maintenance Brigade of the 80th Fleet in the 15th Legion, was in charge of piloting the maintenance ships to perform maintenance work on the space fortress's light transmitters. The transmitters are the cubes you saw.

"One day, Dirk went out on a normal maintenance route. Each maintenance staff pilots a maintenance shuttle alone and performs the maintenance work through their ship's mechanical arms. Those shuttles are not equipped with any offensive capabilities. Thus, Dirk's sole self-defense method was his personal ray pistol.

"After finishing his repair route, which was over 10 million kilometers long, and confirming that the wall of light was working as normal, Dirk prepared to return to base. At that time, a different shuttle flew out from the other side of the wall. Unlike Dirk's maintenance shuttle, the other shuttle was unmarked. It was a completely unknown shuttle.

"Curious, Dirk called the other shuttle and asked for its team. But no matter what Dirk said, no response came from the other shuttle. Due to the lack of response, Dirk concluded that it was an intruder and decided to report it to the headquarters.

"Just as Dirk was about to make the report, a blue flash appeared, causing Dirk to lose his train of thought. As if mind-controlled, he flew toward the unknown shuttle. Soon, the two shuttles were linked. Then, Dirk gave the other shuttle the information in his database, including the defensive arrangements of the Horsehead Nebula and other military information.

"After all the information was given, Dirk, who was still under control, followed the unknown shuttle and moved deeper into the Horsehead Nebula. The shuttles of the empire are extremely powerful. They can carry their passengers deep into numerous complicated environments in the universe. And thus, the two shuttles moved deep into the nebula at high speed. After an unknown amount of time, they reached a three-star system."

"Three-star system. Is it a system with red, yellow, and blue stars?" asked Zhang Bao'er, who could no longer hold his curiosity.

Everyone else had plenty of questions to ask as well, but Zhang Xingxing stopped everyone. She wanted Commander Herbert to finish the story before inquiring further.

"This officer is right. That is a system with red, yellow, and blue stars. There are 27 planets in the system, orbiting the 3 stars like a pinwheel," said Herbert.

"What? 27 stars? Am I hearing things? Shouldn't it be 9 stars?" Even the usually calm Old Du couldn't control himself.

"I'm sure it's 27 stars, not 9. I have personally seen the records," said Commander Xidor.

"Is there a different three-star system in the Horsehead Nebula?" asked Zhang Bao'er in astonishment.

Search bit.ly/3iBfjkV for the original.

"I don't think there will be that many three-star systems here. It is more likely that the emperor had built even more beast-breeding bases. Initially, there were nine of these artificial planets. Tens of thousands of years later, the number had increased to 27," I analyzed.

"Silence, everyone. Let Commander Herbert finish his story," said Zhang Xingxing, preventing the scene from devolving into further chaos.

With Zhang Xingxing's order, everyone stopped talking. Commander Herbert continued his story, "With Dirk still under control, his shuttle approached one of the planets. The planet looked extremely sleek, as though it was a forged ball of metal. A few minutes later, his shuttle slowly entered the planet.

"Dirk controlled his shuttle and prepared to land. As the shuttle neared the ground, a platform rose from the sleek ground. Two tentacles extended from the platform and attached themselves to the bottom of the two shuttles, fixing the two shuttles in place.

"Then, a black hole slowly opened beside the platform, and a set of tubes rose from the black hole and attached themselves to the two shuttles. The process finished a few minutes later. At that time, Dirk stood up and entered the inner part of the planet through the tube."

At that point, we grew excited. We still clearly remembered that the man in black had also entered the inner part of the artificial planet. That was a place we still had zero information about. Surprisingly, Commander Herbert had so easily obtained clues about the mysterious inner part of the planet.

"Under the control of the mysterious power, Dirk continued walking. After going through a long corridor, he arrived at a big, golden door. At that point, he had not encountered a single monster yet," said Commander Herbert.

"How do you know if there were any monsters there?" questioned Zhang Bao'er, resuming his bad habit of interrupting others when talking.

Commander Herbert shot Zhang Bao'er a glare before saying, "Right at that moment, the golden door opened. An extremely ugly creature appeared before him. The creature had a big nose that constantly released some sort of low-temperature gas. Above the nose was a pair of yellow triangular eyes. Its torn mouth constantly drooled, and the monster occasionally lowered its head to lick its own saliva from the ground.

"To the sides of its body was a pair of greatly damaged arms each tipped with six sharp fingers. Surprisingly, it did not have any legs. It was unknown if it was born legless or if its legs had been severed. In any case, it was lying on the ground, unable to move away.

"The mind-controlled Dirk showed no fear of the ugly creature and strode forth. At that moment, countless bugs with paws crawled out from under the creature and covered the ground around Dirk, leaving only the spot he was standing on empty.

"With each step forward Dirk took, the bugs would move aside, leaving an opening for him to walk. By then, the room was already filled with those bugs. Dirk soon arrived before the paralyzed creature. The creature reached out with one of its sharp claws and solemnly caressed Dirk's face. A silver ring could be seen on the creature's finger.

"Suddenly, the creature approached Dirk's face with its own face. From its big eyes, a star chart seemed to be visible."

At that point, Commander Herbert seemed to recall something and suddenly sank into thought.

"And? Continue your story. Come on, don't keep us waiting," urged Domo impatiently.

"There's no and. That's where the recording ends. Three days later, the brigade sent out a search team due to Dirk's disappearance. His shuttle was found outside the wall of light, but Dirk wasn't inside. On his pilot's seat, his helmet and suit were neatly placed," said Herbert.

"It's almost like you're narrating a movie. Did you really see all that or is that a story you heard somewhere?" questioned Zhang Bao'er.

"At the time, both Commander Xidor and I were the deputies of the 80th Fleet's Maintenance Brigade. When the shuttle was found, the brigade's soldiers dragged it back to our base. Commander Xidor and I sent most of the officers away and left only the core members in the room. Together, we went through the shuttle's records and the recording caught by Dirk's helmet three times. I can remember everything clearly. We had not imagined that there was actually such a terrifying base within the Horsehead Nebula," said Commander Herbert.

We sank into a long silence.

"Canyue, I believe the bugs mentioned by the commander must be those paw worms," said Zhang Xingxing.

"Most likely. Commanders, since there is a recording, can you show it to us? Perhaps we can get some clues about the three-star system from it," I requested.

Upon hearing my request, Commander Herbert sighed. It would seem we wouldn't be getting the recording.

"Less than five hours later, a Sacred Wing race elder had come with a group of soldiers. Together with them was the highest commanding officer of the Midstar Army, Marshal Wodyr. They took away the shuttle and everything we had found without saying a thing. But at that time, rumors about the secret beast base started spreading. The arrival of someone from the Sacred Wing race had only served to strengthen that belief," said Commander Herbert.

"That means we don't have any of the data left. What a pity," I said regretfully.

"The commander also told us that the 80th Fleet was disbanded after the event and the two commanders were dispatched to other positions. All the officers who had seen the recording were scattered into different teams. And over the past two years, the witnesses from back then went missing one after another. The two commanders were worried, so they tried to contact me when they had the chance. At that time, I was on Lidu," said Prince Toruse.

"Too bad that the only thing we can confirm from the story is that the three-star system truly exists. We still don't know its location," said Zhang Xingxing regretfully.

"No, we didn't lose everything. Before the Sacred Wing race could take everything away, I was able to hide something valuable," said Commander Herbert, giving us a much-needed boost in confidence.