Interstellar Survival: Invasion

The sound wasn't something we had heard before. In fact, it sounded like a gentle melody. We were all surprised to hear such calming music in such an intense situation.

The moment he heard the sound, Temo nervously said, "Shit, the smart robots are organizing a counterattack.".

"What? How do you know that this sound represents the robots' counterattack?" asked Dodo.

"I am not 100 percent sure, but I heard that the more intense the coming mission, the softer the sound signals before the mission would be," said Temo.

"Don't worry. It's very chaotic outside. We'll spend a little bit of time observing the situation before making a move," I said calmly.

The gentle melody continued sounding. A few minutes later, Temo's words were proven right. A series of neat footsteps sounded as a massive army appeared before our eyes. The army of machines had over 10,000 soldiers in it. They were most likely here to deal with the escaped beasts, and we were shocked by the sheer number of them.

Within the army, smart robots of different shapes and forms could be seen. Despite their chaotic distribution, they still marched forth confidently and steadily, the very air around them turning murderous as they advanced.

Naturally, the escaped beasts were no weaklings either. After a momentary shock, they recovered and charged the smart robots. The robots in the front row raised their sharp weapons before stabbing forth at the charging beasts. In the blink of an eye, a row of beasts dropped onto the ground.

The first wave of the beasts had collapsed, but the second wave came immediately after, charging forth fearlessly. The smart robots appeared fully confident in dealing with the beasts. The second row raised their pike-like weapons and worked together with the first row to easily stop the charging beasts. Before long, the ground was covered in corpses.

Seeing that the weaker beasts weren't able to break through the formation, a buer leaped forth and sent a row of smart robots flying. A buer was strong enough to not fear the weapons of the smart robots. It relied on brute strength alone to tear a hole in the robotic army's formation.

The other beasts witnessed the buer's bravery and became excited. Immediately, they turned into an arrow that stabbed into the opening the buer created, aiming to fully pierce through the hole in the formation.

With the beasts pressing home the advantage and the addition of a few more buers, the robots received attack after attack. Chunks of steel flew everywhere as the formation of the powerful robotic army was torn apart.

Suddenly, several big guys appeared from the back of the robotic army. The big guys were like Transformers as they suddenly stood up in a row. There were roughly 10 of them in total.

They raised their arms together, aimed at the madly attacking buers, and unleashed beams of white electrical currents. When the currents struck a buer, the currents flowed in circles and slowly spread all over the buer's body. Before long, the buer was fully stuck.

The white currents were used to trap several buers at once, shocking all the other beasts. The retreating smart robots took the chance to reorganize their formation before pushing forth to cover the previously opened hole.

"From the looks of it, the beast army is going to collapse soon. The robotic army is standing right in our way. We might need to take a detour," said Dodo.

"Dodo, lead the way. We'll stick close to these buildings and take a detour around them while they're still busy fighting," I said.

Following my order, we stayed near the edge of the city as we went around the ongoing cruel battle, ignoring it entirely. The city's design was extremely peculiar. Apart from the massive square ahead of us, the edge of the city seemed to be filled with numerous small steel buildings.

According to Temo, the steel buildings were actually the smart robots' houses. Oddly, we did not see any doors leading inside these buildings. We did not understand how the robots were supposed to go through the walls to get inside their homes. But at the moment, we did not have the time to explore this topic. 

In between the various small buildings were numerous narrow paths. We borrowed the cover of the buildings to hide from the battling robots and beasts to advance toward the center of the city.

"Looks like the robotic beasts are throwing everything they have at the escaped beasts. This is the best chance for us to sneak through," said Zhang Bao'er, who started to become excited after a short while of not seeing other robots.

Lady Luck seemed to finally be smiling at us, a group of people who had been plagued with misfortune. We successfully detoured around the battlefield through the housing area, arriving at the rear of the battlefield.

"I did not expect us to get past the battlefield so easily. Let the robots and beasts kill each other. We need to continue advancing," said Old Du, who was also becoming.

We walked for about 10 minutes when Anxashe, who was walking ahead of the team, suddenly raised his hand as a signal, stopping all of us. He hurriedly made a gesture, signaling us to make no sound.

I hurriedly stepped forward, and when I looked at what Anxashe was pointing at, I inhaled deeply in shock. I saw another group of smart machines, standing in a square formation. This group looked even larger than the previous group, and they were clearly on standby to back up the first group.

"Shit! They're right in our way, blocking our path forward," I said anxiously.

"I checked. There are no alternative paths unless we return to the blood pool," said Anxashe, giving me a piece of bad news.

"On our way here, I noticed that the walls are roughly 50 meters high. Even if we retreat to the pool and make a big detour, there is no guarantee that we can get back into the city from the other side," I said.

"In that case, we're stuck," said Anxashe in a straightforward manner.

"We must look for a hiding spot. Otherwise, we will be exposed the moment this second army marches forward," I said.

At that thought, I turned around to look at Temo.

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"Temo, our way forward is blocked by a second army. If they move, all of us might be exposed. Where are the doors to these steel houses? Can we hide inside one of them?" I asked.

Hearing my words, Zhang Bao'er and Old Du rushed forward to get a look. They confirmed with their very own eyes that our way had been fully blocked. There was no way we could get around the second army.

"These houses have no doors. All the robots will meld into the houses to recharge their energy. The bottom of these steel houses are likely connected to this planet's single energy source," replied Temo.

"How do you know so much?" pressed Zhang Bao'er.

"That's a conclusion I drew from the numbers and data I saw before," said Temo, not hiding anything.

"Temo, according to your explanation, there is actually no empty space within these houses?" asked Old Du.

"Yes, at least that's what I understand. We won't be able to enter these buildings," said Temo.

"What now, Canyue? It doesn't look like we'll be able to find shelter to avoid the second army," said Old Du.

"If we really can't find a way forward, we only have two options. Attack or retreat," said Zhang Bao'er, giving an opinion that was rather pointless.

Suddenly, a burst of noise rang out from the battlefield behind us, sounding like the rout of an army.

"What's happening? Which side was defeated?" Zhang Bao'er asked Temo.

Before Temo could answer, a soft melody rang out from the second army. They were about to begin their march.