Interstellar Survival: Invasion

"Canyue, wake up. I'm done telling the story," I heard Zhang Bao'er's voice during my sleep.

I opened my eyes and saw that apart from Big Forest, Little Forest, and Zhang Bao'er, the others had also fallen asleep listening to the story.

"It was such an incredible story. Why did you fall asleep? That's so rude," complained Zhang Bao'er. He had only noticed that we had fallen asleep after excitedly finishing his storytelling session.

"The Sacred Wing Temo would actually betray his race and work with you? That is too unbelievable," said Little Forest, seemingly unable to accept Temo's betrayal.

"Hadn't you also betrayed the Sacred Wing race?" I asked, not understanding his position.

"I did what I did after seeing immoral actions. I aim to bring the Sacred Wing race back to the right path. As for Temo, he betrayed the race for the pursuit of knowledge and his aspirations. Do not mix me up with someone like him," denied Little Forest resolutely.

I wasn't too surprised by his words. We were already used to how eccentric those from the Sacred Wing race could be.

"If you want to reach the worm colony brain with proper clearance, you will probably need the help of the little robot you brought," said Little Forest.

"You're referring to Dodo. I heard that they and Temo had not been imprisoned in the wells," I said.

"Yeah. After escaping from his well, Zhang Bao'er had obtained some information from the lion-faced beast. I believe the two might have been brought to the main control center of the city of machines," said Little Forest.

"Main control center? What place is that?" I asked.

"It's the place where the behavior of all the robots is regulated. It is fully run by code, automatically maintaining the operation of all inserted commands. The Divine Empire's emperor has the highest level of authority in the center and can reset the robots remotely," explained Little Forest.

"I have a question. Since these robots are smart robots, why can they still be controlled with code?" asked Old Du who had been awakened by the sounds of our conversation.

"This big guy must be from a different race, right? He is obviously much more intelligent than your people. These smart robots have obtained their minds from the beast army. Back then, constant evolution has resulted in some of the beasts turning disobedient. Thus, the Sacred Wing race's great elder came up with a new technology, the technology to inject the minds of beasts into machines for ease of control," said Little Forest.

"I understand. Basically, you're fusing the mind of a beast with the body of a machine. If these minds become disobedient, the emperor can reset them. With that, no matter how disobedient the minds become, they wouldn't be able to do anything without willing bodies," I said.

"You must have evolved. Your understanding is spot on," praised Little Forest.

"I also have a question. Why doesn't the emperor make a robot army instead? Wouldn't such an army be much more obedient?" asked Zhang Bao'er, who had also awakened from his sleep.

"I remember Temo answered this question before. The programming of robots is much easier to control, so entire armies could defect to a hacker of sufficient skill. That would not be a risk when it comes to these smart robots who possess the minds of organic life forms," said Old Du.

"I see. So how do we reach the control center?" I asked.

"Big Forest can answer that question," said Little Forest as he pointed at Big Forest.

"Every morning, a transport ship will fly out from the control center to stop at the same parking lot we're on. This ship is in charge of resupplying the control center. It is extremely large, and I can drive my safe house into the ship's hangar. The ship will carry us into the control center," said Big Forest.

"Entering their control center on their own transport ship? The difficulty of accomplishing that seems a tad bit high. Won't their scanners detect us?" asked Old Du.

"The enemy will find us, and at times, we will need Little Forest to show his face and get the guards off our backs," said Big Forest. We weren't convinced by his words.

"Why can't we fly straight to the control center? We can just sneak in. What's the point of waiting for this transport ship?" said Zhang Bao'er.

"We won't be able to enter with our own ship. There won't be a single path we can use to get inside. The center is fully protected by robotic guards and completely under surveillance, leaving no gap in its security," said Big Forest.

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from "pawread dot com".

"No gap in security? How is that possible? There will be an opening to any building. There is no such thing as absolute defense," said Zhang Bao'er, unconvinced of Big Forest's words.

"My plan exploits the center's sole opening, which is the only way we can enter because the center is a floating building up in the sky," said Big Forest as he pointed at the sky.

"What? The control center is in the sky?" Zhang Bao'er exclaimed in astonishment.

"Yes. The control center has ingeniously made use of the gravity of the three stars and Black King itself to achieve a certain balance, enabling it to float in the sky while orbiting the planet. It is also an invisible building. Without the transport ship, it will be impossible for us to enter," said Big Forest, finally telling us the full story.

I made a decision, putting an end to the discussion. "In that case, we'll follow this plan. Tomorrow morning, Big Forest will drive this ship into the transport ship's hangar." 

Having decided on that, we started waiting for dawn to arrive. It was weird, but at that moment, we no longer felt sleepy. I was looking forward to the chance of recovering Bulu after entering the control center. I believed that Bulu must have been brought to the same place as Dodo.

About three hours later, light finally appeared in the sky as the three stars of the system rose from the horizon. Taking in the beautiful sight, I wished to return to my life as an interstellar explorer. I was getting tired of war.

The parking lot outside the ship was starting to become visible. We could see over a hundred ships of various sizes and shapes parked farther away from us. They had the size of imperial Star-class destroyers, but their design was completely different. The ships parked here looked like flying saucers. Their bodies were seamless and glossy, and I was unable to determine the locations of their weapons.

The ship we called a safe house was surrounded by thousands of small ships similar in size to ours. Some were rising to the sky, and some were in the process of landing. It was no wonder Big Forest made this his safe house. There were too many ships here for a single ship to be easily discovered.

"How long before the transport ship arrives?" Zhang Bao'er was already growing impatient.

"Just wait until the sky darkens. It'll be here then," replied Big Forest, confusing all of us.

We had waited patiently for about a dozen minutes when the sky turned dark. When we looked up, we saw a gigantic object hovering above us, completely covering the three stars in the sky.

"Is this the so-called transport ship?" asked Zhang Bao'er in astonishment, his mouth agape.

The rest of us weren't any better off. All of us were deeply shocked by the sight of the ship. Although I had already accepted that the Divine Empire's superweapon would be of unparalleled scope and size, it was also shocking for something like a transport ship to be of such a size.

The transport ship we were looking at felt more like a planet than a ship. It wouldn't even be an exaggeration to call it a planet since it was the size of a slightly smaller moon. It floated in the air, and slowly, it descended.

From the middle of the parking lot, a massive pillar rose slowly. After about 30 meters, the top spread into a circular platform. The platform kept spreading, eventually forming a roof over us as well.

"What manner of monster is this?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"The circular platform is the transport ship's personal parking space. Other small ships will rise and head toward the transport ship later. That will be our chance, and I'll have our ship join them. Please be seated," said Big Forest.

"Big Forest, why don't you let them put on our armor? That way, they won't be so easily exposed in case our ship is checked," Little Forest suddenly asked.

The question was akin to a thunderclap of inspiration. Big Forest ran to the storage room before returning with several miniature sets of armor. There was a green button on each set. Big Forest took out one of them and pressed the green button. The armor started pulling air inside it, and in a few seconds, a standard set of Eternal guard armor appeared before our eyes.

"Everyone, please make haste and put on this armor. The helmets can even cover your faces. They are also pretty good defensively. With this armor, you'll be able to hide yourself better," urged Big Forest.

We did as told and put on the guard armor. I was surprised to find that the armor was rather flexible. It also felt weightless and was helpful for a soldier's flexibility and agility during combat.

After ensuring that we were all wearing the guard armor, Big Forest went to the cockpit and started moving the ship alongside the trickle of small ships heading toward the transport ship. Meanwhile, Little Forest was studying the morph-capable suits we had taken off. He was constantly shaking his head as he looked over the suits.

"Dwarf, why are you shaking your head?" demanded Zhang Bao'er furiously.

"This armor relies on energy to run. The moment they run out of energy, they are as good as scrap iron with how heavy they are," said Little Forest.

"But with energy, they are excellent defensive devices," countered Zhang Bao'er.

"A piece of equipment that relies solely on energy will have its limitations. Is your technology still not at a level where you can produce eternal motion equipment?" asked Little Forest, divulging a fact that shocked all of us.

"Eternal motion equipment? Do you mean perpetual motion machines? That is still a great puzzle our researchers are trying to solve," answered Old Du.

"Ah. That's normal for a planet-level civilization. I'll charge your equipment for you," said Little Forest, solving a big problem for us.

Zhang Bao'er was about to flip out at the mention of planet-level civilization, but his face was immediately adorned with a smile when he heard that our equipment was about to be charged. He even asked Little Forest how he was going to charge them. Little Forest had Zhang Bao'er and Ada carry the morph-capable suits and lead them to the ship's storage room. There, the suits were charged.

"Get ready, everyone. We're entering the transport ship's conveyor belt soon," Big Forest's announcement suddenly came from the ship's internal communication system.