Interstellar Survival: Invasion

An hour passed quickly. Everyone was waiting for Bob to wake up, and nobody was in much of a mood to talk. During the wait, Old Du solemnly kept watch over the outpost's surroundings for the arrival of even more powerful viruses.

At that time, a fierce ice storm had appeared outside. The wind was strong enough to reach level 12 on the Beaufort scale. Due to the storm, the temperature outside the outpost had reached negative 239 degrees. We found to our astonishment that the intense storm had caused the cloud germs to be even more excited.

"These monsters look extremely well-adapted to Pluto's environment. The fierce storm only serves to make them happy," said Kelly.

Suddenly, we all heard an odd sound, as though a different sound was mixed among the noise caused by the storm.

"Canyue, Bao'er, can you hear that?" asked Old Du nervously.

"Don't talk. Let me listen," said Temo as he waved his hand.

We listened seriously, and I found that mixed among the sounds of the wind was a roar akin to a demon's roar. And amid the roar was an extremely eerie sound similar to someone laughing.

"Ghost! That's a ghost!" Zhang Bao'er exclaimed.

"Don't be stupid. There are no ghosts. That must be the noise made by an unknown life form," I said, stopping Zhang Bao'er's imagination from running wild.

"Just what kind of a planet is this? We have just arrived, but we have already encountered so many weird things. Are we really still in the Solar System?" Zhang Bao'er started complaining again.

"It sounds like the noise made by a super powerful creature. The creature is probably approaching the star level," said Temo.

"How can you determine a creature's level from its noise? Also, how can a beast be assigned a level of civilization? What can a beast even do with it?" asked Domo. His attitude seemed to have improved significantly when talking to Temo.

"How can a beast be useless? Just look at that little fellow you guys have. How many times has it saved you? The higher the level of a creature, the more capable the creature is of thought and evolution," said Temo.

With Bulu as an example, Domo had nothing to say. While listening to the terrifying roars, Dodo suddenly exclaimed, "Reporting, Bob has finished recharging."

That pulled all our attention back. We saw that the system was indicating that the recharging had been completed and that Bob's energy reserve had reached 100 percent, enough to activate the self-circulation system within Bob's body.

"Superior, permission to activate Bob?" asked Dodo.

As a precaution, Zhang Xingxing repeated her orders, making everyone turn on their shields, and arranged for cover fire. She then gave the order to activate Bob. With the order given, Dodo pressed the activation button.

The light on the screen lit up as a surge of energy flooded into Bob's inactive energy circulation system. More and more energy flooded into the system before finally, signs of activity were detected in Bob's body.

"Activation successful!" exclaimed Dodo upon seeing the system indication.

But the moment Dodo uttered those words, with a snap, the power in the outpost was cut off. Darkness descended as everything in the outpost stopped running. Greatly shocked, we hurriedly turned on our personal lighting.

"Dodo, what's going on?" asked Zhang Xingxing, her voice anxious.

"I'm not sure yet. For some reason, the energy system in the outpost has been shut down," said Dodo.

"What are you waiting for? Turn it back on," urged Zhang Bao'er.

"Why are you so loud? The system has been locked by an unknown command. I'm trying very hard to override the command," said Dodo without even looking at Zhang Bao'er, their gaze fully focused on the control desk.

"This is bad! Bob is missing!" Dondon's nervous voice suddenly rang out.

We hurriedly aimed our flashlights at Bob's previous position. We found with dread that a robot so big had vanished right beside us without making any noise.

"Be on the alert, everyone! Enter the circular formation! Protect Dodo!" ordered Zhang Xingxing. She was already a veteran in combat and was able to stay calm.

We formed a circular formation around Dodo, giving them protection while they worked on the system.

"Canyue, did you see that fellow when they escaped?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"That's a dumb question. If I saw it, why would I let them escape?" I said.

"Isn't it about time you let your brother, Bulu, out to give us some help?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

At that reminder, I opened my backpack. Surprisingly, Bulu, who was supposed to be filled with energy, only had a single red glow on its body. The brightness of its body had dimmed considerably.

'Bulu is probably not interested in participating in this,' I thought as I put on my backpack again.

With the power cut, the outpost's system stopped running. The entire outpost became exceptionally silent. Amid the darkness, the only thing I could hear was the sound of the others breathing nervously.

Suddenly, we heard eerie laughter and a roar. The sounds were approaching rapidly. They became louder and louder, giving us the feeling as though a demon king was descending upon us. As fear slowly seeped in, an overcast voice rang out from the corner of the room.

"Turn off your lights if you still want to live!"

Find the original at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

"Who are you? Stop playing games with me! Show yourself, or I'll open fire!" shouted Zhang Bao'er as he shone his flashlight toward where the voice had come from. However, nothing could be seen there.

"Don't act blindly. It might be Bob. Don't open fire rashly," said Zhang Xingxing.

Meanwhile, the eerie laughter was coming closer and closer.

"Turn off your lights! Otherwise, all of us will die!" the overcast voice rang out again.

For some reason, the voice sounded exceptionally imposing the second time. It affected Zhang Xingxing enough that she gave the order to shut off our lights. "Do it!" 

With the order, we all turned off the lights on our suits. Less than a minute later, the eerie laughter was right above us. The sound of something large landing rang out above us, accompanied by heavy thuds. The evil laughter became louder and louder, circling above us. 

We felt as though we were prey being gazed upon by a pair of terrifying eyes from the darkness. All my hair stood on end. I didn't even dare to breathe loudly. I was confident the people around me felt the same. We were all atheists, and this was the very first time we had encountered a situation like this. It was impossible for us to not panic.

The loud thuds continued sounding above us. The monster seemed to be searching for something on the roof. I was worried that it would come down for us. The silence in the outpost was deafening, and even the noise from the storm outside seemed to have faded away, leaving only the eerie laughter resounding in the air.

The eerie laughter tormented us for over 10 minutes and did not show any signs of leaving. At that time, I sensed some movement from Zhang Bao'er in the darkness. That fellow seemed to be running out of patience.

I slowly reached out and placed my hand on Zhang Bao'er's shoulder, signaling to him to not be rash. My hand proved comforting; I felt the agitated fellow calming down. The laughter continued torturing us for about 10 more minutes, during which we didn't dare to make any sound. Suddenly, we heard the footsteps of something running and taking off. The laughter started moving away from us.

A minute after the laughter left, I heard the sound of Zhang Bao'er slumping onto the floor. Immediately after, everyone in the room slumped down as well. The intense nervousness had exhausted all of us.

"Don't turn on the light. Don't move either. I'll turn on the lighting system when it's safe," the overcast voice rang out again.

Hearing that voice, we all remained on the floor, not daring to move. After more than 10 minutes, the laughter couldn't be heard anymore. Abruptly, the outpost regained its power. My suit displayed its effectiveness, and I did not need to make any adjustments due to the sudden return of light. With one glance, I saw Bob standing in front of the control desk. I hadn't even heard their approach.

"You! Why did you act all mysterious to scare all of us? Couldn't you have warned us in advance?" Zhang Bao'er complained.

"Yeah. There are no monsters we can't defeat. If it comes, we'll just defeat it," Domo joined in.

"All of us nearly died earlier. I don't have the time to explain. I could only cut the power source temporarily. That monster relies on light to lock onto its target," said Bob.

"You must be Bob, Daisy's assistant," said Old Du.

"Yes, that's me. Who are you? Why are you here at this time?" asked the robot.

"Put that aside for now. What monster was that? What happened here? This is Commander Zhang Xingxing from the league. She has the authority to know everything that has happened here. Update us," said Kelly, giving a military order.

"It is a terrifying monster. It had destroyed Base Brown Bear and Outpost Penguin. We're the final target. Back then, Daisy was unwilling to sit around waiting for death, so she decided that we should save ourselves," said Bob.

"Terrifying monster? Can you be clearer? Is it also a type of giant germ?" asked Zhang Xingxing.

Bob gave us a rather terrifying reply, "No, it is a different kind of life form. We know it as the fiend of Pluto."