Interstellar Survival: Invasion

”Canyue, are we not helping? Would it be too risky to have Anxashe go alone? ” said Zhang Bao ’er.

”The situation outside is too complicated.
Anxashe alone will be enough.
With his ability, if he really needs help, he would have asked for it, ” I said.

”What should we do now? Do we just wait here and do nothing? ” asked Dodo.

”Yes.
We only need to wait until Anxashe returns with the captive.
Maintain silence, and unless he is the one contacting us, do not try to contact him, ” I replied.

With my order, they stopped talking.
After roughly 10 minutes, sounds of collision rang out not far away.
After a few more minutes, a black figure darted out of the fog.
Anxashe had returned with a captive.

With a swing of his arm, an air defense beast bound in rope was tossed out.
From its physical appearance, it was obvious that Anxashe had snapped all four of its limbs.
The robotic beast was madly struggling with the four stumps left on its body.

”Nicely done.
And you were quick with it as well! ” said Zhang Bao ’er in excitement.

”When this robotic beast saw me, it tried to catch me to harvest my brain.
I struck it down with my bow and arrow.
Following Temo ’s suggestion, I snapped its four limbs before returning with it, ” said Anxashe smugly.

”You shot it down with an arrow? If so, the enemy army might have received a warning, ” said Dodo.

”We can ’t worry too much.
Since we already have a captive, Temo, see if you can get any information from its body, ” said Old Du.

Temo bent down to inspect the captured robotic beast.
This was basically an enlarged version of the air defense drone.
Surprisingly, from the four stumps on its body, some pink liquid was gushing out like blood.
It seemed like the injection of minds into these machines had brought forth a rather significant change.

”We will only be able to obtain the data we want by entering its brain, ” said Temo after a short observation.

”Where is its port? ” asked Dodo.

”Remove the stump cleanly from its body.
After that, inject your probe into the cleaned part.
The vein where the liquid is flowing is probably connected to its brain, ” said Temo.

Hearing Temo ’s words, Anxashe went to work.
With his personal dagger, he cleaned the stumps of the beast.
During the process, I heard an odd sound coming from inside the beast.

”Anxashe is a tad bit too cruel.
Yes, this is a robotic beast, but he is too harsh with it, ” whispered Zhang Bao ’er to Old Du.

After a few minutes, Anxashe said, ”Done.
Dodo, you can start with your probe. ”

With that, Dodo inserted a probe into one of the parts where the stump had been cleaned, trying to gain access to the machine ’s database.

After only a short while, Zhang Bao ’er impatiently asked, ”Is it connected? ” 

”I ’m trying to gain access using Eternal ’s password protocols, ” said Dodo.

”Dodo, try using the protocols of the air defense drones.
The empire has altered the drones into pseudo life forms, so it is possible that the original protocols within the drones have been left untouched, ” I suggested.

”Understood.
I ’m already trying to gain access through the protocols of the air defense drones, ” said Dodo, who seemed to have reached the same conclusion.

The sky was slowly turning dark, and even deep in the red fog, we could see the darkness approaching above us.

”Dodo, are you done? It ’s already getting dark, ” said Zhang Bao ’er, sinking into his usual bad habit of impatience.

”I ’m currently cracking the password.
When the process is done, I ’ll know if I can get the information in the beast.
I still need five minutes to complete it, ” said Dodo.

”Dodo, can you share what you ’re looking at? ” I requested.

Dodo looked at the red fog around us before saying, ”I ’ll try to use the fog as the backdrop for the projection. ”

Shortly after, Dodo projected what he was seeing onto the red fog.
The image wasn ’t projecting properly due to the fog ’s uneven surface.
Thus, the image appeared distorted, making it impossible for us to see the contents clearly.

”Why don ’t you give this a try? Maybe it will work, ” said Zhang Bao ’er as he took out a black tarp from his backpack.
When we looked at it, we saw that it was the same black tarp Temo had used to hide us.

”Bao ’er, why is this tarp with you? ” I asked in astonishment.

”Everyone was too focused on running at the time.
I saw that this thing was quite useful and thought it would be a waste to leave it behind, so I took it with me, ” said Zhang Bao ’er with righteous indignation in his words.

”It doesn ’t matter.
You can have it as a gift.
I still have plenty of curtains like this, ” said Temo graciously.

Zhang Bao ’er appeared visibly joyful after receiving the gift.
He immediately called over two Wargod soldiers to help lift the tarp up.
Finally, Dodo ’s projection could be clearly seen on the black tarp.

String upon string of characters joined into the shape of a tree moved rapidly on the screen.
The characters weren ’t something we knew.
They most likely belonged to either the Eternals or the Sacred Wings.
Some blank spots were left on the strings, and the cracking process involved slowly filling the blank spots.

”When this tree is fully grown, the password will be cracked, ” explained Dodo to everyone who was staring at the screen in stupefaction.

”I did not expect those of a planet-level civilization to be able to get a glimpse of a database from a superior civilization.
I have never imagined something like this happening, ” said Temo, once again speaking with a thick sense of superiority.

”Hmph.
You ’ll see.
We can even use your so-called superior technology as the base to create an even more advanced piece of technology, ” said Zhang Bao ’er unyieldingly.

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

The two proceeded to bicker like usual while before us, the password tree continued growing.
The final blank spot was filled, and a shiny fully grown tree appeared.
Even through a projection, I could almost feel the heat from the beast due to the rapid internal workings within its body.

”I cracked this password with the protocols of the air defense drones.
Now, we ’ll see if this password tree can lead us to the information we want, ” said Dodo.

The password tree suddenly broke apart, as though it had exploded from the middle.
Then, white covered the screen.
All of us waited with bated breaths.
After about three minutes, the screen was still covered in white.
We had not obtained any information.

”What is the meaning of this? Did we fail in cracking the password? ” asked Zhang Bao ’er.
He finally lost his patience and was the first to speak among us.

”Be patient.
Perhaps the system is analyzing the database.
After all, our two civilizations have different written characters and numbers.
A process of adaptation is needed, ” said Dodo.

A few minutes passed.
Finally, the screen flickered as black started appearing on the white screen, as though it was an ink wash painting.

”This is too beautiful, ” we couldn ’t help but exclaim in awe when we saw the beautiful painting before us.
Naturally, Temo was the exception.

An imposing city of machines appeared on the screen.
The city had a conical layout, and at the very center was a towering mountain.
Numerous buildings dotted its surface, and the centermost building was a tall skyscraper.

”What place is this? ” I asked as I pointed at the tallest building.

”From what I know, that is the superweapon ’s launch center.
The finished parts will be gathered at the mountain peak and assembled into the weapon, ” answered Temo.

The scene on the screen zoomed in, revealing the point of view of an air defense beast.
From the sky, everything on the ground was visible.
Astonishingly, there were all sorts of buildings on the ground.
It was truly surprising that these robots would also have their own homes.
Robots of all shapes and forms roamed the streets.
Apart from the robots, organic life forms such as the lion-faced beasts and Sacred Wings could be seen in the city as well.

”Look, your brethren, the evil Sacred Wing race that specializes in developing evil technologies, ” said Zhang Bao ’er as he pointed at a Sacred Wing shown on the screen.

This time, Temo ignored the provocation.

The point of view continued advancing, and before long, it reached a massive building.
There were many entrances on the roof of the building, and our air defense beast flew into one.
Inside the building was a manufacturing workshop.
Countless air defense beasts roamed the area.
On the ground, there were even more technical bots helping with the manufacturing of parts.

The beast serving as our eyes continued advancing.
Before long, it stopped at an empty space.
A probe extended out of the wall and connected to the beast.
That was where the recording ended.

”It ’s over already? I ’m not done yet! ” said Zhang Bao ’er.

”This is it.
We have learned a lot from this recording.
It is enough for us to gain a deeper understanding of the city, ” said Dodo, not understanding why Zhang Bao ’er was still dissatisfied.

”Dodo, replay the recording.
Use your data analysis to draw a proper route to the center.
We will use that route later, ” I ordered.

”Roger.
Give me 20 minutes.
I ’ll prepare a route for you, ” said Dodo.

”Everyone, we will begin our mission in 20 minutes.
This is an extremely dangerous mission.
We might get ourselves surrounded by robotic beasts.
Thus, we need to stick to Dodo ’s safe route to avoid the total elimination of our team, ” I said.

”I need to remind everyone to save as much energy as possible.
We don ’t have much left.
We need our supply to last until contact is established with the fleet, ” reminded Old Du.

Everyone voiced their understanding.
After all, nobody wanted to stay a minute longer than necessary in the disgusting blood pool.
We were all looking forward to leaving this place after Dodo was done drawing up a safe route.