Age of Cosmic Exploration

Chapter 328: Nightmare in Reality

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The Hope would warp to its destination after another 30 minutes, the location of the Noah One.

Everyone on the Hope knew that this was going to be an unimaginably harsh battle. It had gone beyond the question of how many people would die, because the whole spaceship might die.

Therefore, even with Yao Yuan’s incomparable popularity and Cheng Wen’s dark strategy, as the time drew near, the sounds of protest still appeared. The voices of protest were small, but it was obvious that a part of the citizens was not satisfied with this mission.

30 minutes before the warp, Yao Yuan and Guang Zhen were discussing the details of the missions at the ship’s bridge.

"Ol’ Wong, just like how we’ve discussed earlier, I will leave you to handle everything on the surface. You will lead 150 Black Star Troopers, including all the Black Star Unit members, Zhang Heng, Xiao Niao, and the latest Black Star Space Armor Prototype Two and all the latest weapons. Ask and you shall receive! There is only one order: save as many as you can and remember to take the data on the Noah One, especially the data on Project Eden. I need all of those!"

Guang Zhen gave a solemn salute. He treated this seriously even though he was friends with Yao Yuan. After the salute, he stood at ready and said, "Yes, Sir!"

Yao Yuan responded with his own salute before continuing, "Of course... bring all the kids back. They are all great soldiers. I’ve seen their training, and they are all stand-up soldiers. This mission is going to be really dangerous, but none of them complained, so you and everyone... please return safely."

Guang Zhen nodded silently. Then he added, "Ol’ Yao, there are more of those voices in these few days. You have to be careful, some people are starting to get uneasy about your orders. This kind of situation..."

Yao Yuan interrupted him, "Ol’ Wong, I’ve noticed all that, but they are still within reasonable range. I understand... The family background you’re from and your education cause you to be cautious of voices like this. Your go-to response to these voices of dissent, no matter how small, is to squash them using military law. I am not saying this to lecture you, because your way of doing things is even necessary in certain situations. However, when managing over 100,000 people from multiple countries, and with the majority of them being children, things are going to be a bit different.

"So believe in me. After all, we are no longer on Earth. The issue of whether we have accommodated to life in space aside, we are already in space. It might not be voluntary, but it is the reality we have to live with. Furthermore, following that was a scientific renaissance. Basically, we have blown through progress in a decade which normally would require us thousands of years to complete. Our societal progress is thus lacking behind compared to our science. Our civil sensitivity is lacking by a lot, and that is not something you or I can solve. The only solution is to allow it to grow organically, give the public freedom to choose. The only thing I can do is to give a range to limit this growth within a reasonable range."

Yao Yuan did not elaborate after that. Instead, he advised Guang Zhen to focus on the mission before returning to central command where he could direct and command the Hope in case some accidents happened.

"On the other end of the warp will be our battlefield..." Yao Yuan sat in the captain’s chair. Standing beside him were Ren Tao and Bo Li, their expressions normal.

Ren Tao could not help but add, "You sure do trust him..."

"He is your superior!" Yao Yuan of course knew what Ren Tao was talking about. In reality, in terms of Thinker’s power, it was only when formulating extremely difficult problems that he would lack behind Ren Tao and Xiao Niao. During normal situations, he was no different from them, so he immediately interrupted him. "Wong Guang Zhen is your superior, so show some reason! And... he is a comrade who you can trust your life with, your superior and comrade! This is a lesson I’ve learned after much bloodshed!"

Ren Tao shrugged and said, "Of course I know that all of you from the Black Star Unit are impressive characters. Combat and war should come naturally to all of you, I have never questioned that... You should know what I am talking about. Wong Guang Zhen... Fine, General Wong has a different way of thinking from most, and that is very dangerous. Not only is the public suspicious and fearful of him, even the westerners in the Black Star Troopers are cautious of General Wong. Normally, this would be a non-issue, but you yourself understand how important this mission is. It is not hard to envision that suspicion be an insidious presence in this mission, so I just have to say, you sure have faith in him."

Yao Yuan was silent and stared at Ren Tao. After a long time, he explained slowly, "Two points. One, I believe in my soldiers, and they are Black Star Troopers. They are the best of the best. Perhaps it is as you have said, maybe a difference in opinion might cause some friction, but this small suspicion will not be huge enough to make them lose their common sense and obedience to their superior. You have to understand that they are Black Star Troopers!

"Two, Ol’ Wong is more fair than you give him credit. I will admit his way of thinking is very much influenced by his life back on Earth, but during combat, he will not be influenced by his personal opinion. He is a real combat expert. Since I am unable to personally participate in this rescue, he is the most qualified person on the Hope to lead this mission... So you don’t need to worry yourself over this. Make sure that you focus on your responsibility. When we come into any emergency, give me the solution at the shortest notice!"

Ren Tao shrugged once more. He did not think much about it. Even though the mission was important and incredibly dangerous, for the sake of the mission, both the Academy and the Barracks had committed a great amount of pre-battle preparation. For example, the 150 Black Star Troopers were equipped with the latest Space Armor Prototype Two. Other than an embedded hydrogen atomic battery as its energy source, it was also equipped with a high efficiency electromagnetic shield. Its defense capability was ten times the defense capability of the Space Armor Prototype One!

Not only that, in the Space Armor Prototype Two, its metallic materials were from the alien plant’s special alloy, the kind that could withstand the damage from plasma weapons. Even though it was less powerful than energy shields, at least it could withstand around four shots of normal plasma weapons. This was created using the template from Blue 6’s spacesuit after they surrendered. Due to the time constraint, it was still a prototype. In the future, maybe energy shields will be added to this armor.

There were also many other preparations work. For example, a high frequency supermagnetic radar to confirm the Noah One’s location, the latest anti-gravity high speed transport ship, as well as the completed Space Combat Jet Prototype 011s that were sitting in the hangar. Furthermore, after the Hope warped, it would start to charge energy for a subsequent warp. If the situation was not right, they would directly warp even if it meant giving up the Noah One. As a Thinker, naturally Ren Tao understood all that and he believed Yao Yuan would not hesitate to abandon the Noah One if the overall safety of the Hope was threatened!

Therefore, even though Ren Tao did not really approve of this mission, he was not worried about it. After all, space warp was their ultimate trump card. According to Blue 6’s information, level 3 space civilizations had no method to prevent space warp unless it was done internally, like what the space merchants did.

According to Blue 6, level 4 space civilizations and above were simply too rare, so much so that it was hard to ascertain whether there was one level 4 or above space civilization within the space of several thousand light years. In other words, with the space warp technology, the Hope was invincible. Therefore, even though Ren Tao did not have much faith in the rescue mission, he had complete faith in the Hope’s safety. Therefore, he did not think his capability as a Thinker would be of any use.

In truth, his assumption would be broken after about ten minutes...

This was the Hope’s last controlled warp. Normally, after ZERO set the coordinates, she would stay to chat with Xiao Niao. However, perhaps she knew that Xiao Niao was part of the rescue party. After she set the last coordinates, she disappeared without a trace. This did irk Xiao Niao in some ways.

"What’s wrong?" Standing beside Xiao Niao were his two best friends, Qiu Qiu and Dan Dan. They were Homo Evolutis, so they were part of the 150 Black Star Troopers that would land on the planet.

Xiao Niao shook his head and tossed the uncomfortable feeling that he could not explain himself out of his mind. He said, "No, nothing’s wrong. We will be warping soon, so let’s prepare for combat..."

A few seconds after Xiao Niao said those words, the Hope entered warp. In the blink of an eye, the Hope blinked out of their original space. Then the videos on the various surveillance devices and sceneries outside the spaceship windows showed...

A creepy scene that one could only see in a dream!

It was like they had warped from reality into someone’s dream!

And it was definitely a nightmare...