Interstellar Survival: Invasion

”Roger, ” answered Dodo as they took the glass case with the wriggling tentacle from me.

”These fellows are too terrifying.
The moment you ’re trapped, you will lose all sense of direction, ” said Old Du.

”There is a control desk here.
I don ’t know if we can find any useful information from it, ” said Zhang Xingxing.
From the design, the control desk was obviously a product of Blue.

Hearing Zhang Xingxing ’s words, Dodo placed the glass case on the control desk and then leaned over to take a closer look at the desk.
They reached out and pressed a switch, turning on the desk that had been inactive for a very long time.

”The arrival of Gliesens has brought Blue ’s technology to a new height.
Although this is an abandoned outpost, it still has an abundant energy reserve, ” I said.

The control desk ’s Blue-made operating system was easy to deal with.
Dodo was able to quickly override the password, granting us access to the data in the system.
The data was stored in binary.
Dodo wasted no time to start translating.

While Dodo was busy working, I started observing the outpost.
The outpost wasn ’t big.
It consisted of a large control room in the middle and a series of dorms surrounding the central control room.

I opened a random side door and saw that it was actually an armory.
Countless different weapons could be seen in the room.
Apart from the standard issue league cluster laser guns, I also saw heavy ray guns.
These guns had immense power and could continuously release high-energy beams.
beams.

”Old Du, Bao ’er, search all the rooms.
See if we can find anything useful, ” I ordered.

Shortly after, the entire outpost was searched.
Nothing special was found in most of the rooms, but inside an airtight room, Zhang Bao ’er discovered a large number of germ samples.
The samples were all frozen in some sort of solid, transparent substance.
This was a shocking discovery for all of us.
None of us had imagined that the league had already been studying these germs long ago.

”Commander Zhang Xingxing, do you still remember what General Angela told Duke Yidon during the hearing? ” asked Baron Sisse.

”Of course.
A year ago, the empire launched a surprise attack on Pluto.
At the time, General Angela was the commander of the army stationed at Pluto ’s research base.
The league suffered a disastrous defeat, but Angela insisted that she had brought all germ samples with her during her retreat, ” said Zhang Xingxing.

”Exactly.
It is obvious now that she had been lying to avoid taking responsibility for the defeat, ” said Baron Sisse furiously.

”That witch! I have long known she wasn ’t a good person! ” said Zhang Bao ’er.

”This tiny thing here must be the Isi virus, ” said Kelly with a red virus sample in her hand.

”So this is the so-called beneficial virus? ” said Temo as he grabbed a different Isi sample from the shelf to take a closer look at it.

There were hundreds of different virus samples in the room.
Some were as small as tiny dots while some were even bigger than Anxashe.
Regardless of their size, the viruses had all become samples.

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”Shit, I think we forgot one thing.
Where ’s the super virus? None of us are dead, I think.
Looks like the red biscuits are working, ” remarked Domo.

”You ’re dead.
The rest of us are fine.
But yeah, that big fellow is nowhere to be seen.
Or perhaps the white clouds earlier are the super virus? Have we defeated the super virus? ” said Zhang Bao ’er.

”Impossible.
According to the records, the super virus had instantly killed tens of thousands of imperial soldiers.
The virus from earlier is nowhere big enough to accomplish that, ” said Zhang Xingxing.

”In that case, we have yet to encounter the super virus.
Do not be careless, everyone, ” I said.

While we spoke, Dodo updated us that the data had been analyzed.
Most of the deleted data had been recovered.
We rushed back to the control room.
After obtaining Zhang Xingxing ’s permission, Dodo projected the recovered data.
On a screen in the room, a Blueling second lieutenant called Daisy appeared.

”Good day, everyone.
I am Second Lieutenant Daisy, the person in charge of Pluto ’s Outpost Koala, here to provide a routine daily update.
The five members staffing the outpost are in excellent condition.
The robot assistant, Baobo, has helped extract the genetic sequence of an R13-type virus.
After meticulous tests, we proved that this is a destructive virus capable of permeating and destroying the cells of other life forms.
It is not a second Isi virus, ” reported Daisy.
From the screen, we could see the other staff members working busily in the background.

”Looks like the virus research on Pluto had grown to a rather respectable scope.
The soldiers were stationed here to search for beneficial germs, ” praised Old Du.

Next, Dodo played a few other records.
All of them were the reports on their studies on all sorts of viruses.
Through the records, we learned that there were two large mechanical arms and several drones equipped with mechanical arms in the outpost.
These machines were what the researchers used to gather all the samples we saw without the risk of exposing themselves to the viruses.

”I think I understand why the cloud germs attacked us so furiously when we arrived, ” Temo suddenly said.

”Genius Temo, can you share your wisdom with us? ” requested Dodo respectfully.

”Revenge.
These germs possess independent thought.
Your low-level civilization constantly catches those from their species for research, and that must have angered them greatly.
Therefore, it is not surprising that they would be so hostile to us, ” reasoned Temo.
We all stayed silent.
Nobody offered a counter-argument.

At that moment, a new recording attracted our attention.

”Good day, everyone.
I am the person in charge of Pluto ’s Outpost Koala, Second Lieutenant Daisy.
Today, we received surprising news from Base Brown Bear.
Their excavator had caused a landslide while digging at an area near Wright Mons.
The landslide was so massive that it even caused an intense earthquake that could be felt even here at Outpost Koala.
According to our latest information, after the landslide, a large layer of ice had appeared.
Within the ice, the robot had discovered a new life form.

”This new life form is dark red in color.
Oddly, the red creature can move freely in the ice, looking like it was actually phasing through it.
Also, the creature is massive.
This was the first time we had ever discovered a life form moving so freely within solid ice.
Considering how unique the discovery was, Lieutenant General Angela had sealed the area, and nobody can enter without permission.
Outpost Koala is carrying out her order faithfully, ” said Daisy, shocking all of us with the contents of her report.

”What is this? Baron, based on your understanding from watching this recording, could it be that the super virus was not discovered by the empire? The league was actually the party responsible for the discovery of the super virus? The league never revealed the contents of this report, ” said Zhang Xingxing.

”According to this recording, that is very likely.
Looks like the super virus has been living in the ice layer.
Perhaps the earthquake and the damage it did to the ground was the reason the super virus was freed from the ice layer, ” said Baron Sisse.

”I think so too.
There must be an extraordinary ice layer near Wright Mons.
The ice must be the key to keeping the super virus contained, but the ice layer had been broken, ” said Kelly.

Full of questions, we continued going through the recordings.
Before long, an even more exciting recording came up.
In the recording, all the staff members could be seen urgently trying to establish contact with someone outside the outpost.

”Good day, everyone.
I am the person in charge of Pluto ’s Koala Outpost, Second Lieutenant Daisy.
An emergency erupted today.
After the withdrawal order yesterday, we lost all contact with Base Brown Bear.
We couldn ’t contact Outpost Penguin either.
All of us are extremely anxious, not knowing what to do next.

”As a precaution, I sent Officer David out on a shuttle to get an update on Base Brown Bear.
However, we lost contact with Officer David.
Even now, contact has not been re-established.

”There are still many germ samples in Outpost Koala.
The moment they come in contact with Pluto ’s air, they all turn active.
Only special transportation machines can move these samples.
We don ’t dare to leave the outpost unguarded, so we can only wait for reinforcement patiently.
All emergency signals have been sent.
To anyone receiving this message, please contact me as soon as possible, ” finished Daisy, her face full of worry.

”This recording must have been made a few days before the empire ’s invasion of Pluto.
But why did Outpost Koala lose contact with Base Brown Bear? ” asked Baron Sisse.

”If she had used all available channels for her emergency message, the message utilizing the gamma-ray channel would definitely reach Blue.
Temo, is your ship capable of using the light recall method to retrieve the emergency message? ” asked Zhang Xingxing.

Hearing the question, Temo tried to connect Outpost Koala ’s communication device with Markus ’s operating system.
In less than five minutes, a connection was established.
Surprisingly, not only was there no emergency message to be found, there wasn ’t even a trace of any outward communication sent by Outpost Koala.

”What is this? It is impossible that not a single trace of communication can be found.
Where are all the emergency messages? ” asked Old Du in confusion.

”Is it possible that the entire outpost was surrounded by cloud germs and that all outward signals were caught within the germs that could trap both living beings and signals? ” Kelly suggested.

”Let ’s stop the discussion for now.
Dodo, continue going through the data, ” said Zhang Xingxing.