Chapter 309: Stepping into the Grave
【Archaeological site found, “Infinite Deep Space Space Station”: At the end of the golden age, Infinite Deep Space built this space station on the front lines of a war against a great enemy, conducting research that other powers deemed impossible. Did they ultimately succeed? Perhaps the very existence of this space station is the answer!】
【Fully excavating this relic may yield a “Star Sea Relic.” Relics are extremely valuable items that can greatly enhance the overall strength of an entire civilization.】
Relic!
And it’s Infinite Deep Space again!
It seems this trip was indeed worthwhile. Among all discoveries, relics are undoubtedly the most significant and the least frequent.
It's basically like winning the lottery.
The last time, obtaining the living relic Mainframe directly transformed the perilous Emerald Star into a hunter-themed paradise with exploding positive reviews, opening up new avenues for Cangyuan’s leveling and scientific research.
Compared to the Infinite Deep Space Research Institute at that time, the space station before them was much smaller. Its long axis was about 500 meters, its width no more than 200 meters,
and its height no more than 150 meters, equivalent in volume to three Star Alliance heavy cruisers.
Given the scale of the expeditionary force, they could definitely explore it within half a day.
As the fleet approached, the “DSI” logo on the space station's outer shell was clearly displayed on the bridge screen.
“Wow! So this is Infinite Deep Space’s asset. That means it’s definitely got something good.”
“Changing orbit, everyone hold on tight!” the helmsman shouted with full vigor, “Relative speed with the space station reduced to 30,
20, 5 — — .. — relatively stationary, done!”
“Charge!”
The fleet smoothly docked near the space station.
The airlock opened, and players, already geared up, swarmed out, activating their rocket backpacks and flying towards the Infinite Deep Space Space Station a hundred meters away.
Soon, they found the main entrance airlock, which had already been blown open.
“Damn! This place has been looted. Brothers, we’re too late.”
Seeing this, some players expressed great disappointment.
“Not necessarily! Don't be disheartened yet. Maybe the stuff inside is still there. ‘Tomb raiders’ may have come, but they might not have left alive.”
“This... doesn’t sound like a good thing either, does it?” Prairie warned, “Stay alert. Don’t touch anything, and keep scanning.”
As he spoke, back on the battleship, a large scanner had already performed a rough scan of the space station.
The results showed that it had some recycling value, with the main structure primarily containing five basic aerospace industrial elements: carbon, titanium, aluminum, iron, and magnesium. However, no nuclear fuel was found, presumed to have been consumed.
As for zero element and such, it couldn't be scanned at all; only manual exploration would work.
“Advance.”
Lu Yuan glanced back at the seemingly calm space, then gave the order.
Due to the pervasive nebulous matter, the entire space was dyed red by the supergiant star at the center of the galaxy, emitting an eerie and ominous aura.
“Executive Officer, this galaxy is very abnormal!”
The Mage floated beside Lu Yuan, acting as a tomb-raiding advisor, warning Lu Yuan.
“Why?”
“Generally speaking, interstellar dust appears in the early stages of star formation or after a supernova explosion; while red supergiants are in the late stages of main-sequence star evolution. During their formation, intense stellar winds or helium flashes should have dispersed these nebulae.”
The Mage explained.
“So you’re saying these dusts were formed recently due to unnatural causes?”
“Yes! Their history probably doesn't exceed 300 years. Scan results show that, in addition to hydrogen and nitrogen, these dust materials also contain elements that should naturally be very low in abundance, such as carbon, aluminum, and oxygen.
“So I speculate that this must be an ancient battlefield from the period of the apocalypse! The heavier elements in the dust should come from numerous battleships after violent explosions!”
Is that so—
Lu Yuan thought for a moment, finding it somewhat suspicious.
“Carbon and aluminum are fine, but human battleships shouldn’t contain much oxygen, should they?”
“The content is indeed not high. I haven’t figured out the specific reason yet; it might be a fusion product after a thermonuclear explosion.”
No, something's not right!
“Everyone, speed up the search!”
The ominous feeling in Lu Yuan’s heart deepened further, and he shouted to those ahead.
“Okay!”
Everyone accelerated into the space station’s main hall, their eyes immediately drawn to its unique decor.
The rectangular hall’s interior featured numerous pointed arches and bundled columns made of metal panels, their towering shapes imbued with a profound religious solemnity.
“Is this really a space station? Why does it feel like a Gothic cathedral from reality?”
“Building a cathedral on a space station, this kind of behavior reminds me of—”
“Just be fiercely loyal!”
“Long live the Corpse Emperor! \(.)/”
“Hello, hello, calling the Inquisition, there's a heretic here—”
“I think it looks like a space temple fair.”
“God TM temple fair—”
“Look over here!”
Amidst the serious yet lively atmosphere, Prairie made a discovery and led everyone to a wall.
On the red copper panel, some geometric patterns were carved.
“This painting style is very similar to the murals in the Oasis City Cathedral on Li Star!”
Oasis City.
Lu Yuan’s thoughts were instantly pulled back to the planet where he started, back to the vast Desert under the scorching sun.
“Are you sure?”
Due to his busy schedule, Lu Yuan had only been to the Oasis City Cathedral two or three times and wasn't particularly familiar with it.
“Positive! Ye Xing and I carefully observed the murals there; there’s no mistake.”
At this point, some players also noticed it.
“It does look a bit similar.”
“Hmm, it’s not so much the content, but the decorative style.”
“Don’t say, there really are murals here,” the Mage’s voice came from the side, and everyone quickly gathered around again.
This!
Below the pointed arches, on a huge red copper panel, two opposing forces in the cosmos were depicted.
It was clearly added later, covering the original decorative patterns.
The left side consisted of three types of different spacecraft. The first type, with its either angular or fully curved radar-stealth profile, was clearly a human battleship.
The second type didn’t look much like human ships; although their design was also reasonable, there was an indescribable alien feel to them, and they were slightly smaller in size.
The third type were giant biological battleships with the bodies of sea beasts!
“This is very similar to the super creatures on Emerald Star.”
Lu Yuan and Prairie, who had experienced the Emerald Star landing exploration, said in unison.
They seemed to be the Mainframe’s kin.
The right side consisted of various different ships.
“Look at this one.”
The Mage pointed to an inconspicuous medium-sized battleship in the fleet; its side view was almost identical to that of the deep sea!
“Could this be — the AI fleet of the Intelligent Order Consensus?”
The content of the mural was clear enough for the players to interpret its meaning.
“So, during the period of the apocalypse, humans once allied with the Gaia Swarm and another alien race to jointly resist the Intelligent Order Consensus?”
“It should be.”
“And they still lost?”
“At least in this Star Union Space, they didn’t win.”
“Then this Intelligent Order Consensus is quite fierce. Before, I saw their combat sub-entities captured by Cangyuan and thought they weren’t particularly powerful.”
Lu Yuan gently shook his head.
“According to the records of Oasis City’s founder, ‘Captain,’ humans at that time should have also been attacked by the Gaia Swarm, which probably doesn’t match the mural here.
“Anyway, take photos and record it. Let’s keep moving!”
If the content of the mural was true, then the side views of those battleships should become important data for identifying Intelligent Order Consensus and potential allied ships in the future.
“Executive Officer, Oasis City originally worshipped the ‘Aether God Race,’ referring to them as the alien battleships in the mural. Could they be of this race?”
Along the way, Prairie said to Lu Yuan.
“Possibly,” the Mage quietly agreed, “I heard that when the first bishop created the religion, he didn’t invent it out of thin air, but rather referenced many existing sects and archaeological discoveries from the golden age.”
“That’s true. But the alien battleships in the mural are smaller than human ones. If they weren’t deliberately belittled, their strength shouldn't have been inferior to humans of the golden age, not to the extent of being molded into ‘gods’ by later generations.” Lu Yuan put forth his view.
“I am more inclined to believe that the ‘Aether God Race’ was an object of worship for aliens, likely a very ancient intelligent species. There were probably alien races working on this space station, and the cathedral was built to accommodate their religious customs.”
“Hmm—”
The Mage and Prairie pondered for a while, finding that this deduction was indeed more logical.
The strong reasoning ability brought to Lu Yuan by his high mental attributes,
The team continued forward, entering the space station’s main corridor.
“Report, Executive Officer, human remains found! A large number!”
There were many bodies on both sides of the main corridor. The degree of decomposition inside the sealed space suits varied, and the styles of the space suits themselves were also different, with clear distinctions between advanced and backward.
It is speculated that some were space station staff from the golden age, and others were adventurers who came here after the catastrophe and couldn't leave alive.
“—The space suits on the bodies are undamaged, and there are no external injuries on the bodies. They most likely starved to death here, or suffocated.”
“Starved to death? Couldn't they return to their own ships? Were their ships destroyed? Or stolen?”
“I don’t know either—”
There were many hatches on both sides of the corridor, with English signs indicating they led to rooms like dormitories and dining halls, but the players were not interested in exploring them at the moment.
They were only interested in the large door at the end of the corridor, which read “Core Research Facility.”
Scan results showed that the entire core part of the space station was encased in a thick, heavy, cubic armored box, with tight defenses and completely isolated from the outside world.
The adventurers who came here were clearly unprepared and did not have suitable tools to break it open.
This meant that everything inside was still there!
“Begin breaching the door!”
Prairie loudly ordered, and the team members each pulled out their plasma melee weapons.
At the same time, on the Imperial large cruiser oka, the captain reported to the fleet commander.
“Rear Admiral Reid, our stealth radar just conducted its routine scan and detected suspicious targets in the vicinity. Please take a look!”
Due to its immense size, the oka was equipped with large OTH band radar antenna arrays on its hull sides. It could effectively detect space fighters, as well as frigate and destroyer-sized targets, at extremely long distances through electromagnetic wave resonance.
Although the imaging was not clear enough for precise fire control guidance, it could still distinguish between meteorites and artificial objects based on their flight trajectories.
“It appears to be a small formation of five fighters that had been secretly trailing us and only recently changed their course.”
Rear Admiral Reid stared at the radar screen, his voice deep, instantly discerning the hidden meaning.
He had spent years outside Star Union Space, leading Imperial forces in combat against powerful enemies unknown to the Star Alliance populace. He was a commander with extensive combat experience and close ties to several Imperial Parliament members.
“Here.”
Reid immediately saw through Cangyuan’s military intentions, pointing to the red K063 on the star map.
“Notify all ships to immediately converge here. Cangyuan is hiding inside the stellar system! Our speed must be fast enough. Radar wave detection is two-way; the fighter squad that was scanned earlier, if they're not foolish, will also have noticed!”
“But, Rear Admiral, that area belongs to a Level 5 sea zone—” the captain reminded him, “Even if Cangyuan is trying to evade us, there’s no need to dive into such a dangerous place, is there?”
Reid merely smiled slightly.
“They must have heard some news and believe there’s a power there that can turn the tide for them.”
“Are you referring to that relic!?”
“Yes! This matter, even within the Imperial Navy, only high-ranking generals are privy to. It’s not easy for Cangyuan to obtain this intelligence, but unfortunately, they will never be able to activate that psionic relic! They have already stepped into their own grave!”
“Excellent, the long hunting game is finally over. We can finish this quickly—” The captain breathed a sigh of relief.
“Several council members have already sent super-communications, demanding the fleet return to the capital as soon as possible due to the outbreak of that scandal.”
As the flagship, the oka was equipped with a faster-than-light communication base station and had also watched North Star TV Station’s special program recently.
“It’s fine, it won’t delay us too long. When we return with Cangyuan’s prisoners of war, we will naturally open up a new situation for the beleaguered parliament and turn the tables on the Emperor!”
Reid was full of confidence, patting the captain’s shoulder, his eyes telling him that after this was over, promotion and honors would be yours, so do a good job!
“Tell those council members that we are about to achieve a major victory, and they only need to wait patiently for at most — 72 hours!”