After a full 40 minutes, the space station's armored door was finally breached by the players' plasma weapons.
"Executive Officer, the armor here is a new type of titanium-based metal-ceramic. Its energy absorption and hardness parameters are very high, and its foundation is not bad. It is definitely better than the iron-based ceramic we currently widely use, and it is comparable to the carbon-based ceramic currently being developed on Emerald Star."
The Mage reported to Lu Yuan.
"Not bad."
Lu Yuan nodded.
Along with the advanced golden age spacesuits discovered earlier in the space station's main corridor, this trip had finally yielded substantial gains.
Anything acquired was a profit!
Behind the door was a three-way intersection. The sign on the left read "Power Room," the one on the right was "Research Wing," and straight ahead was the core of the entire space station, a semi-circular hall approximately 100 meters in diameter.
The ceiling of this hall was assembled from hundreds of thousands of hexagonal silver-white metal plates.
Scans showed that these metal plates were composed of high-purity Iron-56, with many structurally complex, functionally unknown circuits and conduits inside. In the center of the hall, within an ultra-clean glass room, sat a machine that looked somewhat like an MRI scanner.
Clearly, a person could lie on it, and once positioned, their head would fit perfectly into a large helmet-like instrument connected to numerous pipelines.
Its structure was very similar to the psionic and brainwave transceiver prosthetics behind the Gaia Mainframe on Emerald Star. Next to it, fanned out, were numerous terminal operation desks for scientific researchers.
One could guess that this place was likely related to some psionic research or research into stimulating human brain potential.
Furthermore, it shared the same technological origin as the equipment in the deepest parts of the Emerald Star research institute, both coming from the Infinite Deep Space radicals.
"Immediately send a five-person team back to the warship to retrieve some nuclear fuel; send another five-person team to the power room to check the reactor. The two teams will coordinate to restore power here as quickly as possible."
Seeing this, Prairie immediately assigned new tasks to everyone.
"The rest of you, be on alert, scan!"
Soon, the players found two nuclear reactors here and filled them with a xenon gas mixture fuel.
They were civilian models, with a single unit power of only 50GW. They had advanced features in their configuration, mainly being compact enough to provide important impetus and inspiration for the next generation of fighter jet reactors.
Judging from the reactor's power, the space station's electricity consumption was not high, indicating that the mysterious equipment here did not rely on energy output for its advantage.
Whoosh!
Fifteen minutes later, the entire space lit up.
With power fully restored, the main computer also successfully booted up.
"Boot password — let's try 000 first. Holy cow, it actually worked?"
The Mage looked shocked.
Could such a professional research institution be so casual about passwords?
"By the way, why didn't this place, or that huge research institute on Emerald Star, use quantum encryption technology?" asked a Sailor player who joined the closed beta relatively late.
"As for Emerald Star, it has been confirmed that Infinite Deep Space provided Emerald Life Science with the radical faction's quantum key, and the entire institute was unlocked centuries ago."
Prairie answered him.
"As for here, it doesn't look like an evacuation took place. They likely held out until the last moment, perhaps hoping that other individuals of their kind would continue their work."
"In any case, this is a good thing," Xian Yu said, looking at the questioning player.
"Did you hope this place would be locked up? Oh, the logs can be opened now. Let me see what exactly was being researched here—"
Lu Yuan looked up and scanned the entire circular hall, remaining silent.
The electromagnetic field changes caused by the power restoration were now propagating outwards at the speed of light.
On Taibai, Charlotte, who was on standby, sat on the bridge, staring at the brown dwarf on the display screen, lost in thought.
She recalled Jupiter, which was similar, and the Jupiter space station where she interned in 2094, and the reverence and longing she had for a future interstellar civilization at that time.
Who knew that she would then sleep on the ship for 1100 years? Upon waking, the former Cangyuan Fleet had long been destroyed, and the current successor... well, based on observations over the past few days, the current Executive Officer seemed to be doing quite well, perhaps a score of 87 to 89, his ability surpassing Emperor Constantine V.
But!
Compared to the legendary true Executive Officer she was supposed to assist, he was still some distance away!
Thinking of this, Charlotte couldn't help but feel a little lost.
She vaguely felt that she was just an extremely lucky exception.
The Executive Officer on the colony ship, and other colleagues who boarded, had probably all met with misfortune.
A wave of melancholic fatigue washed over her. The stripes and storm vortices on the brown dwarf's surface had a hypnotic effect.
"No, I need to focus!"
Charlotte slapped her face.
Just then, she noticed a disturbance in the planetary atmosphere, and a new vortex began to develop on its surface.
This vortex was initially inconspicuous, but the gas within it rotated faster and faster, and the vortex quickly expanded into a cyclone, then into a storm!
The central eye of the storm continuously extended deeper into the atmospheric layer, as if reaching for the luminous stellar core.
"This... it's magnificent, but it doesn't look like a natural phenomenon!"
A few seconds later, accompanied by intense lightning in the atmosphere, several huge dark shadows appeared in the eye of the storm.
Something was rising from deep within the brown dwarf's atmosphere!
"Oh no!"
Charlotte didn't waste time observing further. She immediately grabbed the communicator and shouted to everyone in the space station.
"Emergency! Everyone return to the fleet immediately! Start running, and I'll explain in detail!"
She sent the magnified image she was currently capturing to the Executive Officer and others.
"What is this!"
Lu Yuan saw what was emerging from the eye of the storm and immediately felt a sense of foreboding.
Due to insufficient image clarity and only being able to see the front of the unidentified objects, he couldn't yet determine what they were.
However, the scale was right there.
The largest of the unidentified objects had a head width exceeding 700 meters; it was a true behemoth!
"Executive Officer, I've finished reading the log files!" The Mage reported quickly.
"The project researched here was to use psionic means to control Zerg hive-mind biological warships! An alien race called the 'Great Pilgrims,' followers and worshippers of the Aether race, was invited to participate in this plan!"
"I understand."
Lu Yuan wasn't particularly surprised by this.
After seeing the facilities here, he had already vaguely guessed this outcome.
Then it was confirmed!
What was rising from the brown dwarf's atmosphere were likely the Gaia Zerg's biological warships!
They were those giant dark shadows occasionally sighted!
They were responsible for the frequent maritime incidents here!
The reason why the star system sometimes appeared so peaceful and safe was simply because these creatures usually preferred to hide in the dense and warm brown dwarf atmosphere, feeding on the nuclear fuel they needed to sustain life!
In a sense, this was indeed a very powerful and advanced form of cosmic life.
But now was not the time for admiration!
According to the speed at which the dark shadows were rising, the Zerg biological warships would reach here in just half an hour.
Half an hour, enough time to complete the research left behind by Infinite Deep Space?
Clearly not enough time. Even if there were, activating the equipment here would probably require at least one psionicist.
And the Cangyuan Fleet currently lacked such talent.
"Everyone, withdraw to the ships first, full speed retreat!"
Just as he said these words, Lu Yuan suddenly saw that all the dark spots on the image screen had disappeared.
"Oh no! They've warp-jumped to your vicinity!"
Charlotte's cry of alarm and the extremely faint tremor of the metal floor beneath their magnetic boots came simultaneously.
"Warp? Warp in such a powerful brown dwarf gravity well?!" The Mage looked shocked. "This—impossible, incredible."
But the facts were right before their eyes.
The entire Zerg fleet, consisting of 7 biological warships with a total mass of tens of billions of tons, appeared 10 kilometers outside the space station, causing several tons of gravitational pull on the space station, enough to be sensed by characters with higher perception.
Like Lu Yuan.
From the fleet's perspective, the scene outside was terrifying.
The Gaia Zerg's biological fleet, apart from being covered in biological armor, had almost no "insect" characteristics in its appearance.
Instead, it reminded one of the mythical sea serpent creatures from Earth legends.
Amidst the sheer sense of oppression, there was a hint of elegance.
Their heads were massive, indeed very similar to the super creatures on Emerald Star, but they had three pairs of eyes of different sizes, presumably to capture electromagnetic waves of different frequencies in the cosmic environment.
Additionally, the biological warships' tails split into six whip-like tentacles, with sharp ends.
It was difficult to determine whether they were evolved forms that had independently evolved for a billion years after leaving Emerald Star, or chimeras resulting from the fusion of their genes with other giant interstellar biological races in the universe.
But it was certain that these creatures possessed astonishing destructive power.
The largest alpha individual in the group was currently circling the space station curiously.
It was over 15 kilometers long, nearly a hundred times the size of a Cangyuan frigate. When it circled, its head and tail almost touched, forming a shape similar to an Ouroboros, making the enclosed space station and Cangyuan Fleet look like toys.
Three seemingly sub-adult, 7-kilometer-class individuals retreated to a farther distance of 40 kilometers, maintaining a 120-degree angular separation, encircling the space station as a guard.
Another three 10-kilometer-class adult individuals were "accompanying" the space station, orbiting the brown dwarf together, with their heads constantly pointed in this direction.
Clearly, if anything went wrong, they would definitely launch an attack.
But with the current formation, even if nothing seemed amiss, these stellar behemoths would probably—
This was the level of "great enemy" that could make golden age humans suffer!
Humans who survived the disaster were so tiny in front of them...
For a moment, all the players stopped what they were doing, not even daring to breathe loudly.
Their eyes were fixed on the real-time images on their helmet displays, fearing they might disturb the interstellar behemoths outside, whose weight was tens of billions of times that of humans.
"This is practically a Leviathan!" "So shocking! As a monster fan, I'm completely satisfied, I've had my fill. Now, I just need to get back alive—"
"Compared to the Tyranid bio-warships, which one is bigger?"
"Are you serious, big bro—at a time like this, you're still in the mood for monster-battling?"
The players whispered, discussing countermeasures.
"Should we try to communicate with them? Otherwise, we definitely can't win a fight, and we definitely can't escape. We need to fly another four hundred thousand kilometers before we can warp, but they're different."
"That's easy for you to say. How do we communicate, please?"
"Side Slip Dad! We need cheats! We need a translator!"
Lu Yuan thought, there's nothing I can do.
This time, the system didn't pop up a "Acquired Zerg Language Pack" notification.
Wait, Zerg language... That's right!
Although a billion years had passed, at that moment, he saw a communication request pop up in the lower right corner of the screen, from Nan Guo de Xue, who was currently on Emerald Star.
It seemed she had thought of the same thing as him!
He quickly connected, broadcasting it to the entire expeditionary fleet.
"Executive Officer, I'm watching your live stream—I mean, receiving remote superluminal video signals. In any case, I believe the Zerg fleet likely detected the electromagnetic fluctuations from the reactor activation earlier, and that's why they flew towards you."
"You mean they don't rely entirely on psionic perception of the outside world, but can also sense electromagnetic waves?"
"That must be it. They should have organs similar to bio-radars and bio-antennas inside their bodies."
"Then we should be able to communicate with them using electromagnetic waves, at least there's a possibility."
"That's right—"
Nan Guo de Xue took a deep breath.
"Just now, I proposed a risky rescue plan to the Mainframe, and it can explain the details."
"Hello, Executive Officer."
The Mainframe's magnetic electronic synthetic voice came through.
"I am sharing your vision, or in your language, watching a network video. I believe what the expeditionary fleet is currently encountering is very likely the descendants of my kin who ascended from Emerald Star a billion years ago."
"Now, I can imitate the grammar of our race's psionic language to modulate an electromagnetic signal expressing harmlessness, goodwill, and greetings, and then have Dr. Xue send it to you."
"They should be able to hear it."
"But a billion years have passed. I do not know if my descendants will still recognize this language from their ancestors."