Age of Cosmic Exploration

Destroying the central mainframe was easier said than done.

The central mainframe was a complicated and delicate high-tech product. It contained elements that mankind’s current technology couldn’t replicate. It even used some of the parts salvaged from the junkyard civilization. Therefore, any wrong step could prove to be irreparable damage.

Naturally, one couldn’t just hack it using the sawblade; this difficult procedure required the careful hands of specialized experts to make sure that the damage done was contained and could later be easily fixed, or at least could be fixed within several minutes using mankind’s technology.

The chore thus fell on Bo Li’s shoulders. She was the only one there who could perform something like that. After she received Yao Yuan’s permission, she started diagnosing and checking the central mainframe’s internal system. Other than that, she also pulled information from it.

The information was from the Hope’s surveillance system, like camera feed of important locations and public amenities from different floors. The Hope might’ve been under the control of the space merchants, but the cameras were still rolling.

From all the observations she had received thus far, Bo Li suspected that the Hope’s central mainframe wasn’t directly controlled by the space merchants but was hacked into by some kind of computer program or virus that was unknown to mankind. After all, the Hope and the space merchants’ spaceships were divided by a field of creator’s particle, blocking all transmission of electrical signals.

Other than that, the Hope’s central mainframe was a product of the 4th revolution, albeit one that was from the early 4th revolution. It was a type of supermagnetic computer. Based on her observations, the space merchants hadn’t entered the 5th revolution, so they only had access to few of the products.

Therefore, it was impossible that the space merchants could use a laptop to gain complete control of a supercomputer like the central mainframe.

Hence, the biggest possibility was that the space merchants had used some kind of high tech computer program, such as the quantum lock, to disable the central mainframe.

Yao Yuan and the rest saw how the rest of the ship was surviving based on the pulled surveillance videos. Currently, a mass of space merchant military had entered the Hope. Other than the tens of thousands soldiers that had mankind cornered at the central mainframe, several thousands of the rest separated into units to swarm every corner of the Hope. They stunned all the humans that they ran into, and the large gorilla aliens would carry the unconscious human beings onto their spacecraft. So far, more than several thousand people had been kidnapped, and this number was still increasing. Similarly increasing was the number of the invading space merchants.

Guang Zhen was the one who held himself most together while they saw the videos. He suddenly pointed at one of the screens and yelled, "Yao Yuan! Here! Look!"

Yao Yuan’s gaze followed Guang Zhen’s finger and saw on screen more than ten Black Dragons anxiously pacing around a metallic wall. The wall had several deep dents on it, but it was observable that the Black Dragons didn’t use their full force, because if they did, the wall wouldn’t be standing, since mankind’s technology wasn’t advanced enough to create anything that could withstand their full force.

This was the Hope’s biome at its uppermost level, the Black Dragons’ habitat. Under normal circumstances, no one was allowed to disturb them, and the dragons exercised restraint. As long as they were given their daily feed, they would not exhibit their feral side. With training, they could even learn to not ruin the level’s structural frame. In fact, at the moment they realized something was going wrong on the ship, due to their prolonged training, they still hesitated to break down the doors and rush downstairs.

Yao Yuan screamed excitedly, "That’s right, the Black Dragons! They don’t need to rely on any equipment, and the space merchants’ electrical weapons will just bounce off their thick skin!"

Bo Li continued her work on the central mainframe and said, "Hate to break it to you, but currently everything that is controlled via the central mainframe is not working. Even though the Black Dragons might feel that something is wrong, they won’t go out without the door opening, so don’t put too much hope on them, unless..."

"Unless what?"

The people around her asked in unison.

Bo Li checked the screen closer before replying, "The quarantine doors employ electromagnetic technology. Other than the few important entrances that entered lockdown during the power outage, the rest of the doors are completely opposite. They lost the ability to stay locked 100 percent; however, this doesn’t mean that they are wide open, or else they wouldn’t still be staying inside. In other words, we have to open those doors."

Yao Yuan immediately asked, "Is there any way you can do that? The black dragons will be a welcome addition to our troops. With their help, the space merchants will become less of a threat, and the space troopers can use this opening to get to the combat jets!"

Bo Li gave it some thought. "I can try to disable the central mainframe myself to cause another blackout and use my prototype robot to hack into the system for that particular area, I believe my robot is powerful enough to override a door switch. We can let the black dragons out that way. However, I have to say, I’m not a biologist, so I can’t promise this won’t go extremely wrong. The black dragons might attack indiscriminately under the current situation. If they attack mankind, they will be a bigger threat than the space merchants."

Yao Yuan shook his head. "We don’t have time to worry about such things anymore. Furthermore, the black dragons have spent so much time with us that they should be familiar with our presence by now. Also, based on the current situation, the space merchants want to force us into extinction, so I’d say enraged Black Dragons are the least of our worries. We can calm them down after the fact. There’s no time for us to hesitate, release the Black Dragons!"

Bo Li stopped talking and started working on the central mainframe. With Yao Yuan leading, the rest of the chosen Homo Evolutis put on the space armors. Yao Yuan had on his red space armor, and everyone waited with bated breath for the Hope’s second power outage to arrive.

Everyone’s focus was pulled into intense concentration from Bo Li’s ‘ready?’ Their target destination was the Prototype 003 Space Combat Jets’ hangar. They would climb into the jets and escaped from the creator’s particle zone as soon as possible. After that, the war would officially begin!

And the defense of the Hope itself... would be handed over to the group of Black Dragons!

Bo Li had her robot incapacitate the central mainframe, and the Hope again submerged into a world of darkness.

At the same time, the Black Dragons on the sixth floor were getting increasingly frantic. However, the sudden darkness dazed them temporarily. When they came to, the door that blocked their way was slowly opening. Witnessing this, the Black Dragons ran out with a brown dragon that was missing a leg leading the way, charged down the Hope with a speed that was way beyond human comprehension. The twenty Black Dragons seemed to melt into a bolt of dark-brown lightning!

The Black dragons were completely unaffected by the loss of gravity... like they were born into a zero-gravity environment!

The Hope’s fifth and sixth floors were home to the Academy and Workshop, so there were a lot scientists and technicians stranded here. Among them were also Defense Unit soldiers that didn’t run into Guang Zhen when he was making his rounds. These small groups of soldiers were either making a last stand against the space merchants or had surrendered and allowed themselves be shocked by the enemy. However, the key issue was that these two floors were the locations where a lot of radioactive minerals were kept!

Yang Sen was a veteran in the Defense Unit. Back on earth, he was part of the Chinese field unit. After he got on the Hope, he kept going strong in his training, so he was now a second-lieutenant. This year he was 38; if he was still on earth, he would be retiring, but with the Hope’s genetic resonance technology, his army career was extended for another 30 to 40 years.

When the first blackout happened, he was part of the group that was tasked to look after the warehouse that stored such important assets. When the alien merchants attacked, he led his group to set up a fight. However, like every other unit, the difference in weapon technology was too hard to overcome. His group was forced to retreat into the warehouse, and use the geological advantage to put up a last stand. However... the fall was only a matter of time, and it would happen in the next few minutes.

When the second outage occurred, Yang Sen’s defense immediately fell apart. In less than 10 seconds, his group was rendered unconscious.

The moment the electricity surged through his body, shutting down his synapses, his heart was chilled. He understood that mankind would face its extinction unless there was a miracle...

Then...

A miracle did appear!

Before Yang Sen lost his consciousness, he saw a flash of red lightning out of the corner of his eyes. The four-armed gorilla standing before him that was in the middle of collecting the human beings that had crumpled to the floor suddenly folded his body into two beings shot by the red lighting...

And then slammed into the wall, making a messy splat!