Age of Cosmic Exploration

"...First! I have to stress one thing. Even if we sacrifice everything, all the vehicles, technology, base, and even parts of Kun Lun and we have to start everything again from scratch, even if we have to sacrifice all the soldiers, we have to save the civilians and children trapped at second defense line!"

Yao Yuan looked at all the gathered officers before him. This meeting involved all the highest ranking officials currently in the human government, including Guang Zhen and all the Black Star Troopers.

"Here are your orders: I demand that the Defense Unit and Black Star Troopers follow this order... To have an ambush at a space not far from the outskirts of the second defense line. First, a vanguard unit will get all of the surviving individuals out from the second defense line and move them towards coordinates xxx. Release a large scale creator’s particle to conceal the location of the main fleet.

"Then we will set up a last stand at this place!"

Yao Yuan slammed his fist on the table, his expression as dark as the other side of the moon...

This tactic was made after they received the information from Wang Hwa’s Steel Ball. The robot fleet was programmed to capture or destroy all the resistance that appeared before them. They would overwhelm their target with numbers and not tactical advantage; this was observable from the information taken from first defense line and the Steel Ball. After the meeting was over, Yao Yuan and Guang Zhen shared a short conservation before Guang Zhen departed to catch up to the vanguard unit.

"Ol’ Wong, listen to me..."

Yao Yuan puffed on a cigarette before turning to address Guang Zhen seriously. "There are around 194,000 plus people stationed at the second defense line, including the Defense Unit soldiers, their families, children, workers, and civilians. That is about one-fifth the size of our total population. Currently, there are two great scientists working and stuck there due to the war... Either way, be it the one-fifth of the population or the two great scientists, we cannot afford to lose either one...

"Even though the retreat order has been given, the Hope and the other motherships the size of the Hope could last us more than 100 years in space. The premise is that all of the surviving civilians warp away. We cannot afford to lose one-fifth of the human population or two great scientists!

"Furthermore, I’ve come to a decision. In the cosmos, a civilization, a race’s heart, could only increase but not decrease. If you only see yourself as a dust, then you’ll only become a speck of space dust. In the war of this cosmic jungle, the greatest fear is not a race’s arrogance... but being content with one’s weakness. Since other space civilizations could improve to become middle-tier, high-tier, and even god-tier space civilizations, why can’t us humans? Remember the two neutron star fragments? Remember the Song of Destruction? Remember how the races at the shelter treated us?

"What is their basis for calling us an enslaved race? Just because they entered space earlier than us, does that give them the right to be so arrogant?! Cosmic lifeforms’ biggest fear is not arrogance but contentment in weakness!"

Yao Yuan’s veins were popping when he was saying these things. He took a deep drag of the cigarette before telling Guang Zhen, "Since the enemy is a force that we are not completely powerless against, since they have a weakness, I’ve decided to fight this war... To tell you the truth, even though arrogance is not a sin, rashness is. Therefore, I will not ask all the humans to take this last stand with us. If we lose... the citizens at the City of Light Moon, the remaining soldiers.,and the ten Black Star Troopers I’ve left behind will warp away, taking our technology and collections, like the illusory space, the UFO, the information from the HE research center, the database for the zerg genetics, the alien plant, and all the related objects. They will warp away and begin a new life somewhere else...

"But I will not leave, since I’ve selected this path on behalf of humanity. I will stay to walk this path to the end..."

Yao Yuan squished the cigarette in his hand and told Guang Zhen, "...If your vanguard unit fails, then wait for me... we’ll meet again in the underworld!"

Guang Zhen sat in the captain’s chair in central command. All the orders were given from his seat. He lowered his military cap quietly to shield his eyes before mumbling to himself, "Ol’ Captain, this choice... is the choice of all soldiers, is it not? You’re still the same as ever, nothing has changed, always ready to shoulder all the responsibilities...

"But..." Guang Zhen straightened his cap and smirked chillingly. "This is your style, isn’t it? Then, let me... fire the first round of retaliation for you!"

It had been six hours since Amulo got into the Steel Ball. At the end of the day, Amulo was just a child; he was feeling hungry and thirsty and a little heavy in the head. However, that wasn’t something he couldn’t handle. One summer holiday, when his father was on a mission and his mother was at work, he tried playing a game for three days non-stop. He ate very little, and other than the 24-hour hibernation that happened after the gaming marathon, there were no side effects.

Even though piloting the Steel Ball was more tiring than playing a game, it was merely a mental exhaustion, and six hours for him was nothing. With his consciousness checking in, the glucose and nutrient drips started to enter his body. Gradually, the feeling of hunger and thrist disappeared and he returned to dealing with these enemies.

Around five hours ago, he heard a weird voice in his head... In fact, it was inaccurate to call it a voice, because it did not communicate in terms of language. It was a vague intention or thought that told him to lure the enemy to a certain location and stall them there.

Even though Amulo was curious about the origin of this message, he didn’t feel alerted by it. After all, a game was often more than just endless killing, there were side quests like retreat, cover, protect, and so on. Leading the enemy to the edge of the second defense line was not out of the ordinary for this kid gamer. Therefore, in the past five hours, he had been trying to accomplish this mission.

In the past five hours, using this Steel Ball, Amulo had taken down more than 10,000 spaceships, including battleships and guardian spaceships. The only thing that gave him a pause was the enormous motherships. They were too big and their shields were too strong. Even Steel Ball itself was unable to phase through the energy shields.

With a shiver, Amulo felt like the Steel Ball was about to shatter. Of course, this was merely a feeling in his mind; the Steel Ball was perfectly fine. However, it was true that the Steel Ball was just hit by another blanket fire. One or two blanket fires were unable to deal real damage to the Steel Ball, but what about hundreds or thousands? The thought of that... was quite scary.

"Why isn’t the mission ending? What’s next? Fight until the end?" As Amulo tussled with the enemy, this thought cropped up in his mind.

After he took down another large spaceship and took another three blanket fires, suddenly, a large energy beam shot out from empty space. The energy beam was so bright that when it reached the enemy fleet, the light started to bend. This was Requiem! The focus fire of many Requiem cannons!

At the same time, about 10 light orbs had found their way to the center of the enemy fleet. A great energy wave ruined at least 1,000 spaceships. Before Amulo’s eyes, a great amount of spaceships shifted in and out of existence. This was the effect of their ECS System being affected. Not only that, while Amulo was slightly stunned, about 10 latest Space Combat Jets had arrived at his side. The enemy spaceships around him exploded because these combat jets were all equipped with explosive arrow bullets that could take down plasma shields!

In the leading ship, Guang Zhen ordered, "Full speed ahead! Following the path opened up by the Black Star Troopers! We have to buy more time for the guardian spaceships to get to the civilians!"

At the same time, even though most of the alien fleet had been distracted by Amulo’s Steel Ball, there was still quite a few robots from the fleet that had landed on second defense line. The place had been under assault for several hours already, and the fatality number was over several ten thousands. The internal structure of the place was falling apart and the fall of the second defense line was only a matter of time.

Just as the people were in the midst of despair, the few alien spaceships surrounding the second defense line exploded, and just like that, the guardian spaceships entered the base’s space ports.

"Everyone, listen up, we’re the human Defense Unit. We’re under the order to help the civilians at the second defense line to retreat. From now on, everything will be following the military rules. Anyone who is found purposely disrupting the peace will be executed...

"We will not abandon anyone, we will not run or escape. Before everyone is on board, we will stay behind with everyone...

"To fight until the end of our lives!"