Age of Cosmic Exploration Chapter 166

Yao Yuan sighed deeply after a 10-minute contemplation.

Everyone knew that after the alien absorbed the alien plant, it would evolve to a super organism, one that could digest everything, minerals, energy… Mankind would truly be hamstrung then.

However, the plan, as crazy as it may seem, was also the only proposed plan that could work…

The alien’s strength lied in cellular construction and regeneration. Using a singular cell, it could create a sea of monsters with sufficient nutrients.

The alien had almost absorbed Moon 2, so it shouldn’t have to worry about the lack of nutrients. It could produce millions of alien monsters easily. It didn’t even have to rely on the monsters to destroy the Hope; it could do that with its enormous size.

Getting into close proximity with the Hope’s planet would create such a disturbance in the gravitational fields that it would shred the spaceship into pieces. Unlike the mother nest, mankind couldn’t regenerate when damaged.

Therefore, the Hope had to eventually warp or suffer a monumental loss. Yao Yuan believed there was no third option.

However, the third option had arrived wrapped in a package of craziness. It sounded insane, but it might just prove to be successful!

Simulations from the central mainframe provided 2 possible outcomes. One had a chance possibility of 6.7 percent while the other 92 percent. The biggest key difference was obviously the alien plant. If the mother nest managed to absorb the alien plant in less than 2 hours, it would be able to completely infuse the DNA of the plant throughout the nest in less than 1 hour. It would then use its newly acquired power to digest the propeller. It would escape the fate of being shoved into the sun easily.

However, if the altercation between the two lasted more than 2 hours, the propeller would have reached so much acceleration that the alien wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop it. Even if it did end up absorbing the alien plant, it would be too late. Pushed by the inertia of the acceleration and pulled by the gravity of the sun, it would be heading straight for its death.

Of course, there were other minor kinks to work out in the plan. The first was the protection of the propeller before it could get lodged inside the mother nest. A special unit needed to escort the propeller through the monster crowd around Moon 2 as the propeller traveled to its target. The propeller was extremely fragile, so a team of combat jets would have to be deployed to protect it from harm.

Secondly, the 4 reactors within the mother nest had to be blown up. The combat jets would be needed again. The millions upon millions of monster that guarded the nest would be a high wall to climb. Even Yao Yuan had doubts about whether the combat jets could succeed in this hard mission.

The discussion continued with everyone arguing their thoughts. More data was churned out by the central mainframe, but… the biggest issue was the absence of the plan’s original creators. Ren Tao was in quarantine, passed out from fever.

Bo Li had locked herself up in her room and refused to answer to any pleadings and calls. Yao Yuan warned against any efforts to drag her out by force, telling everyone to let her be.

3 hours later, as the Homo Evolutis roused from their slumber, Yao Yuan had decided to carry on with the plan, calling it Operation Celestial Wolf. It was a mission that had humanity’s future on the line. If it was a success, they would have themselves a new home planet.

But if they failed, they would have created a space monstrosity and hopefully would be able to warp away before they themselves were absorbed.

"The giant propeller prototype is ready, Sir. It was built using Professor Bo Li’s latest set of data. Its speed and acceleration are 10 percent better than normal propellers, but it still has its flaw, the most notable being its instability."

It was one of the scientists from Bo Li’s lab that provided the explanation. He was right that the propeller had some stability issues, but according to the simulations, those issues would only manifest themselves after a 10 hour activation. It was relatively stable within the first 10 hours of its activation.

"This is not the time to be picky; we’ll just have to trust this prototype," Yao Yuan said solemnly as he took in the several hundred meters long and 30 meters wide propeller device that took up most of the lab. Compared to the size of the mother nest, it would still be tiny, but it had enough power to pull the plan off. As long as the alien plant wasn’t absorbed within 2 hours, victory belonged to humanity!

Then Yao Yuan continued to survey other preparations. To prevent the alien plant from directly digesting the propeller, its surface had to be covered with a thin layer of energy crystal. This too was another lengthy and exhaustive project. The Hope’s ready store of energy crystals wasn’t large enough to cover the large surface, so they had to use the alien plants to create more.

Then came the modification to the front of the propeller. It needed to be sharp enough to pierce through the mother nest’s surface and serrated enough to hook onto its flesh. Furthermore, the particle flux on its combustible end couldn’t end up inside the fleshy folds of the alien, or it would affect acceleration.

In the meantime, surveillance on Moon 2 continued. The excavation project had almost reached its end; there was only about 300 meters to go before the Hope could prepare to lift off. For that purpose, the temporary base had to move its location. It was uprooted to a location several meters away from the opening. That too was a tiring project.

Then, 2 hours before the initiation of Operation Celestial Wolf, the surveillance team on Moon 2 came back with reports on the alien’s suspicious developments.

"This is…"

The mother nest on Moon 2 had completely curled into a ball. It looked like Moon 2 had grown a malignant tumor. It was ready to launch into space any time soon.

The surprise, though, was the appearance of a new flesh monster… or rather a flesh warship.

The new monster was more than 1,000 meters long and was shaped like a stick. From the high definition pictures taken of it, almost every corner of its surface was punctured with Gaussian cannon barrels, giving it an appearance of a spindly meat stick. It looked straight out of someone’s demented nightmare.

There was more than several thousands of these monster warships, and they were surrounded by a gauntlet of flying monsters.

There were also millions upon millions of those meat blobs. From their previous combat, Yao Yuan knew that the purpose of these blobs was transportation. Each one of them housed about 2,000 monsters. In other words, all of the monsters added up to an army that could drown out the Hope’s planet with just their sheer numbers. Their numbers this round was several times greater than their numbers from the previous 2 wars combined!

"Prepare the whole defense unit! Make sure you have all the necessary weapons, armor, ammo, and batteries!"

Yao Yuan ordered inside the war room, "Stand ready, all Black Star Troopers. We’ll be heading out after the combat jets’ last check-up. This will be our last stand against this enemy!

"Everyone, a picture speaks a thousand words, so I implore you to look at this stretch of blue sky, land, and sea! This could be ours… if we win this war. We will disappoint humanity if we fail!"

Yao Yuan roared for inspiration. "So we can only return with victory in our laps! I shall fight until my last breath out there. If I die, you’re all allowed to return to warp, but before that, I request that you give this war your all!

"Guang Zhen, I’ll leave the defense of the base to you. When the Hope lifts off, I expect it to be assaulted by the flying monsters, so Black Star Troopers, we have to be ready for that!

"I need every single Black Star Trooper to be out there! The Hope can only lift off in about 3 to 4 hours, so before then, we have to secure this opening. After lift-off, the combat jets will provide support to the ground unit, so Guang Zhen you better make sure the base holds until then!

Let’s make Operation Celestial Wolf a success!"

Chapter end