Age of Cosmic Exploration Chapter 340

With the help of the Black Star Troopers, even though there were only one hundred plus of them, their power was immeasurable. The thousands of controlled humans and alien octopuses were cleared before the group of surviving soldiers’ shocked gazes. Then they broke off into teams of ten to form a defensive perimeter outside of the tunnel. The ease with which they carried out their mission shocked the survivors in the tunnel.

Following the guidance of the major by the name of Jacko, Guang Zhen led twenty troopers deeper into the tunnel. Along the way, they saw the rows of civilians standing or lying by the tunnel walls, looking at the encroaching Black Star Troopers in fear. Major Jacko immediately had his men go comfort and console the civilians.

On the way, Jacko asked Guang Zhen, "Commander Wong… if you don’t mind me asking, I have not heard of any country’s highest commander by the name of Wong Guang Zhen. Were you elected after we left Earth?"

Even though each country had their own differing military system, there was one common thing: it was hard to reach the position of commander unless one was born within a military family, or else a normal soldier would spend his or her lifetime without even getting close to being given that honor. Of course, during a time of war, this tradition had to be relaxed considerably.

Regardless, the fact that he was given the task of leading such a rescue mission meant that it was likely that Guang Zhen came from military family who relied on connections. Furthermore, from the little contact that they had had, Jacko was all the more certain Guang Zhen came to his position through actual warzone and combat. Therefore, he was even more curious.

Guang Zhen answered after a short pause, "No, I am not from Earth’s military or rather, not anymore…"

"Not anymore?" Jacko was befuddled, and he thought back to what Guang Zhen had said earlier. "Then what is the Hope? Aren’t you from the Noah Two?"

"The Noah Two is the Hope." Guang Zhen shook his head and said, "It is complicated. Many things happened after the Noah One left Earth… It's unbelievable, but I can tell you for certain that we are indeed humans and we came from the same place as you all. We were tasked with the mission to rescue you and lead you all out of this cursed planet. We will answer your questions when we reach the Noah Two."

Jacko wanted to ask some more questions, but at that time, several hundred civilians rushed towards them, their faces painted with fear and terror. Chasing after them was a "monster" whose brain and neck were horribly twisted and elongated. It grabbed an unfortunate soul and with a crack and pop of bones… it shoved the human into his stomach. Some screams and howls later, the human completely disappeared and the monster grew more twisted and bigger.

Jacko’s face fell when he saw this, because they were close to the tunnel's caved-in entrance. If a monster appeared at this place, one could only imagine how bad it would be inside the tunnel. There were several thousand civilians in there, and if anything happened to them… then the rescue mission would have failed grandly.

Guang Zhen reacted quickly. He ordered immediately, "This is a demonized human being, it is no longer one of us. I saw the human's soul being pulled out of his body when he was still dreaming. It is a demon now. Kill it, Black Star Troopers, then push forward! Destroy any humans that have been demonized!"

Under Guang Zhen’s order, the troopers pressed on. They did not show any fear towards these monsters. After all… when they were on the surface, they had killed many such monsters. Just like that, a trooper rushed towards the monster and allowed the monster to twist him using its strengthened limbs. The space armor was tough enough to withstand assault from tanks, much less this monster of the flesh. The trooper shook the monster off, tearing its limbs along the way. The trooper waved his sawblade and the monster was cut into two instantly. In just seconds, this scary-looking monster was cut into meat pieces like tofu.

Jacko witnessed this and sighed internally. If they had this armor when they were facing the alien octopuses, then they would have been able to overcome the crisis easily and would not have ended up in such a desperate situation.

However, he did not have time to dwell on this. He followed the troopers, rushed into the tunnel, and found many safe civilians along the way. However, there were also many monsters, as well as… humans who were in the middle of demonization, creatures that were half demon, half humans…

The tunnel was like a unique type of hell. Due to the earlier lack of Homo Evolutis, normal people were unable to notice the demonization of the people beside them. As the Black Star Troopers passed through the tunnel, the originally quietly sitting civilians suddenly realized that there was a scary monster sitting or lying beside them. It created a massive chaos, and the scariest thing was that some civilians did not even realize that they were slowly being eaten by the monsters. When the troopers passed, they finally saw that their bodies had been half-chewed off. This kind of terror… would only appear in hell!

When Guang Zhen’s group saw this, the Black Star Troopers and surviving soldiers from the Noah One felt suppressed by their heavy hearts. If one was to calculate carefully, the surviving number of civilians would be less than 3,000. About half of the citizens had been demonized or were demonizing, and these people… were treasures for humanity! Any dead person could have the ability to become humanity’s greatest scientist…

After a short journey and after Guang Zhen realized that there were about only 3,000 human survivors, a series of gunshots suddenly came from somewhere ahead. It startled everyone, and they picked up their pace. They turned a small corner and saw that several hundred soldiers were retreating and protecting the hundreds of civilians behind them. In front of them was a large, cylindrical worm chewing down on the bodies that littered the floor. The worm was as large as the tunnel itself and was moving towards them with some strange motion, forcing them back. However, the scariest thing was that the worm… had a human face!

Among the soldiers, a young man by the age of twenty seemed to have realized something. When he turned back and noticed Jacko, he immediately yelled, "Major Jacko, please lead the civilians out of the tunnels. There are no longer any surviving humans ahead. The more this thing consumes, the bigger it becomes. We cannot hold it off any longer, and our bullets do no damage to it because it can consume even bullets!"

Then the young man seemed to have noticed Guang Zhen and the troopers. Shock registered on his face before he and the soldiers behind him lifted their weapons to aim at Guang Zhen.

Jacko roared, "Yang Yun Si, they are humans! They are members from the Noah Two tasked to come save us. Hold your fire, they are here to help us…" Then, he turned to face Guang Zhen.

"Commander Wong, I will leave this to you and your soldiers. I will lead the civilians out. There are many seniors, ladies, and children, so they might not move fast. Therefore, please hold up our rear and prevent all the monsters from getting to us."

Guang Zhen nodded. "Of course. My orders were to save everyone that still has a breath in them. But please remember, there must be a Homo Evolutis among the crowd, or there might be demonization… Homo Evolutis are people like my soldiers. Therefore, I will give you five troopers to protect the civilians, I will hold up the rear."

Jacko beamed happily and saluted Guang Zhen. He then ran towards the civilians. After Guang Zhen assigned him five troopers, he addressed the rest. "Attention. These people are humanity’s greatest treasures. They are either great scientists or the best technical workers. They are instrumental to the Hope’s future development, so this is a fight for our children and grandchildren, for the continuation of humanity’s future! Follow me!"

Guang Zhen then rushed towards the human-faced worm. Several seconds later, one trooper, two troopers, three troopers… they ran past Guang Zhen and charged at the worm with an indomitable will…

At the same time, Yao Yuan had received the latest update from the planet. The satellites had been dispersed throughout the planet. According to the disturbance around the planet, he would receive updates from the landing unit after about one minute.

However, after this message came in, the Hope’s surveillance unit also sent in a bad update…

The surface of this planet showed signs of morphing into flesh, metal, and energy layers…

Yes, the cursed planet itself was demonizing!

Chapter end