Age of Cosmic Exploration

Chapter 298: Operation Start!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Time passed by slowly and life was uneventful for the 200,000 plus people on the Hope. This number was a combination of 120,000 people from Earth and the newborns. The population had almost doubled compared to when the Hope first left Earth. When there were so many people, trifling household affairs were practically endless. The Hope’s government was small and had few officers, but it was fairly complete. Each government worker was responsible for many things, and among them, Yao Yuan was probably the busiest.

Yao Yuan was a professional soldier, but due to his autocratic background, before he was a soldier, he already knew about many skills, especially management skills. Overall, he still considered himself a soldier before he was a leader… However, due to the Hope’s unique situation, he had to be leader first before he was a soldier.

This was especially obvious during uneventful days, when Yao Yuan felt like he was one of those paper pushers. The things he had to deal with were trivial matters. Other than the few important cases, 90 percent of the time he had to deal with civil affairs. Even though there was a threat of a 5th revolution alien civilization, he couldn’t drop his responsibilities lest it create panic among the citizens.

Today was the day the alien civilization entered the Hope according to Eva’s vision. In the secret meeting room were Yao Yuan, Bo Li, Ren Tao, Xiao Niao, Eva, Guang Zhen, about ten top scientists from the Academy, and several Black Star Unit members. These were the people who knew about what was going on. Since the ruin deception strategy required some high-tech equipment, the ten scientists had to be informed.

"The three ruin baits were checked five days ago. Their internal structures, mass, energy levels, and long ranged signals were all perfectly fine," a young, about 40-year-old, scientist reported to the room. Behind him was the 3D image of a ruin bait being projected.

The so-called ruin bait was a medium-large space vessel. Inside there was a 4th revolution battery that took up one-third of the internal space. The other two-thirds was taken up by the space warp engine. In other words, this was a simplified space warp system.

First, thus far it had been confirmed that the alien civilization that was supposed to enter the Hope was a 5th revolution or level 3 space civilization. Their strength couldn’t be compared to the enemies the Hope had faced before. This was a civilization that had mastered the energy revolution. If mankind came head to head with this civilization, the possible outcome was being vaporized in just several hours to several minutes. This was an enemy current human beings couldn’t handle.

In a situation where the Hope couldn’t warp, the only chance at survival was this ruin deception strategy. The key of this plan was to present the Hope as an ancient civilization’s ruin. Hopefully, the mystery would deter this alien civilization from entering. They still needed to drag it out for another half a month before ZERO would appear and the Hope would warp away from underneath this civilization’s nose. All the danger would disappear then. That was the best solution.

Therefore, the main issue was to create the impression that the Hope was a ruin that had a technology way beyond a level 3 space civilization.

Many things could be faked, but technological level wasn’t one of them, especially in front of an expert. A level 3 space civilization must be far more advanced than humanity, so they would most likely possess long-distance surveillance systems that could analyze the Hope’s metallic structure, its density, and theoretical framework perhaps in just seconds. Even though the Hope was pretending to be a ruin, if it was just a level 2 space civilization’s ruins, then a level 3 space civilization would have nothing to get worked over. That was probably why only 10 aliens entered the Hope in Eva’s vision… such a small unit was powerful enough to take down an entire level 2 space civilization.

Therefore, just how would the Hope be moulded into a civilization ruin that was much more technologically advanced than a level 3 space civilization?

Yao Yuan, the two Thinkers, Bo Li, and a large amount of scientists all agreed that the only solution was… the space warp engine!

This was the only thing on the Hope that was technologically advanced. At least from the information taken from junkyard civilization and space merchants, this was a technology not available to any known space civilization; it was a future technology even beyond the star gate technology!

It was because of this that the ruin deception strategy was possible.

First, a few space warp vessels were created. The metals that were used to create these space vessels came from the alien plant, including both the unknown alloy and pure metals. These were metals that 4th revolution technology couldn’t understand or analyze. Even though they had no clue what level of space civilization they came from, it was at least way above level 3.

Such space vessels were suspended away from the Hope. When the alien civilization neared the space vessels or the Hope, using the planned time sequence, these space vessels would enter warp state. However, due to the lack of energy, these vessels would explode in space while a part of them would have warped.

Those that required mankind to use this ruin deception plan had to be at least a level 3 space civilization, so they had to know about space ruins. When the vessel exploded, they would go investigate, thus delaying the plan to explore the Hope.

Under their close scrutiny, they would find out about the second and third space warp vessels. They would discover that this low technology empty space ship (due to creator’s particle blocking them from reading the vital signs within) had incredibly high technology marvels floating around it. In that case, they would suspect that the Hope was a trap or a bait. Even though this would increase their desire to obtain the Hope, it would also cause them to be extra cautious to prevent unnecessary sacrifices.

They too would try to investigate or capture the two remaining space vessels, but they would space warp the moment the aliens got near. This would help them confirm that the few floating metallic cases were incredibly high tech (at least above level 3). If the civilization that approached the Hope was also at a high level, they could even detect the space wave created during warp and calculate the density of the part that had warped away. This way, they would be even more cautious and perhaps even suspect the spaceship itself was a space trap or a space weapon (if there was such a thing)….

This was the content of the ruin deception strategy. It was a pure psychological strategy that used the alien civilization’s caution towards space ruins as an opening.

The strategy was, in itself, a gamble. If the gamble was victorious, then the prize would be their lives; however, if they lost, if the alien civilization sent one soldier into the Hope, then the Hope would initiate self-destruct sequence. Therefore, it was not Yao Yuan’s intention to use the ruin deception strategy. His first choice would have been to abandon the Noah One and warp. However, that choice was taken away from them, so he had no choice but to commit to this crazy gamble that used the lives of the whole of humanity as the betting chips!

After the scientist finished his report, Yao Yuan nodded and raised his head to look at the atomic clock inside the secret meeting room. "Two more hours. In two hours, the first space vessel will explode and we’ll be left with two more space vessels and 16 days until our warp limit… Or, conservatively speaking, we still have 17, 18, at most 20 days. In other words, in the next 20 days, when we explode the next space vessels will become the most important detail to the success of this strategy. It cannot be too early, because we still have to drag it out for at most 20 days, but it cannot be too late either, lest this alien civilization loses its patience and decides to send its people into the Hope… this is the main point of our discussion today. By the way, how is the progress for the observer robots coming along?"

"Observer robot?" Guang Zhen had the biggest reaction. He asked instantly, "Wait, Yao Yuan, didn’t you say that observation was mutual? When we observe the surroundings, those in our surroundings would be able to observe us back, right? Shouldn’t we keep quiet inside the Hope now?"

Yao Yuan shook his head. "That was when we were still undiscovered, but now that we’re going to initiate the ruin deception strategy, we have already been found out, so we have to start surveying our surroundings and the conditions of the alien civilization. So how goes the observer robots?" Yao Yuan turned towards Bo Li.

Bo Li glanced at Yao Yuan coldly before tossing him a document. "The AI Observer Robots… are ready. Including the prototype, there are in total five of them. They can be deployed at any moment."

After Yao Yuan accepted the document, before he read it, he said, "Perfect. Then in two hours, after the first explosion, we will send out 3 robots…

"I want to see this alien civilization for myself… 5th revolution technology and level 3 space civilization, I need to see what kind of spaceship and army they have!"

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