41: Farewell to the Moon Palace and First Arrival at the Red Star

The atmosphere at the Moon Base launch site was solemn and grave.

After weeks of intense preparation, three modified gull-class interstellar transport ships stood silently on their launch pads. Their massive hulls were covered with newly installed thrusters and rugged armor; though not as elegant as starships in sci-fi movies, they exuded a sense of pragmatic sturdiness. The Moon Base emblem—a silver moon encircled by gears, with crossed olive branches and lightning bolts beneath—was painted on the sides of the ships.

The fleet was named the "Hope Expeditionary Fleet." The flagship, seagull one, carried Sun Zheng's command team, the core Combat Laboratory module, and the majority of the elite ground forces. The other two ships, lü ou ii and seagull three, primarily transported logistics supplies, engineering equipment, and reserve forces.

Command of the base remaining behind was held by the steady A001 (now promoted to Colonel). Under his command were two full battalions of "Sentinel" battle fortresses, a complete automated defense network, and the authority to urgently activate the Chronosphere to receive retreating troops.

Dressed in a specialized Commander spacesuit, Sun Zheng took one last look at this steel home he had built with his own hands. The towering prism towers, the roaring Ore Refineries, the solemn memorial wall for martyrs... every brick and tile here embodied his hard work. Now, he had to temporarily leave this place and head for a more distant battlefield.

"I'm leaving the base in your hands," Sun Zheng said, shaking hands firmly with A001.

"We will defend our home to the death and await the Commander's triumphant return!" A001 saluted, his gaze resolute.

Sun Zheng nodded and turned, striding toward the gangway of seagull one. Under the watchful eyes of all the remaining personnel, the three Commanders of the Expeditionary Fleet—Sun Zheng (Commander-in-Chief), Lieutenant Colonel Falcon (Marine Commander), and a senior engineering supervisor (Technical Support)—boarded the flagship.

"All units, report status!" Sun Zheng ordered from the simple and practical command seat on the bridge.

"seagull one, all systems normal, ready for departure!"

"lü ou ii, ready for departure!"

"seagull three, ready for departure!"

"Base defense network operating at full power, Chronosphere on standby. Wishing the expedition success!" A001's voice came from the Moon.

"Depart!" Sun Zheng took a deep breath and gave the final order.

A low rumble echoed as the main thrusters at the rear of the three gull-class transport ships spewed blue plasma flames, their powerful thrust slowly pushing the massive hulls away from the lunar surface. They first climbed at low speed, orbiting the Moon, before adjusting their course and firing their main thrusters at full power, beginning the long interstellar journey toward distant Mars.

The fleet adopted a conservative Hohmann Transfer Orbit, making the journey long and spent mostly in inertial flight. Life on board was tedious and oppressive, with only the endless starry sky and the occasional passing asteroid. Sun Zheng spent most of his time on the bridge, studying Martian topographic data, the potential crash site of the voyager, and simulating tactics for potential encounters with the Scrin Fleet.

He maintained constant contact with the Moon Base via quantum-enhanced Chronosphere communication. While keeping updated on the base's situation, he also used this time for deeper meditation, communicating with the homeworld space and the glimmer keystone. During the silent voyage, he felt his connection with the keystone growing tighter, even faintly perceiving a weak pulling sensation pointing toward Mars—similar to when he sensed the Under-ice Ruins on the Moon, but more distant and blurred.

After dozens of days of flight, the orange-red planet of Mars finally grew from a bright speck into a massive world with clear geographical features in his field of vision. The massive Olympus Mons, the winding Valles Marineris, the white ice caps at the poles... this planet, full of desolation and grandeur, was right before his eyes.

"Entering the Martian gravity well. Initiate deceleration procedures. Scan the designated landing zone—the shadow region on the western side of Olympus Mons," Sun Zheng ordered, his heart rate involuntarily quickening.

The fleet began to decelerate, orbiting Mars while high-precision sensors scanned the target area.

However, the images sent back by the scan caused the entire bridge to fall into instant, dead silence!

There was no sign of the voyager's crash as expected. Under the massive shadow of Olympus Mons, the sight presented by that relatively flat area was hair-raising—

Wreckage! The wreckage of countless warships!

Fragments of ships of all sizes and styles littered the vast ground, stretching to the edge of vision. Some of the wreckage was similar in style to the Scrin units encountered before, but more were unrecognizable unknown metal structures bearing marks of violent explosions and tearing. This didn't look like a crash site; it looked more like a horrific interstellar battlefield graveyard!

"Reporting, Commander... no signal from the 'voyager' found... but we have detected multiple weak energy signals of unknown origin... as well as a large-scale energy interference zone!" the sensor officer's voice trembled.

Sun Zheng's heart sank to the bottom. Where was the voyager? What was going on with this battlefield? And what were those energy signals?