87: Warfare in Four Regions and Changes at Anchor Points

The successful activation of the Mercury corona zone beacon was like dropping a massive boulder into a silent lake. The resulting ripples of Order Energy, though faint, were precisely transmitted to every corner of the Solar System. This slight reinforcement bought precious time for the crumbling 'order cage' and encouraged the other four exploration teams to accelerate their operations.

Venus Atmosphere, 'Toxic Cloud' Exploration Team.

The 'Acid-Class' probe sphere, like a resilient seed, struggled to hover within the terrifying atmosphere of Venus's middle layer, filled with sulfuric acid mist and violent lightning. Immense atmospheric pressure squeezed the sphere, while corrosive gases constantly ate away at its external armor. Based on the resonance fluctuations generated when the Mercury beacon was activated, the exploration team successfully locked onto the beacon's location—situated at the center of a stable atmospheric vortex high above a massive volcanic plateau.

“Beacon discovered! It... it's actually suspended in the atmosphere!” The captain looked at the images sent back by the sensors in shock. An inverted pyramid composed of corrosion-resistant crystals loomed in the sulfuric acid mist, its tip pointing downward, emitting a steady blue light.

“Attempt to approach! Watch out for lightning and updrafts!”

The probe sphere cautiously drew near the floating beacon. Just as the engineering robots were preparing to dock, the volcano below suddenly erupted violently! A pillar of scorching magma shot into the sky, carrying deadly toxic gases and lightning, heading straight for the probe sphere!

“Emergency evasion! Activate shields at maximum power!”

The probe sphere narrowly avoided the main jet, but it was struck by the peripheral shockwaves and lightning, causing the shields to flicker violently. More terrifyingly, the eruption agitated the atmosphere, and the vortex where the beacon was located began to become unstable!

“No more time! Forced docking and activation!” the captain decided immediately.

Risking being struck by lightning, the engineering robots forcibly extended their mechanical arms to touch the beacon's base. Order Energy injected!

Hum—!

The inverted pyramid shone brilliantly, and a blue beam of light pierced through the thick cloud layers! The violent atmosphere around it seemed to be smoothed over by an invisible force, temporarily stabilizing. The second beacon, activated!

Earth, Mariana Trench, 'Abyss' Exploration Team.

The 'Hadal-Class' deep-sea submersible, like a ghost, slowly descended under eternal darkness and immense water pressure capable of crushing steel. This was a forbidden zone for life, punctuated only by strange bioluminescent organisms that survived on geothermal heat. The beacon's location pointed to the deepest part of the trench.

“Beacon signal source detected... right ahead in the center of that hydrothermal vent field!” the sonar operator reported.

As the submersible approached, they saw a coral-like giant tower, mineralized from some kind of bioluminescent organism, standing in the middle of billowing black smokers and strange tube worm colonies! The tower's body flowed with a faint blue light, strangely integrating with the surrounding extreme environment.

However, just as the submersible prepared to collect samples and activate it, the sensors suddenly captured several massive life signatures rapidly ascending from the dark Abyss!

“Something's coming up! Huge volume! Energy signatures... chaotic and hostile!”

Several deep-sea behemoths, comparable in size to small submarines and hideous in appearance with glowing tentacles and sharp teeth, lunged from below, frantically attacking the submersible! They seemed to view the beacon as their territory, or... were they attracted by the beacon's energy?

“Fire! Drive them back! Engineering team, hurry and activate the beacon!” the captain ordered.

The submersible's torpedoes and pulse cannons triggered dull explosions in the deep sea. A fierce battle broke out ten thousand meters beneath the ocean! Under the desperate cover of their teammates, the engineering robots successfully contacted the biological tower and injected Order Energy.

Blue light bloomed, dispelling the darkness, and those deep-sea behemoths retreated into the Abyss as if frightened. The third beacon, activated!

Mars Depths, 'Boring' Exploration Team.

The large drilling platform had already penetrated several kilometers underground on Mars, searching for the specific geological structure indicated by the beacon's resonance. Finally, in a massive underground cavern, they discovered an ancient obelisk completely fused with Martian rock. The beacon's activation was relatively smooth, with no strong resistance encountered. The light of the fourth beacon merged into Mars's core energy field, stabilizing the spatial structure of this region.

Saturn's Rings, 'Ice Dust' Exploration Team.

The 'Icebreaker-Class' escort corvette wove through dense ice-particle storms, dodging impacts from giant ice chunks. The beacon was hidden inside an ice core tens of kilometers in diameter. The exploration team used high-energy lasers to melt through the ice layer, entered the core, and successfully activated the fifth beacon. The beacon's light even temporarily illuminated a small section of Saturn's rings, beautiful yet deadly.

At this point, except for the destroyed Jupiter beacon and the distant Oort Cloud beacon, all five hidden beacons within the Solar System had been successfully activated!

On the bridge of the hope, Sun Zheng, having returned from the Mercury rescue, and Colonel Falcon looked at the five new points of light on the star map and the spatial background radiation readings, which had clearly stabilized somewhat. They breathed a long sigh of relief. The order cage had been significantly reinforced, and the erosion speed of the void whisper should slow down.

However, just as everyone felt a slight sense of relief, an emergency communication from an Earth monitoring station hit them like a bucket of ice water, making everyone's hearts tighten again!

“Commander! An anomaly has appeared in the Earth Anchor Point area! After the Mariana Trench beacon was activated, the energy activity of global tiberium veins has risen instead of falling! Especially... especially in the trench area where the beacon is located, crustal activity has intensified sharply, and energy readings... are pointing toward an unprecedented peak!”

“Scanning images show that at the bottom of the trench... something... is surfacing!”

The footage came through: deep in the Mariana Trench, the area that had been temporarily illuminated by the beacon's blue light was now replaced by a profound darkness that seemed to absorb all light. A colossal, terrifying silhouette, formed from the entanglement of pure tiberium crystals and some kind of black flesh tissue, was slowly rising from a rift in the Abyss!

The energy fluctuations it emitted were filled with the same suffocating chaos and hunger as the void whisper!

The void whisper had not been stopped by the cage reinforcement! It seemed... to have been provoked! Or rather, it was using Earth, this 'Anchor Point,' to attempt a more direct and terrifying descent!