216: Chapter 216 First Raid: Target "Guanghan Palace"
The "Mirror of Truth" protocol was like an invisible yet cold scalpel, beginning to dissect every tissue slice within the massive body of the GDC. Permissions were temporarily tightened, and procedures became twice as cumbersome; every unconventional operation required multi-layered reporting and real-time recording. An invisible tension spread through the chain of command and logistics network, inevitably causing slight delays in efficiency. Although Lin Mo's orders were to remove the tumors and stabilize the foundation, the labor pains and localized paralysis during the surgery were the very opportunities the enemy had long been waiting for.
The Moon, "Guanghan Palace" Base.
This place had not been directly affected by the electromagnetic pollution of the "Freedom Day" declaration, and internal reviews were progressing relatively smoothly due to the highly professional and relatively simple backgrounds of the base personnel. However, the base commander, Wang Lei, could still feel a subtle pressure coming from Earth—approvals for some non-critical supply requests had slowed down, real-time data exchange with certain research institutions on Earth had experienced unplanned delays, and even routine personnel rotation plans were suspended due to "background re-checks."
"Damn it, we've got 'Scavengers' sharpening their blades outside, and we have to guard against our own people inside?" Wang Lei cursed under his breath in the command center, rubbing his bloodshot eyes. On the screen in front of him, besides the various base data, there was also the deep space monitoring footage synchronized by "Fuxi": after causing chaos, the unit that had launched a high-speed raid on Mars had retreated to the outer maneuver sequence. Three other units were still cruising, but their trajectories seemed to be undergoing some complex mutual calibration.
"Gravity anomaly reading!" a monitor suddenly shouted. "Directly above the base, in near-moon orbit, three hundred kilometers away! A strong but extremely small-scale spatial curvature fluctuation has appeared! It's not a natural phenomenon! Something is... burrowing out!"
The hair on Wang Lei's neck stood on end. "Shields to full power! Activate all defense turrets! Issue a global alert! This is not a drill!"
The piercing alarm instantly rang throughout "Guanghan Palace." The composite shields on the outer layer of the base lit up layer by layer like reactive scales. Rapid-fire particle cannons and electromagnetic railgun turrets hidden under the lunar surface bunkers rose quickly, their muzzles flickering with the cold light of charging.
The enemy's method of appearance exceeded everyone's expectations.
No massive warships jumped out, and there were no precursors of energy beams. At the coordinate point reported by the monitor, the void seemed to be punctured by a tiny hole. Three irregular geometric bodies, only the size of a car, pitch black, with a mercury-like luster flowing on their surfaces, "seeped" out silently. The moment they appeared, they dove straight toward the base's main structure—especially the energy core area and the "biomaterial" cultivation factory under expansion—using a flickering method that defied conventional physics, like teleportation, to bypass the lock-on of "Guanghan Palace's" outer perimeter warning fire network!
"It's the 'Purification Probes'! A new model! They're too fast! Conventional firepower can't lock on!" The fire control officer's voice carried an unbelievable horror.
"Use the close-in defense barrage! Saturation fire! We can't let them hit the critical facilities!" Wang Lei roared.
Dense barrages and spreading energy beams wove a web of death over the base. But the maneuvering of those three black geometric bodies was bizarre to the extreme. They didn't charge in a straight line; instead, they performed high-frequency, completely irregular short-distance spatial flickers within a tiny range. Every flicker appeared exactly in the gaps of the fire network, like ghosts passing through a rainstorm without getting a single drop of water on them.
"It's short-range spatial jumping! They've miniaturized the 'Ripper's' maneuvering technology!" a tactical analyst screamed.
One of the black geometric bodies approached the shield on the outskirts of the energy zone during a flicker. It didn't collide; instead, it fired an extremely thin, ghostly blue beam from its core. The moment the beam touched the shield, it didn't trigger a violent energy confrontation. Instead, the area hit by the beam rippled like a water surface with a stone thrown into it, and then the local shield strength reading began to plummet!
"It's neutralizing the shield's energy structure! A targeted breach!" The engineer turned pale.
"All close-in defense units, stop it at all costs!" Wang Lei's eyes turned red. Beneath the energy zone were the base's fusion reactor and the main power distribution center. Once breached, the entire base would lose most of its power and become a sitting duck.
Several close-in defense turrets turned their muzzles, ignoring the risk of accidentally damaging their own shields, and poured firepower onto that black geometric body at point-blank range. Finally, a precise volley hit the target, and the black geometric body exploded into a cloud of silent, rapidly dissipating black mist.
But the other two had already used the gap created by their companion drawing fire to break through the outermost interception and approach the dome area where the "biomaterial" cultivation factory was located. One of them followed suit, using a ghostly blue beam to begin eroding the specialized protective field of the factory dome. The other changed its target; instead of attacking the factory, it flickered and appeared above a relatively remote "Lunar Soil In-situ Resource Extraction Station" outside the base. Then... it didn't attack, but instead "melted" into the extraction station's complex network of pipes and reactor vessels like a drop of water!
"What is it doing?!" Wang Lei stared intently at the screen. The monitoring footage of the extraction station was suddenly filled with static and distorted lines.
"Abnormal data stream intrusion detected in the extraction station's control system! It's trying to... hijack the process? Or... contaminate the product?" The report from the network defense group sent shivers down everyone's spines. Many of the basic nutrients and culture media for the "biomaterial" cultivation factory relied precisely on specific elements and compounds extracted from the lunar soil by the extraction station!
"Cut all external connections to the extraction station! Physical isolation!" Wang Lei made a decisive call.
But orders take time to be issued and executed. In those precious few seconds, the black geometric body that had intruded into the extraction station seemed to have completed its "task" and then self-destructed from within. There was no violent fire, only a dull vibration transmitted through the lunar surface, and the final image from the extraction station's monitor showed the liquid inside the reactor vessel suddenly turning a bizarre, turbid color.
"Report! The B-series reactor vessels at the extraction station have been contaminated by an unknown substance! The contaminant is spreading! The automatic containment system has been activated, but it cannot completely stop the cross-contamination! Preliminary judgment: the next three batches of refined raw materials are scrapped, and there's a risk of unknown biological or chemical activity!" The voice of the person in charge of the extraction station was filled with despair.
Meanwhile, the black geometric body attacking the factory dome, at the moment the shield was neutralized into a tiny loophole, its main body acted like liquid metal, attempting to "squeeze" through that loophole.
"Don't even think about it!" a roar came from the public channel. An obviously modified engineering mecha, with crude, flesh-and-metal-like mixtures attached to its exterior (one of the early test prototypes of the "pegasus" project), burst out from the maintenance passage on the side of the factory. The mecha pilot was a young engineer who had volunteered to participate in the project's testing. He operated this still-unstable prototype, using a mechanical arm covered in reinforced biological tissue to fiercely grab the black geometric body that was about to slip through the loophole!
"Bang!"
The mechanical arm collided with the black geometric body, producing a dull, heavy thud. The biological tissue part seemed to be eroded by some force the moment it made contact, emitting green smoke, but the internal mechanical structure and the energy output from the overloaded pilot firmly clamped down on the opponent. The black geometric body struggled violently, the mercury luster on its surface flowing frantically.
"Get... down!" the pilot roared, and the mecha's other arm popped out a high-energy cutting welder, stabbing it fiercely into the geometric body's core!
Ghostly blue electrical sparks erupted, and the black geometric body finally stopped struggling. The luster on its surface dimmed, as if it had turned into a real, cold lump of metal, held tightly in the mecha's grip.
Without the continuous neutralization, the loophole in the factory dome's shield was quickly repaired by backup energy.
The short but extremely intense raid seemed to have temporarily ended.
At the "Guanghan Palace" base, the energy zone's shields were damaged but not breached, and the biomaterial factory was narrowly defended. However, the cost was the contamination of the extraction station, severe damage to a "pegasus" prototype, and serious injuries to the pilot. More importantly, the enemy had demonstrated unprecedented tactics: miniaturized short-range spatial jumping, targeted shield neutralization, and direct contamination and destruction of the logistics and production chain!
"They... don't just want to destroy us." Wang Lei looked at the messy monitoring screen, his voice raspy. "They are testing our defensive weaknesses, trying to destroy our production capabilities, and... collecting data on our new defensive technologies (like the 'pegasus' prototype)!"
Just then, deep space monitoring sent another urgent message: the three "Scavenger" main units that had completed their "calibration" suddenly turned in sync at the same time "Guanghan Palace" was attacked. No longer cruising, they formed a triangular formation and began charging straight toward the moon in a steady and constantly accelerating manner! Behind them, they trailed obvious energy wakes, clearly having entered a true attack propulsion state!
The first raid on "Guanghan Palace" might have just been a prelude and a test.
The real main strike had already locked onto its target and entered the final charge countdown!
In the command hall of Ark city, Lin Mo looked at the alerts coming from the moon and the movements of the "Scavenger" main units, his eyes as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice.
"Internal traitors tie up our energy, 'probes' test our defenses, and the 'main force' follows up... quite a combination punch." He slowly stood up. "Tell Wang Lei that 'Guanghan Palace' must be held. Order Long Zhantian to mobilize the mobile forces of the 'North Heaven Gate' fleet to reinforce the moon! At the same time, activate the 'Torch Dragon' protocol—it's time to let the 'Scavengers' taste the 'warm' 'welcome ceremony' humanity has prepared for them."
The moon, humanity's first stepping stone to deep space, was about to become a bloody furnace where civilization and the "Purification Program" would have their first major collision. And the shadow of the internal traitors still lurked deep within the Earth, waiting for the next opportunity to create chaos.