32: Leica-3

As Lei Wen laid the first cornerstone of his commercial space empire on Earth, the Far Star Fleet, carrying the hopes of the Faleim Civilization, had arrived at their unplanned destination in the deep space several light-years away.

After 10 months of curvature navigation, the fleet smoothly exited the speed of light state and appeared silently, like a ghost, on the periphery of a completely unfamiliar star system.

This was the star system that had been unexpectedly noticed during the voyage due to its anomalous high-dimensional energy "echoes."

On the bridge of the flagship rathia, the holographic projection of Chief Scientist Zeral was staring intently at the Star Map on the main screen, which had been synthesized from initial scans by all the fleet's probes.

This was a star system full of vitality and potential.

An F-type star, younger and larger than the "Holy Fire" star of Faleimland, was burning fiercely in the center of the system, emitting a dazzling blue-white light.

Ten planets orbited this star like loyal guardians, moving steadily along their respective orbits.

"What a rich star system."

Zeral's eyes sparkled with the obsession and admiration of a scientist, "I suggest naming this star system Laika for the time being, to commemorate the Star Harpist in our mythology who explored the unknown and brought hope to our people."

"A good name."

Commander Talon's voice came from the command seat; his gaze was also locked on the Star Map, but unlike Zeral's academic enthusiasm, his eyes were filled with the prudence and vigilance of a military commander.

"Do not be deceived by appearances, Zeral."

Talon said calmly, "The latest intelligence from the homeworld also confirms that there is a strong morse crystal reaction here, but such precious resources are often accompanied by unpredictable dangers; I will not let the fleet venture deep until I am sure it is safe here."

Over the next week, the Far Star Fleet, like a group of patient hunters, lay quietly in the Oort cloud on the periphery of the Laika System, extending all its "eyes" and "ears" toward that unknown world.

The onboard AI of the flagship rathia aggregated and analyzed all probe data from the ten ships, little by little unveiling the mysterious veil of this star system.

After a week of continuous scanning, a detailed report of the star system was presented to all Faleim People.

The Laika System has ten planets.

Three of them are terrestrial planets located in the inner orbits, while the other seven are massive gas giants, which act as a solid gravitational barrier, shielding the inner planets from most meteorite impacts from outside the star system.

The first planet is a purgatory planet firmly locked by the star's gravity.

One side of it always faces the star, with a surface of molten lava oceans; the other side is always facing away from the star, a frozen world with temperatures reaching over minus one hundred degrees.

The second planet is a greenhouse hell planet wrapped in thick sulfuric acid clouds and a carbon dioxide atmosphere.

Its surface temperature is as high as several hundred degrees, and its atmospheric pressure is dozens of times that of the Falem Homeworld.

No known life form can survive on this planet, which is like a pressure cooker.

And the third planet—Laika-3—immediately attracted the attention of all Faleim People.

Its size and mass are extremely similar to the Falem Homeworld, and it is perfectly situated within the star's habitable zone.

Seen from a distance, it is a beautiful planet covered by vast blue oceans and swirling white clouds.

However, when the resolution of the probes was further increased, everyone discovered its anomaly—the content of free oxygen in the planet's atmosphere was zero, replaced by high concentrations of nitrogen and methane.

This means that either life capable of photosynthesis never existed here, or the ecosystem here has completely collapsed for some reason.

...

In the middle and outer orbits of the Laika System, seven huge gas giants floated quietly in the deep universe like colorful works of art.

They have no solid surface, only bottomless, violent atmospheres composed of gases such as hydrogen, helium, and methane.

At the core of these planets, there may exist a huge inner core formed by metallic hydrogen under ultra-high-pressure environments.

Two of them also possess magnificent planetary rings, composed of countless tiny ice crystals and rock particles, shimmering with a dreamlike light under the star's radiance.

The two outermost gas giants are called "ice giants" by astronomers because they are too far from the star.

Their atmospheres are rich in large amounts of methane ice crystals, giving them a charming deep blue color.

Although these gas giants are not suitable for life, they are natural "fuel depots," containing massive amounts of hydrogen and deuterium in their atmospheres that can be used as nuclear fusion fuel.

It's just that the current Faleim People do not need this kind of backward energy.

However, what truly shocked Commander Talon and Chief Scientist Zeral were not the planets themselves.

But rather a series of anomalous detection signals from the third planet—Laika-3.

"Commander, please look here."

On the bridge of the rathia, Kael zoomed the orbital scan image of Laika-3 to the limit.

On the image, one could clearly see a large amount of space junk floating in the planet's synchronous orbit—abandoned satellite wreckage, space station debris, and countless unrecognizable metal fragments.

"These are the traces of an intelligent civilization."

Talon's eyes instantly became sharp, "And it is a civilization that had already developed to the space age."

"Yes."

Zeral's projection on the side nodded, but his expression was very solemn, "But the strange thing is, we have not detected any active, operating artificial satellite signals, nor have we captured any intelligent civilization communication signals from the surface; the decay level of this orbital junk indicates that they have been floating here for at least thousands of years; this planet... is like a graveyard of a dead civilization."

"A civilization that has perished?"

Talon pondered, "What caused their extinction?"

Just then, another more astonishing discovery appeared on the screen.

When the geological scanning probe penetrated the thick clouds of Laika-3 and began to map its surface topography, a rift spanning the entire planet, looking like a giant scar, was clearly presented to everyone.

The scale of this great rift exceeded everyone's imagination.

Its length reached almost half of the planet's equator, its width exceeded hundreds of kilometers, and its depth was bottomless, as if a god had once slashed this planet fiercely with an invisible giant axe.

"Is this... a naturally formed geological structure?"

A young officer asked in disbelief.

"Impossible."

Zeral immediately denied this guess, "Any known geological activity—whether it be tectonic tearing or super volcanic eruptions—could not form such a massive and regular single rift; this is more like a wound caused by some kind of planet-level weapon."

This deduction made the air on the bridge instantly turn cold.

A weapon capable of causing such a terrible scar on a planet must possess power that a civilization in the early space age could not have.

And what made everyone excited was that from this bottomless great rift, the high-dimensional energy detector captured extremely strong, special energy fluctuations.

"morse crystal!"

Kael's voice trembled slightly with excitement, "Commander! A large amount of morse crystal reaction! The signal source comes from the depths of that great rift! Its reserves may exceed our imagination!"

morse crystal.

That is the core material necessary for building a "stargate"—that cosmic miracle structure that can realize ultra-long-distance instantaneous teleportation.

In the old universe of the Faleim People, this crystal was extremely rare, and once, only a few ancient lost empires mastered its mining technology.

And now, a treasure trove that might contain massive amounts of morse crystal was presented so nakedly before them.

Talon's vigilance as a military commander was raised to the highest level as he looked at the planet on the screen filled with an aura of death and that bottomless great rift.

A perished space civilization, a planet-level wound caused by an unknown weapon, and massive strategic resources hidden beneath the wound...

These three elements combined to form a picture filled with temptation and danger.

He knew he could not wait any longer.

He had to figure out what exactly had happened on this planet.

"Order."

Talon stood up from the command seat, his voice echoing in the quiet bridge, full of unquestionable determination.

"The fleet will enter Level 1 combat readiness, dark matter deflector shields will be powered to full capacity, and all weapon systems will be disengaged from safety."

"Order the Engineering Department to immediately conduct final maintenance and weapon loading for all The Arbitrators combat robots."

"One hour later," he looked at the blue death planet on the screen and said slowly, "we will conduct an armed airborne reconnaissance on the central area of that great rift on the surface of Laika-3."

"Our goal is to uncover the history of this planet, assess the scale of the morse crystal mine, and eliminate all potential threats."

...

One hour later, the ten ships of the Far Star Fleet, like ten silent inquisitors, silently entered the atmosphere of Laika-3.

Their hulls, crafted from [Neutron Element Composite Armor] and [Gray Goo Storm Type Nano-Regenerative Armor], did not produce a single spark during the intense friction with the atmosphere, and the Level 5 stealth force field made them seem non-existent to any possible ground detection equipment.

When the fleet arrived above that great rift, everyone saw the magnificent and terrifying scene below.

They seemed to be floating above a bottomless abyss.

On both sides of the rift were steep cliffs as if carved by a knife, and on their rock walls remained glass-like crystals that had been instantly melted by some super-high energy and then rapidly cooled.

And at the bottom of the rift was a sea of mist rolling with unknown energy, emitting a ghostly blue light.

"Airborne pods ready for deployment."

With Talon's order, the belly hatches of the ten ships opened simultaneously.

Thousands of metal airborne pods, shaped like silver tombstones, were dropped one after another.

The shells of these airborne pods could withstand temperatures of thousands of degrees and gravitational acceleration of tens of thousands of times.

They were like a flock of black meteorites, trailing long wakes as they plummeted vertically toward that bottomless, ghostly blue sea of mist.

Each airborne pod carried a [The Arbitrators] combat robot in a dormant state—a highly advanced integrated robot capable of performing various exploration tasks as well as becoming a perfect killing machine; Lei Wen's [Cleaner Combat Robots] were like pugs under Optimus Prime's feet compared to them.

This massive army of intelligent robots, like a divine force descending from the heavens, was about to set foot on this ancient land full of unknowns.

Their mission was to awaken the secrets that this dead planet had sealed for thousands of years.