Chapter 935 (1/2)

“Survivors?” Hao Ren gave the MDT a shocked look after hearing its sudden announcement.

The MDT floated aside the control console as it let out a blue light on across the console’s electrical cables and accompanying equipments with a motion similar to breathing. Using this method, it finally had managed to extract and read the unresolved data within the warped equipment. “I’ve managed to connect to the ship’s navigational core, and got an idea how does this fleet actually navigates. It needs a living person to direct it.”

Hao Ren looked at the MDT, motioning it to continue.

The MDT opened a holographic projection and the upper portion was the fleet of thirteen ellipsoid great arks and all along each of the arks were a series of complicated radial waves. “These, are the repeating signals we detected earlier. And based on the information we have, the ark’s operators are all dead and the ships are using an autonomous command system, so these signals are mechanical. Based on their navigational mode, these ships do not have a flagship, they rely on a network that links all the navigational cores together to create a unified, simulated navigation programme. I think the designers had anticipated each and every ship was susceptible to destruction and had decided to hand over the navigational powers to a network-activated psionic mainframe. So as long as the fleet is within a certain size, it could continue sailing on without worrying about losing their flagship.

Hao Ren waved his hand. “What’s the keypoint? The key point?”

“The key point is, the psionic mainframe is not installed in any of the ships. For such a long journey the mainframe core of the ships are not necessarily reliable as well, so the navigation system is not controlled by a single unified module. Rather it monitors the fleet’s movements and basing on certain perimeters to determine whether its navigational orders is to be executed.” The MDT bobbed about. “The priority order was that ‘life still remains’. This was what I found at the deepest cache of the datavault.”

The ark of every civilisation had different operational methods, and this time around this ark would only function if there is life onboard. Their thrusters are still in operation, so unless something went wrong with the fleet’s navigational programme, that can only mean one thing:

“There’s someone alive onboard…” Hao Ren muttered before frowning hard. “They did not respond to Nolan’s hails though…”

“Could be due to system damage, or not understanding Nolan’s language, or they could be scared shitless and think that we are in league with the guardians.” The MDT retracted its ray projector. “Of course there is a possiblity that there are so few survivors that no one knows how to operate a radar. Since there’s no response, we’ll have to check ship by ship.”

“Just pray that the ships design are the same….” Hao Rem mumbled to himself before activating the communicator to Nolan. “Nolan, you’ve heard us. Get the engineering droids ready. Cut open every ship’s hull and launch the life-searcher probes in. Scan every nook and cranny of the ship, until the lowest deck. Also, keep repeating the radio comms request, if someone is able to respond to us, we won’t need to blow a hole in their ceilings.”

“I think a few holes in a hundred meter long behemoth like this won’t cause a structural disintegration.” the MDT bobbed about as it quipped. “Unless you accidentally puncture like life support valves, or reactors.”

Hao Ren sighed deeply. “You’re sure the optimist about my luck after being with me for two good years.”

The MDT was stunned for a moment before hailing the Petrachelys. “Nolan, get the droids to be EXTRA careful. Do a triple scan…. no quad-scan before they sink their drills in!”

The group left the central control tower and looked upon the facade of the entire massive faclities. The core reactior has been reactivated and the once-dim light grids flickered back to life. But as most of the city’s primary facilities had already been stripped, the control tower was just like a bodiless giant that has ceased to be functional. The tower simply just spun about in vacuum without a sound, as if it was a man-made star shining upon the desolated sanctuary. Hao Ren looked at the frozen ruins and realised that there’s no longer anything to look for here. Before departing with the rest back to the Petrachelys, he left a few droids to study the structure of the place.