Chapter 1552 - Trojan Horse (1/2)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The lunar base had already noticed the fierce battle taking place around the Zenith space station. It was not due to the failure of the drone cluster’s signal jamming; it was just that the flickering lights surrounding the Zenith were visible on the lunar base. With a slightly better optical device, one could clearly see that a group of unknown war machines had surrounded the space station in the higher orbit.

It was hard to miss. There was a new war, at least in the eyes of the people in the lunar base.

The moment the drone cluster disabled the Zenith’s communication network, the lunar base had issued the highest security alert. Thousands of optical observatories and radar antennas started to turn in the direction of the Zenith. The residents of the moon tried to figure out what was going on, but apart from optical observations, there was only noise in the other means of communication, including all the secret and emergency channels. The radar had returned with completely distorted signals.

Without the convenience of communication network and radar observations, the Executors on the moon were left with only physical observation to monitor the battlefield’s situation in the distance. Their artificial intelligence, which was the epitome of advanced technology, felt as if they had reverted to ancient times. They had to use the most primitive means to collect intelligence and formulate strategies. Just as recorded in the Great Think Tank, humans in the Middle Ages relied on flag-waving, fire and smoke, as well as eye signals to transmit messages. That was what the Executors were doing right then, and such a situation had thrown the orderly lunar base society into chaos.

However, the Cortex Prime had quickly restored order on the moon. Following its instructions, fighters began to scramble into space, and rapid response gunships, which were rarely used nowadays, roared away from the spaceport. They learned from the optical observations that a group of mysterious enemies had sieged the Zenith. The enemies were extremely agile, and the cumbersome battleships and heavy gunships would probably be powerless against these enemies, leaving only the rapid-fire cannons the effective defense against those strange enemies. So, most of the spacecraft lifting off the lunar base were of such fast response units.

The more important reason was that there were not many large warships at the Executors’ disposal. During the war with the planet devourer, heavy space bombers were redundant and phased out a dozen centuries ago.

The reinforcement units leaving the moon surface had caught the attention of Hao Ren.

The cleverly disguised attack craft, which Lily named it Trojan Horse, was approaching the moon following the scheduled flight path. It did not come into contact with the reinforcement units lifting off from the moon, but a battered spacecraft would stand out like a sore thumb in the sea of other spaceships. At first, Hao Ren was worried about whether the appearance of the Trojan Horse would blow its cover. But soon, he realized that his fear was unfounded.

The spacecraft successfully passed through every checkpoint even though it did not even have a real pilot.

In the cockpit, the MDT was the one in the pilot seat. It projected a lifelike holographic image of the original pilot to dupe the facial recognition camera at the checkpoint. The screen in front of the pilot flashed with the conversation record between the lunar base security system and the onboard computer.

“XX Tower calling Flight Unit XXXX to submit ID code.”

“Flight Unit XXXX has submitted the ID code. Request for access.”

“Flight Unit XXXX, please state your purpose of visit.”

“Flight Unit XXXX suffers damage during the space battle. The Zenith is under siege. Request to land on lunar base for repair.”

“XX Tower relays its instructions; the Cortex Prime has listed information about the Zenith as a high priority. Please upload your battle record.”

“Flight Unit XXXX acknowledged. Battle record is being uploaded.”

On the one hand, there was the shipboard computer that the autonomous robots had modified, and on the other, it was the lunar base customs security AI. The two low intelligent AIs were essentially chatbots that talked with each other.

Hao Ren had expected that this runaway spacecraft from the Zenith would arouse the suspicion of the Cortex Prime on the lunar base. He had thus made up a battle record beforehand in the onboard computer, and now, it came in handy.