Chapter 1554 - Titanium Guards (1/2)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Executors were a “native species” of the home planet. At least a high-intelligence Executor like N-6, who was built in the image of a human, was only developed during the era of exile. If one had to find the rightful home for these AIs, it would be the Zenith and the lunar base. No matter which way one looked at it, they were not part of the home planet.
The ones who saw the home planet as home and were eager to return to their motherland were the humans who created those Executors.
However, when humans created the Executors, they had injected too much of their feelings into them. In the face of the devastation unleashed by the planet devourer, they taught everything they knew to the Executors like parents educating their children. They taught them how to fight, and instilled human ideologies and culture as well as the concept of home in them.
Over thousands of years, the Executors integrated the knowledge they had learned from their creators into their own logic circuits, digesting and applying the knowledge in their own way. So, although they did not originate from the home planet, each of these Executors knew that home referred to the home planet.
The home planet was just over 300,000 kilometers away, but they could not go back there.
Hao Ren decided to help these exiles achieve their dream of going home. But before that, he first had to enter the fort and spoke face-to-face with the ruler of the survivor civilization, meet the survivors and the Cortex Prime, which had become unstable lately.
“It sounds like the fortress is impenetrable. But I am sure this thing is definitely not completely sealed.” Hao Ren looked at N-6 and knew that the robot lady must have something yet to say. “At least now it is a command center on the moon, then it must retain the necessary connection with the planet. So, which connection that we could use to access it?”
“You are right. The fortress is not completely sealed off. Activated metal and repulsive field shrouded most of it, but it needs to physically connect to the information nodes in various parts of the lunar base. It also relies on several nearby reactors for energy. Those energy and cable pipes should be accessible,” N-6 said. But she also reminded, “I am just a combat-type Executrix coming out from the assembly line; I am not all-knowing. You will be on your own after entering the pipes.”
“Don’t worry about me, I will play it by ear.” Hao Ren let out a confident smile. “You may not believe it; my superior is even more badass than I am. She makes random decisions while I react accordingly.”
N-6 blinked. The AI could not make of what his gag meant.
Hao Ren rubbed his nose awkwardly. “All right, let’s go. The Cortex Prime must have learned about what happens in the maintenance bay.”
A modified Zenith fighter had landed on the moon—they could not possibly cover up the news forever. Soon, the other AIs in the maintenance bay and barracks found out that someone had tampered with the fighter that returned from the battlefield in Zenith and reported the discovery to the Cortex Prime at once. A normal-functioning server of the Cortex Prime quickly determined that there had been a security breach.
The siren blared through every communication channel, and the guards around the fortress rushed out at once. The surveillance network began to monitor the fort ten times more rigorous than before, making it impossible for the intruders to escape.
But Hao Ren and his team had entered the fortress through a secret passage.
It was a service tunnel used for transporting supplies. The entrance was right at the base of the fortress wall. Hao Ren had removed the protective barrier near the tunnel and slunk in. Inside, it was pretty spacious but dark. There were a few tracks on which self-driving freight cars hustling back and forth feeding cartons after cartons of supply into the fort.
Hao Ren successfully hacked the computer of one of the freight trains using the MDT. They hid inside a coach. N-6 pointed to several bottles neatly placed in the other end of the car and said, “The computer servers of the Cortex Prime consume a vast amount of energy. They also need the K/N medium solution and stuff like that, in which some important chips in the servers are immersed.”
Vivian asked casually, “Is the fortress not a self-sustaining facility? Why does it require external supplies?”
“It is self-sustaining, but on the moon, it relies on the logistics system of the lunar base to keep it running,” N-6 explained. “The fortress will only operate on self-sufficiency mode during a crisis. We will not activate the system unnecessarily.”
Just then, Hao Ren suddenly felt something squirming in his clothes, and then the little mermaid poked her head out from his collar. The little guy stared into the fortress; her eyes gleaming with light in the dark.
The fish baby did not give Hao Ren any trouble as she hid in his clothes all the while. So, Hao Ren was a little surprised this time. “What happens?”
The little mermaid did not answer, just swaying her head and clutching Hao Ren’s collar.
“News from the Zenith battlefield,” he MDT suddenly said. “The Zenith security forces are putting up fierce resistance. Our drone cluster reinforcement could not arrive on time, and with the ban of lethal force, our existing drone cluster will soon lose control of the battlefield blockade.”