Upon waking from the deepest sleep, Ou Zhanpeng was momentarily disoriented before remembering he was aboard the Yunhe, sailing towards the distant edge of the galaxy.
He climbed out of the sleep pod and stretched, but his movements froze when he saw the time on the wall. Without a word, he ran towards the bridge.
With continuous accumulation and progress in technology, cryogenic sleep technology had developed significantly. Through accompanying technologies such as consuming high-calorie, storable food and slow digestion, ordinary people could now sleep for over ten days.
Ou Zhanpeng was even more extreme, typically sleeping for a month at a time.
During voyages, everyone slept as long as possible. He usually woke up once a month to handle matters requiring the captain's attention before going back to sleep.
However, this time he woke up after only twelve days, which was clearly abnormal.
As soon as he entered the bridge, Ou Zhanpeng immediately asked, "What happened?"
Ling Xiao, for once, adopted a serious demeanor and pointed at the screen. "I think you should see this!"
On the main screen, a yellowish planet slowly rotated, its distinctive rings a constant display of its identity.
Ling Xiao clicked in the air, and Saturn on the screen rapidly enlarged. Ou Zhanpeng immediately saw the anomaly: above Saturn's rings, a row of slender objects was suspended, with thick heads facing up and pointed tips facing down. At first glance, they resembled a row of sharpened clubs, or perhaps unscrupulous vendors had arranged a row of slender carrots on Saturn's rings.
Judging by the proportion of these objects to Saturn's rings, they were quite long!
Ou Zhanpeng was stunned on the spot. "What are these things?"
"I'm not sure; I just discovered them," Ling Xiao replied.
From the departure of the alien species from Jupiter, it had been little more than two years. Subtracting the travel time from Jupiter to Saturn, it was at most a little over a year. Yet, in this short period of just over a year, the alien species had created something new.
A starved camel is still bigger than a horse; one truly cannot underestimate the alien species.
Ou Zhanpeng frowned. "Wake everyone else up!"
It wasn't that Captain Ou was being overly sensitive. The Yunhe's original plan was to use Saturn for acceleration, and the orbit had already been calculated. A temporary course change would not only affect the battleship's speed but also its subsequent direction. A slight deviation could lead to a thousand-mile error.
"Understood!" Ling Xiao agreed and immediately terminated the sleep of the others.
As the crew arrived on the bridge one by one, they were all curious about the conical objects on Saturn's rings. Ou Zhanpeng contacted Earth but received no useful information. The only suggestion was for Ou Zhanpeng to make his own judgment.
To be honest, humanity had not yet reached the stage of deep space exploration. It was only out of desperation that they had been forced onto this path. Jupiter was already humanity's current limit.
Saturn was simply too far away; conventional observation methods could hardly detect changes here, let alone...
Ou Zhanpeng looked at the screen, lost in deep thought. After a while, he said, "Prepare for combat."
The crew immediately sprang into action, each attending to their duties and conducting a comprehensive check of the battleship. Including Ou Zhanpeng, there were only eight people on the Yunhe. This was the result of Ou Zhanpeng's strenuous efforts; otherwise, the authorities would have sent at least a team of twenty to thirty people.
He had no other motive than simply believing that this trip was too far and too dangerous, and more people might not be useful.
Ou Zhanpeng continued his observations and found that the surfaces of the conical objects were very rough, with irregular pits and hollows, not resembling anything manufactured in bulk by industrial means.
There were no signs of alien species activity nearby, and he couldn't help but fall into contemplation, beginning to suspect that these were new warships of the aliens.
But why were they stationary above Saturn? Collecting fuel? Or some kind of ritual unique to the alien species?
Before finding any clues, Ou Zhanpeng discovered another batch of conical objects. He immediately conducted a comprehensive sweep of Saturn's rings and discovered that the number of conical objects was greater than he had imagined. They were widely distributed above and below the rings, numbering at least in the triple digits.
Further observation revealed that these objects were not stationary but floated on the rings like things floating on water, sometimes rising and sometimes sinking.
Ou Zhanpeng immediately began to count the distribution of the conical objects and found that they were all located in the thicker regions of Saturn's rings.
This situation led to much speculation among the crew.
A week passed quickly. With six days left until reaching Saturn, the Yunhe was ready and could engage in combat at any moment.
Ou Zhanpeng was still observing the conical objects when he suddenly spotted an unusual reflection beneath one of them.
This anomaly caught Captain Ou's attention. He immediately called Ling Xiao and the others and pointed at Saturn on the screen. "Prepare a satellite!"
"Received!" replied the gunnery officer, Li Keke, crisply. She immediately activated the railgun. "Satellite payload loaded!"
"Launch power at 20%!" Ou Zhanpeng instructed.
"20% power, launch!" Li Keke's small hand gently tapped, and the one-fifth charged progress bar instantly cleared. "Done!"
She said with a smile.
She was a young girl with plump cheeks and adorable apple muscles, yet her position was Chief Gunnery Officer.
In Ou Zhanpeng's memory, both domestically and internationally, Chief Gunnery Officers were always burly, rough men. Li Keke was the only female Chief Gunnery Officer.
The satellite was launched towards Saturn at twice the battleship's speed. Three days later, it sent back close-up images of the conical objects.
The crew was astonished to discover that the conical objects were not suspended above the rings. Many thread-like structures connected them to the interior of the rings, like countless tentacles, tightly gripping celestial bodies of various sizes.
On one segment of the video, a dark silhouette could be seen flying back and forth within the rings.
Ou Zhanpeng blurted out, "Giant species!"
The satellite's series of discoveries clarified the situation considerably. Captain Ou then controlled the satellite to delve deeper into Saturn's rings, attempting to understand the purpose of the alien species.
However, after a short while, several giant species piloting rudimentary fighter craft appeared in the frame. Moments later, the Yunhe lost satellite signal.
Captain Ou pulled up the battleship's route map. "The situation is very clear. The alien species is hidden within Saturn's rings. This is our flight plan, which requires passing through here and here... Alien species activity has been detected in both these locations, and the thickness in these several areas is not insignificant, with the thinnest part being tens of kilometers. Unless the enemy主动 appears, it will be difficult for us to flush out their ships."
He then magnified a small section of Saturn's rings. "The most troublesome problem is here as well. We are unsure of the enemy's location and cannot determine if the alien species poses a threat to us."
The Yunhe did not need to flush out the alien species at all because the battleship's speed was astonishingly fast. The aliens would never be able to catch up to the Yunhe, no matter how hard they tried.
It was one thing for the alien species to hide deep within the rings, with them going their way and the aliens staying put, minding their own business. But the fear was that the enemy would ambush them at the edge of the rings and suddenly attack the battleship as the Yunhe passed by.
If their voyage was interrupted by the alien species, Ou Zhanpeng would have nowhere to turn to weep. If they were lucky, they might return to Earth; if they were unlucky, they would be stranded at Saturn.
After explaining the impending situation, Ou Zhanpeng turned to face the crew. "What are your thoughts?"
"No thoughts," Ling Xiao voiced everyone's sentiment. "Just tell us what to do."
Ou Zhanpeng really wanted to punch this lazy fellow twice. He took a deep breath and said, "Here is my plan..."
Three days later, the Yunhe entered Saturn's gravitational sphere. The further they flew, the closer they got to Saturn's rings.
Ou Zhanpeng glanced at Saturn's rings. A sense of unease gradually emerged in his heart; he felt as if countless pairs of eyes were peering from between the densely packed celestial bodies.
"Approaching Point One!"
Xu Qing's voice pulled Ou Zhanpeng's thoughts back to reality. He immediately ordered in a deep voice, "Fire!"
The railgun promptly launched a missile. Enhanced by electromagnetic force, the missile traversed the void at an extremely high speed.
Ou Zhanpeng couldn't help but wonder what the alien species hiding in Saturn's rings would be thinking as they witnessed this scene.
Not long after, the missile reached the outer edge of Saturn's rings. Just as the missile was about to penetrate the rings, Ou Zhanpeng issued the detonation signal.
A blinding light erupted, dispelling the surrounding darkness. At this moment, even Saturn was illuminated by this brilliance.
As the strong light dissipated, the ice shards near the detonation point were melted by intense light radiation. Liquid water boiled in the vacuum, and steam gushed out, scattering the orderly celestial bodies into chaos. Countless celestial bodies deviated from their original orbits, collided, and intertwined, like a chain reaction of the most tragic car accident.
No matter what was hidden within the rings, it would not be able to rush out and threaten the Yunhe under such circumstances.
However, everyone's gaze remained fixed on the rings until the battleship successfully passed before they withdrew their sight, collectively breathing a sigh of relief.
At this time, the battleship moved from above the rings to below, and more conical objects came into view. They clung to the rings like a swarm of insatiable parasites.
Ling Xiao suddenly proposed an idea, "How about we fire a shot to test them?"
Ou Zhanpeng hesitated slightly, then immediately nodded. "Alright, fire a shot!"
There was some distance between the conical objects and the battleship's orbit, so it would not affect the battleship's safety. Moreover, understanding the detailed information about these objects would be beneficial for future encounters with the alien species.
Li Keke turned her head, looking adorably blank. "Still the railgun?"
"No!" Ou Zhanpeng shook his head. "The thermal laser cannon."
The railgun was a pure kinetic weapon. Every shot would have a certain impact on the battleship's speed. Previously, it was necessary to use the railgun-fired missile, but now there was no such necessity, so it was better to avoid using it if possible.
Li Keke complied. A section of the ship's hull on the port side opened, revealing a thermal laser cannon. After locking onto the target, it fired immediately. The invisible energy beam instantly struck the target.
To everyone's surprise, the conical object neither exploded nor broke in half. Instead, like a worm pierced by a steel needle, it suddenly twisted and contorted. The thread-like structures beneath it were flung out of the rings, dragging a string of flying celestial bodies with them.
The nearby conical objects not hit by the thermal laser cannon also showed movement at this time. Like a group of startled rabbits, they severed the threads beneath them and suddenly accelerated towards Saturn.
In just a moment, all the conical objects in that area flew towards Saturn, leaving only the one hit by the thermal laser cannon twisting and tumbling.
Ou Zhanpeng's eyelids twitched. "Why does this thing feel alive?"
"I have the same feeling!" Ling Xiao said.
"It can't be bugs again, can it?" Xu Qing's eyes widened, completely unable to imagine how something this large could be a bug.
"It shouldn't be," Ou Zhanpeng said uncertainly.
He had intended to say that Earth and Jupiter were so far apart that the alien species here certainly wouldn't know what insectoids were. But as the words reached his lips, he remembered that the alien species from Jupiter had once attacked Luojian Mountain using an insectoid swarm tactic.
Did they not know what insectoids looked like?
As they spoke, the more distant conical objects were also affected and flew towards Jupiter, leaving everyone stunned.
"Is this a chain reaction?" Ling Xiao scratched his head, staring blankly at the dense celestial bodies in the rings.
"Never mind them!" Ou Zhanpeng waved his hand grandly. "As long as it doesn't affect us, they can do whatever they want!"
The battleship continued its flight, and the crew remained vigilant, observing their surroundings. However, even after passing the second contact point, no alien species appeared.
As everyone breathed a sigh of relief, their gazes involuntarily turned towards Saturn, looking at the conical objects that had fallen into the planet.
"Look!" Li Keke suddenly pointed behind them, drawing everyone's attention.
Ou Zhanpeng's fingertip tapped, and the image in that direction rapidly enlarged. Several conical objects successively plunged into Saturn's atmosphere, enveloped in a layer of flames.
But the situation soon changed. The tips of the conical objects cracked in the high temperature and suddenly expanded outwards. The slender cones suddenly transformed into enormous mushroom shapes.
They continued to descend, but after a while, buoyancy overcame inertia, and they floated gently from the clouds, appearing like a school of jellyfish undulating in the water from afar.
Moreover, these things were multicolored, like patches of colorful clouds, adorning the otherwise monotonous Saturn.
As everyone marveled at this scene, more conical objects fell into Saturn, exploded, and floated, eventually forming a vast expanse.
"Oh my god!" Li Keke's eyes sparkled. "It's so beautiful!"
Ou Zhanpeng's face darkened. How could they find it beautiful when they didn't know what it was? And our Qing is so nice... Thinking this, he looked over and saw that Xu Qing also had a look of longing on her face.
It seemed that if the distance wasn't so great, they would rush forward to touch it a few times... Perhaps they even wanted to take a bite?
"That's enough, you guys. Do you even know what these things are?" Ling Xiao also looked disgusted. How unreliable could these women be?
"Hmph, why do you care!" Li Keke glared at Ling Xiao with dissatisfaction.
She and Xu Qing had a good relationship, and routinely teasing Ling Xiao was considered politically correct.
"Hey, hey, you're like a dog biting a philanthropist. If the alien species were good-looking, would you capture a few and raise them at home?"
Li Keke thoughtfully considered it and nodded vigorously. "It's not impossible!"
Ling Xiao turned his face away, not knowing what else to say.
"Alright, stop fooling around," Ou Zhanpeng intervened to ease the situation. "Launch another satellite, maintain distance, and orbit Saturn to comprehensively monitor the planet's situation."
The alien species was clearly undertaking this with some unknown purpose. Hopefully, these things would not harm humanity!