Chapter 1 EMP

When all the drones released their accumulated energy according to the set program, these powerful pulses belonging to "waste clutter" instantly formed an unprecedented EMP burst in the space around Zenith, and the chaotic pulse signals instantly filled all communication channels, causing the communication network between Zenith fighters to collapse due to overload. Immediately afterward, the energy flow sweeping through space burned out the fragile radar and antenna systems, physically eliminating the possibility of the communication network returning to normal. This shockwave even formed a discharge phenomenon visible to the naked eye: dense, hair-like arcs of electricity burst out from between the drones, expanding and engulfing the entire Zenith space station. A wave-like electrical spark swept across the surface of the space station, and all communication devices were destroyed wherever the spark passed.

A large number of "Proxy" warriors whose protection was not strict enough also crashed.

The energy level of this EMP was precisely calculated. Hao Ren and Nolan used data collected from N-6 to determine the resistance of the Proxy's logical core to this kind of energy shock. Therefore, when the shockwave swept through, the worst that happened to the affected Proxies was that their external circuits were burned out and they lost their ability to move. They would not truly "die" due to the destruction of their logical circuits.

The communication network around Zenith became a silent wasteland, and communication between the space station and the lunar base was also interrupted by this EMP. The fleet of fighters and warships that had lost their ability to move continued to drift into the depths of space due to inertia, but the drone swarm had already begun to act. They began to use tractor beams and their mechanical arms to grab things drifting past them, to prevent these space station defense forces that had lost power from crashing into each other while drifting around.

In this brief and strange silence, Nolan quickly caught up with a Zenith fighter that was drifting away from him, and used a tractor beam to drag this thirty-meter-long aircraft into his hangar.

"Quick, quick, quick, let's get moving!" Hao Ren called out to the predetermined action team, running towards the hangar while saying quickly, "We only have a dozen minutes. That big space station won't be taken out by this EMP."

As if to confirm Hao Ren's words, the Zenith space station in space indeed showed signs of activity again after a few minutes of silence. Some originally hidden armor plates slowly opened under the traction of mechanical arms, and spare launch ports and various radar and weapon systems poked their heads out from inside. More defense force fighters swarmed out of those new passages—some of them began to "salvage" their partners who had lost power, while others launched a fierce offensive against the drone swarm.

Hyperspace jump + EMP took advantage of the element of surprise. Although it could catch the opponent off guard, it was difficult to truly take down a super war fortress like Zenith—even though the technology level of this war fortress was much lower than that of the drone swarm, it was not without power. At least under the protection of the complete internal shielding layer used to resist various cosmic ray bursts, the troops inside Zenith were almost unharmed.

Now, these unharmed second-tier teams rushed out of their fortress, preparing to fight to the death with those "invaders" who suddenly appeared in space.

The drone swarm didn't care about combat losses. At least before the damage was enough to affect its thinking network, even if thousands or millions of sub-drones died, it was just a jumping number and a large pile of metal components that could be manufactured at any time. Therefore, in the face of the Zenith Guard's frantic counterattack, the drone swarm simply raised a powerful shield, and then continued to release various high-intensity interference waves while stubbornly resisting, using this non-lethal method to continue blocking Zenith's communication system.

Hao Ren and his team couldn't pay attention to the "battle" in space at this time. They were nervously preparing for the "ticket" to the lunar base.

A Zenith heavy attack aircraft was fixed in the hangar by more than a dozen force field beams. Autonomous machines flew around this alien aircraft like swarms of bees flying around flowers. Bright cutting beams and the light produced by molecular fusion devices flickered on the attack aircraft's shell. Some unnecessary equipment was removed to provide more crew space, and some equipment was replaced with other things. The entire operation was tense and orderly, and more than half of the progress had been completed.

As for the original pilot of this aircraft, he had been temporarily shut down and locked up.

"Don't affect the appearance, even if you leave an empty shell," Hao Ren directed from the side, "Remove everything inside that's unnecessary..."

An autonomous machine cut open part of the attack aircraft's shell and stuffed various shielding or interference devices into the aircraft's belly. Another autonomous machine dug out the navigation computer and identification signal transmitter from inside the attack aircraft. These two devices were quickly disassembled into a pile of parts, and after the core chips were modified, they were reassembled.

N-6 watched all this blankly from the side. Even now, she still felt that the plan proposed by Hao Ren and his team was a bit whimsical: "Are you really sure that this can hide it from the Mainframe's eyes? The identification system controlled by the Mainframe is extremely advanced..."

"However, our unit's technical strength is the best in the world," Hao Ren waved his hand confidently. "My drone swarm has completely blocked Zenith's communication. Even if someone here discovers that a fighter has been captured, they have no way to report it to the Mainframe. The lunar base will only think that we are normally withdrawing for repairs."

This was the plan of Hao Ren and his team—strictly speaking, it was a plan that Lily came up with on a whim, and then others helped improve.

Hao Ren knew that whether it was for the purpose of investigating this surviving civilization or for collecting information about the First Born on this planet, it was necessary for him to go to the lunar base. However, the Mainframe that now ruled the lunar base obviously had a big problem—although humans were nominally the highest rulers of this civilization, it was obvious that the Mainframe was the one who directly controlled the lunar base—therefore, to visit the lunar base, he had to take some special routes.

He didn't think that he would be warmly welcomed by the Mainframe if he drove the Petrified Turtle Rock Platform directly and blatantly to the moon. He even suspected whether the current Mainframe could still communicate rationally. Therefore, finding a way to sneak in was the safest option.

However, the Mainframe was not blind. The surviving society that had been fighting the First Born for thousands of years was not an ignorant civilization that knew nothing about the sky. The lunar base had far more strict defense forces than Zenith, as well as a complex identification system. Any unauthorized flying object would be destroyed when approaching the moon (this was mainly to prevent the seed artillery shells projected by the First Born, although the First Born hadn't done this for thousands of years).

The Petrified Turtle Rock Platform might not fear the anti-aircraft fire on the lunar base, but Hao Ren was worried that the malfunctioning Mainframe would cause more serious logical problems under this stimulation—in fact, after discussing it with N-4 and N-6, he had confirmed this possibility: if the Mainframe discovered that an alien spaceship that was too powerful to be destroyed was heading towards the fortress, then the probability of it self-destructing or destroying all the databases in advance would be almost half each.

Moreover, even if the Mainframe didn't do this, Hao Ren and his team would be caught in an endless and meaningless attack by the Proxy army in the lunar sky. It would be difficult for him to successfully approach the Mainframe under these circumstances, let alone investigate the cause of the latter's malfunction.

Therefore, in order to avoid this troublesome situation, Lily proposed to get an aircraft from the Proxies and use the Proxies' own identification codes to sneak into the lunar base.

What Hao Ren initially thought of was the two transport planes used by N-4's team when they landed on the mother planet. However, regrettably, after trying to get N-4 to start the communication system of the two transport planes, he found that both transport planes had lost their authorization codes. In short, they had been removed from the Proxy's data network—or even worse, if N-4 really drove those two transport planes back to the lunar base, they would probably be shot down by the Mainframe's army at the first time.

Although N-4 received instructions from the Mainframe to investigate the mother planet, it was obvious that this instruction had been vetoed by the Mainframe itself. Now the members of the N-4 team were inexplicably blacklisted by the Proxy system—fortunately, Miss N-4 had a tough steel mentality, otherwise she would be depressed to death at this time.

The N-4 team and their transport planes were all on the Mainframe's identification blacklist, so Hao Ren could only turn his attention to the aircraft in the hands of the Proxies. It was not possible to directly attack and capture them with the Petrified Turtle Rock Platform, because the Proxy system would immediately remove the destroyed or captured units from the list. If Hao Ren found an aircraft performing a combat mission on the planet's surface and shot it down, he would only get a pile of scrap metal without authorization codes.

The one who executed this "removal" program was the Proxy's military core, the frontline fortress "Zenith."

Therefore, Hao Ren and his team simply came up with a big one, that is, directly rushed to Zenith to force the Proxy troops out, and then let the drone swarm enter the field, directly using EMP to temporarily paralyze Zenith's system and the communication with the lunar base. They then took advantage of the fact that the Proxy troops were blind and deaf to grab an aircraft to "brainwash", so that no one would know that this aircraft had ever been captured.

Even if Zenith's space station computer detected an abnormality, due to the blockage of communication with the lunar base, the Mainframe would not receive accurate information at the first time—it would only know that the Zenith fortress had been attacked by an enemy of unknown origin, and the space station was surrounded and isolated, but all other battlefield details were unknown.

Under these circumstances, an attack aircraft that was wounded in the Zenith melee and was unable to return to the space station for maintenance due to the battlefield blockade, so it was forced to go to the lunar base, was reasonable and completely in line with the program settings of the Proxy military system.

In a chaotic battlefield where communication was blocked and bullets and beams were flying, the Petrified Turtle Rock Platform suddenly rushed into a group of attack aircraft that had lost power. Then the hangar door opened, and an attack aircraft that looked no different from the outside silently slid out of the door.

The surface of this attack aircraft had mottled scars, looking as if it had experienced a fierce battle and was badly wounded. It floated quietly in space for a while, until it drifted away from the combat zone, then the engine at the tail of the fighter suddenly lit up and flew towards the moon.