Age of Cosmic Exploration
chapter-144

Chapter 144: Army Draft and Excavation

With the arrival of the second batch of Homo Evolutis, the Barracks immediately reared its head. Excluding the Whisperers and women, the amount of able-bodied new Homo Evolutis was 122.

Realizing that this fever might not be an isolated occurrence, the Barracks approached Yao Yuan with an ambitious proposal. They wanted all male Homo Evolutis to be handed compulsory enlistment if they survived Virus X. They wanted this to be part of the Hope’s legislation.

This was because Homo Evolutis were natural soldiers, a feature that was perfectly showcased when paired with weaponry from the 4th revolution. The most notable example was the Space Combat Jet Prototype 003.

The Survivors could handle the combat jets with a maximum speed of 150 kilometers per second while other Homo Evolutis could handle 200 kilometers per second. Theoretically, they could still pursue a higher speed if not for the fact that speed was not the only thing one needed to be concerned with while sitting at the pilot’s seat. The 4th revolution added many accessory systems to the combat jets, like a ballistics prediction system, a coordinate triangulation system, a natural lock-on system, and a target homing system. Utilizing all of them in tandem to one another required extreme focus. In other words, only Homo Evolutis could pilot these combat jets.

Therefore, for the Barracks, the more Homo Evolutis the Hope’s army had, the better it was. Forgoing the combat jet for a minute, another 4th revolution technology could also help prove how Homo Evolutis were miles above common soldiers.

This technology was the Black Star troopers’ standardized combat suit. The spacesuit was created using a thin alloy alien-tech, equipped with high-power electromagnetic non-invasive body matrix and space armor prototype 1. The body matrix included an internal electromagnetic induction system that calibrated the wearer’s movement speed using his innate ability. For example, when Yao Yuan put it on, the highest speed he could achieve during combat was up to 400 meters per second!

Even Zhang Heng, who was unfamiliar with combat, could go up to 150 meters per second. That was 3 times the speed possible for normal soldiers!

Even though speed didn’t mean everything in combat, it had unequivocally showed the value of Homo Evolutis in combat. It was little wonder why the Barracks wanted to have all the male Homo Evolutis for itself.

Yao Yuan, though, rejected this proposal after careful consideration. For one, it was not necessary that all males must be suited for combat. Their expertise or talent might be more useful off the battlefield. Pushing them into combat might put them in a situation where they could fumble and die in their first battle, thus depriving the Hope of their talent that might shine elsewhere.

Secondly, not all female were unsuitable for combat. Combat drills had shown women to be good jet pilots as well.

Lastly, if the Homo Evolutis were forced into the military, they might grow resentful of the government. If there were people like Xiao Niao, who was initially suspicious of the military in the new batch of Homo Evolutis, being forced into the military could only exacerbate that antagonism.

To conclude, even though the Homo Evolutis were powerful, it didn’t necessarily correspond to them having a greater responsibility. The best scenario was for them to volunteer to join the army.

However, Yao Yuan knew a volunteer system couldn’t work for the Hope because of their current population number. After consulting a few experts, Yao Yuan decided to roll out an obligatory military service.

If the Hope had several billion people in population, of course a voluntary military service would be a non-issue, but in reality, the Hope only had 130,000 plus adults. For a population this size, there had to be more than 5,000 soldiers to ensure everyone’s safety!

But who would volunteer?

Granted, there might be quite a number that would be willing to pick up arms to protect his or her family or out of a sense of loyalty to the Hope.

However, one had to admit that such sentiments were limited to the first generation of Earth escapees. They had been through it all with the government, so they had forged a sense of loyalty in their common goal of seeking a better future for all human survivors!

The question was… could that loyalty be cultivated across generations? In the far future, when Earth was long forgotten, how many would still willingly join the army to protect its survivors… several thousand… or hundreds?

Therefore, instead of waiting until then, Yao Yuan had decided to introduce an obligatory military service when the public was still in line with the government’s philosophy. When there were more people to go around, they could revert to a voluntary service. Yao Yuan believed it was easier for the public to stomach an enlistment policy this way than the other way round.

Thus, Yao Yuan transformed the Hope’s military system. First, the obligatory military service was written into the law. Every man in the Hope under the age of 60 was on army reserve duty and could be scripted into the army if necessary. Exception was given to members of the Academy and the Workshop.

Changes were also made to the Homo Evolutis Faction. First, detailed analysis had to be carried out on new and future batches of Homo Evolutis to identify their power before they were conscripted. This was to make sure non-combative Homo Evolutis, like Whisperers and Animas, could be isolated to prepare them for training that would better suit their powers.

For example, the most powerful Anima then, Nian Xi Kong, had been honing her skill in the past few years.

As an Anima who could phase into what the aliens called the "soul web" with just singing, her power could bypass the creator’s particle. Information is important on the battlefield, especially when the enemy doesn’t expect you to have access to it. Therefore, Xi Kong had become a unique strategic advantage in combat. Her power allowed the troopers to perform simple, coordinated moves in combat despite the confines of the creator’s particle.

This was a strategic upper hand that shouldn’t be underestimated. Her power could practically give an army from a level 2 civilization an edge over an army from a level 3 civilization and even possibly allow them to emerge victorious.

This was the undisputed power of the Anima, even though she was behind the front lines. With the appearance of the creator’s particle, the Anima only became that much more important, giving her allies valuable leverage over the enemy!

The other non-combative Homo Evolutis, the Whisperer, was equally important to the Hope. However, their contribution wasn’t made on the battlefield but in the labs. The current 3 Whisperers, Ivan in the field of biology, Bo Li in the field of physics, and now Saburo in the field of pathology, were instrumental to the Academy!

Therefore, Yao Yuan propounded a selective conscription for the Homo Evolutis. Those that could better serve humanity elsewhere were not forced into the army, but the opposite was true for combat-made Homo Evolutis. On that issue, Yao Yuan gave no budging space!

Reorganization of the military took about 10 days, and in that period of time, a great deal of progress had been done in terms of the excavation. For one, the Hope had been dislodged from its surrounding rock layer. Now they needed to continue digging upwards, but of course, they had to solve the biggest issue of a possible landslide first.

"...the experts’ opinion is to build more anti-gravitational units."

This was the answer provided by the team of experts when Yao Yuan met up with them.

"Build more anti-gravitational units?" A shocked Yao Yuan continued, "But why? The Hope’s anti-gravitational system is not broken. In fact, it is kept on 24/7 to keep the ship afloat."

The leading expert shook his head. "The new units are not meant for the Hope but the rocks currently piled up on top of the Hope."

The experts’ solution to the landslide problem was deceptively simple. The threat that the landslide posed was it could crush the Hope with its weight. The reason it would have weight was due to gravity. Therefore, if gravity was taken out of the equation, there would be nothing to worry about.

Yao Yuan paused to give it some thought before saying, "This would be a huge undertaking because you guys have to understand that the Hope’s surface area is not small. We would need to create a lot of units to cover such a huge surface. Furthermore, we still don’t fully understand what goes into the inner workings of this technology… And let’s not forget the energy that would be needed to keep them activated. You gentlemen surely have given me an interesting solution."

After discussing it with the Bo Li, Yao Yuan decided to adopt their solution. Even though it might eat into the Hope’s main power supply, since it could protect the Hope’s safety and at the same time allow a quicker excavation by enabling the use of explosives, Yao Yuan decided to go with it because the rewards that awaited them was, to quote Bo Li, "…I would like to see the sky and sea once more. Would you care to join me?"