Age of Cosmic Exploration
chapter-309

Chapter 309: Survival

"Captain, there are currently 23,439 people on the Noah One, 15,023 military, 5,811 engineers, and the rest scientists…"

In the Noah One's captain room, the captain, Norton Maxier, was being briefed by his few adjutants.

"Is that so? We've lost so many people." Norton sighed as he leaned back in his chair and pressed his military cap down over his face. He stayed motionlessly like that for a long time, making his adjutants nervous and helpless.

Finally, Norton raised his head and said, "Thankfully, the lower half of the ship is mostly materials, like spare parts and a large amount of radioactive ores… However, after losing those things, is our plan to colonize other planets still viable? Can we still survive in space?"

The few adjutants were silent because they were the most familiar with the severity of the loss. The Noah One had lost one third of its people and a large amount of supply, especially the radioactive ores. These were the Noah One's main source of energy, and this accident had made 80 percent of them disappear. The next were the spare parts, like locomotive rails, which would help greatly in resource harvesting. Without these, resource harvesting would take a lot more time.

After a long time, Norton asked again, "How's the planet?"

An adjutant replied immediately, "An exploratory team led by Professor Ash and Professor Lee Hwa climbed through the crack to investigate the planet. The result already came back on the planet's atmosphere. It is as the earlier message showed. The planet air contains 20 percent oxygen, but the level of carbon dioxide was slightly higher than Earth's, so both professors suggest that before they can get a clearer reading, everyone should wear spacesuits before venturing outside."

Norton nodded. "How about the crack on the Noah One? Is there leakage from outside?"

The adjutant answered, "There is no air leakage. Since the Noah One has an isolated cabin structure, there are isolating partitions between each cabin. Therefore, other than the 30 plus soldiers, none of the others have been exposed to the planet's air."

"Is that so?" Norton reverted to silence once more and the whole room was quiet.

"Every one of us…" Norton began, but what he said seemed to have nothing to do with the situation at hand. "Every one of us knew about our future when we left. We knew this was a journey of no return. Our bodies, our souls, have lost our home, our home planet… Earth, like a baby who was taken away from his mother's embrace. We won't able to return even if we die here…"

Norton stood up suddenly and stared at the picture of Jesus on the cross that hung in the captain's room. The picture seemed to represent perfectly their current situation.

"However, this was a step we had to take because Earth was too small for humanity… Destruction of materials, nature, and the environment, this is all humanity's handiwork, ruining the home planet that had birthed and cared for us for millennia. However, for the sake of our future, this destruction will have to continue until Earth was no more…

"Therefore, we had to leave. Perhaps we will never return to Earth again, and perhaps this will be a futile effort, but at least we've tried. We've sowed a seed of hope for humanity's future. This will be our contribution…"

Norton paused to lift up his military cap and observed. "This can be much worse because at least most of the scientists survived. This means we'll have the technology to survive… How about the sperm and ovum bank?"

The adjutants sighed in relief upon witnessing their captain return to his usual self. One of them replied, "The bank is unharmed. It is located in the middle of the Noah One, and we just had people to go check on it. It is totally fine."

"Then we shall follow the decided plan. Start mating the first batch of 300 babies and repair the ship. Increase the speed of breaking through the crack so that we can fire the satellite into space as soon as possible…"

Just as the Noah One's captain was delegating the work, at the same time, a small unit of about 200 people was climbing up from 300 meters underground through the crack.

The Noah One's warp exit was about 300 meters beneath the surface of this planet. This was a controlled warp because this planet was already set as the warp destination when they were still on Earth. They named the planet "Eden."

The whole plan exhausted several billion US dollars, innumerable workers, and utilized 10 years for it to come into fruition. The plan was to build the Noah One, select its members, issue multiple test warps, and then the final warp… This plan was dubbed Return to Eden!

The Noah One's mission was to warp to Eden and then use the star gate technology to form a stable link between Eden and Earth. Of course, this required a high level of technology, but using the information taken from the UFO, all this was possible within the next hundred years!

This 200 plus member unit, other than 130 plus soldiers, the rest were scientists and researchers from various fields. They were armed with weapons and devices before they left the ship from one of the bridges. They were now climbing to the surface through the crack.

It was worth noting that even though the Noah One's warp had them trapped underground, it wasn't a complete failure. First, at least, they weren't several million meters deep underground, or the high core temperature and pressure would have crushed the spaceship. Secondly, the space they found themselves in had a natural incline that led to the surface. It was not a vertical drop, but a stair-like passageway. This was a pleasant discovery and surprise.

This small unit was going to be the Noah One's first exploratory unit. In fact, if not for the fact that there were many things to be done on the Noah One, probably all the 2,000 plus scientists would demand to leave Noah One to personally observe Eden. After all, this was the first time mankind had been to other planet, not counting the Moon, and it was one that was able to support life. The desire to study this planet was huge. If not for the heavy militaristic atmosphere of the Noah One, there would be more than 200 people on this first unit.

"The gravity is greater than Earth's by 0.1 or 2 G. The difference is not great, but the temperature is weirdly high, it's 36 degree Celsius. According to our latitude, we're supposed to be in a moderately warm area of this planet, so why is the temperature so high?" A scientist observed as he studied the device in his hand.

Another scientist answered, "How is that an anomaly? This planet's carbon dioxide is almost 20 percent higher than Earth's, so you have to consider the effect of global warming. Looks like we have our job laid before us. We need to first terraform this planet's atmosphere to make it habitable…"

The group of scientists started discussing among themselves on how to change Eden. Other scientists from other fields had anticipation on their faces, They hadn't started their own studies yet, but in the foreseeable future, that would happen. A whole new planet for them to research. That was… incredible!

Suddenly, they saw a flash of shadow dart across the area. The military immediately took up their weapons and trained them at their surroundings. However, the shadow earlier appeared to be an illusion, because they saw nothing of interest other than some rocks at a distance away.

Just as they let their guards down, a scream sounded. Everyone turned towards the scream and saw half of a body on the ground. The people around the body stumbled and fell, pointing and screaming at the body part that was still squirting blood.

"Be on guard! Turn on all the search lights! Aim them at all suspicious locations!"

The leader started barking orders and then several searchlights were set up. The dark underground lit up like daylight. At the same time, the elite soldiers took up their weapons and strafe fired at the dark corners around them. The bullets ricocheted off of the rock pillars and walls, causing sparks to fly. Some smaller stalactites even crumbled under the fire.

Under such focus fire, several shadows materialized from behind the rock pillars. They could see the other half of the body which still had the spacesuit on. However, most of the body had already been eaten. The shadows were crustacean creatures that were 2 meters tall and 2 meters wide. They had large pinchers and sturdy legs. They moved vertically on their two legs. If not for their weird proportions and ghastly, bug-like faces, their movements would be uncannily similar to humans.

When these creatures made themselves seen, all the bullets focused on them. But to everyone's consternation, the bullets made only sparks on their shells and couldn't pierce through them. The creatures were extremely fast. In just seconds, they were already in the midst of the unit. More soldiers were torn into two, but at the same time, 2 creatures had their shells broken and were immediately riddled with bullet holes.

"Retreat! Retreat back to the Noah One! Report to the commander that there are too many of these creatures!"

As the leader yelled, the rest of the group saw several more shadows at the end of the dark tunnel, and they were rushing towards them at a ridiculously high speed…