Age of Cosmic Exploration
chapter-320

Chapter 320: Only Lifeline

Even though they had no idea what this UFO represented, things couldn't be worse for humanity, so this change was better than nothing…

Many stopped and stared up at the sky with this thought in mind. In fact, the UFO wasn't big. It was smaller than planes used for national flights, much less Boeing 747s. However, since it floated only several hundred meters aboveground, people could see it clearly.

On the plain right underneath it, there were already several thousand people gathered there to look at the UFO. There was desperation and anticipation in their eyes; some of them were even soldiers.

"Go back! Return to the forest! Who allowed you people to come out into the open?"

Among the thousand plus people, a few military captains yelled loudly. The order they were given was to set up a safety perimeter around the crowd and not allow any of them to cross their security line. However, more than 1,000 people had gathered on the open plain. The intention of the UFO aside, the congregation of so many people out in the open would attract the attention of the alien octopuses. Therefore, they tried their best to maintain order as they attempted to corral these people back into the forest.

However, the crowd was uncontrollable, especially after they saw the possibility of hope. Of course, there were also people who were more cautious that still hid in the forest to take a glimpse at the UFO. After all, that UFO didn't look like a human product.

Suddenly, a flash of light appeared in the sky. After everyone got used to the glare, they saw 8 people floating off the crowd into the sky, like there was a pulling force in the sky that directly pulled these people into the UFO. After that, under everyone's watchful gazes, a ray of light appeared at the end of the UFO, and with incredible speed, the UFO disappeared as it sped down the horizon.

All the humans were stunned. After some time, they started screaming in unison as they thronged towards the protection of the forest. There was more trampling in the process…

"8 were captured, 17 trampled to death, 40 plus suffered varying degrees of injury… This is really bad! We are running out of medicine, and many of them suffered bacterial infections. We might have to perform amputations." In the tent, Yun Si reported to Major Austin, who was now humanity's leader.

Austin was a young, handsome military officer, but now it looked like he was fast approaching middle age. He retained his looks, but the word "youth" could no longer be applied to him, especially not after the crow's feet that had appeared around the corners of his eyes.

"This really cannot be worse." Austin sighed. "There are alien octopuses waiting for us underground and an alien UFO enslaving us from the sky. This is truly a horrible planet. Furthermore… we've lost all semblance of unity, so the people will be hard to lead."

Yun Si understood what Austin meant. Humanity was being attacked from both sides. Externally, there were alien octopuses, and now an unknown UFO had arrived to capture human beings. Internally, they were running low on energy, food, and medicine. Furthermore, they were losing their will to go on. Their hope was slowly being snuffed out by despair.

After losing the Noah One and the industrial base, the remaining ten thousand people would have a hard time maintaining their civilization, much less revive it. In other words, it was impossible for them to create the signal tower, meaning no matter how much time had passed, Earth's reinforcements wouldn't arrive at this planet. They were cornered into a dead end!

This kind of situation stripped all hope from the survivors. This migration was a manifestation of human beings' basic survival instincts, but more and more people were even losing this basic desire. These people committed suicide. Over the past few months, there were more and more people who committed suicide, and the previously law-abiding citizens started to wander off on their own. This was what Austin meant when he said human unity was lost.

After a heavy silence, Austin said, "Let's talk about something else. What are your thoughts regarding that UFO?"

Yun Si replied, "When the UFO appeared in my sight, there was a danger signal coming off it. It wasn't as strong as the alien octopuses, but it is obvious that it has malicious intention towards us."

Yun Si, over the past month, had displayed his danger alarm power multiple times. It was similar to what people called a sixth sense back on the Earth. However, Yun Si's danger sense was more accurate. Over the past year, his predictions only failed twice, but he had saved the team more than 30 times. In other words, his contribution couldn't be missed for the fact that they had managed to survive that long. Therefore, Austin valued his opinion.

Austin continued after a short pause, "In that case, the surface will be more dangerous than underground soon."

Yun Si was taken aback. He asked, "Why is that so? There are so many alien octopuses underground. Other than us who have been infected by the mysterious virus, others can't even see them and can be controlled via hypnosis, so how can the surface be more dangerous than underground?"

"Because of the UFO… or the civilization behind the UFO," Austin explained. "The alien octopuses are indeed dangerous, but think about it like this: if we have the whole arsenal of human weaponry, as long as we are not ambushed by the octopuses, we actually have a large chance of directly destroying them. To put it simply, we can rely on atomic bombs to solve this conundrum.

"But what about the UFO?"

Austin laughed bitterly. "The way the UFO floated off the ground looks very much like our anti-gravity system, right? False, after the UFO appeared, our tech team managed to capture it on video. After using computer analysis, they realized that even though the UFO was floating in the air, it still kept on spinning, so it wasn't floating still. In other words, it wasn't using an anti-gravity system to keep itself afloat. Even though we have no clue how it fares against the anti-gravity system, at least there is one thing that is very clear… The technology this UFO has is greater than ours.

"If we follow this line of thought, then the answer is simple… A civilization with technology greater than ours sent out a scouting UFO to observe this planet and then discovered us humans. Then they maliciously captured 8 of us. What do you think will happen next? No matter what their plan is for the rest of us, be it as slaves, food, experiment materials, there is no way this is going to end well for us. We can never hope that our enemies will be kind to us. In that case, we might as well kill ourselves."

Austin continued with a deep frown, "Comparatively, the alien octopuses don't have the same level of technology as us, or at least so far that is what we have observed. The UFO in the sky is far more threatening because they aren't a problem we can solve with an atomic bomb. Even though I'm still not clear what this UFO civilization plans to do to us humans, at least you've confirmed one thing for me: they came with mal-intention. This is supported by common sense. To borrow a simple analogy, if we human beings come across a low-level alien civilization but they have a technological level that is not on par with and much greater than its general civilization level, then what do you think we humans would do?"

Yun Si answered, "Investigate their civilization and technology, maybe conduct autop…"

"Autopsy, right?" Austin smirked mirthlessly. He pressed down on his military cap, a complete copy of what the late captain Norton would do, and said in a whisper, "I don't think this is a cruelty unique to us humans. If anything, I believe this is common to all sentient lifeforms. The impression of aliens that are peace-loving and naïve but have high level technology is nothing but fictional portrayal. Even if such a civilization does exist, they would have been consumed by civilizations that are more powerful. Because of that, I will never believe that this UFO will treat us kindly. The supposed peaceful co-existence depends on the similarity in technological levels that can be used to limit each other."

Yun Si was silenced. After a long pause, he asked cautiously, "Then what are we going to do? According to your analysis, there is technically no way out for us human beings anymore."

"No, there is still one lifeline left. Even though the chance of it succeeding is exceptionally low, as low as one over one billion, it is still a lifeline…"

Austin raised his head and said seriously, "We will go take back the Noah One! And then use the space warp engine to warp out of this planet and into the unknown cosmos!"