Watching Helplessly
Trying to negotiate with a tiger for its skin—how can you possibly profit from that?
Trying to snatch chestnuts from the fire is bound to burn your hands!
The 'Silver Mist' is not limited to the original area; humanity has been captivated by that tranquil Silver Mist.
Yue Yuan took a deep breath, his eyes quickly returning to a calm expression, and then turned his head to look at the large screen inside the bridge.
The large screen is still lit up, and we can still see the video signals transmitted back by the Ground Transport Robot, which means that the signal has not been interrupted.
In other words, none of the hydrogen bombs on the nine ships were activated.
What we are seeing now is actually footage from seventeen minutes ago. In fact, what is happening now is invisible to humans.
In other words, at this point, humanity and the Hope were Beyond the Light Cone of the Ross 154-4 Planet event.
It will take another seventeen minutes for the Event Light Cone to extend to the spacetime coordinates where the Hope is located before humans can enter the Event Light Cone and see what is happening at that moment.
In other words, humans can't do anything except watch, and if they do, they can only affect Ross 154-4 lead 17 minutes from now.
Based on the information obtained during their initial contact with the 'Silver Mist', humanity devised a targeted signal interruption triggering method. However, to everyone's surprise, the 'Silver Mist' made no attempt to block information this time.
This renders the triggering method ineffective.
However, even now, human scientists and everyone who was directly involved in the decision-making process or offered opinions still have one question: what is the purpose of 'Silver Mist'? 'Silver Mist' quickly answered humanity's question with its actions.
The 'Silver Mist' bursting out of the cave came into the view of the human transport ships, and multiple corresponding images were displayed on the large screen.
Upon reaching the surface, this batch of 'Silver Mist' was stained red by the light of the Red Dwarf Star.
Inside the bridge of the Hope, Yue Yuan and the others watched helplessly as the 'Silver Mist' swept toward the transport ship, easily cracked the transport ship's hatch program, and then swarmed in.
The Silver Mist completely ignored the gas that the humans had filled for the Moke Star People inside the transport ship. The moment the hatch was opened, the gas inside overflowed wildly. This slight impact of atmospheric pressure did not affect the influx of the Silver Mist.
So far, none of the hydrogen bombs installed on the transport ships by humans have detonated, and the mechanical triggering devices, which serve as a secondary safety measure, have shown any signs of activation.
Just like with the Ground Transport Robot, Silver Mist did not use mining mode to dismantle the transport ship and eight transport boats this time.
With the loss of footage captured by the transport ship, humanity understood the purpose of the 'Silver Mist'.
That is to take over control of transport ships.
But why?
If that's the case, why didn't 'Silver Mist' do that when humans first landed, instead dismantling the landing craft?
Could it be that this batch of 'Silver Mist' is not controlled by the same consciousness as the last batch?
Amidst human bewilderment, transport ships went out of control one after another. The footage they had captured, displayed on the bridge of the Hope, also went black.
Although the reason is still unknown, the facts tell humanity that this is the purpose of the 'Silver Mist', or rather, the purpose of the Nanobots consciousness.
The transport ships have lost control, but the satellites in orbit around Ross 154-4 are still under human control, so the satellite images are still visible to humans.
Inside the bridge of the Hope, everyone turned their attention to the satellite images.
And so everyone saw this scene.
The 'Silver Mist' that had been quiet for more than a decade began to stir again, rising from the ground like locusts and drifting towards the transport ships.
At the same time, streaks of red light appeared in caves throughout the planet, and countless swarms of Nanobots soared upwards from the caves, obscuring the sky.
At this moment, the entire surface of the planet looked like a large sphere filled with smoke and riddled with countless holes. Countless plumes of smoke and dust billowed out, like jets of steam, gathering into patches of red clouds in the planet's airspace.
Then, the sky-covering Nanobots tumbled and surged in mid-air, transforming into long, thin clouds that stretched out and converged on the landing site of the transport ships.
From the perspective of satellite images, it looks just like the ever-changing weather and turbulent clouds when a typhoon or hurricane occurs on Earth.
Such a sight is truly magnificent.
Seeing the swarm of Nanobots that could so easily transform a desolate planet into a scene of impending storm, everyone realized that what they had seen before was not the entirety of the Nanobots swarm, but only a part of it, a small portion.
This is the real swarm of Nanobots, the real Silver Mist!
So we were talking to something so terrifying before! But is Artificial Intelligence- generated consciousness really that intelligent? Looking at the image that had become a reality just over ten minutes ago, everyone fell silent.
The universe is truly terrifying.
"Let's set sail! We can't stay in this Star System any longer." Yue Yuan sat back down and said in a calm tone.
The calm tone instantly roused the dazed people on the bridge. One by one, their Compound Eyes regained their clarity, and they threw themselves back into their work.
"Set sail now? Commander Yue, what about the base, factories, Space Dock framework, and various types of laboratories on Ross 154-7?" the bridge Science Officer asked.
"No, we don't have much time to waste." Yue Yuan shook his head; hesitation would mean defeat.
Now he clearly understands that if the hydrogen bombs deployed on transport ships and transport boats cannot even be detonated, then the Hydrogen Bomb Array deployed on the Ross 154-4 orbit will not be able to stop the Nanobots consciousness.
Indeed, the detonation order has been sent out, but the detonation will take another ten minutes or so.
During this time, the Nanobots consciousness should have had enough time to board the transport ship and fly out of Ross 154-4. If the Hydrogen Bomb Array is detonated before the Nanobots take off into orbit aboard the transport ship, then the Nanobots consciousness's deception will have truly succeeded.
Because all the information now points to the fact that the 'Silver Mist' is bound by the Gravity of Ross 154-4, and once it reaches planetary orbit, it will be freed.
Judging from the fact that the 'Silver Mist' can fly on planets without atmospheres, humans can easily deduce the reason for its ability to fly: magnetic fields.
However, the planet's magnetic field is relatively weak, so when the Silver Mist flies on the planet, part of it has to be supported by the ground. This may be the reason why it cannot escape the Gravity of the Ross 154-4 Planet.
A hydrogen bomb explosion in orbit obviously cannot destroy ground transport ships, a fact that humanity knows best. After all, that transport ship and eight transport boats were built by humans, and they know their capabilities better than anyone else.
Now, humanity's only chance of winning is that the Silver Mist arrives in planetary orbit aboard a transport ship, and the Hydrogen Bomb Array detonates at just the right moment.
This could indeed destroy transport ships, but the fate of the 'Silver Mist' itself is uncertain.
Therefore, if the Hydrogen Bomb Array successfully detonates, it will delay the progress of the 'Silver Mist', whether before or after the Silver Mist reaches orbit.
Of course, Yue Yuan hoped that the Hydrogen Bomb Array would detonate just as the 'Silver Mist' reached orbit, although this wish seemed somewhat unrealistic based on current satellite imagery.
After all, the Hydrogen Bomb Array was not originally intended for the 'Silver Mist', but rather for the non-existent 'Moke Star People Mining Area Patrol' to prevent accidents during the rescue, including the hydrogen bombs on the transport ships.
But unexpectedly, the Mining Area Patrol were gone, and instead, 'Silver Mist' arrived.