Crimson Flame Civilization
Humans can only judge the purpose of these things by their appearance, whether they are living quarters, workplaces, breeding grounds for other organisms, plant cultivation bases, or something like that.
From this perspective, it seems that the Crimson Flame Civilization wasn't in too much of a hurry when they left.
What humanity doesn't know is that the reason the Crimson Flame Civilization was able to move its base so cleanly is entirely because their previous Great Commander had foresight; it was that Great Commander who instructed them to prepare for the evacuation in advance.
"These guys didn't leave anything behind!" Yue Yuan exclaimed, while switching between different detection screens.
As time went by, the exploration of the Crimson Flame Civilization was nearing its end, but no valuable information was found.
If humanity were still Level 2 Civilization, it might have been interested in the materials used in the Crimson Flame Civilization's base, but in the eyes of humanity today, these materials are worthless.
Just as Yue Yuan was showing interest in the situation at the three planetary bases, the voice of the communications personnel rang out in the Command Center: "Commander Yue, information from the Third Fleet."
"Turn around!"
After saying this, Yue Yuan got up from his seat and slowly walked towards the porthole by controlling the Magnetic Force switch on his clothes through his Brain Chip.
The Third Fleet is still in orbit around the Planet Thirteen, so the information they send is not real-time communication, but rather a text message and some pictures and videos.
With the communications personnel's input, Bu Guiyu's image quickly appeared on the virtual screen. He gave a formal military salute and then said, "Commander Yue, the battlefield cleanup is complete, and we have discovered these things."
After Bu Guiyu said those words on the screen, some images appeared on the split screen next to his avatar.
Sparks flashed everywhere, and molten iron, steel fragments, broken pipes and other debris floated everywhere, many of which were unrecognizable.
Yue Yuan glanced at it and recognized that this was the interior of the damaged warship. The relatively intact circular crystal in the picture should be some kind of screen or similar device.
This footage was likely taken from the perspective of a robot cleaning the warship.
Sure enough, a moment later, he saw a small robot streak across the screen, its tail flames trailing behind it. It stretched out its mechanical arm and rummaged through a pile of rubble, then pulled out a lump of iron. This thing was about the size of a water bottle, but not cylindrical; it was oval, like an egg. It was made of some kind of alloy, with obvious retractable mechanical structures on its surface, making it look like an iron egg.
Yes, it was indeed a lump of iron, at least that was Yue Yuan's first impression. However, Bu Guiyu's next words refreshed his understanding.
"This is the Spacesuit of an individual life form in the Interstellar Transaction Market. The two protruding, retractable structures at the slightly smaller, rounded end are its gripping parts, and the four below are... well, you could call them four legs. Commander Yue, take a look. This is the form of an individual life form in the Interstellar Transaction Market. We've dissected it; it's a life form similar to a marine mollusc. Don't be fooled by its smooth skin; it's incredibly tough, so tough that even a regular knife can't cut through it. It's comparable to rubber."
The First Fleet has just discovered the so-called Interstellar Transaction Market, which is actually called the Crimson Flame Civilization. The information has not yet been synchronized to the Third Fleet, which is far away on the Planet Thirteen. Therefore, in Bu Guiyu's words, it is still referred to as the Interstellar Transaction Market.
As Bu Guiyu spoke, the video switched to a scene where a human robot cut open the iron egg and took out an alien that was clearly lifeless.
The creature inside the metal lump was very small, only about thirty centimeters long. It looked round and soft, with four legs and two arms. The legs were quite distinct, but the arms lacked any obvious features like fingers. They looked more like the tentacles of an octopus, with a group of tiny suckers.
If you add some tentacles to it, it would probably become the Cthulhu image that people are familiar with. Upon seeing this image, Yue Yuan finally confirmed that the passage he had discovered earlier was indeed the entrance and exit passage for individual beings of the Crimson Flame Civilization.
At this point, Bu Guiyu continued, "We analyzed their Spacesuit life support systems and discovered that although they are molluscs, they are not aquatic. They simply live in a relatively humid, or rather, hot and humid environment. Their normal living temperature is around 60 to 70 degrees Celsius. From our human perspective, they are oviparous. Some scattered data suggests that their offspring hatch from eggs, but we haven't found any of their eggs in the warship wreckage."
Biologists believe that there must have been some specialized Mother Body laying eggs, because although we found more than one individual life form in the warship wreckage, we determined that they were different males and females, because we clearly found mutually symmetrical physiological structures in their body structures.
To our surprise, after scanning, dissecting, and analyzing their basic cellular structure and genes, we did not find any obvious reproductive ability in either of them. Well, perhaps their reproductive methods are different from what we know.
Some experts speculate that the male and female individuals on these warships are incapable of reproduction, and that there must be some specialized breeding Mother Body. Of course, we may be wrong, but in any case, we still don't know how they reproduce, let alone how many offspring they produce in a single birth.
After reading the information sent by Bu Guiyu, the First Fleet finally gained a better understanding of the Crimson Flame Civilization, at least knowing their life forms.
Immediately, the people on the Lyra also expressed their feelings.
"I never imagined that they were all so small."
"You bet! If I hadn't seen it with my own Spacesuit, I would have thought it was one of their pets!"
"It seems they thought we humans looked like Dog-Headed People. I wonder what they thought when they saw how tall the Dog-Headed People were, standing at 2.5 meters."
"What you're saying is ridiculous. They are a respectable Level 3 Civilization, and one that has the audacity to impersonate Interstellar Transaction Market. They must have seen plenty of other extraterrestrial life forms. No matter what they do, they can't possibly act like they've never seen anything like this before. At most, they'll just be surprised, just like how we see their life forms now."
Just as these people were discussing it curiously, the person in charge of monitoring the planetary base suddenly exclaimed excitedly, "Everyone, a new discovery! A new discovery!"
Everyone turned to look and saw that the person's personal screen was displaying a strange cavity structure, filled with all sorts of hemispherical devices, densely packed together, numbering at least 100,000. These devices were connected to numerous pipes, and looked like they were for storing something.
The personnel responsible for intelligence gathering were certainly not just mouthpieces; they must possess exceptional expertise. Indeed, the Lyra required at least expert-level personnel.
After excitedly shouting a couple of times, the person in charge continued, "Based on the information from Commander Bu, I believe this is most likely a breeding base for the Crimson Flame Civilization's life forms. Judging from the size of these hemispherical devices, they should be places where their offspring in 'egg' form are placed. We have discovered more than one such breeding base. It seems that the Crimson Flame Civilization uses artificial, industrialized methods of raising offspring. This explains why they have so many life forms operating warships."
Humanity could indeed establish a breeding ground for offspring, since artificial embryo technology has been achieved after advancing to Level 3 Civilization; the only remaining hurdle is ethical considerations. Most importantly, with the deployment of Strong Artificial Intelligence and the establishment of the warship model, humanity's fleets will no longer require so many soldiers. Therefore, the New Government has not promoted this reproductive model.