This Mothership Doesn't Seem Right!

This mothership doesn't seem right!

The hatch opened. Green indicator lights lit up one after another along the pristine white corridor, guiding Tang Xiao toward the elevator leading to the bridge. The nurse standing guard at the door lowered her head and hurried back into the medical bay to tidy up.

The Administrator has awakened. All personnel, please attend to your work assignments... The Administrator has awakened... The Mainframe's announcement continued to echo through the corridors.

Yet the entire place still seemed empty. Tang Xiao walked for quite a while before spotting two soldiers in black uniforms by the elevator doors.

When they saw Tang Xiao approach, the two soldiers snapped to attention and gave him crisp, standard salutes. "Greetings, Administrator!"

Tang Xiao was not quite used to it, but he nodded and returned the salute. Seeing his response, the two soldiers puffed out their already well-developed chests even more.

After riding the elevator for what felt like a very long time, he arrived in an enormous hall. Two more soldiers stood at the entrance, their expressions resolute. The moment they saw Tang Xiao, they immediately stood at attention and saluted.

At the center of the hall was a huge holographic star map. However, most of the map was shrouded in darkness, revealing nothing.

There were also numerous seats and control consoles around the room. It looked as though at least a hundred people would need to work together in different roles for this place to function properly, yet only a dozen or so people were currently at work in the hall.

"Salute!" Everyone present rose in unison and saluted Tang Xiao. "Greetings, Administrator!"

Tang Xiao was somewhat uncomfortable with this, but he still nodded. Through the enormous panoramic window, he looked outside and saw a green planet. Unlike blue Earth, this planet was covered in vast stretches of green vegetation, making the whole world appear green.

White clouds in the atmosphere were clearly visible around the planet, displaying its excellent atmospheric conditions.

However, the most eye-catching sight was not this planet, but the incomparably massive planet behind it. Compared with that giant planet, the small planet before him was like a mouse standing beneath an elephant's foot.

The pale blue sphere looked smooth and clean, with only a few dark cyclones scattered across its surface. It resembled the rubber balls he had played with as a child—clearly, it was a gas giant.

"Is this the habitable planet we found?" Tang Xiao asked.

Yes, Administrator. The central holographic projection immediately switched to a star system, and the Mainframe explained: The current star system is a stable binary system, with two stars constantly orbiting a common center. There is only one planet in the system: this gas giant, with a diameter of 48,951 kilometers.

In addition, this gas giant has nine moons, and we are currently beside one of them. There is another moon with a suitable climate, but its ocean coverage exceeds 95%, making it unsuitable for colonization under current conditions.

"Nine moons orbiting one gas giant?" Tang Xiao frowned as he searched through his memories. "All right, so we can only make do and colonize this small planet, right? Then at least tell me what our current situation is."

A young man around twenty-five or twenty-six years old, dressed in a dark blue military uniform, stood up from a round table nearby. He saluted Tang Xiao and said, "First, we need to replenish our conventional fuel. The atmosphere of this gas giant contains large quantities of helium, which can be used as fuel for the fusion reactors of various spacecraft. Therefore, we need to build an extraction station near the giant planet. The mothership's warehouse contains modular semi-finished components, and the hangar stores several small engineering vessels that can complete the assembly work, but those ships require pilots."

"So I need to awaken the pilots?"

"Yes. After you awoke from hibernation, the Mainframe awakened a total of fifty of us to make preliminary preparations for you. This includes ten Marines, five civilian personnel, five staff officers, five communications officers, five maintenance personnel, and ten Mothership Control Personnel. In addition, there are ten medical personnel on standby to ensure our health. We still need your authorization to awaken more people."

"Very good. What is your name?" Tang Xiao asked, seeing how methodically the man spoke.

"My name is Qi Jian! I am a member of the Staff Department!" Qi Jian thrust out his chest and answered loudly.

"Flagship. That's a fine name, very good. If there is no corresponding position yet, then from now on, you will be our temporary Chief of Staff." Tang Xiao said.

He had more or less figured things out. What he needed to do now was first establish a team. He could not possibly understand everything himself, but as long as someone beneath him did, that would be enough.

Sure enough, after being personally appointed by Tang Xiao, Qi Jian immediately became excited. He answered loudly, "Yes! I guarantee the mission will be completed!"

"All right, let me see the status of our hibernating crew." Under the Mainframe's guidance, Tang Xiao walked to the highest central seat on the bridge and sat down. A huge holographic screen immediately unfolded before him.

The screen listed six hundred thousand residents and fifty thousand crew members available for awakening, each with different areas of expertise. Given the current situation, it was obvious that he should choose people from the fifty thousand crew members, since they were more familiar with work aboard the mothership.

These personnel were also divided into different grades: Normal, Elite, and Master. Beyond those were three more grades, all marked with question marks. The requirements for awakening personnel also varied.

For example, Master Class talents were basically grandmasters who had reached the pinnacle of their respective fields. Awakening such people to face a colony that had nothing at all—not even tents—would be as wasteful as having PhD graduates carry bricks.

Thus, the conditions required to awaken them were listed beneath each talent. Most of these conditions had been proposed by the individuals themselves before entering cryogenic hibernation and finalized after signing contracts with the mothership.

Tang Xiao curiously checked what kinds of people were in the Master Class. He casually opened one profile and found a Master Class astrophysicist. His requirements were a three-story villa, a private swimming pool, the most advanced laboratory, and a super radio observatory built on a plateau at least three thousand meters above sea level.

He opened another profile. This was a Quantum Mechanics Master. He required a laboratory with a dust-free environment, the most advanced experimental equipment, a particle collider at least fifty kilometers long, two beautiful women no older than twenty as personal secretaries, and a velvet bed no less than five meters in diameter?

What the hell? Brother, something is seriously wrong with you!

There were some more normal requirements. For example, one Master Class sociologist had a very simple demand: no need for food or clothing, as long as the colony's population exceeded ten million...

Isn't this demand even more ridiculous, you bastard? (╯°Д°)╯(┻━┻!!

Tang Xiao decisively closed the Master Class interface. This time, he did not even look at the Elite Class. He had nothing right now. Even if he awakened those people, they would probably either quit on the spot or simply die to spite him.

That was simply how it worked. In the early stages, Normal Class personnel could do the job very well, such as workers. At most, a few Elite Class personnel were needed to take the lead.

But the strict awakening conditions for Master Class personnel were necessary. For example, if he awakened a Master Class physicist while the colony was still under construction, with no precision instruments or laboratories, what would he have him do? Teach physics at a school? The problem was, there was not even a school yet!

Most of these Master Class figures were already in their fifties or sixties. Every year mattered. Was he supposed to bring them out early and let them waste their remaining years struggling through the colony's initial development?

That was why they had signed such conditions and contracts before going into hibernation. It was not without reason.

By comparison, awakening Normal Class personnel came with hardly any conditions. He opened the list and found that most only required food, lodging, and work. Only a small number had minor requests, such as needing members of the opposite sex in their work environment or hoping to eat noodles.

Before authorizing the awakenings, Tang Xiao thought for a moment and asked, "Mainframe, am I the only one who can authorize the awakening of crew members? And all these people work for me?"

Yes. You are the holder of the mothership's highest-level authority. All crew members and residents were selected by you, and they will offer you their loyalty.

Tang Xiao silently nodded. He quickly found the Engineering Department among the Normal Class crew, then chose to awaken ten teams of ten people each, with every team responsible for operating one engineering vessel. After that, he awakened another two ten-person teams of Logistics and Maintenance Personnel. After appointing team leaders for each group, he established a small leadership structure.

Once he got started, Tang Xiao quickly settled into the role. Perhaps this was the learning the Mainframe had said he received during sleep. Allocating work on such a small scale was quite simple. He also awakened twenty people in the Agriculture Department to tend the Hydroponics Bays aboard the mothership, because after checking, he discovered that many of the crops in the hydroponics bays had withered.

No wonder the Mainframe had told him that supplies were nearly exhausted. Who knew what had happened to this ship? Perhaps it had been a disaster?

After completing the most urgent tasks, Tang Xiao finally let out a breath. Crossing one leg over the other, he said, "Mainframe, introduce the basic information of this mothership."

Understood.

The central holographic projection displayed a full view of the mothership, and the Mainframe continued its explanation: Civilization of origin unknown. Manufacturer unknown. Classification: Civilian Colony Mothership. Equipped with only minimal armament and armor. Current highest authority holder: Administrator Tang Xiao.

Technical specifications: total height, 41.37 kilometers; maximum length, 10.92 kilometers; total mass, 37.3079 billion tons. Armament: five Mass Drivers and one Point Defense System containing 377 small rapid-fire electromagnetic cannons. Total capacity...

While the Mainframe explained everything in an orderly manner, Tang Xiao paid no attention at all. He had already been stunned by the holographic projection of the colossal spacecraft before him!

It was a gigantic vessel shaped like a crescent moon—or perhaps a banana. Its overall design possessed a clean, elegant beauty. Near the upper middle section was a gap filled with countless portholes. That was the bridge.

What shocked Tang Xiao was not that this super warship was as long as the distance from the Imperial Capital to Langfang, but because... he recognized this ship!

"Homeworld!! The Kushan Mothership!!" Tang Xiao's expression changed drastically as he cried out.

Tang Xiao had of course played the famous game Homeworld: Cataclysm. It was a groundbreaking game that ushered in a new era of real-time space strategy games. More than that, it was renowned for its grand story. Tang Xiao had been deeply captivated by it when he was still in elementary school.

But now, the Kushan Mothership—the iconic vessel of the entire Homeworld universe—was actually the ship he had taken over?!

This wasn't right! Why had something from a game become reality? And if even the mothership from Homeworld had appeared in reality, then did that mean...

That dream might have been real!?

Bonus Chapter Illustration 1: Homeworld, Kushan Mothership

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