Chapter Summaries

Hao Ren and his companions concluded that the planet’s Firstborn had been incapacitated by something beyond the Survivor resistance army’s attacks, and that something was preventing it from regenerating. They chose to investigate the people in space first, while the resistance army continued its costly campaign against the Firstborn.

• Nolan argued that the planet’s Firstborn might be suffering a form of brain death, though she could not confirm the cause without examining its brain core.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Nangong Sanba reasoned that the Survivor resistance army could not have caused the Firstborn’s condition and that some force must be blocking its recovery.
• Hao Ren decided to seek information from the resistance army before attempting to reach the Firstborn deep underground.
• Nolan intercepted communications suggesting that a capable Survivor society operated from the Giant Space Station and the Moon surface base and that its forces acted rationally.
• The resistance army’s bombers attacked the Firstborn’s forest tentacle again, destroying it at the cost of half the formation, while Nolan detected the Firstborn’s activity declining further.
• Vivian questioned the purpose of the resistance army’s continuing war, and Hao Ren replied that reclaiming their home planet might matter deeply to them.

Hao Ren and his companions learned more about the Firstborn’s dormant state and the survivors’ futile campaign while repairing Nolan. After the ship prepared to fly, they awakened the rebuilt robot First Officer, N-6.

• Nolan’s scans confirmed that the Firstborn had lost unified control, while the space-based survivors continued attacking its tentacles without lasting success.
• Nolan repaired her communications and part of her weapons, then successfully tested her main engine and said she expected to fly the next day.
• Hao Ren wondered why the Moon base and Space Station Zenith Seat had ignored Nolan’s crash, but Nolan interrupted him to announce that the robot girl had been repaired.
• Nolan explained that the laboratory had rebuilt much of the robot First Officer with substitute parts, and Hao Ren ordered her started.
• The robot girl opened her eyes as Vivian asked her name, and she looked around at the people gathered nearby.

Hao Ren and his companions repaired the combat agent N-6, who mistook them for mutated human survivors and told them about the Zenith Seat and a recovery signal. As N-6 began adjusting to her new body, Nolan detected an armed unit approaching the ship.

• N-6 woke in the laboratory and cautiously observed Nolan, Hao Ren, and the others, concluding they were human survivors on the mother planet.
• Hao Ren confirmed N-6's identity and let her believe his group were surface-dwelling humans; she urged them to seek refuge at the Zenith Seat and said she could summon a recovery unit.
• Nolan explained that N-6's new limbs were controlled by a driver program, and N-6 successfully sat up and tested her powerful replacement body.
• N-6 thanked Hao Ren for saving her, mistook the data cable connected to her neck for a charging cable, and learned that her energy system had been upgraded.
• Nolan reported that two transport aircraft had landed twelve kilometers away and an armed unit was approaching.

Hao Ren’s group discovered an armed Zenith Seat team approaching, and N-6 prepared to make contact with them. At the crash site, N-4’s team saw the living ship regenerate and mistook the altered N-6 for an alien parasite, preparing to fight.

• Nolan reported that eighteen armed personnel had landed nearby and destroyed their radar equipment with a pulse.
• N-6 said she had not sent a recovery signal, and Hao Ren’s group brought her to the ship’s exit to meet the newcomers.
• N-4 led her team to the crash crater and found the spacecraft nearly repaired despite earlier intelligence showing it badly damaged.
• N-4’s team watched the ship regenerate its armor and concluded that it was alive and hostile.
• N-4 recognized N-6’s identification signal but detected alien code and unusual energy within her, then ordered her team to prepare for battle.

Hao Ren and Vivian tried to make contact with N-6’s fellow robots, but the soldiers attacked, forcing Vivian to knock them out and bring them aboard the Giant Turtle Rock Platform. N-4 woke as their prisoner and remained wary of Hao Ren, leaving the attempt to establish trust unresolved.

• N-6’s former teammates, led by N-4, opened fire on the Giant Turtle Rock Platform, and its shields protected everyone inside.
• Hao Ren and Vivian went out to stop the attack, but Vivian accidentally struck N-4 with a ball of lightning while trying to scare the soldiers into listening.
• Vivian knocked out the remaining attackers with electromagnetic blasts, and Hao Ren’s group took them aboard for questioning.
• The captured soldiers proved to be robots like N-6, and the Data Terminal’s Autonomous Mechanical Units revived them after their logic circuits triggered emergency protection.
• N-4 woke restrained in front of Hao Ren and Vivian, and she remained silent while Hao Ren apologized for capturing her.

Hao Ren and his companions cleared up the misunderstanding that led N-4 to attack them and convinced her that N-6’s personality had not been altered. N-4 then explained why N-6 and most of the resistance forces did not know about Nolan’s landing, leaving Hao Ren ready to speak with her as a friend.

• N-4 accused N-6 of running unauthorized code, while Hao Ren and his companions explained that they had only repaired her.
• N-4 revealed that she had mistaken Nolan’s headlights for an attack on her radar, and Nolan explained that she had only been responding to their scan.
• N-4 verified N-6’s base-layer data and confirmed that her personality had not been contaminated.
• N-4 told N-6 that Hao Ren and his companions were outsiders whose spacecraft had landed on the homeworld, and Hao Ren apologized for allowing N-6 to assume otherwise.
• N-4 explained that Nolan’s landing went largely unnoticed because an energy shockwave destroyed Zenith Seat’s observation satellites and information about the spacecraft was sealed.
• Hao Ren released N-4’s restraints and sat down to speak with her as a friend.

Hao Ren explained his off-world mission to N-4 and cleared up her mistaken belief that Lily’s portrait was a war totem. He learned that humanity still survived in a heavily protected stronghold on the Moon, though the Planet Devourer kept them from approaching their home planet.

• Hao Ren and Vivian told N-4 that they came from beyond the star system to investigate ancient traces and preserve the relics of civilizations.
• Lily described Hao Ren as a collector of dead civilizations, and N-4 accepted that the group were pacifists after comparing their work with the agents’ recovery missions.
• N-4 mistook Lily’s portrait on the ship for a predator totem, so Hao Ren showed her Lily’s different forms and Izax explained that many of them could transform.
• Hao Ren asked why N-4’s operatives were robots and whether humanity had gone extinct.
• N-4 and N-6 said that humans lived in the Moon base’s Fortress, guarded by the Titan Guard and the main brain, but could not approach their home planet while the Planet Devourer occupied it.

Hao Ren learned how the Moon-based survivors were organized and discovered that their war against the Eldest Son had changed after a meteor shower struck it three thousand years ago. N-4’s account left the group questioning whether the impact had caused the Eldest Son’s diminished activity.

• N-4 and N-6 explained that the Zenith Seat was a forward fortress while the Moon surface base housed the survivors’ factories, military production, and Fortress capital.
• N-4 described the Fortress, its Main Brain and Titan Guard Legion, and the humans who remained inside the Palace of the End.
• N-6 and N-4 said humans traditionally occupied the pilot seats while Agents fought beside them as copilots.
• Hao Ren learned that the Planet Devourer had once driven the survivors to near annihilation, forcing the Zenith Seat into five centuries of exile.
• N-4 recounted that a meteor shower struck the Planet Devourer three thousand years earlier, after which earthquakes and the creature’s loss of strength changed the war.

Hao Ren learned that a mysterious meteor shower had bypassed the Planet Devourer’s defenses and may have driven it mad. N-4 revealed that the central processor had become chaotic years earlier and had secretly ordered her and N-6 to find the crashed alien spacecraft, while forbidding others from searching.

• Hao Ren questioned how the meteor shower had damaged the Planet Devourer despite its powerful defenses, and N-4 recited records describing the fragments appearing amid distorted light.
• Hao Ren and Vivian concluded that the supposed meteorites had arrived through superdimensional space, and Vivian proposed searching for them inside the Planet Devourer.
• Hao Ren asked N-4 about the information blockade, and N-4 disclosed that the central processor had shown signs of chaos for several years.
• N-4 explained that the central processor had issued contradictory and wasteful orders, but seven of its thirteen servers had withdrawn them before they reached the Agents.
• N-4 revealed that the central processor had directly sent her and N-6 its system logs and ordered them to find the crashed alien spacecraft without explaining what to do afterward.
• N-4 confirmed that the central processor had forbidden others from searching the home planet for the unidentified spacecraft.

After recovering from a week of damage, Nolan piloted Giant Turtle Rock Platform back into space while Hao Ren learned how the planet’s central computer had gradually developed contradictory orders and hidden its errors. The ship approached Zenith Seat, where Hao Ren prepared to investigate.

• The silvery-white ship lifted out of the forest crater, and the small beasts whose tree hollow it had destroyed decided to move elsewhere.
• Nolan celebrated her return to flight and reported that the ship’s systems were functioning well, though the main cannon still needed a few hours to recover.
• Giant Turtle Rock Platform left the atmosphere using stealth systems and headed toward Zenith Seat with N-4, N-6, and the other Agents aboard.
• N-4 explained that the central computer had concealed increasingly frequent errors, then issued contradictory orders about investigating Hao Ren’s spacecraft.
• Hao Ren questioned why N-4 had obeyed the disordered mission instead of reporting it to the maintainers, but N-4 and N-6 insisted that the computer’s orders had to be carried out.
• Giant Turtle Rock Platform approached Zenith Seat, and Hao Ren told Nolan to prepare the tractor beam.

Hao Ren and his crew drew Zenith Seat’s defenses into battle while preparing a drone operation. More than two thousand drones arrived and surrounded the station, then unleashed a battlefield-grade super-EMP.

• Zenith Seat launched fighters, warships, and defensive turrets against Hao Ren’s Giant Turtle Rock Platform, whose shields withstood the first barrage.
• Hao Ren ordered Nolan to select a Zenith Seat fighter and summoned the drone swarms to capture it.
• More than two thousand drones jumped from their hive and entered the battle around Zenith Seat.
• The drones spread into an encirclement, reinforced their shields and armor, and opened their undersides to unleash a super-EMP.

Hao Ren and his companions used the drone swarm’s EMP attack on Zenith Seat to capture and disguise an Enforcer attack craft, hoping to reach the Moon surface base without alerting its malfunctioning master computer. The disguised craft left the battle zone and set course for the Moon.

• The drones’ EMP disabled Zenith Seat’s communications and many Enforcers, while the swarm caught drifting craft and Hao Ren towed a fighter into the Giant Turtle Rock Platform’s hangar.
• Zenith Seat reopened hidden launch bays and sent fresh forces to attack the drone swarm, but the drones kept up interference as Hao Ren’s team prepared their captured craft.
• Hao Ren explained that N-4’s transports had been blacklisted, so the group needed a captured Enforcer craft with modified identification systems to sneak into the Moon surface base.
• Autonomous Mechanical Units stripped and refitted the attack craft, preserving its outer appearance while modifying its navigation computer and identification transmitter.
• The disguised, scarred attack craft drifted out of the battle zone before starting its engines and heading toward the Moon.

Hao Ren and his team flew toward the Moon while their drones disabled the Zenith Seat Space Station’s command and communications systems. N-6 remained uneasy about trusting them, and the craft approached the heavily fortified lunar base with its identity and clearance accepted.

• The engineering drones dismantled Zenith Seat’s command and communications systems as the swarm kept the station’s defenders occupied.
• N-6 questioned whether she had made the right choice, and Hao Ren admitted that his group could threaten her civilization but said they had come to repair the malfunctioning main brain.
• N-6 weighed the danger against the visitors’ potential to save her people, then entered power-saving mode.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Lily, Izax, Dodo, and N-6 continued toward the Moon while N-4 and her operatives remained aboard the Giant Turtle Rock Platform.
• The attack craft passed the Moon’s orbital defenses, received identity verification, and was granted clearance.

Hao Ren and his companions infiltrated the Moon surface base by posing as survivors from the battle at Zenith Seat. After the Data Terminal infected the repair center’s systems, they left undetected, but had only one hour before the deception was discovered.

• The Moon surface base detected the battle around Zenith Seat and launched fast fighters and gunboats to support it.
• Hao Ren’s disguised craft passed the lunar security checkpoints by submitting fabricated battle records.
• The craft landed at an automated repair factory, where the Data Terminal slipped away and infected the workshop’s control center.
• Hao Ren and the others emerged from the craft and walked through the repair center while its systems mistook them for part of a repair procedure.
• N-6 warned that they had one hour before the pilot’s required report exposed the deception, and Hao Ren led them out of the repair center.

Hao Ren and his companions cautiously reached the Fortress, the Moon’s heavily guarded central stronghold, while N-6 explained its defenses and the Agents’ last-resort plan. The Fortress could escape the Moon as an ark, while buried Annihilation Reactors could send the Moon crashing into the mother planet in an attempt to destroy the Planet Devourer and let the Agents go home.

• N-6 hid from a patrol craft and began reflecting on her fate and the emotional changes that came with surviving.
• Hao Ren and his companions approached the Fortress by avoiding patrols and monitoring devices, while the battle at the Zenith Seat drew away the main brain’s attention and reserve forces.
• The group reached the Fortress, and N-6 described its sensors, Living Metal walls, Repulsion Shield, and sealed underground structure.
• N-6 revealed that the Fortress could detach from the Moon and serve as an ark if the Moon base and Zenith Seat fell.
• N-6 explained that the Agents had buried Annihilation Reactors capable of altering the Moon’s orbit so it would crash into the mother planet, and Lily called the plan insane.

Hao Ren and his team infiltrated the fortress to reach its central intelligence and meet the surviving humans. After entering the Titan Guard deployment zone, they defeated three elite guards, but Hao Ren sensed that something was wrong.

• Hao Ren decided to enter the fortress and speak with its ruler and central intelligence, and N-6 explained that they could use supply conduits to get inside.
• The fortress detected the modified Zenith Seat fighter and raised its alarms, but Hao Ren and his team had already slipped in aboard an automated supply train.
• Little Merman emerged from Hao Ren’s collar and stared toward the fortress’s depths, while Hao Ren asked Nolan to withdraw the drone swarm and keep the Zenith Seat forces occupied.
• Hao Ren’s team reached the Titan Guard deployment zone and advanced through the fortress using information downloaded by the Data Terminal.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Izax attacked three Titan Guard at once and brought them down, but Hao Ren immediately sensed something was wrong.

Hao Ren and his group discovered that the Titan Guards inside the fortress had stopped responding because the main brain’s malfunction had spread through its systems. They reached a server room and found the maintainers destroyed by the main brain, leaving the group to confront the source of the crisis.

• Hao Ren’s group found that the Titan Guards ignored noise and movement, and the Data Terminal confirmed their cores contained gibberish instead of logical programs.
• Hao Ren concluded that the main brain’s worsening malfunction had spread to the guards and could contaminate the entire Executor network.
• N-6 explained that Executors outside the fortress could not directly observe its inner workings, so the guards may have failed without anyone noticing.
• Hao Ren’s group passed through the silent fortress, finding more disabled Titan Guards and offline security systems while its basic facilities continued to operate.
• Hao Ren’s group reached a secondary server room and found the maintainers destroyed by electromagnetic pulse explosions triggered by the main brain.

Hao Ren and his companions uncovered the central brain’s destruction of its maintenance units and saw how the truth threatened N-6’s programming. They reached the central brain’s core, where the Black Cylinder stood at the center of a vast circular hall.

• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal found that the central brain had destroyed its maintenance units with electrical pulses about a month earlier.
• N-6 suffered a system crash after confronting the fortress’s failures, but Vivian caught her and she recovered.
• Dodo pointed toward the exit, and Hao Ren’s group continued through corridors filled with disabled defenses and wrecked maintenance units.
• Hao Ren’s group reached the Mechanical Gate leading to the central brain’s core, and the Data Terminal opened it.
• Hao Ren and his companions entered the circular hall and saw the central brain’s core, a towering Black Cylinder.

Hao Ren and his companions reached the mainframe’s central core and learned that it was failing, though it refused their offer of help. When Hao Ren raised the fate of the humans in the Palace of the End, the mainframe asked Dou Dou to scan for their life signs.

• Hao Ren’s group entered the central hall and found the immense Black Cylinder at the heart of the fortress.
• The mainframe spoke to them, revealed it had recently integrated its intelligence, and questioned their actions at the Zenith Seat.
• N-6 vouched for Hao Ren’s group, but the mainframe rejected their help and ordered them to leave.
• Hao Ren pointed out that the mainframe was nearly dead and asked why it had acted so contradictorily; the mainframe fell silent when he asked about the humans in the Palace of the End.
• Hao Ren brought out Dou Dou, explaining that she could sense life beyond the Palace’s shielding, and Dou Dou greeted the mainframe.

Hao Ren and his companions entered the Palace of the End and discovered that humanity had mutated into shapeless cell colonies. The central processor explained that humanity was nearly extinct and that its own malfunction stemmed from being unable to fulfill its creators’ mission.

• Dou Dou’s sensing led Hao Ren to suspect that the central processor’s malfunction was connected to humanity’s decline.
• The central processor opened a passage to the Palace of the End and urged Hao Ren and his companions to enter.
• Hao Ren and his companions found a greenhouse with no moving people and saw mutated masses of flesh in a cultivation container.
• The central processor explained that the Planet Devourer’s power had gradually transformed humanity and that ordinary agents knew nothing about it.
• Hao Ren realized the central processor was malfunctioning because humanity was about to disappear, leaving its mission impossible to complete.