Lighting the Fuse

With everything ready, Queen Kerrigan gave the order, and the rocket launch countdown began.

Ten seconds later, amidst billowing smoke, a cluster of rockets, resembling hand grenades, shot into the sky, spewing flames.

As the rocket continues to ascend, the four bundled secondary thrusters detach from the main rocket body after exhausting their fuel.

Perhaps due to the rocket's unique design and excessive wind resistance, Rowan experienced severe vibrations in the cargo hold at the front of the rocket, making for a very poor riding experience. If he hadn't been relatively healthy, he might have been smashed to pieces inside the box.

Fortunately, the rocket was still very fast. After more than 20 minutes, using three sets of twelve secondary thrusters, the rocket finally successfully flew out of the atmosphere.

Next, another set of thrusters was used, and the rocket reached the planet's parking orbit. The thrusters then shut down, and the rocket's main body was captured by the planet's gravity.

This planet has two moons, which are actually about the same size and mass. The yellowish-white moon appears to be larger than the Red-White Moon because it is closer to the planet.

Rowan's target this time was that Yellow Moon. After several failures, the Rat-folk, through meticulous and complex calculations, came up with the easiest route to land on it.

The rocket remained in orbit for about ten hours, having circled the planet more than halfway. Then the thrusters reignited, propelling the rocket into lunar orbit.

The next two days or so were a boring flight, but thankfully Rowan could leave the game running offline, so he didn't have to waste time in the cramped box.

"The test subject's vital signs are normal, but he doesn't seem very active. We suspect that he was injured by the strong shaking and impact when he flew out of the atmosphere." A female Rat-folk in uniform reported the data to old Morgan while looking at the monitoring equipment.

Queen Kerrigan couldn't stay here forever; she left long ago after the rocket broke out of the atmosphere. Now, old Morgan, as the director of the Aerospace Research Institute, is in charge here.

He knew perfectly well what the insect body used as an experimental organism was like; it was undoubtedly another special body created by the Overlord. He knew that the Overlord had conducted experiments in some private laboratories, and this insect body was likely the result of those experiments, and it was being sent to outer space to test its performance.

Two days later, through Morgan's perspective, Rowan learned that the rocket was approaching the Earth's orbit around the Yellow Moon. The rocket would collide with the Yellow Moon in three hours.

That's right, they did collide. Since the Yellow Moon has no atmosphere, the rocket wouldn't slow down at all upon encountering it. This means Rowan will experience a very hardcore landing.

Time flew by, and as the two forces drew closer, the Rat-folk in the command center grew increasingly tense. Some of the Rat-folk responsible for monitoring the data didn't even dare to blink.

Only four secondary thrusters remained around the main body of the rocket, and they were running out of fuel. With just half an hour left before impact, the four secondary thrusters ran out of fuel and began to disengage.

They were secured to the metal frame of the rocket body and then remotely opened.

This 1+32 structure was a first for the Rat-folk, and it was also the first time Rat-folk aircraft had ever reached this location. After such a long flight, an accident still occurred.

During the separation of a secondary thruster, the ejection mechanism malfunctioned and failed to deploy, preventing it from being propelled away from the main rocket body. Due to its proximity to the main rocket body, it struck the bottom of the rocket body due to inertia after separation.

In the ground control center, a piercing alarm sounded, and the monitoring equipment showed that the right side of the rocket engine was damaged, but the specific extent of the damage was unknown.

Immediately, abnormal black smoke began to billow from the bottom of the rocket on the monitor. After flying for another ten minutes or so, the tail engine exploded, followed by the fuel tank.

The rocket's nose cone, along with the rear storage compartment, was blasted out of the black smoke and veered off course.

The Rat-folk were thrown into chaos and began frantically recalculating the trajectory.

Rowan remembered a wise old man once saying that an unattractive weapon is bound to be ineffective. This rocket, with some explosives stuffed into its top compartment, could also be considered a weapon. Thinking of this, Rowan suddenly realized why he had felt it was unreliable when he first saw its cluster grenade design.

With such an outrageously ugly design, it would be abnormal if nothing unexpected happened. Rowan was speechless. His true form was still rolling and tumbling as it flew into deep space, and it might just turn into a decorative item floating in the deep sky.

However, in a critical moment, it can destroy its own body and then regenerate on the planet. So, losing one insect body isn't a huge problem. The key issue is that if this attempt fails, the next moon landing will have to wait a long time. And the sudden extinguishing of this long-awaited, immense anticipation is extremely unpleasant.

Time ticked by, and after some tense calculations, the Rat-folk gleaned some information.

"My Overlord, are you still there?" old Morgan asked.

"How is it?" Rowan's words echoed in his mind.

"My Overlord, the situation is extremely dire."

Rowan had anticipated this; it seems he'll have to wait a while longer.

"However, there is still a possibility of salvaging the situation," Morgan paused for a moment before continuing.

Rowan was taken aback. He felt that the Rat-folk was doing it on purpose, but he had no evidence. Perhaps he could just search the man's brain.

"The rocket's nose cone and cargo bay will be captured by the Yellow Moon's gravity in about ten minutes and pulled into lunar orbit." Morgan quickly continued, seemingly sensing Rowan's somewhat dangerous idea.

Before Rowan could even breathe a sigh of relief, the Rat-folk continued, "However, although the rocket's propulsion system was destroyed, because of its high initial velocity and the lack of drag in space, after being captured by the Yellow Moon's gravity, its speed was still greater than the escape velocity of the lunar orbit. The rocket debris will fly in orbit for thirty-four minutes before being thrown out of orbit by its own speed and the Yellow Moon's gravity, heading towards deep space."

Rowan also became serious; he understood what Morgan meant.

"So, during the thirty-four minutes that the rocket debris is in orbit, I need to control the insect body to detach from the rocket?"

"Yes, Overlord Majesty."

"What suggestions do you have next?"

"There are two options. One is that after separating from the main rocket, the insect's speed will still reach 3.5 km/s. You need to control the insect and immediately reduce its speed to 2 km/s to maintain it in lunar orbit. Then wait for the right moment to accelerate it to 2.5 km/s, escape lunar orbit, and then fly towards the Yellow Moon."

"And what about the second one?"

This chapter was originally titled Moon Landing I...