Chapter Summaries

Fang Xu ordered the exploration teams to begin deep drilling and sampling to test whether the hematite came from Light Satellite One. On Dawn Star, Hong Fan and Andrew drilled into the ground and found signs of elemental iron ore, leaving the team awaiting the significance of the discovery.

• Fang Xu told the exploration teams that the hematite might have come from Light Satellite One and ordered immediate deep drilling and sampling.
• Hong Fan told his team the source was still only a hypothesis and that drilling was their highest-priority task.
• Hong Fan and Andrew left the Planetary Lander and set up the drilling equipment outside.
• Andrew drilled to the preset depth and reported that the ground contained rock and elemental iron ore.

Hong Fan and Andrew found distinct hematite and elemental iron layers in two Dawn Star drill samples, and Feng Yuanliang ordered further surveys. On the [Earth], Lü Yongchang learned that researchers had inserted a Magna gene into Escherichia coli and joined Mao Zhengzhi to begin experiments.

• Hong Fan and Andrew extracted a core sample containing hematite between ordinary sand and gravel layers and elemental iron deeper down, then sent the data to the [Earth].
• Feng Yuanliang contacted Hong Fan and directed him to collect another one-meter sample at a new site.
• Lü Yongchang prepared to rest after assigning Magna gene compilation, but a researcher reported that the first gene had been inserted into Escherichia coli and its hormone had been detected.
• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi went to inspect the result and consider beginning the first experiments.
• Hong Fan and Andrew collected a second sample with similar hematite and elemental iron layers, and Feng Yuanliang told them to continue surveying and upload data.
• Hong Fan touched a rock wall, dislodging sand and dust that his camera recorded.

Feng Yuanliang recognized that the weathered canyon at the Mining Site was dangerously unstable and warned Hong Fan and Andrew to reach the Planetary Lander as a storm rapidly intensified. The two men anchored themselves with Drill Rods while two Planetary Landers raced toward them through the storm.

• Feng Yuanliang noticed the rock wall’s severe weathering and told Hong Fan to move his hand slowly and show the surrounding terrain.
• After examining the canyon and map, Feng Yuanliang warned Hong Fan and Andrew to return to the Planetary Lander immediately.
• Hong Fan and Andrew ran toward the Planetary Lander as wind speeds and Exoskeleton Armor power output climbed.
• Fang Xu told Hong Fan and Andrew to anchor themselves and wait for rescue as stones began striking their helmets.
• Hong Fan drove Drill Rods into the ground, Andrew used one to steady himself, and two Planetary Landers charged toward them.

As a storm formed on Dawn Star, Xia Wanyi rushed the Planetary Lander toward Hong Fan and Andrew while the two struggled to hold onto their drilling equipment. With the wind strengthening and Andrew’s drill rod tilting, Andrew proposed a desperate plan, and Hong Fan told Xia Wanyi to turn the lander’s hatch toward them.

• Xia Wanyi detected rising wind speed, and Fang Xu warned that a storm was about to form and ordered the team to return to the Planetary Lander.
• Xia Wanyi started the lander and drove toward Hong Fan and Andrew as the wind intensified.
• Hong Fan held onto his drill rod while Andrew’s rod began to tilt, leaving Andrew in danger as the lander struggled to approach.
• Andrew explained a risky plan to Hong Fan, who agreed to take the gamble.
• Hong Fan ordered Xia Wanyi to turn the Planetary Lander sideways so its hatch faced them.

Xia Wanyi, Hong Fan, and Andrew escaped the canyon’s violent crosswinds, while Feng Yuanliang concluded that the winds had carved the canyon and warned that worse gusts were coming. On Earth, Fan Yi and the command center realized the A2 storm could trigger a destructive global storm, and that the explorers had landed during the calm between such events.

• Xia Wanyi and the second Planetary Lander turned sideways to create a gap, and Andrew used adrenaline and his Drill Rod to slide with Hong Fan into the cabin.
• Hong Fan and Andrew recovered inside the Planetary Lander as it fled toward shelter, while Feng Yuanliang reported that the canyon had formed from wind within the past hundred years.
• Feng Yuanliang’s simulation indicated that average winds above 50 km/h had carved the canyon and that the current winds were likely only the beginning.
• Fan Yi warned Fang Xu that the A2 storm had disturbed nearby regions and could set off three massive storms that would combine into a global storm.
• Feng Yuanliang reported severe weathering across nearly every exploration zone, and Fan Yi explained that periodic global storms spread hematite from Light Satellite One across Dawn Star.
• Fang Xu and the command center realized humanity had landed during a lull between global storms, leaving the exploration teams exposed to the approaching disaster.

As a global storm threatened the teams on Dawn Star, Hong Fan ordered the Planetary Landers to blast into a rock wall and take shelter in a cave. On Earth, Lü Yongchang began a controlled biological experiment using purified hormones and laboratory mice.

• Fang Xu broadcast a warning that a global storm was brewing and ordered all teams to reach shelter.
• Hong Fan rejected the original shelter plan and ordered Xia Wanyi to turn the Planetary Lander toward the rock wall.
• Bruno controlled the weapons as both Planetary Landers blasted a hole in the wall, then Xia Wanyi drove into the cave.
• A researcher told Lü Yongchang that the hormones were purified and the laboratory mice were ready, so he ordered the experiment to begin.
• Zero used robotic hands to inject hormones into the mice for Lü Yongchang's self-controlled experiment.

Lü Yongchang ordered a rescue for reconnaissance squads trapped by Dawn Star’s spreading global storms and began considering climate regulation for the planet. As Bai Yixuan recovered aboard the Earth, he learned his squad was in danger and resolved to bring them home.

• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi observed mice responding to Magna heart-strengthening hormone injections, while Zero reported a global storm on Dawn Star and danger to several reconnaissance squads.
• Bai Yixuan learned that his squad members were in trouble, and Doctor Wen urged him to trust deputy squad leader Hong Fan while he recovered.
• Lü Yongchang reviewed the storms covering Dawn Star and asked Fan Yi whether Biosphere Climate Macroclimate Regulation Technology could control weather on that scale.
• After Fan Yi confirmed the technology had worked in enclosed city clusters, Lü Yongchang summoned Shen Siwen and ordered Fang Xu to lead an immediate robot-force rescue, bringing every squad member back alive or recovering their bodies.

Fang Xu organized rescue efforts for the stranded exploration teams, but Dawn Star’s storm prevented the Black Lady Two from taking off. Hong Fan’s team found shelter in a cave and, while waiting out the storm, surprised Fang Xu by reporting their safe refuge.

• Lü Yongchang ordered the command center to organize rescue missions, then told Fang Xu to ask Tao Yuda to design single-person shelters that could withstand Dawn Star’s hurricanes.
• Fang Xu warned Lü Yongchang that the Black Lady Two could no longer take off normally, making it impossible to evacuate the rescued explorers by ship.
• Hong Fan’s team took shelter in a cave whose iron-rich rock walls helped protect them from the hurricane, and Hong Fan reassured Bruno that the cave was sturdy.
• Hong Fan organized the team’s food and Medical Pod use as they waited for the storm to pass.
• Fang Xu contacted Hong Fan to check on his team, and Hong Fan revealed that they had dug a cave into the rock wall.

Fang Xu told Hong Fan that rescue robots would reach Dawn Star within three days, but a storm was expected to last more than a year. Lü Yongchang used the Technology Tree to develop a preliminary planetary climate macroregulation plan and left to work on the climate chaos model.

• Fang Xu told Hong Fan that Black Lady Two could not take off in the strong wind and that the storm might last more than a year, though Tao Yuda was designing a new Shelter.
• Lü Yongchang asked Shen Siwen whether Biosphere Climate Macroclimate Regulation Technology could be used on Dawn Star, and Shen Siwen said it was theoretically feasible.
• Lü Yongchang used the Technology Tree to analyze Urban Climate Macroregulation Technology and form the node for Preliminary Planetary Control: Planetary Climate Macroregulation Technology.
• After the analysis left him pale and exhausted, Lü Yongchang told Shen Siwen he had a climate regulation plan and asked him to refine its draft.
• Lü Yongchang went to his office to work on the planetary climate chaos model.

Lü Yongchang studied Dawn Star’s climate chaos model and drafted a plan for a satellite network that could regulate the planet’s atmosphere. Shen Siwen was alarmed by the proposal’s destructive weapons, unaware that Lü had already begun deriving the model’s principles.

• Lü Yongchang reflected on how small atmospheric changes could shape a chaotic planetary climate and examined the storms gathering over Dawn Star.
• Lü saw that the storms over the A1 and A2 Plains were merging, with the model predicting a 96.1% chance they would intensify.
• Lü opened a new holographic image and began writing about the Planetary Climate Chaos Model.
• Shen Siwen read Lü’s draft proposal for a circumplanetary satellite network armed with hydrogen bombs, laser cannons, and plasma bombs.
• Shen Siwen reviewed the proposal’s methods for disrupting or channeling storms and worried that Lü was taking on the problem alone.
• Lü continued filling his holographic projection with formulas.

Hong Fan and Andrew rationed their Medical Pod treatment while waiting for rescue on storm-wracked Dawn Star. Fang Xu announced that the rescue operation had begun, and rescue robots descended toward the stranded Reconnaissance Squads.

• Bai Yixuan received a call from Hong Fan, and Doctor Wen reassured him that the stranded team would return.
• Hong Fan refused extra Medical Pod time so the other squad members could receive treatment, and he encouraged them to stay hopeful as the storms worsened.
• Fang Xu announced that the first batch of modified rescue robots was ready and that the rescue operation had begun.
• Zero guided Black Lady Two craft into low orbit, where they deployed thruster-powered rescue robots toward their assigned destinations on Dawn Star.

The 24th Reconnaissance Squad faced lethal winds on Dawn Star as their Planetary Lander neared its anchoring limits. Three enormous spider-shaped rescue robots arrived and built a sheltered enclosure around the lander, leaving the crew safe from the storm.

• The captain watched the wind speed rise as the storm threatened to overwhelm the Planetary Lander's anchors.
• A silver-white rescue craft descended through the storm and slammed into a nearby hill, followed by two more landings.
• The rescue force unfolded into three enormous spider-shaped robots that advanced toward the 24th Reconnaissance Squad's lander.
• The robots anchored themselves in the ground and joined together to build a sturdy windproof shelter around the lander.
• The shelter's systems reported calm conditions and supplies, and the captain told the crew to put on spacesuits and go outside.

Lü Yongchang completed a preliminary model for controlling Dawn Star’s chaotic climate and used it to plan a sequence of satellite interventions. With the circumplanetary satellite network complete, he began the first climate-control operation, which ended the global storm while leaving one region with a gathering storm.

• Lü Yongchang showed Shen Siwen a model that estimated several likely outcomes for climate interventions but could not perfectly predict them.
• Lü Yongchang explained how sequential cooling, heating, and explosions could end Dawn Star’s global storm, and Shen Siwen confirmed the satellite-network design was ready for manufacturing.
• One week later, Lü Yongchang activated the completed circumplanetary satellite network for its first planet-class climate-control attempt.
• Zero directed tens of thousands of satellites to use their weapons and climate-control devices, rapidly shrinking the storm clouds and lowering surface wind speeds.
• Several hours later, peace returned to Dawn Star except for one region where a powerful storm began to gather.

After scenes on Dawn Star moved the Command Center researchers, Lü Yongchang learned that mice in the Magna heart-strengthening hormone experiment were dying from internal bleeding. He called the experiment a success and proposed enhancing the mice’s whole bodies at once, leaving the researchers with a new experimental plan.

• Lü Yongchang cheered up the Command Center researchers after the satellite images from Dawn Star stirred painful memories of humanity’s evacuation.
• Zero reported that mice in the shipboard Biological Laboratory were dying in large numbers during the Magna heart-strengthening hormone experiment.
• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi learned that the mice had suffered massive aortic hemorrhages caused by their strengthened hearts overwhelming their blood vessels.
• Lü Yongchang said the hormone had worked perfectly and proposed injecting all the enhancement hormones at once to strengthen every aspect of the mice’s bodies.

Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi used nano-robots and CRISPR/Cas gene editing to implant the Magna visceral reticulum gene into adult lab mice. Days later, the gene was successfully expressed, and the mice showed no obvious abnormalities so far.

• Lü Yongchang persuaded Mao Zhengzhi that enhancing multiple tissues together could prevent harmful side effects, and Mao agreed to the approach.
• Lü Yongchang turned to the Magna visceral reticulum gene project, and Mao Zhengzhi reported that the gene’s secondary compilation was complete.
• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi oversaw Zero as nano-robots delivered the gene into more than a hundred lab mice and integrated it into their genomes.
• A few days later, Mao Zhengzhi showed Lü Yongchang an endoscopic image of the mice’s intestines covered by a vein-like reticulum resembling Magna’s anatomy.
• Mao Zhengzhi reported that the mice had no obvious physical abnormalities so far.

Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi tested genetically modified lab mice with newly grown visceral mesh in a Gravity Chamber. The mice’s average tolerance reached 6.7g before the final mouse’s organs ruptured at 7.1g, and Lü Yongchang judged the experiment a success.

• After the mice’s examinations showed no abnormalities, Lü Yongchang ordered Zero to begin the Gravity Chamber test.
• At 1g and then 2g equivalent gravity, the mice’s vital signs remained normal and their visceral mesh kept their organs from significant deformation.
• As the chamber reached 5g, the mice became unable to move, and Lü Yongchang ordered most of them removed before raising the gravity further.
• The remaining mice were tested up to 7.1g, where the last mouse’s internal organs ruptured.
• Lü Yongchang calculated an average tolerance limit of 6.7g and concluded that the genetic modification experiment had succeeded.

Lü Yongchang urged the Human Federation Temporary Council to lift restrictions on human genetic modification, arguing that humanity needed to adapt to life on Dawn Star and survive in the universe. Hong Qiming supported the proposal, though the council remained divided.

• Lü Yongchang told Mao Zhengzhi to expand animal trials of the visceral reticulum gene and said human genetic modification preparations needed to begin.
• Lü Yongchang attended the 76th Human Federation Temporary Meeting and requested that restrictions on human genetic modification be lifted.
• Lü Yongchang presented plans for Light Satellite One to become a planetary defense fortress and for humanity to live on high-gravity Dawn Star, explaining the need for genetic changes.
• Lü Yongchang presented the Biological Laboratory's achievements and argued that controlled genetic modification would help humanity survive in the universe.
• Hong Qiming supported Lü Yongchang's proposal, while the council members remained divided.

Lü Yongchang answered Parliament’s concerns about the risks of human genetic modification, and the proposal passed with 81.7% support. Parliament then adopted strict regulations, leaving the plan approved but bound by safeguards.

• Anthony Ao asked whether genetic modification could cause unexpected harm, and Lü Yongchang said the risks were manageable and would be tested before a gradual rollout.
• A young councillor asked whether the technology could affect hereditary genes, and Lü promised the Academy of Sciences would never use it on them.
• Hong Qiming opened the vote, and Parliament approved the genetic modification proposal with 81.7% support.
• Parliament adopted regulations banning hereditary gene modification, requiring voluntary participation by adults, and mandating reproductive-cell preservation before treatment.
• Lü Yongchang’s added safeguard allowed humanity to preserve a means of recovery through artificial womb technology if a future genetic crisis occurred.

Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi tested the Magna body-strengthening hormone on lab mice, but the experiment took a deadly turn when several mice died within hours. They traced the deaths to severe malnutrition and prepared to try again using highly concentrated Nutrient Solution delivered through Medical Pods.

• After Parliament passed the vote, Zero told Lü Yongchang that the Magna body-strengthening hormone was ready for testing, and Hong Qiming urged him to return to his research.
• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi injected the hormone into lab mice and expected to check their progress after ten hours.
• An alarm woke Lü Yongchang four hours and thirty-one minutes into his sleep, and Zero reported that the mice had developed abnormal physical conditions.
• Lü Yongchang arrived at the Biological Laboratory and learned that some mice had died.
• Mao Zhengzhi explained that the mice had starved because their digestive systems could not absorb food quickly enough, despite food remaining in their stomachs.
• Lü Yongchang ordered a new experiment using Medical Pods to inject highly concentrated Nutrient Solution.

Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi tested comprehensively enhanced mice in Gravity Chambers to determine how long they could survive under sustained high gravity. The results set their survival limit at about 3.5g equivalent gravity, and Lü entrusted Mao with the next phase of testing.

• Lü Zhengzhi agreed to use Medical Pods and concentrated nutrient solution to support the mice during enhancement.
• Lü Yongchang began a second Gravity Chamber experiment with mice modified by Magna's physical enhancement hormone and visceral reticulum gene.
• The researchers kept groups of mice at equivalent gravities from 2g to 5g for a week, observing that the mice became less active as gravity increased.
• After the chambers stopped, Lü Yongchang ordered the researchers to examine the mice that had endured more than 4g, and the tests revealed severe brain damage and blindness.
• Mao Zhengzhi reported organ damage after prolonged exposure above 3.6g and joint deformation at 3.8g, estimating the mice's survival limit at 3.5g.
• Lü Yongchang judged that 3.5g would be sufficient for Dawn Star and left the next phase of the experiment to Mao Zhengzhi.