Welcome to Orange Star Base

Stendhal had barely stepped out of the vehicle when he saw the escape ship's cover open, revealing the observation window beneath.

Naturally, he hurried over and leaned in to get a clear look at the people inside, but the window was one-way glass, hard enough to withstand large-caliber bullets.

Stendhal's eyes weren't X-ray scanners. How could he possibly see inside?

Unable to make out any movement, Stendhal couldn't help raising his fist and knocking on the escape pod's alloy hull.

"Anyone there? I'm here to pick you up-"

Everyone watched the excited man outside the observation window. They could see his mouth moving rapidly, but they couldn't hear a sound.

That was because Luo Qi hadn't connected the communications. The escape ship's exceptionally tight seal kept the air from passing through.

Inside the escape ship, Lin He said, unnerved, "Why... is he so excited...?"

Luo Qi, who had been watching the whole time, couldn't stand it anymore and opened the communications channel.

"Let Stendhal get all that enthusiasm out!"

Stendhal suddenly heard voices over the comms. There seemed to be four or five people, both men and women.

The sound of other human voices calmed Stendhal. He leaned against the observation window and listened quietly.

Inside the escape pod, however, everyone felt a little frightened and couldn't understand his behavior.

Li Yunran said, "This man seems... a little unhinged."

Wang Xiaofei said, "He's a different sort of middle-aged guy from Uncle Li..."

Lin He said, "Abnormally excited..."

Wang Xiaofei said, "The way he's acting... can he hear us talking?"

Li Yunran grimaced. "Maybe... he really can..."

"Welcome to Orange Star Base, everyone..."

The man's almost hysterical voice brimmed with excitement. "Please come out of the pod as soon as possible."

Gu Tianming and his group had already changed into their protective suits. Their thin, white spacesuits were clearly made from the latest nanomaterial, with small integrated backpacks on their backs.

Gu Tianming checked the holographic display on his helmet. Once he confirmed that everyone had changed and sealed their suits, he eagerly turned the hatch control.

With a click and a rush of air, the door to a new world opened!

Gu Tianming stepped out onto the firm, sandy ground, eager to feel solid earth beneath his feet. Solid ground felt wonderful!

On the horizon, a golden fireball hung between the black sky and the ground bathed in gold.

A black sky full of stars and a silent red landscape formed this scene of an alien world-

"Professor!" Kanawu followed Gu Tianming. Most of those coming after them were between twenty and thirty, men and women emerging in pairs.

"Orange Star Base... where's Orange Star Base? Where is it?" Gu Tianming muttered, looking around in bewilderment.

He saw sand-dunes-wasteland-robots-flatbed vehicles-wait!!!

Gu Tianming's gaze instantly locked onto a T3 Robot, and he strode toward it.

"Professor!" Kanawu hurried after him, and the others followed.

The T3 Robot, A1045, held a laptop, its camera-like head registering the human in front of it.

It ignored the human. It was merely a robot without emotions.

"My God-"

Everyone burst into exclamations as they studied the silent T3 Robot.

Judging by its appearance alone, it had a stamped composite shell, with a large reflective camera lens perched above its shoulders.

Was this an industrial robot manufactured by Orange Star Base itself? Water Blue Star hadn't supplied any humanoid machinery.

The same thought occurred to everyone: perhaps this mission wouldn't be as difficult as they had imagined. They could leave the outdoor work to the robots.

Gu Tianming hadn't expected Orange Star to be doing so well, either. By all rights, their relief team should have been the main force in building up Orange Star's industrial capacity.

He had been lamenting the loss of all their equipment in deep space. Now, it seemed Orange Star might not need any of it.

Stendhal turned and saw the men and women standing beside his convoy. Excited, he waved and rushed over.

Gu Tianming heard a shout and turned to see a man in an old protective suit running toward them.

Kanawu said, "He looks like someone from the base!"

Everyone was equally thrilled to see another living person. Having survived a brush with death, they couldn't wait to share their joy.

"My fellow humans! My fellow humans!"

Stendhal and Gu Tianming hugged tightly.

One hadn't seen another human in nearly half a year. The other had just escaped death and was meeting a companion at the new base for the first time.

"Welcome to Orange Star Base, everyone! I'm Stendhal, currently the person in charge of the base."

Faced with this enthusiastic embrace that showed no sign of ending, Gu Tianming could only awkwardly reach around and pat Stendhal's shoulder.

Gu Tianming said, "Thank you so much for your help. Otherwise, we could only have..."

The others bowed gratefully as well.

The other escape pod opened too, and six people emerged one after another. Seeing the other group bowing in the distance, they approached in confusion.

"Look! Those are humanoid robots!" Qi Siyu was stunned!

Yes, humanoid robots!

Their slender limbs and bodies were encased in hard silicide, and they had simple rectangular heads. Behind their multifunctional lenses lay one concentrated technological achievement after another.

All they needed was a layer of humanlike skin and some additional hardware and software to become highly realistic artificial humans that were difficult to distinguish from the real thing.

Everyone moved closer.

Among the crowd, Qi Siyu studied the T3 Robot, examining every joint.

Besides electronic hardware and software and intelligent programs, his research had also touched on highly realistic spy robots and covert operative robots.

The former were used for special clandestine operations, while the latter served as bodyguards for senior Alliance officials or financial magnates.

The various specially customized models were essentially fitted with a layer of specially made imitation human tissue.

Some were male, some female, some tall, and some short, much like the T800 Spy Robots in the Terminator movies.

Forget the hellish training special forces went through. Every one of these robots could take on a one-ton car head-on. Photographic memory was trivial, and even if you made them eat raw, unseasoned pork-intestine sashimi, they wouldn't blink.

Once these advanced operatives infiltrated a crowd, their lethality was terrifying.

As they spoke with Stendhal, everyone realized how lucky they had been.

On the day the satellite launched, Orange Star Base had happened to be running a startup test at the Experimental Satellite Station, and the transmission from Tianhe 1 had been received.

They also learned that Orange Star Base had suffered a meteor disaster three months earlier.

Personnel killed: 15

After a long period of developing on its own, the base now possessed a fully automated construction factory.

Everything on Orange Star was now the result of planned, autonomous development by the base's intelligent program-Dad.

Gu Tianming and the others found it unbelievable that this rescue operation had been carried out autonomously by the base's main program, without any human control or direction throughout.

An AI like this could take independent, self-directed action without human instructions. It was truly chilling.

Stendhal explained that Dad had full responsibility for all production and management at the base, including accommodations and the supply of oxygen, water, heat, electricity, and everything else.

He invited everyone to rest in the Living Area.

A terrifying, sinister thought formed in Qi Siyu's mind. Everything we've seen suggests Orange Star Base can manufacture advanced spy robots. It's even possible that this Stendhal in front of us is only a substitute!

It was like a team researching artificial intelligence on an isolated island, only for you to arrive and hear that fifteen of the sixteen people had died, leaving just one survivor.

And the AI had acquired a frightening level of manufacturing capability.

Wasn't that terrifying?

Qi Siyu startled himself with the thought. He glanced at Stendhal's profile and stood behind Huang Qi without saying a word.

He remembered something a colleague had said.

"The truly formidable ones aren't these metal robots you're researching."

"They're the biological artificial humans that have already been fully realized. They have brains and bodies just like humans, with the same organ structures and blood."

"But they aren't human. And the frightening thing is, they can't realize that they aren't human."

At the end, that colleague had silently mouthed, "And there are Clones..."

Lin He noticed Qi Siyu spacing out beside him and asked, "Are you all right?"

Qi Siyu snapped back to his senses in alarm. "I'm... I'm fine!"

He buried the matter deep in his heart, not daring to reveal a hint of it.