Countdown

The satellites on the Orange Star Orbital Plane hovered 900,000 kilometers away. They remained silent in passive mode, covered in polymer electromagnetic-absorbing coating that concealed them from radar as effectively as possible.

Humanity stood in the open, while they watched Water Blue Star constantly from the shadows.

Luo Qi received word the moment the warship entered space. He observed this human warship through the Myriad Stars System!

Just what kind of advanced human technology was this?!

It also marked the start of the countdown to war-

As expected, however, Stendhal's Homeward Bound was finally complete.

Its surface had a special coating that absorbed electromagnetic waves, and its entire hull sported black stealth paint to minimize detection by electromagnetic radar.

Like the stealth bombers and fighters of his previous life, it used its design and special coating to hide from radar.

The manufacturing plant's roof opened completely.

The Homeward Bound's Nuclear Reactor blazed fiercely, confining high-energy plasma at hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius within it. Powerful streams of ions accelerated through an electromagnetic field and blasted out.

The black Homeward Bound slowly rose into the air. Stendhal, who had come specifically to witness this moment, bounced around with excitement. Fortunately, Water Blue Star had not announced its warship's departure.

Stendhal, who dreamed of going home, could hardly wait as the Homeward Bound began its unmanned test flight.

Meanwhile, the inspection team secretly formed by He Xuan and Qi Siyu had spent every day slacking off after a round of discipline from the Liquid Robots.

After all, the base monitored everyone, and the T3 Robots would intercept them and stop them from entering dangerous areas.

The two still refused to give up and were planning to risk recruiting Huang Qi or Zhong Fu from biological research.

They wanted to use their access privileges to open the base's control building, destroy critical servers, or forcibly modify the intelligent system.

A robot tracked the pair down while they were secretly discussing their plans, making for an exceedingly awkward scene.

The robot informed them that anyone who wanted to return to Water Blue Star could prepare for the journey home at noon.

Meanwhile, in the Biological Research Lab, Zhong Fu had still been working on incubation when he heard they could leave this godforsaken place.

He immediately set aside his work and excitedly told Huang Qi, but she remained calm and said only, "I want to stay. I want to change this place."

He had underestimated the strength of Huang Qi's convictions. When the final count was taken, twelve of the thirteen people wanted to leave.

Huang Qi actually wanted to stay alone. Was she going to throw away the prime of her life on this barren planet?

Didn't she care about her family and friends?

Huang Qi revealed that she was an orphan who had grown up under the Alliance Citizen Protection Agency. Her childhood dream had been to see Orange Star.

Wasn't this also carrying out the Alliance's mission?

Everyone stopped trying to persuade her. Besides, their mission had essentially succeeded.

The Automated Base on Orange Star was already large enough for the humans of Water Blue Star to move in.

The humans began preparing to leave, though inevitably, some conspiracy-minded people suspected this was a way to wipe them all out at once.

But rather than remain penned up on Orange Star and die of old age on an alien world, they hoped they really could go home-or die on the way.

After all, building a spaceship surely took considerable time and effort. It wouldn't necessarily become an iron coffin, would it?

By the same reasoning, if the robots really wanted to kill people on Orange Star, who could stop them?

Returning from its test flight, the Homeward Bound landed vertically in the clearing with steady thrust. Its hull showed no visible shaking, as though they were watching a special-effects movie.

A Replica still served as the entire ship's control system. Luo Qi himself was observing the warship that humanity had spent more than ten days carefully preparing, the one that filled him with curiosity.

A T3 Robot tossed the box containing "Mom" aboard the spaceship, and the Replica also requested several tons of Nanorobots to be loaded aboard.

At noon, Stendhal threw a party. He harvested plenty of edible plants from the Plantation and prepared generous portions of the stored meat.

More than twenty dishes were served for thirteen people, without any concern for waste. With only drinks mixed from orange juice powder, everyone laughed and chatted.

It was as though they would return to Water Blue Star tomorrow. This was their last hearty meal on Orange Star!

They began packing their belongings. In the dormitory, Stendhal sat on the edge of his bed.

He reluctantly stroked the tablet's display, though it was unclear whether he was caressing his wife and daughter on the screen or lingering over his attachment to the base that had saved his life.

"Goodbye, Dad..."

Afternoon, day 132

The twelve humans in Protective Suits looked like tiny "bugs," while the enormous Homeward Bound resting in the clearing resembled a fruit pit. One after another, the "bugs" crawled beneath the huge triangular "pit."

Once beneath the warship, everyone looked up at the immense Homeward Bound. It was a small mountain hanging over their heads, held ten meters above the ground by flimsy supports.

A long Metal Staircase with simple handrails extended down from above. Standing in its vast shadow, they could not help fearing that the nine "chopsticks" supporting the "mountain" might suddenly snap.

When they reached the tall, rudimentary staircase, they were beyond complaining. Was this some final test, putting the spaceship so high off the ground and then designing a damn staircase?

They could only grip the safety rails and inch up the long, steep stairs. It felt like climbing a stairway to heaven, toward the doorway that provided the only light in the darkness.

An entrance the size of an ordinary Security Door opened near the front of the warship's underside, spilling white light.

Stendhal was the first to climb inside. There were still stairs, but at least walls now surrounded them, making it feel safer.

Each step felt hard and solid beneath their feet. The passage walls gave off a soft white glow, illuminating the road home.

It was only wide enough for one person in a thick Protective Suit. Two people side by side would be cramped.

Lin He brought up the rear. As he finally entered the doorway, he glanced back toward the residential building.

A young woman with a strange dream was staying here all alone.

Once the last person entered the passage, the warship retracted its metal stairs. The Movable Armor outside the hatch closed around it, followed by three layers of Sealed Protective Doors shutting in sequence.

After roughly two minutes of climbing at their slow pace, the group finally entered a level passage bathed in white light. Another door stood a little over ten meters ahead, and only after passing through it did they enter the main cabin.

After they left, the stairwell entrance in the corridor floor vanished as though it had never existed.

The square white room resembled a dead end. Twelve open white Stasis Pods occupied most of the space in two rows.

They looked like coffins neatly arranged in the room. Reassuringly, twelve recessed cabinets lined the walls, keeping it from looking entirely like a burial chamber.

As the final isolation door automatically sealed shut, everyone exchanged wary looks. Now the whole room really had become a burial chamber.

The "coffins" arranged inside quietly awaited their occupants.

"Where's the control console?"

"Why does this feel so creepy...?"

Stendhal, however, was curious. "So, is the operating system Dad or Mom?"

Of course, it was still Luo Qi-just a Replica.

A display of light appeared on the white wall, showing the warship's various parameters. Only then did everyone realize this was a Smart Warship.

They breathed heartfelt sighs of relief. Compared with being coldly cut down by robots, this was already the best possible outcome.

"The Life-Support System is running continuously. The spaceship will take off in ten minutes. All passengers, please prepare as soon as possible."

The Luo Qi Replica's voice left everyone stunned.

They exchanged looks, their faces plainly asking, "Are we going to survive this?"

Their gazes shifted to Stendhal, who was taking off his Protective Suit without a care.

Was he simply easygoing, or did he have nothing left to worry about?

Seeing the sealed hatch, everyone realized there were probably no refunds for this trip. They would either succeed or die trying, so they followed his lead and removed their Protective Suits.

At the final moment, they encouraged one another as they lay down in the Stasis Pods, looking as solemn and tragic as if they were sacrificing their lives for the Alliance.

Some even began crying inside their Stasis Pods. Even at Orange Star Base, they had never experienced such a life-or-death farewell.

The covers rose from both sides of the Stasis Pods' bases and slowly closed, enclosing their interiors in warm white light.

A red countdown appeared before everyone's eyes. Nervous and expectant, their hearts pounded faster.

The numbers were strange. Rather than being displayed directly on the covers, they seemed to be formed from something floating in the air.

Lin He even tried to disrupt them with his hand, but whenever the numbers rippled, they magically restored themselves in an instant.

That was right-these were Luo Qi's Nanorobots.

10, 9, 8...

In the clearing outside the base, protective plating beneath the Homeward Bound opened to reveal dozens of nozzles. Blue ion streams blazed out.

The powerful reaction force lifted the entire warship, slowly carrying it off the ground and into the sky.

As the Homeward Bound took off, it entered the Security System's monitoring range, rising steadily farther from the ground as it headed toward the heavens.