The air was pumped out of the cabin, and the final outer hatch opened. All that remained in everyone's communications channels was breathing and faint electrical static.
Outside, there was no wind, no birdsong, no running water.
There was only a gray-black wasteland, undulating craters in the distance, and steel structures under construction around the base's perimeter.
Engineering Robots carried steel beams in the distance. Massive engineering vehicles moved slowly along temporary roads, their tracks kicking up dust, yet not a sound reached them.
Fendona's brow furrowed slightly.
She did not like a world like this.
It lacked life, and it lacked the presence of nature.
Yet precisely because of that, she could understand why Great Xia wanted to plant the World Tree in the center of the base.
To the people here, that tree might be their forest among the stars.
Everyone boarded a sealed transport vehicle and headed toward the outer walls.
The vehicle followed the base's inner ring road, passing the factory district still under construction, the Storage District, the missile transfer zone, and the unmanned equipment maintenance zone.
Robotic arms operated in the vacuum, and automated welding equipment flashed with dazzling white light.
Farther away, small spaceships were carrying a batch of Orbital Platform components into space.
The elves remained silent throughout the journey.
They had thought they had already witnessed the speed of construction in Great Xia's fief. Only when they saw Kona Base did they realize how astonishing Great Xia's talent for construction was.
The transport finally stopped at an interior entrance to the outer ring wall.
After everyone disembarked, a towering steel wall dozens of meters high appeared before them.
The wall extended in both directions along the edge of the base, with no end in sight.
Its surface was not smooth. It