Chapter 599: Silicon

109 Mars.

Analyzing only the images, videos and other data returned by satellites and rovers, it matches the Mars before the main universe was altered.

The atmosphere is primarily carbon dioxide, accounting for 95%, with an average temperature of –63 °C, unable to sustain stable liquid water, and seemingly devoid of any life.

But researchers firmly believe that beneath the Martian surface there is a high probability of anaerobic microbes that favor cold, dry conditions, and they also speculate that Mars was habitable tens of thousands or even millions of years ago.

Thus, propelled by the wave of interstellar exploration and colonization, and with most governments of the East and West camps intending to end a century‑long standoff and attempt a peaceful transition, a joint research team was formed.

With ample manpower, material resources, and funding, all preparations were completed in just four years.

Astronauts and provisions first transited via a space station, then used a permanently ready base on the lunar surface, boarding an engineering ship funded and built jointly, and set off for Mars at about 60 million kilometers away (closest point).

This process marked the first public cooperation between the East and West camps in a hundred years, and also humanity's first crewed voyage beyond the Earth–Moon sphere, of unprecedented significance.

After three months of travel, the engineering ship "docked" in low Martian orbit.

Then the engineering ship airdropped supplies and provisions at the designated coordinates.

Next, five astronauts who best represented the East and West camps boarded the lander right behind it and built a temporary research station on the Keli Si Pingyuan at the landing site.

The entire process was broadcast with a delay.

As for the "first" astronaut to set foot on the Martian surface, in fact the five astronauts stepped onto it simultaneously, each representing one of the five most powerful nations on Earth.

That concludes the narration.

Gao Tiankuo couldn't help but sigh, "Twenty‑six years ago I was just a junior captain, but seeing humanity stand together on an alien world for deep space travel and exploration fills my heart with an indescribable emotion."

Speaking, Gao Tiankuo looked straight at the opposite‑seated Iveline, "I'm not sure whether you can grasp the excitement of humanity finally ending its internal strife and about to embark on a new life and new future."

"I can of course understand that," Iveline replied with a faint smile, "as I said at the beginning, we are the Aoti Er Nuo people of human society."

Seeing this.

Gao Tiankuo nodded lightly, then continued, "Humanity's journey to Mars was supposed to lead the future, but we never imagined this move would steer humanity toward its downfall…

…"

After that.

The engineering ship then dispatched two more crews, who, in the shortest time, built a semi‑permanent research station on the Martian surface to study the soil, atmosphere, and regions suspected of harboring underground rivers.

During the first little over a month, all projects proceeded smoothly, and the delayed live footage further eased tensions among the world's nations.

However, during this period, the hatred accumulated from World War I and World War II, as well as some lingering historical issues, were deliberately raised by the five great powers to exert strong pressure on the defeated nations that refused to acknowledge or chose to forget them.

Facing the imminent end of the East–West standoff and the choice of uniting the five great powers…

These defeated nations went from initial neglect, delay, and inaction to, in the end, the overwhelming majority being forced to issue "sincere" apologies and pay massive economic and resource reparations.

But the apology from one island‑based defeated nation was a case of "dodging the heavy while focusing on the light," casting itself as a victim and apologizing from that perspective, let alone providing substantive compensation.

This defeated nation instantly angered the five great powers.

After all, in the grand trend, "you" are still evading history, deceiving citizens, and preserving war‑criminal shrines.

In response, this defeated nation harbored a reckless hope, believing the five great powers could never truly form a unified front and that it could still maneuver deftly among them.

In reality, the five great powers were already preparing absolute sanctions in military, economic and other realms, and coincidentally they also needed to make an example to permanently resolve the East–West standoff and lay the groundwork for a unified human government.

However, just as the five great powers were about to impose sanctions, the Mars joint team that had been conducting three months of research and exploration suddenly met with an accident.

To the public, people only knew that the engineering ship could not contact the surface research station due to a Mars storm.

To the five great powers, all twenty‑five astronauts, scientists and engineers at the surface station had perished.

At this moment.

Gao Tiankuo took from a storage pouch on his waist a palm‑sized, coin‑wide personal computer.

He flipped it.

He powered it on.

He turned the screen toward Iveline and said, "When I was invited here, I already anticipated that you wanted to uncover the origin of the other species, so I copied our military's relatively public data on them to give you a more direct understanding."

As he spoke, the computer screen, following a preset program, played the fate of the twenty‑five astronauts for Iveline.

——

The image shifted from black to twinkling star‑flowers.

Immediately after, the picture stabilized.

The perspective is first‑person, filmed by an astronaut named Yang Li.

And because the view is from the helmet camera, the footage alone cannot reveal Yang Li's face; only through the helmet's multiple protective layers can one see the Martian surface outside the helmet, indistinguishable from Earth's desert.

In the upper‑right corner of the screen, a helmet‑assist function similar to the Main Universe Power Armor displays that Yang Li and four other astronauts are piloting a sealed Mars rover equipped with a decompression cabin, heading toward coordinates 40.75° N, 9.46° W.

At the same time, following the helmet camera's line of sight outward through the rover window, one can faintly see at the far horizon a uniquely shaped mountain range.

During the advance, the five astronauts communicated via real‑time translation.

Although most exchanges were academic or technical, they also tossed in simple, easy‑going jokes to warm the atmosphere, since their conversation was broadcast through the research station to Earth billions of kilometers away.

Afterwards.

A "x3" symbol appeared at the center of the screen, indicating acceleration.

It returned to normal.

At this moment, the view outside the window shows the group has arrived at the southern foothill of the target mountain.

Yang Li and the others rose from their seats and checked the remaining oxygen, the pressure of their suits, and whether the seal was intact.

After confirming everything was fine, they entered the decompression cabin for depressurization and stepped onto the yellowed desert.

After walking a distance, a prominent fissure gradually appeared on the right side of the frame; after reporting the discovery, Yang Li's team turned toward the fissure.

When they approached.

At the fissure's end was a cave about ten meters wide and high, seemingly leading deep into the mountain.

Most importantly, when Yang Li switched the shield's HUD to amplify the light‑negative side at the cave entrance, he discovered a checkerboard pattern, just like…

floor tiles and wall tiles?

See this.

"Hoo~! Looks like Martians really exist, hahaha! This trip wasn't in vain!"

On the video feed, an astronaut couldn't help but loudly tease.

"Watch your language, Mai Ke." But another astronaut immediately said: "This is Lieutenant Colonel Ge Nuo Lie Fu of the research station. We have discovered an entrance that appears to be an artificial tunnel. Please switch the live feed to other crew members. Also, we will commence investigation of the tunnel."

"Research station here, received."

The conversation just ended.

The astronaut whose surname is Ge Nuo Lie Fu appeared from Yang Li's left side, walked slowly to the group, made a brief observation, and then began issuing orders:

"Le Fei Fu Er, Bang Ni Te, you two stay to guard the Mars rover, ensure the base's normal operation, prevent us from losing contact with the research station, and use the equipment we brought to scan this mountain range.

Yang, Mai Ke, follow me for investigation."

"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel."

Upon hearing that, everyone responded dutifully, and Yang Li's voice as the cameraman was the most prominent.

Next.

Ge Nuo Lie Fu, Yang Li, and Mai Ke moved forward through a trench‑like fissure, reaching the side of the entrance bearing artificial markings.

Approach.

Initiate scan.

Preliminary results determine that these floor tiles and wall tiles are relatively uniform in size and placed in a regular pattern.

Relying on this alone essentially rules out natural formation.

As the surrounding natural light dimmed, Yang Li, the video cameraman, chose to activate the protective shield's built‑in night mode.

After proceeding deeper, the data displayed on the right side of the shield indicated that the weathering traces of this artificial tunnel are at least tens of thousands of years old, but to obtain a more precise age, Yang Li and the others need to collect samples for analysis.

When Yang Li picked up a fragment and prepared to place it into a small sealed box, the gap between the floor and wall tiles suddenly emitted light, shifting from dark to bright.

??

"My heavens!" Mai Ke's shout came over the comms, "Lieutenant Colonel, what's happening?"

Yang Li also set the fragment down, stood up, and looked toward the tunnel's depths.

He saw lights sequentially igniting, extending to the mountain's core region.

After waiting a few seconds.

"Hoo!!!"

A violent gust surged outward from the core, nearly causing Yang Li to fall and making the video feed shake violently.

When the motion ceased.

Yang Li looked deeper again and saw countless shimmering "mirrors" spewing outward at extreme speed, like...

a mercury tsunami.

!!

Seeing this, Ge Nuo Lie Fu, positioned at the front‑left of the frame, paused, then hurriedly turned: "Retreat! Yang! Mai Ke! Quickly…"

Before the subtitles could even be shouted, the mercury fluid already completely enveloped Ge Nuo Lie Fu, and the next moment, Yang Li, standing second, could not escape his superior's fate.

"Sss…!"

In the end, the video feed showed only a burst of silver‑black star‑flowers and a piercing noise.

Playback ended.

"…" Yi Fu Lei Ni furrowed her brow slightly, looked up at Gao Tian Kuo: "Is this the source of the alien species?"

"It should be said that it's the source within the Solar System," Gao Tian Kuo explained. "The previously rampaging alien species were carbon‑based organisms, a mass‑produced biological weapon; you must already know that.

But…" Gao Tian Kuo pointed with his right index finger at the handheld computer on the table, "but what you just saw is a silicon‑based organism.

Although brief, during the attack of those fluid organisms on our astronauts we still captured some sample data and transmitted it back to the engineering ship before the research station fell.

According to analysis, we can confirm that the creators of the alien species are a silicon‑based civilization that exists in theory but has not yet been recognized by mainstream academia.

"Silicon‑based…" Yi Fu Lei Ni fell into contemplation.

Around the founding of the Human Empire, the primary universe had already made contact with over two hundred parallel universes, most of whose Space Gates were fleeting—either deemed by the Empire as having no utility, or unable to remain stable for long, requiring the Emperor or OriginalBody‑level Spiritual Energy to intervene.

Among so many worlds, the Empire has indeed discovered some silicon‑based life.

But most were insignificant; rather than calling them civilizations, they ceased development before reaching a species stage and self‑annihilated due to a lack of continued progress.

Although carbon and silicon can each form four covalent bonds, and silicon is far more stable, heat‑ and pressure‑resistant than carbon, in practice carbon is far more reactive.

Thus the silicon‑based organisms recorded by the Empire are either kept in protected environments for observation or sampled for preservation.

But now, what Yi Fu Lei Ni must face is a genuine silicon‑based civilization, this…

To the Empire this is not a threat, at most it adds research projects and funding, and the current Empire is determined to completely eradicate both the alien species and the silicon‑based civilization that created them.

Next.

Then came the war between humanity and the alien species.

July 22, 2046, the Mars research station lost contact; twenty‑five top astronauts, scientists, and engineers were confirmed dead.

On July 23, an engineering ship that had been in a safe position, attempting to continue surface observation, also lost contact; it was later confirmed to have been struck down by a high‑speed object.

The entire research team perished and encountered overtly hostile alien life, a fact known only to the five major nations in the early stage.

The public, however, believed it was a solar storm, and that Earth and Mars could not re‑establish communications for a short time.

August 17.

When the five major nations successfully shifted societal focus away from Mars, the sudden arrival of a meteor swarm entered Earth's view.

The Earth‑Moon defense shield had not been able to detect or narrow the gap beforehand, so no warning could be issued. Subsequently, the meteor swarm pierced the atmosphere at a minimum of 83 Mach, scattering onto islands west of the Pacific…

Which is the location of the defeated nation that refuses to promptly admit error and apologize.

Facing the meteor impact, 65% of that nation's cities were instantly destroyed, with casualties around 34 million.

But this is only the beginning.

The first batch of alien species with crystal- and rock-covered exteriors broke out of their shells, beginning to voraciously devour with their spike-like mouths.

August 29.

The island nation gradually turned toward purgatory.

The five major powers and the military strongholds of the Eastern and Western blocs all dispatched fleets and various military forces to it, attempting to rescue as much as possible while trying to contain the alien species within the island nation.

But this is merely the prelude to the alien species' aggression.

(End of chapter)