Super Mothership
Proxima Star System.
The spaceport of the Gemini twins welcomed a group of special visitors today.
A small logistics and supply fleet slowly docked at the pier under the escort of a defense fleet. Then, port logistics personnel began checking the cargo while engineering robots started loading and unloading goods.
However, unnoticed by anyone, inside a fully sealed large shipping container, a mixed squad of 10 warriors from the Aquatic and Winged clans sat together engaged in tactical discussions.
At the head of the group, a stern-faced Winged officer swept his gaze over everyone with a serious expression.
“According to the mission objectives from Central Command, our operation this time has three priority levels.
First priority: Locate the origin of the ‘Water of Life’ and gather related intelligence.
Second priority: Find and destroy the planetary self-destruction device on Planet Kara.
Third priority: Map the enemy’s military deployments on Planet Kara to provide intel support for follow-up special operations by our strike fleet.
In addition, this operation will bypass the Proxima Star System’s Pioneer Corps entirely and is classified top secret. Unless absolutely necessary, no one is allowed to contact friendly forces for battlefield support! Understood?”
“Understood!” everyone responded in unison.
“Captain, is that group—‘The One and All Society’—really so deeply infiltrated into the Pioneer Corps, that even both Legion Commanders can’t be trusted?” someone asked.
“Sigh... even I can’t believe it myself. We, the Special Operations Unit directly under Central Command, now have to watch out for friendly forces too.” The captain let out a helpless sigh.
“But the top brass is preparing for the worst. This mission absolutely cannot be leaked in advance!
Besides, it’s not just about infiltration. The enemy can even hack into military internal networks—just imagine their electronic warfare capabilities. Even military communication channels might be compromised, so better safe than sorry.”
The tactical discussion continued, while the container carrying the special ops squad was unknowingly loaded by engineering robots onto another supply transport ship heading toward the blockade fleet at Planet Kara...
...
In truth, this elite team from the Central Star System had underestimated the severity of the “cybersecurity crisis” currently plaguing the Pioneer Corps.
Recently, the group codenamed “Codename” had launched relentless hacker attacks, leaving the corps in utter chaos and disarray.
From disrupting system functions to stealing sensitive files, from leaking officer private data to turning entire ships into disco karaoke parties—once the "fleet LAN" was turned on, it didn’t matter whether the password was six digits or six hundred, Codename could hack in instantly and wreak havoc!
With both hacking intrusions and virus outbreaks, targeted warships were left in total disarray. Some of the internal military scandals leaked during these attacks even almost caused small-scale mutinies among officers.
Everyone was on edge—no one could sleep or work properly. Sleep-deprived, panda-eyed crew members wandered in packs...
Malfunctions like door locks and lighting glitches were just the tip of the iceberg. The air conditioning sometimes went full blast and then freezing cold—okay, maybe they could tolerate that...
But what about my personal terminal’s hundreds of terabytes of “precious material”?
Delete them? Heartbreaking.
Keep them? Risk waking up to your own scandal going viral the next day...
What made things even worse was that the enemy seemed to deliberately target the Aquatic Clan with relentless attacks, while only symbolically harassing the Winged Clan’s fleet—not even triggering proper alarms.
This situation of “sunshine in the east, rain in the west” left the Aquatic officers seething with frustration!
Why the double standard?
What happened to “sincere cooperation, facing hardship together, and being united like branches from the same tree”?
As time went on, a strange and tense atmosphere began to spread within the corps. The number of physical brawls between officers from both sides noticeably increased.
“This is a conspiracy! A classic divide-and-conquer plot!”
Commanders Gustav and Isabel were no fools and immediately came to the same conclusion.
But even if this conspiracy was made public, it wouldn’t change much. Regular soldiers didn’t care about the subtleties of enemy strategy.
From their perspective, the reality was simple: We were all set to fight side by side, but now I’m getting beat up while the guy next to me munches on sunflower seeds and watches?
That’s what you call: “I get it—but I can’t accept it!”
Gustav could only try to calm the troops while furiously cursing the enemy for being despicable.
As for the actual truth…
Codename’s thinking was much simpler.
Their captain once said: If you’re going to start a brawl, always focus all your punches on one target first!
Plus, Nie Yun’s 3rd Sub-Fleet was integrated into the Winged Clan’s fleet command structure.
If they started attacking the Winged fleet too, it would likely interfere with the covert assimilation of the 3rd Sub-Fleet by the Mechanoids—a case of friendly fire disrupting a valuable operation. Only a complete idiot would make that mistake.
As for the accidental “divide and conquer” effect resulting from their basic enemy identification system—well, that was totally outside Codename’s current scope of logical planning...
That said, although Codename’s electronic harassment campaign had been going smoothly so far, Gemini’s tech strength was nothing to scoff at. After several rounds of cyber-skirmishes, both sides scored wins and suffered losses.
Codename had the upper hand thanks to the Mechanoids acting as inside agents. They hit and vanished without a trace, making it impossible for Gemini to even locate the source of the attacks, resulting in significant victories.
However, Gemini was fighting on home turf. Codename’s pre-prepared “meat-shield botnet” was being depleted at a rapid rate, making it harder and harder to conceal their attack origins.
The good news was that with each confrontation, Codename’s experience bar kept filling fast. Their hacking methods and techniques improved quickly, pulling the balance of power back in their favor.
Gemini soon noticed their opponent’s alarming rate of growth, and countering them became increasingly difficult.
Eventually, with no other options left, Gustav was forced to completely shut down the fleet’s LAN, keeping only essential communications online. Afterward, he focused on restoring morale and cleaning out the internal virus infestation.
If Codename’s attacks had 10 parts of power, then 3 of those came from the internal virus they had implanted.
Eliminate the virus, and the threat would drastically shrink.
And of course, Gemini’s antivirus capabilities were formidable.
Even though Codename’s virus was stealthy and still in its incubation phase, more than half of it was successfully located and wiped out.
Not only that, Gemini’s engineers used sandbox testing to analyze the virus’s behavior and developed matching antivirus patches, greatly slowing its spread.
However, by this point, the remaining virus strains had already evolved into 7th, 8th, or even higher generations, mutating so thoroughly that their core functions and structures had changed—essentially becoming entirely new and distinct viruses.
This exaggerated mutation speed and the sheer variety of strange virus variants left Gemini’s experts utterly astonished.
“It’s like a living, breathing virus with a life of its own!” the experts concluded.
Normally, a virus is just a piece of compiled code capable of self-replication and disrupting computer operations. Even if it can mutate, its changes still follow the basic logic of code compilation—meaning its mutation patterns can usually be traced and analyzed.
But this virus clearly exceeded the theoretical limits of mutation.
“In the core of this virus, I can smell the presence of what the legends call ‘intelligent life’...” said one mystic-sounding expert, voicing an extremely rare and almost mythical possibility.
All programs follow strict compilation logic. For example, if a system is coded to define 1+1=2, then 1+1 will always equal 2. That’s a foundational trait—and limitation—of all computer systems.
But if something can break that inherent “logic lock” and produce a result where 1+1 ≠ 2, that’s a dazzling feat only intelligent lifeforms could possibly pull off.
Could the enemy really be the legendary “intelligent life”?!
Gemini’s intelligence division finally managed to peel back a corner of the veil through subtle clues and trace evidence.
But this hypothesis shocked the military high command to its core.
If even intelligent lifeforms from legend were involved… could they have really been obtained through interstellar trade?
The mystery surrounding the Society of the One and All just ticked up another level...
TL Note- Age of A.i
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