Star Empire

"...The first group, try to activate the terminal, take protective measures, and see if you can extract valuable information from the terminal; the second group, follow me to check the condition of the corpses!"

After a preliminary scan of the entire hall, the commander divided the entire team into two groups according to the predetermined plan, and one part tried to activate the terminal that was not completely damaged. They carried the small small tower that could be used for defense. Obelisk, and most of the remaining people gathered around the corpses along with their leader.

After all the team members loaded up the safety measures and prepared for the decontamination blast, the commander gritted his teeth and stepped forward, carefully and slowly destroying the pale golden crystal coating that covered the corpse and affected the observation line of sight.

"...I think I understand why the Theodal Empire's memes are more lethal and contagious, and the transmission media they are bound to are more disgusting and unsightly."

Weisruifan frowned and covered his mouth and nose tightly, "Is this the mutation that will occur when beings like us are exposed to the pollution of that black and red two-dimensional pattern?"

In the holographic projection in front of Weisrifan, the mutated corpses that had been peeled were clearly visible: the clothes on their bodies had either turned into debris on the ground, or turned into several pieces showing burnt marks. Unknown fragments, and these clothes can already withstand the indirect radiation of crystal energy to a certain extent. However, the damage to clothing is only the most direct and minor case.

The most terrifying part is the mutation that has appeared on their bodies: after countless generations of molecular and even atomic-level life representations to check and fill in gaps and considerable soul technology, they are supplemented by a considerable number of auxiliary plug-ins and even biochemical implants in the body. Adapting to the energy source to strengthen life strength, from the aesthetic point of view that is in line with human physiological structure, the people of the Star Federation can be said to be very close to "perfect human beings" since a billion years ago.

After gene sublimation, although each shaped face is still ever-changing, after all the information on these faces is combined, what is obtained is the optimal solution in the "face pinching function"; the torso and limbs are slender but well-proportioned, There will be no sickly slender feeling.

Various systems, organs and tissues have basically solved all the problems that may arise as organisms and optimized the expression of traits. It can be said that except for the lack of long pointed ears, the federal people have an appearance that is almost the same as the elves in the works of art. The mutations that have occurred in these people can be said to be terrifying at a glance, and they can even turn into elves. A mutated monster like a hundred-armed giant.

Under the illumination of high-frequency crystal energy, the black and red patterns that shone strangely on the surface of everything here have faded away, but those strange patterns are still like scrapers, licking away large areas of flesh and blood from their exposed skin, and some corpses have There are even traces of corrosion that reach deep into the internal organs.

A considerable number of internal organs that no longer belong to the category of carbon-based life elements have developed conditions similar to malignant cancer. The originally smooth and regular mucous membranes and epithelial tissues are covered with large and small strange scars and tumors. These The bulging tumors are basically still slowly seeping with dark blood and thick and disgusting pus, even the gray-white liquid with unknown texture and composition.

Most of the corpse's skin was severely stretched. Under the skin, a large number of blue-black blood vessels were tangled and twisted together, forming hideous and terrifying masses similar to varicose veins or group hemangioma. Near the wound, A large number of festering tentacles and appendages are rooted in the skin and flesh. The wounds on the surface of the tentacles have not yet solidified, and are still squeezing the nearly exhausted corrupt body fluids from those poor bodies.

It is no longer possible to find the conceptual limbs from these bodies. The original limb positions have turned into ferocious structures similar to tree roots or coral trees. A large number of black bone spurs pierce the skin and burst out from the inside of the body. Appendages and mutations The proliferating flesh and blood and indescribable structures burst the original skin of the limbs.

Even near these festering and mutated tissues, there is still a faint black mist and complex patterns like tattoos left after the patterns have been purified by crystal energy. For these scenes, the detection team and Weisrifan on the other side can only They can resist looking, but no matter how hard they try to cheer up, after a longer period of observation, their eyes will avoid these monsters that have deviated from the order of all life, as if these patterns and black mist still have the destructive effect of pollution. The strength of the mind is average.

"Hiss... no matter how you look at it, this death state... can be said to be extremely tragic." Several soldiers squatted down and carefully used isolation probes and clamps to turn over these severely mutated and twisted corpses. "I don't know about those weird black bodies." When red patterns cover every coordinate in the universe, what do those citizens who did not follow us look like?" A soldier subconsciously checked his equipment and physical condition again, looking at the disgusting scene on the ground. He shook his head.

"Maybe they died more comfortably." Another person beside him added, "The information that has been obtained now can show that crystal energy has the ability to resist and even purify unknown pollution, and these few people in front of us ...The effect of crystal energy is not enough to purify, but only slows down their death to a certain extent...It is very likely that they experienced more pain."

"Commander, test whether the tissues of these corpses are still contaminated, take samples of these corpses and then screen them carefully. For these people... they are hopeless. From body to soul, they have been completely destroyed and there is no treatment. It’s valuable.”

Zhai Cahir shook his head, showing a look of helplessness, "In addition, if sampling can be carried out, after the sampling is completed and the other team completes their assigned tasks, let's irradiate the cabin here with crystal energy again. Now look Come on, I'm afraid that a considerable part of the cabins here have no saving value. This time we did not build the ship according to the requirements of detachable modules, so there is no way to discard the parts that have lost their use value, so we can only take them with us to sail... … From some perspectives, it’s a real liability.”

"Your Excellency Wei Ruifan, two chiefs, we have copied some compressed packages in this terminal. These compressed packages seem to have been generated not long ago, and they also have extremely high encryption measures and permission requirements. At present, we have carried out a relatively comprehensive inspection and used crystal energy for irradiation processing. It can be determined that this part of the information is safe." The report from the front-line detection force interrupted Zhai Cahir's embarrassment and Weisui Every interaction with cold eyes.

"I understand, please pay attention to the evacuation sequence and stay away from there after the final decontamination. The damage to the spacecraft structure is too serious. We need to conduct another crystal energy irradiation." After saying that, Weisruifan left without looking back. Got here.

"I say, in this case, you should pay more attention to your words, Zhai Cahir. Your attitude and actions are not necessarily wrong, but under the influence of that kind of unknown pollution, it is easy for us to have various problems. Such abnormal negative emotions, if conflicts always break out between us, it will be detrimental to the voyage."

Eisendel sighed, stepped forward and patted Zhai Cahir on the shoulder before leaving. As a colleague, he knew that Zhai Cahill did contribute a lot to the operation of the entire information collection network. However, perhaps in response to the saying that powerful people often have quirks, Zhai Cahill would only enter when the opportunity allowed. In addition to the state of diffuse consciousness, another point is his attitude towards life - relatively indifferent compared to most people.

He even adheres to the formal principle of putting interests and efficiency first under certain circumstances. For this part, he has had more conflicts with his predecessors than others, but this does not violate federal law, even if it is People with higher status and authority than him have no right to forcibly modify his soul and personality. Therefore, a considerable part of his attitude has been left behind even in the current environment.

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First bridge.

"The data in the data disk has been transferred." Isendel took a step back slightly to make way for Weisrifan. Looking at the light screen in front of him, Weisruifan kept clicking on the flashing light spots on the screen with his right hand, while holding his chin with the other hand, he looked at the changing data and various encryption locks in front of him.

"The specifications are so high?" Wei Ruifan provided the authorization code again and again, and his brows gradually furrowed. "Such a high-level encryption...even the underlying protocol check won't be so cumbersome, right?"

"Indeed, but it is certain that the content protected by these measures must be related to the underlying protocol. I have specifically learned about this part. After the popularization of information collection networks, the underlying protocol still prefers the concept of physical constraints. Now, the underlying protocol It is already possible to define the information upload mode, and information that does not meet the relevant requirements will be directly rejected - and even higher levels can be achieved.”

"But it is a pity that the empty position generated by the arbiter computer in this part has been stuck for us. Now we are almost unable to shake the network." Eisendel added next to him, his tone was full of helplessness, "To be honest, our current It can be said that a considerable part of the problems come from our creations, but we never thought that one day we would be stuck in our throats by our own creations.”

…

"... The specimens collected from the second bridge position and produced by the organisms exposed to the dead tide have been tested, and it can be determined that under the influence of the dead tide, the organisms themselves suffered from a very serious lack of order. "

"According to the tests conducted on site, if organisms are directly exposed to the death wave, they will first develop various malignant diseases. This is the abnormal manifestation of genetic factors, and then various organic mutations will occur. ——For example, severe varicose veins and unreasonable distortions of various tissues, to some extent, this may also be regarded as a manifestation of abnormal increase in blood pressure.”

"...The last thing is the mutation at the information level - before, the basic rules were broken and chaotically reorganized. At this point...the basic rules may no longer exist. The elements that make up their bodies have lost the stable information they should have. structure, and then the small amount of incompletely fused secondary crystal energy contained in their bodies was continuously consumed due to a reaction similar to neutralization due to the lack of order, and the final remaining physical matter was produced together with body tissues. The stability of those mutated and disordered appendages and hyperplasia of flesh and blood is very poor. Even during the testing process, the samples in this part continued to leak out liquid and disintegrate on their own..."

"...So, from this point of view, the essence of the death tide is to continuously infect and corrode information bodies, causing them to continuously mutate, lose order and eventually collapse?"

"...This is indeed true based on the phenomenon. I think it is necessary for us to take measures to understand its true appearance as soon as possible..."

"But the current resource situation does not allow us to engage in such dangerous and energy-consuming research work..."

Along with the gradually clearer conversation and a burst of footsteps with an ethereal echo, Weisrifan immediately noticed the approaching Vidoville and Cavinriel, "Hey, Cavinriel, are you awake?" Seeing that he had already After regaining his composure in Vidoville, Vesrifan breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Death Tide? Cavinrel, is that the name you give to the pollution marked by the black-red two-dimensional pattern phenomenon?" As a scientist, Eisendel is very sensitive to new vocabulary and concepts. When Cavinrel said this word, this brand-new word that had never been mentioned before in the research process instantly caught his attention.

"Yes, that's right, just like when we faced crystal energy, we can't always use a vague and lengthy intuitive description to refer to a certain existence." Cavernell said seriously.

"I gave this name. We must be vigilant against the phenomenon of death waves. Also, I'm sorry, Lil, I should be the one to investigate the actual situation on the second bridge. I put you in danger." Looking at it. Another consul had a look of tiredness on his face, and Vidoville felt a wave of self-blame in his heart.

"It doesn't matter, there has to be someone..." As soon as Weisrifan finished her words, her and Vidoville's bodies froze at the same time: the previous information packets that required many authorizations had been parsed, but , the parsed results were only sent to these two people, which was the final emergency log summary of the network:

The network has suffered unknown damage, the "Three-person Parliament" module has completely failed, the emergency permission restriction module has failed, and the network cannot constrain the existing permission system and legal system; key items of the security underlying protocol, the legal underlying protocol, and the read-write restriction underlying protocol are seriously missing. ……alarm! The remaining network segments of the information collection network have lost their ability to maintain self-stability and are in urgent need of correction!

"...I think it's time." After a slight trance, Vidoville instantly realized the lack of network in the current situation, especially the lack of permissions and old-era legal restriction modules, which just cleared up all his plans. All mechanical obstacles are eliminated.

"You mean..." Seeing the look in Vidoville's direction, Weisrifan instantly read the content contained in it. Soon, even her own eyes began to flash the same meaning. light.

"Our lives and souls can be very strong if we say we are strong, but if we are weak and fragile, our lives can also be destroyed easily. Lil, you have also seen that from the middle and late stages of the explosion of the crystal energy vortex, the main force of the Federation The region has lost support for us. It doesn't matter if they are just opposed to our practices and management methods..."

“However, perhaps due to the interference of foreign civilizations, or perhaps too long a period of stagnation and calm that has sapped everyone’s fighting spirit, they opposed the promotion of the unified theory of information with an unusually stubborn attitude. Once we were highly The self-proclaimed sacrifice, dedication, rationality, etc. are still possessed by soldiers who have been fighting on the front lines of any significance. For the vast majority of ordinary citizens, this part has actually become their sluggishness, lack of innovation, and A shield for not making progress..."

"The profound ideas that the Federation was originally proud of have only left a bunch of useless residue here!"

Looking at the increasingly angry military consul, or supreme marshal, in front of him, Vesrifan sighed, stretched out his hand and gently took Vidoville's hand, "Calm down, don't let your emotions dominate your thinking." After finishing speaking. , Vesrifan nodded slowly and closed his eyes.

"...Understood. Then there is what happened not long ago. The civilian communication network of the Ark Fleet has expired according to the statute of limitations because of those citizens, but has been forgotten and has not been finally cancelled. Legal provisions and various excessive protection agreements, and because There is an empty supreme authority that breaks the limits of what we can set! Their actions create a huge danger!"

"They communicated as they wished, which in turn triggered a second large-scale spread of the death wave that could have been completely avoided. The impact of the second spread was even greater than the total losses we experienced in that fragment of the world. , excessively unbridled free power and insufficient management in emergencies, this kind of structure is no longer suitable for us now, and is no longer suitable for the current star civilization."

"I understand what you mean." Weisruifan did not forcibly withdraw his arm because of the increasing force from his hand. Instead, he took another step forward, gently raised his head and stared into Victorville's eyes:

"Power, the evaluation of future generations, these are actually no longer important now... they may no longer exist. Only those who have had it but lost it will be desired and cherished, no matter what it is, or an opportunity ——Now, it will be our chance to survive..."

"Since you want to take this step, then I will be with you. Whether it is escaping from death or the destruction of civilization, I will support you."

"I will find out what factors we need to carve into our souls in the current state, and then implant these factors into everyone's souls to reach the source of life and intelligence. Vidoville's firm voice echoed around echoed in the interlocutor's mind,

"At the same time, we must take back all the powers that were once legal but are now causing order in this destruction. In any case, before the end of the exile, I must have absolute control over everything in civilization now and guarantee this A civilization that was driven out of the universe in a panic can still squeeze out every ounce of its remaining strength at any time when encountering an incident to face everything."