Chapter 391 Broken Curtain (20,000-7K)
Dawn City, Underground City No. 1, Pioneer Project Launch Hall.
Chu Zhaonan and a group of federal officials looked at the screen solemnly. Seven starships were launched into space, and the launch hall was bustling with activity.
Not only here, the entire Underground City No. 1 is now empty. All federal staff, except those from the Pioneer Project, have left. The few who are still around him are only Xu Yan, Luo Ming, and Su Jin, the person in charge of the Pioneer Project.
"Reporting to Chairman Chu, a large number of strange entities have been detected pouring in from the underground network fortifications."
An officer reported at this time: "All entrances and exits of the city have been closed, and it is expected that they will rush in from the bottom of the underground city in 30 minutes."
"I'll take some people to hold them off." Luo Ming said to the officer, "Everyone, guard the launch center."
"yes!"
Next to the Twin Star Towers, the Zhentian ship had already arrived amidst the heavy artillery fire. Ye Lan stood on the main bridge at the bow of the ship, calmly watching the seven starships carrying the light of human civilization continuously taking off in the darkness.
At the same time, in Dawn City, millions of survivors looked up into the sky.
"What is that, a starship?" a child in the crowd asked.
"Yes, it's a starship, our human starship," the mother replied.
"Where are they going then?"
"Going to a faraway place..."
"Will they come back again?"
The mother's eyes were red, stroking her child's hair
"Yes."
…
[Control Center: This is Shuguang, confirming that the 'Broken Curtain No. 1' has completed the sequence launch and is expected to enter the Pioneer sequence in 35 seconds. ]
[Relay aircraft deployment completed, telemetry signal normal]
[The microwave protection shields of 'Civilization Pioneer', 'Natural Selection', 'Deep Blue', 'Star Shepherd', 'Star Group', 'Ocean' and 'Ark' were successfully activated]
[After 20 seconds, the main engines of the entire fleet will be ignited. All personnel will be stationary and ready to withstand the lift acceleration.]
[Main engine thrust reaches 75% and continues to rise. ]
[All informed, in 30 seconds, we will approach the height of the Sky Curtain, all fleets maintain the attack sequence. ]
Boom!
At an altitude of 7,000 meters, the Gray Mist Messenger, equipped with 8 super-heavy plasma thrusters, was flying in front of the 7 starships with violent thrusts and bursting with high-temperature ablative flames all over his body, like a shining angel of fire.
The powerful jet stream swept away the clouds, and the vanguard fleet was accelerating.
[Has reached an altitude of 8,000 meters]
[Has reached an altitude of 9,000 meters]
The Gray Mist Messenger continued to rise, emitting a violent plasma tail.
In the control room of the launch center, Chu Zhaonan watched the fleet rising into the sky, his expression remaining calm from beginning to end.
【9500m】
[Approaching the height of the Sky Curtain, inform all fleets and prepare for impact. ]
Beep beep!
At this time, alarms continued to sound on the control consoles of various fleets and launch centers.
Su Jin, Xu Yan and other former federal officials looked extremely solemn at this time, and the air in the launch hall seemed to be stagnant.
[The curtain-breaking device detects the energy fluctuations of the sky curtain giant curtain and is ready to impact! ]
【accelerate!】
drop……
The next moment, the signals from the first sequence of Gray Mist Messengers to the subsequent seven starships all disappeared from the monitoring screen of the launch center within 1 second like flashes.
"Report, the relay vehicle has crashed!"
"Report, the sky observatory has detected a large-scale explosion in the air..."
"Unable to complete the search, aerial surveillance ship landed!"
At this moment, the launch center hall was completely silent and the air was extremely heavy, as if everyone had held their breath. Even the sound of a needle dropping to the ground became extremely sharp.
Everyone knew what was happening before their eyes, as this was not the first time the Curtain Breaking Test had been conducted.
For the staff at the launch center, they all understood why the relay spacecraft crashed, but at this time, no one dared to speak, and the air was filled with sadness and despair.
Some people were pale, some were sobbing softly, Xu Yan's old eyes were slightly unfocused, and his clenched fists slowly loosened. He looked at Chu Zhaonan, who was just standing there without any movement.
No one spoke, and time passed by.
10 minutes have passed
20 minutes have passed
At this time, below the dungeon, huge explosions and monster roars began to be heard from the empty dungeon patio. More and more guards ran out with guns to provide support, but Chu Zhaonan remained motionless, his eyes fixed on the surveillance screen.
At 10:27, the sky was still dark, and the roaring sounds of strange creatures continued to echo in the dungeon, invading upwards from a thousand meters below.
Those once clean and bright office areas, those residential areas that required high prices to live in, those schools, hospitals, and entertainment districts and streets, have all been washed away by the strange entities and turned into ruins.
Only 20 minutes had passed, but it seemed like several hours had passed.
Just when the atmosphere in the launch hall was terribly gloomy, a shortwave signal transmitted via high-power electromagnetic waves suddenly appeared on the computer in front of a staff member.
The staff member's face changed and he wiped his glasses in disbelief. On his computer, a string of binary codes transmitted through the time intervals of electromagnetic pulses quickly appeared on the screen.
"President!"
The staff member shouted, and everyone was startled by the sound.
At this time, a large number of staff gathered around.
"Binary coding, start the compiler!"
“The translation results are out!”
"Cast it on the screen!"
Beep beep!
At this time, Chu Zhaonan, Xu Yan and others looked up at the big screen, and familiar words appeared in their sight.
"Shuguang, this is Zhang Beihai of the Natural Selection. With the help of the solar gain reflection transmission return information, the curtain-breaking device successfully opened the sky curtain, but we were attacked by an unknown dark energy storm, causing a large number of crew members to mutate. The Civilization Pioneer's separation supply ship propulsion system pushed us and the Deep Blue away from the dark energy storm area. Captain Chu Jing has died. Now I will take over as the leader of the Pioneer Project. We are leaving the solar system as planned. Goodbye, Blue Star!"
"Captain Zhang!? We... succeeded?!" The person in charge of the launch center burst into tears upon hearing this: "Two star-class ships escaped!!!"
For the Pioneer Project, as long as one of the seven starships successfully escapes, it can be considered a success!
But just as he was about to cheer, he noticed that the other staff members had complicated expressions. He reacted and turned around to look at Chu Zhaonan with some apology.
"Chairman Chu...I..."
Chu Zhaonan already understood everything, and said to all the staff with relief:
"It doesn't matter. It's all the same."
"Our mission has been accomplished. Now, everyone can leave. The Zhentian ship will take everyone to a safe place."
Xu Yan looked over, and at that moment, it seemed as if a huge burden had been lifted from Chu Zhaonan, and he seemed to have aged a lot in an instant.
The evacuation began, and in the control hall, the last federal staff and armed personnel began to leave the underground city.
"Activate the Eternal Skylight!"
Chu Zhaonan issued an ultimate command with his fingerprint.
null!
Woo!
At the top of Underground City No. 1, two huge and heavy steel gates slowly closed like the gates of heaven.
This was a permanent defense that was built when Dungeon No. 1 was being constructed to prevent nuclear explosions. However, it is now being used to prevent abnormalities and explosions of strange entities within the dungeon.
Luo Ming led the Seraph team to cover the evacuation of a large number of guards and launch center staff. When Xu Yan left, he saw Chu Zhaonan still standing alone in the launch hall. He immediately said
"President……"
"Go away." Chu Zhaonan, dressed in military uniform, stood quietly in the empty hall and said calmly.
"As the last leader of human civilization, I must be responsible for the continuation of human civilization, and at the same time, I must atone for the forgotten humanity."
He stood in the center of the launch hall, like a sharp sword, guarding this place that once symbolized the center of civilization and the fortress of survival. A strange tide like a flood continued to spread and surge up from the underground city, but it seemed unable to drown out these words.
Xu Yan's face was slightly stunned, with some bitterness in his eyes. Then he stood where he was and nodded silently at him. The staff who had left in a hurry also stopped in twos and threes and looked back at the figure.
As the Federation President, he was waiting for everyone to leave.
As a father, he was waiting for a message to come back.
Chu Zhaonan took out a dazzling naval emblem from his pocket, stroked it gently with his fingers, and spoke in a voice that only he could hear.
"Good job."
Boom, the Eternal Patio closes.
All the strange entities that tried to rush into the city from the underground fortifications were blocked.
To the east and south of the city, where the city walls were about to fall, they received support from the 83rd Iron Guard Brigade and defended the last high wall.
10:48.
It's dawn.
The night's rain disappeared, and Dawn City welcomed the dawn again.
When the dark sky retreated and the sun shone on this magnificent city, the sky was filled with smoke rising.
Da da da.
When the last burst of gunfire stopped, the whole city fell silent.
On the city wall, the light from the sky shone on the faces of countless tired and desperate garrisons, and on the faces of the survivors covered in blood. At this moment, everyone knew that they survived!
A 17-year-old garrison soldier came to the edge of the city wall with a gun in his hand. He looked towards the outer city area after the brutal battle last night, but what he saw was a hellish scene that made his pupils dilate.
Outside the city walls, the former outer suburbs no longer exist.
The broken high-rise buildings looked like skeletons gnawed by giant beasts. Concrete fragments and steel bars were twisted together, and black smoke was still emitting from the exposed cross-sections. The streets were no longer recognizable. The asphalt road surface was plowed into scorched earth by artillery fire. Bomb craters were one after another, filled with dark red blood, like countless open mouths. The remains of traffic lights hung upside down on the telephone poles, with the remains of various monsters hanging on them. The broken glass reflected the rising sun like scattered blood diamonds.
Hundreds of thousands of zombies and bodies of strange bodies piled up like mountains, rotten, charred, and incomplete, layer upon layer, filling every street and every ruin. Some were blown into pieces by heavy artillery, with their internal organs and broken limbs hanging on steel bars; some were burned into charcoal by flamethrowers. On the edge of the city wall, there were large heads of special monsters hanging, and small nuclear bombs exploded, blowing half of their bodies from the blocks several kilometers away to the city wall, creating a large gap.
The situation in the city was not much better, the high-rise buildings were particularly tragic, they collapsed and exploded due to attacks by various flying monsters, large blocks of survivors' vehicles were burned and destroyed, the streets were littered with corpses and shells of various flying monsters, the barrels of anti-aircraft guns were still slightly hot, the tails of rockets were stuck in the ruins of collapsed buildings, like some kind of weird tombstone.
In each survivor block, countless survivors looked panic-stricken and exhausted, their bodies and cars were almost all covered in smoke and monster blood. Some people began to shout in despair.
“It’s dawn, it’s dawn!!”
"It's morning!"
The millions of survivors who survived a night of nightmare were now filled with joy and panic. Organized convoys immediately started rescue and medical work, sorted out assets, and counted the number of people. Many fragmented small convoys and families were like ghosts, sitting alone on the street corners crying. Some people were digging through the rubble to find their loved ones, while others were running around looking for water. The rubble and dust from the collapsed buildings turned almost everyone's hair gray.
"It's dawn, pack up your equipment and leave Dawn City!"
"North, north!"
"Go east, go east!!"
"Take all the resources you can use!!"
"The Phoenix Order is here, let's follow their troops and leave!"
On the streets of every city, there were endless sounds of crying, screaming, shouting, cheering, and all kinds of noisy sounds.
Twin Star Tower, Heaven-Suppressing Ship.
Xu Yan and a large number of federal officials were here. Several transport ships flew over. One of them was carrying the garrison commander Lu Tianye, and the other two were carrying Xu Zhenyue of the North American United Front and Huo Jiang, commander of the 83rd Iron Guard Brigade.
Since then, the Phoenix Society and the people of Dawn City have joined together.
"The Pioneer Project was successful." Ye Lan looked at everyone: "We should be thankful for this. At least, two seeds of human civilization are leaving the solar system, which can also give us some comfort in our despair now."
After saying this, she looked at the scene after the fierce battle in the city and sighed.
"Now, the rest of us have to think about how to get through the next long night."
…
Lin Xian was rescued by the Phoenix Order and brought back to the Star City Orbital Station, along with KIKI, Shiori, and the remaining few people of Zeno.
On the platform of the orbital station, more than 60 body bags were laid out. Seeing this, Lin Xian sighed and said to Qi Nuo, "Operation Crescent Moon has failed. If we want to obtain information about the darkness, we have no choice but to kill an S-class monster ourselves."
Although he said so, Lin Xian also knew that this was almost an impossible task.
The Phoenix Society did not obtain the relevant cells from the Black Thorn in the Cloud, so they knew that obtaining the so-called 'action brain' of the S-level was not an easy task. Moreover, it had to be cultivated in the Star Abyss like in the Crimson World, and hundreds of people had to be sacrificed to connect the mycelium. Even if the Phoenix Society could do such a thing, they did not have the time to do so now.
"It shouldn't be possible. The gray fog's launch that broke through the sky curtain must have caused changes in the Star Abyss again." Qinuo sat in the wheelchair and lit a cigarette, saying melancholy: "The unmanned observation device has not only observed one S-class in Star Abyss No. 7, but three. Star Abysses No. 5, 7, and 8 have all discovered S-class approaching. This is not over yet. The reconnaissance team also suspected that the corpse chaser of Star Abyss No. 5 is moving towards this side."
He spat and said in a deep voice: "I don't know whether it is connecting to Xingyuan or breaking through the sky curtain, but we have completely pissed off these monsters, so the general direction of the Phoenix Order now is to evacuate."
Jiang Yun came over at this time: "Many large convoys have already started to retreat at dawn. The Phoenix Society should also evacuate its people in a short time."
Lin Xian looked at him at this time: "Where is Jian Xuwei?"
"She and Jian Zeyang are leaving the city to pick up the Sky Infinity." Jiang Yun checked the time: "The mobile signal station has received the message and should be entering the city soon."
Lin Xian nodded tiredly, and watched the zipper of Chu Yan's body being slowly closed, his eyes heavy.
"Why should I not give up on you..."
"Why don't you give up on you..."
"Why would I give up on you?"
Operation Crescent Moon was a plan that Chu Yan had to complete, but at the last moment, faced with the choice between the present and the future, she resolutely chose the present, and together with Lin Xian, she took back the Heart of the Galaxy and saved the entire city from an unnecessary danger.
But Lin Xian didn't expect that Chu Yan would die like this. At the last moment, Chu Yan told him that Julius would never reveal any dark information, so she knew that as long as she launched a mental attack on Julius, the other party would definitely kill the real controller.
This actually does not mean any loss to the Crimson World, because both of them are clones, and are just puppets used to manage the Targon Launch Site. By the way, they can also kill Chu Yan, who is a very threatening person to them.
So Chu Yan had already anticipated that she would die, and that was the only option.
Shiori walked over, stretched out her hand behind Lin Xian, and quietly released her supernatural powers to help Lin Xian recover some of his spirits.
Lin Xian felt a warmth and turned to look at Shizhi. He forced a smile.
"Shiori, you did a great job."
Shiori's face was still a little dirty, and she said to Lin Xian: "I think we definitely still have hope."
She pointed to the sky and said, "We can fly up there, too."
Lin Xian looked up at the sky. He had just learned that the Pioneer Project had successfully saved two starships. He still remembered that when he sneaked into the starport, the first ship he saw was the Natural Selection. To Lin Xian, this news was a mixture of relief and sadness. From the perspective of civilization, human civilization might be able to bloom again in the depths of the distant stars in the universe. From his own perspective, the surviving humans on Blue Planet still have several months of journey ahead of them.
I don’t know if humans can use this experience to conduct more in-depth research on the Sky Curtain in the next few months, but the unusual movements in the Star Abyss may indicate that the darkness has realized what humans are doing, which may make their survival situation even more difficult.
KIKI, who had been fighting all night, had fallen asleep. Last night at the Star City Orbital Station, Fire Brother Monica, Jiang Yun and others had also fought all night to defend the Silver Star and the members and vehicles of the Infinite Alliance. After large areas of vehicles were damaged, evacuation must have become more difficult.
Boom!
A roar was heard in the airspace of Dawn City, which was shrouded in sadness and chaos. To the north, a giant floating city was approaching, blocking out the sky. It was Silent City, but City No. 2 of Silent City had been separated.
To the west, a black interstellar giant train was rapidly breaking through the air like a giant starship. At the same time, on the planetary track, a 15-kilometer-long joint train was roaring, loaded with supplies, equipment, materials transported from Jinhai, as well as all members of the Infinite Alliance, rushing into the city.
The Sky Train landed at the Star City Orbital Station. Because of the Dawn City Wall, the Sky Train had to fly into the city.
Jian Xuwei, Shi Diyuan, Chen Sixuan, Shu Qin, Dalou, Shasha, Ning Jing, Qian Dele, Ding Junyi and other old friends and backbones gathered at this time.
Chen Sixuan rushed into Lin Xian's arms. The battle in Dawn City last night made everyone on the Infinity side very worried. Fortunately, they did not have any dark marks. Those huge and strange bodies in the darkness were all rushing towards Dawn City, and they were spared from a big battle.
During this period, the latest standard Skytrain-class ship has been built. Now the length of the Skytrain exceeds 4 kilometers, which is definitely a behemoth. Coupled with the reconfigured weapons, the Infinite Alliance now has firepower comparable to that of an army.
In the lobby of the rail station, the core leaders of the original joint train, together with Jiang Yun, Jian Xuwei, Jian Zeyang, as well as Wang Hongyuan of the Hongyuan Merchant Alliance of the Wind Walker Alliance, Song Feng of the New Era Engineering Corps, Liang Hao of the Iron Shield Team, and He Linqiu of the Burning Phoenix Team formed a large backbone group, all of which were discussing the next arrangements with Lin Xian as the leader.
"Lin Qingyu from the Dawnwatch Alliance, Luo Heng from the Windtalkers, and Han Tiege from Full Metal Tide, these convoys have already evacuated one after another. Yu Huaian who is stationed in Chan Pass is also preparing to lead the Wanderers Alliance to evacuate towards Tianji. Now the tens of thousands of large convoys in the city are basically leaving. It seems that only Lei Zhen from the Common Alliance has left, because too many convoys have come to him for help. I guess he wants to help take some people away." Jiang Yun gave a brief summary of the situation in the city.
Jian Xuwei said: "If we leave the city now, we may be able to reach Pingcheng before dark, and reach Kangcheng tomorrow."
At this time, a noisy sound was heard outside the rail station. Lin Xian got up and walked out after hearing it. He pushed the door open and saw that the square, streets, and corridors outside the rail station were crowded with people. There were at least tens of thousands of people crowded outside, with noisy pleading sounds, and they were blocked outside by the alliance members and iron fences.
"Captain! Please let us join your convoy!"
"We have supplies, so we don't have to eat. Please take us with you..."
"Please... just take my daughter with you! She's only 5 years old and very sensible. Don't let her die..."
"I have the skills! I used to be a train maintenance engineer!!"
At one moment, wounded men, mothers begging on their knees, young people with desperate faces, crying children, and small convoys of families all rushed towards Lin Xian, their shouts filled with despair. Lin Xian stood on the upper floor, looking at the endless crowd below. They stretched out their hands, those hands - cracked, bloodstained, dirty, injured, old, and young, like ears of wheat blown down by the wind, all moving in the direction of the rail station, as if holding tightly to the last bit of hope.
"They should have seen the Sky-class and joint trains entering the city, so they wanted to join and escape from Dawn City." Jiang Yun walked over and said with a complicated expression.
Shi Diyuan stood beside Lin Xian with a frown on his face, looking at this scene with a heavy heart: "Brother Lin, can we bring some people with us?"
Lin Xian nodded: "If all the combined trains are added together, we should be able to add several thousand more people."
"A few thousand people can't change anything." He Linqiu from the Burning Phoenix Team came over and said to Lin Xian, "There are at least 30,000 to 50,000 people here alone."
"How many people are there in the city? 1 million?" Shi Diyuan said at this time.
"At least 3 million!" said Song Feng from the New Era Engineering Group.
"3 million?!" Chen Sixuan was surprised: "How can there be so much?"
Lu Xingchen stood aside with a solemn expression and remained silent. As the God of Fire, he felt deeply powerless at this moment.
Liang Hao of the Iron Shield Team said in a stern voice: "Most of them are survivors from the outer city who entered the city yesterday. In addition, at least more than 100,000 vehicles were destroyed in the city last night. At least 3 million people cannot be quickly transferred."
"Yes." Wang Hongyuan of the Hongyuan Business Alliance also said: "Now many survivors have taken advantage of the early hours to walk out of the city, but at the walking speed, it is impossible to reach Qingbo before dark."
"Walking?... Then let alone encountering strange creatures, even encountering zombies will be troublesome!" said Shi Diyuan.
"What is the Phoenix Society's plan?" Ning Jing asked at this time.
Lin Xian sighed: "I received news from Shinji Mochizuki that Silent City has been divided into two parts, and is preparing to cooperate with the Phoenix Society to transport 500,000 people to Jinhe."
"500,000? What should so many people do when they get to Jinhe? Or should they walk?" Chen Sixuan said.
Jian Xuwei shook her head: "Many people have no intention of leaving. Without a vehicle, they may be able to survive a few more days in Dawn City. At least they have a place to stay."
Lin Xian looked at this scene with a heavy heart and gritted his teeth.
"This is the scene that the Crimson World wants to see. Once everyone in the convoy leaves, the remaining people can be abandoned..."
At this time, the Crimson Phoenix Order sounded, and Lin Xian picked up the call. The person who came from the other end was Qi Nuo who had already returned to the Zhentian Ship.
"Captain Lin, if it's convenient, we need you to go to the Zhentian Ship immediately!"
(End of this chapter)
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