Shirley, Gabriel and other recruits walked into the Punishment.
After all personnel have boarded the ship, the corridor begins to separate from the ship body, folded and recovered to the edge of the port.
Immediately afterwards, the hull of the Punishment trembled slightly, and the engine nozzle at the stern was filled with blue light.
Finally, the giant fixed mechanical arm also began to be recovered, giving the entire battleship freedom and allowing the Punishment to sail out of the port.
Adjust the direction of the ship's bow, leave the star port through the air valve, and come to the gray desert on the moon's surface.
When it rises high enough away from the lunar surface...
Not far from the front of the ship, a vortex entrance with a diameter of four hundred meters and mixed with faint blue light was formed.
The Punishment quickly sailed into it, and only after the entire battleship entered the fault space did the entrance created by the jump engine completely dissipate.
Tranquility returned to the desert above the moon, as if the Punishment had disappeared "out of thin air".
In the shimmering fault tunnel, the Punishment is heading towards the Epsom VIII galaxy 450 light-years away.
Corridors inside the ship.
First website: http://et
"Attention everyone, I am Miranda Matcha, the captain of the Punishment. This ship is expected to leave the fault space in 38 hours.
Also, the maintenance team, please go to the equipment room immediately. The robotic arm in Area 3 needs to be inspected.
Fighters, please immediately...
Ground staff..."
The female captain named Miranda came over the radio and said a series of precautions in a cold tone.
Listening to the radio reminder, Shirley, who was holding her suitcase, followed a UNSC Marine wearing a desert-colored training uniform through the corridor.
Came to the door of a cabin.
The Marine stopped, turned around, and said, "Sir, this is your temporary sleeping quarters."
"Thank you. I'll just clean it up myself. Please forgive me, Corporal." Shirley thanked you.
"Yes. If you need anything, tell me, sir." The Marine nodded.
"Okay." Shirley responded with a smile.
After the brief conversation, the Marines walked out of here, and Shirley touched the terminal on the bulkhead.
The door unlocked by induction slowly opened, allowing Shirley to see the layout of the dormitory at a glance.
There is a fixed single bed, desk and chair, as well as a wardrobe for storing clothes and luggage. Opposite the cabin door is a small porthole.
Although the space is narrow and looks simple, it is a single sleeping cabin close to the bridge that can only be used by lieutenant-level officers.
After all, the Paris-class is the fourth-lowest in terms of specifications among the battleships owned by mankind.
But Shirley said it was very good.
Before she became a supervisor, some of the tasks she had performed were much more difficult than this, so she was content to have a single room.
Enter the dormitory.
Close the hatch.
Shirley opened the suitcase, took out the "laptop" that looked like a thin crystal, placed it on the fixed table, and then took out some changes of clothes and hung them in the closet.
After simply cleaning up, she sat behind the fixed desk, lit up the computer's holographic screen, and prepared to read the company's recent important news and information.
The Punishment is equipped with a repeater, so that Shirley's personal electronic devices still have full network signals.
As soon as I pulled up the homepage of the company's internal website, the first headline that caught my eye was the report that "Quantum Communication has entered the trial stage."
See this.
Shirley touched the screen to open a column about quantum communications.
Reports show that the company's high-tech research team led by Wang Zhaofeng and the engineering department have built large-scale quantum communication relay stations in major colonies such as Reach, Xirou, and Jingsong.
Preliminary results of the trial show that the quantum relay station has successfully enabled true real-time communication between major colonies, and most importantly, the earth.
After that, the team led by Wang Zhaofeng will focus on the simplification of quantum relay stations and replace the old relays used by battleships as soon as possible.
At the end of the column, a photo of the research team is also attached.
Standing in the center is Wang Zhaofeng, who looks like he is in his fifties or sixties, wearing glasses and an old face.
Shirley has never forgotten this "Mediterranean" doctor.
During those days of living in the brood, while her parents were busy studying the G virus, other researchers would help take care of her, including the kind old doctor Wang Zhaofeng.
Recalling the original point, Rebecca couldn't help but smile, and then swiped the screen to exit the column.
Continue browsing.
Most of the titles are "Reach will build a new flagship far superior to the Zeus class", "Arcadia's population exceeds the 3.5 billion mark!", etc. It seems that they are published by the editorial department or the news department in order to complete the performance. Column report.
But Shirley just wanted to relax and kill some time, so she read them one by one with great interest.
remains?
It wasn't until more than ten minutes later that she discovered a report about ruins built by non-human beings.
The title is "Non-man-made ruins discovered in the Methrine Colony, and an archaeological team led by Lara Croft is excavating."
Click in and take a look.
The photo at the top of the column is an aerial view of the excavation site.
The photo shows two tall metal pillars with dark gray outer walls, standing in a lawn clearing in a dense forest.
The high pillar is like a long rectangular block, inserted vertically into the ground. If you look closely at the outer wall of the high pillar, there are regular gaps where green light overflows.
Engineers wearing orange exoskeletons, as well as the latest SCVs and engineering vehicles, set up a temporary camp near the high pillar.
The excavation has just begun, but it has already been discovered that there seems to be a larger metal facility beneath the surface.
After reading to the end, the editor of this column also reminded his colleagues, especially the intelligence agents scattered everywhere, to pay attention to whether the colonies also have similar ancient ruins.
"..."
Shirley frowned slightly after reading the report.
It is not surprising to find ancient ruins on the earth, but if they are found on a colonial planet, it means that the alien race that built the ruins perished and disappeared for some reason.
The company allowed reporting on the ruins of Methrein to make all employees pay attention to their respective jurisdictions.
'After arriving at Epsom D, let's conduct a secret investigation. '
Shirley thought to herself.
Swipe the screen to exit the column. The content below is filled with trivial matters, interspersed with welfare policies that the company has just announced or updated.
The most mentioned thing is still "having more children".
Shirley didn't pay much attention to this, and she wouldn't think about it for the time being.
However, the population explosion that has lasted for more than half a century shows that the ideas of her and a small number of employees are contrary to the mainstream of the public.
Humanity's most advanced medical and biotechnologies have successfully increased the average life span, which is expected to be 185 to 200 years old.
If one is willing to spend significant additional money, lifespan can be further extended.
Despite this, most Umbrella employees, as well as the people under UEG, still choose to have more children.
After all, in the current society, words such as poverty, famine, and disease have almost disappeared, and resources are approaching infinite for human beings at this stage.
Thanks to the secret control of the White Empress and the government, prices and housing prices remain stable, so people are willing to enjoy high welfare policies while making humanity as a whole more prosperous and stronger.
After reading the recent reports, Shirley exited the homepage of the company's website and opened the information and archives.
After some operation, the holographic star map of the Milky Way was brought up.
I saw dense stars and notes marked by the company, making a miniature Milky Way with different lights appear directly above the fixed table.
Somewhat dazzling.
Then Shirley stretched out her left hand and placed it on the Orion cantilever "below" the Milky Way. She stretched her thumb and index finger outward to make a magnifying motion.
Soon, the star map was enlarged by Shirley to the territory involving human beings.
She made another fist with her left hand to switch the star map to a flat map, which was convenient for her to view, and brief text information was also displayed on both sides.
View with floor plan and brief information.
The human territory is an irregular circle with the solar system as the center and a radius of approximately 450 light years.
The star systems within the scope, as long as they have terrestrial planets that meet the conditions for terraforming, have been set foot on by humans.
The total number is 304.
Even galaxies without suitable planets have been developed into star system-level mines by UEG and Umbrella, or private companies with long-term cooperation with the government.
If all colony and mining star systems are included, the total number reaches 610, and this number changes every once in a while.
You must know that after Umbrella used UEG to unify the entire human race, it indirectly or forcibly abandoned most bad habits and developed some characteristics.
For example——
infrastructure.
The decades since mankind entered the interstellar era have been generally peaceful and stable, although there have been interludes such as colonists and Arcadia incidents.
With a good living environment and official support from UEG and Umbrella, humanity's infrastructure attributes have been completely stimulated.
Netizens also gave the title of "Infrastructure Maniac" to the engineering teams responsible for different projects.
Since human development, the total population has doubled several times, from 27 billion in 2042 to 93.4 billion today.
Even Arcadia, which was once on the edge of the territory and had a population of only 270 million, has now exceeded the 3.5 billion mark.
The unprecedented vastness of the territory, the fleet of behemoths, and the extreme prosperity of the society made mankind feel extremely proud.
But what the people don't understand is that Lone Wolf and Celtic's iron-blooded home planet have unknowingly become humans' "neighbors".
Shirley, who had inside information, knew that her superior, her uncle Sui Bian, planned for the next stage of humanity, including announcing that the Iron-Blooded Clan was an ally.
But she didn't know exactly how or when it would be announced.
However, she speculated that once an alien race is officially announced as an ally of mankind, then mankind will most likely fall into an interstellar war.
When she thought of a war of unpredictable magnitude that would break out in the future, Shirley couldn't help but sigh to herself:
"I hope peace can last for a while longer."
With that said, Shirley flicked her left hand to dissipate the holographic screen and put her computer in standby mode.
He glanced at the fault space outside the window, got up and left his seat, lay down on the bed and rested for a while.
Next, she will stay on the Punishment for nearly two days, and the jump voyage has just begun.
———————
...
Thirty-eight hours later.
Epperson VIII galaxy.
There are five planets orbiting a star slightly larger than the sun.
The first to fourth orbits are all terrestrial planets, and the fifth orbit is a gas giant planet with rings similar to Saturn.
And Shirley's upcoming destination, Epperson D, is in the fourth orbit of this galaxy.
Observed at locations tens of thousands of kilometers away.
The volume of Epperson D is almost one-third of the Earth, even smaller than Mercury in the solar system.
Although small, the surface of Epson d is extremely beautiful.
The supercontinent, named "Irene" by the colonists, occupies 70% of the surface area, with two low-salinity oceans covering the rest.
The continent is covered by vast grasslands and forests, with thousands of miles of plains and rolling low hills, as well as thousands of freshwater lakes.
A closer look inside the atmosphere.
Introduced animals can be seen everywhere in freshwater lakes and forests, enriching and improving the ecosystem.
Epsom d does not have the metropolitan areas of Arcadia, Reach or other colonial planets, but towns populated by tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of people, scattered across a supercontinent called "Irene".
On the outskirts of one of the towns near the ocean are orchards and vegetable gardens where various fruits and vegetables are grown, and pastures where different livestock are raised.
The most amazing thing is the seemingly endless golden wheat fields and fertile cultivated land for growing other crops.
People drive farming machines and harvest the ripe grains slowly.
Feel the warm breeze blowing through you.
Listen to the intermittent chirping of cicadas in the distance.
The slow pace of pastoral life makes people involuntarily relax their minds. The comfortable environment makes people want to lie down in the fields and take a nap.
Not only this seaside town, but all the towns on Epsom D are similar, with almost no heavy industrial factories.
Food, pastoral, and abundant are the labels of Epperson D.
The earth's gravity is 0.998 times, the atmospheric pressure is 1.02 times, the length of a day is about 23 hours, and a year is 312 earth days. The lowest temperature on the earth's surface is also maintained above 12℃...
A series of excellent conditions, etc., have made Epson D one of the most productive and stable "granaries".
Therefore, in addition to the official name Epperson D, "she" is also called the "Harvest Star".
Shirley chose this place as her new working place, partly to help the company train new employees, but her main motivation was also the beautiful environment of Harvest Star.
The "flavor" of Mars Heavy Industry was too strong, and she had never been out of the solar system that much, so she applied to be the head of the Harvest Star's intelligence department.
The capital of Harvest Star is Ordgar, located in the center of Erin Continent and home to 400,000 people.
The biggest difference from other towns is that Ordega has an "orbital elevator" that really breaks through the sky.
The end of the elevator.
It is a large-scale transportation hub station that is consistent with the rotation speed of the Harvest Star.
More than a dozen cargo ships and cruise ships are anchored in the peripheral ports of the hub.
Cargo and passengers can enter and exit the ship more quickly and conveniently through the orbital elevator.
now.
The Punishment, which had just left the fault space, adjusted the direction of the ship's bow as the jump exit dissipated, and slowly approached the hub station.
Finally, it was parked in the exclusive port, the mechanical arm was fixed, and the corridor bridge was extended to connect with the ship body for Shirley and others to leave the Punishment.
