Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Chapter 267: Memory Theft

I was looking at something akin to a world constructed of computers, but unlike the computers on Blue, the computers here looked like floating liquids of monstrous proportions. On the surface of the silvery white liquid were countless flickering symbols. I believed that those symbols were the programming language used for the bulk of this control center.

Various lines of code floated in the air, occupying the majority of the space in the floating building. Numerous flying robots were around them, moving around busily. It looked like they were performing maintenance and upgrades on the entire system.

"What is this? What is this floating code? I can't even see a single ventilation duct. Also, this does not look like a structure needing ventilation ducts," asked Zhang Bao'er through the communicator.

"It's working hours, so all the code will be exposed. After working hours, the lines of code will retreat into their respective hardware. That will be the time for us to make our move," answered Big Forest.

"And how long is the working hours of this machine?" asked Old Du.

"Every eight hours, the code will return to recharge. These flying robots are moving downward. I think they're at the end of a shift," answered Big Forest.

I noticed that Little Forest was pressed against the window, paying close attention to something.

"Little Forest, what are you looking for? Did you notice some of your fellow Sacred Wings?" I asked cautiously.

"I'm looking for route maintenance robots. They are the ones most familiar with the routes in this base," answered Little Forest without even looking back at me.

"You intend to capture one and have it lead us to the entrance?" I asked.

"Yes. These robots are basically walking maps. Of course, we need to put one under control before we can make use of it," said Little Forest.

"What do they look like? I can help you with searching," I offered.

"They look like some sort of flatworm. They generally move by slithering on the ground. Let me know if you see any," said Little Forest.

I kept my eyes wide as I started looking around. Big Forest seemed to have heard our conversation, and he lowered the speed of the ship, letting us search around better.

Suddenly, a flying robot stopped in front of us and started flashing red lights at us.

"Little Forest, have you found your target? We need to move at a certain speed when in here, or we'll be deported," said Big Forest.

"The external code is swelling too much. The ground is completely covered. I can't find the crawling robots," said Little Forest.

I suddenly noticed a single flying robot in the air. With two arms, it was carrying a robot that looked like a flatworm. With the additional burden, it seemed to be having some difficulty flying as it ebbed up and down in the air.

"Little Forest, look at that thing being carried in the air. Is that the route maintenance robot you mentioned?" I asked.

Little Forest looked at where I was pointing and nodded in confirmation.

"How should we catch it?" I asked.

"Big Forest, move the ship 40 degrees to the right. Target found. You may increase the speed," said Little Forest. I could feel our ship accelerating, and shortly after, we were near our target.

The flying robot warning us earlier saw that we had accelerated and left, and it no longer paid attention to us.

"Little Forest, the door is open," said Big Forest.

Little Forest walked to the entrance and said to the flying robot, "Where are the two of you going? I can give you a lift."

The flying robot painstakingly moving forward heard the offer. It immediately turned and flew into our ship. The moment the two robots entered, Big Forest closed the door. Then, it joined the other ships and started flying deeper into the base. We were absolutely stunned at what we had just witnessed. It was so utterly simple yet impressive.

The flying robot showed no hesitation as it tossed the route maintenance robot onto the ground and sat down to rest. It seemed to have been assigned the task of transporting the route maintenance robot, and it was evidently disgruntled at having to carry such a heavy burden. It was even making a sound akin to someone panting.

Even more surprisingly, Little Forest ignored the two robots and returned to his seat silently. He had a confident look on his face, as though everything was perfectly under control. We couldn't understand what the two Forests were doing so we went back to our seats. The Eternal guard armors had covered our looks well; the flying robot did not seem to have noticed our origins.

Soon, our ship was steered away from the area of swelling physical lines of code and was flown into an unloading area. Below us was a large platform where numerous ships were in the process of unloading the supplies they had been tasked to transport.

The flying robot finally noticed that the ship it had boarded wasn't heading to its destination. The smart robot immediately stood up and made some creaking sounds. Our translators had surprisingly failed to translate the language spoken by this robot.

"What is this fellow talking about?" said Zhang Bao'er, who had finally lost his patience.

"It's asking why we aren't heading to its destination," answered Little Forest. He took out a black bottle from his pocket and handed it to the flying robot. He also took out a second bottle for the maintenance robot on the ground.

The two robots appeared pleased by the gifts. They impatiently opened the bottles and finished the drink in them.

"What beverage did you give them?" I asked.

"A smart robot's favorite beverageengine oil. This brand of engine oil is the favorite of all smart robots. It's like a regular person liking an intense liquor," said Little Forest.

Even as we spoke, I saw the two robots slumping on the ground, falling unconscious.

"My god. This engine oil is so intense that they're drunk already?" exclaimed Zhang Bao'er.

"That's because I added some strengtheners to the oil. Otherwise, we will probably need to feed each of them 10 bottles to make them drunk," said Little Forest.

He stood up and walked to the cockpit door before knocking on it. With that signal, Big Forest had the ship hover above the unloading zone and walked out of the cockpit.

"It's your turn next," said Little Forest in a carefree manner, as though this was an operation they had rehearsed countless times.

He then moved to sit the maintenance robot straight, struggling while doing so. Two probes were taken out of his pocket and inserted into each of the two unconscious robots. Next, from the control panel in the command room, he pressed a button that caused a black installation that looked like a miniature radar to appear. It seemed to be the device he would use to interpret the data the probes were collecting.

Big Forest started typing rapidly on the control panel. After Little Forest was done with his work, he went up and helped. The rest of us were watching silently in confusion as the two worked. About 10 minutes later, Big Forest removed the two probes.

"Data retrieval complete. Parts of their memories have been erased as well," Big Forest said to Little Forest.

"Open the door. Don't wait until they wake up," said Little Forest decisively.

Big Forest did as told and opened the door of the ship.

"You, and you, throw them out," Little Forest unhesitatingly ordered Ada and Anxashe.

The two were still completely clueless as to what the two Forests were doing, but they obeyed nevertheless. Each of them lifted a robot and tossed them out of the ship. I hurriedly looked outside the window and saw that of the two falling robots, the first to wake from the drop was the flying robot. It flipped its body quickly and adjusted its posture. It threw itself at the maintenance robot. After grabbing the maintenance robot, it resumed its journey to its earlier destination as though none of the earlier events had happened.

"How did you erase their memories?" asked Old Du curiously.

"Big Forest altered that part of their memories into a dream, convincing them that they had fallen asleep on the job," said Little Forest.

"What? Robots need sleep? Would they really dream, then?" Zhang Bao'er asked a question of no importance.

But since Zhang Bao'er was the one asking the question, he was summarily ignored by Little Forest. Meanwhile, Big Forest was still busy typing away on the control panel, interpreting the extracted data. A few minutes later, Big Forest looked up, let out a long sigh, and slowly said, "I found the entrance to the ventilation system."

"That's great! Why are you sighing?" asked Zhang Bao'er. We also wanted to know why he was sighing.

Big Forest said helplessly, "Because the entrance to the duct is on the outer ring of the physical lines of code. To reach it, we need to open the door to the outer ring."

"Is that very hard?" asked Old Du.

"The outer ring has a temperature as high as 1,000 degrees. All of us will be cooked alive," replied Big Forest. There was nothing I could say to that.

"A thousand degrees? I believe our morph-capable suits can resist it, albeit with some difficulty, right?" said Old Du.

"But Ada and our two high-civilization friends won't be able to enter. We might need to redraw our entire plan to adjust for that," I said.