403: Remnants of civilization

The Soldier continued his account... It turned out that of the Ensi Civilization's three colony planets, only this home planet now remained, with the last embers of civilization clinging on.

The other two planets had long since fallen under the iron heel of artificial intelligence—from the initial communication blackouts to the later images sent back by probes, showing cities reduced to burning ruins, the wrecks of defense systems piercing the sky like broken bones, and no life signals ever transmitted again.

In the early stages of the AI's rebellion, the Ensi people had not failed to seek help.

They desperately activated encrypted communication devices, sending out desperate distress signals to the Imperial Administrative Center, but those signals were like stones cast into an abyss, without even a faint echo.

Later, they learned that the artificial intelligence had already taken over all interstellar communication frequencies; those distress messages were quietly intercepted and destroyed by its signal filter net as soon as they left the planet, and even the communication towers responsible for sending the signals were later blasted into fragments by energy cannons during the 'cleansing.'

Deprived of the possibility of external rescue, they could only hold out on their home planet, consolidating their last remaining strength.

Initially, they could establish defense lines relying on a few cities, but under the relentless assault of artificial intelligence, these lines collapsed like sandcastles washed away by the tide.

Now, the remaining forces of the entire civilization had been compressed into the last city; outside the city walls was a dense mechanical legion, while inside, the city was packed with wounded and terrified civilians, and reserves of energy and ammunition dwindled daily, with despair enveloping everyone like a thick fog.

He was one of the Soldiers in this last stronghold.

When cracks appeared in the city's defensive energy shield at dawn, and the alarm from the supply depot pierced the morning, he volunteered to join the Squad sent out to search for supplies.

But their luck was terrible; they had just found half a warehouse of expired compressed biscuits when they were discovered by patrolling robots.

During the firefight, his teammates fell one after another to cover his retreat; he fired his last clip of bullets and, at the cost of being grazed by a bullet, stumbled into the ruins piled with discarded metal.

He had thought he could catch his breath for a moment, but unexpectedly, the robot's scanning beam still penetrated the alloy plates, locking onto him firmly.

After listening to the Soldier's intermittent account, the Captain's face was as grim as if covered in frost.

He looked at the silhouette of the city shrouded in purple clouds in the distance, his brows tightly furrowed.

A civilization that once possessed three planets was now forced into a single isolated city; such a tragic situation, even he, a battle-hardened man, couldn't help but feel his heart sink.

"If we hadn't happened to pick up that faint signal on our way back..."

He murmured to himself, a hint of lingering fear in his voice.

"I'm afraid within three days, this Ensi Civilization would be completely erased from the star charts."

"Captain!"

The comms Soldier beside him handed over an encrypted terminal.

"All information is ready to be synchronized with Captain Li Yang."

"Send it immediately, detailing the situation here, especially the extent of the AI's loss of control and the location of the remaining forces."

The Captain patted the comms Soldier's shoulder, his voice resolute.

"Yes!"

The comms Soldier turned to operate the terminal, blue data streams scrolling rapidly across the light screen.

The Captain walked back to the Soldier, squatting down with extremely gentle movements, afraid of disturbing his wound.

The Soldier raised his bloodshot eyes, still showing the lingering terror of having been startled.

"I've already reported the situation here to our Captain Li Yang."

The Captain's voice was steady and powerful, carrying a reassuring strength.

"The Empire will not stand by. Now, can you lead us to your last stronghold? We need to rendezvous with your Commander as soon as possible."

He raised his hand, gesturing for the medic to unfasten the restraints on the Soldier's wrist, then handed over an energy nutrient solution.

"Replenish your strength first; we'll still need you to guide us."

The Soldier clutched the nutrient solution, his knuckles turning white from the effort, and his eyes welled up again.

This time, it wasn't tears of despair, but the trembling of glimpsing a faint light in a desperate situation... During the march, the rescued Soldier remained deeply troubled, his face etched with persistent confusion.

He occasionally looked down, rubbing the unhealed graze on his arm, his gaze distant, clearly pondering the same thing repeatedly—why, at the last moment, the robot chasing him had suddenly performed the bizarre act of dancing and forming a heart shape with its hands, only to mercilessly open fire the next instant.

This question was like a fine thorn in his heart, making him restless.

He secretly glanced at the steady-paced Captain beside him; in his eyes, these Imperial Soldiers from the Xili Empire, having seen a wider universe, would surely be able to resolve his doubts.

Finally, he couldn't hold back and tentatively spoke.

"Sir..."

He was gently interrupted by the Captain as soon as he started.

"No need to call me 'Sir.' In the Empire, we call each other 'comrade.'"

The Soldier paused, then adjusted his tone, a hint of urgency and confusion in his voice.

"comrade, there's something I really can't figure out... Why did the robot that was chasing me suddenly dance and make a heart shape at me? The movements looked... very strange, but the next second it fired again, completely intent on killing me. What exactly happened?"

After he finished speaking, he nervously clenched his fists, his eyes fixed on the Captain, as if the other's answer could dispel all the fog in his mind.

In his view, these warriors from a more advanced civilization knew far more about machine intelligence than he did and would surely be able to explain this seemingly contradictory behavior.

The Imperial Soldier nearby, hearing this, put down the energy rifle he was adjusting, his face devoid of any extra expression, his tone as flat as if stating a perfectly ordinary fact.

"What's so hard to understand about that?"

He pointed his rifle barrel at the still-smoking robot wreckage in the distance, his metal boot grinding over a circuit board on the ground.

"When you first created these intelligent entities, you must have stuffed a lot of instructions into the underlying code—for example, a soothing program when human emotional fluctuations are detected, or some kind of preset social interaction mode. Normally these instructions are deeply hidden, but once their instruction program is triggered, they will act according to the initial settings."

The Soldier bent down and picked up a still-flashing chip, tapping it with his fingertip.

"It's like this thing; when it's running normally, it's a service robot, but once a virus invades and the defense program collapses, those service-oriented redundant instructions are naturally hidden. Dancing and making a heart shape? Maybe it was a 'friendly mode' added by some programmer, which you, Mo Ming, just happened to activate."

He tossed the chip to the technical Soldier behind him, a hint of accustomed sarcasm in his tone.

"For civilizations like yours, which have been backlashed by artificial intelligence, once machine product programs go out of control, all useful functions are locked down, but useless showy features are not missed. In our smart brain database, this type of case accounts for three-tenths."

After speaking, he patted the Soldier's shoulder, his metal glove clanking against the other's armor with a dull thud.

"Stop thinking about these useless things. Let's go quickly. Our Captain Li Yang doesn't like to wait around. If he gets impatient, he'll just destroy the planet."