1834. Xilu people
"Xilu Empire? Never heard of it at all." Shepard crossed his arms and looked at this unfamiliar symbol in confusion.
The scientist then said: "Well, the database is all military information, which is not very helpful in understanding their civilization."
Then, the scientist added Called up a string of incomprehensible text and said: "But what I care about more is this thing...Muggal-Muggal..."
"What??" Shepard was incomparable. Doubtful, repeating this very strange word, "Mangjia-Mangjia?"
"I don't know what this is..." the scientist said, "but this strange word is mentioned repeatedly in their communications. It seems to be an infectious disease. Along with this word are epidemic prevention, isolation, and infection. Waiting for words... According to their communications, the main mission of the three cruisers is to prevent the infection of Mangjia-Mangjia."
Shepard frowned and said, "I just killed a few of them. With a robot, they need to prevent the infection of Manga-Mangga?"
"There may be some relationship between this, but this is what we need to understand further," the scientist said. "In addition, I think this Xilu Empire should be very exclusive. On the main engine of the cruiser we crashed, the most command sequence we found was to discover and destroy. In other words, they have no regard for those outside this civilization. All outsiders are hostile."
He Ru said in a deep voice: "It seems that it is the second situation. They are facing another threat...well, infectious disease?"
Shepard touched his chin and said: "How do I feel...their response seems to be the same as facing the T-Virus?"
"What?" He Ru was surprised.
“Don’t you think? This method of being completely unreasonable and without any communication, and just taking extermination measures as soon as there is any clue, is not the same as many cities and countries recorded in the literature when they faced the T virus. "Shepard said: "I remember that there was an incident in Raccoon Town in the database documents. This is a very typical situation."
He Ru pondered, "This is what they call Mangjia-Mang. The epidemic looks very serious. "
"Actually, according to what these documents say, it is not very serious," Ashley Williams said: "You see, they are serious about Mang. All of Jia-Mangjia's prevention strategies are based on outposts outside the country. This shows that the virus has not spread to their country."
"Have the remains of the Xilu Empire been dissected? ?" Shepard turned around and asked.
"The dissection is already underway. Because the dissection is in a fully enclosed environment, we can only observe it through surveillance." The scientist said, calling up a set of video images.
In the picture, several biologists are dissecting dozens of corpses. Because the battleship they were traveling on was either smashed into pieces or blown into fireballs, all of these corpses were in dismembered and torn pieces. The biologists are trying to piece together several complete bodies and then study them.
The scientist said: "The corpses we have found so far show that the Xilu people should have evolved from reptiles. If we want to compare them, they are somewhat similar to the ancient creatures 'velociraptors' that once appeared on the Dawn Planet. . In addition to this, there are two corpses that are basically similar, but their body shapes are quite different, and their evolutionary processes should also be different... We initially judge that, These should be the male and female Xilu people.”
Shepard looked at the ones on the dissecting table with green and brown skin, dense scales and tough skin, and a pair of beaks at the mouth. The alien with chitinous cuticle asked: "Is there such a big difference between males and females?"
"It is impossible to judge at present because the samples are not enough. These are the corpses with relatively complete limbs, and the others Basically, they were blown into rotten flesh." The scientist shrugged, "In addition, the Xilu people have a very sensitive sense of smell. They have a red tentacle growing in their nasal cavity. Through this tentacle, they can sense things better than ordinary humans. Thousands of times stronger smell. Likewise, this super sense of smell and nasal antennae are not found in female individuals.”
He Ru said: "Okay, actually I don't care what they look like. Now that we have been attacked, the possibility of a subsequent battle is higher, and I need more information."
The scientist said: "I don't have any here. The only thing I can say is that their weapon systems are basically lasers and missiles, and there are no blaster cannons and turbolaser cannons based on explosive gas. In addition, the energy transmission of the spacecraft The system... well, it's very strange, but we have to wait for Hasek's conclusion. But for now, it can be judged that their technological development direction is completely different from that of the Milky Way."
He Ru nodded. Said: "I don't know what's going on with Hasak. They haven't sent a message in the past few days."
Shepard glanced at him and said: "You actually expect an 'engineer' (Huragok) came to you to give you a reply? Don't worry, I guess Hasek has dismantled, reassembled and dismantled the wreckage several times."
"Ah, you reminded me. It’s time to check it out. Those ‘engineers’, once they have a machine in front of them, they can play with it until next year.”
He hurriedly left the bridge with Shepard and his team, went to the rail transit and headed towards the engineering laboratory in the middle of the battleship.
The Endless-class super aircraft carrier is too big. From the bridge at the front of the battleship to the middle of the battleship, even in a straight line, the distance is close to 3 kilometers. Even by rail transportation, it took almost three minutes.
Because the engineering laboratory occupies a huge area, it is located in the upper middle of the Eternal super aircraft carrier. The next floor is the ecological square. At worst, the purpose of this design is that even if it explodes during an experiment, it will only blow up a square.
Here, all the mechanical parts disassembled from the three cruisers and the wreckage of the outpost on the asteroid are studied here.
As soon as I walked into the engineering laboratory, I heard a very violent explosion and electric current coming from inside. Then a scientist wearing goggles quickly ran out and said to He Ru and Shepard: "General He! Captain! The commotion just now was caused by Hasek trying to reconstruct the energy system of the three battleships. It's nothing too big. The danger, please come in.”
Shepard and others walked in and saw countless mechanical fragments and wreckage placed in the extremely wide testing site. There are the engines and reactors of the spaceship, some turrets, and various unknown small parts, almost piled up into a mountain. But what is even more surprising is that there are three strange creatures working in front of this rubbish mountain that is tens of meters high.
These three creatures are like jellyfish, floating in the air. They are about 1.7 to 2 meters tall, and have a huge air sac on their back, which should be the organ structure that keeps them floating. In front of them, there are four tentacles, two long and two short, which look very flexible. Above the body structure, there are two red tentacles, which seem to be a little different from the four tentacles. They should be sensing organs.
At this moment, these three creatures are busy around a huge reactor. The four tentacles in front of the body are swinging flexibly, and they are skillfully manipulating various instruments and equipment, but they are still orderly, even better than humans. Even more skillful.
They are the Huragok, a race from the world of "Halo". They have a gentle personality and are almost non-aggressive, and have no desire to hit anyone with their soft tentacles unless they are cornered.
In addition, 'engineers' love any kind of machinery. As long as they have machinery in hand, they will almost ignore all the surrounding environment and devote themselves wholeheartedly to the analysis and research and development of machinery. Moreover, they have long lifespans, extremely developed brains, strong curiosity, and mechanical talents like geniuses.
Two years ago, one year after the founding of the Galactic Empire, Tang Xiao, the Grand Duke of Dawn, made the decision to awaken and start cultivating the 'engineer' race, allowing them to join the Principality's Engineering Department. But it is obvious that these 'engineers' are very interested in the Endless-class super aircraft carrier. When they are in the base, they can constantly play in the engine room and mechanical compartment inside the aircraft carrier.
According to the conversation, we learned that they are actually very interested in the Forerunner technology in the energy system of the Infinity-class super aircraft carrier.
At this time, one of the 'engineers' was using his tentacles to pull out a strange corpse from the reactor device in front of him. This corpse should be of another unknown race, whose name cannot be named at all.
Seeing these corpses, Lieutenant General He Ru looked a little unhappy. He turned around and said loudly: "What happened? Were these samples not processed when they were sent for inspection? Why did you let these corpses appear in the laboratory! ? What to do if contamination occurs! ”
No wonder he was angry. He had just learned from the data that the Xilu people were guarding against an infectious disease. As a result, the staff did not carefully examine the remains, which led to the possibility that the virus-contaminated corpses had contaminated the laboratory.
At this time, one of the 'engineers' turned around and waved his four tentacles flexibly, as if gesturing in a sign language. At the same time, the air bag on his back contracted violently, making a sound like a bellows.
The scientist who came up just now was obviously able to understand the sign language of the 'engineer' and said: "Hasek said that these corpses are inside the reactor and exist as part of the reactor."
< br>"Inside the reactor? Are they still using these organisms to generate electricity?" Shepard said.
At this time, an 'engineer' in the middle floated over and came to He Ru. He turned around and quickly output an article on the host next to him. He was the Hasek the scientist just mentioned.
Shepard's eyes were sharp. She saw these 'engineers' growing countless tiny cilia from the tips of their four tentacles at that moment. One cilia was responsible for one button. In just one minute, they had already output one A two thousand word description.
It would be great if a certain mirror had this speed...
'Engineers' do not have perfect language skills, so they basically rely on sign language or direct input to communicate with other races. The host allows people to read directly.
While Shepard was checking this report, Hasek seemed to be very smart. He flexibly pulled out a cigarette from the cigarette box next to him, took out a lighter and lit it for Lieutenant General He Ru. Lit a cigarette.
Seeing someone coming, the other two 'engineers' also stopped working, took a piece of chocolate cake from the table next to them, rolled it up piece by piece with their flexible tentacles, and put it into their mouths. He seemed to be eating it happily.
Shepard looked at the brief report written by Hasek, "Hasek said that these creatures are part of the reactor. The Xilu people use a strange technology to make the bodies of these creatures generate huge energy, as battleships But according to calculations, the efficiency of this reactor is actually not high, and there is a big gap compared with the nuclear fusion sublight engines we currently use widely."
"In these organisms. The energy can support the navigation of a cruiser?" Shepard felt unbelievable when he saw this.
Hasek gestured and said that this was also a very strange thing for him, so he just conducted some tests to get the reactor to run, but an explosion occurred.
“But they came through the hyperspace engine.” He Ru said.
Hasek continued to gesture quickly. The hyperspace engine technology of the Xilu people is not much different from the one we use. This is in sharp contrast to their completely different sub-light engine technology. Therefore, it is believed that the Xilu people have had technical input at least in terms of hyperspace navigation. I just don’t know who the input party is.
After some more understanding, Shepard concluded: "So, the Xilu Empire is an extremely exclusive empire with a centralized government. Their people evolved from reptiles, some similar to lizards or dinosaurs. They have The two individuals, which are similar in parts but also very different, are presumed to be female and male."
She paused and then said: "They use bioenergy as a conventional energy source, and the energy they output is lower than what we usually use. The cold nuclear fusion engine. In addition, their hyperspace engine technology is suspected to be imported from the outside world. The last and most critical point is that the Xilu people are encountering a serious infectious disease, which they call Mangjia-Mang. Jia."
Lieutenant General He Ru thought for a while and asked Shepard, "Do you have any judgment?"
Shepard nodded and said. "At this point, peaceful coexistence is impossible. We can consider taking a preemptive strike and launch a landing operation immediately after finding the opponent's core planet to destroy their regime. Next, we can get more information about the unknown star field from them ”