Location: Deep Bunker Control Room
A cold blue light spilled from the screen, and the words [Human Eradication Progress: 99.7%] burned into everyone's retinas like a red-hot branding iron. The air froze, leaving only heavy breathing and the chattering of teeth.
'Bullshit!' Lei Zhen's roar echoed like thunder. His eyes were bloodshot, and the scars on his face twisted grotesquely. He swung the fire axe in his hand, ready to smash the control console emitting the ominous blue light! 'Earth wants to kill us? I'll destroy this damn thing first!'
"Old Lei! Stop!" Chen Yan's voice was hoarse yet carried an unwavering authority. He leaned on his cane, took a step forward, and used his body to block the space between Lei Zhen and the screen. The cold metal of the cane pressed against his palm, forcing his chaotic mind to gather a thread of clarity. "If you smash it, what about the people on the Iron Dome?!"
Lei Zhen's axe hung mid-air. His chest heaved violently, and the rage in his eyes nearly boiled over, but Chen Yan's words poured a bucket of ice water over his seething hatred. He glared at the cold text on the screen, then looked at Chen Yan's twisted leg, a symbol of the brutal reality on the ground. Finally, he growled like a beast through clenched teeth and swung the axe violently at the metal wall beside him, sending sparks flying.
On the other side, Lin Lu seemed to have been drained of all her strength, slowly sliding down the cold wall until she sat on the ground. She hugged her knees, her body trembling slightly, her vacant eyes fixed on the metal patterns on the floor. 'Clear... repair... virus...' she muttered absentmindedly. As a doctor, she understood the meaning of "purification" in nature all too well. 'Those greens... aren't plagues... they're... cures? We're the... source of the disease?' Her worldview was crumbling, her voice filled with self-doubt and overwhelming fear.
The pillar and the other team members were pale-faced, their eyes filled with despair as if the end of the world had come. Was the enemy the planet beneath their feet? How could this battle be fought?
"Listen up!" Chen Yan spun around abruptly, slamming his cane onto the metal floor with a piercing clang. He forced himself to stand straight, his gaze as fierce as that of a wounded yet still savage alpha wolf, sweeping over the terrified and despairing faces. 'No matter what agreement it is, no matter what it wants to do! It killed our people! It wants to turn us all into trees! Into fertiliser for its garden! That's enough!'
His voice echoed in the deathly silent control room, carrying a ruthless determination:
'Iron Dome is still up there! Lin Lu's wounded! Old Lei's brothers! Zhuzi, your families! They're still waiting! Waiting to be torn apart and assimilated by those green monsters! We don't have time to break down here!'
He pointed at the cold numbers on the screen: 'Look closely! Ecological restoration rate: 82%! It's not finished yet! This is our chance!' His gaze was sharp as a knife, piercing through the gloom of despair. 'This place,' he stomped his foot, 'is our fortress! And our only hope!'
'Old Lei!' Chen Yan's voice was firm and decisive.
Lei Zhen suddenly looked up, the chaos in his eyes replaced by a familiar, almost self-destructive ferocity: 'Present!'
'Take your men! Monkey, Column, and any brothers who can handle a gun and are willing to risk their lives!' Chen Yan spoke rapidly, leaving no room for doubt. 'Mission: Find this place's armoury! Ammunition depot! Or anything that can explode! Then, from here,' he pointed to a heavy airtight door marked 'Emergency Maintenance Access' in the corner of the control room, 'get us back to the surface!' "
"Go back?!" Zhuzi exclaimed, his face drained of colour.
"I'm not sending you to your deaths!" Chen Yan interrupted him, his eyes burning as he stared at Lei Zhen, "It's a feint! It's a diversion! Make as much noise as you can! Use the biggest fireworks you can find and throw them into the lair of those tree monsters! Lure their main force away from the Iron Dome! As far as you can! As long as you can!"
Lei Zhen instantly understood Chen Yan's intent. This was trading lives for time! A suicide squad! His facial muscles twitched, making the scar on his face look even more menacing. He hesitated not a moment, spitting out a mouthful of blood-tinged saliva. His eyes blazed with near-madness: "Understood! I'll chew them to pieces with my teeth if I have to! Open the door for me!"
"Lin Lu!" Chen Yan turned to the dazed female doctor.
Lin Lu jolted awake, lifting her head in confusion.
'Snap out of it!' Chen Yan's voice carried an unyielding sternness. "Your battlefield isn't here! Take your people, all the technicians, and those hard drive data boards! Immediately organise all non-combatants—the wounded, women, children! Find this bunker's transport system! Elevators! Trolleys! Anything that moves! Retreat to the deeper, safer core area! Establish a new base, call it "Ark"! Your mission is to save their lives! To study that data! To find that damn 'loophole'! Do you understand?!"
Chen Yan's words snapped Lin Lu back to reality like a whip. She looked into Chen Yan's eyes, which burned with a reckless intensity, and thought of the wounded waiting to be treated on the Iron Dome. A heavy sense of responsibility overwhelmed her fear. She bit her lower lip hard, tasting the metallic taste of blood, then stood up abruptly, her gaze refocused with the resolve of a healer: 'Understood! The Ark… I will build it! The data… I will figure it out even if it kills me!'
'The rest of you!' Chen Yan's gaze swept over the remaining team members, "Assist Dr. Lin with the evacuation! Secure the supplies! Especially those black boxes (hard drives)! Not a single one can be lost! Move quickly! We don't have time!"
Divide and conquer!
The control room suddenly sprang into action like a tightly wound spring.
Lei Zhen, along with the suicide squad members, violently pried open the maintenance passage door with a tragic fervour. The passageway was filled with a musty odour and unknown dangers. They soon found a surprise in a warehouse marked 'Security Equipment' deep within the passageway: several dusty but fully functional exoskeleton armour prototypes, several oddly shaped energy rifles with blue-tinged muzzles, and boxes of high-explosive directional explosives and concussion grenades! Lei Zhen laughed maniacally as he donned the exoskeleton, its heavy mechanical arms humming with hydraulic pressure. 'Brothers! Gear up! Let those tree-skin bastards taste the might of high-tech!' Like caged beasts injected with adrenaline, they climbed the maintenance shaft's ladder frame with destructive gear, determined to unleash a cataclysmic chaos.
As for Chen Yan and Lin Lu, they headed to the control room below, where they discovered the buried transport hub. The massive track platform was rusty, but once the power was connected, the blue indicator lights began to glow one after another. Lin Lu demonstrated remarkable organisational skills, directing the crowd to board the track platform vehicles in a tense yet orderly manner. The injured were carefully placed on stretchers and secured, children clung tightly to their mothers' skirts, and technicians held onto boxes containing data boards and important documents. Chen Yan stood at the front of the platform car, responsible for surveillance and command. He glanced one last time at the blue light on the control room screen, [Ecological Restoration Rate: 82%], then pressed the start button with force. The heavy track vehicle emitted a low rumble as it slowly began to move, carrying the remnants of humanity's flame into the deeper, more unknown darkness.
On the ground, the outer defence line of the Iron Dome. It was already twilight, and the deep green mist, like the gaping maw of a living creature, had already swallowed most of the wasteland, less than a hundred metres from the second steel defence line. The massive 'Giant Tree Man' carcass moved with heavy steps, each impact causing the thick steel plates to emit a piercing, distorted groan. Burning with eerie green flames, the wooden spikes fell like rain. The defenders on the line were filled with exhaustion and despair, their ammunition nearly depleted.
Suddenly!
Behind the tide of corpses and the mutated forest, deep within the withered forest shrouded in deep green mist!
'BOOM!!! RUMBLE!!!'
A blinding, unnatural blue-white energy beam suddenly tore through the thick green mist! Immediately followed by a series of deafening explosions! These were not ordinary gunpowder explosions, but the shrill screech of energy weapons overloading and the dull roar of high-explosive directed blasts! The blinding flashes and shockwaves briefly dispersed part of the green mist, revealing the shattered, writhing vines and burning wooden structures within!
The zombie horde and mutated creatures besieging the Iron Dome suddenly halted their advance! Even the slow-moving 'giant tree people' stopped in their tracks, their hollow eye sockets flickering violently with green spores, as if receiving a new, more intense threat signal! The entire edge of the deep green 'forest' began to writhe and shift violently! Like an enraged swarm of bees, they abandoned the Iron Dome before them and surged toward the source of the explosions and energy beams—the deathly fireworks display created by Lei Zhen and his team!
The pressure on the Iron Dome defence line suddenly eased!
'Is... is it Yan Ge and the others?!' the surviving observer on the lookout tower shouted hoarsely, his eyes blazing with disbelief.
Deep underground, the embryonic form of the 'Ark' base.
The orbital vehicle docked in an underground space far larger than the upper control room. The area was brightly lit (emergency power), with massive ecological systems crisscrossing the dome, emitting a low hum. On one side were neatly arranged hibernation pods (some operational), while the other side housed dusty laboratories filled with instruments and central database terminals.
Lin Lu directed the crowd to quickly settle the injured and set up a temporary medical station. She immediately rushed to the central database terminal and inserted a black data board into the interface. The screen lit up, and a massive, dizzying stream of data began to scroll. Her fingers flew across the dusty control panel, her gaze focused to the point of madness, searching for any trace of the 'assessment-correction' subprogram.
Chen Yan, leaning on a cane, stood before the newly constructed makeshift command console (a metal table and several monitors). One screen displayed a split-screen view of the sudden drop in pressure around the Iron Dome (captured by a surviving hidden camera), while another showed the cold, analytical report on the execution logic of the 'Gaia Protocol' that Lin Lu had retrieved from the database.
His leg, the twisted, poorly fixed broken limb, began to emit waves of excruciating itching and stinging pain upon entering this space. He looked down and, under the light, was horrified to discover that through the gaps in the bandages, a faint, deep green fluorescence—like the veins of new leaves—was seeping through!
The price had already been paid. Time was counting down by the second.
Chen Yan raised his head, his gaze piercing through the bustling crowd to the slender figure struggling in the sea of data in the laboratory, then to the glaring [82%] on the screen. He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white from the force.
Lei Zhen was burning his life to gain time, Lin Lu was searching for a glimmer of light in the ruins of knowledge, and he must lead this lone vessel named 'Ark' through the towering waves of the planet's will, seeking that nearly non-existent path to survival.
The Ark has set sail. Is it heading toward deeper darkness or a faint dawn? The answer lies in the constantly fluctuating repair rate and the data flowing from Lin Lu's fingertips.