The universe outside the Planetary Veil was a void of absolute, terrifying silence.
Terra-Nova, once a blue marble orbiting a yellow star, was now a dark wanderer. It moved at 0.5c (half the speed of light), a velocity that turned the stars ahead into blue streaks and the stars behind into red smudges.
Inside the Deep Core Command, Jiang Chen floated in his interface tank. The cables connected him not just to the city, but to the Planetary Engines buried in the Himalayas.
[Mission Clock: Year 2 (External)][Veil Dilation Ratio: 1:10 (Energy Conservation Mode)][Internal Time Elapsed: 20 Years.]
"Twenty years," Jiang Chen murmured, his voice vibrating through the conductive fluid. "And we are only halfway to the Nebula."
To the galaxy, Terra-Nova had been gone for two years—a blip in the cosmic calendar. But for the people living under the artificial golden sky of the Veil, a generation had passed. Children born on the day of the launch were now voting adults. They had never seen the sun. They had never seen the moon. To them, the "Universe" was the purple dome above, and the "Earth" was a spaceship that never stopped humming.
The City of Neo-Beiluo
The capital had grown upwards. With space limited to the planetary surface and the population booming under the post-scarcity economy, the city had become a multi-layered arcology.
Overseer Zhao, now an old man with silver hair, sat on a park bench in Layer 4 (Agricultural Sector). He watched his granddaughter, Mei, run through a field of genetically perfected wheat.
The "sun" above them was a massive fusion-plasma strip running the length of the ceiling, simulating a day-night cycle.
"Grandpa," Mei asked, stopping to catch her breath. "Is it true that the Sky used to be blue? Not gold?"
"It was," Zhao smiled, the memory distant. "And it was far away. You couldn't touch it. Now, the sky is just the floor of the Industrial Sector."
Mei looked up at the fusion strip. "Teacher Ye says we are traveling to the 'Great Dark'. He says there are monsters there."
"There are," Zhao patted her head. "But we have the Iron Legion. And we have the Administrator. As long as the engines hum, we are safe."
The ground vibrated slightly—a rhythmic, subsonic thrum that never ceased. It was the heartbeat of the engines pushing them through the void. It was the sound of survival.
The Iron Citadel (The Himalayas)
While the civilians lived in peace, the mountains were a fortress of war.
Grand Marshal Ye Bai stood on a ridge, overlooking the Training Valley. He was eighty years older by internal time, but the Spirit Severing cultivation kept his appearance middle-aged, though his eyes were ancient.
Below him, five thousand Space Marines of the Iron Legion were conducting a live-fire exercise.
These were not the hasty recruits of the invasion. These were veterans of twenty years of simulation training. They wore Mark VI "Void-Walker" Armor, plated with the Hydro-Adamantium mined from the Dragon King's depths.
"Simulation: Nirvana-Class Beast," Ye Bai ordered.
The holographic projectors in the valley flared. A beast the size of a mountain materialized—a digital recreation of a Void Whale.
"Phalanx Delta! Shield Wall!" General Han roared, his voice amplified by his helmet.
Fifty Marines slammed their tower shields into the ground. Hard-Light Barriers linked up, forming a solid wall of energy.
The digital beast slammed into the wall. The impact would have shattered a city. The line held.
"Suppression Team! Target the eyes! Railguns full auto!"
Behind the shield wall, Marines with heavy weapons opened fire. The coordination was flawless. It wasn't just brute force; it was the Dao of the Soldier. They moved Qi through their fusion cores, blending magic and machine into a fluid dance of destruction.
Ye Bai watched, critical.
"Too slow," he muttered. "A Tier 9 beast regenerates faster than that. They need to aim for the core."
He tapped his comms. "General Han. Reset. Do it again. And this time, turn off the gravity assist. They need to learn to fight when the physics break."
The Deep Ocean (Coolant Sector)
The Pacific Ocean was no longer just a habitat; it was the radiator for the Planetary Engines.
Ao Guang, the Dragon King, swam through the sunken ruins of an old human city. His form was massive—a true dragon now, hundreds of meters long.
The water around him was warm, heated by the thermal vents pumping excess energy from the core.
"The water is... cozy," Ao Guang mused, his telepathic voice reaching Emperor Xia, who was meditating in the Earth's Core.
"The heat is necessary," Xia's voice replied through the tectonic link. "If we stop venting, the crust melts. How are the Deep Ones?"
"They are adapting," Ao Guang said, watching a school of Merrow-Warriors welding a pipeline. "They like the metal. They like the tools Jiang Chen gave them. My kingdom has traded magic shells for plasma welders."
Ao Guang swam to the surface. He poked his head out of the water. Above him, the massive intake fans of the Atmospheric Scrubbers roared, recycling the planet's air.
"We are a terrarium," Ao Guang noted. "A ball of life hurtling through freezing death. Xia... how long can you hold the plates together? I feel the strain in the seabed."
"The journey to the Nebula is another twenty years internally," Xia replied, his voice strained. "I will hold. My spirit is the nails of this world. If I break, we all fly apart."
The Architect's Chamber
Jiang Chen finally emerged from the tank. He dried off, his cybernetic skin gleaming.
[Host. We are detecting a gravitational anomaly ahead.]
"The Nebula?" Jiang Chen asked, pulling on his robe.
[No. Something closer. We are passing through the 'Oort Cloud' of a dead star system. There is debris.]
Jiang Chen walked to the viewing port. The external cameras showed the void. It wasn't empty.
Floating in the darkness were ships. Ancient, frozen, shattered ships. They were made of stone and bronze, clearly powered by cultivation, but they were dead.
"Ghost ships," Jiang Chen whispered. "Cultivators who tried to leave their star?"
[Analysis: Yes. They attempted sub-light travel using Qi sails. They ran out of Spirit Stones. They froze.]
Jiang Chen stared at the graveyard of failed ascenders. It was a sobering reminder. Cultivation required external energy. When you leave the star, the energy dies.
"Technology carries its own fuel," Jiang Chen said. "That is the difference."
He zoomed in on one of the wrecks. It bore the insignia of a Star Forging Sect.
"System. Can we salvage them?"
[Negative. Velocity difference is too high. If we stop, we lose momentum. We cannot afford the fuel cost to restart the Planetary Engines.]
"Then mark the coordinates," Jiang Chen turned away. "We leave the dead to the dark. We are the living."
He activated the planetary PA system.
"Attention, Coalition. This is the Administrator."
His voice echoed in the parks of Neo-Beiluo, the barracks of the Himalayas, and the underwater cities of the Pacific.
"We have passed the halfway mark. The engines are holding. The Veil is stable."
He paused, looking at the image of the frozen fleet on his screen.
"We are not just travelers. We are survivors. Maintain the watch. The Nebula is approaching. And in that fog... we will find the metal to build our future."