Chapter 340: Chapter 339: Return the Same Way or Continue Forward?

In the span of 15 days, nearly two million industrial workers were urgently awakened from hibernation and began the normal repairs of The Kunlun Mountain.

The masses, just roused, learned about the war, the invasion of The Kunlun Mountain by enemies, and the dreadful situation in the area struck by nuclear bombs. They all felt an overwhelming sense of dread…

Yes, aside from a few twisted steel pipes lingering in the distance, almost everything else had vanished!

This place, once a forest park, there an industrial zone, and here a plant cultivation base, but now, everything had turned into disorganized space debris! One could even find plant specimens frozen due to the vacuum of space…

To date, many electronic devices had not been fully restored. Some people woke up to find their robotic companions paralyzed…

Yes, most of the robots affected by the attack needed reformatting, emotions needing to be redeveloped. How was that different from the loss of a partner?

All these phenomena generated immense anger among humans towards these invading aliens.

This is war…

Real war!

When truly confronted with it, it brought real anger and… an aimless fear.

The vast universe, the sense of security provided by The Kunlun Mountain, was far from comparable to that of a real planet.

Indeed, due to this panic, the enthusiasm of the citizens for the ship repair work was very high. The engineers, even working overtime, had hardly any complaints. Only by quickly repairing The Kunlun Mountain could a greater sense of safety be secured, which was beyond doubt.

The Kunlun Mountain, equipped with eight Universal Factories, indeed possessed the capability to continuously produce various high-performance materials to repair the spaceship. Theoretically, using the reserved resources, the difficulty of restoration from a technical standpoint was not high.

However, the area that had been destroyed was too extensive, and relying on the current repairs, it was impossible to fully restore it to its original state in a short time. It might take several months, possibly five years or even ten years.

Thus, another question presented itself before the people: should they return the way they came, or continue moving towards the nearest planet?

This issue lingered in the minds of the civilization’s management layer, unable to be avoided…

Regarding returning to “Gliese 581”, it was also a hotly discussed topic online, with numerous calls for action.

Some believed that The Kunlun Mountain should head back to their main base, arguing that humans were still too immature for interstellar exploration; others thought that returning would be somewhat cowardly.

“The Kunlun Mountain possesses a complete self-repair capability, and there’s no need to return just because of a small setback. Now that humans have acquired basic cosmic knowledge about contacting aliens, why go back and declare the failure of this voyage?”

In short, opinions varied.

In the midst of these arguments and debates, after 15 days, the cleaning team of the ruins finally brought some encouraging news.

Due to the concentration of various scorching space debris, the cleaning team faced significant difficulties. But this challenge, compared to a real war, was just a minor issue and ultimately surmountable.

Especially since there were the ruins of an alien spaceship there. Even though it had been bombed by a nuclear bomb, such a large spaceship, with its metallic surface, couldn’t be completely reduced to ash; there would certainly be some remnants of war spoils left.

Every cleaning squad had 15 people, with a total of 20 squads. The operation was led by General Staff Officer Ye Junchang, who advanced towards the enemy warship.

Along the way, the scene was one of ruin and decay, with exposed electrical wires that sometimes sparked with electric arcs, likely due to the batteries still discharging.

“Be careful, especially with battery-related devices. In this situation, explosions could occur.”

“Yes!”

“Adviser Ye, we’ve found a complete corridor here, it has lost power… From its intact state, there might be aliens surviving!”

“Don’t rush, send some robots in first… If there are any resistors, shoot to kill them on the spot!”

“Roger that!”

Minutes later, the soldiers dragged out some survivors who had hidden among the rubble. These folks had already lost their fighting spirit and surrendered almost without resistance.

A soldier, excitedly pursing his lips, chuckled, “Haha, we’ve captured more prisoners. These guys are lucky to be alive, let’s take them back!”

The captured Badit people already numbered over two thousand. A few more wouldn’t make much difference; they were merely human trophies.

“Don’t take them back yet,” Ye Junchang hastily said. “Make these guys identify anything of value, or else just shoot them!”

Next, after confirming safety, it was time for a thorough search. The soldiers dismantled everything they could, including heaps of junk metal, various box-like contraptions–since they didn’t know what exactly they were, as long as they weren’t bombs, they were taken back first.

Meanwhile, the scientists and researchers in the rear sifted through piles of scrap for valuable items and found some objects that seemed to be black boxes and storage drives.

Whether the items could be read was still unknown; this content was handed directly over to the “New Human Science and Technology Information Research Institute” for full decryption.

After five more days, nearly everything that could be dismantled had been brought back. All that remained were a few human rescue spaceships, fishing for the farthest two escort ships, with the remains of over two hundred soldiers amidst that swath of wreckage.

There was no trace of life left there, and with space debris dangerously floating around, it was extremely perilous. Yet, many brave souls still signed up for the process of recovering bodies.

At the same time, a meeting concerning the decryption of information from the black boxes was convened in the Captain’s Room of the Kunlun Mountain.

Zhang Yuan sat in the central seat and spoke, “Ladies and gentlemen, the Kunlun Mountain has suffered severe damage this time, as everyone has seen, making even the recovery of fallen soldiers’ bodies very difficult. We must do our utmost in the follow-up soothing efforts.”

“Fortunately, the entire fleet has not received a fatal blow. As long as the crew and the spaceship are intact, repair is only a matter of time. However, our spaceship should not stay here long, whether it’s for resupply or to avoid the enemy’s pursuit. This isn’t a safe place… Even though the enemy’s Mother Star is far from here, it’s better to be cautious.”

“So the question arises, where do we go? We need 39 years to return to Gliese 581 by the same route. But it would only take 11 years to reach the nearest planet, 187j3x2…”

Seeing everyone deep in thought, Zhang Yuan continued, “First, we need to avoid the active Star Domain of the Badit Civilization. How extensive is the range of the Badit Civilization’s activities? Also, have we been exposed? Are there any pursuers from the enemy? We must obtain and confirm this information. Without it, there’s no need for undue panic.”

Although humans had captured over two thousand Badit people, they would not blindly trust the information revealed by them. Instead, they trusted more in the information decrypted by humans themselves.