Chapter 443: The Home Star System of the Silicon Star People - 1

Cao Yang was tasked with a mission that was anything but easy. The construction of Lisbon City in the Solar System was swift and well-done solely because it relied on the strong industrial productivity of the Solar System.

But on Blue Maiden Star, even the materials to build Space City were scarce, let alone other supplies, which were relatively insufficient.

This wasn't felt as much by those living on Blue Maiden Star since, after the establishment of light industry, space farms, and ranches, various supplies were already secured.

However, it was a different story over six thousand astronomical units away—space was almost devoid of resources there.

The Pioneering Fleet didn't yet have the capability to establish space farms and ranches at such a distance. All the initial resources and supplies for constructing the city had to be transported from Blue Maiden Star.

The journey from Blue Maiden Star to the Interstellar Frontier Base took about a year, and if the Frontier Base ran out of food while the supplies were just starting to be sent from Blue Maiden Star,

by the time the food reached the Frontier Base, Cao Yang and the others would have starved to death a year ago!

But Jiang Yu's determination was unwavering. From him downwards, everyone only ate two meals a day, each meal just two-thirds of the original standard.

Food saved in this way was all allocated to Cao Yang's vanguard team.

Robots from various factories were also massively reassigned to Cao Yang, with many processes having to be covered by workers in shifts.

All the building materials prepared for residential areas were given to Cao Yang, with many factories even dismantling their outer walls to provide enough materials for city construction.

For the first time since the Great Rift Valley, humanity began to experience a shortage of food.

But this was just enough to provide just over three months' worth of food for the more than nine thousand people in Cao Yang's vanguard team, with building materials only sufficient for completing the initial "steel foundation" project.

Still, Cao Yang and his team resolutely set off. In their fleet, each warship only had one person left to supervise the navigation while the rest went into hibernation, to conserve food supplies.

The living standards of the people on Blue Maiden Star plummeted dramatically, and the workload increased by more than double. Most critically, they couldn't eat their fill.

Yet there was virtually no complaint, as Jiang Yu's previous speech had suddenly awakened them.

Two years prior, the Strategic Department had realized that humanity's future strategic thinking had to change to avoid a second New Continent Star System campaign.

But saying is one thing; changing a strategic habit ingrained over hundreds of years is not so easily done.

Jiang Yu's discovery of the "Little Black Room" made him realize sharply that in debates over the future plans of humanity, the upper echelons of the Solar System State, including himself, were still habitually playing it safe!

In encounters with other civilizations in the universe, the inclination was still to run away.

That's why Jiang Yu resolved, after deep reflection, to demonstrate humanity's spirit of burning their bridges through the battle against the Silicon Star People!

It was exactly because they understood Jiang Yu's earnest intentions and were inspired by his ambition that there were no complaints about their current circumstances.

However, it was critical to ensure an ample food supply soon. After over a month of tightened belts, the expansion of space farms and ranches was finally complete.

Three days later, residents on Blue Maiden Star were able to enjoy meat without restraint, and within a week, all food and vegetables were sufficiently supplied.

Jiang Yu still reminded everyone to be frugal, as they needed to squeeze out some food to quickly catch up with Cao Yang and his team, or else after three months of work, the vanguard team would collectively have to hibernate due to food issues.

As soon as there was a slight surplus of food and supplies, the second batch of construction teams set off immediately.

Then, a portion of the warships departed early, to protect and support the construction work at the Frontier Base in the future.

It wasn't until the early months of the 39th year of the Shelter Era that all supplies to Blue Maiden Star were fully restored to normal.

Meanwhile, Cao Yang, situated six thousand astronomical units away, had established multiple docks for warships, and the naval vessels built over the years began to assemble at the frontier base.

However, the conditions at the frontier base were still limited, only capable of simple docking and maintenance, just beginning to fulfill the role of a frontier base.

For such conditions, the officers and soldiers were already very satisfied, otherwise the fleet would have to keep drifting in space, without even a chance to refit.

Cao Yang planned to launch a surprise attack on the fleet of Silicon Star People one month later, and once the follow-up troops arrived at the frontier base, they would regroup and rush to provide support.

Thus, the construction of the frontier base was halted once it reached the scale of a military station, after all, once the Dark Forest Strike arrived, the base would be abandoned, and further construction would be a waste of resources.

At this time, the large number of probes Jiang Yu had sent out four years ago transmitted back an important piece of intelligence: they had found the enemy's home planet!

This was a huge discovery! The upper echelons of the Solar System State gathered once again.

Xing Yuanbin was responsible for delivering the briefing at the start of the meeting, "We have deployed a total of 66 probes, searching the three star systems in the direction from which the enemy came.

"Based on the trajectories of the probes that made the discovery, the enemy's home planet is 3.7 light-years away from the New Continent Star System.

"This exploration yielded many critical pieces of intelligence, first of which is the clear image of the Silicon Star People, please look."

Xing Yuanbin brought up a pre-cut video clip, which depicted a dimly lit environment with unknown fires flickering in the distance.

Then, the camera zoomed in toward the ground, and those present saw some white crystals that could move.

These were the Silicon Star People!

They lacked distinct limbs and facial features, yet possessed some flexible "crystal tentacles" in their structure.

Through the crystal, one could vaguely see that the insides of the Silicon Star People were orange-yellow, resembling a piece of amber that could move flexibly.

Was this the appearance of another intelligent life form?

Up until now, humanity had never seen what the Trisolarans looked like. They had, however, seen corpses of intelligent life forms like the Black Cuboid People and Venus's half-dead, unique intelligent life form.

Now, for the first time, everyone was witnessing an active, living intelligent life species.

Xing Yuanbin continued, "Since no live specimens were captured, we do not know how they communicate or the structure of their bodies.

"However, we can be certain that they do not communicate through sound waves because, on the entire planet, other than the sounds of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and industrial production, there are no other sounds at all.

"The home planet of the Silicon Star People is a volcanic world with an average global temperature of around three hundred degrees, and it has a thick atmosphere.

"For the sake of convenience in discussion, we have provisionally named this planet Silicon Star.

"Silicon Star also has many silicon-based plants, and because the planet's atmosphere is so thick, very little light reaches the surface, from which one can infer that silicon-based plants do not require photosynthesis.

"The entire Silicon Star is very hazy and no lighting equipment has been found, obviously, the Silicon Star People do not need light in their daily lives.

"This is a species completely different from carbon-based life at its very roots, who knows what their daily lives are like."

Looking at the video of the intelligent life form, Xing Yuanbin became briefly lost in thought before continuing, "Next, is the military report on Silicon Star."