From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 586: The Forerunner Research Institute and the "Army Formation Card"

"eternal life?"

The moment Amber heard the word, she straightened up in her chair.

"Can this thing really be researched?"

Salih nodded seriously, "Of course, we pioneers study everything, and we can find the reason for most of them."

Amber: "So have you figured out something? Can you really achieve immortality?"

"I don't know either." Saleh showed a regretful look on her face.

"How could you not know? Aren't you a think tank steward? Didn't the radicals come to capture you and turn you into 'old frozen meat'? How could such an important person like you not know?"

Hearing this, Saleh was so anxious that she stamped her feet like a human: "The think tank deacon doesn't know everything!"

When she saw Amber was about to speak again, she seemed to have thought of something and spoke first:

"Don't say things like 'People with think tanks in their positions are all very good'! I'm really sorry that I'm not that good as a think tank steward!"

After hearing this, Amber suddenly felt helpless as if someone else had criticized him first. At this time, Saleh, who was sitting opposite him, continued to explain:
"This research is of a very high level, and only a few people can access it. My research direction back then was not in this area, so it is normal that I cannot access relevant content in this area. If everyone knew about the research progress on 'eternal life', do you think other people would still have the energy to do other things?"

Amber knew there was nothing wrong with Saleh's explanation.

After all, the ultimate topic of "immortality" is naturally extremely tempting to intelligent races with limited lifespans. Even Amber knows that she will definitely not be able to resist the temptation of "immortality".

Therefore, once the progress of this thing is made public, it will easily become a situation where "everyone is waiting for eternal life", and then even society will not be able to operate stably.
But soon, Amber thought of a new problem.

"According to what I know, scholars believe that the universe we live in also has an 'age limit'. What if you, the Jeram people, achieve immortality, but the life span of this universe has come to an end?"

"'Time and Space Expedition' also has a backup plan," Salih said calmly.

"What plan?"

"'Endless Crusade'. When we truly achieve immortality, the 'Time and Space Crusade' will never stop, and my people will not stay in one universe forever."

After hearing what Saleh said, Amber realized that the pioneers of this universe might be even more powerful than what was shown in the game. The "Endless Expedition" sounded very magnificent, and he couldn't help but think of a certain "Green Legion".
Thinking of this, Amber stopped worrying about it and asked, "What is the current situation of this research institute?"

Saleh: "A research vessel that was dispatched first observed the periphery for a while and concluded that the research institute should be in a stagnant and closed state. I just don't know if there are any relevant materials or research results stored inside."

"So you think this place is valuable and worth spending time exploring?"

"Of course~" The pioneer nodded, "Even if there are no research results on 'immortality' in it, even if we can get some scraps, it can greatly improve your human biotechnology!"

Hearing this, Amber was stunned for a moment, and then asked: "You mean, the forerunners' research on 'immortality' is taking the biotechnology route?"

"Why not?"

There was a hint of disapproval in Saleh's tone, as if she didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

"We, the forerunners, are researching immortality in order to allow the entire race to break free from the shackles, not just to 'create a god'. Naturally, we start with biotechnology so that our entire race can achieve true evolution."

This really taught Amber a lesson. He nodded slowly and sighed, "I originally thought that your research on immortality would go through 'mechanical ascension' or rely on psychic energy to create it."

Saleh's tone was serious: "The 'eternal life' achieved in that way is ultimately flawed, and we dare not gamble with the future of our entire race."

"Then how do you know that the biotechnology route you are taking is correct?"

"."

Amber's question silenced Saleh.

Although this Forerunner think tank deacon knew some fragmentary information about the "immortality" research, he was indeed not clear about the specific situation, let alone what conclusion the researchers finally reached.

After thinking it over and finding that she couldn't refute Amber anyway, Saleh curled her lips and said:
"After all that talk, just tell me whether you're going or not."

"Go!" Amber answered firmly.
-
If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools, and projects like exploring the remains of the pioneers are no exception.

In the last excavation of the Forerunner ruins that Amber participated in, due to the limitations of the Atlas Group's strength at the time, the size of its fleet, and the complex environment it faced, only one special mission ship, the Polarized Light, participated in the operation.

But times have changed. The Atlas Group is no longer the Atlas of that time, and the size of its combat fleet has rapidly expanded to a level that was unimaginable at the time.

Therefore, for this Pioneer Research Institute mission involving 'immortality' technology, Amber can easily select the units to participate in the operation from the troops currently stationed in the A-Bava-Ku asteroid fortress.

After several upgrades, the Atlas Group's integrated command component has expanded to include very mature related functions for Amber to use.

When Amber entered the Atlas integrated command component, she could see the current condition, armament, supplies and crew of each warship in the fleet. The command component also gave a comprehensive combat coefficient.

As for other combat forces, it is temporarily refined to the point where the status of each platoon-level combat unit can be seen, including the current number of personnel, equipment status, supplies, and the most recent psychological and morale test of the combat unit.

You can even see the unit's 'historical performance' - including but not limited to the types of missions it is good at, attendance time, number of enemies killed, number of its own losses, exchange ratio and other data.

With the help of such a system, what Amber needs to do now is to form an "optimal solution" force from the troops stationed in the A-Bava-Ku asteroid fortress according to his own needs. In a sense, this whole process is very similar to the "grouping of troops" process before the battle when he played real-time strategy and tactical games in his previous life.

"Two battleships, four heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, ten destroyers and frigates each."

"Prioritize the selection of ships with a comprehensive combat coefficient of 80 points or more. OK, complete the fleet combination~"

"For HCP, heavy armored combat boats, and land forces, just use the troops on board. They will be more skilled in coordinating with each other, and the permission to customize weapons will be opened at the same time."

"OK, the 'soldier cards' are assembled, enter the name? Um, 'Red Hand' strike team. I hope this archaeological operation can yield some goodies~"

The integrated command component trained by Lilith was very convenient to use. In addition, this digital model could find the "optimal solution" after certain calculations, so Amber did not spend much effort to form a special strike team.

Immediately after issuing emergency dispatch orders to the selected units in the command component, Amber took advantage of this time to go to Zhongsi College again.

But this time, he was going to find Master Ian Stormrage.

After more than a year of study and training, the 13 young psychics he trained not only had their psychic strength increased a lot, but their ability to control psychic power was also greatly improved.
According to Master Ion Stormrage, the growth process of these children is more suitable than that of most human psykers, so it is basically impossible for them to have 'psychic rampage'.

Before the series of events in the Rubion galaxy occurred, Amber actually went to the "Psychic Training Class" which was then located in the Tower of Babel several times in person.

He actually didn't want to force these young psychics to work for him, so his initial idea was to allow these children who were already able to stably control their psychic powers to enter modern human society and live like normal teenagers.

What he didn't expect was that none of the 13 children were willing to leave the 'Psychic Training Class'. Instead, they wanted to continue to learn from Master Ian Stormrage and join the Atlas Group as 'psychic talents' in the future.
As Amber was about to find Ian Stormrage to discuss the future of these children, officers and soldiers at all levels in the selected combat units received emergency attendance notices on their personal terminals based on their military rank and confidentiality level.

From the information received by senior military officers, warship captains and others, they can basically know the approximate area, general mission and other information of this mission.

As the rank and level go down, the sensitive points in this information will be blocked. By the time you become a private, basically all that's left are relatively vague information such as attendance time and attendance mission type.

"Within three hours of receiving the information, the combat unit should complete the assembly of all personnel and equipment. The assembly location is 3 Deployment Bay. The type of mission is dangerous area exploration mission."

Inside a certain battleship, a Marine was looking at the information on the terminal in his hand, muttering to himself.

As he received the order, the communication permissions of the Marine's personal terminal were restricted, and he could only contact other personnel of the same level who were also participating in the mission.

Moreover, his range of movement was also restricted, and he had to return to his ship as quickly as possible to begin preparing for battle.

Looking at the drink that had just been brought to him by the waiter, the Roma Marine hesitated for a moment, then looked up at the other Roma at the table.

They are all from the same combat unit, and they took advantage of the rare holiday to come to the rest area of ​​A.Bawa.Ku to relax.

Today is the last day of vacation, so they plan to take advantage of this last opportunity to go to a Roma pub to have a drink and recall the "taste of home".

But I didn’t expect that just when I got my drinks and was about to toast, I received a notice to return to the team early.

"I say, can we still drink this wine?" a chubby Roma man asked cautiously.

"The battle will be assembled in three hours. If you are not afraid of being kicked out of the team, drink it~" Another wolf-headed man quickly put down the glass and sighed, "Alas, what a pity to waste this wine~"

"It is indeed a good wine. It should have been flown in from my hometown."

Another Roma man held the glass reluctantly, and soon an intoxicated look appeared on his face, but in the end he still put the glass down firmly.

"Okay, don't be depressed!"

A minotaur who seemed to be the leader of this group of marines clapped his hands and stood up first: "For combat missions like this that require us to return to the team early, we will be given a long vacation after the mission is over. It won't be too late to come and drink then~"

Soon, under the leadership of the Minotaur, the group of Marines left the tavern without delay and boarded the bus to the battleship berth.

Soon after they returned to the ship, the heavy cruiser 'Stardust Memories' they were on also completed the assembly of all crew members.

After quickly changing into their combat uniforms, everyone came to the hangar where the Marines were located and began to configure their own combat equipment - this is also a new feature of the combat unit's personal terminals.

This function allows Marines, HCP pilots, and combat boat drivers to equip themselves according to the upcoming combat environment and mission before leaving the port, and members of the maintenance team will also organize and load these equipment on board before the attack.

This seemingly simple page actually took Lilith some time to develop.

Because the premise for realizing this function involves many units such as combat units, logistics centers, asteroid fortresses, maintenance groups, and transportation groups.

Although as the "information mistress" of the entire Atlas, Lilith has already completed the standardization of information interfaces and scheduling rules for almost 90% of the units.

But it is still not easy to make the whole system run stably.

Fortunately, Lilith finally completed the development and after being put into online testing in multiple pilot units, it received consistent praise from personnel at all levels.
On the Stardust Memories, a Roma Marine who was the team's "breacher" thought for a while after listening to the captain's description of the general content of the operation.
Then I gave up thinking and opened a convenient function in the equipment configuration page.

"Whoever dares to challenge me, I will end his life! - Atlas 'BigBoss' battlefield unparalleled equipment set one-click configuration has taken effect~"

The Roma man couldn't help but grin when he saw the message flash by.

"Okay, the same equipment as the Boss, now I can kill everyone!"

(End of this chapter)