From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 798 The big one is really coming

Saleh's eyes flickered, and the cold light in the laboratory made her pale face look even more bloodless.

She knew exactly why Amber came to see her, and when she thought about the consequences of saying the wrong thing, the Jerram woman wondered if she should divert Amber's attention in some other way.

And Salih was indeed a person of action. When an idea came to her mind, she immediately stood up and walked towards Amber. The soft tentacles behind her head began to twist constantly, making her look like a Gorgon.

"Wow, you're not running away, but walking towards me instead?"

Although there is the "mental shackles", Amber does not maintain a mental connection with Salih all the time, so at this moment he has not realized what Salih wants to do and is still joking with her.

But by the time Saleh got closer, it was too late for Amber to realize something was wrong.

Friends who often come into contact with aliens and facehuggers know that when you find a facehugger rushing towards your face, it is too late for you to dodge.

This is what happened to Amber right now. Before he could say anything when he opened his mouth, a slippery thing forced its way into his mouth. Then, the soft tentacles behind Salih's head tightly wrapped around his head.

A deep kiss full of Saleh style.

"Hmm."

Amber's voice was blocked in her mouth, leaving only a series of "gurgling" sounds. The door to the experimental area was closed and the "Important experiment in progress, do not disturb" sign was lit.
An hour later, Amber, who was lying on the small bed in Saleh's lounge, looked at Saleh, who was lying in her arms like a female leopard and rubbing her with her tentacles. After a moment of silence, she spoke:
"Okay, can you let me talk now?"

"."

The next second, Saleh climbed onto the horse again, and the second round began.
But it is obvious that in terms of physical fitness and skills, Saleh is definitely no match for Amber, so once the two sides entered into a long battle, it was no surprise that the Jerram man fell into a disadvantage.

A few hours later, Saleh was lying on the bed with her butt sticking up, Cosplaying Puff, and Amber could finally talk about business.

"Don't worry about it for now."

Amber considerately brought a blanket and covered Saleh with it, her voice also very calm.

"I won't ask you questions you can't answer this time."

Under the blanket, Saleh's tense shoulders relaxed a little, but the alertness in her eyes remained unchanged.

The laboratory's temperature control and air purification system emits a slight humming sound after detecting the rise in ambient temperature. The air flows invisibly in the air and begins to draw away the air with a slightly turbid smell.

"I just want to talk to you, and this time I'm the one doing the talking, you just need to be the listener."

Saleh's body relaxed and she lay completely on the bed. She hesitated for a moment and finally nodded: "Okay."

"Sorry, Amber."

Saleh suddenly apologized softly, with guilt barely concealed in her voice.

"I really have no choice but to not explain everything to you. It's not that I don't trust you, but..."

Amber raised her hand to indicate that she didn't need to continue. "I understand, Saleh. We all have our own boundaries that we cannot cross."

The air in the laboratory seemed to freeze for a moment, with only the regular operation sounds of some experimental equipment reminding people of the passage of time.

Amber clicked a few times on her personal terminal and woke up a nearby holographic projection device.

Blue beams of light shot out, forming a three-dimensional star map, with countless galaxies slowly rotating in the projection.

"Looking at this universe, Salih," Amber's voice echoed in the quiet laboratory, "I have a guess."

Saleh's eyes were fixed on the miniature universe, and the expression on her face became more complicated.

"I think there may be some kind of 'trigger'-like rule in this universe."

Amber continued, his finger passing through a galaxy in the projection, dots of light flickering at his fingertips.

“Whether it’s humans, elves, or other creatures in this universe, they have probably been under some kind of macro-level surveillance for a long time.”

After hearing the words 'trigger' and 'surveillance', Saleh's breathing quickened noticeably, but she did not interrupt Amber.

"Under normal circumstances, this kind of surveillance will not lead to any consequences, nor will any intervention be carried out. However, once the course of history meets certain conditions, or certain specific events occur, then the 'trigger' will be completed."

Amber adjusted the projection, and the screen switched to the prophetic images that Isabel had collected—the light in the starry sky, and the densely packed, elongated black shadows in the light.

"Combining these prophecies from different civilizations, plus the 'cleansing' that the Forerunner civilization did to the civilizations that once existed in this universe that you mentioned, I have every reason to suspect that it is very likely that once the 'trigger' is activated, the 'time and space expedition' of the Forerunner civilization you mentioned will end ahead of schedule."

The light in the laboratory seemed to become dimmer at this moment, and the projected blue light cast strange shadows on the faces of the two people.

"Next, the forerunners will return to this universe, and I believe that when these races that can easily decide the life and death of other civilizations return, nothing good will happen."

Amber looked directly into Saleh's eyes. His last words echoed in the laboratory. Saleh remained silent, and the expression on her face was frozen into a complex expression that was difficult to interpret.

At this moment, she had sat up on the bed with a blanket wrapped around her, her hands flat on her knees, and her knuckles were slightly white from clenching them.

The two just stared at each other, and time passed in silence.

With the help of the "mental shackles" that had been imposed on Saleh before, Amber was able to sense the fluctuations in her heart - it was a strong sense of surprise, fear, and even a hint of indescribable relief.

This complex emotional fluctuation told Amber that his guess was probably right.

"Well, Saleh, you don't have to respond to my guess." Amber finally broke the silence, "But I hope you can try to answer the next question."

Salih tensed up, she had already guessed what Amber was going to ask next.

"Why?" Amber asked softly, "Why did the Forerunner civilization do all this?"

This question was like an invisible dagger that pierced through Saleh's carefully constructed defenses, and pain, hesitation, and struggle flashed in her eyes.

She opened her mouth, but closed it again, as if she had wanted to speak countless times but was stopped by some invisible force.

Saleh knew that if she didn't answer, Amber would never give up. She saw the determination in his eyes, a familiar persistence that would not give up until the goal was achieved. But she also knew that answering this question might bring unpredictable consequences.

"I can't assess the consequences of answering this question," she finally said, her voice as thin as a mosquito's.

"I understand your concerns, Saleh, but I need to know...if we are to face the coming crisis, I must understand the motives of our enemies."

"For the continuation of civilization."

She finally uttered these words, her voice so soft that it was almost inaudible, but it was unusually clear in the silence of the laboratory.

Amber frowned. "For whose civilization?"

This question pushed Saleh into the abyss of silence again. She turned her back to Amber, her shoulders trembling slightly. It was not until a century had passed that Saleh spoke again, her voice so low that it was almost inaudible:

"The civilization of the forerunners."

This answer hit Amber's heart like a heavy hammer. Although he had a hunch, hearing Saleh's confirmation with his own ears still made him feel a chill running down his spine.

"So, the Forerunner civilization is ensuring its own continuation in some way, even at the cost of the sacrifice of other civilizations?"

Saleh did not answer, but her silence was worth a thousand words.

Amber turned off the projection device, and the laboratory fell into relative darkness again. Only the indicator lights on the instrument panel kept flashing, like distant stars in the night sky.

"Is this why the Phoenix King of the Thousand Star Empire suddenly invited us?" Amber continued to ask, "Because they sensed that the 'trigger' was about to happen?"

Salih took a deep breath and turned to face Amber. There was a determination on her face that Amber had never seen before: "I have said too much, Amber, but there is one thing I can tell you - the elves did notice certain signs earlier than humans."

"So this visit is more than just a diplomatic event," Amber muttered.

"No matter what the Phoenix King's purpose is, don't take this invitation lightly. Something has already begun." Salih's voice was a little firmer than before. Amber felt that she had probably given up hope.

Amber walked to the operating table in the center of the laboratory and tapped the metal surface with his fingers, making a faint rhythmic sound. Although Saleh's answer was short and vague, it was enough to confirm some of his guesses, while also raising more questions.

He spoke again, with a rare seriousness in his voice: "Salih, if the Forerunners really return, what will human civilization face?"

Salih looked up at the ceiling, as if she was gazing at the distant starry sky through the steel shell of the Crown Fortress.

There was an indescribable emotion in her eyes, neither fear nor expectation, but something more complicated.

"Every time a pioneer returns in Amber's history, it means the end of an era."

".Good guy"

Just as Amber was about to say something else, a shrill alarm suddenly sounded in the laboratory, and the red warning light began to rotate and flash.

"What's going on?" Amber turned and looked at the source of the alarm, frowning.

Saleh's face turned pale in an instant, even paler than under the cold light of the laboratory on a normal day.

She stood up suddenly from the bed, and the blanket slipped off her body, but she seemed to not care at all about the sudden exposure of her body, and rushed to the control console in the center of the laboratory in two steps.

Amber followed, picked up the blanket from the ground and put it on her again, then his eyes were fixed on the holographic projection device that suddenly lit up.

The blue star map unfolds in the sky, and densely packed galaxies and star coordinate points are generated in three-dimensional space, forming a vast and complex picture of the universe.

However, in this starry deep sky, one area was specially marked out - a coordinate point flashing with red light, which was particularly conspicuous in a seemingly worthless area of ​​deep space.

Next to the red dot, there is a strangely shaped symbol, which at first glance looks like a half-open eye.

Saleh's breathing became rapid, and the soft foot-like tentacles behind her head twisted violently, like a group of snakes being electrocuted.

She stretched out her hand, and her fingertips passed through the holographic projection, enlarging the red coordinate area.

"Salih, what is this? Why does it look like some kind of surveillance mission alarm?"

Saleh supported his hands on the console, stared at the data stream with his head down, seemed to be thinking about something, and did not respond immediately.

"You guessed it, Amber. This is indeed a surveillance mission."

Salih finally spoke, her voice a little low: "This is a signal from an observatory. An observatory that we, the Jerram people, left behind in this universe."

Amber's eyes moved back and forth between the holographic projection and Saleh, and he felt a chill run down his spine.

"Hey, this isn't the 'trigger' I was talking about, is it?"

"Congratulations Amber, you got it right~ but unfortunately there is no reward"

Salih slowly raised her head and said with a wry smile, "This is exactly what you called the 'trigger'. After you brought me out of the think tank, you used the signal base stations currently distributed in various galaxies of the Atlas Group to establish a monitoring network to observe these observatories scattered throughout the universe."

Amber approached the projection and reached out to touch the red coordinates. Although he knew that these were just holographic images, he still felt a strange discomfort, as if some unknown danger was approaching.

"Why did the alarm suddenly go off?"

"Because the energy fluctuation pattern of this observatory has changed," Saleh's fingers moved quickly on the console, and more data flowed through the projection. "According to my analysis model, this change means that it is approaching the threshold of 'triggering'."

Amber watched the complex data streams in silence. Although he could not fully understand the meaning, he could feel Saleh's anxiety and fear.

"What does this mean? The Forerunners are about to return?"

At this moment, Saleh's tentacles stopped twisting, and her whole body seemed to be frozen and motionless. After a moment, she sighed:
"No, it hasn't reached that stage yet, but it's a clear sign. This observatory is one of thousands of similar facilities, which together form a monitoring network, observing the development of this universe.

Although many observatories have been disabled, a few are still operating at low power and will become active when certain conditions are met.

(End of this chapter)