From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 805 There is a traitor, stop
The morning light of Eldalam sprinkled on the biological buildings of the Elven King's Court like liquid gold, and every leaf sparkled with crystal dew.

Amber stood on the balcony, letting the morning breeze brush his cheeks, but his thoughts had already flown into the distant space.

For some reason, he always had a bad feeling, as if something bad was going to happen.

Amber

Isabel's voice came from behind, interrupting his thoughts.

"The Phoenix King's attendant has arrived. He said that today's meeting is about to begin and he will lead us there now."

Amber turned around and saw that Isabel had changed into formal diplomatic attire and was holding the clothes she was going to change into for him.

"Still no news from Saleh?"

"Still remain silent."

Isabel shook her head, a hint of worry in her eyes.

"But according to the planned schedule, they should be close to their target now."

Amber took a deep breath and forced himself to focus on the current affairs. Today would be the most important part of the communication between humans and elves. He could not let his worries about Saleh affect his judgment.

Soon after, Amber and Isabel met Franklin, Agnes and others in a circular hall in the Elf King's Court. The decoration here was more solemn, and the biological patterns on the wall emitted a faint silver light.

Phoenix King Aenarion walked slowly into the hall. Today he was wearing a dark blue robe embroidered with complex star patterns. His expression was more solemn than last night, and his golden eyes revealed some deep worry.

"My human friends, I had an in-depth conversation with Mr. Amber last night and we found that the current situation is far worse than we expected, so now is the time to reveal the truth to all of you."

Aenarion's voice echoed through the hall, a tone that carried a distinct gravity.

Franklin and Agnes exchanged a look, both noticing the subtle change in the atmosphere.

"What's the truth?" Agnes asked first.

"Yes, the truth"

Aenarion waved his hand to activate the giant biological projector in the center of the hall, and a three-dimensional star map unfolded before everyone.

"About the ancient forces that threaten all of our civilizations - the Forerunner civilizations."
-
In deep space, the 'Eternity' was suspended in the darkness like a silent asteroid fragment. The light of its engine had long been extinguished, and the entire battleship had entered a stealth operation mode.

The surrounding escort fleets were also silent. They were maintaining a safe distance of 20,000 kilometers from the destination of this operation, which was the observation station. This was also the farthest distance for providing fire cover in an emergency.

Although everyone in the fleet knew that if something really went wrong, it would be difficult to provide support to the action team at this distance, the person in charge of this operation said that he was unwilling to let the fleet get any closer.

Saleh was sitting in the seat of the assault boat at this time, staring at the void in front of her through the screen connected to the optical unit in front of her.

This specially modified assault boat does not have any extra markings, all of its self-defense weapons have been removed, its power unit has been replaced with the largest model the boat structure can withstand, and its covert action module is the latest model available.

All of this is to allow the assault boat to operate under the nose of the Forerunner Observatory as much as possible.

"The target observation station is still three thousand kilometers away from us." The control personality and driver of the assault boat reported.

His actual identity is a member of the Immortal Legion, and he was a pilot of a heavy armored combat boat before being transformed into an Immortal.

At the moment, he directly controls the entire assault boat by "descending". Compared with the traditional driver, this control method is obviously more handy.

Salih nodded and turned to look at the other combat figures in the cabin who were wearing heavy equipment.

These digital life forms, which Amber and Lilith called "Immortals", have no flesh and blood. Even if they encounter unexpected events during this exploration, they can theoretically escape from the "descended state" in time, and at most lose some carriers that can be re-created.

This is also the reason why Saleh finally agreed to let someone go with her. If it were regular Marines, she would never agree to let them follow her on this extremely risky mission.

Seeing the assault boat getting closer and closer to the observation station, Saleh also issued an order through the internal communication: "All units conduct the final inspection. We are about to enter the most dangerous stage of the operation."

"Copy that, Commander."

The combat bodies equipped with heavy armor and weapons immediately began the final equipment check. The indicator lights of their sensors flashed a faint blue light, and the power units slightly increased their power, emitting a slight humming sound.

Salih was wearing the 'work clothes' she had worn when she woke up from the frozen state. This universal work clothes of the Forerunner civilization was enough to support her extravehicular activities and exploration activities inside the observatory.

The assault boat moved forward slowly in silence, its thrusters maintaining only the minimum power output and hardly generating any heat source signal. Through the observation unit, the outline of the Forerunner Observation Station in the distance gradually became clear.

Although this observatory is almost completely integrated into the cosmic background, its optical camouflage device has actually long been ineffective. This is one of the reasons why Saleh finally decided to take action - otherwise, even if they followed the signal to get here, finding this observatory would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The entire observatory is shaped like a huge pyramid, and its surface material reflects the light of distant stars, presenting a strange metallic luster.

There are densely packed sensors and some kind of psychic communication array on and near each edge. Even after millions of years of baptism, these devices still emit weak energy responses.

"It's hard to imagine that it has been floating here for millions of years. It's really an impressive piece of engineering," a combat element couldn't help but comment, with a hint of awe for the Forerunner technology in his voice.

"Don't be fooled by its appearance. Although it is indeed impressive, the existence of this thing is a threat to you." Saleh said, and the assault boat began to fly slowly around the observatory, looking for a suitable entrance.

Soon, relying on his experience as a think tank deacon, Saleh quickly locked onto an inspection hatch at the bottom.

"That's it." Saleh pointed to a relatively hidden hatch. "It's obviously an autonomous observation station that almost no one goes to, but because of the universal standardized construction process, it has retained a dispensable maintenance passage."

Under Saleh's instructions, the assault boat carefully approached the inspection port. Under the operation of the Immortal who was responsible for controlling the assault boat, the attitude control nozzles in various parts of the boat began to flash continuously, eventually allowing the assault boat and the observation station to form a relatively static state.

Seeing this, Saleh took a deep breath, and the life support system inside her "work clothes" made a slight humming sound, and then began to enter the extravehicular operation state.

"I'll go out first. If anything unexpected happens, don't worry about me. Notify the fleet to evacuate immediately." Saleh said through the communicator.

The hatch slowly opened, and Saleh carefully floated out of the assault boat, adjusting her posture in the microgravity environment. The metal surface of the observatory was even more shocking at a close distance, with complex runes engraved on each armor plate, emitting faint energy fluctuations.

She reached out her heavily gloved hand and gently stroked the outer shell of the observatory. The next moment, a familiar energy flow was transmitted into her consciousness through the tactile sensor - this was the psychic frequency unique to Forerunner technology.

Salih closed her eyes, mobilized the spiritual energy in her body, and began to establish a connection with the observatory's system. Millions of years of silence had not completely cut off the operation of these ancient devices, and they were still executing their original program settings.

"Authorization is being verified, please wait."

The sound of the observatory's machinery rang in Saleh's consciousness, in a Jerram language that she was all too familiar with.

"It was detected that the think tank deacon's authority verification was passed."

"Very good, it seems that the forged permissions can still be used, but I think when they rushed into the 'Expedition', they probably didn't have time to update the permission information for these observatories."

Just as Salih was thinking, the hatch of the inspection port made a dull mechanical sound and slowly slid open to both sides, and a faint blue guiding light came from inside.

"Everyone, please note that the entrance is open, please prepare to enter."

"Yes, Commander!"

The combat bodies immediately left the assault boat, and then floated to the inspection port under the guidance of Saleh, and finally entered one after another.

The corridor in the maintenance passage is very narrow, only accommodating two people walking side by side. The walls are covered with pipes and cables. The armor of the combat body reflects a faint blue sheen under the lighting inside the observatory.

"Wait. Is the gravity generator still working here?"

A combat element observed the ground below and said in surprise:

"It's about 70 percent of standard gravity. Isn't this an unmanned facility? Why is there a gravity generator?"

"For the Jeram people, gravity generators are nothing new. They have long been part of standard construction projects."

Salih calmly explained to the others, then walked past the crowd and headed inside first. With her knowledge of the Forerunner facilities, she led the team at a very fast speed towards the core area of ​​the observatory. The access control systems along the way were opened one after another in the presence of her authority, as if welcoming a long-lost master.

Not long after, the group arrived at the main control room.

Compared to other areas of the observatory, the space here is obviously much smaller, and the layout of the room is also very simple. There is only a device similar to a recliner in the center, and an object similar to a helmet at the head position.

Surrounding the 'recliner' were countless signal lights and workbench-like things. Most of the equipment was dormant, with only a few key systems still running and making a slight humming sound.

Salih walked over and lay down, then connected the dedicated access port to the helmet of her work clothes, and at the same time pressed her hand on the control panel, mobilizing her psychic energy again to establish a deep connection with the system.

In an instant, a large amount of information flooded into her consciousness like a tide.

Observation station surveillance data, analysis reports, threat assessments—all the information flashed through her mind.

"Threat level of the third generation of Homo sapiens: medium to high.
"First generation elf tribe. Threat level: high"

Salih's eyes suddenly widened, because according to the forerunners' assessment standards, the elven civilization was actually closer to the threshold of triggering the intervention mechanism than humans.

This discovery shocked her. After all, from all aspects, the development rate of human beings in recent years is obviously faster, and major changes have occurred many times. It seems that they are obviously more restless.

She continued to dig deeper into the database, looking for the reason for this difference in assessment. Soon, a special set of surveillance records caught her attention.

"Unknown signal source, duration: 3209445 standard days."

"Signal source: The first generation of elves, within the Thousand Star Empire."

Saleh's heart began to beat violently. She called up the detailed records of these signals and found that they were not ordinary communication signals, but someone was deliberately transmitting information to the observatory.

Most of this information is about the current situation of the elven world, and more than a thousand years ago, information about the human world began to be included in this information.

What shocked her even more was that she found hidden text messages in the data packets of these signals:
"Great forerunners, the order of the universe has begun to collapse. The expansion of inferior races threatens the ancient balance. We implore you to return and re-establish the proper order."

"Stupid races are not worthy of possessing jump technology. Their existence is a blasphemy to the universe."

"We have been waiting for the return of the true ruler."

Saleh's face turned as pale as paper. She couldn't believe what she saw - someone was actually contacting the Jerram people and even hoped that they would come back for a new round of purges.

"Do these senders have some 'serious illness'?" After spending a long time with Amber, Saleh also picked up some of her verbal habits.

"Where are these signals coming from?"

She searched quickly in the system, and soon found the answer - the signal transmission points were distributed in multiple star systems of the Thousand Star Empire, and the most important source was the capital star Eldaram.

A chill ran up Salih's spine, and the soft foot-like tentacles behind her head instantly coiled together.

Amber and other major leaders of the human world are now in Eldarram, negotiating with the Phoenix King. If the sender of these signals is the elf high-ranking officials,
"This is a trap." Saleh muttered to herself, "Amber and the others fell into the trap."

She immediately began to download all relevant data from the observatory. At the same time, she contacted the Eternity through the assault boat's communication system and asked the other party to immediately send a warning to the Crown Fortress in the Thousand Star Empire.

But before the crew of the Eternal could take action, an alarm sounded on the bridge.

"Commander Saleh, we've detected something unusual! Outlying reconnaissance ships have detected a fleet approaching!"

An extremely bad feeling surged into Saleh's heart, and the external surveillance composite image on the "Eternity" was also synchronously projected onto her helmet. In the picture, more than a dozen light spots appeared in the void in the distance, and those light spots were rapidly approaching their position.

"It's the elves' biological warships! They are very fast and will arrive in about thirty minutes!"

(End of this chapter)