Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

Chapter Sixty-Three: One who reaps what one sows

Chapter 63

Yelena has now been transferred to the agricultural sector, where a key task during the summer harvest is to ensure a smooth harvest and storage process.

At the time, it was quite normal to check the warehousing issues as well, given that responsibilities were not yet clearly defined in Kazdel.

Then an investigation revealed the problem: the gallows were overcrowded. However, Yelena, as Boss Xia's adopted daughter and with a special operations team under her command, was not afraid of any threats or attempts to win her over, and was even less afraid of anyone not cooperating or causing trouble.

Those found guilty will be hanged, and those who are found guilty but still have problems will be punished along with their families, labeled as "untrustworthy" and dismissed. Talulah has said this several times, but she still decided to take drastic measures. The other senior executives remained silent.

After all, they had just done business with this group from Da Yan, and everyone knew that if they didn't strike hard from the start, the situation would only get worse. Of course, striking hard would also make the situation more complicated and difficult to detect.

"So, I recently had Johnny help me write an automated data entry program that can immediately trigger a hidden alarm process when something goes wrong."

“Technology can’t solve all problems. After all, technology itself is not without its flaws.” The doctor shook his head. “In this respect, I think Yelena did a good job. You can consider announcing that if human resource management costs rise, the warehouse department will be laid off en masse and replaced with an automated management system.”

"That can't be done..." Old Xia had a headache. Terra's drones were all remotely controlled, otherwise why would the Doctor expend his sanity to charge the drones?

Essentially, it's still a kind of Originium device. If it's the Covenant, 99% of its warehousing and logistics are automated, and you can't even see the people there—ah, physical retail stores are an exception; those stores are all about the retro style and the joy of shopping.

However, Terra cannot achieve this effect in the short term. "It's simple, just a threat. If one person loses their job, then everyone will be starving. As for the consequences..."

There are no consequences. The front lines need a large number of soldiers, and Theresis needs a large number of able-bodied men. Ice mining, engineering, mining, and even farming all require a large amount of manpower. Don't be fooled by the high degree of automation and mechanization in agriculture; it means that the number of people maintaining this system will not be much less.

This is why many people used to believe that the emergence of a highly efficient machine would lead to mass unemployment, thus provoking resentment among workers and triggering the historically famous "Luddite Movement".

As it turns out, the emergence of new industries and new machines, while reducing the number of workers in a single industry, actually creates more new industries and jobs, which in turn helps reduce unemployment and increase wages.

If these people don't do this job well, they'll be given lower-level jobs, or even hard labor. If they won't even do hard labor, the refugees waiting to enter the country at the border probably wouldn't mind having one or more more jobs, and Theresis wouldn't mind creating a few more corpses or capturing a few more slaves to exploit.

As for international voices and attempts to defect, forget about it. Not to mention that border closures are standard practice in war zones, even if you escape, it won't make a difference. Kazdel and Sarkaz have "We are barbarians" written all over their faces—they'd actually send you pink bunny packages and aren't afraid of any international condemnation.

Just like on Earth, Terrans have the guts to grumble in forums or social settings, but it seems only the scholars of the Great Yan Dynasty have the guts to annoy the barbarians and get a beating for it.

It's hard to say whether they are truly courageous or simply ignorant and therefore fearless. At least, truly intelligent people in the Great Yan Dynasty would not do such a thing themselves. Those who are tricked into doing this kind of thing are mostly being used as pawns.

"All right……"

"Speaking of which, how is your wife?"

"During the postoperative rehabilitation process." The separation surgery was performed around the sixth month of fetal development, and the fetus was then transplanted into an artificial uterus for further development.

Currently, it appears to be a girl. This is likely due to genetic adjustments made by the Terrans, preventing the Y chromosome from combining with the X chromosome, which would result in female offspring if they were to reproduce naturally.

Of course, if necessary, there are ways to resolve this, such as by making corrections during the embryonic stage.

However, the required equipment and technical skills are quite advanced. Old Xia himself is only a second-rate veterinarian and is neither qualified nor confident in doing this kind of work. This is a job that needs to be done at a regular star district hospital.

“No reproductive isolation, that’s a good thing.” The doctor nodded. For the Terrans, it was indeed a good thing. It meant that, at least in dire circumstances, they could integrate into a more advanced civilization. Although their own civilization and culture would most likely perish, at least their species would be preserved.

Without reproductive isolation, intermarriage is possible; intermarriage leads to integration; and integration means there is a certain probability of preserving parts of Terra's civilization and culture.

However, that would also mean that it would be an extremely high-speed "woman centrifuge".

In family life and marriage, women tend to value the future more, while men tend to value the present more, to put it bluntly.

When considering marriage, women, or rather the vast majority of females in nature, consider the male's genetic competitiveness, the amount of resources he can obtain within the community and in nature, and his ability to ensure the living environment for the next generation.

Males, on the other hand, have higher requirements in terms of current health, the costs they pay, and the physical condition of the female. They need to ensure that the offspring are their own first, then that the costs they pay are not enough to affect their survival, and finally that the female is healthy to ensure that the next generation has strong natural competitiveness.

When applied to humans, it becomes straightforward: women place greater emphasis on living environment and economic conditions.

Men, on the other hand, pay more attention to their face, physique, and... well, more breasts! [Don't laugh, it's a biological selection process...]

Therefore, when two civilizations of different levels, with no reproductive barriers and highly compatible cultures, come into contact and merge, high-quality women will be continuously separated from the latter, much like a centrifuge.

If not handled properly, it will become the initial and most troublesome fundamental conflict between the two civilizations.

The contradiction of choosing a partner, and in the interstellar age or interstellar civilization, the spatial distance between most civilizations is so large that there is hardly any international or interstellar society that would cause people to worry.

To put it bluntly, it was actually similar to the situation before the Age of Exploration, where traveling from one country to another required at least six months of sailing, and there was often a delay of more than six months in communication.

This means that such conflicts can quickly escalate within a small circle, and a more advanced civilization with superior military or violent advantages can easily suppress the resistance.

This situation results in a continuous loss of high-quality population, while the party marrying into a more advanced civilization will try their best to ensure that their offspring live in a way that reflects that advanced civilization. Those fortunate enough to marry into an advanced civilization will also try their best to cater to the preferences of the party with higher status in the family.

Ultimately, generation after generation, in as little as three generations, a civilization will dissolve into another. And throughout Earth's history, this phenomenon has occurred repeatedly and has been quite common.

“I know what you’re worried about, but actually, there’s no need for that.” Old Xia could tell what the doctor was thinking and worrying about just by looking at his face. “Our population isn’t large. You will inevitably be scattered and mixed in, but you won’t be centrifuged out. That would be too inefficient.”

It takes at least three generations to assimilate, while the Covenant usually assimilates you in just one generation, which is far too inefficient.

"So, you don't need to worry about intense conflicts arising from this intermarriage issue, but..."

"The Terran civilization will also perish even more completely, right?" The doctor shook his head. "I'm not one of those old-fashioned guys who are stuck in the past. Even an old-fashioned guy wouldn't come up with a plan to escape Terra with 60 million brains. I'm just lamenting the harshness and cruelty of nature and the universe, as if everything we, as highly intelligent beings, do is meaningless. Every time you think everything is justified, a powerful slap will wake you up—you're not a chosen one!"

“Yes, life is born by chance, grows by luck, and is enlightened by opportunity. However, chance does not last forever, and so does luck. Something that is created by chance can perish because of another chance, which is perfectly reasonable.” Xia Lin said that he had understood this kind of thing when he learned history in junior high school.

"Take Terra as an example. There are hundreds of millions of stars within our territory. If we were to calculate it precisely, this would happen on average once every 10 years. And within our observation range, stars are being born or dying almost every moment. Although life-bearing planets are not common, and intelligent life is even rarer, however..."

"However, this kind of cosmic activity is just a frequent and common occurrence. Everyone will encounter it sooner or later, it's just that Terra encountered it a little earlier."

The doctor shrugged. "That's why civilizations are so rare in the universe, and why the probes and broadcasts launched by the Terrans have never received a response."

"Uh..." Xia Lin scratched his head, "I suggest you don't have any expectations for this, you'll regret it later." You'll regret it so much that you'll roll around on the ground, as if your master has recited a tight headband spell on you.

"This behavior is almost inevitable for every innocent infant trying to step out of the cradle, however..."

Every cute thing you did as a child becomes an inescapable karmic obstacle for you in the future. For civilization, every probe and broadcasting satellite launched in its youth becomes a laborious task to be retrieved after it has grown up and traveled all over the universe.

"Yes, if only you had received the information sooner..."

"That's not what I meant!" Xia Lin interrupted the doctor's musings. "I meant that if you ever have the chance to establish a 'Space Artifact Recycling Bureau,' they'll be furious at what you said today, and they'd want to travel back in time to the present or even the past to break the hand that gave the order to launch probes and spacecraft into space."

"It's as miserable as asking you to go to the Iberian Sea to retrieve the aluminum cans and other plastic waste you threw away when you were young."

The only job in the Star Alliance that operates year-round without a break, with an average daily working time of over 12 hours, where you're constantly on the go like a dog.

The reason? It's very simple. This is one of the two great jokes of the Milky Way—"peace-loving humans," which is also the number one of the three great death traps of the Milky Way.

A newly enlightened civilization, having just entered interstellar space, found a human probe launched during the interstellar navigation era. They then genuinely believed that the probe was a foolish newbie who had recorded the coordinates of their home planet, life forms, language, and historical records on it.

This really means that this was a naive and innocent pro-foreign pacifist who came all the way to try and pick up some scraps or have some exchanges. And then... they were stopped and blown up at least 6000 light-years away from the solar system.

Such terrifying interstellar stories are the consequences of the mistakes made by these civilizations when they were young and ignorant, having just emerged from the atmosphere. "Therefore, the first thing any civilization does after gaining the ability to travel long distances between stars is to pick up the garbage it discarded when it was immature. And the amount of garbage you threw out back then will be many times the price you have to pay to pick it up one by one in the future."

Given the discovery of lunar remnants, how much faster-than-light and sub-light-speed debris did the United Nations Space Cooperation Alliance (UNSCO), which wasn't yet the Star Alliance at the time, throw into outer space...?

Just look at the workload of the Space Cultural Relics Recycling Bureau, which has a staff of 47,000 and operates year-round.

"Let me give you another terrifying example. I found the faster-than-light debris we threw out back then on your moon. Okay, if you want to continue joining the ranks of throwing debris into outer space, I won't stop you."

The Black Mole was probably one of the various spaceships and probes launched haphazardly at the time, marking the beginning of the Age of Exploration. What did the beginning of the Age of Exploration look like? Just recall history and you'll know.

Countries are afraid of missing out on land acquisition and new continent discoveries compared to others. The number of officially certified spacecraft launched by the government is already in the five figures, with 90% being unmanned and 10% being manned. The council's head is buzzing just thinking about how many unregistered spacecraft have been secretly launched by wealthy individuals, corporations, and private individuals.

Intercepting faster-than-light intergalactic missiles launched by hostile forces is more enjoyable than finding this junk. This junk has high speed, unknown course, no modern locator or malfunctioning locator, launch time unknown, configurations that only God can figure out, and deviations caused by various cosmic phenomena over the centuries.

Moreover, it's small in size. How difficult would it be to find a defunct deep-space probe with a diameter of no more than 10 meters in a spherical space with a radius of 3000 light-years?

Moreover, some later-launched spacecraft with faster-than-light transition capabilities have even flown beyond this spatial radius.

The good news is that it might happen any day, something that has been true since ancient times; the bad news is that it could lead to the leakage of one's own technology and data, and might also cause other civilizations to have some undesirable misconceptions.

Although it's not difficult to beat up those who come looking for trouble, it's still annoying! Their opening line is always, "Aren't you peace-loving people?" This is already the number one joke in the entire galaxy.

"You've really worked hard." The doctor couldn't imagine what that feeling was like, so he could only offer this consolation. "However, we only launched a few probes back then, it wasn't that bad." The technical requirements for intergalactic probes are also very high.

"Yes, so in the future you should number each detector, save all the trajectory data, and install a self-destruct device if it fails. This can reduce 99% of your troubles."

In the job of scavenging, those with numbers are usually found a few times every 2-3 years, while those without numbers may not be found even once or twice in 8-10 years. Searching for those insignificant suspicious points in the vast amount of spatial scanning data and echoes, and then manually checking them one by one, is really deadly.

“Alright, this topic is a bit difficult for both of us to understand. Let’s talk about the front lines instead. I’ve decided to launch an offensive in the fall, targeting Theresis’s largest supply base in the north-central region. Our fleet is not yet fully formed, so this time we’ll focus on air strikes and special operations. The maximum force we can deploy is only one infantry regiment.” The doctor flipped out a map and pointed to a mountainous area near Letania.

"This place was originally built by the Tower of Babel, near the borders of Ursus, Great Yan, and Letania."

It was a crescent-shaped hill, and nestled within its embrace was a hidden dock and harbor that once served as the Tower of Babel. It's a mystery how Therese found it.

"I don't know much about military topics, at least not yours. So what's the difficulty?"

Xia Lin asked, but the professor usually didn't discuss command issues with him because the professor had discovered that Xia Lin wasn't lacking in military knowledge, but in terms of command, he really only knew the basic tactics of "frame up and A out" (a specific combat strategy).

Of course, the kind of saturation tactic that involves mobilizing hundreds of millions of troops at once, directly bombing the rear with airborne drones, and then using overwhelming firepower and electronic suppression on the front lines, only requires the level of "frame A". The difficulty lies in gaining control of the orbit and in electronic and intelligence warfare, and the actual battlefield combat is unremarkable.

"There are many difficulties. First, there is the mountain structure, a granite structure. Most of the buildings are inside the mountain, with at least 1.5 kilometers of granite layers and Originium-containing solid rock layers, which are very resistant to magical bombardment and Originium ion beams."

"Because it is designed for supplying fleets and convoys, the entire platform extends from the mountainside. You can understand it as having no ground access or elevators."

"So, it's just a simple transit and supply point, with no ground production facilities nearby?"

"Not entirely. Our original research institutions and factories were located inside the mountain. Raw materials could be transported directly by land-based ships. The lowest docking stack was more than 15 meters above the ground."

Since it's just docking with a land-based ship, the lowest docking deck is suspended 15 meters above the ground.

"Wouldn't blowing up the support frame cause the whole thing to collapse? And this thing is very difficult to repair, isn't it?"

“The key is that we can’t blow it up.” The doctor was also in a dilemma. “And blowing up a few blocks is possible, but blowing up the entire dock pier is difficult and pointless. They can quickly repair a simple platform.”

"In addition, according to our aerial reconnaissance, Therese has significantly reinforced the defenses of the mountains on both sides, and has also built camps and a large number of air raid shelters on the ground below."

"In other words, our airstrikes cannot quickly create a path to the elevator for ground troops, while the enemy can use multi-layered, gradient firepower to weaken our offensive capabilities?"

"That's exactly what I mean. Moreover, the enemy can abandon the outer perimeter troops at any time and retreat into the mountain. The key is that we don't know how many passages, makeshift bridges, and temporary firing positions they've opened up in the mountain."

The doctor pointed to the crescent-shaped back side of the map and said, "This side is a gentle slope, but it will be very difficult to attack from here."

"Why would a gentle slope be difficult to attack?" Xia Lin scratched his head, this didn't seem right.

"Because of the Originium Dust, this shape, from a geological analysis perspective, is clearly formed by wind erosion. Although the back is a gentle slope, it is covered with a thick layer of fine Originium Dust. This not only allows Theresis to set up a refinery nearby to obtain fuel, but also makes it very difficult for us to bypass it."

"Unless we destroy his refining platforms one by one? But we only have one regiment..."

"Moreover, the dense Originium dust brings back Originium equipment that interferes with our operations, and heavy units will slide. Most importantly, even if we climb to the top of the slope, there is a cliff right next to it. Vertical attacks can only be carried out by infantry, and they will all be exposed to the firepower of the upper deck."

"What a tricky and bizarre setup..."

"You flatter me," the doctor said calmly.

"Wait, you set this up?"

"Yes, it was set up during the Tower of Babel era for our final evacuation headquarters, and was later moved to Rhodes Island after the discovery of Rhodes Island."

However, it was also used as a backup docking base. Since it was the final backup for headquarters, it was necessary to consider the need for Babel to have lost most of its combat capabilities at that time, and to be left only to hold out for reinforcements or prolong its existence.

"So, now it's your turn to fight?" Isn't this a case of shooting yourself in the foot?