Chapter 55: Re-exploring the Star Field

Inside the heavily guarded temporary interrogation room, the very air seemed suspended in stillness.

The suspect with his hands tightly bound behind his back—Chen Yuan, senior technical officer of the communications center—sat in a specially designed chair, his face drained of all color. The cold sweat beading on his temples gleamed chillingly under the harsh lights.

General Mu Chengzhu and Xu Yan, accompanied by others, stood behind a massive one-way glass wall, observing Chen Yuan within the surveillance cell.

"You take it from here," General Mu instructed Xu Yan after a long, icy gaze through the glass.

The decision to avoid a direct, face-to-face confrontation was a precaution against any hidden, last-resort methods the suspect might possess to expose whoever had tracked down his signal source.

Duan Peng had just finished hastily stitching his wound and wrapping it in bandages, the fury burning in his eyes almost tangible.

Ouyang Nan and Wu Mingjie stood within the observation room, their emotions equally complex. Their hearts churned with a mixture of betrayal and the anticipation of purging the traitor from their ranks.

"Who do you work for? What is the true objective of 'Project Doorway: Phase 2' in Echo Valley?" Xu Yan's voice resonated through the speakers, entirely devoid of emotional inflection.

Altered by a voice modulator, his words carried a metallic edge that pressed heavily upon Chen Yuan, enveloping him in a surround-sound acoustic assault.

Chen Yuan's body shuddered violently, a flash of desperate struggle crossing his eyes.

A prolonged silence ensued, broken only by the sound of his own heavy, ragged breathing echoing within the cramped enclosure. Cold sweat soaked completely through his back.

"Speak!" Xu Yan's suppressed, low roar reverberated through the observation room, carrying the crushing weight of psychological pressure.

The surround-sound modulation weaponized this psychological dominance, causing Chen Yuan's pupils to dilate in panic.

Perhaps realizing the utter futility of further resistance, he finally broke under the force of that single command, abandoning his stubborn facade.

"The Pioneers... what they found... it's not just spatial anomalies..." His voice was hoarse, rattling like an old, broken bellows.

"Echo Valley... hidden there is the location of a 'Colossus'... along with a method to control the 'Vortex'... 'Project Doorway' is meant to draw it out... they... they don't want collapse... they want absolute control..."

"The 'Vortex'?" Ouyang Nan whispered, her mind instantly leaping to the legendary, lethal spatial hazard of Echo Valley—a colossal maelstrom of raw energy turbulence.

"A 'Colossus'? What specifically is it? Where is it located?" Xu Yan pressed further, his speech quickening.

Jiyu was highly active within his consciousness, simultaneously capturing and analyzing every single word uttered by the suspect, alongside every minute fluctuation in his physiological indicators.

"Coordinates... the coordinates are..." The suspect recited a vague, encrypted positional reference frame, but immediately shook his head in pure agony.

"I only handle data transmission... what the 'Sky Eye' sees... the core sector harbors even deadlier 'Star Scars', and no one has ever survived entering to verify it... traps... quantum traps are everywhere! I only... I needed the money..." His words dissolved into incoherent babble, finally drowning in a pathetic sob.

"Sky Eye?" Jiyu instantly branded this suspicious codename within Xu Yan's consciousness.

The remainder of the interrogation yielded no further intelligence. True to his confession, Chen Yuan appeared to be merely a data conduit, broadcasting on specific frequencies much like ancient cryptographic transmissions sent over public channels, while assisting in bridging external cyberattacks directly into the base.

While hardly the work of elite hackers or overly sophisticated methods, Redeem had cleverly exploited the base's internal public channels and external network interfaces.

They had even managed to subvert an individual who previously had no access to core communications.

It had to be admitted—this was a method both commonplace and "advanced," yet devastatingly effective.

General Mu issued an immediate directive: "Transfer Chen Yuan to the Security Directorate. Place him under strict confinement and dig deep into all his associated networks! Combined with this traitor's confession, the logs prior to 'Explorer 7' all point toward the exact same core sector coordinates. The depths of Echo Valley hold the answer to the mystery. The fact that Redeem went to such extreme lengths to thwart 'Cocoon' proves we are closing in on their ultimate secret—the 'Colossus,' which holds the power to alter the global balance."

He paused, his command carrying the weight of a thousand mountains: "Xu Yan, your team is the solitary key. Utilize the trap intelligence provided by the traitor, equip 'Cocoon' 2.0, and depart immediately for Echo Valley. Uncover the truth behind the 'Colossus' and halt any further schemes by Redeem! I will dispatch 'Explorer 8' as your transport platform. All resources and clearance levels are yours to command without reservation."

"Understood, General!" Xu Yan answered first, pledging absolute commitment.

Though the immediate crisis had seemingly abated, the mission ahead loomed far more arduous.

Jiyu offered no further expressions of a desire to leave alone; instead, it displayed an unprecedented sense of alignment with General Mu's directives.

While the base's reconstruction proceeded at a furious pace, Xu Yan's squad was left with less than twenty-four hours.

Following comprehensive medical scans and brief recuperation periods inside the medical pods, the four members converged within the core tactical chamber of the Star Gate Project.

Duan Peng's injuries had stabilized significantly thanks to advanced biogel and fortifying stimulants. He sat in silence, meticulously polishing his newly issued heavy energy weapon. The fury in his eyes had settled into an unyielding, hardened resolve, akin to stone grinding against a razor edge.

Ouyang Nan stood before the stellar map, her fingertips tracing the high-risk zones of Echo Valley—both vaguely mentioned by the traitor and cataloged in the database—her gaze burning with laser-like focus.

"My father... and the exploration crew members who gave their lives... their sacrifices cannot be in vain. The 'Star Scars' are traps, the 'Vortex' is a barrier... but the truth we seek lies hidden behind them all."

She transmitted an analytical report to her teammates, synthesizing the fragmented intel from Chen Yuan with her own memory archives. "These are the initial navigation warning vectors I've managed to reconstruct."

Wu Mingjie was hard at work conducting final integration and stress testing on the onboard systems of "Explorer 8" and the hardware of "Cocoon" 2.0.

He inspected the reinforced shield generators, his single-armed movements precise, methodical, and devoid of error.

"Hull modifications are complete, and the 'Cocoon' system has achieved full vessel integration. This time... we won't let them succeed." His voice was low, yet carried an unshakable conviction.

Xu Yan had intentionally fashioned General Mu's "Star Pillar Fragment" into a pendant, through which he continued to communicate with Jiyu, monitoring the entity's resonance.

"Explorer 8 is ready," the bridge intercom crackled with confirmation.

"Board the vessel," Xu Yan commanded, his voice concise and forceful.

Like a silver needle slipping silently into a pool of ink, "Explorer 8" pierced through the distorted light and shadow barriers clinging to the edge of the Echo Valley sector without a sound.

On the bridge, the primary holographic stellar map fluctuated violently. Pristine flight paths were systematically shredded by countless violent, unnatural surges of energy turbulence.

Beyond the viewing ports stretched no quiet, static expanse of space, but rather massive, slowly rotating nebulae vortices. Swirling clouds of bizarrely colored interstellar dust expanded and contracted like the lungs of a cosmic behemoth, punctuated periodically by silent bursts of energetic lightning that cast flickering, stark shadows across the heavy composite armor of the hull.

"Large-scale energy accumulation detected 0.7 light-seconds ahead. Structural anomalies confirmed... inconsistent with natural formation!"

Ouyang Nan abruptly reported with urgency, projecting an eerie energy signature spectrum onto the main tactical display—a complex, self-replicating, and distorted energy matrix stretching across their mandatory flight path like a massive, invisible spiderweb.