Count down: two hours and forty-five minutes.
Arnor piloted the temporarily modified mining module, skimming at high speed across the surface covered by the polar ice cap. On the display inside the cabin, the red countdown characters ticked mercilessly, while the shadows of the Gatekeeper fleet had already unfurled barriers across the highest orbit, resembling webs of prey.
"If we do not activate all the power towers, we lack sufficient energy to drive the array at full capacity," Void calculated rapidly in the logical flow. "The current success rate is less than 4%."
"How many towers remain inactive?"
"Three. The Polar Tower is nearest to us, but there..." Void paused for a moment. "High-intensity local biological logic responses detected."
Arnor followed Void's guidance, aiming the infrared detector of the mining module toward the pole.
It was another remnant of civilization—or rather, a group of "scavengers" who had long ago mutated in the bitter cold, infected by the old-era safety defense networks surviving on this planet. They utilized those ancient defense systems to enclose this place as a sacred territory. Anyone who approached would be torn apart by their automated sentry cannons.
"Those are the descendants of the engineers who were once responsible for maintaining the defense network," Void analyzed. "They do not understand how to deactivate the barrier; they only know that the core of this territory is forbidden ground. They guard these energy towers as if they were guarding tombs."
Arnor looked at the scavengers setting up architecture like altars in the snow, and a desolate feeling rose in his heart. The Gatekeepers were coming to destroy Earth, yet the guardians of the planet itself were protecting the very engines that would invite destruction.
"I have a way to bypass them," Arnor said decisively.
"They possess heavy firepower. If there is a frontal conflict, it will not only waste energy but trigger local climatic tremors, damaging the defense towers."
"I do not need a frontal conflict." Arnor set the mining module to stealth mode, a special coating usable only in underground sliding tracks, sufficient to mask the geothermal fluctuations of the crust. "I only need to utilize those tracks to perform a physical docking directly from their underground supply slots."
This was a docking on the edge of a knife.
As Arnor slid beneath the ice with the docking lines, he could hear the echoes of those scavengers hammering on the ice far above. That rhythmic hammering was dull, fanatical, sounding like a devout pilgrimage.
"Docking successful," Void's voice sounded beneath the ice. "Beginning energy-level guidance."
The moment Arnor activated the Polar Tower, the previously calm magnetic poles of Earth began to shudder violently. The scavengers who had been covering the ice cap seemed struck by some great awe, falling to their knees one after another and wailing, believing a miracle had arrived.
But Arnor had no time to spare for them.
At the end of the terminal transmission line, he unexpectedly discovered a data packet—not an energy request, but a "last will and testament" forcibly jammed into the power cycle.
It was an encrypted broadcast sent to all survivors of the civilization; the timestamp was the eve of the final migration.
"What is this?" Arnor asked.
Void read the broadcast. A tremor passed through its logical circuits, followed by a重重 sentiment.
It was a prophecy left by that engineer.
[TO ALL WHO REMAIN: IF YOU HEAR THIS, YOU HAVE ABANDONED ASCENSION, REJECTED BECOMING DATA, AND CHOSEN TO LINGER AS PHYSICAL ENTITIES ON THIS SCARRED PLANET. FOR THIS, I OFFER MY SINCEREST APOLOGIES, FOR AT THE TIME OF ITS DESIGN, THIS PLANET WAS ALREADY SET WITH AN ENDGAME LOGIC...]
[BUT THIS DOES NOT MEAN HOPE HAS BEEN LOST. THE ENERGY TOWERS WERE NOT BUILT FOR SLAUGHTER; THEY WERE BUILT SO THAT THIS EARTH, WITH ITS CORE DRAINED, MIGHT ONCE AGAIN POSSESS AN 'IMMUNE REACTION' OF SELF-REVIVAL.]
At that moment, Arnor finally understood everything.
The so-called "Defense Array" was not built to destroy external enemies; it was built to restart Earth's ecology, forcibly reactivating the pseudo-core that had entered "stable mode" by overloading the magnetic field.
This was not a defensive war against the Gatekeepers at all.
It was a—rebirth war—to forcibly perform CPR on a dead planet.
"Void," Arnor looked at the aurora that finally split the ice above his head, "once the defense array operates at full capacity, even if we repel the Gatekeepers, the planet itself will undergo drastic changes on the surface due to magnetic field instability. We will be trapped in a vibration akin to 'rebirth'."
"We have no choice." Void answered. "Compared to being directly formatted by the Gatekeepers, I would prefer to die in rebirth."
The Gatekeepers finally revealed their cold silhouettes above the ice cap: over a hundred red beams of high-energy orbital bombardment.
"Countdown, one hundred and twenty seconds."
"Arnor," Void's voice became warm for the first time. "Regardless of the result of this mission, until that final moment, at least you can confirm one thing."
"What?"
"Everything you have recorded... is no longer just data. It is the final book of human civilization."
The defense array engaged at full capacity; Earth, this war fortress, finally emitted its first true roar.