In the boundless mysterious universe, amidst the vast starry sky, a massive black, icy spaceship is slowly drifting.
Mitra piloted a small shuttle closer; she had just concluded an exploration mission, but the result was no yield. There was a planet ahead, but no life existed on it, nor were there any usable resources.
She was already accustod, or perhaps numbed, to this.
The first thing that caught her eyes wasn't the details of the spaceship, but a special and incredibly large "Protective Shield" surrounding the spaceship.
This shield wasn't a chanical structure or other energy construct; it was made up of corpses in battle armor.
Mitra was a human female around thirty years old, though her appearance looked much older. Her eyes were dull, her features haggard.
Yet, when her gaze touched upon those corpses composing the shield, it was as if her lifeless self beca more vibrant, her eyes shimring with respect.
"Light"
A single word escaped her lips.
Mitra's mind replayed that once infinitely great scene:
A terrifying "scream" attacked from the depths of the universe, destroying countless civilized species and planets along its path. Soon it was their turn, the special civilization carried by this spaceship nad "Nija," larger than so planets.
They were the Nija people, a special spaceship civilization drifting through the universe for millennia.
Originally, the Nija people believed they would continue forever, but when that scream ca, everything changed.
The Nija ho, never believed to be destructible, faced a cataclysmic disaster. The fundantal systems maintaining the ship's operation—power, circulation, intelligence—were directly destroyed. More horrifyingly, the system supplying food to the Nija people, algae farms, artificial at fields, nutrient factories... all severely damaged.
And these were just the beginning.
The real horror was the death of the Nija people.
Before the disaster, the Nija civilization had nearly a billion mbers; in the first wave of the scream, tens of millions perished.
In the second wave, another tens of millions.
By the ti the third wave arrived, the Nija civilization was on the brink of collapse, poised to fall at any mont.
It was then that heroes began to erge.
Mitra watched as those around her, strangers yet familiar "Nija people," suddenly began to shine. They donned battle armor. Hand in hand, they ford a massive light shield outside the spaceship, blocking that death and despair-bringing Hatred Scream.
Though the light shield was repeatedly destroyed, the birth of heroes did not cease. New Nija people would step forth, holding light, continually sacrificing themselves to repair the shield.
Among them was Mitra's husband.
Even she never imagined how her husband, for decades just an ordinary maintenance worker, could burst forth with such power.
Finally, the disaster ended, after her husband gave his life.
Nearing the spaceship, Mitra's gaze swept the heavily shattered shield, attempting to find her husband's corpse.
The heroes died, but their bodies could only drift away; they could not be brought back inside the spaceship.
Everyone knew, and understood, that the heroes' bodies were filled with "Hatred Scream."
A few seconds later, passing through a gap in the shield, Mitra had to retract her gaze.
She did not find, she did not see her husband's body.
Mitra's face showed no sign of disappointnt; she was used to it, she sighed:
"All extinguished, all extinguished."
Sighing, the shuttle was guided back inside Nija.
Mitra chanically left the shuttle, underwent tedious checks, pollution elimination procedures, reported the mission to the surviving lower-level intellect brain, and then donned a slightly looser uniform, walking along the cold steel tunnel towards her room.
Exiting the tunnel, passing through so cabins, she entered the public area.
Once, all public areas within "Nija" were extrely lively, but now, they were all closed.
Only the Fifty-ninth area remained open, for the entertainnt and leisure of all surviving Nija people.
But the truth was entertainnt had died; there were tens of thousands of survivors of the Nija civilization.
Yet, including her, all needed to perform various tasks to maintain the continuation of the Nija civilization.
Everyone Mitra saw had the sa expression on their faces: numb and despairing, like zombies, like emotionless puppets.
The spaceship's broadcast was looping so content.
It essentially ant the Captain and other surviving leaders assured the people the spaceship was being repaired, food would not cease to supply, and the disaster was completely over.
Mitra knew the "truth," the disaster truly had ended, but the Nija civilization might have long been destroyed.
Two consecutive Hatred Screams not only killed nearly a billion Nija people, but also obliterated almost all systems inside the spaceship; it could no longer maintain normal operations.
As an explorer, she and her colleagues had never made any gains.
"We can't sustain much longer, this will be the graveyard for all of us."
"Nija, is just a gigantic chanical coffin."
"The only consolation, at least family is still here..."
Mitra walked slowly, her steps growing heavier, her whole being exuding a thick aura of death.
Until she approached her room, a change ca over her aura.
She quickened her pace slightly, forced a smile onto her face.
She was already on the brink of collapse, countless tis wanting to follow her husband, but she could not do so, for she and her husband had a child.
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