Chapter 177 - 176: Project Skynet

Compared to the Solar System, the Oriental Star System was far too young.

When the Solar System first formed, it also went through such a chaotic period. In fact, this process of chaotic collisions was an intrinsic part of how celestial bodies gradually developed and took shape.

If not for the frequent fusion and collision of celestial bodies, a large planet like Earth could never have grown to its current mass.

This phase in the Solar System lasted for hundreds of millions of years and was even given a special name: the Late Heavy Bombardment. This shows just how chaotic the Solar System was back then.

After a long period of evolution, large planets like Earth gradually cleared their orbits of smaller celestial bodies.

The smaller celestial bodies that didn’t collide with the large ones, under the influence of the planets’ Gravity, were gathered—some into the Asteroid Belt, some into the Kuiper Belt. Even more were ejected into more distant orbits, forming the vast Ecliptic Discrete Disk and the Oort Cloud.

Thus, the entire Solar System gradually stabilized, creating the possibility for life to later emerge.

For the Oriental Star System to stabilize like the Solar System, it would also need at least several hundred million years.

Of course, Li Qingsong couldn’t wait that long.

That left only one option: artificial intervention.

After a moment of thought, a massive plan rapidly took shape in Li Qingsong’s mind.

The Skynet Project!

Using the newly established industrial base on Oriental A1, Li Qingsong had hundreds of millions of Clones immediately begin mass production on a colossal scale.

Countless mines roared to life, transporting mountainous quantities of ore to the factories. From the bio-resource bases, immense supplies of sugar, oil, rubber, and other materials also began to converge on the factories.

Under the direction of the Divine Craft AI, a peculiar technological creation was rapidly produced.

It was a square, box-like object, resembling a metal case.

It measured only about 0.5 meters in size, with a total mass not exceeding 300 kilograms. On one end, it had several claw-shaped metal appendages that could freely extend, retract, and change shape. The other end featured a propulsion nozzle.

It used an isotope battery as its power source, and its propulsion module utilized a small ion thruster.

Its overall technological level wasn’t particularly high; to Li Qingsong, it was just a relatively rudimentary industrial product.

’Relatively rudimentary’ meant it could be mass-produced, allowing for enormous quantities to be manufactured in a short time.

And that was indeed the case.

Although Li Qingsong’s overall industrial scale was still small and the number of factories was limited—he could only allocate two factories specifically for the final assembly of these creations—the daily output still reached ten thousand units.

Countless components arrived at the final assembly plant via heavy-freight trains. On the assembly line, under the control of intelligent machinery, with the Clones making decisions and performing maintenance and the Divine Craft AI handling the actual assembly, these devices flowed out continuously, like a river.

After the first batch of ten thousand units was produced, Li Qingsong immediately commanded the Clones to pilot aerospace-capable vessels and transport them to the orbit of Oriental A1.

Here, a large space station had already been constructed.

These box-shaped technological creations were placed inside the space station.

The Clones and robots placed these metal boxes onto an automated refueling and charging line, where their propellant and isotope batteries were replenished.

Afterward, command authority over these metal boxes was transferred to the Wukong AI.

Under the observation of numerous reconnaissance satellites spread throughout the Oriental A system, data on countless asteroids of all sizes that had already entered, or were about to enter, the system was collected.

Through the Wukong AI’s calculations, threatening celestial bodies were immediately identified, and orders were instantly transmitted to the metal boxes.

In an instant, like a swarm of bees leaving a hive, thousands of the metal boxes shot out from the space station under their own power, scattering as they raced toward their designated targets.

Upon reaching their targets, the metal boxes would automatically attach themselves to the asteroids.

Their metal claws allowed them to latch securely onto asteroids of any shape or composition. Once fixed in place, the ion thrusters would activate, pushing the asteroids to alter their current orbits.

And so, those that were originally on a collision course with Oriental A1 were pushed away, their impact averted;

Those that were set to crash into Oriental A in the region Li Qingsong had designated as a deuterium field were also diverted, made to impact other areas of the star instead.

For smaller celestial bodies, a single one of these metal Thrust Devices was enough to push it off course. If the body was larger, it was no problem either. Under the command of the Wukong AI, these Thrust Devices could automatically form groups, detect an asteroid’s shape and mass, calculate attachment points and their individual thrust outputs, and work together to complete the deflection task.

With the coordination of over a billion Clones and the roar of numerous factories, an average of over ten thousand Thrust Devices were deployed into space each day, all placed under the unified command of the Wukong AI.

In space, dedicated stations for these Thrust Devices to dock, refuel, and recharge were also rapidly constructed.

Thus, the Thrust Devices would normally drift through space on their own. Upon receiving an order from the Wukong AI, nearby Thrust Devices would converge on the target. When their energy or propellant ran low, they would automatically return to a space station to refuel and recharge, then head back out into space to await the next command...

The capabilities of this system were already formidable, but this was not the entirety of the Skynet Project.

After all, the power output of a Thrust Device using an isotope battery and a small ion thruster was too low. It could only handle the task of deflecting asteroids less than 10 meters in size.

For anything larger, they were powerless. And such larger asteroids were not uncommon in the Oriental Star System.

So, Li Qingsong developed a second model of Thrust Device. Its dimensions reached over two meters, with a total mass of about 5 tons. Its power source was no longer an isotope battery, but a genuine nuclear fission reactor.

Above that was an even larger third model, with dimensions of up to ten meters, a total mass of up to 100 tons, and powered by a Nuclear Fusion Reactor!

At this moment, three models of Thrust Devices moved freely throughout the Oriental A system, carrying out deflection work on asteroids of all sizes under the unified command of the Wukong AI.

But even these numerous Thrust Devices were still not the entirety of the Skynet Project.

The Skynet Project had one more, most crucial component.