To tell the truth, this is really an extremely inhospitable planet, Shen Chao had this feeling just now when the Budapest approached here for surface scanning, and now that he is closer, he looks even more so.

Although the planet is a terrestrial planet with a breathable atmosphere, the oxygen content in the air is very low, and it feels like it is on a plateau on Earth.

The Earth's surface temperature remains above 40 degrees Celsius throughout the day, the entire planet is hot, and there are only a few habitable areas with water and plants. The rest of the area is mostly desert.

This is not to mention that the gravity of this planet is 50% more than that of Earth, which greatly affects the actions of normal people. Basically, everything you can imagine that is not suitable for long-term human existence can be found here.

"It's so desolate......" In the cabin of the shuttle, Shen Chao sighed in his heart after looking at the surface of the planet outside through the narrow porthole. He had expected to see more green areas on the planet.

But through the portholes, he could only see the vast yellow-brown plains and highlands of the planet below, with only a few places with very small blue "puddles".

Those are the big lakes on the ground, each of which is at least a few hundred square kilometers in size. Each large lake is surrounded by greenery of varying densities, forming oases.

Roy was on his side, and they were rushing to a colony below with a platoon of Marines in six shuttles, ready to meet with the leaders of the replicants.

Due to the barren natural environment, there are only 3 major human settlements on the entire planet, with a total of about 110,000 people, of which nearly 70,000 are replicants liberated from various colonies, and the rest are natural people.

That's right, natural people, some of whom were captured by the Federation fleet captured in previous battles, and some of whom came to them on their own initiative to seek protection. There are also young descendants of replicants and natural persons.

Shen Chao: They were going to the largest of them. The location of the rebel leadership. Near that settlement is a large lake covering an area of more than 40,000 square meters, which is the most suitable area for human survival on the planet.

"Sir, we're going into the atmosphere......." Just as Shen Chao was thinking about how to negotiate for a while, the co-pilot in the front row of the shuttle turned his head and reminded.

There will be a bump in the flight into the atmosphere, and it is not suitable to stare out of the porthole when entering the atmosphere at high speed, and the strong light and heat generated by a large amount of friction are not very friendly to human eyes.

"Take us down." Second Lieutenant......" Shen Chao nodded to the co-pilot, and then returned to his seat, there were a total of 6 people in their shuttle.

Except for him and Roy in their regular clothes. The remaining four in the cabin were all heavily armed soldiers. Dressed in a heavy armored nanosuit, he carries several weapons and prepares for emergencies.

One of the soldiers also held a folding flagpole, the top of which was a composite flag, and the pattern on the flag was naturally the symbol of the council.

A few minutes later, six shuttles descended into the atmosphere and landed in a lined line at a ready landing site on the ground.

When the hatch opened, a whole wave of heat poured into the shuttle with a little sand and a burst of loud music and cheers. As several heavily armed soldiers quickly jumped out of the cabin, they raised the flag. Shen Chao also stood up and saw the scene outside the hatch.

They landed in a medium-sized square, which at first glance was designed to dock transport ships, and by this time tens of thousands of people had gathered in this temporary square.

The people here are dressed in loose clothes, and many of them wear hats to protect themselves from the sun. At first glance, it is to adapt to the hot air and fierce light outside.

People looked at the shuttles with suspicion and curiosity, and they all knew that the people who came down from the shuttles were their saviors. It was the mysterious man who helped them fight another purge of the Federation.

The first few soldiers to jump down and the other groups of marines who came down from the shuttle quickly gathered and lined up, and the crowd of onlookers, although they could not see their faces under their helmets, knew that these people were friends.

So many people in the crowd were cheering in the direction of this side, and there was also an orchestra that looked like it had been formed improvised and played strange welcome music.

Of course, the group at the top of the crowd was obviously the leader here, and they looked anxiously at several shuttles with identical livery, as if they were waiting to greet Shen Chao and them.

"Welcome to my home, Captain......" Roy stood up, walked to the hatch and looked outside, then suddenly turned around and said to Shen Chao.

The bright sunlight outside shone on his face, reflecting his extremely bright smiling face. With that, he happily jumped out of the hatch and rushed to the opposite side.

Shen Chao had never seen such a sunny side in Roy before, and in his impression, Roy had always been one of the least talkative people in his expedition, only slightly more talkative than the soldiers.

But Roy was so happy when he was laughing just now, was it completely different from the person he had in his impression a year before? It can be seen that "going home" has multiple meanings to him.

After jumping out of the cabin of the shuttle, Roy looked at the acquaintances outside and immediately rushed to the opposite column of people, and several men and women among the leaders on the opposite side greeted him with surprise after seeing him.

In the middle ground, these people and Roy hugged one by one. They're old friends. There are a few who are friends of life and death, and Roy has also mentioned these "relatives" of his to Shen Chao before.

The tens of thousands of people outside suddenly erupted into a violent cheer after seeing clearly that it was Roy who came out first, just like the star-chasers of the main plane saw some superstar.

Seeing the reaction of tens of thousands of people outside, Shen Chao finally understood why Roy had to come back to save his compatriots. Such a family atmosphere is indeed very touching, perhaps, for Roy, these tens of thousands of people are his family.

After sighing with emotion, Shen Chao didn't forget his business, he strode out of the cabin, and walked to the opposite side under the escort of two heavily armed soldiers.

Seeing him appear in sight, several people on the other side also realized that he was the important guest they were waiting for, and they pressed their urge to chat with Roy and came over to greet him respectfully.

The fighting power of the Budapest was unmatched in the battle just now, at least the leaders of these replicants had never seen such an invincible battleship.

Under Roy's introduction, they all understood that the young man in front of them was the captain of the "Invincible Battleship" and the supreme leader of this mysterious space-time council.

In a standard handshake, thanks and other diplomatic etiquette, Roy introduced the names and positions of several leaders to Shen Chao in turn.

These people are both men and women, and none of them seem to be very old, at most they look like they are 30 years old. Of course, this is because they are all replicants and don't live as long as natural people.

Soon, Shen Chao was invited into a two-storey house near the square like a group of stars, and began formal negotiations.

The content of their negotiation was very simple, mainly about Shen Chao's recruitment plan, and the leaders of the other party had already known in Roy's previous introduction that this mysterious space-time council needed their talents. So the core of the negotiation focused on Shen Chao's attitude towards them.

That's right, it's a matter of his attitude. Although the leaders of a room full of more than a dozen replicants were very grateful to Shen Chao for commanding the Budapest to help them turn the tide of battle, they did not blindly obey Shen Chao's conditions.

Instead, they got to the bottom of it and respectfully and carefully inquired about Shen Chao's conditions, among which they were most concerned about the potential attitude of Shen Chao and his space-time council towards their replicants.

They wondered if the mysterious organization that had just helped them win a battle wanted to treat them as simple quality slave laborers after recruiting them, or if they were real people.

This is not a trivial issue, and survival is not necessarily the first important thing in life for these replicants who have gone through all kinds of hardships. Their own lifespan is very limited, so they cherish the value of their lives more than ordinary people.

The opportunity to live longer and enjoy life in other worlds is naturally very, very appealing to them. But if they want to exchange this little personal freedom that they have won so hard, then few people are willing to accept it.

Shen Chao had only introduced the talents that his army needed to recruit, and did not mention other types. This led many of the replicant leaders in the room to mistakenly believe that he was preparing to recruit a group of "slave soldiers" from them.

Some of them have been deluded by similar statements from the federal government before, thinking that they will have a chance to live their own life in the world of natural people if they behave well. It turns out that I have been scammed in the end. So it's no surprise that they have questions about that.

"Oh, you may have misunderstood, I didn't say that I was only here to recruit soldiers, anyone who is willing to abide by the constitution of our control plane can join the ......"

Shen Chao explained, after talking for a while, he also sensed that the problem was here, so he explained his recruitment principles in detail. He really needs to build a fleet the most, and he really wants to recruit as many people here as possible.

But this is not to say that he is only here to recruit the talents needed by the army, as the most important subsidiary organization in their plan, the establishment of the space-time fleet needs to be done step by step, and now it is just laying the foundation.

As for the personnel of the fleet, it is impossible to use only the replicants of this plane, but it is just that the average physical and mental strength of these people is very developed, and they are suitable for training as the backbone personnel of the early stage of the fleet. (To be continued.) )