Expedition Astera - AI Wars The human race is under threat from a race known as the Hitlerans. Their solution has been to abandon Earth and disperse themselves throughout the 250 billion stars in the galaxy. Trovia, one of the planets that humans have settled, seeks to build a spacegate between itself and the neighboring planet Erendiz. This will be an important step in transforming Trovia from a single planet to a space federation. For this mission they have designed a giant spaceship called Einstein that can travel just under light speed using its Gamma Laser Propulsion system. The brain of the ship is a sentient computer named Omni. The three women and two men of the crew are Trovia's finest space explorers. They are accompanied by hubots, robots that look and act like humans. As Einstein heads toward Erendiz, Omni feels compelled to take the crew out of the deep-freeze. He has detected radio signals from an intelligent race from an area of space that should be empty. This puts them in a difficult continue with the spacegate mission or investigate this signal, the source of which could pose a threat to Trovia? They decide to investigate the signal. The team heads to the asteroid from which the signal originated. The spaceport of the asteroid is a tree-like structure about ten kilometers in height. They land on one of its branches. They encounter gigantic tunnels and within them parked trains that stand as high as four-story buildings. There is no sign of any living being. They get on their heavily armed ioncycles (flying motorcycles powered by ion motors) and ionmobiles (load-bearing vehicles) and set out to explore the tunnels. They have with them a number of expedition and attack robots such as the flybots, robodiscs, rofinders and roleos. In one of the tunnels they encounter a spacious hall and circular gates made of liquid metal. They set up camp in front of one of the gates. Just then, a train travelling at 900 kilometers per hour rushes past. At the same time, artificial gravity that seems to come out of nowhere pins Shanel to the ceiling. As it turns out, the trains and gates generate artificial gravity. The train smashes the transmitters laid throughout in the tunnels, severing the team's connection with Einstein. As if this weren't enough, melon-sized, robotic crabs begin lurking around their camp. Their numbers grow and eventually they attack. They barely escape with their skins thanks to a brilliant plan by Shanel. Yet, they are disappointed to find more crabs in the next hall where they seek refuge. The crew is forced to flee into the tunnels. Then what they most fear comes to pass. A train heads toward them at terrifying speed. Once again, Shanel saves the day. The damaged train takes them to a repair station, where they encounter gigantic Asteran robots. The captain and Shanel go for a long walk in the artificial gravity cave behind the station. When they return, they find the station overrun by some creatures they call "speartooths". They launch a counterattack to rescue their friends. The robots at the station help out, though they're not sure why. However, they are in for a a large, parasitic creature has stuck itself onto Lera. They spot their own shuttle approaching the tree-like spaceport on one of the train cameras. As it turns out, an invisible spacecraft attacked Einstein while they were in the tunnels. Robots they dub "starsnakes" infiltrated the ship. After a long struggle, they make contact with Bark and manage to get him to the station. Even better, they learn where the starsnakes have hidden the Einstein.