Chapter 529: Meteorite
An endless white scene filled his eyes.
Chen Chen squinted his eyes and saw from here that the north pole on Mars was very different from the north pole on Earth.
In the center of the polar region, there was also a sprawling ice continent, but unlike on Earth, the north pole of Mars had a large number of strange rocky landforms. This type of landform was called “frost dunes”. From a high altitude, these dunes formed by ice and snow looked a bit like folds of ice cream.
There were also a large number of dark areas in the north pole. These dark areas were gaps formed after the gas trapped under the ice sheet was released. This made the Arctic landscape extremely complex and dangerous at the same time.
Moreover, the sun on Mars was bluish and smaller than seen from the earth, only about two-thirds the size of how it appeared on Earth.
The wind on Mars was also much stronger than that on Earth. Usually, the wind was around 6 or 7 on the Beaufort scale, and it could occasionally even form large sandstorms that spread across the planet.
At this time, as Chen Chen set foot in this Martian world, the first thing he saw was a few black monowheels parked outside the elevator.
These vehicles were made by several designers of Blacklight Biotechnology through modifying the Gantz Bike. The Gantz Bike, which was a special motorcycle in Gantz, had only one tire as a whole, but this tire had a very large size, with a diameter that could reach two meters and a width that could reach fifty centimeters.
This tire was hollow inside, so it could house a seat and corresponding cockpit. As the tire itself blocked the driver’s front line of sight directly, a display screen was needed so the driver could observe the front.
The driver would sit inside the entire tire and the front and rear of the tire also had gear levers and tail fins that provided stability. There was even a seat that could carry passengers at the rear.
Compared to ordinary motorcycles, the advantage was that it was more flexible and could adapt to more complex terrains. The disadvantage was that the difficulty of handling it was much higher than that of ordinary motorcycles and cars.
Still, for the Black Knights who had far greater reflexes than humans, these difficulties were nothing.
The huge and narrow one-wheel design allowed this vehicle to freely shuttle through the rugged rocks and pellet-scattered ground of Mars. Its maneuverability and speed were far beyond conventional off-road vehicles. Even if it hit an object, it was difficult to damage it. Even its energy use was far lower than ordinary vehicles.
Therefore, this kind of “unimpeded vehicle” modified from the Gantz Bike became a very advantageous vehicle on Mars. After the modification, those people gave this vehicle a name — “GB off-road vehicle”.
After testing, this kind of mono-wheel off-road vehicle could speed through Mars at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour, completely ignoring the complicated, shifting topographic structure of Mars. It could be described as a perfect fit.
At this time, Chen Chen picked one of the GB off-road vehicles and sat in it.
As Chen Chen sat in one of the off-road vehicles, the screen in front of him flashed and a line of words appeared on it:
“Detecting user...”
“Please place your palm on the screen.”
Chen Chen stretched out his hand and placed his palm on the screen. Suddenly, another line on the screen swept across.
“Identity confirmed: The driver has the highest authority. The vehicle has been synchronized with the driver’s protective suit.”
As this line of words flashed across the screen, the GB off-road vehicle quickly started and drove Chen Chen forward.
Amid the ice and snow, the black monowheel swiftly moved forward. A large wheel track appeared behind the vehicle and the monowheel rolled faster and soon traversed over a hundred kilometers.
Sitting in the monowheel, Chen Chen silently experienced this special sensation. This was a field that humans had never set foot in. If Chen Chen wanted to, he could even drive the vehicle away from the north pole and head to the equator of Mars.
When the Ares was orbiting Mars, several communication satellites had been scattered here and the satellites now directly covered the surface of Mars. Wherever the GB off-road vehicle went, there was no need to worry about getting lost.
At this time, Chen Chen drove the vehicle to the top of the highest snow-capped mountain nearby.
This snow-capped mountain range in the north pole was about 2,000 meters high. Standing here, Chen Chen could even see the distant horizon’s gradient turning from white to brown. The reason for this was that the north pole’s ice cover was not large. Just a few kilometers away was the most common desert terrain of Mars.
Looking at this primitive and ancient world, Chen Chen sighed silently. Who would have thought that he, who obtained the USB flash drive, would be on the famous Mars after a few years?
Chen Chen had always had distant, boundless ambitions because he knew that human beings would not be trapped on Earth forever. Although the earth was the mother who gave birth to humankind, she also restrained the pace of human civilization and a human civilization that did not transcend the Earth was forever fragile, liable to be destroyed by various disasters at any time —
Meteorites, volcanic eruptions, gamma-ray bursts, and even humans’ own nuclear wars — there were countless ways whereby the universe could destroy human civilization.
If human civilization wanted to endure, the only path was to go beyond the earth.
Now, the first step had been taken by Chen Chen.
These thoughts flashed through Chen Chen’s mind, but in the next moment, he saw a series of meteors passing above his head. There were as many as a hundred meteors, huddling together as they fell toward Mars.
The atmosphere of Mars was very thin, which meant that even a chunk the size of a fist would reach the ground. This was unlike the earth, where meteorites the size of a few houses would be reduced to dust in the atmosphere before they could even reach the ground.
However, just then, the voice of X-113, Nancy, suddenly came out of the headset. “Sir Commander, I’ve suddenly received bad news. The situation is very urgent.”
Chen Chen’s expression flickered. He looked up and said, “Speak!”
“Just ten seconds ago, the research station base in the south pole suddenly sent a distress signal to the earth, claiming that a meteorite fell over there and smashed into the research station. At present, a large amount of air is leaking out of the research station and the situation is very critical.”
As if she knew the crisis that the other party might be facing, Nancy’s voice also became serious. “Among the team at the south pole research station, two died due to the collapse of the building and seven went into hypoxic shock due to being exposed to the Martian air for an instant. The remaining three people have hidden in a laboratory that hasn’t collapsed, including our Alpha-level researcher Hannibal Caesar of Blacklight Biotechnology. Because this laboratory is used to study Martian life forms, it’s sufficiently airtight but it won’t last long.”
“How long will it last?”
Chen Chen frowned and asked.
“Because the research station was damaged, the power system was also destroyed. The oxygen production room is no longer able to produce oxygen. The research station has completely shut down. Based on the scale of the laboratory, after about ten hours, everyone would die of suffocation...”
“Ten hours?”
Chen Chen could not help pondering when he heard these words.
The speed of a GB off-road vehicle could reach a maximum of 200 kilometers per hour. However, this meant it could only travel 2,000 kilometers in ten hours, unable to transport any materials.
As the Ares spacecraft had already left Mars the day before yesterday due to the fear of being discovered by the Earth Federation, the idea of using the spacecraft to transport supplies was not viable.
Then, there was only one way...
Thinking of this, Chen Chen looked at the oxygen-carrying capacity of his protective suit but saw that the oxygen in the protective suit could only last for three hours, so he immediately said, “Prepare three sets of protective suits for me. I’ll go to those three people myself.”
After he spoke, before Nancy could answer, he spread his arms directly, and his whole person rose into the air.
Immediately, he chose a direction and at the same time, he flew in the direction from which he came!
Only two minutes later, he returned to where Spire 2 was located. At this time, three Black Knights walked out of the elevator and each of them carried a dark medium-sized suitcase in their hands.
“Sir Commander, this is the free-size protective suit. Anyone within a height of 1.6 to 1.9 meters could fit in snugly. Are you going to go there yourself now?”
“Of course, Hannibal is there after all. I don’t want to lose such a unique talent.”
Chen Chen replied indifferently. With that, he looked at the three suitcases and they automatically lined up in a row in the next second. After that, Chen Chen spread his arms again. This time, he lifted together with the three suitcases.
“Boom!”
There was a muffled sonic boom. Chen Chen and the three suitcases suddenly turned into a small dot that flew toward the distance...
Although the speed of sound on Mars was only 240 meters per second, because the atmosphere was so thin, Chen Chen could easily accelerate to 1000 meters per second. After reaching this speed, Chen Chen even continued to accelerate. He used Field to form a cone-shaped shield before him. He was practically like a drill, flying toward the distance at an extremely terrifying speed!
1000 meters per second...
1500 meters per second...
3000 meters per second!
The speed detector on the armor was almost constantly ticking over as if it was a stopwatch and it soon reached a speed of 3000 meters per second. Upon conversion, this was equivalent to 10,800 kilometers per hour.
This was an extremely terrifying speed. Except for ballistic missiles and certain supersonic vehicles, almost no one could compete with this on the entire Earth.
At this speed, Chen Chen also began to feel the strain. Although Mars had a thin atmosphere, he was also carrying a load of 300 kilograms. If he were flying alone, Chen Chen could continue to accelerate himself to more than twice this speed!
At this speed, Chen Chen felt that he had reached a critical limit and the Field energy in his mind was slowly being consumed. At this rate of consumption, after about two and a half hours, Chen Chen would start to feel the burden.
“This speed should do...”
Chen Chen murmured. He had calculated the appropriate speed. After all, Mars had a diameter of 6,790 kilometers and a circumference of 21,331 kilometers. That was to say, at this speed, Chen Chen could travel to the south pole research station from the north pole in just one hour.
It would take one hour to get to the south pole research station and one hour to return. After he brought three sets of protective suits to the three survivors, it would be best if the three of them could repair the oxygen generator, but if it could not be repaired, then he could only take one person back to the Arctic base.
This was because he did not have the ability to carry three people and still fly at this speed.
“Boom!”
If there were people on the ground of Mars at this time, they would only see a figure flying at an extremely exaggerated speed from one end of the sky to the other, and then disappearing into the horizon!
At this extremely terrifying speed, in just over fifty minutes, Chen Chen had flown over the Martian continent and began to see layers of hoarfrost on the ground again. He had already flown from the north pole to the south pole boundary. The research station in the distance that was constantly emitting smoke was also faintly visible.
Seeing this, Chen Chen began to decelerate. In about half a minute, his speed dropped below the speed of sound on Mars. At this time, the scientific research station was already close at hand.
Around the research station, he could see large and small deep craters. These deep pits had stripes blooming outward on the ice. These meteorites had hit the ground in an oblique direction and one of the meteorites happened to streak past the research station, so most of the research station was blasted into pieces!
Seen from the sky, the circular scientific research station was like a birthday cake. One side of it had been mashed into crumbs by a little brat and only a small part of it was still upright.
One must admit that this group of scientific researchers was unlucky. They were bombarded by a meteorite in just a few months on Mars. With this sort of probability, one could try buying a lottery ticket.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen landed from the air. He landed directly in the ruins of the scientific research station and said at the same time, “Nancy, can you get through to the survivors?”
“Yes.”
X-113’s voice came from the headset and then another voice came, filled with astonishment. “What, you said someone has come to rescue me?”
That voice belonged to Hannibal.
“I’m right outside the door.”
Chen Chen said, “Hannibal, if you open the airtight door of the laboratory, I’ll stuff in three sets of protective suits.”
“You, you’re... Boss?”
Hannibal’s voice was a little flabbergasted. “This, how is this possible...”
“Stop wasting time.”
Chen Chen frowned. “If you don’t want me to abandon you here, open the door now and take the protective suits.”
“Yes!”
Hannibal said repeatedly and at the same time, a steel airtight door in front of Chen Chen began to hiss, and the bolts on it turned gradually.
Soon, a gap was opened in the airtight door and Chen Chen immediately stuffed in a protective suit box.
However, after only one box was inserted, the airtight door closed again.
“What’s going on?”
Chen Chen frowned and asked.
“Boss, the remaining two survivors are dead...”
Hannibal whispered, “I killed them.”
Chen Chen suddenly understood when he heard these words. He took a deep look at the airtight door in front of him and said at the same time, “I see. Put on your protective suit first, then come out. I’ll take you away.”
“Yes!”
Following that, there was a rustling sound from within.
Chen Chen looked toward the ruins. In the ruins, the bodies of the other researchers could be seen. Most of these researchers died of suffocation instantly because of the destruction of the research station.
The culprit of all this was a car-sized meteorite in the distance.
The meteorite fell to the ground at an inclination of seventy or eighty degrees, then broke through the scientific research station, and finally left a trail of more than 300 meters, sketching a chilling track across the surface.
Looking at the dark meteorite embedded under the ice at the end of the track, Chen Chen seemed to see something wriggling.
He frowned and flew directly to the meteorite. Only then did he see wisps of blackness flowing out of the gap in the meteorite.
It looked like a type of viscous liquid...
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