When Hao Ren was seriously thinking about whether all the arks were dead, unexpected good news came suddenly: a group of detectors captured a life response when they penetrated into the depths of one of the arks, and it was a very strong life. reaction.
The Giant Turtle Rock Terrace immediately turned on its propellers, and it glides silently and quickly in space, and soon arrived over the ark that sent out the life signal. The silver-white spaceship descended slowly on the black shell of the ark, reading the information from the depths of the ark like a delicate stethoscope.
"Is this the ship?" Hao Ren looked at the picture from the external monitor. Right now, this ark is no different from other spaceships. It looks equally dilapidated and old, and the armor is even worse. It is hard to imagine that its kilometers-thick shell could hide the last survivors of these refugees.
"There is indeed a life reaction, and the detector has captured it. The engineering drone is building a temporary airlock below, so that you can enter and exit," Nolan nodded, "The detector did not find a way to open the door normally. It is a drill The hole went in—now that leak has plugged itself."
"The automatic blocking system is still in operation. It seems that there are indeed survivors," Hao Ren breathed out. "What about the communication? Does anyone on this ship respond to your call? Is there anyone willing to respond to our contact?" "
Nolan shook his head slightly: "There is still no response, which is the strangest thing. In addition, the detector sent back some pictures that are not quite right."
As she spoke, she turned on the holographic projection. Hao Ren saw a dilapidated city illuminated by lights on the screen. Everything looked old and decayed. The city inside the ship stretched out in front of his eyes like some kind of ruins, and then the screen shook. After a while, a man in ragged clothes with strange lines drawn on his face appeared in the corner of the screen. This was obviously a resident of the Ark. The ragged man ran out staggeringly, then knelt down on the street, as if curtseying to some great figure, and then remained in this position without moving.
Hao Ren was baffled by this endless video clip. He exchanged glances with the others, and decided that it would be better to go over and check the situation himself.
He still brought Vivienne, Lily and the Nangong brothers and sisters with him. The others continued to stand by on the Giant Turtle Rock Platform.
The engineering drone that cut open the shell of the ark and drilled into its deep layer had already prepared the passage. Hao Ren and his party entered through the normal surface airlock as usual, and joined the drone after passing through the long corridor. This time they didn't plan to enter the city inside the ship through the broken elevator shaft—because the ship's ecosystem was intact, opening the door rashly from the outside might trigger some kind of alarm or the ship's automatic stress response. Instead, the drone drilled a slender hole in the hull of the inner city, and installed an airlock device at the hole. The drone was moving fast, at least it didn't set off the alarm while it was doing the job.
The "dive in" process went very smoothly.
Hao Ren and his party walked into the airlock. Passing through a passage hundreds of meters long, the outer wall of this passage is still a little hot, because the high temperature generated by the drone's cutting has not yet dissipated. And when they were halfway through the passage, gravity appeared: this gravity wanted to throw them out of the passage, but it was a good sign, because it meant that the city inside the ship was indeed functioning normally.
They got out of a dirty, deserted and abandoned neighborhood.
Hao Ren was the first to get out of the "invasion hole". As soon as he entered the city, he felt a damp, cold, and strange-smelling air filling his nasal cavity. . But it is more obvious after coming to the surface. He frowned subconsciously: Although it is a good thing to finally find a ship city with an atmosphere, the state of the atmospheric circulation pump in this place must not be good enough.
"Ahem..." Lily coughed softly after getting out, and she frowned. The tail was stretched tightly behind him, "It feels like I've followed a junkyard."
"The air purification machine of this ark may be too old." Nangong Sanba exhaled after climbing to the ground, "It's better than no air. Speaking of this place... I don't think it's as good as those deserted refuge cities before." Woolen cloth?"
The surrounding buildings are in a very bad condition. Although the detectors sent back some pictures before, those pictures are not as real as being there. Around everyone, as far as the eye can see are dilapidated city buildings, the outer walls of the buildings are mottled and peeling off, the roadside facilities are covered with rust and dirt, and the flower beds have long lost their original appearance and turned into dirty mud pits. In the distance, collapsed bridges and power pylons can also be seen. Some scattered and dim lights are the biggest light source in this dilapidated city. These lighting devices that have been in operation for an unknown number of years are randomly hung on the wires and the top of the building, casting a lot of mottled and weird shadows in all directions with bad light.
It looks almost like a world war, and then it was abandoned for three hundred years.
Lily wagged her tail: "Did we just get into the demolition area?"
"No..." After Hao Ren looked around at everything in sight, he raised his finger to the top of everyone's heads, "The whole city is in this state."
Others looked in the direction of his fingers, and saw that the land on the other side of the distant and closed land was also a piece of dilapidated gray. The other end of the city was just like here, and it had been deserted for many years.
"...it looks really bad, I can't believe that this is the interior of a starship that can travel faster than the speed of light," the data terminal commented, "after the other spaceships stop one by one, it may be difficult for the people on this ship to find materials Repairing their shelter."
A small silver-white device emerged from the ruins of a nearby building and landed lightly on Hao Ren's shoulder. It was a life detector that drilled in to check the situation before. This little guy has been hiding here to prevent accidents after completing his mission. , it's time to apply for recycling.
Hao Ren put the detector into his pocket, turned his head and reminded Lily: "Put your ears and tail away—we have to deal with 'people'."
Lily groaned, changed her ears and tail back, and then was a little curious: "Do you think we can mix with the locals after I transform into a human?"
"I didn't intend to get in - I was just worried that you would scare them." Hao Ren waved his hands and walked forward, "They rejected all of Nolan's communication requests. Hope to get off to a bad start.”
A group of people walked out of this deserted and dilapidated street and walked deep into the city: another even more dilapidated and dilapidated place. Hao Ren was thinking about how to greet the first person he met. After Nolan's stylized communications were rejected, he could only run out and become a diplomat. The bad thing was that he was not a Skilled diplomat, so he began to conjure up various opening lines in his head, and whether he should head straight to the ship's "central control station" to meet the city's commander. However, his thoughts only lasted for a short while before he was suddenly interrupted by a faint voice coming from ahead.
It sounded like someone was fighting and shouting to kill, and there was also the crisp sound of steel colliding in the middle.
Vivian also touched his arm: "There is a smell of blood in front, fresh."
Hao Ren immediately quickened his pace: "Go and see the situation!"
They sprinted quickly in the shadows of the surrounding buildings, quickly crossing some dilapidated streets and collapsed ancient houses. The shouts and killings from the front finally became clearer and louder, and the mixed metal impacts in the middle were like ancient cold The same as the battlefield of weapons. Finally, Lily, who was running in the front, stopped suddenly beside a low wall. She quickly found a place to squat down, and looked outside: "The landlord...someone is fighting!"
Hao Ren poked his head out from next to Lily's head, and the scene in front of him immediately shocked him, and he even had a sense of absurdity of time and space disorder.
Dozens of heavily armed people are fighting fiercely in the square ahead. These people should be the residents of the giant ark ship, but their equipment is absurd and weird. They are covered with armor made of iron plates and reinforced plastic steel. Colorful cloth strips are constantly flying between the gaps in the armor. These warriors are waving gleaming long swords and battle axes in their hands. together. The blood spattered by the wounded stained the ground of the square, and the smell of blood in the air made Vivienne's eyes glow slightly red in the darkness: "This is just like a medieval battlefield."
"How did this place become like this..." Hao Ren muttered to himself in surprise. The pictures from the detector did not have these details, but before he had time to think about it, he suddenly saw those fighting crowds rushing towards each other. A young soldier with blood all over his face came out. This soldier staggered, his eyes were filled with terror, and he seemed to be fleeing from the battlefield, and he was fleeing in the direction where Hao Ren and the others were hiding. (to be continued~^~)