The deep submersible ship has continued to advance in the abyss for three and a half days. At first glance, it sounds like a very bad result. Three and a half days are not even as good as some powerful imperial commanders who can continue to fight in the abyss. It takes a long time, but thinking about another thing, no one has any doubts: it is heading all the way to the most polluted depths of the abyss, and the distance it travels has already exceeded the stability limit of the product of the material world. One step forward, the pressure to be endured will increase several times. In the first day, the deep diving ship may still be in the area where Sandora entered that year, and after that, what it enters is completely death that no one has tried. zone.
The design strength of the deep submersible ship in resisting the pollution of the abyss far exceeds that of any starship we have. It can almost move forever when cruising near the gate of the abyss. According to the voyage speed of the deep submersible ship, the location where it collapsed has already crossed the shallow area of the abyss, and it is very likely that it has touched the "strange frontier".
The shallow area of the abyss is Tavel's way of describing it. She roughly stratifies the known environment of the abyss. The gate of the abyss is the entrance, and the place near the gate of the abyss is the shallow area of the abyss. The pollution there is heavy but not fatal. There are unstable passages between the abyss forces that can pass safely—that is, the gaps that we observed when the fog surged. These unstable passages greatly reduce the danger in the shallow areas of the abyss. As long as these gaps can be found accurately, Ordinary intermediate Xiling apostles can also fight in the abyss environment. When crossing this shallow zone, there will be a clear dividing line. This dividing line has never been observed, but Tavel deduced the existence of this dividing line based on the data we extracted from the database of the original deep submersible ship prototype ship. All the fog of the abyss should be in this dividing line. It stops abruptly after the boundary line, and the other side of the line is a strong pollution zone with uniform concentration. There, the abyss no longer appears measurable, at the same level as deep dives. The intensity of abyssal pollution is the same in each storage space, and it will be multiplied as the depth of the deep dive increases. This area is called the Abyss Deep Zone. Since there is no safe passage in the deep area with a "superior" environment like the shallow area, and there is no fog that can be demarcated, deep-diving ships will face huge challenges when navigating in this area. There is no opportunistic safe route, and everything depends on The protective performance of the hull itself comes to the fore. If the deep submersible ship can still move forward after crossing the dividing line: even if it only advances by an inch, it can be said that the design of the star ship is correct, indicating that its protection system does have the characteristics of continuous work in the abyss, at most Strength could be improved. It can be said that the dividing line between the deep zone and the shallow zone is also the dividing line that determines the fate of the deep diving ship. If it doesn't manage to cross this line and survive in the deep zone for a short while, our deep dive vessel will have to be redesigned.
Because the inability to cross the demarcation line means that the deep-diving ship passes through the shallow area entirely by taking a safe path.
Fortunately, the deep diving ship should have passed the demarcation line on the second day of departure, and then it has been sailing for about 35 hours, and has come into contact with the so-called "strange frontier".
The strange frontier is Sandora's term, which she used to refer to the analysis limit of our existing technology to the phenomenon in the deep abyss. There is no obvious dividing line between that area and the abyss deep area. The reason why such an area is divided is also inferred based on the information we obtained from the database of the deep submersible ship prototype ship. According to the records in the database. After the submersible ship arrived in the deep area for a while, all the research materials began to drop sharply. The scientific research team led by Occam seemed to be unable to collect any useful information after advancing in the deep area. After going deep to a certain extent, the grotesque scene presented by the abyss field will be completely beyond the comprehension scope of the existing technology. Shipboard instruments will be clueless about any phenomena happening around them. The ship still sails, but the crew no longer recognizes the constellations around them—that's what it feels like. Obviously, the division of the strange frontier depends somewhat on the level of shipboard equipment or our existing technological level. With the technological strength of the New Empire, the strange frontier will definitely come earlier than what Occam encountered back then.
After the strange frontier, there are two vague layers, namely the "barrier area" and the "bottom layer". They are all guessed areas, and there is no evidence to prove their existence. "This dead gate. Tavel only imagined a bottom layer for the abyss based on the "ordered signal phenomenon of the abyss" that appeared many times, and then added a "barrier area" on top of this bottom layer.
Ninety percent of all our assumptions about the abyss are based on such speculations and inferences, and the deep-diving ship, or the entire deep-diving plan, is slowly filling these conjectures to fullness.
The Gate of the Abyss quietly floats on the flaming red surface of the red giant star, surrounded by a circle of psionic obelisks that are flashing regularly to maintain the stability of the gate. From a distance, it looks like the light of a red giant star A small dark round hole was poked out of Wanzhang's outer skin, exposing the cold and dark real core of this planet. From the outside, the surface of the red giant star is full of storms. The crimson plasma hurricane whizzes past at a speed of tens of thousands of meters per second, while the gate of the abyss is as quiet as a pool of black water; on the inside, it is just the opposite. There is an order hidden in the turbulent surface of the giant star. Each beam of plasma fire that it erupts is based on the laws that can be accurately described by several mathematical models. In the eyes of scientists, the red giant star is like a group of small flames that burn quietly The same is stable and silent, but the abyss is violent and distorted. It is weird and abnormal, challenging all the laws of the material world, and unreasonably subverting everything: although it seems that it is just a pool of black water without waves.
Two "Ferryman"-class medium-sized barges that have undergone targeted modifications are patrolling a few kilometers above the gate of the abyss. It is equipped with a new type of shield specially designed to resist the erosion of the abyss. These barges are just as practical as any other common work vessel. They are square in appearance and extremely flat in shape, looking like a playing card floating in space: a twelve-kilometer-long playing card. There are several large rectangular openings on the barge hull that penetrate the entire spaceship up and down, and a force field traction system is built on the edge of the openings. It looks like some kind of ancient refining well, and in the [center] of the traction system is the space door leading to the barge ganaku. The traction system can drag the goods without touching the target, and the space gate will send these goods to a high-concentration psionic energy environment. In the psionic environment, the abyss is neutralized and purified. The final cargo will be safely stored in the warehouse.
However, the "Ferryman" barge does not have the ability to drag things from the gate of the abyss. To "fish out" the "drifting bottle" from the opposite side of the gate of the abyss, we need some special staff working in extreme environments , and the work must be done manually: we cannot afford any surprises on this project.
It is still in the space workstation next to the gate of the abyss, which is already the front-line command center of the deep dive project. The staff of the planning team are nervously watching the situation of the first batch of engineering teams, and they have entered the gate of the abyss. It is currently active in the outermost layer of the shallow zone. Even though it was already a safe zone quite close to the main material world, it was only relative to the deeper places. The engineering team has only limited protection. The "salvage ship" they use is also manufactured according to the principle of the deep diving ship, but because they are trying to take out physical substances from the abyss environment, the salvage ship has a higher chance of coming into contact with the pollution substance. The whole job has to be done with great care.
On the communication screen in front of us, a bearded middle-aged man wearing the uniform of an assistant technician appeared. He was the leader of the brave engineering team. The engineering team established contact with the command center in the abyss domain. The transmitted images were obviously distorted and stuttered—they were only a few tens of kilometers away from the command center, but the communication situation was so unfavorable, which made me feel unreal all of a sudden. It is not the extremely advanced imperial technology, but the old radio station from World War II to talk to the soldiers.
The bearded middle-aged man has a strong build. The face is rigid. Although he is wearing a researcher's clothes, I really think it is an imperial soldier wrapped in a white robe. Tavel introduced her junior assistant to me. According to her, this is a " "Frontline battlefield scientists" are simply the kind of imperial technicians who prefer to rush to the battlefield with dozens of tons of explosives and collect data on enemy casualties while assembling new bombs—no wonder As an assistant technician, he will lead the engineering team into the gate of the abyss.
"The environment here is harsh, and the hull is shaking slightly. Just now, the gravity inside the ship suddenly increased by one percent." The bearded "frontline field scientist" said gruffly. His eyes did not stay on the communicator for a long time, but It is a quick glance around, seems to be paying attention to a lot of constantly refreshing data "There may be a lot of things trying to kill us."
"Pay attention to your shield readings, a new wave of pollution is being generated in the gate of the abyss." Tavel frowned, and one of her mass projections is personally monitoring the readings in the psionic obelisk next to the gate of the abyss. "It seems continuous The interaction between the information of the material world and the abyss has already made this door a little loose."
"Of course, Chief Technician." The bearded man's eyes drifted aside, as if he was confirming Tavel's warning, and then he manipulated the console skillfully, "We saw the thick fog. The abyssal breath coming out has already touched the working boat. Our outermost shield is disintegrating itself, but it is far from reaching the dangerous point. It seems that we can resist the impact. We cannot move the position. Those who fell off the deep diving boat The security databases are coming back and they're in terrible working order, so I've just set up the workboat as a temporary nav tower to get some more databases back safely... ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
The bearded man's voice was suddenly replaced by a huge noise, and the picture coming from the opposite side of the gate of the abyss suddenly turned into large groups of distorted bright lines. The surging power of the abyss disrupted the orderly combination in the contact signals, causing them to become a crumbling chaos. The bold bearded man really used the workboat to resist the impact, and everyone became nervous, only Tavel remained calm: "It's just a communication interruption. The workboat is designed to be strong enough to face various crises in shallow areas .I know that Vader guy, he just likes to take his life, but he doesn't like to take his life."
Sure enough, as Tavel said, the workboat soon reappeared in the contact list. The bearded man's report was barely heard in the violent clutter: "The impact is still going on, chief technician, we saw a large area of gray-black... At least after the equipment was processed, it was a gray-black fog. They enveloped the workboat, as if they could distinguish The workboats do not belong to their world. The shield system is being refreshed rapidly. The contaminated shield tried to explode inward, but was stopped in time. We are still sending navigation signals to the 'drifting bottle', and the impact just now may spread to Went to one or two of the databases, lost track of them... oh crap, maybe the workboat was a bit contaminated, I'm not sure, but two escape towers suddenly disintegrated just now..."
Signal interference is very serious. The image transmitted from the opposite side of the Abyss Gate has almost become a frame-by-frame image. The expression on the face of the bearded man is still brisk, but more and more alarm lights are appearing in the control hall behind him—it seems that the situation is not good. As relaxed as his tone. Sandora decisively gave the order: "Go up immediately, we will send the second batch of engineering teams down. Send a briefing on the status of the spacecraft, and I will ask the team of scientists to analyze the cause of your pollution now."
"Maybe... it doesn't need to be so troublesome. We can deal with this small problem. Viham has gone to the base of the escape tower to check the damage. The early warning system has not yet issued an alarm. Our shields are still intact. This should be just an accident The voice of the bearded man suddenly became clear, and the picture returned to normal. The database that fell off the ship may have suffered a more serious impact than expected. We only received seven navigation requests in total. Yes, there are more than a hundred databases, only seven survived and returned to the shallow area, and there were two more that suddenly Lost connection. We must stay here and continue to provide navigation to the remaining five databases, they can no longer go home by themselves. More storms are forming once the navigation signal is terminated or when switching with the second engineering team There's a ninety percent chance that those databases will be lost without the delay - that's the last morsel of the whole project, I must keep the Empire property! Instead of sending a second engineering team, we can have the first database in a minute Send out the gate, please prepare to receive it."
Beard's attitude is very firm, and it seems that the expert team he leads can really solve these troubles, so Sandora no longer insists, but asks them to complete the task as soon as possible, and then let Tavel check it out.
The bearded man gave a military salute, then hung up the communication.
Soon, the barge waiting on the side of the gate of the abyss received the "cargo delivery" signal from the engineering team. I don't know whose idea it was. The communication password between them is this: open the door, your courier...
A tiny vortex appeared in the middle of the gate of the abyss, and then a small thing with a dim blue light floated out of the vortex. The gadgets are as inconspicuous as the sesame seeds on the biscuits—well, I admit that I really lack words at this time. The workboat successfully captured the first floating database and sent it out of the gate of the abyss. Everything went smoothly. When the little thing floated out from the gate of the abyss, the entire command center was immediately filled with a relaxed atmosphere.
As long as a database comes back to us, the whole project is more than half successful.
"Very well, we have observed the target—but it seems that the latter's condition is not very good, its shield has almost been extinguished, and it does not accept our external instructions, there may be a certain degree of system damage, I hope the scientists design The database security program is still functioning normally... our tractor beam caught it!" There was a report from the number one barge, and then we saw many faint lines emanating from the walls of the rectangular passageway in the center of the barge. Jojo’s indicator beams, these beams wrap the database that just floated out of the gate of the abyss, and then quickly pull it towards the space gate used to receive the goods. “A strong abyss reaction has been detected, and a dangerous signal is being uploaded along the tractor beam. …the containment system is working well, and we've kept the contamination at bay. This thing needs a full cleaning before it smells disgusting all over it."
How big is an escape database? In fact, it is very small. In the abyss environment, a smaller size means that it is easier to obtain efficient protection. Those drifting bottles equipped with a navigation system and the most efficient drive engine are only as big as a car, and a "ferryman" The size of a "class barge is measured in kilometers. Using such a behemoth to pick up something the size of a car looks somewhat ridiculous, just like Megatron carefully picking up a Jingle from the grass, but we There is a reason for doing so: only something as big as a barge can carry enough equipment to ensure normal operation when it is close to the door of the abyss, and it also needs to carry a set of "cleaning devices" that can quickly purify the abyss. "Used to sterilize the drift bottles that have just been salvaged. It's not that we haven't thought about letting a small spaceship with high-speed maneuvering fly over the gate of the abyss to recover the database. This may be more efficient and not so funny, but there is a certain chance that the pollution will expand to the salvage team: the gain outweighs the loss.
Soon other databases left the abyss domain under the guidance of the workboat, and the whole salvage process seemed to be completed more smoothly than we expected. Among them, only one "drifting bottle" was lost. It was seriously infected, its shield had been completely extinguished, and its outer shell was twisted like a mess. The inside of this completely abyssal mechanical [body] burst out with light on the eve of self-explosion. The material world immediately tried to disperse the abyssal breath from the body through self-explosion—fortunately, there were a large number of sentry guns nearby, and before it exploded, the high concentration of psionic rays completely purified everything. The polluted database only produced a small fire huā in space, but it was instantly swallowed by the bright light of the red giant star, and then Tavier felt distressed like something...
"First Engineering Team, your mission is complete, return immediately."
Sandora breathed a sigh of relief and ordered to the communicator.
No reply.