Returning from the abyss

Chapter 517 Talking
The rotation period of the phantom star is about 28 natural hours.

The mountain area where Lu Ning's team landed is in summer, and the days are longer, but no matter how long the days are, there will always be sunsets.

A huge shadow blocked about a quarter of the sky. Of course, people in the interstellar era rarely have a state of superstar phobia, and they just exclaim when they see it.

Lu Ning came directly to the upper floor from the repaired elevator. At this time, several team members were sitting outside the outpost. Yang Hao sat far away from others and sulked. The remaining clarinets, bayonets, and spades The four of them, Tiemei and Tiemei, were chatting together.

"team leader."

Tie Mei was the first to notice Lu Ning's arrival, and immediately stood up. Lu Ning pressed his hand and told him to sit back: "No need to salute, it's rest time, and we are not an official army."

The others looked at each other, then moved the bayonet to the side: "Captain, do you want to sit down?"

"Alright, what are you doing here?"

"Calling, looking at the starry sky." Clarinet replied, "I will do this every time I land on a certain planet."

"why?"

"Because the stars seen on each planet are different." Clarinet raised his head, "I've heard that there are still sayings about constellations on some planets, but in fact, if you change a star, your sky will be different. It will be completely different, and the constellations that used to be can't be found, isn't it interesting?"

"People have liked to study the arrangement of stars since ancient times. This is just a means of inductive division, which is essentially the same as we now use coordinates to delineate the universe." Bayonet said, "But it is really easy to disillusion some ancient illusions."

"I'm quite concerned about that auxiliary star." Spades pointed to the slowly moving stars in the sky, "The volume of Tianmuyi is about one-seventh of the phantom star, but such a gap is not enough in astronomy. It is impossible to cause interference, but such a weird planetary system can be formed, if there is a chance, we should do a geological calculation on Tianmuyi."

"I don't have that much time now." Lu Ning smiled, "When the outpost is restored, we have to move on to the next step."

"Let me tell you, Captain." Spade immediately began to climb along the pole.

"The first is the investigation of biological hazards in the area. The previous records have already told me, but the data from 26 years ago is not enough for the Eudemons with mutant traits. We need to update the database. After excluding the surrounding threats Afterwards, we will use the maps recorded in the database to head towards the outposts that marked our locations, to see if we can find survivors elsewhere, or recover some materials, and try our best to find out what happened that year before reporting to spaceship."

"Sounds like a lot." Recorder turned back, "Do we have a vacation?"

"...No. Hurry up and rest. In addition, after that, we will investigate the entire phantom star. If the situation here is better than expected, then the alliance may send the next group of people to take over the research and continue to develop the phantom star. Development work, after all, habitable planets are not particularly common in the universe. Oh, in order to achieve this, we have to find a key point, which is the No. 1 outpost and its internal builders. Judging from the information collected before , Outpost No. 1 is obviously the strongest, and if there is any precious information, it is with them."

"Captain, please introduce us to the people at Outpost No. 1. People like us don't know how many powerful characters the military has hidden." Spade said.

"It's okay, Lu Tongyun and you all know that he is a soldier, and the other two are Pang Xu and Zheng Heng." Lu Ning opened her own terminal first, "Well... Although you have learned about Pang Xu's life before joining the army from the side of Longmai. , but this person is actually more powerful. He spent five years studying as a graduate student in a scientific research academy specially set up by the military, and then graduated and joined a star-level combat force. He obtained the position of deputy commander, but in a battle between us and the Black Hawk Alliance, he made a serious mistake no less than the Black Hawk that destroyed the mother star. He installed his own guns on the three fleet motherships. The newest weapon invented, you've probably heard the name—neutron stream wiper."

"He invented that thing!?" The three people jumped up except for the bayonet. All three of them had some background in war and knew a lot about the past, so they overreacted so violently.

"Then... what is that?" The bayonet was a little unclear.

"You can understand it as a planetary annihilation weapon." Lu Ning said, "It is a destructive weapon that uses high-speed neutrons to indiscriminately destroy planets at the atomic level. The military has encrypted most of the data. Even I don't know him. How to accelerate neutron ejection, but there is no doubt that this weapon completely defeated the two fleets of the Black Hawk at that time and the target planet, because the nuclear reaction caused by the impact of neutrons turned it into a cosmic fireworks. Perhaps annihilating the enemy will not be blamed, but destroying the resource planet is also dereliction of duty. Pang Xu realized this and took the initiative to resign. It happened that the phantom star was discovered by the observatory at that time. The military did not want to waste his genius. In principle, send him here."

"That weapon sounds horrible," Bayonet murmured.

"Because among the current defense measures, there are very few defense methods against uncharged high-speed particles, and ordinary warships have no corresponding measures. Even the Canglong Alliance and the inventor Pang Xu can't control the power of this weapon. Fortunately, it was only One cannonball blows up a planet, and two fleets are attached, if you accidentally hit a star, you don’t know what will happen.” Lu Ning shook her head, “But you heard it too, because they were a fleet at the time. The opposite two, Pang Xu's plan is a Jedi counterattack, we can't determine his character just because he invented this weapon."

"I don't really trust his character now." Spade shrugged, "What about Zheng Heng? I haven't heard of it before."

"From Xu Zhenxing's records, Zheng Heng is the captain of Outpost No. 1. Even Lu Tongyun must obey his orders. Many of his intelligence materials are top secret, but we can infer one or two from his resume. First of all, Zheng Heng came here Before, the subordinate unit was 'Heavenly Soldiers'."

This time even Spade and Tiemei didn't know about it: "We've never heard of such a troop in the Canglong Alliance."

"Oh, that's because you are not qualified to see them at all." Clarinet said, "I have seen a heavenly soldier, he is indeed strong, even without space-style destruction armor, his strength is still beyond our reach."

"I won't go into details about the specific situation. You just need to understand that this army belongs to the alliance's all-battlefield-adapted arms and has the ability to fight individual soldiers against ships..."

"Captain, say it again." Tie Mei shook his head, "I seem to have heard some strange descriptions."

"Single-to-ship combat, you heard it right." Lu Ning repeated, "I don't know the exact position of Zheng Heng in the Heavenly Soldiers, but since he is an official soldier of the army, he has the abilities that the army needs."

"What does such a strong alliance want us to do? Just send a team of heavenly soldiers over to turn the phantom star upside down?" Spade was a little frustrated.

"The number of heavenly soldiers is probably not as many as you think... Besides, didn't the captain say that? Zheng Heng is a heavenly soldier. Since the heavenly soldiers have fallen here, the prudence of the alliance will definitely not send all the elite troops directly. Coming to this special place can only be a secondary choice for us." Bayonet said slowly, "Then captain, besides Zheng Heng, is there anyone else that the entire advance team needs to pay attention to?"

"Well, the bayonet has indeed detected the key. In fact, there are three heavenly soldiers sent by the advance team. The two other than Zheng Heng are named Gu Mingchuang and Feng Manting. The disappearance of the three heavenly soldiers has made the military have to pay attention, but I think If they hadn't died in the surprise attack, there wouldn't be much pressure to survive in the future."

"Ah, it sounds like there are no traces of such powerful people. We seem to have no future." Spade spread his hands, "Since there are heavenly soldiers, are there any heavenly generals, captain?"

"That has nothing to do with this place." Lu Ning flicked the terminal, "I tell you this to make you vigilant. The changes that time can make on people are beyond our predictability. We have not heard from you for so long. We must deal with these Strong targets remain skeptical, and there are many scientists with superior intelligence, convincing commanders, powerful soldiers and skilled technicians in the advance team. In fact, if some of these people have problems, I would rather they It's better to be dead."

"Where is that Luo Qing?" Bayonet asked.

"He is an excellent biological researcher, but he is definitely not the focus of attention. You have passed several tests before coming here, which is enough to prove your excellence, but in the interstellar era, similar outstanding people emerge in endlessly. Don't rely on your own abilities." Lu Ning said here, and glanced at the hair in the distance.

"...You don't have to turn a corner to convince me, Captain." Yang Hao sighed, "I admit, I felt that the outpost had been restored and the search and rescue mission had come to an end. Our basically smooth itinerary also made me feel... that we After the weapons are updated, they are not comparable to those a generation ago, and we are very strong."

"Blind arrogance will kill you. If you are a soldier, you don't think so."

"It sounds like we even need support from the rest of the outposts." Yang Hao said, "Captain, you make them so mysterious, I feel that we have become smaller."

"If it can make you more vigilant, I am happy to do so. Although it has been decades, the army's weapon change speed has not been as fast as expected, and the gap is not that big. As far as killing people is concerned, Iron Eyebrows The isolated cutting knife in it does not save much effort than an ordinary sharp knife."

"Captain, don't you think about armor?" Spade tugged at the spacesuit on his body.

"If we meet human beings here, they are all our own people." Lu Ning knocked on the helmet, "No one is stupid enough to stab your body with a weapon that can't break the defense. Everyone will find the deadliest weapon when they do it. Don’t tell me that you, a mercenary, don’t even understand this.”

"We don't have this kind of head-to-toe armor... Half of the people died of cosmic radiation disease." Spade muttered.

"Captain, I have a question." The bayonet even raised his hand, and then retracted immediately.

"Just ask."

"Do you think this mission is at the planetary level, at the planetary system level, or... at the stellar system level?"

Lu Ning couldn't judge, and the way the mission was released by the distribution center this time also made it difficult for her to find predictive information from it.

"I can't give an accurate answer right now, so we have to be prepared for any possibility."

"Well……"

"Have you found anything? A bayonet?"

"It's just random thinking."

"Tell me, your wild thoughts are always useful." Spades laughed.

Lu Ning also nodded to her encouragingly.

"Actually, I also read some logs in the central control room before the break. After all, I can't understand the more advanced things. In the logs, there are many orders issued by the No. 1 outpost to each outpost, and each outpost They are almost all executed unconditionally, as if the No. [-] outpost is the leader. However, from the simple information we read before we set off, the advance team clearly stated that each outpost is an independent organization after completion, and the relationship between each other No affiliation."

"Mu Qiang." Clarinet said, "Especially in a place far away from civilization, Outpost No. 1, which has an advantage in both wisdom and force, of course has the right to say what it says, which is normal."

"No, that's what puzzles me the most," Bayonet said.

Everyone raised their attention, and even Yang Hao quietly came nearby to listen.

"I just think...it's weird." The bayonet noticed that everyone was listening, and gestured with his hands in a panic, "The outpost is built according to a fixed template, and the functional performance is the same. For the No. 1 outpost , I understand that they can study a large area of ​​nearby biology, geology and other subjects based on their strength, but why are they so confident that they can also guide the research of other outposts? I didn’t see any information about the exchange phantom in the log file The description of the beast, since No. 48 has never had such an exchange, it shows that the outposts are indeed researching the surrounding area as independent research individuals, and the No. 1 outpost is at most making some corrections to the materials submitted by others. Opinions, but what I see is another situation - 'ask for advice' and 'guidance', some guidance on the research process."

"...Girl, this discovery is not a trivial matter." Yang Hao said.

"This is exactly the suspicious point I found from another angle." Lu Ning said, "Outpost No. 1, which is highly trusted and watched by the outposts of the entire phantom star, did not record its location in the map stored in the database."

"Captain? Why are you talking about this now?" Tie Mei asked in surprise.

"I remember saying that we're going to 'find' Outpost 1."

(End of this chapter)