novelsite Chapter 14 Maxim's Report
Chapter 14 Maxim's Report
"If this hits you, you'll be covered in bruises." He Xu rubbed his arm.
"It's a piece here and a piece there," Di Yan corrected.
The high-temperature plasma reaches temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees after being heated, and coupled with the extremely high-intensity electromagnetic field that provides it with terrifying kinetic energy, its power is evident.
Di Yan dared not imagine whether humans had any materials capable of withstanding such an attack. Even the single-soldier mech he was currently piloting could be blasted through by a single shot.
He turned to look at the J-45, which was quietly parked on the ground. Its already slightly yellowish white hull was shrouded in an even richer color under the dim sky.
He had never seen the materials used to assemble the J-45 before. Was it possible...?
"Alright, that concludes the introduction to the plasma gun. Now, everyone, extend your right arm and press here."
Shi Ming's voice interrupted Di Yan's thoughts. Shi Ming raised his right arm and pressed the switch to eject the gun barrel.
Everyone did as instructed, and the gun barrel appeared on the outside of the right arm. Some people jokingly held it up and aimed it at each other, celebrating their discovery of something new.
Shi Ming began to explain: "This is an 'electromagnetic gun,' an electromagnetic railgun that launches bullets through an electromagnetic field. The muzzle velocity is about four kilometers per second. Your right arm is used for aiming, and your left hand is used to hold the gun and fire."
He raised his right arm, aimed it at another rock in the distance, gripped his right arm with his left hand, and pressed a mechanical mechanism located on the inner side.
The extremely thin atmosphere cannot conduct sound, but the few flashes of silver light across the muzzle indicate that the bullet has left the barrel.
The rock that Shi Ming aimed at was immediately blasted away in large chunks, like shattered ice. Large pieces of rock broke off from the rock, and just a few bullets shaved half of it off.
"Each mech has a standard ammunition capacity of five thousand rounds. If the muzzle overheats, it will automatically cut off and retract to cool down. At that point, you can switch to the left arm."
As Shi Ming spoke, he raised his left arm and pressed it with his right hand. The same gun barrel appeared, and he fired a few more shots, shattering the remaining half of the rock.
"These are all the firearms you have. Use them sparingly!"
He drew his machete from his waist. "When your guns overheat, run out of ammunition, or need to be recharged, this is the only thing you have left."
He brandished the machete a few times in the air, saying, "These are your most reliable partners; each of you will have two."
Sheathing the knife, Shi Ming put his hands on his hips and looked around at everyone: "If you have nothing left, at least you still have a pair of legs. And then, wish yourselves good luck."
With just three shots and two swords, the configuration of the single-soldier mech is relatively simple, yet its power is quite considerable.
After the basic instruction, the rest of the time was for free practice, where the team members needed to gradually master the weapons on their mechs. At the same time, Shi Ming gave a strict order: no one was allowed to leave the two-kilometer radius of the J-45.
Never before have people driven mechs so joyfully. In addition, the gravity on Planet Io is less than one-fifth that of Earth. Even though the mechs deliberately reduced their power, the feeling of running and jumping was still light and airy for the pilots, as if they could take off at any moment.
As a result, many people started running around in this area, some even going in and out of the two-kilometer edge.
Xavier kept giving them hints through the headset, but they were having a great time, like a bunch of kids.
When Di Yan saw Shi Ming return to the mecha cabin and the cabin walls close, a strange idea suddenly occurred to him.
The air pressure inside the J-45 is normal atmospheric pressure, while the outside atmosphere is extremely thin. Logically, if the bulkhead were to open, air should gush out.
However, since the bulkhead was open at the time, this situation never occurred.
He then thought back to the vertical shaft of M-28.
The fact that the starship could fly into it indicates that it was directly open to the vacuum of space, yet he did not see any air being sucked out.
These starships even employ a technology that allows them to easily isolate themselves from atmospheric pressure and vacuum, and allows physical entities such as mechs and starships to pass through freely.
The more attention Di Yan paid to these details, the more he was able to discover technologies beyond his comprehension.
He raised his hand to examine the black mecha closely, but all he could see was a creation pieced together by the Viyin people using known technologies.
Electromagnetic guns, plasma cannons, and the constant temperature system, air circulation, and even the outer tactile layer of the mecha are not actually too profound or incomprehensible technical principles.
With each comparison, the origins of these incredibly advanced starships become increasingly shrouded in mystery.
Now he can assert that these starships must have been created by another civilization.
The Viyin Star Fleet must have already communicated with extraterrestrial civilizations and has been keeping it a secret from Earth for over a century.
Perhaps they kept it a secret for even longer, who knows?
Things are getting more and more interesting.
Di Yan chuckled, raised the electromagnetic gun, aimed at a rock, and pulled the trigger. The shot was a little off; he still needed to get used to it.
He enjoys the unknown and uncertainty, especially things related to secrets, which further fuel his desire to explore.
This is the main reason why he left the African battlefield but continued to work as a professional assassin.
After all, he's someone who gets bored easily, and if something can be made interesting, he's willing to give it a try.
For the next three days, four hours each day, everyone piloted the new single-soldier mechs and, under the command of Lieutenant Li Guangyu, went outside for daily training.
Each time, the starship would stop in the same spot, until finally, not a single rock in the area survived.
On the afternoon of the third day, Maxim finally had time to train the team members. The training took place in a small room inside the J-220, just like the environment of the cultural classes in the M-28, except that the instructor was Maxim himself.
In just three days, his face became much more haggard, and above his dark circles were a pair of resentful eyes.
"Yes, it's an honor to bring you some additional, but necessary, information today."
Maxim began by saying, "There are actually other kinds of 'life' on this planet besides us humans. But I'm not sure if we can call it 'life,' but it's something you need to know today."
Ignoring the murmurs in the room, Maxim pulled up several pictures on the electronic blackboard, the contents of which immediately caused a huge uproar among the crowd.
Each picture features a strangely shaped, even ugly, creature.
They are all uniformly grayish-brown and were all photographed in a rocky geological environment on the ground. The light from the searchlights distinguished them from the rocky ground and walls. If it weren't for the shadows they cast, they would have blended into the environment.
The creature in the first photo looks like a water balloon lying limp on the ground, smooth and round, like a piece of exquisite black jade.
The other one looks like an upright centipede with dozens of pairs of thin legs on its thick, long body, forming an "L" shape. Its upper body is perpendicular to the ground, and its head has terrifying mouthparts, like a bottomless sawtooth turbine.
Another picture shows a creature that looks like a large spider. It has six legs, lacks an abdominal sac with a tail, but has a wider body and is covered with reflective, sharp carapaces...
"A monster!" He Xu couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
Di Yan swallowed hard. When Maxim released these photos, he shared the same thought as everyone else: these monsters were no longer just common tropes in movies or games, but a real threat, some unknown danger they were about to face.
"I know you're surprised. These things might feel unreal and a bit too impractical to you."
Maxim's voice trembled slightly, "But according to our predictions, they have already grown to a considerable scale."
At this point, someone raised their hand and asked, "Why haven't we seen them these past few days?"
"That's exactly what I wanted to say. They're almost all underground now, and their nests could very well be just a few thousand meters below us..."
The Russian doctor's tone didn't sound like he was joking.
"Their suitable survival temperature is between -5 degrees Celsius and 35 degrees Celsius. There used to be areas on the ground suitable for their survival, but now they have all disappeared from the surface. We speculate that they have all gone underground, but the specific reason is still unclear."
Maxim began to explain the many properties of this creature to everyone. This time, everyone listened very attentively, and no one dared to interrupt the doctor's explanation.
They are collectively referred to as "alien species." According to current research, although they look very different, they actually come from the same source. The source is the nearly spherical, soft, colloidal grayish-brown creature in the first photo, which is called the "original alien species."
The native species are almost entirely non-aggressive; their sole purpose is to devour and reproduce.
At the right temperature, they can devour most common substances, transforming them into their own synthetic materials, and then begin to divide and reproduce like cells at some point, with a cycle of about one month.
However, the environment on Io is unique, with thousands of volcanoes of all sizes, three to four hundred of which are active, and the temperature fluctuates drastically.
In plains far from volcanoes, the surface temperature is usually around -180 degrees Celsius, but as you get closer to the crater, the temperature gradually rises, eventually reaching thousands of degrees Celsius.
Therefore, the native alien species can only survive within a limited range defined by these exaggerated temperature gradients, which is roughly a 30-kilometer-wide isothermal ring.
As the number of native mutant species increased, the issue of resource allocation soon arose. Once native mutant species left the suitable temperature range, their survival rate would drop significantly, and in order to survive, the mutant species began to mutate.
At this point, Maxim couldn't help but shudder: "The rate of mutation in these alien species is incredibly fast. On Earth, species undergo significant mutations over periods of tens of thousands of years. But here, the next generation from these alien species can have completely different traits."
He pulled up an image showing a complex array of molecular chains, some coiled into clusters, others arranged in tubular shapes.
"They have a completely different body structure from carbon-based organisms, and the molecules that make them up are called 'universal structural proteins.' These things are not picky eaters; their function depends entirely on their complex topological structure and tiny-scale quantum tunneling."
He stared intently at the molecular simulation diagrams he had seen countless times before, a near-fanatical fervor rekindling in his weary eyes.
"Their functions are exquisite and perfectly balanced; they are works of art. I admit that with our current understanding, we cannot explain their complex workings; they are far more complex than our brains."
He turned to look at the whispering crowd, his eyes filled with the thirst for knowledge of a scientist: "But we're researching it, and one day we'll definitely understand its mechanism!"
"For thousands of years, we still haven't even figured ourselves out."
An Jae-in sneered. His comments were drowned out by the noisy environment, but Di Yan heard them clearly.
The complex molecular chains before him, his grayish-brown body color that blended almost seamlessly with the environment, and the desolate and cold surface of Planet Io that he had witnessed during his recent training all made him fall into deep thought.
A vague sense of contradiction arose in his heart, which was very unclear and lacked any basis.
Dr. Maxim clapped his hands to signal everyone to be quiet: "Alright, let's get back to the main topic. Next, I'll tell you why they mutated into these shapes."
He brought back the photos of those strange creatures, emphasizing the word "here" as he pointed to the bizarre shapes.
In order to survive in a limited space, these native mutant species seemed to unlock a "lock" at some point and began to mutate at a rapid pace.
The most striking feature is that they have evolved aggressive traits.
The target of the attack is not a foreign object, but one of its own kind.
Since external space is limited and rock layers with suitable temperatures are also limited, eating one's own kind is a good option.
Thus, the first native alien species with mouth organs was born. They fed on their own kind and embarked on a path of no return of mutation and evolution.
Because each generation of mutants mutates to varying degrees and develops different traits, through extensive mutual selection, mutants become increasingly aggressive and their survival capabilities become stronger.
In order to kill more of their kind, they evolved faster speeds, stronger limbs, and harder shells.
The three alien species in the picture are just three typical examples. Maxim suggests that the actual situation is only more complicated, and people are completely unaware of the current evolutionary state of the alien species.
Those non-aggressive native alien species are like producers in a biological community; they simply devour rocks and slowly expand their territory.
The centipede-like upright variant is an "omnivorous" species. When hungry, it will devour native species and in most cases, it prefers to crush rocks with the mouthparts on its head.
As for the last seemingly threatening variant, it is a purely "carnivorous" mutated offspring.
"The number of native alien species is enormous. They keep expanding their territory outwards in search of suitable temperatures, and eventually they actually found their way."
Maxim paused, a look of panic flashing in his freckled eyes. "That's underground."
According to him, the original species were not content with living near the volcano, so they began to dig underground. After digging thousands of meters, they discovered that the temperature of the permafrost was gradually rising, and hidden beneath the low temperature was a vast underground space suitable for reproduction.
However, once the shackles of mutation are broken, they cannot be closed again.
Even if the original alien species find an almost endless living space underground, the mutated species cannot become extinct or return to a harmless state; on the contrary, they will only become more abundant.
Beneath the planet Io, there may very well be a vast network of alien species.
"We know very little about what lies beneath the surface, not only because they are thousands of meters underground, but also because they are not considered living organisms. Their material composition is essentially the same as that of rock strata, and their body temperature is in harmony with the environment, making it very difficult for us to detect their distribution."
Maxim's lips curled downwards. "So that's why we need you to come out and help us find out what's going on underground."