The lower cabin opened, and the remotely controlled No. 2 unmanned landing craft detached from the warship, plummeting towards the landing zone.
Ling Xiao smacked his lips, his face filled with emotion: "Landing, this matter, not only costs robots, but also landing craft!"
Logically, landing craft could be recovered and reused.
However, the recovery signal had been sent, and the No. 1 landing craft had also initiated its return flight program. But halfway there, it lost power due to a malfunction and crashed from an altitude of ten thousand meters, smashing directly into pieces, adding another shadow of gloom to the landing operation.
Moreover, after staying in such a strong radiation environment for so long, even if it were recovered, it would require comprehensive decontamination to remove radiation, followed by a full overhaul to clear malfunctions. It would take at least several hours before it could execute another landing mission.
Ling Xiao felt that if the Starship had landing craft manufactured by the Prophet, it would definitely be able to land successfully and return. But the Prophet seemed to have never considered the issue of landing, and there was no mention of such things on the ship.
Therefore, both landing craft were human products. Although they were manufactured with the most advanced technology, they were still somewhat overwhelmed under such extreme conditions.
Ou Zhanpeng was focused on operating the landing craft and did not respond to Ling Xiao's remark. Gong Yiding said softly, "I've already designed a new landing craft. If it doesn't work out, we can build another one."
Ling Xiao subconsciously dodged, his eyes showing extreme astonishment: This old man doesn't look like a good person!
"Can a newly built one withstand the radiation?" Ling Xiao lowered his voice, asking like a thief.
"Not necessarily," Gong Yiding said cautiously. "However, I designed the landing craft to be fully enclosed. The landing cabin is isolated from other functional cabins, so there's no need to worry about opening the hatch affecting other cabins."
Ling Xiao suddenly understood.
There are many models of human landing craft, which can generally be divided into military and civilian types.
Let's not mention civilian ones for now. The design philosophy of military landing craft is sturdiness, simplicity, and ease of maintenance.
Therefore, military landing craft generally adopt a through-design, with no distinction between the cockpit and the crew cabin. Even if the two cabins are separated, it is only a simple semi-open partition.
The mission of the landing craft is to transport combat personnel to the ground, often rushing to the most intense areas of combat.
Landing craft are all about surviving the landing. Flying back to the warship?
Don't be ridiculous. Although landing craft do have this function, the problem is that after a perilous descent, you want me to charge back? Are the lives of the pilots not lives?
Under normal circumstances, the mission of a landing craft is divided into two stages. The first stage is personnel transport, and the second stage is to provide fire support and logistical support for the landing force, equivalent to a multi-functional attack helicopter, and is an important component of landing operations.
Therefore, the pilot of the landing craft is themselves a member of the assault team, not temporarily assigned. If the landing craft crashes or is damaged during combat, there are many pilots who pick up rifles and engage the enemy head-on.
Simply put, Gong Yiding's new design not only completely separates the cabins but also divides the crew cabin into watertight compartments. Then, by opening more hatches, with a robot behind each door, the landing craft remains sealed even if all the hatches are open, thus achieving sealing protection.
In addition, the landing craft also uses positive pressure technology, where the cabin pressure is higher than the outside to prevent radioactive dust from entering the craft.
In fact, the Starship has a more convenient means, which is quantum teleportation!
The doors entering and exiting the bridge use this technology, but the principle behind it has not been fully understood yet, and it can only teleport within the ship. It's unknown whether it can teleport outside the ship.
The Prophet's technology is very advanced, but humanity's foundation is too thin, and it cannot be digested overnight.
As they spoke, the No. 2 landing craft landed successfully, the hatch opened, and the spherical robot rolled out of the cabin and moved along the ground.
The shield opened immediately, but under the intense irradiation, it became brighter and brighter.
Gong Yiding immediately read the robot's status: "It can last for about half an hour, at most forty minutes!"
Ou Zhanpeng exhaled lightly: "It should be enough."
He hadn't expected the new robot to last long, and half an hour was beyond his expectations.
The spherical robot moved forward and quickly reached the suspected entrance. However, upon close observation, there were obvious melting marks near the entrance. Regardless of whether it was originally a hatch, it was impossible to open it now.
This is troublesome!
Ling Xiao whispered a suggestion: "Does the landing craft have laser cannons?"
Ou Zhanpeng shook his head: "Even the supernova explosion couldn't destroy the ruins, so those few cannons on the landing craft... I doubt it!"
His first thought was also to use the landing craft to cut open the hatch, or to blast a hole directly, but after careful consideration, he felt it was impossible.
"Then what do we do? It's already been seven or eight minutes. If we wait any longer, this robot will be scrapped."
Ou Zhanpeng thought for a moment: "Old Gong, start manufacturing a new landing craft. Don't worry about recovery, just landing successfully is enough."
Gong Yiding was taken aback: "What about this one? You don't want it anymore?"
Ou Zhanpeng frowned deeply: "Our robots are not good enough. Let's use force field robots."
Everyone who heard this had a look of sudden understanding.
According to incomplete statistics, the force field robots in the Starship Base start from at least 100,000 units.
Although these things are as common as dirt in the base, the technology to manufacture them is not simple at all. Such a small volume, such a strong force field, and their battery life and strength are also astonishingly high.
Humans have controlled the Starship Base for decades, and there has not been a single case of force field robot malfunction or breakdown.
Researchers had planned to conduct a comprehensive study of force field robots, but after studying for a long time, they didn't know where to start. Violent disassembly was out of the question; they would directly use force field shields.
The reason Gong Yiding added a shield to the spherical robot was directly related to the force field robots.
Ling Xiao didn't think that far and immediately pointed out the crux of the problem: "How do we open that door? That's the most critical issue, isn't it?"
Ou Zhanpeng thought carefully.
Conventional methods are either mechanical cutting or energy cutting. Whichever method is used, it is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Without knowing the details of the ruins, it is impossible to estimate the time required for cutting.
But he quickly found a solution: "Let's use a disintegration cannon. Blast an unimportant spot, how about it?"
Everyone was stunned at first, and then they all agreed.
Particle disintegration cannons destroy the basic structure of matter at the atomic level to achieve destruction, so there is indeed no more suitable weapon.
The Starship was not equipped with a disintegration cannon, but that was alright. This place was only a few dozen light-years away from the front line. Ou Zhanpeng directly contacted the forward command and coordinated a Flames-class warship.
But that wouldn't arrive immediately. The Starship waited for a good half-day, then a wormhole opened nearby, and the Chuzhou, ordered to provide support, passed through the wormhole.
The two sides established direct communication. After the usual pleasantries, Ou Zhanpeng explained the mission of the Chuzhou in detail.
After confirming the mission data, the Chuzhou flew towards the planet, aimed at the ruins from the side, and fired a shot at the side of the ruins with the lowest power.
The invisible energy beam grazed the outer wall of the ruins, leaving a relatively obvious but far from penetrating projectile mark.
There's a way!
Everyone was both surprised and delighted.
They were surprised that the ruins were much sturdier than imagined, and delighted that the disintegration cannon was indeed useful!
"Again!"
The Chuzhou continued to fire, increasing the energy level by one notch. The energy beam directly covered the original mark.
The projectile mark was a bit deeper, but it still didn't penetrate.
Ou Zhanpeng couldn't wait any longer, pointing to a corner of the ruins and saying, "Here, cut it open directly!"
"No problem!" The Chuzhou responded, adjusted its position, and fired a third time.
This time, although it was not 100% full power, it was still over 60%. The invisible energy beam swept across the corner of the ruins, and the conical corner broke off from the ruins, crashing to the ground.
Looking at the ruins again, the cut was as smooth as a mirror, revealing a dark triangular window.
"Success!"
The bridge was immediately filled with joy. The newly built No. 3 landing craft flew off the warship, delivered four force field robots to the ground, and landed near the cut.
A hatch opened, and the force field robots were exposed to extremely high-intensity radiation. The robots immediately activated their force fields.
Ou Zhanpeng's voice carried a hint of apprehension: "How is it?"
Gong Yiding raised his head: "No problem, the data hasn't changed at all!"
Everyone was greatly encouraged.
No change in data meant that the force field robots were immune to radiation and could operate on the ground for a long time!
Ling Xiao exclaimed: "If I had known this thing was so powerful, why would we need the Satellite, why not just send a few robots to photograph the supernova under gamma rays?"
Everyone who heard this burst into laughter.
Although they didn't know if it would work, this idea was definitely enough.
Yu Jia did not hide her excitement: "Old Gong, Old Gong, how about we try it later?"
Although the satellite had captured the process of the supernova explosion, it was only the initial explosion. The subsequent situation still relied on those satellites.
Yu Jia had always felt that no matter how sturdy those satellites were, they could not survive the two-month-long ray storm and the nearly half-year-long particle storm. The only hope was that the data captured by the satellites could be preserved.
But with these robots, it would be different. There was a chance to photograph the entire process of the supernova explosion from beginning to end!
"You're asking the wrong person," Gong Yiding chuckled, glancing at Ou Zhanpeng.
Yu Jia understood and immediately shifted her target: "Captain Ou..."
"We'll talk about it later," Ou Zhanpeng said, focused on controlling the robots, completely uninterested in listening to Yu Jia.
Yu Jia also knew that it wasn't the time to talk, but she was itching with anxiety, like an ant on a hot pan.
Two force field robots flew into the ruins, and everyone's attention was immediately focused on the screen.
The ruins were pitch black, and nothing could be seen clearly. Ou Zhanpeng adjusted the brightness, and the image flickered a few times before faint light and shadow appeared.
Everyone was amazed.
The ruins did not have the complex structure they had imagined, but a huge space that was transparent from top to bottom, somewhat like a vertical assembly plant for rockets.
But the space was larger, and the force field robots were suspended within it, like two insignificant specks of dust.
Even so, the source of the astonishment was in the center of the factory – a giant mechanical device that was difficult to describe stood upright, connected to the ceiling of the ruins at the top and going deep into the earth's crust at the bottom. Faintly, dark red lava could be seen flowing.
It was composed of multiple ring-shaped structures, each ring being astonishingly large. The largest ring had a diameter of nearly six kilometers, and the smallest was four kilometers, covering an area equivalent to a small city!
The robots quickly measured the spatial data: the height of the ruins was 22 kilometers, and the length and width were both 7.4 kilometers. The device, whose name could not even be called, had its roots deeply embedded in the lava. It went without saying that its true height was more than 22 kilometers, possibly extending deep into the crust, or even rooted in the mantle!
"Whoa, really?" Ling Xiao could hardly believe his eyes. "This damn thing is like a Transformer!"
22 kilometers? That's twenty-two thousand meters. Mount Everest is only over eight thousand eight hundred meters, and Rhea Sylvia Mons is also at this level, right?
It was hard to imagine what means alien civilizations used to build such an astonishing engineering miracle.
Others were still in shock and didn't respond to Ling Xiao at all.
If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, who would believe that this was a man-made structure?
"Get closer and take a look!" Gong Yiding said.
Ou Zhanpeng had the same intention. He controlled the robots to fly towards the towering giant pillar and soon confirmed that it was not simply stacked with giant parts. In fact, the structure of each ring was very complex, and beneath the metallic luster surface material, faint streams of light could be seen flowing slowly.
Ou Zhanpeng finally regained his senses, his fingers flying, issuing a series of commands to the robots in the ruins.
Ling Xiao asked curiously, "What are you doing?"
Ou Zhanpeng replied, "Comprehensive scanning, 3D modeling!"
The two robots left outside the ruins also flew in. The four robots flew to the highest point, rotating around the giant pillar while descending. Massive amounts of data were uploaded to the Starship in real-time, and a holographic projection of the giant pillar slowly appeared in the center of the bridge.
Unfortunately, it was only the exterior, and the internal structure of the giant pillar could not be understood at all.
This time, it was Gong Yiding's turn to scratch his head, constantly comforting himself: Scan the outside first, and once it's done, we'll know if we can get inside, and then we'll figure out how to see the internal structure!
It was no exaggeration to say that this thing was definitely the second greatest gain for humanity since entering the interstellar era. If the technology contained in this giant pillar could be fully understood, humanity's technological level would surely leap forward by several... no, countless steps!
The greatest gain was the Starship Base.
"Do we need to send more robots down?" Gong Yiding suggested softly.
He calculated roughly that at the current speed, it would take at least a month to scan this pillar.
Ou Zhanpeng gave a wry smile: "Old Gong, you know how many robots we have. If we send them all down, what will the ship use?"
Force field robots were versatile tools on the Starship. Maintenance and cleaning required them. If the force field robots were lost, the Starship would not immediately become disabled, but it would cause a series of troubles.
Dedicating four robots was already the limit that Ou Zhanpeng could afford.
Gong Yiding sighed helplessly: "Alright, then let's take our time."