(ps: A new volume begins, this is a transitional chapter. The connection to the previous chapter is not particularly tight, and the details that need to be explained will be clarified in subsequent chapters.)
Blue Star, central Pacific Ocean.
Although it was the dead of winter in the north, the ocean was still oppressively hot.
A research vessel from Xia State slowly came to a halt. Following the command, a small submarine submerged into the sea, descending from shallow to deep waters. Initially, the surrounding scenery was still visible, but after a short while, the outside of the submarine became pitch black, with not a trace of light.
Only the submarine's lights illuminated a small patch of seawater.
Ever since the alien spaceship fell into the sea, navies from various countries had gathered here, each deploying their unique abilities to search for the broken ship. However, months had passed with no success.
Some smaller nations, with limited resources, could not maintain long-term voyages and had withdrawn long ago. Now, only a few deeply resourced nations remained, persevering in their arduous search.
However, from the very beginning of the incident, the nations of Blue Star had jointly blocked the news. To this day, only a select few knew the truth. The general public was informed that a swarm of small celestial bodies had passed by Earth, destroying two major space bases, and that the two fleets had suffered heavy losses in the process of destroying the celestial bodies.
After nearly an hour of continuous descent, the submarine finally reached the seabed.
Under the lights, the seabed was barren.
The pilot, Ma Hao, frowned in surprise, "Mother ship, I have reached the seabed, but something is not right here. I recall this area should be a polymetallic nodule deposit, but there's nothing now."
This was not his first time here. It was precisely because he had previously undertaken a scientific expedition mission in this area that they had specifically sought him out to re-survey the situation.
A moment later, he heard a voice from the mother ship: "Sea Dragon, are you sure it's this seabed?"
"Absolutely sure!" The submarine moved forward slowly, its lights sweeping across the seabed. Ma Hao's gaze suddenly sharpened, "Mother ship, there are very strange markings on the seabed, very regular. I don't know what could have left them."
"Are you sure?"
"Sure!" Ma Hao took a photo of the markings on the seabed and sent it back to the mother ship. "It's this. It should be the traces left by some kind of creature."
The submarine followed the tracks on the seabed, but suddenly Ma Hao heard an anxious roar in his ear: "Sea Dragon, urgent ascent, quickly!"
"What?" Ma Hao wondered if he had misheard. Wasn't he sent here to investigate the situation? Now that an anomaly had been found, why were they asking him to ascend?
With only a slight hesitation, the submarine happened to cross a ridge, and the scene before him startled Ma Hao immensely.
A giant squid with gleaming eyes was lying on the seabed, its eight thick, long tentacles sweeping across the ocean floor, instantly collecting polymetallic nodules.
Beside the squid, a giant sea crab with a deeply sunken carapace was also present. The squid's tentacles rested on the crab's back, and polymetallic nodules rained down onto the crab's shell.
Further away, another giant crab, its back laden with nodules, was slowly moving into the distance.
Ma Hao was completely stunned. What was going on?
He was an ocean researcher and could immediately recognize that this giant squid was distinctly different from the legendary giant squid, the colossal squid. Moreover, why would a colossal squid collect polymetallic nodules?
And the giant crabs, why had they grown into such strange shapes?
The calls from the surface continued incessantly: "Sea Dragon, Sea Dragon, ascend immediately, I order you to ascend immediately—"
Ma Hao snapped back to attention, "Sea Dragon received!"
But he immediately activated the emergency ascent procedure. The submarine jettisoned its ballast, and began to ascend rapidly.
The squid suddenly stopped mining, retracted its tentacles, and sprang forward, chasing after the submarine like an arrow.
From other directions, more giant squids pursued. One of them slammed onto the submarine, its thick, long tentacles encircling the vessel. The sea-bowl-sized suckers clung tightly to the porthole, and sharp hooks scraped against it with a piercing sound.
Ma Hao was almost scared out of his wits. He quickly activated the defense system, and the hull released a powerful electric current, repelling the giant squid that had enveloped the submarine.
More squids converged, continuing to discharge electricity to repel them: "Mother ship, Sea Dragon is under attack, Sea Dragon is under... attack..."
This unfinished plea for help was the last transmission received by the research vessel.
"See them alive, or see their bodies!" The captain gritted his teeth and uttered a few words. A torpedo-like unmanned deep-sea submersible was immediately deployed into the water, quickly submerging.
Half an hour later, the unmanned submersible found the Sea Dragon. Its hull was shattered, and it lay tilted on the seabed at a depth of more than 2,400 meters. The water-filled cabin was empty, with no trace of Ma Hao.
On the mother ship, the atmosphere was silent and oppressive, with everyone feeling a heavy weight on their hearts.
The unmanned submersible searched around the Sea Dragon, but found no trace of Ma Hao. Instead, it discovered a large group of mining squids.
A giant shrimp appeared in the camera's view. Like a moth drawn to a flame, it offered itself to the giant squid's mouth. The giant squid took a bite and swallowed it whole in a few seconds.
Several giant crabs crawled towards a small hill. An opening appeared at the foot of the hill, and the giant crabs crawled inside, dumping all the polymetallic nodules onto the ground before quickly crawling out.
The entrance closed. It was only then that everyone was astonished to realize that it was not a small hill at all, but a giant worm with an extremely rough, highly camouflaged surface.
Not far away, the tail of another worm twitched violently, stirring up layers of undertow. Shortly after, it expelled a mass of irregular material. Under the lights, this excrement gleamed with a silvery metallic luster.
A giant sea spider entered the view, and then the screen shook violently before losing signal.
Everyone who witnessed this scene was dumbfounded. The captain suddenly snapped back to reality and immediately relayed the news.
The military immediately declared the affected sea area an emergency control zone. No vessels or aircraft from any nation were permitted to enter this area without authorization, or they would face the consequences.
Half an hour later, the Qiongzhou aircraft carrier battle group arrived. Command of the scene was transferred to the military, and the research vessel was ordered to leave immediately.
Several helicopters took off and deployed multiple unmanned deep-sea submersibles in different directions.
Forty minutes later, the deep-sea submersibles determined that the distribution range of the giant squids spanned nearly a hundred square kilometers. However, within this area, no trace of the alien spaceship was found. It was either not in this sea area, or it was hidden beneath the seabed.
Anyone with some understanding of the situation could guess the current scenario – the giant marine life beneath the water must have been modified by the alien species, and they were now collecting minerals for the aliens.
Therefore, the alien species must be hidden somewhere underwater.
As the aliens' location could not be found for the time being, there were two different opinions emanating from the capital. One was to immediately eliminate all the giant marine life, thereby slowing down the alien species' resource collection progress.
The second was to not act for the time being, but to follow the clues to find the alien spaceship. Otherwise, once they took action, it would be much harder to find any leads to the alien species.