Chapter 938 People of the Ark

Just when Hao Ren had begun to seriously consider whether all life in these arks was cut off, unexpected good news suddenly came: a group of detectors captured a life response when they penetrated into the depths of one of the arks, and it was a very strong life response. reaction.

The Giant Turtle Yantai immediately lit up its thrusters. It slid quickly and silently in space, and soon reached the sky above the ark that sent out the life signal. The silver-white spacecraft descended slowly on the black shell of the Ark, reading the information coming from the depths of the Ark like a delicate stethoscope.

"Is this the ship?" Hao Ren looked at the picture from the external monitor. The Ark was no different from the other ships. It looked equally dilapidated and old, and even the armor was even worse. Very It’s hard to imagine that beneath its kilometers-thick shell are the last survivors of these refugees.

"There is indeed a life reaction. The detector has captured it. The engineering drone is building a temporary airlock below so that you can enter and exit." Nolan nodded. "The detector did not find a way to open the door normally. It drilled The hole went in - now the air leakage point has been automatically blocked."

"The automatic blocking system is still operating. It seems that there are indeed survivors," Hao Ren breathed, "Where is the communication? Is anyone on this ship responding to your call? Is anyone willing to respond to our contact? "

Nolan shook his head slightly: "There is still no response, which is the strangest thing. In addition, the detector sent back some pictures that are not quite right."

As she spoke, she turned on the holographic projection. Hao Ren saw a dilapidated city illuminated by lights appearing on the screen. Everything looked old and decayed. The city inside the ship stretched out in front of his eyes like some kind of ruins. Then the screen shook. After a moment, a man in ragged clothes and with strange lines on his face appeared in the corner of the screen. He was obviously a resident of the Ark. This ragged man ran out with staggering steps, then knelt down on the street, as if he was curtsying to some great figure, and then maintained this posture without moving.

This endless video clip made Hao Ren feel confused. He looked at each other and decided that it would be better to go and check the situation in person.

He still took Vivian, Lily, and Nangong brother and sister with him, while the others continued to stand by on the Giant Turtle Rock Platform.

The engineering drone that had previously cut open the outer shell of the Ark and drilled into its depths had prepared a passage. Hao Ren and his party entered through the normal surface airlock as usual and merged with the drone after passing through the long corridor. This time they did not plan to enter the ship's city through the damaged elevator shaft - because the ship's ecosystem was intact, and opening the door rashly from the outside might trigger some kind of alarm or the ship's automatic stress response. Instead, the drone drilled a slender hole in the outer shell of the ship's city and installed an airlock device at the hole. The drone moved quickly, and at least it didn't set off an alarm while doing the job.

The "infiltration" process went very smoothly.

Hao Ren and his party walked into the airlock and passed through a passage hundreds of meters long. The outer wall of the passage was still a little hot. The high temperature generated by the drone cutting had not dissipated. And when they were halfway through the passage, gravity appeared: this gravity wanted to throw them out of the passage, but it was a good sign, because it meant that the city inside the ship was indeed functioning normally.

They emerged from a dirty, deserted neighborhood.

Hao Ren was the first to get out of the "invasion hole". As soon as he entered the city, he felt a damp, cold air mixed with a strange smell filling his nasal cavity. This smell could also be smelled in the passage. , but it is more obvious after coming to the surface. He frowned subconsciously: Although it was a good thing to finally find an in-ship city with an atmosphere, the atmospheric circulation pump in this place must not be in good enough condition.

"Ahem..." Lily coughed softly after getting out. She frowned and tightened her tail behind her, "It feels like I'm following a garbage dump."

"This Ark's air purification machine may be too old," Nangong Sanba exhaled after climbing to the ground, "It's better than no air. Speaking of which, this place looks...I think it's not as good as the previous abandoned shelters. What about the city?”

The surrounding buildings are in really bad condition. Although the detectors have sent back some pictures before, those pictures are not as realistic as seeing them in person. Around everyone, everywhere as far as the eye can see are dilapidated urban buildings. The exterior walls of the buildings are mottled and peeling off. The roadside facilities are covered with rust and dirt. The flower beds have long lost their original appearance and turned into dirty mud pits. In the distance, collapsed bridges and power line towers can also be seen. Some scattered and dim lights are the biggest light source in this dilapidated city. These lighting equipment, which has been operating for unknown years, are hung randomly on wires and on the tops of buildings, using poor light to cast many mottled and weird shadows in all directions.

It looked as if it had gone through a world war and then been abandoned for three hundred years.

Lily shook her tail: "Did we happen to get into the demolition area?"

"No..." Hao Ren looked around at everything in sight, then raised his finger and pointed above everyone's heads, "The whole city is in this state."

Others looked in the direction of his finger and saw that the land on the far and closed side was also a dilapidated gray. The other end of the city, like here, had been abandoned for many years.

"...It looks really bad. I can't believe that this is the inside of a starship that can travel at faster than light speeds," the data terminal commented. "After other spaceships shut down one by one, it will probably be difficult to find the people on this ship. Materials needed to repair their shelter."

A small silver-white device emerged from the ruins of a nearby building and landed lightly on Hao Ren's shoulder. It was the life detector that had been drilled in to check the situation. After the little guy completed his mission, he had been hiding here to prevent accidents. , it’s time to apply for recycling.

Hao Ren put the detector into his pocket and turned to remind Lily: "Close your ears and tail - we have to deal with 'people'."

Lily squealed, turned her ears and tail back, and then got a little curious: "Do you think we can blend in with the locals after I turn into human form?"

"I didn't plan to sneak in - I was just worried that you would scare them," Hao Ren waved his hand and walked forward, "They rejected all communication requests from Nolan. It is difficult for me to analyze how the residents of this ship view outsiders, so Don’t want to get off to a bad start.”

The group of people walked out of this deserted and dilapidated street and walked deeper into the city: another place that was even more deserted and dilapidated. Hao Ren was thinking about how to greet the first person he met on the road. After Nolan's programmed communications were rejected, he had no choice but to become a diplomat on his own, and the bad thing was that he was not a diplomat. A skilled diplomat, so he began to conceive of various opening remarks in his mind, and whether he should go directly to the "central control station" of the ship to meet the commander of the city. However, his thoughts only lasted for a short while when he was suddenly interrupted by a faint voice coming from the front.

It sounded like someone was fighting and shouting to kill, and there was also a crisp sound of steel colliding in the middle.

Vivian also touched his arm: "The front smells of blood, fresh."

Hao Ren immediately quickened his pace: "Go over and take a look at the situation!"

They ran quickly in the shadow of the surrounding buildings, quickly crossing some dilapidated streets and collapsed ancient houses. The shouts of death from the front finally became clearer and louder, and the mixed metal collisions in the middle were like ancient cold... Weapons are the same as on the battlefield. Lily, who was finally running at the front, suddenly stopped beside a low wall. She quickly found a place to squat and looked outside: "The landlord... someone is fighting!"

Hao Ren poked his head out from beside Lily's head. The sight in front of him immediately shocked him, and he even felt an absurd sense of time and space being disrupted.

Dozens of heavily armed people were fighting fiercely in the square ahead. These people should be residents of the Ark ship, but their clothing and equipment were absurd and weird. They were covered in armor made of iron plates and reinforced plastic steel. Colorful strips of cloth were constantly flying between the gaps in the armor. These warriors waved shining swords and battle axes in their hands, charging and fighting while making loud roars. together. The blood splattered by the injured dyed the ground of the square red, and the smell of blood in the air made Vivian's eyes glow slightly red in the darkness: "This is like a medieval battlefield."

"How could this place be like this..." Hao Ren murmured in surprise. The picture from the detector did not contain these details, but before he could think about it, he suddenly saw those fighting people. A young warrior with his face covered in blood rushed out. The warrior's steps were staggering and his eyes were full of fear. He seemed to be running away from the battlefield, and the direction of his escape was exactly where Hao Ren and others were hiding.