Chapter 903: Chapter 676: Oh No, a Bomb!
“Report, General. This box has a metallic shell and is suspected to be some kind of electronic device. Should we retrieve it for further investigation?”
Su Qi’s gaze shifted several times before finally shaking his head, “No need. Wait for the Blue Dawn troops to arrive, and send out defensive engineering robots to surround it, preventing any accidents.”
Being the commander of a secret unit, he understands well the saying that curiosity can kill the cat.
In such abnormal situations, pursuing so-called curiosity is utterly foolish.
Su Qi turned around, and though not tall, his authority far exceeded that of everyone present. His dark face quietly swept over everyone and landed on a Colonel on the far left, “Colonel Pedy, lead the first squad down below for reconnaissance.”
“Colonel Danel, lead the second squad to the 2 o’clock direction for reconnaissance.”
…
The fleet, divided into groups of five warships, was soon organized.
“Enter level one alert state during reconnaissance. According to War Department intelligence, there are many Zegs on this planet. Our troops have never engaged these bugs before, so don’t act recklessly and proceed with caution.”
“Now, wait for our allies to arrive.”
The officers simultaneously agreed with determination and then scattered.
The command room of the flagship resumed its quiet. Su Qi pondered for a bit and ordered the activation of the Snow Storm Barrier.
This is one of the exclusive weapons of the level eight warship, Snow Wind—Xuelan.
It possesses the ability to alter localized weather and activate a low-temperature energy barrier.
With eerie snowflake-like ice chips floating around, the warship hovered within the pit, a narrow laser beam began scanning the pit walls.
Moments later, upon seeing the data, Su Qi’s dark face twisted together.
Because the entire circumference of the enormous pit bore marks of explosions, and based on residual temperature measurements, the inner wall temperature of this pit was higher than other surface areas.
“Dispatch hover engineering vehicles to sample the inner wall soil.”
Under Su Qi’s order, some spider-like engineering vehicles were deployed.
Before long, a semi-transparent, crystal-like object appeared before Su Qi.
“High-energy reactive crystal, but in scarce quantity, residing entirely at the bottom of the mining pit. The reconnaissance flight squad just dispatched discovered 35 open-mining pits with signs of extraction but no organisms,” the adjutant reported.
Discovering a new mineral deposit is an exciting event, but finding it in this man-made pit isn’t exactly something to celebrate.
“Someone came here before us? Something doesn’t feel right.”
The dark face of Major General Su Qi showed no readable emotions.
However, given the current situation, communication through the wormhole is temporarily impossible, preventing him from confirming with the Military Department.
“Continue searching! Stay alert!”
While the HZ1 fleet searched in high tension, they were unaware of the shifting silhouettes within the enormous blood-red vertical pupil on the other side of the star body.
The mansion-like body hung dozens of tentacles, all non-combatant Zeg masters, immediately attaching to the ground. Small pupa worms crawled along the tentacles to the ground.
A visible thick layer of fungus blanket began rising from their landing point.
Next, several hundred-meter diameter Corruptors revealed their faces. As they appeared, they unconsciously continued drifting forward.
More and more bugs started manifesting from within.
Yet, lacking Brain Worms and Puppet Commanders, these bugs didn’t act as cunningly as those Mu Fan encountered before, instead seeming somewhat sluggish.
They were just following the imprinted instinct within their DNA to pioneer in this land.
Without Sentinels functioning as radars, these Zegs restricted themselves to a small area near the space conduits, laying out a small piece of fungus blanket.
But behind them, hordes of Zegs began appearing, causing the fungus blanket area to silently expand.
The distance between the HZ1 reconnaissance fleet and this increasingly numerous swarm closed.
At this moment, a gigantic shadow suddenly floated in the sky of asteroid 131, revealing a scene formed by dense shadows covering the sky, blocking the light.
Numerous warships emerged from the clouds, hovering in the sky, completely shrouding the massive pit below.
A burly figure with graying temples stood in the command room of the largest warship, looking down below.
“Looks like our allies have made it here first. I want to ask… what’s with this deep pit?”
Commander of the Blue Dawn fleet—Vice Admiral Gerald.
A seasoned veteran with over thirty years of combat experience, 54 years old.
Meanwhile, within the Snow Wind level-eight warship below the pit, the dark-faced Su Qi looked at the holo-screen, finally showing a hint of relief.
“You’ve finally arrived, warship lift-off.”
The two fleets finally converged at this moment.
“Major General Su Qi!”
“Vice Admiral Gerald!”
…
“The base is gone? How is that possible!”
A trace of shock flashed across Gerald’s face as he looked at the smooth pit wall and the piece of high crystal stone presented by the adjutant, speaking solemnly: “The order to seal off this planet was issued by the Central Military Department and ultimately transmitted by me. And now… is this the doing of the Zegs?”
Su Qi shook his head, his tone also carried a strange note, “I don’t know the specifics of this classified information, but when my fleet arrived here, it already looked like this. Also, within an hour before your fleet reached us, we found no trace of the Zegs.”
“So I need your intelligence authorization.”
Vice Admiral Gerald gestured for the nearby officers to leave, then slipped a mechanical light-path glove onto his right hand, directly drawing a three-dimensional holo-screen in the air.
The Military Department’s classified asteroid plan was formally presented to Su Qi.
The dark-faced Major General listened to the energetic voice explaining, “The crystal stone the adjutant just brought over is one of the key minerals of this planet, exhibiting highly compressed energy characteristics. Due to Zeg activity, extraction has never commenced formally, and the passage was sealed after the bug tide erupted.”
“But now, the energy pulse has vanished. What lies before us are the vanished base, bugs, and minerals. What explanation can we present to the superior Military Department? Major General Su Qi, you arrived earlier, holding the first-hand information. If there’s anything else, I hope you will tell me without reservation; this is crucial!”
Indeed, since they came here, there’s no way they’ll return empty-handed.
“Did you say these crystal stones are important? Besides finding a small amount in the pit bottom, there are 35 open mining pits on the surface where no crystal stone was found,” Su Qi remarked in surprise.
“Regarding other information… There is. My fleet indeed found a place that seems like it was marked. I’ve been waiting for your arrival, now please make the decision.”
Su Qi held considerable respect for this battle-hardened veteran, as Gerald is genuinely a soldier.
Oh?
Vice Admiral Gerald’s expression finally showed fluctuation upon hearing Su Qi’s words, “What information?”
“Here, you see.”
Su Qi raised his left hand and tapped his tactical watch on his left wrist several times with his right index finger, revealing a pink metal box tied with a bow before Gerald.
Also visible was the crater blasted into a heart shape.
“This is the only deliberate human-made trace we found on this planet, but we haven’t opened this box.”
“Open it,” Gerald ordered.
Such heart-shaped crater visuals are extremely incongruous yet clearly indicate deliberate signs.
Gerald nodded, simultaneously slipping silver ring sensors onto both arms.
On the holo-screen, a highly biodynamic robot was deployed and confidently walked towards the metal box.
Su Qi watched the holo-screen, his hands moving in the air before him.
The robot in the screen mimicked the same gesture and proceeded to untie the bow.
Su Qi took a deep breath, controlling the synchronized robot to attempt opening the box.
As the robot’s palm gently touched it…
Click!
A slight and clear sound—perfectly synchronized—reached the ears of both generals.
“Bad, a bomb!”
Su Qi’s years of experience immediately cried out upon hearing that sound.
This clearly is the sound of a timed bomb countdown reaching zero.
Yet earlier scans detected no high energy source.
Bang!
A thunderous roar sounded, violent vibrations transmitted through the robot’s palm back to Su Qi’s hand.
This dark-skinned Major General instinctively shrank his hand instantly.
However…
In front of them, the pink metal box merely popped open its lid upward.
No explosion occurred, yet as both their attention focused entirely…
“Buzz.”
A dark shadow suddenly popped out from within.