Chapter 206 Orion Entrance
The signal light in the main control room began to flicker again, and Su Wanqing casually stuffed the last vital sign form into the folder.
Lu Zhao was already standing next to the main console, wearing a freshly disinfected Class A protective suit and holding a spare oxygen cylinder in his hand.
Su Wanqing looked back at the jumping energy curve on the main control screen, and then went to confirm the fusion of the jade bracelet and the core.
"Shall we begin?" Lu Zhao pulled the Velcro on his cuffs and said bluntly, "There's not much time left. The troops outside the barrier are still changing their formation."
Su Wanqing pressed the bracelet against her wrist and took a deep breath. The two energy cores had already merged in the jade bracelet. She felt a warm current in the coldness of her wrist, and her consciousness became clearer than ever before.
She looked around and saw several faint bands of color in her field of vision. Various mixed energy fluctuations were slightly rising, as if there were invisible ripples shaking in the air.
She turned off the external lights and whispered, "I can sense something now. If there is anything unusual, follow me."
Lu Zhao nodded. With Xiao Ran's final confirmation on the intercom, the two of them walked through the partition door and directly put on the reserved protective clothing.
They had no extra items in their bags, only the most basic tools, signal amplifiers and a few cans of compressed oxygen.
"Shall we go in here?" Lu Zhao stretched out his hand and pushed through the main control back door. A narrow iron ladder led directly to the abandoned maintenance shaft below.
"Yes, the shaft has not been used for decades, and the rest has been locked by the military."
Su Wanqing looked up at the mural. When she walked into the well, the bracelet emitted a slight vibration, which made her touch her wrist subconsciously. "Now the bracelet is becoming more and more responsive..."
There was a low sound of metal pedals under their feet, and they slowly descended one after the other.
The entrance to the shaft was quickly sealed by a metal door above, leaving only the emergency light on the side emitting a very weak cold white light.
About ten minutes later, the temperature began to rise sharply and Su Wanqing's palms began to sweat.
"The oxygen is starting to thin." Lu Zhao checked the meter while pressing the oxygen mask tighter. "40.1 degrees, descending to 200 meters."
Su Wanqing felt a tightness in her chest, but the cold sensation in the bracelet continued to expand steadily. "Look at the wall."
She held up the searchlight and shone it on the wall of the well. She saw large white corrosion pits on the originally yellow and peeling concrete, and even the steel bars were exposed in some places.
The most noticeable thing was the three or four particularly deep claw marks a few meters below, which had cut through the outer steel plate and had a black tint at the edges.
"Like traces of corrosive residue?" Lu Zhao whispered, and then he looked closer. "And these, the claw marks are very fresh, and there is some red liquid on the top, which has just dried."
Su Wanqing's eyelids twitched. The bracelet now made a faint vibration, reminding her that the energy fluctuations in the shaft had changed.
She gritted her teeth and continued to move down, being careful to avoid the slippery pits from time to time.
"Something is very close." She pointed at the marks under her feet and lowered her voice.
"Could it be that the test subject climbed out from downstairs?" Lu Zhao slowly moved over to look at the side wall. "The temperature has increased and the oxygen has decreased. This is not a natural change in the environment. There must have been an accident here before."
The two of them said nothing more and focused on descending. The oxygen alarm began to sound at a high frequency at 250 meters. Lu Zhao simply pulled up the shielding film and checked the interface again.
When we reached the 350-meter mark, a horizontal bar suddenly appeared in front of us.
It was an alloy protective door, but the entire door had melted and deformed, with half of it twisted into a wavy shape.
The safety lock had completely failed. The lock tongue was covered with black stains, and there were even large marks of metal and concrete melting in the center.
Su Wanqing slowed down and placed her hand on the fragment of the alloy door. She suddenly felt a tingling sensation in her wrist bone and the bracelet automatically popped up an energy reading interface.
A highly erratic record of thermal energy flashed across the surface.
"It's a biological airlock door." Lu Zhao inserted the small tool into the interface and carefully avoided the deformed debris. "The alloy door is resistant to high temperatures and leaks, and the air pressure is controlled from above. This design is to prevent the experiment below from escaping. Judging from the traces, something broke through the door, and the temperature is far higher than that of ordinary flames."
Su Wanqing frowned as she listened. With every step she took, the alarm from the bracelet became more obvious.
She withdrew her hand and quickly walked through the half-broken isolation door, leaving behind several pieces of metal debris and a burnt smell.
"What do you feel?" Lu Zhao's voice was muffled.
"The bracelet is very sensitive, and there are complex fluctuations underneath." Su Wanqing briefly described the abnormal movement she sensed, "It's not just electric current or heat energy, there's something else that's hard to explain."
After descending 400 meters, the communicator was left with only hissing noises, and Xiao Ran's last message jumped onto the screen: "The signal from your end is about to be cut off. The military satellite is sinking in orbit on the east side and has detected energy anomalies in the Orion region. Troops are gathering and may be looking for other entrances. If not necessary, you should evacuate immediately."
Lu Zhao lowered his voice and said, "Only the signal amplifier can send one-way messages. If we really encounter an emergency, the higher-ups will not be able to pull us out."
Su Wanqing glanced at the communicator and saw that the text on the screen flashed for a moment and then disappeared.
She calculated the time and route in her mind, pressed the bracelet against the wall of the well for a while, and sensed the residual energy again.
He said calmly, "Five hundred meters is the bottom. The Orion entrance should be directly connected to the main floor of the experimental area."
As they continued to go down, the corrosion and scratches on the walls of the well became more and more dense, and the thermometer had broken forty-three degrees.
Cold sweat began to flow along the protective suit, and even my breathing became short.
The oxygen tank has half of its capacity left.
Finally, the two of them went down to the bottom and in front of them was a huge round metal door that was more than three meters wide and embedded high in the black wall.
There were obvious signs of impact and repair on the door, with a few letters engraved in the middle: "Orion Project·Alpha Station".
The access control structure on the side of the door has been mostly destroyed, but there is still light above the sensing area, and the chip embedded in the panel is extremely complex.
Just as Lu Zhao was about to check the wiring interface, a row of green dots of light suddenly lit up. Although no one had touched the access control panel, the infrared sensor had already scanned Su Wanqing.
The next moment, the entire access control panel emitted a mechanical synthesized voice: "Welcome back, S-7 Project Manager."
Lu Zhao was stunned and speechless for a moment. Su Wanqing wiped the sweat from her forehead and twitched her lips: "I have never been to such a place before."
The door locks then clicked back one by one, and the heavy metal door slowly opened from the inside.
A hot stream mixed with dust and metallic smell flowed out from the gap.
The bracelet sounded the alarm again, indicating an increase in security level and sensing abnormality.
The signal outside was completely silent. Su Wanqing and Lu Zhao did not communicate, but just held their weapons steady again. The two of them quickly approached the door and carefully observed the remaining energy reaction inside.
It was dark and silent inside, with only the low hum of some machine echoing in the distance, outlining a vague outline of the entire unknown space behind the door.
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