Chapter 154 Rocket Launcher
The next day, it was just dawn.
In the dim morning light, a gray-white concrete vaulted building with traces of wind and frost on its surface was like a lonely grave, lying quietly in the lush forest.
Suddenly, a faint rumble came from a distance, and the ground began to shake.
After a short wait, a "behemoth" made of steel rushed straight into the forest, startling countless birds and beasts.
It has to be admitted that the Hercules bulldozer's travel efficiency in this forest is indeed quite high, especially when the bucket is raised.
It was dusk when Chen Fan left Varela City. In just a few hours, under Yi's control, the bulldozer had crossed nearly 200 kilometers of rugged forest roads and successfully sent them to the vicinity of their destination.
In the control room on top of the "behemoth", Chen Fan was standing in front of the porthole that was smashed by the detection drone, silently watching the relics left by the prosperous era in front of him.
It was a tomb of an era.
A large tomb that buried countless histories!
Thinking of this, Chen Fan could not help but feel a slight chill rising from his body.
A crisp sound like metal knocking came from beside him.
Chen Fan's heart moved, and he quickly recognized that it was the sound of Isa's mechanical prosthesis stepping on the deck of the bulldozer control room.
"Sir Chen Fan."
Sure enough, the next second, Isa's soft voice came from beside him.
She bent down slightly, leaned forward, and her delicate body leaned lightly in front of the porthole of the control room. The wide black robe drooped slightly, highlighting the soft curves hidden underneath: "Is there a problem?"
"It's not a big problem..." Chen Fan stared at the concrete vault with several deep cracks on the surface that could be seen through the bones, "Why do you ask that?"
"Maybe it's because you have been standing in front of this broken porthole for a full hour and a half."
A familiar and honest voice came from behind.
Gao Yuan walked to Chen Fan with slightly heavy steps and gently put his hand on his shoulder: "By the way, are you really not cold?"
Feeling the heat coming from his shoulder, Chen Fan shivered belatedly.
"You're right, the temperature has indeed dropped a bit fast recently..."
"Was this world like this before?"
"No." Isa shook her head and denied Chen Fan's inquiry, "It was actually quite warm at this time last year... Oh, I mean the old calendar."
Chen Fan nodded thoughtfully - although he didn't know what the reason was, this obviously abnormal temperature change deserved his attention.
If he remembered correctly, in the case of the Administration, an investigator found a key clue from the sudden change in temperature - there was a foolish civilization next door that placed the stellar interference experiment on the main star of that civilization.
It is said that the foolish civilization paid a lot of credit points for this, and even found a star with similar parameters as compensation for the unfortunate low-level civilization under the supervision of the Administration.
"Yi, what do you think?"
Chen Fan lowered his head and asked the smart terminal on his right hand.
"This machine doesn't really look at it."
An electronic synthesized voice sounded: "The observation data is seriously insufficient, and this machine cannot make any judgment."
"In addition, this machine recommends that you adjust your position."
"According to this machine's comprehensive assessment, you will catch a cold if you stay in this position for another half an hour!"
"Seeing you standing in front of the porthole in deep thought, we have not dared to disturb you." Before Chen Fan could react, Gao Yuan beside him had already patted his slightly cold shoulder happily, "It is definitely not because you just happened to block the cold wind outside the window."
Chen Fan silently lowered his head and took a look at the porthole gap that was hit by the detection drone and was aimed at his chest - damn, no wonder he felt cold all over since just now.
His eyes twitched, and without speaking, he took a step back slightly and moved his body to the side behind Gao Yuan.
"So, what exactly did you find?" Gao Yuan did not pay attention to Chen Fan's actions, but took the initiative to step forward and blocked the gap that was blowing cold wind with his broad body.
"Intelligent machines." Chen Fan cast his gaze towards the slowly rising sun in the distance. "We are so far away from Varela City, and we haven't found any intelligent machines around!"
"Do you think this is possible?"
Gao Yuan was stunned. His simple mind couldn't make sense. "Didn't you say before... [Source] might have been shocked by the antimatter bomb?"
"Cough!"
Chen Fan coughed hard, looking embarrassed. "That was just what I said casually. You didn't really believe it, did you?"
Isa shook her head. "Of course not. I always thought that the other possibility you mentioned was more likely. [Source] is short of manpower and cannot dispatch more intelligent machines in a short period of time."
Gao Yuan didn't speak. "..."
So he was the only one who was kept in the dark?
Looking at the "resentful" look Gao Yuan gave him, Chen Fan silently changed the subject. "So far, the search range of the detection drone has reached a radius of 300 kilometers."
"There is no trace of any intelligent machine activity in such a large area..."
Under the gaze of Gao Yuan and Isa, Chen Fan raised his hand and touched his chin thoughtfully: "I guess the other party should be holding back some big moves."
Gao Yuan, Isa: "......?"
It's really a matter of listening to you, and listening to you again!
...
Due to the serious lack of information, Chen Fan, who was forced to give up thinking, could only focus on the concrete vault building in front of him.
Although the detection drone has carried out a carpet search of this area, in line with the idea of stability, after leaving the Hercules bulldozer, Chen Fan still carefully propped up a single-soldier protective force field that was enough to cover all three of them.
As soon as he stepped on the ground, Chen Fan quickly realized a problem that can only be perceived by personal experience-the fallen leaves in this land are much thicker than in other areas.
This means an extremely simple fact:
this area is a real no-man's land.
Not to mention the survivors living in the underground city, this place is not even in the common activity area of the intelligent machine!
After a little thought, Chen Fan realized the reason behind it.
According to Yi's speculation, the concrete vault building in front of him may have a considerable volume hidden underground.
This means that the survivors cannot build underground cities and underground passages in this area.
Without survivors, there is no need for the intelligent machines to patrol. Controlling the number of survivors and keeping them firmly in their hands is the goal of those intelligent machines.
Thinking of this, Chen Fan's vigilance was slightly reduced.
He took a step and walked towards the tower next to the concrete vaulted building. He
planned to start with the supporting facilities next to the vaulted building, at least to figure out the true identity of the vaulted building.
This is a concrete tower with a completely hollow interior.
At the bottom of the tower, a huge, concave round table was cast from some special material concrete.
The pit in the center of the round table was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves.
After the three people cleaned it up briefly, the pit revealed its true appearance. Unlike the grayish-white concrete in other areas, the concrete inside the pit was dark brown, and there was an amber-like coating on its surface that looked like it was left by high-temperature burning.
Not only that, there were a large number of ditches at the bottom of the round pit, and their functions were unknown.
Chen Fan's heart moved slightly, and a white light flashed from his right hand.
"The basic scan has been completed."
Yi's electronic synthesized voice came from his ear: "It can be determined that it is a special concrete that is fire-resistant, high-temperature resistant, and high-pressure resistant."
"Usually, this kind of concrete will be used in some backward aerospace equipment launch pads that use chemical fuels
." "The comprehensive analysis results show that the grooves at the bottom of the circular pit are most likely diversion grooves, which can guide the tail flames of aerospace equipment during launch to the outside of the tower to avoid causing great damage to the launch tower."
Aerospace equipment launch pad?
Chen Fan raised his head and looked at the strangely shaped tower with a hollow middle above his head again.
"You mean... this thing is a launch pad for fixing rockets?"
"Based on the information currently available, the possibility is more than 70%."
As Yi's voice continued to come, a holographic image appeared in front of Chen Fan.
The projection clearly showed the overall structure of the tower: "This machine has just fully modeled the tower, and used drones to do a simple scan of the tower's various areas."
"This machine found traces of high temperature burning in the bottom area of the tower."
"In addition, although the tower is severely corroded, there are still a large number of parts that can move freely."
"The deduction results show that the hollow steel frame inside the tower can be freely extended and retracted, and the entire tower can also split and unfold like a petal."
Looking at the demonstration animation in the holographic projection, Chen Fan's eyes suddenly showed excitement.
Originally, he thought that this concrete vault building was at best a relic similar to an underground air defense building left over from the prosperous era.
Now it seems...
they may have found the big guy! The concrete vault
building next to it that looks like a tomb is likely to be the satellite launch center of the prosperous era!
In terms of collecting information, where else can the information be more reliable than the database of such a cutting-edge technology place? !
But...
"Isn't this launch pad... a little too small?"
Chen Fan looked up and down at the launch pad that was no more than ten meters high and the launch base that was only a little over one person tall, and there was a bit of confusion in his eyes.
Compared with some rocket launch pads he had seen before, the one in front of him was just a baby that was not even a month old!
"The size of the launch pad mainly depends on the performance of the aerospace equipment."
Yi quickly answered Chen Fan's confusion: "If the performance of the aerospace equipment is strong enough, it can completely get rid of the limitation of the launch pad and directly enter the space from the surface."
(End of this chapter)
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