"Did you bring back the black box? Let me see it too... Is it heavy?" Political Commissar Xiao yelled at Jiang Ling through two layers of pressure-resistant shells. His communication signal began to become unstable when she approached.
"You can't feel it while wearing the exoskeleton, but I think it shouldn't be as heavy as the rest of Old Wu. We can tie it to the equipment box." She raised her hand to indicate that she received it, and at the same time raised her voice.
Jiang Ling placed the cylinder on the ice. As soon as it landed, its residual heat began to melt the ice on the contact surface, making crackling sounds, but these sounds were recognized as noise by the exoskeleton and were not collected and amplified.
Lao Xiao tried to pick it up with the electrically controlled robotic arm at his waist, but his robotic arm seemed to have a new malfunction and failed to restart several times. He speculated that this was a problem caused by the low temperature. After all, after nightfall, the air here is enough to freeze carbon dioxide into dry ice.
Fortunately, the hands are equipped with traditional mechanical controls, and the titanium alloy frame is cold-resistant enough to work normally in liquid nitrogen.
He was protected by Jiang Ling and returned to the equipment box, but this time he was not attacked by satellite weapons.
"Save your energy, we're out of their range." Political Commissar Xiao looked up, and the stars in the night sky twinkled at him. "I just took a risk and looked for their location. Look, those are the ones. They're near Venus now. They're probably retrograde satellites, so their lifespan won't be long."
"Are there only four of them on that track? I see they are connected in a line." Jiang Ling asked.
"There should have been a lot of them, but most of them were destroyed. The ones that remain are the lucky ones back then."
The two secured the black box and returned to where they came from. Jiang Ling saw the signal tower standing next to the ice cave from a distance. She ran over to check it out, but found that it was intact.
What exactly is interfering with communications?
Before she could figure it out, the bad news from the other side gave her a possible answer - the hook and the corpse had disappeared, but there were still traces of dragging on the ice.
"What do you think it is?" Lao Xiao thought about it and realized that things might not be simple, so he looked at Jiang Ling who was digging the equipment box, trying to find a more normal answer.
"Either the corpse has come back to life, or there are other creatures." Jiang Ling said without stopping what he was doing.
"Isn't there a third possibility? Could it be that after No. 509 discovered the communication was disconnected, they sent someone up to check?"
"Do they have any extra exoskeletons? The frogman's equipment can't withstand the low temperature environment here. Even if it's just a guess, you have to abide by the basic rules of the universe." Jiang Ling dragged out his equipment box. Fortunately, this thing was not stolen by unknown thieves.
Old Xiao decided not to dwell on it and returned to the extended equipment box. He ejected the sled module and dragged it out of the way. Then, the two of them worked together to move the boxes together, connecting them end to end and welding them shut. Then, one of them, Political Commissar Xiao, showed pioneering spirit. Using a signal rope attached to the boxes, he safely descended to the bottom of the ice cave.
After several hours of freezing, the ice-water mixture here has re-frozen and is strong enough to support hundreds of kilograms of weight.
Fortunately, Lao Xiao also brought a few white phosphorus incendiary bombs. According to his precise calculations, the heat they released was enough to burn a weak point in the ice. Even if the flames did not completely melt through the ice, the remaining thickness could be broken by the weight of the equipment box alone.
He had Jiang Ling throw down a crowbar, and relying on the exoskeleton system's optical ranging, he chiseled out several indentations on a relatively flat ice surface close to the edge. He then took out the white phosphorus bombs from his waist, placed them in these grooves one by one, and pulled out their safety pins.
These high-tech weapons can be detonated either traditionally or remotely via radio. Of course, they're best suited for use on suicide drones. He shouted, "Beware the flash!" and the incendiary bombs simultaneously emitted an extremely bright white light, completely illuminating the interior of the ice cave. Fortunately, their visors quickly adjusted to the brightness change, preventing them from blinding the other two.
Soon, the incendiary bombs melted the ice, and the white phosphorus and thermite inside them burned violently in the water, emitting thick gray-white smoke. These fumes are not toxic in themselves, but they are produced in a high temperature environment. If they are too close, they may burn people's lungs or irritate their respiratory tract, making it difficult for people to breathe normally.
Of course, this is a piece of cake for the exoskeleton.
After a while, all these deadly weapons were extinguished. Before the fresh water in the small holes on the ice surface cooled down, Jiang Ling, with the help of spiritual power, pushed the equipment box to the edge of the ice hole, then aimed at the center of the small holes and smashed it down.
As expected, the five-meter-long baguette smoothly pierced through the ice, leaving a gap about three meters in diameter.
The black sea water surged up from this channel, producing a large amount of foam.
Political Commissar Xiao jumped into the sea right after the equipment box. He had to activate all three ballast tanks in the two boxes before it sank uncontrollably. Jiang Ling, who remained on shore, didn't have much to do. The height difference here was over ten meters. In comparison, the size of the hole was about the same as the lifebuoy placed under the diving platform.
She could only aim as best she could, then jumped down with her eyes closed.
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