The ten or so seconds of self-test time was as painful as a trip to the ninth level of hell. After understanding the fault report from the self-test, it took another half a minute to figure out my exact condition.
Although it is not fast for a skilled operator to check his entire body in one or two minutes, this inefficient system must be modified in the future - the faults are arranged in a row by the system, with the most serious one at the top, but its location is not marked - it would be better if there was a simple map of the entire body.
When Lao Xiao realized that he was only scratched on the arm, he immediately wanted to rush out to rescue Comrade Wu Ying, but his leg was pulled by someone, allowing him to avoid a new round of attack.
Tactical rolled back into the bunker and saw that his left arm was permanently outside. Fortunately, it was just a mechanical arm, connected by a few optical fibers, wires, and hydraulic tubes. The real flesh was tucked away in the egg-shaped pressure-resistant shell.
After separating from his completely destroyed left arm module, Political Commissar Xiao realized he had nowhere else to go. The cramped shelter forced him to curl up, and due to the Earth's rotation, his space for movement would only get smaller and smaller.
Seeing that this guy had finally calmed down, Jiang Ling warned him, "Don't look at him anymore. Old Wu is already dead! You should think about how we are going to complete the mission first."
Lao Xiao glanced at her, wanting to say something but stopping himself. After several minutes, he angrily cursed, "Tama De."
This incident couldn't be blamed on anyone; it could only be an accident. Accidents are everywhere on Earth, one thing after another, and no one can guarantee they'll always return home unscathed. These days, there are countless unlucky people who die while laughing. Otherwise, the urban area wouldn't have lost over a third of its population in the past three years.
People become numb to the dead when they are used to seeing them, so people nowadays cherish the present more - there is nothing to say about this, history has proved this.
"Ahem, can you help me get him over here?" Political Commissar Xiao held it in for a long time and could only utter this sentence.
"Okay, but what are you going to do? He looks like a water pipe now, and you can see the soles of his feet from the top of his head." Jiang Ling thought for a moment and replied.
"Ha, cough, cough, here it is!" Old Xiao laughed bitterly at Jiang Ling's trench joke, then tapped his left shoulder with his right hand. "He still has a lot of things we can use. I see your external viewfinder is also useless, right?"
Not long after, the two men dismantled Wu Ying's wreckage into parts, replaced the usable parts with their own, discarded the damaged parts on the spot, and put the remaining parts into a storage drawer.
Old Wu's head, torso and legs were basically evaporated by the space-based laser weapon, leaving only his two arms and half of his face intact.
While collecting the remains, Political Commissar Xiao checked the equipment box and said, "One of the ballast tanks was punctured, but the rest is fine."
"What do you mean?" Jiang Ling asked.
"What this means is that when we return, our buoyancy reserves won't be sufficient. One ballast tank alone won't be able to lift the two of us, and with the black box, we might sink to the bottom."
"So, you're planning on going back the same way? Wouldn't it be better to just let the submarine come closer?"
"They can't get close. Honestly, you're incredibly lucky to have hit a weak layer, but most of this area is actually very thick, and a missile can only create a hole about ten meters in diameter. Besides... have you ever seen underwater death icicles? I remember there was a holographic documentary about it online. Simply put, as soon as the weather gets cold, the salt in the seawater will precipitate. The freezing point of low-salt seawater is much higher than that of concentrated brine. The lower layer of water could freeze completely within minutes. If that happens, the submarine will be unable to move, which would be disastrous! It's almost nightfall now, so we have to speed up!"
He spoke very quickly and Jiang Ling had a hard time understanding him.
"What? Are you sure? But do you know where the black box is? One degree of longitude and latitude covers an area of over 12,000 square kilometers. Finding it is like looking for a needle in a haystack!"
"I don't know, but they do." Lao Xiao knocked on the ice and pointed downwards. "If the signal tower hasn't been destroyed, they'll give us an answer."
"You mean those experts? Aren't they submarine designers? Also, didn't you say it would be safer for us to use shortwave communications? There aren't any high-value targets at the signal tower, so how could it be..."
"Don't forget, it's sunny tonight." Political Commissar Xiao interrupted Jiang Ling's question. "Compared to the surrounding low temperature, it's like a volcano! As long as there are no dark clouds in the sky, satellite weapons will hit us like whack-a-mole. Well, if we continue, it will be dawn soon. Let me see their response first... Shit!"
"What happened again?"
"They say this isn't where the black box is, but it's the biggest piece of debris around! We need to get up high to find other debris."
"Let me do it! Forward their communications to me, but you have to move first. The space here is getting smaller and smaller."
Jiang Ling stood up with the help of the wreckage. She was mentally prepared enough. This time, she did not leave any opportunity for the bad guys in the sky who were eyeing the two of them.
A shining umbrella appeared above her head, and under the red sunlight of dusk, it became the best bait to attract the enemy.
She walked out of the bunker under the continuous firepower output. The lasers deflected by the shield were like sparks, as if they would ignite or melt everything around them.
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