On March 7, 25th year of the Star Calendar, in the Mars 03 Immigration City, about 104 kilometers underground.
Ning Weihe, wearing a fifth-generation exoskeleton and protected by four armed countermeasures specialists, walked through a long pressurized chemical defense airtight corridor and into a heavy pressure-resistant cabin.
As soon as he entered, the group of people gathered around the main control platform of the unmanned submersible in the pressure cabin stopped what they were doing, stood up straight and saluted him.
Ning Weihe and others returned the gift.
"How's it going?"
"We've apprehended the relevant leaders of the construction engineering group, including the two illegal miners and the smuggling group. They're being held separately on the -103rd floor and can be brought in for questioning at any time."
"Not for now. Let's observe for two weeks. There should be a Category 1 contact among them. What about confidentiality?"
"It has been reported. Now we are applying the standard of 20."
"Okay, what does the Academy of Sciences say?"
"The Standing Committee attaches great importance to this matter and has established a special research department with 75 people overnight. They said yesterday that they have some results, but they haven't sent the information yet."
Ning Weihe found a place to sit down at random, asked four specialists to guard the entrances and exits in pairs, and then waved to the others.
"Then let's report the new discoveries first! Don't be impatient, just do them one by one."
"Report!" The young man closest to Ning Weihe straightened his back, his voice trembling with excitement. "I'm Liu Qiangjun, the deputy operator of the unmanned submersible. We are currently recording visible light waves at the ruins within a 100-kilometer radius, centered on the pressure chamber. We've completed 45% of the mission goal. Please provide your instructions, Commander."
“Is there any model analysis to accompany the terrain summary work?”
"Yes, working on it! Uh, 31% of the explored part has been completed."
Liu Qiangjun's face flushed red, and he was constantly thinking about the data displayed on the screen at the console - his single-threaded brain was almost unable to process it.
"Okay, go get busy first!"
The young man hurriedly bent down and buried his head even lower than before.
The next reporter had no awareness of taking turns, and for a moment no one responded. The only sound in the cabin was the beeping sound of the machine running.
Ning Weihe did not urge him. He took the opportunity to turn around in his seat, wake up the computer at this workstation, log into the local area network account he had obtained before taking the elevator, then open the information summary platform and find the files whose data volume was increasing rapidly.
Double-clicking one of the files, named DXT00, automatically assigned it to the operating system's professional decoding software. The screen instantly turned black, then transformed into a pure white grid. Then, starting from the origin of the virtual coordinate axis, translucent green cubes spread out, eventually forming a sphere with rough edges.
This is the result of the high-performance ultrasonic terrain scanning operations currently underway. In this area, filled with high-pressure liquid water, only this sonar equipment, once installed on strategic submarines, can safely and efficiently complete the mapping mission.
Ning Weihe connected the computer to his helmet with a data cable, and then turned on the AR display function of the helmet. With the assistance of the exoskeleton data core, terrain information composed of countless green light spots appeared in his field of vision.
Let's call the void a city. Its "sky" appears smooth, with annotations explaining that its composition contains a large amount of radioactive yttrium isotopes, which continuously emit beta rays. Its "ground" contains numerous buildings, primarily made of rock, but vastly larger than human structures. Many openings, presumably doors and windows, are large enough for heavy transport vehicles to enter vertically, potentially indicating the aliens' immense size.
It can be seen that within the explored area, the "ground" below is not parallel to the "sky" above, but rather has an angle of 10 to 15 degrees on its extended surface, much like the eco-domes in Immigration Towns 01 and 02. Because this is not the point where the large cavity has the greatest height difference, the volume of the cavity cannot be determined based on the known information.
Ning Weihe had no idea how such a huge cavity could remain stable. He had hoped to find a supporting structure here, but apparently his luck was not very good.
"By the way, have you found any signs of life?"
"Report!" This time it was another young man who spoke. He was four workstations away from the first person. "Nothing has been found yet." He said concisely.
"Are there any remains that haven't decayed yet?"
"There are quite a few, but most of them are just bone fossils. Due to biosafety concerns, we didn't extract any samples, but we have obtained their basic data."
"Tell me about it?" Ning Weihe expressed his interest.
"Ahem!" the young man cleared his throat. "Extraterrestrial humanoid life forms, tentatively designated QuasiMan-001, were first discovered on March 2, 25th year of the Star Calendar, in underground ruins on Mars. They resemble Homo sapiens in appearance, possessing bilaterally symmetrical bodies, one hand and one foot. Based on the known information, we have preliminarily determined that they are carbon-based organisms. Adult individuals are between 5.2 and 5.8 meters tall, with a total bone mass of 440 kilograms. Their skeletons are primarily composed of radioactive magnesium isotopes, the cause of their formation being unknown..."
"That's all? Any theories about when they died? Like CRA or something?"
"Uh, Commander, carbon-14 dating doesn't work here. We used lunar techniques. They probably died 6.5 million to 2.5 million years ago, around the same time as the dinosaurs."
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