Atonement: Red Earth (6)

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date="2020-11-09"

title="Atonement: Red Earth (6)"

weight="103769"

series = ["Falling into the Abyss"]

mode = "manual"

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As we get closer and closer to the red earth, the atmosphere among the inhumans is also becoming tense. Apparently some of the nine people who met with the priest that day had leaked the content of that video, causing a commotion. A female beta was originally pulled into this mission abruptly. After listening to the story about "that thing", the whole person was on the verge of collapse, and she shrank in a corner every day and didn't know what she was talking about. Some other betas and a few alphas were so anxious that they didn't know what to do with them. Apparently they decided to seek religious consolation. Zhenrili gathered around Chen Zeng to listen to his sermon.

Ethan saw an old man about seventy years old who was always writing, and he didn't know where he got a refill and kept writing on the toilet paper. Ethan saw that he was writing very laboriously. Due to the increase in age and the lack of proper treatment, his eyes were already presbyopic. When writing, he could only stretch his arms and write a few words to read from a distance. Continue to write. Once Ethan saw him sitting on the ground alone and crying, very sad, so he quietly asked Samuel what was going on. Samuel said it turned out to be the letters he wrote to his daughter on toilet paper. I don’t know who took them as The toilet paper is used up.

Samuel said that there is actually nothing to cry. The forbidden city does not allow non-human communication with citizens, and his daughters who believe in him will never be seen.

Suddenly, Ethan felt sour and simmered in his heart. The old man's hair was gray and his figure was a little rickety. He didn't know how many years he had spent in the forbidden city. Looking at the tattoo on his arm, he might have been a tough person like Samuel when he was young, but now he is sad like a child. So he asked the old man what his daughter's name was, and said he could write letters for him. For the next day he lay on the cardboard box, writing lines of letters on the crumpled toilet paper. The letter didn't write any farewell words. It just talked about some trivial things in the old man's own life and reminded his daughter to have a happy life.

After finishing writing, the old man happily collected the suicide note that would never be mailed, and thanked Ethan for a long time. When Ethan returned to Samuel, he was mocked for a long time by the latter, saying that his sympathy was more omega than omega. Ethan also didn't bother to explain to him that the old man reminded him of his father, and rebuked you that this was sexism, but at the end he couldn't help but ask, "He is so old, hasn't he been released?"

"When he was young, he had been involved in gangs and made no major mistakes, but there were also a lot of trivial things that caused troubles. He didn’t want to accumulate points by reporting others’ unethical behaviors, and finally reduced his moral value. Come in when he’s gone. People like him who are not very capable, generally won’t use him for atonement tasks with high scores, so the points will naturally not go up. Now he is getting older and has more and more physical problems, in order to reduce It is estimated that the forbidden city's expenses added him to this atonement. To put it bluntly, it is to send him to death."

Ethan felt a chill in his heart. One hundred points, even a lifetime is not enough...

After the spacecraft entered the orbit of the Red Earth, the elevator connecting the cargo floor was finally opened again. Non-people squeezed in the elevator in batches like dumplings all the way up. Some people who were extremely scared kept crying, and Ethan was upset. Their captain of the guard was waiting for them on the first floor of the manned cabin of the spacecraft. As Tanisel said, they will be sent to the Red Earth as an advance force. The mother ship, the Magic Flute, will give them instructions to guide them in searching. Earthlings and Eve people who have lost contact on the red earth.

The surface temperature of the red earth is slightly higher than that of the earth, and the air pressure is also slightly higher, but the air quality is good, so there is no need to wear a space suit. They provided everyone with basic food, water, and some wild survival supplies. Non-people filed into the circular exploration equipment area to change clothes. The advanced nano-material suit can prevent poisonous insects on the planet from being bitten. It has a certain thermal insulation function and can also turn on the camouflage stealth function. The clothes can reflect the nearby scene and make people temporarily" Stealth". Ethan changed into that set of neat stand-up collar clothes, and found that it was more elastic than expected, and it looked more stylish. Since there will be a period of space flight from the mother ship landing on the Red Earth, everyone put on spacesuits and helmets outside, and gathered in the small spacecraft launch bays that were scary to the sky and waited for boarding.

Only then did Ethan know that there were two other non-humans who used to specialize in piloting the spacecraft. It seems that the non-humans selected by those people for a mission are not random, but purposeful.

So why did you pick him when you came up? Is it because he has talent?

Or... want to kill him as soon as possible?

Although I don't want to admit it, Ethan still thinks the latter possibility is greater.

When boarding the ship, everyone lined up and slowly entered the hatch of a medium saucer-shaped spacecraft. From the back, everyone was wearing a helmet and couldn't tell who was who, but the man in front of him just turned his head and glanced at him when he entered the cabin door.

He seemed to see a pair of gray eyes and a few strands of blond hair that appeared from the transparent part of the helmet?

No way... Ethan opened his eyes slightly... Although the priest seemed to be different from the clergy writer he had in mind, his interest in the monster was a little fanatical. But it's not enough to do crazy things like sneaking into inhumans, right?

It must be due to being too nervous...

The spaceship carrying non-human bullets is usually shot out from the mother ship, and for a short while, the empty and cold universe galaxy suddenly unfolds before everyone's eyes through the refraction projections on the walls and ceiling of the spacecraft. The huge Hera star is already a red giant, burning her last heat before she died. The bright and brilliant blood pierced people's eyes, and the steaming heat seemed to evaporate even the universe, just like the last of the queens. Song of anger. And around it, some planets that hadn't been swallowed were still flying around her tirelessly, especially the one that was rapidly enlarging in their vision.

From a distance, it is really a beautiful pearl. Large swaths of red and blue blend with each other, and there is a white cloud air yarn covering the entire planet. There are three moons around this planet, which means that there will be three moons at night, and the reflected light of Hera is also very bright at night.

The atmosphere of the Red Earth is thicker than that of the Earth. The spacecraft entering the atmosphere trembles violently, and the lights flicker in the electromagnetic storm. There was an inhuman cry of horror in the cabin. It was in this tremor that Ethan truly realized that they had really arrived, and this planet was likely to be their burial ground...No matter what that thing was, they would meet soon.

After going through the terrifying tremor of entering the atmosphere, the spacecraft successfully landed near a human settlement base in a blue cyclone. Several inhumans vomited out before getting off the spaceship, and the others were also pale by the terrifying landing. The hatch opened in the gentle voice of the mother ship’s computer Angela, and a strange, slightly fishy smell was caught in the heat wave rushing over his face.

Outside the spacecraft cabin, large swaths of red, like the endless sea of ​​manchuria, spread in all directions. It is a red plant about forty to fifty centimeters high. The thin stems do not see leaves, and there are several branches at the top. A small fork, with a small bowl-shaped thing on it, I don't know if it is a flower or a leaf. In this way, the overwhelming red grass is mixed with a lot of blue-purple herbaceous plants about one meter high. The thick stems are covered with dark red spots. There are many filaments extending from the main stem and floating in the air. If you need the wind, you will dance by yourself. At the end of the gently undulating land, there is a sharp mountain shadow. Above it is a firmament that gradually changes from light to dark. The clouds and ridges are transformed into purple, yellow, pink, etc., as well as some light white satellites. The shadow of the crescent moon is horizontal at one corner. In the high sky, some weird creatures with long tails and cylindrical bodies were flying, making some kind of dry metal rubbing noises, echoing in the silent wild.

An exceptionally beautiful and paradoxical world.

Ethan followed Samuel and walked off the spaceship with hesitation, bathing his body in the brilliant and warm sunlight of Hera. Samuel put his hand under the helmet, took off the helmet with a click, then raised his head slightly, took a deep breath, his expression on his face was very smooth. Ethan also took off his helmet, and the broad air accompanied by the breeze blew across the tips of his hair, making the non-people who had been in the cold and windless warehouse floor for a full week to break free from the iron cage. The sense of invigoration.

The anxiety and fear in the hearts of non-people are temporarily soothed by this vast world. They took off the heavy outer spacesuits one after another, and carried bags full of survival essentials. About a few hundred meters away from their spacecraft, you can see a low white building, which is the base left by the pioneers who disappeared before.

Ethan walked around among the inhumans who were taking off their helmets, with a trace of hesitation. When almost all non-persons had taken off their helmets, only one person had just taken off his spacesuit and had not taken off his helmet.

Ethan stared at him closely, and Samuel saw his abnormality and followed his gaze to the man.

"What are you looking at?"

Ethan pressed his mouth tightly without speaking, and after a while he walked straight towards the man who was facing away from him. Just when he was a few steps away from the man, the other party finally took off his helmet and turned around. A pure blonde hair shining in the red sunlight, his delicate face like a puppet smiled when he saw him again.

Ethan's eyes widened and pointed at him with a finger, "You... really are you!"

His voice attracted the attention of other people, and then there was an uproar. No one thought that an Eve would appear in their team.

Samuel rushed over, frowning, "Why are you here? Are you crazy?!"

Tanisel threw the helmet on the ground casually, bent down unconsciously and continued to organize his luggage, "I changed my mind. I decided to come and see the God of Entropy myself."

At this time, there was a sharp electric current in everyone's ears. All the communication between the mother ship and them was carried out through the microwave signal transmitter that they plugged in their ears, and everything they saw would be collected from the camera hole in their neck collar and transmitted back to the mother ship. At this moment, the scene of Tanisel being in the inhumane must have been sent back to the mother ship. After a while, a desperate person said something loudly in Eve language. It was probably the commander of Eve’s army. . Those Eve soldiers discovered that their army priests went to the Red Earth to explore in private, and there must be tens of thousands of grass and mud horses running by in their hearts. At this moment, what I said is probably not good.

Tanisel took the headset out of his ears like it was noisy, and replied lightly with Eve to the microphone connected to the headset, and then even put the headset in his pocket. Ethan heard what Commander Eve on the other end of the headset was still yelling, but they obviously couldn't reach the ears of the mad priest. After a while, the shouting finally stopped, and replaced with the voice of a rather majestic earthling, who seemed to be their chief of security.

"Suddenly, the mission content added a content to protect the priest Tanisel. After the mission is successful, the reward points will be increased to twelve points. Now everyone is ready to enter the 18th pioneering base to search for any suspicious clues."

Pioneer Base No. 18 is about one kilometer away from them. Passing through the dense red grassland and a small piece of woodland made up of that weird blue-purple plant, the temporary buildings of the base are clearly distinguishable. If you get closer, you can see that the nano-plastic buildings have been abandoned for a while. The white color seen in the distance has fallen on a layer of rust-colored dust, and some buildings have even climbed up some twisted red capillaries. Alien plants with general blood vessels.

The semicircular main building door is locked, and the pupil recognition camera can be seen even after dusting the surface of the code disc. At this time, the mother ship issued instructions to Otto to unlock, saying that the unlocking tool was in his backpack. Otto rummaged and found a folding computer about the size of his palm, and a pair of strangely colored glasses. Otto blew his whistle, put on his glasses, unfolded the computer and floated it in the air, then stood upside down in front of the code disk. Probably because the base is stationed on an alien planet, there is no danger of being invaded, so this human identification code lock is not difficult to open as imagined. Ten minutes later, I suddenly heard a rumbling machine starting sound from the ground.

Obviously some systems in the base began to operate after detecting that the door lock was opened, and the tightly sealed door quickly rose up, and a gentle and gentle female voice said, "Welcome back."

Ethan followed the crowd into the clear and white corridor. There is not much dust in the sealed environment even after a few years. The smooth frosted board reveals a soft light color, giving people an extremely clean, even somewhat unhuman texture. Samuel walked in the front, Tanisel followed closely, and the others, including Ethan, followed behind. The short corridor ended in front of a cabin door, and the light female voice sounded again, "I am Gina, the main computer of the Pioneer Unit, please verify your identity."

Samuel said, "We are sent by the Earth Alliance. You will know when you contact the Earth Alliance."

Gina said, "Sorry, my communication system has been severely damaged and there is no way to get in touch with the Earth Alliance. Please state your ID verification code, otherwise the deportation process will start in five minutes."

Everyone was in an uproar, and Derek said abruptly, "It won't be something like a death ray..."

Samuel asked anxiously into the headset, "Do you have any verification codes?"

A sentence came from the other end of the headset, "All the verification codes are personally encrypted, and we have no way to obtain it. Derek in your team is good at dealing with artificial intelligence. Let him negotiate with Gina."

Derek said directly, "It is Gina’s central task to protect the base from unauthorized access, and she is already a mature artificial intelligence. I cannot convince her unless I can directly enter her. The network interface changes her way of receiving information, but I guess this interface should be in the safest place in the base."

Although everyone didn't understand what he was talking about, they basically understood that he couldn't handle the computer. There was a long sigh from the headset, "Well, you guys come out first. Give us a few minutes and we will destroy the defense system of Base 18."

"Wait." Ethan said suddenly, then raised his head and said, "ka35t792."

After a while, the closed insurance door suddenly opened silently, and Gina responded, "Identity confirmation, welcome, Mr. Eldridge."

Everyone stared at him in surprise, and Ethan smiled awkwardly, "Seven years ago, the ID verification codes of all key members of the Energy Bureau were entered into this project. In recent years, the information contact has been cut off. It is estimated that Gina has not updated about my information."

Samuel laughed, "It seems that your secretary was still a big man before?"

Behind the door is a spacious irregular circular lobby with a few comfortable sofas in the center, surrounding a 3D projection table. At every corner, there are comfortable and different shapes of leisure chairs and similar projection computer desks. When you look closely at the white walls, they are actually screens that can display three-D images with the naked eye. The wall in front of the gate shows a portrait of President Abia, black velvety black hair with short ears, and a pair of frosty eyes on his white face, giving a sharp beauty that is rarely seen among women.

At first glance, except for the light on one wall, the whole hall is surprisingly clean and tidy, and it does not seem to have been extensively damaged. It is just that the plants are all dead, and there is some rot and deterioration on the dining table in the restaurant so that it is not visible at all. What kind of food turned out to be, the dark tuft in the bowl exudes a rancid smell and is covered with thick fluff.

Samuel and several others searched the entire main base separately with a dozen individuals. Ethan naturally followed Samus step by step, and the priest also followed their team and looked around curiously.

They searched the entire east wing area and found a plant shed for cultivating grains, vegetables and fruits and some animal shelters, but the plants had all withered and the animals had disappeared. The strange thing is that there are no traces of damage to the feeding bins. There is even a lot of feed in the food bowls, but the animals are gone. Even the feeding warehouse marked "cockroach" was empty, with only rotten food leftovers. There are still many data disks in some other archives. Ethan pulled out a few pieces of databases and quietly put them in his trouser pockets. He turned his head and saw that Priest Eve was sitting at the computer desk with great interest, looking at the documents and images floating on the desk.

Ethan leaned over, "What are you looking at?"

"It seems that they were still diligently entering data before they disappeared." Tanisel pointed to a document above. "Look, here it is said that they started to observe mammals brought from the earth a week before they disappeared. They all behaved very restlessly. The tame shepherd dog also became irritable, tried to escape several times, and bit two breeders. The corn they planted also began to wither for no reason.

Ethan looked at the document carefully, the language of the record was very brief, and it was indeed what Tanisel said. But the strange thing is that the sentence at the end seems to have not been entered. The last word seems to be "", but it stopped abruptly after only half of it was written.

The table top is very clean and no blood is seen. It's like when the input clerk wrote "obse" suddenly he needed to leave due to some circumstances, and was so anxious that he ran away before he could finish typing the word, and then he never came back.

Tanisel turned his head to look at Ethan, but his clear eyes were shining with excitement, "Look, all organic things in this base have either rotted or disappeared. And it seems to be in a short period of time. What happened, they didn't even have time to pack things."