After the meeting, Jiang Chen and Dr. Amos returned to the surface.
Judging from his past experiences in Celestial Trade, it was his shortest trip on the orbit by far.
When they arrived at the offshore platform of the space elevator, Jiang Chen directly used his authority and mobilized a military helicopter to bring him and Dr. Amos to Future Building.
The helicopter landed directly on the tarmac of the roof.
After they got off, Jiang Chen followed Dr. Amos and arrived at his institute.
The glass door opened slowly. Amos rubbed his daughter’s blond hair and said softly.
“Milian, go play in your room.”
The little loli, who was drawing on the table got up and looked at Jiang Chen anxiously before she quickly ran back into her room with her drawing book.
Amos walked to the lab with Jiang Chen. He reached out and clicked a few buttons on the holographic screen. Then, he took a helmet from an equipment that was blowing white smoke and handed it to Jiang Chen.
“Science is just so wonderful. With this helmet, we can share the same brain with the drones tens of millions of kilometers away.”
After Jiang Chen took the eccentric-looking helmet, he looked at Dr. Amos with a puzzled expression.
“Why did you send that drone to Mars?”
“In order to prove the impact of the distance on the attenuation of the Klein particle wave signal, and the long-distance communication delay, all those exciting problems. Speaking of which, didn’t you approve that batch of experimental equipment sent to Mars?” The young doctor looked at Jiang Chen and wondered.
“…I seem to have forgotten.” Jiang Chen awkwardly looked away.
“Okay.” Amos shrugged.
The awkward topic ended.
After Jiang Chen laid down on the chair, he put the helmet on and looked at the stream of data flashing in his field of view.
“Are you sure you can get in touch with a drone on Mars as long as I wear this stuff?”
“Yes, I experimented with this myself a month ago, and the result was quite spectacular.” Dr. Amos’ tone was relaxed. “Why don’t I do this? I can’t wait to see the remains of the former civilization.”
It was the moment to witness history. Jiang Chen, who had already put on the game helmet on, could not just easily give up this opportunity.
His line of sight moved across the interface formed on his retina. He was familiarizing himself with the control while he asked Dr. Amos.
“If I put on the helmet, how do I control it…”
“No worries, non-human devices use the driver’s perspective.” Dr. Amos explained, “The helmet comes with a tutorial. As long as you know how to operate a power armor, there should be no problem operating this… how about… let me do this.”
“Allow me to refuse.”
…
Mars.
The door of the buffer compartment slowly opened, and a burly soldier quickly walked beside his cabinet and took out his kinetic skeleton and rifle.
“Urgent mission.”
“Related to Mine 071?”
“Yes.”
“Sh*t, I’m really fed up… Carrying a heavy rifle, standing in the middle of the desert, and watching a group of researchers play with computers… I thought I came here to fight Martians. Where are the Martians? There is only sand here, and endless sandstorms?” A man with an English-accent complained while he clipped on his helmet.
“Enough, Jim, if you’re dissatisfied, complain to the psychiatrist. Now put on your helmet and close your mouth. If the Martians get out of the ground, I promise you will be in front.” The captain already equipped stood in front of everyone and held his rifle. “Last check on oxygen tank, air pressure valve, and the weapon in your hands… are you ready?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Roll out!”
Equipped inside the bulky aerospace kinetic skeleton, soldiers armed with Gaussian rifles ran out of the colony and entered a vehicle the size of a tank.
Following behind the rover, a convoy that consisted of two vehicles traveled in the vast desert.
The dim yellow light in the sky was as oppressive as the dusk of the apocalypse, there were even some hint of other colors mixed into the scattered ray. The communication channel was filled with annoying noisy static, which was equally as annoying as the endless dull yellow sand.
“The gamma value is beyond the normal threshold and there is solar wind activity… The anti-radiation equipment has been checked, everything is normal.” Wang Qiang examined the instruments on the rover and said with a grin.
James, sitting in the co-pilot position and wearing heavy equipment, frowned and looked out the window.
“Today is not suitable for a mission, I don’t know what the command center thought.”
He was the deputy of Wang Qiang, a Canadian, who was once a geological engineer at Vale. After the bankruptcy of the Rothschild Bank, he was laid off by the company due to budget cuts. After he immigrated to Xin, he joined the Celestial Trade Solar Exploration Department and was deployed with the Marines a few months ago.
It was the farthest place he has ever been in his life.
“Were you thinking of drinking some coffee, in an air conditioned room, while relaxing?” Wang Qiang snorted. “Forget it and get ready to work. Today’s work is easy, I can do it myself. Can you make me a cup of coffee?”
The task was very simple; open the X-1101 box, Class- S confidential, and put the drone down the mine. Then, kill some time in the rover before the ground command center sends further instructions to tell them to return.
To be honest, even after a few months, these colonists still anxiously wondered if Martians would storm out from underground, charge at them with laser guns, and tear them apart with their giant horns… It was not until they scrapped five drill bits to drill a hole five kilometers down, did all their worries disappear.
If anyone else had a hole drilled through their roof, there would definitely be consequences.
However, since they could still stay there and drink coffee, it was pretty obvious there were no Martians.
They were scaring themselves.
Wang Qiang got out of the rover in a spacesuit and walked to the well with the suitcase. Then he placed the suitcase on the ground.
He pulled a cable from the sleeve of the spacesuit and connected it to the suitcase. The safe application quickly accepted the security authorization and popped open the suitcase.
He pursed his lips, took the fist-sized drone out of the box, and gently tapped on it with his finger.
“Okay, little guy, we have to count on you now.”
