There was a palm-sized star-spangled flag on the side of the rocket. The symbols of NASA and SpaceX were printed below the flag.
“Here is Ares, we have entered the Mars sync orbit, over.”
Through the round glass pane, an astronaut in the spacecraft looked at the fiery red planet. He suppressed his excitement and reported to the mission control center with a trembled voice as he desperatedly tried to control his emotional state.
The silence lasted for about five minutes.
For NASA that had yet to master the super-light-speed communication technology, the interval between each communication was approximately five minutes.
“This is Mission Control. Congratulations, you are the pride of our country…”
After more than a month of flight, they finally arrived.
“Ares” with a total weight of more than 400 tons was propelled by four latest “Ares VI” propulsion engines. It crossed the distance of tens of millions of kilometers and penetrated the technology blockade of Celestial Trade to finally arrive at this red planet…
The thought of this made the eight astronauts teary with emotions.
“Is that the Seagull-class of Celestial Trade?” A blond, skinny man pointed out the window.
Against the backdrop of the dark universe, a rectangular-shaped giant ship floated quietly in the darkness tens of thousands of kilometers away. Through the telescope, they could clearly see every inch of armor on the huge ship. The menacing cold steel formed a distinct contrast with the red planet, just like a hardened sword
Even with the distance between them, they still felt insignificant…
Bris shook his head hard and pushed the wrong thought out of his head.
As the captain of the Mars expedition team, he was also the captain of Ares. They came to place the star-spangled flag on to Mars, not to envy Celestial Trade’s achievements.
“They are very powerful, but we can surpass them one day.” A Jewish man walked over to him, put his hand on his shoulder, and said with certainty in his voice, “Order the landing.”
“Thank you, Zubac.”
Bris took a deep breath and gave an order to the entire crew of “Mission Ares” behind him.
“All ship crew members, enter the buffer cabin. We’ll at the new land!”
“Roger!”
There were cheers and whistles.
Under Bris’ order, everyone entered the buffer cabin and prepared for shock resistance.
In the slowdown phase, they needed to withstand around 7G of gravity, but it was simple for them. They already trained countless hours for this very moment.
…
“A UFO is detected in the synchronous orbit.”
“A UFO?” With his unfinished coffee, the captain of TS Expedition walked next to the radar observer, then looked on the screen. After he examined the situation, he ordered, “Open the optical observation system.”
“Roger.”
The observer’s finger tapped on the trackpad a few times and quickly picked up the image of the flying object on the screen. After several magnifications and resolution corrections, a flying object with a length of about 25 meters and a diameter of about five meters appeared in the image.
When the captain saw the star-spangled flag on the object, an odd expression appeared.
He put down the cup of coffee, then looked at the correspondent located at the back.
“Connect to the Space Command Center.”
“Roger.”
Kelvin was at the entrance to the express train of the Earth Defense Alliance headquarters in Celestial Trade City. He was ready to head back to the Space Department.
His watch vibrated. When he opened the holographic screen, he discovered it was from the Ground Command Center.
After he understood the situation, he immediately transferred the communication to TS Expedition and spoke to the captain on the screen with seriousness in his voice.
“Explain the exact situation to me.”
The captain saluted and quickly reported.
“We found the UA spacecraft near Mar’s orbit; with NASA and SpaceX logos. According to the spacecraft scale analysis, it is initially determined to be a manned spacecraft.”
“A manned spacecraft?” Kelvin frowned as he said with a peculiar look, “What do they want to do?”
They launched a rocket to Mars in complete silence?
Although Celestial Trade did not rule out the idea and even received information from certain channels, Kelvin was still shocked when he confirmed the news in person.
After all, the Biotechnology Summit ended not long ago and they already demonstrated the danger of Devil Worms. What did the Capitol decide to launch a manned mission to Mars even knowing this point?
Or they thought the warning was a joke?
“From the way its changing course, it should be intending to land on the surface of Mars. Our pilots are ready to take off at any time for an interception,” The captain said in a strong and assertive tone.
“How likely are we to be discovered?” Kelvin asked.
“We can launch an EMP missile first to get rid of the communication modules exposed on the outside of the spacecraft, and then send a Stingray AI to take it down.” The captain asserted, “Unless their spacecraft is equipped with an early warning radar, otherwise the probability of discovering our attack is zero.”
After a moment of thought, Kelvin said.
“Can you calculate their landing site?”
“We can approximately locate their landing site. The error margin is within ten kilometers.” The captain sent a coordinate to the holographic screen in front of Kelvin.
Looking at the coordinates on the screen, Kelvin quietly calculated in his mind.
Even at the closest coordinates, these people would be hundreds of kilometers away from Mine 071. There was no need to be concerned about what they would discover.
Moreover, the area where they landed seemed to be close to the active area of Devil Worms…
“Order the pilots to be on standby on the carrier, but don’t worry about them.” In half a minute, Kelvin made the decision. “If they are so eager to die, let them be.”
“Roger!” The captain saluted and ended the communication.
Even if Celestial Trade did not do anything, they would not be able to survive for long. Kelvin was convinced knowing the terrifying nature of Devil Worms.
After he ended the communication, Kelvin immediately called Jiang Chen and reported the matter.
At the same time, Ares, which was already in the synchronous orbit, dropped the last four rockets and an orbiting satellite as a communication relay.
Then, Ares, which had only one main cabin, ignited the last-stage engine and began to fall to the surface of Mars…
