Chapter 610 - 598: Remuneration for a Role

Futaba District.

The hydrogen bomb, with its immense power, had destroyed everything within the blast radius, but that didn’t mean the IAEA just had to stand by and watch.

If you asked what the busiest business in the control zone was these past few days, there was only one answer: firefighting.

Fires, countless fires, were raging endlessly like the flames of hell.

This had been Zhang Meng’s impression of the entire area surrounding the explosion for days—the fiery red of the flames and the grey-black of the ruins composed his entire world.

"Confirm the target, launch 24 Type II rounds, go!"

The artillerymen... ah, no, the fire rocket launcher operators issued their commands, and the rocket launchers mounted on the Type 59 universal chassis spewed out a big puff of white exhaust. One after another, the rockets carried their tail flames into the sky, scattering into a white parabolic line.

It was only minutes later that these rockets landed in the target area. The fuel-air explosive warheads detonated, instantly extinguishing fires across dozens of square kilometers.

Zhang Meng, sitting inside an armored vehicle, stuck his head out and used a telescope to confirm the firefighting was effective.

At that moment, a loud jet engine noise passed overhead. It was a firefighting plane that should have been a 747, flying at low altitude.

Its cabin was filled with hundreds of tons of water, which when released from high altitude turned into a mist that enveloped another patch of forest that was on fire.

The state of the control zone was such that there were so many flames—the houses were burning, forests were burning, even the grasslands were ablaze. The nuclear explosion was over, but it had left behind countless fire hazards.

They had to be extinguished. The IAEA needed to maintain a large number of observation points and conduct surveying work in the area. Fortunately, the IAEA had allocated a special fund for this purpose.

This money didn’t come from their original budget; instead, the control zone had found a new way to make money.

Zhang Meng glanced at his watch and pressed the communicator on his chest:

"Area A, maintain clear skies above 1,200 meters, relevant drones should quickly leave to avoid collisions with tourists!"

"Understood!"

"Roger!"

"Нет проблем!"

About four or five minutes later, a small Cessna sightseeing plane flew over his head, tracing an arc at a certain distance around the center of the explosion.

This sightseeing plane would fly back and forth twice so that tourists could observe the center of the explosion—or a small part of it, as the vast majority had already been submerged in seawater.

These sightseeing flights entered the control zone during three different time slots every day, with hundreds of sorties each day. The seats were always fully booked; business was booming.

Each sightseeing flight had to be approved by the IAEA and pay a certain management fee. These fees added up to a significant income over just a few days.

And the person who came up with this idea was actually from the Island Country. It was said to be proposed by Tsushima Hisaichi, a minister from the Ministry of Finance, who monopolized this business.

After all, only a limited number of people could witness the explosion site, and for many others, seeing the ruins afterward was good enough. Besides, the price wasn’t as expensive as the previous ship tickets.

However, just looking wasn’t enough to satisfy some people. Some even put up high rewards online for "memorabilia."

The so-called memorabilia usually referred to the green glass stones created near the center of the explosion by ultra-high pressure; their main components being feldspar and quartz. The sand, transformed into glass, would show a green color that gradually faded from the inside out due to high impurities and radioactive contamination, making it look quite unique.

This kind of green glass stone wasn’t being sold for the first time. Nagasaki and Hiroshima had many such memorabilia in the past. America also once opened a nuclear test site to tourists, and many people were keen on collecting green glass stones.

Of course, anything close to the epicenter had extremely high radiation values and certainly couldn’t be used for display. However, the world was never short of reckless people, and Zhang Meng was always highly vigilant about this.

The sightseeing was open for 100 minutes each time. After Zhang Meng had completed another patrol, the time was almost up, and the voice of Tian Zhan came through the communicator:

"All teams, immediately regroup! Rain may come after 7 P.M., withdraw all equipment back to the sub-stations, personnel are to stay in the safe house and restrict activities, to avoid contamination by radioactive dust. We’ll hold a unified meeting in the evening, understood?"

"Yes!"

Zhang Meng immediately led his team back. For a radiation zone, rain is not good news.

Condensed water droplets could pull radioactive dust from the air to the ground, and once contaminated with such rainwater it would mean direct contact with radioactive material, making it even more troublesome to clean up. In fact, the rescue team had been scattering catalysts in the clouds to dissipate the rain, but obviously, it couldn’t be 100 percent certain.

"Each unit report your numbers in turn, check personnel, rendezvous at Sector C’s meeting point!"

...

"Are we heading back already?"

Guo Fan looked at the space station with reluctance, but still crawled into the cabin of the Pioneer.

Following him, Wu Jing touched the grab handle on the cabin wall, also clearly reluctant to leave.

The original plan had been for the film crew to stay on the space station for only 14 days, but now they had been there for 22 days.

Shooting the film scenes didn’t take much time, the extra days were mainly spent collaborating with the March on training missions, but the experiences that followed were far more fascinating for the crew than shooting a movie in space.

"Old Guo, if we don’t go back now, we won’t make it for the Spring Festival block. Two years; The Wandering Earth was honed over two years."

"Yes... two years of honing."

Guo Fan was also somewhat dazed. Two years spent producing a top-notch science fiction industrial film, and to think it was all made possible with the support of a super financier—it really sounded like a dream.

"Hey, stop daydreaming and catch this!"

A package flew over from the docking port, which Guo Fan caught instinctively, then his face darkened as he read the label: "Dry Excrement/Sanitary Waste."

Given the size of the March, the amount of waste it generated was naturally significant. Since there were no cargo spaceships docked at the moment, the shuttles, which had a strong capacity for descending, would take the waste back to Earth, instead of burning it up in the atmosphere with the cargo spacecraft.

However, the latter option would also gradually disappear in the future, as reusable cargo spacecraft were about to be put into operation, and waste disposal would need to find another method.

Guo Fan passed the waste package down to be handed over to the cargo hold. Unlike on his way up, this time he would be in the luxury seat of the cockpit.

This time, the Pioneer’s descent mission was carrying solely the film crew. The main and co-pilot seats—empty, automated landing.

The remaining 26 astronauts would continue their mission on the space station, desending in batches after the New Year and then preparing to start unmanned rotational testing.

Guo Fan really wanted to touch the control panel, but reason stopped the thought.

"Want to touch it? If the command chief were here, maybe sitting in the pilot’s seat wouldn’t be a problem."

"That’s true, too bad there are no more chances to come here."

Wu Jing agreed with a nod; the March had a special status, and they had seized a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In the future, even with money, they couldn’t come here again—this experience was indeed one to remember.

"The real pity is that we can’t go to Tiangong and stay in space a few more days; we’ll have to miss out on that."

Guo Fan: "You mean..."

"Isn’t America about to unveil something big? It can be seen from space, Unity will have tourist flights on the 19th, just imagine how thrilling it would be to watch a nuclear explosion from space?

But... I probably can’t afford it, they’ve raised the prices again. Get the movie out quick, I need that bonus... you tricked me into investing all my acting fee in it!"

"Jing, actually I’m preparing for ’Three Body,’ maybe..."