Chapter 783 - 743: S3, Server Launch

Lin Ju had spent three consecutive days at the aerospace command center and witnessed how the Mars rover, weighing over two tons, had frantically explored the Zero Plain.

Firefly-1 rover was basically running according to the preset program, under the control of AI, it started the detection circling around the central positioning point. With the efficiency of Firefly One, it could survey an area of about 20 square kilometers each day.

If the radius of the positioning point was taken to be 10 kilometers, it would take about half a month to cover the surface completely, and in fact, a month was more than enough.

Lin Ju believed that the error in the positioning point given by the system would not be too big; once the three detectors arrived one after another, they would definitely flip through the suspicious area inside and out.

If nothing abnormal was found on the surface, they would use drilling equipment for subsurface geological exploration. Since it was certain that there was something here, they would always be able to find flaws.

According to the analysis of the experts, the only possibility was that it was hidden underground; even if it was too deep to be excavated, there were ways to map it:

The Zhu Rong spaceship carried an armed satellite, equipped with many tungsten metal rods, which could be released from the orbit of Mars to impact the surface.

By comparing the shockwaves produced by the impacts with the known approximate geological structure, as long as they found discontinuities or anomalies, they could basically lock down the position.

Three months— in three months’ time, with accurate positioning coordinates, if nothing was discovered after three months, either the complexity far exceeded expectations, or the data was incorrect, beyond human imagination to survey.

After all, this was a planet millions of kilometers away from Earth. If an alien civilization was powerful enough to render satellites and rovers fruitless, then they could only prepare for astronauts to land.

Within 72 hours after landing, Firefly-1 prioritized a thorough examination of the core area of the Zero Plain, conducting high-density surveys of soil, geomagnetism, and even gravity among other aspects, but in the end, it all came up empty.

On Lin Ju’s last night at the center, just as he was preparing to leave at nearly 10 p.m., Firefly-1 transmitted back exploration data, and an accident occurred.

The signal suddenly became extremely unstable, the signal strength of the remote northwest monitoring network greatly diminished, and soon the signal was lost; then the southern monitoring network followed, and quickly even the far-sea remote monitoring ship sent back abnormal reports.

Within about a minute, multiple monitoring stations had sequentially been subjected to strong interference.

The entire control room immediately erupted into a small-scale chaos, as the staff had never encountered such a situation before, they had already reacted and began checking according to emergency procedures.

Shen Zuozhou, who had been enduring the ordeal with Lin Ju, instantly snapped awake and rushed to the monitor to check the situation.

Lin Ju didn’t dare to be negligent, instantly thinking of many possibilities.

"What’s happening!"

Shen Zuozhou shouted, questioning the operator, who hurriedly replied:

"The signal strength is rapidly decreasing, no, we can’t even find the signal anymore. It might be the antenna..."

"How could it be!"

Now, Mars was hundreds of millions of kilometers away from Earth, and the signal needed to be strengthened by the high-gain antenna of "Departing Fire," then under the influence of an ultra-precision gyroscope, the antenna was firmly locked onto Earth’s direction. Indeed, if it deviated slightly, the signal would be lost to an unknown location.

But Shen Zuozhou keenly sensed something was wrong. If it were an antenna deviation, the signal would have blinked out immediately, and the situation this time was obviously different.

Was it an intervention from an alien civilization, interfering with the signal transmission? Had Firefly-1 discovered something?

The control room staff were still desperately urging the monitoring stations, but even the satellite communications signals encountered problems and commands could not be smoothly issued.

Three to four minutes had passed since the incident occurred, and the control room had nearly lost contact with all satellites, only a few were still working reluctantly, but also very unstably.

Shen Zuozhou’s brain was rapidly processing, and he was even prepared to connect with the higher-ups and issue an alert at any moment.

He first requested the control room to check the receiving equipment, starting from the most likely problem on the ground, directing the staff to switch to the backup system, but it was still fruitless.

After several attempts, the monitoring network was slow to respond, and Shen Zuozhou had realized the gravity of the situation.

"It’s restored!"

A staff member suddenly shouted with joy; after nearly ten minutes of intermittent interference, the first-affected northwest monitoring network returned to normal.

The other monitoring sites were still in their original state, but now the northwest monitoring site began to transmit again, still stable, only the content that was interfered with was lost.

Shen Zuozhou hurriedly picked up the landline handset, ready to inquire about the situation with a few monitoring stations, yet the phone rang before he could, instinctively he answered:

"Hello?"

"This is the Ministry of Defense! Our country’s airspace was suddenly subjected to strong electromagnetic interference, signals of several satellites are in chaos, cut off, with a huge unidentified object detected in near-Earth orbit!

We are undergoing an emergency check. Please take Lin Ju and immediately relocate, move to a safe area! Repeat, the interference still exists, and anything could happen!"

The phone was not loud, and Lin Ju, standing beside him, couldn’t hear clearly. Seeing Shen Zuozhou’s stunned expression, he asked:

"What’s wrong, what exactly is happening?"

Shen Zuozhou was still stunned, digesting the information from the other end of the call. After coming to, he immediately felt a chill run down his spine and, without time to explain, began dragging Lin Ju outside.

"Quick, to the basement, the military will be here soon!"

Lin Ju was unable to break free and had to be forcibly dragged out. He too thought of a possibility, quickly checking his phone and sure enough, he had received an encrypted warning message. He immediately pocketed it and continued to the safe area.