Chapter 492 The Fearful Swarm (2-in-1) "What is that?"
Have aliens reappeared on the moon?
"Quickly, start the telescope and see what's happening on the moon!"
The observation center was in complete chaos, and the people outside were staring at the moon with puzzled expressions.
Thanks to events on the moon, the moon is the focus of global attention tonight, so a large dark spot of 8,000 square kilometers, though not particularly conspicuous, still attracted a lot of attention.
Just like the news about the moon's orbital deviation, related news and trending topics were immediately dominated by this anomaly. Regardless of whether it was day or night, almost everyone was discussing the changes on the moon.
This included Washington's elites, with Fox anxiously awaiting news in his office.
Finally, the computer beeped, and the secretary walked in from outside the door.
"Sir, NASA Administrator Hutchings has sent the latest data to your computer."
"I understand." Fox sat down in the chair and quickly opened the email from NASA, which contained dozens of pictures, some clear and some blurry.
Fox opened them one by one, then fell silent. His expression was indescribable, a mixture of surprise and terror, each seemingly occupying half of his face, making him look utterly distorted.
"Sir?" the secretary asked, curious about what had happened to make her boss look like that.
" Lucy, our moon rocket hasn't launched yet, has it?"
"Yes, you previously instructed NASA to pause the launch process, and they should still be awaiting further instructions from you."
"Tell Hutchings to suspend cooperation with the European Space Agency and halt the launch of the lunar rockets. We need to seek cooperation with the other side; perhaps only in this way can we overcome this crisis."
The secretary immediately sat up straight. "I'll do it right away!"
Fox only turned his attention back to the computer after his assistant left the office.
Each of the dozens of pictures above shows a huge and magnificent building slowly revealing its full form as the Spacetime Tunnel moves forward.
Planetary Engine!
Fox knew that this building was probably the super engine Ding Hongbo mentioned in his speech, capable of propelling the moon.
A force powerful enough to move a planet, plus Spacetime Tunnel, and Mutual Aid Society from a parallel universe...
With these three things in hand, there's no need for them to continue persisting; cooperating with the other side is the best option.
NASA
Hutchings and Fowler were also there, watching the transmitted images of the lunar surface. The entire office was deathly silent; no one dared to make a sound.
Until Hutchings ' phone rang.
It was Fox's secretary who relayed the latest instructions.
"Abort the moon landing? I see." These words reminded Hutchings that they were supposed to be preparing for a moon landing, and the rockets and astronauts were still at the launch site!
"Director Fowler, immediately halt the lunar mission and notify the European Space Agency that our cooperation with them is canceled. We need to change direction and seek cooperation with the other side."
Fowler turned and glanced at the image on the computer again. The massive Planetary Engine had already revealed more than half of its steel body, resembling a mountain on the moon.
"This is indeed the right thing to do."
Fowler turned and left to carry out his orders.
The three unfortunate astronauts received news of the mission cancellation five minutes later and were then taken out of the spacecraft.
After they emerged and heard about what had happened on the spaceship, the three of them were completely stunned, feeling as if they had spent several days inside...
After explaining things to the astronauts, Fowler immediately began sending informal emails to Chief Engineer Ji, with whom he had previously been in contact, to explore the possibility of cooperation.
The answer was quickly affirmative.
It was only at this point that Hutchings formally expressed his intention to cooperate through official channels.
And sure enough, he received a reply very quickly.
Given the urgency of the situation, both sides convened an emergency international conference to discuss matters of cooperation.
Chief Engineer Ji and his team in China most wanted was the ZX-7 Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb, which was specifically developed for Swarm.
NASA, on the other hand, wants its own astronauts to be deeply involved in the mission to save the moon, ideally to enter the interior of the Planetary Engine and even obtain some technical details.
If possible, they would also like to obtain a portion of the Swarm remains for research after the Swarm is killed.
Both sides had their own objectives, but these were not conflicting, so the meeting only lasted an hour before the two sides reached an agreement.
NASA sent all of its astronauts to Chief Engineer Ji, Chief Engineer Ji was responsible for arranging their work on the moon, while NASA was to hand over the prototype of the ZX-7 Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb.
And so, the three astronauts who had just disembarked from the lunar rocket, along with their colleagues, were put on an intercontinental plane overnight.
At this point, the European Space Agency, NASA's original partner, was dumbfounded.
So you, you heartless bastard, canceled your cooperation with me, and then turned around and climbed up to someone else?
How can we tolerate this?
So the European Space Agency quickly approached China, also requesting cooperation. However, since they didn't have the ZX-7, they could only join the effort to save the moon by providing project funding.
The new cooperation agreement had just been reached when the Russian Space Agency) immediately followed suit, proposing the same cooperation terms as the European Space Agency )...
The Mutual Aid Society doesn't care about things on Earth.
President Zhang is leading everyone in continuing their dog-walking and playtime on the moon.
The sensory capabilities of Swarm are truly remarkable. Although the underlying principle is unknown, they can indeed detect humans and electronic devices at extremely long distances every so often.
The protagonist in the movie was sensed by it while in near-Earth orbit, and now the members of the Mutual Aid Society are on the lunar surface, making it even more impossible for them to escape the Swarm's detection.
They had only been in Experiment Zone 1 for a short while when the Swarm, drawn by the smell, rushed over. Left with no other choice, Zhang Tianyuan had to lead his men away temporarily.
However, the transfer of the Planetary Engine will not stop.
After detecting the absence of human presence, the artificial, stupid Swarm circled the area once before quickly departing, not even glancing at the Planetary Engine that appeared from the void.
An hour later, most of the Planetary Engine had been successfully transferred, the Spacetime Tunnel began to touch the ground, transporting away a large amount of lunar soil, and at the same time, transporting the engine support surface located in the Wandering Spacetime.
The first Planetary Engine was successfully deployed.
The expert team, dressed in lunar spacesuits, entered the Planetary Engine and began checking various indicators to determine if the Planetary Engine was in normal working order.
The results were ideal. The seamless transition of the Spacetime Tunnel, combined with the special soil of the lunar spacecraft, ensured that the Planetary Engine was in perfect working order and ready to start at any time.
"Let's start it and see."
Zhang Tianyuan led his team into the Planetary Engine, activated the various devices inside, and put them into operation.
The experts responsible for Planetary Engine research found the master switch with practiced ease, signaled everyone to get ready, took a deep breath, and began the countdown:
"10, 9, 8...3, 2, 1--"
boom!
Powerful energy erupted from the nuclear fusion reactor at the bottom, and a huge blue-white beam of light shot out of the nozzle into space. A violent shockwave spread outward from the Planetary Engine, and a layer of lunar soil and dust nearby was instantly swept away, floating in the air and unable to fall for a long time.
Inside the Planetary Engine, Zhang Tianyuan was also experiencing plasma jets up close for the first time.
When the Planetary Engine was activated, he was either outside the engine or in the underground city, so the impacts had already weakened by the time they reached him.
Unfortunately, this space-based version of the Planetary Engine lacks an underground city; everyone is confined to the core, enduring the full power of the Planetary Engine.
The plasma beam, like a sharp sword, pierced straight into space, then slowly dissipated midway, leaving only a sliver of blue glow.
The first round of spraying has ended.
Zhang Tianyuan turned his gaze to the expert on the scene, whose mouth was opening and closing as if he were saying something, but it was impossible to hear clearly.
tinnitus!
Everyone experienced tinnitus.
After waiting for a while, the discomfort in his ears subsided, and Zhang Tianyuan was able to hear what the expert had to say:
"The successful injection and the absence of any settling incident with the Planetary Engine demonstrate that the Planetary Engine relocation plan is indeed feasible."
"Then let's continue transferring the other Planetary Engine."
Zhang Tianyuan said.
"Chairman, before we continue, we need to deal with other problems." An astronaut next to him pointed to a small screen on his spacesuit, " The Swarm is out again!"
Zhang Tianyuan frowned. The Swarm's movement pattern had gone awry. The Swarm shouldn't have detected their signal yet; the recent tremors must have alerted the Swarm inside the moon's core.
He didn't know whether the moon in other timelines was hollow, but the moon in this timeline was hollow.
The loud noise from the Planetary Engine just now is probably still echoing inside the moon's core.
"We can't keep letting it interfere like this.
"President, how about we fire a shot at it first?"
"That's what the person next to me said."
Zhang Tianyuan hesitated for a moment. He had already made a plan to see if the Swarm could withstand the plasma jets from the Planetary Engine.
This is something everyone knows.
However, he felt the chances were slim...
But others are right; constantly letting the Swarm come and cause trouble isn't a solution.
"Let's fire a shot first!"
True to his word, Zhang Tianyuan transferred a tunnel originally allocated to the Snowpiercer Spacetime for plasma transfer to the moon.
He then aimed for the moment when the Swarm attacked, and had the Planetary Engine on the other side fire directly, while he was responsible for aiming the Spacetime Tunnel at the Swarm.
In an instant, a bright blue light flashed in the distance, and the high-temperature plasma impacted the swarm of Swarm before crashing heavily onto the distant moon, raising a cloud of dust.
A violent tremor traveled through the ground beneath our feet.
Everyone felt a little uneasy.
But everyone's attention was focused on the cloud of dust in the distance.
"There seems to be something moving inside?!"
A man held a telescope to his helmet and spotted an object writhing in the dust cloud, resembling a large black snake.
Then a black mass, emitting smoke, flew directly out of the dust at an extremely high speed, like a black shooting star, and disappeared from everyone's sight in the blink of an eye.
The Swarm has not been destroyed!
Everyone recognized that the black mass was undoubtedly Swarm.
"What material is it made of that can withstand temperatures of tens or even hundreds of millions of degrees without being destroyed?!"
Everyone sighed in amazement, and at the same time, two cars arrived, taking everyone to the location where the Swarm had just been attacked.
Soon, a pile of unusual black coke was extracted from the lunar soil by the experts.
"These should be the parts of the Swarm that were damaged after being attacked by the plasma."
"It is clear that the Swarm is not immune to high temperatures, but rather it tightly surrounds its core, sacrificing its outer components to survive the attack of the high-temperature plasma."
Zhang Tianyuan turned around and ordered his men to continue monitoring the Swarm's movements.
Even a fool would know that the Swarm that just left must be heading back to the moon's core, which means they'll be going to crawl back through that huge hole.
Outside that cave, they had just left a full-range camera to monitor the Swarm's movements in real time.
Soon, the camera transmitted back the footage.
A large, black object darted into the deep hole.
Zhang Tianyuan and the other experts observed this record and reached the same conclusion:
"The size of the Swarm has shrunk significantly."
"But to completely eliminate it, I estimate it will require at least ten more sprays."
"Most importantly, its behavior pattern seems to have changed?"
"It retreated back to the lunar core immediately after being attacked. Does this mean it realized there were weapons threatening it and therefore adopted an evasive and defensive strategy?"
Will Swarm ever emerge from the moon's interior?
Zhang Tianyuan had his men observe the Swarm for a full hour, but they found no movement from the swarm; it seemed to have truly become a coward.
"But this is good, it gives us a chance to complete the Planetary Engine relocation plan."
With the troublemaker gone, Zhang Tianyuan immediately resumed migrating the Planetary Engine.
Soon, the second Planetary Engine was officially placed next to the first one.
Then came the third and fourth...
Later, once it was confirmed that the Swarm was truly too afraid to come out again, Zhang Tianyuan simply started playing tricks, transferring twenty Planetary Engine simultaneously in each batch.
From Earth, a massive dark spot covering 160,000 square kilometers appeared on the moon. This dark spot reflected no light at all, making it appear as if the lights had been turned off compared to the rest of the lunar surface...
(End of this chapter)