Chapter 497 A Heroic Sacrifice on the Moon? (2-in-1) 16 kilometers northwest of Lompoc, California.
Vandenberg Air Force Launch Base.
Brian and Fat Houseman were moved to a dormitory here. The two big men had dark faces and were in a bad mood.
Brian was thinking of his son, while Houseman was missing his mother.
At that moment, Fowler knocked on the door and came in, handing each of them a package and saying, "Open them and see, good stuff."
"No drinking before going to heaven..." Brian muttered to himself as he opened the package and found a cell phone inside.
The package from Houseman's side also contained a mobile phone.
Fowler shrugged and said helplessly, "You only have one hour of access. During that time, you can call your family, but you can't post anything online..."
Before they could finish speaking, the two of them had already rushed out of the room.
Watching them leave, Fowler sighed and followed them out of the room, silently apologizing in her heart. This was already the result she had tried her best to achieve.
An hour passed quickly.
After talking to his son, Brian felt relieved for the time being.
The FBI still follows the rules; at least they didn't abuse his son, they just provided him with normal "protection," and he was still given food and clothing.
The same applies to Houseman's case; even if the FBI were ruthless, they wouldn't do anything to an ordinary elderly person with Alzheimer's at a time like this.
After calling both sides to let them know they were safe and saying goodbye, they returned to their temporary dormitory, where Fowler took them to the site to learn about the planned procedures for the entire mission.
This mission was decided hastily, making the process even more rudimentary. To put it bluntly, it was about going to space; if the rocket didn't explode, they would go to the moon; if they actually got to the moon, they would fight aliens.
Then you can jump straight to the finale.
It's simply a matter of killing aliens or being killed by aliens.
Almost everything along the way needs to be decided by Brian and his team after they take to the skies.
Such a task description was so obvious that even an ordinary person like Houseman, let alone Brian, could tell there was a problem.
Before the fat man could even finish listening, his legs were already trembling uncontrollably; he was utterly terrified.
People always think they have extraordinary courage, but when they truly face death and have enough time to think, they realize they are just an ordinary person who trembles.
All the mental preparation Houseman had put into himself collapsed at this moment. He didn't want to die, and he didn't want to die in such a meaningless way.
The Earth is already being saved, why do I have to be the one to go?!
And even if you want me to go on, couldn't you at least make a decent rocket? Instead, you've got some old stuff that's been sitting in the factory for who knows how many years!
Perhaps out of embarrassment, Fowler remained silent throughout the entire process. After all, she had personally participated in the design of this mission, and even though she had tried her best to make everything perfect, there were simply too many unknowns after going into space.
In contrast, Brian was the most composed.
Perhaps it's the strong mentality from bringing people back from space eleven years ago that has carried over to this day, or perhaps it's simply a matter of giving up and accepting reality.
After noting down several key points of the mission and things to pay attention to when operating the spaceship, he immediately began practicing.
Meanwhile, other North America arms factories were also ramping up production of the latest ZX-7 Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb.
The original prototype missile had already been handed over to the Mutual Aid Society along with the previous batch of astronauts, so they could only temporarily rebuild one using materials that were originally reserved for this project.
On the moon.
Except for the cooling system, all other systems of the Planetary Engine had been shut down. After leaving a group of people to guard it, the others began to move toward the Mare Crisium Basin.
More than 100 kilometers outside the deep Mare Crisium Basin, a temporary space base has been erected, piled with various equipment transported there using Spacetime Tunnel.
Zhang Tianyuan also returned to the area to oversee the operation, preventing the Swarm from forgetting their lesson and causing trouble again.
This space base is also preparing for the exploration of the moon's core.
North America planned to use the European Space Agency's STC-62 lunar spacecraft, while the Mutual Aid Society received the lunar spacecraft provided by China, which was piloted by the main characters in the movie.
It must be said that the lunar spaceship technology in this timeline is indeed remarkable. The other timelines of the Mutual Aid Society, including the Wandering Spacetime, couldn't come up with a more suitable spaceship.
However, this lunar spacecraft did not need to be launched; instead, it was transported directly to the moon through Spacetime Tunnel and tested on-site.
Zhang Tianyuan walked out of the temporary base, looked up at the horizon, and could clearly see a huge blue planet.
The moon appears hundreds of times larger from Earth now, but wouldn't Earth appear the same way from the moon?
They were so close that I could almost see the outline of the ground.
and...
Zhang Tianyuan tried jumping and found that it was noticeably less light and airy than at the beginning.
The moon's gravity is increasing.
This is normal, because its quality is also increasing.
Suddenly, a faint light rising on Earth caught his attention.
The faint light rose from the North America continent, trailing a long, fiery tail that drew a dazzling arc...
"That must be the lunar rocket that North America just launched. They said they're sending a group of people up to be our pathfinders."
At this point, the person next to him chuckled and added, "Our interceptor ships are ready."
The interceptor spaceships used were from the Wandering Spacetime, and were rather bulky and crude. Although they weren't as sophisticated as the lunar landing spaceships of this timeline, their performance was very reliable.
"Let's wait and see how much help these three astronauts can provide."
"The moon is absolutely stunning!"
Throughout the entire journey to the moon, Houseman kept repeating this phrase in various ways; if his phone hadn't been confiscated, he probably would have been taking pictures nonstop by now.
The two remaining people in the spaceship, Brian and Fowler, controlled the entire flight, their faces remaining tense and never uttering a word.
After talking for a while, Houseman gradually quieted down and even felt a little sleepy. He yawned, and when he realized that no one else was paying attention to him, he simply leaned against the window next to him, closed his eyes, and started to sleep.
I don't know how much time has passed.
Hey, wake up!
Brian's voice entered my mind again.
Houseman woke up with a start, shook his head, and looked at the dashboard in front of him, which was full of data he couldn't understand.
We've arrived on the moon.
Houseman immediately looked out the window and discovered that the moon was indeed right outside; he could now see the moon's surface clearly with the naked eye.
The desolate environment, dotted with numerous impact craters, immediately alerted Houseman, who had conducted in-depth research on the moon, to his location.
Are we flying on the far side of the moon?
"Yes," Brian said, taking advantage of the lull, "We're currently orbiting the moon. Once we reach the Mare Crisium Basin on the front, we'll change course and look for an opportunity to enter the deep cave..."
More than that, Houseman was focused on what was happening outside the window. He pressed his entire face against the window, staring eagerly at the outside world.
Suddenly, a ray of blue appeared in his eyes and quickly expanded, like a blue sun rising.
That's Earth!
"Look how beautiful it is!"
As Houseman was composing his masterpiece, almost like a modern poem on the level of "O Earth, thy blue," Fowler's voice interrupted his overflowing inspiration:
"The things on the moon deserve our more attention than those on Earth."
Fowler knocked on the window next to him, then manipulated the camera outside the spaceship, aiming it at the lunar surface and beginning to take pictures.
Brian also craned his neck towards Houseman, wanting to see what was below.
" Planetary Engine."
Are we currently traveling on a Planetary Engine?!
Houseman's voice was so loud it almost pierced the eardrums of the two people next to him. It was only when Brian covered his mouth tightly that he stopped Hausman from continuing to use the sonic weapon.
Even so, Houseman couldn't stop his constant sighs. Looking down at the neatly arranged array of Planetary Engine, each with a huge nozzle pointing towards the sky, Houseman suddenly felt that he didn't actually care that much about the world.
This mission was worthwhile!
"This is truly an amazing feat. How many Planetary Engine have they installed here?"
When Brian asked that question, something felt off. Using words like "platform" and "installation" for something so large seemed inappropriate.
After reviewing the internal documents provided by Fox, Fowler took photos and replied, "Just as they advertised, there are a full one hundred units, covering an area of approximately 800,000 square kilometers."
Hearing this number, and connecting it to the magnificent scene below, Houseman swallowed hard and said, "Compared to us, they clearly have the capability to destroy alien weapons..."
Brian glanced at them and said with a cold sneer, "We don't need to destroy the aliens. To them, it's enough for us to be Precursors and die a glorious death here."
" Brian!"
"Okay, I won't say anything more."
Fowler sighed, at a loss for words. What she had done was unethical, and there was no way to defend herself.
She simply started paying attention to the dashboard.
Bored, Houseman stared at the dashboard. Pointing to a value of 0 that had just lit up, he asked, "What does this mean?"
" The Mutual Aid Society provided us with technical support; they established a mechanism to monitor Swarm at and around the edge of the deep cave, so we can receive an alarm whenever a bee appears."
"They shared an interface of this system with us; 'zero' means the Swarm hasn't been mobilized yet."
Houseman suddenly realized what was going on and asked about the other values.
Brian, however, focused on piloting the spaceship.
Soon, the spaceship arrived safely over the Mare Crisium Basin.
"Look over there, that's the Mutual Aid Society's base!"
With Fox's intelligence support and having seen many classified documents, Fowler was quite familiar with the situation on the moon and immediately located the temporary base that the Mutual Aid Society had only established in the last two days.
Houseman was clutching his eyes, practically pressing them against his own eyeballs, but he still couldn't find the Mutual Aid Society's base. Finally, Brian couldn't stand it anymore and handed him a pair of binoculars.
"I saw it! It's so lively there! There are lots of astronauts, and there's even a construction site! My God, this is the first time I've ever seen construction work being done outside of Earth. Am I witnessing human history?"
"Calm down, Houseman. There are at least a thousand people gathered there now, and the dozens of astronauts we sent there might be among them."
Fowler remained calm throughout.
Brian steered the spaceship toward the deep hole, while simultaneously beginning to decelerate.
"Alright, now we need to prepare to become heroes..."
Beep beep beep!
No sooner had he finished speaking than a red alarm lit up on the instrument panel, and an alarm sounded in the cabin.
All three of them were stunned for a moment.
Finally, Brian and Fowler realized at the same time. " Swarm alarm!"
The two looked at the reading on the screen and, sure enough, found that the number was no longer zero!
1, 3, 6...
In the blink of an eye, the Swarm had already flown 6 kilometers toward the lunar surface.
Fowler shrieked, "When the reading reaches 26, it will fly out of the hole!"
Without a second thought, Brian made a snap decision, instructing Fowler to prepare an electromagnetic pulse munition. Then, he controlled the spaceship to change direction, hoping to create some more distance.
Sitting on the edge, Houseman was like an ant on a hot pan, eager to help but unsure of what to do, and afraid of making things worse. In the end, he could only stand by anxiously, waving his hands in frustration.
And now the other two don't have time to deal with him either.
Brian yelled, "Didn't you say the Swarm wouldn't come out again?"
"I don't know! Mr. Fox told me that himself!" Fowler was also a little flustered. She held the detonator switch for the electromagnetic pulse bomb in her hand, her eyes darting around. "He told me that the Swarm had been damaged by the Mutual Aid Society and dared not appear on the lunar surface again, so we could go in safely..."
"Fraud!"
Brian gritted his teeth, sweating profusely with anxiety. Houseman felt he had no regrets in this life; he just wanted to live to see his son again.
He had seen live broadcasts of Swarm emerging from deep holes on TV before, and knew that this thing was definitely not something his beat-up old ship could handle.
"Get the electromagnetic pulse grenades ready, then we're heading to the Mutual Aid Society's base!"
"Only there can save us!"
"Can we get there in time?"
Houseman shouted, "It's too fast! It... it's coming out!"
In response to his words.
Not far behind the spaceship, a large, loose, black figure suddenly emerged from the huge, deep hole in the crater.
The figure swayed in the air a few times before locking onto its target and heading straight for Brian and his two companions!
(End of this chapter)