Terra, Dream Boat One temporary survival base.
Several astronauts led by Team Leader Wei Xuan were putting on their spacesuits and other equipnt.
Three others were not taking action, but all wore deeply worried expressions.
One of them couldn't help but speak up, "Team Leader, are you really going to the other survival base?"
"This is the Space Agency's order, and it's also the responsibility we should bear. If the situation with the unclear accident were ours, the astronauts on the Empire Pioneer would also have the obligation to co to our base to investigate."
"I understand, it's just... those screams were truly horrifying..."
The shrieks that had co from the communicator earlier were too terrifying. Everyone simply couldn't imagine under what circumstances the strong-willed astronauts would make such sounds.
"If they have all sacrificed themselves, we would probably be recalled, but the problem is their vital signs are still present," another astronaut who was donning his equipnt said, very puzzled. "Logically speaking, if they suffered a terrible attack, there would definitely be casualties. If there are no casualties, why aren't they responding to communications?"
"That is exactly what we need to go and find out," Wei Xuan said, looking at the three staying behind at the base. "There must be so unknown threat on this planet. You who are staying behind must also be vigilant and maintain contact with us at all tis."
"Yes, Team Leader."
"Please be careful too, Team Leader!"
"Alright, let's set off."
Wei Xuan and the others, fully equipped, left the survival base and began heading towards the area where the Empire Pioneer astronauts were located.
The landing sites of the two manned rockets were about twenty kiloters apart. Without any vehicles and relying only on walking, it would take at least five or six hours.
However, the gravity on Terra was only about one-fifth that of Tianshui Star. Human walking efficiency on its surface was much higher, which could shorten the travel ti considerably.
With the 12-hour oxygen supply each person had prepared, making two round trips wouldn't be a problem.
The group used the low gravity to bounce-walk. Everyone's movents looked sowhat comical, yet no one was in the mood to laugh.
Everyone was thinking: this planet Terra, as a satellite of Tianshui Star, had been explored multiple tis with probes since the developnt of human aerospace technology.
If there were unknown life on this planet, it should have been detected long ago.
But if there were no unknown life, then what had scared the astronauts on the Empire Pioneer to such an extent that they had completely lost contact?
The pressure brought by this unknown fear weighed heavily on everyone's mood.
The group remained silent the entire way. Team Leader Wei Xuan only spoke a few words when making scheduled contact with the base. Before long, the Empire Pioneer appeared within everyone's line of sight.
"I see the rocket, we're almost there."
"Don't forget to stay alert to our surroundings at all tis."
As they approached the survival base, everyone's mood grew tense, not knowing what they would encounter.
When the distance was only five kiloters, Wei Xuan had everyone stop. He took out the tal case he was carrying.
Placing it flat on the ground and opening it, an intelligent robot resembling a spider crawled out.
This was the "Sky Spider Explorer" specifically designed for ground reconnaissance. It was equipped with a large number of sensors, high-definition caras, and audio recording equipnt. Its specially designed 360-degree rotatable tal multiple legs could also adapt to various terrains.
Wei Xuan set the program, selected start, and it swiftly crawled towards the target survival base on its own.
As the team leader, he would not lead his team directly close to the base when the situation was unclear; that was too dangerous. It was better to let the machine scout the situation first. If there really was any danger inside the base, they could prepare in advance.
Through the receiver's screen, he observed the real-ti footage captured by the Sky Spider.
It quickly crawled to the vicinity of the survival base established by the Empire Pioneer astronauts. It looked largely similar to the Dream Boat One's base, both composed of two intelligent inflatable modules: a supply module and a living module.
Under Wei Xuan's control, the Sky Spider circled the base for observation and did not find any external damage to the two modules.
Strange...
No external damage ant the astronauts were inside the inflatable modules, aning there was no situation like "an enemy broke into the module."
Wei Xuan switched to thermal imaging mode. He could detect multiple human heat sources inside the module, the number exactly matching the astronauts, neither more nor less.
Wei Xuan put down the receiver and said to the vigilant team mbers, "The Sky Spider didn't detect any enemies, but the survival base modules are all in a closed state. We need to go over and unlock them. Let's go."
"Yes."
The team mbers, hearing that no enemies were found, slightly relaxed. Soon after, they arrived at the survival base with Wei Xuan. After carefully checking the surroundings, the result was the sa as the Sky Spider's reconnaissance: no signs of any struggle were found.
Wei Xuan walked to the front of the living module. A small screen lit up at the entrance, requiring iris verification to open the door.
The astronauts from both manned rockets shared permissions. Wei Xuan lowered his head to look at the scanner, and the screen imdiately turned green.
[Dream Boat One Team Leader Wei Xuan, Access Granted]
The module's outer door opened, and Wei Xuan and the others entered.
The outer door closed. At this mont, everyone either gripped their guns tightly or prepared to use their Mind Power items at any mont.
When the inner door opened, the astronauts of the Empire Pioneer imdiately ca into view!
"What's wrong with them—!"
They saw over a dozen astronauts—so lying on the floor, so slumped over tables, so in twisted postures. Their common point was that each had an expression of extre terror frozen on their face, their bodies stiff as stone.
These expressions were abnormally distorted and horrifying, sending chills down the spines of Wei Xuan and his team. They imdiately searched the module. Apart from the astronauts, there were no other living creatures.
The team mber with dical skills examined them and said sowhat uncertainly, "Team Leader, it seems like they... due to excessive fear, their bodies have entered so kind of special stress state."
"Stress?" another person walked up to an astronaut with wide eyes and a gaping mouth, waving a hand in front of the latter's face. "Can humans beco stressed to this vegetative state?"
"Logically speaking, it's not very possible. Especially so many people simultaneously falling into this bizarre state... But in this state, their heartbeats are still stable, which is why their vital signs haven't disappeared. It's simply unbelievable."
"..."
Wei Xuan remained silent and went to the side of Empire Pioneer Team Leader Robert, who was sitting at a table. The latter had his hands clutching his head, an expression of terror and gritted teeth frozen on his face. There was a fresh wound on his lip area, and on the table before him were drops of blood.
On the table were a communicator and the module control console. Wei Xuan operated it a few tis, and a video began playing on the screen.
To prevent accidents, the interiors of survival bases were equipped with caras. This ant that no matter what happened on-site, there would be recordings available for investigation.
Wei Xuan dragged the tiline to five minutes before Robert contacted him. The video played, showing the astronauts chatting and laughing, nothing seeming amiss.
Continuing the playback, over four minutes later, a sudden change occurred.
Almost at the sa mont, every astronaut in the module widened their eyes. Seeing sothing unknown, they continuously let out piercing screams.
Team Leader Robert also scread, but after a few seconds, he seed to briefly calm down. He bit his own lip, ignoring the dripping blood, grabbed the communicator to contact Wei Xuan, shouted a sentence, then fell back into fear and madness.
This continued for over ten seconds before all the astronauts in the module stiffened, their expressions frozen.
The faces of everyone who watched the video turned as pale as paper. Because the recording equipnt on the table was close to Robert, his shout wasn't completely drowned out by the others' screams. This ti, they all heard it clearly. It was the final warning Robert issued in that mont of lucidity.
"Leave! There are demons on this planet!"
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