Volume 14: Devastation Chapter 677 Hibernation Chamber
After leaving the "warehouse" where a large number of canned food were stored, the members of the 776 Special Forces Team continued to move forward along the corridor.
Finally, when the end of the corridor was visible, automatic doors opened on both sides at the same time - these two automatic doors were different from the one that was stuck in the warehouse just now, and were in a fully open state.
Moreover, the two rooms are not completely dark. Standing in this position in the corridor, one can vaguely see spots of faint blue fluorescence coming through.
Sergeant Ken did not hesitate and gave the order directly: "Group Two will stay in the corridor, and Group One and I will explore the room on the right first."
Several soldiers held guns in one hand and put the other hand on the shoulder of their teammates in front of them, and entered the room in a standard CQB combat formation.
This room is much larger than the warehouse. There are a large number of devices of unknown purpose embedded on the walls. The dots of faint blue fluorescence are emitted by the indicator lights on these devices.
Near the base of the wall, there are many coffin-like metal cabinets neatly arranged. Each metal cabinet is about 1.5 meters apart. There are a large number of pipes and cables on the top of the cabinets, which are connected to the equipment on the wall.
"This...what is this? Alpha's coffin?" Martin muttered softly.
Due to the scarcity of land resources, in the old era, urns have completely replaced the status and role of coffins in funeral matters. However, because the image of the coffin is so classic, many film and television works and literary works often mention this container for placing corpses. Therefore, even though people in reality rarely see real coffins, they will still subconsciously associate coffins with utensils of similar shape.
Especially in some mysterious, gloomy and weird atmosphere.
"It's not a coffin..." Liao Xing frowned and shook his head , "That thing is used to hold living people... Look at those pipes and cables. The equipment on the wall is probably some kind of life-support device. This thing should be similar to the medical cabin on the Ark."
"These things seem to be still in working order," Collins said. "Could there be any living creatures inside?"
"Let's go and take a look." Sergeant Ken ended the conversation with just one sentence.
Samuel, the most courageous one, carried the mobile Vulcan cannon specially equipped for the fearless warriors, and walked step by step to the "coffin" on the far left. He took a closer look, and then said in a deep voice in the team channel: "Report to the boss, this is empty."
"Empty? What about the others?"
"The second and third 'coffins' were also empty," Samuel replied. "There was ."
"Alas, I was so happy for nothing!" Martin's tone was a little disappointed, but at the same time, it was also filled with an inexplicable sense of relief. "I thought... we would be the first group of people on the Ark to discover the true identity of the Alpha Man."
He walked over quickly, but just as he reached a "coffin", his feet suddenly braked and he froze in place.
"Shit, shit... Boss! There's one mouthful here that's not empty!"
Several people, including Sergeant Ken, immediately gathered towards him.
These coffin-like chambers all have transparent polymer hatches, so you can see what's inside at a glance. The one in front of Martin curled up a pale skeleton, with IV tubes and patches connected to wires scattered around the skeleton, and only a few needle-shaped electric shocks at the ends of the wires were still stuck in the skeleton's spinal gaps.
"This skeleton... looks exactly like a human skeleton." Collins said, and a flash of electricity suddenly flashed through his head. The corner of his eye subconsciously glanced at the body bag on his back, "These medical cabins... can't they be prepared for those humanoid monsters?"
Could it be that these monsters are really the Alphas?
Didn't the authoritative scholars of the institute say that there would be a big difference between Alphas and humans in terms of body shape and appearance? However, these humanoid monsters looked almost the same as humans, except that they were a little thinner, had paler skin, and were hairless? !
"This isn't a medical cabin... These devices should be cryogenic hibernation cabins." Liao Xing suddenly said, "Look."
He raised his hand and pointed at the device on the wall facing the "coffin" - this device was exactly the same in appearance as the other devices next to it, the only difference was that its operating panel was dark and all the indicator lights were off.
"The life support device of this hibernation capsule malfunctioned, so this 'person' died in the hibernation capsule... As for the other empty hibernation capsules, the 'people' inside them should have left the room after being awakened."
He paused and continued, "The noises we heard outside and the humanoid monster we encountered should have crawled out of this room and these hibernation capsules... As for whether it was a timer program or something else that woke them up, we don't know."
"It seems that there are quite a lot of these monsters..." said Samuel.
In this room alone, there are nearly a hundred such hibernation capsules, plus there is another such room on the other side of the corridor... Even if there are only two rooms with hibernation capsules in the entire ruins, the number of humanoid monsters that have been "sealed" is already two hundred.
Fortunately, the combat effectiveness of these humanoid monsters is not very strong, and their physical strength is far inferior to those indigenous creatures in the wilderness whose skin and flesh are so thick that even bullets cannot penetrate them. With the combat level of the 776 Special Forces Team, although two hundred such monsters are a bit tricky, they are not a big threat.
"This makes sense..." Liao Xing said to himself, dragging his chin in thought.
"What's reasonable?" Martin couldn't help asking.
"The bone age of the corpse that Collins was carrying." Liao Xing said, "Although this type of hibernation capsule can allow the creatures inside to survive for a long time in a dormant state, judging from these tubes, the creatures in the hibernation capsule still need nutrients from the outside world, so their bodies will naturally continue to grow and develop in a dormant state... Although it is very slow, it is not completely stopped. In this way, a bone age of more than 400 years old is completely reasonable... The real age of this humanoid monster can only be older than 400 years, and much older."
"Over a thousand years old?" Martin asked tentatively.
“It could even be ten thousand years old.” Liao Xing glanced at the blue fluorescent lights flickering on the wall. Among the nearly one hundred life-support devices in the hibernation capsules, only the one in front of him had a malfunction. Considering the existence time of this relic, such a long endurance time and such a low failure rate can probably only be achieved with the technology of the Alpha civilization.
