Volume 15 Gray Fog Forest Chapter 773 Recording File
Ten seconds was neither short nor long. Just as everyone was ready to withstand the impact, a shock wave with terrifying power swept over along with a scorching heat wave, and at the same time there was a loud noise that was loud enough to rupture a person's eardrums.
The entire "Shaojiang Modified" frigate shook violently, stirring up circles of waves in the surrounding thick fog. Fire mixed with metal fragments sprayed out from the middle section of the ship, hitting the inside of the energy shield and turning into star-like flashes in the sea of fog.
Ke Lan finally understood why the middle and rear section of the "Shaojiang Modified" frigate was so badly damaged. This part of the hull was almost completely hollowed out except for the hardest main frame, and it was filled with thick vines, making it look less empty.
Just like when Ke Lan and her friends had a meal together and ate grilled fish, the most plump and meaty part of the fish belly was usually the first to be snatched away. After several grown men ate with their chopsticks, only bones were left in the middle of the grilled fish, while the head and tail were relatively intact.
At this time, the "Shaojiang Modified" was like a grilled fish with the middle part eaten away. When Ke Lan saw the damaged state through the surveillance cameras outside the ship, he knew that Heruni had lost the bet.
All the surveillance cameras inside the ship were destroyed in an instant, and nearly 90% of the combat videos on dozens of screens turned into snow screens. Only a few surveillance cameras such as the bridge, which were far away from the nuclear explosion site, were preserved, but the images were also severely affected.
From the few remaining surveillance cameras, it can be seen that the "Shaojiang Modified" frigate has lost its balance, and the entire capital has been submerged in the thick fog and into the tree canopy.
The next second, the combat video came to an abrupt end.
Ke Lan knew that at this time, the "Shaojiang modified" frigate had already crashed into the ground - he knew the outcome from his God's perspective: Hruni Yang and the officers and soldiers on the "Shaojiang modified" frigate failed to create a miracle, they only lasted a few minutes longer than the other crashed high-speed support ship.
"The combat record has been played." As the image on the screen returned to darkness, the voice of the AI rang out in the bridge.
"What happened next?" Ke Lan asked immediately.
"Due to the excessive damage caused by the nuclear bomb, the ship lost balance during flight, the bow hit the bottom first, the anti-gravity device failed, and the remaining main thrusters all shut down... At 11:09 am on the third day of the operation, it crashed deep in the gray fog forest, 19 kilometers away from the red line."
"After the battleship crashed, were there any survivors on board?"
"During the crash of the ship, the safety measures of the central control computer were triggered, and the AI also fell into a dormant state, and did not record the data after the crash in time."
"Then when were you awakened again?"
"This part of the data has been destroyed and cannot be recovered."
"..." Ke Lan exhaled heavily, and then changed the question, "After the battleship crashed, have you seen the captain himself? I mean... Heruni Yang himself, not some monster who calls himself 'Erosion Corpse'."
"I have seen it." The AI replied confidently, "Captain Heruni Yang has been trying to repair the ship since returning to it. In addition, there are another group of officers and logistics personnel assisting him."
"Aren't there still survivors? Why didn't you answer when I asked you if there were any survivors after the battleship crashed?" Ke Lan asked with some confusion... Logically speaking, the thinking logic of military AI should be very clear, and it is impossible for artificial intelligence to become artificially retarded.
"Because I can't judge whether Captain Heruni Yang and the others are still human, nor can I determine whether they are still alive, so they cannot be defined as 'survivors'." The AI narrated in a very calm tone something that made people feel creepy just by listening to it, with a taste of a stream-of-consciousness horror movie.
"Why?"
"The data detected by the vital signs detection equipment has exceeded the numerical range of normal humans. According to emergency regulations, they should be judged as 'contaminated persons' rather than 'survivors'." The AI replied.
"Wait...you just said that after returning to the ship, Heruni has been trying to repair the ship. Has he left before? Where did he go?" Ke Lan asked.
"Hruni himself did not store this information in the ship's database."
"Okay then, from the moment you are awakened again, retrieve all the recorded data that has not been damaged." Ke Lan said angrily... Facing an AI with severely damaged data is like talking to a person with intermittent amnesia, which is simply maddening.
It would be better to let the AI speak out everything it knows and then analyze it slowly.
"When the central control computer was restarted, Heruni Yang and others had already returned to the battleship and were repairing the power part of the ship. According to my analysis, they should have restarted the central control computer of the ship. But the specific restart time and engineering files have been damaged, so it is impossible to trace the events back." The AI continued in an emotionless tone.
"Since Heruni and the others were already in the battleship when you woke up, how did you know they had been out?"
"The ship's external hatch showed signs of being forced open, and the protective clothing they were wearing was severely irradiated. Also, from the conversation between Hruni and others, it can be confirmed that they had left the ship before."
"Are the conversation records between Heruni and others damaged?" Ke Lan took a deep breath and stared at the virtual screen in front of him with a fiery gaze.
"Partially damaged."
"Put out the undamaged part!"
"yes."
Audio file after audio file popped up on the virtual screen. Ke Lan counted them and found that, excluding those files that were damaged and could not be played, there were a total of 167 intact files, with a total duration of less than two hours.
"There are only two hours of audio files left?" Ke Lan frowned. "How long is the damaged part?"
"The damaged part is only one-third of the entire audio file. Hruni Yang and other people on the ship rarely talked, and they spent most of the time repairing the ship in silence."
"What about the others? Where did they go later?"
"Except for Hruni Yang, the health of the others is very bad... According to human standards, they should have died long ago, but they dragged their bodies that should have been dead for a long time... The person with the shortest activity time in the record stopped all activities after forty-one hours, and all body function data returned to zero. The person with the longest activity time persisted for a whole year."
AI uses "activity time" instead of "survival time" here because in its logical cognition, these people are judged as "dead people" contaminated by unknown things. Although they still have the ability to move, in the eyes of AI, they are just zombies.
“But Hruni Yang has survived until now?”
"No, Heruni Yang is the one who has been active the longest. From the time when records began, he did not stop all activities until the 8,765th hour."
8765 hours, that is exactly one year and five hours...
"But he just woke up again. He had a conversation with me not long ago. His body was lying here just now!" Ke Lan asked, pointing to a place on the bridge.
"Sorry, there is no record of this in the database."
"Are you sure there is no record and not data corruption?" Ke Lan narrowed his eyes.
"No records," the AI repeated.
After a brief thought, Ke Lan understood the problem.
In fact, Heruni's life activities had stopped for more than ten years. He remained in a state of "suspended death" until the second crash of the "Shaojiang modified" frigate... It was not until Ke Lan and others approached the bridge that his life activities revived again.
During this period, the central control computer of the "Shaojiang Reform" was in a shut-down state, so it is completely logical that there is no record.
Could it be that my arrival...had awakened Heruni from his suspended animation?
Ke Lan suppressed the urge to continue asking questions to the AI and reached out to click on the first audio file.
This file is very small and only five minutes long, but it contains an explosive amount of information.
"Recording file 01001025, recording time: unknown."
After the AI's unique mechanical voice, a voice that sounded familiar to Ke Lan was heard.
"We must repair the Shaojiang River, otherwise we will never be able to leave this forest."
Ke Lan quickly recognized that this was Heruni's voice. Compared with the "Corpse" state, Heruni's voice at this time seemed more powerful and full of energy.
"But our time... cough cough... I'm afraid... cough cough... is not enough." Another strange voice sounded. This voice sounded very weak, and there were fragmented coughs in it.
"But we must make public what we found deep in the forest..." Hruni said in a deep voice, "I know that some things are not something we soldiers should worry about, but I can't just watch the people above keep everyone in the dark."
"But, Captain, have you ever thought about that..." This was the third voice, also sounding a little weak, but in better condition than the second person, "If... I mean if, we can return to the Ark and make these things public... Even if people are willing to believe us... have you ever thought about what will happen after that?"
"The Ark will fall into chaos." The fourth voice sounded, and the voice sounded very unclear, like a mouthful of phlegm in the mouth, or like a wriggling tentacle stuck in the throat. "Perhaps... the people above do this because ordinary people cannot accept such a desperate reality... Once we make these things public, human society and the order of the Ark will collapse overnight..."
"But the people above haven't taken any positive measures. All they have been doing is sending people like us to erase any traces of these things... They only want to maintain their own rule and power. They have never considered the future of mankind!" There was a hint of anger in Heruni's tone.
"Captain, look at me now... Have you ever thought about why I became like this?" The fourth unclear voice said, "And Lao Zuo, Cliff... Do you think we can still be considered human beings now?"
Ke Lan was not unfamiliar with these two names, as they were both officers and soldiers on the "Shaojiang Modified" frigate. According to the description in the files, "Lao Zuo"'s full name was Zuo Jie, and he was the logistics director of the ship with the rank of major; Cliff was an ordinary soldier in the Marine Corps with the rank of corporal.
"We are just infected by the toxins in the fog... As long as we can return to the Ark, we will be cured with the medical methods on the Ark!" said Heruni, but even Ke Lan, who was listening to the recording, could hear the lack of confidence in his tone.
"Is it really just a toxin infection?" The ambiguous voice said with a hint of a sly smile, "Little Jack who stayed behind in the Shaojiang Reform, in order to prevent him from being 'infected', all those who returned from that place were forbidden to have contact with him, but he has been locked in the cabin the whole time. Just because he saw my appearance through remote communication, tiny tentacles grew on his forehead... and after listening to our previous conversation, the degree of his body mutation suddenly deepened... The doctor said that he may not survive these two days."
There are four people named "Jack" on the "Shaojiang Modified" frigate, but the one who can be called "Little Jack" should be "Jack Garcia", who just graduated from the Air Force Academy the year before the "Special Operations Fleet" was formed and was assigned to this frigate. His military rank is lieutenant and he serves as an electrical engineer on the "Shaojiang Modified" frigate.
"He...he..." Heruni did not continue speaking. It was obvious that he could not even convince himself.
"Captain, you should know better than any of us that this thing is like a plague... but the way it spreads is more terrible than the plague... seeing, hearing... or even knowing these things through certain carriers will cause the body to mutate... If we bring this information back to the Ark, it will be a disaster. "
The vague voice paused and continued, "Of course, I think the people above will never give us a chance to enter the Ark."
At this time, the second voice spoke: "Ahem... I guess... I can't hold on for much longer... I feel... as if something has grown out of my lungs... Ahem... This 'infection' is very strange. Its severity seems to be random. Captain, you are the one who has been exposed the most, but your condition is obviously the best among us... If any of us has the opportunity to return to the Ark for treatment, it should be you."
