Volume 2: The Undersea City Chapter 87 Black Box
When the crystalline energy of the Alpha civilization was not yet popular, in order to increase the movement radius of the combat troops, the long-distance vehicles equipped by the army in the early days all used nuclear energy. A 30-centimeter-long A1 fuel rod, as thick as a finger, was enough to keep a Class C miniature nuclear reactor running for six months. The energy generated could allow a heavy armored vehicle to circle Alpha along the equator for a full circle and a half!
If it weren't for the lack of rich reserves of uranium and thorium mines on Alpha , crystal energy would have no chance of becoming humanity's primary energy source - after all, humans have not yet mastered the production technology of energy crystals, and crystal output depends entirely on the excavation of Alpha civilization relics, which always gives people a sense of crisis of being "controlled by others."
Fortunately, the number of energy crystals left behind by the Alpha civilization is extremely large. With the joint efforts of the relic hunters and the exploration teams, the output of crystals has been very stable, which has prevented mankind from falling into an energy crisis again.
If this team could leave behind some vehicles that used nuclear energy, Ke Lan would have a chance to return to the human world with just a small piece of fuel rod... You know, there are fearless warriors among them, the big guys wearing heavy armor. If they want to engage in long-distance combat, they must be equipped with vehicles. There is only one possibility that Ke Lan's wish may not come true, and that is that this team was directly airdropped onto this deserted island.
But this possibility is not high. If it was directly airdropped, it would prove that the top management of Ark must know the existence of this deserted island. Even if they did not discover the cave at the beginning, after this team lost contact, they were fully capable of sending a search and rescue team here, and this map would never fall into Ke Lan's hands.
Judging from all the signs, Ke Lan should be the first person to come to this deserted island after them.
Passing Cornelius' remains, Ke Lan walked deeper into the cave, but not long after he went, he found more remains.
This is a temporary camping site, with a circle of guardrails made of folding alloy plates on the outermost edge. Two collapsed marching tents are spread on the ground in the center of the camp. Next to it is a campfire pit that has been extinguished for decades. More than a dozen remains are surrounding the campfire pit - it seems that this should be the final destination of most of the team members.
There were several pistols dropped around them, but there were no signs of a fight at the scene. Judging from the distribution of bullet casings and bullets, as well as the wounds on the remains, they must have all committed suicide.
Ke Lan opened one of the tents, and saw several boxes of supplies inside, including a lot of food, water, ammunition, and medicine. According to the number of remains, these things could sustain them for at least a month... If they calculated carefully, two months might not be a problem.
What exactly was the reason that made all the members of this team choose to commit suicide by shooting themselves before they were even in desperate situation?
Why didn't they try to escape from here or try to get in touch with the Ark?
Or, have they already done these things?
Ke Lan walked back to the center of the pile of bones. He bent down and picked out a black metal box from the pile of bones.
Black box is another name for flight recorder, which is used to store the flight data of the aircraft and the voice recording of the pilot. In the Ark Combat Team, the commander of each unit also has such a thing called "black box". This black metal box is essentially a specially encrypted recording device used to record the entire operation process of the team when performing combat operations outside.
The commander is responsible for recording the contents of the black box. If the commander dies, the person who replaces him will take over the subsequent recording tasks. When the operation is over and the commander returns to the Ark for debriefing, the black box he brought back will be decrypted by a dedicated person and the contents will be archived.
If this unit is wiped out, or the black box is accidentally lost during a combat mission, the Ark's top management will send an elite team to carry out the recovery mission - this shows the importance of the black box.
"I hope this thing isn't broken..."
Generally speaking, the safety and reliability of black boxes are extremely high, but this thing has been abandoned in this ghost place for so many years, and Ke Lan dare not guarantee that the data inside is still safe.
Ke Lan placed the black box flat on the ground and gently flipped off the switch on the right.
"Hiss... Hiss..." After a noisy electric sound, the three indicator lights on the side of the black box all lit up.
"Fortunately, the item is not broken..." Ke Lan just breathed a sigh of relief. The next second, the three indicator lights turned from green to red. At the same time, a mechanized female voice came from the box: "You need A-level or above authority to read this record. If you don't have proof of authority, please enter the password code."
"Oops...how could I have forgotten about this... " Ke Lan sighed inwardly. In order to keep it secret, even if an ordinary person picked up the black box, they would not be able to extract the contents. As for brute force cracking, that was even more impossible.
The encryption program of the black box was written by the Ark's main brain. If it was just a simple recording device, it could be made smaller than a fingernail. The reason why the black box is so large is entirely due to this encryption program.
"Please enter the password... If you don't enter the correct password within five seconds, the device will automatically lock... Five... Four..."
"Password code...what the hell is this password code..." Ke Lan grabbed his hair in annoyance. There were only two ways to crack the black box. One was to connect it to a computer and use a key with A-level or above authority to copy the data inside. The other was to enter the password code set by the recorder.
But Ke Lan did not have an A-level authorization key or above, and did not know the password code for the !
If it is really locked, then only the Ark's main brain can unlock it...
"three two……"
"...Leave the bed!" This string of English words suddenly flashed through Ke Lan's mind. He didn't think much about it and just read it out loud.
It's too late anyway, let's just give it a try...
"The password is correct."
Damn... this dead horse was really brought back to life?
This "warning" is actually the password of this black box? But...if this sentence is the password, why does it appear on the inner wall of the spherical diving chamber?
The two events happened several decades apart in time!
"...hiss...July 11th, weather: cloudy, 776 Special Forces Team, commander: Ken." A thick male voice with an accent sounded, interrupting Ke Lan's thoughts.
“…We have been here for four days.”
Hearing this, Ke Lan was a little frustrated. This record was obviously incomplete. The part he wanted to know most was how this team got here, but the recording started with the "fourth day".
"This place is very strange... Really strange. It's been four days... Although other people's electronic watches are broken, I have a mechanical watch. I can be sure that the hour hand has turned eight times... But in this place, time seems to stop..."
"July 12th, maybe it was July 12th, the weather was cloudy all the time..."
"There is no night here, but it doesn't feel like polar day either... Time seems to always be frozen at noon... Connelly said we might be on an island in the Zhonghai, but I think he's talking nonsense. The Zhonghai is on the other side of Alpha Star, and it would take several days to fly there even if we take a spaceship..."
"But... apart from the Central Sea, there doesn't seem to be any water bodies of this size on Alpha..."
"There are no living creatures on the beach, and there is no wind. The radiation concentration in the environment is very high. Fortunately, we have protective clothing and enough anti-radiation drugs."
"My adjutant suggested that I gather all the supplies together and manage them in a unified way. I think he is right."
"July 13th, still cloudy, 776 Special Forces Squad."
"On the sixth day, Jinuo and Gary who went to explore the Gobi Desert still haven't returned. It's been three days. I think they might be in trouble... but no one saw the flare, so I decided to organize a second group of people to look for them."
"Carl has set out with six people. These six people are all good fighters. I think they can find Gino and Gary... Even if they have two corpses, they have to bring them back."
" The guy transferred from the First Reconnaissance Company is annoying, but I have to say he has some unique skills - he found an 'egg', a transparent egg... It turns out that this place has something else besides sand and stones."
"That egg... Damn it! Martin, throw away the egg! Fire! Everyone, fire!"
…
"On July 15th, in two days, we lost seventeen soldiers... The egg came to life and drilled into Martin's stomach. Then... Martin turned into a monster... A monster covered with tentacles... It was invulnerable to swords and guns. The .50 caliber heavy machine gun could only repel it but could not cause any substantial damage... Those tentacles swept away all the bodies. It looked like a hunting behavior. The reason why we were able to survive was probably because that thing couldn't digest so much 'food' in a short period of time..."
"On July 16, we encountered that thing again..."
