Sure enough, after the vehicle in the middle shut down its engine, the black bugs gradually gave up on it and stopped attacking.
Even the black bugs that were parked on the car slowly flew away.
Yu Yifeng breathed a sigh of relief. This method worked. These damn bugs were indeed attracted by the heat!
Looking out the window again, bugs are emerging from caves in all directions, like a pile of black ones, crawling across the desert, just like a pile of scarabs in the movie. This number is really terrifying, if you have trypophobia
People would probably be scared to death.
The 100 people hiding in the car were all worried and frightened, and did not dare to move at all. Fortunately, there was this shelter, otherwise, everyone might have suffered misfortune.
This swarm of insects was like crazy, all beating their wings and rushing towards the direction of the flight base's fall.
The reason is all because of heat energy!
The engine of the crashed spacecraft was in the process of rising in temperature. The core temperature was several thousand degrees, and the sodium vapor was even continuing to burn! At the same time, another water-cooling device ejected a large amount of high-temperature water vapor.
The heat brought by this kind of nuclear engine is much higher than a few incendiary bombs, so this group of things are madly attracted...
In the front tracked vehicle, some people were mourning the deceased, especially the relatives and friends of the deceased, who were immersed in a sad and painful atmosphere.
There were also people discussing in low voices, frowning and thinking hard, trying to solve the crisis at hand.
How did such an underground ecosystem form? Why do insects produce strong acid? Why do they have such strong thermotaxis?
Time passed minute by minute, and an hour and a half passed in the blink of an eye. There was still a steady stream of insects outside, showing no signs of decreasing, and Yu Yifeng became more and more anxious...
Their time is not infinite, and everyone knows clearly that the nuclear engine will explode in a few hours.
No... six hours to be precise! At such a close distance, they will definitely be affected by the nuclear explosion!
It's still too close now, and we haven't gone more than a few kilometers in total. It's not a very good choice to take a nuclear bomb.
"How are you, professors? Do you have any results?"
Yu Yifeng asked anxiously: "I don't know how many damn bugs there are. We can't wait indefinitely! We must find a way to get out of here quickly!"
A biologist whose power armor was burned black by fire and escaped from the insect pile was stunned for a moment, and then said with some fear:
"After discussion, we agreed that heat energy is the main energy source of the underground ecosystem! Just like light is as important to plants! However, because the scarcity of geothermal heat is not as sufficient as light, the organisms here generally have strong
Aggression.”
"Only aggressive creatures can occupy the best places."
"And our power armor will also release a high amount of heat, especially the heat dissipation area on the lower right, which is at least 40 or 50 degrees Celsius, so we will be attacked by them!"
Yu Yifeng nodded. He touched it with his hand and found that the heat dissipation area on the lower right was indeed the most corroded.
Moreover, the fact that insects do not attack the cold tracked vehicles also indirectly proves this point.
Heat is the only thing that attracts them!
The biologist thought for a while and continued: "Based on various phenomena, we suspect that these huge underground caves are corroded by the acidic liquid of black worms! Because the deeper the caves are corroded, the closer they are to the geothermal heat!"
"Just like plants on the earth have a phototropism and can't help but grow in the direction of light, these underground creatures have an instinctive thermotaxis! Geothermal means stable energy, so they will move towards the spacecraft.
Swarming away in the direction!"
"It's a high-temperature area. Maybe they mistakenly thought they had discovered a new geothermal source..."
Yu Yifeng nodded. He originally wanted to ask about other more important things, but he suppressed his impatience and continued to listen.
The biologist picked up the corpse of a bug and said: "As for the acidic liquid in their bodies... we guess that they may have evolved to corrode underground rocks. This is the result of natural selection!"
"Rocks hundreds of kilometers deep underground are usually extremely hard due to ultra-high pressure. This kind of hardness is not the same as the soil on the surface. It is too difficult to drill holes! Especially when encountering large rocks.
Time... Moreover, these insects cannot have large drilling machines like humans and cannot break through rocks."
"Only through generations of acid corrosion can we go further down! Further down, closer to the underground thermal energy! Thermal energy is their life!"
Having said this, the scientist seemed to have forgotten the thrill just now, and became a little shocked, excited and enthusiastic.
Life is so magical, and Darwin's theory of evolution has once again been verified: the fittest survive, and the unfit are eliminated. Under cruel natural selection, more tenacious life will always appear.
There is no sun here, only geothermal heat!
As a result, a group of strange creatures that can perfectly utilize geothermal energy appeared!
In order to get closer to the geothermal heat, they dig holes, corrode, dig, and do almost anything...
Only by relying on geothermal energy can we survive! This is a truly cruel natural selection, and it is much more difficult than the environment on earth!
"So...their acid is particularly effective on our helmets. This is acid that has evolved over hundreds of millions of years and is specially used to corrode rocks!"
I see, this is a good explanation...
The helmet on the head is made of nano-silica plus some organic additives. It contains silica anyway. So it cannot withstand the corrosion of black insects.
Another scientist took over the topic and said with some fanaticism: "We speculate that these black bugs can even directly absorb heat energy and synthesize organic matter in areas with higher temperatures?!"
"Maybe... they can replace plants as producers! An insect producer that can replace plants? No... this is just a conjecture and requires anatomical research."
"When they absorb heat, they will habitually use part of the energy to synthesize acidic liquids, and then slowly corrode this part of the rock, thereby digging the cave deeper... Years of accumulated corrosion, coupled with the scouring effect of water flow,
This resulted in the formation of such a large-scale cave!”
"And I just discovered that this acidic mixed liquid with melted silica will form a harder rock once it solidifies! This re-solidified rock is extremely hard, so it reduces the occurrence of underground cave collapses!
"
"Yes, that must be the case!"
In this way, the first unsolved mystery is solved.
The caves scattered all over the planet are actually corroded by black bugs. It’s simply unbelievable!
Such a giant project stretches across the entire continent's underground cavities. Even humans can't do it, but little bugs have managed it.
Maybe...it took them tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of years?!
Everyone was thinking blankly, even Yu Yifeng was stunned. This is the shock brought by life...
And great!
In the past, when the earth had a superior environment, this was a great achievement that was unimaginable! Do the eight wonders of mankind have a combined construction volume that is one billionth of that of underground caves?
After a long time, Yu Yifeng calmed down and remembered the business: "Professors, is there any way to prevent the bugs from attacking us? It has been delayed for too long, we must leave quickly!"
Although the expert was not very sure, he still said it: "Heat energy is still heat energy in the end. We'd better not let the power armor emit heat, so they won't stop or attack! Maybe that's it!"
"They are definitely creatures that reject the cold!"
Prevent the power armor from emitting heat?
Yu Yifeng frowned and thought hard, what can be done? Is it impossible to take off the power armor?
The power armor on people cannot be turned off just like a crawler vehicle. If the energy system is turned off, leaving aside various life-support facilities, people will not be able to move around wearing dozens of kilograms of iron clothes...
But when the power armor is activated, it will inevitably emit heat, and then be attacked by the insect tide again!
This is a dilemma!
It would be nice to have a spacesuit, but that won't work...if a small number of bugs land on it and secrete acid, the spacesuit will be damaged immediately.
Isn't it possible to put a layer of mud on the power armor?
Preferably something that can cool you down!
Yu Yifeng and others thought hard, what can be used to cool down?