The cold wind howled, snow flakes flew, and the vast ice cap area and the occasional flash of frozen soil areas all reflected the gleaming white light.
This is Antarctica, one of the areas that even though humans have made great strides into the universe, they still cannot fully control it.
The other two places are the underground and the deep sea.
In almost all colonial planets developed by humans, these locations with harsh environments, scarce resources, and difficulty in development are abandoned by default.
However, after it is clear that there is only a small territory that humans can expand in the universe, and the only two ways to expand are war and trade, this "wasteful" behavior may be deeply hated by future generations.
What flew over the ice sheet was a Chinook transport helicopter.
Normally speaking, it is impossible for ordinary transport planes to fly in such extremely cold weather, let alone such a long direct flight to the South Pole. However, due to the existence of the "mass effect shield", many places that were originally unable to be explored
The location has also become a thoroughfare.
Even so, cost is still a big problem. Spending precious "Element Zero" just to find minerals in Antarctica? That must be crazy.
There were three members on board the transport plane. They were a bearded pilot wearing windproof goggles, a gray-haired man in a suit and leather shoes who looked like a civilian employee, and a smart black leather coat who seemed ready to pull out a gun at any time.
red-haired woman.
"Perhaps, those 'Only Earth Party's are right..." The man looked at the white snow outside the cabin, seemed to feel something, and said to himself.
"What are you talking about?" The woman slapped him on the back, almost knocking him over: "If we weren't all our own people here, you would be in trouble, you know?"
"..." The man used his hands to support the chair in front of him and sat upright again: "It is precisely because we are all one of our own that I can say this."
"Hahaha! I asked why little Eva insisted on calling me here even though she is an excellent driver herself." The driver in the front seat laughed: "It turns out that she can't spare any time."
"What are you talking about!" The woman slapped the man again.
"Say less, William. If she doesn't know you well, she won't hit you. The only one who will be unlucky is me." The man looked like he wanted to hide somewhere.
The two people who were flirting were naturally Jack Harper and Eva Kull. After the initial dust of the "Superpower Network Incident" settled, they were ordered to return to Earth to search for a place belonging to the "Earth Guardian".
A scientific research station near the South Pole.
The driver's name was "William Dyer", and he seemed to be Governor Claude's subordinate on Earth, responsible for coordinating their return to Earth. Jack didn't ask about his specific identity, and there was no need to ask.
Since we know that Eva is an "excellent driver", she is a very core member.
"Seriously, according to the information I collected, that scientific research station has been abandoned for many years due to the discovery of element zero and mass effect. Why would you come back from aliens to explore there? Even if you have valuable information,
, is it outdated now?" William asked while driving.
"..." Jack and Eva looked at each other: "Since we are already here, it should be okay to tell you."
"There...maybe there are still living people there."
————
In the "Superpower Network" incident that broke out about half a year ago, Touya Suzuka was just a little fish obsessed with research. Star Alliance caught a lot of "Earth Guardians" and placed them in various colonies.
Star's undercover.
The main force is to develop the earth, but the action of penetrating the colonial star is faster than anyone else, which makes people don't know how to evaluate it.
What's even more troublesome is that catching these people is actually useless.
As long as they do not violate the laws of the Star Alliance, the governor of any colonial star cannot arrest them because they support the Earth Party or have contact with members of the Earth Party.
Because the "Earth Only Party" is just a trend of thought, and few members of the "Earth Guardian" who are actually judged to be an illegal organization have not been caught at all. Occasionally, some are arrested, and they are not even small shrimps.
Of course, that is only a problem for other colonial stars. For Europa 7, being hostile to the group of superpowers, they have no other choice but to flee. If they have to bite the bullet and use the excuse that they "have not broken the law"
There, the students with special abilities will let him know how far he can go without breaking the law.
In this process, Governor Claude's adopted son seemed to have played a very important role, but he did not appear in the relevant intelligence and internal announcements.
As far as Jack knew, the boy seemed to have established a supernatural organization called the "Father Worried Alliance" and claimed that if the applicant could not make his father feel worried, he would not be eligible to participate.
As for the current members... Jack thought about it, Kaos, [■■], [■■■], Misaka Mikoto, Lena Oxton, Hannah Abbott, Cedric Albert, Yi
Liya Kamski, Suzuko Yuriko, all of them will indeed make their father worry.
However, the girl CEO’s father seems to have disappeared, so it’s hard to say she’s worried.
No, it's too far away. Jack gathered his divergent thoughts.
During the search for those pro-Greek infiltrators, the Star Alliance found more evidence, some of which were still marginal, but some of which were clearly illegal. As long as the evidence was found, they could be thrown into prison.
.
The purpose of coming to Antarctica this time is to confirm a very bad "evidence". If it is exposed, not only will the Earth Party be denounced verbally and writtenly, but the Star Alliance, which has failed to supervise it well, will also be involved.
It just so happened that Europa 7 was at its peak, both as a fleet and as a superpower, and did not need much supervision, so he and Eva were sent to deal with this matter.
That was in 2077, an Antarctic research station named [Chaldea] was built with the support of the Earth-only Party. Its responsibility was to monitor the meteorological data of the entire Antarctic, conduct horizontal comparisons with the meteorological data of other continents, and then Infer possible future climate changes and even climate disasters.
It did have some significant results and saved many people from climate disaster warnings, but all this became meaningless with the discovery of "Element Zero" and "Mass Effect" - before being able to travel With the conditions of the universe, who cares about the climate in Antarctica?
And that scientific research station, which could barely be regarded as a meritorious achievement of the Earth-only Party, was gradually marginalized and even forgotten under the trend of "the goal is the stars and the sea" - it was truly forgotten.
Information found from those members of the Earthly Party who clearly violated the law shows that the last message sent by the Chaldean Research Station in 2138 was: "Due to the long-term polar storm, we missed the opportunity to resupply and had to enter collectively. The dormant warehouse is waiting for it to stop, and it is estimated that it will last more than half a year, my God.”
"Then what?"
"there is none left."
"You mean..." William Dale hesitated for a moment and said in disbelief: "The personnel of that scientific research station have been frozen in ice for twenty years?"
"Yes." Jack nodded.
"And those guys from the Earth Party simply forgot about them?"
"……right."
"And you just said that the Earth-only Party is correct?!"
"Uh, that's not what I meant." Seeing William looking like he was about to drop the joystick and come over to hit someone, Jack repeatedly said to reassure him: "I mean, if Star Alliance didn't focus on opening up the universe, these accidents would be possible. Avoided."
"'These'?! Are there many similar accidents?" William's beard stood up.
"Not many, probably more than twenty, but most projects without logistical support have been disbanded after confirming that they will not receive support. Situations like the Antarctic research station are actually relatively rare," Eva stopped Jack from continuing to speak. , reached out and patted William on the shoulder: "We are here to solve the problem, aren't we?"
"...Hmph," William's anger seemed to be suppressed: "If it weren't for my daughter who is also studying in Academy City, I would definitely give you a punch."
It must be the physical variation system, right? The words swirled around Jack's lips, but he didn't say them out in the end.
"Anyway, we went to bring them back," Eva said: "They probably didn't expect that only twenty years later, helicopters, let alone supply convoys, would be able to cross Antarctica."
"Hey, I don't like hearing this anymore. Although there is no problem with the hardware, the flight has been smooth sailing all the way. The driver's skills are very important." William began to boast.
"Yes, you are amazing." Eva responded immediately.
"..." Jack looked at the exchange between the two with a look of disbelief. Is this the same Eva who swears and hits people anytime and anywhere?
Perhaps sensing Jack's gaze, Eva turned her head and glared at him. The message contained in this glance was very clear: I will kill you if you keep looking at her like that.
Okay, I understand, this is the external business mode. Jack silently turned back and looked outside the cabin.
Then, I saw the helicopter passing by a round white building halfway up the snow-capped mountain.
"William! We flew over!"
"Huh, it's you who said good things about the Earthbound Party and made me angry." William responded angrily and controlled the helicopter to turn around.
It's obviously Eva...well, it's me.
————
The landing process of the Chinook was not difficult. Although the tarmac had not been used for nearly twenty years and was covered with thick snow, it was meaningless to the helicopter's mass effect field.
For the same reason, the three people who got off the helicopter did not wear thick cold-proof clothing at all - the mass effect shield that comes with the multi-purpose tool integrates cold and wind protection functions, that is, it is suitable for places lacking air such as space and the seabed.
The environment is in doubt.
"The design here...is not bad." William commented.
Compared with traditional research stations built on the plains, "Chaldea" ingeniously hollowed out a small hill, and the entire disc-shaped structure was only exposed to the outside at less than 120 degrees.
This degree of concealment may be the reason why scientific researchers have the confidence to hide in the dormant warehouse and wait for rescue, without worrying about the building being damaged due to disastrous weather.
"They may have sent signals later, but the outside world obviously couldn't receive them." Jack looked around the research station and quickly noticed the half-collapsed signal tower in front of the station.
"The basic functions of the research station are still running, and the identity verification... passed," Eva said while operating the multi-purpose tool and went straight to the door: "Very good, it seems that the facilities inside are still running at the lowest power.
We don't have to worry about not being able to maintain hibernation due to insufficient energy."
Will everyone survive? It's not impossible. Jack followed up while observing the surrounding environment.
Judging from the benefits, the death of all members is naturally the lowest. Without witnesses, the Earth Party can completely blame them for this matter.
Although it would be worthy of celebration if all members survived, but in that case the Earth-only Party would have no responsibility.
Only if some die and some survive can the benefits be maximized, but this is the most difficult thing to achieve. Unless something goes wrong with the dormant warehouse, it is not the responsibility of the earthbound party.
"The test equipment is still running, the daily necessities are well stored, and everything is in order." Eva walked in the curved passage first, observing the cabins one by one and explaining: "Well... I am not familiar with the structure here.
Where is the dormant warehouse?”
"In the main energy room, go through three more doors." Jack looked at his multi-purpose tool: "You only required the identity verification process when you set out, but you didn't ask for the map of the research station?"
"What? No?" Eva turned to glare at him.
"Why not?" Jack replied immediately.
"The flirting can wait," William frowned and interrupted their conversation: "Did you two hear anything?"
"Who is flirting with him!"
"sound?"
Jack tried to listen but failed, and then used a multi-purpose tool to amplify the sounds in the environment, and finally heard a whisper as thin as a gossamer:
【Tai——Li——】
Who is calling someone named Terry?
"It seems to be coming from the dormant warehouse," Jack looked up and looked in the direction of the sound: "Perhaps our entry triggered the awakening mechanism?"
"Then we'd better go and respond," Eva put away her fist as if she wanted to give Jack a blow: "The same rehabilitation method cannot be used for half a year of dormancy and twenty years of dormancy."
"Then what are you waiting for?" William strode directly in that direction.
Huh? He just heard about what happened here today, why is he so active?
Jack felt a little strange, but for the moment he could only think that he had great sympathy for these people who had been dormant for twenty years, so he and Eva quickly followed.
【Tai——Li——】
[Tai——Ke——Li——]
As several people approached the dormant warehouse, the calls became clearer and the syllables also changed slightly.
Is there another couple in this scientific research station? They just woke up and couldn't move easily, so they kept calling each other's names?
"Stop shouting! Stop shouting! You—"
William, the fastest runner, was the first to rush into the dormant warehouse, shouted heroically for a while, and was stunned.
Huh? What surprised him so much——
Jack, who followed William through the door, was just halfway through thinking when his mind instantly went blank.
This is an energy warehouse, and it is also a dormant warehouse. A row of twenty dormant frames are arranged in a ring against the wall. In the center of them is an energy column that is emitting a faint blue light.
And an indescribable "thing" is wrapped around the energy column. It looks like a huge ball of mud, with a vague light shining on the surface. Thousands of them are constantly emitting green light and are composed of pus.
The eyes are constantly moving, breaking down, and forming again on its surface.
