Titan Drone

By Vicki Smalley

Far out in deep space, no one can hear you screaming your heart out. The Tempest is the largest spacecraft ever built by mankind, it was created almost exclusively for the Titan mission, capable of supporting twenty people for up to half a year in space, and in order to create artificial gravity, the personnel living module is designed as a gian

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vicki Smalley
• Release date: Jan 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869394064

Book preview

Chapter 2: The Hades

    Gezi disliked the iron pontoon, she thought it was bulky, heavy, and pinched a lot, the iron pontoons on the Hades were all old stuff that had gone through a few hands, and the masks were filled with a strong smell of rust, and this one Gezi was wearing was even worse, someone might have thrown up in it years ago - if it hadn't been an emergency landing on Titan, this ancient equipment wouldn't have come in handy at all. The ancient equipment wouldn't have come in handy at all, and who wants to hike on the surface of a hostile alien planet in thick armor?

    The girl helped Sten carry the mainframe, hobbling across the clutter and trash that littered the floor and bending down to get out of the airlock chamber; the science station had been abandoned for twenty years on the edge of a remote world, in an extremely harsh environment where much of it was no longer recognizable in its original form, crusted with gray-green and tan frost, and no telling what kind of liquid had congealed from it.

    Once out of the airlock room, the roiling wind and rain came crashing down.

    Zee watch out, watch your step. Sten's voice came out of the headset, The ground is slippery.

    Gezi looked down, and the Iron Floyd's headlamp threw dim patches of light onto the gray-black ice at his feet, the columns of light filled with raindrops.

    The group walked in the darkness of the downpour as five pillars of light swept in and out.

    To be honest none of the people in the room had ever been on Titan, the planet called Titan was familiar and unfamiliar to the whole group, it was like the sun, people all over the world looked down but none of them had actually been on board, the Hades Prospecting Ship orbited Saturn and often brushed against Titan, but no one had ever been to the neighbor's house to make a visit.

    It's only when I really strung it out that I realized what a fucking hell on earth it was.

    Shi, can this computer still be fixed? Gezi asked.

    Theoretically it's possible, don't look at it has been here for so many years, but the super-cold temperature is less harmful to the semiconductor system than the super-high temperature. On one side, Dai Yue replied, It's in a very fragile state right now, but the good thing is that it hasn't been violently damaged ...... Just for this mainframe we're carrying in our hands, it's not inconceivable to bring it back to partial functionality.

    Gezi was taken aback.

    She thought she was holding a piece of scrapped electronic garbage, but she didn't realize that Dai Yue could make this pile of garbage talk again?

    Low temperature stores information, high temperature destroys it. Dai Yue said, Cooling down is a process that slows down the increase of entropy, information is solidified and preserved in low temperatures, it's just a matter of whether or not there is the ability to read it, it's like speed freezing a living creature with extremely low temperatures, although the living creature itself is dead, but the information stored in it is actually fixed, as long as there is enough technology, we can completely replicate the exact same one out of it, but if you use a fire to burn it it to the ground, then everything becomes carbon dioxide and the information is completely destroyed? The gods can't save it.

    So we have a way to make this computer ...... what's it called? The Great White? We can get Great White working again? Gezi was a little surprised.

    They didn't even have a scientific calculator after the Hades crashed.

    If we could get the main computer in Cassini Station working again? That would certainly be a huge help.

    You're listening to Dai Yue bullshit. Liu Peijia snorted? What's his skill? It's great to be able to make my family's cabinets move.

    Go, go, go, can't let me brag in front of a little girl? Dai Yue kicked him, But then again, there is a viable solution to fixing this computer? This is not bragging, just based on my twenty years of experience in repairing home appliances? It shouldn't be a problem to get it to open its mouth and call me dad.

    What if it becomes only able to call for daddy? Liu Peijia asked.

    After walking for about five or six minutes? The distance was no more than a hundred meters, Ge Zi twisted his head and looked at Cassini Station again? The dilapidated two-story building had already disappeared into the dark rainy night, the haze on the surface of Titan was extremely serious? The visibility was extremely low, and such a harsh environment was completely unsuitable for human survival. Ge Zi remembered those people from twenty years ago--Mo Yu, Jiang Zi, Hu Donghai, Liang Jing? They lived here twenty years ago, when the Cassini station was still working properly? It was warm, bright and cozy.

    Gezi's spirit suddenly drifted off, as if she saw lights in the dimness, the dilapidated building looked like it had been revitalized and stood on the ice field, every window letting out a bright light.

    Across twenty long years, Gezi seemed to see that they were picking at the window, looking out curiously.

    Zee? Sten's voice brought her back to her senses.

    Gezi woke up with a start, realizing that her thoughts had drifted too far, she had only seen them in videos and records, the girl blinked as the building with the flashing lights disappeared like a mirage.

    They reached the spot where the Hades prospecting ship had crashed, and from a distance they saw lights piercing the dim fog, and moving iron pontoons.

    Hades crashed less than two hundred meters from the Cassini station, so close all rely on the captain of the Sten superior driving skills, the ship in fifteen kilometers away from the ground, and then in the ice skidding more than fifteen thousand meters before stopping, stopping the ship is basically falling apart, fortunately, the crew saved their lives, in the atmosphere before the Sten let all the people wear a good iron pontoon sitting in the airbags tied up with a good seat belt, the decision to save everyone's life, because the next is the experience of jumping from near-Earth orbit to the surface of the earth. The decision saved everyone's life, because the next is the sky-turning jumper experience, which jumps from near-Earth orbit straight to the surface.

    The final sturdy crew capsule managed to reach Cassini Station, while the bodies of the Hades were scattered over an area of fifteen kilometers.

    Shi! Cheese! Zee! Someone stood on top of the ship and called their names, a young woman, What's the situation over at Cassini Station? Is it habitable?

    Miki! Are you okay? Gezi shouted back.

    As the distance continued to close, the full extent of the ship gradually came into view, a black behemoth of irregular shape, its broken shell and exposed structural reinforcements giving it the appearance of an oversized hedgehog, a hedgehog with its head stuck in the ground and its ass sticking out - the Hades Prospecting Ship, a forty year old ship of meritorious service, the It was young before Cassini Station was even abandoned.

    Hades is actually a nickname given to it, its real name is IronMan.

    You think it's the Iron Man?

    Re.

    It's the Wang Jinxi number.

    The Hades prospecting ship was left with a bow and plunged headfirst into the ice, the structure of this ship was actually quite fragile, as soon as it entered the atmosphere the hull was broken by a strong overload, and then the huge air pressure almost tore the ship's shell to pieces little by little, the communication engineer Zhao Mumu, who stayed on the ship, saw that the people had returned, and hurriedly jumped down from the ship to help together to carry the server mainframe into the ship's cabin.

    Is this the computer you found? Does it still work?

    Yes, the repair might still work.

    Gezi let go and took a step back, letting out a long breath as she watched the rest of the group climb in through the structural break in the ship.

    Then she sat down on her butt, her eyes falling on the burned blackened shell of the prospecting ship, the craft was a total write-off, never to fly again.

    What a life.

    Ge Zi looked at the cold alkane downpour around him, somehow things had gotten to this point, it was really like a dream.

    Just twenty-four hours ago, she was drinking Coca-Cola in the warmth and comfort of her cabin.

Chapter III The History of Mankind is the History of Wonders

    Twenty-four hours ago.

    Gezi finished the Coca-Cola in her hand, shoved the empty can into the recycling bin, brewed for a moment, and then burped.

    Shi, Mumu, let's ...... burp ...... time to call it a day, the first spectral results ...... burp came out, the free hydrogen content went up by five percentage points , the result is not bad.

    There were four men working in the cramped cockpit, all right next to each other, arms touching heads, and Gezi grazed their backs and floated over, grasping the handles on the bulkheads and gently making a push to pull herself into the seat, then catching the seatbelt, which was suspended and twisting in mid-air, and fastening it tightly in front of her chest and stomach.

    Overhead, Jo Miki casually tossed over a piece of chocolate, and Gezi reached out to catch it.

    Dev?

    Indulge your silkiness. Miki smiled.

    There was no artificial gravity in the cockpit, so there was no up or down, and to maximize the efficient use of space, the seats in the cabin were all placed facing the control panels on the bulkheads, so except for the pilot, the rest of the few people working were in a head-to-toe position, with the crew on top of each other's heads.

    Only Captain Sten's position protruded forward, enjoying the best view of the bow alone, with the largest glass window, like a viewing balcony, Ge Zi was the operator of the Hades prospecting ship, in charge of controlling the prospecting ship's mechanical arm, she had a small piece of her own work area, Zhao Mumu was the ship's communications engineer, just above her, in Ge Zi's viewpoint, Mumu was suspended upside down from the ceiling to work, and the other two people , Liu Peijia was the flight engineer and Dai Yue was the electro-mechanical engineer, the crew group of the Hades Prospecting Vessel consisted of a total of six people, and only one of them didn't stay in the cockpit.

    Where's Boss Dre? Sten asked, Is Boss Zhuo still in the cargo hold?

    Old Zhuo is still in the cargo hold. Leaning lightly against the back of his seat, Liu Peijia, who liked the feeling of weightlessness so much that he never fastened his seatbelt to death, reached out to open the porthole's visor, and outside the window was a hazy, tumbling yellowish color-at first glance it looked like flowing mist, but in fact it was the surface of Saturn.

    With the distance between the Hades and Saturn, Liu Peijia couldn't see the complete outline of Saturn, not even the arc of its edges; the planet with a diameter of more than 120,000 kilometers was just too huge, it was so massive that it was so huge that when you sat in the Hades spacecraft, and exhausted the limits of your field of vision, you couldn't see the edges and the end of this high pale yellow wall? It seemed to stretch upward and downward and left and right? It stretches out there? It bisects the entire universe.

    Zhuo Zhi is a geologist on board the Hades, a doctorate from the Physics Department of the China University of Science and Technology, a proper high school student, but he didn't get along too well on Earth? So he took the initiative to choose the exile frontier, he exiled himself to 1.3 billion kilometers away from the orbit of Saturn, Zhuo Zhi this year forty-four years old? He is three years older than Sten. He is the oldest member of the ship's crew. Sten calls him Zhuo Boss. Gezi called him Big Brother Zhuo.

    Boss Zhuo? Closing time closing time. Sten shouted lazily into the microphone? It's time for us to get off the track, the gods return.

    Roger that. Zhuo Zhi's reply came over the headset.

    A few minutes later, the circular hatch at the aft end of the cockpit was opened? A gaunt middle-aged man with gray hair floated in, wearing blue jumpsuits and a tired face? He nodded to each other and the few people in the cabin before sitting down in his own chair and fastening his seatbelt.

    Shi, the Big Brother Zhuo god position has returned. Gezi twisted his head to remind.

    OK, Sten nodded and eased the throttle, Attention all, this is the captain announcing that the plane will be taking off soon, all passengers please check to make sure you have your seatbelts fastened ......

    At the same time, a slight vibration came along the bulkhead, Ge Zi tied to the seat, eyes on the control panel in front of him, the amplitude of the vibration is gradually increasing, not only the control panel, the bulkhead, the seat, the seat, the seatbelt, including the people followed the synchronized vibration, everything is in the violent tremor, if the other ships start that is a giant awakening, that Hades ship start is the old man bouncing.

    This old ship that knows its fate seems to fall apart every time the engine is turned on, shaking like Parkinson's, in the words of Liu Peijia, it's like sitting on the landing gear of the Boom Six-Omega, and every time Gezi is scared.

    Hades fusion prospecting ship, born from the second wave of space exploration and Titan Cassini research station at the same time the birth of the energy harvesting project, this crazy project that Saturn and Jupiter, such gas giants contain inexhaustible fusion raw materials, it is inevitable that mankind will be out of the solar system in the future, the transit station and gas station, in that radical era, Pluto funeral business have people dared to invest in the human race has just been the master of the solar system, so it is logical that Saturn and Jupiter as a gas tank. Just like the solar system has been the master, so Saturn and Jupiter as a natural gas tank is logical, people have how bold, this solar system has how much production, so the Hades prospecting ship came into being, and it was born at the same time there are hundreds of the same level of engineering ships and space stations - this is a vast army, toward the wonderful human The future was on its way.

    As the saying goes, the history of mankind is the history of building wonders, from the Ancient Babylonian sky gardens to the Mount Olympus aerial observation car to the Sinopec Rim of Saturn gas station, mankind has always been in a different place to build a big construction, if it is possible, they must want to string your star my star, strung into a concentric circle.

    Unfortunately Sinopec overestimated his own abilities and he should not have squeezed PetroChina out of the Bureau back then.

    The burst bubble destroyed everything, all the projects hastily launched in the frenzy died under the knife, the supply ships sent to the Titan Cassini Station were getting fewer and fewer, and the gas giant planet energy harvesting project, which was such a big and unprofitable project, bore the brunt of being cut off, and all the engineering ships sent out were decommissioned or converted to other uses in order to stop the loss at the right time, and once the project was dismantled, the Hades prospecting ship's status became very embarrassing, and it became a historical legacy problem. Once the project was dropped, the status of the Hades prospecting ship became very embarrassing, and it became a historical legacy that was about to face decommissioning and scrapping, and it was said that even the dismantling of the ship had been negotiated at that time, but some people cut off the ship halfway and saved it.

    That person is CSU.

    The CSU took the Hades into its hands at the low price of almost buying scrap metal, and used it as a purely scientific research vessel to continue studying the feasibility of energy harvesting on Saturn. The Hades thus avoided the end of decommissioning and scrapping, and survived, surviving until now, wandering around Saturn's orbit like a lone ghost.

    It's going to speed up brother. Sten reminded in a hushed voice, Sit tight!

    As soon as the words were spoken, everyone felt a huge overload fall on them, everyone was pressed into their seats, the fusion engines of the Hades prospecting ship were fully engaged, the ship was accelerating away from the low orbit of the ringed Saturn, their work for the day was done, they had to go to higher ground to rest, it wasn't really safe to be too close to Saturn.

    Liu Peijia looked out the window at the surface of Saturn, the distance between the ship and Saturn was gradually pulling away, he could finally see the overall outline of the other side.

    This thing is just too big.

    Liu Peijia suddenly froze slightly.

    Old Shi, we've got old neighbors stopping by again.

    At the edge of the porthole, a tiny point of light protruded from the dark background, illuminated by the sunlight, it looked like a grain of dust suspended in the air, glittering, but in the next few minutes, it rapidly grew in size at a speed visible to the naked eye, from a grain of dust to a BB bomb, and from a BB bomb to an Amphetamine pill, and finally to a yellow tennis ball.

    Titan.

    They are rapidly approaching Titan.

    Yes, we'll have to find it to lend a hand. Sten said, It's going to be a little bumpy, sit tight.

Chapter 4: Reverse parking

    Borrowing Titan's gravitational deorbiting Sten was a breeze, and the Hades did it often enough to be known as the first king of interstellar drag racing outside of Mars' orbit.

    Prepare to reverse into first gear. Sten clicked nimbly on the panel, the buttons brightening one by one as the ship's engines increased in power step by step.

    Gezi unwrapped the chocolate that Miki handed her and stuffed it into her mouth, chewing hard.

    Outside the porthole Titan was close at hand, the Hades Prospecting Vessel was moving in opposite directions to Titan, the ship was approaching it at thirty kilometers per second and it was coming up on it at five kilometers per second, a huge planet five thousand kilometers in diameter, the thick atmosphere opaque brownish yellow and grayish green to the naked eye, they flowed over Titan's surface like a viscous melting sugary sauce.

    Humans actually have a hard time intuiting objects that are too large in size, and usually have trouble comprehending their enormity, and even when it's right in front of your eyes, the brain still tends to place the other person in a frame that it can comprehend - such as visualizing it as a large Alpine suspended in the deep blackness of space.

    Gezi looked at this Alpine and tried not to think of the infinite number of details it actually possessed; beneath the atmosphere and clouds, there were eighty million square kilometers of vast land, rugged mountains and hills, and vast oceans and lakes.

    But her efforts soon failed completely, for the Hades had flown as far as the surface of the Titan, and the Alps were transformed into a vast arc that was difficult to encompass in naked-eye vision, and what had appeared to be a smooth surface showed itself in all its detail at extremely close range, with muddy clouds, irregular continents, black oceans, and lakes all slowly gliding past Gertz's head, and the girl was instantly aware of her own insignificance.

    The trajectory of the Hades prospecting ship is almost coincident with Titan's, and their closest distance when they meet at the point of intersection is only two hundred kilometers, which is a complete face-to-face flight, with the two sides approaching at a relative speed of thirty-five kilometers per second, yet at their closest distance they are less than three hundred kilometers away.

    No doubt it was a precise control, the equivalent of an eight-wheeled heavy truck and a motorcycle traveling head-on at two hundred kilometers per hour, brushing shoulders for a split second as the motorcyclist stuck a rose in the heavy truck's exhaust pipe.

    Sten is this skillful motorcyclist.

    That's just him. Anyone else would have put flowers in the windowpane.

    Sit tight brother, it's going to start shaking. Sten yelled, alerting again that the Hades had entered Titan's gravitational circle, and it was now being pulled by both Saturn and Titan at the same time, and the ship was shaking violently.

    Old Shi, how much longer do we have to shake? Liu Peijia asked loudly.

    Half a minute at the most. Sten replied, We're skimming the surface of Titan, want to put on some music? The kind that's good for bopping.

    No need, you can put it on my grave when I hang up. Liu Peiga gripped the armrests of the seat tightly.

    Another massive force came through and everyone was dead weighted in their chairs, Gezi was still chewing on his chocolate and almost bit his own tongue as the airship's engines picked up steam again, Sten even whistled? He loved the roller coaster-like feeling.

    This broken ship is like an intermittent convulsion. Dai Yue asked, When can we get a new ship?

    You'll have to ask the school about that. Zhuo Zhi sighed? The Fat Branch is also living in poverty, depending on the small amount of money allocated by the Ministry of Education and the provincial government every year? I remember some years ago when Peking University celebrated its anniversary, their alumni donated a large fusion spaceship? It's called the Messy, huh? What was that? Receiving it in geosynchronous orbit, how come we don't have any alumni like that.

    Got it? This ship is going to be in service for at least another twenty years. Sten quirked a smile, You guys go to Mars and look around? They're full of 100 year old ships? They're in their forties.

    Gezi looked out the window at Titan? She couldn't remember how many times she had gotten up close and personal with the planet.

    Twenty times?

    Or thirty times?

    Saturn has an extremely large number of moons, but very few that Gezi has any recollection of? Titan was the moon she was most familiar with? The Hades prospecting ship had often traveled to Titan to change orbits? She had never been on it once, even though at the closest point she was only two hundred kilometers from the planet.

    The Hades didn't have a lander? And the crew didn't have a landing mission? They've seen so many planets? They all just looked at them from a distance.

    In the words of Captain Sten, life is too short for us to have to walk around, and if you stop, then you can't go, because every planet is worth a lifetime to discover its charms.

    There are very few people on long-term missions in Saturn's orbit, it's just too far away from Earth to live and work hard, the Hades prospecting ship has been in service for forty years and has gone through a dozen or so major improvements, and has finally turned into an outer space drifting platform, Ge Zi thinks that at this moment the only human beings who are flying in the vast deep space more than a billion kilometers away from Earth are the six of them, and they are the six of them who are driving a small boat, swinging on the Saturn's bright halo.

    We're leaving it, say hello and goodbye to our old neighbors. Sten said, Come back and visit us next time.

    The Hades accelerated again, and the bouncing old man began his final convulsions as it turned its engines up to maximum power and began to break away from Titan's gravitational circle.

    Gezi looked distantly at the Titan that swept overhead, their meeting with it was only a short half-minute, which gave Gezi a marvelous feeling that she was rubbing shoulders with another world, it was rumored that there had once been people on board Titan, and they had even set up a small station on Titan, Gezi stared at the brown clouds that covered Titan's surface, and her eyes roamed aimlessly as if looking for the fabled scientific research station.

    What's its name?

    Galileo?

    No, it's Cassini.

    Gezi suddenly froze and blinked.

    She didn't find the Cassini station.

    But then she saw something familiar ...... that quickly drew her attention and caught her eye, a cylinder tumbling through deep space not far behind the airship, a silvery-white casing that shimmered and reflected the weak sunlight, and on the casing a strong, bushy-browed oilman painted in red and yellow, and black bolded slogans: Better to live twenty years less and fight to take the big oil fields! worker, and a black bolded slogan: I'd rather live twenty years less and fight to take the big oil field!

    Gezi stared at it for a few moments, until it slowly moved away from the ship to become the size of a grain of rice, and then she remembered what it was.

    That's one of the fusion engines from the Hades, or Wang Jinxi, the prospecting ship.

Chapter 5: Crash

    Ge Zi knocked on the porthole glass, turned his head and froze, Shi, Shi ...... did you do this? Is this normal?

    What I did? What's wrong? Sten frowned.

    The remaining five people's attention was also attracted, all of them followed the direction of Gezi's finger, then slowly squinted their eyes for two seconds before staring in shock.

    That thing is ...... muttered Liu Peiga.

    Jo Miki's reaction was faster, Oh my god.

    The fastest was Sten, who had roared out, Shit! Iron Faust! All of you put the fucking Iron Floaters on me! Hurry, hurry, hurry!

    At the same time, he kicked the control panel in front of him with force, and the force was so great that it even shook down two buttons, this broken ship Hades, bouncing off its legs and still not aware of it, Sten finally woke it up with this vicious kick, the Hades's system computer was silent for half a second, and then like a rabid dog, it yelled out a loud alarm at the top of its voice.

    Steady, don't panic ...... Steady! Sten's head was covered in sweat, he pulled the joystick forward to move the seat, in a flash the whole cockpit was filled with red light, everyone's eardrums were pierced by the sharp sound.

    "With a click, all the first aid kits in the cockpit bulkhead popped out like a magazine ejecting, the Hades ship is equipped with an emergency care system, each first aid kit is as big as a single closet, containing enough medication, oxygen, food, fresh water, and a set of Iron Float for each person, the Iron Float is a rigid exosuit used for landing on an alien planet, who knows why it's in a ship that can't land? I don't know why this is needed in a ship that can't land, the engineer who designed this system back then had a strange brain, but now everyone in the Hades just wants to thank the designer for the strange brain, they can't wait to put on all the things that can protect them.

    All the crew members immediately unbuckled their seatbelts and scrambled over to wear the iron pontoon.

    In just those few seconds, the Hades' hull began to tilt at a wide angle, and while even Sten wasn't sure what had gone wrong that the engine had actually detached from the hull and run away on its own, he knew with his ass that something was going to go terribly wrong next.

    The Hades Prospector had only two fusion engines in total, which was all that powered the ship, and now with the loss of one, the ship immediately lost its attitude.

    Gezi dragged the iron pontoon out of the locker, and before she had a chance to get into it, the ship rocked violently, and she and Zhao MuMu behind her bumped heads heavily, both of them letting out an ouch.

    Steady! Steady old Shi! Liu Peiga yelled, he was fumbling to undo the straps, but the ship was shaking so much that he couldn't hold on to the threads.

    Don't be a fucking pussy! I'm trying! Sten was fighting the ship, red-faced, as pilot and captain? He couldn't even get to the Tiefling in time.

    The ship's altitude was decreasing dramatically, and because of the close proximity, Titan, which had been overhead, flipped over and down, upside down? It appeared to the crew of the Hades that they were falling.

    Ge Zi hit the head dizzy? The index finger is still hooked to the helmet of the iron pontoon to prevent it from floating away, she vaguely remembers that once upon a time she also received an emergency self-rescue drill ...... The first step should be to put on the iron pontoon? Iron Float is a sturdy rigid extravehicular action suit, even if the ship's outer shell bulkhead breaks down and loses pressure? Iron pontoons can also protect the lives of the crew? The Iron Float configured on the Hades prospecting ship is an old model from more than ten years ago, its sandwich material is no different from a bulletproof vest, and it can even withstand the sudden impact of a miniature meteorite, and from this point of view, the Iron Float is worthy of its nickname.

    But how do you wear an iron pontoon?

    What's the catchphrase again?

    One helmet, two shoulders ...... two shoulders ......

    One helmet, two shoulders, three laces!

    Moki hugged her hard, the former already wearing the Tiefling? Gently bumping Gezi's forehead through the glass helmet? Remember Gezi? Battery gas cylinders on both sides!

    Gezi nodded? Unzip the zipper on the Iron Float? The opening was on the side as the Iron Float, being a rigid pod exosuit, had a sturdy engineered plastic chest and abdomen, so the opening was on the side, and she drilled into the Iron Float, silently chanting the mantra while checking the condition of the Iron Float.

    Get outta here! Captain! We have to get out of here! Zhuo Zhi yelled, or we're going to crash on Titan!

    I know more about our current situation than you do. Sten was red in the face.

    They had only wanted to borrow Titan's gravity to speed up, to a wonderful beautiful drift over the corner, but no one expected to drift to half of the wheel flew, which looked at the race car is going to crash out of the road.

    Sten, the veteran driver, is still trying his best to control and remedy the situation all around.

    But there was very little he could do.

    We lost an engine! Sten exclaimed.

    What about the other one? Liu Peiga asked, By accelerating with the other engine, we'll be able to raise the orbital altitude as well!

    The other engine is blown through! Sten understood what had happened, One engine overheated and blew up, shattering the other, and now the steering servos on this engine are uncontrollable, and it's accelerating in the opposite direction!

    Speak human!

    It's pushing us toward the ground! Sten could barely keep the ship stable from flipping and rolling with all his might.

    Ground? Liu Peijia froze.

    He looked up and saw that the vast expanse of Titan was already in front of him, and through the porthole, Liu Peiga saw a huge arc slowly rising.

    Then turn off the engine! Liu Peijia jumped in fear.

    It's hopeless, we're going into the atmosphere. Sten shook his head, There's no escape, God forbid.

    As the captain, he was out of ideas, the only thing he could do was to control the attitude of the Hades when it entered the atmosphere, with the strongest ventral surface to withstand the high temperature and high pressure, but the structure of the Hades was not designed to enter the atmosphere, whether it could carry Sten's heart was not clear, he could only guarantee one thing, that is, no matter what can not happen to the roll, once rolled is the air disintegration.

    Sten fixed the dead airship's attitude, then unbuckled his seatbelt and floated over to wear the iron pontoon.

    Grandma, this is dead. Liu Peijia cried and mourned, Old Shi I won't let you go even as a ghost.

    Wait until you're a ghost. Sten snapped on Tiefling's helmet.

    Titan's such a shithole, even if we manage to land alive, there's no way we can hold out until help arrives. Dai Yue said.

    Not necessarily. Sten gave him a look and turned back to sit in the driver's seat, strapping himself in securely with his seatbelt, There were people living on Titan once, so maybe they could have left something behind ...... But all that's an afterthought, first until we land alive first!

    He was the last person to put the iron pontoon on, by now, the entire crew of the Hades was all ready to land, no one spoke any more, the ship shuddered while emitting a sharp disintegration sound, everyone knew that it was the wail of the Hades being torn to shreds, Ge Zi looked out of the porthole at the ever-approaching brownish-yellow surface of the earth, the bright flames generated by the high-speed friction, and she wondered if she would survive --But Miki was still continuously sending out distress signals, she was always so calm.

    Shouldn't this be the time for last words?

    It's like a plane is about to crash, how much sense does it make to pass on your position.

    Brothers, pay attention-! Sten stared at the control panel in front of him and bellowed, Success or failure is at stake!

    He slapped the button with force, and in an instant huge white airbags expanded inside the cockpit, filling every inch of the place, everyone was surrounded by soft airbags, Gezi froze for a moment, and in the blink of an eye the outside of her mask was filled with airbags, the last line of defense for absorbing the massive kinetic energy from the impact.

    From now on, it's all about listening to God.

    The massive hull of the Hades Prospecting Ship entered the atmosphere at high speed, dragging the blazing flames and black debris all the way down towards the boundless, mist-shrouded lands of Titan.

Chapter 6 Shipyards on Track

    If someone were to stand on the ground of Titan at this moment and look up, they could see a meteor trailing a long fiery streak across the sky.

    "From the moment it was designed, the Hades prospecting ship never thought that it would be able to take a day trip into the atmosphere one day in its life, and it was born in the near-Earth orbit assembly plant of Jiangnan Shipyard, which is a new generation of space born and bred.

    In this day and age, the word shipbuilding has long been used to refer not to surface ships, but to space ships. ...... The world-famous shipyards, Jiangnan, Dalian, North Dvinsk, and Newport News, build spaceships, and the largest man-made complexes in orbit around the Earth and Mars are shipyards that build spaceships like sausages. The largest man-made complexes in orbit are shipyards, and the Jiangnan factory, with its four thousand eight hundred employees in Earth and Mars orbit, builds spaceships like sausages.

    So the Hades was never designed to be aerodynamic, it does not have the ability to fly in the atmosphere, it looks like a drilling platform - in a way it does inherit the shape of the ancient drilling platforms, it has a huge and flat base, the same as all spaceships. In a way it did inherit the shape of ancient drilling rigs, with a huge, flat base, as spaceships are wont to do, sacrificing form for function, and all of them being oddballs, the base was actually a sensitive, oversized radar used to analyze the free hydrogen content.

    It was this radar that Sten was going to rely on, and within his expectations, if the ship went headlong into the inner atmosphere, it would burn to a hundred percent.

    But Chancellor blessed them with a big flat bottom!

    So they can hit the water!

    Titan had the thickest atmosphere in the solar system, and the Hades was probably the largest man-made object ever to enter Titan's atmosphere, weighing more than six hundred tons, and it slowed down from Mach one hundred to Mach twenty in just five minutes, a self-destructive landing because their altitude was so low that they should normally have slowed down a thousand kilometers away, but they only had three hundred kilometers to spare. up, normally landing Titan should have slowed down a thousand kilometers away, but they only had three hundred kilometers to spare.

    Sten had to slow down to full power to prevent the ship from crashing headlong into the surface at hypersonic speeds, and they were relying on the underside of the Hades to glide through the atmosphere at high speeds, with the one remaining fusion engine controlling attitude and direction of flight - Sten remembered. Sten remembered that there had been people on Titan, and the remains of them were still there, the only hope for the ship's survival.

    If they can find a shelter left behind by those who came before them, then there is hope that they can persevere.

    Sten entered the path into the ship's computer, aiming straight for the fabled plains of Shangri-La!

    His eardrums were pierced by a sharp metallic twisting sound, and a loud clack, clack, clack came from behind him, sounding as if something had snapped, and blood spilled out of the corner of Sten's mouth as he clenched his teeth tightly.

    Another big problem was revealed; the ship's own structure simply couldn't hold up to such a massive overload.

    Sten had jettisoned all the parts he could, but the ship was still completely ripped apart? The air resistance suddenly increased as they dropped to less than 200 kilometers in altitude, and the ship's hull disappeared without a trace in an instant, along with all of the cargo inside the ship's hold, which was gripped by the air pressure and thrown out, scattering hundreds of kilometers in the air? The Hades prospecting ship looked like it had been ripped off all of its own flesh and skin by a strong force, leaving only its skeleton running naked in the air.

    The only thing that held on to be intact was the cockpit? The cockpit was a level above the rest in terms of solidity, and Sten had closed it completely when he entered the atmosphere.

    The cockpit holds up though.

    But the occupants may not be able to hold out.

    Gezi had already thrown up in his helmet? Good thing the vomit didn't clog her airway, the huge overload created by the deceleration was beyond the limits of what the human body could tolerate? She began to feel dizzy and nauseous. Then her eyes became bloodshot, her vision blackened, her eardrums stung, and finally all the joints and muscles in her body, including her spine, ached intensely, and her brain seemed to be about to explode, Ge Zi vaguely heard other people shouting in the blur of consciousness, as if they were Sten and Liu Peijie. A man's physical strength and resistance is really stronger than a woman's? Ge Zi was having a very hard time even staying awake? They still had the strength to talk.

    Old History ...... Are we still alive?

    Not far from death.

    Where is this going?

    Shangri-La. Sten was breathing heavily? He was puffing out his belly to breathe? An old face was suffocating.

    As captain of the ship, he had lost control of the Hades, and was so wrapped up in the airbag that he couldn't even touch the operating levers.

    Now it was just a matter of listening to God and praying that the ship's computers would take them successfully to their destination.

    Shangri-La? Daiyue was still able to stay awake.

    I don't know if you ...... remember. Sten replied, There were people on Titan once, and they set up settlements here.

    Bull. Liu Peiga said, Anyone who can stay in this hellhole is no mortal.

    Card ...... card ......, said Day.

    Cassini Station. Sten was tied securely to the seat unable to move, and it was the right choice to latch on to the Tiefling just in time, without it they would probably have lost consciousness long ago, the Tiefling had helped them carry the vast majority of the pressure.

    Where is it? Liu Peiga asked.

    The other side.

    The other side?

    The other side of this planet!

    There was another loud thud from the violent shaking, followed by the ship starting to spin, and Sten said to himself that it was not good!

    Maintaining a stable stance is a prerequisite for a successful landing, and if the stance is not stable then they are 100% dead.

    At this time, the fusion engine to save the day, it split a speed vector hard to stop the beginning of the ship spinning, pull it back, the lower the altitude of the atmospheric density of the higher, Titan is a year-round storms on the planet, in the gusts of wind to stabilize the attitude is really not easy.

    "The Hades prospector leapt again at an altitude of one hundred kilometers, using its underside to bounce through the atmosphere, a jump of more than a thousand kilometers.

    The plains of Shangri-La were on the other side of the planet, more than 4,000 kilometers away in a straight line, and the Hades was breaking up, so I wondered if it would make it to its destination.

    Comrades ...... have any last words while it is now, then late no chance. Sten said, Zee? Mumu? Boss Zhuo?

    He twisted his head around with difficulty, but didn't see the rest of the occupants.

    Don't yell ......, Liu Peijia also can't hold on any longer, he feels his heart is about to explode, Whether they are still alive or not is not known.

    You ...... you yell at them for me.

    Shout ah. Liu Peiga said, I'm fucking hanging up too.

    "The Hades is burning as it rubs violently against the atmosphere, and at its hottest point it can exceed 3,000 degrees Celsius, at which temperature stainless steel will vaporize, and the temperature inside the cockpit is rising sharply, so that if someone looks out through the porthole, he can see that the edges of the ship are already burning red.

    The ship could disintegrate at any moment, but Gezi didn't know that she was already in a coma, and if the Hades collapsed in the next second, she would be thrown dozens of kilometers into the air and die senselessly.

Chapter 7: Better dead than alive.

    Death is actually quite good, Gezi and afraid of pain and afraid of cold, the most afraid of is to suffer torture before death, if she must die, then she most hope that this death: first eat all over the world, from the Earth to eat Mars and then eat from Mars to the Earth, and then play all over the solar system, from Mercury to Pluto and then from Pluto to Mercury to play, play a circle down almost two hundred years old, and then peacefully end of life.

    But of course it's best if you don't die, it's better to die than to live.

    The Hades prospecting ship glided through Titan's atmosphere for 4,000 kilometers, and when it finally landed, only half of the ship was left open, and the only remaining fusion engine had fulfilled its historic mission, and managed to carry Hades to the Shangri-La Plain with a perseverance that surpassed that of any other engine. The ship's bow made contact with the surface at a precise angle of three degrees, and then skidded on the ice for fifteen kilometers, an angle which, if it had been one degree wider, would have driven it headlong into the ground.

    The moment the ship made contact with the ground, the tremendous kinetic energy destroyed the entire ship, including everything in the cockpit, as if a pair of large, unseen hands had squeezed the ship from end to end, and even the strongest skeleton was twisted and broken.

    In Sten's words, it was a barely controllable air crash.

    The only one who stayed awake from beginning to end was Sten, the moment the ship touched the ground all the cushioning in the cabin was shaken off, the control panel, buttons, screens, cables and even the seats were detached from the fixed, they were wrapped up in the airbags and turned around in the sky, just like the six dice in the cup that were picked up and shaken frantically, and just like a car that rear-ended at high speed and then rolled off a cliff, the airbags and the Iron Floaters saved the lives of the crew, the airbags absorbed The airbag absorbed most of the energy, and the iron pontoon helped them resist the overload, otherwise they would have died in the violent impact even if they had landed on the ground.

    Sten estimated that the sky turned upside down for about five or six minutes, and there were all kinds of sounds in his ears, and his auditory nerves were numbed by the shock before the surroundings quieted down, and he should be glad that the one who shook the dice wasn't the God of Gambling, or else the dice were shaken to pieces.

    When he finally came to a stop he was buried in a pile of garbage, blindfolded with an airbag he didn't know what was holding him down.

    Sten unbuckled his seatbelt and removed the airbag wrapped around himself, which had burst, Sten tried to get up, but the seat under his buttocks lurched to the side, tipping over with the chair, clunk? I do not know what hit.

    The cockpit wasn't the same as it had been before, and even Sten, a veteran driver who had entered it countless times, had no idea what shape it had taken nowadays? He slowly raised his hand and pushed away a large panel that had smashed into his chest? Broken glass crackled down - what the hell was this?

    Sten screwed on the headlamp of the Tiefling? Narrowing his eyes for a second.

    It turned out to be a twisted and deformed piece of liner, and Sten remembered that its original position was at the top of the hatch? It looked like the entire roof of the pod had smashed down.

    Lao Shi? Old Shi are you dead yet? Liu Peijia's faint voice came from the headset.

    Not dead yet. Sten was overjoyed? It seemed he wasn't the only one who survived, How are you doing, Eggplant? Is it okay?

    Still breathing? Can't move for a while though. Liu Peijia let out a long breath and licked his teeth? Only to realize that his mouth was full of blood? My body is as hard as a rock? A little bit of strength is gone ...... really fucking life ah, this is not dead.

    Where are the others? Sten asked? Moki? Boss Zhuo? Xiao Zi, Dai Yue, how are they doing?

    Mu Mu ...... Mu Mu is by my side. Liu Peijia panted? Twisted his head to look? Zhao Mumu rolled with him? The girl's luck was better, a long steel pipe that broke off rubbed the helmet and stuck the seatback through, and then an inch off the person was gone, It seems like it's not much of a problem, just haven't woken up yet.

    It's good that it's all right ...... it's good that it's all right. Sten sighed in relief.

    Old history.

    Hmm?

    Are we there yet? Liu Peiga asked.

    We should be there. Sten replied, If the ship's computers are correct, we're not far from Cassini Station.

    What if it goes wrong?

    Then we're dead.

    Sten struggled to get up, he squeezed out the last bit of strength from the inside of his body, straightening his body, just like Liu Peijia, Sten's limbs were equally stiff and painful, his feet were like lead and his knees couldn't even bend.

    Sten had overestimated his ability to withstand it, the high overload created when loading into the atmosphere and violently decelerating was something an ordinary person couldn't withstand, Sten's brain was spinning, he should have laid down and rested immediately.

    But now there is no time to rest, he climbed out of the airbag, raised his eyes to look around, Iron Faust's headlight light wherever it went was a mess, the airship has been turned into a four-sided leakage of broken thatched cottage, the skin and lining off, the metal skeleton is twisted and bent, broken cables drooping down, burst airbags masked on top of a field of debris, the bow crashed into the ice has been shattered into crumbs, it is a good thing that the Sten's seat flew out, or else he would have been follow the bow of the ship together into slag.

    A man moved under the airbag, he slowly crawled out, it was Liu Peijia.

    He was also holding someone in his arms, an unconscious Miki.

    Liu Peijia dragged Miki out of the seat, then collapsed to the ground gasping for air.

    He looked around, Shit, can this ship still fly?

    Can.

    Can?

    Then there's a ghost. Sten shook his head and crawled over to check on Zhao Mumu's condition, making sure she was safe and sound before turning back to the others.

    Can the Earth and Mars side receive our distress signal? Liu Peiga asked, Do they know something has happened to us?

    God knows. Sten couldn't guarantee it, this Titan and Mars were millions of miles away, who could guarantee that they heard your cries for help?

    This is troublesome, won't we die here.

    But the school will definitely find out we're missing, and when they do, they'll be looking for rescue. Sten said.

    When will they realize something has happened to us? Liu Peiga asked.

    Twenty days.

    Twenty days!

    Liu Peijia and Sten two people work together, the rest of the crew from the rubble one by one dragged out, Ge Zi, Zhuo Zhi, Dai Yue, and then open the first aid kit, in turn, to check the state of the crew members, a few people more or less injured, but not life-threatening, the situation is slightly more serious is Zhuo Zhi, that is, a concussion, Dai Yue regained his sobriety, he was surprised to look around, and the first thing to ask is: I'm still alive?

    You're alive. Sten patted him on the shoulder and grinned.

    It was an incredible miracle that the Hades prospecting ship entered the atmosphere and made a forced landing on the surface of Titan, with the crew surviving.

    (Author Jun gossip: this book results have been unsatisfactory, similar subject matter compared to the flow of the heavens flow wireless flow, the market audience is still too small, consider the future can change a direction, write write the heavens Hong Kong comprehensive or something.)

Chapter 8: The wind here kills.

    When the crew members were all awake, Sten would then take them out of the crashed ship.

    The sky outside was covered in a thin layer of misty fog, Zhao Mumu helped Ge Zi jump down from the break in the cabin and landed lightly on the ground, under her feet was a hard layer of ice, she was still very unaccustomed to the gravity of the environment here, and she almost slipped and fell.

    Everyone stopped to look around and took a deep breath, including Captain Sten, the crew of Hades was the first time to really set foot on Titan, this is a desolate and cold planet, the whole world is brown and gray, the terrain of Shangri-La Plain has no ups and downs, and there are only gentle slopes and haze as far as the eye can see. Haze, today's weather is good, no gusty winds and heavy rain, visibility is very high, Ge Zi can see the glacier 50 meters away.

    In Gezi's opinion, this place was somewhat like the polar regions of the Earth, she had finally set foot on this planet, a distant land more than a billion kilometers away from the Earth, and when the planet that usually only appeared in video footage was actually stepped on, the excitement and curiosity in the girl's heart was actually greater than the uneasiness and panic.

    Sten secured the supplies with a sled, which was then hauled on a rope over an iron pontoon, each man so hauling a small sled with food, fresh water, oxygen and medicine strapped to it, pulling it wherever he went.

    Note that the gravity in this hellhole is only one-tenth of Earth's, so be careful. Sten reminded the others, looking solemn, If you don't want to fly out, follow me ......

    Sten took the first step, his back suddenly shortened downward, and he was gone.

    The crew probed their heads and saw Sten sliding down the slope, and they could not help but wonder as they watched Sten speeding further and further down the slope.

    Thinking that it's worthy of being a captain, experienced in the end, and that he can race on this shitty road, Ge Zi also shouted at him, Shi you slow down! We can't keep up!

    Until Sten's terrified voice came back, Help... help... ah...!

    Every ten meters, Sten inserted a metal road marking on the ground, road marking in the fog flashing red light, can be seen from a distance, all the way from the airship over, Sten has inserted ten? This means that they have walked more than a hundred meters, a line of six people in a column, holding each other with a cable to prevent separation? Sten was at the head of the line, followed by Dai Yue? followed by Zhuo Zhi, Ge Zi and Mu Mu? Liu Peijia was located at the end of the line and was in charge of pressing the line.

    Shi, how far are we from that Cassini station? Liu Peijia craned his head to look? The safety rope stretched all the way into the mist, and the ship could vaguely see a black silhouette.

    I don't know. Sten said? He stops slightly to rest for a moment? Lifting his head to look forward, But we're going in the right direction, and going down in that direction will get us to Cassini Station.

    No one knows how far the ship crashed from Cassini Station? "The Hades was completely out of control at the end of its atmospheric entry? After the crash, all navigation systems were disabled, and the crew was unable to confirm their position. Sten could only pray that the ship was as close to Cassini as possible? Based on his friendship with the Hades for more than ten years, he was sure it wouldn't screw him over.

    Gezi is holding the safety rope in her hand? She followed Zhuo Zhi step by step? She doesn't have to worry about anything. Just follow the others.

    I'm afraid the rope won't be long enough if we keep going like this. Liu Peijia said, Old Shi? Old Shi? Can you be certain that this is the direction?

    Duchess. Sten nodded.

    Shi you're so sure, what's the exact basis? Dai Yue asked, We don't even know where we are yet.

    Intuition. Sten replied.

    Your intuition tops it all! Liu Peiga cursed out.

    So you'll lead?

    Ge Zi raised his head