Returning from the abyss

Chapter 534 Counting 10 Years Ago

In the huge translucent metal tube, there is an unknown liquid floating, and in the liquid are soaked many bodies of different shapes - aliens, or, in other words, civilizations in appearance.

Lu Ning got a text translation component from NE-002, with which she could translate the text on some metal books under and near those metal pipes.

Generally speaking, the "Ranger" civilization has a tradition of advocating individual force. Lu Ning and others walked carefully step by step to this place that looks like a herbarium. In fact, they did not set up any killing mechanism here.

The strongest defense is always their own.Of course, this does not mean that there are no defensive measures, but that these defensive measures are an add-on for other purposes—now Lu Ning’s team just walked over without activating any function, so naturally there are no defensive measures Activated.

"This is the trophy showroom." Lu Ning said after carefully reading the inscriptions under several metal pipes.

"Trophy?" Spades asked in disbelief, pointing to the aliens who were obviously still sleeping in the metal tube.

"Every time the rangers defeat a civilization, they will collect the best genes of that civilization, make a perfect specimen and put it in their private showroom... the same is true here."

"All these civilizations were defeated by one person?" Clarinet was a little surprised.

"It can't be said that it is a single person. The rangers have a life tradition similar to that of a tribe, and the leader represents the tribe. Judging from the inscriptions, they are roaming the universe in this way, looking for opponents, and then defeating... it lasted for an unknown number of years. "

Longmai walked to the wall, where weapons were displayed on the weapon rack. Even with the passing of time, these weapons still did not have any traces of rust, but were coated with a dull and thick color by time.Although they are huge, since rangers with a height of about three meters can use them, humans can barely pick them up.

"The rangers are very good at metallurgy. The metal they forge is the best raw material for weapons, at least..." Lu Ning walked over, pulled out an army standard dagger, and lightly touched the edge of a battle ax , The tip of the dagger was cut off immediately.

"It is a level of technology that we have not yet reached."

"Captain, is there any record here of why they left? If they left with preparation, there's no need to leave everything behind, right?" Tie Mei asked.

"There are only some records related to the showroom here, and there are no leaving parts. Maybe we have to look elsewhere. By the way, although these are called specimens, they are all alive. You'd better be careful." Lu Ning pointed to the metal pipes, "The glorious age of the Rangers is estimated to be tens of thousands of years ago. These are extremely ancient civilizations. Even if they are defeated, we don't know what kind of abilities they have."

"Ah, can't we wake up one by one and beat them up?" Clarinet was a little disappointed, "These are all amazing specimens, and it would be a great discovery if they could be transported back."

"Don't use this kind of thing to lure me, clarinet, take care of yourself." After reprimanding her slightly, Lu Ning continued to walk inside.

A wide descending staircase, the architectural style of the Rangers is as bold as Lu Ning's impression, without any narrow passages and the like, and the smallest passage so far is actually the elevator.

After going down the stairs, I came to another room immediately. Spade yelled in admiration from behind, and Lu Ning was not surprised by the thing in front of me—the statue.

Rangers do not use carrier storage like observers, perhaps related to their lifestyle, everything is straightforwardly carved on metal and displayed in the form of exquisite statues.The lower floor is almost like a museum. There are a lot of metal castings and meticulously crafted freeze-frame scenes, both flat and three-dimensional, and there are even miniature models of some planets.

"War, war, war." Tie Mei walked in front of each statue, "What they record is their most proud past, and they regard it as an honor."

"After all, they have defeated countless civilizations." Spade sighed, "They have really been to many places, and the universe is wider than we thought."

"Captain." Longmai found some clues from a relief painting on the wall, "This painting seems to be interesting."

"Let me take a look." Lu Ning walked over. In the painting was a battle scene of an interstellar battlefield. A warship was lying between two stars, and four huge "petals" spread out from the rear, while the ship in front The cannon fired a spear-like bombardment, and the picture stopped here.

It is difficult to judge the proportions on the screen, but Lu Ning can still read it through the text introduction below. This is the picture of the rangers firing the main cannon of the naval gun by extracting the star energy of a galaxy.

She also understands what Longmai is concerned about, which is the "petals" unfolding behind the warship, which is a structure similar to a Dyson ball.This theory has been temporarily abandoned in the technology tree of this world. After all, the materials and time needed to make a Dyson sphere are enough to implement a better star energy utilization plan.But the Rangers are a little different.

"This side is a statue of a star, and I can basically deduce that this is the civilization defeated by the Rangers. Captain, but is this the force they admire?" Longmai pointed to the image and said, "Using the power of the stars to directly attack Shattering a planet is not right anyway. So... I just checked the star map."

"A vision of a phantom galaxy taken by the Alliance, isn't it?"

"Yes, in the images taken by the alliance, the stars in this galaxy have not yet entered the blue giant star stage, we can almost judge that this is the phantom galaxy we are in." Longmai nodded affirmatively.

"The problem is..." Lu Ning frowned, "Unless this picture only presents the main part, it can't be what it looks like in the painting."

Stars, spaceships, planets.According to NE-002, the rangers thought that the sunlight here was too strong, so they smashed a planet to block the light.In other words, the asteroid belt should have been formed by shattered planets.

But it’s still too close. The “petals” unfolded by the spacecraft are not actually enveloping the star, but absorbing the energy of the star from one side. It’s not that big in terms of proportion, and the size of the planet is not considered a “petal”. It is even bigger than the spacecraft itself. If there is no problem with the scale, then the distance between the stars and the planets in the picture should be very close, so close that the Iron Thorn, White Ridge, and Wooden Shell stars in the asteroid belt are all inside the stars. .

At that moment, Lu Ning immediately thought of a possibility.

"Dragon vein... In astronomy, can the blue giant star return to the state of the main sequence star?"

Longmai smiled wryly: "Captain, I was about to say that this is a bit too shocking. You know, all the celestial bodies observed by the alliance so far follow the birth, aging, sickness and death of stars, especially stars... Blue giants, red giants, are all The same, symbolizing the state of stars entering their twilight years, how do such stars return to their original youthful appearance? Reverse the fusion process inside them? Or inject new hydrogen and helium elements? No one can answer, because it cannot be done.”

"But...the rangers did it." Lu Ning reached out and touched the bumps on the relief lightly, "If there is no problem with the scale of this painting, then something can be explained. The distance between the phantom star and the star is so Far away, normal light is not sufficient, how can it be called 'intense'? At that time...the Rangers at that time did two things."

"Crush planets to form an asteroid belt, and return a blue giant star to the main-sequence star stage." There was a tremor in Longmai's voice, "Is this possible? I can't think of it... unless time is reversed, Captain, this Has civilization reached that level?"

"I don't know, wait, if you say that, they did a third thing." Lu Ning also recovered from the shock a little, "It is impossible to return to the stage of the main-sequence star to destroy the stars in the asteroid belt. Return, so the stars in it came later. Dragon veins, do you think it is the Rangers, or some other civilization after that?"

"No matter which one the conclusion is the same, this planet, no, this galaxy, has already been reshaped by other civilizations in the universe before humans or the observer civilization you mentioned set foot on the ground." Longmai squatted slowly Lower body, "Everything here may have nothing to do with nature, but... this is interesting! Captain! We need to go on a space cruise! We have to land on the three remaining solid planets! Since they are not naturally owned by this galaxy, then we should What's left!"

"I know." Lu Ning let out a long breath and calmed down her thoughts, "It's just that this matter must be decided by more people. There are more than one beacon. In a short time, NE-002 may be able to conclude It’s gone. This is not an exploration mission that our team can complete.”

"En." Longmai nodded.

"In addition, since the Rangers could return the blue giant star to the main-sequence star state, maybe we can also find a way for them to stay, and even we must do the same thing."

Lu Ning turned around, and suddenly found that except for her and Longmai, the rest of the people were gone. The door at the end of the showroom was opened, and it was obvious that someone had left from there.

"Clarinet, Spade, Iron Eyebrow! What's wrong with you three? Answer!"

"It's okay." Clarinet's surprised voice came from the team's communication immediately, "We saw that you and Longmai were getting excited admiring a piece of work, so we didn't bother you, and came to find clues by ourselves."

"Clue?" Lu Ning made a questioning voice.

"This time it's Tiemei, I didn't find it." Spade said quickly, "We followed the sign."

"What mark?" Longmai also asked.

"Captain." Tie Mei went straight to the point, "I found some codes left by someone through etching, because this is metal, it seems that this method can only be used... and the metal of the Rangers is also very corrosion-resistant, those The ciphers are hard to spot, and we have to search carefully with shadow lights."

"Since you mentioned the code, we can understand it?" Lu Ning said.

"Yes, we all learned it before we set off. It is a simple text that has been used by the Alliance military for many years. It can be used if it is not classified information and in an emergency."

Someone came.

Lu Ning's expression froze, she quickly walked out through the door, and quickly caught up with the three of Tiemei.Under the illumination of their shadow lights, there are indeed hard-to-recognize shadows on the wall, all of which are direction symbols such as "front", "right", and "left".

"I think this is someone from the advance team. They must have discovered this place." Longmai followed and walked over. "It seems that the imprint was left in a hurry, but there are no other traces. Be careful what happened."

"Follow the signs cautiously, and see where they direct us."

The five people slowly followed the mark around the corridor, walked down several floors of stairs, and finally entered a large circular room. Spade, who had been looking for the mark, suddenly reached out and blocked the clarinet behind him.

"What's the matter?" Clarinet was blocked and immediately turned his head, almost falling with the butt of his gun.

Spade shook his hand, made a "silence" gesture, and then shook with the shadow light. There was a different logo on the wall at the entrance of the room.

【Dangerous】.

Lu Ning looked inside the room, huge tables and chairs, bookshelves, cabinets... In short, it is such a functional furnishings, as if it is a living room, and there is no danger at all.She looked up at the ceiling again, and the metal on the white ceiling emitted a soft light.

click.

She turned on all her detectors, and a large number of feedback readings poured in, but the processing results were all normal.

"Danger? Where is the danger?" Clarinet pressed Spade's arm, walked into the room, looked around, but there was still nothing, including the possible surprise attack.

"This is a safe room, why are you making a fuss by bringing us here?" Clarinet looked around and continued to walk, and everyone was also staring at her—in fact, everyone knew that she was performing her commando mission. It's just that this duty seems too dangerous now.

Just when Lu Ning was watching the clarinet's movement until it reached the middle of the room, she suddenly tripped and staggered. She didn't step on the second step and fell down.

Bang!
The steel chopping ax slammed into the ground, abruptly stopping the body that was falling forward.Clarinet used this reaction force to exert all its strength, reversed the trend of falling, and then swept out with an axe: "Sure enough, there is a trap!"

The ax swung in a semicircle in the air, but Clarinet seemed completely unaware that he had missed the cut. Instead, he swung the ax beautifully with the help of castration, leaned back as if avoiding something, and then swung the ax again to strike out. .

"Clarinet! What's the matter?"

"Captain! This guy is a bit difficult to deal with! Come and help me!"

"What are you fighting with?" Lu Ning shouted.

Hearing these words, Clarinet froze for a moment, and stopped moving. At this moment, everyone suddenly saw a crack appear on Clarinet's shoulder, and it was just such a crack.

"Hmph, I thought it was really an ambush for some opponent."

Clarinet also caught a glimpse of the outer layer of the shoulder being torn a little, but just shook his head.

"What's going on? Clarinet! What did you encounter just now?" Tie Mei asked in a low voice. At this time, he was already staring at the surrounding situation like a cheetah.

"How should I say it?" Clarinet carried the steel chopping ax on his shoulder, opened his hands and looked at it, and then looked down at his feet, "It seems to be an illusion of reality?"

(End of this chapter)