Die on Mars

Lao Mao locked himself and Tang Yue tightly together, then went down first and opened the bottom hatch of the cargo hold.

Tang Yue was surprised the moment he opened the door.

He couldn't feel it when he was in the cabin of the Eagle spacecraft, but as soon as he opened the door, he felt the power of the storm... The gangway could no longer be seen. It seemed to have plunged downward into a huge and dark vortex, and was completely swallowed up. .

The storm roared past carrying sand and dust, and Tang Yue began to beat drums in his heart.

Does he really want to go down?

It will definitely be a dead end if you go down here, right?

Tang Yue, who was full of pride and ambition just now, was completely vulnerable in the face of life and death. Tang Yue was full of pride when he put on the extravehicular suit just now, as if he was the protagonist in one of those tough guy movies, relying on his strong courage to defy everyone and break through the old cat. Despite the timid junior's obstruction, he resolutely implemented the plan and finally achieved perfect success.

This is how movie scripts are written.

It seems that movie screenwriters are indeed the kings of words.

The old cat shined a strong flashlight downwards. The white beam of light had a range of less than three meters in the sandstorm. Beyond three meters, it was pitch black.

"I'll go down first, you follow me."

Lao Mao's voice came out from the earphones, his tone was very calm, he didn't sound timid at all, and he had the power to calm people's hearts.

Damn it, isn’t the old cat a little kid?

Why does it seem that he is the male protagonist now, and he is just a cannon fodder passerby?

The old cat grabbed the gangway and climbed down bit by bit. Seeing the old cat disappearing into the sandstorm, Tang Yue took a deep breath and followed suit.

As soon as he left the cargo hold, a sharp whistling filled his ears. This was not necessarily the sound of the wind. The strong wind and gravel scraped the mask of the Mingguang Armor. Tang Yue firmly grasped the gangway and looked around.

The darkness in a sandstorm is different from the night. A clear night sky can be said to be a piece of transparent crystal, but a sandstorm is simply a mass of filthy black ink.

The headlight on the Mingguang Armor was useless in this situation, and Tang Yue was actually no different from a blind man.

The beam of light from the headlamp illuminated the gravel in the airflow. Everything Tang Yue could see were spots of light passing by quickly, like an endless blizzard.

This was his first time operating in a strong wind of forty meters per second.

Fortunately, the air was extremely thin. If this were the Earth, such strong winds would be enough to lift Tang Yue into the sky.

"Steady the gangway." Old Cat reminded, "We are about to start descending."

Tang Yue lowered his head and glanced down. The old cat was at his feet. The distance between the two was less than one meter, but Tang Yue could no longer see the old cat. He could only see the blurry beam of light from the strong flashlight. Flashing underfoot.

The ramp moved, and Tang Yue could feel himself descending slowly, gradually leaving the lander.

Two seconds later, the cargo hold above his head was submerged in the dark storm. Tang Yue looked down and could not see the ground.

This made him feel like he was falling into an abyss, with no way up or down, as if there was a bottomless abyss under his feet, and there was no end to the descent of the gangway... Tang Yue had never felt this way when he usually went up and down.

It is true that people tend to have random thoughts when their eyes are covered. Even if they are only two inches above the ground, they can imagine that they are thousands of feet high in the sky.

The gangway trembled slightly under the old cat's step, and there was a clanging sound from somewhere. Tang Yue was really worried that the lander would be blown over.

After a minute, the descent of the gangway stopped.

"We've reached the ground." The old cat said, "I'll go down first, don't move."

Tang Yue nodded.

The old cat stepped on the rock and pulled the cable. "You can come down now. You are half a meter above the ground. Come down slowly."

Tang Yue stretched out his feet carefully and stepped slowly on the ground. He could only act according to the old cat's instructions now.

Tang Yue stood at the edge of the gangway in a daze, unable to distinguish between east, west and north. Naturally, he could not see Kunlun Station. The main station of Kunlun Station was more than a hundred meters away. Tang Yue did not dare to run around. If he went in the wrong direction, he You will get lost in the boundless wasteland of Mars.

A claw stretched out from the darkness and grasped Tang Yue's glove tightly.

"This direction." The old cat shouted loudly, raising his voice as much as possible to prevent his voice from being drowned by the noise of electricity. "Follow me!"

Old Mao and Tang Yue were connected with cables, just like on the polar ice fields, the expedition team members must be tied to each other with ropes. The purpose of this is to prevent anyone from falling into the hidden ice crevices.

But there are obviously no ice crevices in the Martian desert. The old cat was here to prevent Tang Yue from getting lost.

Visibility in the sandstorm is almost zero, and if you get lost, you will die.

Tang Yue followed the old cat with difficulty, following every step.

The short distance of a hundred meters from the lander to the Kunlun Station seemed to be endless.

"With the current weather conditions, do you think we can still launch the Eagle tomorrow?" The old cat used all four legs to crawl slowly and hard on the ground.

Tang Yue hesitated for a few seconds.

"But Ophiopogon japonicus has no time to wait any longer." Tang Yue said after considering, "I don't know when this damn sandstorm will pass. What if it doesn't stop for a month? Do we have to wait for a month?"

"If this sandstorm doesn't stop for a month, then we don't have to worry about that girl." The old cat spat out a mouth full of sand and shouted, "We are all dead... In this case, the solar panels cannot be charged. The battery at Kunlun Station will not last for a month at all. Sooner or later you will freeze to death or suffocate to death, it all depends on which one, heating or oxygen, will run out of energy first!"

"So we don't have to wait."

Tang Yue held the cable and walked forward with difficulty.

"If the sandstorm continues, then we will be finished together. We might as well launch the lander as planned... You said that the Eagle spacecraft can withstand this wind, right?"

The old cat nodded.

"The lander is designed to withstand the Martian surface crosswind of fifty meters per second. This is a life-saving measure left by the engineers on Earth for you!" the old cat shouted, its voice amidst the fierce wind noise. Vaguely, "The Eagle spacecraft has an emergency lifeboat purpose, just to prepare for a situation like today! But this function has never been truly verified. The Eagle spacecraft has never taken off in such bad weather before!" "

Tang Yue was silent for a few seconds.

"Old Cat, you said before that you made me believe in those stupid fagots in Jiuquan Center."

The old cat was startled.

"I believe in those gay guys, and you should also trust them, old cat." Tang Yue said, "Although these gay guys are bad people and refuse to pay back the money they owe me, they are still reliable in their work! They say they can If you can carry it fifty meters, then it’s fifty meters!”

"But fifty meters per second is the limit!" Lao Mao continued, "If the wind speed exceeds fifty meters, then the lander cannot guarantee the stability of its center of gravity! The launch may fail!"

The old cat stopped to rest for a moment, turned around and shined a bright flashlight on Tang Yue.

"You'd better pray that the storm won't continue to intensify tomorrow, so that both you and me, and the little girl in the sky, will have a glimmer of hope."