Star Empire

The emergency crystal energy lighting dispelled the dark fog that filled the cabin, and the gradually brightening light froze the foreign pollutants and preserved them in the form of "crystalline snapshots."

It can be said that this is the first time that the Federation has clearly observed what kind of mutations will occur after the material is infected by the black and red two-dimensional pattern.

For soldiers who have undergone crystal energy-soul fusion, this part of the area is not fatal enough.

What they are entering is currently the highest-standard, most valuable for research, and also the most twisted and terrifying "first scene" in the Ark fleet.

"Your Excellency, please be careful!" Even though it was separated by a screen and had been blocked by other protection, the three commanders were all shocked when they saw the picture displayed on the screen.

Eisendel stepped forward to block Weisrifan, and purple lightning flashed in Zhai Cahir's hand. The soldiers on the side quickly prepared to blow up the entire monitoring system. However, this awkward "confrontation" did not last long, and soon Zhai Cahir extinguished the purple electric light in his hand.

"There is no diffuse pollution in the monitoring, and there is no self-collapse phenomenon. The equipment is stable." Zhai Cahir blinked and let out a sigh of relief.

"It seems... we have underestimated this kind of thing with unknown origin before... but now, at least there are some more intuitive things to let us understand what "wonders" it will create." Wei Ruifan said lightly. He gently pushed Essendel away and looked at the surveillance screen and said coldly.

After the cabin was sealed and crystal energy was injected, this part of the cabin had been completely paralyzed. The crystal information guide rail had been cut off, and it had become a mess under the exposure of high-frequency crystal energy to pollution.

After a brief inspection, the soldiers responsible for opening the road decisively gave up the idea of ​​re-energizing this area. At the entrance of the corridor that has been opened, more emergency lighting has been deployed. Under the golden light, more details in this part of the cabin are also illuminated:

The first thing that caught everyone's eyes was the bulkheads and partitions that were previously covered with shadows. Under the brighter light, the shadows entrenched on these structures were dispersed in pieces. Concentrated on the four walls, craters, caves, honeycombs... a large number of twisted structures that can make people feel trance-like are presented to everyone.

The originally smooth and regular wall was no longer neat at all. This part looked like a piece of metal that had been cut off in one piece and soaked in concentrated hydrochloric acid. It was even worse, because there was a certain amount of low-frequency crystal energy involved in the manufacturing process. , so overall, the structural materials of the entire spacecraft will show a certain golden metallic luster——

However, now, in those messy gaps and cracks, as well as the lower layer of the original coverage area where the golden crystals were broken, they all show a gray-white viscous liquid, or the texture of dust, which is different from the exposed energy conductor in the corridor. Similar to orbits, the information structure of this part of matter is also a mess.

Since the Federation's technology was not enough to support comprehensive and complete crystallization before evacuating the universe, in addition to the crystallization energy-guiding network, there was also a certain number of "physical matter" circulation systems inside the hulls of these Arks. , for example, some areas still need heat dissipation, and conventional energy sources, such as the conduction network of electrical energy.

Regarding the heat dissipation part, Weisruifan is quite fortunate. In the old days, heat dissipation has always been a long-standing problem in the universe. One is the accumulation of waste heat, and how heat spreads to space. The only way to enrich waste heat is to use a very simple method. Ways to trick people:

The extremely high-power power furnace generates energy to drive the mechanical operation, causing the liquid with extremely high specific heat capacity to flow inside the ship, absorbing the waste heat in this area. The excess heat generated by the power furnace can be directly radiated in the form of light due to the extremely high temperature. Send it out, which is also the main means for battleships to dissipate waste heat;

This part is something everyone related to the fleet should be thankful for. If all the waste heat requires circulating fluid with a high specific heat capacity, then it is very likely that the waste heat generated by the vacuum zero-point energy energy launch rail once is enough to boil the entire cooling cycle system more than ten times. .

Dissipating it into the universe is actually quite troublesome: there is not much material in the vacuum, and there is almost no medium that can absorb and transfer heat. The infrared method is not very efficient. The circulation system cannot extract all its materials at all times for centralized cooling. For the sake of the direct strength of the hull, it is impossible for federal designers to expose a large number of condenser tubes outside the armor of the spacecraft.

As for the energy-conducting lattice... that thing can indeed carry out anti-entropic pan-energy transfer, but it cannot withstand kinetic energy and has only limited mechanical strength that is stronger than talc, making it very difficult to use this material on military vehicles. use. Therefore, if those battleships do not have a backup supply of cryogenic coolants, they must retreat after the cooling system overheats and... rush into the planet or other areas with media to cool down the circulating liquid that has been boiled. If it is too late... then the auxiliary cabin It can only become a steamer temporarily.

Up to now, if the original system is still used, the waste heat in the cooling liquid can be arranged with small-scale changes in the order field, and the cooling base point in the order world can be found in the void... It is better to expect that everything before will be the same. A dream.

However, considering the nature and controllability of the order field, at least most of the laws that are restricted by physical laws have expired. In this way, at least there are a lot less things to consider when repairing the spacecraft.

…

The Federation values ​​order as its beauty, and the products it manufactures all follow this rule. Under the constraints of this rule, most of the equipment inside the ship are composed of straight lines, right angles, and a small number of very simple curves.

Even in the area with the most dense pipelines, despite the complexity of the layers, it can still give people a sense of order and clarity. However, when the engineers of the exploration force removed a small part of the cover, the scene presented in the wall was shocking: All the pipes have lost their original neatness, and are instead entangled in an extremely twisted state, as if the giant tree has a huge root system entwined with a crouching dragon, or like the remaining spots on the Zerg home planet near the birth nest. Block and sarcoid vascular network.

After the infusion of crystal energy, the black and red patterns that originally floated on the surface of these things have disappeared, but there is still some thin black smoke floating in the cracks of the twisted pipes. After this black smoke enters the field of vision, the sight of the engineers left one after another. Seeing the black smoke, even Weisrifan, who was observing the real scene through the screen, felt a certain disturbance, as if the smoke could penetrate people's will.

Although very thin, these black smoke seem to be able to absorb light, and a distance of only tens of centimeters is enough to block the sight of the exploratory troops' eyes. However, when the cover was opened and the place was exposed, these strange phenomena quickly disappeared under the light of the crystal energy.

"Report, no other types of anomalies other than hull structure mutations have been found in this area." After further analysis and dismantling of part of the structure of this part, the front-line commander of the detection force reported to Weisruifan.

"Well, you leave a few people here on duty to monitor the condition of this part of the ship. The impact of that strange pollution is extremely huge and pervasive. Fortunately, our crystal energy seems to be able to remove it."

"On duty officers, pay attention to any abnormal changes in this section of the ship's hull, no matter how slight. As long as there are black and red patterns or other abnormalities other than the structural variation of the ship's hull, use crystal energy derivative grenades immediately to treat such things. , we must be extremely cautious." After scanning the video again, Weisruifan breathed a sigh of relief, "Also, thank you for your hard work."

The heavily armed commander nodded silently, and after deploying several soldiers to monitor the situation, the team continued to move forward. With the help of crystal energy blasting patches, they broke through various protective doors that had been completely out of control and damaged, tried their best to eliminate the anomalies, and gradually moved toward the first bridge, which was basically symmetrical to the first bridge and located on the first ship. The second bridge "below" the bridge, the infection outbreak area within the flagship, moves.

As the team progressed, the damage to the bulkheads and various abnormal phenomena became more and more severe.

At the outermost edge of the blockade area, the bulkheads and pipes appeared damaged and twisted, and a small part of the material lost its original structure at the information level. After the second isolation door was opened, the outer panels of the structure were not only damaged, but the whole structure was even warped and twisted, just like the storm clouds raging in the atmosphere of the gas giant planet. The black fog was also thicker than the previous part. There was even a small amount of gray matter on the ground. This chaotic porridge on the information level had never appeared so densely before.

After the fourth isolation door is opened, as long as you cross this section of the corridor, you can enter the former federal information center. Here, the troops have been severely hindered, and the speed of advancement has also been greatly reduced.

"Encountering many anomalies, the troops are making slow progress. We may need more time."

When these words rang in Weisrifan's mind, she also saw the situation in this area more clearly: the light golden bulkhead that originally had a metallic texture now had a texture similar to asphalt. And slowly flowed down, and the part that still maintained its shape also showed a tone of black and gray-white mixed together, and revealed a disgusting slippery feeling.

The floor has "melted" to a certain extent, and the unknown substances sliding down from the surroundings and the ceiling mixed with the melted substances on the floor to form a "mud". Even now, these structures are still completely invisible to their original appearance. The liquid is slowly dripping down, like a melted wax block dripping wax oil.

Here, not to mention the entire corridor, often even just one step away, these unknown black mud will show different textures. It is possible that if you step on this step, the "asphalt mud" under your feet is still solid, but on the next step After stepping on it, the place where the foot landed was ankle-deep, even knee-deep, with abnormally sticky gelatin.

The light emitted by the crystal energy crystal block and the obelisk as the redundant stabilizer of the mathematical rate core is reassuring. These lights have dispersed most of the black smoke suspended in the air, but in this section of the cabins and corridors In addition to the black smoke of unknown origin, there are also quite serious optical distortions and mechanical distortions——

The long corridor that was originally supposed to be a straight square prism now seems to have multiple sections with different thicknesses. In the places where the structure and optics of the corridor are most severely mutated, mechanics have also followed suit and revealed many abnormalities. In these parts, it is very likely that A huge gravitational force or impact force and other different forms of force will appear out of thin air and act on the soldiers.

The soldiers are fully armed and strengthened with crystal energy. These weird phenomena that could have killed them now no longer pose much of a threat to their actions. However, in such a harsh environment, these extremely random and unstable factors still give them a choice. The soldiers who continued to advance caused a very noticeable disturbance.

Because the anomalies in this part are too serious and widespread, the environment here is too harsh, and the attrition caused by leaving sentries in the previous cabins is too high, the monitoring of this part is left to those who stay behind. The emergency rescue team at the entrance, where the frontline personnel placed surveillance eyes and connected with the reserve team at the exit.

Overly severe mutations have lost the value of direct recording and exploration. The monitoring work of this part is mainly to watch out for two points: first, whether there are iconic black two-dimensional patterns; second, whether there is abnormal lack of material.

At the end of the corridor, which was filled with black mud and abnormal optical phenomena, and even crackling black electric light occasionally flashed in the air, the exploration team discovered the isolation door leading to the main control hall of the second bridge.

Since this is just a very ordinary branch corridor, it does not have a grand main door to connect to the main hall. However, one thing here is the same as the doors in other corridors and main corridors, and that is the level of security. In order to ensure the safety of the bridge, the armor plates that form the bridge protection are quite thick and filled with more crystal energy than the segmented isolation doors in the corridor.

But even so, this heavy door could not withstand the ravages of pollution and the irradiation of high-frequency crystal energy. After slight exploration, the commander of this unit quickly determined that the outer layer of this door Part of it has completely turned into a puddle of gray-black slurry, while the inner layer has been exposed to powerful crystal energy radiation and has now completely turned into a fragile crystal. With the help of the cracked film, the source of the pollution was finally revealed.

Compared with the last section of the corridor, which is already filled with asphalt and mud texture, the situation in the hall is better. It is only similar to the situation in the second section of the corridor. Perhaps a considerable part of the equipment installed here is filled with crystal energy. Even in the face of direct irradiation of high-frequency crystal energy, a part, or even a considerable part, can be retained.

The soldiers who marched here released all their body monitors to detect the situation in the hall. A considerable part of the area was covered with a thick layer of pale golden crystal shell.

There may be substances that have lost their original information order underneath these crystalline shells, or there may be equipment that is in good condition. For the former, even Zhai Cahill cannot give a reasonable explanation at the moment, but for the latter case The appearance is relatively logical: the crystalline shell is an unstable product after the fusion of crystal energy and ordinary matter. The information that constitutes ordinary matter can carry crystal energy to a certain extent, but this level can be said to be very low.

After the crystal energy is forcibly fused with matter, the crystal energy will transform the properties of the matter so that it presents a texture similar to that of crystal. During such a change process, the crystal energy will undergo a certain decay into the ordinary material state, or in other words, Solidification to "deterministic information condensed matter" reduces activity. In other words, where a crystalline shell appears, it must be the result of the crystal energy having been completely purified of pollution and the excess part fused with matter.

Although it cannot completely resist high-frequency crystal energy, a considerable part of the equipment that can be located here is already linked to crystal energy or related technologies. Even if it is damaged, the crystallization process will not spread very deep into its interior. There is no place here. Just like the former front-line base, the crystal energy radiation carried by just a few secondary infected people is enough to endanger the operation of an entire cabin and take away dozens of lives.

"Your Excellency, there is something discovered here!" The scene in front of Weisruifan was suddenly divided into two parts, and the commander's voice also came at the same time: "We found something under the crystal shell, and there is also one The other part of the completely damaged terminal... is the corpses of dozens of crystal energy fusion people who were instantly solidified by crystal energy and retained the mutated state caused by contamination!"