"Brother Captain, the probe has found a new object, and when people look at it, it seems to be really a fragment of an asteroid. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info" Atlas reported to Zhou Xin. At the same time, a new picture appeared on the screen.

"Did you finally find it?" Zhou Xin's mood changed a little better, and he looked at the new picture.

In the screen, Zhou Xin saw a very strangely shaped asteroid, one side of this asteroid protruded outward, while the other side was deeply sunken inward, looking a bit like a thick-walled bowl. On the side of the depression, there are obvious traces of melting, which looks very similar to the asteroid that was discovered earlier.

Looking at this asteroid, Zhou Xin opened his mouth and asked, "Atlas, have you compared?" Which part of the original asteroid was it? ”

"It's been compared, it's on the other side of the original asteroid." Atlas replied as he released the comparison chart.

In that comparison picture, Zhou Xin saw that there was a green area at each end of the asteroid that originally looked like a bean, one of which was the fragment that had been discovered before, and the other end was the fragment that had just been discovered.

"Is it only that small?" Glancing at the green area, Zhou Xin found that the piece of debris he had just found only occupied less than one-fifth of the original asteroid, which was smaller than the previous asteroid fragment, and he couldn't help but say to himself, "What about the rest of the parts?" Where did they all go? ”

"Once the fragment is found, they can narrow down some of the search." Atlas began, "However, most of the area probes have already been searched, and less than 10% of the areas that have not been searched are left. ”

"Then let's search first and then investigate." Zhou Xin changed his mind again.

In less than two hours, the probes had searched the range calculated by Atlas, and in addition to the two asteroid fragments that had been found, they found a small piece of debris in the remaining area. But the size of this fragment is much smaller than the previous two, only about 100 meters long. After finding the fragment, it took Atlas a lot of time to find the corresponding position on the original asteroid.

Looking at the large red area left on the comparison chart, Zhou Xin's brows furrowed, "Atlas, except for the area you delineated, is it impossible to find fragments in other places?" ”

"It's not impossible." Atlas tilted his head and said seriously, "But if you search on a larger scale, the probability of finding the debris will become very low, and at the same time, it will consume a lot of time, and the investment will not be proportional to the results." Moreover, even if one or two fragments can be searched, it is estimated that it will not be very large, and it will not be enough to fill the area. Then she speculated, "Brother Captain, do you remember the micrometeor cluster that the probe encountered half a day ago?" It is estimated that the micrometeor group is likely to be part of the asteroid, and the remaining part of the original asteroid is likely to be completely shattered like the micrometeor group, and then scattered, and this diameter of the micrometeor is difficult to be detected by the probe in an area full of high-energy rays. ”

"How powerful was the initial explosion?" Zhou Xin asked suspiciously, "Can you actually blow up more than half of the part of an asteroid with a diameter of four kilometers?" ”

"This person's family is not clear now." Atlas shook his head, "Maybe it won't be until the probe has explored those pieces of debris and obtained enough clues that people will be able to know how powerful the explosion was in the first place." ”

"Okay." After listening to Atlas's words, Zhou Xin let go of the idea of letting the probe continue to search for asteroid fragments, and he opened his mouth and ordered, "Then let the probes change their targets and let them search for the three asteroid fragments they found." ”

Before Zhou Xin's words fell, another urgent matter happened.

"Your Excellency, the probe has discovered that the vehicle in orbit of the planet has made an abnormal movement." The voice of the Voyager interrupted Zhou Xin's train of thought.

"Flying machines? What went unusual? Hearing the Voyager's report, Zhou Xin immediately focused his attention.

"The probe found that a large number of vehicles from both sides are massing near the planet's equatorial region." The Voyager reported.

"Assembled again?" Zhou Xin's tone was a little puzzled, "What do the two of them want to do this time?" It's not going to be another false alarm, is it? "The assembly a few days ago didn't take long to end, so Zhou Xinli felt that the large-scale action this time was estimated to be similar to the last one, with heavy thunder and little rain.

But the Voyager's next report seemed to overturn Zhou Xin's current thinking, "While the two sides are assembling, there has been friction in the assembly area, and there has even been an exchange of fire in some areas." ”

"Already fighting?" Zhou Xin was a little surprised, "Why is the action so fast this time?" What about the two sides who are afraid of each other and dare not fire? He asked one after another, but no one answered his question, and several people in the command cabin also showed expressions of disbelief.

"Atlas, the investigation of the asteroid fragments is up to you." Zhou Xin hurriedly explained, and then asked the Voyager to switch the screen to a probe near the planet.

In the picture, Zhou Xin once again saw the two rings near the planet's equator, and unlike the last time, this time part of the two rings was clearly intertwined, and occasionally one or two rays of light flashed in the intertwined parts.

Looking at the images on the screen, Zhou Xin opened his mouth and asked, "When did this happen?" ”

"Six hours and twenty minutes ago." The Voyager replied, "At first, the civilizations on the south side of the planet began to assemble first, and ten minutes later the other side also began to assemble their aircraft, and the assembly process lasted for an hour. At first, the two sides that had been assembled near the equator patrolled their respective areas without incident, but just now, this calm was broken, and small frictions began to occur between the two sides. ”

After listening to the Voyager's narrative, Zhou Xin thought for a moment, and then asked, "Which side fired first?" ”

"Due to the confusion at the beginning of the conflict, the ship has not yet observed in the probe's records which side fired first."

"Let's check first." Zhou Xin commanded.

After waiting quietly for ten minutes, Voyager finally found the answer, "According to the footage recorded by the probe, seven minutes and twenty-eight seconds ago, the civilization of the Southern Continent fired first and shot down a flying machine on the other side. At first, the attackers backed down slightly, but as the south fired again, the northern aircraft finally couldn't bear it anymore and launched a counterattack. ”

"Did the people from the Southern Continent fire first?" Zhou Xin said while thinking, "What is it that makes them become aggressive all of a sudden?" ”

Just as Zhou Xin was thinking about the reason, the others began to walk into the command cabin one after another, and then Dart and Spred also walked in one after another.

"Have you found the location of the rayburst?" As soon as he stepped into the command module, Spred asked.

"I guess I've found a part." Before Spred could question Zhou Xin's words, Zhou Xin said to Dart behind him, "Now there is a more urgent situation, Dart, there seems to be something wrong with your speculation, and the two sides on the planet have begun to fight." Then he briefly told the two men what the traveler had just reported.

After listening to Zhou Xin's narration, Dart's brows furrowed, he took a few steps forward and walked to Zhou Xin's side, and then observed the picture on the screen.

"It's strange, it was all good before, why did it suddenly start a fight at this time." Looking at the conflicts that were still erupting on the screen from time to time, Dart muttered to himself, "Why is this point in time?" He looked thoughtful, repeating the phrase several times, and after a while, he guessed, "Could it be that there was any important event before this point in time?" He then asked the Voyager directly about it.

"From the end of the first assembly until yesterday, the probe has not observed any anomalous events on the planet's surface." Voyager replied, then adding, "Except for events that cannot be observed below the resolution of the probe." ”

"Unobservable events?" Dart thought as he said, "That's a lot, it seems unlikely that you want to know why." ”

At the same time as Dart was communicating with the Voyager, Zhou Xin was also thinking about it, and at this time, an idea suddenly popped up in his heart, "You say, could it have something to do with the explosion of the asteroid?" ”

"An asteroid explosion?" Dart asked suspiciously, "What asteroid exploded?" ”

Zhou Xin remembered that he hadn't told them what had happened to the asteroid, and then, Zhou Xin took a moment to introduce the results of the investigation and analysis of the previous few hours to those who came behind.

While listening to Zhou Xin's description, everyone showed a thoughtful expression, and finally, Zhou Xin added: "Of course, this is just Atlas's speculation, and what exactly happened to the explosion and the reason for the explosion, the detector is still under investigation." ”

"Did that asteroid actually explode?" After Zhou Xin's introduction, Dart couldn't help but say to himself, "And then it didn't take long for the conflict to happen, is there any connection between these two things?" Then, he remembered something, "There was a shuttle that left shortly before the explosion, and judging by the appearance, it seems that the shuttle belongs to the northern continent, and the purpose of its journey to the asteroid is still not clear yet." After thinking for a long time, Dart suddenly said, "Could it be that there is some kind of connection between these things that we don't know yet?" After saying this, he looked down and thought about it again, and after a few minutes, Dart asked, "Do you know which side that base on the asteroid belongs to?" ”

Zhou Xin didn't know the answer to this question, so he threw the question to Atlas, "Atlas, has the probe's investigation yielded results?" Which side does the base in the asteroid belong to? ”

"It's only been so long, how can it be so fast." Atlas grumbled, then replied, "The interior of the base has been so badly damaged that basically all that's left is the frame. So far, the probe has not found any clues in the area that has been explored, and it is difficult to tell which side this base belongs to. With that, Atlas released footage of the probe's investigation.

In the footage, the probe is supposed to be investigating a room. However, Zhou Xin saw that half of this room had completely disappeared, and all that could be seen on this side was the vast starry sky. The only remaining part was also very badly damaged, and judging from the deformed walls, Zhou Xin could only barely tell that the original room should be square. If you look closely, the walls of the room are covered with traces of the melting of the rock, and even the metal parts remain flowing and clinging to the walls. In addition, there are also scorched black marks on the wall covered with molten traces, staring at the marks on the wall for a while, Zhou Xin feels a little familiar, but he can't remember what can cause such marks, as for the pattern composed of the marks, Zhou Xin also has a strange feeling, but because the deformation of the wall is very serious, so he can't say what this strange feeling is.

After inspecting the surrounding walls, the probe completed its investigation of the empty room. After passing through a badly deformed hole that could have been a door, it came to another room.

Compared to the previous room, this room is relatively well preserved, but it's not much better. One of its walls was also gone, and all five remaining faces were covered in molten marks, but several silvery gray clumps were piled up on the ground. In the empty room, these lumps of things stood out. The probe first looked around the room, then walked over to one of the silver-gray objects and investigated.

The probe first knocked on the silvery-gray mass and then tried to push it away, but the mass seemed to have merged with the ground, and the probe was unable to move it no matter how much it tried.

After observing the lump for a moment, Atlas spoke, "This seems to be an alloy with a high melting point, it may have been a machine or something, but it became what it is now at extremely high temperatures." After a while, the message from the probe confirmed Atlas's suspicions.

"Then this might be a place like a workshop." Zhou Xin guessed.

After surveying the silvery gray stuff on the ground, the probe examined the surrounding walls in detail, as usual, before heading to another hole......