In the darkness of the universe, a strange army of exiles is sailing silently. They consisted of a formation of some kind of huge flying machine, numbering more than a dozen in total, and they looked to have been sailing for many years. The shape of the craft was impressive, with a short, thick shell, covered in heavy gray-black armor, and neat, scale-like additional structures could be seen on the armor, which were upturned and resembled a series of thick, blunt triangular spikes. Each of these vehicles is staggering in size, hundreds of kilometers in size, and due to the thick, gloomy armor that covers them, they look like a bunch of giant asteroids floating in the universe from a distance.

These craft have been in space for I don't know how many years, they all look extremely old and dilapidated, although the objects in space are not weathered, these huge ships have obviously experienced countless impacts, high temperatures, corrosion, and plasma air masses, their uneven armor is full of large and small abrasions and missing parts, and on one of the most damaged ships, the severe trauma to its shell even tears off part of the armor, revealing the sponge-like support structure underneath. Hao Ren believes that this is most likely the result of a powerful meteorite impact, or worse. But even in this dire situation, the structure of the ships was largely intact, with sparse lights along their pitted surfaces, flashing in space and flashing in space, and the lights didn't make the fleet seem any more animated, they only made the team seem more bizarre and miserable.

But the lights also say one thing: these ancient flying machines are still in operation.

The fleet is moving at a very slow pace. Based on previous traces, it is believed to have been out of hyperspace decades ago. After several decelerations, it ended up sailing at this low speed until today. The reason for their departure from hyperspace is unknown. Because there was nothing to stop them in this zone: there were no celestial bodies or ports of call for supplies, and there were no signs of civilization, just the ubiquitous lilac stardust. Perhaps a mechanical failure forced these ships to break away from faster-than-light travel?

The Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace slowly caught up with the fleet from behind the trail cloud and approached one of the large flying machines. Although these aircraft were relatively primitive in technology, they were really huge, and the Giant Tortoise Rock was hovering like a hummingbird over the black armor belt that stretched out for miles and miles, and the images that came back were all huge, rugged ancient structures. There were bands of light that flickered faintly on the surface of the armor, and the proximity of the Giant Turtle Rock did not change the flickering pattern of these lights: the craft did not react to the approach of the unidentified ship.

"There's radar shining on this ship," Nolan's holographic projection zooms in. Standing beside Hao Ren in life-size size, she didn't know when she changed herself into an image of wearing a military uniform, and reported the situation like a starship adjutant, "There are seven radar sources, from three different ships, but other than that, no hostile reaction was found, and no signal for the activation of the weapon system was found. ”

Hao Ren looked at the picture coming from the external monitor, and the Giant Turtle Rock Platform was slowly passing over a large flying machine at this time, only a few hundred meters away from the latter's shell. He saw the rough metal shells slowly receding on the monitor screen like a steel earth: "Is there a contact signal?" ”

"No, I've sent out an inquiry - full-band, but haven't received any response," Nolan shook his head. "But I intercepted the signals between these aircraft, and they still communicate with each other, but ......"

Hao Ren raised his eyebrows: "Just what?" ”

Nolan put the intercepted signal onto the holographic projection. Hao Ren saw that it was a large number of regular symbols and numbers, as these things rolled quickly. He found that everything was just mechanized repetition.

"Every aircraft is sending these things mechanically, and the basic meaning is to confirm their respective positions and the integrity of the system. There is nothing else to do with it. I suspect it's an automatic signal. ”

Nangong May crawled to the console with a long tail swinging, and her tone was quite interested: "So...... Ghost ship? ”

Hao Ren glanced at her: "Why are you so excited when you say the word ghost ship?" ”

"Fifty percent of the ghost ship legends in human history are all changed by the Kraken, and the remaining fifty percent are sailors who drink high," Nangong May raised his tail and wagged at the tip, "It is our racial culture to become a ghost ship to scare people, do you understand the racial culture?" ”

"Don't mention these krakens who have never been to the sea in the first half of their lives," Hao Ren waved his hand to drive Nangong May aside, and then nodded to Nolan, "Can you find the entrance to these spaceships?" ”

"The deep scan shows that there is a trench in the waistline of the spacecraft below, which should be the entrance gate, but the size is not enough for the ship to enter: it is only a dozen meters wide."

Hao Ren smacked his lips: "Tsk...... As a giant ship with hundreds of kilometers of speed, this is really a shabby little door. Alright, let's go down, Nolan, you follow our signal, and when we get in, you have the teleporter ready outside for us to evacuate. ”

"Do you want to go all down?" Vivien looked at the people on the bridge, the demons and monsters who were eating at Hao Ren's house were all here today.

"Uh...... Just a few, you and Lily, and then ......."

Before Hao Ren finished speaking, Nangong Sanba suddenly took a step forward: "I'll go with my sister too, this kind of place should be able to use hunters and krakens." ”

Hao Ren thought about it and felt that what Nangong Sanba said made sense: it was obvious that this was neither a guardian nor a rebel spaceship, but a wandering fleet of a group of mortal races who had escaped from the world-destroying natural disaster, and according to the situation of the fleet, the chance of becoming a ghost ship was quite high. What is needed in this environment is not high combat effectiveness, but people who are good at reconnaissance and search, and who can adapt to various environments. Nangong Sanba is a demon hunter, and Nangong May has a kaleidoscopic water form, so it should be very suitable to explore the ghost ship.

Hao Ren handed over the Doudou in his hand to "Roll" to hold, turned around and walked towards the teleportation room: "Then the others will be on standby on the spaceship first, and a few of us will go down." ”

The Giant Tortoise Rock Platform came to the place where it was suspected to be entering and exiting the gate, and hovered at an altitude of more than 100 meters from the "steel land", while Hao Ren and his party appeared on the surface of the mysterious spaceship with a pillar of light.

There was almost no gravity on the surface of the ship, and the group moved forward with the help of auxiliary propulsion. Hao Ren looked up into the distance, and he saw a slightly arc-shaped black-gray steel stretching out in his field of vision, the distant star glimmer and the pale gray interstellar dust cloud hanging at the end of the steel horizon like a smudge on a distant curtain, and some sporadic lights dotted on several protruding structures in the distance of the earth, shining slightly like ghost fire.

"Dead, dead...... "Vivien muttered in the communicator, "I don't feel any breath of life." ”

Hao Ren pressed the corner of his forehead: "Terminal, share vision." ”

The radar view of the data terminal immediately overlayed his human vision, and he saw that the "steel earth" in front of him suddenly turned into a complex layered structure, and many orderly lines outlined the details under the shell on these structures. He found the location marked as the gate, and as he led the group closer, he found that it was a wide ramp that sloped downward, not very deep, and a metal barrier that looked unusually heavy could be seen underneath.

When the group reached the metal barrier, Lily ran around the wall with her claws, finding nothing that looked like a control.

"Partner, are you going to explode?" The data terminal asked casually.

"No, find some normal way," Hao Ren waved his hand, "what if there are still living people?" ”

"I don't like to study this kind of thing," Lily muttered, "with a big head." ”

Hao Ren didn't say anything, just searched for clues in the vicinity through the shared vision. He could see the mechanical structure beneath the surrounding metal plates, and under the heavy steel covering, there were shallow grooves where pipes and wiring were placed, some of which were supposed to be the controllers of the gates. The data terminal was much faster than he could analyze, and soon the PDA found the suspected place of activating the switch according to the layout of the wiring around the gate, and marked it in Hao Ren's field of vision with eye-catching red.

Hao Ren pointed to a metal plate on the wall next to him: "Dig this place up - be careful not to hurt inside." ”

Lily immediately floated forward, waving her claws of ice and fire in a burst of golden light, and quickly removed the metal plate, revealing the complex and outdated cable and substrate structure behind it.

The device uses electricity.

Hao Ren found the key control line with the help of the data terminal, he carefully ripped the two cables off the substrate, and beckoned Vivian to come over: "Put some electricity, 28 volts DC." ”

Vivien: "......"

(Anyway, this year's Forbes annual list voting has begun, although I still don't understand what the list mechanism is this time, but I hope everyone can vote for it. The year-end gala is, well, it should be. (To be continued......)