……

Ren Hong nodded silently, his brain was running rapidly, thinking, after a while, his heart moved slightly, and said: "The Martian natives are not active during the day, they are only active at night. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info Obviously, their habitat is very likely to be underground, Pezos...... Right! Pezos Volcano, a massive volcano that has been dead for billions of years, will become a maze of underground labyrinths when Mars cools and the lava tunnels that flow after the volcano dies, in other words...... It's the best place to live. ”

"Is this possible?" Ren Hong looked around at everyone and his eyes fell on Aislin, "Do you have any data about Pezos Volcano?" How many? ”

"Collecting data on the Pezos volcano is one of the missions of the Noah, and before it can be executed, all the people are dead." Blake replied helplessly.

"Okay!" Ren Hong shook his head with a wry smile, and then said in an instant: "First, we have to first find out what is under our feet, and second, find out the situation of the indigenous creatures of Mars. If the first problem is not solved, I suggest that you choose a new site, or drop a high-yield nuclear bomb into the crater, and if the second problem is not solved, there will always be unknown hidden dangers in the future base on Mars, unless the indigenous life dies. ”

Ren Hong looked around at everyone and said, "My suggestion is to conduct an expedition to Pezos Volcano as soon as possible, and the most important thing is to obtain DNA biological samples of the indigenous creatures of Mars. The information on the black box is so limited, and we still know almost zero about the indigenous creatures of Mars, which is dangerous, and neither of us can afford such a huge loss, especially the loss of people! ”

Blake suddenly said, "Exploring the underground? In case that's their nest down there......"

If their lair were really down there, it would make people's scalps tingle just to think about it, and humans have a natural fear of dark cellars.

"You don't need to go in yourself!" Ren Hong added.

Yang Licheng is currently the highest operational commander on Mars, Ren Hong's suggestion was not immediately adopted and implemented, but was reported to the space station for Commander Li Xingfeng to make a decision, which made him very helpless, the identity of "Wang Jiang" is not comparable to the identity of "Ren Hong" after all.

A lot of time was consumed one after the other, and basically nothing could be done today, it was late, dusk was approaching, and it was true that there were no encounters with any Martian natives during the day, but not necessarily at night. Since the outpost incident, Observer 5 has been monitoring the Pezos area almost around the clock, and has not seen any Martian creatures for several months, day or night.

However, humans do not know the habits of such creatures, and they do not know that they are in a dormant period at the moment.

It was precisely because they didn't know that they didn't dare to spend the night at the outpost base, and before dusk approached, everyone returned to the "Red Eagle" again.

The matter about the indigenous creatures of Mars is very important, and the "Twin Plan" is categorically impossible to terminate, not to mention the sky-high cost of investment, just the amethyst in the old Olympus, even if the danger coefficient is high, it is impossible to give up, and the amethyst has long been written into the country's highest level of strategic reserve resources, which can be said to be inevitable.

The space station soon received the latest instructions, and after repeated discussions, there was nothing better than Ren Hong's proposal, and finally agreed to survey the Pezos area.

The next day, the group arrived at their destination again, and with the help of satellites in space, it became much easier to survey the Pezos area.

At this moment, Ren Hong and others are driving the rover to the 231 Heights, which are eight kilometers away from the outpost base, and according to the data information transmitted from the satellites, the 231 Heights have several open-air lava crater tunnels.

When we arrived at our destination, it was around 9:30 a.m. local time.

A large amount of equipment was unloaded from the rover, and Heights 231 is a small high mouth with an altitude difference of 231 meters relative to the Pezos area, hence the name.

At the ridge of the 231 Heights, the data transmitted by the satellite is correct, and the survey team has found two cave entrances, the largest of which is 2.6 meters in diameter, which is really not small.

But no one wants to go in, and no one will go in directly to survey, which is too dangerous, and such a task should be left to robots.

At about ten o'clock, a temporary signal tower was erected about 10 meters from the cave, which had the function of signal relay and amplification.

After 11 o'clock, the team set up a makeshift site using a handy inflatable capsule from Bigelow Aerospace.

Several GIs carry a small Mars rover from the rover.

In the temporary venue, Ren Hong, Yang Licheng, and Ai Silin were in a row, Ren Hong sat in front of the console composed of multiple display panels, and his hands tapped on the virtual keyboard under the projection for a moment, and the screen immediately showed that the connection was completed.

The small six-wheeled Mars rover outside moved on its own when it was put on the ground, and the members of the armed tactical team in charge of guarding outside watched the rover, the size of a miniature car for children's fun, moving towards the direction of the cave entrance.

"Is this thing reliable?" Aisling, who was in the temporary venue, said suspiciously.

"I named it 'Martian Snake Lizard Explorer'!" Ren Hong looked at a video showing the first-person view of the Mars locomotive: "Fully automatic unmanned control, the intelligent system comes from my subsidiary XLOUS-ALPHA, XLOUS-IA Intelligent Machinery Company provides the basic hardware, XLOUS-ASI Company provides the battery that can make it last for 78 hours, and all the miscellaneous products are produced by Matrix Technology, which is trustworthy!" ”

At this moment, the Mars locomotive has driven into the lava cave, and the image on the screen immediately becomes a grid-like three-dimensional terrain live picture, the Mars locomotive continues to go deeper, and soon comes to the first corner, at this time it stops, the trunk of the Mars locomotive opens slowly, and then a mechanical arm stretches out from the side to take out a thumb-sized thing from the trunk, which is flashing red.

"What's that?" Aisling asked curiously.

"Make sure the signal is stable." Ren Hong stared at the screen and said.

In the lava cave, after more than 80 meters of depth, the Mars locomotive saw another small robotic arm drill a small hole in the side wall, and then put the thumb-sized strobe in it, and then continued to move forward.

Listening to Ren Hong's brief explanation, Aisling understood the role of that thing, the Mars rover went deep into the ground, and as it went deeper and deeper, the signal would become weaker and weaker, and eventually lost contact, and the thumb-sized instrument was placed on the side wall to ensure that the signal was stable.

The Mars rover will be placed at intervals, and it has been 800 meters deep into the ground, during which it has encountered several dead ends and has to turn back, but the underground lava tunnels extend in all directions, although I don't know the topography of the lava tunnels that are intertwined inside the volcano, but according to the volcanic data on the earth as a reference, it can also avoid many detours.

The Mars rover carries a large number of scientific analysis instruments, detectors and other miniature equipment, and the real-time information inside the tunnel is constantly fed back to the ground.

"The temperature plummeted to minus 42 degrees Celsius and the humidity increased."

At this moment, Ren Hong stared at the screen and suddenly leaned forward, and said in surprise: "A trace of oxygen has been detected!" There is indeed a situation under Mars, maybe their nest is really down there, don't tear down my baby, it's worth 200 million US dollars. ”

The Mars rover continues to go deeper, and the latest live data continues to be transmitted back to the surface, and the current data shows that the Mars rover has gone deeper than 6,000 meters into the ground, and it has come to the afternoon at this moment.

"Explorer! Stop it. Ren Hong said suddenly, the Mars locomotive really stopped advancing, and Ren Hong continued to voice control the command: "Explorer!" Camera No. 2 rotates 28 degrees clockwise. ”

The picture in the screen suddenly began to move, and a hemispherical groove appeared in the screen screen, Ren Hong covered his mouth and stared at the hemispherical groove for a long time, "Explorer, analyze the surrounding soil layer." ”

"What's that?" Aisling asked curiously, and a robotic arm appeared on the screen that extended into the groove, but she was talking about the spherical groove.

"It's a lava tunnel, and a spherical notch doesn't look like it's natural." Ren Hong muttered to himself while waiting for the data analysis results to come back.

Ten minutes later, the analysis came back, the soil contained residual yeast, and other microorganisms as well, all of which were nothing, and the information that followed was very exciting for everyone.

Acidic corrosive substances have been detected in the soil layer, which makes people subconsciously think of snakes, but these data are not enough.

………

… (To be continued.) )