Chapter 185: Entering the Supergravity Zone

The Death Trio Star Region’s interplanetary internet connection with the Pan-Human Alliance was erratic, often breaking off due to various situations occurring in the surroundings. It was apparent that Qin Mang had something important to tell Xia Fei, but the interplanetary internet happened to become inaccessible to him then.

Xia Fei scowled. “Wonder what could that old man be reaching out to me for?”

Phantom mused.”How coincidental for the internet to get interrupted at this time.”

“Forget it. Guess we’ll just have to wait till after we get out of the supergravity zone to talk about it.”

The Tomahawk slowly opened a wormhole, the final warp before entering the supergravity zone. Once through, he would be in the endless expanse of the uninhabited region, where it would be difficult for the internet signal to reach even if there was no impedance. After all, the supergravity would severely interfere with the signal.

Several minutes later, the Tomahawk emerged from the wormhole as a powerful pressure gripped the warship. The sound of grinding metal could be heard throughout the ship, every part and component bearing the powerful pressure being exerted. Xia Fei could only feel his body abruptly get heavier as if huge rocks weighing thousands of tons were crushing down on him.

The gravity-control system immediately activated, and about three minutes later, the internal pressure of the ship returned to normal.

Xia Fei sighed and gave a command to the smart computer. “Head toward the coordinates of the first destination. Main thrusters bear fifty percent of the load, while second and third thrusters will each provide auxiliary propulsion at twenty-five percent.”

The main thrusters were the warp drive originally on the Tomahawk. Because they were still in good condition, Xia Fei decided that it was best to let it bear the majority of the burden, while the auxiliary thrusters, which were very old... Xia Fei figured that it was best to have them share the propulsion work at only twenty-five percent each.

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Three trails of blue ion flames jetted out from behind the Tomahawk as it passed through the imperceptible supergravity dust. The ship advanced at 3000m/s toward a distant yellow planet.

“Have the radar system work at one hundred percent. Search for any signs of life on where survival is possible,” Xia Fei ordered in a deep voice.

The lidar, gravitational radar, and the full-spectrum radar system all began operating. The indicator lights flashed constantly as the radars scanned the area for any faint signal.

The supergravity zone would distort and even warp any electronic signal, so while the radars did manage to pick up plenty of garbled signals, it was impossible to decipher just what they contained.

“Start the high-powered communication system and search for high-frequency signals. At the same time, try to connect to the interplanetary internet.” Xia Fei gave forth more commands as he stood in front of the command console.

Phantom suddenly felt that Xia Fei really had the air of a commander, methodically giving out orders without even an inch of hesitation despite being in such a dangerous region.

“Unable to locate any high-frequency signals. Attempt to connect to the interplanetary internet has failed,” reported the smart computer’s emotionless female voice.

Xia Fei furrowed his brows. Even the high-powered communications system was having trouble operating. It was like the Tomahawk had become deaf in that sense, so there was no way for him to even know if enemies would suddenly appear beside him.

“Turn on the visual-simulation system. Point it to the first target, with a hundred times magnification,” Xia Fei gritted his teeth and ordered.

Since there was no way for him to get the radar system working, he could only depend on the image-capturing system that the warship possessed to analyze if there was any trace of Old Porter’s ship anywhere near the target destination. The difficulty of this search had just increased compared to what he had first imagined.

Soon, a blurry image appeared on the screen. The supergravity dust was also affecting the Tomahawk’s video system, and the image became distorted.

“Do a sixteen-spectrum processing scan, and increase magnification by five hundred times.”

The smart computer immediately captured the signal and engaged in a sixteen-degree processing scan, attempting to revert the captured image to its original condition while further magnifying it.

After the processing, the image became slightly better, but it was still blurry and difficult to determine just what he was looking at.

Xia Fei spat an expletive. The supergravity zone truly lived up to its name; he had expected the radar system to fail, but for even the video system to have difficulties working as intended, too, meant that the Tomahawk was both blind and deaf.

“Get closer to the destination and orbit at an altitude of around twenty-five thousand meters, then increase the image processing scan to thirty-six spectrums.”

Helpless, Xia Fei had no choice but to make a last-resort attempt, doing a low-orbit observation while maintaining a twenty-five-thousand-meter altitude as he searched the entire planet for a life signature.

Though this would let him get a clear view of the objects on the planet, it would waste a lot of his precious time, for he had to spend almost half a day’s time just searching this one planet, when there were still plenty of other places to search on in Xia Fei’s star map.

In the blink of an eye, two days had passed in such a fashion. Xia Fei’s two eyes were already bloodshot, having needed to use them to take in everything since the video system was still as blurry as before.

Lighting a cigarette, Xia Fei sat down in his captain’s swivel chair and propped his chin in one hand. “We can’t go on like this. We’ll end up spending several decades searching the entire supergravity zone if we do.”

Phantom’s face expressed his complete helplessness. “Of course. The supergravity zone is far more complicated than what we initially imagined. Neither radar nor video monitoring works. How are we any different from being blind?”

Xia Fei gritted his teeth. He strode over to the command console and gave a command. “Warp past the red unknown areas and head straight for the purple regions.”

Old Porter’s star map had a total of three purple regions marked out, and Xia Fei had named them first, second, and third respectively. The first and second regions were somewhere at the core of the supergravity zone, having a gravitational force well-beyond imagination, while the third region was basically already a part of the unknown region, and there was no telling what might happen there.

Phantom’s eyebrows were knitted tightly together. He wanted to try and coax Xia Fei to stop, but he knew that there was no way he would succeed in doing so. Xia Fei was just the sort of person who would see something to the end once his mind had been made up.

“Warning! The gravity of the target destination is close to the threshold of the warship’s limit. Please confirm your command,” requested the smart computer’s cool female voice.

The smart computer of a warship would re-confirm the orders of the commander the moment they received a dangerous order to avoid any unnecessary losses that might result due to a commander making a mistake when giving out his order. This was the same no matter how small or large the ship was.

“Confirm,” Xia Fei said decisively.

“Load up the overclocking system and prepare to activate it. Begin with a fifty percent overclock the moment we enter the area.”

Xia Fei had been carrying the overclocking chip given to him by Old Porter this whole time. The installation of such a chip was very simple, only requiring a connection to the main control computer. It could even easily be uninstalled any time. After acquiring the Tomahawk, Xia Fei transferred the overclocking chip from the Vampire to it.

After warping, the warship would immediately enter an area that had an even greater gravitational force than his current location. The gravity-control system needed to instantly adjust the internal pressure of the entire ship, and using the overclocking system would greatly reduce the time needed for this adjustment to occur, avoiding any physical damage to the passengers’ bodies.

“Harris, we’re about to enter extreme gravitational space; get ready.”

Xia Fei used the ship’s broadcast system to inform Harris before taking his place on his captain’s seat, furtively exercising his Breath Control technique. Though it would not be enough to eliminate the pressure from the extreme gravity pressing on his body, Xia Fei could be calmer so that his blood pressure and heart rate would not spike drastically as a result of the sudden change in gravity.

At the instant when the gravitational change occurred, even Xia Fei had difficulty breathing. Fortunately, the overclocking system instantly took effect and completed the gravitational adjustment in less than two minutes.

Getting up, Xia Fei swiftly made his way to Harris’s cabin, only to find him collapsed on his bed, his two hands painfully clutching his head.

“Are you okay?” Xia Fei asked as he came to support him upright.

Harris shook his head with much effort, “The abrupt pressure change caused my brain to feel like it’s about to explode, but I’m fine now.”

Xia Fei smiled. “It’s good that you managed to withstand this. I was actually worried that you might be unable to handle the increased pressure.”

“I’m fine. It’s a good thing that the ship was able to adjust the gravity fast, or else who knows what might have happened.” Harris commented with a hint of lingering fear.

Phantom was standing at the side, looking out into space, a little out of sorts as he muttered in bewilderment, “Xia Fei, come take a look.”

Xia Fei got up, walked over to the porthole,and looked at where Phantom’s gaze was concentrated on.

All he saw was a red planet in the dark backdrop of space. The planet was covered in dense dark shadows, and upon a closer inspection, Xia Fei could not help but become dumbfounded.

The dark shadows were neat and aligned, all uniform in shape, as if they were artificially designed.

‘Could this be man-made?’ Xia Fei thought to himself.

He strode back to the command deck with some urgency, giving out a new order to the main computer. “Close in on destination no. 1, circle at an altitude of ten thousand meters.”

*Whoosh!*

The Tomahawk sped down and began its passive orbit on that planet. The naked eye was able to see everything down on the ground at ten thousand meters, and Xia Fei stood by the large viewing window on the command deck and closely examined below.

Just as he guessed, they were indeed man-made structures.

Huge square structures were erected next to one another, their edges and corners distinct, and their walls all several meters thick. They all seemed to be made of reinforced concrete, looking very sturdy.

“Begin scanning for signs of life,” Xia Fei ordered. “At the strongest magnitude.”

“Affirmative. Beginning scan with the bio-detector.”

“Heavy interference received. Unable to scan as per normal.”

Xia Fei knitted his eyebrows. “Go down to five thousand meters; begin the bioscan anew.”

The Tomahawk was getting closer to the planet. It was almost flying just off the ground at five thousand meters. The red scanning laser was finally able to make it through the gravitational pull and begin its scan of the planet for any signs of life.

Xia Fei looked down on the planet surface from the window as he nervously waited for the readings of the bio-detector to change. If Old Porter was really on this planet and still alive, Xia Fei should be able to find traces of him.

The seconds ticked by, but the bio-detector still lacked any indication whatsoever.

“Just what are those structures?” Phantom wondered. “Could they be built by humans?”

Xia Fei shook his head. “That’s hard to say. These structures appear to be perfectly square-shaped, without any flaws as far as I can tell. Humans are born romantic, so they’ll never design such ugly structures. Besides, we’re currently in a supergravity zone. How could a human ever survive?”

Phantom thought about this further, “Perhaps there wasn’t any supergravity dust a long time ago, and it only came to be after something happened?”

Xia Fei was silent. Everything was just speculations at this point. There was only one way to verify the truth, and that would require him to venture in.