It sounded like a millennium project.

They would not only have to increase the oxygen content in the atmosphere, but also bring in greenhouse gases to increase the thickness of the atmosphere, and at the same time find an alternative to the geomagnetic field to avoid the newly generated atmosphere being blown away by solar winds.

Moreover, Jiang Chen’s positioning of Mars was originally an arsenal of the Earth Fleet. From his perspective, the idea of transforming Mars into a terrestrial planet was not attractive.

But then again, Verdell Taylor’s words finally reminded Jiang Chen of something.

When he first entered the underground ruins, it seemed that the air monitoring component of the drone detected higher oxygen content compared to the surface on Mars.

At first, he thought it was because it resembled the atmospheric environment of Mars 3.7 billion years ago, but he overlooked the fact it was located several kilometers deep underground…

After reporting his progress to Jiang Chen, Verdell Taylor excitedly asked if he could take a flight to Mars, but was immediately shut down by Jiang Chen.

Perhaps these scientists were ready to dedicate themselves to the cause of science, but he couldn’t risk losing a brilliant scientist.

To defeat the enemy, he must first understand the enemy.

While Celestial Trade was still developing itself capability, the fifty scientists were already standing at the forefront of resisting the invasion of Harmony. The more understanding they gained of the biological civilization, the higher the Earth Defense Alliance’ chance was of winning.

What’s more, before Jiang Chen dug out the ruins on Mars, he would not send any uncontrolled factors up there.

Afterall, Verdell Taylor was from Frankberg, which represented the Frankberg government; he was not Xin nor a part of Celestial Trade.

In the end, Jiang Chen proposed a compromise of bringing more Devil Worm specimen back.

Based on the response of Captain Hong Zewei, the administrator of the Mars colony, there seemed to be a lot of these bugs around Mine 071. As long as the soldiers remained in the vehicles and the specimens were collected through robots and vehicles, the danger should be minimal.

At the same time, Jiang Chen also sent a message to Kelvin to ask him to tell the staff on the Mars colony to keep an eye on the speculation made by Verdell Taylor on the existence of an “Oxygen Supply Layer”.

If it did exist, it would be another groundbreaking discovery. One that shakes the academic world if they obtained some anaerobic fungi from that layer…

If all went accordingly to plan.

…

Mars colony.

The gusting sand ravaged in the desert.

The large sheds that were originally located near the cabin were completely destroyed.

Hong Zewei stood inside as he looked at the ruins outside the window and sighed with a headache.

As for what happened to the destroyed sheds outside?

Everything started with a “foolish” command…

Four days ago, Marines once again set off from the colony.

This time they had a well-planned strategy. They first parked their vehicle near Mine 071 and immediately used drones to lure the Devil Worms out from underground, then they detonated the explosives on the drone and killed two Devil Worms from afar.

At the request of the Space Command Center, they tied the bodies of two Devil Worms with hooks and dragged the two fresh specimens back to the colony.

In the next two days, they killed a total of ten Devil Worms with the same method.

Just when they thought these bugs were nothing to fear.

They finally enraged these monsters.

The destroyed sheds outside the colony were the most evident example.

The smarter Devil Worms no longer bit the drones and even stopped touching the vehicles that they could not pierce through. Following the blood of their same kind, they tracked down the colony and were immediately shocked by everything in front of them.

For more than three billion years, no living things existed on the surface of Mars, to the point that they had completely forgotten the existence of Mars’ surface. But after eating fungi and other arthropods for so long, they were surprised to find neighbors on the barren surface.

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The floor of the colonial cabin was too thick, and they could not drill through it.

But other buildings were not so lucky.

The farms in the colony were left with countless holes. The newly built ranch was completely torn apart with all the crops and livestock inside eaten.

If it weren’t for the fact that the colony was wise enough to not put all of its eggs in one basket, and still maintained an indoor breeding center and an open-air farm within the main building, food for the colonists would be another urgent issue.

Fortunately, these Devil Worms were only interested in moving creatures. Otherwise, it would have been disastrous if the brine desalination device was destroyed.

Addicted to the new taste, they roamed near the colony every day to seek for more prey.

Now, even travel for the staff was difficult. Other than the Marines’ missions, all activities outside were forced to terminate.

No one knew where the bugs would pop up from, and no one dared to gamble if they were there or not.

“The study of Mine 071 was the wrong decision. If we didn’t wake up the monsters from underground, we could have been safe.” A blond female stood in front of the Marines, full of emotions, “And now, everyone’s work has been affected!”

She was a colleague of James and an employee of Future Mining. The Marines acted quietly and politely around Future Group employees, but an order remained an order and no one could change this.

“You can go explain to the headquarters. Celestial City needs more specimens, and we’re just following the order.” Zhang Hai buckled the last button of his kinetic skeleton, checked the safety on the Gauss rifle, and then gestured to the soldiers behind him to walk around the woman.

Zhang Hai was the captain of this team of Marines. He commanded the past missions.

He was aware of the recent uneasiness in the colony and understood the rationale.

He also did not feel great about those bugs that suddenly popped out of nowhere. No one knew more about how annoying and difficult those worms were to deal with. A soldier already died in the post and another one was still receiving limb regeneration treatment in the emergency room.

Maybe the tension in the colony could be alleviated once reinforcements arrived.

However, Zhang Hai thought that even when the expeditionary forces arrive, it would still be futile.

The worms would not directly engage in combat at all. They were like seagulls, skipping on top of the water, flying away after a single blow, and barely stopping on the surface at all. Even if more Marines landed on Mars, what could they do without knowing how to drill holes?

However, Zhang Hai, who was preparing to board the vehicle, saw the icon of [Mission Terminated] on the AR screen of his helmet.

He was not the only one that saw the same message.

The other six Marines who already gathered into the vehicle also saw it.

“The mission is canceled? What happened?”

“I don’t know…”

“It’s the command from the Space Command Center.”

Just as Zhang Hai frowned, and thought he should ask Captain Hong Zewei if the task should still continue, he heard an exclamation.

“Wait… look above! What is that?!”

Zhang Hai suddenly looked above and followed his comrades’ sight.

Through the transparent graphene dome, black figures emerged above the colony one after another. Just like a meteor shower, the figures gradually enlarged in everyone’s surprised expression.

“Reinforcements?” With surprise in his tone, someone muttered.

“Sh*t, they are finally here!” A soldier said with relief.

It’s reinforcements!

Zhang Hai was also emotional.

The transport ship that carried a thousand Marines finally arrived on the Mars synchronous orbit!

Although he didn’t think these people could not bring too much change to the status quo on Mars, even he could not deny the boost in morale he received from seeing them.

At this point, the issue bothering him for so long finally went away.

In the days to come, at least his team would no longer be fighting alone.