Chapter 10: To Jupiter II's Abyss

In space exploration, crises would always exist. Unlike the depictions in fiction and movies, the true universe would not give one the time to think and make a plan before a crisis came knocking.

The moment Chen Qiang's left leg stepped onto Jupiter II's surface, the pressure alarm blazed. A pressure of 255 kilobars instantly assaulted his leg. Although he had prepared himself before leaving the cabin, the massive pressure only served to accelerate the energy exhaustion of his suit. Each step he took would require a large amount of energy.

Additionally, the violent storm of ice chunks in the air made one feel as though one was being struck by countless bullets despite the protection of the morph-capable armor. As we were running out of time, I hurriedly followed Chen Qiang out of the vehicle, becoming the Aldrin of Jupiter II.

Withstanding the nasty pressure, both of us hurried toward the hole on the ground. The icy blades on the ground were long, sharp, and tough, as though the ground was filled with irregularly shaped daggers. Our morph-capable suits were forced to burn a massive amount of energy to protect us as we advanced. Based on the data, we had exhausted nearly 30 percent of our energy already, and we had only been walking. We needed to be faster.

"Jiajia, give me the accurate altitude of the hole," I said.

"The nearest hole has an altitude of 80 meters," Jiajia replied.

That might not sound like an impressive height, but to put it into perspective, the mountain housing the hole was directly perpendicular to the ground. It was tall and shocking enough that one would need to look at it with one's head raised.

Through the scene transmitted to our visors, we saw that the entire mountain we were on was filled with sharp ice spikes. I hurriedly gathered a sample from one of the ice spikes. The ground and the mountain were covered by the same substance. Due to the thick layer of sediment on the ground, we had no way of getting in contact with the moon's actual ground.

At a height of 80 meters, it was impossible for us to climb this mountain to reach the hole. Sure, our suits possessed the function to blast us off the ground, a useful ability in low-gravity planets without even exhausting too much energy. But the storm of ice we faced here was extremely draining on our energy supply.

"Team Leader Chen, Canyue, can anyone hear me?" Xiaoming's voice suddenly rang out in the communication channel.

"Yes. What is it?" Chen Qiang asked.

"The latest update from the mothership indicates that a massive tornado has formed at Jupiter II's north pole. The storm is heading to your location. The tornado is massive and concentrated, and our probes have failed to determine its main composition. We estimate that the storm will reach your location in two hours. Please pay attention to the change in your surroundings. Upon encountering any trouble, retreat promptly," Xiaoming's anxious voice rang out.

"Noted," Chen Qiang replied.

In truth, my mood plummeted after the update from Xiaoming. We were only exploring a tiny moon. Why was it giving us so much trouble? According to my personal understanding, our arrival had somehow altered the moon's gravitational makeup. And from that, trouble after trouble emerged. Right now, we were essentially racing against time.

"Canyue, activate the navigation mode. Rise!"

With Chen Qiang's command, both of us activated our suit's aviation mode and rose from the ground. Relying on the laser scanner's guidance, we advanced while avoiding the ice spikes in our way. Before long, we arrived at the hole on the ice mountain.

The hole resembled a volcanic crater on Blue. The hole before us wasn't too big. When compared to those we had seen at the north pole, the hole before us was akin to a child before an adult.

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The dormant ice volcano was densely covered in irregular blades of ice. Due to the lower wind speed in the hole, it was also filled with sharp chunks of ice. We were unable to find a suitable spot to land. With the harsh environment, hovering in the sky would exhaust a large amount of energy. Thus, Dodo and Old Du hurriedly made the calculations to find an optimal landing site for us.

"Found it. Three o'clock ahead of you. There's a big ice spike there with a relatively large surface suitable for landing," said Old Du.

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We followed the provided trajectory and hurriedly descended. Near the spike, I wound a rope made of high-durability materials around the spike to stabilize our footing. The wind speed there was much slower, reaching a speed below 100 kilometers per hour, equivalent to force 10 wind on the Beaufort Scale. On Blue, such violent wind was strong enough to uproot trees, but here on Jupiter II, it could be considered mild weather compared to the rest of the moon.

I hurriedly retrieved a sample from the hole. I shut off my vision assist and tried to use my own eyes to get a clear look at my surroundings, but only a blanket of darkness welcomed me. The visibility was still zero. Beside me, Chen Qiang had the headlight on, but in my eyes, I only saw a tiny white dot. It was clear a body evolved on Blue was incapable of adapting to outer space. At that realization, I hurriedly reactivated my vision system.

After a sample was retrieved, we needed to probe the depth of the hole. The ice layer around it was about 100 kilometers thick. This hole, on the other hand, could potentially be our shortcut through the ice layer.

Standing on the ice spike and facing the hole, I aimed my laser probe into it. Shortly after, the feedback returned: the ice layer beneath the hole was only 20 kilometers thick! This was the thinnest ice layer we had found so far.

"Beautiful!" We high-fived each other.

Despite the harsh environment, as researchers, we had discovered the shortest route through the ice. Not wanting to delay any further, we sent the data back to the mothership for further analysis. We then waited for the next command.

At this time, we received an update from Maerdo. They had scouted over a dozen locations, and the thickness of the ice layer there averaged 50 kilometers. In other words, the hole before us offered the shortest route to the world beneath the ice crust.

Soon, a new command arrived from the mothership. The storm was arriving in about a hundred minutes, so we did not have much time. We were commanded to start drilling immediately and retreat after throwing a robotic probe through the drilled path.

After receiving the order, Chen Qiang ordered me to activate the robotic drill. To avoid losing contact with the robot, we even installed a long thread onto it. The other end of the thread was fixed to the ice spike. We also tossed five pressure transducers into the hole, each thrown in a different direction, preventing an unexpected ice volcanic explosion during the process of our drilling.

As Chen Qiang and I stood expectantly waiting for a new historic moment to come, the robotic drill started its work. Before long, the robotic drill was halfway through. Right this moment, our alarms blazed. Our pressure monitor indicated that the underground pressure had abruptly increased. Instead of pushing upward, the pressure was contracting internally. 

"Danger!" Dodo suddenly shouted.

Instantly, the robotic drill was dragged deep underground by a massive force. At the same time, the ground around us started shaking violently.

"Chen Qiang, Canyue, retreat immediately!" Old Du roared from within the Kangaroo. 

Chen Qiang and I immediately activated our defensive aviation system and soared into the sky. But at this moment, an indescribable attractive force appeared, negated the thrusting force of our suits, and dragged both of us into the hole. The impact from the struggle between the suit's thrusting force and the pressure's pulling force was too much for me, and I fainted in my suit. The only thing my murky mind could perceive was a slow descent into an endless abyss.

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