Page 23 (1/2)

Chapter 23: THE FALL

Translator: Lonelytree, _Dark_Angel_ Editor: Lucas

"Entering the planet’s third orbital track in thirty seconds Counting doenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven…"

After one h space, at about eleven AM, the Hope was finally entering the desert planet’s orbital track Within the next thirty seconds, the ship would be touching the planet’s atmospheric layer

The Hope was actually the Noah Two It hat the people started referring to the spaceship as after Yao Yuan’s uplifting speech After a while, the moniker even spread across the authority It wasn’t before long that it officially replaced the name Noah Two

The desert planet was the only interstellar entity within the Hope’s reach According to multiple reports, the planet appeared to have an ozone layer and a physical surface fully covered by areater than Earth’s Its size wasn’t great, and it seeravitational pull similar to that of Earth’s

However, the planet had a fast rotation with regards to both itself and its sun A day on this planet was sixteen hours long and a year was equal to two hundred and seventy days on Earth

Further reports also revealed that the surface terees Celsius while dropping to under ten degree Celsius when night fell The night-and-day temperature difference was extree

The Hope’s team of astronomers and astrophysicists had spentthe planet’s data because this ht be the location where the Hope will spend its next few years Other than information that needed actual contact to be calibrated, like ozone and surface co else about the planet was tallied and measured

The results of all these analyses, with the exception of reports on the planet’s weather patterns, pointed towards a safe landing Its balerous anomaly because it didn't explain the extremely desertified planet surface A month of observation showed no traces of natural disasters Of course, due to the sandy nature of the planet’s surface, they would still need to care for the possibility of quicksand and sand traps These dangers depended on the level of solidity of the surface, so it was a risk that couldn't be calculated unless they were on the planet itself

"Because we are unable to ascertain the planet’s atical structures, it will be tooof the Hope Therefore, we need to first deploy an expeditionary unit for initial inspection This scouting party will be taking athe four , Ebon, and Liu Bai, ere senior members of the Black Star Unit, as well as its newest recruit, Zhang Heng The four were going to be leading the ship’s first planetary landing party which was ht scientists

"There are only three of these shuttles within the Hope These spacecrafts are unique because they can channel sufficient velocity to pierce through a planet’s at it and leaving it Equipped with an anti-gravitational systeht With our current technology and materials… we are still unable to manufacture these kinds of shuttles, so each one of theuys will be taking one," explained Yao Yuan Next he turned to address his own men one by one "Noant to explain why I’ve selected the four of you to lead this crucial party Ying, you’re the most clear-headed of all the Black Stars, ency and/or if coe and use your experience and analytical mind to lead everyone back to safety Ebon, your role is to support Ying when necessary and to be the commander to the twenty elite soldiers Xiao Bai, you’re naturally the tea as the lieutenant that supports Ebon Lastly, Zhang Heng, you must be curious as to why I’ve scripted you into this party The reason’s si everyone aboard this ship" Yao Yuan couldn’t help but feel gladdened at his serendipitous encounter with Zhang Heng The young hacker had helped them acquire the spaceship and noas yet another valuable asset to the Black Star Unit

"Zhang Heng, I’ll be honest with you Within this pasteveryone onboard We could refer to this chart to easily identify the best and brightest a the different communities so that when issues arise, we could locate the necessary individuals in no ti, we have quite a few rocket scientists to refer to and we have engineers and technicians for welding and uess who’s at the top of the list for computer proficiency It’s none other than yourself, and that’s why you are instrumental to the success of this expedition In fact, your role ht be the most important

Within the shuttle, there’s a multi-frequency communicator It’s a future-tech product that was probably created alongside the space warp systeh all sorts of environnetic or locational suppression, it will recalibrate itself to locate the frequencies needed to maintain a stable communications channel with the Hope There is, however, a catch; the device is encrypted The encryption is written into the coh its defense was heavily weakened when the govern full access over it is still troublesome because it will reconstruct a different encrypted firewall every ten minutes That’s the device’s fatal flaw" Yao Yuan allowed hi, "Fact is, the space-warping system also comes with such an encrypted protection, but thanks to the ship’s own advanced AI and the professor’s decryption key, this is a non-issue It doesn’t work that ith the coh; it needsThe communicator is linked to the spaceship and thus presumably has a similar encryption pattern You’re already familiar with the decryption key, so I’ responsibility, but you’re the best hacker we have In any case, I have full faith in you because despite being a fresh one, you’re still a Black Star!"

There’s a chinese idiooes, "He who knows the time and circumstance is a wiseHeng, are usually such wise ht that popped into his mind was to find excuses to weasel his way out, but he was quick to realize that there wasn’t any escape path There was no one for him to turn to; he had to fend for hih an extended back-and-forth, which would still end up with hi an understanding of his placeed hiet ready The shuttle will be leaving in half an hour Also, when the shuttle pushes through the ozone layer, its carapace will beas show that it’s overly acidic or alkaline, abort the h, after landing, you will need to iather necessary information This includes details like the planet’s atical structure, and the desert surface’s density to help us decide whether landing the Hope is pers to be careful about…"

Yao Yuan droned on for another ten minutes before the four could leave to take the electro Heng let loose his thoughts "I’m surprised; he isn’t usually so wordy Major Yao Yuan, I ’s co his rifle’s barrel before proceeding to fixing his netic bullets Ebon, who sat beside him, answered, "Ol’ Cap’n is such a ive this guy here a run for hiswith the butt of his assault rifle which he was deconstructing to check for kinks "But during every operation briefing, he will go on and on… Alright, you can stop staring atcautious, and many times his prudence has saved our lives, I’-winded nature boo, you’re new to the Black Star Unit, so you’re still unfamiliar with Ol’ Cap’n’s ways, but he’s only so cautious because he doesn’t want anyone to lose their lives over his carelessness You’ll get used to it and see that behind his every action, he has our best interest at heart"

The ae continued until they reached a platfor Behind thehter but larger and longer