241: Chapter 241 Inside the Starship

The next second, uncontrollably, Chu Ge lifted his leg and prepared to walk inside, but Captain Gong and Captain Wang held him back almost simultaneously.

One on each side, they forcibly hauled Chu Ge back.

"General Chu, before we set out this time, Commander Wang specifically instructed us that we must keep a close eye on you!"

"Academician Chu, the internal structural integrity is unknown. We still need structural engineers to go in and determine if it's safe. If a collapse occurs, it would be a disaster."

The two of them, one sentence each, left Chu Ge stuck right where he was.

Chu Ge shook his head, looking helplessly at his two guardians on either side.

Once the opening had been widened further, Captain Wang waved his hand, and the structural engineers carrying their equipment headed inside first.

Chu Ge stood outside staring blankly, only able to crane his neck to catch a glimpse and satisfy his curiosity.

Half an hour later, an engineer walked out.

"Reporting to Captain Wang and the Commander-in-Chief, everything inside is safe. However, visibility is extremely poor; we need the lighting team to set up the lighting arrays first."

"Alright, Team Leader Yu, I'll leave it to you," Captain Wang said to a person beside him.

"No problem."

Team Leader Yu then hurried inside with dozens of team members, while those outside began transporting equipment in.

Chu Ge waited patiently until this small section of wreckage began to emit bright light.

"You two, can I go in now?"

Captain Wang glanced at Captain Gong, who nodded, and then Captain Wang nodded as well.

Seeing the tacit understanding between the two, Chu Ge didn't have time to tease them and walked inside with Old Huang and the others.

After entering, Old Huang led the research team to search for those special fragments as Chu Ge had instructed.

Chu Ge observed his surroundings; it looked like a massive underground parking lot.

The lighting, the environment, and the oppressive feeling were all extremely similar.

Inside the starship,

What met Chu Ge's eyes was a scene of chaotic mess, as if the place had been ransacked.

Coiled pipes and cables were everywhere. Chu Ge looked up; the searchlights were suspended in mid-air, nowhere near reaching the top of the starship.

Beyond the searchlights and further up, it plunged back into boundless darkness.

"Academician Chu, we've surveyed the upper area with engineering drones; the structure is fine."

Seeing Chu Ge looking up, the structural engineer beside him explained.

Chu Ge nodded and looked at the surroundings again.

"What happened here? It doesn't look like it was caused by the crash."

"They must have taken a fatal blow before crashing. Could it be a strategic weapon from an alien fleet?"

Chu Ge muttered to himself.

"Didn't they have shields? This warship's shields must be more advanced than the kunpeng's, yet it was ravaged like this?"

Chu Ge continued to observe, and then he noticed a very peculiar phenomenon.

The starship's armor, metal outer layers, inner linings, and structural components—anything involving metal—had been almost completely destroyed.

Some of the outermost armor had turned to dross; at a touch, it collapsed into a pile of mushy substance.

In contrast, some of the non-metallic structural components inside the starship remained very well-preserved.

Although they looked like they had been completely torn apart, their structure was intact and hadn't suffered deeper damage.

Chu Ge tried touching the outer wall of a section of piping; the elasticity was still there.

"What the hell kind of weapon system is this? I feel like I've seen it somewhere before—a special weapon specifically designed to deal with metals..."

Chu Ge circled around again; this seemed to be the starship's bridge, the command center.

"Captain Wang, have you found anything like bodies?"

Chu Ge suddenly remembered this.

If that weapon system only damaged metal structures, then the crew members, as biological organisms, should have been preserved, right?

"None for now, but there are many piles of debris. We don't know if there's anything inside; we need to clear it out bit by bit."

Captain Wang replied to Chu Ge while giving orders.

Chu Ge thought about it and agreed; the level of detail in this site survey was no less than that of an archaeological dig.

The key was that they couldn't just use large machinery and act recklessly.

Efficiency certainly wouldn't be very high.

Chu Ge moved to a pile of debris that looked like electronic equipment. After rummaging through it for a while, he couldn't help but frown.

The damage was far too thorough.

Chu Ge thought for a long time and could only use the word "shattered" to describe it.

"Old Huang, arrange for some people to systematically categorize these command systems to see if any are still intact, though I think the chances are slim."

"Alright!"

Old Huang said as he led a group of people over, glancing down at the debris covering the floor.

"Academician Chu, are you sure we can still find anything of value in here? From what I can see, this has all been blasted to dross."

"What on earth did they go through?"

Old Huang looked at everything before him with a hint of dejection; Chu Ge felt he was likely feeling it was a pity.

"It must have been a brutal battle. These clearly suffered an attack from something like an EMP weapon first; many of the burn marks were caused by short circuits."

"And then they were hit with a strategic weapon..."

Chu Ge even simulated the scenes of the battle that day in his mind.

If that sphere wasn't lying, these warriors from the same star system as humans truly fought to the very end.

Chu Ge admired this kind of spirit; it had a touch of the Huaxia soldier's demeanor.

Most importantly, in their final moments, they weren't thinking of themselves, but of the species in this Solar System. That was why they dispatched their last two starships to protect these two planets.

One of the planets was definitely Earth; as for the other, that remained to be determined.

Chu Ge really wanted to see what these warriors looked like.

He walked up to Captain Wang and gave him an inquiring look; Captain Wang shook his head, indicating they had found nothing.

"Academician Chu, we did find wreckage that looks like armor. Finding such things inside the starship..."

"...it's very likely they were worn by the crew. Unfortunately, the armor has also been completely decomposed."

"Scientists are trying to see if they can extract any biological traces, but, well, they've found nothing so far. Personally, I think the chances are slim."

Captain Wang had to temper Chu Ge's expectations first.

Chu Ge nodded and turned to walk out; he needed to get some fresh air outside.

The engineering team outside was installing sections of the temporary base's space capsules. They were highly efficient, thanks to the extremely quick assembly method of the capsules.

The temporary space capsules weren't large; each section was about the size of two standard shipping containers, though somewhat longer.

The overall frame structure of the space capsule was made of the latest improved version of the high-strength, corrosion-resistant titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V.

The inner lining skeleton was foldable and designed with an umbrella-like structure, making it very simple to use.

Similar to modern automatic tents.

The inner skin of the space capsule was made of high-strength Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene fiber; its main characteristics were pressure resistance and thermal stability.

The outer layer of the skin consisted of a multi-layered structure of gold foil and Whipple shield "armor."

The space between the two layers of skin was filled with a large amount of insulation material and the constant temperature devices of the thermal control system.

The internal systems of the space capsule weren't complex either, mainly consisting of the pressure system, air renewal system, water supply and wastewater reclamation system, ventilation, and temperature and humidity control.

These basically belonged to the environmental control and life support systems.

In addition, there were communication systems, instrumentation, lighting systems, and so on.

Chu Ge watched as the space capsules before him gradually joined together like a bouncy castle.

"At this rate, we can go camping tonight..."