109: Chapter 109 Shocking! Unknown Metal Remains
The "Peeping Secret" team arrived at the target coordinates, surrounded by a silence that had remained unchanged for eons. A massive crater cast a deep shadow, as if a giant eye were coldly watching these uninvited guests. Without unnecessary words, the team members quickly began their operations according to the predetermined plan.
The "Zhu Long" deep-hole drilling platform was precisely set up directly above the radar reflection anomaly. In the low-gravity environment, the powerful drill bit began to dig downward with steady determination, accompanied by a low hum. Lunar rock was peeled away layer by layer like crispy biscuits before the specialized drill bit. The drilling process was exceptionally smooth—one might even say too smooth—as if the rock structure below was... a bit looser than expected?
When the drilling depth neared 140 meters, Zhou Rui, who was monitoring the drill bit status and rock debris composition, suddenly shouted: "Slow down! Drill resistance is increasing sharply! The feedback waveform is abnormal... It doesn't look like dense bedrock!"
Everyone's heart instantly jumped into their throats. Sun Hao immediately ordered: "Stop rotating and advancing, switch to low-frequency vibration grinding mode! 'Di Ting' prepare for deployment!"
The drill bit stopped rotating and switched to high-frequency, small-amplitude vibration, slowly grinding downward. A few minutes later, accompanied by a dull metallic scraping sound that was completely different from the previous crushing of lunar rock, the drilling monitoring data indicated—it had hit bottom!
"The drill bit has contacted the surface of the target object!" Zhou Rui's voice was filled with unbelievable excitement. "Material confirmed... metal! This is the source of the signal reflection!"
After clearing away the debris near the drill bit, an observation hole about 20 centimeters in diameter was exposed. Sun Hao carefully lowered the "Di Ting" robot into the hole. The micro-robot's belly-mounted floodlights and multiple high-resolution cameras instantly turned on, transmitting the scene below in real-time back to the main screen in the exploration vehicle, and simultaneously to the "Guanghan Palace" base and the "Zhu Long" safe house.
The moment the image stabilized, everyone who saw it couldn't help but gasp!
What lay below was not the expected intact structural shell that might have interfaces or symbols, but rather... wreckage!
What came into view was a vast, twisted metal internal structure. Huge, strangely shaped metal beams and columns were broken and bent at eerie angles, covered in scars as if torn apart by immense force. Various incomprehensible, cable-like fine conduits were tangled together, many already severed, with faint and eerie dim blue halos—a glow unlike any energy known to humans—flickering at the breaks. Further away, one could also see some broken, lattice-like plates, as well as a large amount of scattered, irregularly shaped metal fragments.
The entire scene looked as if a giant's precision creation had been violently destroyed from the inside by an unimaginable force, and then buried by long ages and thick rock layers!
"Is this... is this the wreckage of a spaceship? Or the ruins of a base?" Dr. Liu Xin, the materials scientist, murmured to herself. Her professional expertise allowed her to quickly determine that the crystalline form and color of those metal fractures were completely beyond the cognitive scope of human materials science.
The "Di Ting" robot began to move, its sensors scanning the silent ruins with full power.
"Ambient radiation levels... extremely low, but there are traces of unknown non-ionizing energy."
"Preliminary analysis of structural material... elemental composition abnormal, contains a large number of unknown isotopes, crystal structure... unidentifiable!"
"Detected a weak, periodic energy pulse signal; source located deeper within the wreckage, cannot be directly observed!"
Sun Hao forced himself to calm down and issued an order: " 'Di Ting', attempt to collect a sample of the nearest metal fragment. Be careful!"
The robot extended its precision mechanical arm, carefully picking up a fist-sized, sharp-edged dark gray metal fragment. The moment the fragment was lifted and detached from the main structure, the faint dim blue halo on it suddenly extinguished, as if it had lost its final energy supply and had turned completely lifeless.
The sample was quickly placed into a specialized sample canister equipped with multiple shielding and stabilization functions and sealed.
"Sample successfully acquired!" Sun Hao reported, but his gaze remained fixed on the scene of the ruins on the screen. "Command, what we have found is not an intact structure, but... wreckage. Wreckage of some ancient, non-human creation. It seems to have experienced a tragic destruction."
When the news was transmitted back, both the "Guanghan Palace" base and the Earth Command Center fell into a shocked silence.
An ancient interstellar spaceship? A lost alien base? Whatever it was, its very existence was enough to subvert humanity's understanding of itself and the universe. And its destruction cast an even deeper, more dangerous shadow over that vast, deep starry sky.
Lin Mo was in the safe house, watching the silent and broken metal wreckage, his expression extremely grave. The system interface flashed a high-priority warning in his mind:
【Confirmed: Not a creation of this civilization. Technological level assessment: Far exceeds that of the host civilization. Status: Severely damaged, core functions failed. Correlation analysis: 17.3% potential similarity to the "reaper" signal characteristics. Threat level: Historical (defunct), but caution is advised regarding its civilization of origin.】
The shock did not come solely from the discovery itself, but from the cold and cruel cosmic picture it revealed—the sea of stars is not just about poetry and exploration; it is filled with unknown destruction and risks. This piece of metal wreckage beneath the moon was like a tombstone from the ancient past, silently recounting the fate that a civilization might face.