From Titan Corporation to the Empire of Man

More than ten hours later.

The Atlas fleet, which has fully entered stealth mode, has completed the deceleration of its antimatter engine, used conventional navigation to enter the gravitational range of Mars, and gradually approached the low-Earth orbit of Mars.

During the journey, it also "passed by" Deimos, Mars' second natural satellite.

When the fleet moved away from Demos, the surface was rich in iron oxides, especially hematite, which caused the atmosphere to emit light orange Mars under direct sunlight, which appeared in the fleet's visual field of vision.

Inside the future hangar at this time.

"Hunter members of the quick reaction force, please rush to areas three and four to board the vehicle. Repeat this."

"Group Six, retreat quickly! Hurry! The pressure here is about to drop!"

"Check whether their protective suits are complete. I don't want to hear about anyone having an accident later."

Announcements from the radio and shouts from ground and logistics personnel, among other noises, echoed throughout the hangar.

Soon, the personnel who were not wearing airtight protective clothing evacuated the place.

More than a hundred hunters dressed in black and fully armed appeared here, and headed towards the "3" and "4" areas j marked on the helmet screen, entering the sea where routine maintenance and preparations had been completed. Sparrow assault boat.

It didn't take long before all the hunters and puffins were completely ready.

At the same time, the hangar is completely depressurized and is in a vacuum state.

When the gates are opened in sequence, the hangar will be directly connected to the deep space of the universe. However, the magnetic field of the Fides class protects the ground crew from high-energy radiation.

Then, the ground crew manually controlled the robotic arm to pick up the first Puffin assault boat that turned on the stealth mode, and then transferred it to the waterway to connect the landing gear with the electromagnetic ejection slot.

Wait a moment and the green light turns on.

Swish-!

The first Puffin folded its wings and quickly rushed out of the channel until it entered the deep space of the universe.

Then four more Puffins popped out of the Fides class one after another, forming a triangle formation with the first one, and together they approached the Olympus Mountains on the surface of Mars.

Once they entered the atmosphere unobstructed, their folded wings also unfolded.

call--!

Although the atmosphere of Mars is extremely thin, there is still very strong air flow in the atmosphere, and on the east side of the flight formation, an overwhelming dust storm has rolled up.

Ding-dang-!

This made the flight slightly bumpy, and small particles hit the bulkheads, wings and protective windows.

However, after the flight formation successfully passed through the storm, the surface of Mars returned to calm, showing a clear sky for all pilots.

Looking at the sky from a pilot's perspective, you can see that it is not as lifeless as what you see outside the atmosphere.

Next, the flight formation maintained its formation across the vast plains and came to the edge of the almost vertical mountains, and

Even at the edge, the vertical height is a staggering eight thousand meters.

The formation continued to maintain speed and reached the mountains.

After nearly fifteen minutes, we arrived at the canyon pointed out by Hera and drove straight into it.

-

In the cockpit of the pilot Puffin assault boat;

Aya Brea stood behind the two pilots and observed both sides of the canyon through the protective window.

"."

Her face was solemn under the helmet.

Although Brea is a veteran who has fought with the company for many years, and her grandparents built the original Atlas with her boss, this is the first time Brea has come to Mars.

No, it should be said that these hunters and pilots were the first humans in the main universe to enter the atmosphere of Mars.

I never thought that the main universe's first "manned spaceflight" mission to Mars would actually be carried out by a group of combatants like them.

"Lieutenant Colonel Brea, we have found the breakthrough that the abnormal creature mentioned."

Hearing this, Brea moved his eyes to the left side of the helmet screen and saw that where the yellow dot marked by the pilot was, there was a natural platform that protruded hundreds of meters from the cliff and a crack that led deep into the mountains. .

"Take us there."

"Yes."

After Brea finished speaking, he turned back to the cabin and temporarily separated the cockpit where the pilot was from the cabin that was about to be depressurized to avoid accidents caused by pressure differences.

After the engine room was decompressed, the Puffin assault boat also completed its landing.

call----! ! !

The moment the hatches on both sides opened, air flow surged, and a harsh whistling sound echoed around everyone.

However, Brea and the hunters were not affected by these factors and quickly rushed out of the cabin and built a simple defensive front.

At this time, the remaining four Puffins landed on this platform one after another, releasing all the hunters.

Looking around to make sure there were no threats nearby, Brea gave the order over the internal communication:

"Fourth platoon stayed in the landing zone to hold our retreat and protect the puffins and pilots. The other combat platoons followed me into the crevice."

"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel."

After receiving the order, the hunters turned on the optical camouflage of their individual equipment and prepared for action.

The fourth platoon of hunters stayed in place, while the first, second, and third combat platoons went deep into the crevice under the leadership of Brea, and soon disappeared.

Inside the fissure.

Brea and several hunters who were rushing at the front continued to move quickly, while reaching out from the storage bag on the back waist, taking out several metal ball-like detectors, and then threw them upwards.

Buzz~!

With the slight sound produced by the magnetic levitation, the detector quickly moved forward on their behalf and outlined a detailed thumbnail map in the upper left corner of the helmet.

With the help of detectors, hunters can avoid many dead ends and corners.

Finally, after six hours, they reached an open hollow.

beep beep

And in the pitch-black space, there was still the sound of some water drops dripping on the stone wall.

With the help of the auxiliary vision provided by the helmet screen and the dynamic capture function, Brea discovered that there were a large number of stalactite-like structures here.

The liquid water reacts with the carbon dioxide in the air and the rock wall to form a weak acid solution, which is then corroded to form a strange landscape.

Moreover, the real-time data on the left side of the helmet shows that the temperature here reaches "14c", and even the humidity is "63%". The most important data is "methane content: about 2%".

Half squatting on the ground.

Brea freed her left hand and squeezed a handful of soft soil that felt sticky.

It seems they are very close to their target location.

After all, if you want to maintain the strange landscape here, you need to continue to maintain heat and humidity, and methane shows that those fallen gods still cannot avoid the physiological phenomena that living creatures should have.

Brea stood up and waved his hand, signaling everyone to continue going deeper.

When they passed through the last narrow tunnel, they felt "suddenly enlightened" because an extremely large underground space was placed in front of them.

And a miniature "sun" emitting red-purple light provides light and energy here, and directly below the "sun" is an ancient Greek-style palace complex that looks splendid with jade and is equally grand in scale.