"Everyone will be transported officially and uniformly," the Intelligence Officer announced. "Currently, time is extremely urgent, and we all have only an hour and a half to prepare."

"This urgent?"

"Yes, we are currently recruiting hunters from our planet. The deadline for recruitment ends in 1 hour. The number of 'Mardis-level' hunters is very limited, and due to the uncertainty of the mission, there are very few registrants—according to official computational simulations, the actual time of the asteroid impact is just a few hours away. Investigating immediately after impact would be hindered by high temperatures, which is why we rescheduled the investigation for the early morning of the next day, which is 31 hours from now."

What the Intelligence Officer didn't know was there was another reason that couldn't be disclosed; the Saudi military would also be involved in the investigation. Thus, in this race against time, every minute became especially precious.

Xiu Yi nodded to show he understood, and soon, the group of four had hastily packed and successfully boarded the Bounty Tribe's transport Space Shuttle an hour later.

However, the other two 'Mardis-level' hunters did not join them on the same craft due to different locations. The two teams assigned to the mission were those nearest, suggesting the Space Shuttle was specifically prepared to transport them.

The trip, including them, had a total of eight passengers aboard the Space Shuttle: the captain, the co-pilot, a stewardess, and a rugged man in his 40s. As the man in his 40s entered, he greeted everyone heartily, "Hey, quite a young face, huh?"

"You are...?"

"My name's Fendi, an engineer and, you could say, the science communicator for the mission. We'll need to learn some basic knowledge about this exploration en route."

"Guys, get ready. We need to reach Satellite 8 before those others arrive," the captain interrupted, speaking with the straightforwardness of someone born and bred in Mardis.

True to a man's driving style, it wasn't long before everyone felt a heavy pull as the roaring engines, like a beast, propelled the Space Shuttle instantly up into the void and away from the atmosphere...

On the way to Satellite 8, Engineer Fendi distributed various supplies to everyone, including the most basic necessities such as nuclear-powered light bulbs, high-beam night vision devices, supra-metallic destruction equipment, and the latest protective gear rushed out from the Bergheide base.

As for the knowledge needing to be popularized, it was naturally the basic use of the distributed equipment. After all, no one could guarantee what the situation would be inside the Bizarre spacecraft, so thorough preparation became particularly important. Moreover, with time being so tight, Fendi had to intersperse the imparting of knowledge with casual conversation on the way to Satellite 8.

Take communication equipment, for example. Under the influence of the Bizarre spacecraft's unique magnetic storm, we could only communicate via old-fashioned radio systems.

For this investigation, the officials had obviously spared no expense, providing each person with a Space Crystal as a storage device.

Just as Xiu Yi was about to mention that his team already had a Space Crystal, he was suddenly interrupted by Red Ghost, who was quick to see profit and eagerly pocketed the gift.

Xiu Yi wanted to say something... looking left and right, he found that even Sister Xixi was glaring at him with a look that said 'dare to say something, and you'll regret it.' So, he could only shrug his shoulders.

----

On Satellite 8, the day neared its end, and the scorching sun also became unusually mild in the changing rotations...

On the other side of the planet, dense crowds were restless... many were keeping a constant eye on the asteroid's trajectory with their telescopic equipment. With the official countdown to the impact fast-approaching, everyone's hearts were filled with wandering thoughts and anxiety. Fortunately, the military personnel were still maintaining local law and order, which brought some psychological comfort to the locals—at least the Yate Federation had not given up on them.

In a haze, an object descended from the sky and suddenly appeared overhead. Millions of people, including the military, were instantly captivated by the indescribable pitch-black object. As the meteor grew rapidly larger to the naked eye, a wave of panicked screams reverberated through the area...

Even the soldiers from both countries were sweating in that moment; after all, theory is just theory, and you have no clear idea of the actual mass of the warship or the kind of reaction that would occur upon impact with the ground. With current human technology, it was impossible to make accurate measurements.

During this heart-stopping moment, the black dot had just entered the atmosphere and turned into a fiery ball of blistering flames that soared overhead... The enormous shadow instantly obscured half the sky, casting the land shrouded in dark clouds into darkness.

The actual size of the meteor was far larger than the previously measured length of 5000 meters. Fortuitously, the other side of the planet had been fitted with air pressure buffers. Additionally, with the Bizarre warship's extreme hardness, officials deduced that even if a collision occurred, it would not cause significant damage to the satellite or the warship itself.

Precisely because the orbit had been calculated in advance to alter the impact site, and because a one-time air pressure impact engine had been set up at the impact site, no matter how wide the blast radius, it was not possible to exceed 2000 kilometers. The actual fall hazard was roughly equivalent to that of an asteroid with a diameter of 500 meters, amounting to a total of 60 million tons of TNT.

Sadly, people could not witness this spectacle with their own eyes. Shortly afterwards, a continuous rumble emanated from the ground... before settling down. Not even buildings collapsed, leading people to speculate that the explosion itself didn't seem to be that severe, at least not to the residents within 2000 kilometers who felt nothing but the ground trembling.

The impact area of the black warship was ablaze with fiery red, resembling volcanic rock coated in a layer of magma. The surrounding elliptical depression was fiercely intimidating, large enough to accommodate a small city. The tumbling lava seemed to become vaporized by high temperatures at an instant, forming a perpetual churning liquid, with countless bolts of lightning thundering overhead.

Beyond the 300-kilometer radius, the artificial cooling was already proceeding in an orderly fashion...

Satellite 8 was already known for its extreme temperature differences. As soon as night fell, Saudi employed convection technology to usher in an absolute cold front from Serbia, transforming all in its path into frozen snow sculptures.

Personnel from the Yate Federation military on the other side swiftly initiated artificial rainfall. With the effect of the winds, the swiftly moving cold front would soon cool the impact area, with temperatures expected to plummet from millions of degrees to below 100 within 17 hours.

300 kilometers was the modern tools' limit for approaching the black warship. Any closer would be plagued by unknown electromagnetic storms interference, as well as the inherent radiation, which is why the cooling troops, clad in protective gear, could only get within 300 kilometers.

The sleepless night quietly passed under the watchful eye of both countries. Due to the impact, other powers detected the situation at the moment of collision while Federal Saudi took that time to broadcast the secret news to intelligence agencies around the world.

Unfortunately, Satellite 8 had no light-based transmission for accurate coordinates; in other words, any investigation required days of travel on the Space Shuttle. And these few days would be a golden opportunity for Federal Saudi to conduct their investigation.

As soon as the news broke, it caused an uproar among nations. The FCA Alliance, led by Rekart, and the Imperial forces, led by Bergheide, quickly assembled their respective powers and called for an emergency secret meeting.

By the time real investigators were dispatched to Satellite 8, Xiu Yi's four-person squad had already successfully landed on Satellite 8. To be precise, including Saudi, a total of 21 special explorers would embark on the exploration of the mysterious warship, braving unknown risks.

On this matter, Federal Saudi tacitly chose to act separately. Barring special circumstances, they would not interfere with each other.

Breathing the cold air of Satellite 8, the fully armed personnel were already in position. There were 11 members in the Federation team, who could communicate with one another.

Saudi, on the other hand, had ten.

The new protective suits from Black Tech Base, thanks to their lightweight design, would greatly increase the inspection team members' agility—Right now, the Federation's engineers had already opened an entrance on the exterior of the warship but had not yet ventured in. At this point, a door of unknowns was slowly opening to the world...

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