Chapter 120: 3 Minutes
Half?
How could only half be left?
At this moment, Tong Zheng’s thoughts entered an unprecedented high-speed operation.
Is it because of wear?
But even the wheel, the only device in contact with the outside world, is continuously supplemented with superconducting material and receives cooling to maintain the superconducting state.
This may be one of the reasons, but it cannot be all the reasons.
Then…
Tong Zheng slightly turned his head back, and his peripheral vision caught the light coming from not far away in this lunar underground passage.
At this moment, the floating city in the intelligence was already not far away, only 100 meters left.
Then…
A thought emerged in Tong Zheng’s mind.
The closer to the passage end, the closer to that floating city, the stronger the negative matter field intensity, and the “corrosion” faster?
Plus the wear on the wheel itself, combined, created this situation?
He looked at the vehicle body and found evidence supporting his judgment.
At this moment, the entire minibus was covered nowhere dimly, all enveloped in eerie fluorescence.
And the previous astronaut who came out on duty had not yet died; he must have been carrying out repair tasks all along. But even the repair tasks failed to stop the appearance of the fluorescence, so besides the acceleration of corrosion, were there any other possibilities?
This was a piece of intelligence that had not been investigated clearly before; it was an accident.
What to do next?
Under their full drive, the superconducting armor seemed to barely hold on. But obviously, continuing to stay here motionless, waiting for all superconducting materials and cooling devices to be consumed, what awaited them was still only a dead end.
They had to take the initiative.
In an instant, Tong Zheng made the final judgment. He opened the car door, faced his remaining few comrades, and raised his arm sharply forward.
This was the order for all to disembark.
Now they were surrounded by the negative matter field; without the protection of this superconducting armor, the spacesuits on them could not hold out for long.
At most a few minutes, they would surely all die here.
But at this moment… no time to worry about it!
The remaining few astronauts showed no hesitation and immediately stood up together, quickly disembarking.
After that, Tong Zheng roughly pulled open a wrench, kicked hard, and the steel plate that had been corroded somewhat instantly fell down, directly connecting the interior of the compartment with the external environment.
Plus the previous astronaut who went down on duty, a total of seven people now joined hands to drag down that hydrogen bomb weighing 1.5 tons with a yield of 1 million tons of TNT equivalent.
Its landing caused a slight vibration in the land under their feet.
Tong Zheng immediately crouched down and quickly operated on the mechanical detonator; immediately, the number 180 appeared on it, decreasing rapidly.
179, 178, 177…
Countdown three minutes. After that, this hydrogen bomb would automatically explode.
And based on the current corrosion speed calculation, within three minutes, this hydrogen bomb should not be corroded to the point of losing its explosive capability.
Then what they needed to do next was very simple.
Because there was a negative matter field in the passage, and there was already evidence that this negative matter field greatly weakened the energy of a nuclear bomb explosion, they must bring this hydrogen bomb into the cavity ahead within three minutes and let it explode in that cavity.
And because they could not confirm whether there was also a negative matter field in the cavity, but they could confirm that there was probably no negative matter field at that floating city, the explosion location of this hydrogen bomb should be as close as possible to that floating city.
At this moment, the seven astronauts seemed to have a tacit understanding; with just Tong Zheng’s extremely simple hand gesture instruction, they understood his plan and what they should do.
The minibus could not continue forward, so rely on their manpower to carry this hydrogen bomb over!
The intensity of the negative matter field had increased, and the corrosion speed had accelerated. The time left for them was not much.
The previous astronaut who came out “on duty,” who also had the most severely corroded spacesuit, stood at the back of the line.
The remaining six were divided on both sides of the hydrogen bomb, each grabbing the hydrogen bomb handle and exerting force together.
At this moment, even the astronauts who had undergone long-term strict training and whose physical quality was at the peak of humans showed a ferocious expression under full exertion on their faces.
This hydrogen bomb had a mass of 1.5 tons, but in the lunar gravitational field, its weight was only 250 kilograms. This load distributed to six astronauts was about 40 kilograms per person.
This weight seemed like nothing to the astronauts.
But do not forget, the astronauts were already carrying a load of up to 100 kilograms, and they had been continuously pedaling in the minibus for more than an hour, and their spirits had always been in a highly tense state.
The next moment, accompanied by the last bit of physical strength being squeezed out from their bodies, this big guy was forcibly lifted by the six astronauts working together, then advanced at a speed that looked slow but was already their full effort.
The astronaut who came out first followed closely behind the team, his gaze always focused on his comrades.
A puff of white mist suddenly appeared from one comrade.
He did not hesitate, immediately stepped forward, and during this process took out tape and accurately applied it to the gas leak point.
Moments later, white mist appeared on another comrade; he then moved over again and sealed it again.
In this way, with six exerting force and one responsible for logistical support, the team advanced quickly.
But after advancing less than 30 meters, on the spacesuit of the astronaut responsible for logistical support, a large steel plate directly snapped off and fell.
All internal gas leaked out in this instant.
His body stiffened in place for a moment, then collapsed with a boom.
He was the first among them to leave the minibus, and his spacesuit was the most damaged; at this moment, he finally could not hold on anymore.
But at this moment, there could not be no one doing logistical support.
Tong Zheng’s right arm immediately pointed to the astronaut behind him.
He instantly understood Tong Zheng’s instruction, immediately let go of the hand pulling the hydrogen bomb, retreated to the back of the team on his own, and took over the duties of the comrade who had fallen earlier.
Thus, the about 40 kilograms load originally his responsibility was now evenly distributed to the remaining 5 astronauts.
Each astronaut’s load reached 50 kilograms.
The team continued to advance in silence.
Ahead, the light of the floating city described in the intelligence was getting brighter and brighter. Visually checking the distance, about 70 meters remained.
Just then, behind him, the astronaut responsible for the hydrogen bomb right-rear corner was instantly engulfed in white mist.
His spacesuit also collapsed, and his body fell powerless.
At the same time, due to uneven force on the hydrogen bomb body, the right-rear corner instantly touched the ground, forcing the team to stop.
