On the sand dunes, a motorcade was currently moving. There were still a number of flying transports following after in the air.
The storm above the sand dunes had yet to subside, but it had clearly weakened.
Flemington looked through the weather forecast that was sent over and noticed Fang Zhao staring continuously into the distance. He thought that Fang Zhao was worried about the storm outside, so he reassured, “This storm has already passed and will start to subside rapidly. It’s no longer powerful enough to pose a threat to us. Normally, we will still do missions in this sort of weather.”
Fang Zhao was seated in the back holding on to Curly Hair. He smiled upon hearing what Flemington said but declined to comment. He had been thinking about other stuff rather than worrying about the storm. It wasn’t a threat to the motorcade. Instead, he had been trying to analyze what exactly that sound could be.
As they got closer to that sound, Fang Zhao could hear it even clearer. Fang Zhao had no way of explaining the “beckoning” and “crying for help” meanings he heard from this sound. Even he himself didn’t know why he knew this.
“Is it really in this direction?” Flemington scrutinized the map as well as the projected path of the motorcade with a doubtful look.
“Yes,” Fang Zhao said decisively.
Flemington’s brows furrowed even more, but he didn’t let the motorcade slow down.
“How much further?” Flemington asked.
“With this speed, another half an hour would suffice,” Fang Zhao replied.
“If the direction is right, after half an hour, the place we will be at is part of the ‘Outer Region’.”
Where the base was at, the areas which were frequently patrolled and areas with installations were classified as the “Inner Region”. The so-called “Outer Region” was the area outside of this “Inner Region”. In layman’s terms, it was the area which the military personnel at the base least understood and seldom went to.
“The sand dunes in that area change rapidly, and there is also quicksand. We have to be careful.” Flemington picked up his communications devices and got the other vehicles in the motorcade to follow tightly. The lead car was large, but there were less people inside. On it were all sorts of equipment and devices to avoid danger zones.
“Sir, there is someone following us.” An officer reported on the situation at the base as well as the people following the motorcade.
Flemington heaved a long sigh. He knew that he couldn’t keep it from those people. In any case, they were still descendants of Great Generals. Were all the kids groomed by these super families all blockheads?
Furthermore, even if he kept this from Zaro and the others, there would be other people in the base who would pass on this information. Bu Base wasn’t just run by Flemington alone. This Fang Zhao person was just too unusual. Because of his previous incidents at Planet Baiji, this time other people were also actively alert.
After a short moment of pondering, Flemington said, “Contact the cars behind and get them to return to base. Advise them first. If they can’t be persuaded, then forget about it.” At least by announcing his stance, if something really did happen, Flemington had already done his part to warn them. If anything happened later on, it would be because those people behind insisted on following.
After the call, Flemington laughed and patted Fang Zhao on his shoulder. “If this time we find something important, I will definitely help you apply for military merits! Perhaps your reserve duty rank might even rise again.”
Although this was said, if it wasn’t an especially huge contribution, getting a promotion of his reserve duty rank was really impossible. There were many people who were honestly striving to achieve merits in the military before they could get promoted. Fang Zhao had already been discharged. In the past, reserve duty wasn’t subjected to the same rules and regulations. However new rules had been set a few years back to further motivate reserve duty military personnel.
For people like Fang Zhao who were still under reserve duty, if they could earn a large merit, perhaps he could still be promoted. But that was on the premise of a large contribution and influence.
The group tightly following behind the motorcade.
“Will we really be alright following them? This is base military after all, and we aren’t familiar with them. Would they forcefully send us back?” Mitisy asked worriedly.
“Definitely not, even if they object, we can donate more stuff. I will throw in an extra truckload of garlic!” Zaro didn’t even think about how the base military would stop them. Right now, all he wanted to know was what Fang Zhao had discovered and how to mess around following that. He was already getting bored of this period.
Hearing Zaro speak about donating garlic, Mitisy scratched his head. “That isn’t too good, right?”
“How isn’t it good? What’s wrong with garlic? Are you looking down on garlic? Do you know how valuable farm produce is?! Furthermore, in this sort of poor and barren place, garlic is even more of a rare commodity!”
Mitisy thought about it. That made sense. Ordinarily, the soldiers at Bu Base couldn’t consume garlic. There were limited seasonings over at the dining hall, and the condiments available were mostly native species. The flavor wasn’t much, and it was fine as long as it was edible. They couldn’t be picky in this place. If one couldn’t stomach it, they would go hungry. With the garlic that Zaro donated, the soldiers would have improved lives in any case.
“Then I will donate a gymnasium. The base’s exercise facilities aren’t good enough,” Mitisy said.
Woo Tianhao wasn’t willing to be left behind. “I wonder if they would take a dojo.”
15 minutes later.
In the motorcade at the front, Flemington received a report from a subordinate. “Signal detected!”
Flemington immediately shot straight up. His hand holding on to the communications device was shaking. Fang Zhao’s ears hadn’t heard wrongly!
“Has the source of the signal been confirmed?!”
“Its a foreign signal. Although it is weak and we can’t confirm what exactly it is, the signal grows stronger as we move forward. It should probably be at the place where Fang Zhao said it is! We have yet to construct any monitoring installations in the area. There is no way the signal comes from the equipment!”
“Very good! Continue to analyze the source of the signal and find out what it is! Teams, increase speed and move forward… no, maintain original speed, we must be cautious! All of you raise your guard up!” Flemington bellowed.
Flemington also couldn’t be bothered about Fang Zhao right now. After issuing the order, he quickly contacted the base and made arrangements. Although Fang Zhao said that the signal wasn’t threatening, he didn’t dare take any risks and arranged for teams at the base to be on standby.
Moving forward, they no longer needed Fang Zhao to point the way. The motorcade had already caught the signal. When the signal became clear, the team arrived at their destination.
Flemington studied the map, then glanced at the sand dunes not too far away before pointing. “There!”
“Take readings again! Depth probing!”
Flemington was itching to immediately dig out whatever was beneath the sand. However, the signal source was buried too deep. Since they also didn’t understand the region too well, they also needed to check that the place was stable and that there wasn’t any quicksand.
As the surveying crew got busy, Fang Zhao also studied the area as well as the markings on the map Flemington had given him. The large expanse ahead was a large pit. The pit was completely filled with sand. If this sand were replaced by water, it would become a large lake that was over a hundred meters deep. The source of the signal was inside the the pit.
Before Bu Base was constructed, a preliminary exploration of the entire planet was done. The deepest this region had been explored to was only a hundred meters. After it had been classified as the “Outer Region”, no one had paid any attention to it anymore. Probing equipment couldn’t be installed, and even if it could, the equipment would be buried by sand after a few days. It would be a waste. Bu Base was really poor, and they couldn’t afford to spend resources wantonly. Therefore, no monitoring installations nor outposts were set up in this region.
Upon seeing Fang Zhao bring the dog out, Flemington reminded, “Keep the dog on a tight leash and don’t lose him. Right now it is still okay since it’s nighttime, but don’t let him out during the day. His fur is too thick, and he’ll be affected by the heat. Make sure to keep him on the car.” This dog was worth 200 million! Flemington still wanted to borrow the dog to exterminate pests when they got back. He didn’t want to let the dog fall ill.
Fang Zhao nodded and brought Curly Hair for a walk in the designated safe range.
Curly Hair was very excited and sniffed around as he walked before he started digging frantically.
When Flemington saw this, he chuckled. “His short little legs are quite energetic…”
Flemington hadn’t finished speaking when the smile on his face faded. He stared fixedly at the hole Curly Hair was digging. A dog’s sense of smell was even more keen than a human’s. It was said that this dog which was worth 200 million had an extraordinary sense of smile. Could it be that it had discovered something?
30 seconds later, an animal like a sand lizard was dragged out in Curly Hair’s mouth. Afterwards, it was tossed around by Curly Hair as a toy.
Flemington: “…” Disappointment.
A short while later, Flemington sensed activity on that side and looked over again.
Curly Hair had dragged out yet another animal.
Flemington: “…”
He silently retracted his gaze.
On the third time, Flemington no longer carried any hope. When he looked over, he saw Fang Zhao squatting down to pick up something that Curly Hair had excavated. His squinting eyes widened immediately and he hurried over.
“What did you find?!”
“A piece of metal.” Fang Zhao handed over the metal piece that had been excavated.
The piece of metal that wasn’t even half the size of his fist seemed as though it was part of a wreckage from a flying transport. After sending it over for analysis, the verdict was that this metal existed even before Bu Base.
That meant that this piece was already here even before Bu Base was constructed!
“Commander, the probe results of this region are out.” A technician transmitted the depth probe’s readings over.
Flemington rapidly went through the report, and excitement showed on every inch of muscle in his body. Pointing at the huge sand pit, he said, “Dig it up!”
Bu Base was poor in the past and they were unwilling to even spend the least bit of money. Now, Flemington, who always took the conservative path, decided to be audacious and try it out.
Considering Planet Baiji and Planet Wai and how these bases that were on the tail end of the development sequence had flourished, who wouldn’t be willing when a chance to change Planet Bu’s fortunes appeared? Even if the changes weren’t too large, creating some news to attract attention over would also be good.
Of course, if there were others willing to share the responsibility, Flemington was also more than willing. Say, for example, those few special guests that were behind.
Just as he thought about those special guests, Zaro’s party arrived.
Upon learning that there was something buried in the huge sand pit, Zaro visualized all sorts of scenarios.
Flying transports from the base also delivered a batch of equipment. Flemington got his men to hand out metal detectors that could be worn on the wrist. Personnel not participating in the excavation would use these detectors to scan for any buried items. The more they dug, the stronger the signals became.
Their base was poor and equipment was lacking. Some equipment still required manpower, so Flemington arranged for another team to be sent over.
The sky gradually got brighter and the temperature rose.
Zaro and the others came over, wanting to play around with a few detector probes.
“Give me one, I will personally do it myself!”
“Me too, me too!”
After using it for awhile without detecting anything, Zaro could no longer endure and his gaze wandered over to the surroundings.
“Eh? What is that?” Zaro saw some white granules.
Barbara, Woo Tianhao, and Mitisy heard activity from Zaro’s side, so they all gathered around.
Zaro pinched one grain with his fingers. As he squeezed it hard, the grain turned into fine dust. Zaro was amazed. “Is this some sort of local specialty desert salt?”
A soldier beside him answered with an awkward look on his face. “… That local specialty is the feces of a native desert species.”
In the distance, a peculiar creature stuck out half a head above the sand. Noticing people observing it, it burrowed back in to the sand with a whoosh.
Curly Hair’s nosed twitched. When he took two steps towards Zaro and the others, Fang Zhao pulled him backwards by his leash.
“Let them dig the rest out themselves.”