Chapter 780: New Discoveries on Mars (Patreon)

Transformers Begin : Table of Content/Chapter List

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With the experience gained from his previous journey to Mars and the optimizations made to the Hope-class by the Decepticon engineering team, Sun Cheng’s latest solo trip, albeit somewhat monotonous, took several days less than before.

As he maneuvered the Spaceship to land at the Mars base located in the midsection of Mariner Canyon, everything on the ground attested to the relentless efforts of the Decepticons on Mars over the past few months.

“Hiss…”

With the sound of the cockpit decompressing as it opened, Sun Cheng stepped out of the Spaceship and immediately noticed the subtle changes that had taken place in the familiar depths of Mariner Canyon over the past few months.

Dome-shaped buildings, resembling traditional Mongolian yurts, were scattered as far as his eyes could see.

Sun Cheng scanned the area, easily counting seventeen of these yurts. On a planet like Mars, plagued with harsh weather and incessant storms and dust storms that would give anyone a headache, these protective structures were indispensable for long-term operations on the Martian surface.

It was evident that the Mars base was now equipped with some detection devices.

After Sun Cheng's Spaceship landed, several Decepticons emerged from the nearest yurt-like building, braving the wind and sand as they hurried toward him.

“Master, welcome to inspect the Mars base!”

The weather on Mars was not favorable when Sun Cheng landed. A medium-scale dust storm had kicked up, greatly increasing the wind and sand in the nearby canyons, as if dyeing the sky red.

He waved his hand, signaling the Decepticons to enter the nearest yurt with him. Once inside, he shook himself, dusting off the sand that had accumulated on his mechanical body, before speaking, “You've done well these past few months. I see many new structures within the canyon!”

Strictly speaking, Mars isn’t a resource-rich planet in the Solar System.

But that's relative. After all, given its planetary scale, even if it were less endowed than Earth, it was bound to be richer than a single continent like South America.

Moreover, unlike South America, with its nearly 400 million population, there was no other life on Mars, save for their Decepticon faction, without concerns of exposure.

Inside the building, Sun Cheng instinctively surveyed the surroundings.

This unassuming yurt-like construction, faithfully realized from the original designs by the Decepticon engineers, was already contributing to the development of the Mars base.

Though not particularly spacious, these dome-shaped structures were designed to provide sufficient operational space for Decepticons and Robots.

Two underground entrances were present; one led to an underground mining site, and the other was a direct route to the Mars base.

From time to time, Robots, loaded with mined ores, would emerge from the mining sites and scurry off to the Mars base through the other passage.

This was deemed the most secure method of operation on Mars, considering the planet's harsh conditions that could significantly wear down Robots.

Sun Cheng took a tour of the underground mining site. His main purpose was to reinforce the Mars base's capabilities and to assess the progress made over the past few months.

Given Mars' significant distance from Earth and for secrecy and safety, Sun Cheng couldn’t make frequent visits, especially before taking down the Decepticon's Moon Base.

To avoid any potential deceit by his Decepticons, Sun Cheng had intentionally chosen to land near a building some distance away from the base.

He ventured into the underground mines, noting their layout bore no significant differences from human mining operations on Earth, except that the tunnels were wider. Instead of humans and vehicles, mining and transportation were handled by Robots.

Due to the limited number of Decepticon Engineers initially sent to Mars, they couldn’t assign one per mining site. They had to adopt a system of patrolling to avoid mistakes.

Although somewhat cumbersome, it was the best strategy for the Mars base at the time.

Delving deeper into the mines until he could no longer proceed, Sun Cheng finally stopped.

He kept asking questions while walking, and the Decepticon engineers and other personnel continuously responded.

“Over the past three months, we have established thirty-one underground mining sites on Mars… All these sites are now connected to the transit centers…”

The thirty-odd mining sites, varying distances from the Mars base, posed a colossal project if they were to construct direct underground passages to each. Thus, the Decepticon engineers and personnel devised a shortcut.

They selected several suitable locations near the base to construct transit centers, equidistant from the nearby mines. They only needed to build one underground transport passage from the transit centers, directly linking to the Mars base.

This strategy significantly saved on labor and resources for the Decepticon engineers and personnel.

Sun Cheng nodded without objections, appreciating the ingenuity of the approach.

After inspecting three mining sites and visiting the nearest transit center, he headed for the Mars base, satisfied.

By his calculations, it had been over four months since their arrival on Mars. The Decepticons in charge of constructing the Mars base, commanding thousands of various Robots, had laid the groundwork for the base from scratch.

However, numerous problems persisted, the most serious being the coal shortage.

“…The lack of coal is a major issue. We’ve expanded our search to 421 kilometers from the base, but we still haven’t found a single coal mine…”

Coal, an essential industrial raw material, is not only a significant fossil fuel but also indispensable in various sectors like chemical engineering and smelting.

According to hypotheses by human scientists on Earth, coal is formed from the buried remnants of flora and fauna that have undergone geological transformations over time.

Despite claims from Earth’s scientists that Mars might have harbored life and civilizations in the distant past, by Sun Cheng’s second arrival, his Decepticon engineers had yet to locate any coal on Mars.

There were other issues, with one discovery particularly troubling Sun Cheng.

“Master, we may not have been the first visitors to Mars. Our scouting teams, exploring a remote canyon over 300 kilometers, came across an inconspicuous cliff. On it, we found cybertronian scripts that we cannot decipher!”

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Next Chapter >>Chapter 781: Ancient Titans "Cybertronian script?"