Chapter 374: Alien Ruins

Planet Dige had been reduced to a radioactive wasteland for over a decade. Every piece of surviving infrastructure was severely outdated.

Because of the global war, the rusty, dilapidated attack sub the Federation had scavenged was literally the best submersible available on the entire planet, and the engineers had no choice but to try and retrofit it.

The modification project dragged on for three grueling hours. Jason finally lost his patience and directly hailed the engineering bay.

"Is the structural integrity still not up to standard?" he demanded, frowning as he reviewed the endless stream of diagnostic reports flashing across his console.

"Sir, this submarine is decrepit. Half of its critical systems were already failing before we started!

If we dive past five hundred meters, the hull will likely crumple under the pressure! We don’t have the heavy industrial infrastructure down here to properly reinforce it, and our modification pace is far too slow."

"Furthermore, this planet simply doesn’t manufacture the necessary replacement parts. We don’t have access to Federation superalloys..."

The lead engineer on the screen looked exhausted. He threw up his hands in frustration. "Even a master chef can’t cook a meal without ingredients."

"Understood. That’s enough. We only need the sub to reach a few hundred meters! We might not even need it at all..." Jason waved his hand, cutting the engineer off. He understood their predicament, but they were racing a ticking clock.

Nobody knew exactly when the alien fleet would drop out of warp. They had to act immediately!

Fifteen minutes later, over thirty elite Federation Special Forces operators and twenty senior scientists were urgently briefed and loaded onto a heavy transport dropship, along with the retrofitted native submarine clamped to the cargo bay.

They had no other choice. To travel from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere in a reasonable timeframe, they had to fly.

Traversing that distance in the rusty native submarine would take anywhere from ten to fourteen days! And the decrepit vessel would likely break down halfway there anyway.

Taking an atmospheric flight was slightly risky, but it was a calculated risk. Flying within the atmosphere wouldn’t trigger the massive thermal spikes associated with breaking orbit, so the dropship should look like a standard, low-tech native aircraft on long-range sensors.

The soldiers were heavily armed and fully geared up. Having skipped lunch during the frantic mobilization, they ate standard-issue combat rations on the flight over.

Many of the scientists were practically glued to the transport’s reinforced windows, excitedly pointing out at the ocean. They had never witnessed such a breathtaking biological phenomenon before.

The dropship cruised at an altitude of approximately ten thousand meters. Looking down through the glass, a massive, glowing green band of algae stretched across the ocean’s surface, acting as a bioluminescent highway guiding their flight path.

The entire global ocean was effectively Elara’s physical body... It would be incredibly difficult to convince her to abandon her native hydrosphere and board a cramped starship.

However, on the flip side, her psychological infancy provided the only real window for "abduction." If they waited until her cognitive framework fully matured, convincing her to leave would be impossible.

Watching the dropship trail her across the sky, ’Elara’ seemed to be having the time of her life. Yet, she remembered her promise to Jason and guided them straight toward the target, rather than leading them on a wild goose chase.

Roughly three hours later, the dropship decelerated and began its descent.

After skimming across the surface of the water to bleed off speed, the massive transport settled onto the ocean like a heavily armored boat.

"Is this the location?" Jason asked, projecting his voice over the external speakers.

A small, glowing green sphere immediately materialized on the surface of the water, bouncing rhythmically up and down in a clear nod.

"Deploy the automated survey drones!"

On command, thirty small, unmanned submersibles detached from the dropship’s hull and plunged into the ocean to begin their search grid.

They were in a relatively shallow region of the southern ocean. The maximum depth was roughly two hundred meters, while the shallowest points were less than ten meters deep.

The crew let out a collective sigh of relief... they likely wouldn’t need to risk their lives in the rusty native submarine after all.

Inside the dropship’s command center, the crew anxiously monitored the drones’ progress. The main console displayed thirty separate camera feeds, one for each drone.

These automated submersibles were barely a meter long. They were unmanned, equipped with compact power cells, and had a maximum cruising speed of roughly thirty kilometers per hour.

When these drones were designed back on the Deep Space, they were intended as cheap, mass-produced consumables. Even for a Tier-2 interstellar civilization, basic industrial economics still applied;

It was completely unfeasible to use hyper-expensive superalloys to build disposable recon drones. Standard aluminum and titanium alloys were used instead.

As the drones swept the sea floor, they recorded countless bizarre and beautiful marine organisms.

The biology teams had been working around the clock over the past month and had already cataloged thousands of specimens, so they were relatively accustomed to the alien flora and fauna.

Everyone stared intently at the monitors, desperate to spot any trace of the alien base.

The atmosphere in the command center grew thick with tension.

"Look! Look at feed 14!" a soldier shouted, pointing at one of the screens.

Dozens of eyes immediately locked onto the monitor. Slowly, the visual feed began to clear. The water depth was one hundred and sixty meters. The ocean floor was covered in a massive, sprawling coral reef.

But looking closely, it was obvious that a massive section of the reef had been violently crushed by something incredibly heavy, and the coral had never fully recovered its original shape.

The analysts quickly ran the telemetry. The crushed footprint on the sea floor perfectly matched the dimensions of a 200-meter scout ship!

In other words... the alien UFO had definitely landed right there!

"Re-scan the perimeter! Search for any artificial structures!" Jason immediately ordered.

However, the initial surge of adrenaline quickly faded into bitter disappointment. Aside from the crushed coral reef, the drones found absolutely zero artificial structures.

"Wait a minute, this native coral reproduces incredibly fast. Could it have completely overgrown and buried the alien outpost? The scout ship landed here thirty thousand years ago..." a scientist pointed out urgently. "Thirty millennia is more than enough time for the local topography to completely shift and bury everything!"

That was highly probable. But because the outpost was built so long ago, ’Elara’ possessed no biological memory of it. Jason had spent twenty minutes trying to ask her about buried structures, but she genuinely didn’t know.

The crew was forced to run the automated drones back and forth across the crushed reef, hoping their penetrating radar would ping something.

Jason frowned deeply, his mind racing. The ocean was incomprehensibly vast. Even if something was buried directly beneath them, finding it with small drones would take days, maybe weeks. Should they requisition heavy orbital mining lasers to excavate the entire sea floor?

He glanced out the window at the small green sphere happily bouncing in the surf and suddenly had a brilliant idea.

Ignoring the immediate protests of his security detail, he deployed a small kayak from the dropship’s airlock and paddled out into the open water to get closer.

He splashed around and played with the sphere for a few minutes before asking, "Could you do us a huge favor? Could you probe the sand and coral down there and see if you can feel anything incredibly hard... like solid metal, or something completely unnatural?"

Heavy excavation machinery could accomplish the task, but a large-scale drilling operation would take days. It was far more efficient to ask the planetary organism to do it.

What followed was a long, excruciatingly difficult communication session. The climate controls inside his power armor were functioning perfectly, yet Jason was still sweating profusely from the sheer stress.

Negotiating with the entity felt exactly like trying to convince a stubborn toddler to do a chore. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t; it entirely depended on her mood.

The glowing sphere bounced erratically. At first, it didn’t seem to understand the request. But after Jason spent several minutes coaxing and pleading, she reluctantly agreed.

The sea remained perfectly calm for a few minutes. Then, the sphere began bouncing excitedly again, physically nudging Jason’s kayak toward a specific coordinate.

A wave of shock and excitement washed over the crew watching from the dropship. Could it be... did she actually find it?

The location was a shallow shoal roughly six kilometers away from the original landing footprint, resting in water less than ten meters deep. As Jason peered over the edge of the kayak, the visual anomaly finally became clear.

A perfect square!

Although it was heavily encrusted in centuries of thick coral, a massive, perfectly square sheet of metallic alloy was protruding slightly from the reef! There was undoubtedly an artificial structure buried beneath it!

"Could you help us clean the rocks off?" Jason asked, feeling equal parts thrilled and deeply embarrassed. It felt like he was constantly begging the entity for favors.

But Elara was the only one capable of clearing the site quickly and safely. He had no choice but to swallow his pride and ask.

Getting her to comply was another ordeal. After another long session of exaggerated hand gestures and patient coaxing, Elara reluctantly agreed to the task.

What is wrong with this guy? Why does he keep making me dig in the mud? the little green sphere seemed to project, bouncing around with obvious annoyance.

Through the drone cameras, the scientists watched in absolute awe. It looked as though a massive, invisible hand was physically manipulating the ocean currents, causing the hardened, calcified coral to rapidly disintegrate and wash away.

In less than a minute, thousands of years of biological buildup were cleanly swept aside.

The crew gasped. Revealed beneath the stone was a massive, pristine alien structure. They could even make out a sealed airlock leading into the interior!

An intact alien ruin!