Chapter 423: A "Crab Nest" Refuge_1

Outside was actually ice and snow! No wonder it shifted from solid to liquid, the Command Ship experienced intense friction with the atmosphere when it entered the atmospheric layer.

At that moment, the Command Ship was like a piece of iron just pulled from the furnace, certainly melting a lot of ice and snow on its way down.

But the strange thing was here, Jiang Yu confirmed with his subordinates, "Did the probes we sent out ever find a completely white, ice and snow-covered planet in the New Continent Star System?"

Hao Ying, Jiang Yu's Deputy Secretary-General, asserted with certainty, "No such planet was discovered."

Cao Yang chuckled, "Are we even in the New Continent Star System right now?"

"We should be!" Jiang Yu speculated, "Even though the situation was urgent and we barely spoke when we connected with Number Three just now, he mentioned that the New Continent Star System had been occupied by the enemy, and that we appeared right in the enemy's belly!"

A technology counselor guessed, "Could it be that some major event has occurred in the New Continent Star System over these past twenty or so years?"

Then the counselor came to report to Cao Yang, "According to preliminary exploration, the place we've landed is covered with at least several hundred meters of ice and snow!"

Hao Ying said, "Fortunately, this ice and snow saved our lives, otherwise we would have been shaken to death." She then asked, "May it be that we've crashed at one of the planet's poles?"

The counselor answered, "Based on the position information provided by Galaxy III, our crash site is not far from this planet's equator."

Cao Yang frowned and asked the middle-aged man beside him, "Counselor Xing, what's your view on this?"

Counselor Xing, whose full name was Xing Yuanbin, was an experienced scientific and technological counselor and an old subordinate of Cao Yang's.

Xing Yuanbin, looking at the holographic screen showing the view outside the warship, said, "We must not impose our subjective mindset on an unknown planet.

"It's true that several hundred meters, even two kilometers of snow, can accumulate in Earth's Antarctic, but Earth's geographical environment is clearly not universal in the cosmos.

"When we broke through the atmosphere earlier, I noticed that this planet's atmosphere was quite thick, and I speculate that this planet may have accumulated a large amount of water in its early formation.

"Later, for some unknown reason, the planet cooled globally, and the accumulated water vapor in the atmosphere fell to the ground as snowfall, leaving massive snow deposits on the surface of the planet.

"Just like Ganymede (Jupiter III) and Europa (Moon of Jupiter) in the Solar System, they are both worlds of ice and snow, aren't they? Except their atmospheres are very thin and they're not as big."

Cao Yang's brow furrowed deeper. After a pause, he said to Hao Ying, "We can learn more about our surroundings later. First, check the full damage to the ship and the casualties."

The counselor responded, "Yes!"

Cao Yang said to the communications counselor, "Connect me to the power crew."

The power crew was quickly connected, and the tall and burly power crew chief, Jonathan, appeared on the holographic screen, his face covered in sweat, "Commander! We are working hard to repair the power devices."

Behind him, several soldiers in protective gear were busy in front of the now inoperative Power System.

Cao Yang nodded, "How long do you estimate the repairs will take?"

Jonathan looked troubled and said, "The Power System is severely damaged; we don't even know if it can be fixed."

The bustling command room fell suddenly quiet as the Command Ship lay incapacitated on the strange planet, still within the enemy's encirclement.

Jiang Yu cleared his throat and said, "If it comes to it, we'll just abandon the ship. That way, we're less of a target and might have a greater chance of surviving!"

He then commanded, "Now we must quickly figure out the current state of the battle in space and, based on our situation, promptly devise a strategy to survive!"

Jiang Yu stood up from his seat, "Till the very last moment, no one gives me a long face!"

The words of the Wallfacer were still quite effective; although everyone's hearts were lodged in their throats, they continued to seriously carry out their work.

Jiang Yu again said to Cao Yang, "As soon as the space battle is over, the enemy will definitely start searching this planet immediately."

Cao Yang paced back and forth in front of Jiang Yu, but in the end, he said, "There's nothing we can do."

The warship's nuclear engine was broken; not only was it immobile, but the weapons were inoperable too. Over time, once the backup energy was exhausted, even the life support system would cease to function.

On such a foreign planet, without the life support system, the people on this ship wouldn't survive very long.

At that moment, the chief of staff reported, "Commander! Three distress signals have been detected."

Cao Yang was stunned for a moment, "How could there be distress signals on this planet?"

The chief of staff explained, "They are distress signals from civilian ships."

After pondering for a while, Cao Yang ordered the communications officer, "Tell those three civilian ships, if their power systems are not damaged, to approach our ship!"

The communications officer replied, "Yes!"

Finally, some vitality returned to the captain's room; even if the civilians couldn't help much, it was still comforting for everyone to know that on this planet, the command ship was not alone.

Then Cao Yang gave another order to the chief of staff, "Launch detectors immediately, I want to know the current situation on the battlefield!"

The military probes were small in size, so there was no need to worry about them being detected by the enemy.

Jiang Yu patted Cao Yang on the shoulder, "I'll say it again, be ready to abandon ship at any time. The civilian ships may not be very maneuverable, but at least they can move."

Cao Yang nodded, and counselor Xing Yuanbin beside them said, "Our current position is relatively safe."

Jiang Yu looked toward the senior counselor, and Xing Yuanbin cleared his throat, "We entered the snow and ice at an angle just now. Our position is now dozens of kilometers away from the entrance on the surface.

"It's like the crab nests I saw in Neptune's wetland park. Even if the enemy discovers that entrance, their attacks may not necessarily reach us.

"Unless they use metal detectors and search little by little.

"Such meticulous searching will take a lot of time, we still have some time to come up with countermeasures."

Jiang Yu nodded, "You have a good perspective on the issue."

Xing Yuanbin was a little embarrassed to be praised by the Wallfacer like this.

It seemed like Cao Yang had thought of something, and he said to the communications officer, "Tell those three civilian ships to enter through our entrance!"

Now they needed to properly maintain this "Crab Nest".

When the command ship stopped sinking, the body of the ship still had extremely high temperature, so hundreds of meters below this ice surface, a space had melted out, large enough to accommodate three more civilian ships.

More than an hour later, the probes entered space; although they couldn't see the battlefield, the exchange of fire between both sides had become sparse, and the war was probably drawing to an end.

Cao Yang stared into the pitch-black space, lost in thought for a while, as the images of each of his battalion commanders and ship captains flashed through his mind.

For everyone, including himself, the hope of survival was very slim.