Chapter 608: The Aquatic Planet
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hao Ren led Lily as well as Vivian back to the Petrachelys, and as the frigate slowly descended into Io's orbit, Y'zaks asked about their findings in the derelict spaceship.
The siren queen immediately came forward to listen too.
"It's the Zalazarn. She couldn't escape and was destroyed in orbit." Hao Ren shook his head. "The starship's rear wing and the lower pipe intersection area had massive penetrating rents. They were about a few kilometers long. These were from cannon fire. We even found one of the duds inside the ship, and that bloody thing almost ruined my hairstyle."
"Cannon fire?" Y'zaks never considered such a possibility. "So the one that destroyed the siren's civilization wasn't the First Born or the brain monsters, but a... mortal race that uses cannon fire?"
"Both the First Borns and brain monsters are mortal races too. They're strong for sure, but technically, they're still 'mortal'." Hao Ren had to first correct Y'zaks in line with his position as the "First Pope recognized by a real god cum traffic officer cum police". "Of course, I understand what you mean... The cannon fire means that the race isn't a First Born, and it certainly isn't the brain monster. Those monsters don't even bother putting on clothes, I doubt they'd use any form of transport."
"Whether they destroyed Io or not, at the very least, we now know that the Zalazarn was taken down by cannon fire," Vivian quipped. "Haih... this is not good news, and things are getting more and more complicated. We're already deep in the mire with the First Born and the brain monster. Now there's another unknown advanced, space-faring race? Who knows if they have anything to do with the First Born."
Hao Ren shrugged. "As the very leastm we have more information to work with now. Think about it this way, the more confused we are, the closer we are to the truth. The Plane of Dreams is that big. If everything was clear cut, I'd actually suspect we're going in the wrong direction."
Lily turned her head to the right as she looked at Hao Ren and Vivian. Appearing heartbroken, she tapped Hao Ren on the back with her tail. "I don't care about the rest... Mr. Landlord you stepped on my tail..."
Hao Ren was speechless.
The Petrachelys broke through the atmosphere as it went full speed towards the ocean. It did not stop at the clear upper level of the atmosphere and charged straight into the storm clouds. The surveillence cameras outside the frigate displayed a rainstorm that was outright scary. The volume of heavy rain made it seem as though the sea and sky had turned upside down. Vision was very poor as the rain rendered whatever visibility they had into a gray veil while massive lightning bolts criss-crossed among the clouds. This was followed by ear-ringing thunder, which split through the clouds, giving everyone an impression that the sky itself was connected to another aquatic world. Now that many gaps had formed, it looked like it was threatening to fall directly into Io.
"Uh... the weather is sure unlike your gentle nature." Nangong Sanba gasped as he looked at the rainstorm outside and started to mumble to Sorma, who was beside him. "This rain doesn't seem like it's going to stop at all."
"It never has." Hao Ren turned back to look at Nangong Sanba. "Io is being encompassed by a seemingly eternal rainfall. There are rainstorms at times, snowstorms during others; it all depends on the sun's position. The closer it is towards the equator, there won't be winter, so there will only be rainstorms. This rain has been ongoing for millions of years since the planet cooled, and it will continue to fall. The whole planet has less than 10 times of clear weather, and that's only limited to a few areas."
Nangong Sanba gawked before he made some weird gestures with his hand. "Ugh... so, how does the water circulate then?"
"Storms." Hao Ren pointed at one of the holographic displays. "Giant tornados, waves that are thousands of meters tall; these are as common as rain, and they've been ongoing for years on end."
On the holographic display, a massive water spout extended all the way into the clouds. This was a hurricane of sea water, which had been sucked into the air. It was a hundred times more massive and awe-inspiring than the ones people saw on Earth. Millions of gallons of water were sucked into the clouds by a shapeless straw and that was how Io's massive rainstorm had been maintained for eons.
With such a storm buffeting the surface, it was any wonder that one would find any form of life on the planet's surface. The only possible cradle of life was deep within the ocean as it was the only place unaffected by the storms.
"Any signs of hostiles during your scans?" Hoa Ren looked at the control dais.
"I swear by the six points of my shells, negative." the MDT said as a "clack" followed after it sprang out from the dock. "Switching to auto pilot... Of course, scans can only tell us so much. If one or two brain monsters are hiding out there, there's no way to locate them. But you don't have to worry about any brain monster army. There are no large hostile signatures or any signs of the First Born. So, we don't need to rain hell on this planet, although it sounds like a cool idea."
The frigate slowly approached the sea's surface and the planet bared its fangs towards the new visitor with churning waves and crackling storms. The entire world was shrouded in grey by the rain and waves, and amongst the rainstorm, Hao Ren noticed something odd in the distance. "Over there. Something's sticking out."
A silver-greyish metal platform stood out in the middle of the ocean as several massive alloy frames held it firmly hundreds of meters above sea level and such small level of waves could barely even do anything to the upper part of the platform. (In Io, waves around hundred meters tall are considered small). The platform was enormous and could land at least ten other Petrachelyses. There were many other sealed buildings on the platform and there were pipes between each buildings. The buildings seemed to be ancient, Nasaton was still pristine even after ten thousand years under water, but the platform was badly worn out, and looked like it was abandoned long long ago.
"This is a..." Hao Ren immediately flipped through the Nasaton database for information, but to his dismay he could that the data that they had copied did not include the civilisation database. There were nothing mentioned about the platform in the datavault they had. "... Can't find anything. Probably a landing platform?"
"No, it's a sea-borne observatory. Used to monitor the ' world in the skies'. Vivian pointed towards a few large characters on one of the pillars supporting the platform. "Don't just bury your face in the books, it's written right there."
"...."
"Sure isn't easy for the Sirens to build such an enormous observatory. This thing needed to go through at least tens of kilometers of water to reach the surfance. The foundation is rooted deep in the seabed." The MDT's voice had the tone of amazement. "And this seabed is already on the shallower part of the sea. Io's depth is much more considerable than what's on Earth."
The ship circled the platform and when it earned the other end of the platform, everyone saw a gigantic plaque-like metal frame, and the words on it was clear as ever. It chronicled the history of the platform:
"Ewenna Observatory. Build in year 13076 in memory of the Stargazer Ewenna, in memory of the Siren's first sighting of the stars. Our eternal thanks for her effort in persevering for seven hundred years, and welcomed the first clear sky in our history."
"This was the place the Sirens first saw the stars." Hao Rem immediately realised as he looked at the thick clouds above Io's sky. "They had waited for hundreds of years before seeing the stars for the first time."
Lily hugged her arms as she said. "I think they must have been surprised to see the stars, perhaps fearful as well. That Ewenna person must have been describing the clouds before it cleared, and the stars appeared. That led them to realise that there were many other things beyond the clouds. Before that, they had never thought what was beyond their 'world'.
The Siren Queen looked at the solitary platform in the middle of the storm and sighed softly. "This is an important part of our history... but I can't even read the words..."
Hao Ren smiled. "No worries, we will help you rediscover the writings when the time comes."
Nangong Wuyue looked down at the platform that had stood the test of time. "So the energy source is beneath the platform?"
"Right underneath" the MDT replied as the Petrachelys submerged into the water. "I'll put the weapon systems on standby. While there are no signs of hostiles here, it's hard to say if the Sirens had left any defensive fortifications online."