Chapter 1528 - Forced Landing (2/2)
It only took a while for Nolan to complete a preliminary self-diagnostic. “The situation is a little bad. A divine shock wave that was as powerful as the main psionic gun had saturation-bombed us while we tried to go into warp jump. All shield systems are damaged, the armor structure is still there, but the charging module is fried, and it will take a while to recover. The warp drive is finished as it is physically damaged. The navigation computer is down and rebooting twice is unsuccessful. Probably physical damage too. Other than that, the power reactor is still running, but there is a problem in the energy output. I need to cut off two-thirds of the power lines and redirect the energy to the central computer and maintenance system. The fire control system is still usable, but the weapon array is offline. The main conventional engine… there is no more main conventional engine. It just fell off when we crashed. I just found out that it is my engine.”
After reporting a ton of bad news, Nolan shook her head. “The only part that is still in good condition is the labs and living cabins. These are the core areas that have a separate energy shield. But they cannot make me fly again.”
Hao Ren’s brows knitted together. What he had heard was the worst kind of news. He could not help but interrupt Nolan. “Is there any good news?”
“There is. It seems we have shaken off the divine storm now.” Nolan nodded. “You are right, the divine storm is confined only in space. It only blocks off space while down here, the planet is safe.”
“Well, at least there is good news.” Hao Ren sighed. “Can you repair the damage?”
“All the damages on the spacecraft are reparable. In theory, even if a steering wheel was the only thing left of the spacecraft, the autonomous robots can still fix it, and you can fly it at superluminal speed again in no time. The spaceship also can self-repair even without the help of the autonomous robots.” Nolan’s voice sounded better now as if her central computer system is slowly recovering. “But the problem is that it all takes time. The engine and some of the power centers are damaged, and these are the most difficult parts to fix. It will take at last a week before I can fly again.”
“As long as they are reparable,” Hao Ren sighed, “and better than waiting for rescue from the drone cluster. We have more space for maneuvering. But never again we should go out into deep space so recklessly. The only safe place is within this planetary system.”
“That goes without saying.” Nolan lay on the console, moaning in pain. “I do not know if I could fly again. I mean after all these scary encounters, having the mental trauma seems freaking ridiculous for a spacecraft. I was still thinking to race with the bunch of kids from the Azadim Civilization Sphere in two months.”
Hao Ren shot Nolan a look. “What mental trauma are you talking about? You are only a shipboard computer, remember? And you are still thinking of racing in this situation?”
Nolan pouted and said no more.
Hao Ren looked around the flight deck; the self-repair mechanism of the Petrachelys had begun to work. A faint glow appeared on the damaged part on the flight deck, and the cracks on the metal wall were squirming like flesh and blood as self-repair was in progress.
But not every place could self-repair as quickly as this place. The engine and power center could only heal in a much slower pace than this.
Before Nolan could take off again, she must first figure out the situation in the surroundings. At least, she needed to know where she was.
Most of the spacecraft’s functions suffered some form of damage. The spaceship was impossible to carry out space missions now. But it contained a solid core compartment, which could act as an operation base on the ground. At least, the integrated computing center, survival module, and armors were functioning.
The use of radar was crucial in exploration. The primary radar array of the Petrachelys was designed mainly for space missions, but she also had a set of instruments specifically designed to scan the surface of planets while in the atmosphere. Hao Ren only needed to make some modification to the instruments to detect the environmental readings around the crash site.”
“A habitable planet; how fortunate we are. The atmosphere is fairly hospitable. Oxygen content and atmospheric pressure are higher than the earth, but given the physiques of you guys, it should not be a problem at all.” Nolan reported the preliminary scan results. “No hostile energy was detected. It seems monsters and beasts do not exist on this planet. It is an ideal place to farm.”
Hao Ren regretted; he should not have downloaded all his online novels into the spacecraft computer. Apparently, Nolan had read them all.
“I think I have seen something when we fell out of the sky. It was a city ruin or something.” Lily raised her hand. “It should be right behind us.”
“You did not see it wrongly,” Nolan said as she called up a few holograms, showing the remains of buildings that the forest had almost wholly reclaimed. The images were somewhat blurry, and black smoke and metal fragments also blocked their view. But it was not hard to see that those things were man-made structures. “Human-made structure; there may be something interesting there.”
Hao Ren scratched his chin. “It seems that it is time to set up an expedition team now.”