Doomsday: I Build a Space Fleet

Chapter 252 The Mysterious Underwater World

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Waves of sound emanated from the sonar generator at the bow, propagating through the deep seabed.

After several tens of minutes of searching, the unmanned surface vessel located the core remains of a biological warship scattered inside the trench.

The unmanned boat stopped near the wreckage, and then the underside of the boat opened, revealing several mechanical arms hidden inside.

These robotic arms are equipped with a comprehensive acoustic and optical probe at their ends, as well as a supplementary lighting device that can provide both visible and invisible light.

When the robotic arm extended outside the submarine and adjusted the lighting equipment to an invisible light mode, an extremely bizarre scene was transmitted back to the flagship by the submarine through the acoustic communication system.

Around these remains, numerous pistol shrimp, blending seamlessly into their environment, lurk, with countless holes behind them.

As the robotic arm approached the core wreckage of the warship, all of these seemingly dead pistol shrimp turned around and aimed at the slowly approaching robotic arm.

Seeing this, Lorraine had no choice but to stop the unmanned surface vessel's recovery efforts and continue exploring the trench.

After all, the behavior of these pistol shrimps shows that there must be a leader in charge behind them.

Next, the sensor array on the submarine was switched to scanning mode, in exchange for a closer detection range and higher energy consumption, in exchange for a more powerful and detailed scanning capability.

During the time the unmanned surface vessel was exploring the trench, Lorraine was not idle; instead, she was searching for wide-range lethal weapons suitable for the underwater environment.

After some searching, Lorraine discovered that the most suitable weapon for the current environment was actually a clean nuclear fusion weapon.

Helpless, Lorraine looked at the dense swarms of pistol shrimp underwater and could only retrieve the production data of the clean nuclear fusion weapon and begin designing the ZTE supercavitating torpedo specifically for carrying a high-yield nuclear fusion warhead.

When the first heavy supercavitating torpedo was completed, the unmanned submarine found a passage hidden in the trench.

However, the unmanned surface vessel's remaining range was less than an hour at this point, so as a precaution, it prepared to surface and return to the flagship to replenish its energy.

Subsequently, the hull's water tanks began to slowly drain water, while compressed air began to be injected into the tanks.

Relying on the gradually increasing buoyancy, the unmanned boat began to slowly rise.

After leaving the trench to a certain distance, the thrusters at the stern of the unmanned surface vessel started up, propelling the small submarine toward the flagship.

As it approached the cargo hold below the flagship, temporary water pumps began filling the independent compartment at the rear of the cargo hold with water.

When the unmanned surface vessel reached the stern of the cargo hold, the stern door slowly opened, and a clamp extended out, clamping the submarine behind it.

The clamps are retrieved, and the submarine is returned to its independent compartment.

The stern door then closed, and the drainage pumps started working to drain the seawater.

After the seawater was drained, the submarine was moved into the cargo hold by clamps to begin resupply.

When the unmanned submarine departed from the flagship again, its weight had changed, and it was loaded with additional practical tools, a considerable amount of high-energy explosives, and a nuclear fusion warhead.

However, not long after, another unmanned submarine of the same type left the flagship and headed towards another trench.

The first submarine returned to the cave entrance it had found before its return voyage, guided by gravity. Before entering, the bottom of the submarine opened, and a miniature underwater detector with an optical fiber and an underwater communication repeater were released by a robotic arm.

The hydraulic grippers opened gently, and the communication repeater floated down.

The underwater probe then started its tail propeller and wobbled towards the cave entrance.

The communication repeater slowly descended to the seabed, splashing up a cloud of fine "white sand".

[Testing, testing. Calling flagship, please respond.]

The flagship responded to the signal according to the automatic reply procedure.

The communication system is working well, and the signal is clear.

Immediately afterwards, the situation inside the cave was transmitted directly up via the communication relay system.

Inside the cockpit, Lorraine and the others, fully armed, saw two images pieced together from code.

The first image shows the detection results of the sensor array and the underwater cave map calibrated by the underwater detector.

Within the exploration area, the smallest diameter of the entire cave is about 10 meters, and the largest diameter is about 30 meters. The wormhole is extremely rough, with various jagged rocks on the outer walls, and its shape is very twisted.

The second picture shows the cave interior as captured by an underwater probe.

When the three turned their attention to the second picture, they saw a large amount of "white sand" filling the crevices of the rocks inside the cave, as well as black mud covering the bottom of the cave.

However, since visual observation alone could not gather any useful information, Lorraine could only send the underwater probe forward to explore the depths of the cave.

To thoroughly explore the hidden cave during this dive, Lorraine specially prepared a 2-kilometer-long optical fiber for the underwater probe.

To thoroughly explore the hidden cave during this dive, Lorraine specially prepared a 2-kilometer-long optical fiber for the underwater probe.

When another unmanned submarine drifted into the depths of the trench in the same way, this underwater probe had already gone 200 meters into the cave.

During the 200-meter journey, the underwater probe did not detect any creatures hiding there, only jagged rocks and "white sand" and black mud covering the ground.

Looking at the increasingly long map on the screen, Lorraine felt a little uneasy, and then spoke up.

"Xu Ling, swell the flagship to a depth of 80 meters."

"Rise to 80 meters."

"Platinum, prepare to launch the supercavitating torpedo."

"Prepare to launch the supercavitating torpedo."

Subsequently, several hidden jet ports on the bottom of the ship opened, and the seawater that had just been drawn into the magnetohydrodynamic propulsion system mixed with the seawater discharged from the water tanks, propelling the flagship slowly upward.

At the same time, two 2000 mm thick supercavitating nuclear fusion warhead torpedoes were selected and propelled by the ammunition supply system into the launch tubes that had been modified for underwater launch.

"Supercavitating torpedo loading complete, begin water injection."

"Depth 80 meters, arrived."

As the exploration progressed, the situation on both sides became increasingly clear.

On the No. 1 submarine side, as the remaining length of the optical fiber decreased, the diameter of the discovered caves also increased, and the white sand in the rock crevices and the black mud at the bottom of the caves also increased, but no signs of any living organisms were found.

The situation was different for submarine No. 2. As it went deeper into the trench, it discovered more and more pistol shrimp populations, but it still couldn't find the leader who was in charge of the whole situation.

As they read the information reported by the two submarines, Lorraine and Platinum felt increasingly uneasy.

"Incline 15 degrees and prepare for rapid ascent."

"Incline 15 degrees and prepare for rapid ascent."

Xu Ling repeated Lorraine's instructions while adjusting the flagship's posture.

"The tilt has reached 15 degrees, and the plasma thrusters are beginning to preheat."