Chapter 98: Surveillance

Inside the main conference room, the fierce debate among the scientists showed no signs of stopping. They were already beginning to rewrite humanity’s entire worldview. More data simply meant more wild speculation!

“My mind is completely blank right now. The discovery of this alien vessel has entirely overturned our understanding of the local universe!”

A senior astrophysicist shook his head with a wry, helpless smile. Humanity was always so painfully far removed from the truth. With the unearthing of this UFO, all their previous theories about the cosmos seemed completely obsolete. Suddenly, they didn’t know what was right and what was wrong.

Another scientist nodded in agreement. “Exactly. Perhaps our Solar System really is unique? Maybe millions, or even tens of millions of years ago, this entire system was a battlefield for advanced interstellar civilizations.”

“How else do you explain so many alien artifacts ending up here? It’s one thing to find the Noah parked on the Moon, but now there’s a crashed UFO buried on Mars? Who knows, there might be alien wrecks buried deep within the Earth that we simply never found!”

“Perhaps the mass extinction events on Earth were actually caused by an alien ship exploding in orbit?”

Hearing this radical viewpoint, a young researcher immediately threw out an even crazier idea: “I bet the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is the result of an interstellar war!”

“Think about it. We can hypothesize that the asteroid belt was originally a fully formed terrestrial planet. But during a massive war between extraterrestrial empires, the planet was completely shattered by a superweapon… leaving only the debris field we see today!”

Granted, this was pure speculation, and the timeline of these hypothetical events was incredibly messy, but surprisingly, quite a few scientists in the room started nodding in agreement…

The debate had descended into chaotic absurdity. Fueled by years of old conspiracy theories, every wild explanation suddenly seemed plausible. Nobody could definitively prove anything, nobody could convince anyone else, and so they just kept arguing in circles.

Jason walked out of the conference room, rubbing his temples with a deep frown. The scientists were still in a daze, babbling incoherently about ancient cosmic wars. He didn’t have the time or the patience to play along with their wild guesses; he had immediate, practical problems to deal with.

Jason had already made up his mind: now was not the time to run away. Except for the Uranium Sector, all other mining operations on Mars were to continue as usual! All external industrial activities would proceed as normal. They were located far enough away from the crash site that sound and vibration wouldn’t carry, so there was no risk of accidentally triggering anything.

Meanwhile, a massive fleet of specialized surveillance drones was routed to the site. They couldn’t rely on mining excavators as their primary eyes and ears indefinitely.

However, as a precaution, the heavy machinery in the Uranium Sector was relocated to other mining zones, and all biological ground personnel were immediately recalled to the Noah. The small, temporary outposts on the Martian surface were rapidly dismantled and transported back to the ship.

The citizens were fully prepared to evacuate. If the alien ship showed any signs of hostile activity, Jason would instantly detonate the nuclear payload, destroy the site, and launch the Noah into deep space. As for the excavators left on the surface, they were an acceptable loss.

Ten minutes later, Jason pushed open the doors to the Security Department command center. The room was packed. More than twenty elite special forces operatives were present, alongside veteran members of the original lunar security detail.

Director of Security Austin stepped forward, offered a crisp salute, and gave a solemn report: “Captain Jason! One hundred and sixty specialized surveillance drones have been deployed around the crash site. We have a 360-degree perimeter with zero blind spots. A dedicated team is monitoring the feeds around the clock!”

“This batch of drones is equipped with visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, ultrasonic, radio, and gamma-ray detection sensors. We are hitting that ship with every single scanning method known to human science!”

“Furthermore, the polar satellites currently in orbit are locked onto the target area. If that ship so much as twitches, we’ll know about it instantly!” Austin finished, his voice tight with adrenaline.

Jason nodded in satisfaction. The absolute best tactical decision right now was to wait and observe!

They had plenty of time. If the UFO was truly a dead, harmless relic, waiting a few days to dig it up wouldn’t change anything.

Of course, if the alien technology was so advanced that it could activate and strike without tripping any of humanity’s sensors… then the technological gap was simply too vast, and there was nothing they could do about it anyway.

This cautious approach was a direct result of learning from their past mistakes. When they had first arrived on Mars, humanity had been impulsive and reckless, eager to rush down and explore the surface.

Looking back, their initial quarantine protocols had been riddled with loopholes. Because of that arrogance, the ground team had contracted the Martian virus, nearly causing an apocalyptic outbreak on the ship. If Jason and the medical team hadn’t pulled off a miracle, the Federation would be dead right now.

Even the most hot-headed military personnel had adopted a highly cautious mindset. Everyone agreed that observing the wreck for a few days was the smartest play. Who knew what the sensors might pick up during that time?

Jason stared at the wall of live feeds for a long moment, but there was absolutely no anomalous activity. The ship was dead silent. He patted Austin on the shoulder. “Excellent work, Austin. Keep the perimeter tight. Now, everyone relax for a second. Tell me, what’s your gut feeling about this alien spaceship?”

“I don’t really care about the history of it. Life, ancient civilizations, cosmic wars… that’s all nerd stuff for the scientists to argue about,” Marcus replied loudly, never one to be shy. “But I do have one thought.”

“Oh? Let’s hear it,” Jason asked, genuinely interested.

“Alien weapons have to be insanely powerful, right? I just really want to play with them,” Marcus said, a huge grin on his face as he mimed firing a heavy rifle. “Laser cannons, plasma rifles, ion blasters… imagine a gun that could level a building in one shot!”

The Federation labs were currently researching directed-energy weapons, but they were nowhere near a functional prototype, let alone a man-portable version. Seeing the alien UFO, Marcus was practically itching to kick the door down and loot the armory.

After fleeing Earth and the Moon, everyone aboard the Noah, including the military had been put through mandatory crash courses in space science and physics. Marcus, however, seemed to have taken his education straight from old Star Wars holovids.

Jason just rolled his eyes. He shouldn’t have expected any profound tactical insight from his favorite meathead.

“Ahem,” Austin coughed twice, looking a little embarrassed by his subordinate. He quickly steered the conversation back on track. “Director, this UFO actually isn’t very large. I know five kilometers sounds massive to us, but on a cosmic scale, it’s tiny.”

“Because of that, it’s highly likely this is just a frigate or a scout ship, not a capital ship. In a massive fleet engagement, nobody cares if a single frigate goes down,” Austin analyzed, his eyes wide and serious.

Jason stroked his chin thoughtfully. “You make a good point. A 5-kilometer ship has limited internal volume. It can’t support a massive population, and it clearly doesn’t possess the reality-bending spatial folding tech that the Noah has. Keep going…”

Analyzing the situation from a military perspective yielded entirely different theories than the scientists’ geological models, and it was proving to be highly insightful.

Austin continued, “A military frigate wouldn’t just vanish and crash here for no reason. Let’s assume the scientists’ theory about an ancient war is correct, and this ship was shot down in combat.”

“If it was a full-scale war, is it possible that only one ship was destroyed? Absolutely not. How could a battle between two interstellar empires result in a single casualty? I bet there were tens of thousands of ships destroyed in the Solar System alone!”

As Austin spoke, he painted a terrifying picture: thousands upon thousands of massive warships clashing in the void, unleashing endless streams of superweapons. The silent vacuum of space erupting with billions of blinding flashes of light, followed by the broken husks of countless vessels raining down on the planets below…

“You’ve really leveled up, Austin,” Jason said, nodding in genuine approval. It seemed that Austin’s year as the Director of Security had paid off; his strategic thinking had improved drastically.

His analysis was incredibly sound. If there truly had been an interstellar war in the Solar System, it was statistically impossible for only one ship to have been destroyed. Just as World War II on Earth had left behind thousands of rusted tanks and downed planes across the globe… a space war would leave a massive debris field. Did Mars hold even more buried wrecks?

Or, to look at the bigger picture: the entire Solar System might be a massive, ancient graveyard!

“If this UFO was a long-range scout or resonance ship, it would make sense for it to be alone,” Austin theorized, his voice rising with excitement. “But if it was a combat frigate, it would have been flying in formation! There must be more wreckage out there! Did their flagship crash somewhere in the solar system too?”

If Austin’s theory was correct, the enemy flagship must have been vastly larger than the Noah! Just how massive was it? Was it completely vaporized? Where did the debris land? Earth? Jupiter? Or was it swallowed by the Sun?

It was an unsolvable mystery. Human technology was completely incapable of scanning the entire Solar System for ancient debris.

Jason chuckled, a dry, self-deprecating sound. He was needlessly worrying about ghosts. One crashed UFO was more than enough for humanity to handle right now; worrying about a hypothetical flagship was like an ant worrying about a boot.

“But even a single escort frigate could easily wipe out all of humanity. Just looking at its armor plating, it’s not something we could ever scratch in a fair fight,” Austin said, rubbing the back of his neck. “You know, back on Earth, people used to vanish without a trace all the time. The police never found the bodies. A lot of conspiracy nuts claimed they were abducted by aliens.”

“Some people even claimed they were taken aboard ships and subjected to horrific medical experiments. Looking at this thing… maybe some of those crazy stories were actually true.”

A sudden chill ran down Jason’s spine. He used to think alien abduction stories were nothing but cheap tabloid trash. But the context had changed entirely; humanity had just found a real, physical alien spacecraft! He suddenly pictured humans being locked in cages, waiting to be dissected like lab rats!

Humans had zero pity for the animals they experimented on. Creatures like dogs and monkeys possessed rudimentary intelligence, roughly equivalent to a human toddler. But even knowing that, human scientists still subjected them to brutal medical testing for the “greater good.”

Perhaps, in the eyes of an advanced extraterrestrial empire, human intelligence was equally primitive, no different than a stray dog. The sheer terror, the absolute despair a human would feel strapped to an alien operating table…

No. We will never let that happen! We must become stronger! We have to secure their technology!

Jason clenched his fists, his burning desire for advanced technology overriding his fear.

After listening to Austin’s grim analysis, Jason came to a stark realization: in the face of a true interstellar civilization, humanity was currently nothing more than a fragile, easily crushed insect.

Over the next few days, news of the discovery spread throughout the Noah, sparking a massive wave of public debate. The buried UFO became the only topic of conversation in the cafeterias and living sectors.

“A classic flying saucer… its shape is almost exactly like the old Earth rumors…”

“Exactly! This proves it! Humanity must have observed alien ships in the past. How else would the pop-culture image of a UFO be so perfectly accurate?”

“Think about the tech we could salvage from that thing…”

The radical faction of the population was just as anxious and jittery as the scientists. The thought of leapfrogging centuries of technological development was driving them crazy with anticipation.

However, the cautious faction was filled with deep anxiety, fully believing that cracking open the UFO would trigger an apocalyptic disaster. They argued that compared to a highly advanced civilization, humans were basically cavemen. If you handed a loaded gun to a caveman, he would likely shoot himself; if you handed a nuclear reactor to a caveman, he would blow up the entire tribe!

The Federation was completely split down the middle, locked in a tense, ideological standoff.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep