novel bin Chapter 644 The Demon Clan's Lair is Actually in the Milky Way!
Chapter 644 The Demon Clan's Lair is Actually in the Milky Way!
Tian Shu Underground City, General Command Center.
The air smelled of coffee, metal cabinet cooling, and coolant mixed together.
A large screen was lit up, with a dense stream of data flowing from left to right. Dozens of technicians sat at their workstations, the sound of their keyboards almost continuous.
Han Niba stood at the very front, his military uniform epaulets gleaming coldly in the screen light, his hands behind his back, staring at the central screen.
Those were the first batch of raw data that Pangu II had just transmitted back.
The super quantum computer is decoding rapidly.
The image gradually changes from a data stream to a blurry starry sky, and then to a gray-white ground.
An astronomy expert stared at the data, his voice steady.
"Coordinate comparison is 63% complete, star spectrum matching in progress."
Someone nearby immediately chimed in:
"The gravitational parameters have also been obtained. The other end of the probe is not the main surface of a planet, but a satellite. The mass is not large, but there is a supermassive celestial body nearby."
Han Niba's gaze did not leave him.
Get to the point.
The expert immediately switched layers.
"The other end of the wormhole has been confirmed not to be the main surface of a planet, but a natural satellite."
"Based on the curvature of the horizon, gravitational parameters, and the angle of celestial obstruction, the diameter of the target satellite is estimated to be about two to three times that of the Moon on Earth."
"Moreover, there are numerous traces of demonic activity on the satellite's surface, and the density of heat sources is extremely high."
On the screen, the gray-white ground is covered by red heat sources, and the image is magnified accordingly.
Each red dot represents a source of life and heat.
On the gray-white wasteland, swarms of monsters moved like a black tide, so numerous that it was terrifying.
Some crawled out of the dark purple wormhole, some dragged some kind of huge fleshy organ, and some were dismantling the metal ruins into pieces and devouring them one by one.
One of the staff officers' expressions changed slightly.
"This number... is no longer that of an ordinary garrison."
Han Niba said in a deep voice, "Continue."
The experts immediately switched to the second set of data.
"Star map comparison is underway."
"The detector's shooting time was too short, and a single data entry was insufficient to complete the precise positioning. We are currently comparing it with multiple sets of star backgrounds from different angles that were transmitted back when Commander Lin subsequently destroyed other wormholes."
Han Niba asked in a deep voice:
"So, do you know where its galaxy is located?"
"Still comparing, almost done." An astronomy expert's fingers flew across the keyboard as he spoke.
"After cross-calibrating the star spectrum, background star map, pulsar signal, and radiation characteristics of the target blue giant, we have obtained a preliminary conclusion."
"The demons are most likely located here."
As the words fell, a conclusion marked in red popped up in the upper right corner of the large screen.
[Preliminary location: Milky Way galaxy, edge of the Perseus Arm.]
On the large screen, a model of the Milky Way's spiral arms unfolds.
The Orion Arm, where the solar system is located, is marked in blue.
Another flashing red dot landed in the adjacent Perseus Arm region.
A collective gasp immediately filled the command center.
"Milky Way?"
"Perseus's arm?"
"Oh my god! It's not another galaxy?!"
Before this, many people believed that the demon race came from extremely distant unknown star regions, or even from outside the Milky Way.
After all, the continent of Terra, Earth, and the home planet of the Demon Race are all connected by wormholes, and the concept of distance has long been distorted beyond recognition.
But now, the data tells them that the demons are actually in the Milky Way.
Moreover, it's located right next to the Orion Arm, where Earth is situated.
Someone didn't think straight and blurted out:
"The demons are actually our neighbors?"
The other person immediately retorted:
"A neighbor over 3,000 light-years away? Your next-door neighbor is Andromeda, right?"
Han Niba looked at the astronomy expert.
How far is it from Earth?
"Based on current star chart calculations, the distance exceeds three thousand light-years, and the error is not small, but the general direction is correct."
After the expert finished speaking, he himself realized how absurd it was.
Three thousand light-years is indeed not far on a cosmic scale.
However, for the current space technology of Earth, this distance is enough to fly our ancestors for eighteen generations into history books.
But it at least proves one thing: the demon race is not some ethereal, otherworldly ghost.
They truly exist in this universe.
As long as the coordinates can be locked, it can theoretically be observed, studied, and even countered.
A young researcher whispered:
"Therefore, the demons did not fly over from somewhere else in the universe; they came to Earth by crossing interstellar distances through wormholes."
Han Niba nodded.
"This was anticipated long ago; we are simply confirming it now."
"Do you have environmental photos of this satellite?"
The screen switches to a terrain map transmitted back by the probe.
The air is thin, gravity is lower than on Earth, surface temperature varies greatly, and radiation intensity is relatively high.
The gray-white plains are covered with impact craters, and dark purple wormholes are scattered in different areas.
From a natural perspective, that satellite is not fundamentally different from most desolate satellites in the universe.
It is not suitable for human survival, nor does it seem like a home planet that a normal intelligent civilization would actively choose.
What truly got everyone's hearts racing was the next set of images.
That was a side view taken by the probe as it flew past at high speed.
The image was initially very blurry, with only large areas of black shadows visible.
However, as the quantum computer completes noise reduction and stitching, the shadow gradually reveals a clear outline.
That wasn't a natural landscape, but a destroyed metal city.
Dozens of broken, tower-shaped buildings are leaning against the gray-white earth, their massive domes torn open to reveal the complex internal support structures.
In the distance, there was a ring-shaped base, resembling some kind of orbital launch facility. Its outer edge had been smashed by a terrifying force, leaving only a charred, curved section.
Further away, the ground is covered with a dense, regular grid.
Even though only ruins remain, and even though there are countless demons on it, you can still tell that there used to be roads, energy pipelines, and clusters of buildings there.
Everyone could see that it was a creation of civilization.
Moreover, it is a product of technological civilization!
An expert suddenly stood up.
"Pause, zoom in on area three!"
The image is zoomed in.
The surface of the metal remnants has regular splicing marks, and some structures still retain honeycomb-shaped heat dissipation grooves. The edges have been melted through by high temperature, and the internal materials show a multi-layered composite structure.
The expert looked at it for more than ten seconds, then spoke faster and faster.
"This is definitely not a product of the demon race!"
"The demons do not follow the technological path; they evolve through flesh and blood."
"Their buildings are also basically made of flesh, bone, and cave structures, which show signs of industrial processing."
Another materials expert added:
"The material has very high strength, much stronger than our conventional aerospace alloys."
"The wreckage is not severely weathered, so the destruction should not have occurred too long ago."
Inside the command center, the murmurs finally broke out.
"So, this satellite originally belonged to another technological civilization?"
"Or perhaps it's an outpost of that technological civilization."
"Look at this sorry state, they've been utterly defeated by the demons?"
"By the way, we also analyzed and compared the starry sky of the Terra civilization. It's a pity that our star map is not perfect enough and we don't know where they are."
"If that civilization is still alive, is it possible for us to make contact with them?"
This is the first time that humanity has discovered traces of another technological civilization in real cosmic coordinates.
This kind of shock is completely different from that on the continent of Terra.
Terra is a magical civilization, while the demons are a civilization evolved from flesh and blood.
This unknown civilization before us may be a similar civilization to Earth, relying on science, industry, energy, and war machines to gradually reach the stars!