Old Cat locked himself tightly with Tang Yue before going down first and opening the hatch to the cargo hold.
The moment the hatch was opened, Tang Yue was shocked.
He couldn't feel it when he was in the Eagle, but the moment he opened the hatch, he experienced the power of the sandstorm … The gangway was no longer visible. It was as if it had plunged into a huge and dark vortex and was completely swallowed up.
The sandstorm whizzed past, and Tang Yue's heart began to pound.
Was he really going down?
If he went down, he would definitely die, right?
His lofty aspirations were nothing in the face of death. When Tang Yue put on the EVA suit, he was full of lofty aspirations. It was as if he was the main character in one of those tough guy movies. With his powerful courage, he overcame the objections of others and broke through the obstruction of a cowardly rat like Old Cat. He resolutely carried out his plan and finally achieved perfect success.
That was how it was written in a movie script.
Old Cat shone the flashlight down. The white beam of light had a range of less than three meters in the sandstorm. Beyond that, it was pitch black.
"I'll go down first. Follow behind me."
Old Cat's voice came from the earpiece. His tone was very calm, and it didn't sound timid at all. It had the power to calm people down.
F * ck, isn't Old Cat a cowardly rat?
Why does it look like he's the male lead now, and I'm just cannon fodder?
Old Cat grabbed the gangway and climbed down bit by bit. Seeing Old Cat disappear into the sandstorm, Tang Yue took a deep breath and followed him down.
The moment they left the cargo hold, a whistling sound filled their ears. The wind and sand scraped against the Bright Light Armour's visor. Tang Yue held onto the gangway tightly and looked around.
The darkness in a sandstorm was different from the darkness at night. A clear night sky could be said to be a transparent crystal, but a sandstorm was simply a mass of dirty, pitch-black ink.
The headlamp on the Radiant Armor was useless under such circumstances. In fact, Tang Yue was no different from a blind man.
The headlamp's beam of light illuminated the sand in the air. Wherever Tang Yue saw, there were points of light that flew past him like an endless blizzard.
This was the first time he had moved in a gale with a speed of 40 meters per second.
If this was Earth, such strong winds would be enough to sweep Tang Yue into the sky.
"Hold the gangway steady," Old Cat reminded. "We're about to descend."
Tang Yue lowered his head and looked down. Old Cat was right under his feet. The distance between them was less than a meter, but Tang Yue could no longer see Old Cat. He could only see the blurry beam of the flashlight flashing under his feet.
The gangway started to move. Tang Yue could feel himself slowly descending and leaving the lander.
Two seconds later, the cargo hold above his head was submerged in the dark storm. Tang Yue looked down, but he could not see the ground.
This made him feel like he was falling into an abyss. He could neither see the sky nor the ground. It was as if there was a bottomless abyss under his feet, and there was no end to the gangway's descent … Tang Yue had never felt this way before.
It was easy for people to imagine things when they were blindfolded. Even if they were only two inches above the ground, they could imagine themselves in the air.
The gangway trembled slightly, and there was a loud noise coming from somewhere. Tang Yue was really worried that the lander would be blown over.
A minute later, the gangway's descent stopped.
"We're on the ground," Old Cat said. "I'll go down first. Don't move."
Tang Yue nodded.
Old Cat stepped on the rock and tugged on the rope. "You can come down now. You're half a meter above the ground now. Come down slowly."
Tang Yue carefully stretched out his feet and slowly stepped on the ground. He could only act according to Old Cat's instructions.
Tang Yue stood at the edge of the gangway in a daze. He could not tell north from south. Naturally, he could not see Kunlun Station. The Kunlun Station's main station was more than a hundred meters away. Tang Yue did not dare to run around. If he went in the wrong direction, he would get lost in the boundless Martian wasteland.
A claw reached out from the darkness and grabbed Tang Yue's glove tightly.
"This way."
Old Cat shouted loudly. It tried its best to raise its voice so that its voice would not be drowned out by the noise. "Follow me closely!"
Old Cat and Tang Yue were connected by a rope. This was similar to how the expedition team members had to tie each other with ropes in the polar ice fields. The purpose of this was to prevent anyone from falling into the hidden ice crevices.
However, there were obviously no ice crevices in the Martian desert. Old Cat did this to prevent Tang Yue from getting lost.
Visibility within the sandstorm was close to zero. If they got lost, they would be dead.
With great difficulty, Tang Yue followed behind Tomcat, imitating it.
The distance between the lander and Kunlun Station was only a hundred meters, but it seemed endless.
"With the current weather conditions, do you think we can still launch the Eagle tomorrow?" Old Cat used all four legs to crawl on the ground with difficulty.
Tang Yue hesitated for a few seconds.
"But Mai Dong doesn't have time to wait."
Tang Yue deliberated and said, "We don't know when this damn sandstorm will pass. What if it doesn't stop for a month?
Do we have to wait for a month? "
"If this sandstorm doesn't stop for a month, then we don't have to care about that girl anymore."
Old Cat spat out a mouthful of sand and shouted, "We're doomed … Under such circumstances, the solar panels can't be charged. Kunlun Station's batteries won't last a month. You'll freeze to death or suffocate to death sooner or later. It depends on whether the heating or oxygen runs out first!"
"So we don't have to wait."
Tang Yue pulled on the rope and walked forward with difficulty.
"If the sandstorm doesn't stop, then we'll be doomed together. We might as well launch the lander according to the original plan … You said that the Eagle can withstand the wind, right?"
Old Cat nodded.
"The lander is designed to withstand the crosswinds on the Martian surface at fifty meters per second. This is a life-saving measure left behind by the engineers on Earth!"
Tomcat shouted. Its voice was muffled by the strong winds. "The Eagle has an emergency lifeboat, and it's meant to prevent situations like today's!
However, this function has never been truly tested. Previously, the Eagle has never taken off in such terrible weather! "
Tang Yue was silent for a few seconds.
"Old Cat, you said before that you wanted me to trust the bunch of tasteless gays at Jiuquan Center."
Old Cat was stunned.
"I trust those gays. Old Cat, you should trust them for once."
Tang Yue said, "Although these gays are tasteless and don't pay me back for the food they owe me, they're still reliable when it comes to doing things!
If they say it can withstand fifty meters, then it's fifty meters! "
"But fifty meters per second is the limit!"
Old Cat continued, "If the wind speed exceeds fifty meters, then the lander won't be able to guarantee the stability of its center of gravity!
The launch might fail! "
Old Cat stopped to rest for a moment. It turned its head and shone a strong flashlight at Tang Yue.
"You'd better pray that the storm doesn't continue to get stronger tomorrow. Then, whether it's you, me, or the girl in the sky, we'll have a chance of survival."