Dead on Mars

Chapter 184 - Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Two, Crumbling World
Chapter 184: Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Two, Crumbling World

At that instant, Mai Dong felt the area around her warm up as though she had been immersed in warm water. This made her recall Earth’s sunshine. Mars never had such sunshine. As it was a lot farther from the Sun than the Earth, the Sun was nothing but a light-emitting light bulb to Mars. It was bright, but it didn’t bring any warmth.

Mai Dong leaned against the window and looked far out at the golden glow in the darkness.

She suddenly smiled.

The sun was setting. The magnificent flames disappeared into the darkness as the mountain-like shadow seemed to slowly rise in front of Mai Dong.

It slowly and silently flew across Mai Dong’s head like an extraterrestrial spacecraft that suddenly descended. It was like a long, dull blade that carried with it an indomitable strength that came sweeping over. It sliced through the space station’s truss, solar panels, inflatable module, and the arm. Shrapnel scattered everywhere as it tumbled outside the space station, reflecting the fiery red glow like flying snowflakes above a massive fire.

It was clearly a violent and alarming collision, but what Mai Dong saw seemed like a movie playing out in slow motion. It was a silent film. Sound couldn’t be transmitted in a vacuum, nor was it able to transmit time for some odd reason. Everything seemed to happen beyond time.

Time seemed to drag as the boom and tremors of the collision lumbered across the metal frame. The earpiece, pen, and paper in the core module continued their trajectory based on their momentum as snow-white hull fragments floated in a pitch-black background. The girl stared in a daze at the flames in front of her. They were snaking through the fissures in the white hull, the leaking oxidizers a fatal attraction for them. The blue word “Orion” had been scorched black and yellow from the flames. All of this was separated from her only by a window. Loneliness and sorrow effused in the girl’s eyes.

This was an extremely beautiful scene. It was like a crystal palace that was collapsing in an inferno. It was a grand yet tragic death.

However, her sadness prompted her to cry.

The next second, the loud boom and tremors entered the Crystal module. This was a result of the truss snapping. It was the first thing Orion II hit.

Everything in the core module was shaking. The dashboard and control panel were uprooted from the walls as power cables were torn. The girl’s tiny teardrops left her eyes as they formed spheres due to surface tension.

The crystalline water beads traversed across the core module thanks to its momentum, passing through the messy power cables, paper, and notebook computer. Affected by the turbulent air, it began turning as it wobbled. The breeze imbued it with extremely little kinetic energy as it spun to fly towards the glass window.

Looking out through it, everything around her was distorted. Light had been refracted by the water bead and in the distance. There was another explosive flame that only appeared like a bright ring thanks to the teardrop. This ring expanded from one end of the teardrop to the other until the latter hit the glass. With a soft splattering sound, it broke apart into countless tiny droplets.

They then formed into tiny spheres that appeared like golden beads amidst the flames.

Following that, an even more massive force hit the core module. Even the metal frame was cracking from the tremors. The core module’s walls let out a sharp groan as it was pushed to the brink of death.

Mai Dong’s body flew backward as she slammed heavily into the hatch, her vision turning black.

The entire world was spinning and tumbling.

She watched as the leaking high-pressure steam condensed in the vacuum’s low temperatures, crystallizing into shimmering ice crystals.

The space station couldn’t withstand such a blow and had begun disintegrating. Through the window, Mai Dong saw a damaged module she couldn’t identify hurtle past until it slammed into the truss and snap.

When she saw fragments from the incubator scatter, she knew that it was the Hope module. At the instant the module lost pressure, all the plants inside must have frozen to death.

The core module was once again illuminated by a blinding light.

Mai Dong saw the spacecraft’s propellant tanks smash into the inflatable module at the end of the space station. They were easily identifiable with their orange-yellow cylindrical shape. There were a total of four of them, and they were installed on Orion II. But at this moment, Mai Dong could only see two tanks. Two had already disappeared. The remaining two left a wake of fiery flames as they slammed into the inflatable module, flattening it instantly. The fire immediately intensified as the leaking methane and oxygen caused another explosion.

It turned out that only an explosion could be this bright—as bright as the sun.

The entire world was burning.

With the light from the explosion and flames, Mai Dong could see that the Silent multipurpose module had become detached, half a broken solar sail had sliced through its hull. The Harmony service module had been punctured by the chaotic fragments and the broken arm had crashed into it. The water tank—most of her resources for survival—had ruptured.

Nearly all of the batteries in the space station had been disconnected, turning into blue shattered glass.

There were countless components and fragments that enveloped the space station. They were slicing through its hull at high speeds, reducing the space station to a sorry mess.

The world Mai Dong was in was undergoing destruction. She stood in the middle of this world as everything around her was burning, crashing, collapsing, and burying each other.

The entire world was spinning.

The explosion drained Orion II of all its propellant. It had flown far away after slamming into the inflatable module, leaving a trail of flames that extinguished a few minutes later. Comically, the Eagle was still hanging onto it, such a violent collision was not able to knock it off. This was evidence that Mai Dong had secured it very tightly.

Orion II had disappeared and couldn’t be seen.

Mai Dong couldn’t hear a thing. The loud booms from the explosion and collision had made her temporarily lose her sense of hearing. Her ears were constantly buzzing as her head ached. She wasn’t able to see anything as the strong collision sent the space station and core module into a rapid spin. If there wasn’t an additional force to withstand this torque, it would continue spinning forever. After the leaked oxidizers outside were expended with all the flames extinguished, the world plunged back into darkness.

She didn’t know if the core module had lost pressure, nor did she know if the space station was plummeting. She didn’t even know if she was alive.

The lights inside the module had gone out and the system had long stopped working. There weren’t any warnings and she couldn’t even see her fingers.

The entire world was already dead.

In Kunlun Station, Tomcat’s and Tang Yue’s smiles were still frozen on their faces. They were just about to discuss Tianzhou and the descent with Mai Dong.

The man and cat looked at the communications system in a daze.

There was a deathly silence.

None of this took more than two minutes.

From the moment Kunlun Station’s system warning “WARNING: COMMLINK DISCONNECTED” to the screen showing the notification “MARS UNITED SPACE STATION CRASHED,” none of that took more than two minutes.