Chapter 128: Pandora

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After slamming the tongue-lolling banshee to the ground, Wang Jing stepped out of his battle armor, which was splattered with green blood.

Wang Jing walked over to a group of researchers in protective suits and said, “The radar and radio systems need stronger resistance to interference. And get my armor cleaned.”

“Yes, Councilor Wang!” the researchers replied with a nod.

At that moment, Song Guohua approached and asked, “Do we know what kind of world it is now?”

Wang Jing nodded. “We do. The planet is called Pandora, and it lies in the Alpha Centauri system.”

“That world has an Earth of its own. Because of a population explosion, it has become much like the Earth in the Elysium Plane. However, unlike the people of Elysium, they did not shut themselves away from the outside world. Instead, they turned toward interstellar colonization.”

“Pandora’s atmosphere makes it unsuitable for colonization, but its superconductive ore has made the merchants on Earth flock to it.”

“You mean there are humans on Pandora as well?”

“That’s right. We just don’t know yet whether they have already landed there.”

“By the way, have you ever heard of something called a planetary consciousness?” Wang Jing suddenly asked.

“I have. Could Pandora possess one?” Song Guohua asked in astonishment.

“Yes.” Wang Jing nodded before explaining, “Pandora’s planetary consciousness is called Eywa. The name was given to it by the Na’vi, an intelligent humanoid species native to Pandora.”

“All the trees on Pandora are linked together through an electrochemical process, and every living organism on the planet can connect to this network. This neural network is a kind of organic superbrain with 480 million connection points—more than the human brain.”

“The life-forms on Pandora connect to Eywa through a specialized organ that links their consciousness to the planetary mind. That banshee is an example.” As he spoke, Wang Jing pointed toward the corpse surrounded by a group of researchers.

“The long tendril on its neck is the organ it uses to communicate through consciousness. It is similar to our brain-computer interfaces. Even creatures of different species can communicate with one another through it.”

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The researcher Wang Jing had ordered to clean his armor came running over and said, “Councilor Wang, your armor has been cleaned. However, Professor Jiang Ning says that if we want to upgrade the radar and radio equipment, we must conduct an on-site survey!”

“What about my armor?” Wang Jing asked, glancing at the researcher, who had returned alone.

“Your armor is here. I brought it to you.” Jiang Ning’s voice came from the entrance to the transit hall.

Wang Jing turned around and saw Jiang Ning approaching in a pink suit of armor, with his freshly cleaned armor following behind her.

“What are you wearing that for?” Wang Jing asked, staring at her in bewilderment.

“Obviously, I’m going with you to the new world!” Jiang Ning replied, planting her hands on her slender waist, which the armor accentuated.

“Aren’t you afraid of danger? If you get lost, I may not be able to find you. And that place is extremely dangerous,” Wang Jing warned her.

Jiang Ning confidently patted the armor covering her body. “I have complete faith in my own technology. Besides, I’m not going to wander off. Nothing will happen to me.”

After giving it some thought, Wang Jing agreed to Jiang Ning’s proposal. After all, on Pandora, as long as one stayed away from the battlefront between the humans and the Na’vi, the planet was actually quite safe.

However, since Jiang Ning intended to travel to Pandora personally for an on-site investigation, Wang Jing immediately suggested to Song Guohua that they establish a temporary base on one of the floating islands.

Song Guohua agreed without hesitation. Given the current circumstances, a long-term presence was clearly necessary. However, preparing the supplies and equipment for a temporary base would take some time.

Thus, during that period, Wang Jing and the plane team changed their mission to searching for a suitable location for the base.

After surveying a vast area, Wang Jing decided to build the temporary base on a floating island.

They selected the floating island with the largest area of level ground as the site, then transported over the modular base that had already been prepared. The Plane Expeditionary Army and a large quantity of weapons and equipment arrived with it, especially anti-aircraft missiles and anti-aircraft autocannons.

After all, the purpose of establishing the base on a floating island was concealment and ease of defense.

A base built on the ground would have to contend not only with the dangers posed by terrestrial creatures and human ground forces, but also with aerial creatures and human airborne weapons.

On a floating island, they only needed to focus their defenses on aerial creatures and human air weapons.

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The dangers posed by both could be eliminated with a single missile. If one was not enough, they could simply fire two.

As for the cost of the missiles, to the United Government, which possessed the resources of multiple worlds, it was little more than pocket change. Besides, not every enemy needed to be dealt with using missiles. Electromagnetic rapid-fire cannons and laser weapons were also highly effective anti-aircraft weapons.

“The scenery here is gorgeous!” Jiang Ning exclaimed sincerely as she gazed at the endless green jungle below the floating island and the white clouds that seemed almost within reach.

Wang Jing’s voice shattered her enjoyment of the view. “This is no time to admire the scenery. Get to work. If we don’t solve the magnetic interference problem, we’ll remain in danger the entire time!”

“A good mood before work is always helpful for efficiency!” Jiang Ning said. Even so, she turned and returned to the temporary base to begin working.

Because the magnetic interference problem had not yet been solved, the radar was unusable. For the time being, the base’s primary defense would therefore still be handled by Wang Jing and his plane team.

Jiang Ning did not disappoint him, however, and soon found a way to resolve the magnetic interference.

Since the interference in this region was generated by the superconductive ore, the problem was actually easy to solve. The strength and frequency of its magnetic field were fixed, making it far easier to deal with than deliberate electromagnetic interference. They only needed to change the frequencies used by the radar and radio communications.

However, to maintain detection range and transmission capacity, the communications frequency had to be raised considerably. As everyone knew, a higher communications frequency meant a shorter transmission distance and greater energy consumption.

To increase the transmission range, they had to raise the power so that the signal could travel farther through the air.

Even then, the effective range was extremely limited. It could barely cover the entire chain of floating islands; beyond that, the system was powerless.

Still, this was sufficient. Human technology was roughly comparable to that of the United Government, and perhaps even somewhat inferior. After all, the humans there were merely one company. No matter how advanced its technology was, it could not surpass that of the United Government. At most, it could bully the Na’vi, who were still living in primitive tribal societies.

The transmission problem was much easier to solve. They simply needed to set up several more communications relay stations.

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