My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 473

ARES 3 solar day 464

Two horses and one insect were galloping through the Maworth Valley, and their hearts sank when they saw the next obstacle approaching in their field of vision.

"Please, don't be as bad as it looks," CherryBerry begged silently as she ran toward a sudden rise at the bottom. The stone cliffs several meters high do add a lot of difficulties, but if the valley terrain is flat as a whole, this small problem is not insurmountable. The reality is far different. The ancient flood water has accumulated over time in the center of the rock formations that formed the cliff, carving out a ravine running along the valley, which becomes deeper and deeper as it goes up. Although strictly speaking, the trench does become narrower as it goes back, the side walls also become higher and steeper. The overall effect was that the rover was decimated and forced to take a detour.

They had already experienced the power of this terrain in the past two days and suffered a lot, so this time the ponies ran a full two kilometers in front of the mobile home to clear the way. The main task of the advance team is to move or break through large rocks blocking the road and clear a path for the rover. In addition, they are also responsible for choosing the smoothest slope. So far, the rover has been forced back three times by the steep terrain it encountered and had to turn back the same way it came. Fireball and Mark reversed their driving roles and reversed to exit the narrow dead end. Although they barely managed to maintain the planned journey of 70 kilometers per day, the price they paid for this was a large loss of electrical energy, which caused the battery charging speed to lag further behind.

But the obstacle in front of them was the most difficult to overcome. According to the information provided by Hermes, a broad plateau that is twenty-five kilometers long divides the valley into two. Their original plan was to branch along the east side (the valley basically runs due north and south at this pass), because the information provided by Hermes was that the west branch was narrower in comparison. The terrain is rugged and strewn with boulders, some nearly the size of the mobile home itself.

But in this long and difficult afternoon, facing the insurmountable danger in front of her, Berry has no more patience. "Horse riding!" she roared, then switched to English and broadcast on the channel, "The commander of the Friendship called the rover, and everyone immediately stopped moving forward, stopped moving, and parked. Put out the solar panels. We encountered a Very difficult obstacle. We won't go any further today."

"Berry, we have only driven 42 kilometers..."

"Mark, we can't go anywhere without a careful and careful plan!" Berry scolded, "It's already the afternoon, and we've been in EVA for five hours." She looked at the man slouching in the orange space suit. Dragonfly was silent for a moment. Even healthy changelings who are not life-threatening from the effects of a lack of magic often don't have the stamina of an average pony. "We need to carefully evaluate the possible options in the next EVA. Now you stop temporarily and don't drive into the shadow cast by that mountain." She took a deep breath and added, "Starlight, report to Hermes Let’s talk about our situation.”

"Berry, please describe it in detail." Starlight, who was sitting in the bridge of the original Amicitas ship, responded.

"The one-meter-high ledge is almost straight up and down. The middle of the ledge is split in two by a ditch that looks like it was caused by some kind of erosion. If you continue to move along the valley, the steep side walls of the ditch will still remain. It will rise rapidly, leaving little safe space for movement on either side, and there is a fatal risk of accidentally sliding into the ditch. We are scouting the surrounding terrain and considering our options."

"Roger that. I'll pass it on."

"I had already stopped the rover when you gave the first order just now." Mark replied, "We have already stopped. The plateau is visible from the right window. We are already putting on our space suits."

"Okay." Peipei turned to look at Feihuo, whose white spacesuit was already covered in dust after several days of long-distance running. "Feihuo, go to the north end of the mountain and take a look. I want to know more about it. Condition of those boulders. Please return to the rover at thirteen thirty."

"Commander," Feihuo saluted straightly, and then flew down the river valley.

Then Cherry Berry looked at Dragonfly; she hadn't tried to hide her fatigue since they parked the car to rest the day before yesterday. Berry waved her hoof to the communication controller of the Dragonfly space suit, and then switched to the private chat channel. After confirming that Tingting had also completed the switch, she immediately asked, "Do you have to go back to the rover to rest now, or can you hold on for a while and continue exploring the path?"

"As long as you don't ask me to run, I'll be fine." Even Tingting's answer could tell that she was lacking in energy.

"Okay. We should be able to drive the rover over this ledge, but if there is no safe path for us to continue going up, there is no need to take this risk. Then I will go from the east branch close to the side wall of the valley. You can Walk along the side of the mountain. What we are looking for is a passage that is at least three times as wide as the rover, open and unobstructed, and the terrain is basically flat. Encountering any trap that will cause the wheels to slide downhill into the valley is almost the end of us. Am I right?"

"Yes." Tingting replied briefly to preserve her strength.

"How much battery is left in the suit?"

"Nineteen percent."

"When the indicator drops to 9%, you must return to the rover no matter what." Berry ordered, "I don't want you to risk getting lost."

"Lost?" Tingting waved her hooves towards the towering stone wall that was almost in front of them and covered with water erosion marks. "Boss, we are in a river valley now. It is indeed a large area. river valley, but the river valley is always like that.”

This is true. Maworth Valley is much larger than the Cairn Canyon, and far larger than any other valley or river valley CherryBerry can think of outside the scope of the wasteland. The widest part of the whole journey is almost fifteen kilometers; the valley is so wide that even though the canyon walls on both sides are one thousand meters high, the visual effect can only barely poke out the head on the horizon. Mark had also told her that there were several larger canyons on Earth—the Grand Canyon was only about half the length of Maworth Valley, but twice as deep and wide—but there were other canyons on Mars that were comparable to Maworth Valley. Voss is much larger - "Canyon Mariners is so big that if Maworth Valley merged into it, it wouldn't even deserve its own name."

But it's still just a river valley. According to Mark, the mountains next to them will eventually lead the team members who are active in this area back to the mobile home.

"Okay. But please be careful. Then switch back to the public frequency and set off."

Dragonfly didn't run, but she still climbed the slope towards the right side of the washout channel at a leisurely walking speed. Berry jumped onto the ledge - almost as tall as herself - started up from the left and began to examine the slope of the terrain, the space for vehicles, and so on. What was a little strange was that there weren't many rocks visible on this side; the floods that carved out this canyon, and the erosion of the rock and soil they were trying to avoid in every possible way, must have washed them all to the lower reaches of the valley, causing the poor innocent people to fall. The survivors of the plane suffered greatly.

Half an hour later, Tingting reported on the frequency, "I was ordered to return to the spacecraft on time. There is a passage on this side, but it is quite narrow. And just letting the rover climb the first section will be a lot of trouble."