Volume 12: Yaguna Kotor Chapter 571: Solo Infiltration
Ke Lan almost silently reached the edge of the ravine and looked down.
He did not see the crowded scene he had imagined - the bottom of the ravine was very empty, with no signs of human activity at all. On the contrary, on the rock walls on both sides, there were many caves that were obviously dug by humans.
These exiles set up their settlements inside the rock wall rather than at the bottom of the ravine, which makes them more concealed. Looking down from the air, it is difficult to find any abnormalities, whether with the naked eye or radar scanning. Unless drones can go deep into the ravine to explore, it is possible to find these inhabited caves.
There are countless ravines like this in the wilderness. If drones are sent to check each one, it will be an extremely heavy burden - compared with the various threats on Alpha, these rats hiding in the sewers are actually not that worrying.
In fact, as long as these exiles did not actively attack the Ark's transit stations and transport convoys, and had no connection with the heretical sects, both the Security Bureau and the military would turn a blind eye to their existence - but as more and more exile settlements have "voluntarily" or "forced" to join the heretical sects in recent years, the frequency of clearing out exile settlements has suddenly increased.
In the past year alone, the Security Bureau and the military have jointly cleared out a total of 71 exile settlements, but there is not a single one like this one built inside a ravine.
Not only because they are difficult to find, but also because the construction of such settlements is too difficult for exiles who lack tools and resources. Most of the exiles can only avoid the attacks of indigenous creatures and the clearance of the Ark by constantly migrating, and they simply do not have the ability to build such a permanent stronghold.
Except for heretical sects.
Ke Lan knew that there were a lot of heretical sects hiding inside the Ark, especially in the upper class. With the help of these heretical sects, it was not difficult for the heretical sects to complete such a project. Of course, this also showed from another perspective that this stronghold was definitely the sphere of influence of the heretical sects, not any independent exile settlement.
Ke Lan noticed that at the bottom of the ravine, there was a camouflaged AT-A1 "Walker" bipedal mecha. The "Walker" series of mechas, even the latest "AT-T5" model, are now antiques. This series of bipedal combat mechas had been completely retired from the military ten years ago. Not only did the manufacturer that developed this series of mechas announce the suspension of production, but even the authorized third-party manufacturers no longer produced related spare parts.
Most of the "Walker" mechas were dismantled and recycled, and only a small number of them, after their weapons and armor were removed, were sold to some civilian organizations at extremely low prices to be used as transportation or engineering machinery.
The weapons and armor of the AT-A1 "Walkers" that Ke Lan saw had not been removed. The 25mm caliber machine guns installed on both sides of the head could easily tear apart most types of power armor equipped to soldiers in the field, and the heavy flamethrower mounted on the bottom of the mecha could create a fan-shaped flame area with a radius of 150 meters and a range of about 120 degrees directly in front of the mecha - if the Marines rashly rushed into this ravine without the support of heavy firepower, there would inevitably be a large number of casualties.
The paint on the surface of this "Walker" mech has almost completely fallen off, and instead, a large amount of khaki mud is smeared on the surface of the armor. After the mud attached to the mech dries and hardens, it forms a perfect camouflage. Looking down from above, this "Walker" mech squatting there looks like a big square stone.
The only flaw is probably that the corners of this "stone" are not round enough, and it looks a little abrupt in the rock ravine formed by weathering of the rock cracks, but if you don't observe it closely, you won't be able to find this flaw at all.
…
The driver of this AT-A1 "Walker" is a middle-aged man in his early thirties. At this moment, he is leaning forward and squinting his eyes to stare at the slender observation window above the console. As a prototype of the "Walker" series of combat mechas, the AT-A1 is not equipped with an electronic monitor connected to an external camera, but uses a visual observation window similar to that of an old tank. On the top of the body, there is also a periscope that can rotate 360 degrees, allowing the pilot to observe the situation on both sides and behind the body.
The reason for this design is that in the early days of the Ark landing on Alpha, electronic equipment was very prone to failure in some strong radiation areas and was not as reliable as pure mechanical structures. In that era, equipment design ideas tended to be simple and retro, and this AT-A1 "Walker" was born in such an environment.
However, this is not a disadvantage for the pilots of the heretic sect. In the absence of maintenance and replacement parts, a purely mechanical observation window is indeed more convenient to use than sophisticated electronic monitoring equipment. For this AT-A1, as long as the weapons and power system can still operate, its combat effectiveness will not be greatly affected.
"No one should be able to find this place..." The AT-A1 driver muttered to himself while turning the periscope lens slightly.
Normally, his job is actually quite leisurely - thanks to the fact that the cockpit of the bipedal mecha is much more spacious than that of the humanoid mecha, he can even lay the seat flat and lie on the back of the chair to read some magazines brought back by his companions. Unlike the pornographic magazines such as "Penthouse" and "Playboy" that most men like, he prefers to read some mechanical science magazines. It is for this reason that he became the driver and maintenance personnel of this AT-A1.
He was born in the wilderness and had never spent a single day inside the "Noah's Ark" in his life. All his knowledge about mechas came from self-study and disassembling garbage picked up from the battlefield. He always felt that if he could be born on the Ark, he would definitely become a top mechanic - although he longed for the Ark, he did not like it at all, and even hated this colonial spacecraft that brought humans to this planet.
Judging from his age, he was almost the descendant of the first group of human exiles on Alpha. In his memory , he had very little impression of his parents... His mother died when he was very young, and he had no idea who his father was.
Someone once told him that his mother was a well-known scientist on the Ark, and had to leave the Ark because of "academic persecution"... But what does this have to do with him? For a child who lost both parents, childhood and adolescence are extremely difficult. Those who live on the Ark can't imagine how a child who is less than ten years old can survive in the cruel wilderness.
And this memory that he didn't want to recall became the source of his hatred - he hated everyone and everything from that ship, except weapons.
Because the weapons could be used to kill people, to kill the people who came off that boat.
So when he learned of the existence of the heretical sect, he joined the "Prophet" without hesitation.
He did not believe in any "great gods", but the powerful and mysterious power of the prophet was witnessed by every believer... He just needed a strong enough leader to lead them to destroy the ship, drive the people on the ship out of their safe and comfortable rooms, and let them experience everything they had experienced before.
Just a few hours ago, the prophet brought a beautiful unconscious woman to this secret base, which immediately perked him up. He thought the prophet was about to plan a large-scale combat operation - he had always regretted that he could not participate in the operation in the Molten Mine Area, but the prophet only threw him a word and disappeared into the depths of the cave with the woman.
"Be alert, someone might follow you here."
Although he was a little disappointed, he did not dare to slack off at all. For several hours, he did not even dare to take a deep breath. He kept staring intently at the observation window in front of him that was only one inch high, for fear of missing any movement.
Just then, something seemed to drip from the top of the cockpit and hit him on the head.
"Huh?" The sudden movement startled his shoulders and made them jump violently. His forehead and eyebrows hit the frame of the periscope not too hard or too lightly. "Ouch!"
"Hiss...what is that? Could it be that the cooling pipe that was just repaired last week is leaking again?" He was stunned as soon as the words came out of his mouth - with his familiarity with this aircraft, he certainly knew that there was no cooling pipe on the top of the cockpit. Even if the coolant really leaked, it would not drip from here.
"That's strange...what could that be?" He stretched out a hand and began to feel around on the top panel of the cockpit. Soon, he felt some sticky liquid.
"Could it be engine oil? It's seeping from the rivets... that doesn't make sense, either?"
Not only that, he seemed to smell a faint smell of blood...
He couldn't help but feel a strong sense of uneasiness in his heart. He raised his hand to turn on the light in the cockpit and raised the two fingers stained with "unknown substances" in front of his eyes.
The fingertips were stained with a deep red liquid, thick and sticky... He was not sure if he was seeing things or it was an illusion. The drop of liquid on his fingertips seemed to be wriggling?
"Is this... blood? Fresh blood? No, it's cold?"
Before he could react, more liquid seeped out from the gap in the cockpit ceiling and dripped onto his head and shoulders.
"What's going on? What is this?!"
He subconsciously wanted to sound the alarm, but the hand reaching for the control console was forever frozen in mid-air - a sharp claw made of blood had pierced through his chest from bottom to top, and the sharp claw tip went straight through his throat.
The hot blood sprayed on the console and on the "Mecha Mechanical Structure" magazine with the June issue of the New Era 929 placed next to it.
The bloody claws quickly turned back into a flowing liquid and seeped back along the gaps in the armor plates.
All the blood was sucked back by a pale palm. In the blink of an eye, the palm was covered with a layer of armor with the same texture as the bloody claws.
Ke Lan, who was squatting on top of the mecha, jumped down and landed lightly on the ground. He looked at his right hand with some surprise - he had just wanted to try out the idea in his mind, but he didn't expect that the active armor could actually re-condense after leaving his body and successfully assassinate the target hiding in the mecha.
Like a weapon, Ke Lan always felt that this thing was like a monster parasitic in his body - perhaps, the "unknown" side effect mentioned by Pan was that this thing would sooner or later awaken its self-awareness and compete with him for control of his body... or, it would simply break out of his body, just like a mature "seed of erosion"?
From the moment the fusion was successful, Ke Lan no longer regarded the type armor as his own strength - he completely regarded this living armor as a hidden danger, a time bomb buried in his body.
But at that time, he had to "wear" this living armor... Using the lives of most people on the Ark, including Ke Lan himself, as a threat, the crew would think this was a naked conspiracy, and Ke Lan had no choice.
If there is a chance, he must find a way to separate this thing from his body. He doesn't want to become like those "containers".
Since the members of the Undead Crew bluntly stated that they could not remove the living armor from their bodies, Ke Lan could only hope to find some useful clues in the ruins of the Alpha civilization... Perhaps, the giant lizard that had been imprisoned under the bottomless tiankeng for tens of thousands of years could help him?
Of course, the prerequisite is that Ke Lan has to find it first... This difficulty may be more difficult than exploring a complete S-level ruins - who knows whether the big lizard is still on this planet.
"Forget it, I'll think about it later... At least for now, I still need the power of this thing..."
Ke Lan walked to the rock wall, found a cave and went in.
Although there are more than a dozen holes of various sizes on this rock wall, according to the information sent back by the reconnaissance robot, the interiors of these holes are actually connected together, and it doesn't matter which hole you enter from.
For fear of alerting the enemy, the reconnaissance robot retreated after entering the cave fifty meters...so no one knows what is in the depths of the cave.
Even the walker mecha pilot who was "guarding the gate" outside didn't know that except for a few shallow caves on the outskirts of the ravine for living, the caves leading to the depths were connected to a huge maze that even the followers of heretical sects were not allowed to enter.
After walking a short distance, Ke Lan could tell at a glance that this cave was definitely not a settlement of exiles, and it was not even dug by humans - judging from the various traces inside the cave, these caves must have existed for a very long time. If that was the case, how could they have been dug by humans?
The deeper you go, the fewer traces of human activities are left, and the degree of weathering and erosion of the caves is also less. Those sharp turns and corners, as well as channel loops accurate to the millimeter, can only be achieved by the advanced engineering equipment on the Ark with the assistance of computers.
"This place... could it be an undiscovered relic of the Alpha civilization?"
