Volume 12: Yaguna Kotor Chapter 583: Ecological Cage
"My connection with the battleship's control console has not been cut off. I can already feel the console's existence and issue commands to it through my consciousness... In other words, we are now indeed inside 'Aguna Kotor'." Ke Lan said.
"People in this line of work should be used to it, right?" Thirty-three's voice rang out.
They arrived at Block No. 1 almost right behind Ivan and Asano Akira. As members of the former elite force, this group of people showed strong tactical qualities as soon as they landed: four and a half mobile shields that were more than half a meter high were set up in the blink of an eye, and with the addition of two general-purpose machine guns and a minefield in front of the shield made of rapidly deployed anti-personnel mines, a standard defensive fortress appeared in front of Ke Lan.
"It's still too slow." Thirty-three said with some self-blame, "According to the requirements in the army, the time to set up the shield and assemble the machine gun should not exceed fifteen seconds. It's almost twenty seconds. It seems that we have been living in peace for too long."
"This speed is already very fast." Ke Lan said.
"But those beasts are even faster." Thirty-three shook his head. "On the battlefield, if we set up the shields a second slower, the defense line will be breached several more times... Do you know how many casualties we will suffer if those things break into the defense line?"
"Once, we conducted a joint operation with a second-line unit to intercept a group of migrating ground dragons in an open river valley. As a result, they were two seconds slow in establishing the defense line, allowing the first few ground dragons to rush into the position unhindered..." said another retired soldier from the Velociraptor Squad, shaking his head as he spoke, his eyes full of pity.
"Then what?" Ke Lan couldn't help but ask.
Although the other side claims to be a second-line force, the second-line troops of the Field Corps can be regarded as real elites if placed in other places. Their combat effectiveness is definitely not weak. At most, their personnel and equipment configuration are only half a step behind those of small special operations forces such as the Velociraptor Squad.
"There were 357 people in that infantry battalion, and only 19 of them returned alive. Moreover, none of these 19 people had an intact body." Thirty-three took over the conversation.
"But this only means that the battle will be difficult... If only a few ground dragons break in, we can concentrate our firepower to quickly destroy them, and then..."
Before Ke Lan could finish her words, she was interrupted by Thirty-Three: "Everyone can talk about war on paper, but the battlefield in reality is different from real-time strategy games. After a hole is torn in the defense line, the enemies behind will continue to pour in, and this hole will only get bigger and bigger. It won't be long before even that part of the defense line will collapse."
"There was no fighting process in that battle. From the moment the defense line was breached, there was only defeat." said the veteran who spoke earlier, "If we could have barely maintained our formation when we retreated and suppressed those beasts with firepower, even those 19 people would probably not have survived."
"So there are no mechas or tanks? What about air support?" Ke Lan asked.
"We don't always have heavy equipment and air and artillery support. In a battlefield where the situation changes rapidly, even if the headquarters issues an emergency order, it takes time to convey and implement the order. As a soldier, the only thing you can rely on is the gun in your hand and the teammates around you." Sanshisan said.
Ke Lan wanted to ask about the details of the battle, but Valentina's voice suddenly rang out in the communication channel - "They are starting to approach me."
Ke Lan and Sanshisan looked forward at the same time, and saw that the group of wolf-like creatures had formed a semi-encirclement of about 180 degrees, surrounding "Augustus" inside. Several of the taller wolf-like creatures were tentatively approaching the body.
"Try to shock them with your strength." Ke Lan replied.
"Okay." As soon as Valentina finished speaking, Augustus raised his left leg high and then stepped down hard!
“Bang!!”
With Augustus as the center, a large amount of smoke and dust rose instantly. Even Ke Lan and others who were standing dozens of meters away could feel the strong vibration coming from the ground beneath their feet.
Although Ke Lan and the others' vision was obscured by the smoke and dust, Valentina immediately shared the surveillance footage of "Augustus" on the communication channel. Through the screen, they could see that the wolf creatures only took two steps back at first, and then took advantage of the cover of the smoke and dust to rush directly towards "Augustus".
"Not only did it fail to have a deterrent effect, but it actually aroused the ferocious nature of these creatures," said Ivan .
"Counterattack is allowed, don't hold back!" Ke Lan immediately gave the order.
The shared perspective moved instantly, and a flash of silver light was seen. Augustus had already rushed out of the range of the smoke and dust. Two crescent-shaped blades appeared on the outside of its arms. A series of splattered blood followed closely behind the blades, but the blades themselves were not stained with any blood.
Augustus retreated more than ten steps before stopping, then took a defensive counterattack posture in the direction of the smoke.
However, the wolf-like creatures did not emerge from the smoke.
It was not until the smoke and dust cleared a few seconds later that everyone could see clearly what had happened - the bodies of three wolf-like creatures were cut in half. These three happened to be the largest "alpha wolves" that had previously tried to approach Augustus, while the other wolf-like creatures pounced on the bodies of the "alpha wolf" and began to tear and gnaw on its flesh.
"When faced with a powerful enemy, these beasts' first reaction was not to continue chasing, but to devour the bodies of their killed companions. This..." A former member of the Velociraptor Squad said in astonishment.
"This means that these beasts are really starving." Thirty-three nodded. "For them, eating is a higher priority than defending against foreign enemies."
"The corpses they were feeding on have been eaten up... If we hadn't come, they would probably have started a new round of killing each other," said Ivan.
Although the three "alpha wolves" were strong, they could not withstand the food being shared by dozens of hungry wolves. In less than two minutes, their bodies had been eaten clean, leaving only torn skeletons and broken fur stained with blood.
After finishing this "fast food", the wolf-like creatures finally focused their attention once again on Augustus and the group of relic hunters behind the mecha.
"Let my people deal with them." said the ghost owl, "alive animals are always more valuable than dead ones."
Ten hunters from the Gray Bird Hunting Group lined up, raised their tranquilizer guns, and pointed their guns at the "wolf pack" in the distance.
"put!"
At a command from Ghost Owl, ten tranquilizer guns opened fire at the same time. This posture was somewhat similar to the "line shooting" tactic when gunpowder guns first entered the army in the 17th century. The only difference was that compared to the deafening sound and choking muzzle smoke of gunpowder guns, the noise produced by the tranquilizer gun when shooting was so small that it was almost negligible.
Not only the noise when shooting, but even the shooting effect... seems to be negligible.
Not a single wolf-like creature fell, as if all the tranquilizer guns had hit empty space.
The distance between the two sides was no more than a hundred meters. Each of these tranquilizer guns was a high-end hunting tool produced by a top firearms company. Equipped with high-precision optical sights, it was impossible for them to miss the target.
But a stone thrown into the water would at least create some splashes, but when these tranquilizer guns were fired at the wolf-like creatures, they didn't even react at all.
"Could it be that the amount of the potion is too small?" Ivan looked at the ghost owl and asked.
"We used reinforced ammunition with a dosage of sixteen standard units." Ghost Owl said expressionlessly.
Like "active ammunition", anesthetic bullets also have standard dosage units... Generally speaking, one standard unit of dosage is enough to kill a strong adult man who has not undergone enhancement or modification surgery within three seconds, and three to four units are enough to kill a bull.
Sixteen units...if used on humans, it would be considered a "lethal dose".
"Reload ammunition and prepare for the second round of shooting."
Another round of volleys came, followed by the third and fourth rounds... There was no fifth round not because the ammunition was exhausted, but because the wolf-like creatures had already rushed to Augustus and engaged in close combat with the mecha.
But before that, not even a single wolf-like creature was knocked down by the tranquilizer bullet.
"The drug resistance of these organisms... is extremely high." Ivan said as he took notes on the device he carried with him.
"Switch to live ammunition." Ghost Owl said, his tone still remaining calm - to him, this kind of thing was not even an "accident".
Not all wolf-like creatures targeted Augustus. Almost half of them bypassed the tall mecha and rushed towards Ke Lan and the others.
"First, use small-caliber firearms to shoot and test the defense of these creatures." Ke Lan said.
The live ammunition guns that the hunters of the Grey Bird Hunting Group are equipped with are all modified versions of the Ark series carbines, and the caliber is all ten millimeters. The bullets fired by these things are enough to cut a person in half, but when used on Alpha indigenous creatures, they can only be regarded as "small-caliber firearms."
"Fire three short bursts, aiming at the leg joints first." said the Ghost Owl.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!..." Gunshots suddenly rang out, but at this moment, an unexpected scene happened - the wolf-like creatures rushing in the front, actually had a faint "light curtain" on their bodies!
When the bullets fired by the hunters of the Gray Bird Hunting Group touched these "light curtains", they instantly turned into tiny sparks and splashed everywhere, failing to hurt the creatures behind the light curtains at all!
"This is... This is an energy shield?!" Even though Ghost Owl had seen strange things before, he couldn't help but frown at this time, "How can an energy shield appear on a living organism?"
Although the "light curtain" on these wolf-like creatures is much dimmer than the energy shield produced by the shield generator, judging from the collision effect of the bullets, it is definitely a genuine energy shield - those tiny and bright sparks are actually metal droplets produced after the bullets are melted at high temperatures. What else can this defense mechanism be but an energy shield?
"It doesn't necessarily mean that energy shields won't appear on living organisms..." Speaking of energy shields on living organisms, Ke Lan immediately thought of the "resurrected" prehistoric beast - Leviathan. The only thing is that the reason why Leviathan can release an energy shield is because those bloody worms simulated the structure of a shield generator in its body... and these "wolf-like creatures" in front of them obviously can't have such an ability.
If they had a "shield generator" in their bodies, when Augustus cut the three "alpha wolves" in half, their bodies should have exploded directly instead of becoming food for their own kind.
"It's different. It's different from that time." Ivan shook his head repeatedly. Obviously, he knew that the "creature with energy shield" that Ke Lan was referring to was the Leviathan beast. "This is a completely different mechanism..."
His eyes gradually became hot - for any biology enthusiast, this was a groundbreaking discovery. Ivan knew better than anyone else present what it meant when an energy shield appeared on a living organism.
"We must capture living specimens!" Ivan shouted. "I can't find the right words to describe their research value for the time being, but you just need to know that the mysteries contained in these creatures are probably no less than those of a prehistoric species!"
"Isn't this too exaggerated? Can these guys be compared with the primitive creatures?" Thirty-three pinched his nose and asked. He didn't know when several throwing knives made of Nino alloy were already clamped between his fingers. If Ivan hadn't spoken, he would have thrown the throwing knives out by now.
The wolf-like creatures had already rushed into the minefield at this time, and the anti-personnel mines were activated one after another - hundreds of bean-sized metal balls jumped up from the ground, spinning at high speed, and then exploded one after another, ejecting even smaller steel balls inside.
The hunters noticed that only a portion of the steel balls were intercepted by the "energy shields" on the wolf-like creatures, while the remaining portion actually hit their bodies - but the tiny steel balls did not hurt these thick-skinned beasts, and their only effect was probably to slightly slow down their charge.
"They seem unable to control the energy shield... Is it an adaptive trigger mechanism? Or is it the organism's stress response? No, that's not right. Maybe it's more complicated than I thought... Could it be at the cellular level..." Ivan was still brainstorming, while on the other side, the two machine guns behind the shield had begun roaring.
