Volume 12: Yaguna Kotor Chapter 600: The Movement Track of the Black Mummy
"I knew it." Looking at the black shadow that was less than thirty meters away from him and falling towards the ground at high speed, Ke Lan sighed .
Then, he adjusted his posture in the air, stretched out his hand, waved it at the black mummy, and mouthed:
"Bye-Bye--"
The next second, a pair of gliders with a wingspan of more than 20 meters unfolded on the back of the living armor. Ke Lan's falling momentum suddenly slowed down, and the black mummy, which was originally higher than him, quickly passed him and continued to fall straight down.
"You didn't expect that I could fly."
After discovering that the living armor can transform itself, Ke Lan will naturally not continue to foolishly choose a hard landing - although the hard landing is faster, the buffering blood mist erupted by the active armor cannot offset the impact force of falling to the ground 100%. Even if the remaining impact force is only 1% or even 1/1000 of the original, it is definitely not a comfortable experience for Ke Lan.
Since you can land safely, who would fall directly to the ground like a fool?
Oh... there are still some fools. Ke Lan glanced directly below. Under the influence of gravity acceleration, the black mummy crashed into the hillside of a mountain like a cannonball, raising a cloud of dust and gravel. Then, a loud rumbling sound came from above the snow line - first huge snow blocks rolled down from above, followed by huge white waves like a mudslide...
From Ke Lan's perspective, it seemed as if the snow line that had been maintained at a fixed height suddenly collapsed and began to move downward.
"Oh my god... there's an avalanche..."
Fortunately, there were no Ark military bases or transit stations at the foot of the mountains that caused the avalanches. The only unlucky ones who suffered from this unexpected disaster were probably the indigenous creatures living in the valley.
The fighter jets that followed closely behind immediately abandoned the Hercules transport plane and flew towards the mountain where the black mummy "landed" - faster than the fighter jets were the missiles launched by the fighter jets. Dozens of missiles, dragging white tails, crashed directly into the white waves, creating huge "waves".
“BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!”
A series of violent explosions continuously struck Ke Lan's eardrums, and the surging aftermath of the explosions pushed him into the air, causing him to sway continuously, like a small boat in the midst of raging waves.
Spreading along with the aftermath was a heat wave with an extremely high radiation dose - the missiles launched by these fighter jets were all equipped with tactical nuclear warheads. The equivalent of these dozens of missiles was enough to melt the avalanche, and it was probably more than enough to flatten the mountain.
After launching the nuclear missiles, the fighter jets of the First Fleet flew directly into the sky, leaving Ke Lan alone to slowly float towards the valley.
It seems that the pilots of these fighter planes must have obtained permission from the Undead Crew to use these weapons without hesitation. As the provider of living armor, the people of the Undead Crew certainly know that the aftermath of this nuclear explosion will not cause any harm to Ke Lan.
But Lin Qiming and the experts from the research institute who were two kilometers away from here were in a miserable situation - the nuclear explosion almost triggered an avalanche in half of the White Ridge Mountains, and the point where Lin Qiming and his team parachuted was also within the range of the avalanche.
The only thing to be thankful for is the life-saving equipment they are wearing. When encountering natural disasters such as earthquakes and avalanches, it will quickly release an elastic sphere with a diameter of two meters and filled with inert gas, just like a car's airbag. As long as the sphere is not crushed by the avalanche, they only need to shrink inside and wait for the rescue team to dig it out.
There will certainly be casualties, but for the crew, at least the number of casualties is within an "acceptable range", and the rescue operation is a success.
In their eyes, a human life is indeed just a number. Even a valuable talent like a researcher is only a number slightly larger than that of a civilian.
"If I can't become one of them, maybe one day, I will become one of these numbers..." Ke Lan thought silently, "No... Even if I succeed in joining the crew, I can't guarantee my absolute safety... After all, my predecessor in this seat, Chiron, is a living example."
What's more, Ke Lan had no idea whether the promise of joining the crew union was just a carrot hanging on the donkey's head.
With this in mind, the prophet's defection seems understandable - after all, not everyone would be willing to work for a group of people who have been hiding behind the scenes.
The reason why Ke Lan chose to cooperate with them was not because he did not have the opportunity to defect like the Prophet, but because he still had not figured out the true purpose of the Undead Crew.
If what they did was truly for the survival of the human race, then Ke Lan wouldn't mind standing in the same camp with them - at least it would be better than that heretical sect that was so crazy and had almost lost its humanity.
The glider transformed from the living armor carried Ke Lan to a mountain near the nuclear explosion site. Due to the high temperature generated by the avalanche and the nuclear explosion, the remaining snow on the mountain had almost completely melted, turning into steaming springs that flowed towards the valley.
At a glance, the surrounding mountains are all like this - the snow has melted, revealing the dark black rugged rocks, and the majestic water flows down the cracks in the cliffs of the mountain, gathering into one "artificial hot spring" after another in the lower areas.
Unfortunately, these artificial hot springs are deadly to ordinary people - the heat brought by the nuclear explosion also brings dangerous radiation. Even if these missiles are only equipped with tactical-grade nuclear warheads with a smaller impact range, the radiation left in this mountainous area will take at least several months to dissipate.
The First Fleet quickly locked onto Ke Lan who was standing on the top of the mountain. A huge "Albatross-class" command and early warning aircraft flew over and hovered just above Ke Lan.
A floating platform used to pick up personnel on board slowly descended from the belly of the "Albatross-class" aircraft. In addition to two marines wearing dark green power armor and armed to the teeth, there was also a middle-aged man wearing a military coat with a fur collar and half of his face covered with mechanical prosthesis.
"I am the current commander of the First Fleet, Cao Ge - Mr. Ke Lan. This is probably not the first time we meet." The other party took the initiative to greet Ke Lan. The multi-functional camera lens in the right artificial eye kept zooming and rotating - although his left eye made of flesh and blood was always looking at Ke Lan, the artificial eye had already looked at Ke Lan from head to toe.
"Yes, but we only met once last time... I didn't expect to meet again in such an occasion." Ke Lan said politely.
The First Fleet was the "Noah's Ark First Cruise Fleet" in full, which was the fleet that was ordered to attack the primitive species "Leviathan".
The previous fleet commander sacrificed himself on the ship, using the First Fleet's flagship "Qilin" to break through the physical defense of Leviathan's energy shield. This gave other warships the opportunity to pour firepower on the vital parts of this prehistoric beast, thus killing it completely.
The person who took over this fleet was Cao Ge.
"In the Leviathan incident, thanks to you for sending out the information in time... otherwise, we might have paid a greater price." Cao Ge said sincerely. He stretched out an arm and pulled Ke Lan onto the floating platform.
When holding Cao Ge's hand, Ke Lan could clearly feel that the skin was simulated human skin made of special silicone, and under the simulated skin was flexible filler and mechanical joints that perfectly simulated the human skeleton.
More than half of Cao Ge's body is cyborg, and the proportion of the prosthetic part far exceeds that of the big guy Layton, almost comparable to Victoria - Hound once told them that this new commander of the First Fleet was an ace fighter pilot when he was young. In a battle with indigenous insect creatures, he went deep into the enemy camp and directly killed the Queen of the Zerg who was under heavy protection. His vehicle was also sprayed with acid used by the Zerg for air defense and crashed directly into the sea of Zerg.
If it weren't for the fact that this swarm of insects was a typical "hive-conscious creature" with only one brain, the "Queen of Insects", and if the individuals did not have any self-thinking, he would probably have been eaten clean by the swarm of insects.
But even so, when the reinforcements found him, less than half of his body was left... The fact that he survived can only be described as a "miracle."
"We were just trying to survive." Ke Lan smiled modestly, "If the First Fleet hadn't arrived in time, I'm afraid we would have been buried there long ago."
The floating platform quickly returned to the "Albatross Class". Cao Ge did not ask even a single word about the active armor on Ke Lan's body - with his level and authority, he should have some understanding of this kind of thing. Even if he didn't understand, he knew very well what he could ask about and what was best to treat as something he had never seen before.
Cao Ge had someone send a complete set of clothes including underwear to Ke Lan. Judging from the style of the clothes, they should be the training uniforms for fleet officers. Although not as handsome as ordinary uniforms, they are comfortable and practical.
"What's the situation? That thing should still be alive, right?" Ke Lan zipped up his fleece jacket and quickly walked into the command room of the "Albatross Class".
"Still alive." Cao Ge said solemnly, looking at the big table in the middle of the command room.
On the table was a mountain model simulated by holographic projection. Ke Lan could tell at a glance that the mountain in the middle was the one that the black mummy had just hit.
However, the peak, which was originally over 4,000 meters high, is now only two-thirds of its original height...
And at the belly of this mountain, there is a striking red dot flashing.
"The target initially crashed into the mountain about 80 meters deep. I ordered the use of tactical nuclear warheads to bombard it. It absorbed almost all the power of these dozens of nuclear warheads, and its main body was bombarded nearly 600 meters deep into the mountain. But according to the information fed back by the detection equipment, the target did not stop moving." Cao Ge explained to Ke Lan, "But the magnetism of the target seems to stop increasing after reaching a certain intensity. After calculation, my subordinates concluded that as long as we keep a distance of more than 300 meters from it, the electronic equipment on our vehicles will not be affected."
"So what is it doing now?"
"The target is moving inside the mountain at a very slow speed...but this slowness is relative. In fact, its speed has not changed from when it was on the Hercules transport plane. In other words, those hard mountains did not cause any hindrance to the target." A young staff officer spoke on the opposite side of the holographic projection.
"Even the sticky resin that can stick to thunder beasts has . You can't expect stones to stop it." Ke Lan said, "So, which direction is it moving?"
"There are no rules... The target's movement direction inside the mountain is constantly changing, and we haven't figured out the pattern yet." The staff officer replied.
"Please mark the movement trajectory of this thing on the holographic projection so I can see it." Ke Lan looked up and said to the staff officer as if he had thought of something.
"good."
The staff officer immediately tapped a few times on the control panel at the edge of the table, and a crooked, red, and "almost irregular" zigzag line appeared behind the flashing red dot.
At every turn, the staff officer carefully marked the time.
According to this movement trajectory, the black mummy changed its direction at least a dozen times inside the mountain, three of which were almost 180-degree turns, making it impossible to figure out its motives.
But Ke Lan's eyes lit up. He stretched out his hands, and the index finger of his left hand moved along the trajectory, while his right hand moved back and forth in the "airspace" above the mountain.
"I understand." Ke Lan nodded, "What this guy is chasing is me."
Just as Ke Lan said, the reason why the black mummy changed its direction several times inside the mountain was because Ke Lan was floating in the sky at that time and his position was constantly changing. When he landed, a long straight line immediately appeared in his movement trajectory - this straight line was facing the mountain where Ke Lan landed.
Now, the black mummy is moving in the direction where the "Albatross-class" is hovering, and has dug out a slanting upward passage in the mountain.
"Move fifteen kilometers west." Cao Ge frowned and gave the order immediately.
As the position of the "Albatross Class" changed, the black mummy inside the mountain also immediately changed direction...
"This thing should have locked onto its target the moment it was summoned... I think if I don't kill it, it will chase me to the ends of the earth." Ke Lan said to Cao Ge helplessly.
