Volume 13 Ancient Bronze City Ruins Chapter 605: Residual Toxins
"Since the heretic sect's stronghold is located deep within the ruins, and the ruins' defense facilities have most likely been fully activated, if the army were to storm it, the casualties would be incalculable," Pan continued.
Even if a city of the Alpha civilization is a severely damaged ruin, as long as one or two tenths of its original defense facilities can be activated, it will be an impregnable fortress for the human army.
For example, if the human army directly attacks an intact Alpha civilization city, it is equivalent to primitive people wearing leaves and holding spears launching a surprise attack on a modern tank phalanx. Then, the remains of an Alpha civilization city are equivalent to replacing tanks with Maxim heavy machine guns that appeared in the late 19th century - the result will not be much different.
The reason why relic hunters can enter these high-level ruins is entirely because these ruins are usually in a "dormant" state, and only a small part of the defense mechanisms and facilities are still functioning... But even so, the casualty rate of exploring such high-level ruins is still high.
And now, the heretical sect has completely controlled the ruins of a city of Alpha civilization... Let alone sneaking into the ruins, even getting close to it will become an extremely difficult task.
"In addition to the First Cruise Fleet, we will deploy 14 ground divisions, totaling about 160,000 troops to encircle the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City... This 'siege' requires the assistance of the God Hunting Group." Pan said in an irresistible tone.
160,000 people... This is almost all the mobile forces that the Field Corps can mobilize, except for those strongholds, military bases and transportation routes that must be garrisoned. Since the Ark gained a foothold on Alpha, there has never been such a large-scale military operation.
"Aren't you afraid that this is a trap?" Ke Lan said, "If all these troops are trapped in the ruins, the heretic sect might take advantage of the situation and attack the Ark directly."
"But this is also a rare opportunity... If we can successfully annihilate the living forces of the heretical sect, the Ark's external threats can be effectively alleviated for at least the next ten years."
"This deal doesn't sound like a good deal at all. The chips and benefits on both sides are totally unequal." Ke Lan sighed and continued, "It's fine to go all-in, but you can't checkmate the opponent even if you go all-in. Even if you win, you can only take a chariot, a horse, or a cannon. If you lose, you lose everything. This... is a huge loss."
"There is no such thing as an absolutely fair transaction in this world."
"Okay... Even if you want to gamble, don't drag me into it. This is a war... and we are just relic hunters, not soldiers or mercenaries." Ke Lan said.
"You are soldiers." Pan said immediately, "Don't forget, you have already joined the army. If you run away from the battlefield, you will be treated as a deserter."
"Good fellow, so you were waiting to do something to us right now, right? If we had known this earlier, we might as well have stayed in the cell of the Security Bureau for a few months."
"Do you think that you can come out of the Security Bureau's detention room intact after entering it?"
"That's better than being cannon fodder in an attack on an awakened Alpha city."
"Don't be scared. I can guarantee that you will not be used as cannon fodder in the frontline combat sequence..."
Before Pan finished speaking, Ke Lan said, "I know that we will most likely be treated as a surprise attack team, sneaking into the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City from the side and rear, and then sabotaging or directly decapitating the city - the survival rate won't be much higher than cannon fodder, right?"
"If you can regain control of the core of Bronze City, then even if you are trapped deep in the enemy's camp, your safety will definitely be guaranteed."
"This is all nonsense... I just want to ask one thing, do we have the right to refuse this mission?"
"No." Pan's answer was very direct.
"Okay, I can participate in this battle, but I need enough autonomy in terms of specific actions." Ke Lan said, "I will judge the battlefield situation and plan the steps on my own... I don't want to hand over the lives of myself and my companions to a group of commanders and staff officers I don't even know."
No matter whether it was Thirty-Three or Valentina, or Old Dog's former troops, they had all been betrayed by the military to a greater or lesser extent, so that Ke Lan's trust in the military's command was infinitely close to zero. In the eyes of the commanders, every soldier was just a number on the war sand table. They could unscrupulously throw these living lives into the abyss to fill the ditches on the road ahead...but Ke Lan could not let his teammates become victims of the war.
…
Ke Lan, Ze Luo and Cao Ge returned to the new flagship of the First Fleet, the Suzaku, while the soldiers stayed behind. Their mission was to clean up the battlefield. Although the black mummy had turned into fragments and dissipated in the wind, some necessary follow-up steps were still necessary. If the people from the research institute were here, they would even dig out the dust from every rock crevice on the mountain and transport it back to the research room...
"By the way, how are Lin Qiming and Dr. Norison's team doing now? Have the search and rescue personnel found them?" Ke Lan asked, taking a cup of coffee handed to her by the orderly, taking a sip.
"The search and rescue operation has ended. Thanks to the relatively short window for parachuting, their landing points were relatively concentrated, and everyone was found in less than an hour." Cao Ge said. His cup also contained a dark brown liquid, but it smelled strongly of medicine. Obviously, it was not the same thing that Ke Lan drank.
As if noticing that Ke Lan was paying attention to her drink, Cao Ge raised his glass and said, "Anti-rejection medicine... I have to drink several glasses every day. There's nothing I can do about it."
Although the technology of cyborg prosthesis has developed to the point where the rejection problem between prosthesis and original body has been mostly solved, there are still differences between people - there is a small number of people whose bodies will always have rejection reaction to installed prosthesis, and even acquired gene editing surgery cannot solve this problem - for these very few unfortunate people, there are only two choices: one is to remove the cyborg prosthesis on the body; the other is to take large amounts of anti-rejection drugs with strong side effects every day like Cao Ge.
Ke Lan was stunned for a moment, and immediately changed the subject: "What are the casualties among those who were rescued?"
"Luckily, no one died, but two researchers suffered severe frostbite due to equipment damage, and another crashed into a cliff and suffered multiple fractures. They have all been sent to the ship's medical cabin and are no longer in danger of death... As for the avalanche caused by the bombing, it did not pose much of a threat. After the rescue team located the person, they used laser weapons to cut through the snow. The last person who was dug out was only buried under the snow for ten minutes."
"It's better than I expected. I thought at least a few people would die." Ke Lan said.
"The airbag ball installed in the life-saving equipment played a big role. Without this thing, the avalanche alone would be enough to kill everyone." After Cao Ge finished speaking, he tilted his head back, gulped down the hot medicine in the cup, and then began to cough violently.
"Ahem... Although I have no sense of taste anymore, every time I drink this, it feels like drinking a glass of burning alcohol. This feeling... After all these years, I still can't get used to it, cough cough cough..." Cao Ge's face turned red, and the five fingers of his prosthetic limbs clenched instantly, leaving five shallow marks on the alloy seat armrest.
"This description sounds like a strong liquor with a high alcohol content." Ke Lan looked at Cao Ge and said, "You probably didn't like drinking before, right?"
"As a soldier, I don't drink alcohol." Cao Ge shook his head, "But this thing is definitely different from alcoholic beverages. You can tell by touching this cup - by the way, be careful of burns."
The cup Cao Ge used to hold the medicine was specially made, with a heat-insulating layer of silicone on the outside and some kind of ceramic material on the inside. Ke Lan stretched out her finger and touched the ceramic inner wall of the cup, and immediately understood what Cao Ge said.
The cup is empty, but the temperature of the inner wall is still nearly 200 degrees... One can imagine how high the temperature of the medicine inside was originally.
What Cao Ge said about drinking burning alcohol was not an exaggeration... because the original temperature of this cup of medicine was actually not much different from that of burning alcohol.
Fortunately, Cao Ge’s mouth and digestive tract were replaced with cyborg prostheses, otherwise this thing would have burned through his esophagus directly.
"What kind of medicine is this? Generally speaking, this kind of rejection reaction can be cured by taking immunosuppressants on time, right?" Ke Lan asked, unable to suppress her curiosity.
Rejection refers to the situation where after foreign tissues enter the host's body, the host's own immune system regards these foreign tissues as "enemies" invading the body and launches an attack on them. Generally speaking, the most commonly used means to suppress rejection are hormone drugs and cytotoxic drugs... But no matter which treatment method is used, patients will not be asked to drink liquids that are hundreds of degrees hot...
After all, not everyone has a prosthetic mouth and digestive tract, and for those who use their native digestive tract, this behavior is tantamount to murder.
"This is a biological agent. I don't know the specific formula. Someone from the research institute prepared it for me... Anti-rejection is only part of its function. Its main purpose is to suppress the biological toxins in my body."
"Biological toxins?" Ke Lan immediately thought of the reason why Cao Ge was injured. "Is it because of those bugs?"
"Yes." Cao Ge nodded. "When those insects eat, they will inject a corrosive venom into the food. This toxin cannot be completely eliminated with existing medical methods. If I don't use this biological agent to suppress them, my body will be corroded bit by bit into a pool of smelly pus..."
"I can help you get rid of the toxins." Ze Luo, who had been sitting aside and playing with his phone quietly, suddenly said.
"Do you have a solution?" Cao Ge was stunned for a moment. For some reason, the fear he had originally felt towards Ze Luo suddenly dissipated a lot.
If he hadn't just seen the changes in Ze Luo's arm on the surveillance camera, he would have thought that this was just an ordinary human girl who was introverted and didn't like to talk much. Apart from that, her appearance could only be described as "perfect". Cao Ge had seen many beautiful women, and there were also many beautiful female officers and soldiers on the Suzaku flagship... But if these people stood next to the girl in front of him, they would be eclipsed.
"I can... try." Ze Luo nodded and stood up.
"Is it okay?" Cao Ge looked at Ke Lan with a hint of hope in his eyes.
It is difficult to describe the feeling of being tortured by residual toxins day and night. Among the people Ke Lan knows, Valentina is probably the only one who can empathize with this...
Even the most determined man will gradually break down under such torture for many years... Ke Lan could clearly feel that compared to the first time he met Cao Ge, he seemed to have aged nearly ten years in the past six months.
Cao Ge’s real age is actually less than 40 years old, but he looks like an old man who is over 50 and is about to enter his sixties.
Ke Lan even suspected that if this trend continued, the commander of the First Fleet might have to be replaced again in a while...
But now Ze Luo actually offered to help Cao Ge remove the remaining toxins, which was naturally the best thing to do.
"Are you sure you can remove it?" Ke Lan asked Xiang Zeluo - Cao Ge's situation is actually very different from Valentina's. Although Valentina also suffered from old injuries and some residual biological toxins, the reason why she fell into this state was entirely because she did not receive proper treatment... and later she and Major Chi also delayed the treatment of their injuries due to financial reasons...
Speaking of Major Chi, Ke Lan suddenly felt that maybe he could take this opportunity to ask the Undead Crew to release him - as an experienced veteran and mechanical maintenance technician, it would be such a waste to keep him in prison.
Back to the point, after Valentina was handed over to Sakurai Na for care, her condition improved a lot. If it hadn't been delayed for too long, she would have probably recovered by now - and Cao Ge, the medical conditions he can enjoy are definitely the best on the Ark, but even so, the research institute cannot completely solve his physical problems and can only use drugs to delay time.
The difficulty of treating the two is completely on a different level.
"If it's just the toxin secreted by insects, then it's okay." As he said this, Ze Luo had already walked in front of Cao Ge.
"What should I do?" Cao Ge asked in a deep voice - to be honest, he was no longer so afraid of this "girl" who "had the ability to destroy the entire Ark"...
Even if the treatment fails, the situation can't get any worse... maybe I can even find relief from it.
"Just stretch out your arms and lie on your back on the chair." Ze Luo said.
