Volume 13 Ancient Bronze City Ruins Chapter 610: Monsters outside the car
"!!!"
The captain of the Gopher Squad was so frightened that he jumped back a big step, and the next moment, he immediately raised the carbine in his hand and pointed the muzzle upwards.
He didn't see what attacked Basil, but years of rigorous training made his body react almost reflexively - no matter what happened, the first thing he had to do was to shoot and use the gunshot to notify the team members still in the car.
But just when he was about to pull the trigger, he suddenly discovered with horror that he could no longer feel his fingers... Half a second later, a piercing pain came from his wrist.
The carbine lost its support and fell to the ground, and the tactical flashlight mounted on the underside of the handguard shone on his right hand.
The flesh, tendons and skin of the entire right hand had disappeared completely, leaving only the white bones, which emitted a creepy reflection under the light.
"Ah——" The short scream just sounded and then stopped. He seemed to feel something surge up from the depths of his throat, and then, his mouth was full of salty and fishy taste...
…
Inside the car.
"Strange, the captain and Basil have been out for several minutes..." the engineer said, "They just told us that the radio communication was interfered with, why is there no movement now?"
"Wasn't there a muffled sound just now? I guess it was Basil's power armor that hit the stone?"
"I don't think so... Besides, apart from that muffled sound, don't you think it's a bit too quiet now?" the engineer said again.
"The armor of this car is so thick, and there are special layers between the armor layers to absorb the noise made by the drill. It's normal that we can't hear the noise outside..." said the driver with a frown.
"It's been eight minutes. At normal speed, it shouldn't take that long to patrol the vehicle, right?" The engineer subconsciously touched the pistol holster on his waist.
"I don't know. Maybe they have found the source of the problem?" another soldier said, scratching his head.
"If they found the source of the fault, shouldn't they tell us? They didn't even bring any repair tools, so they can't fix it even if they found the fault!" The engineer spoke faster and faster, with a hint of anxiety in his tone, "Lao Le, can the surveillance camera outside the car see them?"
The tough male driver called "Lao Le" shook his head and said, "This is a modified tank chassis. It's not the all-round cockpit used by fighter jets and mechas. In addition to the main monitor in the front, there are only six cameras installed on the body of the car..."
As he spoke, he pointed to the surveillance screen in the lower right corner of the screen in front of him, which was cut into six pieces - however, there was nothing on the screen except the excavated rocks.
Due to the design flaws of the Mammoth Tank, the rotation angle of these surveillance cameras is almost negligible and the range of vision is also very limited.
But in fact, this cannot be considered a design flaw. After all, a tank's field of vision is mainly provided by the monitors and peepholes on the turret. The surveillance cameras installed on the chassis are dispensable... But for this "super driller" with the turret removed and replaced with a large drilling rig, those cameras are the only field of vision.
"They should be in the blind spot of the camera." Lao Le said again, "How about one of you go out and take a look..."
"Shh!" The engineer suddenly reached out and covered Lao Le's mouth, and said in a low voice, "Listen carefully... There seems to be a strange sound up there..."
Everyone in the team held their breath, and the entire carriage became silent for a moment - as a result, everyone else also heard the "strange sound" that the engineer mentioned.
It was a rustling sound, a sharp, hard object scratching against a smooth metal surface. Although it was very subtle, it gave people an uncomfortable itchy feeling all over the body... It was easy to make people think of some creepy-looking multi-legged arthropods.
"Did you all hear it?" The engineer typed it word by word on the screen. Everyone looked at each other and nodded in unison.
"Captain and Luo Le may have been sacrificed." The engineer typed again, "The next target outside is us."
"What should we do?" Lao Le glanced at him and asked with simple tactical gestures.
The engineer did not answer directly. Instead, he pulled out the pistol from the holster, and then pulled out a magazine with a yellow and black warning sign from the pocket on his chest.
Due to the special nature of this mission, each unit participating in the combat was issued a certain amount of active ammunition. And for a unit like the "Gopher Squad" that needs to go deep behind enemy lines, the amount of ammunition allocated to them is not ambiguous at all. It is definitely more than enough to at least fight a small-scale encounter with the Seeds of Erosion.
One third of the engineer's magazine is filled with unsealed active ammunition. Armor-piercing shells, explosive shells and active ammunition are loaded in groups of three. For those experienced veterans, as long as they can determine the location of the "nuclear", a short burst of three shots can kill a Seed of Erosion.
The others also silently took out their weapons and replaced them with active ammunition and magazines.
Everyone had a tense face and tried their best to regulate their breathing - although they could be considered an elite force, they were not a proper combat unit after all. In addition, Basil, the most powerful member of the team, and the captain in charge of command were currently missing... No matter from which angle you looked at it, the situation could only be described as "terrible".
What's more, there is no room to maneuver in this narrow tunnel... If they really encounter the enemy, they can only choose to fight to the death.
The rustling sound gradually moved away from the top of the carriage, but everyone's expressions became more solemn - because the direction in which the sound was moving was exactly the hatch located at the rear of the roof, which was used to enter and exit the carriage!
"Lao Le, have you sent a message to the headquarters?" The engineer stopped typing on the screen and spoke directly... He knew very well that the thing outside obviously knew that there were people in the car, and there was no point in trying to hide his tracks at this time.
"Just sent it." The muscular male driver nodded, "I said we were attacked by unknown enemies in the tunnel. The captain and the fireman are missing. The rest of the team is guarding the carriage."
As he spoke, he pulled out his weapons from under the seat - they were two Type 01 carbines with shortened barrels and removed stocks. If these guns were given to ordinary people, even if they used both hands to control the gun, they might not be able to suppress the violent recoil.
But the tough guy is worthy of being a tough guy. Lao Le grabbed one hand each and turned around to lie on the back of the driver's seat, pointing the muzzle of the gun at the aisle at the rear of the car.
However, his two modified short-range assault rifles were not the most powerful. Another soldier took out a heavy machine gun from the equipment box and inserted it directly on the telescopic bracket reserved at the bottom of the carriage. He turned the muzzle and pulled the bolt, directly blocking the entrance at the rear of the carriage.
"Lao Le, is there any response from headquarters?" The engineer asked softly, staring at the end of the passage.
The muscular male driver shook his head: "It's been almost ten seconds since I sent the message, and there's no response."
"It looks like the situation can't get any worse..." The engineer couldn't help but reveal a bitter smile on his face.
The communication between the "Super Drilling Hamster" and the headquarters relies on the communication cable attached to the mud discharge pipe. According to the speed of wired communication, it takes less than a second for them to send information back to the rear. For emergency communications like this, even if the headquarters cannot come up with a reinforcement plan for a while, at least they will reply with a "received" as soon as possible to stabilize the morale of the troops...
But now, they didn't even receive , which could only mean one thing -
The communication cable between Super Rat and headquarters has been cut.
One soldier could not help but take out a photo from his pocket. The photo showed a plump young woman with a smile on her face. In her arms, she was holding a fat boy who was less than 18 years old...
Although looking at family photos on the battlefield is a taboo that would constitute a death flag, he always felt that if he didn't take one last look at them now... he might never see them again.
Not only him, but other soldiers of the Gopher Squad were also ready to die in battle.
But the sounds outside suddenly disappeared without a trace, and there was no movement from the hatch.
"What's going on?" Lao Le nudged the engineer with his elbow in confusion, "Could it be that... that thing can't get in?"
"That's possible..." the engineer nodded, "After all, the armor of our Super Gopher is quite thick."
"So what should we do now?" The soldier holding the handle of the heavy machine gun turned around and asked, "If the enemy doesn't come in... should we go out? After all... we don't know whether the captain and Basil are dead or alive now."
"I think so too...we have to go find them." The soldier who just looked at his wife's photo nodded.
"We must not go out now!" the engineer said anxiously, his voice rising involuntarily, "Maybe that thing is squatting outside right now, waiting for us to go out and die!"
"So are we just going to stay here?" asked the machine gunner.
"The headquarters must have discovered that the communication with us has been cut off... It won't be long before reinforcements arrive, so don't worry," the engineer said. "Lao Le, you are responsible for monitoring the surveillance outside the vehicle. Tell me immediately if there is any unusual movement. Everyone else, don't let your guard down, and keep your weapons loaded at all times !"
Apart from the captain of the Gopher Squad, the engineer had the highest rank in the entire team. After the captain disappeared, the responsibility of command naturally fell on his shoulders.
"Okay." The tough male driver Lao Le nodded. He turned off the safety of both guns and turned around with great effort - but his body had not turned around completely. He just looked back at the screen and a swear word came out of his mouth.
"Damn it, the surveillance camera is destroyed!"
"What did you say?!" The engineer was stunned and turned his head immediately. He saw that on the six screens that were originally surveillance images, there were only large blocks of black and white snowflakes.
"That thing must still be outside!" Lao Le immediately grabbed the gun he had just put down, "How about rushing out and fighting it?"
"Stop!" The engineer quickly grabbed Lao Le's arm, "Can you check if the engine is still usable? Let's back out along the tunnel and meet up with the reinforcements sent by the headquarters first."
"If we retreat, the communication cables and pipelines will be damaged. Besides, our mission..."
Before Lao Le could finish his words, he was interrupted by the engineer: "The cable has been cut. As for the transmission pipeline... the mission can no longer be continued in this state. If we can communicate with the headquarters, they will definitely suggest that we retreat."
He paused and continued, "I order the Gopher Squad to abandon the mission and withdraw from the area of operation immediately. If there is any responsibility afterwards, it will be borne by me alone."
As soon as the engineer finished speaking, a vibration even more violent came from outside the carriage, and then the entire carriage began to tilt to one side.
"What's going on? What happened?" The machine gunner immediately hugged the heavy bracket, and another soldier helped him hold the machine gun to prevent it from falling off the base.
As for Lao Le and the engineer, they simply stretched out their hands to support the top of the car, and at the same time used their knees to support the seats below.
The car tilted about fifty degrees and then stopped... I think it was because the car body hit the tunnel wall and could not continue to flip.
"That thing outside...seems to have lifted up the car..." Lao Le said incoherently, "How is it possible...How is it possible...This thing weighs nearly 400 tons...The power of that thing...It's impossible!"
Compared to the panic of others, the engineer was the first to calm down. He immediately focused his eyes on the floor beneath his feet - he couldn't help but think of a very crucial thing, but it was precisely because of this thought that his back was instantly wet with cold sweat.
The standard configuration of the "Mammoth Tank" has a multi-layer composite armor on the bottom of the chassis to defend against landmines... When used as an engineering machine, the "Super Drilling Hamster" has all the armor on the chassis removed in order to reduce the excess weight as much as possible, leaving only a 12 mm thick outer shell made of riveted steel plates.
Compared with other parts of the car body, the bottom is the weakest part of the vehicle's defense.
That thing...it was trying to get under the car!
