Volume 13 Ancient Bronze City Ruins Chapter 614: Special Operations Begins
Valentina was still getting familiar with the operation of the Blasphemer mecha, while Ke Lan had already listed the names of those who participated in the infiltration operation - in addition to Valentina, Ze Luo and himself, Asano Akira, Ivan and Layton were also on the list. As for the "Augustus" that Valentina replaced, it was handed over to Layton to drive.
But just when Ke Lan was about to finalize the list, Thirty-Three suddenly stood up.
"I'm going too." he said to Ke Lan.
"This operation is very dangerous. I can't guarantee that everyone can come back alive." Ke Lan said. It was precisely for this reason that he did not let Hound and others go with him - when the team was conducting infiltration operations, quality was more important than quantity, and Hound and others were all self-aware people and did not have any objections to this.
"This is a war, not an exploration of ruins... Look, even though I'm worried about these bastards, I know that if I go with them, I'll just be a burden to them, so I won't force myself or them." The Hound also looked at Thirty-Three, "Besides, you're not a member of the God Hunter Group, so there's no need for you to take this risk with us."
"I've thought it through. I want to join the God Hunter Group. Does that mean I have an obligation to go with you?" Sanshisan said calmly. "Also, I think that with my abilities, I shouldn't become a burden."
Upon hearing that Sanshisan was going to join the God Hunting Group, his companions were immediately surprised. The female military doctor stepped forward anxiously and wanted to stop him, but he stopped her with his eyes.
"I should have told you that the mission record of the Velociraptor Team has been modified." Thirty-three looked at Ke Lan.
"Yes, you said so." Ke Lan nodded, "You were not surrounded and killed by indigenous creatures. The real enemy you encountered was a group of monsters created by the Alpha civilization."
"But what I didn't tell you is... the people who drove those monsters were a heretical sect." Thirty-Three continued.
"So, you're here for revenge?" The Hound's eyes changed slightly. "Then we can't let you go. People who participate in actions for revenge are easily impulsive... Can you guarantee that you can stay rational when you see those damn guys?"
"That's right, as the saying goes, it's never too late for a gentleman to take revenge..." Layton immediately agreed, "Anyway, we've already gotten into a fight with the heretic sect, and there will be plenty of opportunities to take revenge on them in the future. There's no need for you to dwell on this action."
"I'm sure I can keep my sanity, otherwise... the Raptor Squad will be wiped out." Thirty-Three said, "I've lived a comfortable life for too long. This is a very rare opportunity... I'm worried. If your operation fails, I won't be able to encounter such an opportunity again in the future."
"Ah, bah, bah, bah, don't talk nonsense--" The hound spat on the ground several times in a row, "We haven't even set out yet, and you're already saying what if the operation fails? That's too unlucky!"
"I'm sorry." Thirty-three bowed slightly to the Hound, "But I've made my meaning clear. I want to participate in this operation."
"Yes, you can join." Unexpectedly, Ke Lan did not reject Thirty-Three. "But you must strictly obey orders - even if the culprit who caused the velociraptor team to be almost wiped out stands in front of you, you are not allowed to touch a hair on it without my order."
"Okay." Thirty-three responded.
"I want to go too!" As soon as the thirty-third sentence was finished, the female military doctor immediately rushed forward and said to Ke Lan, "Take me with you. I hold a Class B medical license... If I remember correctly, the doctor in your team holds a Class C license. In addition, I have six years of practical experience in the field corps, am proficient in battlefield first aid, and can perform a variety of surgical operations under various extreme conditions - if the team members are selected according to their own skill levels, I think I should be qualified-"
"Shut up." The female military doctor was halfway through her words when Thirty-Three interrupted her with a cold look on her face.
"Why?!"
"It's decided that you and the others will stay here. If you don't obey this decision, don't team up with me in the future." Sanshisan said, "But before you quit the team, you have to listen to me."
"you--"
"Well... Actually, Ivan's level should be more than C-level, but he has not had the time to take the higher-level license exam during this period." Ke Lan looked at the two of them helplessly, "And... To put it bluntly, I think you are more emotional than Thirty-Three, so I can't take you with me to participate in the operation."
…
After many twists and turns, the team members participating in the operation were finally decided. At the same time, the main force of the field corps' ground forces had assembled on the north side of the White Ridge Mountains, ready to launch an attack on the Ancient Bronze City ruins at any time.
According to the secret message sent by the Field Corps, they will launch a feint attack on the Ancient Bronze City Ruins in six hours to cover Ke Lan's team's infiltration, but in order to control casualties, the feint attack will not be very strong and will only last for four hours. Ke Lan and his team must open the last 11 kilometers of the tunnel within four hours and enter the interior of the Ancient Bronze City Ruins.
If this mission objective is achieved, the feint attack will immediately turn into a real full-scale offensive. The main force will continue to put pressure on the heretic sects defending the city on the front battlefield, trying to buy time for Ke Lan and his team to seize control of the ruins.
It is no exaggeration to say that every second that the main force on the front battlefield bought for Ke Lan and his men was paid for with a large number of lives...
This style of play is similar to poker... Both the field corps and Ke Lan and the others only have one chance.
If this operation fails, it will be extremely difficult to conquer the ancient bronze city ruins again.
Of course, this does not mean that the success rate of this operation is very high... According to the calculations of the Field Corps Staff, even if Ke Lan and his team sneak into the Ancient Bronze City ruins on time, the probability of seizing control of the ruins is less than 30%.
The first challenge facing them was how to eliminate the enemies in the tunnel and open up the remaining eleven kilometers within four hours.
According to the original excavation speed of the Mole Team, it would take at least one day and one night to dig through these eleven kilometers... Even if Ke Lan's team had BUG-level equipment like "Blasphemer" and BUG-level characters like Ze Luo, it was still a bit of a stretch to compress the twenty-four hours of work into four hours.
But this does not mean that this is an impossible task - since the Gopher Squad and subsequent reinforcements were attacked in the tunnel, it means that there is another entrance and exit in the tunnel, and the people or monsters who attacked them came in through this entrance and exit.
This entrance and exit is most likely inside the ancient bronze city ruins... Even if it is not inside the ruins, it should be in the same direction of the ruins.
If they want to reach their destination on time, their only option is to "take a detour".
…
The high-speed transport ship that Ke Lan and his companions were on stopped over a mine 25 kilometers north of the White Ridge Mountains. A temporary military base had been built outside the mine. About two thousand soldiers from the field corps were stationed at the base, which had been built less than an hour ago.
Their mission was to prevent the heretic sect from coming out of the tunnels dug by the Gopher Squad and attacking the flanks of the main force.
This mine was discovered by Ark in the early days of its landing on Alpha. It is rich in aluminum ore and some associated minerals. Ark, which was in urgent need of resources at that time, immediately dispatched a group of engineers to develop the mine. However, before it was put into production, people discovered that although the mine had rich reserves, the ore contained a lot of impurities and was difficult to smelt - in layman's terms, there were a lot of ores, but the quality was very poor.
As several other better quality aluminum ores were discovered, the mine was abandoned by Ark, leaving only a few unfinished mines.
The excavation point of the Gopher Team is the end of the main tunnel of Well No. 4 - this tunnel points almost straight to the ruins of the ancient bronze city located northwest of the mine. Taking this as the starting point, at least five kilometers of excavation distance can be reduced.
At this moment, because of the loss of contact between the Gopher Squad and the subsequent reinforcements, the mouth of Well No. 4 has been heavily surrounded by the Field Corps. Four fortress-like "Mammoth Tanks" have formed a circle 50 meters away from the well mouth. Various heavy weapons are based on these four tanks to set up a tight fire blockade line. Ke Lan, who had just stepped off the suspended platform, noticed that in addition to the conventional ammunition boxes made of plastic steel, the supplies piled behind this blockade line also include a kind of refrigerated storage box with a white buffer shell, built-in power supply and combination lock.
These frozen storage boxes are filled with active ammunition specifically designed to target the seeds of erosion. According to military standards, a one-meter square frozen storage box should contain four thousand rounds of general-purpose machine gun ammunition or six thousand rounds of pistol ammunition... and as far as Ke Lan could see, he saw at least fifty frozen storage boxes.
The Undead Crew would have invested all their savings over the years in this battle...
Although one round of active ammunition only requires one unit of flesh-eating worm cells, and a mature flesh-eating worm can produce at least tens of thousands of active ammunition, every time a mature flesh-eating worm is cultivated, a living person is needed as "feed"... If the active ammunition rations of the front-line troops are also so abundant, then the "feed consumption" of producing this batch of active ammunition is at least several thousand people.
The total number of death row prisoners on the Ark in recent years is probably less than this.
Ke Lan once used the highest authority of the Security Bureau to review the relevant information on the production of active ammunition. The research institute had tried to use cloned organs and tissues of animals or humans to cultivate flesh-eating worms a long time ago, but all the experiments failed without exception. Even human corpses that had been preserved in cold storage and whose body tissues had not yet necrotized could not successfully hatch the eggs of flesh-eating worms.
Only a living person in good physical condition can successfully hatch these eggs and allow them to parasitize in the body.
In this case, "people" naturally become a resource, a resource that can be used to produce "ammunition".
Ke Lan didn't want to think about the origin of these active ammunition - being used as feed for flesh-eating worms was an unbearable torture even for death row inmates. What's more, even if all death row inmates were used as feed, there would still be a huge gap in production.
Undoubtedly, the production method of active ammunition is extremely inhumane, but if it is not done this way, more people will die in the battle against the Seed of Corrosion.
In addition to the active cells of the flesh-eating worms, the stalagmites that Ke Lan found in the cave on the "Unknown Island" can also play a restraining role against the seeds of erosion. However, compared to the seeds of erosion, the difficulty of obtaining stalagmites is more than one level higher - if the black shadow suspected to be Liao Xing had not pushed Ke Lan into the abyss, he would not know how to return to the "Pioneer".
If there is a chance in the future, Ke Lan will definitely go to that nameless island to explore it... But now is not the time to think about such things.
The troops stationed at the wellhead had already made way for the passage, and they were silently watching Ke Lan and the others... From their eyes, Ke Lan clearly saw a hint of sympathy.
These ordinary soldiers were obviously unaware of the identities of their team. Perhaps in their eyes, their team was just like the two missing groups, and was just going to be killed...
Of course, this mission is essentially no different from sending someone to die...
"By the way, does this scene give you a sense of déjà vu?" Augustus' cockpit was open, and Layton, who was sitting inside, said as he looked around.
"What do you mean by déjà vu? Have you been to this place before?" Thirty-three turned his head to look at Leighton and asked curiously.
"I'm not talking about this place. I'm referring to a mission we took on before." Layton shrugged. "But now the person who issued that mission is about to become our leader's wife."
"You mean the Leviathan incident?" Ivan continued. "It's different. It gives me a completely different feeling."
"Why? They look very similar—" Layton continued, "I remember that the Soma Consortium also used four tanks to block the mine entrance, but they used Hammer-class siege tanks, which are smaller than behemoths like the Mammoth."
"No... In my eyes, Leviathan is a living thing... no matter whether it is dead or alive at that time." Ivan shook his head. "The mines on Leviathan are actually its blood vessels and body fluid pipes. In my eyes, they are completely different from man-made tunnels."
Ivan paused and continued, "It's like in the eyes of an old dog, you are just a big guy with a head full of motor oil, but in my eyes, under the skin of your head are fat, blood vessels and muscles, and below that is the skull..."
"Uh, is this how you doctors treat people?" Leighton suddenly felt a chill on his scalp and couldn't help but reach out and touch it twice.
"That's how I feel anyway." Ivan replied casually, then turned to look at Ke Lan, "It's almost time to send it out."
