Volume 13 Ancient Bronze City Ruins Chapter 626: Silence
"The airship can't get any closer. If you go any further, you'll be shot down by those anti-aircraft lasers." The frigate captain's voice came from the loudspeaker. "A warship has tried it before. Even the shields of a heavy cruiser can't stop those lasers. I can only send you here."
"Everyone, check your equipment one last time and prepare for airborne !" The commander of the mobile force stood up from his seat and shouted loudly to his subordinates.
The clanging sounds of metal clashing rang out in the cabin, and soon the entire army was ready for battle.
The hatch at the bottom of the cargo hold had also slowly opened - the "Pickaxe" had lowered its suspension altitude to 160 meters. Except for the armored vehicles that needed to use steel cables to assist in landing, the other mechas and soldiers in power armor all jumped out of the hatch directly and landed steadily on the ground with the help of their own thrusters.
"Good luck to everyone." The frigate captain's voice sounded in the communication channel for the last time, and then the "Pickaxe" quickly rose to an altitude of more than a thousand meters and joined the array bombarding the core control tower.
"Go forward fifty meters and you'll enter the core control area." The commander of the mobile force pointed to the "metal forest" in front of them, which was composed of buildings with an average height of two hundred meters, and said to Ke Lan.
The core control area of the Ancient Bronze City Ruins is the "fourth ring" located at the center of the inner ring. This fourth ring is different from the first three rings and has no obvious regional boundaries. Before the operation began, the core control area was just a rough concept. Basically, any place related to the ruins control center can be counted as part of the core control area. But after the operation began, the participating troops quickly demarcated a specific area.
The so-called core control area boundary is actually the no-fly zone of the air force fleet. Any aircraft entering this area will be instantly destroyed by powerful laser weapons. Just now in the sky, Ke Lan and his companions had already seen the wreckage of several warships scattered in the outer area of the core control area... From heavy cruisers with thick armor and strong shields to high-speed assault ships that are extremely fast and difficult to lock onto, there are also wreckages of fighter jets and flying mechas. There are countless of them.
On the contrary, if you enter from the ground, you will not be attacked by these laser weapons.
Two "Shield Mountain" mechas were carrying composite physical shields weighing 1.5 tons and walking in the front, while the others followed silently behind. The atmosphere in this mobile unit was very depressing, and every soldier was on edge. In comparison, Ke Lan and the others were in much better condition. Layton even boasted shamelessly in the team channel: "What kind of scenes have I not seen? You think you can scare me with just this little scene? You really underestimate my courage."
"But you look nervous." Valentina , who didn't like to talk much , suddenly interrupted.
"Huh? No way? Xiaona, please don't talk nonsense. How could I be nervous? That's not happening at all." Leighton denied it immediately.
"But I found that Augustus' energy shield generator has been in a critical state." Valentina said incisively.
The "critical state" of the energy shield generator refers to controlling the charging efficiency within the threshold of 99.95% to 99.99%. A shield generator in a critical state can immediately activate the shield by injecting at least a little more energy, and at the moment of activation, the shield's own power will be directly increased to the maximum.
Of course, the critical state also causes great damage to the shield generator itself... It's like a rubber band that is kept in a tight state for a long time, and it will eventually lose its elasticity or break. The life of the shield generator that is in a critical state for a long time will inevitably be affected. Therefore, even in combat, the energy shield's charging efficiency will only be maintained below 50%, in order to extend the life of the shield generator as much as possible.
For example, the shield generator on the Augustus only takes about 0.3 seconds to charge from 50% to 100%. Unless in close combat, the operating manual rarely recommends that the driver maintain the shield generator in a critical state.
However, some shield generators that are of relatively poor quality or have been severely damaged when they were dug out from the ruins may even have a high probability of self-exploding when in a critical state... It is absolutely forbidden for shield generators like these to enter a critical state.
The fact that Layton had stuck the shield generator in a critical state at this moment was enough to show how nervous he was.
"You... I, I'm not nervous at all. I'm just being cautious. It's always right to be careful, right? Ke Lan, don't you agree?"
"Just by looking at the nonsense you're talking about, I can tell you're very nervous." Ke Lan responded casually, "Actually, there's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm also very nervous right now. Moderate nervousness helps improve reaction speed, which is a good thing."
"But being overly nervous is not good. Lao Lei, if you need it, I can provide you with some medicine." As Ivan said this, he reached into his pocket and began to fumble.
"Medicine... no need for medicine. If that old dog guy knew about this, he would definitely use this to mock me for years."
"Then I'll keep it for myself." Ivan fumbled for a long time and finally took out a stainless steel mini wine bottle. He unscrewed the lid and took a sip.
"Damn, this is the medicine you were talking about. Hurry up and give me a sip." Leighton shouted immediately.
"Forget it. Drunk driving is illegal. Not only driving a car, but also driving a mecha." Ivan said and put the wine jug back.
"Tsk, you cheapskate."
Although the topics discussed by the few people did not have any substantial content, the original tense atmosphere was relieved a lot after this interaction.
"Layton, check the communication signal and see if we can still get in touch with the troops outside." Ke Lan patted Augustus' knee and said.
"I've been keeping an eye on it since we came in. The deeper we go into the core control area, the more serious the radio interference becomes... The source of the interference comes from these towering metal buildings - even if there are no interference , these hundreds or thousands of metal buildings standing here are enough to form a huge interference field in themselves." Layton said, "Less than a hundred meters in, my communication signal was cut off... I don't know if the signal of the 'Beidou' is still there, the communication equipment of that thing has much greater power."
"It's also been cut off." Valentina said. Relying on the unique scanning system of the Blasphemer mecha, she has been monitoring the status of the machines in the team. "Your signal was cut off when you entered the core control area at 98 meters, and the Beidou lasted 30 meters longer than you."
"Tsk... the so-called high power is just this."
Not only was it external communication, but Ke Lan and the others were only a few meters apart, and the team's communication channel was already filled with noisy electric current sounds. Thirty-three simply took off his headphones and stuffed them into his backpack.
Now they have walked nearly 500 meters inside. Even if the signal strength of the communication equipment is amplified ten times, they still cannot get in touch with the outside world. The core control area is a circular building complex. The further in, the more metal buildings there are that can serve as interference sources. The interference intensity increases exponentially... Now, let alone radio communications, even some more sensitive monitoring equipment has begun to be affected. Ke Lan glanced at the compass on the dial of his watch. The magnetized needle was spinning wildly, with no intention of stopping at all.
The entire core control area is a perfect circle with a diameter of six kilometers. The central tower is located at the center of the circle. If Ke Lan and his team's direction of travel does not deviate, they only need to move forward less than 2,500 meters to reach the bottom of the tower.
At this moment, Ke Lan suddenly stopped.
He grabbed the mobile unit commander beside him, who was startled and asked quickly, "Did you find anything unusual?"
"It's too quiet, don't you think?" Ke Lan said in a deep voice.
"Huh? What do you mean... We haven't encountered the enemy yet. Isn't it normal to be quiet?" the commander asked puzzled.
"No, that's not what I meant. My teammates were still chatting just now, so I didn't notice anything wrong, but now that they have all shut up, I realized that I can't hear the footsteps of the machines in front at all."
"Footsteps?!" The commander was stunned for a moment and immediately turned to look at the front of the team.
Leading the way in the front are two "Shield Mountains". As heavy defense mechas, the "Shield Mountains" do not have gliding air cushion devices on their feet, and can only move by moving their legs and keeping their feet on the ground.
Including equipment, ammunition, spare fuel and energy blocks, a fully loaded "Shield Mountain" weighs at least 25 tons. With a body of this tonnage, it is impossible to make no sound at all, even if you walk very carefully - what's more, the ground in the entire ancient bronze city ruins is paved with hard alloy tiles. Even special military boots with soft rubber soles cannot be completely silent when stepping on such a ground.
But now, Ke Lan and his team could not hear the footsteps of the two "Shield Mountains" as they moved forward.
They were only fifty meters away from the front of the team.
"What's going on?" The commander frowned and asked, "How about I ask him to stop moving forward——"
"No, don't ask them to stop yet."
Ke Lan squatted down, propped his palms on the ground, stared at the two Shield Mountain in the front, and said, "Let the two Shield Mountain continue to move forward. All other people and machines, don't move."
Dunshan's heavy feet slowly fell down. Ke Lan clearly felt a vibration coming from the ground, but his ears did not hear any sound.
Then he lay down and put his ear to the ground, then he heard a dull "dong" coming from what seemed to be an extremely far away place.
"I think I know why there was no movement after the first six airborne troops came in. The sound from this place cannot be transmitted out at all." Ke Lan said.
"No way to transmit sound?" The commander subconsciously opened the mask of the power armor and took a deep breath, "But, but... this place is not a vacuum. Even the oxygen content in the air can fully meet the needs of human breathing..."
"It has nothing to do with whether it is a vacuum or not." Ke Lan shook his head. "It should be some kind of technological product of the Alpha civilization that blocks the transmission of sound."
He began to walk forward, and only when he was within twenty meters of Shield Mountain did the heavy footsteps appear in his ears.
He turned around and saw that the commander seemed to be shouting at him, but he could only see the other person's mouth moving and could not hear any sound coming from his throat.
It's like a pantomime performance.
Ke Lan walked back quickly until he was within 20 meters of the commander. Only then did he hear the commander asking anxiously, "How is it? Have you figured out what's going on?"
"Let's stop the two Shield Mountains in front first, and don't go too far." Ke Lan said, "According to the information we have obtained so far, the sound can only be transmitted to about 20 meters in this place. This blocking method is not gradually weakened, but has a clear 'boundary'. There is only one step between being able to hear and not being able to hear. In addition, the solid ground can transmit sound, but the transmitted sound will be distorted, and it is difficult to distinguish the distance and direction."
"The effective range of radio communication is only about 30 to 40 meters, and the further we go in, the smaller the distance will be. I estimate that when we reach the bottom of the tower, even if we communicate face to face, we won't be able to hear what the other party is saying." Ke Lan continued, "But the good news is that vision doesn't seem to be affected, so we can use gestures to communicate with people far away. In addition, wired communication will not be interfered with."
"I see. I'll have someone connect the vehicle and the body with a communication cable." The commander nodded and said, "But to be honest, even though the facts are right in front of me, I still feel a sense of unreality..."
"Watch out." Ke Lan didn't explain much, and directly took off a grenade hanging on the other party's shoulder, pulled the ring, held it in his hand and counted silently for a few seconds, then threw it diagonally upwards with force -
The grenade exploded about thirty meters away from them and about ten meters above the ground. The commander, who did not close his mask, only felt a gust of air filled with a strong smell of gunpowder coming towards him, but the sound of the grenade explosion seemed to disappear out of thin air.
It's like when you are watching a 4D movie, the cinema simulates all the environmental effects such as body sensation, smell, smoke, etc., but the audio file, which is second only to the picture in importance, is missing.
