Volume 14: Devastation Chapter 656: The Last Mission of the 776 Special Forces Team
Only the people of the Undead Crew have the power to transfer the information in the main archive. However, in the 499th year of the New Era, the Undead Crew and the technology named "Coffin of Eternal Life" had not yet appeared, and the members of the "Ten-Man Decision Seat" of that session could not have lived to this day... Now all the members of the Undead Crew were born after the 499th year of the New Era, without exception, and none of them were members of the Ten-Man Decision Seat back then.
Even if there was some "dark history" that year, it should not have much to do with the current members of the Undead Crew.
Could it be that these files had been transferred... or destroyed before the Undead Crew was established?
Ke Lan squatted down and carefully checked the metal oxidation condition in the bolt holes, only to find that there were even new scratches in the bolt holes - that is, the cabinet shelf originally placed here had been recently removed.
It is difficult to judge the exact time, but it is basically certain that the archives of the 499th year of the New Era were transferred or destroyed within a year.
A year ago, those files were most likely stored in this location, and any member of the Undead Crew could have accessed them at will.
Ke Lan couldn't help but curse in her heart.
It was clear that he was being targeted.
The members of the Undead Crew Club deliberately concealed from him what happened in the 499th year of the New Era... Even after Ke Lan joined the Undead Crew Club, he was not allowed to know these secrets.
What was the significance of the vote by the Undead Crew? If it weren't for the sudden resurrection of the Fool, all the secrets of the Crew would have been shared long ago, including the events of the 499th year of the New Era and the reasons why the relevant files were transferred and destroyed.
If these secrets cannot be known to oneself, then doesn't this defeat the purpose of this vote?
If I ask those in the "pro" camp about this, will they tell me the truth?
Ke Lan was unsure, but he decided to give it a try.
The 499th year of the new era, natural wormhole, time-space jump... Any of these keywords would make Ke Lan a little nervous. The attraction of these disappeared files to him was almost surpassing the last mission of the 776 Special Forces Team.
According to the "official archives" that can be easily found on the Internet, that year was the year with the largest population decline in the history of the Ark's interstellar voyage. Even the "Alexander" incident that just happened can only be ranked second - although the Ark successfully passed through the natural wormhole, the damage to the hull took more than a hundred years to completely repair. This was a real blow to the vitality. If the survivors on the Ark had not been lucky enough to discover several resource asteroids in the nearby star field, the Ark might not have been able to hold on until it reached the star system where Alpha was located.
No one knows how the people on the Ark survived that period... Nearly 200 of the 260 food warehouses on the Ark were destroyed. Except for the year 499 of the New Era, the population of the Ark continued to decline in the decades that followed - hunger, disease, armed conflict and repression claimed the lives of countless people. At one point, the population of the Ark dropped to about one-tenth of the population before the time and space jump. The human race struggled on the brink of complete extinction several times.
The damaged parts of the Ark were not repaired until more than 600 years into the New Era, and the population level was not restored to the level before the time and space jump until 700 or 800 years into the New Era.
The prophet once told Ke Lan that "β-type replicators were successfully developed in the year 750 of the New Era, but at that time, riots on ships were rampant, and the Undead Crew was worried that publishing this technology would arouse the emotions of more people and add fuel to the fire. Therefore, this technology was sealed up as a taboo, and the scientists involved in this project signed the most stringent gag order."
The slow population growth requires the development of technologies such as asexual reproduction, cloning and human replication; food shortages, scarce resources and chaotic management have led to growing public discontent, which in turn has led to protests and riots... All these clues fit the bill, which means that at least most of what the prophet said is true.
The other members of the Undead Crew did not deny the existence of β-type replicators . However, when Ke Lan asked about themselves, they all remained silent.
Although Ke Lan has become a member of the Undead Crew, he cannot force other members to reveal the information to him - unless the previous resolution can be voted through.
If you want to know the truth, you can only investigate it yourself.
However, before the investigation even really began, the clues were broken.
Ke Lan could only put aside the events of the 499th year of the new era and continue moving forward.
The 776th Special Forces Team lost contact with the Ark during their last mission 49 years ago, in the 902nd year of the New Era. Missing along with the entire team was Liao Xing, a former SDU member who joined the 776th Special Forces Team in the same year and Liao Zilang's grandfather.
The end of the 776th Special Forces Team was total annihilation, which Ke Lan had personally witnessed - except for Liao Xing.
He still remembers that scene vividly: when he was leaning over to observe the abyss that once imprisoned the primitive species, a black shadow appeared silently behind him. He... or "it" had a face extremely similar to Liao Zilang, so he did not pull the trigger at the first time. Then, the black shadow suddenly stretched out his hand and pushed himself into the abyss.
Through the information obtained by the hunting dogs, it can be confirmed that the black shadow should be Liao Zilang’s grandfather Liao Xing. At least, that face should belong to Liao Xing.
Liao Zilang looks very similar to his grandfather, which can be seen from the photo column in the archives.
But why did Liao Xing survive while all the other members of the 776 Special Forces Team died?
Did he...really survive?
Questions flashed through Ke Lan's mind one after another.
The flow of time on that nameless island was different from that in the outside world. Ke Lan had stayed on the island for at least a day and a night, but from the perspective of everyone on the "Pioneer" icebreaker, she had only been "missing" for four hours.
Let's not consider this point for now. Although the speed of time flow is different, the effect of time in the same space on things in that space will not be much different - on that nameless island, the plastic buttstock will age and become brittle, the fiber fabrics on the corpse will decompose, and the small iron parts on the equipment will also rust... If you ignore the fact that there is no alternation between day and night, and do not compare it with the outside time, Ke Lan will not be able to detect .
If that was really Liao Xing, why didn't his appearance age at all when the bodies of his teammates had already turned to bones?
It was as if time had stopped flowing for him, sealing him in the year when he lost contact with the outside world.
Ke Lan tried hard to recall those memory fragments... In his impression, the black shadow was not wearing the combat uniform and equipment of the 776 Special Forces Team, nor was he wearing a diving suit. Instead, he was wrapped in a somewhat tattered black robe... Except for the head, almost all parts of the body were covered tightly by this robe.
That black shadow...is it really Liao Xing? Ke Lan couldn't help but have such doubts.
Could it be something else that just occupied Liao Xing's "body", or was it simulating Liao Xing's appearance?
There are pieces of flesh in the glacial ruins that can perfectly replicate humans, so Ke Lan thinks it is entirely possible that there is a "thing" on the nameless island that can replicate a lifelike "Liao Xing" and keep his original appearance for dozens or even hundreds of years.
First eliminate the seeds of erosion.
The physical fitness of the container parasitized by the Seed of Corrosion will become extremely strong, and Ke Lan clearly remembered that he pulled the trigger of the shotgun at the moment of falling. Because his body lost balance, most of the bullets in this shot hit the air, and only a few hit the black shadow. But even so, the black shadow just staggered back a few steps...
"Its" defense is not strong, at least much weaker than the Seed of Corrosion.
What puzzled Ke Lan the most was why "it" appeared at that time and pushed herself into the abyss?
It was not known whether it was because Ke Lan was too tired at the time and affected his condition, or if the opponent's movements were really silent. Ke Lan did not notice anything unusual until the black shadow was less than 20 centimeters away from Ke Lan's back. In that situation, if the opponent wanted to kill Ke Lan, Ke Lan would have died countless times already.
Even if the opponent himself was not strong, it was too easy to sneak attack someone with his back to the opponent. However, the opponent did not do that. He just watched Ke Lan silently from behind.
It was not until Ke Lan turned around and saw "its" face clearly that "it" reached out and pushed Ke Lan off the cliff.
Moreover, judging from the final result, "it" seemed to have saved Ke Lan and allowed Ke Lan to escape from that strange nameless island - if the only way to leave that place was to jump off the cliff, Ke Lan would probably be trapped there for life.
But - if the other party pushed itself down in order to save itself, then why didn't "it" jump into the abyss itself?
Is it because "it" can't leave that place, or is it that... "it" can no longer return to human society?
There were so many doubts that Ke Lan didn't know where to start analyzing them.
Ke Lan stopped walking, and the chaotic thoughts in his head also stopped - the inscription "New Era 902" on the ground told him: they have arrived.
With a hint of expectation and a hint of nervousness, Ke Lan's vision slowly moved up to the stage, and then she breathed a sigh of relief - the archives of the New Era 902 had not been moved, and every shelf was filled to the brim.
The commander of the 776th Special Forces Team was named Ken. He once left an incomplete voice record in the "black box". The earliest voice record was dated July 11, 902 in the New Era. At that time, the 776th Special Forces Team had been on the strange nameless island for four days. With the Ark's transportation capacity at that time, it was fully capable of deploying a small-scale special forces force to any corner of the surface of Alpha within fifteen days.
In other words, their departure time should be between the end of June and the beginning of July.
Ke Lan walked between the cabinets and shelves, and soon he found the rows of cabinets that stored the archives for June 902 of the New Era.
His eyes swept across the rows of shelves, and soon his attention was locked on a magnetic-proof box labeled "Military Special Forces Transfer File".
In the year 902 of the New Era, the Ark's army had not yet been divided into the three major corps of field forces, garrison forces and air force fleets. The numbers and affiliations of each unit were relatively complex and confusing. In addition, it was an era of frequent wars. In order for the Ark to gain a foothold on Alpha, the soldiers fought with countless indigenous creatures almost every day. Every day, troops were eliminated in an organized manner, and every day, new numbers and new soldiers were added to the front line.
This magnetic-proof box alone, which contains the special forces mobilization files, contains twenty-one hard drives.
This is just the mobilization record of special forces. If regular troops are included, the number would probably be more than ten times higher.
"Fortunately, I made preparations in advance." Ke Lan sighed, sat down cross-legged on the cold metal floor, moved the barrel backpack behind him to the front, and opened the lid.
In the backpack was a high-performance computer host. Ke Lan connected the host with his laptop, and then spread out a one-meter square folding metal plate on the side.
These metal plates are covered with hard drive interfaces, which can connect thirty mechanical hard drives of similar specifications at the same time.
Ke Lan inserted the twenty-one hard drives into the interface and turned on the power.
The platters inside the hard drive began to spin, making a slight humming sound.
Although there were only 21 hard drives, the number of files stored in it was still an astronomical number for the processing efficiency of the human brain. Ke Lan naturally couldn't read every file. He could only enter the two keywords "776 Special Forces Team" and "Liao Xing" into the computer to search for files containing these two words.
Even so, the number of files found still reached as many as four hundred.
As one of the most elite special forces on the Ark at that time, in June alone, the "776 Special Forces Team" was deployed 17 times and participated in many battles with indigenous creatures. As for Liao Xing, who was transferred from the SDU to the 776 Special Forces Team, he had made outstanding contributions. If he had not been MIA in the last mission, he would have been transferred to the Special Operations Command the following year.
"Sort by time - in reverse order." Ke Lan moved the cursor and clicked on this option.
Suddenly, the last mission received by the 776th Special Forces Team was moved to the front position.
