Volume 14: Devastation Chapter 664: Frozen Tundra
Martin was still rambling on about the suicide note. He was different from Collins, he had a complete family and a beautiful sister...but this guy was like Collins in one respect, he could never save any money.
The so-called suicide note is nothing more than a thought left to the family.
Ke Lan, who was in Collins' perspective, couldn't help but sigh. As a person fifty years later, he naturally knew that everyone on the plane except the two pilots could not go back... But in their hearts, they must still be holding on to a glimmer of hope, right?
This scout named Martin was the first person to discover the "core" of the Seed of Erosion on the nameless island. He was also the first person to be parasitized by the Seed of Erosion and turned into a monster... Ke Lan felt that perhaps it would be better for his family not to ever know his true ending.
If you treat it as missing, there will always be a glimmer of hope in your heart.
Ke Lan had been paying attention to the scene outside the porthole - with the Ark high-rise buildings in the distance as a reference, the transport aircraft formation should be flying in the southwest direction... This was basically consistent with the recording of Sergeant Ken in the black box: the target location of this mission was in two completely different directions from Zhonghai.
Although Alpha is round, Ke Lan thinks that they would not run a full half circle around Alpha, right?
Because the content of the mission could only be known after arriving at the destination, the soldiers of the 776 Special Forces Team could only talk about the recent battle situation - relying on small talk to relieve stress is also a very practical method.
Collins chatted with Martin in a casual manner, but Ke Lan noticed that he would be distracted from time to time. Often, when Martin had already talked about the third topic, he would still respond to the content of the first topic.
"This is one of the side effects of the empathy chip inside Collins' brain after the recording function was turned on. It manifests as mental fatigue, absent-mindedness, mild memory confusion, and loss of the five senses... It only takes a few hours of adaptation to return to normal." The mechanical female voice of the core brain sounded in Ke Lan's ears.
But there were limited topics to talk about. After everyone chatted for a while, silence returned to the cabin again - compared to the battlefields that had nothing to do with them, the next mission they were about to perform was more concerning.
"Speaking of which, Boss, is it true that no information can be leaked at all?" Connelly asked unwillingly, "At least... at least we should be prepared in advance, right?"
"Did you scratch your gun?" Sergeant Ken asked in a deep voice.
"It has been wiped." Connelly nodded.
"How many bullets did you bring?"
"Two boxes of 100-round ammunition belts, and Joseph also helped me carry two boxes, and four pistol magazines." Connelly was a little puzzled, but still answered honestly.
"Are your shoes tied?"
"Of course...Why are you asking these questions, boss?" Connelly asked puzzledly.
"This is all you need to prepare for," Sergeant Ken said seriously, "Just treat it as a normal combat mission."
"Hydrogen bombs are not carried on conventional combat missions..." Martin whispered to Collins.
…
Six hours later, the Wild Deer-class transport plane finally began to lower its altitude.
"We are about to reach the destination of this flight..." Lieutenant Walcott said to everyone in the cabin, "According to the mission requirements, I can only take you here. The rest of the way, you need to complete it by yourselves - I wish you all good luck."
Four Wild Deer-class transport planes hovered about three meters above the ground. Several armored off-road vehicles were lowered first, followed by the fully armed soldiers of the 776 Special Forces Team.
Four tactical-grade small hydrogen bombs have been loaded onto the prototype engineering mecha, and two fearless warriors are guarding the mecha closely.
This is a frozen tundra covered with a thin layer of frost. Although it is noon, the air temperature is still less than five degrees Celsius. The gas exhaled by the soldiers quickly condenses into pieces of white mist.
The latitude of this place cannot be too low - this was Ke Lan's first judgment.
The transport plane was flying towards the southwest of the Ark, and the landing point of the Ark was at the equator, which meant that they were now in the southern hemisphere of Alpha.
According to the departure time recorded in the archives, it should be June 30th, 902 in the New Era, which is winter in the Southern Hemisphere.
Based on this information, Ke Lan's current location is roughly between 45 and 60 degrees south latitude.
Although the locations inferred by these data will fluctuate greatly depending on changes in terrain, the approximate range will not be wrong.
"Forty-five to sixty degrees south latitude...are there any famous ruins within this range?" Ke Lan tried hard to search for relevant information in her mind, trying to get a clue from it...
Of course there are ruins in this area... not only that, but there are a lot of them.
There were more than a dozen ruins that Ke Lan had looked up detailed information about, explored, or planned to explore. As for those ruins that he had impressions of and could remember their numbers and names, the number directly exceeded three digits - but among these ruins, Ke Lan could not find any place related to the "engine wreckage".
"That's right... Since the 776th Special Forces Team has completed the mission, then this 'Engine No. 92 Wreckage Site' should have been destroyed by the hydrogen bomb, and the remaining traces on the surface must have been erased... As someone living in the 950s of the New Era, it's normal that I can't find any related clues..."
After figuring out this key point, Ke Lan immediately gave up on wasting time and focused her attention on Collins' perspective - no matter what this "Engine No. 92 wreckage site" was, the 776 Special Forces Team would see it sooner or later anyway.
By then, all problems will be solved naturally.
The soldiers boarded their respective vehicles according to their pre-divided tactical groups. As for the engineering mecha carrying the tactical hydrogen bomb, it was carried on a heavy trailer. Since mecha technology was still immature at that time, the actual endurance time of this engineering mecha was only two hours, and its movement speed was no match for conventional wheeled vehicles... It could not be used directly for traveling.
Collins and Martin did not take the armored off-road vehicle - as scouts in the squad, they were located at the front of both wings of the convoy in the marching formation, and the vehicles they were equipped with were also the most flexible and fastest individual field reconnaissance vehicles.
This car has an aviation rocket thruster installed on the back, and can reach a maximum speed of half the speed of sound on flat ground - that is, 612 kilometers per hour.
At this time, the side effects caused by the empathy chip to Collins had basically disappeared. He checked his equipment and the condition of the reconnaissance vehicle one last time, then started the engine.
