Volume 14: Devastation Chapter 665: Engine No. 92 Wreckage
"Direction of march: due south, everyone set off." Sergeant Ken's steady voice came from the headset.
The convoy suddenly started moving. At this time, no one was chatting in the team channel anymore. Only formulaic reports were sent every ninety seconds.
The terrain of this tundra is very flat, and there are no signs of indigenous creatures within sight, but the members of the 776 Special Forces Team still dare not relax at all. Collins's AUG assault rifle is already loaded, with the butt resting on his knees, ready to raise the gun and shoot at any time.
The wide shock-absorbing tires and the hard frozen soil constantly made harsh friction sounds. Collins focused all his attention on exploring the surrounding environment. As scouts, he and Martin were pioneers. Their task was to discover in advance and help the convoy behind avoid the indigenous biological communities wandering in the wilderness.
The two reconnaissance vehicles maintained a distance of about one thousand meters from the convoy behind them, which was the maximum distance at which the communication equipment carried by the team could ensure stable communication in the event of strong interference.
Not long after the reconnaissance vehicle drove out, Ke Lan discovered a problem.
The dashboard of this car had obviously been modified - except for a simple mechanical compass, all electronic devices that could be used to locate and record the driving route had been removed, and even the odometer that was found in any car had been locked.
(Note: Although there are no artificial positioning satellites in Alpha's low-Earth orbit and the GPS positioning system cannot be used, it is still possible to roughly determine its own location based on geomagnetic positioning, base station positioning, etc., of course, the premise is that the magnetic field is not disturbed or there is a transfer station set up by the Ark within the sensing range of the equipment.)
Obviously, this was done to prevent the soldiers involved in the mission from remembering the specific coordinates of the mission target.
"Is it really that serious..." Ke Lan muttered to himself, "Is the base of the wreckage of Engine 92 really that shady?"
He felt like he was watching a suspense film. The more foreshadowing there was, the more curious he became...
"Super Dream" can be skipped and fast-forwarded just like playing a normal video. If Ke Lan was not afraid of missing any details, she would have enabled these two functions long ago.
He had plenty of time, so much so that he could even go through the entire task process over and .
The convoy sped across the frozen tundra for nearly four days without stopping to rest once. Even the problems of eating and excretion were solved by relying on soft liquid food with built-in straws and urine bags.
As for the drivers, they were rotated among the soldiers. Collins and Martin would swap shifts every eight hours and take a rest in the off-road vehicle at the rear.
"It's time, it's time to change people!" The two reconnaissance vehicles drew a big circle on the tundra and returned to the side of the convoy. Two soldiers with tired looks jumped out of the driver's seat and walked towards the convoy while stretching their limbs.
An off-road vehicle in the convoy stopped. Collins and Martin looked at each other and could see the fatigue in each other's eyes. Although they were on duty every eight hours, this intensity of off-road driving was extremely demanding on people's physical energy. It was impossible to rest well in the bumpy car, let alone fully recover the consumed energy.
In that era, enhanced humans were rare in the military, and all members of the 776 Special Forces Team had never undergone any enhancement or transformation surgery. Their physical fitness was at best only slightly better than that of ordinary soldiers.
The two men jumped out of the car silently and walked towards the reconnaissance vehicle parked not far away.
"I'm so tired. I feel like my waist is about to break, and my butt has been shaken so hard that I have no feeling at all." The soldier who was replaced complained to Collins and Martin while rubbing his butt.
"It's all the same." Martin shook his head with a bitter face, "I can't fall asleep in the car at all... The boss also forbids us to use drugs to stimulate our spirits and relieve fatigue..."
“Maybe they’re afraid that we’ll overdraw our physical strength and energy before we even reach our target location... huh... but to me, the current situation doesn’t make any difference... If we don’t find a place to set up camp, we’ll all collapse.” The soldier gasped for breath, his chest heaving violently.
As for the other guy who was replaced, he was so tired that he didn't even want to say a word. He waved at the two of them and walked towards the off-road vehicle with a wooden step.
Collins sat in the still warm driver's seat of the reconnaissance vehicle again, took a deep breath, gripped the steering wheel with both hands, and stepped on the accelerator.
The two reconnaissance vehicles quickly passed the convoy and returned to the front of the formation.
But this time, Collins discovered something unusual not long after driving!
A conical mountain appeared on the distant horizon.
"Scout vehicle No. 2, Collins reports that a cone-shaped mountain has been spotted ahead, about fifteen to twenty kilometers away." Collins said into the communicator, "Preliminary judgment is that it may be a volcanic cone."
"Received, keep moving forward." Sergeant Ken's emotionless voice sounded in the communicator.
At this moment, Ke Lan suddenly realized that the direction of the convoy was exactly facing the "volcanic cone" on the ground line. His consciousness was shocked - could the mission destination of the 776 special forces team be this "volcanic cone"? !
Collins obviously thought the same thing as Ke Lan. After a brief silence, he turned on the communicator again and asked, "Boss, isn't that our destination?"
Sergeant Ken did not reply.
But Ke Lan already had the answer in her heart.
As the distance between the convoy and the volcanic cone gradually shortened, the details of the volcanic cone began to become clearer and clearer... Soon, Ke Lan and the soldiers of the 776 Special Forces Squadron realized that something was wrong...
This volcanic cone seems a little too "straight"...
The essence of a volcanic cone is a mountain formed by the accumulation of ejecta ejected from the interior of the volcano near the crater. Generally speaking, volcanic cones whose ejecta are mainly lava are basically conical in shape, because lava is fluid before it is completely cooled, and it is easy to form a smooth cone - but no matter how smooth the cone is, it can never be a completely perfect cone.
The volcanic cone in the distance doesn't look like a mountain formed by lava eruption at all, but more like a huge creation of civilization.
"Could this be... the remains of the wreckage of Engine No. 92?!" Ke Lan was extremely shocked.
Volcanic cone...engine...could the crater on the top of the mountain be the nozzle of the thruster?
Such a huge engine...what could it be driving?!
