Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 1007: "The Fool"
There were a lot of traces of vitrification on the ground around the cave entrance. These should be the traces of bombardment by the heavy battleship's plasma main gun - before the undead crew was completely defeated, the last few members who remained conscious should have put up a resistance... Unfortunately, their resistance failed.
The first to fourth floors of the underground ice storage were all exposed to Ke Lan's field of vision. These places once stored the most dangerous things on the Ark. The power outage during the last memetic crisis was not very long, and only a small part of the "collection" successfully broke through the containment. Even so, it still cost the army and crisis management department who subsequently cleaned up the battlefield a huge price.
If all the "collections" in the underground ice storage were released...
The destructive power is almost equivalent to detonating all the nuclear weapons stored on the Ark at the same time... or even more terrifying.
But now Ke Lan doesn't have to worry about these dangerous collections running out to cause trouble - the roots of the giant tree have spread to every corner of the underground ice storage, so that Ke Lan can't even find a foothold, let alone the collections that have all their exits blocked by the dense roots.
All biological collections in the underground ice storage became nutrients for the giant tree, without exception.
Although the giant tree grew out of the core area, the root system in the underground ice storage is obviously thicker than that in the power reactor in the North District 1... This means that this place is very close to the main root of the giant tree.
"But the question is...how do we get down?"
…
…
Skadi heavy cruiser, bridge.
Major General Alexander stood up from his seat, paced left and right, made three circles under the puzzled look , and then sat back in his seat... but after a few seconds, he stood up again.
"General?" the adjutant asked doubtfully, "Is there something..."
"Don't disturb me while I'm thinking." Major General Alexander ignored his adjutant's question and walked straight to the large screen at the front of the bridge, looking down at the Ark diagonally below.
The battle between the Survivor Alliance and the Ark came to a temporary halt. After the electromagnetic pulse bomb exploded and the third and fourth batches of airborne troops retreated, both sides chose to stop fighting... The swarms of insects that attacked Yaguna Tor drilled into the crown of the giant tree, and the bombers and fighters of the Survivor Alliance also returned to the hangar of the mothership.
This was a very precious breathing time. At this moment, the busiest places on the Skadi were the hangar and the infirmary. As for the bridge, it became quiet. Only the drones responsible for reconnaissance on the front line would send back the latest image intelligence from time to time and project it onto the holographic screen.
The gap in the Ark's energy shield did not disappear - in order to fill the gap, the blown-up shield generators must be repaired . Now that the undead crew has not even dealt with the group of "corroded" black-clad men on the platform, naturally they will not send anyone to repair the shield.
What puzzled Alexander was that the Ark, or the undead crew, always reacted as if they didn't care about the survivor alliance at all - they always chose to passively defend instead of taking the initiative like last time.
If I had to use one word to describe the attitude of the Undead Crew, it would be "perfunctory".
They had treated this battle so perfunctorily that they did not even try to hide it. The black-clad men who were responsible for blocking the attack did not appear until the airborne tribe landed. As for the Zerg, they were sent out only when they realized that Yaguna Kator was about to launch an electromagnetic pulse bomb. After failing to stop the launch, they immediately chose to retreat...
No... No, this doesn't seem like a perfunctory response...
Major General Alexander's eyes twitched. He suddenly realized that the other side was using the minimum resources to resolve his offensive means. Both the men in black and the Zerg were worthless "mass-produced units". Their mission was not to eliminate the Survivor Alliance and Yaguna Tor. In Alexander's view, this level of counterattack could only be regarded as "harassment"...
"They are stalling for time!" Major General Alexander took a deep breath. "The Undead Crew should have concentrated all their resources on supplying this giant tree, so they have no spare energy to deal with us! All they need to do now is to delay our offensive and wait for the roots of the giant tree to penetrate deep into the land of Alpha! Time is not on our side... No, no, we can't wait any longer, even if Ke... even if someone from the God Hunter Group has entered the Ark, we shouldn't just wait outside like this!"
Having made up his mind, Major General Alexander walked back quickly and raised his hand to his adjutant: "I'll be away for a while, you keep an eye on it for me. If anything happens, contact me immediately!"
"yes!"
Rear Admiral Alexander walked out of the bridge and turned into a small room that only the captain had the authority to open.
He thought for a moment, took off the communicator on the small room, and entered a password.
"Skadi, Alexander to Yaguna Kator."
"Roger that. I'm the Hound, what's the situation?"
"I would like to ask for instructions on the next action plan." Alexander said, "All officers and soldiers on the ship are ready and can attack at any time."
"What's the next action plan?" There was a hint of doubt in the Hound's voice. "Hasn't the plan been decided long ago? When the scouts who broke into the Ark send a signal, Yaguna Kator will directly use the star destroyer to bombard the core area of the Ark and the roots of the giant tree. Then we will mobilize the entire army to escort Ze Luo and the annihilation bomb to the main root system of the giant tree..."
"Mr. Nick, please tell me truthfully... Have Ke Lan, Ze Luo and the annihilation bomb entered the Ark?" Alexander said in a deep voice.
There was silence on the other end of the receiver for a few seconds before the Hound asked in an unusually serious voice, "Why do you ask that?"
"I have carefully read the combat report submitted by the airborne troops, and found many unreasonable places... The retreat order was issued by the first batch of airborne troops, but there was no officer in this group with authority matching the level of the order. In addition, one of your female pilots was picked up by a transport plane from the third batch of airborne troops. If I remember correctly, her name was Valentina, right?" Alexander asked.
"Does anyone else know about this?"
"Not yet. And I have deleted the combat report ... But this loophole is too obvious. We were in a fierce battle just now. Perhaps most people would not pay attention to such small details... But there is no guarantee that there will not be secret agents of the undead crew who will discover the abnormality. If they send this information back to the Ark, Ke Lan and the others will be in danger."
"Let's put aside whether Ke Lan entered the Ark or not. Why are you so anxious to take the next step?" The Hound asked again, "Assuming that as you said, Ke Lan and Ze Luo both entered the Ark, then you should know that in the entire survivor alliance, no one can match them in terms of individual combat power. If neither of them can send a signal, then no one can complete this mission."
"The undead crew is stalling for time! The fact that they don't have the extra strength to actively attack us is the best proof... They have invested all their resources in the giant tree. They may be more anxious than us. If we continue to sit still, won't we be playing into their hands?" Major General Alexander's tone was filled with a hint of urgency.
Being chosen as the commander of Fleet Zero means that Alexander is an excellent soldier. However, no matter how excellent a soldier is, it would be a lie to say that he is not nervous when facing a war that puts the fate of all mankind at stake and has only a few dozen hours left to fight, and means extinction if he cannot win.
"I know we have to be patient... but it's easy to miss our only chance!" Alexander continued, "Nick, have you ever thought about what would happen if Ke Lan and those people who entered the Ark failed?"
"If we attack rashly, we will miss the only chance. Don't forget that Yaguna Kator's Star Destroyer can only be fired once." The Hound said word by word, "As for Ke Lan... I believe in him, he won't let me down. If he fails, it means that humanity has failed."
"If the Star Destroyer of the Agunactor can't be moved, then the Skadi should be able to move, right?" Alexander said, "I plan to use the power of one ship to launch a surprise attack on the Ark... Even if I can't tear a gap, at least I can delay the few mobile forces of the Undead Crew!"
"Wait a little longer!" The hound emphasized again, "Wait a little longer!"
"Waiting for what?"
"Ke Lan's signal." The Hound no longer concealed Ke Lan's whereabouts and said directly.
…
Inside the Ark, West Area 1, Research Institute ruins, underground ice storage.
"Zeluo, can you use the space barrier to push away these roots and create a passage?" Ke Lan asked.
The first four floors of the underground ice storage were empty, but the fifth floor, which was buried deep in the reactor coolant, was still in an unknown state... It was where the Yinglong eggs were stored. After Ke Lan tore the Seraph apart, the place should have been empty. But for some reason, Ke Lan always felt that there was something there, and it was something very important.
"It's difficult." Ze Luo shook his head. "Direct contact will cause a strong reaction in the roots. These roots have a very special power attached to them. This power seems to come from the consciousness bodies absorbed by the giant tree... In the face of this power, the space barrier will not last long."
"How many seconds can you last at most?"
"It's hard to say, six seconds... maybe even shorter."
"Then let's calculate it as five seconds." Ke Lan stared at the abyss below. Starting from the second layer, the density of the roots was so great that even a fly could not pass through. If one wanted to use the space barrier to squeeze through the roots and go deeper into the fifth layer, five seconds would be too much of a stretch.
Moreover, the premise for doing so is that the fifth layer of the underground ice storage has not been invaded by roots, which can give Ze Luo a buffer space... If the fifth layer is the same as the one above, then there will be no chance to turn back.
Ke Lan had no doubt about the power of these roots. Even the giant knight could not resist, let alone him and Ze Luo.
The power of space also has its limits. Zeluo is merely a "test product" created by the Alpha civilization after a rough study of space weapons. It is far from reaching the level of a "weapon"... The space barrier is also far from being truly "indestructible".
In particular, the roots of the giant tree are also attached with the mental power of the people being devoured. This power can be said to be of the same "origin" as Ze Luo's power... They can counteract each other, and they can also dissolve each other, just like two energy shields with exactly the same frequency. When they collide, not only will there be no explosion, but they will merge together.
Once the spatial barrier is assimilated by the other party, it is basically equivalent to disappearing - the armor of the giant knight cannot defend against these roots, and Ke Lan does not think that he can find any physical armor that can resist the roots.
Perhaps, we should call in Yagunakotor's star destroyer to directly create a hole in this pile of roots?
With Ze Luo's ability, Ke Lan did have a way to send out the signal, but doing so would cause him to face two problems: First, the signal would indeed be received by Yaguna Kator, but this signal was equivalent to a plain text chat on the public screen, which could be received by Hound and the Undead Crew. Second, assuming that Yaguna Kator successfully launched the Star Destroyer Cannon and blasted a passage for Ke Lan, what if there was nothing on the fifth floor of the underground ice storage?
By the time they wanted to throw the annihilation bomb into the main root of the giant tree, Yaguna Tor was unable to fire a second star destroyer.
"Maybe... should I give up?" Ke Lan couldn't help but become hesitant. "The valuable things in the underground ice storage have been emptied... The undead crew may attack the underground ice storage for those collections. For the giant tree, these are 'high-quality' nutrients. Now the giant tree has devoured all the collections in the underground ice storage. There is no point for me to stay here any longer... Since the main root of the giant tree is not here, maybe I should go directly to the core area..."
Just when he was thinking of giving up, a tattered cell phone at his feet suddenly rang.
Judging from the model, this seems to be a multifunctional personal terminal equipped for soldiers to communicate during combat, commonly known as a "military mobile phone." The owner of this phone has long been missing, the touch screen is full of cracks, and the function keys at the bottom have been broken and flown to an unknown place, leaving the dark green circuit board directly exposed.
"Who is calling... No, maybe I should ask why the call came in?" Ke Lan bent down and picked up the phone.
The communication base stations on the Ark have stopped working, and a strong electromagnetic interference field has enveloped the entire Ark. This military mobile phone has now become scrap. Logically speaking, it is impossible for any call to get in.
Ke Lan glanced at the screen. There was no number displayed on it, only two Chinese characters: "Fool".
