Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 826 Solution to the Supply Problem
The core area of the Ark, Black Well.
"Preliminary measurements show that Zeus's erosion has reached 400% of the maximum danger threshold!" Demeter spoke quickly, looking at the screen in front of her.
She had changed out of her usual fancy dress and put on a battle suit that was armed to the teeth. To be more precise, she had even changed her biochemical body. Except for the face that still retained Demeter 's appearance, the rest of her body could be described as "very little human." The various modules added for combat made her look more like a humanoid tactical mecha than a biochemical body.
"400% ?! How is that possible?!" Lachesis exclaimed. Lachesis' name comes from the three goddesses of fate in Greek mythology. In the Undead Crew, she and her elder sister "Atropos" and younger sister "Crotho" jointly serve as the tenth seat of "Wheel of Fortune", which is also the only seat with multiple members in the Undead Crew.
"This should have already broken through the critical point long ago...Why hasn't he shown any signs of over-erosion yet?" Kroto murmured.
"He should have applied some of the core technologies of the 'Semi-Deification Plan' to himself. According to the data provided by Aphrodite, if the 'Semi-Deification Plan' can succeed, the critical value of over-erosion will be magnified by more than a hundred times." Atropos, the elder sister of the three, pondered, "But the problem is that the 'Semi-Deification Plan' did not succeed... Those core technologies that are still in the theoretical stage not only require the help of the equipment inside Agunactor to be realized, but also have almost harsh requirements for the body to be transformed. No matter which condition, Zeus will not be able to meet it."
"Let's not worry about it for now." Demeter interrupted the three sisters' discussion, "Zeus is moving towards here. Obviously, his target is the core mastermind at the bottom of the black well. I have arranged six blocking lines, but these six blocking lines can only delay time, and they won't delay for long."
…
Yagunakotor, core power area, temporary shelter.
The so-called temporary shelter was converted from the original forward supply base for the exploration operation. All the surviving rebel officers and soldiers of Fleet Zero, including Yeger, were placed here. Compared with the garrison troops on Yagunakotor, the rebel officers and soldiers of Fleet Zero knew the whole story, had a stronger aversion to the Ark's top brass, and were also very strict with self-regulation.
Major General Alexander originally suggested to the Hound that they should not discriminate and relocate the survivors of Fleet Zero to the newly discovered Block 2. However, the Hound believed that Block 2 had just been discovered and had been poorly explored. It was not only full of dangers, but the various infrastructures of the outpost were not yet complete, making it impossible to accommodate these tens of thousands of officers and soldiers.
In Hound's opinion, even if there are some traitors among the survivors of Fleet Zero, or some people regret and change their minds, as long as the basic management structure does not collapse, even if someone wants to make trouble, it will be immediately controlled.
It is impossible for two mutinies of completely opposite directions to occur consecutively within a short period of time.
Since the Hounds did not have any extra manpower, the management of Fleet Zero was still headed by officers from the original fleet. Yeager, the captain of the "Betelgeuse" air combat force, was in charge of nearly 500 soldiers on the third and fourth floors of Building B6.
"Is this the entire day's ration?" Yeger, who was wrapped in bandages all over his body, limped to the box that was dragged over by several soldiers. He looked inside and immediately frowned.
This plastic box is very large, but it is empty inside. There are only a hundred bags of standard army field rations lying at the bottom of the box. Although there is no detailed count, a rough glance can tell that each person probably gets less than half a bag.
"Yeah... I heard from the hunter in charge of distributing supplies that the supplies on Yaguna Tor are very tight. Maybe, maybe they can't even last three days." The soldier who dragged the box over said to Yeger.
"Fortunately, there is enough water to drink." Yeger glanced at the water room at the end of the corridor - a large number of water purification equipment were installed on Yaguna Kotor, and the water reserves were much more than food. In addition, urine could be purified and recycled, so there would be no crisis of water shortage at least in the short term.
You can still hold out if you're hungry for a few days, but if you go without water for a few days, it could be fatal.
Yeager reached out and took out a bag of field rations and looked through it - this was the wartime instant rations distributed to field troops. It had no self-heating device, no meal packs, and no snacks. It was basically just monotonous compressed biscuits and energy bars. Not only were the types limited, but the taste and texture were not much better. There was still a big gap between the food and beverage treatment of the upper-class people in the Air Force Fleet.
Even the emergency rations in the life-saving kits that pilots carry when parachuting are much richer and more refined than these foods.
Although these field rations have many shortcomings, there is one advantage that no one can deny, which is that they provide sufficiently high calories.
A healthy adult needs about 2,000 to 3,000 calories a day. This field ration is an emergency option when fierce fighting occurs and logistics cannot supply food in time. Each bag can provide 5,500 calories, which is more than enough to meet the needs of soldiers in high-intensity combat.
Some high-level enhanced humans might eat a little more than an average person, but they would definitely be full after eating two servings.
"Count how many bags of field rations there are in total," Yeager said.
Several soldiers quickly counted them and said, "One hundred and five bags."
"There are exactly 525 people on our two floors. It seems that they have calculated well, with one bag for five people." Yeager murmured, "One thousand calories per person per day... hunger is inevitable, but as long as we don't do any strenuous exercise, we should be able to hold on for a few days... I just don't know how long we can hold on. Let's distribute the food first. The brothers have had nothing to eat for most of the day."
Yeager himself did not take the rations from the box. Instead, he took out a bar of chocolate specially provided for pilots from his jacket pocket, broke off a small piece and put it in his mouth.
This kind of chocolate is very sweet, and has extremely high calories and sugar content. It also contains a small amount of painkillers and stimulants. Eating a small piece of it is even more exciting than smoking a cigarette... According to rumors, this kind of chocolate is highly addictive. Since it is a rare material specially provided to fighter pilots and mecha pilots, it can often be sold at a high price in second-line troops after changing hands several times.
Seeing the hungry soldiers swallowing the dry and hard compressed biscuits, Yeger couldn't help but smile bitterly - they were previously called "first-class people" by other troops, and their food, clothing, and treatment were the best in the Ark Army. In the past, they didn't even want to look at this kind of compressed biscuits, but now, compressed biscuits seem to have become the most delicious thing in the world.
"This situation... will only get worse in the future..." Yeager sighed. Although he was one of the first people in Fleet Zero to decide to revolt, he was also very clear that after breaking with the Ark, their future days would become extremely difficult.
The compressed biscuits will be eaten up soon. Then, how will these tens of thousands of people fill their stomachs?
Yegel had participated in the siege of exiles, and he had seen what those people living in the wilderness used to fill their stomachs... When he thought of those scenes, Yegel felt as if his stomach was starting to sour. If he hadn't just swallowed a piece of sweet enough chocolate, he would probably have retched now.
The only thing that made him feel a little relieved was that there were plenty of medical supplies on Yaguna Tor, and there were a large number of idle medical cabins. The seriously injured who were rescued basically received timely treatment. Only two soldiers could not be saved because their injuries were too serious. The other wounded are now out of danger.
But then there is another problem... During the march, especially during a long-distance retreat, the wounded are a "burden" that is a headache for the commander. Although this statement seems a bit ruthless, it is true - due to morale and military spirit, the commander will never choose to abandon the wounded unless it is absolutely necessary. However, one wounded person often requires multiple soldiers to take care of him. Apart from carrying a stretcher, a seriously injured person who cannot move on his own will take up the combat share of two healthy soldiers. As a result, the combat effectiveness of the entire unit will be greatly reduced.
In the tug-of-war in the old era, many soldiers also tended to injure the enemy to make him lose his combat capability rather than kill him directly - for example, a sniper who was hunting freely on the battlefield, after selecting the target, would often choose to shoot the non-vital parts of the target... Injuring a person can affect the enemy's overall combat effectiveness to a greater extent than killing a person. If you are lucky, you can also use the wounded person as bait to snipe more soldiers who come to rescue him.
Of course, there is another unspoken statement between the two sides: On the battlefield, no one knows when they will be shot, and if everyone prefers to injure rather than kill, perhaps they can save their lives. Unless the two sides have a deep hatred, they generally will not shoot the wounded who have lost their ability to fight.
Being able to survive is certainly a good thing...but the problem is that there are too many wounded people on Yaguna Tor.
Of the nearly 48,000 people, one third were lightly wounded, and there were about a thousand seriously wounded who were unable to take care of themselves... According to military regulations, in a non-combatant state, supplies should be given priority to the wounded. But now, Yaguna Kotor lacked almost everything except medicine and water.
"It would be great if we could find a place to get supplies... But now it is estimated that all the strongholds and bases on Alpha have received the news of the 'rebellion' of Yaguna Kator and Fleet Zero. If they choose to defend themselves and concentrate all the supplies in those large strongholds and bases that are difficult to break through, then the situation will not be optimistic." Layton walked over, patted Yeager on the shoulder, and said.
Because of Ke Lan, Layton and his friends had met Yeger several times. After hearing that Yeger was one of the initiators of the uprising, Layton took the initiative to find him.
"With the combat power of Yaguna Kator, even the Mukach base can be easily breached, right?" Yeager turned his head, stared into Layton's eyes and asked, "So... did you really rebel? Or were you 'forced to rebel'?"
"Rebellion? I really want to laugh." Layton sneered. "To use the old dog's words, this is 'if you want to accuse someone of a crime, you can always find a pretext'... Just before the black fleet showed up, we were still planning the exploration of Block 2... Rebellion, what the hell!"
"I think so... In this situation, you should be unwilling to actively attack human strongholds in the wilderness, right?" Yeger asked.
"I don't care." Layton shrugged, "But Old Dog disagrees... He thinks that even if we have different ideas from the Undead... even if we have different ideas from the Ark's top leaders, we shouldn't be reduced to the same morality as those beasts in the heretical sect."
"Can you tell me how long the food on Yaguna Tor can last?" Yeger asked in a low voice.
"You can see it," Layton pointed to the empty box that had been moved to the corner of the corridor, "Everyone's food ration has been cut to the minimum, but even so, the remaining food can only last for two days. Even if we take out the glucose water from the pharmacy as nutrient solution, it can only last for three days at most."
"Then how do we solve the supply problem?"
"I don't know." Layton shook his head. "My idea is to raid several large military bases before the Ark reacts, and use force and negotiation to force them to hand over their supplies without killing anyone... But Old Dog doesn't seem to agree with this plan."
"Based on the current situation, this should be the best solution. The only risk is that we are easily ambushed... Once the Ark knows our movements, they will most likely give up the pursuit and set the trap directly in the next base we want to 'plunder'." Yeager nodded. "By the way, according to the original plan, where was this battleship supposed to go? How will the supplies of the garrison on board be solved? Even without our group of people, your supplies should not be able to last more than two weeks, right?"
"We originally planned to find a place to drop off those garrison troops..." Layton looked around and confirmed that no one was paying attention to them before continuing, "As for the original destination, it was... the Gray Mist Forest."
