Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 934: Clearance Belt
"Is he an engineer? Or a logistics officer?" The transport pilot was slightly startled. Logically speaking, a technician with solid skills would not become a mercenary who earned money by selling his life no matter how poor his life was. Judging from the man's familiarity with the "Amran-class" transport aircraft, it would not be too much for him to work as a tester or technical consultant for aircraft manufacturers. If that didn't work out, he could find a ground staff job at a civilian airport. The income would not be much lower than being a mercenary, and there would be no risk to his life.
"Neither." The Joker shook his head, "I just occasionally saw the detailed design drawings of this type of transport aircraft."
"Have you seen the drawings?!" A trace of astonishment appeared on the pilot's face. You know, these drawings are not public. Even for civilian aircraft, they are the trade secrets of various manufacturers and ordinary people cannot see them at all.
Even people in the manufacturing factory can only see incomplete drawings after the components are disassembled. This guy actually said that he had seen detailed design drawings "occasionally"... Who is he?
Or did he only see the design drawings for the engine? But judging from his smooth operation, he was obviously more familiar with the structure of the cockpit, and also had a good grasp of the timing of ignition and throwing. Even if the pilot himself operated this extreme operation, he might not be able to do it so perfectly.
If the ignition is late or the jettison is early, the engine will not restart. If the ignition is early or the jettison is late, the transport plane itself will be blown up. There is also the opening and closing of the energy shield - the shield generator carried on the transport plane also has a slight delay when it starts, but he even took into account this delay of a few tenths of a second.
Otherwise, the damage to the fuselage would be even more serious.
This couldn't be just luck... judging from the other party's performance, he was obviously very confident.
Just based on this point, even if the pilot is told that the person in front of him was once an ace pilot, the pilot will not have the slightest doubt.
An ace pilot became a mercenary? As far as the pilot knew, there was only one ace pilot named Valentina who became a relic hunter. But the problem was that she joined the famous God Hunter Group, and the salary they offered was probably higher than that of the main players in those mecha competition clubs. As for this "clown"...
To put it bluntly, he is a complete "nobody".
The driver wanted to ask something, but the "clown" had already helped him to where everyone was piling up their equipment and put him down.
"Take everything you need, and be prepared for no supplies later." The leader of the Spear Squad said, "Even if we can break into the Ark, we may not be able to find a supply point."
"Wait a minute." The Joker suddenly spoke up, "I suggest that all equipment that uses energy crystals as a driving force be left here. No matter the size, power or purpose, do not carry them with you."
"Why?" A heavily-armored soldier from the spear squad frowned and shook the wall shield hanging on his arm - this thing looked like a wall shield for combat, but in fact it was a small energy shield generator, which was the most defensive equipment in the squad, bar none.
"This is a life-saving device. You asked me to leave the shield here. What do you mean?" The heavy soldier wanted to argue, but the captain of the spear team patted him on the shoulder and said, "He is right. Do as he says. Like everyone else, leave all the equipment that needs energy crystals to drive here. You only need to carry the minimum amount of energy crystals to activate the public communication terminal."
"Why, Captain?" the heavily armored soldier asked puzzledly.
"Dude, you're a bit stupid, aren't you?" Before the captain could say anything, Soap took the lead and complained, "Have you forgotten how we were shot down from the sky? Those enemies are obviously very sensitive to energy crystals. Do you want to kill everyone?"
Although the energy reaction of portable equipment would be much weaker than that of large equipment such as crystal engines and anti-gravity devices, their direction of movement was towards the Ark and the occupied areas of unknown enemies. The closer the distance, the easier it would be for the enemy to detect the energy reaction - even an electronic watch driven by the lowest level of crystals could expose their whereabouts.
One by one, equipment that used energy crystals as energy source was taken down and thrown into the equipment box, even the crystal energy bombs were no exception.
Each person only carried a small piece of the lowest-level energy crystal, which was used to activate the communication terminal in the Ark. Moreover, for safety reasons, these energy crystals were packaged in special lead boxes.
"The equipment with the strongest lethality and defense power have been lost. As a result, the combat capability of the entire team has been reduced by at least half." Giraffe complained. The equipment he lost included a pulse laser assault rifle that he bought last month. This rifle cost him the compensation for three missions, and it still hurt him to lose it.
"We should try to avoid fighting... If we can deceive the enemy's perception, I don't mind even running naked into the Ark." Soap said to his companion, "Don't you think about the strength of the enemy we are facing? In my opinion, even if I give you an aircraft carrier battleship, it will be useless."
Soap's metaphor is not an exaggeration. After all, the flagships of those powerful fleets with aircraft carriers and battleships have all crashed on the Ark...
"Move towards the Ark, and keep hidden and maintain radio silence." The captain of the Spear Squad ordered.
Soap and the giraffe looked at each other without saying anything. They put on their equipment and followed silently.
As for the "Clown" and the pilot of the transport plane, they walked at the end of the team.
According to Admiral Maginot's request and the regulations in the "mission contract", the highest commander of this special squad composed of regular troops, mercenaries and relic hunters is the captain of the Spear Squad. Similarly, the commander of the other squad is the captain of the Gray Fox Squad.
If the squad leader is killed, the next person in order of rank from highest to lowest will take over as commander until the last regular army soldier is killed.
In short, the power of command will never fall into the hands of these mercenaries.
The spear squad's scout team is responsible for taking the lead. A standard-sized scout team consists of two scouts, a sniper and an observer. The scout is responsible for collecting information, while the sniper and observer's tasks are to use silenced sniper rifles to deal with some "small troubles" - such as eliminating secret sentries and dealing with lone enemies on the route.
It's just that the sniper had already been killed when he was attacked in the air, so the observer had to take on the sniping mission alone. Fortunately, the observers in general special forces teams are also selected from elite snipers, so the impact of one less sniper is not that great.
The scout team moved a little faster than the main force, but because they had to maintain radio silence, the distance could not be too far, probably controlled at about one kilometer, and the sniper who replaced his teammate also kept a distance of about two hundred meters from the two scouts - this flexible formation was very commonly used in stealth operations, scouts and snipers could respond and support each other within the visible range, and they could also seek help from the main force in the rear in time when one side got into trouble, while avoiding the problem of blind spots in vision when acting together.
"To be honest, I always feel like we are running naked now." Giraffe said to Soap, "There is no cover on this road. The target is too conspicuous. If the enemy has thermal infrared vision or low-light vision, they can see it clearly from the Ark."
"What can I do? Since we haven't been attacked yet, it means the enemy hasn't discovered us yet." Soap replied unhappily, "You'd better shut up. If we are really discovered by the enemy, I will use you as a human shield first."
"If you think my body can help you block those spikes, go ahead." The giraffe rolled his eyes and adjusted the helmet on his head.
The penetrating power of the spikes that attacked the transport plane was extremely terrifying. After piercing the outer armor and the middle structure of the transport plane, they were able to penetrate the bodies of two people and finally penetrate out from the other side of the transport plane... It is no exaggeration to say that this thing might not even be able to withstand the frontal armor of the main battle tanks currently in service.
You know, the "Amran-class" transport plane they took was an improved military version, and the armor thickness of the cabin alone was.
More than 700 mm, this was the average frontal armor thickness of main battle tanks before they switched to Nino alloy armor. (Note 1)
No one can use their flesh to block such a weapon. If all the members of the squad were to stand in a vertical row, the spike would be able to pierce through them from head to toe, turning them all into a string of bloody "candied haws".
But what the giraffe said at the beginning was not without reason. In order to prevent indigenous creatures from hiding around the Ark, or the existence of hidden remains of the Alpha civilization, the terrain within a range of fifty kilometers from the edge of the Ark was "processed". The processing method was also very brainless: first use detectors to scan all places, and after confirming that there are no remains or other man-made structures or nests of indigenous creatures underground, use bulldozers and explosives to flatten all the "bumps" on the ground, and then use cement and sand to fill in the potholes and depressions, and create a huge artificial plain.
This artificial plain is called the "clearance zone". If any indigenous creatures or exiles with bad intentions want to approach the Ark, they will be discovered when they enter this "clearance zone" without any cover - there is no need for any high-tech reconnaissance equipment, just a telescope at a high place, and you can clearly see the people or animals walking in the "clearance zone".
The transport plane's emergency landing location was within the clear zone. If the enemy came to search for their traces later, they would soon discover the transport plane left there - this was one of the reasons why the captain of the Spear Squad executed the seriously wounded. Rather than staying in the transport plane and being captured by the enemy, it was better to leave quickly.
"In fact, the situation is much better than expected." The transport plane pilot whispered to the others as he walked. "After we successfully made an emergency landing and turned off the anti-gravity device, the spikes never attacked again. This means that the enemy's search method is very simple, and they can only rely on energy reactions to determine our position. Moreover, the locking mechanism of the weapon that fires spikes is a bit stupid. They will only shoot at places with energy reactions, and the attack will stop immediately after the energy reaction disappears."
"That makes sense." Soap nodded. "If I were the enemy commander, even if the anti-gravity device of our transport plane was turned off and the energy reaction disappeared, I would order to continue shooting at the location where the energy reaction last appeared, or even carry out a blanket fire strike on that area ."
"Then we are all wiped out now." The driver shrugged. The energy shield was also turned off along with the anti-gravity device. After turning off everything, they were still worried for a while, fearing that the spikes would attack again without the protection of the shield... But what surprised everyone was that after turning off all the equipment that reacted to energy, the surroundings suddenly became quiet and the enemy's attacks stopped immediately.
It was as if the switch for the anti-gravity device and shield generator was the same switch as the device that fired the spikes.
"Speaking of which, the other team might be in trouble." A relic hunter from the Snapping Turtle hunting group said, "The vehicles they are riding in all use energy crystal engines and have no shield generators. If they encounter these spikes, I'm afraid that after a round of concentrated fire, not many people will survive."
"Don't worry about them for now, just take care of yourself." Soap waved his hand and looked up at the Ark - at this time they were still 1.5 kilometers away from the Ark, and the outline of the Ark became clearer in their field of vision.
"Hey, look, there seems to be something on the edge of the Ark... It didn't seem to be there when I saw it on the plane before!" Soap suddenly exclaimed.
[PS Note 1: A small explanation is needed here. The armor thickness in military terminology generally does not refer to the actual armor thickness. For example, if the front armor thickness of a tank is 500 mm, it does not mean that its armor is really half a meter thick. This thickness is actually an abbreviation. When expanded, it should be called "equivalent thickness", which means "protective capability is equivalent to homogeneous steel armor with a thickness of 500 mm."
In fact, the thickness of the composite armor used in tanks is not that exaggerated. As for the addition of the fictional Nino alloy in this book, the thickness and weight of the armor have been further compressed.
In addition, the "penetration depth in millimeters" of armor-piercing bullets also refers to the "equivalent penetration depth". 】
