Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 939 Public Communication Terminal
When there is electricity, there is not much difference between 400 meters and 650 meters. This maintenance passage, which is closer to the public communication terminal, naturally becomes the "best choice".
There were lights in the maintenance passage, but in order not to alert the enemy, the team did not turn on all the lighting equipment in the passage. They only lit up a few lights on the elevator.
Only a section of the passage less than 30 meters long could be illuminated by the light, and the distance was gradually swallowed up by darkness. Everyone looked up, pointed their weapons directly upwards, and waited for battle.
No one spoke. The only sounds that could be heard in the passage were the deliberately suppressed breathing and the friction between the elevator pulleys and tracks. Not only Soap and Giraffe felt extremely depressed, but everyone else in the team also felt a little breathless.
Especially in a closed space like a tunnel, once they encounter an enemy, they have no chance of escape and can only fight to the death.
There was not even any extra space to dodge, nor any obstacles to hide their bodies. They could only shoot at the enemy like the line infantry of the 17th century in the Old Era. This kind of battle had no skills and no luck. Soldiers were simply used as consumables. The side whose morale collapsed first would be the first to start to disintegrate...
However, for everyone in the team, they didn't even have a chance to disperse.
It only took forty-five minutes for the elevator to reach the exit, but to them, these forty-five minutes felt as long as forty-five years.
When the bright lights of the exit appeared in the distance, everyone breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.
"To be honest, when I was in the tunnel just now, the scenes from the horror movies I've seen before, especially those set in enclosed environments, kept flashing in my mind... I felt like if I stayed in there for a while longer, I would probably suffer from claustrophobia." Soap whispered to the giraffe.
"I'm not much better... So, are we... considered to be on a pirate ship?" Giraffe looked cautiously in the direction of the spear team. "According to our plan, shouldn't we get off the ship before boarding it?"
"What pirate ship... don't talk nonsense!" Soap glared at his outspoken companion, "If you want to talk about pirates, then those monsters are the pirates. We represent justice. The survivors on the Ark are waiting for us to save them."
"Don't be so righteous. I don't know whether you are a thief or not. Don't let yourself lose your life when you can't rescue the survivors." The giraffe said depressedly, "Actually, we still have a chance to escape now... Let's find a reason... No, that won't work... Or, when we meet the enemy, we will be in a melee..."
"Run away? Where are you planning to run away to?" Soap gave the giraffe a blank look and asked back.
"Anyway, let's leave the Ark first... Didn't the survivor tell us to flee from here, the farther the better? I think what he said is absolutely right. With the power we have, it's impossible to complete the mission."
"Then what? After escaping from the Ark, do we have anywhere to go?" Soap said helplessly, "General Maginot planned the Ark recapture operation, but all the military bases and strongholds in the wilderness are involved. No place will take us in... Without a place to stay and no supplies, how many days do you think we can survive in the wilderness? Even if we leave those guys in the team who claim to be survival masters in the wilderness, without logistical support, they won't be able to hold on for long... If it were a few years ago, perhaps we could find an exile settlement to survive for a few years, but now..."
Soap didn't continue talking, but the two of them were partners after all, so Giraffe naturally knew what the second half of the sentence meant.
Originally, the Ark had always turned a blind eye to those exile settlements that did not actively provoke the Ark, and some exiles even made deals with people in transit stations or military bases. But since the war between the Ark and the heretical sects officially started, every settlement in the wilderness has become a "battlefield".
The heretical sects needed the exiles in these settlements to replenish their believers and combat power. In order to prevent these exiles from becoming part of the heretical sects, the Ark launched a high-intensity eradication operation against all the exile settlements that had been discovered. Just like preventing mosquitoes from breeding, it is necessary to fill in the puddles that can provide breeding grounds for mosquito larvae. For the Ark's top leaders, these exile settlements are the soil in which the seeds of erosion breed and are potential sources of soldiers for the heretical sects.
Soap and Giraffe have also participated in several operations to eliminate exile settlements, but in recent months, the number of exile settlements that can be discovered has become fewer and fewer... According to incomplete statistics from those intelligence websites, the number of exiles still existing in the wilderness is likely to be less than a thousand, and this number will be completely reduced to zero within the next three to six months.
In other words, they have nowhere to go.
The giraffe was obviously in a low mood, and Soap wasn't much better... But even the soldiers of the spear squad didn't look very happy.
"Don't be so depressed." The transport plane pilot said to everyone, "In fact, we are very close to completing the mission. Look, this area is lit, and the elevator in the maintenance passage is functioning normally, which means that the power plant here is still supplying electricity... The public communication terminal is most likely not damaged. As long as we can contact the 'big shot' mentioned by the general, the situation should improve."
"Improvement? How much improvement can it be? Can contacting that big shot turn the tide of the war? Not to mention, that big shot himself is trapped on the Ark and can't even send out a distress signal. Even if we contact him, what can we do?" Fei Song really wanted to use these words to refute the transport plane pilot, but he still forced himself to hold the words back - he knew that such words were too damaging to morale, and if he said them out loud, the serious team leader might find a reason to shoot him.
"I hope... I hope that big shot... will be useful." He stammered for a while, and finally whispered in a voice that only he could hear.
The team was moving close to the edge of the power plant park. This was a fully automated nuclear power plant with a large area. The distance around the park was several kilometers. The nearest public communication terminal was more than 800 meters away at the 12 o'clock direction. It was the boundary between the power plant park and the West District 12 residential area. According to the Ark's design plan, each residential area must be equipped with a public communication terminal. However, this public communication terminal was not so much for the residents of West District 12 as it was a supporting facility of the power plant... Compared with those residents, the stationed personnel and security forces of the power plant used it much more often.
"It seems that there is no one in the power station. There are no traces of the stationed personnel and security forces." A scout, with the help of an exoskeleton, easily climbed over the three-meter-high wall of the power station park and said to the team leader, "The door of the security force's barracks is open, but no bodies were found, nor were there any signs of fighting."
"Are the weapons and ammunition still there?" asked the team leader.
"The weapons racks are half empty, and the reserve ammunition has barely been touched," the scout replied.
"Strange... where would that person go?" the team leader wondered.
The security forces of this power station all work in two shifts, half of them resting and the other half on duty, so under normal circumstances, the weapon racks should be half empty. Moreover, if an emergency occurs, the amount of ammunition carried will increase from one base number on a daily basis to two base numbers on alert, or even four base numbers in wartime - such a big thing happened on the Ark, and the reserve ammunition was not even moved, which is really unreasonable.
We can basically rule out the possibility that the security forces were wiped out on the spot, or were transferred to other places upon receiving transfer orders... But where would these dozens of people go?
Even if they flee in a hurry, the remaining half should at least take their weapons with them, right?
The captain smacked his lips and rubbed his cheek vigorously. He thought to himself that he had been in the field corps for so many years, and the quality of the garrison corps on the Ark should not be so low that they even forgot to bring their weapons...
At this time, another scout rushed back from the opposite direction and reported: "No survivors were found in the residential area, and no bodies were found. It was as if all the residents had disappeared."
"West District 12 is a semi-industrial and semi-residential area. The living conditions here are worse than many areas known as slums. The air is filled with toxic gases and exhaust gases emitted by various factories. People with a little ability have already moved away." A relic hunter said, "I have been to West District 12 once before. Many houses in the residential area here are empty. The occupancy rate is less than one-fifth."
"The population capacity of the West District 12 residential area was designed to be 30,000 people. Even if it is one-fifth, there should be 6,000 people. These 6,000 people can't just disappear into thin air without leaving any trace, right?" said the captain of the Spear Squad suspiciously.
"You really didn't find any traces?" The transport plane pilot asked the scout, "Have you checked those houses where people live?"
"I picked a few houses with fresh garbage at the door and went in to check. They were all empty." The scout replied immediately, "The room was very messy... but the rooms in these slums are usually very messy. As for more details, due to time constraints, I don't have them..."
What the scout said was correct. The team leader gave them a time limit of fifteen minutes. With fifteen minutes to run back and forth, there was no way they would have enough time to check the houses carefully.
"I always feel like this is a trap." The transport plane pilot pondered, "There are no signs of this place being invaded by those monsters. Infrastructure such as power plants, lighting equipment, and gas supply equipment are still functioning. It doesn't make sense that there wouldn't be anyone here."
"Could it be that after the Ark's upper echelons discovered the monster invasion, they issued an emergency order for everyone to take refuge in the blocks with higher numbers and concentrate their forces on defense?" asked a younger-looking relic hunter.
"Absolutely impossible." Soap immediately retorted, "Based on my understanding of the Ark's top management, if this really happens, these people living in the slums will definitely be the first to be abandoned. The Ark's top management will not protect them, nor will they distribute precious survival supplies to the people living here. Or let me put it more bluntly, in the eyes of the Ark's top management, the people living here are not considered human beings at all."
The captain of the Spear Squad glared at Soap and pursed his lips, but did not refute him - because he knew in his heart that although what the other party said was unpleasant, it was indeed the truth.
"You two, move towards the public communication terminal and make sure there are no obstacles or creatures on the route. Everyone else, stay where you are," the captain of the Spear Squad ordered.
The closer we are to the target, the less anxious we should be… The other team will probably be wiped out before they can even get into the “sheltered area”. If anything unexpected happens to their team, this operation will be a complete failure.
"Be careful. You must be careful." The team leader reminded himself over and over again.
Five minutes later, one of the two scouts came running back in a hurry. Before he got close, he made a gesture of "alert" to everyone from a distance.
Everyone's heart suddenly tightened.
The radio equipment carried by the team all uses energy crystals as power source. Although no fleshy fungus mats or monsters were found in this area, the team leader ordered the disabling of all such equipment just in case.
"What's going on? What's the situation?" The team leader asked hurriedly when the scout came closer.
"Just near the public communication terminal, there is a humanoid creature wandering back and forth, and Simon is staring at that guy." The scout's breath was a little unstable, half because of the fast running and the other half because of nervousness.
"Humanoid? Aren't they humans?" the team leader asked again.
"It should be a human..." The scout looked embarrassed, as if he was struggling to describe what he saw. "It...it roughly maintains a human shape, with a head, limbs, and torso...but its body shows a lot of signs of mutation, just like the survivor we found outside."
"Hiss..." Everyone couldn't help but gasp.
"Captain, should we make contact with that person...that thing?" asked the scout.
"Are there other similar individuals nearby?"
"No, there is only one." The scout shook his head.
"Let the sniper take care of it." The team leader ordered, "The risk of contact with it is too great. I don't want what happened to Ronnie to happen to anyone in the team. What's more, it is highly unlikely that we can get any useful information from these things. We might as well focus our mission on the communication terminal."
