Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 987: A Bold Escape Plan
Eight hours ago, inside the Ark, East District 9.
Taking advantage of the gap between the battle between the men in black and the giant beasts that suddenly emerged from the ground - no, to be more precise, the unilateral slaughter of the men in black by the giant beasts - Bianca relied on the remaining energy in her cyborg body to quickly escape from the ruins, crossed the border between East District 9 and East District 8 in one breath, and plunged into the bustling commercial street of East District 8.
She didn't know why the beasts attacked the men in black... Logically speaking, shouldn't the beasts and the men in black be in the same camp? Could it be that the beasts were not intelligent and difficult to control, and they didn't specifically attack the men in black, but indiscriminately attacked all living things they saw?
The reason why I was able to survive was just luck and my ability to run fast...
After thinking about it, Bianca felt that this was probably the most reasonable explanation.
Although the East 8th District and the East 9th District are separated by a border line no more than 20 meters wide, the difference in prosperity is huge. Before the Arasaka Group, the East 8th District was much stronger than the East 9th District in terms of population, economy and public security (of course, the poor public security in the East 8th District is probably also related to the Arasaka Group's support of various street gangs). After the destruction and reconstruction of the East 9th District, the two are even more incomparable.
This commercial street in the East 8th District is more prosperous than any other place in the East 9th District except the famous "Kabukicho Ichibangai". Both sides of the street are densely packed with shops, and above the stores are colorful signs and various holographic projection advertisements filled with cyberpunk atmosphere.
At the beginning and end of the street are two large shopping malls covering an area of more than 10,000 square meters. The interior of the shopping malls is like a maze. People who come here for the first time often get lost even if they follow the navigation.
Further back is a large commercial office complex. Buildings hundreds of meters high are directly connected to the dome, and suspended train tracks weave around the gaps between the buildings.
This commercial street can have a traffic of over 30,000 people during holidays, but now, it is as quiet as a ghost town.
"There are no survivors..."
Bianca was limping along the street, the energy indicator light of her cyborg body flashing a dim red light... This was a sign of energy depletion. If Bianca could not find energy crystals or other means of charging in time, the cyborg body that was supporting her from dying would soon become a heavy burden.
"I need to replenish my energy... as well as food and medicine." Bianca thought to herself.
The commercial street in East District 8 is better than that in East District 9 in one respect: the temperature control system is still working. Although the temperature is somewhat unstable due to the influence of East District 9, at least it is not as cold as that in the ruins at night, which is enough to freeze people to death.
Bianca searched the street and soon locked onto a luxury car parked on the side of the road. This luxury car is different from ordinary cars that are charged or use synthetic chemical fuels. In order to show its high-end, it has a built-in small energy converter and uses energy crystals as energy. In the trunk of the car, there is most likely a safe for storing crystals.
Bianca inserted a crowbar she had picked up into the gap in the trunk lid and pried it hard. Suddenly, the alarm sounded. She couldn't help but curse, raised her head and shot the horn of the luxury car.
Bianca's consciousness was on the verge of drifting away. The moment she saw the luxury car, she completely forgot about the existence of the alarm... The shrill alarm sounded particularly harsh in this quiet commercial street.
She quickly retreated into an empty self-service convenience store nearby and squatted behind the glass to observe - she waited for twenty minutes and did not see any living creatures attracted by the alarm sound.
"It seems that those men in black didn't continue to chase us... Were they killed by the giant beast?" Bianca turned her head and glanced at the bread on the counter. Although the bread had passed its expiration date, it didn't show any obvious signs of spoilage. Bianca, who was extremely hungry, couldn't help but swallow her saliva... After confirming that there was no alarm on the counter, she smashed the glass with a crowbar, took out the bread, tore open the package in no time started to bite into it.
After eating four pieces of expired bread, a whole can of salad dressing and a Russian sausage as thick as her forearm in one go, Bianca's hunger was completely gone. She searched the counter for some small, high-calorie, easy-to-carry and preserve foods, filled her backpack, and walked out of the convenience store.
After looking around and confirming that there was no one, he continued to pry open the trunk of the luxury car without saying a word. The beautiful metallic paint of the luxury car was cracked and peeled off under the dual force of the crowbar and the cyborg prosthesis. For a luxury car of this level, the price of repainting and repair is much more valuable than the energy crystals in the trunk... However, for Bianca now, no matter how much money she has, it is useless.
The Ark has been destroyed, human civilization has been destroyed... Although this commercial street now vaguely retains the shadow of its former prosperity, it is actually a barren world. Without civilization, the existence of currency has no meaning, and luxury goods without practicality are not even as good as a whole grain steamed bun.
Bianca did consider driving the car away, but she gave up the idea after she found out that it was not bulletproof at all... One third of the value of this car is in the logo, and one third is in the appearance. As for materials and workmanship, it is not even as good as the off-road vehicle they drove out of Mukach Fortress.
Before the cyborg was about to shut down due to low energy, Bianca finally pried open the trunk, and then used violence to open the safe - there were not many energy crystals in the safe, and the quality was average, but it was enough for her cyborg.
Bianca picked up a crystal and replaced the one in the prosthetic body that had become completely transparent and looked almost like glass. The flashing red indicator light finally turned back to green.
Bianca roughly calculated the energy in the remaining crystals, which was enough to maintain the cyborg's mobility for three days... Three days would be a bit of a stretch to walk from the Ark to the Mukach Fortress, but if there was a vehicle, that would be a different story.
Vehicles, that definitely won't work... There's no way they can get past that clear zone... As for aircraft, that's even more impossible. They'll probably become sitting ducks as soon as they leave the port... Bianca has already experienced the accuracy of that crossbow once, and she doesn't want to experience it again.
But it doesn't mean that there is no way to escape... As long as the speed is fast enough, so fast that the spikes fired by the ballista can't catch up...
Whether it is an airplane or an airship, it takes time to accelerate. It is impossible to reach the fastest speed right after taking off. The acceleration process is enough to be pierced into a hedgehog by a crossbow.
"We need to be fast enough when leaving the port..."
Bianca had a flash of inspiration, and she suddenly thought of something that could reach a very fast speed when it was first launched - when it drilled out of the launch channel, it could reach a speed of Mach 7 or even Mach 8, and could accelerate to Mach 15 within two seconds.
The air defense weapons deployed in various military ports on the top floor of the Ark are the "Bovari" air defense systems.
The main body of the "Bovari" air defense system is composed of radar, launch towers and launch devices. Its biggest feature is that the launch silo of the air defense missile runs through the entire Ark, extending from the bottom of the Ark to the top of the Ark. This gives the missile enough time to accelerate. By the time the missile leaves the launch silo and appears outside the Ark to be detected by the enemy, its speed is already difficult to intercept.
If he could find a usable "Bervari" air defense system, hollow out the warhead of a missile, put on power armor and a parachute and get in, set the target and warhead disintegration time, he could use the missile to "launch" himself out, then detach from the missile at a safe location far enough away from the Ark, and return to the ground by landing.
But the "Bervari" air defense system requires very high authority to be activated... Bianca was stunned, and as if she remembered something, she touched the pocket inside her chest and took out a black card in a waterproof bag.
It was this black card that led to the annihilation of her team... But Bianca also knew that this black card symbolized an extremely high level of power. It was no exaggeration to say that holding this card was equivalent to the presence of General Maginot himself.
The authority of the black card should be enough to activate the "Borvari" air defense system, but the black card also has a disadvantage, that is, when it is inserted into any device, it will be detected by the man called "Zeus"... If Bianca does not act fast enough, it is very likely that the men in black will show up before the missile is launched.
The black card must be used in the final stage of the launch... Before that, Bianca must rely on herself to enter the military port and the launch tower, as well as the place where the anti-aircraft missiles are stored.
This plan is very difficult, and the success rate is almost negligible...but it is Bianca's only way to escape from the Ark at the moment.
"Navy port... the nearest naval port from here should be..." Bianca opened the electronic map and searched carefully, and found that the nearest naval port was "Navy Port C25" located just above East District 7.
"C25 Naval Port" is a Class C naval port that can only berth small warships such as supply ships and high-speed support ships, and there are only four berths... However, no matter how small its scale is, it is still a naval port, and it is a naval port located on the top structure of the Ark, so it must be equipped with the "Bervari" air defense system.
The "Bervari" air defense system is not only for ensuring the safety of this military port - when hundreds of air defense systems are operating at the same time, an airtight "air defense firepower network" can be woven above the Ark. Therefore, the size and level of the military port are not important, and the location is the key to whether the military port will be equipped with the "Bervari" air defense system.
The biggest problem facing Bianca is how to reach this military port safely.
First, she had to cross the entire East District 8, and then take the elevator or vertical rail train in East District 7 to the top floor of the Ark - if both were out of service, she could only choose the maintenance passage and climb the ladder to the top structure located 1,400 meters above East District 7.
The power armor and parachutes should be in the warehouse of the naval port, so there is no need to look for them specifically. However, Bianca was a little worried about whether the air defense system of the C25 naval port could be activated.
"It all depends on luck..." Bianca muttered to herself.
She didn't rush to East District 7, but first searched for supplies on this commercial street - food in convenience stores and supermarkets, medicines and bandages in pharmacies, and guns and ammunition in weapon shops, all of which were Bianca's targets. The only pity was that things like military stimulants or quick-acting hemostatic agents were hard to find in ordinary pharmacies, and the same was true for weapon shops. Most of the weapons that could be bought in weapon shops on the commercial street were semi-automatic weapons that met civilian standards, and the caliber of the guns was also restricted. Explosives like grenades and dynamite were impossible to buy here, not to mention the crystal energy bombs that Bianca wanted most at this time.
Even if relic hunters and mercenaries have licenses and purchasing qualifications, they must go to special places to buy such weapons... Weapon stores like this one in busy business districts basically serve civilians, and the needs for competition and collection are far greater than the needs for actual combat - just like a joke circulating in the mercenary circle: "Who would go to a big shopping mall to buy a gun?"
"Maybe we should go to the military camp or somewhere with an underground black market first." Bianca thought, "I just don't know if there are any surviving troops on the Ark..."
But in fact, even if Bianca met a survivor, she would not dare to contact him easily - no one knew whether the survivor she met was a "survivor" or not.
As she walked, she observed the shops on both sides of the street - a few days ago, these shops should have been crowded with people, but now there was not a single living thing to be seen... The pedestrians on the street, the staff and shoppers in the mall, the white-collar workers in the office buildings in the distance, this business district usually has a population of at least tens of thousands. Could it be that they all disappeared in an instant?
Perhaps the Ark's upper echelons issued an evacuation notice and everyone evacuated the area?
No... that's not right. If there really was an evacuation notice, then even with the army maintaining order, it should have been a chaotic scene here - Bianca could even imagine all kinds of vehicles blocking the streets, people jostling each other, and garrison soldiers holding riot shields and rubber batons trying to prevent the evacuation passage from being opened by the crowds...
Stampedes and traffic accidents are bound to happen... Even if the crowd can be evacuated successfully in the end, the streets will definitely be a mess.
But the commercial street in front of us doesn’t look like it has experienced a major evacuation at all.
