Volume 2: The Undersea City Chapter 57: Leaderless Snakes
The transport ship's thruster power was turned up to maximum, and the altitude began to slowly rise amid the deafening roar of the engine.
"Watch out for the tightrope!!"
The six steel cables connected to the harpoon were suddenly stretched straight. The huge force from above caused the bracket and keel to creak. Fortunately, the force was evenly distributed among the six keels, so there was no need to worry about the risk of the keel being broken.
As for the steel cable itself, although it looks only as thick as an adult man's thumb, its strength is far greater than the keel of a transport ship. Each cable is made of four strands of steel ropes twisted together, and each strand of steel rope contains twelve steel wires with a diameter of less than one millimeter. The material of these steel wires is not ordinary high -carbon steel , but "special ultra-high tensile steel" containing 75% Nino alloy. This material is also called "75 Nino Steel" by the engineers on the Ark. While having a strength comparable to Nino alloy, it also has excellent toughness and ductility, and the metal itself has top-notch fatigue resistance.
The core of each steel wire rope is made of the same ultra-high-strength artificial polymer - "UR" polyurethane rubber. The space between the four steel wire ropes is filled with viscous silicon-aluminum gel to ensure that the four steel wire ropes can be evenly stressed to the greatest extent possible and reduce the possibility of breakage.
"Tell the Pioneer to concentrate their fire on the giant deep-sea eel that was pulled out of the sea by the harpoon! Don't save ammunition!" Ke Lan ordered again.
In fact, he didn't need to say much. When the "No. 14" deep-sea giant eel was lifted into the air, all the weapons on the Pioneer had already entered the full-fire mode. Due to the limited shooting angle, many weapons on the deck and bridge could not attack the sea around the ship. But if it was an aerial target, the situation would be completely different...
200mm caliber armor-piercing cannon, 35mm caliber "Stinger" rapid-fire railgun, "Purgatory" heavy flamethrower, 1130 close-in defense gun, anti-aircraft cluster rocket... the ammunition for these weapons poured out like it was free. Even if the deep-sea giant eel had a high physical defense, it was beaten into minced meat almost instantly. Its dozens of meters long body broke into several pieces and fell into the sea one after another.
"Huh..." Seeing that the plan was successful, Ke Lan finally breathed a sigh of relief and sat on the ground leaning against the support of the Harpoon heavy cannon. Layton and the Hound clapped their hands in succession, and both of them laughed wildly without any scruples. As for Zhuo Ligetu, the Mongolian man simply fainted again.
"Is he... is he okay?" Natasha, who had been following everyone and had hardly spoken, pointed at the unconscious Zhuo Ligetu and asked worriedly.
"It shouldn't be a big problem. It's mainly due to the side effects of the muscle enhancer..." Ke Lan shook his head tiredly, supported himself on the ground with his right hand, and stood up.
He walked behind Zhuo Ligetu and dismantled the almost scrapped mechanical exoskeleton in a rather violent way.
"Leighton, stop yelling and come over to help." Ke Lan said.
"Okay - hey, when did this guy faint? I didn't even notice it just now..." As Leighton said this, he took Zhuo Ligetu down from the stand.
"He fainted just before you fired, but his hands didn't loosen at all..." Ke Lan struggled to pry Zhuo Ligetu's fingers off the lifting ring of the cannon barrel one by one.
"He's a real man—" Layton nodded in agreement.
At this time, the escort captain suddenly shouted: "Retreat! Those deep-sea giant eels really retreated!"
Ke Lan lowered his head and looked towards the observation window on the floor. He saw that some of the remaining deep-sea giant eels dived into the deep sea without looking back after "No. 14" was killed, while others launched several ineffective attacks on the Pioneer and then scattered and fled in all directions.
What's worse, they actually started biting and attacking each other...
Only a very small number of deep-sea giant eels were still following No. 14's instructions before his death, and they fearlessly attacked the Pioneer, but soon they were killed by the defensive weapons on the Pioneer.
Sure enough, this "No. 14" was the commander of these deep-sea giant eels, and the order to besiege the Pioneer was issued from it. Without it, the remaining deep-sea giant eels, which were leaderless, could not pose any threat to the Pioneer.
"Damn, it actually worked—" The Hound nudged Ke Lan with his elbow with some emotion, "I thought you were just bragging at first."
"I won't brag about my brothers' wives' money. If we lose, we'll all be left with nothing." Ke Lan gasped for breath and forced a smile.
"Confirmed that the threat has been lifted... uh, should we carry out the original mission?" The voice of the transport ship captain came again from the loudspeaker.
"Why are you asking me this... Oh, I forgot that I am now the commander of this transport ship..." Ke Lan scratched his head, "Perform the original mission, descend in altitude, and prepare to dock with the Pioneer... Oh, by the way, let them prepare the infirmary on the ship, we have a wounded person here."
"The Pioneer has approved our request and will dock once the deck is cleared - but they said there are too many wounded and there are no empty beds in the infirmary... uh, they also said that even the corridor outside the infirmary is full of people." The captain said cautiously, as if he was afraid of angering Ke Lan.
"...Forget it, just ask them to prepare a clean cabin." Ke Lan waved his hand. Compared with the wounded on the ship, Zhuo Ligetu's condition was not serious. The main reason he fell into a coma was exhaustion and the side effects of the medicine. He would be fine after a good night's sleep.
"And..." the captain continued, "The captain of the Pioneer said he wanted to see you. He said he would send someone to pick you up on the deck..."
"See me? Are you sure you're not mistaken?" Ke Lan was a little stunned.
"The other party's original words were that he was the planner and executor of the rescue operation just now... I think, in addition to you, your companions should be included..."
Ke Lan glanced at Benson, who was sitting in the corner with a gloomy expression and nodding at the camera, and said, "Got it, I'll go over."
The Aurora Group's transport ship slowly descended to a height almost level with the sea surface and sailed side by side with the Pioneer icebreaker. At the same time, the docking mechanisms on the sides of the two ships engaged with each other, the hatches of the eight cargo holds opened at the same time, and box after box of supplies were transported to the deck of the Pioneer via conveyor belts.
The person who greeted Ke Lan was a tall young woman with wheat-colored skin and heroic short hair. She had not yet completely taken off the blood-stained power armor on her body. It was obvious that she was a front-line personnel in the previous battle.
White hot air continued to rise from the open collar of the power armor. She shrank her shoulders, took one arm out of the armor, wiped the soft pad inside the armor twice, and reached out to Ke Lan who was walking in front.
"Hello, I'm the first mate of the Pioneer icebreaker, Caroline. What's your name?"
The first mate on the Pioneer was actually such a young woman? And she was fighting on the front line wearing a power armor. This surprised Ke Lan a little. After hesitating for a moment, he shook Caroline's outstretched hand.
"Ke Lan."
"Mr. Ke...? It's a not very common Chinese surname." Caroline smiled, "Thank you very much for you and your team's rescue of the Pioneer. The captain is waiting for you in the captain's room. Please follow me."
