From Titan Corporation to the Empire of Man

Chapter 104 "Mobile Heat Source" "Tall Tower Building" (4000)

2 month 14 day.

Five days after the space door was opened, after the engineering department worked hard all night to build it, the frontline base finally had a general outline.

Except for a small number of semi-open areas without air filtration systems, buildings such as barracks, biological centers, maintenance workshops, underground hangars, and command buildings have been put into normal use.

Together with the daily supplies transported to the base warehouse, it can fully meet the daily needs of 4,000 people within two years.

Factories equipped with 3D printers and robotic arms can use local materials to continuously manufacture building materials, weapons, ammunition, and armored vehicles for the base.

As the scale of the base increases, the engineering department is also expanding the coverage of the canopy to ensure that the base is always hidden.

At this moment, Lima is on the sunny side, almost in the afternoon.

Command building, in personal office;
  Swish-.

Automatic door opening and closing.

Sui Yang entered the office from the corridor, hung his black coat on the hanger next to the door, walked to the leather office chair not far away, unbuttoned the buttons, and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.

Turn around and sit down.

He woke up the host in standby, lit up the two holographic screens, and brought up numerous graphic and video materials with the touch of his fingers, most of which were shot by the fully assembled Ernio 006.

Affected by high temperatures and thick clouds, the high-altitude bird's-eye view taken by Ernie 006 in orbit is blurry and unable to show more details.

However, these only blurry images still show that frequent volcanic movements have aggravated the deterioration of the environment. At the same time, North America has the strongest heat source response, including a large number of "movable giant heat sources."

Secondly, the average high temperature of 40 degrees has melted 90% of the Antarctic ice sheet, causing sea levels to rise by nearly 60 meters.

This caused the ocean to swallow up most of the coastal land. Only a few high-altitude areas escaped the disaster. For example, the city of Lima, where the space gate is located, is about 154 meters higher than the original sea level (approximately 1 meters along the coast of Los Angeles). meter).

But through Ernieo 006's continuous high-altitude photography, Sui Yang and Atlas discovered that there was a steel city on the remaining ice sheet, and that city was protected by a giant wall more than meters high.

Taking advantage of the time when the cloud cover was weak, Ernieo 006 took ultra-long range photography and successfully observed the entire steel city.

The streets and areas maintain a certain degree of orderliness, but most of the buildings are giant buildings integrating housing and work, or factories for light and heavy industries. There are no fancy art centers or exhibition halls. Everything seems to be based on survival and construction. benchmark.

This steel city represents that even in such a harsh environment, mankind has never given up any hope.

However, the emergence of this steel city also means that humanity in Universe 06 has no retreat. If even the last ice cap melts and disappears, then humanity in Universe 06 will face extinction.

"."

After reading this, Sui Yang frowned unconsciously.

Combining carbon dioxide, ammonia, and a high-temperature environment, the melting of glaciers has caused a significant rise in sea levels, and more than 90% of coastal cities have been destroyed. There are also "giant mobile heat sources" in the interior of North America, and the architectural styles of Antarctic cities, especially It was the two-hundred-meter-high super giant city wall. All kinds of information reminded Sui Yang of the mecha and monster movies he would rewatch several times every year before traveling through time—

"Pacific Rim".

In the movie, there is an alien race called the Precursors. They have a considerable degree of biological genes and hyperspace technology, and can connect other planets with their home planet by building "wormholes."

They also used a large number of biological samples obtained from different planets, combined with their own genes to conduct experiments, and then cultivated and cloned behemoths weighing 2000 to 7000 tons.

Every time the Pioneers find a new planet and establish a wormhole to connect it to their home planet, the first thing they do is reconnaissance.

If the environment is similar to that of their home planet, giant beasts will be sent to invade through wormholes, and the excrement and blood of the giant beasts will seriously pollute the ecology, gradually transforming it into a colony suitable for them to live.

If the oxygen content is extremely high, the Pioneers will choose to wait patiently until the planet is seriously polluted and damaged by local civilization, and then they will send behemoths to attack, just like the Earth in the movie.

According to the plot, the first giant beast passed through a wormhole in the Pacific Ocean in mid-2013, destroying cities such as San Francisco and San Jose on the West Coast of the United States, and was eventually killed by a tactical nuclear bomb.

However, as the behemoths launched frequent attacks, and the intervals between attacks became shorter and shorter, humans discovered that the radiation and destruction caused by nuclear bombs, as well as the highly toxic flesh and blood of the monsters, were exacerbating the deterioration of the ecological environment, prompting governments and militaries of various countries to establish "Pan Pacific Defense Force (PPDC)".

Afterwards, the Defense Force established the "Jaeger" project to manufacture giant mechas to replace nuclear weapons against the behemoths.

The Hunter Plan had a remarkable effect in the early stages of the war, but the financial resources consumed were also quite staggering. On the other hand, the speed at which the Pioneers upgraded and cultivated the behemoths was completely faster than humans' construction and improvement of mechas.

When the time in the movie came to 2024, the government chose to cut off funding to the defense forces and instead built high walls to try to resist the invasion of the behemoths.

The result is that the walls are useless against the beast.

However, the Defense Force, which was abandoned by the government, assembled the only service mechas and obtained the key information that "the DNA of a giant beast is needed to pass through the wormhole", and launched a final assault on the wormhole located on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Finally, a mecha named "Danger Wanderer" successfully passed through the wormhole.

Before escaping in an escape capsule, the pilot successfully destroyed the wormhole by using an overloaded nuclear reactor, and also launched a nuclear strike on the Pioneer's home planet.

However, the doomsday scene of Earth Zero-6 shows that the final raid of the defense forces failed, and humans had to continue to use nuclear bombs to deal with the behemoths. As a result, the living space was rapidly compressed, and they were forced to retreat to the only remaining stronghold, the Antarctic.

As for the behemoth's delay in breaking through the Antarctic, Sui Yang believed that the pioneers were afraid that humans would choose to "die together" and would rather sacrifice the entire race to carry all the nuclear bombs and hydrogen bombs and continue suicidal raids into the wormholes.

They don't dare to gamble, let alone take risks, because humans do have this energy.

On the contrary, if given a certain amount of survival and breathing space, emotions such as luck and conservatism, as well as radicalness and foolhardy, will spread among humans.

Coupled with some well-placed infiltration and seduction, there is a high probability that the Antarctic stronghold will be destroyed by the internal struggle of mankind, or some guys with naive ideas will be elected as leaders, hoping to reach a "peaceful coexistence" agreement with the pioneers. .

In this way, there is no need for a single soldier, and mankind will defeat itself without attacking. But this is just Sui Yang's speculation.

The speculation was not enough to support precise strikes and well-prepared military operations, so more than ten minutes ago, Sui Yang arranged two reconnaissance teams to go to the North American continent covered by thick clouds and the human Antarctic stronghold.

Only by obtaining detailed information can we "prescribe the right medicine".

In the underground hangar of the forward base;

The structure here is similar to the transportation hub area of ​​the ruins base. Although it is much smaller in scale, it is still spacious and bright. It has a vertical parking platform with lifting function, rail trains to improve transportation efficiency, and a lot of busy logistics. personnel.

At this time, a train passed through the underground tunnel to the hangar, and finally parked between the parking platforms numbered 12 and 14.

Unfold the hatch.

Forty elite members of the ARS 1st Reconnaissance Company, or Hunters, wearing exclusive stealth equipment, stepped out of the carriage.
  After two years of updates and improvements, the appearance of the stealth equipment does not seem to have changed much. However, while ensuring the advantages of compactness, lightness, and agility, it also allows hunters in extreme environments to still maintain their concealment. to launch an investigation mission.

And it can work in space like the individual equipment of the Orbital Commando Team (ODST) and the Hazardous Worksuit (HEV) of the Advance Team. It is also an advanced equipment close to power armor. Of course, its cost is also high.

But among this group of hunters, there was an "other" who was over two meters tall.

"."

The hunter whose helmet screen displayed "Aya Brea/Rank Second Lieutenant" looked at the "alien" and seemed to be thinking that if the opponent did not have stealth equipment, theoretically it would have shortcomings such as being easily exposed and slow in movement.

But she had seen the fighting state of the boss's sons, Sanguinius and Leon.
  Only the naked eye can see a burst of afterimages, and only through the motion capture of the helmet screen can the trajectory of the action be observed with great reluctance.

This level of single combat power is enough to determine the direction of a thousand-man battle, and the "alien" not far in front of Brea is actually another son of the boss, Magnus.

Their family has been working for Atlas since their grandfather's generation, performing some "physical means" of business competition on behalf of the boss.

Therefore, when the boss's descendants showed extraordinary combat prowess, she and her comrades were not only excited about it, glad that the original body was the enemy's "demon" and "nightmare", but also confirmed that their boss had a more powerful weapon. Single strength.

In the process of exploring different universes, as long as there is a boss sitting behind the scenes to provide command and dispatch, she and her comrades will be able to face the unknown without hesitation. Even if they are unfortunately killed in battle, they firmly believe that the boss will use the most "terrible" and most powerful method for them. "Bloody" means of revenge against the enemy.

now.

The forty people were divided into two groups.

Magnus and others went to platform 12, while Brea and his team went to platform 14, and entered two prepared Herring gull transport aircraft.

The ground staff who completed the inspection raised their hands to signal and retreated to a safe distance.

Then, the lifting platform carried the two Herring Gulls, passing through the first gate on the top of the hangar to the pressure chamber. They waited for the pressurization process to be completed before continuing through the second gate to the surface.

After the lifting platform came to a stop, the four pilots controlled the two Herring Gulls to avoid the canopy, activated the optical camouflage stealth mode, and instantly disappeared from sight.

Shortly after.

Inside the cabin.

Brea just shook his dazed head, and his teammates didn't have any strong adverse reactions. It seemed that they were already accustomed to this kind of overload flight.

"Everyone pay attention!" Suddenly, Arthur Morgan's voice came from the communication channel: "Finally, I would like to remind everyone that Group A, led by Second Lieutenant Brea, is responsible for reconnaissance in North America. In addition, the environment within the mission scope is extremely harsh. It is suspected that there are large extraterrestrial creatures and alien races, so the Herring Gull in Group A will serve as a mobile base station and provide transportation and evacuation services throughout the entire process.

Team B, led by Lieutenant Payne, and Magnus, who serves as special investigator, will directly take the Herring Gull to the Antarctic to look for opportunities to sneak into the steel city.

The company has provided you with the investigation department's exclusive mobile casual clothes. If conditions permit, try to penetrate into the crowd to obtain intelligence. This will help us have a more comprehensive understanding of the situation on Earth Zero-6 and the detailed information of the alien race.

Okay, here I show that Group A is about to return to the atmosphere, so I wish you all good luck and see you back to the base. Morgan is over. "

Hearing Morgan's reminder, Brea couldn't help but take a breath and waited patiently for the Herring Gull to complete its orbit adjustment.

boom-! boom-!

Soon, the two nuclear fusion engines began to increase their power output.

Different from the "forced entry" method like the airdrop pod, the Herring Gull controlled by the pilots seemed to be "floating" and reentering the atmosphere layer by layer.

In this way, the plasma fire caused by high-speed friction can be effectively avoided, as well as the black barrier area where all external communications are lost. There will be no obvious "meteor" traces, ensuring the stealth status of the Herring Gull.

It didn't take long before the amplitude of the vibration was no longer obvious, and the flight attitude became much more stable. In contrast, the speed also began to slow down.

"Second Lieutenant Brea, we have arrived at the stratosphere and are expected to stabilize at the troposphere at about eight thousand meters above the ground in one minute. At the same time, we will also pass through the thick cirrus cloud area. We are currently sharing vision."

At this time, Brea's helmet screen generated a small floating window and began to broadcast the outside view.

"Visual sharing has been completed, Lieutenant Brea. If you notice any locations worthy of investigation, please mark them and remind us immediately."

"Okay." Brea responded on the communication.

Through the pilot's field of vision, she and her comrades first saw thick clouds filled with red light, and heard the "ta~ta~" sound of small particles hitting the bulkhead.

When the Herring Gull carried them through the cirrus cloud area, everything became "suddenly clear".
  It's just that under the thick clouds, hot flowing magma replaced the previous rivers. The high-rise buildings representing human civilization have long collapsed. However, the high-rise buildings like colonies have occupied the former surface.

(End of this chapter)