From Titan Corporation to the Empire of Man

Chapter 612 "Watch out for the people around you!"

Through the pilots' shared vision, a city like a steel behemoth gradually became clear in sight.

The towering alloy city walls hover around the city like a sleeping mechanical dragon.

The surface of these composite armored walls, which are more than ten meters thick, is densely distributed with automatic defense arrays, such as missile launch nests, large-caliber rapid-fire cannons and various automatic platforms, which are staggered to form a web of death.

Every three hundred meters there stands a prismatic guard tower. The multi-spectral scanner embedded in the tower body rotates continuously. The dazzling searchlight beam cuts through the night sky like a sharp sword, illuminating the wilderness within a hundred meters outside the city wall in every detail.

Inside the city, the densely packed buildings present a typical military style.

Angular alloy structures, thick armor plates covering key facilities, and straight and efficient street planning without any unnecessary decorations.

A command hub stands in the central area, with several towering communication antennas extending from the top, constantly transmitting signals outward.

Even more eye-catching are the energy nodes distributed throughout the city. Those prismatic towers emit a strange blue glow, and pulsating crystal structures can be vaguely seen inside the towers. It is obvious that they use that mysterious high-energy mineral as their core energy supply.

Energy conduits meander across the surface like blood vessels, delivering surging power to major facilities.

In addition, all main entrances to the city are blocked by liftable composite armored roadblocks. The surfaces of these two-meter-thick alloy barriers seem to be covered with high-voltage electric shock nodes.

The soldiers, wearing power armor painted in black, gray, and red, were holding what were obviously some kind of rail rifles and were stationed near the checkpoint in a standard tactical formation.

Although their power armor is not as thick and tall as the Astartes' titanium armor, its technological level is not inferior.

What is even more alarming is that there are several heavy tanks parked at the back of the level. Judging from their appearance, Leon and Mike recognized at a glance that they might have a deformable structure.

And Mike suddenly lowered his body and said, "This place is wrong."

His voice came through the bone conduction headphones. As he spoke, he controlled the mobile terminal on his wrist, and the holographic projection immediately unfolded into a three-dimensional topographic map.

Mike used his index finger and thumb to zoom in on the southeast corner of the checkpoint, where he could see twelve fully armed soldiers conducting a comprehensive inspection of a transport vehicle.

"Look at the defense density." Mike tapped the flashing red dot on the hologram with his fingertips. "Crossfire nets, mobile sentry towers, and various scanning arrays are deployed outside the civilian area. This exceeds normal security needs."

Then he called up the tactical database for comparison. "According to the defense regulations of our empire's standard colonies, the distance between checkpoints in non-war zones should not be less than 500 meters, but here..."

Dozens of marking points appeared on the hologram. "On average, there is an armed checkpoint every 200 meters."

Finally, Mike looked at Leon and gave a summary, "Deploying this level of defense outside the civilian area? Either this planet is in big trouble, or the rulers here are paranoid to the core, and military dictatorship is necessary to suppress everything."

Leon did not respond immediately, but carefully observed the soldier's behavior patterns.

The other party's actions were mechanical and efficient, with no signs of slackness, and they even carried out strict scans of passing transport convoys.

Several people in military uniforms were being questioned, and the soldiers' guns never left their backs.

"It doesn't seem like simple military control." Leon narrowed his eyes.

Mike switched to the hologram, and then strange blue patches immediately appeared on the city's thermal image. He said:

"Based on the scans of the orbital drone, this should be the traces of burns from energy weapons. Look at the distribution pattern."

Then he quickly drew a few red lines, "This is not defensive shooting, but systematic clearing. There must have been a large-scale riot here recently."

While Mike was analyzing, the drone in orbit also sent back new bird's-eye views in a timely manner.

Lyon noticed that the ground of the central square seemed to have unnatural signs of repair, and the surface of the buildings near the center was also covered with honeycomb-shaped bullet holes.

Located in the northern industrial belt, the transportation platform, which should have been busy according to common sense, was empty, and there were a lot of bloodstains left on the ground from dragging, extending all the way to a heavily guarded storage area.

"Are they worried about the Swarm?"

Seeing this, Mike asked.

Leon shook his head, then his fingers slid quickly across the holographic panel, and then the encrypted communications intercepted by the orbital drone were parsed into readable data.

A voice-printed recording begins to play;
"--Repeat, the Seventh Mine District executes the execution order, all miners participating in the strike immediately--"

The communication was interspersed with the buzzing sound similar to that of a Gauss gun. "-- Stupid miners, just do your job well, otherwise your family will be the next one--"

The recording ended abruptly with a series of piercing screams.

Then, Leon continued, "I see that the state of this city and the planet is more like martial law after a crackdown."

As Leon spoke, he used the hologram projected by the terminal to point to several key data nodes. "The drone analyzed the energy distribution curve. The electricity in the civilian area has been compressed to the minimum, but the production capacity of the arsenal has increased by 300%."

"Haha, riot? That would be the best." After listening to Leon's analysis, Mike laughed:
"It seems that the human regime here is not worth the Empire's contact at all. We can just destroy it when the time comes."

"Hopefully, it'll save some trouble."

Leon nodded in agreement, and then continued to zoom in on an area of ​​the hologram. The orbital drone also marked the words "suspected large military base" on the image and said:
"Once we infiltrate the target location and obtain enough intelligence, we can go to this base to investigate."

"it is good."

Mike naturally had no objection to this.

At this moment, the small assault boat suddenly made a vibration as if it was preparing to land.

The pilot briefly reported on the encrypted channel: "The landing site is an abandoned mining area, the safety level is yellow, the surface temperature is 28°C, the wind speed is 12 knots, and the visibility is good."

As the magnetic levitation engine switched to completely silent mode, the submarine landed gently on the maintenance platform at the edge of the mine like a fallen leaf.

The moment the hatch slid open, Leon jumped out first. When the silencer sole of his tactical boots touched the rusty metal platform, only an inaudible "step" sound was made.

He instantly rolled behind an overturned ore sorting machine, his special pistol ready to fire, and Mike followed closely behind him.

While confirming that the area was safe, the two continued to investigate in tacit understanding, and their holographic glasses switched to night vision mode.

Under their feet, the abandoned mine tunnel was like a gaping mouth, with overturned mining machines and scattered crystal fragments vaguely visible in the darkness.

When the searchlights of the distant city swept over, the prismatic mineral fragments would reflect an eerie blue light, like countless peeping eyes.

After completing the transport mission, the pilot controlled the assault boat in stealth mode to take off and return to the front-line base.

The raiding boat quickly disappeared into the pitch-black night, as if it had never appeared.

As for Leon, Mike and the others, they simultaneously activated the optical camouflage cloaks draped over their civilian uniforms.

With a slight energy fluctuation, the figures of the two began to distort and blur, and finally blended perfectly with the surrounding environment. This advanced camouflage system can not only simulate the background color, but also automatically adjust the surface temperature according to the ambient temperature, making it difficult for most scanning, detection equipment, and even pulse scanning to detect their traces.

The two began to sneak towards the city.

As the distance got closer, the traces left on the battlefield gradually became clearer.

The densely packed craters on the ground looked like the surface of the moon, and some of the craters still had traces of crystallization left by the burning of energy weapons on their edges.

Mike squatted down and lightly touched the black substance on the edge of a crater with his fingers. The sensor of the tactical gloves immediately displayed the analysis results on the holographic glasses.

"High temperature plasma residue".

"It looks like the exchange of fire is very intense." Mike said softly in the communication channel, "and it's a one-sided massacre."

Leon nodded and pointed to a shelter not far away (the two of them could clearly see the outlines of each other's bodies through their holographic glasses).

What was supposed to be a checkpoint was now nothing but twisted metal frames and charred wreckage.

The dark red bloodstains on the ground had dried up, appearing purple-black under the night light.

Even more disturbing was that they found several obvious signs of execution scenes, with bullet holes on the walls distributed in a standard fan-shaped pattern and long bloodstains on the ground left by corpses being dragged.

Suddenly, a blinding searchlight beam swept across their area.

The two of them immediately stopped and held their breath.

The light beam completely covered the area where Mike was, and the optical camouflage system was put to the ultimate test at this moment.

The searchlight moved slowly without stopping, indicating that the other party was unaware of Mike's presence.

The two waited for the light beam to completely disappear before continuing forward.

As we got closer to the main entrance of the city, the details of the fortifications gradually became clear.

The five-meter-high alloy roadblock is covered with spikes and high-voltage electric grids, and there are several automatic turrets around it.

Soldiers painted in black, gray and red power armor patrolled back and forth, their armor glowing with a cold metallic luster under the searchlights.

Leon noticed that the helmets of these soldiers seemed to be equipped with holographic display masks. Judging from their appearance, their power armor should also have a complex life support system.

At the same time, two heavy tanks were deployed here.

With this configuration, even if an equal number of auxiliary troops came to attack, they would not be able to create the same impressive results as before.

Fortunately, after more than ten years of development, almost all the auxiliary troops affiliated with the legion are equipped with power armor that is lighter and faster than the soldiers in front of them. What's more, their empire also has Astartes, so Leon does not worry about the head-on conflict that will inevitably break out in the future.

Moreover, Leon and Mike's holographic glasses were recording all of this silently.

The image enhancement function allows them to clearly see all the details of the power armor and tanks.

Just as they were about to get some more close up footage, a group of soldiers suddenly approached their position.

The two men moved to the sides, and the soldiers passed by less than two meters away from them without noticing at all.

After waiting for the patrol to go away, the two seized the opportunity, quickly crossed the last open area, and successfully sneaked into the city.

But the scene before them made them frown at the same time.

The streets were deserted, with only heavily armed patrols and armored vehicles moving back and forth.

All the windows of the buildings were forced closed, and some were even welded with metal bars. There was an oppressive silence in the air, and even the sound of the wind seemed particularly harsh.

"It's a total curfew." Mike whispered in the communication channel, "It looks like our plans to go to the bar and nightclub have been ruined."

"."

Leon did not respond, but instead motioned his friend to pay attention to the holographic projection screens on both sides of the street.

There is a huge holographic statue at almost every intersection. It is a middle-aged man with a stern face, wearing a neat military uniform and medals on his chest.

The statue was playing a speech in English that they could understand on a loop.

"Citizens, monitor those around you!" the hologram said in a majestic voice, "Any form of disagreement will only delay us! Remember, unity is strength!"

On another screen was a wanted poster with a picture of a bearded man and the words "Jim Raynor, heinous terrorist" written next to it.

"It seems we have found the source of the problem." Leon also whispered, "It seems that this 'terrorist' named Jim Raynor has caused panic among the human regime on this planet."

In addition, he noticed that an electronic bulletin board at the corner of the street was scrolling various curfew regulations, one of which was "During the curfew, any group of people who appear on the street without permission will be treated as rebels."

Suddenly, there was a commotion in the distance.

A team of soldiers was violently breaking down the door of an apartment building, and then the screams of women and the crying of children were heard from inside.

Leon and Mike exchanged glances and moved silently in that direction.

They need more intelligence, and chaos is often the best cover.

As the two approached the apartment building, bullet holes and charred energy weapon burns were clearly visible on the concrete walls.

Mike made a gesture and the two of them immediately hid behind an abandoned wreckage.

Through the broken car window, they saw four soldiers in power armor roughly dragging a mother and child down the stairs.

The thin mother stumbled and fell on the rough road, but she still held tightly to the boy, who was about five or six years old, in her arms.

Her knee was scraped and blood flowed down her calf, appearing dark red in the moonlight.

“Please,” she cried hoarsely, freeing the fingers of her left hand to tightly grasp the armored leggings of the leading soldier, “We are just too hungry. The child has not eaten for three days.”

The leading soldier snorted coldly, and the voice under the mask sounded particularly cold after being electronically processed:
"Article 3 of the curfew regulations states that any excuse is not a reason to violate military orders."

The soldier roughly shook off the woman's hand and gestured to his companions behind him.

A soldier immediately stepped forward, grabbed the mother and child like cargo, and threw them into the armored detention vehicle parked on the side of the road without mercy.
(End of this chapter)