Huayu 05, our science fiction movie universe

Chapter 663 Operation Red Sea: Red Tide and War

call!
Flames erupt.

In the completely abandoned central area of ​​the island, the aroma of grilled octopus is spreading everywhere.

As a mecha, it naturally has an air filtration system inside, but the fragrance still faintly seeped into the mecha, making all the "Jiaolong" pilots around swallow their saliva.

However, they are professionally trained, and they won't easily leave their mechs in this situation. Besides, who knows what problems might arise from the sea monster's flesh if it's not processed?

After searching the central urban area of ​​Saipan, and seeing that it was still early, the "Jiaolong" team headed towards the US military port on the other side of the island, preparing to clear out the dock ruins there so that fleet ships could dock and berth.

Everything went smoothly. There were no abnormalities in the base ruins. The wreckage on the dock had been cleared away, and the fleet was successfully moored in the base, ready to spend the night there.

But just as the fleet and the moviegoers lowered their guard, a sudden change occurred at night.

The soldiers on night patrol were the first to notice something was wrong.

In the dead of night, the entire island of Saipan was pitch black, without a trace of human habitation, except for the lights of warships illuminating the ruins of the base.

Soldiers piloting the "Jiaolong" mechs are taking turns patrolling the ground. Tomorrow, they will continue clearing the ruins of the entire military base.

As a military base, a place like this must have underground warehouses.

However, as night fell, when people's guard was at its weakest, some things emerged from the hidden underground warehouses and dark corners of the ruins of the base, accompanied by rustling sounds.

It resembles tentacles, flowing water, and even black slime.

A soldier was the first to spot this scene through the mech's camera and almost instinctively shone a searchlight in its direction.

The black shadows turned dark red under the bright lights. After a brief pause, as if enraged, these red "liquids" stretched out countless tentacles that waved in the air before rushing over at an even faster speed.

Da da da!
The "Jiaolong" mech fired its guns almost instinctively, the dense gunfire shattering the tranquility of the night.

The personnel on duty on several warships reacted immediately. As the ships started to move, more "Jiaolong" mechs also discovered the strange liquid surrounding them from all directions and opened fire.

However, those bullets seemed to be somewhat ineffective against liquids that have no fixed shape.

Fortunately, the flamethrowers equipped on the "Jiaolong" mech were not to be underestimated. The blazing flames formed a fire barrier around the ship, resembling fiery dragons.

The red liquid monsters crackled and popped as soon as they came into contact with the flames, and the smell of burning protein quickly filled the air.

However, the fuel for the flames was not inexhaustible, and the "Jiaolong" mech had to begin retreating towards the ship, escorting the fleet away from the port.

Meanwhile, weapons on some ships also opened fire on areas a little further ashore to provide cover for the "Jiaolong" team.

However, just as the ships were about to leave the port and the "Jiaolong" team was preparing to evacuate and board the ships, large swathes of dark red unidentified liquid suddenly surged up from the sea and surrounded the ships.

In an instant, the entire fleet was surrounded by this bizarre monster.

boom! boom! boom!
Torpedoes and shells rained down on the surrounding sea, splashing up huge amounts of water. The red monsters were blasted to pieces, but they quickly began to recover and surrounded the retreating ships again.

"The outermost ships and mechs go first!"

In the moment of crisis, the fleet commander decisively issued an order. After a series of rather futile battles, the "Jiaolong" squad, at the cost of several soldiers' sacrifices, successfully covered the escape of their teammates and the fleet.

Even the departing fleet was constantly pursued by a red tide that chased them for more than ten nautical miles before finally stopping and retreating.

"What kind of monster is that?"

Having completely escaped danger, the stopped fleet was filled with an atmosphere of sorrow.

This accident resulted in the loss of a supply transport ship and three "Jiaolong" mechs. Given the circumstances, those who were unable to escape are unlikely to have survived.

The fleet stopped within a safe zone, while simultaneously sending aircraft back to the accident area for reconnaissance, hoping for another miracle.

On the other hand, the fleet immediately reported the situation to the base and awaited further instructions from its superiors.

The relevant information quickly attracted the attention of the base, after all, there had been casualties, as well as losses of ships and mechs.

Even so, after a meeting and discussion, the base issued a new order to the fleet: to capture the suddenly appearing liquid monster.

According to experts, this is a completely new type of sea monster, and the frequent attacks on coastal cities by these monsters may be related to it, so it is essential to understand the situation.

According to the findings of the aircraft, the military base on Saipan has once again returned to its deserted state.

However, at the base dock, the wreckage of the warship, broken in two and overturned due to the explosion, and several scrapped "mechs" nearby, were still shocking sights.

Judging from the horrific scene, and considering the firelight from the explosions behind the fleet during its retreat, one can almost imagine how tenacious and fierce the resistance was from the soldiers who held the rear.

"I go!"

Chu Yan, the captain of the "Jiaolong" mecha special forces team, volunteered.

They not only had to complete their mission, but also bring back the bodies of their fallen comrades; they couldn't let them lie exposed in the wilderness like that.

Soon, a transport ship carrying several "Jiaolong" mechs returned to Saipan.

They first cleared away the shipwreck and several mechs, only to find that apart from the soldiers' clothes, the scene was completely empty, just like the rest of the island. Even the bodies of the fallen soldiers could not be found.

Chu Yan and his team could only collect the belongings of the fallen soldiers and transport them back to the ship, and then deploy decoy ships on the sea near the US military base.

As expected, when night fell, after a certain stimulation, the red monsters surged out of the ruins and the sea, surrounding the small boat used as bait.

At this moment, Chu Yan and the others activated the mechanism, and the iron box on the ship closed, trapping some of the red monsters inside. Then, the ship in the distance started up, dragging the box away from the dangerous sea area at high speed.

During this process, the enraged sea monster chased even further than before, but ultimately it was left far behind because it couldn't match the steel warship's range.

The fleet then returned safely, and the captured red liquid sea monster sample was sent to the laboratory at the Zhongsha Islands base for research.

Thanks to the high level of expertise of the professors at this research center, the true nature of those red "monsters" was quickly determined through detection and analysis.

"Seaweed?!"

At the base meeting, everyone present, including the audience in front of the big screen, was quite surprised by the answers given by the researchers.

"To be precise, it is a special aggregate of marine organisms that mutated from red tides."

Red tides are something many people have heard of, but few understand.

Fortunately, the movie included corresponding pictures based on the professor's words, providing a brief popular science explanation for the base managers and audience members attending the meeting: "Red tide, also known as red tide, is a harmful ecological phenomenon that causes water discoloration due to the explosive proliferation or high aggregation of certain phytoplankton, protozoa, or bacteria in seawater under specific environmental conditions. Internationally, it is also known as 'harmful algae' or 'red ghost'."

Due to increasingly serious marine pollution, red tides are occurring more and more frequently around the world, especially in bays and coastal waters.

The samples brought back by Captain Chu and his team, after our testing and analysis, were mainly composed of red tide algae, but they also carried more than 20 additional toxic algal species, including six novel mutant varieties that we had never seen before.

On the giant screen in the conference center, a magnified image of a Red Tide monster specimen was displayed, along with various data annotations.

"Are these red tide monsters the cause of the sea monster attacks on coastal cities?" the base commander asked.

The expert nodded, his tone grave:

"It is possible that the birth, survival, and decomposition of red tides consume huge amounts of oxygen and nutrients, which can lead to the death of marine life due to lack of oxygen."

Some red tide organisms even secrete mucus that sticks to the gills of fish, shrimp, shellfish, and other creatures, hindering their breathing and causing them to suffocate and die.

"Of course, the red tide sea monster samples we captured are different. According to our research, they possess a certain degree of intelligence."

Although individual red tide algae do not possess intelligence, when they come together, they clearly exhibit a mutated collective consciousness.

Perhaps this awareness is still very weak and they are not very intelligent, but according to experimental tests, they have clearly learned to hide and hunt.

This allows these red tide algae to survive longer, instead of bursting out rapidly as in the past and then dying due to lack of nutrients and oxygen.

Seaweed has gained wisdom?
The people in the conference room looked at each other in disbelief, feeling that the world was truly too surreal.

Fortunately, those giant sea monsters have appeared, and it's not unacceptable that sea monsters evolved from seaweed.

"So how do we solve this problem?"

The base commander asked the most pressing questions, and at the same time, he initiated an online meeting to continue reporting the situation to the Earth United Government's maritime defense department.

Meanwhile, the Joint Coast Guard quickly contacted the military bases near the other two suspicious locations and ordered them to conduct immediate verification.

As expected, similar red tide agglomerates were also discovered by the Coast Guard fleet on two other islands.

"Generally speaking, red tides move with ocean currents, causing large-scale biological deaths in every sea area they reach."

They are completely unrestrained, driven only by one instinct: to multiply!

rampant proliferation!
Under suitable temperature and nutrient stimulation, red tide algae that may normally number only a few thousand can expand rapidly at a rate of 100000 to 500 million cells per liter.

This expansion continues until they become immobile and have exhausted their oxygen and nutrients, at which point they will automatically cease to exist.

"Can we just wait for them to disappear naturally?"

"It's obviously impossible."

The professor's expression remained grave.

"If it were the old red tide, what you said might be possible, but this thing is alive!"

As it spoke, it demonstrated a new red tide biological model on the screen.

That red tide, composed of algae, plankton, and bacteria, resembled tiny specks of hemoglobin, or slender worms or root tendrils, gathering together, constantly churning, intertwining, and merging, rapidly diminishing and rapidly giving birth, maintaining a dynamic balance, both vivid and terrifying.

"In fact, there have been several red tide crises along the global coast in recent years, but no country has linked them to sea monster attacks."

Looking at it from this perspective now, the sea monster attacks and the existence of the red tide are clearly intrinsically linked.

As the professor was speaking, the alarm suddenly went off in the base.

"what's the situation?"

"Sir, a sea monster is attacking, and it's heading straight for the base!"

"Why panic!"

"The exact number of sea monsters is currently difficult to determine, but several Level 4 sea monsters have been spotted!"

The base commander stood up abruptly; just from those words, he could tell the seriousness of the situation.

When everyone arrived at the command center of the military base and looked at the aerial view on the big screen, they all gasped in shock.

One, two, three, four... eight, nine, ten...

More and more sea monsters are appearing around the White Sand Islands base.

Although most of these sea monsters are only level 1 or 2, there are also some level 3 or even level 4 sea monsters among them.

However, the higher-level sea monsters are obviously smarter, knowing the power of human military weapons, and most of them hide in the rear or underwater.

"Activate Level I alert!"

The base commander immediately gave the order, and after several years of construction by China, the infrastructure powerhouse, the entire White Sand Islands have finally shown the world what true industrial Cthulhu looks like.

"Level One Alert!"

"Level One Alert!"

"Get moving!"

"Close the gates! All unauthorized personnel evacuate to the safe house!"

"Quickly! Combat personnel, return to your posts and check your weapons!"

The orders were relayed down the chain of command, and the entire White Sand Islands base seemed to come alive at that moment. The islands and various military buildings were its body, and the humans running around inside were its blood.

A large number of torpedoes that had been laid in advance were activated, and the lock gates facing the direction from which the sea monster was charging were tightly closed. One after another, warships filed out from the rear gates, forming a formation to cover the flank and rear of the base.

At the same time, under the control of the soldiers, various cannons and rockets were launched at the sea monster that had entered the strike range in the distance.

In an instant, a purgatory of steel and fire descended upon the charging sea monsters.

Although the carcasses of those sea monsters rushing towards us will be a problem later, we can't worry about that now.

Because what they faced was war!
(End of this chapter)