Planet of Sand and Oasis of Iron

Chapter 490 489. There are always too many people trying to take advantage of the situation.
Someone, or something, destroyed a camp used for supply and defense, even taking away all the supplies. Naturally, there were no survivors in the camp, and the reason the news was able to get through...

Abian Company's outposts are not just for show. They monitor and keep in touch with various camps at all times, and can quickly update information even in the eye of the storm.

Then the question arises: the enemy theoretically knew all this, but they still attacked the camp without hesitation and even destroyed it. It is unknown why they did this.

But after knowing that there was a dangerous target lingering nearby, everyone perked up and made preparations for the attack while taking turns according to the predetermined plan.

Although attacking in such an environment is likely to be swept away by the storm and the combat effectiveness will be low, we can't just stop fighting, right?
The Navigator entered a shift mode, with some people going to rest while others continued to keep the vehicle running. This time it was Sefer's turn to drive... but to be honest, it was actually very easy for him.

Compared to Tien, who had to assess the ground conditions and think about which direction to adjust his posture, Cypher could more clearly grasp the conditions of the environment around the vehicle under the threat scanning of the body.

Until the outpost, Sefer tried his best to keep the vehicle running smoothly, and even the convoy following behind him subtly felt that the road had become much smoother.

As for the outpost... Seifer originally thought it would be a manned place, but when he looked over, he found that it was actually a sentry tower with only mechanical and electronic devices. It was built between several huge rocks, and its main function was to receive and transmit signals as a repeater.

The howling wind and sand caused the paint on its surface to completely peel off, but the body was still strong and has been maintaining stable signal transmission until now.

Asking everyone to wait here for a moment, Cypher got up and went to the crew rest cabin, pulled up Feldrich who was sleeping on the bed, and said that they had arrived at the destination before she got angry. What next?
"...Don't be so impatient, mercenary. The outpost has an early warning function. If a fire control unit locks onto it, it will automatically sound an alarm."

The sensor outside the car detected sounds other than the wind and transmitted them to Safe. The first thing he heard was a sharp, tooth-grinding sound and repeated rapid sounds.

"Is that the sound?"

"Indeed, this kind of sound means the outpost is about to be attacked... Mercenary, are you planning to be a target?"

Seifer shrugged. When the alarm at the outpost just sounded, the younger generations who were originally chatting leisurely at their various posts had already taken up their artillery positions under Ichika's command.

Although there is a howling wind in front of us, and even sand that can hurt people will be on the windward side, but compared with the enemy that is about to attack, this wind and sand is nothing!
However... the imagined attack on the convoy did not come, and no roaring engines or anything else could be found in the dim sand.

The outpost exploded suddenly, and the explosion was very abrupt. Its solid body was directly blown into a huge fireball, and the tip at the top was directly broken off and flew wildly in the wind.

It disappeared from everyone's sight in the blink of an eye, as if it had never existed.

"It's a wind-riding missile, you cunning bastard."

Feldrich yawned, finally waking up from her exhaustion. Her clever brain began to function normally again, and when she followed Cypher to the main control, she seemed completely unconcerned about her own loss.

According to her, the data had already been downloaded when the convoy arrived nearby, so it didn't matter even if the outpost was bombed.

Feldrich skillfully called up the data on the console and played the video intelligence.

In the picture, Abian's outpost looked normal. The howling wind and sand outside had no effect on the personnel inside who were preparing to move.

Regarding this, Feldrich said lightly that this was a routine rotation and these people were responsible for returning to another camp in Abian.

Each company has its own quirks, and no one is eager to fully share resources with others. As a result, ward placement is a mess.

Furthermore, there were camps built by the Transformation Agency, then abandoned, then rebuilt... and so on. Honestly, there were far more man-made artifacts here than one might imagine. As the scene continued to unfold, Feldrich suddenly frowned, as she clearly saw several shadows appearing amidst the howling wind.

However, they were very quiet until they approached the camp and attacked without hesitation.

The entire camp was filled with noise, with various alarms going off one after another. The camp's defense personnel were immediately dispatched - but first they were ambushed, and secondly, there were no machines arranged in the camp to serve as rapid response units.

In just a few minutes, the camp that had been in good order just a moment ago was completely destroyed, and the machines that were left with only mottled metallic colors due to the wind and sand began to search for supplies in the camp.

One of the machines saw the video device and opened fire without hesitation.

The video ended here, and Feldrich said calmly: "Did you see it clearly? Do you know who your opponent is?"

"Looking at the machine's configuration, it looks a bit like a core leaked from the Transformation Organization, but the arms and weapons look like those of the I/O Group. And each machine has a different configuration."

Saifu nodded after giving a professional review. "To sum up, I think it's the mercenary system that's to blame."

"...Why are you so sure?"

"It's simple. When you don't know who your enemy is, think of the most likely imaginary enemy. But to be honest, my first thought was the guy who escaped from the entertainment company."

But think about it, that guy wouldn't be able to accomplish anything if he ran into the storm. His team members were all dead or fled, and his resources were exhausted. He came here and hoped to pull out such a group of people...

Then Sefer didn't think that he was gifted, but he suspected that this guy had some kind of system of being humiliated, and the more humiliated he was, the richer the rewards.

The transformation agency is digging holes underground with [worms] and is too lazy to come up for the time being, so the only enemy is the mercenary system.

After all, it claims to serve the 'independent mercenary' system, not a company.

"Is that what you think, mercenary? If so, then you should be on guard against that thing and don't get into trouble in a place like this."

After saying that, Feldrich yawned and asked Sefer to continue driving to the next camp so that she could continue to contact the outside world.

...The storm circle is too deep. It is not something that can be passed through at the speed of a car playing house. If it were that easy, there would not be such a big commotion this year.

It's strange to say, the enemy could have taken advantage of the wind to blow up the outpost, but they didn't attack the convoy... Could it be that they have some unspeakable hidden reasons, or is it that the distance is actually quite far and they can't hit anything other than the intended target?
In any case, Seifer memorized the frequency band of that bombing, and later he could easily capture the signal even if it was mixed in the strong wind.

Putting this little thing behind his mind and getting the vehicle moving again, Seifer informed the personnel on the gun position from the inside that they could temporarily let down their guard - the enemy's target was not them.

The convoy slowly set off, moving from a slightly detour to the normal route, from daytime (outside the storm circle) to night, and then another day...

It took two full days, without encountering any obstacles, for the convoy to reach the third camp and successfully shake hands with the people inside.

At this time, some people in the convoy were already a little exhausted and began to want to back out and run away.

(End of this chapter)