The Great Desert is located to the west of Luoxia Province.
Although it is named after the desert, it is not as "desolate" as most wastelanders imagine.
The concrete buildings that have collapsed or been submerged by yellow sand, as well as the rusty warehouses and factories, all indicate the past prosperity of this place. Even though the rolling yellow sand has been blowing for two centuries, it has not completely submerged this man-made miracle spanning thousands of kilometers.
Not only that, because the underground ocean current pipelines meet here, a large amount of desalinated seawater seeps into the underground rock formations due to pipeline ruptures, forming a rich groundwater reservoir.
Therefore, even though there are many meteorological disasters here, such as earthquakes, sandstorms, radioactive dust, and thunderstorms, the species active in this area are more prosperous than those in the neighboring Luoxia Province.
The only blessing left to Luoxia Province in that era was a few oases, but the situation here is completely the opposite.
The remaining favors are so much that they have overflowed...
"Damn... What the hell is that?"
A giant snake as thick as an oil barrel slowly swam between two collapsed high-rise buildings. Its cracked skin was like dry yellow soil, lurking in the soft quicksand like a fallen giant tree.
Looking at the dozens of meters long giant snake crawling forward in the quicksand, the soldier wearing an exoskeleton took two steps back with a tingling scalp.
His name is Su Ming, and his position is a precision shooter. The 26 printed on his chest armor and arms is the number of him and his brothers, and also the logo of the "Enterprise 26th Commando".
As one of the few ground forces of the enterprise that participated in the Luoxia Province Campaign, they mainly performed vanguard, guerrilla and behind-the-enemy sabotage tasks in the war.
Although most residents of Ideal City attributed the victory of the war to their allies, they actually participated in quite a few battles.
It's just that it doesn't sound so good when written in the press release.
Walking to Su Ming's side, Yunsong stared at the giant snake for a while, and the box in the tactical eyepiece locked it in the center, and the progress bar moved around the edge of the box.
"There is no record of it in the database... You found it first, why don't you give it a name?"
Su Ming touched the back of his head.
"Sandworm?"
Before Yunsong spoke, Gu Wei, who was wearing a power armor, laughed and teased.
"Too rustic, and there are already some in the desert next door, and they are completely different from this guy."
"Then... Earth Dragon? Giant Earthworm? Digging Worm?"
"Let's just dig the earthworm... Don't waste time."
Interrupting the conversation between the two, Yunsong stretched out his index finger and tapped twice in the air, operating the holographic window to archive the image data, and then switched to the tactical map.
"The target is about one kilometer ahead... Everyone be alert, and we will be able to pick up our employees home soon."
"Oh!" Su Ming shouted weakly.
They have been on duty for almost a whole year.
Spanning thousands of kilometers of wasteland, he was even involved in the war in Luoxia Province... He couldn't help thinking that the experience along the way could be used to make a movie when he returned.
Under Yunsong's order, the 26th Assault Team continued to move.
Led by the android soldiers and drones, the team moved forward along the broken concrete road for a while, carefully avoiding large areas of quicksand and several areas with abnormal life signals.
At this time, the signalman had new news, and Yunsong raised his right fist to signal the team members to stop at the door of an abandoned factory.
So far, they were only the last 300 meters away from the mutant tribe. In the abandoned building in the distance, they could even see camouflaged bunkers piled with garbage and mutant sentinels standing guard with binoculars.
"... The mission status has been updated. It's good news. The Alliance has decided to send airships to support our operations before withdrawing."
Hearing this, many people breathed a sigh of relief.
They didn't bring everyone with them this time. More than 30 logistics personnel and more than 20 soldiers stayed at the camp.
With 10 power armors, 30 exoskeletons and less than 30 android soldiers, it was still difficult to kill a mutant tribe that was more than ten times their size without heavy firepower support.
Even if they could win, they would suffer a lot of casualties.
The mutants in the Great Desert didn't just use iron rifles. These beasts had mastered semi-automatic or even fully automatic weapons through transactions with the Legion and the Falcon Kingdom.
Not to mention that they used pre-war scraps and garbage to make their own weapons.
Those things didn't seem very reliable, but if you underestimated them, you would suffer a great loss.
For example, a mutant they had seen before, holding a hot melt ray gun made of the head and spine of a "Pioneer" robot, even killed one of their power armors by sneak attack.
These unexpected attack methods made it hard to defend against.
Hearing that the alliance's support was on the way, Su Ming said excitedly.
"That 400mm heavy artillery?"
Yunsong nodded.
"Yes... including ground troops, and those unreliable gliders, but we need to confirm that there are no one of ours in the camp before we can decide whether to use an axe or a scalpel."
As he said that, he looked at the drone operator standing behind the team.
"I'll leave the reconnaissance to you."
"Got it."
A man with a steady look made a gesture, knocked his fist on his shoulder, and the drone backpack on his back popped open the hatch.
A four-rotor drone was ejected like a crossbow arrow, and soared into the sky with a whistling sound.
The screen was connected to the tactical eyepiece of the helmet.
Although the signal was very poor, it could barely be used.
Under the control of the drone operator, the quadcopter drone carefully avoided the sight of the mutant sentinels, moved to the side of the building, passed through rows of twisted steel bars and concrete debris, and flew over the mutant tribe.
The entire tribe is located in an abandoned factory building.
The shacks made of garbage are integrated with the half-collapsed factory building, and large iron sheds and drying animal skins block the twisted alleys.
However, through the gaps in the cover, you can still see coal-like bodies, bloodthirsty fangs and gnarled muscles.
They are like orcs in fantasy movies.
What is chilling is that these animals who eat raw meat and drink blood have developed cities like humans, and even clarified the social division of labor...
There are residential areas that smell of feces, arenas that vent violence and provide entertainment for mutants, blacksmiths and tool workshops filled with the sound of iron forging, plantations that grow unknown fruits, and ranches where various livestock are imprisoned...
Looking down at this huge tribe through the lens of the drone, the drone operator felt his scalp tingling.
Especially when he found his fellow imprisoned in cages in the ranch that looked like a garbage dump, his anger rushed to his forehead.
"Damn..."
"What's wrong?" Hearing his low curse, Yunsong cast an inquiring look at him.
The drone operator did not speak, but just stretched out his index finger and swiped it in the air, turning the picture he saw to his teammates who were looking at him next to him.
The drone lens zoomed in.
I saw rows of iron baskets made of steel bars, with scarred and naked bodies locked up.
Most of those with bulging bellies were "lucky" because mutants usually wouldn't eat them, but those who failed to give birth to offspring for them were miserable. Many of them were tortured, not only had their arms and legs removed, but their wounds were already rotten and maggots were growing.
Mutants themselves have extremely strong recovery abilities, and they don't need bandages or anti-inflammatory drugs at all, so they naturally won't bandage the uneaten animals.
Many people sat on the ground with lifeless eyes, and they didn't even have the strength to drive away the mosquitoes and flies around them. Some people were motionless, and it was unknown whether they were dead.
On the eucalyptus board not far away, the bare-armed mutant priests were delivering babies to humans handcuffed to the eucalyptus board in a primitive and rude way.
They didn't care whether those people would die in the process.
Chaos followers are never picky about food, and their stomachs are as strong as their muscles and bones.
Those slaves who were kept as livestock may have come from the Falcon Kingdom, or from honey badgers or lions, or even from slave traders from farther away... Few people would pay attention to where those who disappeared in the war ended up.
Even though he had seen many hellish scenes during the march in the wasteland, Su Ming's face still turned slightly pale.
This is much more cruel than those plunderers who followed suit.
The soldier not far from him couldn't help but retching.
"These beasts!" Gu Wei clenched the heavy machine gun in his hand, wishing he could rush in and shoot them all now.
"They are beasts to begin with. When did you think they were not?"
Yunsong operated the holographic window expressionlessly, selected part of the camp area, and marked the places where there might be living people.
After doing all this, he signaled the signal soldiers to set up the signal enhancement device and roughly pointed it in the direction of the Iron Heart.
"This is the 26th Commando. We have confirmed the location of the Black Stone mutant tribe. The number of mutants is about 2,000, the same as in the intelligence."
"Survivors were found in the tribe... We can't get closer. I'm not sure if there are any of our people inside. I hope not."
After a burst of white noise of electricity.
The voice of the reply came from the other end of the communication channel.
"Received... We will arrive in half an hour. If it is convenient, please help us lead them to a wider area."
Yunsong cast his eyes on the two abandoned buildings close together not far away-the "earth digging worm" was passing through there before.
That's a good location.
Whether it's as a bombardment point.
Or as a grave to bury those beasts.
"Received, leave it to us."
After ending the communication, he waved to the soldiers behind him.
"Get ready to work."
...
At the same time, dozens of kilometers away from the edge of the desert, a huge steel airship was slowly pushing away the edge of the rolling yellow sand and heading towards the endless ruins.
If Chu Guang was shocked by the endless yellow sand and rolling clouds when he first entered Luoxia Province.
Then the shock in his heart at this moment can be said to be no less than that time.
Even more than that!
"Unbelievable... Was this a city before?" Chu Guang, standing in the bridge, overlooked the scenery outside the French window, with a look of surprise on his face.
The 100-meter-wide road stretched straight forward, merging with the high-rise buildings on the horizon. Even standing on the airship thousands of meters high, you can't see the end at a glance.
The earth was divided into countless grids by the interlaced roads and track debris, half of which were densely packed buildings and half were endless deserts.
Perhaps it will take hundreds or even thousands of years before this land will completely turn into the shape of Luoxia Province...
Standing next to Chu Guang, Wu Changnian narrowed his eyes slightly, his face not only showing shock but also a hint of melancholy.
"...I heard that in the prosperous era, that is, two centuries ago, the Great Desert was not called the Great Desert, but the four industrial zones of the People's Union."
Chu Guang glanced at him and asked in confusion.
"Four industrial zones?"
"Yes."
Wu Changnian nodded, looking out the window as if he was caught in the memory of a certain video material. After a pause, he slowly opened his mouth and continued.
"...The Western Industrial Zone is the starting point of all industrial chains, responsible for the production of the most basic raw materials, as well as the rough processing of raw materials transported by the logistics network and space elevators, such as synthetic chemicals, catalysts, alloys, etc."
"The northern industrial zone is a logistics and warehousing center, responsible for storing logistics surplus, distributing finished products, and transferring intermediate products and waste materials. It has the highest density of transportation networks in the prosperous era, whether it is trackless transportation or rail transportation... In theory, as long as you choose the right means of transportation, you can go there directly from any corner of the planet, and there are also the highest density of office buildings there."
"The eastern industrial zone is the end of the industrial chain. The huge, efficient and dense industrial chain is responsible for processing or assembling raw materials and intermediate products into final products."
"As for the southern industrial zone, it is mainly an energy hub. It is like a large charging plug, which is used to receive energy produced by outer space power generation facilities."
"With the space elevator, the four industrial zones surrounding the space elevator form a complete closed loop of the industrial chain."
Chu Guang was surprised.
"Build an industrial center in the middle of the continent?"
For him who came from another world, this sounds a bit counterintuitive.
After all, in his hometown, industrial zones are mostly concentrated in the east, especially in the coastal areas, and there are fewer inland industrial centers in the west, and the distribution is relatively sparse.
However, it seems to be a completely different matter here.
Wu Changnian nodded and continued.
"Yes, there is a stable climate here, far away from the junction of continental plates, no active earthquakes and volcanic activities, and unlike the sea or coastal areas, there are typhoons from time to time... There is no place more suitable for building the foundation of the space elevator than here."
As he spoke, his tone could not help but carry a hint of emotion.
"At first it was just an elevator, and then the dense transportation network began to extend to the low-Earth orbit, gradually turning into a tower, a mountain, and even a bigger mountain. Endless and rich resources poured from space to the surface, and the abundance was amazing... The prosperity of that era is hard to imagine in this era, and even the ideal city is just a restoration of its tip of the iceberg."
Wu Changnian had also heard that in the initial plan, the Human Union planned to use another two centuries to radiate the city cluster to every corner of the Central Continent with the space elevator as the center. Use the energy and alloys obtained from space mining to build the entire planet into a universal city.
That blueprint is a collection of the dreams of everyone in the entire prosperous era. Personal ideals, ambitions and imagination will extend infinitely on this infinitely prosperous planet and spread to the more distant galaxy with it as a basis.
But unfortunately, a war that lasted only three years made all the dreams come to nothing.
While Wu Changnian was reminiscing about the past, Chu Guang, who was standing next to him, had not yet recovered from the huge blueprint.
Although what he could see with his naked eyes was not bragging, he still couldn't figure out how this huge industrial center was placed in the center of the continent.
"...What about industrial water? Where does the water come from?"
Wu Changnian was stunned. He didn't expect that his focus was here, and then he laughed and said.
"Isn't there an underground ocean current pipeline? What do you think the Great Rift Valley was used for before?"
Chu Guang suddenly came back to his senses.
He seemed to have heard vaguely before that the Great Rift Valley existed to store the surplus energy generated by the controlled fusion power station, and the specific way to achieve this was to electrolyze seawater.
As for the surplus chlorine, sodium, and various metal elements precipitated from seawater and other byproducts, they would be packaged and sent to the industrial zone for processing.
It turned out that the underground ocean current pipeline was not only built for the Great Rift Valley, but also for the purpose of transporting industrial water to the center of the continent!
The power of that era was even more terrifying than he had imagined...
Chu Guang was shocked, and his scalp was numb.
Especially when he thought of the pretense at the beginning, and the "pie" he drew for Yin Fang, Heya, Vanus and other survivors...
How can we return to the greatness of the prosperous era?
Mobilizing 7 billion players is not enough!
What's more, it is obvious that the morphogenetic field cannot accommodate so many people... Otherwise, there is no reason why the first-generation manager would set up so many rules and "send him an activation code" in a planned way.
Not knowing what Chu Guang was thinking at the moment, Wu Changnian laughed and continued.
"Of course, the solid hydrogen underground in the Great Rift Valley is a strategic reserve and will not be used at ordinary times. The main industrial water supply is in the southern industrial zone. It is not only an energy hub, but also responsible for seawater desalination and sewage recycling... I don't understand too much professional, I just looked at it from the database. If you want to know more about how the whole system works, you have to ask experts in this field."
"In short, the four major industrial zones account for more than 60% of the GDP of the People's Federation, and the peak is said to have reached 70%."
"So remember, no one knows what will be in Shelter No. 0, we'd better be careful and arrange the candidates carefully."
Listening to the cautious tone, Chu Guang also nodded with a serious expression.
"I will arrange a shelter resident with outstanding perception ability."
Wu Changnian nodded approvingly.
"That's the best."
He had heard about the average awakener per capita in Shelter No. 404.
Although he believed in AI and machines more than awakening, an unstable biological factor, in the previous war, the Alliance had proved that humans were not inferior to machines under certain circumstances, and could even create miracles that machines could not achieve. It was never a bad thing to bring two more reliable masters.
And this was also the reason why he was able to convince the Enterprise and the Legion to help the Alliance, which "had no experience in ruins excavation", to win two places.
There was only one access card.
According to the employee named Luo Hua, the elevator they found that led to Shelter No. 0 was not very large, and the number of people who could go down at one time was limited...
At this moment, the door of the bridge was pushed open.
Vanus walked in from outside, saluted, and said neatly.
"The 26th Commando of the Enterprise has sent a message that they have confirmed the coordinates of the Black Stone mutant tribe, but they are not sure whether there are Enterprise employees among the slaves imprisoned by the mutants."
"If we can't be sure whether it exists, then assume it exists," Chu Guang said seriously, turning to look at Vanus, "Do you have a new battle plan?"
Vanus nodded.
"The battle plan is a frontal attack. We have informed the 26th Commando that the fire support will arrive in half an hour. They plan to launch an attack in half an hour and lure the enemy units to the bombardment coordinates they recommend."
"Very good, follow this plan," Chu Guang nodded, paused for a moment, and continued to order, "Let the airship's gun positions prepare for firepower, and let the Burning Corps stand by on the lower deck to support our allies."
"Yes!" After a neat military salute, Vanus turned and walked out of the bridge.
Retracting his gaze from his back, Wu Changnian looked at Chu Guang with a grateful look.
"Thank you for your attention to our employees."
Chu Guang smiled and said.
"You're welcome. The crew of the Pioneer is not only our friend, but also a favor to us."
Without that epoch-making machine tool, the subsequent industrialization would not have progressed so smoothly. Even if the little players had big ideas, they had to have something to turn their ideas into reality.
Although it was a transaction that each side got what it needed, he knew very well that the other side actually took good care of them, otherwise they would not have allowed them to take so much advantage of them.
When he parted with Captain Lu Yang, he said that he would remember this favor, and now was the time to repay it.
"... But by the way, was that person just now a Weilant?" Wu Changnian suddenly thought of something and mentioned it.
"Yes, yes."
Seeing Chu Guang's reaction was so calm, Wu Changnian couldn't help asking.
"Is it really okay?"
He had just reminded the young leader to be careful of every Weilant.
Looking at the slightly concerned look, Chu Guang said indifferently.
"He stayed voluntarily."
Long before going to Luoxia Province, Chu Guang had discussed this issue with Vanus. If he felt embarrassed to fight with the Legion, he could stay in Qingquan City. He would not force a person to participate in a war he did not want to participate in.
Objectively speaking, the officers Vanus trained for the Alliance and the contribution he made to the Alliance's command system in the early days of the business were enough to repay his "debt".
After the war, he could return to his hometown as a prisoner of war exchanged like other prisoners, and no one would know that he had served the Alliance.
However, after hearing his proposal, Vanus not only decisively rejected the only opportunity to go home, but also stood in front of Finod and McLen, the two prisoners who were destined to be exchanged back, to show his loyalty to the Alliance.
And the reason he gave made Chu Guang silent for a long time.
"...I spent a year thinking about the meaning of this war, but it seems that we have gained nothing except hatred and death. My troops were wiped out in the south, and my commander and his subordinates were wiped out in the north. I didn't regret anything at the moment of failure, but felt a sense of relief."
"I don't think His Majesty the Marshal is wrong, nor do I think General Kras is stupid. Perhaps if we continue to move forward along their path, we can really lead to a better future, but we don't understand it at the moment."
"As General Kras often said, we are extremely vicious criminals, and all of us will be nailed to the pillar of shame in history by future generations, but they will thank us for leaving them a vast world. In that world, there are only the Willant people, the Willant People will not hate the Weyland people. The tragedy that happened before...whether it was two hundred years ago or in the distant past, it will not happen again. "
"But in you, I see another possibility that we have never imagined. Maybe there is a unity beyond blood in this world...As you said, we are all survivors, whether we are residents of the shelter or wastelanders outside. What should be eliminated is not one of us, but the barbarism that is rampant in the wasteland. "
"War is a job for me. Unfortunately, this is the only thing I can do. But if it can become a little bit meaningful here, please let me continue to move forward by your side. "
At the same time, on the lower deck, the flashing signal lights have conveyed the order of the battle.
One by one, the eager players have put on their exoskeletons, picked up the most elite equipment, and brought sufficient ammunition.
This time they are going to pick up old friends home.
And it is an open military operation under the joint watch of the three forces of the Legion, the Enterprise, and the Academy.
Everyone was ready to show off in front of those old guys, to show the new Weyland Governor whether their defeat was unfair or not.
"Brothers! This time our opponents are mutants! Back then on Street 76, our friends on the East Coast helped us, this time it's our turn to help them."
Walked in front of a group of good brothers.
Old White, wearing a dragoon power armor, looked around at the brothers who were full of vigor and said loudly in a loud voice.
"There is only one purpose for the action-"
"Don't leave any alive!"
A deafening shout came from the hatch leading to the deck, and even the alloy floor was shaking violently under the burning fighting spirit.
"Oh oh oh!"
"Kill all those beasts!"