Not far behind the Iron Heart, a slightly smaller airship followed closely.
Inside the bridge.
Staring at the Iron Heart that had been modified beyond recognition not far away, General McLen's face was full of gloom.
He still remembered the congratulations that the guy in the tin can teased him when he got off the airship.
He swore.
I will pay back the humiliation I suffered here tenfold!
Standing not far from him, Adria, the captain of the Judge, frowned and pondered for a long time, and suddenly spoke out of the blue.
"I still can't figure out how to snatch that thing."
Compared with his Judge, that guy was simply armed with artillery like a hedgehog. Even if he faced a 100,000-man army head-on, the latter could only stare blankly.
Although this sentence did not mean to mock, it was particularly harsh in McLen's ears, so that the latter's eyebrows could not help but twitch.
"That was an accident..."
Seeing that his colleague didn't want to talk more, Adria shrugged regretfully and didn't ask any more questions.
Although he had one more star on his shoulder than McLen, he had to consider the background behind this guy.
Unlike Griffin, who was born a civilian officer, McLen was a noble officer with status like himself. Although the officers who followed the Eastward Expansion Faction suffered a great misfortune, he would not lose power because of this. His experience in fighting on the Eastern Front might even become his qualification.
Political stance is one aspect, and in a place like Triumph City, the stance of identity is also something that cannot be ignored. Everyone is from the Air Force system, and there is no need to offend people because of a few words.
The silence in the bridge lasted for a short while.
At this moment, McLen suddenly took the initiative to speak.
"By the way, how did Griffin die?"
"Stroke." Adria answered reflexively, but McLen sneered at it with disdain.
"Don't talk nonsense. I've never seen that idiot have any physical problems."
Adria was silent for a moment and sighed.
"Don't embarrass me. He is from the army system. If you are curious, you should ask Joseph. He may know something."
McLen did not speak, but nodded, staring at the Iron Heart outside the bridge.
On the deck in the distance, planes were pushed onto the deck, and surprisingly, those planes had neither propellers nor engine nozzles.
"It's a very bold idea," Adria said approvingly, "I heard from the captain of the Falcon Kingdom Guards that they put this kind of wooden plane on the airship and threw it down, using the height of the airship to provide gliding power... This kind of plane can save propellers and engines, and can be produced by two carpenters."
"Although it seems that it is a problem that it cannot take off from the ground, it is quite interesting as a disposable prop."
After returning, he plans to talk to his acquaintances in the Air Force Equipment Manufacturing Bureau to see if he can make something similar.
But a glider alone is useless.
This also involves the modification of strategic equipment such as airships. Not only does it require convincing the Air Force Command, but it also requires finding a captain willing to cooperate.
This may be a bit difficult.
After all, Triumph City does not think that the indigenous equipment has any reference value, and does not think that this is a war between the Alliance, but a contest between Triumph City and Ideal City.
"Can you raise the altitude a little?" McLen, who was staring at the deck, suddenly asked.
Adria nodded and waved his hand casually.
"Ascend 300 meters."
The adjutant standing by stood at attention.
"Yes!"
...
The Arbiter climbed to the best viewing seat. In the rolling dust not far away, the long shuttle-shaped aircraft also accelerated to fly above the battlefield and hovered.
Including Wu Changnian standing on the Heart of Steel.
Representatives of various forces are watching the next move of the Alliance.
The performance of the Alliance did not disappoint the onlookers.
Thirty gliders took off from the deck of the airship one after another, and with the whistling and surging airflow, they all attacked the battle coordinates 20 kilometers away.
At the same time, under the rolling dust, the 26th Enterprise Commando had already erupted in a fierce exchange of fire with the Black Rock Mutant Tribe.
Ten power armor stations were scattered in the front row as the vanguard, followed by android soldiers, and then soldiers wearing exoskeletons.
Orange-yellow tracers shuttled through the ruins, like flying debris on a forge.
The battle was extremely intense!
Although the Enterprise had power armor and powerful Gauss weapons, the mutants had an absolute advantage in numbers and physical strength.
Unless the skull was opened by the hot metal bullet, even if half of the mouth was blown up, they could still charge forward waving chainsaws and shaking chins.
"Beat them!"
"Chop them up! Throw them in the oil pan!"
"Mm-m-m-m-m-m-m-m!"
After shooting and killing more than a dozen mutants, one of the short mutants rushed over.
Yunsong decisively abandoned the broad Gauss rifle in his hand, pulled out the scimitar tied to the armor on his right leg, and split the short axe that was coming towards him with a clang.
This was a gift from a general of the Lion Kingdom. It was said to be made of the "God-given alloy" bestowed by the spirit of the sea of sand, which was tempered through thousands of hammers - in fact, to put it bluntly, it was the armored steel used for starships.
The armored steel removed from the starship was not comparable to the garbage picked up from the wasteland, and the short axe was directly cracked by the shock.
The mutant staggered back, and a trace of surprise appeared in his bloodthirsty eyes. Obviously, he didn't expect that this iron lump that was bigger than the big guy would be so sensitive.
But the surprise was only for a moment, and was soon replaced by the desire for flesh and blood.
"Roar!"
With a roar, it rushed forward with the cracked axe, but before it took two steps, its throat was cut by a white blade that slashed down like clouds and flowing water.
Looking at the flying head, Yunsong shook off the blood on the scimitar, picked up the Gauss rifle on the ground without hesitation, and calmly retreated while firing at the mutants who were roaring and rushing towards him.
There were more than 200 corpses lying on the ground, and the gray-black mutants that kept coming out of the ruins seemed to have no end.
"Damn...are there really only 2,000 of these guys?" Su Ming threw away the overheated barrel and yelled while inserting a new one.
"Probably? Who can say this kind of thing well...I can only make an assessment based on their rations and the scale of their buildings. Maybe they grow mushrooms in the caves." The drone operator said with a tingling scalp.
The mutants in the Great Desert are completely different from those on the East Coast.
Whether it is fighting style or living habits.
If it were on the East Coast, they would have called for tactical nuclear warheads or airdropped self-propelled heavy firepower robots for support.
The first line of defense composed of power armor has come into direct contact with the mutants.
Three of the power armors have drawn out half-meter-long combat knives and fought with the mutants holding 100-kilogram hammers.
At this moment, the drone operator suddenly shouted loudly.
"Most of the enemy units have gathered around the bombardment coordinates! Now is the best time! Captain! How long will it take for the Alliance to attack."
A calm answer came from the communication channel.
"The support request has been sent!"
Almost at the same time as the voice fell, there was a burst of bangs in the distance.
The light flashing in the haze was like thunder in a clear sky. With a few whistles breaking through the air, white smoke fell from the top of the battlefield like raindrops.
The flames of the explosion shot up into the sky, and the spreading fragments and smoke exploded between the two tilted buildings, instantly engulfing more than a hundred mutants.
One of the buildings was hit by several shells, and the twisted steel bars could no longer support it, and the entire building began to collapse.
Looking at the collapsed high-rise building above their heads, the bloodthirsty eyes were finally filled with fear, but it was too late to escape.
Countless mutants only had time to subconsciously raise their arms to block the falling rubble and dust, and were smashed into pulp by the mountain-like building.
The collapsed building produced a chain reaction, and another building that was hit at the root also began to collapse.
The two high-rise buildings that fell sideways formed a giant wall that was intertwined and broken into several sections, directly dividing the battlefield from the middle.
The shock wave blew the stones and debris on the ground hundreds of meters away, and a circle of ups and downs ripples were spread on the surface of the quicksand not far away.
"Woohoo!"
Su Ming, carrying a Gauss rifle, waved his fist excitedly and cheered happily.
"Well done!"
The sound of artillery in the distance has stopped.
However, the Alliance's offensive has not stopped.
The buzzing sound in the air is getting closer and closer, and a desert-colored cross appears above the 26th Commando.
"What is that?" Gu Wei raised the muzzle of the gun and pointed it at the sky, then lowered it.
"The Alliance's glider, they took over the job of clearing the mutant's nest," Yunsong answered neatly in the communication channel, finishing off the mutant who fell to the ground, "Don't stand there stupidly, you won't even be able to drink a sip of hot soup later."
Su Ming suddenly spoke.
"Hot soup? Are you talking about the ones in the mutant's nest?"
The communication channel was quiet for a while.
"...I'm just making a metaphor, don't disgust me."
...
The attacking mutants were cut off from their retreat by the collapsed building, and instantly became orphans trapped in a corner.
The 26th Commando immediately turned from defense to offense, rushing towards the mutants who were stunned by the explosion, and using short knives or secondary weapons to close-rangely finish off the mutants while their wounds had not yet healed.
There was no need to hold back when facing aliens.
There were constant gunshots around the ruins, and in just a few minutes, nearly two hundred mutants died under the guns of the 26th Commando led by Yunsong.
"The strength of the enterprise is not weak, I thought their land forces were all a bunch of weaklings." Adria had a hint of appreciation in his eyes.
Although the equipment advantage accounted for more than half, the combat effectiveness of the soldiers themselves should not be underestimated. They chose a similar strengthening route as the academy, using a large number of intelligent weapons and bionic prostheses, but their performance on the battlefield was completely different from the academy's fancy equipment.
"After all, they are experts in dealing with mutants." The deputy standing next to Adria gave an ambiguous evaluation.
"Haha," McLen smiled coldly, saying with a hint of sarcasm, "After all, it was their mess. If they are not good at it, who will be good at it?"
Compared to the Enterprise.
He cares more about the wastelanders who defeated him once...
Last time he lost too quickly and too suddenly, and he didn't see clearly how those airborne soldiers defeated his Marines who were armed to the teeth.
McLen stared at the bridge, motionlessly staring at the gliders that were rushing towards the ground.
Come on...
Let me see what great skills you have.
...
In fact, the Burning Legion did not have any great skills in the landing stage, and the landing posture of the glider could even be described as quite unskilled.
Planes flew into the village of the mutant tribe like fairies scattering flowers. The sturdy wings and noses overturned the roofs of countless huts like shovels.
A glider landed in the pasture, and its belly hit the boiling oil pan straight.
The mutant priest who had just finished delivering a baby was terrified, and couldn't figure out where these two-legged animals came from.
It put the wailing cub in a basket beside it, pulled out the short knife for slaughter, and rushed to the nearest plane with a howl.
But before it could get within five steps of the plane, the sound of gunfire and three fully armed soldiers rushed out of the cabin and shot its head.
"Fuck! I almost fell into the oil pan!" Spitting a mouthful of bloody saliva, Ye Shi reached out and picked up the aircraft machine gun that fell on the ground, and threw it hard to the guy who quit smoking next to him.
Fortunately, this plane has no fuel tank!
Even if it catches fire, don't worry.
"Hahaha! I'll call Lao Na." While loading the heavy machine gun in his hand, Quitting Smoking laughed and joked.
"Get lost!"
Ye Shi rolled his eyes.
As he was talking, a strong sense of crisis surged in his mind. He almost subconsciously moved the muzzle of the gun, and the LD-50 carbine in his hand pointed at the metal partition not far away.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
The muzzle flames sprayed, and a series of ding-dong explosions instantly made the metal partition printed with dozens of bullet holes.
A blood mist exploded behind the pierced partition, and a mutant soldier holding a rifle was immediately shot into a sieve, and fell to the mud with a cry of pain.
After knocking the tripod on the tilted iron barrel, Quitting Smoking, who had set up the machine gun, immediately pulled the trigger.
The muzzle spewed out hot flames, instantly opening up a dense fire network in this twisting and winding alley.
In front of the 12mm heavy machine gun, both the flesh and blood of the mutants and the garbage bunkers in front of them were as fragile as the Paper Lake.
Although the players did not have advanced Gauss weapons and shellless rifles like the 26th Commando, the Alliance's weapons were not much inferior in terms of killing efficiency against soft targets.
The only difference was the shape of the wounds on the corpses...
Nearly a hundred players who landed on gliders set off a bloody storm in the Black Rock Mutant Tribe.
They did not expect that the rear would be attacked at all, and the mutants in the village were caught off guard on the spot. In particular, their large forces suffered heavy casualties in the artillery attack and had no time to return for support.
As the ranch area where the prisoners were imprisoned was occupied by Alliance soldiers, the Heart of Steel launched a second round of artillery fire against the coordinates provided by the players.
Faced with the stranglehold from all sides and the baptism of rounds of bullets, the resistance of the mutants was quickly disintegrated.
"By the way, where is Lao Bai? It's almost over, why haven't we seen him yet?" Seeing that all the mutants in the village were almost dead, Ye Shi turned around and shouted.
"He parachuted down, it will probably take a while, let's do our work first--" Before Kuang Feng's voice fell, a loud "winter" sound came from not far away.
I saw a black shadow crashing straight into a row of iron sheds, and the burly body actually collapsed the shacks that were more than ten meters wide.
Several mutants who had just developed to adolescence, rolled and crawled out of the shacks to find weapons, but before they ran two steps, they were pressed to the ground by the sound of gunfire.
Soon, the hearty voice came from the communication channel.
"What a coincidence, it seems that I arrived at the right time."
Ye Shi was slightly stunned, then smiled and teased.
"Almost. If you had stayed in the sky for a while longer, this parachute would have been in vain."
Quit smoking: "Hahaha!"
...
Although the mutants of the Blackrock Tribe are much stronger than those guys that players encountered on Street 76 during the initial development period, today's alliance is different from the past.
The fierce battle lasted less than 20 minutes, and there were only sporadic gunshots and exhausted roars inside and outside the tribe.
In the center of the village, in front of a strange altar.
Looking at the people coming down the steps, a mutant priest with wrinkles on his face, with a rare look of panic and fear on his face, raised his hands to greet them.
It was wearing animal skin clothing, and a skull with a rope hanging around its neck.
"Wait a minute! Please let me see your leader. There may be some misunderstanding between us-"
"Bang--!"
A hot bullet penetrated its skull, interrupting its dying struggle for mercy.
Looking at the body lying on the steps, Ye Shi spat.
"What a mistake."
See the manager?
Are you worthy?
Kuangfeng glanced at the young man.
"If you kill this guy, who can we ask for clues about the crew members?"
Ye Shi was stunned, scratched the back of his head awkwardly, and said with guilt.
"Didn't Lao Bai say that no one should be left alive..."
He admitted that when he landed just now, he was a little excited when he saw his fellows caught by the mutants.
Lao Bai patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile.
"It's okay, there are so many guys who haven't cooled down yet, just catch one and ask."
As he said, he walked in front of the mutant priest and was about to check the body of this guy. However, when his eyes fell on the mutant's clothes, he couldn't help but frown.
The stripes of patterns weaved into an inverted triangle, like an upright torch and a flickering flame on the torch.
Lao Bai looked up at the altar in front of him, and saw the symbol engraved on the stone wall, which was exactly the same as the one in his memory.
Torch?
But this is the Great Desert, thousands of kilometers away from the Coast of Death.
How could the symbol of the Torch Church appear here?
Lao Bai's frown tightened even more.
Is it a coincidence?
However, now is not the time to think about this question.
Using a combat knife to cut a piece of linen from the priest's clothes, Lao Bai looked up at the altar in front of him and waved his right fist.
"Keep moving forward!"
The mutants on the periphery have been cleared.
As expected.
The boss battle should be ahead!
...
However, to the players' regret, there are no legendary super mutants in the altar.
There is not even an elite monster.
But think about it.
If there really was such a terrifying thing, General Kraus would have used it in the previous expedition, and he would never have saved this trump card until the end.
After dealing with several mutants holding rifles and guarding the altar, everyone successfully stepped into the hall built of concrete waste.
This seemed to be a factory before. There was a backup generator with a nuclear battery in the factory, and it was still working.
Following the wires and exploring forward, everyone soon found twelve upright cylindrical culture dishes in the side hall of the altar.
The culture dishes were filled with dark green solution, and white bodies were soaked in it, with ventilators blocking their faces.
Bubbles kept floating up from the bottom of the culture dishes, and it was obvious that these devices were still working.
Old White frowned and walked to the console. He was about to try to operate it, but he was embarrassed to find that he couldn't understand the device that even mutants could operate.
If Fang Chang was here, maybe it would work...
He looked at his brothers beside him embarrassedly.
"...What is this?"
Ye Shiyi said in confusion.
"Clone synthesis device?"
Recalling what he saw on Street 76, Kuangfeng shook his head.
"It doesn't look like..."
"That's a treatment cabin."
A strange voice came from behind, interrupting the conversation of the players. Although it was a completely different language, it was surprisingly not at all awkward when it was inserted into the topic.
Everyone turned around and saw Yunsong, the captain of the 26th Enterprise Commando, unbuttoning the visor of his helmet and walking towards the side with a rifle.
"Treatment cabin?" Lao Bai asked in confusion in human language.
"That's right."
Stopping in front of one of the culture tanks, Yunsong looked at the device in front of him with a complicated expression, and slowly opened his mouth to continue.
"They will throw fertile, compatible, and suitable human females into the treatment chamber... and reuse them after they are cured."
"The mutants who can use these devices are usually priests or chiefs in the tribe... It's the same on the East Coast."
"How did these guys learn these devices?" Lao Bai couldn't help asking.
"These devices are not very difficult to operate. Sometimes there are simple tutorials in the program, or even automatic AI..."
After a pause, Yunsong continued with a complicated expression,
"Of course, it is also possible that people taught them."
It is worth mentioning that although mutants are a completely different species from humans, they are not completely unable to communicate.
They even speak human language, but most of them are stupid.
A few smart mutants will soon stand out from a group of idiots and become priests or herders of the tribe. They know how to exchange what humans like for what they need.
For example, slaves.
For example, tools for producing slaves.
Mutants have no concept of medicine.
Either there must be a treatment chamber, a cloning chamber, or a mutant chieftain with superb captive art.
Otherwise, with their barbaric delivery techniques and the harsh environment in this area, even if the individual lifespan is long, they can't reproduce more than a thousand people.
Yunsong seriously suspected that it was General Kraus of the Legion who taught these mutants the technology to use the treatment chamber.
After all, those Weylanders are fully capable of this.
There is also a complete motivation to do so.
"Let's not talk about this. I'm very happy to fight side by side with you..."
Staring at the burly power armor on Lao Bai, Yunsong stretched out his fist and touched him on the shoulder, saying with a little surprise.
"Is this the one before? Incredible... You actually fixed it."
Lao Bai grinned.
"The interior has been slightly modified. It's not so advanced, but it doesn't affect the use."
Initially, Yin Fang helped him fix it, and then the company's delegation came to Qingquan City, and he bought some accessories from Changge Group.
Yunsong said with emotion.
"The power armor of the prosperous era is much better than those produced in the post-war years, but unfortunately we don't have the ability to completely repair it."
After a pause, he looked at Lao Bai seriously and continued to ask.
"I just searched, and there is no one we are looking for here. How do you plan to deal with these and the survivors outside...who were rescued?"
Lao Bai glanced around and said casually.
"It's probably the old rules. After they are treated, they will be sent to the refugee home."
Yunsong asked puzzled.
"What is that?"
"A place similar to a rescue station."
Yunsong was slightly stunned, as if he didn't expect the alliance to have such a facility. After a moment of silence, he spoke.
"But I think...turning off the ventilator may be better for them. Few people can come out of this hellish experience."
At first, they would also send the rescued survivors to the nearby survivor settlement, but later they found that doing so would only add to their troubles.
Most of the survivor settlements will not accept those who have been captured by mutants. Even if they are willing to help the enterprise for money, at most they will only give them a few bites of food and find a place where they can fend for themselves.
Most of the people who were rescued will not thank them, and will even hate them for not giving themselves a quick death or taking them to the ideal city.
At first, he also tried to help those "troubles" that were accidentally added to the missions, but after a few more missions, he found that it was purely to make himself uncomfortable.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, not all people were captured, and many were mistakenly produced by the cloning device.
Sending away those who came to this world by mistake and letting them start a new life is actually a kind of kindness.
Lao Bai was silent for a while and shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know, maybe you are right, but the choice is theirs, isn't it? At least we did what we could do."
They did not abandon these rescued people.
There are also many people who were rescued from the predator's dungeon, but they couldn't get out and chose to commit suicide.
But there are also examples of starting a new life and even finding happiness in a new life.
"Maybe." Yunsong nodded slightly to show respect, looking at Lao Bai and the soldiers of the alliance behind him and said, "I'll leave it to you here."
As he said that, he turned and walked outside.
The battle is over.
The entrances to the Pioneer and Shelter No. 0 are not far from this camp.
Before welcoming the arrival of the company's senior executives, he needs to lead the soldiers to clean up the battlefield carefully and eliminate the safety hazards nearby.
Watching the NPC named Yunsong leave, Lao Bai suddenly thought of something and looked at Ye Shi who was standing aside.
"By the way, bring in the NPCs rescued outside... if the survivors are still alive."
"Got it."
Understanding what his good brother meant, Ye Shi made an OK gesture and turned to walk out the door.
Lao Bai turned his eyes back to the row of treatment pods.
Looking at the survivors floating in the nutrient solution, these culture tanks should not be able to regenerate broken limbs, but they can speed up the healing of injuries on the body.
This is similar to the culture pods used by players.
The only difference is that the culture pods used by players are only effective for matching gene sequences, and cannot be used by others, or even lent to other players.
As for the lower-cost "hibernation pods", they are only used as save points for players and do not have the function of accelerating healing.
Although players probably can't use them, for NPCs with only one life, this thing is still very helpful and can be recycled.
In the wasteland, as long as you don't die on the spot, even if you are seriously injured with broken arms and legs, there are a lot of remedies.
Lao Bai suddenly discovered that there are really a lot of treasures hidden in this desert.
Thinking of the legendary No. 0 shelter, he became more and more excited...