Alien Relic Hunter

At this critical moment, ZB51 drew out the light blade, and at the same time, the machine body transformed back into a fighter jet form. The body's torso instantly moved sideways, and its legs were folded to both sides of the machine's belly, just in time to avoid the iron tail sweeping over!

"What a quick reaction!" Everyone on the bridge was shocked by the pilot - if the pilot's reaction had been half a beat slower, the plane would have been destroyed and everyone would have died.

After ZB51 used its deformation to avoid a blow, it did not rush back to its human form. Instead, it quickly retreated with the help of the four vector thrusters at the nose of the machine, and distanced itself from the big lizard.

While retreating, he continued to shoot with a high-speed railgun - a single shot of a 13mm needle-shaped electromagnetic bullet could hardly penetrate the scales of the big lizard, but when ten rounds, twenty rounds, thirty rounds... ...Even when a hundred shots hit the same location, even if the hard scales were not broken, they were torn off from the skin of the big lizard.

After losing the protection of its scales, blood flowers suddenly appeared one after another on the big lizard's head.

The brains of these monsters are not fatal weaknesses. Otherwise, the light blade that penetrated the skull just now would have killed the big lizard. Naturally, the ZB51's shot would not have killed it. It only had a short effect. It's just a suppressive effect.

But for the ZB51 pilot, his goal at this step has been achieved.

The suppression time of just two seconds was enough for him and the ZB51 he operated.

ZB51 transformed into a humanoid mecha again, flicked his right arm, and spit out a four-meter-long slender light blade.

Compared with the previous light blade that penetrated the back of the big lizard's head, the diameter of the light blade at this time is much smaller, but this does not mean that the power of the light blade is reduced - on the contrary, this is the constraint of the strong electromagnetic field, which reduces the light. The blade was compressed to the extreme, and during this compression process, the power of the light blade was doubled.

This kind of light blade generating device is also a weapon excavated from the ruins of the Alpha civilization - with the current technological level of the Ark civilization, there are basically only two types of energy weapons: plasma cannon and laser cannon, and laser cannons only have two types: cluster type and pulse type. But Alpha Civilization can use a special electromagnetic field to "trap" energy to form an almost "physical" weapon.

The principles of the light blade generating device and the energy shield are very similar, except that the former condenses the energy blade, while the latter appears in the form of an energy shield or protective cover.

It takes a certain amount of time to increase the output power of the light blade and compress the volume of the light blade. In the few seconds when the railgun suppressed the big lizard, the light blade generating device had already completed the increase and compression - this is actually very risky. Operation, because in the fighter mode of the ZB51, the light blade generating device is stored inside the body. If the limit threshold is not controlled well, it is very likely that the light blade will have penetrated your own body before it cuts the enemy. I felt a chill in my heart.

Two transformations, increasing the distance, railgun fire, compressing the light blade, and charging forward again - it was all completed in less than three seconds. By the time everyone in the bridge reacted, the big lizard had already The compressed light blade was cut into dozens of pieces and rolled down to the outer deck.

No matter how tenacious this big lizard is, if it is cut into this shape, it will definitely die.

"Who is the pilot of ZB51? Why haven't I heard of such a number one person?" Major General Alexander frowned. Although 30,000 officers and soldiers of the Zero Fleet survived, almost all the elite pilots in the fleet were lost. In that inexplicable battle, most of the pilots who survived were reservists who were still in the probationary period... There may be geniuses with ace potential among this group of people, but true battlefield aces are all needed It has been honed through a lot of actual combat and countless life and death situations. A pilot who has never faced death directly, no matter how skilled he is, cannot possibly complete the smooth operation that the ZB51 pilot just did.

This is like a serious "ace pilot" who comes from the military. When facing the so-called "aces" trained by competitive clubs, there is almost no possibility of losing... let alone one-on-one. , even in a one-on-two match, they can still defeat those pilots who regard combat as a sports competition.

The former is to survive on the battlefield, while the latter is to get rankings and bonuses... This alone is enough to determine the outcome.

No amount of simulation training can replace the training of blood and fire on the battlefield.

Alexander remembered very clearly that there were no pilots of this level in his fleet - maybe there would be in the future, but that would be in the future.

Just as everyone was discussing the identity of the pilot, the surrounding electromagnetic field, which was chaotic due to energy reaction, finally stabilized slightly. Although long-range communication was still limited, short-range wireless communication was restored to some extent. Eighty-eight.

Accompanied by bursts of harsh electric noise, a male voice that sounded like an electronic synthesizer sounded in the bridge: "Special Aviation Group No. 1, pilot number 167, reported by Masayuki Otami."

"Masayuki Zakumi?!" Everyone in the bridge was stunned for a moment. They had never heard of this special aviation group, but the name "Masayuki Zakumi" and the number "167" dedicated to this name have such a reputation. Too loud. Not to mention those who came from the air force fleet, even in the field corps and garrison corps, "Zhai-167" is the number one well-known figure.

But the problem is... Masaru Zakumi was killed in the "Leviathan Resurrection Incident" a few years ago. His body and fuselage wreckage were directly assimilated by Leviathan. The troops who followed up to clean up the battlefield even had his None of the remains have been recovered.

Could it be that the news that Masaru Zakami was killed in battle was false? Did he survive that battle? Someone had such an idea in their head, but it was quickly dismissed - many of the people in Fleet Zero were from the First Cruise Fleet, and they had all participated in the battle with the "primordial beast" Leviathan. In that battle, they all watched helplessly as Zakumi Masayuki's machine was exploded and disintegrated in the air...

Zakumi Masayuki failed to eject successfully. Even if he survived the crash and landed on Leviathan, he would be instantly devoured by those red flesh worms.

Although these officers and soldiers all hoped that Zakumi Masayuki could survive, their reason told them that in that case, Zakumi Masayuki had no chance of surviving.

Unless a miracle happens.

"Masayuki Zami...Are you, Masayuki Zami?" an officer couldn't help but ask.

In his opinion, the pilot of ZB51 is most likely an admirer of Masayuki Otakumi. He just changed his name and pilot number to be the same as his idol... But the problem is that even if the Zero Fleet There is such a person in Zakumi who can imitate Zakumi Masayuki's name, number, voice and even appearance, but it is impossible to imitate Zakumi Masayuki's operations.

The battlefield situation is changing rapidly, and even super-intelligent computers cannot replace the role of those ace pilots - if it could, all the airframes of the front-line troops would have been controlled by AI.

ZB51 did not answer this question. Instead, another somewhat vague voice came in - this was the communication from Mukah Fortress. As the electromagnetic field gradually became stable, the various communication channels that were originally affected were gradually returning to normal.

"But you can say that he is Masayuki Zakumi himself, or you can say that he is not." Ke Lan said, "The cockpit of the ZB51 is empty. You can think that Masayuki Zakumi is flying this aircraft, or you can think that it is an unmanned aircraft. Man-machine.”

"Drone?" Alexander was slightly startled. He obviously didn't know that Ke Lan hid such a trump card on the Skati. "It is a 'pseudo-living CPU' generated by using the AI ​​simulator's operating habits during his lifetime. ?"

The "living CPUs" in the mass-produced Fallen Angel mecha are all living people, while the "pseudo-living CPU" Alexander calls is just the opposite. Relying on the powerful learning ability of AI, he wants to simulate a human being. The dead pilot is not that difficult...

But there is one problem that cannot be circumvented: Although AI can perfectly replicate the operations performed by the simulated person in simulated battles, and even do it exactly... but AI lacks flexibility, if it is placed in In a brand new environment, facing a brand new enemy, the AI's performance will be extremely unstable. Sometimes, it is even worse than those rookie pilots with little experience.

The term "artificial mental retardation" is actually not a joke.

"Absolutely, but in this AI, there is the 'soul' of Zakumi Masayuki." Ke Lan said, "Although I personally don't like the term 'soul', I can't find a more appropriate term for a while. adjective."

"Soul?" Everyone in the bridge looked at each other, obviously not knowing what Ke Lan meant by "soul".

"Do you still remember that Ze Luo and I were away for a while two days ago?" Ke Lan asked.

"Remember." Alexander nodded subconsciously, "But you didn't tell me the reason, so I didn't ask. Now that I have made a choice, I will unconditionally believe in your arrangement. If you didn't tell me, that means I don’t need to know those things.”

"Actually, I didn't mean to keep it a secret from you. I was just in a hurry, so I forgot about it." Ke Lan said with some embarrassment, "But that's okay. After all, this thing is still being tested. The best thing is to be surprised. Test the effect.”

Alexander did not ask questions, but waited for Ke Lan to continue speaking——

"Two days ago, we went to Leviathan's burial ground." Ke Lan said.

"Leviathan's burial ground... where did you find the remains of Zakumi Masayuki?"

"No...even if his remains are found, after such a long time, other parts except the bones have rotted...then there is nothing we can do." Ke Lan continued, "Zaijian Yazhi is here After the plane crashed, it fell on Leviathan. As you might imagine, his body was devoured by those red flesh worms and became a part of Leviathan.

"The red flesh bugs that make up Leviathan are a biological weapon created by the Alpha civilization. They named it 'Biomorphic Bug'. This Bionic Bug can not only devour living things, but can even devour fighter jets, mechas, We take inanimate things like battleships and simulate them by analyzing their structures. The original goal of Alpha Civilization in developing bionic insects was to simulate those 'prehistoric behemoths' with powerful strength."

Ke Lan did not mention one of the most important characteristics of the parasitic insect, which is "assimilation"... After the night watchman discovered that the existence could assimilate the body and soul of living creatures, he became very interested in this ability—— If you want to fight against that existence, you must understand its various abilities. And this ability to assimilate is the fundamental reason why that being uses civilization as its own "nourishment".

These parasitic insects are actually a tentative experiment of Alpha civilization's assimilation ability.

Not only can they assimilate organic and inorganic matter, they can even assimilate the consciousness of other creatures.

Of course, because these secrets involve that existence and belong to the category of "forbidden knowledge", he will not disclose them to the people on the Skadi - for Ke Lan, the degree of erosion may not matter, but for ordinary people However, it is enough to accelerate their transformation into corpses.

"When the machine exploded, Zakumi Masayuki's body was already dead, but thanks to the protection of the helmet, his brain was relatively well preserved when it fell on Leviathan." Ke Lan said, "The brain It is the most important organ in the human body. You can also regard it as the carrier of the 'soul'. Even if all brain cells die, human consciousness can still survive for a period of time after death... To use a more magical term, this is It's called the soul that hasn't completely dissipated. And Zakumi Masayuki's 'soul' was assimilated by those parasitic insects before it completely dissipated."

"You also know what happened later... The bionic insects simulated the appearance of the Leviathan beast when it was alive, but this simulation is irreversible. In a sense, they really became Leviathan. Tank, but this also gives them the same weakness as Leviathan - the 'core' that was destroyed by the Qilin.

"After the death of the new Leviathan, its flesh and blood completely withered away, leaving only a black crystalline skeleton... After consulting the information left by the Alpha civilization, I learned that those crystalline skeletons were actually a An information storage medium used to save the data generated by previous experiments. The 'soul' of Zakumi Masayuki is also preserved inside this crystalline skeleton."

"This..." Alexander looked surprised. Although he had seen many "big scenes", he had never heard of such bizarre things... Every word Ke Lan said was subverting his understanding of the world. Know.

"There is a lot of useful information stored in this crystal skeleton, but the total amount of information is too huge. I can only 'extract' the 'soul' of Zakumi Masayuki first, and put it into the ZB51's Control the inside of the system as a sample for pilot testing."