Alien Relic Hunter

Ke Lan did not speak, but responded directly with practical actions - he checked his equipment one last time, then walked to the edge of the cliff, faced the bottomless sinkhole, and jumped down!

Not only does he want to go down, but his position is also the most important vanguard among the entire team!

The rocket thrusters on his back and legs simultaneously ejected fiery tail flames, helping Ke Lan adjust his posture in the air and fly towards the pit wall on one side.

With a "pop" sound, the Nino alloy hook claws at the ends of the limbs popped out at the same time, cutting into the hard ice without any hindrance. Then, the mechanism at the front of the hook claw was triggered, and each hook claw unfolded. Four barbs with thorns were pulled out, and with a heart-wrenching friction sound, twenty ravines of different depths were plowed out on the wall of the pit.

Ke Lan's position finally stabilized at a depth of thirty-five meters - his entire body was firmly attached to the ice on the surface of the pit wall, just like an earth creature called a "gecko".

Ke Lan looked around and said on the team channel using a throat microphone: "The descent depth is 35.4 meters. It's safe. No trace of the 'Siren' has been found yet. The communication is completed."

The word "Siren" comes from a kind of siren in ancient Greek mythology that can confuse humans with its songs. Here, it is used to refer to the Alpha language that only Ke Lan can hear, and the words hidden in it. mental attack.

Looking down from Ke Lan's position, one can also see the hunters who are suspended by steel cables for mining operations deeper. They hold the adjustment lock at the end of the steel cable with one hand and hold the small laser on their shoulders with the other. Cutting machine, their feet were pedaling on the cutting frame that was driven into the ice. The strong wind flowing in the sinkhole kept beating on these people, making hunting sounds... From time to time, some chopped ice ballast would come from They fell in front of them and fell into the dark abyss.

Soon, the hounds and others also jumped down from above. They used their hooks to hang themselves about twenty meters deep, forming a fan-shaped "advance formation" with Ke Lan's position as the apex. .

"To be honest... I have used the fan-shaped push formation many times when encircling and suppressing indigenous creatures, but this is really the first time on the vertical plane." The hound's voice sounded in the team channel.

"Anyway, our equipment has three-dimensional maneuverability. There is not much difference between vertical and water surfaces..." Ke Lan said, "Each unit should confirm its own status. If there is no problem, I will continue to descend."

"No. 2, Hound, no problem."

"No. 3, Akira Asano, no problem."

…

Everyone responded one by one according to the serial number of the preset position. After confirming, Ke Lan pulled out the hooks of his right hand and right foot, and reached down with the entire right half of his body. After finding a new foothold, he moved the hooks Insert it into the ice, then pull out the hooks of your left hand and left foot, and repeat the process.

Compared with the "leapfrog" fall, this rock climbing-like descent is much slower, but it is more stable and does not consume precious fuel in the rocket thruster.

Anyway, the goal set for the first exploration operation was fifty meters deep. Even if he climbed like this for half an hour, Ke Lan's physical strength was fully capable.

But just when Ke Lan was about to continue climbing down, there was a sudden violent explosion above his head! Suddenly, a large amount of snow and ice rolled down from above!

"Damn it! What's going on? What happened up there?" the hound shouted loudly. He was hit by a piece of ice the size of a washbasin while climbing, and his exoskeleton on one side was seriously damaged. , the rocket thrusters on the back and waist fell down together with the brackets... Fortunately, the hook on the other hand was inserted deep enough, so that the hound could hang on the wall of the pit and did not fall into the abyss.

"Akira Asano! Layton! Go help the old dog!" Ke Lan shouted in the wheat, "Don't fly up now! In addition to the explosion, I also heard gunshots!"

"I heard it too! Damn it, it was the gunshots of modified Type 01 assault rifles and Mozambique shotguns, as well as some crude semi-automatic weapons... Fuck! Could it be the exiles?!" Layton whispered.

Ke Lan immediately switched to the communication channel of the "Greece" and asked: "Captain, what is the situation above the sinkhole now?"

The captain of the "Greece" is a middle-aged man in his forties. He was once the first mate of a heavy assault ship in the Second Fleet. After retiring, he was hired by the Soma Consortium. He was transferred to this phantom not long ago. Aboard a high-speed airship.

As a retired soldier who has experienced many battles, the captain's reaction was very calm: "The relic hunters above the sinkhole were attacked - the attackers were a convoy of eleven unidentified modified vehicles, coming from the southwest. Coming from the direction, we are still 500 meters away from the temporary observation station and hunter camp. Rocket launchers and individual missiles are being used to carry out long-range attacks on the camp. Based on the current speed of the convoy, it is expected to rush into the camp in thirty seconds."

"Didn't the early warning radar on the ship detect this group of attackers?" Ke Lan couldn't help but ask.

"There should be a stealth device in the convoy that can block radar detection, so it was not discovered in advance." The captain replied.

"...Can the identity of the attacker be inferred from the characteristics of these vehicles?"

"The attackers should be the exiles in the wilderness, but it is impossible to determine which force they are." The captain paused and said, "The Polaris Hunting Group in the camp below sent a signal for help to our ship. Do you want to launch fire?" assistance?"

"Assistance is allowed, but pay attention to the attack range and minimize accidental damage... In addition, ship-based drones will be sent to cover our return."

"Received, prepare for fire support, attack target: Exile convoy."

There is a screen installed in Ke Lan's goggles that is directly connected to the small command system. From this screen, he can clearly see the picture captured by the drone: only the rear port side and the front starboard side of the "Greece" can be seen. Flames more than ten meters long were sprayed out from both sides at the same time, and the entire airship slowly moved horizontally. The weapon bays on the side facing the attacker opened one after another, and four rapid-fire railguns and two honeycomb missile launchers poked out of it. .

This is the strongest firepower that a civilian airship can carry. Although this firepower can scratch the itch in front of a battleship, it is more than enough to deal with the exiles' convoy.

From the footage of another drone, Ke Lan finally saw the true identity of the attackers - they were eleven off-road vehicles that had been modified like tanks, with a large number of rusty studs welded to the front of the vehicles. , three pairs of wheels with a diameter of two meters are wrapped with thick metal tracks, and the rear compartment is filled with a variety of long-range weapons.

This is indeed the style of the Exiles, but even among the Exiles, this fleet can definitely be regarded as luxuriously armed. Even if many large settlements spend all their money, they still cannot get together one such armored vehicle. Let alone eleven cars.

Ke Lan shared the drone footage with the rest of the team, and Hound immediately cursed: "Damn it, are these bastards crazy?"

"No, they are not crazy... they are here to rob the stone tablet." Ke Lan suddenly thought of a possibility and couldn't help but shudder.

"Stone tablet? What's the use of grabbing this thing? Do they think people from the institute will spend a lot of money to buy this thing from a group of exiles?"

"They robbed this not for money, but for research... These people are not ordinary exiles." Ke Lan said word by word.

"Research, just because of them -" Hound stopped mid-sentence, and after a while, he said with some difficulty, "You mean, these people were sent by that heretical sect?"

In addition to Ke Lan, the relic hunter who founded the heretical sect can also read the texts of Alpha Civilization. At the institute, these stone tablets were just alien documents that were difficult to decipher, but when they got into his hands, they immediately It became valuable research data!

Judging from the heretical sect's research on the Seed of Corrosion, Ke Lan has no doubt that that guy can replicate the biological weapons recorded on these stone tablets again, or even improve them!

That man escaped from the Ark a long time ago and has been hiding in an unknown place in the wilderness. These exiles active in the wilderness are the real foundation of the heretical sect!

No one knows to what extent the heretical sect has developed among the exiles, but one thing that is certain is that the force they possess is enough to conquer every exile settlement and absorb the population into their own Congregation.

Although the total population of the exiles is not as large as the humans on the Ark, the sum of so many settlements, large and small, is a number that cannot be underestimated. If these people are all... No, not all, as long as ten If one of the people is transformed into a biological weapon by a heretical sect, it will be a very terrifying force.

They don't even need to rush to attack the Ark. They only need to continuously attack the ruin hunters everywhere and plunder the trophies these hunters unearthed from the ruins. With that person's presence, the heretical sect can digest the loot much faster than the Ark. With the help of Alpha With civilized technology, within a few years, the gap in technological levels between the two sides will be completely overturned.

There are only two ways to change this situation: the first way is to capture or kill the founder of the heresy sect alive. Without his heresy sect, there is no way to pose any threat to the Ark; the second way is to It was Ke Lan who disclosed his abilities to the top management of Ark, and the two sides launched an arms race similar to the "Cold War" of the old era.

…

"Fire!" the captain's order came from the channel. Hundreds of small guided missiles poured out from the launch nest, dragging white trails and flying towards the exile's convoy. However, these missiles were far away from the convoy. When there were still almost a hundred meters left, they all lost their aim one after another - some fell to the ground and exploded, some twisted and flew into the distance as if they were drunk, and the most outrageous one... He changed the angle and crashed directly into a temporary barracks set up by the Polaris Hunting Group!

"Gan! These armored vehicles also have anti-guidance jamming devices! Their appearance is just camouflage, and the equipment carried on these vehicles is no less than that of regular troops in the field!" Seeing this scene, Layton said anxiously, "No. Use missiles and rail cannons to blast him! I don’t believe they even have shield generators on board!”

A faint blue stream of light fell from the sky and headed straight for the modified car at the front of the convoy. Just when the blue stream of light was about to come into contact with the vehicle, a brilliant light shield suddenly lit up directly in front of the car——

The hound immediately scolded: "Leyton, you are a fucking crow's mouth! Say less next time!"

"boom!!"

The electromagnetic bullet as thick as an arm hit the energy shield hard, and nearly two-thirds of the projectile was vaporized in the blink of an eye, while the remaining one-third deviated from the predetermined trajectory and penetrated right through. into the ground.

Although the modified car failed to be directly destroyed, the huge kinetic energy contained in the projectile still lifted the car instantly and hit another car behind the convoy!

The two vehicles that collided together suddenly had a more violent explosion - the detonating vehicle-borne ammunition affected most of the convoy. In the continuous explosion, nearly half of the modified vehicles were destroyed. It turned into a blazing fireball, and the vehicle behind it had to step on the brakes.

"Good fight!" The hound shouted, but in an instant, he suddenly felt something bad, "You... did you hear anything... a rumbling sound?"

"Explosion?" Layton asked on the communication channel.

"No... it's not an explosion, it's... it's the sound of something collapsing... from far to near..." Ke Lan also heard it, and he suddenly shuddered, "No, it's an avalanche! Firefight and explosion The resulting vibrations triggered an avalanche!”

Before he finished speaking, countless cracks appeared on the ice in front of them in an instant - the next second, the ice they were clinging to had shattered!

"What the fuck! Run! Use the thrusters to fly out!" Layton yelled, and with a strong tug of the robotic arm, he lifted the damaged hound in his hands and started the rocket thrusters behind him, but before he could wait, He adjusted the angle, and a large heavy object, which was unknown as ice or broken rock, hit him solidly, pushing the two of them into the abyss!

"Leighton! Old dog!" Ke Lan turned around and shouted, but soon, he also felt as if someone had punched him hard on his back. The push that kept him suspended in mid-air suddenly disappeared, and his whole body He lost his balance in an instant and fell towards the depths of the sinkhole...

During the fall, Ke Lan managed to raise his head and saw majestic snow waves sweeping through the broken glacier like a tsunami. They carried the broken rocks and rushed to the edge of the sinkhole, and then rolled down with a crash - whether Ke Lan Lan and others are still the hunters working on the wall of the pit. They have no way to avoid it!