Alien Relic Hunter

Ke Lan touched the edge of the rock ravine almost silently and looked down.

He did not see the crowded scene he imagined - the bottom of the rock ravine was very empty, and there were no traces of human activity at all. On the contrary, there were many caves on the rock walls on both sides that looked like they were dug by humans.

These exiles set up their settlement inside the rock wall instead of at the bottom of the ravine, so that it would be more concealed. Looking down from the air, it is difficult to detect abnormalities whether with naked eyes or radar scanning. Unless the drone can penetrate deep into the rock ravine to explore, it is possible to find these inhabited caves.

In the wilderness, there are countless ravines like this. If a drone is sent to inspect each one, it will be an extremely heavy burden - compared with the various threats on Alpha Planet, These rats hiding in the gutters are actually not that concerning.

In fact, as long as these exiles did not take the initiative to attack Ark's transfer stations and transport convoys, and were not involved with heretical sects, both the security bureau and the military would turn a blind eye to their existence. It's just that in recent years, as more and more exile settlements have joined heretical sects "voluntarily" or "forced", the frequency of clearing out exile settlements has suddenly increased.

Just last year, the security bureau and the military teamed up to clear out a total of 71 exile settlements, but there was not a single one like this built inside a rock ravine.

Not only because it is difficult to find, but also because the difficulty of building such settlements is too difficult for the exiles who lack tools and resources. Most of the exiles can only avoid the attacks of indigenous creatures and the Ark through constant migration. In the era of clearing up, there was simply no ability to build such a permanent stronghold.

Except for heretical sects.

Ke Lan knew that there were a lot of secrets of heretical sects buried within Ark, especially in the upper class. With the help of these secrets, it is not difficult for the heretic sect to complete such a project - of course, this also shows from another perspective that this stronghold definitely belongs to the sphere of influence of the heretic sect, not any An independent settlement of exiles.

Ke Lan noticed that there was a camouflaged AT-A1 "Walker" bipedal mecha lying at the bottom of the ravine. The "Walker" series of mechas, even the latest "AT-T5" model launched, are now veritable antiques. This series of bipedal combat mechas had been completely retired from the military as early as ten years ago. Not only did the manufacturers that developed this series of mechas announce the discontinuation of production, but even the authorized third-party manufacturers no longer produced related parts. Accessories.

Most of the "Walker" mechas were dismantled and recycled. Only a small part, after their weapons and armor were removed, were sold to some private organizations at very low prices for use as transportation or construction machinery. .

The weapon armor of the AT-A1 "Walker" that Ke Lan saw had not been removed. The 25mm caliber cannons installed on both sides of the head could easily tear apart the vast majority of weapons equipped by field troops. Most types of power armor, and the heavy flamethrower mounted on the bottom of the mecha can create a fan-shaped flame area with a radius of 150 meters and an angle of about 120 degrees right in front of the mecha - if Without the support of heavy firepower, if the Marines rushed into this ravine, they would inevitably suffer a large number of casualties.

The paint on the surface of this "Walker" mecha has almost completely peeled off, and was replaced by a large amount of khaki mud smeared on the surface of the armor. After the mud attached to the mecha dries and hardens, it forms a perfect camouflage. Looking from directly above, the "Walker" mecha squatting there looks like a large square stone.

The only flaw is probably that the corners of this "stone" are not rounded enough, and it is slightly abrupt in the rock ravine formed by the weathering of the rock gaps, but if you don't look closely, you won't be able to find this flaw at all.

…

The driver of this AT-A1 "Pedestrian" is a middle-aged man in his early thirties. At this moment, he is leaning his head and squinting his eyes at the slender observation window above the operating table—— As a trial model of the "Walker" series of combat mechas, the AT-A1 is not equipped with an electronic monitor connected to a camera outside the vehicle. Instead, it uses a visual observation window similar to that of an old tank. On the top of the fuselage, there is also a periscope that can rotate 360 ​​degrees, allowing the pilot to observe the conditions on both sides and rear of the fuselage.

The reason for adopting such a design is simply because in the early days of Ark's landing on Alpha Star, electronic equipment was very prone to failure in some strong radiation areas and was not as reliable as a purely mechanical structure. In that era, most equipment design ideas tended to return to the original and retro style. This AT-A1 "Pedestrian" was born in such an environment.

However, this is not a shortcoming for the pilots of the heretical sect. In the absence of maintenance and replacement parts, the purely mechanical observation window is indeed easier to use than the sophisticated electronic monitoring equipment - for this AT- As for the A1, as long as the weapons and power system can still operate, its combat effectiveness will not be greatly affected.

"No one should be able to find this place..." the driver of AT-A1 said to himself while turning the periscope lens slightly.

Normally, his work is actually very leisurely - thanks to the bipedal mecha's van cockpit space being much wider than that of the humanoid mecha, he can even lay down the seat flat and lie on the back of the chair. Look through some magazines that my companions brought back from outside. Unlike the color magazines like "Penthouse" and "Playboy" that most men like, he prefers to read some mechanical science magazines. It is for this reason that he became the driver and maintainer of this AT-A1. .

He was born in the wilderness and has never spent a day inside "Noah's Ark" in his life. All the knowledge related to mechas comes from self-study and dismantling the garbage picked up from the battlefield. He has always felt that if If he could be born on the Ark, he would definitely become a top mechanic - although he longed for the Ark, he didn't like the Ark at all, and even hated the colonial spacecraft that brought humans to this planet.

Based on his age, he is almost a descendant of the first batch of human exiles from Planet Alpha. In his memory, he has very little impression of his parents... His mother died when he was very young, and as for his father I don't even know who it is.

Someone once told him that his mother was a well-known scientist on the Ark. She had to leave the Ark because of "academic persecution"... But what does this have to do with him? For a child who has lost his parents, childhood is nothing short of extremely difficult. Those who lived on the Ark could not imagine how a child less than ten years old could survive in the cruel wilderness. of.

And this memory that he didn't want to recall became the source of his hatred - he hated everyone and everything from that ship, except weapons.

Because weapons can be used to kill, kill those who come off that boat.

So when he learned of the existence of the heretic sect, he joined the "Prophet" without hesitation.

He does not believe in any "great god", but the powerful and mysterious power of the prophet is obvious to every believer... He just needs a leader strong enough to lead them to destroy the ship. Took the people on that boat out of the safety and comfort of their rooms and made them feel everything they had been through.

Just a few hours ago, the prophet brought a comatose beautiful woman to this secret stronghold, which immediately cheered him up. He thought that the prophet was about to plan a large-scale combat operation - he had always felt sorry for his failure He felt sorry for participating in the operation in the molten mine area, but the prophet only gave him a word and disappeared into the depths of the cave with the woman.

"Be vigilant, someone may follow you here."

Although he was a little disappointed, he didn't dare to slack off at all. For several hours, he didn't even dare to take a big breath. He kept focusing on the one-inch-high observation window in front of him, for fear of missing something.

At this moment, something seemed to drip from the top of the cockpit and hit him on the head.

"Huh?" The sudden movement made his shoulders jump suddenly, and his forehead and eyebrows hit the frame of the periscope - "Ouch!"

"Hiss... what is it? Could it be that the cooling pipe that was just repaired last week is leaking again?" As soon as the words came out, he was stunned - with his familiarity with this aircraft, he certainly knew the top of the cockpit. There are no cooling pipes at all, so even if the coolant does leak, it won't drip from here.

"Weird... what could that be?" He stretched out a hand and fumbled on the roof of the cockpit. Soon, he touched some viscous liquid.

"Is it engine oil? It's seeping out from the rivet joints... isn't that right?"

Not only that, but vaguely, he seemed to smell a vague smell of blood...

He couldn't help but feel strong uneasiness in his heart. He raised his hand to turn on the lights in the cockpit, and raised the two fingers stained with the "unidentified substance" to his eyes——

The fingertips were stained with a bright red liquid, thick and viscous... He was not sure whether he had seen it wrong or it was an hallucination. The drop of liquid on his fingertips seemed to be moving?

"Is this... blood? Fresh blood? No, is it cold?"

Before he could react, more liquid seeped out of the cracks in the cockpit roof and dripped onto his head and shoulders.

"What's going on? What is this?!"

He subconsciously wanted to sound the alarm, but the hand reaching for the console was frozen in mid-air forever - a sharp claw made of blood had penetrated his chest from bottom to top, and the sharp claw tip directly It penetrated from his throat.

Hot blood sprayed on the console and on the "Mecha Mechanical Structure" magazine with the issue of June 929 of the New Era lying aside.

The bloody claws quickly returned to a flowing liquid state and penetrated back along the gaps in the armor plates.

All the blood was sucked back by a pale palm. In the blink of an eye, the palm was covered with a layer of armor with the same texture as the bloody claws.

Ke Lan, who was squatting on top of the mecha, jumped down and landed lightly on the ground. He glanced at his right hand in surprise - he originally just wanted to try out the idea in his mind, but he didn't expect that the active armor could actually work. After breaking away from his body, it re-condensed into shape and successfully assassinated the target hiding in the mecha.

and a weapon. Ke Lan always felt that this thing was like a parasitic monster in his body - perhaps, the "unknown" side effect in Pan's mouth was that sooner or later, this thing would awaken its self-awareness, and then compete with him for the body. Control...or simply break out of the body, just like the "Seed of Erosion" in its mature stage?

From the moment the fusion was successful, Ke Lan did not regard the or-type armor as his own strength - he completely regarded this living armor as a hidden danger, a time bomb buried in his body.

But at that time, he had to "wear" this living armor... to threaten the lives of most people on the Ark, including Ke Lan himself, the crew meeting was simply a naked conspiracy, Ke Lan Lan had no choice.

If there is a chance, he must find a way to separate this thing from his body. He does not want to become something like those "containers".

Since the members of the Immortal Crew Guild bluntly stated that they could not remove the living armor from their bodies, Ke Lan could only hope to find some useful clues in the ruins of Alpha Civilization... Perhaps, the other end is in the bottomless sinkhole. Can the big lizard underneath that has been imprisoned for tens of thousands of years help him?

Of course, the premise is that Ke Lan has to find it first... This difficulty may be more difficult than exploring a complete S-class ruins - who knows if the big lizard is still on this planet.

"Forget it, I'll think about it later... At least for now, I still need the power of this thing..."

Ke Lan walked to the rock wall, found a hole and got in.

Although there are more than a dozen caves of various sizes on this rock wall, according to the information sent back by the reconnaissance robot, the interiors of these caves are actually connected together, and it doesn't matter which hole you enter from.

Worried about alerting the enemy, the reconnaissance robot withdrew after entering the cave for fifty meters... So no one knew what was in the depths of the cave.

Even the Walker mecha pilot who was "guarding the door" outside didn't know that in addition to a few shallow caves used for living outside the ravine, those caves leading to the depths were connected to a huge Even members of heretical sects are not allowed to enter the labyrinth.

Not far forward, Ke Lan could tell at a glance that this cave was definitely not a settlement for exiles. It was not even dug out by humans. Judging from the various traces in the caves, these caves may have existed for quite some time. In such a long time, how could it have been dug by humans?

The deeper you go, the fewer traces left by human activities, and the less severe the weathering and erosion of the cave. Those sharp turns and corners, as well as the passage loops accurate to the millimeter, are only those advanced ones on the Ark. Engineering equipment can only do this with the assistance of computers.

"This place...could it be an undiscovered ruins of Alpha civilization?"

[P.S. Thanks to 2119233 for the 100 starting coins. 】