Umbrella, The Light of Humanity

Leave the Retribution.

Arriving at the lobby of the hub station, Shirley followed the tourists and returning colonists, took a sightseeing elevator together, and prepared to descend towards Aldega on the surface.

Gabriel and the recruits will stay on the Retribution.

Although there are many pictures, videos, and forums about Astartes circulating on the Internet, it is impossible to appear in public with a big swagger.

Inside the elevator.

The comfortable single seat is surrounded by an "O" and faces a large sealed window with a good view.

Shirley put the luggage into the fixed rack next to the seat, then sat down with the seat belt on, and waited for the elevator to be full.

After about half a minute.

The elevator gates were closed, and the announcement also came through a standardized female voice reminder:

"The elevator is about to start. Passengers, please do not walk around randomly. If necessary, please negotiate with the staff in charge of this elevator. Thank you for your cooperation."

The voice fell.

Shirley first felt a slight tremor, then a roller coaster-like feeling of falling, and finally an obvious sense of weightlessness.

If there is no seat belt and fixed frame, Shirley and her suitcase are destined to "fly" around uncontrollably with the passengers in the elevator.

The picture outside the sealed window also changed from the metal bulkhead inside the hub station to the deep space of the universe and the natural scenery on the surface of Harvest Star.

As for the reason for the weightlessness, it is because the elevator has left the hub station with artificial gravity, and is currently in an orbit at an altitude of tens of thousands of meters.

The elevator descended rapidly, and the hills, lakes, and forests on the surface became more and more clear.

When it dropped to about 10,000 meters, the scene of the deep space of the universe disappeared, and the elevator was shuttling between the clouds.

Slow down at kilometers.

The broadcast also sent out a reminder again, indicating that passengers can remove their seat belts and move properly in the elevator in order to watch the scenery outside.

Standing by the window, Shirley looked down at the golden wheat fields and livestock farms outside the city, feeling relaxed both physically and mentally.

This strange experience cannot be brought by ships.

Not long after, the elevator entered the lobby built on the surface, and opened the gate to let Shirley and the passengers leave.

Come to the lobby.

There was a male passenger who seemed to be afraid of heights, with his hands propped on the wall, his legs trembling uncontrollably, and he complained to his friends beside him in extreme displeasure:

"I told you all, I can't take the sightseeing elevator! Why don't you listen! Ah?!"

Amidst the complaints, there was even a faint cry.

The friends laughed and comforted, and one friend even patted the shoulder of the male passenger and said boldly:

"Don't feel bad! I will provide you with food, clothing, housing and transportation for these two days! How are you?"

"Really? Then I'm fine, brothers will testify for me, you don't want to break your promise."

"Wait! So you are pretending?!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

the other side.

There was a boy with a schoolbag on his back who said to his mother:

"Mom~! The sightseeing elevator is more interesting than the roller coaster. I will take it next time!"

The mother with a gentle smile on her face stroked the boy's short hair and responded, "Okay, mom will take you to sit."

Shirley, who was mingling among the crowd and secretly observing her surroundings, couldn't help but sigh with emotion at the peaceful present.

She pulled the suitcase and left the hall, only to find a black SUV parked on the street that was incompatible with other private cars and private flying boats.

Seeing this, Shirley walked straight towards the SUV.

approach.

The driver's and co-pilot's doors opened, and two young operators dressed in dark overalls and short sleeves and sunglasses came out.

A quick step forward helped Shirley pick up the suitcase and put it in the trunk of the SUV.

The other wanted to raise his hand to salute Shirley, but was rejected by the latter with a light shake of his head, and then extended his right hand instead, expressing admiration:

"Director Birken, welcome to Harvest Star. It's an honor to have a legend like you lead us."

"It's not a legend, it's an honor for me to be on Harvest Star."

Shirley reached out to shake hands with each other.

Letting go, she opened the door of the back seat, and continued: "Let's go, first take me to meet my colleagues."

"Okay, Director Birken."

The next three people got into the car, started the engine and left the street, driving in the capital Aldega.

Shirley, who was sitting in the back seat, was admiring the neighborhood buildings outside the car window, feeling like she had returned to Raccoon City in the 1990s.

It's just that the architectural style is more novel, there are a lot of holographic signs or advertisements on the roadside, sky trains and flying boats, etc., far surpassing the civilian technology of the 1990s.

Appreciate it for a moment.

Shirley asked, "You two just graduated from Minos?"

"Yes, I just graduated for half a year."

"And we are in the same period, and we were also assigned to Harvest Star together."

The two operators replied.

"okay, I get it."

After Shirley finished speaking, she continued to look out the window and remained silent.

Aldega, with only over 400,000 people, is not that big. Within ten minutes, the three of them came to a three-story low-rise office building disguised as a courier company.

Then Shirley followed the two operators into the conference room on the third floor.

More than 30 intelligence agents in all kinds of casual clothes have been sitting here waiting for Shirley for a long time.

Shirley went to the front, introduced herself to the intelligence agents, and told some of her personal experience, especially the point of "the importance of taking a taxi to intelligence collection".

After all, Shirley was considered an apprentice brought out by Leon.

In addition, after personally practicing, the feasibility of taking a taxi to collect intelligence is really good, so Shirley helped her mentor Leon and shared it with these new intelligence agents.

At the end of the narration, Shirley arranged the focus of the next work, which would be whether there were ancient ruins on Harvest Star.

—————

…

After more than two months.

Earth Atlantic Time: August 11, 2072.

Harvest Star Northern Hemisphere.

On the west bank of a freshwater lake in a dense forest, a plane is parked in the open space with the tail hatch open and strong lighting is provided. It belongs to Umbrella's Yuou IV.

At this time, this area seems to have just entered the night, and the local hour is 19:17.

More than a dozen armed security guards, equipped with simple power armor painted in black, and armed with improved Gauss and pulse guns, scattered around the lake to keep vigilant.

On the low hilly rock wall on the west bank, there are six technicians wearing white jumpsuits and equipped with mechanical skeletons, using portable instruments to conduct on-site inspection and analysis.

Not far behind the technicians were three intelligence agents who had finished their camouflage and were dressed in black suits with red and white umbrella buttons on their collars.

The one in the middle is Shirley.

"Director Birken."

An intelligence officer with his exclusive mobile phone looked at the information displayed on the screen and reported to Shirley Hui who was staring at the rock wall:

"The metal structure we saw was discovered half an hour ago by a father and son named Michel, whose father, Corporal Michel, is an active soldier of the UNSC Army.

According to the account of the corporal, he took the child into the deep forest during the vacation, preparing for a five-day camping and hunting life.

It wasn't until the Michelle father and son came to camp by the lake that they discovered the metal structure embedded in the rock wall after night fell.

Because he is an active soldier, Corporal Michel chose to report the matter to his regiment headquarters, so he let us know about it as soon as possible. "

As he spoke, the intelligence officer looked up and looked forward.

I saw that what the technicians inspected was a corner of the metal facility exposed outside the rock wall.

The dark gray surface and the regular gaps that ooze blue light, the details and style are consistent with the metal relics found in the Merines colony.

If it wasn't for entering the night and making the blue light seeping out of the cracks obvious, otherwise it would be extremely difficult to observe that there are non-man-made metal facilities embedded in this rock wall.

So Michelle and his son, who had already set up the tent, only discovered the abnormality of the rock wall after the sun disappeared.

After listening to the brief report, Shirley said: "Transfer Michelle and his son to the nearest town, and then perform standard memory modification on them."

"Okay supervisor." The intelligence officer nodded.

"What does the company say?"

Upon hearing the inquiry, the intelligence officer continued to report:

"The company sent Laura Crawford, the head of the archaeological department, and her team to our Harvest Star to assist in the investigation. Before they arrive, the company hopes that we will carry out the excavation work first."

"Crawford?"

Shirley didn't know Laura, who was about her age, very well, only seeing her a few times at the annual meeting.

But she knew that the other party was good at analyzing ancient ruins, otherwise, how could she have held the position of head of the archaeological department for more than 30 years.

Then he said: "Notify the engineering department and ask them to assign some people to assist us in the excavation.

Then contact the Hell paratroopers battle company on the Retribution and the Thutmose recruit platoon, tell them that there may be threats in the ruins, and provide fire support if necessary. "

"Yes." The intelligence officer used his exclusive mobile phone to convey Shirley's order.

!

But soon, the latest notification displayed on the phone screen caused the intelligence officer's expression to change suddenly, and he said to Shirley in a deep voice:

"Director Birken, Harvest Star has entered a state of emergency. The company needs all armed personnel from Harvest Star to assist civilians in entering the underground air defense facilities and prepare for war."

"War?" Shirley was taken aback.

But she ordered without too much entanglement: "Suspend operations and evacuate civilians immediately!"

———————

…

At the same time Shirley and the others finished their investigation of the ruins, air defense sirens were sounded in every town of Harvest Star.

The people crowded on the streets, although a little flustered, most of them kept order, obeyed the evacuation rules, and entered the air defense facilities in an orderly manner.

Sheriffs also worked with the UNSC Army and Krieger to move into fortifications in various towns and prepare for ground combat.

Junction station above the capital Aldega.

More than a dozen freighters, cruise ships, and civilian ships full of people left the peripheral port of the hub station one after another.

And without waiting for the angle of the bow of the ship to be adjusted, the jump portal was opened, and it sailed into the fault space, and evacuated towards the colonial galaxy stationed by the Umbrella Legion or the UNSC fleet.

As the only battleship on Harvest Star, although the Retribution also sailed away from the port of the hub station, "she" did not, and it is absolutely impossible for her to choose to evacuate.

The Retribution was facing away from the star, and gradually moved away from the Harvest Star at the speed of conventional navigation.

Inside the bridge.

Standing around the center console were Gabriel, the second lieutenant in command of the Hell Parachute combat company, the captain in charge of the three companies of the UNSC Marine Corps, and the captain of the Retribution, Miranda Martha.

Affiliated to Umbrella, the second lieutenant who led the paratroopers to temporarily station on the Retribution because of the need for small-scale actual combat exercises on Harvest Star, is equipped with a power armor that is a fully upgraded exclusive TPS.

Even the UNSC captain wore simple power armor similar to armed security.

Its airtightness and life support system enable the captain to fight in harsh environments such as vacuum, high radiation, and low temperature.

And Gabriel, who is an Astarte, is equipped with power armor as standard.

But Gabriel's power armor is not the Thor hammer series, but the thicker and rougher "ceramic steel armor".

As its name.

The shell of this type of power armor is made of ceramic steel, and without relying on energy shields, its defensive performance even exceeds that of the early Thor's Hammer I and II.

Although it seems extremely cumbersome, in fact, the electronic muscle bundles inside the ceramic armor can achieve complete synchronization with the wearer, greatly enhancing the wearer's reaction speed and strength.

But as mentioned before, "without relying on energy shields", because the ceramic steel armor itself does not have the ability to generate energy shields.

The main reason is the cost of the shield generating device, as well as the extremely high maintenance and maintenance costs.

To change the metaphor.

Umbrella's latest model of Thor's Hammer is Mark V (Ⅴ), and the cost of ten sets of Mark V is enough to build a Kingfisher-class light cruiser.

More than sixty years have passed since the successful research of G glands, which made the total number of existing Astartes already exceed 100,000, reaching a scale of 150,000.

Among them, 30,000 are still underage recruits, and 70,000 belong to the full members of the ten legions.

The remaining 50,000 are "reserves" like Gabriel who will not follow the legion for the time being.

A total of 150,000...

Aside from underage recruits, and very few special forces like the Gray Knights, Umbrella still has 120,000 adult Astartes.

No matter how rich the funds and resources are, the current Umbrella cannot equip all Astartes with Thor's Hammer series of power armor.

After all, the process of creating a set of Thor's hammer and nanosuits is also extremely time-consuming and cumbersome.

As a result, Tao Gangjia, a transitional product, was born and became the standard equipment for the "reserve" before being promoted to a full-fledged member of the legion.

Adult recruits who have been promoted to the reserve service, just become adults, and have just been incorporated into the reserve service can also use the pottery steel armour.

At last.

Among the four, only Miranda with a cold face and short brown female hair was left. She didn't wear the so-called power armor, but just an ordinary gray navy uniform.

At this moment, the center console is like a three-dimensional star map of Harvest Star.

And on the edge of the center console, there are three unidentified ships marked with yellow dots, which are rapidly approaching Harvest Star.

Miranda looked at the three yellow dots, and said solemnly to the three senior officers present:

"Everyone, a minute ago, we detected three unidentified ships sailing out of the fault space at a distance of 400,000 kilometers from Harvest Star.

It is estimated that our ship will meet the opponent head-on in fifteen minutes. Also, this is the image taken by our ship. "

As Miranda spoke, he called up the holographic images of the three unknown ships.

I saw them two small and one big, with a sleek appearance, thin head and tail, but very wide in the middle.

And the two smaller ships had two pointed wings under their bows, like the tentacles of insects, like a super-sized space cockroach.