Chapter 450: Icefield, Silence, Beginning, "Gunshots"

The outer frontier galaxies of the chaotic universe—

If you "overlook" this galaxy, you can find that it is mainly composed of twelve planets surrounding a blue giant star.

And the size of this star is about five times that of the sun. Its surface is hot and dazzling, emitting dazzling blue-white light, dyeing the outer edge of the entire galaxy with a faint blue glow.

The planets in the first to fifth orbits are all barren and desolate places similar to Mercury.

Their surfaces have been eroded by violent stellar winds for a long time, and they have long lost their stable atmosphere, exposing rocky surfaces riddled with holes.

Heat, cold, and radiation are rampant here, and any sign of life cannot exist, just like a dead wasteland swallowed by stars.

The planets located in the sixth to ninth orbits finally have the protection of a relatively dense atmosphere and magnetic field, which protects them from direct destruction by blue giant radiation.

But even so, the environment of these planets is still extremely harsh.

The planet in the sixth orbit has a surface covered with endless desert, making it difficult to sustain even the simplest life forms.

The planets in the seventh and eighth orbits are like Mars before the transformation that has been magnified several times. Rocks and dust occupy almost all the landforms, and rare traces of rivers have been completely buried by the dry climate.

It seems that every Earth-like planet in the galaxy is filled with storms and droughts, like an endless hell.

However, when the line of sight extends to the ninth orbit, a completely different planet comes into view.

This terrestrial planet seems to be covered with thick ice and snow, and its surface is covered with endless glaciers and snow. The ice sheets seem to extend to the end of the horizon.

The coldness and silence of this planet "complement each other" with the harsh environment of the entire galaxy, and also add a unique "dead beauty" to the frontier of this chaotic space.

Moreover, this planet is the destination where the joint agent team and the joint force led by Colonel Jaynes Thomson are about to launch an investigation——

Quikanto.

The history of Queconto can be traced back hundreds of years before Atlas set foot in the "Halo" universe. At that time, it was one of the key colonies of the Covenant Empire, managed and developed by an elite family.

With its advanced technology and rigorous elite social system, this planet once became the dazzling pearl of the Covenant.

However, about a century ago, Quicanto experienced a fate-changing disaster.

The cause of all this was that the planet's elite governor declared rebellion without warning and openly challenged the rule of the Covenant.

After the news came out, it immediately caused shock throughout the Covenant Empire.

After all, the elite clan regards honor and loyalty as the supreme principles, and the rebellion of the clan members is undoubtedly an unforgivable felony.

But what puzzled the elite elites and generals at the time was that the governor's betrayal quickly gained the support of all the local elites in Kuikantuo, and even the entire galaxy where Kuikantuo was located. These followers also openly cooperated with Kuikantuo. The Covenant breaks up.

The elite elites, who were filled with anger and felt extremely ashamed, directly ignored the underlying reasons for the rebellion. They could not tolerate the slightest betrayal.

Afterwards, they did not investigate why the governor chose to rebel, nor did they delve into why so many tribesmen responded to the call and even refused to negotiate with the other party. They quickly mobilized the main fleet and launched an all-out attack on Kuikang Tuo.

However, this military operation failed to achieve victory as quickly as planned.

Quicanto's rebels showed extremely tenacious combat effectiveness, and in the ground battle, the elite troops suffered unprecedented heavy losses.

This situation made the top management of the elite intolerable, and finally decided to take the most extreme measure——

"Vitrification".

In other words, they used the high-power plasma cannon on the belly of the battleship to conduct a saturation burning bombardment of the planet.

This devastating blow completely vitrified more than 70% of the surface of Kuikangtuo, and civilians, rebels, and underground building bunkers were all devoured by plasma flames.

The once bustling colony was reduced to a lifeless scorched earth, leaving only a few areas protected from complete incineration by the special terrain.

However, the ecological environment has suffered irreversible damage, turning Kuikangtuo into a "forgotten place".

In order to cover up the entire process of the Quiconto rebellion, the Covenant's senior leaders conspired to destroy all relevant files and block any information about the planet.

The glory of Quiconto, along with the secret of his betrayal, was buried in this desolate world.

In fact, the reason why the elite governor chose to rebel is easy to speculate, that is, he discovered the fact that the prophet used the ruins of the Forerunners to deceive all the Covenant races.

In addition, the elite governor is very likely to realize that the so-called "pilgrimage" means that he and his compatriots are not pursuing glory and future, but serving as executioners of the prophet to clear the way for a group of hypocritical and greedy rulers.

So after realizing the true face of the prophet family, the elite governor was also furious and chose to "uprising".

It's a pity that there is no help from Sui Yang with powerful psychic powers and the help of smart AI.

Moreover, the Jiralhanae's status a century ago was far from being a substitute for the elite clan, and there was no opportunity for the Covenant Civil War to break out, causing the elite governor's uprising to be quickly collapsed.

With the passage of a hundred years, Kuikangtuo has cooled down and turned into the "ice and snow world" it is today.

Quikangtuo lost its strategic significance before the total collapse of the Covenant Empire, but it was precisely because it was deliberately concealed and forgotten by the Covenant high-level officials that it became a hiding place for many "heretics" or traitors regarded by the Covenant.

Although the atmospheric environment is no longer suitable for the survival of elites, Jiralhanae and other races, the remaining resources can still support those guys who escaped here to build a large underground city that can accommodate millions or even tens of millions of people.

Based on the archives left by the Covenant Empire and the information excavated from limited materials, the intelligence department initially speculated on the current status of Quikangtuo.

However, these speculations lack actual verification after all, and their true situation still needs to be confirmed through "field investigation".

The Inquisition and the Investigation Department attach great importance to this operation.

They infer that if the underground city of Quikangtuo does accommodate more than 10 million people, then in the context of the collapse of the Covenant Empire and the collapse of order, this dead place may have become a hotbed for extremists.

Most of them may have the ambition to rebuild the Star Alliance Empire, and even the fanatical emotional fluctuations generated in the process may be enough to attract the attention of the Chaos God, making the subspace activities in this area extremely dangerous.

Therefore, Quekangtuo was listed as one of the targets of key monitoring and investigation by multiple departments.

At the same time, in the deep space of the Milky Way, the silence at the edge of the galaxy was broken by a jump.

Buzz-swish!

A faint blue vortex flashed past the outer edge of the galaxy like a burst of light, and completely dissipated after just a few seconds.

If observed from a distance, this phenomenon seems to be the last explosion of a star's life, or a dazzling beam of light accidentally projected by a neutron star, and then after hundreds of years of crossing, it "just happened" to reach the visible range of the galaxy.

If highly sensitive equipment is not used to scan the area in full frequency band, it is almost impossible to find that a hidden-class ship belonging to the human empire hidden in the void has quietly entered the interior of the galaxy.

Then, the Diana III type, which maintained its stealth state, started warp navigation and headed straight for Quekangtuo in the ninth orbit.

In a moment;

Diana III, with optical camouflage turned on, arrived at the back of Queconto, and kept pace with Queconto's rotation speed, "parking" in a low-Earth orbit about 2,000 kilometers above the ground.

In fact, Diana at this stage, whether or not she maintains optical camouflage and stealth mode, may be detected by Queconto's forces.

But this mission is just "low-key", not a completely "silent" infiltration.

Otherwise, the Inquisition and the Investigation Department would not deliberately dispatch thousands of armed personnel, as well as many biological and mechanical weapons to accompany them.

The purpose is to be able to "bombard" the opponent head-on when anomalies are discovered or when they are suppressed by firepower.

At this stage, 4,000 Grey Knights have evacuated the "Trench Crusader" universe and have been divided into 100 four-man teams, ready to cooperate with the various legions of the "Halo" universe and the 1st Company of the Thousand Sons who came to support, to comprehensively release important colonies such as Earth 08, Reach, and Mars.

After all, the imperial territory of the Halo universe is extremely important. The Inquisition needs the Grey Knights who are good at confronting demons head-on to act as a "baffle" to deal with the Chaos forces that have entered the physical universe and buy more time for the arrival of support.

In addition, the Flame Lizards led by Vulcan also divided ten companies to support the universe with many colonized galaxies.

In order to prevent Chaos from launching a sneak attack on the main universe, the Imperial Guards have not yet deployed on a large scale. They have only sent a "small" team of 100 people, temporarily deployed on the "hub" of the Halo universe, the Harvest.

If it is confirmed that the Halo universe is the main target of Chaos, then this team of 100 Imperial Guards will also provide a certain degree of assistance.

At this time, in the Diana III hangar;

Charlie and the other thousand marines have taken their positions according to the plan and boarded four Silver Gulls and three Luna-class heavy transport boats in batches.

The ODST combat company and the special forces team led by Jaynes Thompson are in the airdrop bay of the airdrop dock.

They will land on the surface of Quekangtuo first to pave the way for the follow-up troops.

And the corresponding biological and mechanical weapons will also be deployed on the surface of Quekangtuo by airdrop.

As for the more than ten agents, they are also fully armed and sitting in the Luna transport boat with Charlie and others.

"."

Charlie is now looking at the agents on the opposite side with the help of the helmet screen.

The other party is wearing nano combat uniforms similar to those of the joint reconnaissance force (advance team), and they are all silent and skillfully checking weapons and equipment, showing confidence and calmness rich in actual combat all the time.

Of course, they are probably using exclusive encrypted communication channels to conduct internal briefings or tactical discussions.

Although the helmets cover their expressions, the temperament they exude invisibly still makes Charlie feel an inexplicable sense of security.

Mainly this kind of coldness and concentration, which is in sharp contrast with the slightly nervous posture of the surrounding Marines.

"Attention all units."

Janes Thompson's voice suddenly rang out in the communication channel inside the helmet, instantly breaking the silence in the cabin.

"According to the existing intelligence, there is a suspected entrance to an underground city directly below us, which is also one of the key search targets of this operation."

Jaynes paused for a moment, as if to make every word clearly conveyed to every soldier.

Then he continued: "Marines, obey the command and arrangement of the agents throughout the process. This is not only an order, but also a necessary condition for the success of the mission.

Whether it is our special forces formation or ODST, we must fully cooperate with the action without exception. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very good, in thirty seconds, we will officially start the deployment operation. Everyone must remain highly alert."

After speaking, Jaynes cut off the communication and let the channel return to silence again.

The atmosphere in the cabin became more solemn.

As the countdown on the right side of the helmet screen showed the word "0", it meant that the ODST and the special forces formation, as well as various biological and mechanical forces, had already ejected the Diana III airdrop dock.

As for the Luna transport boat they were riding, it also passed through the magnetic levitation slide and instantly passed through the plasma valve and left the hangar.

At this time, Charlie was able to clearly observe the outside world with the help of multiple shared screens.

Outside the cabin, there was an endless silence and darkness. The sun-defying side of Quekangtuo was as cold and mysterious as if it was swallowed by the abyss.

Even for the well-trained soldiers, such silence also brought a sense of oppression that was hard to ignore.

In the vision of the screen, everything seemed so quiet until the darkness below was suddenly broken -

It was the friction flames generated when the airdrop capsule broke through the atmosphere.

On the screen, these airdrop capsules dragged a short but dazzling trajectory, quickly crossed the void, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Not long after;

Boom. Boom.~!

The cabin began to vibrate significantly. Although the amplitude was not violent, it was enough for Charlie to feel that they were quickly passing through the atmosphere of Quekangtuo.

The darkness outside was completely lit up, and the screen showed that the surrounding of the body shell was glowing orange-red.

"."

Charlie adjusted his sitting position slightly and closed his eyes, allowing the vibration of the cabin to pass through his body, feeling every moment of the transport boat's descent.

Because when these vibrations gradually subsided and the transport boat landed steadily, it was the moment when the action officially began.

——

At the same time, Jaynes Thomson had already landed on the seemingly vast ice field.

Moreover, Jaynes was the first to jump out of the airdrop cabin, holding a dedicated hard-light rifle, and using the various auxiliary functions of the individual equipment to scan everything around him.

Just when he thought that such a "high-profile" airdrop operation did not attract interception firepower, and even returned in vain, the helmet captured a subtle "gunshot".