Chapter 451 "Colonel Thompson! Those Guys Are Highly Contagious!"

Swoosh.Swoosh.

The environmental amplifier in the helmet clearly captured several faint gunshots, with sharp and slightly irregular tones.

Jaynes Thomson frowned slightly, his expression suddenly serious.

By the unique frequency and tone of the gunshots, he quickly determined its source, which was the unique sound of the old plasma rifles that were once widely used by the Star Alliance.

A moment later, the auxiliary system embedded in the helmet had located the source of the gunshots and marked the direction on the screen.

According to the display, the source of the gunshots was located on the north side of their landing area, about a hundred meters away.

Jaynes looked in the direction indicated by the system, and his sight quickly fell on an obvious collapsed area. The deep cracks extended to the unknown underground, and it seemed to be connected to a large underground space.

'I guess that's the entrance to the underground city. 'Jaynes said to himself.

He didn't stay for too long, but quickly turned to other information on the screen, trying to infer the current situation from the known intelligence.

According to the analysis of the Intelligence Department, there are frequent internal conflicts among the extremists on Quekangtuo. These guys often fight for scarce resources, and even engage in large-scale armed conflicts.

But now Jaynes can't judge what exactly caused the gunfight in the underground city.

The gunshots coming at the moment may just be an internal fight between these extremists.

However, he can't ignore other possibilities, that is, this conflict is not a simple internal fight, but the underground city is being attacked by external forces or unknown forces, so that its defense force is completely restrained, so it didn't notice the arrival of the hidden-class ship and the big commotion made by this group of people.

In just a few seconds, several possibilities quickly emerged in Jaynes' mind.

No matter which one, it means that their current actions will face considerable risks.

Then, he glanced at the right side of the helmet screen, which showed that it would take another twenty minutes for the transport formation to arrive. He immediately ordered everyone who had left the airdrop warehouse:

"All ODSTs and special forces, as well as Tyrant pilots, pay attention to build a defensive line near the landing zone, provide cover, and wait for the arrival of the transport formation."

"Yes, Colonel!"

The people who received the order also quickly began to act.

Twelve heavily armed Tyrants holding large-caliber plasma cannons and 10mm six-barreled Gauss machine guns immediately came to the outermost perimeter of the landing zone, and half of them set their "sights" on the collapsed area.

In addition, there were four Cyclops mechas belonging to ODST, which also cooperated with the Tyrant to guard the outermost perimeter.

The ODST and special forces members, totaling nearly 300 people, also quickly dispersed, focusing on the direction of the collapsed area.

As for Jaynes at this moment, he continued to order: "Clone companies 1 to 3, along with hellhounds and scout hunters, go to the collapsed area marked by me for in-depth exploration to confirm the internal situation of the underground city and the source of the gunshots."

"Understood-."

A hoarse and nasal response came from the communication channel. At the same time, five hundred clone soldiers who completed the airborne deployment through the airdrop warehouse similar to a large container, in a formation of a tactical team of six people, advanced to the collapsed area in an orderly manner.

The hellhounds and hunters who adopted the same deployment method as the clone soldiers rushed to the collapsed area first and carried out the pre-reconnaissance mission with extremely high efficiency.

And the hundred hellhounds running at an extremely fast speed completely disappeared from everyone's sight in a short moment.

At this time, Jaynes and others could only observe the real-time movements of these "friendly forces" by slightly reducing the friendly army logo on the radar, indicating that the hellhounds were flexibly and quickly shuttling through the tunnels in the collapsed area.

After continuous improvement and upgrading by the Biological Department, these hellhounds can adapt to most extreme environments, such as highly toxic and high-radiation areas, and can even survive in a vacuum environment for more than ten minutes.

Compared with mechanical dogs, the biggest advantage of hellhounds is that their manufacturing cost is extremely cheap.

Even if thousands or even more are lost in one operation, such losses are still "harmless" to the huge biological department, because their breeding cycle is extremely short and they are truly "disposable assets."

Paired with the hellhounds are ten hunters, which are also reconnaissance units.

The appearance design of these units draws on the basic structure of Hextech robots, but is more sharp and aggressive.

They are not large in size and look like six-legged spider robots. The lines of the body present a cold and sharp geometric beauty.

They are almost silent when they move and are good at moving in complex terrain. If you don't observe them deliberately, it is difficult to detect their existence.

The unit that is most similar to them is the "terror robot" in the "Red Alert" universe.

The abdomen of this model of hunter is also equipped with a small "mother nest" device, which can release twenty magnetic levitation reconnaissance aircraft at the same time.

These smaller reconnaissance aircraft, although cheap, have powerful detection capabilities, can help draw detailed terrain maps, analyze enemy situations, and even mark the distribution of energy fluctuations.

The cooperation between the hunter and the hellhound is perfect, one life and one machine, one fast and one stable. The hellhound explores the way and the hunter draws maps, providing accurate reconnaissance support for follow-up troops while minimizing risks.

With these biological and mechanical reconnaissance units, ground troops do not need to worry about accidental casualties caused by unknown terrain or potential enemy situations.

What's more, even if there is an emergency, the clone soldiers, who are all wearing "windbreaker" style fully enclosed combat uniforms and have strong adaptability and combat effectiveness, can also "block the knife" for these real humans.

Clone soldiers have also experienced many iterations, and they have long had the function of "interacting" with humans.

Their physical fitness is much stronger than that of ordinary people, and they also have unquestionable loyalty, so they can be said to be a solid barrier on the battlefield.

After all, the ultimate goal of the Biological Department to continuously update and upgrade clone soldiers is to allow real human soldiers to stand in a safer command or fire support position without taking high risks to explore the enemy.

Whether it is hellhounds, hunters, or clones, their common role is a "low-cost, high-efficiency" suicide force.

The most important thing is that the "container-type" airdrop warehouse that carries them to break through the atmosphere is also a disposable consumable.

There is no need to consider too complicated safety devices, just ensure the buffer device and heat insulation protection.

Therefore, the Diana III stealth-class ship, which is "only" 800 meters long, can "stuff" four such large containers into its airdrop dock and launch them to the surface.

Soon, the clone soldiers of the three companies entered the crack tunnel in the collapsed area one by one.

And Jaynes also used his authority to project the first-person vision of the captain of the clone company on the left side of his helmet screen, observing every move below in real time.

The screen showed that the crack tunnel was about five meters wide, with rough rock structure, obviously experienced natural erosion and artificial transformation, and mottled cutting marks were faintly visible.

Along the rock steps that tilted downward, these clone soldiers advanced steadily and were always alert to possible threats around them.

The screen showed that the width of the tunnel was about five meters, and there were rock steps leading directly to the bottom.

As the efficient reconnaissance data of the hellhound and the hunter were continuously transmitted back, the preliminary outline of the underground city entrance gradually appeared on Jaynes' tactical radar.

The crack tunnel extended about thirty meters downward, connecting to a considerable "hub area".

Inside the hub area, a huge space is formed at the intersection of the tunnels, and the outer periphery is distributed with intricate web-like channels, radiating like a spider web, leading to an unknown area deeper underground.

At the same time, the hunter's optical detector sent back more key details.

On the stone walls and ground of the hub area, there are scorch marks from plasma weapons, and signs of temperature residue indicate that these marks were formed not long ago.

In addition, the needle-shaped crystal bullets inserted into the rock wall flashed a faint pink light, and its material properties and energy fluctuations clearly belonged to the weapons and equipment of the Star Alliance technology system.

Even more striking is that the hellhound and the hunter also found large bloodstains, ranging from "common" red and purple to rare dark green, as if some large-scale conflict had just ended.

These bloodstains are scattered, and the dripping trajectories show the chaotic battle process.

Moreover, through the blood sample analysis conducted by the hunter, it was preliminarily confirmed that the creatures involved in the battle included members of the Star Alliance such as jackals and ghosts, but the dark green blood came from an unknown species.

What's even more strange is that no bodies were found in the entire hub area, only traces of battle and scattered bloodstains, as if the battlefield had been quickly cleaned up.

At this time, the enhanced sense of smell of the hellhound began to work, sniffing the remaining smell in the air, trying to restore more details of the battle.

The hunter expanded the scope of investigation and released a large number of small magnetic levitation reconnaissance aircraft to scan the environment and traces of the hub area from different angles.

Some reconnaissance aircraft moved in the direction of bloodstains and battle traces, trying to track potential targets, or even the whereabouts of those disappeared bodies.

In order to ensure the efficiency of investigation, the hellhounds dispersed in teams and advanced in different directions through narrow passages.

These biological units showed super adaptability and mobility, easily crossing steep slopes or narrow gaps.

The hunters advanced along the path explored by the hellhounds, providing them with more detailed environmental data, while continuing to use spectral scanners and energy detectors to search for possible hidden entrances to the dungeons.

"."

Faced with this series of abnormal phenomena, Jaynes's expression became more and more solemn.

Through the analysis of the intelligence obtained so far, he realized that the situation here was far more complicated than expected.

The remnants of the Covenant,

unknown species,

the disappeared bodies, and these traces of blood and weapons all imply that the recent battle may have involved extraordinary forces.

The legendary Chaos?

After his friend Rod Hoyneld retired, Jaynes continued to "conquer the East and the West" for Atlas, and even confronted the Flood head-on in the "Halo" universe.

So the moment he saw the dark green blood, the first thought that came to his mind was the Flood.

However, the hunter's analysis data gave a completely different result.

The biological characteristics of the blood were classified as "unknown" and could not match any known life form in the existing database of the Biological Department.

In theory, if the blood really belongs to the Flood, even if it has mutated or evolved, the core characteristics of its cell structure, that is, the super microstructure (FSC), must be retained.

After all, the reason why the Flood could become a Zerg that was so threatening that it could destroy the entire galaxy civilization was because of the FSC that the Biology Department had not been able to decipher so far.

But the current results show that the possibility of the Flood was directly ruled out.

In this case, what exactly is the mysterious species that was fighting with the remnants of the Star Alliance or the interstellar pirates in the hub area?

Jaynes immediately turned his guess to the possibility of "heretics".

According to the archives provided by the Inquisition, such individuals usually refer to creatures and groups that have been corrupted by the Chaos Evil God or mutated.

And the underground city where the remnants of the Star Alliance and the interstellar pirates gather, if it is polluted by Chaos for a long time, may even become a "hotbed" for the breeding of these heretical creatures.

However, as an elite veteran, although Jaynes has experienced countless battlefields, he has never directly confronted the forces of Chaos.

Beep——!

Just as Jaynes was analyzing the current situation, a sharp alarm suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

Then, the latest picture from the scout hunter flashed on the helmet screen.

The hunter captured a chilling scene through the small reconnaissance aircraft released by the hunter.

On the screen, a group of twisted and weird ghost-faced beasts and jackals were dragging the corpses of their kind and moving quickly deep underground.

Their bodies were extremely irregular, and their flesh seemed to squeeze and deform the armor under the pressure of excessive expansion, and their bones and joints also lost their normal support. However, even if their steps were staggering and shaking from time to time, they still maintained a relatively fast speed.

The most disturbing thing was that although their combat uniforms and armor had been broken, exposing fragmented skin and muscle tissue, these severely deformed guys could still survive in extreme environments, as if they no longer needed sealed equipment to fight against the low temperature, low oxygen, and low pressure atmosphere.

Witnessing this scene, Jaynes instantly understood that the dark green blood came from the deformed ghost-faced beasts and jackals.

Then, he immediately shared the video footage taken by the small reconnaissance plane with the agent who still needed ten minutes to land.

Just after the video transmission was completed, within a few seconds, an agent's reply came on the communication channel, saying:

"Colonel Thompson! Those guys are highly contagious! Inform the troops to keep a distance from them and not engage in close-range fire!"