r18novel Chapter 219 Blood Moon Descends, Easily Resolved
Chapter 219 Blood Moon Descends, Easily Resolved
At this point, Platinum realized that the ship's main firepower consisted entirely of direct-fire weapons.
"Why didn't you equip your flagship with missiles for long-range strikes?"
"And I remember that the Level 3 database contains detailed data on various missiles and satellites?"
A barrage of questions rained down on Lorraine, and before he could answer, Platinum, after a brief moment of thought, continued speaking.
"Is it because there isn't a suitable satellite launch facility? Or... um."
"Slow down, slow down."
After Platinum calmed down, Lorraine explained why he did it.
"Missiles need to use satellite navigation systems to carry out long-range precision strikes, but according to the technical data in the database, even if there has been no maintenance for 15 years, they can still contact a certain number of military satellites."
"But so far, neither the fleet nor Hongfeng Island has been able to detect any usable satellite signals."
"Given the two alien creatures we've just seen and this extremely bizarre zombie crisis, I have reason to suspect that this is an invasion of us by an extraterrestrial civilization."
"Most importantly, we still don't know if there are any extraterrestrial civilization fleets stationed in outer orbit."
Finally, Lorraine spread his hands, saying with utter helplessness.
"In fact, building this levitation-capable warship is a risky move. I am not prepared to let this warship take off rashly before we have fully explored the dangers in space."
Even now, Lorraine's eyes still held an unresolved confusion.
"If the apocalypse was caused by extraterrestrial civilizations, then they have every reason and ability to completely wipe out all life on this land."
"Instead of maintaining only the minimum troop deployment as we are now."
Lorraine nodded, agreeing with Platinum's addition.
At this moment, Ouyang Nian suddenly turned around and put forward an idea.
"Is it possible that the crisis was brought about by an extraterrestrial scientific expedition, and their fleet only carried this one type of weapon?"
"None of these extraterrestrial civilizations possess the ability to travel faster than light? Or rather..."
Everyone present knew what Ouyang Hou meant in the second half of his sentence: regardless of whether it was an advanced civilization or another powerful enemy, their situation would become even more dangerous.
While the group was deep in thought, the flagship completed its basic flight tests, and Cleveland sent the data from the tests to the data board in Lorraine.
Awakened by the buzzing of the data panel, Lorraine patted the three on the shoulder and said.
"Let's not think too much about it right now, let's focus on the present."
The three nodded in response, and finally returned to the flagship's cockpit, facing the sea breeze.
At this moment, the two levels below the cockpit were already filled with humanoid robots.
However, these robots are different from the Guardians that were manufactured before. The Guardian robots are more square, complete, and tall, covered with heavy armor, and their heads integrate a variety of optical detection modules.
Meanwhile, the humanoid robot sitting in the combat center below the cockpit appears somewhat frail, consisting of a torso and 29 highly free joints, with a more rounded head and a built-in computing system.
These 170-centimeter-tall robots have shells made of carbon fiber composite materials, and internal skeletons made of high-strength metal and fiber materials.
Within its inverted triangular-shaped body, it houses batteries with higher energy density, is equipped with more advanced electronic components, and has a specialized computing program built in.
With these external computing systems in Cleveland, the flagship's overall capabilities will be improved by approximately 13.6%.
At the same time, they were also experimental products designed by Lorraine and Ouyang Nian, with the aim of making the subsequent unmanned fleet more powerful.
Because Cleveland has always used its powerful computing capabilities to manage all affairs within the fleet.
Once these specialized computing programs are separated from the mainframe, they can preprocess and filter information transmitted back from electronic devices, greatly reducing the burden on Cleveland.
Furthermore, once these robots are deployed in subsequent unmanned fleets, they can ensure that an unmanned vessel still possesses a certain level of combat capability even if the data link is disrupted.
When the flagship returned to the dock, the dock landing ship and amphibious assault ship had already stored the unmanned combat units that were not needed for the time being in the ship's hold, and the Sea Knight and DDG-1 headed to the vicinity of the "safe harbor".
The entire fleet then weighed anchor and headed toward the nearby "safe harbor".
During the fleet's relocation, underwater vehicles located near the port of Jask also confirmed the presence of underwater zombies.
[Warning: A blood moon is approaching. There is a 97.2% chance that underwater zombies will spawn an enhanced level 3 Overlord.]
The situation in Kanna City is not optimistic. 78 Overlords of various levels have been detected, along with 2 Level 3 Special Enhanced Individuals and a small zombie nest. After the Blood Moon descends, there is a 78.5% chance of spawning a Level 4 Overlord and a 21.5% chance of spawning a Level 5 Overlord.
"Tsk, I don't want to occupy a city that's been burned down."
Based on the current situation, it is highly likely that the flames ignited in a city will attract all the zombies within a 100-kilometer radius.
If the weather turns uncooperative and the wind shifts, blowing the flames in Khuna towards the mountains to the southeast, they may have to deal with a massive forest fire.
"Ugh."
Looking at the current situation, Lorraine knew very well that now was not the time to conserve explosives.
"Cleveland, identify high-value targets in the cities of Kanna and Puslan, mark the deployment locations of the lighters, and calculate the locations of the firebreaks."
【Received...Calculation complete.】
"Send the lighter layout diagram and firebreak locations for Puslan City to Yaoguang. The setup needs to be completed as soon as possible."
"Mobilize the artillery in Kanna and use high-explosive shells to blast out all the firebreaks."
[Received. Deployment plan sent. Operational orders transmitted. Production sequence conversion complete.]
With the order given, the unmanned combat group and transport aircraft all became active.
Two tactical transport aircraft parked on the flagship's foredeck were moved to the hangar and began loading 130mm high-explosive bombs into the cargo hold.
Inside the production center, one improved lighter after another was produced and transported to the entire flight deck of the flagship, awaiting helicopter transfer to a nearby airport.
Upon receiving the message, Ethan led all the camp members onto the waiting transport vehicle and headed to Airport 2 to await the end of the Blood Moon.
Another group of people were forcibly stuffed into transport vehicles by riot control robots, ready to be transported to a nearby safe point.
In the time leading up to the blood moon, the sound of exploding shells was incessant, and firebreaks were cleared one after another.
A massive fleet of drones flew at high speed through the sky, dropping lighters loaded on each drone to designated locations.
Several hastily constructed unmanned vessels carrying newly manufactured smart mines sailed in the bay, deploying the mines to designated locations.
On the third night, the blood moon rose, and an extremely bizarre situation once again appeared before Lorraine, except this time he did not see it through the perspective of a quadcopter reconnaissance drone.
Lorraine breathed a sigh of relief as he listened to the images transmitted by the Stealth Eagle drone; everything was now under control.
However, at this moment, Platinum, who was standing next to him, raised a question.
"If this zombie virus was released by an extraterrestrial civilization, then why did a blood moon appear?"
"The best-case scenario is that an extraterrestrial civilization has deployed some kind of large optical system on the moon, capable of projecting a red light containing some kind of energy downwards from the moon."
"The worst news is..."
Lorraine paused for a moment, then spoke in a low and serious tone:
"Without anyone noticing, they replaced the moon with a planet-class warship."
Instantly, the entire cab fell silent, and the heavy breathing of the four people could be clearly heard.
Finally, the optimistic Ouyang Nian broke the somber atmosphere.
"Hey, what's meant to be will be. Anyway, we have no way to investigate the truth on the moon right now, let alone solve it. Didn't Lorraine say before that we should just focus on the present?"
"After all, no one knows whether future technologies will provide a solution."
"Based on the current situation, it is possible that the blueprints for a planet-destroying weapon could be obtained at level eight."
After hearing Lorraine's addition, Ouyang Nian shrugged and said in a somewhat indifferent tone.
"Therefore, there is always a way out. Instead of worrying about the unseen future, we should take steady steps forward and lay a solid foundation for future development."
The heavy atmosphere dissipated instantly. The group exchanged smiles and returned to their posts to monitor the changes in various locations.
Time passed slowly, and the blood moon rose higher and higher. The moment the clock struck midnight, all the zombies looked up at once, roared, and began to tear each other apart.
Half an hour later, the intensity of the zombies' fighting decreased slightly, and the zombie density also dropped significantly.
Upon seeing this, the modified lighters deployed subsequently began to operate, and the smart mines at the river estuary also began to search for and strike targets on their own.
While the sound-generating device was operating, a nozzle popped out from its top.
Then, a light red mist sprayed out from the nozzle, spreading to the surrounding area with the help of the night sea breeze.
"It seems that artificial blood is very effective at attracting zombies."
The lighter's built-in sensors detected the swarming horde of corpses, and then four angled nozzles popped out, spewing out five-meter-long tongues of fire in all directions.
Driven by the flames, the four nozzles began to slowly rotate, covering each zombie in the vicinity with long tongues of fire.
In an instant, several torches lit up the city, and as more and more zombies approached, the flames grew larger and larger.
Fortunately, the firebreaks created by artillery fire and the pre-placed fire extinguishing bombs kept the flames contained within a small area, preventing them from spreading outwards and affecting the surrounding forests.
The fire burned for a full day and night, with thick black smoke billowing from the cities of Kanna, Jask, and Puslan.
On the outskirts of the city along that river, after the blood moon descended, a giant sheep, 6 meters tall and 8 meters long, appeared.
It then led its zombified horde along the river, heading towards the small survivor camps that had been detected by the drones.
While the zombies were being burned by the fire, Lorraine had already led the unmanned combat swarm to clear out the silicon-based organisms in the mines surrounding Jask Harbor.
The previous use of blanket bombing to clear silicon-based organisms from the mine has forced an increase in the difficulty of subsequent mining operations.
This time, Lorraine abandoned the method of using firepower coverage and instead used a combination of electric field flares, unmanned combat vehicles, and armed helicopters.
A contingent of vehicle-mounted howitzers and unmanned combat vehicles sped along the city's main thoroughfare, enveloped in scorching heat. After leaving the city, the massive convoy split into three groups, heading towards nearby mines.
The vehicle-mounted howitzers were the first to arrive at the artillery position. As the artillery group deployed, a large number of charged particles were filling the shells made of metallic hydrogen.
Tests showed that projectiles made of metallic hydrogen could preserve charged particles for a long time, but because the artillery had to pass through a high-temperature area, these electric field jamming projectiles were not prepared in advance.
Meanwhile, unmanned vehicles are traversing the roads, stopping 3 kilometers from the mine.
Once the electric field jamming missiles take effect, the unmanned combat vehicles will storm into the mine along with the armed helicopters and attack the silicon-based creatures that inhabit the area.
Soon, a large number of electric field chaff were manufactured, and the armed helicopter group was ready for takeoff on the surrounding flat land.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Extremely low rumbles of artillery fire rang out one after another, as chaff and flares flew toward different mines.
After the dazzling flames subsided, a large number of high-energy charged particles shot out from an area invisible to the naked eye, disrupting the electric field of these silicon-based organisms.
The moment the artillery barrage ended, a swarm of Wasp attack helicopters took off, and a fleet of unmanned combat vehicles quickly drove onto the road and headed toward the mine entrance.
A group of armed helicopters arrived above the mine first, and then airborne radar locked onto large and medium-sized objects inside the mine.
Subsequently, 140mm armor-piercing rockets and anti-tank missiles shot out, trailing long plumes of white smoke.
When the smoke cleared, all the medium-sized individuals were dead, and the large individuals had lost their ability to fight back. Unmanned combat vehicles equipped with 105mm electromagnetic cannons also arrived above the mine.
The entire unmanned combat vehicle cluster came to a stop on the uppermost road of the mine, the gun barrels turned toward the inside of the ore deposit, and the suspension began to compress.
The 105mm electromagnetic railgun was the first to fire, with enhanced armor-piercing projectiles hurtling towards the large individuals within the mine.
The 30mm electromagnetic cannons and 8mm electromagnetic machine guns within the unmanned combat vehicle cluster began attacking small and medium-sized individuals within the mine.
In just 10 minutes, not a single living silicon-based organism could be seen moving around in the entire mine.
Subsequently, the hatches of several unmanned infantry fighting vehicles opened, and eight standard-equipped Guardian robot teams, each carrying their own weapons, ran into the mine.
After confirming the death of all silicon-based organisms, almost all of the Wasp attack helicopters began to return to base, leaving only four Wasp attack helicopters near each mine as aerial patrol forces.