area51novel Chapter 100 Andy's Low-Earth Orbit Satellite
Chapter 100 Andy's Low-Earth Orbit Satellite
Chapter 100 Andy's Low-Earth Orbit Satellite
"when--!!!"
The deafening clang of metal striking metal echoed through the enclosed shaft, making one's eardrums ache.
Instead of slicing the monster's body open, Kolber's chainsaw slammed into the dark red biological scythe.
The enormous reaction force caused Kolber to take half a step back, but his hydraulic system immediately locked, forcibly stabilizing his center of gravity.
The monster's stealth was broken by this attack, and its form was fully revealed.
Instead of being knocked away like a normal wild animal, it made an extremely bizarre turn in mid-air that completely defied the laws of physics.
Its spine seemed to have no joints, and its upper body suddenly twisted 180 degrees. The scythe in its hand, propelled by the rotation, left a dark red afterimage as it headed straight for the joint of Kolber's neck.
If this were back when he wore the T-9000 exoskeleton, Kolber would be dead by now.
Because hydraulic transmission has a delay of about 0.2 seconds, it means that even if you think about raising your hand, it may take about half a second for your hand to actually lift up.
In high-level games, that amount of time is enough to die three or four times.
But now, he wears the "Vanguard" power armor, and his body is implanted with Type IV bio-neural bundles.
The cutting-edge material derived from the Netherworld Bone of the Spirit Clan directly converted his neural signals into electrical signals, resulting in an explosive increase in transmission speed.
Before Kolber even had time to think "I need to dodge," his body had already moved.
A burst of air suddenly shot out from the nozzles on the back of the power armor, causing the heavy steel body to shift half a meter to the left.
"Swish"
The scythe sliced past his helmet, leaving a deep scratch on his shoulder armor, and sparks flew onto Kolber's goggles.
"die!"
Kolber roared and instead of retreating, he charged forward!
The chainsaw sword slashed upwards with a violent roar.
The canned food's agility once again surprised the monster. With a sudden push from its slender hind legs, the canned food launched itself backward, attempting to create distance.
But Kolber gave it no chance to breathe, its power armor operating at full power, relentlessly pursuing it.
The two sides instantly became entangled in combat.
The chainsaw sword and the biological scythe clashed wildly in the confined space, each impact erupting in dazzling flashes of light.
Jaden and several other Storm Squad soldiers standing nearby were dumbfounded.
They held their hell guns aloft, but dared not fire, for fear of accidentally injuring Colbert.
"What the hell is this thing?!"
Jaden's eyes widened, and his mouth gaped open enough to fit a hand grenade.
Having spent so many years in the bottom hive, Zetton has seen many mutants and beasts, who fight using either brute force or sheer numbers.
But this alien is different.
That's outrageous!
Instead of confronting Colbert head-on, it used its long limbs and strange joint angles to launch attacks around Colbert.
It will probe, gently touching the joint gaps of the power armor with the tip of its scythe. If it finds that the angle is not good and it cannot cut in, it will immediately change its tactics and try again.
He even knew how to use the terrain, retreating behind several thick pillars on several occasions to use the shadows to distract Kohlberg's line of sight.
A cold sweat broke out on Jaden's back; he seemed to realize something.
The other party is not a wild beast at all.
That's a fucking warrior!!
He is also an alien warrior who has undergone rigorous training and possesses extremely high combat intelligence!
"It's over————"
Jaden looked around at the deep, dark shaft and the densely packed maintenance platforms on the walls.
If this thing possesses intelligence, then here—
This must be their stronghold!
Maybe this is someone's barracks, or some kind of outpost.
Jaden instinctively touched his throat, a wave of fear washing over him.
He was leaning on the railing just now, and he even tried to spit down below!
Thank goodness I didn't throw up!
If you spit that mouthful of saliva, it might land on someone's head!
There might be more than just one rushing up at that time!
In the center of the battlefield, the situation suddenly changed.
The alien seemed to realize that it was no match for the power armor in a contest of strength, and it changed its strategy.
It deliberately exposed a weakness by revealing a gap in its left rib area.
Kolber fell for the trick, and his chainsaw swept across with a whooshing sound.
Just as the blade was about to touch the alien's body, the alien's body suddenly folded up like a piece of paper, narrowly avoiding the serrated edge.
Immediately afterwards, it hooked the scythe in its hand around Kolber's left arm and pulled hard.
"Squeak—"
A sickening metallic creaking sound rang out.
The heavy arm armor of the elite soldier's power armor was actually cut open, and even the servo motor was emitting black smoke.
"Grass!"
Kolber cried out in pain. Although his flesh was not injured, the fear of having his armor cut open sent his adrenaline soaring.
Instead of retreating, he used the force of the other person's pull to slam his entire body forward.
This is an extremely risky move.
But he made the right bet.
The alien's scythe got stuck in a gap in the armor and couldn't be pulled out for a while.
The two collided.
Kolber released the chainsaw sword from his right hand and clenched it into a fist, instantly overloading the power armor's hydraulic system.
"Break it off!!"
The punch landed squarely on the right elbow joint of the alien's arm, where it was holding the scythe.
"Snap!!!"
The crisp sound of bones cracking echoed in the shaft.
The alien let out an extremely sharp scream, like the scraping of glass.
Its slender right arm snapped off at an odd angle, the biological scythe flying out of its hand and crashing to the ground with a clatter.
The severely injured alien did not continue its pursuit. It suddenly opened its mouth and spewed out a thick cloud of purple smoke.
The smoke was highly corrosive and obscuring, instantly turning Kohlberg's sensors into a white haze.
When the smoke cleared, the monster was gone.
Only a pool of green blood and the severed arm remained on the ground.
"Whoosh—whoosh—"
Kohlberg collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily and trembling all over.
In that split second, if his reaction had been even 0.1 seconds slower, or if the scythe had cut even a little deeper, it wouldn't have been the alien's arm that was severed, but his own.
"Old Ke! Are you alright?!"
Jaden rushed over and helped him up.
"It's okay—I won't die—"
Kolber looked at the severed arm on the ground, still shaken.
"Damn, this thing is too weird—"
1
1
Horisonburg, the third floor of the research tower.
This place used to be a spacious, multi-purpose laboratory, but now Andy has taken it over and turned it into his private studio.
Compared to the hardcore environment of an underground workshop, filled with the smell of engine oil and the clanging of metal, wow!
It's practically paradise!
Although Andy is an iron man, he still retains a lot of human aesthetic sense.
He had a ring of warm-toned, high-brightness LED light strips installed on the wall, making the whole room bright and cozy. He also laid an anti-static carpet on the floor and had it repainted, making it much more comfortable than Sisyphus's previous office.
At this moment, Andy was sitting at a large workbench, holding a precision laser screwdriver, in a very pleasant mood.
On the platform in front of him, a silver-white metal sphere about one meter in diameter was suspended.
The sphere's surface is covered with hexagonal solar panels, and it has four tiny anti-gravity nozzles around its perimeter, subtly adjusting its orientation.
The Sky Dome-1 low-orbit base station is a high-quality product with its core components just off the production line.
Commonly known as an electronic buoy! A low-Earth orbit satellite!
This thing was specially made by Andy to solve the problem of extremely backward communication.
After all, anyone who uses the communication technology in the Warhammer universe knows how advanced it is.
It's utterly rotten!
At close range, using birdwatches and radios, even the slightest interference results in a lot of static.
Sending dreams from a distance via a star-speaker is an even more mysterious art, and whether or not it can be received depends entirely on the mood of the subspace.
As for medium-range communication, such as beyond-line-of-sight communication on the surface of a planet, it basically relies on laying those thick and cumbersome wired cables, which is incredibly inefficient.
For Andy, who was used to full-map navigation and real-time strategy perspectives, this was simply unbearable.
So he used the STC database to create "Sky Dome-1".
The principle is very simple: it integrates a high-sensitivity signal transceiver array, an optical reconnaissance probe, a thermal imaging radar, and all sorts of other miscellaneous components into this sphere.
Using an anti-gravity engine, it is suspended at the bottom of the stratosphere at an altitude of about 20,000 meters.
At this altitude, it can avoid most ground interference and severe weather, while still covering an area with a diameter of 500 kilometers.
The most ingenious part is its power supply system.
Andy covered it with high-efficiency solar panels, and with the energy integration technology he had previously analyzed from Joka, it could be said that as long as the planet's star didn't go out, it could stay in the sky forever without needing to be refueled or recharged.
Andy was quite proud of this energy integration technology.
Although he still doesn't fully understand how the space gorillas managed to cram fusion-level energy into a ring, he made a significant breakthrough after analyzing the energy storage circuit of that digital weapon.
The current finished battery pack, although still about the size of a fist in diameter, has had its thickness reduced to only two centimeters. Holding it in your hand feels like holding a high-density metal disc, which is the current limit of technology and materials science.
To make it even smaller involves more microscopic space compression technology, which is completely shrouded in mystery at STC, and Andy has no clue what to do at the moment.
Anyway, he's not going to build those miniature assassination weapons that you wear on your finger. This size is more than enough to fit into drones and electronic buoys. Stable performance is the key, there's no need to make it any smaller.
"If I just make a few hundred of these things and scatter them into the sky—"
As Andy tightened the last screw, he smugly made his calculations.
"I will be able to establish a real-time monitoring and communication network throughout the entire Horisonburg area, and even further afield."
"At that time, I will be able to see clearly where there are mutated beast hordes, resource points, and enemies trying to raid my base, all from the comfort of my home."
Isn't this much better than sending scouts on foot?
"Knock knock knock".
The urgent knocking broke the silence inside and interrupted Andy's reverie.
"Enter."
Andy didn't even look up; he was making the final signal calibrations.
The door opened.
Jaden and Kolber walked in.
The two elite members of the Storm Squad looked a bit disheveled, with a deep scratch on the shoulder of Kolber's power armor.
But they looked excited, and they were carrying a long, rectangular object wrapped in a waterproof tarpaulin.
"Boss! We've made a major discovery!"
Jaden placed the package on the workbench with a dull thud.
"We discovered a huge underground shaft in the ruins to the west, and this monstrous thing is hidden inside!"
As Jaden spoke, he lifted the tarpaulin.
The dark red, barbed alien arm and the still incredibly sharp biological scythe were exposed to the light.
The nauseating smell of blood instantly overwhelmed the freshness of the studio.
Andy put down the screwdriver in his hand, and his electronic eye swept over the severed arm, his pupils contracting slightly.
This biological structure—this texture of the carapace—
Andy immediately activated the search function of the STC database.
A blue laser beam swept across the incision in the severed arm, analyzing the DNA sequence and cellular structure inside.
A few seconds later, a message box popped up.
Race identification complete.
[Target: Reiss.]
[Evaluation: Lacking Gestalt awareness, they are known for their extremely high agility, stealth, complex biotechnology, and strong territorial instincts. They typically live in groups, exhibiting a high degree of sociality, and adults possess formidable biological cloaking abilities.]
F