Chapter 246 Premeditated ambush! Second stage flood! Recycler!

An hour later, the engine room of the Long Night opened the air valve gate, and then a Wasp transport boat and three Storm Eagle gunboats flew out.

The members of this advance team rushed straight into the atmosphere of the Shield World, heading for the ruins left by the Forerunner civilization.

In the engine room of the Wasp, the members of the All Heavens Advance Team were equipped with brand-new heavy power armor and went to perform this investigation and combat mission.

Rita and Cage, ordinary human-sized soldiers, wore conventional power armor produced by giant companies with polymer batteries as the core, imitating MarkX power armor.

This high-imitation MarkX power armor device is several circles smaller than the original one, and its functions are not as sufficient.

But the ceramic steel material as the shell and good airtightness still make this power armor quite defensive.

At least Rita no longer has to worry about the flood spores on the ground, just perform her own tasks.

The original intention of the research department of the giant company to develop this set of power armor is to allow non-Astartes warriors to also enjoy the convenience of MarkX power armor.

Although it is only a castrated version of MarkX power armor, the device is still much stronger than ordinary exoskeleton armor.

It is hard and durable, has good airtightness, and has more built-in functions than ordinary power armor. It can also be linked and communicated with the genuine MarkX power armor. Except for being a little smaller, everything else is almost the same.

Rita suppressed her slightly chaotic thoughts and put her attention back on the tactical helmet, looking at the content presented on the holographic screen.

[Distance to the surface of Shield World 0459: 30 kilometers! ]

The value on the screen is constantly decreasing as time goes by, which means that they are getting closer and closer to the ground.

At this time, everyone also heard the order of David Martinez, the captain of the advance team:

[Everyone listen to me, after arriving on the surface, build a defense line in the designated area as soon as possible to cover our researchers entering the ruins. 】

【Be careful, don't let the flood pierce your power armor. Once infected, it is equivalent to death. Do you understand! 】

Although the power armor shell made of ceramic steel can avoid infection from the air and the flood's attack, no matter how hard it is, there will be metal fatigue.

Once the team members are involved in a large-scale flood invasion, their power armor may still be damaged and the soldiers inside may be infected.

"Yes, sir!"

The soldiers responded in unison.

After hearing everyone's reply, David temporarily hung up the communication connection and turned his attention to the introduction of the flood.

According to the flood information provided by the headquarters, these flood creatures are also creatures with hive consciousness similar to the hive consciousness. All of their individual genetic programs have only one purpose:

That is assimilation!

When facing an enemy that can be dealt with, they will rush to infect the other party regardless of everything. Even in the face of powerful firepower, they will not be afraid or timid.

Although the flood in the shield world has not yet completely erupted and flooded, they are still a great threat in the wild.

Of course, if the number of flood monsters here is too large to complete the mission normally, David and others will definitely withdraw as soon as possible.

Wait for Nicolo to develop the Scorpion Tailed Lion virus and eliminate the flood monsters on the ground before exploring the remains of the Forerunner civilization.

However, based on what they know now and the power armor on the soldiers, there shouldn't be any major problems with this mission.

Not long after, the flight formation was close to the ground.

"All personnel, please get ready, we are about to land on the surface of the shield world!"

With the reminder of the AI ​​assistant in the communication, all the soldiers stood up at the same time. When the hatch at the tail was opened, the turbid airflow immediately poured into the cabin.

"Be alert around first!"

After David led the team out of the cabin, he immediately ordered the soldiers to observe the surrounding environment.

The landing area where they were was a wasteland. Looking around, they saw towering city buildings and jungles mixed together, like a civilization that had been destroyed long ago, and was reborn in nature.

Although the greening here is not bad, there are a lot of black dust visible to the naked eye in the air, and the sky of the entire shield world is also shrouded in dim yellow.

Obviously, these are all tiny spores decomposed by the flood. They can infect any creature and assimilate it into a part of the flood just by floating in the air.

Boom!

After transporting the combat members, several gunboats and transport boats immediately released a large number of AI drones and hovered in the air.

In order to provide reconnaissance and timely fire support for ground forces.

Here, David continued to give orders to everyone after seeing that the dynamic detection and pulse scanner showed no abnormal results:

"Now the people of Team 1 and Team 4 follow me, and the people of Team 2 and Team 3 stay in place to ensure that the landing area is correct."

The team 1 David called was the elite Astartes warriors in the ace advance team, and they were the main force of this combat operation.

Team 4 was the elite human soldiers led by Rita.

"Yes!"

Everyone immediately acted according to David's arrangements.

Li De led the Astartes warriors of Teams 2 and 3 to guard the rear, while David personally led the elite troops to continue exploring and searching for the remains of the forerunners.

"Li De, I leave this place to you."

"Um."

Then, David picked up the bolt gun in his hand and led the soldiers behind him towards the established target area.

Under the haste of everyone, David and others soon arrived at the edge of the Forerunner city cluster. Looking at the surrounding environment, Cage couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

This was the first time he had landed in such a dangerous combat environment to fight against Flood and Covenant soldiers.

At this moment, the heavy footsteps of a group of tin cans echoed on the streets that were overgrown with grass and devastated.

"It seems a little too quiet here. Is there an enemy ambush?"

At this time, Rita, who had always been cautious, couldn't help but say out loud that she always felt that there were some indescribable dangers here.

Hearing Rita's voice, David looked at the information fed back from the tactical helmet. After confirming that there was nothing wrong, he said:

"Regardless of whether there is danger or not, everyone should be more vigilant. After all, the Flood Demon here has existed for tens of thousands of years, and there may be traces of the Corpse Brain Beast."

The Corpse Brain Beast is the final stage of the Flood's development. The galaxy where the Corpse Brain Beast exists is basically "sent" and has no habitability.

But according to the current intelligence information, even if there is a Corpse Brain Beast in the Shield World, it is likely to be in its original form and will not pose much of a threat.

"Just keep going."

After the words fell, David continued to follow the route that had been marked, led the soldiers behind him, and rushed over at a faster pace.

For a moment, the big cans and the small cans made a loud noise while rushing forward.

Just when David and others were about to arrive at the intersection ahead, a warning appeared on their tactical helmet screen, and dense red dots appeared.

This means that there are a large number of unknown creatures in the area directly in front of them!

Upon seeing this, David immediately asked people to follow him, and fired at the building bunker in front of him. With a roar, the bolter shells burst out of the barrel.

Dozens of small-caliber bullets were seen, trailing orange tail flames across the air and hitting the surface of the bunker.

In an instant, the building was damaged, making a rumbling sound, and began to collapse and fall apart.

During this process, the Flood Demon lurking behind the bunker quickly emerged from the ruins, accompanied by bursts of howling.

Obviously, these species, which look like slimy octopuses and carry various arthropods and tentacles, are the flood demons that David and other warriors need to be wary of.

‘No wonder this thing is called Flood Demon, it looks like a flood coming. ’

Rita, who was standing at the back of the team, couldn't help but exclaimed in her heart.

Seeing this scene in front of him, David Martinez couldn't help but frown. These flood demons actually used ambush tactics to sneak attack on the living creatures coming and going.

This is enough to show that the Flood Demons on the surface of the Shield World are no longer simply growing wildly in the first stage, but have evolved to the second stage and will adopt various attack strategies to achieve reproductive growth.

If this group of Flood demons really succeeded in ambush and infected a new batch of life forms, I'm afraid it would be time to enter the third stage of the corpse brain beast form!

"Fire!!"

Without any explanation, David immediately ordered everyone to focus on the group of Flood Demons in front of them. In an instant, countless bolters flew out of the barrel of the gun.

High-explosive bombs containing small steel balls, iron sand, and gunpowder were bombarded evenly among the Flood Demons.

Accompanied by bursts of roaring sounds, the Flood individuals hit by the explosive bombs were annihilated into powder one after another like broken balloons.

Since the number of Flood demons in front of him was not large, David decided to divide the team into two teams, and the Astartes warriors took the initiative to meet the Flood demons and fight hand-to-hand at close range.

Rita, on the other hand, led the second team of soldiers to assist in the flanking operations, shooting to disrupt the large Flood troops in front of them.

"People from team one follow me, team four will cover you!"

As David's instructions were passed on, the well-trained warriors immediately separated. Rita led the team to form a fire net on the flanks, while David rushed forward with a chain sword and bolt gun.

After all, a team of ace advance team soldiers has the highest-standard individual equipment and weapons from the world's giant companies, and the physical fitness of the soldiers is also top-notch.

More importantly, their power armor has better protection, so they don't have to worry about the Flood's invasion in a short period of time.

Immediately, the ace advance team soldiers led by David charged forward, and a large number of Flood Demons also wrapped up these soldiers tightly in an instant.

Bang——!

Phew! !

David wielded a chain sword in his left hand and a bolter in his right hand, flashing around among the flood demons, like Lu Bu who used the "Wushuang" ultimate move in Dynasty Warriors, standing out and killing indiscriminately.

Coupled with the presence of warriors like Rita on the flanks to help deal with the incoming Flood demons, less than half of the Flood demons were slaughtered almost instantly.

The plasma guns, large-caliber electromagnetic guns, and precision-guided laser cannons used by Rita and other elite soldiers created bursts of explosions and splashes of killing effects among the Flood camp.

In this way, David and his group of Astartes warriors killed the Flood attacking them from the front, and moved forward in an orderly manner to eliminate the alien bugs in front of them.

And this group of Flood Demons are also unswerving iron-headed children. They are obviously no match for this group of armed units, but they still rush forward without hesitation.

The result was that the whole group was wiped out, saving David the energy of having people go over to sweep them and eliminate them one by one.

Soon, all the flood demons here were eliminated by David. After seeing that the battle situation had stabilized, he continued to order:

"Everyone check their own physical condition and check whether the power armor device is damaged or leaking. Team 1 continues to explore forward and eliminate the missed flood demons."

"Team 4 maintains the formation, be alert to the situation on the flanks and rear, and beware of the flood demons' sneak attacks."

Since this batch of flood demons has evolved to the second stage, David has to be cautious, considering whether they will attack their own soldiers by faking death.

"Yes!"

After the voice fell, everyone continued to move forward, and in the process of advancing, they really found some remaining flood demons, hiding in various places in the bunker, ready to launch a surprise attack at any time.

Da!

Da Da! !

The dense and harsh gunshots echoed from time to time in the streets of this deserted city. In less than 15 minutes, the flood demons here were swept away by David and others.

Even if there are still a few flood demons, they are not to be feared, at least they can no longer pose any threat to the giant enterprise's troops.

Seeing the large number of broken Flood corpses on the ground, which were constantly emitting tiny black spores, David, Rita and other soldiers subconsciously took two steps back.

"I don't know which wicked thing this Flood is. The creatures created by it don't even stop after death!"

William Cage couldn't help but curse.

It seems that before they return to the flagship, they have to go through a strict purification and disinfection procedure before entering the ship.

Here, Reed has escorted the intelligent AI Loki, Shiver, and Dr. Halsey to the city.

Originally, Halsey didn't need to take risks in person to come here to participate in the exploration of the ruins, but thinking of the need to make meritorious deeds to convince the public, she decided to come here.

Halsey believes in the professionalism of the giant enterprise warriors.

Seeing the chaotic scene in the city, Halsey turned his head to look at David and said:

"Since there are Templar defenders on the surface of the Shield World, the battle just now will surely attract them to come here to explore. At that time, we can show our identities and let them lead the way."

So far, the information controlled by the Universal Corporation can only roughly circle out where the ruins of the Shield World are, but the specific location still needs to be prompted by the Templar defenders here.

"Will those AIs really lead us? Won't they treat us as enemies?"

Rita, who didn't know much about the information on the Shield World, couldn't help but ask.

"No, if humans are really the designated recyclers of the Forerunner civilization, then the Templar defenders here have no reason to hurt us."

Halsey still believes in the authenticity of the information of the Corporation. If they can really enter the ruins of the Shield World, they can not only get a lot of technology points.

They can also forcibly drag the Covenant fleet that is staying in the low-Earth orbit to the core of the Shield World by opening a magical gravity well device.

And there, the troops of the giant enterprise can achieve the goal of catching the advance team of the Star Alliance in one fell swoop!

The place they arrived at now is only the outer surface of the shield world. The real good things are all inside, which is the core area of ​​the shield world.

Not long after, David and others really saw a white bee-shaped drone quickly approaching not far away, and they were the Temple Defenders guarding the shield world.

These robots that are integrated with combat, maintenance and patrol controlled by stupid AI are the sentinel units of the shield world. Their daily work is to eliminate the flood and repair the structure of the shield world.

Until the recyclers who take over the technology of the relics of the forerunner civilization come.

Halsey carefully checked the batch of automatic robots in front of him. They have anti-gravity and pulse engines, and the high-energy beams on their heads can cause burning effects on enemy units.

It can also be used to repair itself and buildings.

The reason why the huge celestial building of the shield world can last for tens of thousands of years is precisely because of this batch of Temple Defenders.

‘These robots are simply excellent builders. With them, the efficiency of the Universal Corporation in assembling, splicing, and welding ground buildings and warships will definitely be greatly improved. ’

Halsey thought thoughtfully in his heart.

You know, the most famous and most commonly used construction robot of the Universal Corporation is the six-legged Hex robot.

This spider-like AI drone is limited to construction, unlike the Temple Defender, which can also autonomously repair buildings and protect buildings.

It can serve as a sentinel and a repairman. This is the construction robot that the Universal Corporation needs!

At this time, the Temple Defender robot not far away has arrived at David's side. They first ignored the existence of the Astartes warriors.

They went straight to the vicinity of the Flood corpse and used laser beams to thoroughly purify the Flood substances on the ground in order to kill the Flood spores that were emerging.

For a moment, bursts of burnt odor emanated from the corpse of the Flood Demon. Fortunately, there was a breathing and circulatory system in the power armor, otherwise they would have been fainted by the stench.

At this time, several Templar defenders came in front of David and Dr. Halsey, and released scanning beams, trying to analyze and identify the information of the organism in front of them.

Seeing the defender shoot out this beam with unknown intentions, David and Reed subconsciously guarded Halsey behind them, guarding against the AI ​​robot shooting Halsey.

Rita and other soldiers replaced their magazines, pulled the bolts, and pointed their guns at the Temple Defenders who were walking towards them.

Facing the attitude of David and others facing a formidable enemy, Dr. Halsey came out and said to the Temple Defenders in front of him:

"We are human beings, the recyclers chosen by the Forerunner civilization. Now we need to enter the core area of ​​the Shield World, restart all the Forerunner facilities and weapons, and get everything here."

Without any hesitation, Halsey straightforwardly stated his identity and the purpose of this trip to the Temple Defenders in front of him.

And as expected, after recognizing that Halsey in front of him was indeed a human species from the 004 "Halo" universe, this group of Temple Defenders left here on their own.

Continue to clean up the corpses of the Flood with other defenders to avoid secondary pollution.

Seeing this, Catherine Halsey breathed a sigh of relief. If David and others came to communicate, the Temple Defenders might be treated as other species.

It would be troublesome if a fierce battle broke out at that time.

After all, Halsey was the "local human" of the 004 universe, and it was easier for her to pass the scanning and identification of this group of Temple Defenders.