Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 739 The Great Basin

The speed of the high-speed transport aircraft equipped with battleship-class propellers is very fast. Even with a big guy like the Blasphemer mech mounted, it is still much faster than the "Amran-class transport aircraft" that Ke Lan and the others took. Also much more stable.

In just seven hours, the high-speed transport plane sent them to the edge of the Great Basin, an hour shorter than expected.

Ke Lan and the others, who are used to the hell-style start, rarely felt an inexplicable sense of relief - saving an hour on the road means that this free hour can be used in various emergencies In terms of handling, there is no need to race against time for every action as in the original plan.

"Arrive at the scheduled location one hour earlier." Ke Lan raised his head, looked at the high-speed transport plane that lifted off vertically, and said, "The time is a bit more than expected, but we still have to cross the Great Basin within three hours—— Before entering the foggy forest, the undead crew may send someone to stop us at any time."

"Three hours, as long as there are no obstacles on the road, it should be fine." As 33 said, he jumped into the passenger seat of the armored off-road vehicle.

This armored off-road vehicle is the only vehicle they carry besides the Blasphemer Mecha. It is customized by the "Jigan Steel Industry" under the Soma Consortium. It has a full Nino alloy skeleton and is powered by a quadruple crystallization engine. Maintain a cruising speed of [-] kilometers per hour on a flat, non-paved road, and even "fly with great power" if necessary-relying on the rocket propeller hidden in the site and the folded hang glider for a short period of time. Flying at a low altitude...Of course, these magical changes were completed independently by Layton and Chi Hanfeng. If the engineers of Jigang Industry know that these two people have changed their proud work into this appearance, I don't know what kind of expression I will show.

The short-distance flight function looks stupid, but it is definitely not tasteless—there are many cracks and rifts of unknown depth distributed in the Great Basin, and the widest rift can even reach more than 50 meters. The Blasphemer Mech can naturally Jump over by propellers and anti-gravity devices, but when ordinary ground vehicles encounter such terrain, they can only choose to detour.

For Ke Lan and the others, detours are a waste of time—if you want to cross the Great Basin within three hours, you can only choose the straightest route.

Ke Lan got into the cockpit - this armored off-road vehicle uses an independent cockpit similar to that of a mecha, and the driving method is almost the same as that of a mecha, if it weren't for the fact that Valentina still needs to drive the blasphemer , Ke Lan can't take the driver's seat.

"Are you all seated?" Ke Lan adjusted the inclination of the driver's seat to an angle between sitting upright and half lying down, raised his hand to preliminarily adjust all the devices in the cockpit, and then started the engine .

Compared with the roar and vibration of traditional engines, the crystallization engine is much quieter, but the moment Ke Lan steps on the accelerator, he still feels a full sense of pushing back.

The armored off-road vehicle rushed out in an instant, and the Blasphemer who used the air cushion to slide closely followed the side of the vehicle.

……

Although the Great Basin is named "Basin", it is actually a huge crater on the Alpha planet. The meteor core in the center of the crater has long since disappeared, leaving only a crater with a depth of more than 20 meters and a diameter more than [-] kilometers of inverted conical deep wells.

Ke Lan's crossing route is actually a tangent to the edge of the deep well, with a span of about 850 kilometers. According to the cruising speed of the vehicle, it can be crossed within three hours.

Of course, the premise is that there are no obstacles in the whole process.

But anyone who knows something about the ecological environment of the Great Basin knows that this is almost impossible.

Although the Great Basin is a barren land without any large-scale vegetation and water sources, and everywhere in the field of vision is a desolate scene intertwined with yellow and marl, but this place does not lack traces of indigenous creatures.

At the beginning of the formation of the Great Basin, the meteorite from the distant universe slammed into the surface of Alpha Star. While creating this super crater, it also integrated some rare elements carried by the meteorite into fragments. into this land.

In the long years that followed, with the erosion of wind, sand and rain, these meteorite fragments that were originally buried deep in the ground were gradually exposed on the surface of the basin... These rare elements with strong radiation must be kept away from humans. Deadly things, but for some indigenous creatures on Planet Alpha, they are "necessities" for growth and development.

These meteorite fragments attracted a large number of indigenous organisms to eat the soil and gravel in the basin, and these indigenous organisms who came to search for radioactive materials in turn attracted a group of predators who preyed on them... In this way, a somewhat A deformed but reasonable ecosystem appeared in the Great Basin.

However, these indigenous creatures attracted by radioactive substances will not live in the Great Basin for a long time. After all, there is nothing in this place except meteorite fragments and sand... Humans can't live without food and only rely on vitamin supplements. Creatures also cannot rely on a speck of meteorite fragments in the sand to satisfy their hunger.It is precisely for this reason that the ecosphere of the Great Basin has a strong "seasonality".

Just like the migration of migratory birds and fish schools on the earth, those indigenous creatures will regularly go to the Great Basin to ingest the radioactive elements necessary for survival. At this time, the Great Basin will start to become lively.

According to this feature, the experts on the Ark divided the ecological environment of the Great Basin into two stages: the "active period" and the "dead period".

However, at first they were called "active period" and "quiet period", but later some scholars felt that it was more appropriate to use the word "dead silence" to describe the lifeless Great Basin, and this second name gradually became popular Kailai, and replaced the first name, became the mainstream.

Unfortunately, the period when Ke Lan and the others chose to cross the Great Basin happened to be the "active period".

There is no way around this. The "active period" and "dead period" of the Great Basin alternate for as long as three months. It is impossible for Ke Lan to wait until three months later before starting to act.

By then, the undead crew should have already discovered the clue that he had found the foggy forest... If he tried to sneak out again, it might not be so easy.

"Five kilometers ahead, an indigenous biome occurs." While the off-road vehicle is moving forward at high speed, the reconnaissance drone released is also synchronously following up in the airspace above, communicating the surrounding situation to the vehicle in real time.

(End of this chapter)