From Titan Corporation to the Empire of Man

Chapter 96 Deadly firefight! (4000)

"Shortly after the space door opened, the Engineering Department began to build a forward base for us operators to ensure that we have a place to stay and rest while we are on standby."

Speaking of this, Ada paused deliberately, and at the same time, holding the controller in her hand, she played more holographic information for the investigators including Leon, and continued:
  "Yesterday, Ernie 004, which completed the assembly process, successfully launched into space and provided us with a large number of high-altitude images. It also allowed us to understand that the surface of Earth seemed to have fallen into some kind of deathly silence.

Former capitals and major cities such as Moscow, London, and New York suffered comprehensive nuclear attacks and were completely razed to the ground.

The radiation residue detected by the Ernieo 004 sensor indicates that a world-scale nuclear war broke out on Earth five to ten years ago.

Even so, it stands to reason that there will not be a scene of global death. There should be a large number of survivors in cities and regions that are not classified as nuclear strikes.

But the tragic situation in Iceland tells us that the real factor that led to the deathly silence in Zero-4 was by no means a single nuclear war.

After repeated photography and comparison by the crew of Eneo 004, they successfully discovered that a large number of heat source reactions occurred in Sana, Yemen, but they immediately dissipated and disappeared.

So in twenty minutes the Herring Gull will transport us to the eastern outskirts of Sana'a. "While Ada was explaining the mission content, she used the controller to bring up a high-altitude bird's-eye view of Sana.

"The Herring Gull, which has completed its mission of sending passengers off, will continue to remain hidden, hovering at high altitude and on standby. However, we need to sneak into the city on foot, where everything is unknown, and collect as much intelligence and clues as possible. So, what else do you have? Problem?"

After speaking, Ada looked around at every investigator present.

After waiting for a few seconds and seeing no one asking questions, she dispersed all the holographic images, placed the controller on the table aside, and gave the order: "Then everyone, please prepare yourself, and disband."

"Yes, sir." A group of investigators stood up and responded.

Ada took on the off-white windbreaker and left the small conference room first.

"." Looking out the door, Leon was thoughtful.

"Boy, please don't try to influence the director, or you may get scolded." An investigator joked with a smile.

?

Leon, who came back to his senses, also smiled and said, "No, I just worked with the director last year and felt that he was very courageous, and I was just thinking about the heat sources."

"Okay, I believe what you said." The investigator shook his head slightly, packed up his notes and clothes, and walked outside.

Leon also put on his dark brown fur jacket, picked up his personal belongings, and went to the semi-open corridor outside.

call--!
  The cold wind "raged" in the corridor through the area under construction, so Leon chose to zip up his jacket.

嗗————!

Buzz--!

Passing by a group of Hex robots welding frames, he couldn't help but marvel at the convenience and efficiency brought by technology.

When they first joined the company, the "bulletproof suit" that Instructor Clausa showed them was enough to open their eyes, but now? Today's bulletproof clothing is basically standard equipment for intelligence agencies. For example, the overalls and fur jacket he wears are bulletproof.

After all, the rapid development of the company's technology has also accelerated the updating and iteration of materials and the improvement of cost-effectiveness.

Their intelligence department's exclusive bulletproof clothing is embedded with a thin layer of non-Newtonian body, which can easily resist close-range direct fire from 6.2mm conventional bullets.

Although the standard combat uniforms provided by the company to elite troops can "only" resist 9mm at close range, if complete individual equipment is worn, its protective capabilities are absolutely guaranteed.

At this time, Leon passed through the newly built canteen, bypassed the area blocked due to construction, and finally entered an equipment maintenance room numbered 012.

There are many logistics personnel wearing mechanical skeletons here, busy carrying light equipment boxes, or using convenient tools to organize ammunition, magazines and other items.

Leon first took off his fur jacket, placed it on the nearest bench, walked to the counter with bulletproof windows and security fences, and said: "Leon S. Kennedy, employee number A-00153, needs to perform a reconnaissance mission. "

"Please wait."

The staff member standing behind the counter used a physical keyboard to type in information. After verifying that what Leon said was correct, he turned sideways and reminded loudly: "A-00153!"

After the words fell, a logistics staff stopped what they were doing, moved an equipment box out of the storage room, and came to Leon through the security door.

Place it on the ground, open the lock and lift the lid at the same time. Then, the logistics staff assists Leon in assembling and putting on the mechanical skeleton.

After a while, Leon, who had carried sufficient supplies and ammunition, put on his leather jacket again and put on a seemingly light concealment cloak.

After picking up his exclusive AMWS rifle, he thanked the logistics staff who provided assistance and left the equipment preparation room.

When he came outside, which was still dark at noon, and walked straight towards the open vertical take-off and landing pad, he also saw at a glance the Herring Gull transport aircraft, which had a special shape and was much larger than the Black Falcon assault craft.

Soon after, sixteen investigators, including Leon and Ada, boarded the plane.

The pilot retracted the doors on both sides, allowing the Herring Gull to complete the cabin closing state.

The ground crew trotted to a farther position, knelt half down, and raised their right thumb to indicate that they were ready to take off.

Seeing this, the two pilots also raised their right hands in reply and started the two nuclear fusion engines carried by the Herring Gull.

boom-! !
  The strong airflow created at the moment of startup swept all around, messing up the hair of the nearest ground crew.

The Herring Gull slowly took off. After reaching the designated altitude, it turned the angle of the engines on both wings to prepare for acceleration, and turned on the stealth mode, completely disappearing from the range that can be observed by the naked eye.

in the cabin;
  Boom--boom--!

Fastening his seat belt, Leon, who was sitting on the right side of the cabin, deeply experienced the feeling of being forced to be "pulled down" with his body and soul.

Everyone in the cabin also frowned. After all, the Herring Gull was constantly accelerating, first carrying them to low-Earth orbit two hundred kilometers above the ground, and then quickly heading to Sana'a, Yemen, which was eight thousand kilometers away.

Fortunately, this sense of oppression did not last long. When Lyon and the others could no longer detect any obvious vibrations, the feeling of "souls were about to fly" finally disappeared, but was replaced by a feeling of weightlessness.

If the seat belts were not holding them in their seats, they would be "floating" in the cabin at this moment.

Have they left the earth?
  To be honest, it is the first time for all the investigators here to board the Herring Gull, which is still in the experimental stage, and it is also the first time to come to outer space.

"Hey! Look out the window."

?

Hearing the reminder from a waiter, Leon turned his head and looked out the porthole next to him.

Just look at the earth that should be blue and magnificent, but it is shrouded in "gray smoke".

It was the nuclear explosion that caused a large amount of dust, debris and soil to enter low-altitude orbit, preventing sunlight from shining on the earth well. It also caused the temperature of Earth 04 to plummet, and some areas even lost the green color representing trees and flowers.

"."

Facing the scene before him, Leon had mixed emotions. At the same time, he was eager to find out what happened on Earth 04 through this investigation mission.
-
  ...

Main universe time: November 1996, 11. It was early morning when there was insufficient light in Sana'a, which is located in the desert.

If you look down on this city from the air, you can feel the strong exotic atmosphere. It is suitable for people who like to experience different environments and cultures to visit.

Unfortunately, this desert capital that was supposed to be a tourist attraction has become a dilapidated ruin with no one taking care of it.

And in the eastern suburbs of Sana;
  The pilot flew the Yinou at a height of about 20 meters from the ground, slowed down, and released the landing gear.

After the engines on both wings rotated to a vertical position, the Yinou maintained its hovering attitude, and then landed on a flat desert.

Expand the side hatches.

The investigators who had been waiting for a long time quickly poured out of the cabin and stood in a fan shape to watch the surroundings.

Leon, who was wearing holographic glasses and an air filter device, found no abnormalities in the area for the time being, let alone any signs of life.

boom--!
  After closing the hatch, the Yinou took off again, causing a wave of sandstorms to rise all around.

After the Yinou flew far away, the area returned to silence.

"Everyone pay attention." Ada ordered on their communication channel: "Although the images returned by Ernieo 004 indicate that Sana has not suffered a nuclear strike and the radiation content is within a safe range, we still cannot take it lightly. Next, there are two teams, a total of eight teams, and each team keeps a distance of about one kilometer to disperse the investigation."

After the conversation on the communication ended, Leon used the visual aid provided by the holographic glasses to learn that he was on the same team as the guy he had chatted with in the conference room before.

He and the opponent are G1 and G2 respectively.

"Finally, please don't forget that our mission is to investigate. Unless there is an emergency, try to avoid contact or exchange of fire with potential unknown forces."

"Yes, sir."

"Set off."

After finishing the conversation, Leon turned on the optical camouflage function of the concealment cloak, and headed towards the city six kilometers away with his teammates.

Since this operation was just a regular investigation and reconnaissance, which was different from the nature of sneaking into Minova last year, Lyon and the others did not "rent" any weapons and equipment to the Hunter Company.

What's more, their own equipment is not bad, it is one of the best in Atlas.

A few minutes later.

Leon and his teammates came to an abandoned village.

There are many traces left here when people fled in panic, but after some investigation and testing by Leon and his teammates, it was found that there was at least seven years between this "escape" and today.

It means that in these seven years, no one except them has ever "patronized" here.

After sharing the information, Leon and his teammates stopped staying and left the village to continue approaching Sana.

With mechanical skeletons providing increased speed and strength, the two of them quickly crossed the desert and successfully reached the city wall built on the edge of Sana.

After finding a gap and entering the city, the first thing they saw was corpses all over the ground.

There was no obvious damage to the clothes, and they looked like they had lost their lives in an instant, which was consistent with the situation around Iceland.

at this time.

Leon half-crouched next to the corpse wearing children's clothing, and looked not far away. It was suspected that it was a female corpse that was about to run here, but suddenly died and fell to the ground.

"... "

He sighed silently and continued to follow his teammates towards the location of the unknown heat source.

But before that, they both released a pulse scanner (magnetic levitation metal ball).

Looking at the thumbnail map that gradually became clearer on the holographic screen, Leon and his teammates avoided many detours. It didn't take long before they arrived at one of the areas where the heat source reaction had occurred.

It is a small convenience square. There are many scrapped vehicles and shops in disrepair nearby, as well as more "dead bodies".

But the difference is that these "corpses" have not been corrupted and decomposed, as if they had just died.

? !
  Seeing this situation, Lyon and his teammates immediately launched an investigation.

As they got closer, they saw more details, such as the corpse's eyes that were sunken inward, and the blood vessels that seemed to be bursting from the inside out, causing cracks in the skin.

The teammate half-crouched next to a corpse and took out the instrument for a quick test while dictating the test results: "The white spot scars on the outer tissue are similar to the effects of high-temperature burns, but the extent of the internal injuries requires an autopsy to know. , Tsk, it always feels so strange, if it is burning at high temperature, then why are there no traces of burning on the clothes?"

"I don't know." Leon was also slightly confused.

Uploading the information they captured, Leon reported again: "This is Team G. We have discovered a large number of human compatriots who died in special ways."

"Same for Team B."

"Team E encountered the same situation."

On the communication channel, replies from other teams came one after another.

Hearing this, the teammate who put the testing equipment back into the bag couldn't help but shook his head: "It seems that the heat source reaction captured by Ernieo 004 must be these poor people."

"Maybe." Leon had no objection and speculated based on the situation at the scene: "Most of the corpses fell in the same direction, indicating that they were hiding from something."

"This is Team A." At this time, Ada's voice came from the communication channel: "We found a secret entrance in the area with the highest density of corpses. Judging from the time of death of the corpses, there is a structure below Sana. A refuge base that just fell."

"Alas! It's too late." The teammates lamented.

Di-!

Suddenly, the miniature radar on the holographic screen flashed dense red dots, and it was approaching Lyon and the others at an extremely fast speed.

!

Leon and his teammates didn't have time to think too much and quickly raised their guns and pointed in the direction of the red dot.

But when they judged through the radar that the red dots had appeared within the visual range, they saw a group of vague "humanoid silhouettes" through the holographic screen.

Is it a "ghost"?
  Before Leon and his teammates could observe carefully, the group of "ghosts" ignored the optical camouflage effect brought by the concealment cloak and charged directly towards their location.

"Fire!"

"This is Team G, we have been exposed! We are exchanging fire with enemies suspected of supernatural phenomena!"

(End of this chapter)