The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 145 Biological self-propelled artillery

The pair of jaw-like chelicerae of the mortar spider, which is exactly the same as that of the sun-avoiding spider in later generations, is full of developed hydraulic muscle structures.

Lin Yi installed them with a tube-retracted structure commonly used in later modern artillery. In other words, the entire barrel and reaction chamber moved backward to offset the recoil.

Therefore, the hydraulic muscle structure in the well-developed chelicerae near the mouth no longer has the function of pushing the chelicerae to bite, but is connected in a special way around the barrel structure. Whenever the barrel is fired, they move the entire barrel Wrap and cushion it.

Around the barrel, there are a large number of elastic fiber muscles and tendon structures. When the entire barrel retreats under the action of recoil, it can act like a spring, absorbing the recoil and assisting in the reset of the barrel.

At the same time, those well-developed hydraulic muscles will quickly push the gun barrel, further pushing it back into position and getting ready for firing again.

Even so, the remaining recoil may still cause the Mortar Spider's body to shift. Therefore, Lin Yi designed a flat abdomen for it. When launching, the entire abdomen touches the ground to spread the impact as much as possible.

At the same time, the structure of the eight legs of the mortar spider is very special. Its internal muscle structure is not only used for stepping, but can cooperate with the tarsal claws at the end, like the hoe structure of an artillery, firmly against the ground, preventing Body displacement - all of this is also achieved by the cooperation of hydraulic muscles and fibrous muscles.

In general, the structure of the Mortar Spider's body is like this. In addition, there is the structure of the cannonball.

Like the armor-piercing single-head bullets used by the Saw Ants before, the large-caliber shells used by the Mortar Spiders are also individuals directly controlled by the nest group and are themselves alive.

This structure makes the control of the artillery shell more intelligent, such as the control of detonation time, and also makes it possible for it to be equipped with the previously imagined biological rocket boosting system.

Therefore, Lin Yi developed two types of ammunition for the Mortar Spider, an ordinary artillery shell and a rocket-propelled grenade. ,

Compared with ordinary artillery shells, rocket-propelled grenades have a longer body, and the same propellant structure is stored inside. The controlled injection structure continuously sprays two liquids and enzymes backward to generate high-temperature and high-pressure gas in the reaction chamber. Then it sprays out quickly from the rear to achieve the goal.

At the same time, since there is still no rifling structure, the tail of the projectile also has wings composed of four flat appendages to maintain the balance of the projectile.

Even so, once the distance is extended, the accuracy of the cannonball will inevitably decrease. Of course, Lin Yi also has a solution that is very characteristic of hive thinking.

That is Taijun's same biological guidance technology - every cannonball is alive, and can naturally correct its landing point by adjusting the fins, and land accurately on the enemy's head.

However, it has to be said that the existence of the nest group makes the implementation of the technical method of precision guidance much simpler, which makes the mortar gun spider become a "front-loaded smoothbore gun firing precision-guided artillery shells." This style of painting has some space and time. The existence of confusion.

These artillery shells themselves are not equipped with sensing organs, so they require flight reconnaissance and other levels of relay guidance and calibration. In order to make up for it, Lin Yi is also developing some other types of ammunition, in order to strive for these "artillery positions" to achieve independent guidance.

Because of precision guidance, Lin Yi removed the explosive anti-personnel grenades that normal howitzers and mortars should use, and also designed a semi-armor-piercing grenade for the mortar spider - that is, the first round of artillery hit the giant horseshoe crab's body. The pulpy kind of shells. At the same time, this kind of artillery shell can also play a role in destroying possible defenses - although because the opponent currently does not have such a thing, it can only be used to destroy the mound structures that protect the mother nest.

Normal artillery shells are naturally ordinary anti-personnel grenades and shrapnel shells - the former only has a large amount of explosives installed inside, while the latter is mixed with countless shotgun pellets used by saw ants, which explode in the air, causing range damage. .

At the same time, Lin Yi also developed an incendiary bomb for it, which was mixed with a large amount of grease. When the charge detonated, the grease would ignite, and the grease would splash over a large area and start burning, causing continuous range of damage.

This kind of incendiary bomb is a well-deserved killer weapon against swarms of ancient net-winged cockroaches that have landed on the ground. But in the previous battle, Lin Yi didn't want to burn the opponent's lichens and lose nutrients, so he didn't use them.

Due to their large caliber, these cannonballs are extremely heavy. Therefore, only specialized loaders can lift them, stuff them into the mortar's barrel, and fire them.

In order to achieve this goal, the loader's worm is slightly larger than the ordinary soldier worm in the water, and has a pair of well-developed long pedicles like crane arms and a pair of ordinary small chelicerae. .

The end of the pedipalps is a slightly curved chelicerae structure. Driven by the double-layered muscle system of hydraulic muscles and fibrous muscles, it is extremely suitable for carrying heavy objects, while the other pair of small chelicerae plays an auxiliary role.

Taken together, the loader combines the power of a crane with the flexibility of manual loading, maximizing the rate of fire of the mortar, allowing it to pour out firepower at an astonishing speed and swarm the enemy's mounds. Become a ruin.

Moreover, since the propellant and the charge of the artillery shell are separated, almost the entire body of the artillery shell can be made into a warhead, which can accommodate a large amount of charge, causing terrifying destructive power.

Moreover, the eight thick and long appendages allow the Mortar Spider to have similar movement capabilities to the enemy's most bulky Giant Horseshoe Spider, making it powerful in destructive power and able to move and maneuver relatively quickly.

Yes, although in this era, the enemy he faced, that is, the nest group, did not have a very long-range strike capability. Even if it did, there would not be any anti-artillery radar or the like to make the mortar gun scary. The spider has plenty of time to move. But Lin Yi still gave him a certain ability to quickly transfer.

The Mortar Spider's legs are designed with a locking mechanism, allowing it to quickly switch between stepping and hoeing modes.

At the same time, a locking structure similar to that of the giant horseshoe crab spider was installed between the cephalothorax and abdomen. Of course, at this time, its role is no longer to lift the heavy abdomen with less effort, but in turn to fix the head and chest where the gun barrel is located, so that its angle is stable.

It is these locking structures that allow them to quickly switch between shooting mode and movement mode, achieving both powerful firepower and rapid maneuverability.

Everything, taken together, makes the Mortar Spider a biological self-propelled artillery that surpasses the times for hundreds of millions of years!

(End of this chapter)