The Bizarre Adventure of Tartaros Fleet

"That's the way it is, Commander."

But Tir Vadami seemed to have little interest in his adventures, and he asked about the most unpleasant part of G Daghta:

"Were you captured on a land battle? That is, a landing did take place? What was the enemy like?"

G Dagta lowered his head, even though he didn't want to mention it, he still seriously said what he saw:

"Well, humans deployed a lot of 'demons' on that planet. We were defeated when we attacked a ground base," he said. "There were Forerunner ruins under that base, so we launched a regular landing attack on the base. .But halfway through the battle, we were attacked by a large number of 'demons' and a kind of ... monster, and we were attacked by the enemy."

"Monster?" asked the leading prophet. "What do you mean?"

"It was a strange creature, wearing golden armor, and its body structure was roughly like a Sangheili." The soldier replied, recalling the creature that gave him a bad feeling on the battlefield "but no The mouth, the face is pale and lined, and the two eyes glow blue. They also have a shield covering the whole body, and they fight with two energy swords extending from the wrist at the same time. They move very fast and have great strength... I have never seen such a thing. I heard from the conversations of human soldiers that this monster is made of something dug out of the ruins."

"Listen...they're desecrating the holy relics again." Guide the Prophet with an indignant expression. "We're running out of time, Commander."

He wanted to say something more, but Tyr Vadami's terrifying expression made him shut up knowingly.

Sure enough, this day has come...

Humans have acquired the technology of the Forerunners and used it in actual combat. Although they don't know what it is, it can obviously put a huge pressure on a golden-armored Sangheili warrior.And they did rely on this technology to gain an advantage in battle... Moreover, 'demons' can be mass-produced?

This is not good...

The technology level of the Covenant Alliance will hardly improve substantially—because religious taboos prevent anyone from fully exploring the technology of the Forerunners. Everyone knows that as long as they continue to dig down, the technology of the Covenant Alliance can be further improved, but the Prophet forbids all People do this, so the Covenant's technological stagnation may have been as long as a thousand years.Also because of religious teachings, the Star Alliance has never developed advanced artificial intelligence technology, because the prophets believed that there was once a powerful artificial intelligence that betrayed the forerunners, so they even formulated a ban on advanced artificial intelligence, and the small amount of artificial intelligence that existed Never used in frontline combat.

God doesn't think about the soldiers on the front line. Everyone can only continue to fight with the weapons used by their ancestors, and at the same time, their grandchildren must continue to use them.

But humans don't care about this kind of problem. They will discover and use the technology of the Forerunners, and at the same time create a large number of advanced AI to improve the operation of their original ships, so that they can fight against the Covenant warships on the battlefield.I'm afraid they have been studying these things since the beginning of the war, and the time left for the Star Alliance may really be running out.

He asked in a deep voice:

"What about battles in space?"

"I don't know that," replied G Daghta, "because the battle on the ground was several days ago, and during that time my companions and I have been held captive, and nothing can be collected. External intelligence. But before that, the Long Night has deployed the shield and a large number of ground troops on the surface of the human planet, and we control an entire area and gradually expand the scope of control. Because there are a large number of forerunner relics on that planet , so we dare not attack rashly.”

"Where did you seize the battleship? Inside the galaxy? Why don't you go and join the Long Night?"

"At that time, the battleship had already started to jump. After we took control of the whole ship, we found that humans were destroying data," he greeted the leading prophet who asked the question, and then said, "We tried our best to salvage some star charts, but the buoy data It's all been deleted, leaving us with no way of finding our way back to rejoin the Long Night."

This answer made Till Vadami slightly relieved.

If Bratmi was defeated, then humans would not need to use prison ships to transport the Covenant prisoners of war. They could send them to the surface of the planet and lock them up in a safe and strong place.The need to transfer captives or other things may indicate that humans have sensed the danger... But Bratmi is obviously in trouble, he can't even free up his hands to block the galaxy to prevent human ships from escaping, and after running away Not even chasing.

Being able to make the heroic and cautious fleet fall into the trouble of being unable to make a move also shows that the opponent has quite a trick.

According to the existing intelligence analysis, the two sides should be in a stalemate. The battle mainly took place in the universe, and Bratmi had already controlled the situation on the ground—and he thought he could handle it, so he didn’t send other troops the need for support. request.

"Now we know why Bratmi doesn't talk to anyone." The lead prophet said, "Everything makes sense, he is busy! We have to help him!"

At this point, Till Vadami also made up his mind:

"Send out the scouting fleet, we have to find out what happened there." He urged, "Never be discovered! In order to avoid accidents, we need a fighting chance to win in one fell swoop, and don't let the other party do anything because they discovered you." React!"

"Yes!"

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Warthog troop carriers were galloping along the frozen lake.A few kilometers away, the wreckage of the Covenant warships was still scattered in the lake. The heat they emitted melted a large area of ​​ice, and all kinds of liquids escaped from it directly leaked into the lake-this obviously caused the entire ecosystem to severely affected.But now Zhiyuan Star has no time to take care of the ecology. After all, most of the manpower and material resources are placed on the waterfront of the coastal cities... In addition to the tsunami caused by the tidal force caused by the near-Earth jump, the typhoon just landed on the sea before. A large number of troops who had fought in the Vieri area were taken directly to the flood fighting and disaster relief together with the soldiers of the General Unity Department.

The crashed battleship can only be left for the time being.

After many years, Oregana once again sat on the excavator and shoveled the earth to repair the embankment. It seemed that she had returned to before she traveled... At that time, she could not only repair cars, but also repair construction machinery, so she occasionally took private jobs to help on the construction site , helped me and learned how to drive this thing by the way. Although I didn't reach the level of the Blue ○ Mobile Suit Driving Training School, it is still no problem to do some ordinary work.

The work of contacting the UNSC was temporarily taken over by Back Ling, Huo Ling, Xue Feng and Serrandis. Considering that the current situation is not suitable for sending an investigation team, the two sides focused on the immediate battle, and even Huo Ling temporarily Let go of the idea of ​​setting up a Phoenix-class dreadnought named 'Jackdaw' to find God knows where the Fire Spirit is now, and declared [after this battle, I will go to heaven and earth].

After hearing about finding the world of halo before, Huo Ling didn't even teach the book, just one month before the final exam, and this guy rushed to the front line in a hurry with the euphemistic name of 'there is no new class in the last month for you to study by yourself' , it seems that it can catch up with the second half of the battle of the far star.

However, these things are far away from the summoned noble team, they don't know, and they can't control it.

Lieutenant Quinn-B312 did not wear a helmet, but she wore a red cotton scarf, an old habit from the distant past, which she always did when she was not fighting.The cold wind blows over her skin and slightly brushes the short white hair - during the body strengthening process, because of the reaction with the drug 88005-MX77 (muscle fiber protein, which makes muscle tissue thicker and stronger) The secretion of melanin makes the hair all white, and the faster metabolism makes the hair grow faster.Therefore, the instructors often warned that she would soon look like a civilian instead of a soldier with the appearance of a clean-up army.

But for a Spartan warrior whose main place of life is the battlefield and wears a helmet on the battlefield, this is all insignificant.

"What's the matter, Number Six?" Catherine patted her on the shoulder. "You look a little tired."

Quinn-B312 blinked, and replied casually:

"It's okay, it's just that I have been having strange dreams these days..."

"It's already a luxury to have time to sleep well during the war, but you actually use it to dream?"

Someone joked.

Spartans are usually very busy, but even though they are designed to be semi-superhumans who can work 48 hours without sleeping for two and a half hours, it doesn't work that way for long.Maintaining physical condition and energy is also an obligation for Spartans, but even Spartans cannot control what dreams they will have.

In the dream, I turned into another girl with purple hair, wearing green power armor to fight on the red ground, and sometimes driving a biped walking mech that uses neural connections, and the enemies are full of heads A muscular monster with upper horns.He was expected to be able to drive an infantry mecha and use heavy weapons that were difficult for individual soldiers to carry. It seemed that he had been missing for a long time for some reason and had just returned to this front line recently.

They call themselves 【Aqua】.

And the power armor used by the soldiers who call themselves elite guards is exactly the same as that used by Tartarus soldiers in the Battle of Bayonet Base, whether it is the shape of the armor, the jets on the shoulders, or the chainsword in the hand.People say that dreams are made up of fragments of memory. Perhaps it is because of the memory of the Battle of the Bayonet Base that I have those strange dreams?

Thinking of this, she took out a photo from her pocket—in the photo, Sparta, UNSC Army Riflemen, Protos Templar, and Tartarus Marines celebrated the victory together , and the background behind it is the Covenant warship that just crashed into the icy lake.Looking at this picture, Noble Six couldn't help but smile. Everyone likes victory, and Sparta likes it even more.

But when she put away the photo, she suddenly found something behind the photo.

That is a line of words written in charcoal—【who aer you?】

Obvious typo...but that's beside the point.Noble Six frowned. This was not the handwriting of anyone she knew well, and this photo had been carried with her since she got it. If someone wrote something on it, it was impossible for her not to know.

"...Is this reasonable?"

"what are you saying?"

"Huh? It's okay."

"Then get ready, we're almost there."

Repressing the doubts in his heart, Noble Six and his companions entered the bayonet base - a lot of renovations have been done here, but there are still signs of dilapidation everywhere.The crystal blocks and strangely shaped defensive forts next to the base have been removed, and it is said that they have been moved to the airport and power station to assist in defense.All that remained was a shadow crystal tower at the back of the hill outside. As long as it was still there, Protos's troops could be sent to the battlefield immediately. It was an amazing technique.

When they got to the door, the noble team realized that the situation seemed to be different from what they had imagined. This was not a call for an ordinary combat mission, because they saw a guy in uniform walking past——

That's the Spartan II, John-117, better known as Master Chief.

He came in a Warthog too, but not in one—he was accompanied by more than 20 Spartans, all of them legends, and years of constant fighting had sent these Spartans apart to The different battlefields calculated by light years, but they are always united as before.

Why are there so many Spartan IIs here at the same time?

"We may be about to have a big case."

"I think so too."

There was no common topic between Spartan Phase III and Phase II. The two sides had nothing to say when they entered the inner transport compartment. Only Noble V George-052 was very familiar with them.They talked about what happened during the previous training, and the companions they had lost in these years, feeling a lot of emotion.

But soon, their attention was attracted by other things.

The transport carriage went deep into the ground, slowly passed through the pierced rock plate, and entered under the ice shelf.Immediately afterwards, a behemoth appeared in front of everyone——

A thing that is obviously formed naturally is embedded in the glacier that has not melted for thousands of years. It is like a city, a throne, frozen in it forever.The cold feeling of the metal is particularly prominent under the reflection of the ice. From here, only a small piece of a ring can be seen. The part that can be seen is full of the heaviness left by the years, but there is no Not even a little bit of rust.

Waiting for the Spartans below were several UNSC officials, as well as Dr. Halsey—all of whom had vague ties to ONI.In addition to them, John-117 also noticed another acquaintance, that is Captain Keyes, who was standing next to Dr. Halsey, wearing a thick winter suit, and if any own lips.

"It's finally here." An old man said, in the cold cave, he would spew out white mist without saying a word, which makes people wonder whether this aging body can withstand the severe cold here "Let's start, doctor .”

Noble Six noticed the light reflected from the brass Maple Leaf stars badges worn by several officials, and he knew it.

It is another confidential mission, very important, and a confidential mission with a high level of confidentiality.

But Halsey didn't seem to be particularly interested in this, and looked reluctant.She took everyone into the building built in the cave - usually it was a laboratory, but now it can also be used as a temporary briefing room.

She went in, turned on the power, started up the devices one by one, then pointed to the projection screen that was flickering with data streams and covered half of the ceiling and said:

"What you see are artifacts of other aliens, which do not belong to humans or the Star Alliance, and their advanced level is far beyond our understanding. When we analyzed it before, we found a lot of things from it—"

A holographic image hummed slightly and appeared in the room.Tiny geographical markers are flying in the air, squares, triangles, straight lines, and many, many dots.To Six, it looked like some kind of hieroglyph, and reminded her of the exercise books she used to learn geometry as a child.

"In the past, the translation software didn't come up with anything. We guessed it wasn't some new Covenant language," Halsey continued, "but now, thanks to what the Noble Squad brought back from the Outpost, the puzzle now It will be revealed soon."

People's attention was focused on the team leader Carter-A259, but he didn't know the meaning of the things his team took back from the outpost. Maybe it was some kind of decoding method?But he didn't understand these, so he could only shrug his shoulders a little embarrassedly.

"So, what does it mean to decipher these words?"

Just when Halsey was about to speak, a middle-aged man said first:

"A coordinate." He spoke quickly, his hands clenched into fists in his sleeves, his cheeks flushed with excitement, "If there is no Concord, then the fall of Reach is inevitable, and human beings will also embark on the path of destruction. But with the emergence of the Consolidation Department, they will definitely change all of this, but we can’t just be spectators! This coordinate is properly protected, and it is very important to be named. We believe that it is the 'Forerunner Ruins', which is bigger than here, The knowledge and technology contained in it are also more than here!"

"That's right, we can't just sit back and watch the Ministry of Consolidation and the Star Alliance decide the outcome in front of us." The man continued, "I don't mean to offend, but I don't want to be like a noble lady, waiting After the knight has taught the villain in front of you, and then continue to be a lady for life-we must be knights."

What he meant was very clear, that is, now we have to find ways to increase the strength of the UNSC.

This kind of thinking is easy to understand——the power displayed by the General Assembly can be easily judged. The probability of winning this battle is higher than the probability of losing, so everyone's thinking will immediately shift from "how do I win" to "how do I win?" 【What to do after winning】Up.It's like a scumbag and a scumbag who didn't do their homework on Thursday night, thinking about how to get through the whole day on Friday, but the scumbag has already finished, and started thinking about how to enjoy the weekend.

But obviously, UNSC's strength is not strong enough to be sure to be happy after this battle.

When communicating with aliens, the power you hold is very important, which involves the other party's attitude towards you.History tells everyone that the weak have no diplomacy at all—if you want to communicate with the Consolidation Department on an equal footing after the war, or if you want to join the Consolidation Department and have enough right to speak, then rely on the current situation in your hands The one or two hundred warships that don't even have shields will definitely not work.

Not to mention being able to overwhelm the integration department (that's basically impossible), but enough bargaining chips are obviously necessary, and at such a critical juncture, even if it is opportunistic, it must be obtained.

"The Covenant has gained technology and power from the Forerunner ruins, and we can too-we can gain force against the Covenant from it. Maybe we should have done this a long time ago. If we had studied these things half a century earlier, the changes in the UNSC It will be astonishingly large. Like bullets in the 19th century, or faster-than-light travel in the 23rd century.” After speaking, the man took a long time to calm himself down:

"So we decided to send a warship over there and figure out what was being taken so seriously."

Because the Long Night has no reason to come over after it was captured by the Consolidation Department, and it is not confident that it will be able to come over. In addition, the UNSC has no ability to repair it to a usable state because of the hull, so the Red Flag Project simply does not intend to do it. up.But the equipment and personnel prepared for Project Red Flag are obviously immediately available for other uses.

The Pillar of Autumn, plus all the Spartans on Reach now, this is almost the strongest single-ship combat unit that the UNSC can produce.If you want to complete this task, it must be them.

"A battleship?"

"Well, we want to reduce the risk of being discovered by the Covenant as much as possible."

Dr. Halsey, who was silent for a while, whispered at this moment:

"Just the Covenant?"

The man glanced at her with flickering eyes:

"...Be careful with your words and deeds."

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The Pillar of Autumn sailed late on the third day, carefully navigating through the gravitational chaos surrounding Reach - where the CONCORD fleet used a special device to lift the Covenant supercarrier from the The planet's gravitational circle was pulled out, which did prevent the wreckage of the super aircraft carrier from falling to the planet's surface, causing countless casualties, but the gravitational field and the planet's own gravitational field resonated with each other, and the space ripples generated by it still echoed around a radius of [-] kilometers In the universe domain, it may last for several months.Although it is said that it will not have much impact on the planet itself, it still greatly interferes with the sensitivity of various sensors.

As soon as he left the interference area, Sean Teng Chuanyin (zha) Qing (dan) immediately tore a hole in the normal orbital space.A flash of light flashed around the Pillar of Autumn, and then disappeared without a trace from normal space.

The Very Leopard, which was squatting three-quarters of a light second away, watched the whole process. The light radar array is good at this point. When the gravitational radar used to detect space fluctuations is blinded by environmental reasons, this thing will always see the transition flash. Can see clearly - the secret is to keep your eyes wide open.

Oregana was squatting on the edge of the excavator's crawler shoes, holding an enamel tank in her hand, drinking the cool white tea with a few tea leaves, and was about to start work, when she suddenly heard a message from the communication. Liu Lizi's voice——

[Boss, a UNSC warship is leaving Reach, and it just made a warp 3 minutes ago. 】