Chapter 300: Old and New Faces, Global Nuclear Explosion, Human Colonies?

Doomsday scene?

After hearing what Price said, the expressions of everyone present became more solemn.

And there are many familiar faces in this stepped conference room that can accommodate more than 2,000 people.

For example, all the vanguard members such as Soap, Ghost, and Xiaoqiang, as well as members of the experimental team such as David, Lucy, and Rebecca.

In addition, the Investigation Department also freed up more than a hundred elite investigators with experience in stealth and infiltration, including Maggie Shaw who was transferred back to the main universe from the "Halo" universe.

As one of the only remaining "superhumans", Maggie Shaw has extremely strong individual combat capabilities.

In the "Halo" universe, this superhuman investigator single-handedly fought against thousands of freed rebels.

Only ship-level plasma secondary guns, or tactical and strategic-level weapons, can destroy her physical defense and achieve a kill effect.

With her cooperation, she has rich practical experience, enough to help unite troops from multiple departments to deal with high-intensity battles.

Of course, researchers who are also in the conference room and affiliated with the Department of Biology will unfreeze Fatherland and Soldier Boy when they assess the threat level to be "dangerous."

In addition to these familiar faces, there are also a large number of "newcomers".

For example, the special formation of the Emergency Response Force (AECS·Special Ops) is also preparing to participate in this reconnaissance mission, with a total number of 1,500 people.

At the same time, due to its large number of people, AECS became one of the main forces in this investigation mission.

The lieutenant colonel in charge of the AECS special formation is actually one of his former "acquaintances", namely Jaynes Thomson.

This lieutenant colonel, who has a beard, a faint red pupil in his right eye, and a serious expression, is a local resident of "Netherworld" in Universe 04, and a surviving soldier in the Yemen shelter.

After he and his friend Rod Hoylder were saved by Atlas from the Nether Wave, they participated in the selection of new recruits, and then went to "World War Z" together for recruit training.

Due to their outstanding overall performance, they were transferred to the AECS special formation directly managed by Jack Clausa.

In his subsequent resume, there were "Guard and Combat Missions in Universe 06 (Pacific Rim)", "Jumping Gangs and Looting the Reaper Mothership", etc.

However, Rod Hoynder was bombarded by a Reaper plasma weapon during a gang-hopping battle, resulting in his legs being amputated and replaced with prosthetics.

Jaynes Thomson was promoted to lieutenant.

In addition, Jaynes also participated in the Unification War in the "Halo" universe.

Because of his heroic performance and the successful completion of many combat missions by his troops, he was promoted again in rank until he became a major.

However, while following Riemann's fleet and executing the ground battle, he was also seriously injured and had to be transferred to the rear for recuperation.

As for why he was injured

It was Jaynes and his members who followed the orders of their superiors and took the airdrop pod to the ruling area of ​​the Covenant colony, preparing to cooperate with the Orbital Assault Team (ODST) to lock high-value targets for the fleet.

But while infiltrating behind enemy lines, Jaynes and the others accidentally discovered a large number of Jiralhanae beasts with excellent armor and weapons.

A prophet was also discovered.

They concluded that the other party was the management of the Covenant colony, and when they saw that the other party wanted to evacuate on a transport boat, they chose to take the initiative.

Because successfully capturing or killing the prophet will help reduce your own casualty rate and the time it takes to occupy the colony.

Therefore, more than 400 AECS special members led by Jaynes first used individual anti-tank plasma cannons to destroy all the transport boats used by the Prophet and the Jiralhanae to escape.

Immediately afterwards, Jaynes and others used individual howitzers to bomb the military base where a large number of Jiralhanae, Jackals and Hunters were stationed, and requested fire support from nearby ODSTs and ships in low-Earth orbit.

Immediately after issuing the request for support, Jaynes also led two combat platoons and broke directly into the interior of the military base.

With the defensive blessing of McP Power Armor and the improvement of physical fitness brought by Inquise Serum, Jaynes and the two combat platoons really penetrated the defense lines and reached the prophet.

Then, amid the unwilling and angry roar of the Jiralhanae, the prophet was kidnapped from the opponent's military base.

However, during the evacuation, Jaynes, who took the initiative to cut off from several of his subordinates, was pursued by the Jiralhanae leader.

Facing the Jiralhanae leader whose armor's energy shield had extremely high defense and was over three meters tall, even if an AECS made a dodge reaction, his chest armor was smashed by the opponent's power hammer and he was sent flying. More than ten meters away.

In order to quickly deal with the Jiralhanae leader, Jaynes chose to let the remaining men carry out fire suppression, while he himself used the concussive dagger, preparing to seize the opportunity to pierce the opponent's vitals.

Although the final result was that Jaynes won, he also resisted a power hammer from the opponent, resulting in injuries such as a fifth-degree concussion, pulmonary hemorrhage, and multiple comminuted fractures.

Fortunately, the men who followed him to the rear rescued him at the risk of being surrounded and annihilated, and successfully returned to the fleet aboard the Pelican, which rushed to the rescue.

While receiving treatment on the support boat, he was diagnosed with permanent loss of vision in his right eye and severe lung damage. He could no longer engage in high-intensity exercise, let alone fight on the front line.

Faced with the situation of either replacing electronic prosthetic eyes and electronic lungs, or retiring, Jaynes naturally chose the former.

Therefore, Jaynes had to be transferred to the Harvest Star in the rear to receive more professional medical operations and training.

However, it was Jaynes' decision that allowed the fleet led by Riemann to shorten the occupation time, so he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and the number of special personnel under his jurisdiction also expanded to nearly 2,000.

After recovering, Jaynes temporarily passed through the space gate and stayed at the Kenya base to train the original and new subordinates.

As a new space door was about to open, Jaynes followed the orders of Jack Krausa and joined forces with multiple departments to participate in this investigation mission.

Moreover, the eldest son of Rod Hoyund, Charlie Hoyund, who had retired due to injury, joined Atlas's armed department after graduating from high school.

Due to Charlie Hoylder's physical fitness and reflexes, which are much better than those of the same batch of recruits, and his outstanding performance in the "World War Z" universe, he was successfully transferred from security to AECS.

As Atlas launched a unified war in the "Halo" universe, Charlie Hoylder was assigned to the special formation under Jaynes due to his bravery and outstanding achievements in combat.

Of course, Jaynes also has the right to select new people to join his staff.

Among the candidates who were selected by the stupid AI to join the team, he saw the son of his old friend, so he naturally paid attention to it.

After confirming that Charlie Hoylder's various statistics and combat history met the special formation recruitment standards, Jaynes took him under his command.

I can’t say special care, but at least I can avoid being bombarded with emails every day from my old friends, asking about my son’s status in the company’s armed services department.

On the other hand, the members of the Rapid Reaction Force (ARS) under the jurisdiction of Arthur Morgan seemed to have gradually faded out of sight during the recent war, and there were only a few hundred ARS members sitting in the conference room.

After all, the matters that ARS is responsible for highly overlap with those of investigators, so Atlas plans to merge ARS into the Investigation Department after the establishment of the Human Empire.

The head of the Investigation Department will also be Arthur Morgan.

In addition, as one of Atlas’ most advanced “products”, the intelligent AI Serin was also present.

Since the initial integration of "Cyberpunk 2077" in Universe 09 was completed and during the security war to quell the riots, Serin was transferred back to the main universe.

The opening of a new universe will definitely require the help of a smart AI.

Therefore, Celine took on the "advisor" position.

As for the most special person among all the people present.

It was Perturabo who wore extremely heavy exclusive power armor and always had a straight face in front of outsiders.

Due to his excessive size and weight, the Primarch was unable to sit in the seats provided for ordinary employees and soldiers.

So at this moment, Perturabo was standing by the exit of the conference room, with his hands folded on his chest, watching Price silently.

Seeing that everyone's expressions were much more solemn, Plath reached out to control the hard light panel of the podium and continued:

"Next, I will play the relevant scenes of the three universes in sequence."

As Price spoke, the holographic projection in the conference room also started working.

Soon, three large projections appeared in front of everyone.

At the far left of the podium, the screen numbered "One Zero" took the lead in playing the Cerberus's detection trajectory map and the on-site images shot by the synthetic humans.

After the synthetic humans crossed the space gate, the first thing that caught everyone's eyes was "ruin" and "depression."

The space door seems to be opened in an abandoned shopping mall in Universe 10.

But the most intuitive difference from the "Doom" universe that also opens in the mall is that the abandoned mall in Universe 10 is "riddled with holes."

In addition, the radiation value is beyond the normal range, and it is obvious that it has been hit by a nuclear bomb.

When the synthetics cooperated with Cerberus to continue investigating within the shielding range of the space gate, they also discovered a large number of human skeletons who died in the nuclear explosion.

The reason why the synthetics went through the space gate instead of the advance team to perform the reconnaissance mission was simple.

That is, no matter how high the cost is, it is not "higher" than a human soldier with a soul.

Even though synthetic humans have the ability to think independently and know how to adjust their emotions and facial expressions according to the atmosphere, synthetic humans are ultimately Atlas's "products."

Even if they are a new species created by Atlas, their status is below humans, subhumans and elites.

After all, the company spends a lot of manpower and material resources to develop synthetic humans. The purpose is not simply to sell them to others so that most people can have absolutely loyal housekeepers, nannies, and even partners.

Synthetic humans are not afraid of radiation or death, and have very good on-the-spot reaction capabilities, just like human intuition.

What's more, their own individual combat power is also guaranteed, so they are the best candidates to serve as the forward of the advance team.

After the pictures and videos were played, Price looked around at everyone present and said:

"Based on the existing information and intelligence collected by the synthetics, we can be sure that the other side of the space gate is Los Angeles in the Americas on Earth Zero.

Currently, the Engineering Department has dispatched Hex robots to build a frontline base at the space gate.

After the frontline base begins to take shape, we will dispatch joint forces and armed security to the Zero Universe to carry out more detailed investigation missions. "

"Colonel Price."

After Price finished speaking, Serin, who was sitting in the front row, raised her hand to signal.

"Speaking."

Price raised his left hand holding the cigar to allow Serin to speak.

"Thank you, Colonel." After getting approval, Serin looked up at the first holographic screen, her eyes emitting purple light, and suggested:

"I think it's best not to rashly launch the company's unmanned reconnaissance aircraft into the low-Earth orbit of Earth 10.

At least we should wait until we are deployed to Earth 10, and after careful detection, confirm what is threatening humans there, and then launch satellites and frigates into low-Earth orbit."

At this point, before Price asked, Serin gave her a "personal" explanation:

Because according to the existing information and intelligence, there is a 72% probability that such a tragic scene was caused by a global nuclear war that broke out suddenly without any signs.

If the international situation on Earth 10 is very serious and a war will be caused by a slight friction, it should not be like this in theory.

Judging from the degree of abandonment, it has been at least 20 years since Los Angeles was nuclear-exploded and destroyed.

But during this period, the forces that deliberately wanted to nuke the earth did not follow the normal process to occupy cities and plunder resources.

Instead, they seemed to be deliberately carrying out genocide against humans.

Then, without the intervention of alien forces, there are too many possibilities.

So, Colonel, I suggest that we act cautiously first,"

Hearing this, Price was silent for a while.

Then he nodded in agreement: "Okay, I will arrange it as you said."

"Thank you for your understanding, Colonel. "Serin nodded in response.

When Price saw that no one else had expressed their opinions, he continued to play the scenes of the One-One Universe.

As the operation progressed, the holographic screen in the center began to present images.

As Price had said when everyone arrived, the One-One Universe was also like the end of the world.

The location of the space gate was also inside a long-abandoned city.

But the difference was that the hellhounds and the synths did not find any human skeletons or even any animal corpses in the abandoned city of the One-One Universe.

It was as if all creatures had been looted.

Not only that, the time on the other side of the space gate was also different from that of the main universe.

You know, although the years on Earth in different universes are different, they are consistent with the month, day, and time of Pacific time.

And when Price played the synths conducting reconnaissance within the shielded range, he obtained brief information on gravity and atmospheric composition, and discovered two moons in the night sky.

It means that the Earth-like planet on the other side of the space gate is not the Earth in the parallel universe.

But the abandoned city of the One-One Universe has human-style buildings and text, which means that the space gate may be a human colony.