The Creators: From Night City

Page 528

The scout crouched low, his massive metal body moving with the agility of a night owl, quickly and stealthily shifting to another observation point with a better view.

[I've spotted the mission entrance. The enemies in this area are not organized; my initial assessment is that they are a roaming enemy force.]

【receive】

Scouts used their goggles to record every detail of the situation on the ground and transmitted it back to the rear for their teammates' reference.

Meanwhile, in a mountain crevice, a team of extreme warriors stood ready, awaiting instructions for further action.

These extreme warriors, selected from the 12th War Zone, are the absolute elite, and many of them wear armor with silver 'stigmata'.

These silver scars, formed from condensed nano-elements, represent the wounds their owners suffered, but were later regarded as a source of pride by the Ultramarines.

"Something's not right, Great Sage Rasmar."

Titus projected a view, showing the scene at the entrance to everyone.

At the entrance to the building, many mysterious fungi and mushrooms sprouted on the ground, forming a road that stretched into the building's interior.

Chapter 1070 The Planetary Ecology of Alarius

When the power axe is at full power, the feel of chopping flesh is exceptionally smooth.

Like a hot knife cutting through butter, or a knife slicing through water, without the slightest hesitation, the axe swept across the waists of five or six plague zombies, cleaving them in two.

When the Ultra Warriors are in combat mode, they are incredibly ruthless and efficient.

Frontal assault, flanking shield cover, high-level sniper support, and precise pinpointing from behind.

The Ultra Warriors' coordinated operations were methodical and incredibly skillful.

The 'monsters' that had gathered here on their own due to some kind of aura were naturally no match for them, and it was only natural that they were slaughtered.

In reality, the Ultra Warriors, including Titus, didn't take these minions seriously at all; what truly put them on high alert were others.

Treading a path paved with blood and flesh, the mission team did not waste a moment and continued to advance inward.

Scout report: [The gate has been forced open]

The metal gate, bearing the imperial eagle totem, was rusted and mottled, with a large hole in it, and was covered with dense mushrooms.

And that fungal path, through the mushrooms, spreads into the building.

"Something goes first," Titus said in the squad voice chat.

What are these heretics doing at the groundwater treatment plant?

[Perhaps they're polluting the waterways, just like they're doing outside.]

In just a few words, the group quickly came up with a reasonable explanation.

"A great demon" Rasmar crouched among the fungi, his pale fingers brushing over the strangely shaped mushrooms, sensing the residual power within them, and making a very certain judgment.

"It seems something has moved in before us."

【Cheer up, brothers in arms!】Tathus had complete faith in the enemy's judgment and warned them over the communication channel.

The group continued running forward.

This is Alarius's largest deep underground water treatment facility. Of course, this is not the only one on the planet; similar branch factories are scattered throughout the entire planet.

In reality, Alarius became a fortress world entirely due to geographical advantages. Its natural environment was not very suitable for human survival, and its current form is the result of continuous planetary transformation over thousands of years.

It is located near an imperial shipping route, and at the same time at a node of the interstellar 'main artery' in the extreme star field, which is why it became a fortress world.

Initially, the freshwater resources on the surface of Alarius were not abundant, at least not enough to support the billions of people planned for the entire Fortress world.

Its slightly below-standard gravity makes it difficult to maintain a relatively dense atmosphere, while the harsh cosmic environment causes frequent solar winds, and the temperature is relatively high for most of the day, making it difficult for liquid water to exist on the surface for a long time.

However, as a fortress world, water resources must be guaranteed.

In such an environment, even if liquid water is transported from other star systems to the surface using massive transport barges, it is still difficult to store it properly.

Thus, a ruthless yet highly effective planet terraforming plan was born.

The technocrats of the Cult of Machines have excavated and modified the planet's mantle into a deep aquifer, and then, by naturally pressurizing it together with shallow or medium-depth groundwater layers, have given the planet an artificial planetary water cycle system.

Through high-pressure water injection, pyrolysis and other technologies, the Mechanicus's planet-modification team spent hundreds of years on continuous planet-modification projects, finally connecting the network of rock fissures deep in the Earth's crust to form several distributed yet interconnected underground water reservoirs.

This global water storage and supply network, located from the lower crust to the top of the upper mantle, and composed of countless natural fissures, caves, and artificially reinforced chambers, finally took shape.

After the project was completed, a large amount of liquid water was injected into it. This water then flows slowly in the artificial geological layer, is naturally filtered, and after reaching the standard, it is pumped into the groundwater layer by a huge deep water exchange plant to supply the main cities and industrial areas on the ground, as well as some surface vegetation areas.

The wastewater after use will pass through a deep water exchange plant for treatment before being reinjected into the deep mantle for further purification, thus forming a healthy planetary-level water cycle closed loop.

When the plague fleet occupied the planet's orbit and bombarded the surface with plague, it had already polluted these water resources through deep-sea pumping stations, sewage treatment plants, and water supply plants in various locations.

Although the mechanical sages in charge of guarding the system shut off all connecting valves and locked the main circulation system as soon as they noticed the situation, trying their best to preserve more water resources, there was still very little uncontaminated groundwater left.

This is also the root cause of the garrison's drinking water shortage.

This deep water exchange station was carefully selected.

As a core facility for major water resource treatment, it has a main water pipeline leading to the mantle, as well as a maintenance tunnel that extends directly to the mantle for artificial operations.

To understand this, building such a tunnel would require planetary-sized drilling rigs to penetrate deep underground, directly through nearly 400 kilometers of thick soil, to reach the mantle transition zone.

Aside from the fact that the professional planetary terraforming construction team of the Cult of Mechanics was directly involved in the initial construction of the project along with the related terraforming work, it would be wishful thinking to try to build a similar project separately later.

The group led by Titus was heading to the deep underground aquifer. Their goal was simple: to deploy 'Root Diggers' there and then initiate a circulation process to transport the water containing the 'Root Diggers' to the entire surface groundwater layer, thereby purifying the plague-infested vegetation on the surface.

Compared to stratospheric deployment, the process of taking effect is more covert, providing a better opportunity and window for strategic counterattack. However, the disadvantages are equally obvious. Unless a great deal of effort is put into planetary-level purification, Alarius will probably never have any vegetation again.

The plan was ambitious, but reality was harsh. Unfortunately, their destination had already been occupied by a Nurgle demon who specialized in fungi.

The once bustling arrival and transfer hall is now eerily silent.

The metal floor was littered with dried human corpses, all of whom had been cogs in the machine of this massive factory—workers.

Of course, many of the servants have also died.

These corpses were not transformed into plague zombies, but instead became a breeding ground for fungi, growing all sorts of mushrooms.

Before they had even ventured deep into the building, visible spore particles were already spreading in the air. Titus immediately signaled everyone to check the airtightness of the armor again.

Of course, Rasma, who was traveling with them, didn't care about this.

He plucked a mushroom from the corpse, and before he could do anything, countless mycelia spread out from under its bright cap, frantically burrowing into his fingers, as if eager to penetrate the flesh.

Unfortunately, all of this was in vain.

"Interesting." Rasmar was intrigued as he looked at the fungus in his hand that looked like a worm wriggling.

Although this mushroom is small, it possesses 'life'. Although this technique is twisted, the way it utilizes life force is refreshing for necromancers.

However, the Ultra Warriors weren't in such a good mood.

They moved in small groups, covering each other and searching separately, and soon found the giant elevator below.

However, when the elevator doors opened, Astartes, who was at the head of the group, was ambushed by a thick, python-like mycelium.

However, the destructive power of a single mushroom was clearly insufficient to penetrate the defenses of the terracotta armor, and the opponent's strength was naturally no match for an Astartes as strong as a third of an ant-cow.

The mushroom's mycelium was forcibly torn off, and the Ultramarines' method for dealing with such situations is very simple.

Without thinking twice, just go straight for multi-tube hot-melt treatment.

Chapter 1071 The Charge and the Trail of the Dark Mechanicus

A terrifying heatwave erupted from the heavy gun barrel, turning the elevator interior a fiery red.

When Rasma arrived, molten iron was still flowing inside the metal car.

As for the activated fungi that attacked, they had already been reduced to ashes in the high temperature that treats all living beings equally.

As the technical sergeant at the back of the line fiddled with the elevator's control panel, the massive elevator began its slow descent.

However, just to be on the safe side, each Ultra Warrior activated the jetpack on their back to prevent the elevator from slipping and falling during the journey.

The arrival of the Om Messiah 'messenger' brought a large amount of supplies to the entire Twelve War Zones.

The metal box in Lily's arms, revered as the 'Box of Ohm Messiah,' does indeed connect two planes.

Without the need for laborious space-to-air delivery of supplies, using Lily as a spatial coordinate, Heimer directly opened a transit portal, bringing the passage directly to Jiang Bing's feet on Mars.

It is no exaggeration to say that Mars under the rule of Om Messiah has essentially become a production line for celestial-class planets with a diameter of 6779 km.

【Throne of Mithril】spreads the power of 'Om Messiah' to every corner of Mars.

The two factors that originally constrained productivity the most—energy and raw materials—have vanished with the seemingly endless supply of ether.

At this moment, Mars, under Jiang Bing's command, is unleashing its production capacity at an unprecedented pace.

From small bullets, bombs, and grenades to various tanks, flying vehicles, and even starships and combat barges, they all poured out of the assembly line like dumplings being dropped into boiling water.

Let alone the supplies needed by the garrison of a small Alarius Twelfth War Zone, even the total supply of the combined fleet currently stationed outside the planet would only be enough for Mars to produce in an hour or two.

If the 'Heimul' hadn't had limited transport capacity and needed to be used for more important purposes, the Plague Fleet would probably be facing a massive, overwhelming constellation of starships right now.

However, while it was impossible to transport tens of thousands of combat barges in a short period of time, the transportation pressure required to arm a few hundred Astartes along with hundreds of thousands of Astral Army soldiers to the teeth was not a big deal for Heiml.

In reality, the members of this Extreme Warrior commando team can no longer be described as armed to the teeth; they should be described as armed to the heels.

Everyone was equipped with a jetpack, which was more powerful than a propulsion backpack, and all melee weapons were replaced with finely crafted power swords. Except for scouts, almost everyone had a set of Storm Shield and Iron Halo.

The two Ultramarines responsible for suppressing fire were not only equipped with Terminator armor, but each also had a field shield generator. The Tech Sergeant carried a teleportation beacon and a coffin-shaped metal device on his back.

This thing is called the 'Nano All-Round Combat Unit', a sacred relic bestowed by Om Messiah.

Of course, you can also call it a 'nano universal key'. The nano elements loaded inside are absolutely worthy of its name when facing mechanical obstacles.

The water exchange station has a huge interior area. The elevator descended at least two kilometers before the entire team finally reached the main energy receiving and conversion cabin.

This is also the main command and control center, responsible for monitoring and coordinating the entire station and communicating with other water exchange stations on the planet.

Of course, the pipes, wiring, walls, and even the massive Thinker Array chamber were all covered with dense fungi.

The door to the main control room had been melted down, clearly the result of a thermal bomb.

The main control panel had been violently dismantled, exposing a large number of wires and pipes, and the entire control panel was covered with blasphemous patterns drawn with blood.

"It's the work of the Dark Mechanics." The Tech Sergeant was knowledgeable; he didn't even need to lift a finger, he could tell who the culprit was just by looking at him.

He worked on the control panel for a long time, but ultimately had to give up.

"The entire main system is filled with chaotic gibberish, all the program logic has been corrupted, the Thinker Array is also offline, and the internal circuitry has also been severely damaged. To restart the loop program normally, it will probably be necessary to carry out a complete overhaul and purification."

“But we don’t have that much time, Jalitta.”

"Then we'll have to use that one, Captain Titus."

The technical sergeant took the small 'holy coffin' off his back and carefully placed it on the main control panel.

The 'Holy Coffin' is not large, and is entirely silver. The coffin is covered with binary prayers, and in the very center is a gear skull of the Mechanicus.

Before everyone's eyes, the relic bestowed by 'Om Messiah' opened its lid on its own, spilling out a silvery liquid that collapsed into fine silver sand, seeping into the main control panel.

The sergeant used a micro-terminal attached to his arm to control the nanorobots performing the mending work.

"How long will it take to complete the repairs, Brother Jarita?"

The technical sergeant gave an approximate time of "34 minutes".

Naturally, the group couldn't just sit there waiting. Titus made a quick decision to divide his forces to ensure the progress of the advance.

“Brother Kanag, Brother Dorel, you stay here to protect Brother Jarita and ensure the repairs proceed smoothly. We will continue to the boundary of the underground water layer.”

The teleportation beacon, as thick as a human thigh, was handed over to the other members of the team by the technical sergeant. The two Ultra Warriors in Terminator armor, who were the most cumbersome in the squad but also had the most firepower, were left behind to protect the technical sergeant's job.

The rest of the squad continued their killing spree.

The entire command and control center, residential area, and heavy equipment maintenance and manufacturing workshops have long been infested with fungi.

The thick green spores resembled miasma, and with the exhaust system shut down, visibility was extremely low, to the point where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

The elevators leading to the main pumping and water conveyance floors are not in the main control room, but next to the foundry workshop.

After passing through large 3D printing equipment and material storage areas, and bypassing spare large drill bits and pump components, the group finally arrived at the elevator.

Further down is the core and heart of the entire building – the main pump.

The main pump consists of a series of huge pump chambers connected in series, forming a complete multi-stage booster pump system.

When liquid water is pumped from deep underground, the pressure is extremely high. To prevent boiling or cavitation from occurring due to the rapid ascent, the liquid water needs to be depressurized and stabilized step by step before it can be successfully transported to the surface.