Steel steam and flame

The air was filled with the smell of gunpowder, but it was soon mixed and replaced by the original smell of decay and stench. The sound of footsteps echoed in the cavity, and after the commanding words "Open the air circulation system", the low noise of the fan rotating followed closely and began to exchange the air here.

This is a cavity, and the building is built on the walls of the cavity to form a semi-circular shape, with a total of seven floors. Large and small rooms are divided into rooms for rest, storage, machines, and operating rooms. At this moment, most of the rooms were destroyed, and the firecrackers with platinum bullets left dense holes in them, and on the floor, gray-white blood was eroding every floor.

In the corridor on the fifth floor of the semi-circular building, Kara took off the glasses made of ultra-high-strength glass, put them into a black alloy box, and then put them in his trouser pocket. She smoothed her hair that reached her shoulders, and finally put her hands on the railing of the corridor and looked straight ahead.

Under the cold light, there was no building built on the opposite wall of the cavity, only two simple metal shelves, which looked crumbling. In the middle of the two metal shelves embracing each other, a lot of soil had been removed, and a twisted tree root was exposed. The brown bark was covered with cracks, and a gray, foamy, viscous liquid was secreted all the time. Like mold that feeds on decaying matter, it visually gives the impression of erosion.

"The blood vessels of the earth... is really not a suitable metaphor, something like this." Kara muttered to herself, then turned around and leaned on the railing, looking towards the room with the open door behind her. The environment in an operating room is very clean. If it weren't for the two corpses with most of their heads missing, and the large areas of gray blood splattered on the walls, there would be no problem with this evaluation.

The sound of dense footsteps came from the stairs on the side. Several team members wearing the same clothes as Kara escorted a man to the side.

The man's right hand seemed to be broken, hanging down without any strength. There were many broken skins on the right half of his face, revealing muscles that had long since lost their color. There was also a wound on the neck, but the attacker's strength and control were very precise. He cut it almost close to the blood vessel and did not cause fatal injuries.

"Is he the person in charge?" Kara looked at Shan Erna who came to her side and asked.

"It can only be him. He doesn't feel like a bad surgeon. He should be sent by the enemy to coordinate and manage. Don't underestimate him. He is very good at running and can rival the second category of ape-type creatures in the forest." Shan As Erna spoke, she knocked on the fence with her left hand, and the sound of "dang-dang" metal struck echoed. From his elbow to the back of his palm, the artificial bionic skin has been scratched, and the gray-white mechanical arm inside is exposed. "You can always trust the quality of Webley Arms Company's products. There is only a scratch left."

"Choose not to accept the benefits of cultivating a new arm? If it is a flesh-and-blood arm, it should be broken." Kara smiled, "The things from Webley Arms Company are indeed useful, at least all the types of sniper rifles provided to us. There is a layer of ultimate alloy inside the barrel. The usability is perfect."

"I agree, it must be full marks." Shan Erna nodded, with agreement on her face, "What about him? How to deal with it?"

"Do you have anything to say?" Kara looked at the man being held in custody, "The three countries have started a war, and you have the opportunity to become a prisoner in exchange for our own people. The current war situation between the three parties is not too intense, and there is still such a situation The mechanism is there. If we wait for a while, we can only lie to you and say, 'As long as the information you provide is effective enough, we can give you a chance to survive.'"

"So, how do you choose?"

"Dear young lady, do you think that I was able to be sent to perform tasks within the empire because of conflicts with some superiors?"

"The negotiation broke down. But..." Kara replied, noticing the wounds on the man's face that were rapidly healing, "Maybe you still have some functions that don't require you to speak." As she said that, she looked at Shan Erna, " Escort them back. In the past few months of contact, the enemy's use of pollution is indeed much better than ours. He can be used as a sample to study. Remember to check it. As you know, in the competition for nodes in the small countries, Someone bound the heart to a solid red mercury bomb and almost caused irreparable damage in a short period of time."

After Kara finished speaking, Shanerna had already pressed down a small pistol that she had taken out at some point, and a powerful anesthetic bullet was accurately nailed to the man's neck. Considering the existence of contamination, Shanerna fired five shots in succession, and then stopped after the man's neck was filled with anesthetic bullets.

A few seconds later, other team members took away the unconscious man and began to clean the stronghold in the cavity and search for necessary information.

Kara and Shanerna still stood where they were, looking at the twisted tree roots on the other side of the cavity wall.

"Small countries, the process of fighting for the protection of the No. 1 node position can indeed be called a template. But we still have to consider the configuration of the No. 1 node." Shan Erna smiled at this time, "The situation has also changed a lot. No. At the node 1, there should be no infected bodies or polluters yet, right? Moreover, it is very difficult for contamination to occur there. You just mentioned the situation of imitating solid red mercury. Fortunately, the enemy encountered Western Miss Sia, perfectly inherited some of Mr. Cassia's attributes and noticed it in advance. If it were anyone else..."

"Operations and missions are becoming more and more dangerous. I will have the thought of 'danger' again. It seems to be the first time since I met you in the black market. I didn't have such thoughts during the southern forest incident."

"Then before this time, was the time when I fought Cassia?" Kara was quite interested.

Shan Erna raised her left hand and said, "Give him some more time to accumulate experience, and the price won't be my hand." After thinking about it, she was unwilling to recall more of the past, so she fired another shot, killing the last one. An anesthetizing bullet was fired and firmly nailed to the twisted tree root in front. "The data on this stronghold has been collected. By summarizing all the data we have obtained recently, we can determine this location with a probability of more than 90%." It will be the sixth node position."

"But to be absolutely certain that this is the node, you also need to find the center point."

"Then keep working hard." Shan Erna is very confident, "But my intuition tells me that it won't be very far. There are many traces of pollution on the surface of Minkfas City, and the number of infected people is increasing. Quite a bit. The pollution accumulated to the point where it exploded, it would have been recently, I think."

"Where will you choose next? Continue to the node of possibility, continue the work of exploration and determination, and clean up a large number of inferior surgeons, or is there another option? Thanks to the solid red mercury and the reagents produced by pollution, we We are now in the late stage of the second stage of the operation, gradually approaching the third stage. You can feel it, too. After the influence of the six red stars has actually taken effect, the progress of the operation stage seems to have become much faster."

Kara kept staring at the twisted tree roots in front of her. She took a moment to think before she answered, "You want to talk about the information that has been released within the alliance? The role of the Red Star is to cultivate and promote people in this world. The evolution of life. No matter what stage the surgeon is, when he finds that he can feel anything about the Red Star through touch, he must respond with a positive attitude."

"But the actual situation, whether you feel it or not, the impact has really fallen on everyone. You want to say this, right?" Kara asked at the end, "Indeed, within the alliance, Ye Jielin, Korkvar and Ovelia and others have given feedback that in a more intense environment, better results will be achieved."

"Currently, the battlefields that can be called meat grinders are concentrated in the area of ​​​​small countries. Looking over, there are all the graves of third-stage surgeries. It is not suitable for us. They are all like Miss Sisia and Mr. Korkova. The stage for waiting for others. But there are also many places that are not so intense, and Miss Ye Jielin, Miss Ovelia and others are among them. I think we can move closer to that, after this node is determined. "

"Well..., I've already considered it. After all, we have good equipment from Webley Arms Company. If it is not used, it will be a loss for our efforts in meticulous maintenance every day."

"It seems we have the answer." Shanerna nodded with satisfaction, turned around and was about to leave, but Kara's communicator rang, "It's definitely the doctor's. He has been here for almost two months. He is not someone who will stay here forever. . If necessary, please remember to notify me. This stronghold has just been cleared, and the next major operation should be around the time to find the center of the node."

Shan Erna waved her hand and went down the stairs, "It takes half an hour to collect the information. You should pay attention to the time."

Kara responded, pressed the communicator, and after hearing Punos' solemn voice, she knew Shanerna was right. After listening to the report-like explanation, she thought for a while, then looked at Shanerna who was checking the storage items at the bottom of the cavity, and sighed and replied, "Then you and Adina should be prepared. Shanerna said she has If you are interested, I will go and see it with you. If I have time, I will rush there. However, I don’t want to remind you how cautious you should be when it comes to pollution. If it is contaminated, it will be troublesome later. You have to be careful yourself.”

After hanging up the communication, Kara once again let her sight fall on the twisted tree roots in front of her, muttering to herself, "Exploring nodes is often the simplest task, and the defense afterwards is when the difficulties really arise. The enemy's purpose is very clear It’s simple, just activate the thing at the center of the node, and you can use any method. But as the guard,,,"

Half an hour later, Kara and Shanerna had left with the team, and more members wearing gray and white protective clothing arrived one after another and began to work on something near the exposed tree roots.

,,,,,,

Trinya was not sleepy at all. When she woke up, she only felt mentally excited. This feeling became especially obvious after Dr. Punos' assistant injected something into her.

"Huh, it seems to feel good." Trinya felt her "dong-dong" heartbeat. At this moment, even though her heart beat was definitely an abnormally "heavy" situation in her mind, she didn't feel panic at all. , and did not feel fatigue or pain due to the violent beating of the heart.

This must be good news, she thought, and went on to think about what Dr. Punos meant by will. It's just that she couldn't understand, so she could only follow the method introduced in the books she had read, and kept muttering to herself silently. The simplest hint was, "I don't want to die. If I want to live, I don't want to die. I must live." Go down..."

After reciting this silently for an unknown amount of time, Trinya felt her whole body getting hot and sweating profusely. She suddenly opened her eyes and found that the surroundings were already dark. The lamps in the ward had already lost their temperature and were turned off. .

The inexplicable silence frightened her. As she held her breath and tried to understand what was happening around her, a strange feeling came over her like a subconscious illusion——

Has the heavy rain stopped?