SCOM - Chapter 69
Chapter 69
Sun Long's words startled everyone. She was still grabbing Yan Yan's father, asking how she got out, her expression nearly frantic.
Jiang Hong was the first to react, pulling Fang Yong aside to ask, "Is there something wrong with your medicine?"
Fang Yong: "...The medicine can't be the problem."
"That mine in the east has Silver-Blue, did you know that?" Luo Shaoyuan asked first. She didn't have much of a relationship with Yan Yan, but having heard from Zuo Luohuan and Ji Yuezhi that Sun Long might know something, she now realized the situation was dire. She didn't care if the woman was mentally unstable or not; she had to ask.
Luo Shaoyuan's question pulled Sun Long back to her senses. She finally let go, looking at the strangers around her. "Who are you?"
Before anyone else could speak, she struggled to sit up. "Silver-Blue? You didn't see those things?"
Luo Shaoyuan and Jiang Hong exchanged a look. She stepped forward, pulled Yan Yan aside, and stood before his mother, saying gravely, "What things? The army groups from the Western and Northern Regions are currently guarding the eastern mine, waiting to begin development."
"Army groups..." Sun Long's eyes brightened for a moment, then she stiffened all over and grabbed Luo Shaoyuan's hand. "No, that's not right! There are robot dogs inside the mine, tell them to evacuate immediately!"
"The Winter Army brought weapons when they came. They've been dealing with second-generation robot dogs for years, they'll be fine." Although Luo Shaoyuan didn't fully understand what Sun Long was saying, she knew the strength of the Winter Army.
Sun Long shook her head. She had only just regained consciousness, and her body wasn't fully under her control; she was trembling all over. "Not second-generation... new robot dogs. We used explosives on the exit and the power source, but there are still... still some that didn't die..."
Everyone in the hospital room was suddenly shocked, unable to process it.
In the end, it was Yan Yan's father who understood one thing. "It wasn't an accidental early detonation? You caused the mine collapse yourselves?"
Sun Long's eyes were red as she recalled the scene. "Yes. What about the others I brought in?"
"None of them survived." Yan Yan's father lowered his head.
Luo Shaoyuan had already contacted Ji Yuezhi. Her first words were: "Something's happened."
She quickly relayed Sun Long's words to Ji Yuezhi, who asked Sun Long to recount in detail what had happened inside the mine.
Sun Long was unwell, her whole body trembling, but she insisted on clearly explaining what had occurred.
Fang Yong couldn't bear to watch and gave her another injection, which gradually stabilized and sobered her up.
"A few of us went in to plant the explosives..."
Most of the 377th Army wanted to seal the mountain and leave Xijiang Exile Star as soon as possible. They had spent nearly twenty years here on a fruitless task. The overall survey of the eastern area had found no ore, and many were unwilling to waste any more effort.
Sun Long felt that since they had already started, they had to see it through to complete the mission. At the very least, they needed to open the mine and conduct another survey to confirm the absence of Silver-Blue before they could leave. It would only take about another year, which wasn't a significant difference.
Some were dissatisfied with her proposal, saying that Sun Long's son had already left Xijiang Exile Star to study in the capital and was on his way to a bright future. Their own children hadn't gotten into military academies, yet they had to stay here and waste their time.
The commander of the 377th Army privately agreed with Sun Long, letting her lead a team to proceed while the others took a break to cool down before coming back to help.
Sun Long was a squadron captain. She agreed and took her team to prepare for the mining operation the next day.
Sun Long would never forget the sky that day. All work at the mine had stopped, and the transport vehicles were halted for maintenance. The dust that usually filled the air seemed to have vanished, and she could even see a patch of blue.
She led a few people into the opened mine tunnel to place explosives, while the others waited at a distance.
After entering through a long, narrow, winding tunnel, they found the space inside was not small. Sun Long and her subordinates didn't immediately place the explosives. Instead, they first had someone set a small charge in a corner to blast open a section of the rock wall. Their instruments had detected that the area behind the wall was more suitable for placing a full tube of explosives.
They were very careful with the blast to avoid causing a cave-in. But after the dust settled, Sun Long noticed something was wrong beneath that rock wall. The ground was too thin, as if it had been dug out.
At first, Sun Long thought there had been an error in the initial survey and that there might be an underground river or something similar beneath the mountain. So she continued to break open a corner of the floor, only to find it was hollow inside, with no river.
She led her people through the opening and slipped inside, where they witnessed a shocking scene:
A row of silver-white robot dogs stood there.
Although the 377th Army had never been to the real front lines, they were part of the Winter Army and would not fail to recognize robot dogs.
But what concerned Sun Long more were the silver-white boxes, each about 10 inches in size, placed on the ground behind them. She tried to contact the outside, but in the next second, her optical computer was destroyed by something that appeared out of nowhere.
It wasn't just her; everyone else's comms were destroyed as well. One person couldn't dodge in time and had their wrist severed.
The thing was too fast. Sun Long couldn't see what it was at all until it stopped on the rock wall.
A robot dog, half a person's height, stood on all fours, its eyes glowing red.
Unlike the first and second-generation robot dogs, this thing was a dog, but its limbs were shaped like hands.
"Go!" Sun Long ordered someone to report back, but the second-generation robot dogs suddenly activated and attacked them. Not only that, but the first row of 10-inch silver-white boxes on the ground transformed into the shape of that new robot dog right before their eyes.
They could barely handle the second-generation robot dogs, but these new ones were impossible to fight. They were several times faster than the second-generation; they couldn't even see them clearly.
Sun Long's gaze fell on the supply lines laid out on the ground. The robot dogs would activate once they received power from these lines.
Since there were power supply lines, there had to be a power source. They couldn't let the things inside get power. If they got out, the entire Xijiang Exile Star would be lost.
Sun Long looked at the explosive pack on her subordinate's back. "Give me the explosives. You all... do your best to get out."
No one agreed. The team member who had been misunderstood for drinking on the job smiled. "Squadron Captain, with so many of these damn things, you can't get through alone. I'll stay."
"If we can't get out, we might as well destroy these things first," another subordinate said, looking at the menacing robot dogs and the new models nearby.
Everyone pushed forward with all their might and finally found the energy bay—a large tank that was continuously supplying power to the lines.
The robot dogs were too fast. One opened its mouth, its teeth like a saw. A subordinate farthest from Sun Long, trying to block for them, had his neck bitten clean through without even crying for help.
Sun Long placed the explosives between the energy bay and the 10-inch silver-white boxes on the ground, then she yelled to her subordinate: "Blow it!"
The power of so many explosives, meant for blasting open a mine, was self-evident. From the moment they made the decision, Sun Long and her subordinates had no intention of surviving.
They had no other choice. They had no weapons, and the rows of robot dogs about to awaken and transform were too terrifying. They couldn't let these things activate.
Sun Long never imagined she would open her eyes again. The moment she saw her son, her muddled brain was filled with a single thought: I'm not dead, I was rescued. Does that mean those things got out too?
"You were rescued some time ago. There's been no activity inside the mine." On the optical computer, Zuo Luohuan stood at the door of the hypnosis room, her expression blank. "Either your plan succeeded and everything inside was destroyed, and none of the mobile ones escaped. Or... someone is controlling them, keeping them from coming out."
Sun Long didn't quite understand what Zuo Luohuan was saying. Her body was already weak, and now she began to tremble again.
"Please rest for now. We have already notified all the army groups on Xijiang Exile Star," Ji Yuezhi said to Sun Long.
After ending the call, Ji Yuezhi looked at Zuo Luohuan. "You..."
Luo Shaoyuan's call had interrupted what Zuo Luohuan was about to say, so he didn't know what she had remembered during the hypnosis.
"The real Hong Tongdao was killed by Zhang Yongzhen last year." Zuo Luohuan and Ji Yuezhi walked out of the hypnosis room side by side, heading for the aircraft. "That adopted son looks nine-tenths like Hong Tongdao. He's been in control of the Hong family from the very beginning."
The Hong family already belonged to the adopted son, so why kill Hong Tongdao and impersonate him? Unless it was to cover something up.
At this thought, Ji Yuezhi's steps faltered.
Seeing him stop, Zuo Luohuan reached out and took his hand. "Get on first."
Ji Yuezhi pressed his lips together. Zuo Luohuan's tone and demeanor had quickly returned to normal, but he felt she was only so calm because she was hiding all her emotions.
"First, notify the warship escorting Hong Tongdao, then contact the capital," Zuo Luohuan said, turning her head to the side after leading him onto the aircraft and starting it.
"...We can't reach anyone on the warship."
Zuo Luohuan scoffed. "He's from Gashiro."
The army group had only investigated Hong Tongdao's files and hadn't looked deeply into the adopted son. Who would have known that Hong Tongdao was a fake, let alone that the man was from Gashiro.
"On the warship escorting Hong Tongdao, is there..." Ji Yuezhi began with difficulty, "stuff from the Hong family?"
All of the Hong family's belongings were to be sealed and sent to the capital. If there was a large number of the 10-inch silver-white boxes that Sun Long had discovered, the warship would be in grave danger right now.
"No silver-white boxes," Zuo Luohuan said, her gaze distant as she looked ahead. "Only black boxes, filled with energy blocks."
Ji Yuezhi didn't feel relieved. If they could be made into silver-white boxes, they could also be made into black ones.
"If nothing unusual is discovered, Hong Tongdao and those things will be sent to the capital together. If they are discovered, it can still destroy a warship." Zuo Luohuan suddenly turned her head to look at Ji Yuezhi, a brilliant smile on her face, but her eyes held a chilling coldness. "To be schemed against by him... I don't know if I should feel honored."
Ji Yuezhi froze, instantly realizing who the 'he' Zuo Luohuan was talking about was.
Ren Pingbo, the strongest Alpha who betrayed the entire Federation.
Back then, it took both Zuo Dihong and Ji Xixiu combined to match one Ren Pingbo.
Ren Pingbo was here, using Silver-Blue to create new attack machines, but Zuo Luohuan had accidentally stumbled upon Xijiang Exile Star and even discovered the clues about the Hong family.
Zuo Luohuan, who should have died, was likely fully incorporated into the scheme after the alterations to her face were discovered.
From her return to Xijiang Exile Star, to searching for the inspection report, to exposing Hong Tongdao, it was all just a trap.
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