Chapter 49: The Last Warriors – Section 8

A slight vibration was felt as the shuttle descended at high speed. Several warriors stood up and began to organize their equipment. A variety of guns, protective suits, combat weapons, and even personal holographic computers were scattered all over the ground. Baroka and the others silently selected their gear, without a word being spoken. Everyone’s expression was grave—no trace of their usual smiles remained.
This was the most basic quality of a warrior. Perhaps in normal times, each of them was quite carefree, but when needed, they were absolutely trustworthy. No one did better than them in this regard.
Watching these focused warriors, OldOldsBuick remained silent. His opinion of the black-haired man had risen even further. In his eyes, those who could become warriors were truly remarkable individuals. Even a bronze-level warrior could dominate on Xieke Planet. Not to mention silver- or gold-level warriors. Yet these men clearly surpassed silver-level, yet they lacked any trace of arrogance, appearing as ordinary people. Their steady hands moved swiftly to organize their gear with such proficiency that it seemed as natural as breathing. In just a moment, everyone was fully equipped.
Just as they hung on their last piece of gear, a clear vibration came from beneath their feet—the shuttle had landed.
The cabin doors swung open, and the first thing they encountered was a fierce wind, carrying sand bullets that struck them like rain. The loud cracking sounds were as dense as a downpour. OldOldsBuick, caught off guard, felt as if his helmet was being hit by countless bullets, leaving him dizzy.
But such conditions did not disrupt the black-haired man and the others. As OldOldsBuick closed his eyes, they quickly jumped out of the cabin and onto the vast sandy expanse outside.
It was an endless sea of sand. Perhaps due to the recent sandstorm, everything was a uniform yellow, making it impossible to distinguish up, down, left, or right with the naked eye. Only the layered dunes in the distance could be faintly seen, seemingly endless. In the middle of those dunes, there was a huge open area.
The black-haired man and the others exchanged glances, knowing that must be the location of the sand vortex. With the vortex constantly spinning, it was naturally impossible for dunes to stand there. With that thought, they immediately activated the miniature holographic systems on their helmets.

Immediately, the scene before them changed—there was no more sandstorm in the sky, but instead a landscape entirely composed of lines. A massive vortex was spinning at high speed less than a kilometer away from them. The surging sand waves were hundreds of meters high. With each wave bursting, countless streams of sand shot into the air, their force truly astonishing. Even without sound, it was enough to fill people with fear.

But…

No sound?

The group was momentarily stunned before suddenly realizing what was happening. They turned on the sound filtering system in their helmets, disabling the shielding against the intense sound waves. Instantly, the terrifying sound waves hit them, causing dizziness and disorientation among them.

“What an intense vortex. It must have been tough for them. They must have gone through a lot just to enter such a dangerous place,” Blood-Pupil said, his expression changing slightly.

These intense sound waves were generated by the collision of the vortex’s currents, as loud as thunder. Since they were so close, the impact was severe. If it weren’t for the helmets’ self-protection functions, the shuttle would likely have suffered severe vibrations upon arrival. This was also why they couldn’t hear any sound at first.

With a wry smile, he adjusted the sound filtering system to a tolerable level before turning to the group and waving his hand.

“Let’s get to work. We have three hours to set up a base. Excavation will begin right after that.”

“Understood. But we need to wait until everyone has landed first,” Blood-Pupil replied with a smile, looking up. Through the helmet’s vision, dense clusters of dark dots could be seen in the sky—those were mechs. Accompanied by the rumbling sound shaking the sky, they were flying toward them. The frontmost mechs already had their limbs clearly visible.

How fast could those mechs move? By the time the group finished talking, those terrifying steel giants had already landed. As soon as Blood-Pupil spoke, one after another massive figures descended from the sky, crashing heavily onto the ground. The sand sea surged as they landed, sending up countless sand streams, each dozens of meters high. When they hit the shuttle’s deck, they made a resonant clanging sound.

Though these mechs were terrifying, they also had a hard time landing. After all, it was a desert, and the softness of the ground far exceeded that of ordinary surfaces. Even though the Blood Moon and Setting Sun’s land combat suits had excellent self-regulation systems, the immense impact upon landing was unavoidable. Instantly, each mech became half its original height, with its lower half buried deep in the sand.

Five hundred Blood Moons and Dying Suns, plus 1,300 engineering mechs. It took ten full minutes for them to land. As all the mechs landed, a sea of steel giants appeared over the desert—dense as an ant colony. Of course, that was only visible from high above. On the ground, anyone would feel insignificant in the face of so many massive humanoid machines. Up close, the Blood Moons and Dying Suns exuded an overwhelming sense of pressure.

That’s exactly how OldOldsBuick felt right now.

Although he had long heard the orders from Black Hair, it didn’t diminish his shock. Watching those clearly extraordinary mechs assemble, OldOldsBuick’s heart pounded with excitement he couldn’t control. From his vantage point, he could even see their first action after landing: removing the two cylindrical objects from their shoulders and stacking them together.

“What’s that?” OldOldsBuick asked Blood Pupil, puzzled.

“Atmospheric boost kits, used for combat and air drops within the atmosphere. They have attitude control systems and power engines. When used by mechs, they add in-air flight capabilities. They’re essential for all our mechs’ air drops,” Blood Pupil replied quickly, giving a signal to the descending mechs. Immediately, hundreds of engineering mechs stepped forward to collect the boost kits and begin assembling them.

Seeing this, OldOldsBuick, who had just gotten an answer, became puzzled again.

“What about these? What are they doing?”

“They’re assembling these kits to create a base. I forgot to mention—these kits are multifunctional. When carried alone, they enhance a mech’s capabilities, but when assembled, they offer additional functions like lifting, digging, analysis, searching. There’s even a resting area for personnel. A set of 100 mech kits, when fully assembled, can form a camp. We’ll be living inside this in the next few days.”

Saying this, Blood Pupil smiled and winked.

“Trust me, OldOldsBuick. This base is much more comfortable than the Puppet Worm. If you wish, you might even find a swimming pool. But first, you’ll need to fill it with water.”

“Fill it with water… in this desert?” Hearing Blood Pupil’s seemingly joking words, OldOldsBuick was stunned.

You should know that, whether in the past or now, water holds immense significance in the desert. It can be said that without water, not even an ant can survive in the desert. Yet the desert of Shek Xing remains extremely harsh, with very few oases. Even for OldOldsBuick, a seasoned scavenger, it’s difficult to find suitable supply points. That’s why they usually carry a puppet worm specifically for carrying water.

But now, Xue Tong actually says they want to swim using water. Isn’t that just a joke?

“It’s not a joke.” Even though he was carrying OldOldsBuick on his back, Xue Tong seemed to see his skeptical expression and replied with a smile. “Our Blood Wolf supply system is the most advanced in the entire universe. This amount of water is really nothing. Not to mention we have a virtual puppet on top. Even without it, each mech comes equipped with enough water to sustain them in this desert for three months—especially under combat conditions with maximum consumption. So there’s no need to worry about water at all.”

“Three months!? Where did all this water come from?” OldOldsBuick asked in surprise.

“Well… that’s a secret,” Xue Tong said with a wry smile, shrugging apologetically.

It indeed was a secret. All the supplies for the mechs when going on missions were stored in a subspace, and the use of this subspace hadn’t been made public. So Xue Tong simply couldn’t explain it to OldOldsBuick. Otherwise, if it were leaked, Death Star would lose a major weapon.

The engineering mechs moved quickly. By the time the two were talking, the first base had already been built. A hundred modules combined to form a huge square structure, and after some adjustments, the square began to tremble violently before unfolding.

The unfolding process resembled that of the base vehicles in an ancient Earth game called “Red Alert.” First, the walls disassembled, followed by several robotic arms extending out to adjust themselves rapidly. In less than a moment, a base hundreds of meters square appeared before OldOldsBuick, and there were nearly a hundred such bases nearby!

These hundred bases formed a giant ring, encircling the violent desert vortex. At this point, unless someone obtained Black Hair’s permission, it would be impossible to approach this mysterious relic.