Chapter 612.2: Surrender? Did I Declare War On Them?

Chapter 612.2: Surrender? Did I Declare War On Them?

Squatting by the gore-stuffed exoskeleton, Irene clicked his tongue and searched his belongings. Soon, she found a bloodstained silver dog tag.

There were two inverted triangles, the Torch Church’s symbol, engraved on one side. On the back, there was the crest of the Judgment Panel.

“He was an Executioner. That other one too. Both had tags with names and blood types. Gear includes exoskeletons with optical camo plugins, a sniper rifle, an assault rifle, two pistols, assorted ammunition, EMP grenades and some other things. There are no disguised explosives.” He stood from the other corpse with the exploded head and continued, “Looks like infighting. The one called Chimo shot his partner first, then tried to kill himself but failed... just my guess.”

Elf Wang clicked his tongue. “Ridiculous.”

Remembering the day before, one of the nearby players spoke. “Hey, wasn’t that sniper we ran into before?”

Another player scratched the back of his head. “Probably. Heard the Burning Corps brothers took a hard loss against them... but it’s weird.”

“Weird?”

“The Goliaths, those big guys. In terms of combat strength, they’re way scarier than those winged freaks.”

Listening to the chatter on the comms, Escaping Mole thought for a moment and replied, “They probably gave up.”

Elf Wang chuckled. “They gave up just like that?”

“Yeah. The Hive is destroyed and the gray fog will clear soon enough.” Escaping Mole looked up. A shaft of sunlight stretched by the mist pierced the heavy clouds, spilling onto the ruins.

“Without the Qi Tribe, the Torch Church doesn’t have a reason to hold on.”

After a pause, he glanced at Irene still looting bodies up ahead and shouted, “Drag the corpses onto the truck. We’ll check them later. We’ve got more work ahead!”

The defenders of the lab were wiped out, and the Torch Church had withdrawn.

Now, it was the turn of those beasts hiding in the tunnels...

...

On the deck of the Heart of Steel.

A Viper transport plane drifted down, trailing pale blue plasma plumes.

Two exoskeleton-clad crewmen jumped out carrying a square metal frame, carefully setting it onto a trailer.

Fixed at its center was a near-spherical container, shaped like a droplet, the size of a gas cylinder.

However, it wasn’t holding gas. Rather, it was Helium-3 in a superfluid state!

Though only a neutron lighter, the technical difficulty of condensing it far surpassed ordinary Helium-4 superfluids.

It was known that soon after helium was liquefied, superfluid Helium-4 was discovered.

It wasn’t so easy for Helium-3. Missing a neutron made it a fermion-like particle, subject to the Pauli Exclusion Principle, unable to condense.

For decades, whether Helium-3 could form a superfluid remained unsolved.

Until physicists later found that at ultralow temperatures, Helium-3 atoms could pair up via nuclear spin interactions, forming Cooper pairs. That led to the 1996 Nobel Prize, Osheroff, Lee, Richardson achieved Helium-3 superfluidity at just 0.002 K above absolute zero.

Why the wasteland stored nuclear fuel in such a form was unclear, but their technological reserves were staggering compared to the players’ original world.

A liter of superfluid Helium-3 could fit in a 30 to 40 liter gas-cylinder container.

Two men could carry one.

There wasn’t a need to exaggerate, just the storage technology itself was a priceless prize for the newborn New Alliance.

Not to mention the sheer volume of nuclear fuel.

The underground labs held a million such containers on warehouse racks, over 1,000 cubic meters! Before the skyscraper collapsed, the stockpile had already been moved to safety.

Why the Torch Church hadn’t shipped it to the Ocean Edge Province was unknown, but whatever the plan, it was now in New Alliance hands.

For the foreseeable future, the New Alliance’s energy worries were gone.

Along with nuclear fuel, players salvaged mechanical prosthetics and biotech rigs, many inherited from the Post-War Reconstruction Committee.

Like Boulder Town Arms Industry in Boulder Town, Champion Biopharmaceutical Research Institute was one of the committee’s legacies left behind for Singularity City.

Unfortunately, they misused it and walked a road of self-destruction.

Eberts was keen on the equipment. It would be shipped to Boulder Town Arms Industry for dismantling and reverse engineering.

The researchers of the Torch Church escaped, but Boulder Town had skilled engineers to unlock their secrets.

The deck of the Heart of Steel bustled with work, and the bridge, the ship’s command tower, was just as busy.

Vanus and the officers directed ground operations. Chu Guang stood in his usual spot, eyes on a pale blue holo-screen, listening to Hyrja’s research report.

“... The Torch Church’s biotech exceeded my expectations. Not all of it came from Shelter 117. For example, that Biotic Armor... Some DNA fragments on it resemble Mutant Slime Mold.”

Chu Guang frowned slightly. “I recall the Na Fruit also has traces of Slime Mold?”

“Yes.” Hyrja nodded. “The bat-winged Mutant Humans and the Goliaths showed Mutant Slime Mold related DNA. Na Fruit especially. Its core, spores and the entire system was designed after Slime Mold.”

She paused for a moment before muttering with uncertainty, “It’s hard to believe they achieved this in 20 years. Maybe they unearthed technology from the war, an old battlefield, or colonial ruins?”

Chu Guang’s eyes narrowed.

“You mean... biotech from the colony in the stars?”

She nodded gravely. “That’s my guess.”

Chu Guang fell silent.

It was possible.

Not just Slime Mold. The Torch Church’s neural interference technology was also suspicious.

It wasn’t the version found from Shelter 401. It resembled an upgraded model to be stronger and affect a wider area.

He remembered that neutral interference was a joint project of Shelter 401’s Clearspring City Third Ecological Protection Park, exploring replacements for infrasonic fences.

After the scandal, research was halted in 2113.

But Shelter 401’s records didn’t say if it was fully terminated, or just halted on the homeworld, while the colonies out there carried on unchecked.

If the latter... The device might have been militarized.

Perhaps even the Slime Mold Hives were bio-weapons, spawned through interference fields.

Chu Guang grew more convinced. “The origins of the Torch Church’s technology needs to be uncovered. I’ll have my guys watch out for them. Tell me if you find new leads.”

“Leave it to me. Oh, by the way,” Hyrja added, “that man you sent to Shelter 79, what’s his story?”

Chu Guang thought for a moment, then replied casually. “Former Champion Biopharmaceutical Research Institute researcher. Helped develop anti radiation and de-radiation chemicals.”

The giant horned lizard in Shelter 79 would be interested, after all, even their snacks and coffee were of the Champion brand.

Many people there might even be fans of the company.

Hyrja blinked and gasped incredulously. “You even dug up talent like that?!”

Chu Guang smiled faintly. “He’s technically a war criminal. Unless he contributes something major, he’ll spend the rest of his life in Shelter 79. Keep an eye on him for me.”

She nodded gravely. “I will.”

The call ended. Chu Guang shut off the holo-screen, gazing at the fog-covered land.

With the pseudo Hive destroyed, Brocade River Province’s war was over.

The next thing they had to do was cleanup and prepare to deal with the fourth phase of the descent of the Kingdom of Heaven in the Ocean Edge Province.

But first, the New Alliance needed to face the looming Tide. The very next day, the Heart of Steel would return to Dawn City.

As for the Brocade River Province, Frost and its backers from the Health Luxury Corporate Group could hold it until the New Alliance was free.

Behind him, a door opened and footsteps approached.

An officer saluted with his fist to chest. “Sir!”

Chu Guang turned and raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“A Mutant Human priest from the Qi Tribe requests terms of surrender. He claims loyalty to the New Alliance.”

“Surrender?” Chu Guang repeated, a hint of irony in his tone, and glanced at him. “Did I declare war on them?”

After seeing the human farm they made, he had no interest in reforming them.

Their very existence was a mistake. Whether they were warmongers or of the peaceful faction, wiping them out entirely was better for the New Alliance, and the world.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The officer froze, then recognized his administrator’s look. A crisp salute followed.

“Yes, sir!”