What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 450 Marun and the Rainforest (6800 monthly votes in May)

Aparma
Fully armed, Tang Wen appeared in a secluded port, his exposed limbs covered in herbs that smelled of medicinal herbs.

Thanks to the rampant mosquitoes along the coast, the locals are very experienced in dealing with all kinds of insects. Before coming, he not only wore outdoor gear, but also applied insecticide to his body and clothes.

However, this is still not safe, because he was once accidentally bitten by the rainforest's words, and a large, horrifying red bump swelled up.

Beside him, Bumblebee appeared in his Autobot form, holding a giant electric swatter the size of a human, which crackled and popped with every swing.

"It's so hot!"

During the day, the rainforest is like a steamer. Tang Wengang felt his whole body becoming sticky as soon as he arrived, and the rising water vapor was almost visible to the naked eye on the treetops.

No wonder cannibals would rather be bitten by insects than wear clothes; in this climate, even wearing silk would suffocate them.

Not wanting to linger any longer, Tang Wen hurried on, and an air-raid shelter tower manufactured at the South Pacific Shipyard suddenly appeared in the lake in front of him.

Previously, he explored the depths of the rainforest far from the river using a single-person submarine. The port he built using a bug had already altered the landscape, creating a deep-water harbor and forming a separate lake.

The square-shaped air raid shelter has a draft of nearly 40 meters when unloaded, and it almost runs aground as soon as it appears.

Two modified engineering vessels then appeared, loaded with 2 tons of cement, as well as stones and sand illegally dredged in Luzon, and equipped with extendable robotic arms to pour concrete into the air-raid shelter from above.

Of course, to ensure the quality of concrete setting, factors such as humidity, rebar density, and vibration compaction need to be considered... But now we don't need to worry about these; we just need to fill it in.

The two engineering vessels were positioned on either side of the air raid tower. Once everything was ready, Tang Wen moved onto the deck of the air raid tower and began dismantling the port.

Removing the small port will not grant you the silver coins costing its construction, but the modified terrain will revert to its original state.

The surrounding buildings began to blur and disappear, and the shadowy figures of trees appeared where they had been.

Meanwhile, the water level of the deep lake below receded rapidly, degenerating into what was originally a shallow swamp.

As the changes in the landscape reached a critical point, the three boats were completely surrounded by jungle.

At this moment, the 19-ton air defense tower immediately began to sink in the swamp due to its own weight, making metallic clanging sounds and the sound of trees breaking. The other two engineering vessels did the same.

With 190,000 tons of weight applied to the bottom of the ship, an average of 38.8 tons of weight per square meter of swamp. Under the enormous pressure, even the soft, mushy mud could only be squeezed out and compacted.

The deck beneath my feet kept shaking, and when it gradually stopped, the anti-aircraft tower was already tilted, but its top still went over the treetops.

Fortunately, the two engineering vessels were supported by dense trees, which helped them stay afloat and prevent them from capsizing.

The 50-meter height of the air raid shelter is just right. Visually, it is estimated that after being filled with cement, it will continue to sink in the swamp and, once it stabilizes, it will be slightly lower than the average tree height in the rainforest.

With some additional camouflage, it would be almost impossible to detect any flaws from the air.

The only problem is that the uneven density of the silt under the swamp may cause the air raid tower to tilt, but it is not a big problem and can be balanced by adjusting the amount of concrete poured at both ends.

As the sun gradually sets, the air raid pylon automatically opens the pre-reserved concrete installation port.

The two engineering vessels each lowered their water pipes and ventured deep into the swamp to begin mixing and stirring the materials. The booming noise was well absorbed and masked by the rainforest.

According to the information obtained from the "Brothers of Justice," Marun's search area should not be far from here, but Tang Wen still controlled the U-boat hiding in the nearby tributary to launch five long-range T6 drones with only 160-liter fuel tanks, which flew along the treetops towards the town.

……

Insla town.

As the empire's first stronghold in Bassin, this place was practically a wilderness.

Although the Air Force had previously airdropped a large amount of supplies to build the base, it still hoped that basic resources such as drinking water, supplies, and electricity could be obtained locally to reduce costs.

However, reality gave them a harsh lesson:
Inzra, in Latin, means island, implying a "remote place".

Inzra lives up to its name, as it has no enthusiastic samba girls and a total population of no more than 400, of which more than 200 are workers at a logging camp and only about 100 are indigenous people.

There are only about 30 young women in the town, and they are all clients of the lumberjacks. Business is booming every day, leaving no chance for the soldiers to relax.

The logging camp's main power comes from a dilapidated small hydroelectric generator, which can only supply the town with power for six hours a day, and even then, the power supply is unreliable. The Insla base relies on expensive generators for even the bare minimum. As for exploration?

Ryan's team, which arrived full of novelty and enthusiasm, is now nearly half of whom are unable to move due to illness.

Within three days of their arrival, everyone experienced gastrointestinal discomfort, and then two of them contracted malaria.

Then came a series of unfortunate incidents, such as people getting high fevers from leech bites, foaming at the mouth after being cut by unknown tree leaves, and vomiting to the point of almost vomiting blood after eating local specialties.

But the most common enemy was still the environment. On the second day after arriving, everyone chose to go out during their free time and then quickly took off their shirts.

The new generation of Marun has not experienced the nightmare of Annan and can only learn from scratch how to deal with the even worse Amazon rainforest.

The poor performance left the homeland helpless, and they could only temporarily gather some veteran officers who had experienced Annam and retrieve combat equipment prepared for the special environment from the warehouse. It would take time to airlift it over.

At this time, the first batch of 4000 Marun were already on the ship and began to be urgently trained by veterans on rainforest survival skills.

In short, despite numerous difficulties, the planned start date for the ground search operation has to be postponed by another month.

Ryan's team was thus able to continue adapting to the base, but even so, every day there was torture.

"Snapped!"

As sparks exploded in the darkness, profanities echoed from the marching tents.

Seton grumbled as he got out of bed and turned on the light, immediately smelling a burnt odor coming from the fan motor.

I don't know if it's due to humidity or unstable voltage, but the fan keeps breaking parts these days. I have to fix it every time, otherwise I won't be able to sleep at night.

While he was repairing the bed, there were constant wails and the sound of swatting mosquitoes coming from the bed; the commonly used mosquito repellents were completely ineffective.

"FXXK!"

Ryan, unable to bear the stings any longer, stood up and said:
"I'm going to take a dip in the water, anyone want to come with me?"

"I'm going!"

The diminutive Torres immediately got up and followed Ryan outside to find two empty oil drums with their lids pried open. They filled them with water and squatted inside, which was both cool and prevented them from being bitten.

The two soaked in the water for an unknown amount of time in a daze, when Torres suddenly heard a buzzing sound.

Did Seton fix the electric fan?
He got up and shook off the water, but then he seemed to see a dark shadow flash past the treetops. He rubbed his eyes and looked more closely.

His movements woke Ryan, who was almost asleep.

The latter tried to get up but lost his balance and fell down, bucket and all, screaming:

Damn it, my ass!

"Wait, boss, it looks like a giant bat flew by. My god, it feels bigger than a person."

"Forget about the bat, if you don't pull me up, I'm kicking your ass!"

Torres, while supporting Ryan, couldn't help but say:
"Hey, I'm reminded of the Mothman. I swear I really saw that thing just now."

"No scary stories allowed!"

……

In the darkness of the bushes, the T6 drone quickly retreated and moved away after nearly being exposed.

Visibility is too poor at night, and it is inappropriate to rely solely on the naked eye for drone reconnaissance.

By the time Tang Wen saw the two naked men, it was too late. All he wanted to do was go back and cleanse his eyes, and quickly install infrared cameras.

(End of this chapter)