Armored train in the apocalypse

Chapter 192 Capturing the Seven-Man Squad!

"No need to warn me. Mr. Shu already told me before we left that even if we can't steal the Gene Prototype, we must bring you back intact. We can't let anything go wrong. Otherwise, I'll crush those two little bugs when we encounter them."

Zhao Kuo slowly and deliberately spoke while glancing at the HT-426 in the rearview mirror.

Only he knew what a stunning body was hidden beneath the combat uniform.

That profiling slut 428 isn't even a tenth as good as her.

Unfortunately, he only saw HT-426 wear a formal dress once, and she was breathtakingly beautiful.

As Zhao Kuo was reminiscing, he suddenly felt the speed of the vehicle beneath him increase dramatically.

HT-426's voice sounded like it contained shards of ice, "Don't mention him in front of me. Our relationship isn't close enough for you to challenge my bottom line."

Zhao Kuo raised his hands, which were encased in the exoskeleton, and said helplessly, "Fine, fine, I know you're ruthless—"

"boom!"

The all-terrain infantry fighting vehicle crashed directly into the road sign next to it, but showed no sign of stopping.

During the journey, the rear cabin door opened, and Zhao Kuo was kicked out.

"Now that you've discovered my true nature, you'd better run and catch up. If you can't keep up, I'll carry out the mission myself."

The three chariots sped away.

Zhao Kuo was left standing there dumbfounded.

He awkwardly touched his nose and strode after the chariot.

……

A 16-meter-wide "mobile fortress" sped along the railway tracks outside Shunan.

The tracks glided over the gravel and rubble as if walking on flat ground, and even reached speeds of 70 km/h in some flat areas.

When passing through a narrow platform, the armed train slowed down, first placing the train on the left onto the rails, and then disconnecting the two layers of iron and wood in the middle, retracting them and attaching them to the sides of the carriages.

What started as a single mobile fortress has been transformed into two separate trains.

"Crack—bang!"

The tracks retracted, the wheelset landed on the rails, and the ground trembled heavily.

The train slowly accelerated, waiting for another train to climb onto the tracks before speeding forward, quickly exceeding the 70km/h limit.

The cockpit of the [Xuanjia] vehicle is much larger than the original front of the car, resembling a small living room.

Liang Kuan's original narrow and hard chair has been transformed into a bionic spinal support cabin. It can not only lie flat, but also has all the basic functions such as heating, massage and ventilation. The view is a dome-shaped panoramic screen, which brings the scenery outside the car to life with almost no delay or blur.

Behind the driver's seat is a stepped command station, which has three levels thanks to the terrifying height of the [Xuanjia].

Xiao Zhao led a dozen or so logistics staff to familiarize themselves with the various devices and dynamic data on the desktop.

These personnel will be stationed in the cockpit from now on, and their main tasks will be to assist Liang Kuan in analyzing various information, operating drones, and contacting other car insurance personnel.

Like the eyes of an armored train, it observes but makes no decisions.

Footsteps sounded, and someone walked out from the back carriage. The ground pressure sensor gradually lit up with a cold white light, which connected all the way to the command station at the top.

The image depicts the broad shoulders and back of a young man, with wild and unruly long hair draped over his shoulders, each strand as black and shiny as obsidian, swaying slightly with his movements.

The round-faced Deputy General Manager Deng beside me was giving a long and detailed introduction to the various aspects of the armed train.

"We use the highest strength titanium alloy for our tracks. Although its overall performance is not as good as the steel produced by the manufacturing team, the tracks are modular and can be replaced later. The hard metal can better resist centrifugal force. After testing, it can currently reach 75km/h unloaded. If the tracks were made of pure steel, it should be able to reach 80km/h..."

There are four main factors that limit train speed: track resistance, centrifugal force resistance, power consumption, and suspension system.

“Our Shunan suspension system is absolutely top-notch in the world. Unless there is a major breakthrough, this suspension system can remain relevant for ten years.”

"Resistance is unavoidable; the key is to resist centrifugal force. The best solution is to increase the strength of the material."

"..."

"I remember the material strength."

Although Su Huan's gaze remained fixed on the panoramic screen overhead, he remembered every word that Vice President Deng said.

"In order not to affect the integrity of the front of the train, the connection is only made at the rear compartments, and all connections are sealed so that no water will seep in even when the train is opened or closed in water..."

Su Huan nodded in approval.

The connection design between the two trains was what he was most satisfied with.

The iron and wood platform between the two trains is also enclosed, like a ship's cabin.

This is equivalent to the armed train having an additional storage space of 6m (width) × 30m (carriage length + carriage bridge connection) × 5 (height) × 50 (number of carriages).

There are so many things that can be done with such a large area.

Even if it's not used as regular storage space, it can still serve as a space for train crew to move around.

It can greatly relieve psychological stress.

A group of officers from the armed corps also came over from the back carriage.

He Jie’s loud voice was even faster than the motion sensor light, “Train conductor, this combat platform is really well designed, no wonder you’re an expert. Also, I see that there are a lot of heavy weapon mounting positions reserved in each carriage. Where do we go to get some big stuff?”

Before Su Huan could even express his surprise, Vice President Deng said boldly, "I designed this myself. We have many carriages, and I have reserved space for various caliber artillery pieces. Whether it is a 155mm self-propelled howitzer mounted on a vehicle or a 127mm naval artillery piece, it can be used immediately after installation. Moreover, there is no need to worry about recoil cancellation. I had already considered this when designing the carriage frame."

"Could it be that Vice President Deng came from a military factory before?"

Su Huan pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on.

"Hey! The train conductor guessed right. I, Old Deng, used to work in a military factory for a while..."

Su Huan's lips twitched. No wonder this old guy was so passionate.

Including Director Xu and his team who are currently at the base laboratory.

Before becoming a mobile orphanage, the armed train became a mobile nursing home.

An action anime for older viewers?
As a jumble of random thoughts flashed through Su Huan's mind, He Jie and the others also climbed to the highest command platform.

"By the way, I remember the all-around energy detector was reinstalled, right?"

Su Huan ignored them and continued to ask.

Vice President Deng pushed up his glasses and exclaimed, "That equipment is really a great thing. It's already installed on the front of the vehicle and can be used through the control panel in front of you. Of course, there are even easier ways to use it."

"Activate the all-around energy monitoring device."

Vice President Deng spoke clearly and distinctly.

As soon as he finished speaking, the curved transparent touchscreen in front of Su Huan suddenly lit up, displaying two overlapping maps covered with dense red dots.

Su Huan's eyes widened in surprise, and he blurted out, "Intelligent AI?!"

"That's not..."

A mysterious smile appeared on Vice President Deng's round face.

"I arranged it..."

Xiao Zhao, sitting on the workbench below, said weakly.

Cao!
It turns out to be artificial intelligence.

The train conductor scratched his head and sighed softly, speechless.

"Are these red dots the detected generalized energy fluctuations?"

Vice President Deng explained, "These are all the detectable fluctuations within a ten-kilometer radius. This equipment is already very sophisticated; it can detect everything from mutated plants to ordinary zombies to evolved beings, and then display them on the monitor through the system mounted on the [Mystic Armor]."

"The topographic map of this base map comes from the train database. If we turn on drones and acoustic positioning at this time, we can get a more detailed map. The system will automatically synthesize this kind of visual map by combining multiple detection results."

(Similar to an evolved version of the current command center)
As she spoke, Xiao Zhao tapped the grading indicator twice, and the dense red dots instantly decreased in number, mostly scattered across the map, with only two groups being the most concentrated.

There are five of them, about ten kilometers behind the train, occasionally falling off the edge of the all-powerful detection range, but they can catch up again after a while.

The largest red dot led eleven others coming from the north of the train.

It looks like we'll be meeting the other five red dots soon. The people on the command platform fell silent instantly.

They may not know how to operate the equipment, but they can still understand the hierarchical annotations in the lower right corner.

Currently, all the energy levels appearing on the screen are at least first-order, especially the large red dot in the north, which has already reached second-order.

"That thing to the north could be a horde of zombies, and what are those five things chasing us?"

"Vice President Deng murmured."

He Jie gritted his teeth and sneered, "What else could it be but someone rushing to be reborn?"

He was furious. He had just killed a batch of people a couple of days ago and then made a promise to the train conductor.

As a result, five more foolish people followed the train today!

"These are five Tier 1 cultivators; they shouldn't be from Shun'an's forces, right?"

Lin Jin said with some doubt.

While the group was talking, Gao Yuan, who was standing at the back, looked at Tong Zizhan's face with unease and found that he also looked very bad, with a thin layer of sweat on his forehead.

Sensing his gaze, Tong Zizhan nodded almost imperceptibly.

Gao Yuan felt a chill run down his spine.

'Damn it, it really is someone from the company!'

There's almost nothing to guess about the quantity and quality.

Although the apocalypse has only just begun, Deep Blue Data's reconnaissance teams have already carried out many missions, and some familiar factions can tell which faction they belong to just by glancing at their numbers and formations.

Hearing that He Jie and others were already applying to fight, Tong Zizhan barely maintained his composure on the surface, but inwardly he was cursing them out.

I don't know what the company was thinking, sending out these five idiots.

They didn't even activate a general energy barrier, thinking that avoiding Yu Yue's voice perception from ten kilometers away would make them worry-free.

The company has a policy requiring employees to avoid being identified as undercover agents.

But if it can't be avoided, whose side is he on?

'Absolutely infuriatingly stupid!'

While cursing under his breath, Tong Zizhan stepped forward and said, "Could they be an evolved human just passing by? Should I lead the team to check them out?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Xiao and Jiang Rong, who were standing behind him at the same level, looked at him in surprise.

He Jie squinted and turned around to carefully examine Tong Zizhan.

Is he trying to get ahead?
Unexpectedly, this usually quiet kid dared to look for a scene in front of him.

interesting.

Goat and Qu Hang looked at Tong Zizhan, then at the train conductor, and they had roughly the same thought in their minds.

There were quite a few people standing on the command platform, but from beginning to end, only the voices of Su Huan, He Jie, and a few others could be heard.

It's not that they have a low profile, but rather that the military places the highest emphasis on discipline. They are all professional soldiers, and obedience to orders and commands is ingrained in their very being.

Now the train's internal structure has been reorganized and divided into two parts. Leaving aside the factions within the crew, the armed forces side is He Jie's territory.

The train conductor personally appointed him as a senior colonel, but there is a gap in the military rank system.

Therefore, He Jie is often the only voice from the military side.

With his back to everyone, Su Huan licked the corner of his mouth.

He was a little curious about how Tong Zizhan planned to resolve this matter and give him a plausible reason.
“What Xiao Tong said makes sense. Five first-tier evolvers are indeed beyond what Shun An can provide. Then go out and take a look.”

Once the order was given, no one questioned it anymore.

Three minutes later, Tong Zizhan and Gao Yuan got off the car with the remaining three teammates.

Another one was killed while on a reconnaissance mission.

"I'd like to see what happens when the drone takes off."

He Jie didn't take what had just happened to heart at all, and said casually.

Su Huan also looked at the screen with great interest.

Because the train is traveling in the opposite direction to the dozen or so red dots to the north, the distance between them is decreasing very quickly, and they may collide in a short while.

What's even more interesting is that both the light spots to the north and the light spots to the side and rear are on the same side of the train.

……

As soon as he got out of the car, Tong Zizhan's expression turned gloomy.

Gao Yuan turned the ring around. "Since they're just passing by, should we give them a heads-up to avoid any unnecessary conflict later?"

Tong Zizhan glanced cautiously at the train and shook his head slightly.

You can't warn them now, you haven't even seen their faces yet. If you fire two shots, the people in the car will think you're tipping them off.

With a slight sigh, the two men, their faces tense, led the group toward the five people behind them.

About ten kilometers to the side and rear.

The group ran quickly close to the buildings, their speed almost as fast as the train.

The team, which originally consisted of five people, now has two more.

"The armed train has gone crazy for some reason. We've been watching it for days, but there's been no movement..."

One person said as he ran.

The reconnaissance captain glanced at the two Steel Council members in charge of oversight.

I shook my head secretly.

The Steel Council used to be a force to be reckoned with, but now its leading advantage has been completely wiped out. Apart from some informational advantages, it has been reduced to the level of an ordinary survivor in all other aspects.

These two inspectors didn't even reach the first rank.

After bypassing the tall buildings, the group could vaguely see the steel behemoth on the railway tracks ten kilometers away.

The clanging sounds made the surrounding zombies restless, causing them some trouble to advance.

"Find a vehicle and move within five kilometers of the target area!"

……

To the due north, Zhao Kuo was crouching on the off-road vehicle, while HT-426 sat in the driver's cab of the armored vehicle. However, the sound was clearly transmitted to his ears through the universal communication device inside the exoskeleton armor.

"An armed train has been spotted. It is on the right track, about five kilometers away."

After stretching his wrists, Zhao Kuo calmly said, "447, prepare to intercept the train; 339, deal with the Steel Manipulator; everyone else, prepare for battle."

According to the information provided by Wang Yi and Mr. Shu, although the armed train could repair the tracks, it had to be stopped.

This is enough.

He wasn't part of the Steel Council; if the other side stopped, he had plenty of ways to break open that tin can.

"Wait a minute, there are two more groups of people nine kilometers away, one with about five people and the other with about seven people."

Zhao Kuo leaned forward slightly, and the mechanical devices on his body began to perform a pre-battle self-check.

His voice became low, hoarse, and deep.

"Don't worry about the five-person team; they're probably the Deep Blue Data reconnaissance team. The seven-person team is likely part of the armed train force. Didn't Chairman Wang send some people with advanced reconnaissance capabilities? Assess their skill level."

"Five are at the first rank, and two have not yet reached the rank."

A cold glint flashed in Zhao Kuo's eyes. "Elite, then we can't let them go. There aren't many elite evolved beings on the armed train, and the dual-domain gene prototype is very likely inside."

They immediately opened the team channel and announced, "The original interception plan is temporarily suspended; we will instead capture the seven-person team!"

(End of this chapter)