The Great Desert is located in the western part of the province of Luoxia.

Despite its name, it's not as "desolate" as most wastelanders think.

the concrete buildings that have collapsed or been flooded with yellow sand, and the rusty warehouses and factories; All of them are indicative of the prosperity of this place in the past. Even if the rolling yellow sand blew for two centuries, it still did not completely submerge this man-made miracle that spanned thousands of kilometers.

Not only that, but a large amount of desalinated seawater seeps into the underground rock formations due to the rupture of the pipes, creating a rich groundwater reservoir due to the intersection of underground ocean current pipelines.

As a result, even though there are many meteorological disasters such as earthquakes, sandstorms, radioactive fallout, and thundercloud storms, the species that are active in this area are more abundant than in the neighboring province of Luoxia. At that time, there were only a few oases left to the province of Luoxia, but here the situation is quite the opposite. There are even so many favors left over that they have overflowed "Damn...... What's that?"

Huge snakes as thick as oil drums swam slowly between the two collapsed tall buildings, their chapped skin like dry yellow earth, lurking in the soft quicksand like a fallen giant tree.

Looking at the tens of meters long giant snake wriggling forward in the quicksand, the soldier wearing the exoskeleton took two steps back with a numb scalp.

His name was Su Ming, his position was that of a precision shooter, and the number 26 on his breastplate and arms was his and his brothers' number, and it was also the symbol of the "26th Commando of the Enterprise".

As one of the few enterprises that participated in the Battle of Luoxia Province

team, they mainly carry out forward, guerrilla and sabotage missions behind enemy lines in warfare.

While most of the residents of Ideal City give credit to their allies for their victories, they have not been involved in many battles. It's just that it doesn't sound so good in a press release.

Walking to Su Ming's side, Yun Song stared at the giant snake twice, the box in the tactical eyepiece locked it in the center, and the progress bar walked along the edge of the box.

"There is no record of it in the database...... You found it first, why don't you give it a name?" Su Ming touched the back of his head. "Sandworm"

Before Yun Song could speak, Gu Wei, who was wearing power armor on the side, laughed and teased. "It's too earthy, and the desert next door already has it, so it's not like this guy at all." "That'...... Earthworm? Big earthworms? Burgers?" Let's dig the worms...... Don't waste time. “

Interrupting the conversation between the two, Yun Song stretched out his index finger and dotted twice in the air, operating the holographic window to archive the image data, and then switched to the tactical map. "The target is about a kilometre ahead...... Everyone was vigilant and soon we were able to pick up our employees and go home. "Oh," Su Ming shouted weakly. They've been on duty for almost a full year.

Spanning thousands of kilometers of wasteland, he was even drawn into the war in Luoxia Province along the way. He kept thinking in his heart that he could make a movie when he went back to make a movie. On the orders of Yun Song, the 26th assault squad continued its operation. Led by android soldiers and drones, the group made their way along the crumbling concrete road for a while, carefully avoiding large areas of quicksand and several areas with anomalous life signals.

At this time, there was new news from the communication corps, and Yun Song raised his right fist to signal the team to stop at the gate of an abandoned factory.

At this point, they were only three hundred meters away from the mutant tribe, and in the distance they could even see camouflage bunkers piled with garbage and mutant whistles standing guard with binoculars on abandoned buildings in the distance

“!!! Mission status update, good news, the Coalition has decided to send airships to support our operations before withdrawing troops. Hearing this, many people breathed a sigh of relief.

They did not take everyone with them on this trip, and more than 30 logistics personnel and more than 20 soldiers stayed at the camping site.

With ten power armors, thirty exoskeletons, and less than thirty android soldiers, it would be difficult to take out a mutant tribe more than a dozen times their size without heavy fire support.

Even if they can win, they will suffer a lot of casualties. The mutants in the Great Desert don't just use iron barrel rifles, these brutes have mastered semi-automatic and even fully automatic weapons through trading with the Legion and the Falcon Kingdom.

Not to mention the fact that they took the scrap and junk of the pre-war era and made their own DIY weapons. Those things may seem unreliable, but if you underestimate them, you can suffer a lot.

For example, a mutant they had seen before, holding a hot ray gun made of the head and spine of the "Vanguard" robot, and even killed one of their power armor by sneak attack.

These surprise attack methods are difficult to guard against. Hearing that the alliance's support was on the way, Su Ming said excitedly, "That 400mm heavy artillery" Yun Song nodded.

"Yes...... Including ground troops, and those that are not very reliable, but we need to make sure that there are no of us in the camp before we can decide whether to use an axe or a scalpel. As he spoke, he looked at the drone operator standing at the back of the line. The scouting is up to you. "Roger."

A man with a steady look made a gesture, his fist slammed on his shoulder, and the drone backpack behind him bounced open the hatch, and a quadcopter drone ejected like a crossbow arrow, flying into the sky with a 'woo' whistling sound. The screen is connected to the helmet's tactical eyepiece.

Although the signal is poor, it can barely be used. Under the control of the drone operator, the quadcopter carefully bypassed the eyes of the mutant sentries and moved to the side of the building, flying through rows of twisted steel and concrete wreckage and flying over the mutant tribe. The entire tribe is located in an abandoned factory building.

Rubbish shacks and half-collapsed factories merge into one, and large tin sheds and dried hides block twisted alleys. However, through the gap in the obscuration, a coal-like body can still be seen, with bloodthirsty fangs and knotted muscles, just like orcs in fantasy movies.

What is chilling is that these hairy and blood-drinking animals have developed cities like humans, and even clarified the social division of labor...

There are dwellings that smell of feces, gladiatorial arenas where mutants can be used for their amusement, blacksmiths and tool workshops filled with the sound of iron, plantations with unknown fruits, and pastures where livestock of all kinds are kept

Looking down on the sprawling tribe through the drone's lens, the drone operator only felt his scalp tingle.

Especially when he found his own kind imprisoned in a cage in that garbage-like ending, anger rushed to his head. "!!" What's wrong" Hearing his low scolding, Yun Song cast an inquiring glance at him.

The drone operator didn't speak, just stretched out his index finger and swiped in the air, redirecting what he was seeing to his teammates who were looking at him. The lens of the drone is zoomed in.

I saw a scarred and unbroken body locked in a rows of iron baskets made of steel bars.

Most of those with bellies are considered "lucky", mutants usually don't eat them, and those who fail to produce children for them are miserable. Many of them were tortured, not only had their arms and legs removed, but their wounds were rotting and maggots.

Mutants are extremely resilient, and they don't need bandages or anti-inflammatory drugs at all, and naturally they don't bandage animals that haven't finished eating. Many sat on the ground with their eyes blank, not even having the strength to repel the mosquitoes and flies that surrounded them, and some remained motionless, not knowing if they were dead. Not far away, on the board, a bare-armed mutant priest was delivering babies to humans handcuffed to the board in a primitive and rude manner. They don't care if those people die in the process

Cultists of Chaos are never picky eaters, and their stomachs are as strong as their muscles and bones.

The slaves who were kept as cattle may have come from the Falcon Kingdom, honey fills or lions, or even from further afield by slave traders...... Few people pay attention to where those who went missing in the war ended up.

Even though he had seen a lot of hellish scenes along the way to the wasteland, Su Ming's face still couldn't help but turn slightly pale. This is much more cruel than the predators who do the same. The soldier not far from him couldn't help but retch. "These brutes!" Gu Wei clenched the heavy machine gun in his hand, eager to rush in now and surprise them all. "They're beasts, when do you think they're not?"

Yun Song operated on the holographic window with a blank face, framed parts of the camp and marked the places where there might be living people. After doing all this, he motioned for the Signal Men to set up a signal booster device, roughly aligning it in the direction of the Iron Heart.

"This is the twenty-sixth commando, we have confirmed the location of the Blackstone mutant tribe, the number of mutants is about two thousand, the same as in the intelligence." "Survivors found in the tribe...... We couldn't get closer, not sure if there were any of us inside, I hope not. "After a burst of white noise of electricity. The voice of the answer came from the other end of the communication channel.

"Received...... We still have half an hour to arrive, if it's convenient, please help us direct them to a wider area.

Yun Song set his eyes on the two abandoned buildings not far away———— where the previous "digging worm" was passing through. That's a nice location. Both as a point of artillery fall.

Or as a grave for the beasts. "Roger, give it to us."

After finishing the communication, he waved his hand at the soldiers behind him. "Get ready to work." “……

At the same time, dozens of kilometers away on the edge of the desert, a huge steel airship was slowly pushing away the edge of the billowing yellow sand and heading towards the endless ruins.

If it is said that when he first entered the Luoxia Province, Chu Guang was shocked by the endless yellow sand and rolling clouds once. Then the shock in his heart at this moment can be said to be no less than at that time.

And even more

"Unbelievable...... Was this a city before?" Chu Guang, who was standing in the bridge, overlooked the scenery outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, and his face was full of surprise. The 100-meter-wide highway stretches straight ahead, blending in with the tall buildings on the horizon, and even if you stand on an airship at a height of 1,000 meters, you can't see the end at a glance. The land is divided into countless grids by the wreckage of interlaced roads and tracks, half of which is dense with buildings, half of which is endless desert. It may take hundreds or even thousands of years before this land completely transforms into the shape of Luoxia Province...... Standing next to Chu Guang, Wu Changnian narrowed his eyes slightly, his face was not only shocked, but also with a hint of melancholy.

…… I heard that in the era of prosperity, that is, two centuries ago, the Great Desert was not called the Great Desert, but the four industrial divisions of the People's Union. Chu Guang glanced at him and asked puzzled. "Four industrial divisions" "Yes. ”

Wu Changnian nodded, looking out the window as if he was caught in the memory of a certain video material, and after a pause, he slowly opened his mouth and continued.

“!!! The Western Industrial Zone is the beginning of all industrial chains, responsible for the production of the most basic raw materials, as well as the rough processing of raw materials transported by logistics networks and space elevators, such as synthetic chemicals, catalysts, alloys, etc. “

"The Northern Industrial Estate is a logistics and warehousing center, responsible for the storage of logistics surpluses, the distribution of finished goods, and the transfer of intermediate goods and waste materials. It has the highest density of traffic in the prosperous era, whether it is trackless or rail!! Theoretically, with the right means of transportation, you can get there from anywhere on the planet, and there are some of the densest office buildings in the area

"The Eastern Industrial Zone is the end end of the industrial chain, and the large, efficient and dense industrial chain is responsible for the processing or assembly of raw materials and intermediate products into final products." "As for the southern industrial zone, it is mainly an energy hub. It acts like a large charging plug that receives energy from the power generation facilities in outer space. "Together with the space elevator, the four industrial areas around the space elevator form a complete closed loop of the industrial chain." Chu Guang was surprised.

"Building an industrial center in the middle of the continent"

For him from another world, this sounds a bit counterintuitive.

After all, in his hometown, most of the industrial areas are concentrated in the east, especially in the coastal areas, and the western inland industrial centers are few and relatively sparsely distributed. However, here it seems to be a different story entirely. Wu Changnian nodded and continued.

"Yes, it has stable climatic conditions, far from the junction of continental plates, no active seismic and volcanic activity, and unlike the sea or the coast, where there are occasional typhoons..... there is no better place to build a space elevator site."

As he spoke, his tone couldn't help but carry a hint of emotion. "At first it was just an elevator, but then the dense transportation network began to extend to low-earth rail, gradually becoming a tower, a mountain, and even a bigger mountain. An endless abundance of resources pours from space to the surface in an astonishing abundance............... The prosperity of that era is difficult to imagine in this era, and even the ideal city is only the tip of the iceberg that restores it. ’

Wu Changnian had also heard that in the original planning; The Federation of People intends to use another two centuries to radiate the urban agglomeration to all corners of the continent of Middle-earth, with the space elevator as the center. Use the energy and alloys obtained from space mining to build the entire planet into a world

Udu City.

That blueprint is a collection of dreams and personal ideals of all people throughout the era of prosperity. Ambition and imagination will stretch infinitely on this infinitely prosperous planet, and use it as a starting point to spread to the farther galaxy.

Unfortunately, a war that lasted only three years made all those dreams come to naught. Just when Wu Changnian was reminiscing about the past, Chu Guang, who was standing next to him, had not yet recovered from the huge blueprint.

Although what he could see with the naked eye was not bragging, he still couldn't figure out how this huge industrial center could be placed in the middle of the continent. "Where does the water come from for industrial use?"

Wu Changnian was stunned, he didn't expect his focus to be here, and then said with a smile. "Isn't there an underground current pipe? What do you think the Rift Valley was doing before?" Only then did Chu Guang suddenly come back to his senses.

He had vaguely heard that the Great Rift Valley existed to store surplus energy from controlled fusion power stations, and that this was done by electrolysis of seawater. Surplus chlorine, sodium, and various metal elements precipitated from seawater, etc., are packaged and sent to the industrial zone for processing. It turned out that the underground current pipeline was not only built for the Great Rift Valley, but also for the purpose of transporting industrial water to the center of the continent, and the power of the era was even more terrifying than he imagined!! Chu Guang was shocked in his heart, but he couldn't help but feel numb in his scalp

Especially when I think of the coercion that I pretended to be, and the "cakes" that I drew for Yin Fang, Hea, Vanus and the other survivors...... How can this be regained to the greatness of the Age of Prosperity? It's not enough to mobilize 7 billion players!

What's more, it is clear that the form formation field can't accommodate so many people......... Otherwise, it makes no sense that the first generation of managers will set up a lot of rules and "send him an activation code" in a planned way. I don't know what Chu Guang was thinking at this moment, Wu Changnian smiled and continued.

"Of course, the solid hydrogen under the Rift Valley is a strategic reserve that is not used in normal times, and it is mainly the southern industrial areas that supply industrial water. It is not only an energy hub, but also responsible for desalination and wastewater recycling...... I don't know too much about it, I just looked at it from the database. To get a deeper understanding of how the whole system works, you'll have to ask an expert in this area.

"In short, the four major industrial zones account for more than 60% of the GDP of the People's Federation, and the peak is said to have reached 70%," "So remember, no one knows what will be in Vault 0, so we had better be careful and arrange our candidates carefully." Listening to that cautious tone, Chu Guang also nodded with a serious expression. I will arrange for a shelter resident with outstanding perceptual ability, Wu Changnian, nodded approvingly. "That's the best."

He'd heard about the Awakened in Vault 404.

Although he believes in Al and the machine more than the unstable biological factor of awakening, in the previous wars, the alliance has proved that people are not lost to machines in certain situations, and can even create miracles that machines can't reach, and it is always a bad thing to bring two more reliable masters.

This is why he was able to convince the Enterprise and the Legion to help the Alliance, which had "no experience in the excavation of ruins", win two spots. There is only one access card.

According to the employee named Luo Hua, the elevator they found to lead to Vault 0 was not very large, and the number of people who could go down at one time was limited......

Just then, the door to the bridge was pushed open.

Vanus walked in from outside, gave a military salute, and said cleanly.

"Word has come from the 26th Commando Team of the Enterprise that they have confirmed the coordinates of the Blackstone mutant tribe, but are not sure if there are employees of the Enterprise among the slaves captive by the mutants." If you can't be sure if it exists, then it will exist by default," turning to look at Vanus, Chu Guang said seriously, "Is there a new battle plan?" Vannus nodded.

"The battle plan is a frontal attack, and we have informed the 26th Commando that fire support will arrive in half an hour, and they intend to launch an attack in half an hour and lure enemy units to their recommended artillery coordinates."

"Very good, just follow this plan," Chu Guang nodded, and after a pause; "Have the airship gun emplacements prepare for fire, while the Burning Corps is on standby below deck, ready to support our allies." ”

"Yes!" With a clean military salute, Vanus turned and walked out of the bridge. Retracting his gaze from his back, Wu Changnian looked at Chu Guang with a grateful gaze. "Thank you for your attention to our employees." Chu Guang said with a faint smile.

"You're welcome, the crew of the Trailblazer is not just our friends, they're also kind to us."

Without that epoch-making machine tool, the later industrialization would not have gone so smoothly, even if the brains of the little players were big, there had to be something to turn the idea into reality.

Although it was a deal for each to take what he needed, he knew very well that the other party actually took good care of them, otherwise he would not have acquiesced to them so much wool. When he parted ways with Captain Luyan, he said that he would write down this favor, and now was the time to return the favor. …… But then again, that guy was a Willant?" Wu Changnian suddenly thought of something and raised his mouth. "Well, yes."

Seeing that Chu Guang's reaction was so flat, Wu Changnian couldn't help but ask, "Is it really okay?"

He had just reminded the young leader to be careful with every Willant. Looking at the slightly apprehensive gaze, Chu Guang said indifferently, "He stayed voluntarily." “

Long before going to Luoxia Province, Chu Guang had talked to Vanus about this issue, if he felt embarrassed to fight with the legion, he could stay in Qingquan City, and he would not force a person to participate in a war that he did not want to participate in.

Objectively speaking, the officers that Vanus trained for the alliance and contributed to the construction of the command system of the alliance in the early days of the business were enough to pay off his "debt". After the war, he could return to his homeland as a prisoner of war in exchange like other captives, and no one would know that he had ever served the Alliance.

However, upon hearing his offer, Vanus not only decisively refused the only chance to return home, but even openly stood in front of Finod and McEllen, the two captives destined to be exchanged, as a sign of his loyalty to the Alliance.

And the reason he gave made Chu Guang silent for a long time after hearing it.

”!!!! I spent a year thinking about the meaning of this war, and yet we seemed to get nothing but hatred and death. My troops were senselessly wiped out in the south, my commander and his men were wiped out in the north, and I felt no regrets at the moment of defeat, but a sense of relief. ”

"I don't think His Majesty the Marshal is wrong, nor do I think General Klaas is stupid, maybe if we continue on their path, we can really lead to a better future, but we don't understand it at the moment."

"As General Klaas often said, we are the most heinous criminals, and all of us will be nailed to the pillar of shame in history by future generations, but they will thank us for leaving them a vast and vast world. There are only Willantes in that world, and Willantes do not hate Willantes, tragedies that have happened before............ Neither two hundred years ago nor even more distant in the past will be repeated. ”

"But in you, I see another possibility that we have not imagined, that perhaps there is a unity in this world that transcends blood...... As Yuu said, we're all survivors, whether it's the inhabitants of the Vault or the wastelanders out there. It is not one of us that should be destroyed, but the savages that ravage the wasteland. ”

"War is a job for me, unfortunately it's the only thing I can do. But if it can make a little more sense to you, let me follow you on. ”

At the same time, on the lower deck, flashing signal lights already conveyed the order to fight in place.

An eager player has already donned the exoskeleton, grabbed their most elite gear, and brought plenty of ammo. This time it's to pick up an old friend home.

Moreover, it was an open military operation under the joint gaze of the corps, the enterprise, and the academy.

Everyone was ready to show off in front of the old ones, and show the new Governor of the Willantes whether they had lost or not. This time the opponent is a mutant! At 76th Street, our friends on the East Coast fished us out, and this time it's time for us to catch them. "Walk in front of a group of good brothers.

Lao Bai, who was wearing dragoon power armor, glanced around at the brothers who were like a rainbow, and said loudly in a loud voice. "There is only one purpose of the action - "Leave no one behind"

There was a deafening shout from the hatch leading to the deck, and even the alloy floor shook violently under the burning battle intent. "Oh oh oh" "Kill all the brutes"