Chen Mo was not surprised at all that the crazy old man was sitting at He Bi's desk and complaining.
Why bother? This person is serious but easy to get along with.
"If you don't have a good meeting, you come out to ask about Lute." Why bother throwing a cigarette to Chen Mo with a smile.
"Didn't you go to the meeting too?"
"Me?" He Bi pointed at his nose: "I have been assigned, and now I am in charge of communications."
"I heard you are the leader."
"Head of the communications team, responsible for laying the telephone lines." Why bother lighting up the cigarette, Erlang's leg hit the desk: "Is Wei Weili okay?"
"Do you know each other?"
"Nonsense, I was her instructor when she first joined the corps." He Bi blew out a smoke ring: "It's all old history."
Chen Mo seemed to understand why he was sent down.
Why bother throwing the lighter to Chen Mo: "Okay, stop talking nonsense and listen to the old gentleman talking to us about Lute."
Chen Mo nodded.
In fact, why bother didn't know the crazy old man? It was almost driving him crazy to arrange the job of laying telephone lines for such a restless person. He couldn't go to the front line.
The old man was brought back by him under the pretext of interrogation to relieve his boredom...
"Lute is an intelligent life. I am very sure that they must be intelligent." The crazy old man rummaged through the documents and found an anatomy diagram: "Look! Root's head is nearly a quarter of a human being's." Three sizes, although the neurotransmitters and neuron composition are different, and we cannot biologically decode it now, but in terms of relative brain capacity alone, the brain of this creature is not even smaller than that of humans!"
"This does not mean that Lute is wise." Chen Mo puffed out smoke.
"Nonsense!" the crazy old man shouted: "I have specifically studied Root's exhaust vent! I am sure that this creature has a sound system similar to language! It can be compared to the extinct orca of its home planet! Even if there is no human language The systems are advanced and they are capable of even the most basic communication.”
Chen Mo and He Bi looked at each other, but neither of them spoke.
The crazy old man rummaged around and found anatomy information.
"There is a special friction material on Root's exhaust hole. Through the friction frequency, it can emit infrasound waves that cannot be heard by human ears. This is the way of communication between them! As long as you give me three months... no, two months, I can roughly decipher Root's language system! But damn it! My experiment was stopped!" The crazy old man muttered nervously: "This is definitely a huge loss to biology! Absolutely!"
"How can you be sure that's how they communicate?"
"You don't need to know the reason for scientific matters. You just believe that the results of my experiment are absolutely correct!" The crazy old man lost his mind: "This time the Kurt Corps is over."
"How do you say that?" Chen Mo frowned.
"Crop! Creep is the transmitter for Straker's survival materials. Have you ever thought about where the energy source of the creep comes from? Creep is not a plant, nor is it a fungal life. It has no ability to survive independently. Not to mention independent reproduction, you have never thought about why before humans arrived on Ross Star, most of the land on this planet was covered by fungi." The crazy old man shook his head and sighed: "The mother nest is the native overlord here. "
Chen Mo seemed to have grasped the key point.
"Talking about the source of energy, what is the source of energy for the carpet?"
"Many things are theoretical and have no experimental basis..."
"It's okay, just say it, I'm not listening to the lab report." He Bi said.
The crazy old man looked at Chen Mo, then at He Bi, and nodded heavily.
"I think the carpet is the skin of the mother's nest."
"Huh?" Chen Mo frowned: "Be clear."
"I used to stay at the North Central Academy of Sciences, and I saw some experimental data on the Eridium Energy Society a long time ago. Human beings have never obtained a complete brood sample from the time they colonized the Ross planet. Do you know why?"
"Why?"
"Lute and Sexon seem to be the overlords of the planet, but in fact they are not. In my opinion, these creatures are just companion products of the mother nest. The mother nest creates a carpet and collects energy through the carpet... although it is not yet known. The way to collect energy, but we can make a bold guess! Why does Sexon’s stomach have no digestive function? Why does Sexon still need a crop even though it can absorb energy from the carpet?”
Chen Mo narrowed his eyes.
"Lute is the hunter of the mother's nest! Sexon is the engineer of the mother's nest! They will eat the prey, carry it back to the mother's nest in the crop, and then throw it to the mother's nest in the form of rumination. In this way, the mother's nest It can collect energy without moving, ensuring its own metabolism to the greatest extent, and at the same time using the extended carpet to supply energy to Saxon. We can imagine the brood as the lord of Saxon. And if the brood dies , then Sexon will definitely die. The reason why no complete brood sample has been obtained is because Sexon has been protecting the brood! And Root, it is difficult to survive without the brood! "
Chen Mo thought of the mutant Root struggling to survive on the transport ship.
"Is this your guess?"
"That's right! It's my guess, but my intuition tells me that this guess is probably the truth!"
"Science cannot rely on guesswork." Why bother interrupted the crazy old man: "If it is really like what you said, why has no one discovered the brood nest yet?"
"I think the mother nest is probably underground. On the surface, it looks the same as a normal fungus carpet. However, Straker organisms can know the specific location of the mother nest based on the pheromones transmitted by the fungus carpet... In other words, the mother nest itself cannot Being mobile, they remember the coordinates of the mother nest.”
"OK OK, even if what you said is true, what does it have to do with what you said when you broke into the conference room before?"
"Of course it does matter!" the crazy old man became excited: "The Brood is the lord of the Strak biome. The Strak creatures are like pariahs and no one cares about them when they die, but now we may have offended the lord here! Or maybe It is human development that has seriously affected the survival of this mother nest, so it is calling its companions through the fungus blanket!"
"Through creep?"
"At present, there are at least 40% of the continent of Ross Star still covered by fungi. Of course, this 40% is composed of the fungi secreted by countless broods. Since there are neurotransmitters in the brood, it can provide Lute and Sexon transmit information, why can't information be transmitted between the mother nest and the mother nest? The link of the carpet is the communication method between the mother nests!" The crazy old man shouted: "The mother nests within our range are calling. Countless reinforcements! If these reinforcements lose, there will be more reinforcements! You think this is a war between us and the native creatures of Strak! No! Wrong! This is a war between us and the Brood! This is a war between the Kot Corps and the A war of hundreds of broods!”
Chen Mo and He Bi looked at each other.
"What they care about now is not humans but their compatriots! If we can give them enough time to pick up their compatriots, this war can be completely avoided! Otherwise, it will be a fight between the human and the brood for unnecessary things! Sacrifice! Everyone is innocent! Whether they are humans or the Brood!"
Why bother to ponder for a moment and ask: "How sure are you of what you said?"
"Ninety percent."
"Ninety percent of it is just based on speculation?"
"It's not just speculation! When I was at the North Central Academy of Sciences, I was a member of the Ross Star Biobehavioral Specialty. Based on the research of the project team's mentor, coupled with the recent research on Root and Sexon, the credibility of my speculation is even higher than This one is even higher.”
"The actions of the Corps cannot be based on speculation. Even if I believe you, the two of us alone cannot play a decisive role." He Bi shook his head: "Just talk to the two of us. If you tell me, you will probably go to the court of the Corps."
The crazy old man sighed.
"Wait a minute, can you find the location of the mother nest?" Chen Mo suddenly had an idea.
"We don't even know what the mother nest looks like, whether it's on the ground or underground, how big it is. Where can we find it?"
"Isn't there any way to determine the location of the brood nest?"
The crazy old man shook his head and stared at Chen Mo as if he remembered something again.
"Yes! There is a way!"
"Tell me."
"There is still a Saxon alive in the laboratory. Fill his crop with organic matter and mark it. Maybe we can actually find the mother's nest."
Why bother glanced at Chen Mo.
"Boy, you'd better just ask."
"I plan to report this idea and wait for the opinions from above."
"Nonsense."
"It's not nonsense at all." Chen Mo grinned: "If you can do special operations tasks, don't go into full-scale war. Isn't this the reason why the advance team exists?"
"Your request will be rejected 10,000 percent of the time."
"If you reject it, reject it. I'm just giving it a try. If special operations can really solve the current problem, the mining of iridium ore can be put on the agenda."
Why step on the cigarette butts?
"It's up to you. If you really plan to make a proposal, remember to bring my name."
"good."
At one o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Mo formally proposed special operations to the First Corps as the actual leader of the task force.
Immediately, Chen Mo's proposal was put on the desks of Xu Rushi and the commander of the Donghuang Corps.
The Donghuang Corps held an emergency meeting, and after an hour and a half of debate, Chen Mo's proposal was officially adopted.
The first detachment of the Donghuang advance team cooperated with Chen Mo's operation, so why should they be included in it.
When the notice came out, Chen Mo led the team to sort out the weapons. Why did everyone think that Chen Mo was joking with him.
It wasn't until he saw the red-headed document that the gray-haired He Yi became serious.
"Are you fucking kidding me? Can your three-nothing proposal pass the review? Is the commander of the Corps your father?"
"The opportunity is fleeting. You have to face tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of beasts, or you can win. If you are the leader, which one will you choose?"
"The question is..."
"Sir He, let's go. I'll tell you on the way."
In this way, the fifty advance team carrying heavy firepower and equipped with ten plasma shields officially set off.
On the other end, the crazy old man also received the highest authorization, and the last surviving Sexon was released from the laboratory after his crop was filled with syrup.
Because of the extremely strong electromagnetic interference, ordinary tracking equipment cannot work. This sexon has an isotope spike nailed into its carapace. Using the spike as a mark, everyone only needs to track the isotope.
Just in case, a pheromone tracker was assigned to the team, and Chen Mo was placed at the front of the team as a special operations consultant.
Although he is at the same level as the combat captain, he has no command authority on the battlefield.
The higher-ups probably also recognized the fact that Chen Mo, a common man, could only be used as a leading soldier.
At 3:30 in the afternoon, the team left the safe zone and followed the isotope markers toward the depths of the ecosystem.
The leader of the advance team is a steady man in his early thirties, with a soldier's haircut and two scars on his face.
Listen to what he said, this man is a ruthless person who has participated in the Kurt Wilderness Search Team and has rich practical experience.
The leader of the advance team held the isotope tracker in his hand and hung it slowly behind the fleeing Sexon, never exceeding a distance of two kilometers.
After marching for nearly an hour, Sexon stopped moving on the isotope tracker, and the telescope could not observe the position through the many umbrella trees. As a special operations consultant, Chen Mo finally came into use.
"Zhonglang Chen Mo, I need a scout, and only you can do it."
The advance team leader signaled everyone to set up their defenses and spoke to Chen Mo alone.
"no problem."
"Don't shoot unless absolutely necessary."
Chen Mo smiled and said: "I don't have a gun at all."
"I will wait there for thirty minutes. If you don't come back, the advance team will move closer to your position."
"clear."
After saying hello to He Bi, Chen Mo ducked out of sight with the alloy blade on his back.
The advance captain looked at He Bi and then at Chen Mo who had disappeared.
"Level 3 superpower?"
"Don't know, but I heard he defeated the lioness."
The captain's mouth twitched twice and he didn't respond.
Chen Mo came back in less than ten minutes, bringing with him a fragment of carapace with an isotope nail attached.
The captain wiped the blood from the carapace fragments.
"Did you kill it?"
"No, there were only fragments of carapace when I arrived. I suspect it was made by other Strak creatures, but of course, I'm not sure."
The captain signaled the team to continue moving and arrived at the place where the carapace fragments were found. The pheromone trackers went out and began to search for the disappeared Sexon.
"Thirty-seven degrees northeast, I found a total of four pheromones. It should be the same as what the special consultant said. Other creatures came to respond to it and knocked off the carapace."
The captain adjusted the compass and looked up at the sun.
"There are less than two hours until dark. It will be difficult to catch up with Sexon who escaped before dark. Do you have any experience marching at night in the ecological circle?" the captain asked Chen Mo.
"No."
He pondered for a moment.
The captain still let the pheromone tracker be the leader and began to track the fleeing Sexon.
The advance team advanced quickly and orderly.
Another half-hour of silent march.
Even Chen Mo felt depressed.
Finally, the pheromone tracker raised his hand and signaled everyone to stop.
"The pheromone branch is getting denser and fresher. We should be almost at the target location."
"How dense?"
"Level three."
"Freshness?"
"Level 1."
The captain signaled the team to stop and organize their equipment.
"Check the weapons, Sir He, you lead a team of four to find the commanding heights for fire support, equipped with night vision goggles. Chang Nuo, your team is the vanguard..."
After the captain finished making all the tactical arrangements, he turned to look at Chen Mo.
"All my arrangements are aimed at Strak creatures. No one knows the combat strength of the brood. If the brood has the ability to protect itself or even fight, it will be up to you to solve it."
"no problem."
Chen Mo pulled out the giant alloy blade he was carrying.
The captain glanced at Chen Mo and then at his team members.
He made a tactical advancement gesture.
"start!"
