Chapter 373: Airborne
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rundi
The helicopter engine roared.
Sitting in the cabin, Jiang Chen conducted a final check of the equipment on him. He was wearing the new sample model of the T-4 power armor.
Pitch black painting and thick front armor. The armor renowned for its defense looked a lot more reliable than the T-3.
“Weapon system, functional, power system, functional…”
Lights flashed as Jiang Chen scanned each of the modules of the power armor. Although there were some differences to the operating system compared to the T-3, the look remained mostly the same.
The cursor in his field vision moved with the focal point of his pupils. After he confirmed that all systems were operational, Jiang Chen grinned at the T-3 across from him.
Of course, throw the metal box, he knew she couldn’t see him.
“Are you a kid?” Sun Jiao mocked.
“Eh?”
“Remember to close your communication channel next time you chuckle like that,” Sun Jiao, without any consideration of his dignity, continued to mock him.
Yao Yao beside Jiang Chen giggled discreetly while covering her mouth. She was not in a power armor but had an earphone attached to her mouth; she could obviously hear their conversation.
Zhao Gang in a carbon nano suit had a Ghost Sniper Rifle in his hand. He sat there without saying a word. From the not-so-expressive face, Jiang Chen couldn’t determine if he had no reaction or was trying hard not to laugh.
As to the two other soldiers in power armor, Jiang Chen guessed they didn’t dare to laugh.
“Yao Yao put on the protective suit,” Sun Jiao reminded her.
They were about to enter the high radiation zone.
“Mhmm.” Yao Yao obediently took out the full grey body protective suit and stepped inside.
The mission was simple, airdrop at the Ministry of Geology and retreat by helicopter.
Combat units: four power armors, one sniper, and one hacker.
To conduct a mission in the zombie concentrated city center, there was no use in having an advantage in numbers. Unless an army was sent, there was no way you could outnumber the zombies. Of course, there was no point to do that just for a resource deposition map.
Because the helicopter was equipped with the Type-50 electromagnetic cannon, not including the pilots, it could only transport a maximum of six power armors. Because the T-4s weighed nearly double the T-3s, they barely managed to squeeze in four people.
With the consideration that they could encounter a Death Claw or other problematic mutants, the people executing the mission must have strong combat ability.
However, while the Fishbone base had a lot of soldiers, most of them were slaves before. They did receive training, but their training was mostly just normal combat. Qingpu’s survivors were all experienced hunters capable of hunting mutants, but Jiang Chen never allowed them to learn how to operate a power armor.
Based on the information security level of the Ministry of Geology, Yao Yao must follow them. She was young, but her gift in programming was not bad to begin with. After a year of extensive studying, no one had better skills than her in the entire base.
Sun Jiao disagreed with Jiang Chen coming along as she stated that she would protect Yao Yao, just like when they robbed the vault together. Nonetheless, Jiang Chen was still worried as it was near the city center. The danger level was nowhere comparable with the banks at Qingpu, so he insisted on going with them.
“Arriving at the target location,” The pilot’s voice sounded in the public channel.
“I am the first post.”
Zhao Gang stood up, grabbed the descending jetpack on his back, and walked to the hatch.
The hatch opened as turbulence flooded in.
Yao Yao tightly held onto Jiang Chen’s hand and narrowed her adorable eyes.
Zhang Gang bumped fist with the gunner inside the hatch and then jumped down without hesitation.
He landed on a skyscraper a thousand meter away from the Ministry of Geology to provide sniping support while guiding the cannon.
The hatch door didn’t close; the helicopter moved forward another one thousand meters before it hovered over their destination.
“Prepare to depart,” Jiang Chen spoke in the public channel, then squeezed Yao Yao’s hand, and walked to the hatch.
“First time parachuting?” Sun Jiao spoke into the private channel.
“I have tried countless times in the virtual reality training chamber.”
Jiang Chen grinned, and then followed the person in front of him, jumping from a thousand meters above ground.
The chilling wind swept across the surface of the armor, the turbulence screeched beside his ears.
Different from the training inside the virtual reality chamber, there was no loading here, there was no opportunity to redo once failed.
“Height 900 meters.” Sun Jiao’s calm voice transmitted from the public channel.
“700 meters-”
“500 meters.”
“Open the descending device.”
At the same time, Jiang Chen activated the turbine engines behind him.
The eerie blue flame burst out as the drag force quickly halted the rapid downfall of the power armor. The scenery on the ground gradually increased in size. Through the helmet, Jiang Chen already saw the street tightly packed with zombies.
The airport was nearby, and before the war, it was a high traffic area. The dead bodies not cleaned up were the culture of X1 bacteria.
The engine output was at its maximum. Jiang Chen adjusted his landing position with both feet directed at the ground.
Boom!
Concrete dust scattered everywhere as two giant pits appeared on the concrete ground.
The zombies’ blank stares moved in their direction as their eyes began to turn a bloodthirsty red. The daytime was not its home field, but this didn’t mean they will let the living creature beside their mouths escape.
Without stopping, Jiang Chen immediately raised his left leg and swept away the zombies leaping at him like a hammer.
The trident revolving machine guns rotated as bullets splashed out like raindrops. It took down a giant area of zombies.
At the same time, the other power armors all landed.
“Enter the Ministry of Geology,” as soon as she gained footing, Sun Jiao immediately ordered.
“Understood.”
Three replies echoed as the four quickly moved towards the building.
Because it was located at the outskirt of the city center, they were uncertain about the stability of the building. The power armor’s landing location, therefore, couldn’t be chosen on the roof of the building. The threat of a thrower and an acid bug that possessed long-range threat meant that the helicopters couldn’t be too close to the ground, so the four could only drop onto the street.
They dashed into the door. Jiang Chen who was responsible for the securing the backend kicked a few zombies dashing at him to the other side of the street. Then he fired his machine gun at the waves of zombies.
At the same time, a thousand meter away.
Zhao Gang crawled onto the roof with the crosshairs at the zombies flooding towards the Ministry of Geology.
In the scope, a three meters high thrower waved its feeble legs, and giant stomach stumbled towards the door before it threw the infant zombie in its hand.
The infant sized zombie was aimed directly at Jiang Chen, but it was dissected into several parts by a bullet.
“Distance 1100 meters.”
Zhao Gang took a deep breath and pressed the trigger.
Bang-!
Over 1100 meters in the distance, the sniper rifle bullet penetrated the neck of the thrower without any doubt.
The black blood splattered everywhere, and the thrower immediately died. At the same time, its stomach blew up as a bunch of zombie infants crawled out and let out terrifying screams.
It was the monster that was the most difficult to deal with in the city center. The infant zombies would expand rapidly when it approached its target. Then, it would blow up and emit highly concentrated zombie bacteria. Although these type of attacks were ineffective against the power armor that defended against nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, it was the most difficult to deal with to the rather slow infantries.
Not far away in the distance, a few more throwers were moving towards the Ministry of Geology. Even two Roshans were slowly moving in their direction.
“Should be ready?”
When he saw Jiang Chen’s hand signal, Zhao Gang understood. He aimed the crosshair at the waves of zombies as he flipped open the laser mark switch.
“10 kilograms mass bomb loaded.”
“Fire-”
Followed by the rumble that broke through the sound barrier, one bomb landed from the sky and smashed into the middle of the zombies.
Boom-!
The shells scattered as it completely swept the area.
When the dust faded, Jiang Chen and the team already retreated into the building.
The zombies who had lost the target roared for a moment longer before they returned to their slowness.
“Direct hit, nice shot.” Zhao Gang grinned and closed the laser marker.
Just like the plan, this mission was not difficult.