Chapter 537
Canyon 19
Inside the helicopter cockpit, Briston gazed calmly through the porthole at the deep, misty canyon below.
He quickly tapped a few times on the tactical panel on his arm, sending permission commands. The defense system, which had been in a preheating state, was deactivated and put into hibernation.
After the defenses were lifted, the UH-1 helicopter was able to move forward smoothly and slowly fly directly over the canyon.
Beside Briston, a burly man with incredibly defined muscles turned to survey the two towering, steep watchtowers on either side of the canyon. "Bristol, shouldn't we check out the watchtower over there? What if the invaders are there?"
Briston followed his gaze to the top of the watchtower and saw a white male figure standing on the platform, silently watching their helicopter.
He shook his head slightly. "Let's talk about the intruder later. Our priority is to confirm the safety of the symbiote before we go find the intruder."
The burly man was completely bewildered and frowned, pressing for an answer: "What exactly is the Symbiotic Mother?"
Briston didn't explain much, casually picking up a tactical helmet from the cockpit and putting it on. His deep voice came through the visor: "This is top secret. You don't have permission to know yet. Put on your protective helmet and gear now. You can't take them off once we're at the bottom of the valley, or you'll be stuck there forever."
The burly man was reluctant and still somewhat afraid of the mysterious Ition organization. The recent events that had happened to him were unbelievable; he never imagined that he could be this strong.
He picked up the protective helmet, which looked like a motocross helmet, and put it on his head.
The helmet is extremely airtight; as soon as I put it on, I felt stuffy and suffocated, making for a very poor experience.
This helmet does not supply oxygen, but it has a built-in high-efficiency filter element and was specially developed for use in canyon projects.
The helmet can block most of the toxic mutant spores at the bottom of the valley. The only drawback is that the filter wears out quickly and must be replaced every two hours, otherwise the protective effect will be reduced.
The helicopter began its slow descent, disappearing into the thick fog of the canyon.
As the altitude continued to decrease, the fuselage began to shake violently, the lift generated by the rotor continued to decrease, and the flight status became extremely unstable.
Even though the high-speed rotating rotors can disperse the fog that is close by, the visibility is still less than 100 meters when you are in the dense fog at high altitude, and the field of vision is extremely poor.
The pilots could only rely on years of experience and feel to carefully maneuver the aircraft, trying to stay as far away from the steep cliffs on both sides as possible.
The airflow below the canyon is turbulent and unpredictable. If the helicopter is not careful during its vertical descent, it will likely get caught in a vortex ring and end up in a spinning freefall.
After barely managing to make out the outline of the valley floor, the pilot dared not descend further and eventually hovered the helicopter at a height of about forty meters above the ground. The pilot's voice came through their headsets: "I will be back to pick you up in two hours."
The valley floor is covered with dense forests and ruins, making it difficult to find a flat and open landing site.
The few relatively flat areas are occupied by large numbers of Hollow People; landing there is like delivering supplies to them.
Then, Briston, along with the burly man, descended to the bottom of the valley via a rope.
With his feet firmly planted on the soft, humus-covered soil, the burly man brushed the dust off his body—dust and decaying leaves whipped up by the airflow from the helicopter rotor.
He couldn't help but complain under his breath, "The visibility in this godforsaken place is terrible; I can't even see the road."
Briston had already taken the lead and was speaking through his helmet's microphone, "Dante, stay close to me. If you get lost here, no one can save you."
Dante scoffed, "With my current physique, nothing can hurt me." Though he spoke toughly, his body betrayed him, quickening his pace to keep up with Briston's.
Meanwhile, Rosen had returned to the missile silo. Through the monitoring from last night, he discovered that although the mothership had not moved, it had changed considerably.
Upon entering the launch silo, he clearly sensed that the environment here was even more eerie than yesterday, with the orange-yellow fog becoming increasingly thick.
The original bizarre-looking mother body has also completely changed.
Last night, the wet, translucent mucus on the surface disappeared, replaced by a layer of jet-black, hard carapace structure that covered the entire fleshy ball of the mother body.
The surface of its jet-black carapace is smooth and shiny, with a metallic texture, and it looks quite hard.
If Rosen hadn't seen the surveillance footage from last night, and hadn't seen the exposed, yellowish mineral crystal at the top of the matrix, he would hardly have believed that the large black sphere in front of him was the same matrix he had seen yesterday!
He knew that the mother body was capable of moving on its own, although it hadn't shown any signs of it last night.
Therefore, Rosen was on high alert, fearing a surprise attack.
To catch the guy, Rosen first placed a giant steel plate under his feet.
The steel plate is five centimeters thick and four meters on each side. It is a square solid steel plate with heavy-duty reinforced buckles at the four corners.
After setting up the base, he picked up a piece of gravel and threw it at the mother's black shell.
With a muffled "bang," the stone struck the black outer shell and bounced off, while the mother body remained completely still, as if it were oblivious to anything.
Seeing this, Rosen became more alert and began to approach the mother.
Just as he was about to get close to the mother's body, a sudden disturbance occurred beneath her. Two incredibly thick, fleshy vines shot out and wrapped around him with the force of tearing through the air!
Rosen reacted extremely quickly, using his feet to push back and barely dodging the mother's attack.
At the same time, the crystal on its head began to tremble violently.
To his surprise, this seemingly large, clumsy, and bulky creature was surprisingly agile. As if it had eyes, it crawled forward rapidly using its thick vines, relentlessly pursuing him, and its speed exceeded his expectations.
Just as the mother's entire body was completely moved above the giant steel plate, Rosen took a big step forward and, before the vines could entangle him again, released the giant iron box he had prepared in advance, precisely covering the entire mother inside!
The next second, a series of "bang bang bang" sounds came from inside the sealed iron box. The mother body struggled and rammed wildly inside, with great force, which made the iron box tremble slightly.
It's important to know that this square, fully enclosed iron box, which is five centimeters thick and four meters on each side, weighs nearly forty tons. It is hard enough to withstand the impact of any carbon-based life form, so the mother body should not be able to break it.