"Sorian? That doesn't sound like the scientific name of a plant, but more like some kind of code name. It seems that the secret base here is not studying bugs, but it is studying..." Reno played back the video record for a while: "Vine?"
"[I don't know, sir,]" Jimmy's voice was a little trembling: "[I'm sure I didn't find those monsters that looked like a mixture of vines and branches, but there weren't any corpses of federal agents, like, like...]
"
It's like they cleaned up the battlefield after taking out all the federal agents.
If this guess is true, then these vines are not ordinary activated plants, but some kind of intelligent creatures. At least, there are intelligent creatures controlling them behind the scenes.
"Okay, don't be nervous, Jimmy, now you go back the way you came, don't touch anything on the way, we will decide the next plan after we meet up." Renault said while sending Jimmy the mark of the meeting point.
"[Okay, okay.]" Jimmy closed the communication.
"What do you mean, I have work to do?" Tychus came over.
"Replace with incendiary bombs..." Renault looked at the dense jungle around him: "No, let's use large-caliber live ammunition. If this place burns down, we won't be able to escape."
"Captain Renault, what are you talking about? I think I heard 'incendiary bombs' and 'burn'?" Ariel, who could not receive the Ranger's internal channel, frowned: "I don't recommend using those things here."
"No, we will not trap ourselves in the fire," Raynor shook his head at Ariel: "Unless this forest refuses to let us leave."
"Refuse?" "Commander, what do you think I found?"
Ariel looked like she was still going to ask more questions, but she turned around and saw Jimmy sneaking back, so she took a half step back to signal him to speak first.
"Oh? That's right. Besides that video, did you find other things?" Renault raised his eyebrows and looked at Jimmy.
Speaking of which, when the devil in heaven chose him as a scout, the main reason was that he could hide, run fast, and provide timely information. As long as he could do these things, he would be an excellent scout. If he was asked to fight and search carefully, it would be a bit overwhelming.
.
"No! I found nothing!" Jimmy announced.
"...Very good." Renault decided to take back his praise.
"Uh, no, what I mean is..." Jimmy was speechless for a moment before he found the language: "Commander, you said, 'There is no intelligence, it is a kind of intelligence'."
"That's right, so what you're saying is that there isn't any noteworthy information in these buildings?" Renault looked at the base in the distance that looked like it had been abandoned for hundreds of years and was almost completely covered by plants.
"That's right, except for the previous surveillance video, there are no logs, records, documents and experimental results that should be available in the experimental base. If it weren't for the strange way the base was destroyed and the evidence of the previously discovered videos,
, I almost thought this was a normal evacuation and abandoned base." Jimmy said quickly.
So...Reno pondered.
It would be normal to drag away the bodies after killing the federal spies, but those vines even wiped out the monitoring records and experimental documents. This is definitely not something that an animal that has just awakened to wisdom can do, so the existence of the behind-the-scenes commander has been confirmed.
But the key now is, has the opponent escaped long ago, or is he just waiting here? If he can control the plants, then it can be said that there is no safe place in this jungle.
For a moment, Renault felt that all the plants around him were secretly opening their eyes and staring at him.
"What do you say, cowboy?" Tychus shouldered his bolter and looked like he was going to cause trouble for those plants.
"Let's go in and search," Renault finally decided: "No matter what the origin of the vine that destroyed this base is, since the other party is trying to clean up all the traces left behind, it means that it will not come back again, maybe except for
Jimmy’s work, and other things that slipped through the cracks.”
"You have the final say, boss." Tychus didn't seem to care much.
"Before that, we have to let Tosh join us. I suspect there may be some secret boxes that require spiritual power to open. Now, stay alert and be ready for sneak attacks at any time." Renault nodded, took out the flare gun and pointed it at the trees overhead to cover it.
A bright red flare was fired in a sparse direction.
"What's the promise?" Ariel raised his head and glanced at the location where the signal flare came out.
"He is a left-behind crew member specializing in combat," Renault casually compiled: "He is not good at reconnaissance. If there is no combat mission, he will generally not be allowed to accompany him."
"Oh..." Ariel seemed to believe it, nodded and began to observe the surrounding environment.
The first impression of this abandoned base is that it has been abandoned for a long time. However, after learning that the appearance at this time was basically a disguise, many places revealed flaws.
For example, the shell of the command center has no place to climb on, and is now covered with vines. The supply station is intact, but there is an inexplicable open wound on the top from the inside out. The most outrageous thing is that several riding machines
The SCV with the Vulture Car - you can't just put them in just because they look like they can be combined!
Therefore, based on the current intelligence, the commander of those plant monsters is a person who is not very familiar with military standard equipment and building functions, has a slight obsessive-compulsive disorder, and is a little careless and conceited.
"Tsk... disappointing," Tychus adjusted his bolter: "I thought Jimmy would bring out a bunch of bugs like last time."
"I don't always have problems!" Jimmy retorted angrily.
Renault ignored the bickering between the two and began to analyze the current situation.
After announcing the request for reinforcements and being on alert for such a long time, the other party has not launched an attack. It seems that they are really not here.
If everything goes as expected, when Tuo Xu arrives, he should be able to find the key information that the other party left behind after he confidently packed up the scene and left.
————
Tsk-boom!
A few hours later, a Viking fighter jet flew over the jungle, then converted to ground mode and fell directly from the place where Renault fired the flare, making a big hole in the ground.
"Hi, boss, I heard they need me here?" Tosh jumped out of the cockpit.
"Look at this sign, does it look familiar?" This scratch... Renault observed two seconds of silence for the mechanical deck maintenance personnel and pointed to the sign on the nearby armory and asked.
After confirming that the plants in the video would not attack, Renault took Tychus and Jimmy to clear the nearest building as a temporary foothold.
It has to be said that the air quality here is much better than the insect nest where it was impossible to open the mask. Ariel even made herself a cup of tea to drink.
In addition, Tosh was naturally not on standby on Bucephalos. He used the same invisibility ability of "Ghost" and "Ghost" to conduct a second search of the place that Renault had searched, but still found nothing.
"Well, I don't remember this sign. It may be a secret force of some secret department of the Federation." Tosh looked at it carefully and shook his head repeatedly.
"Oh..." Ariel seemed to be numb to Renault's behavior of revealing one trump card after another. She continued to drink tea calmly, and just looked at Tuosh up and down: "Your subordinates all have very unique styles.
of."
Renault had nothing to refute about this. Jimmy was a skinny monkey, Tychus was a burly man, and Tosh...he was an agile fat man. From this look, it seemed that "Reynold's Rangers" were all weird members.
This is all Arcturus's fault for borrowing Angela, his good-looking character!
"So, what do you think of this base?" Renault decided to ignore the topic and pointed towards the federal abandoned base.
"It's very interesting, boss," Tosh touched his chin: "I felt it in the sky. This base seems to have been completely washed by psychic energy. If I light up the psychic flame now, they will all be able to do it immediately.
Burn it."
Don't get burned. Didn't you see that Ms. Hansen's glasses started flashing again?
"No, our focus is not on these buildings and plants," Renault shook his head: "I need you to use your psychic powers to explore this base to see if there is any hidden information."
"It's very simple," Tosh grinned: "If it was a mess like an ordinary base, it would be hard to find, but since it is covered with plants full of psychic energy, those special features are easily apparent."
"Well, let's take action. Be careful not to damage them. There is no information left in this base. We can only count on you." Renault patted Tosh on the shoulder.
"Hmm, let me take a look." Tuosh pressed his forehead, his eyes suddenly lit up with a red light, and he began to "scan" the entire base.
Tosh's psychic powers were all red, while Kerrigan and Nova were all blue. Psychic power was really mysterious, so Raynor got out of the "scanning" route to let Tosh work.
"There are roughly three hiding places." After a moment, Tosh stopped "scanning" and said, "You are so lucky, the nearest one is right here."
As he spoke, he walked towards Ariel and activated his spiritual energy to open a hidden safe on the wall.
"This is a simple psychic lock, but if you don't have the ability to 'radiate psychic energy', you won't be able to open it even if you find it. You can only tear down the wall - tsk, I feel sleepy after reading this kind of experimental record." Tuo Xu
He took out two data tablets from inside and slid them a few times before throwing them to Renault without interest, then turned around and walked towards the place where he had just determined the location.
"It's a good thing we brought professionals here, Ms. Hansen?" Renault glanced at it twice and found that more than 50% of the words were unintelligible, so he handed it to Ariel.
"Is that okay?" Ariel shook the data pad: "I guess this is what you are looking for, a very important thing, right?"
"If you go back and find relevant experts to explain, it will waste a lot of time going back and forth, and you probably also want to know what happened on your own planet, right?" Renault responded not caring.
The original purpose of coming to Haiwen Planet this time was to look for bugs. Since bugs do not exist here and are replaced by strange vines, and the federal base has been destroyed, it is not a too urgent problem.
"Well, then," Ariel lowered her head and read through it for a moment: "Fortunately, it's all my expertise. Once I find all the hidden documents, I will translate them for you."
Next, Tuosh successfully found two other documents as well as the accompanying audio and video, and handed them all over to Ariel for sorting.
"There are still some incomprehensible parts of the content here. I will read the parts I understand to you one by one in order, and play the pictures and videos simultaneously." Ariel said to Renault after sorting out these secret documents in order.
.
"Please." Renault nodded.
"[The search for terrazine in Haiwen Planet went very smoothly, and its governor was not vigilant at all.]"
"[Although the Terrazine Fountain is located in a primeval forest, no affected animals were found, which is strange.]"
"[It's so ridiculous, why do plants mutate under the influence of terrazine? How can we use plants as weapons?]"
"[The growth rate of these plants is very alarming, but they still have no military value. We are considering evacuating the research institute from Haiwen.]"
"[The idiots in Tarsonis used 'psionic jump' without relevant protective measures. This is simply seeking death.]"
"[I have to admit that some departments have already achieved results. The actual combat capabilities of this crazy creature far exceed those of us slow vines.]"
"[A Venus flytrap ate the bug, good job.]"
"[Haven Star's vines evolved at an alarming rate after incorporating insect genes. I named it 'Solian']"
"[Hahaha, I can already foresee the shocked faces of the reviewers when the results are submitted next time.]"
"[No, 'Solian' is not a plant at all, it is an ancient existence that cannot be analyzed based on our knowledge.]"
"[We're done, now we just hope it doesn't learn to use the jump gate.]"
"[They are breaking down the door...]"
"No more." Ariel put down the record board in her hand: "It seems that the person in charge of the base has hidden all the research results in the hope that they will be discovered by federal agents."
"This, this, this..." Jimmy's eyes wandered, looking left and right: "Let's leave early, Commander."
"If they plan to attack us, they will take such a while," Renault waved his hand: "Ms. Hansen, do any of these research results explain their reproduction speed and reproduction method?"
"They reproduce through seeds just like ordinary plants, as long as there is enough food," Ariel turned the record to the video of "Eating Bugs" and spread her hands.
"Hey, this is really one thing that kills another thing." Tychus gloated as he looked at the creature that was eaten by the plant, which was exactly the same as the one on Marsala.
"We will be the next ones to be dropped," Renault frowned: "Ms. Hansen, how long will it take to evacuate all the residents of Haven?"
"I think... that shouldn't be possible. If there is no clear reason," Ariel shook her head: "Based on these information, the residents here will not leave their home planet until there is a clear crisis. I understand them."
"Then, there is only one way," Renault took a breath and looked at the ground: "We have to eliminate those vines before they have eaten enough terazine and want to change their taste."
"..." The plant expert tilted his head slightly: "It's not impossible."
