Peacock was walking on Interstate 5 when he heard the faint roar.
This road used to be a main road connecting north and south, but now it is beyond recognition.
It is almost completely swallowed up by weeds, and only the occasional cement road surface can prove that this was once a highway.
Looking at the direction from which the sound came, Peacock frowned.
There were six people from the Brotherhood out hunting today, but none of them were in that direction. Peacock didn't receive a notification on the internal channel, so he dared to conclude that the ones who came were not from one of his own.
This kind of sudden encounter is very dangerous, because now is the end of the world, and this is still a bad land with no order at all.
Thirty years ago, a madman detonated a nuclear bomb in Washington, and a nuclear war broke out.
This war has been going on for eight years, and now 60% of the earth's land has become a highly polluted area, and the light of civilization can only illuminate a handful of areas.
In order to highlight their differences, the civilized people in the settlement called the outside world a bad land, and those who lived in the bad land were wanderers.
Although the Badlands is a lawless place, the Brotherhood is not a bandit who robs anyone they see.
In order to avoid misunderstanding, Peacock quickly left the road and put his hand on the holster on his waist.
This is the friendliest etiquette in the Badlands today. It means: I am not interested in you, please don't have any interest in me.
After the peacock took more than 20 steps, the uninvited figure appeared in the distance.
He must have also seen the peacock, but he didn't react and just walked along the road carelessly.
Just when the two were about to pass each other, the knight fell out of the car. His motorcycle also fell down, leaving a series of sparks on the ground.
Looking at the knight who had almost rolled in front of him, Peacock first pulled out his revolver, and then cautiously walked towards the man.
Because the man was lying on his back, Peacock could see his face at a glance. Based on his own experience, Peacock thought that the other person was probably dead.
After squatting down for a brief inspection, the peacock couldn't help but let out a light sigh.
He was not mistaken, this man was indeed dead. Because there were no wounds on his body, Peacock could not determine the cause of death.
It was just a dead man, so of course Peacock couldn't be surprised. He only frowned when he saw the obvious spots on the dead body's arms.
After a human dies, the blood no longer circulates. When it stays in the capillaries, it will form blue-black corpse spots on the skin.
This process takes approximately 2 to 4 hours. If calculated this way, the guy on the ground should have been dead for at least two hours.
Peacock himself felt that this contradictory conclusion was absurd. So he began to touch the corpse, trying to find some clues.
After a search, all the deceased's belongings were found.
Among all the miscellaneous things, the peacock was only interested in the cowhide bag.
When he found it, the bag was hanging around the dead man's neck, obviously it was very important.
"What, is this the only one?"
As soon as he opened the pocket, Peacock was very disappointed because there was only a piece of paper in it.
Unfolding the page, which looked like it had been torn from a book, Peacock saw several rows of text.
They were written in some weird red-black ink, and the handwriting could no longer be considered scrawled, but extremely distorted.
As soon as he saw the English paragraph on the paper, Peacock had some kind of impulse, so he couldn't help but read out loud:
"O Black Goat of the forest who has given birth to thousands of descendants, you are the giver of life in the beginning of time.
In the silent forest on this full moon night, I sacrifice to you with my crazy howl.
Yeah! Yeah! Shub-Nicholas!”
Just after he finished reciting, Peacock regretted it because he found that his ears were deaf.
As if someone had suddenly pushed him into the water, the peacock felt his ears buzzing.
Not only that, the air around him also became strange. He just took a breath, and it was like a paste that stuck to his lungs, making it difficult to breathe.
At this moment, Peacock saw the page in his hand again, and his eyes widened even more.
Under his gaze, the letters on the paper suddenly spread out and turned into dense red and black dots.
At first, they were just running around, and then they swarmed towards the peacock's fingers holding the page.
The frightened peacock hurriedly let go, and the piece of paper immediately floated to the ground.
As soon as he got rid of the strange page, the suffocation feeling that troubled Peacock suddenly disappeared. Now Peacock can breathe again, and his hearing has returned.
After recovering, Peacock immediately looked at his hand. He looked at it many times and found nothing unusual, so he looked at the piece of paper on the ground.
There are still crooked words on that piece of paper, they have not disintegrated, let alone turned into little bugs that can run around.
"What exactly is going on?"
Looking at the corpse on the ground again, Peacock suddenly felt a little chilly.
What happened here was beyond his knowledge. Now he didn't want to find out the whole story. Peacock just wanted to leave as soon as possible.
Peacock hurriedly packed up his trophies and got on his motorcycle. He fled as if he was running away and rushed back to the campsite 20 kilometers away.
To survive in the Badlands, humans must stick together. Lone Rangers don't live long, so rogues have their own organizations.
The team that Peacock belongs to is called "Motorcycle Brotherhood". He was taken in by the president, Dad Dick, ten years ago. From that day on, the Brotherhood has been his home.
Just as the treasurer was counting the supplies brought back by Peacock, two people were peeping at the Brotherhood's station in the distance.
"Yes, sir, we followed Jiu Yin and found that group of people.
They are a small family of wanderers, with a total of 19 men and 11 women, one-third of whom are old, weak, women and children.
No, sir, I think they pose no threat at all. They only have some gunpowder guns from the old era. As long as you allow me, I can do it now."
"Captain, should we start now?"
After the blue light in his captain's eyes dissipated, his deputy asked in a low voice.
The year 2077 is an era of serious polarization:
There are many human tribes in the bad land that have degenerated to the point where communication relies on roaring, but these people can use the intracranial communication system to talk on the phone with people thousands of miles away.
Nine years before the outbreak of nuclear war, Wieland-Yutani publicly released the world's first enhanced auxiliary smart plug-in. That year was also known as the first year of cyber technology.
Humanity's nuclear bomb almost destroyed the earth's biosphere, but it failed to destroy cyber technology. After these years of development, this technology has become more mature.
Today, having smart chips on the body has become a characteristic of civilized people. As long as they have a powerful enough cyber plug-in, anyone can instantly become a superman.
The captain and his deputy are such supermen. Their brains have integrated communication modules, so they can make or answer calls just by rolling their eyes.
"No, the higher ups asked us to wait. They sent us a divine general, who will arrive in 4 hours."
"A divine general was actually sent here?!"
The so-called divine general seemed to be a taboo topic. The captain and his deputy looked at each other speechlessly and both closed their mouths.
As the sun went down and the moon reached high in the sky, the Brotherhood's camp became silent.
There are many benefits to living in a group in the Badlands, one of which is that everyone can sleep more peacefully at night.
This is possible because they have dedicated night watch partners, and those people never disappoint.
Almost all the patriarchs of the Motorcycle Brotherhood are retired veterans, so Dad manages the camp the same way he manages the army.
The vigil of the Brotherhood is held every four hours, with three sentries, one in the dark and one in the dark.
This system is simple and efficient, and it has always worked well, but tonight it failed.
At 2 o'clock in the morning, those who had been waiting for most of the night finally took action.
Relying on the night vision ability of the artificial detective eyes, they easily touched the two night watchmen outside the camp.
However, these people encountered some minor troubles when dealing with the third sentry.
This secret sentry was obviously an experienced old guy. He did not arrange the sentry post according to the conventional rules, but dug a hole in the ground and hid in it to monitor secretly.
This little trick might have worked 30 years ago, but it's outdated now.
In front of the electronic prosthetic eye that activated thermal scanning, the sentry hidden in the pit was exposed.
When the attacker came around from behind, the veteran was still unaware.
After quietly sneaking to the edge of the pit, the killer suddenly activated and knocked down the sentry in the pit.
Although his knife penetrated the old man's heart immediately, he still triggered the veteran's insurance mechanism.
Before the deceased fell to the ground, a crisp clang broke the silence of the camp.
Only then did the attacker discover that there was a thin rope tied to the sentry's wrist.
The other end of the rope is tied to a branch holding an empty can. As long as the sentry moves slightly, the rope will pull the branch and let the empty can fall to the ground.
Risking their own lives, the veterans in the pit made their last contribution to the motorcycle brotherhood. Now that the enemy could no longer steal the camp, they could only attack by force.
As the clanging sound sounded, 1/3 of the people in the camp were awakened, and Peacock was one of them.
Before he could fully open his eyes, he rolled over and rolled off his camp bed.
When he fell to the ground, he was not only fully conscious, but also found the pistol and bullet belt, but Peacock did not rush out in a hurry.
The Motorcycle Brotherhood has been wandering in the bad land all year round, and they have encountered night attacks not once or twice. They have been safe every time, and this is all the credit of Father Dick.
Dad likes to prepare for a rainy day, and everyone usually does simulation exercises, so everyone in the fraternity knows what to do now.
"Randy, take your men to guard the caravan. Thomas, I want you to go to the north and set up a defense line. Peacock, Boom, come closer to me."
When Dad's voice sounded on the internal channel, everyone was refreshed.
In everyone's eyes, Dad Dick is omnipotent.
He is the best sharpshooter in the Badlands and a master tactician who is victorious in every battle. As long as he is here, the Brotherhood will not suffer.
It is precisely because of this confidence that, although there was loud gunfire at this time, there was no chaos on the Brotherhood's side.
Now all the members who can fight have taken up arms, while all the women and children are hiding quietly. Everyone hopes that the battle will start as soon as possible and end as soon as possible.
Before launching the night attack, the attackers carefully counted the total number of people in the camp.
At that time, the captain discovered that the rogue community structure was very interesting.
Of the total 40 people, only 14 were young men, and the rest were either women, elderly people, or children.
According to common sense, the elderly and children are not welcome in the rogue group in Badland.
Even if they are willing to keep the old, weak, women and children, their number cannot be too large. In these last days, who would be willing to increase the burden on themselves?
The captain didn't know why this group of rogues was acting so strangely, but he didn't intend to find out.
These people are destined not to see the sun tomorrow, so why should he bother with it?
Compared to the rogue, the Night Raider's advantages are overwhelming.
The Stormtroopers are an orthodox combat unit that carries out the will of the Order. The captain has 14 soldiers who are armed to the teeth.
In addition to being well-equipped, each soldier has smart plug-ins to assist in combat.
If the advantage of the surprise attack was taken into account, this would be a one-sided battle anyway. However, the actual situation shocked the captain.
Although they were attacked, the group of wanderers seemed extremely calm.
Facing the storm's strong attack, the opponent not only did not blow up the camp, but on the contrary quickly formed a layer-by-layer firepower network.
In addition to the young and strong, at least half of the old and weak also took up arms and participated in the battle.
Under such layers of obstruction, the Storm team quickly lost its spirit and fell into an embarrassing dilemma.
"It's so ugly. Are you really a Stormtrooper?"
When the captain heard such questions, he shrank his neck in fear.
Although he was very dissatisfied, the captain did not dare to refute because the person who gave this assessment was the divine general of the religious order.
In order to perform well in front of the general, the captain did not skimp on his troops and invested all his personnel.
Before the war started, everyone in the Stormtroopers thought they could defeat the other side in one go, but now their faces were beaten loudly.
Although the rogues only had the firearms of the old era, they beat the new humans equipped with bulletproof skins to the point of crying.
Old-style firearms cannot penetrate those people's defensive components, but they can firmly hold them back.
As long as those soldiers have the slightest flaw, large-caliber bullets will fly accurately to their heads.
For some reasons, even new humans cannot install bulletproof plug-ins on their heads, so the heads are still the most important part of these soldiers.
After another Stormtrooper was shot in the head, the general who was silently watching the battle finally expressed his opinion, which made the captain very nervous.
"Sir, we are certainly capable of completing this task.
Please allow me to adjust my deployment a little bit, and I promise that I can deal with these trash guys right away."
"It's up to you. I'm going to fuck you anyway, so you can do whatever you like!"
The Lord Divine General completely ignored the captain's determination. He closed his full-face helmet, and then his figure disappeared.
At this time in the camp, the Brotherhood has completely stabilized the situation under the command of Dad.
Because of everyone's brave fighting, the attackers were never able to break into the camp. Even so, the Brotherhood has suffered casualties.
Looking at the companion not far away from him, the peacock's heart was bleeding.
The brother was shot just now. He was still twitching before, but now he is motionless.
At this moment, the Brotherhood has the upper hand, and everyone is not as nervous as they were at the beginning, but Peacock is not one of them.
Almost all the younger generation of the brotherhood are my father's students, but among these people, only Peacock has learned the instinctive shooting technique that my father is best at.
Instinct shooting does not require aiming and relies entirely on feeling, so Dad has been using the harshest methods to hone Peacock's intuition.
After ten years of hard work, Peacock is now like a human-shaped radar.
The 20-meter area around the peacock is his absolute territory. Anyone who is hostile approaches this area and he will immediately react.
From the beginning, Peacock felt one panic after another. Stimulated by this feeling, he kept turning his head and looking towards the east behind him.
Tonight's enemies are coming from the west and north, and the east has not yet been engaged, so it is quiet in that direction, but Peacock is becoming more and more uneasy.
Peacock knew that there was someone in that direction. Big Barry and three brothers were guarding there, so everyone would not have to worry about anything.
However, the quieter the east side became, the more frightened the peacock became. Just when he was about to be driven crazy by this feeling, there was finally movement there.
"Huchihuchi..."
When a panting man burst out of the darkness, Peacock's gun immediately locked onto the target.
In the flickering firelight, Peacock saw the man clearly. It was actually the big man Barry.
Barry is the kind of tough guy who doesn't change his face even when surrounded by seven mutant wolves, but now he has a distorted face and just runs away, looking terrified.
Finally seeing his own person here, Barry's face showed joy. Just as he was about to say something, a knife came from behind and pierced him.
"Ah Bang! Stop him!"
Looking at the exposed tip of the knife, Peacock's expression changed. He quickly called another guard, and he hurried to where his father was.
With Barry's murder, a big hole finally appeared in the Brotherhood's defense line.
Peacock has reason to believe that all the brothers in the east have been wiped out, and now he and Abao are the last line of defense to protect his father.
Amidst the roar of the peacock, Ah Bang immediately raised his gun and opened fire on Barry's murderer.
Facing the hail of bullets coming towards him, the divine general of the cult remained calm. Barry's body was a shield, and he could continue to move forward as long as he pushed the big man.
Like the Storm Assault Dog, the God General didn't take these rogues seriously at first.
After seeing how the opponent beat up the Storm Assault Dog, the God General immediately put away his arrogance and began to treat tonight's enemy seriously.
With the help of military-grade listening equipment, he hacked into the Brotherhood's communications channels and began eavesdropping on their conversations.