Chapter 99 Please don't mind your own business, okay?
Before the nuclear war, this would have been a journey of seven or eight days, but now it is extremely long.
Because there are no roads, Peacock's car cannot even run 40 kilometers per hour most of the time.
In order to hurry up, Peacock and Takemura had no choice but to go to battle again and again, driving in reverse shifts.
By the second day, Sandra also joined the rotation.
The former daughter-in-law insisted on filling in for the two men during the day so that she could at least give Peacock and Takemura a few more hours of rest.
On the first day, Peacock and the others ran for 12 hours, but the total mileage was less than 500 kilometers. The situation on the second day was similar.
Because of the slow progress, Takemura became obviously agitated. In order to reassure his partner, Peacock had to comfort the anxious uncle many times.
"Takemura, we are doing very well as we are now.
The environment of the Badlands has improved a lot in recent years. If it had been five years ago, we might still be crawling around Red Rock Town."
When Peacock comforted Takemura and Sandra like this, he was telling the truth, and it was not just to make his friends feel relieved.
During the nuclear war 30 years ago, every country that had mushroom eggs went crazy.
They tried their best to use all the mushroom bombs in their arsenal as soon as possible.
In the beginning, these countries grew mushrooms for each other. Later, all taboos were broken, and they even did not hesitate to explode mushroom eggs in their own lands.
In order to stop the advance of enemy troops, the government will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons.
Even if such information is actually unreliable, those in power would "rather believe it than believe it doesn't exist."
At Peacock's age, he has never seen such a tragedy with his own eyes.
But the veterans of the Motorcycle Brotherhood had experienced it firsthand, and he often heard examples like this from those veterans.
The consequence of using nuclear weapons so recklessly is that everyone will be destroyed.
When the situation was at its most critical, more than 80% of the earth's land was affected by nuclear contamination.
The sky at that time was always gray-yellow, and that was because the nuclear dust lingered in the sky for a long time.
Thirty years after the end of the nuclear war, except for those key areas that were repeatedly exposed to mushroom eggs, most of the lightly polluted places are no longer considered restricted areas for humans.
Of course, if you travel through such an area, the Geiger counter will still beep. Therefore, experienced wanderers would rather throw away the food and keep their Geiger counter.
In the past two days, Peacock and the others have passed through several such radiation zones.
Once they are about to enter such a lightly polluted area, Peacock and Takemura will immediately close all the window guards of the truck and hang up the prepared lead sheets.
In addition, the two girls also had to take anti-radiation radiation pills in advance.
Although this medicine can resist radiation, it has serious side effects and the taste is extremely disgusting. Every time they take this medicine, Sandra and Amber will have a grimace.
Compared with Sandra and Amber, the resistance of these two men is much stronger.
Takemura is an Arasaka elite, and his body has undergone profound modifications. Peacock has been in the bad land since he was a child, and his body has long been accustomed to it, so the two of them are not afraid of slight radiation residue.
When traveling long distances by car in a bad land, fuel is definitely the most important material.
Although they only ran 1,000 kilometers, the fuel consumption was quite fast due to the poor road conditions.
Fortunately, when they were in Hongshi Town, Peacock and the others got some supplies from the gas station, otherwise they would have been lying on the road.
With the supplies Judy prepared, they would definitely not be able to sustain Peacock and the others until they reach Atlanta. So as long as there is an opportunity along the way, they will supply supplies on the spot.
In the past 48 hours, Peacock and the others had resupplied three times, and they had two fights with people because of it.
Such conflicts are nothing more than bullshit like forced buying and selling, extortion, so now even Sandra is used to it.
Anyone who is willing to negotiate a good price will usually be satisfied by Peacock. But if you want to take advantage of the situation, Peacock will simply rob the other party of everything.
On the 6th day after diving into the Colorado desert, Peacock injected Amber with the first injection of Nefiniti.
It must have been Meredith who did this for Amber in the past, so Peacock took out the injection, and the little girl flattened her mouth and cried.
"Amber, do you miss your mother again?
Amber is good, your uncle and sister are here to accompany you, you won't be lonely.
As long as you behave, maybe your mother will come find you one day."
Seeing the little girl crying, Peacock and Sandra hurriedly tried their best to comfort her.
Even Takemura, who was driving, kept looking at Kohaku, as if he wanted to replace Peacock at any moment and hold the little girl in his arms.
"Amber! Stop crying, look, there's a speeding car in the sky!"
At this moment, Takemura suddenly caught a glimpse of a flying object appearing in the sky in front of him. So he quickly called to Kohaku, and also reminded Peacock and Sandra to pay attention.
As expected, the little girl's attention was distracted by his shouting. Peacock handed the amber to Sandra and quickly returned to the assistant's seat.
"That mark is Kang Tao Industrial?"
Raising the telescope in his hand, Peacock looked intently at the flying car in the sky.
On the body of this car is a very conspicuous mark: a golden lightning bolt passing through a blue halo.
"Yes, this is Kangtao's general-purpose tactical vehicle. Judging from its flight altitude, the opponent should have just taken off.
Strange, this place is still thousands of kilometers away from Atlanta, so there should be no Kangtao Industrial base nearby.
Sandra, did you find anything?"
"No, I've seen it. There's desert nearby, and there aren't any man-made structures on the surface."
While fiddling with the digital tablet in her hand, Sandra reported to Takemura.
Now Sandra is the technical officer of their small group, and she is responsible for all computer-related things.
Listening to Zhucun reporting more details about the flying car, Peacock also felt that today's incident was quite strange.
The so-called flying car is a new type of aircraft that looks similar to a ground car, but is equipped with a vector engine and can fly in the air.
Regardless of whether it is for military or civilian use, the aerodynamic performance of all flying cars is actually very average, and this is determined by the appearance characteristics of the flying car.
Flying cars are not suitable for high-altitude and high-speed flight, and the situations where they are really suitable for use are low-altitude and low-speed environments.
Although they have such shortcomings, they also have their own advantages compared with traditional rotary wing and fixed wing aircraft.
Because there are no exposed engines and fragile wing structures, the mechanical strength of flying cars is generally higher than that of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.
It is precisely because of these advantages that the application of flying cars is quite polarized.
Those big companies will purchase medium and large flying cars, and then install them with thicker armor and more weapons, turning them into aerial fortresses in the new century.
As for small and medium-sized flying cars, they have become the new favorite of wealthy people in this era.
This type of speed car will take a luxurious route, and it will do whatever it takes to attract attention.
They don't need to be equipped with machine guns and reactive armor, but they must have cool paint and ambient lights that can blind the eyes of krypton gold dogs.
What Peacock sees now is such a standard military speed car. Although it is only a medium-sized model, it has all kinds of armor and weapons, making it very difficult to mess with at first glance.
Peacock and the others are located 2,300 kilometers away from Night City and 2,700 kilometers away from Atlanta.
This is already considered the edge of the Colorado Desert, but it is still a barren land.
To see such an armed flying car of a large company in a place like this, and one that has just taken off, inevitably raises a lot of suspicions.
“How far away are we from it?”
"About 4.6 kilometers."
"Can you get around it?"
"Yes, but it will waste at least an hour of our time."
While answering Peacock's question, Takemura turned the steering wheel, intending to avoid the flying car from the side.
Based on their current situation, it is definitely better to do less than to do more.
Although one hour is precious, and taking a detour will consume more precious fuel, nothing is more valuable than reducing trouble, so Zhucun immediately changed the route.
"Peacock! Look, they seem to be in trouble."
Just when Peacock and his truck turned 90 degrees, Sandra, who had been monitoring the surrounding situation, suddenly shouted.
"This is an anti-aircraft missile. Someone wants to sneak attack on that flying car!"
Just when he saw those white trails that went straight up into the air, Peacock couldn't help but exclaimed, and Takemura also quickly stopped the truck.
"Yes, this is an anti-aircraft missile for individual soldiers. There is more than one launcher, and they are spread far apart, almost blocking us."
Looking at the tails of the speeding car that were rapidly approaching, Takemura made his professional judgment, and this was also the reason why he stopped the car.
If they rush forward in a daze when the situation is unclear, they will definitely hit those who attacked the Kang Tao Speeder.
If something like that really happened, it would be a huge problem, so it would be wisest to stop now.
Just when Takemura stopped the car, the anti-aircraft missiles in the air were already quite close to the speeding car.
Due to their structure, flying cars are generally more resistant to beatings. However, no matter how strong they are, they will definitely not be able to withstand anti-aircraft missiles.
With the aerial maneuverability of a flying car, it is impossible to compare with a missile that can accelerate up to Mach 2 in an instant. But it is Kang Tao's flying car after all, so it has its own means of protecting its life.
The missiles in the air had just entered the danger zone when the door at the lower part of the Kang Tao speeder suddenly popped open, and then a large handful of fluorescent objects filled the sky.
Just when these decoys were fired, the Phalanx machine gun located at the front of the speeding car also opened fire at the same time.
"Boom boom!"
Amidst bursts of thunderous gunfire, countless hot bullets formed a barrier and directly exploded the anti-aircraft missile that passed through the decoy area.
As for the other two, they exploded in the air covered with aluminum foil and turned into two orange-red fireballs.
When they exploded, they were still some distance away from the speeding car, so Kangtao's speeding car was considered a near miss.
Kangtao's flying car thus escaped the first round of missile attacks, but the enemy who ambushed them was determined to shoot it down.
The first wave of three anti-aircraft missiles here had just taken off, and two more missiles took off over there. The target was still Kang Tao's flying car.
Just looking at the positions where the two missiles took off, Peacock couldn't help but frown.
He found that the locations where these missiles appeared were widely separated, which meant that the attackers' encirclement was very large, and they were likely to be trapped in this encirclement.
After avoiding the three missiles just now, Kang Tao's speeding car accelerated while quickly raising its altitude.
The height was also an important reason why its situation was so dangerous just now.
Because it has just taken off, the Kang Tao Speeder is actually not very high from the ground, and this is when slow-speed, low-altitude flying objects are most dangerous.
After discovering that new missiles had appeared, the flying car in the sky immediately repeated its old tricks.
With two muffled "bang bang" sounds, Kangtao's speeding car once again released new decoy bombs. At the same time, the Phalanx machine gun continued to adjust its direction and was ready to fire at any time.
The first wave of three missiles just now targeted the vector engine with the most obvious heat source characteristics, so they all aimed at the rear of the speeding car.
It is precisely for this reason that it is relatively simple for the crew members on the flying car to deal with it. They only need to focus on defending the rear hemisphere of the flying car.
However, the two missiles in this second wave did not chase the speeding car directly, but shot at the front and rear of the speeding car respectively.
After occupying the absolute height advantage, the two missiles exploded while they were still far away from the Kang Tao Speeder.
"Wow! I didn't expect them to actually use graphite missiles. That Kang Tao flying car must be doomed now."
Seeing the two missiles explode at the same time, Goro Takemura immediately let out a low exclamation.
Although he didn't know what the graphene missiles Takemura was talking about, Peacock had already noticed that the two missiles just now were different.
Because it is still far away, the peacock can only observe it with a telescope.
He saw a layer of gray smoke appearing in the airspace where the missile exploded. It spread to all directions at an alarming speed, and soon connected together.
The height of this smoke was higher than that of the Condor Speeder, so the Condor Speeder dived into the strange smoke in the next second.
"Takemura, what is a graphite missile? It sounds powerful?"
When it comes to his familiarity with military weapons, the person who has the most say here is definitely Goro Takemura.
He has been a soldier for many years and is the highest-ranking security officer in the world, so he is not only familiar with light and heavy weapons, but also knows many technical weapons.
"Graphite missiles are missiles that use a special warhead. Ordinary missiles use high explosives, but this kind of missile uses specially treated pure carbon fiber filaments.
The warhead of this missile is filled with a large number of graphite fibers. The diameter of each graphite fiber filament is quite small, only a few thousandths of a centimeter.
This kind of graphite fiber uses a fluid energy grinding process and is chemically cleaned, so it can remain suspended in the air for a long time and has strong conductive properties.
Graphite fiber filaments are not sticky, but can adhere to the surface of any object. Although it has no direct lethality, it is a nightmare for all electronic devices.
As long as you break into the fog of graphite fiber, those gadgets will soon be absorbed into the body of the speeding car.
By then the on-board computer will short-circuit and the engine will stall, so those Kangtao people are definitely doomed."
Just when Takemura said this, the blue flame at the tail of the flying car in the sky disappeared, and that was the reaction nozzle of the vector engine.
Once it loses the thrust generated by the engine, this flying car weighing more than ten tons will immediately become a weight.
A flying car without wings cannot glide in the air, so Peacock and the others watched helplessly as the flying car plummeted, and finally hit the ground with a "boom".
"It fell down, about 6 kilometers ahead of us."
With their own methods, Takemura and Sandra came to the same conclusion, and then they both looked at Peacock, waiting for him to make a decision.
Currently, Peacock is the absolute core of this small group.
Sandra definitely has no objection to this, because she has always been a fan of peacocks. As long as peacocks say it, she is willing to listen.
Although Takemura did not formally acknowledge Peacock's leadership position, he had already acquiesced in it.
The Tiaoba people have always had a tradition of obeying the strong, even blindly, and Peacock is the strong one in Zhucun's heart.
From the moment Peacock returned to the safe house with Amber in his arms, Takemura had admitted that Peacock was better than him. After Peacock killed the giant monster by force, Takemura had no second thoughts.
Looking at the crash location of the flying car that had been marked on the navigation system by Sandra, Peacock couldn't help but touch his nose.
The red dot was directly east of them, and that was the direction they were originally heading.
Of course, the wasteland is so big, Peacock and the others can also take a detour. In this way, they will definitely be able to avoid the falling speed car and continue on their way.
"Should we go there and take a look, or should we take a detour now?"
Thinking about those missiles that suddenly appeared, the peacock became worried.
The sneak attack just now let them know that there are militants hiding nearby, but where exactly those people are hiding and how many there are are unknown.
Taking rash action without knowing anything is definitely the most undesirable thing.
Peacock didn't want to encounter those militants, nor did he want to go too far and waste fuel, so he decided to go to the front for reconnaissance.
"Takemura, stop the car and take cover first. You and Sandra guard the car while I go to the front to explore the road."
"Mr. Peacock, please be careful.
Although graphite missiles are not high-tech weapons, they are strictly controlled first-class materials.
Since those who attacked Kangtao had such weapons, it meant that they were not good people either.
If we can avoid fighting, it is best not to have a conflict."
"I understand, I'll try my best."
After patting Zhucun on the shoulder to reassure Uncle Footbath, Peacock opened the door and jumped out of the car.
After adjusting the intercom in his ear, Peacock waved goodbye to Sandra and Amber, and then he walked forward calmly.