Chapter 47: Exploring the Battlefield

Han took 2 cleaning robots and decided to go take a look at the battlefield that Old Mo and Pathless have talked so much about.

Both robots are crawler-type, suitable for moving in complicated terrain. Their arms carry digging tools, and because they don’t have logic chips implanted, they look kind of dumb, only capable of listening to orders. Han told them to go sit on the car and wait for him, and they ran to the car and waited there like a good boy.

Old Mo told Han that the robot Han’s in right now used to be the most advanced model in the old days, named R7, made from high level tritanium alloy, has an identical body of human, with arms and legs, height at 1.8 meter, connected and controlled using the dark net communication port.

After getting ready, Han waved goodbye at Old Mo and Pathless, stepped down on the gas petal, and the vehicle rushed onto the steel chained bridge towards the battleground remain.

Old Mo commanded the rest of the robots to start picking out the equipment that Han wanted, and pack them all into his sketchy industrial transporting ship, waiting to leave the planet to get them cleansed first before sending them to Earth.

……

In the blink of an eye Han has already traveled very far, Old Mo’s base became a small black dot behind him, and in front of him is the limitless desert. After the cruel nuclear explosion, the land has become completely lifeless, only Old Mo and maybe the robots count as the only life on this planet.

The vehicle is called a Land Speeder, a very common mean of transportation in Milky Way. It has no wheels, uses magnetic suspension system to float about 1 meter off the ground, with 2 high-powered jet turbo engines providing the Speeder the necessary propulsion, capable of traveling up to 3000 kmh.

Old Mo’s Land Speeder doesn’t have a top and also carries a cargo box like a truck. It looks really simple, but after all, he’s an engineer that can even repair the complicated robotic devices. With his tuning, the land speeder has excellent performance and great drifting speed, topping it off with powerful jet engine that set off a huge amount of sand behind them as it roars.

Han controlled a robot to drive the land speeder, so the air resistance and noises were not a threat to him, allowing him to fully enjoy the pleasure of speed. After only 2 hours, they arrived at the heart of the battle field.

Here he saw the land clouded with giant craters that resulted from bomb explosions. Some of these bombs didn’t detonate on the ground but in the air instead, releasing super shockwaves capable of shattering the internal organs of soldiers to create more casualties.

The large empire level countries in Milky Way have incredible strength. At this war between Zi Zhu Empire and Luo Lan Republic, just espers alone, both sides putted in as much as 20 million. In comparison, Earth has at most 15 thousand espers, and that’s including those non-combat ones like the esper that can grow more teeth or do math faster. It’s clear to see, the huge gap that exists between Earth and those great powers in Milky Way.

It was said that the most powerful countries in Milky Way – the 12 permanent members of the Milky Way Alliance, each has at least 100 million espers. For countries with such strength, destroying Earth is as easy as stretching fingers.

The ancient battlefield has a long history, coupled with the robots led by Old Mo that have being here for decades, there wasn’t any remaining equipment in sight.

In fact, Han also knew that it would be impossible for him to find anything valuable on this ancient battlefield because they would’ve long been taken away by Old Mo. Now he just want to get a feel of the atmosphere of the battlefield.

Despite the battlefield now looking like a deserted desert, there is one thing that will not die out because of time but grow more and more intense, and that is the soldiers’ indomitable soul.

The wind blows and the water gets cold, warriors leave home but never return. The barren desert filled with a chill atmosphere, the warriors that fought bravely here in the past have died, but their souls are still here wandering. Before the dark and stormy night, the sound of wind on the desert is their lamentation. (TL: translated from a Chinese poem)

Han imagined the scenes of the war that year, picturing rivers of blood running on the desert. Before he knew it, he has driven past the heart of the battlefield and came to the end of the desert, facing layers and layers of mounds.

Han stopped beside a mound, he looked at the time and 5 hours have already passed. Blazing past over 10,000 kilometers, it is very hard for people that aren’t personally experienced to understand the joy Han had riding that Land Speeder.

Although Han knew that it’s highly unlikely that he will harvest anything, but after all, for a journey on the battlefield, he should at least get something as a souvenir. He’s really not reconciled to go home empty-handed, even finding a dagger to bring back is good enough for him.

So, Han decided to enter the hilly area.

Driving in the desert just need speed, but driving in this hilly terrain requires more skills. Han slowed down his speeder and advanced along the valley between the hills. A sudden turn will drift up the center of gravity of the speeder, adding on a thrilling pleasure that wasn’t present in the desert.

Two more hours quickly flew by, Han still hasn’t made any discovery. Not even the main battlefield have any more remnants, not to mention this region outside the battlefield.

“Well, it’s not early anymore, time to go back.”

Thinking about that, Han tilted the steering wheel and got ready to turn back to the camp.

After all, Han is still a beginner at driving land speeder. He rushed between the hills and was a little anxious when making a quick turn, after hurtling sideways the speeder actually couldn’t stop and began to quickly drifting sideways.”

“Shit! Too much speed!”

Han cursed, quickly activating the brake. At the presence of an opposite force, the speeder began to react by shaking violently, sending dirt flying all over the sky.

Shua~

The speeder finally came to a difficult stop only a few meters away from a small mound, barely avoiding collision, the scene was breathtaking.

Han turned his head to check on the robots. Crap, he and the land speeder are okay, but those two robots got thrown out of the cargo container due to a shift in gravity, landing head first into a mound.

Han hurried and got off the speeder to dig out the two silly robots from the soil.

Huh?

Suddenly Han froze, because as he dug out the robots and pulled them out of the dirt, he noticed that the dirt wall is actually hollow inside. There is a cave with its entrance covered by dirt, and as Han dug out the soil layer he was able to see the cave from a top corner.

“Come, let’s dig open this hole and take a look.” Han asked the two crawler-type robots.

So, Han and the two robots struggled as they finally opened up an entrance big enough for them to fit, then the robot opened a flash light and accompanied Han into the cave.

The cave is a natural formation, not large in area. The nuclear explosion that year possibly shook off the top layer soil, blocking the entrance to the cave.

The light shined onto the end of the cave, Han seemed to see two dark shadows.