Having successfully thwarted the alien species' schemes and captured a Brain-fish, they had secured victory. However, the battle within the crippled vessel was far from over. Soldiers were deployed everywhere, searching for the behemoths.
But the enemy's shields presented a significant obstacle, forcing the soldiers to exercise greater caution and causing them to miss numerous opportunities.
Xie Yu, however, paid it no mind. With a clear objective, there was no need to let the soldiers take further risks. Opportunities could be found again, but once a life was lost, nothing remained.
Before long, the training vessel arrived over Luojian Mountain, and another team of commandos airdropped into the crippled ship. The total number of commandos was approaching one hundred, significantly easing the soldiers' combat pressure and adding considerable weight to the scales of victory.
While their numbers were indeed slightly lacking, the commandos were equipped with power armor, making their combat effectiveness incomparable to ordinary troops.
Xie Yu had meticulously planned to annihilate the remaining enemy forces. However, the behemoths proved far more cunning than anticipated. They quickly vanished, their whereabouts unknown. The fighting temporarily ceased, but the disappearance of the behemoths became a thorn stuck in the hearts of all the commandos.
Xie Yu contacted the fleet. The command center informed him with absolute certainty, firmness, and affirmation that satellites had been monitoring Luojian Mountain, and not a single alien had escaped the crippled vessel from beginning to end.
"The aliens are crafty!" Ling Xiao remarked. "Escaping the crippled vessel means certain death. Hiding within the warship allows them to survive a little longer. The current problem is how to flush out the hiding aliens!"
He gestured with his hand as if using a shovel, making a motion of digging fiercely.
Xie Yu was overwhelmed and sighed heavily, "Easier said than done. How can it be so easy to search such a large warship?"
When the enemy actively revealed themselves, the commandos had plenty of ways to root them out. But when the enemy was determined to hide, finding them was truly a troublesome task.
Ling Xiao suddenly smiled, "We started as guerilla fighters ourselves. Now we understand how troublesome the Japanese and Chiang Kai-shek were back then, don't we?"
"There are no shortcuts for this," Ou Zhanpeng said. "The most foolish method is to sweep through them."
Whether it was foolish or not wasn't the key point; the important thing was whether it was effective.
Xie Yu continued to sigh, "Then let's sweep through them!"
The plan was reported to the command center and soon received approval.
Simultaneously, Ou Zhanpeng and Ling Xiao received notification from the command center: considering the dire situation faced by the commandos and their excellent performance in the battle, Ou and Ling were ordered to remain on the moon temporarily to assist the commandos in clearing out the alien species until the mission was complete, after which they would be reassigned to Yun Gong Two.
Ling Xiao was beside himself, "They said we were being transferred back, so why the sudden change?"
Ou Zhanpeng tugged at the corner of his mouth, "Can't you see the situation? The command center is going crazy due to a lack of personnel. Right now, it's a case of take who you can get. Expecting the command center to release people now? Dream on!"
The equipment required for the plan had not yet arrived, but Xie Yu didn't want to wait any longer. He ordered the troops to immediately commence the clearing operation. Nearly a hundred commandos flooded the crippled vessel, first dividing the areas, then searching layer by layer, leaving no cabin or corner unchecked.
After clearing one area, they sealed it off, installing surveillance and deploying numerous intelligent mines.
These devices had built-in friend-or-foe identification. They would never detonate when their own personnel approached, but would explode when an enemy passed by at the closest range.
Not only were there fixed mines, but also self-moving spider mines. If they detected a moving object within their sensor range, they would immediately pounce, latch onto the enemy, and detonate.
Even a piece of broken cabin wall falling off would trigger the mines, not just the enemy.
Ling Xiao felt the detonation mechanism of the intelligent mines was a bit oversensitive, but for the commandos at this time, being oversensitive was better than being sluggish.
Coincidentally, the commandos also used the opportunity to clear out alien species to conduct a thorough survey, classifying the cabins within the crippled vessel into categories such as useful, useless, and unknown.
Useful meant the function of the cabin was clear, such as engine rooms and storage.
Useless meant exactly that, such as empty or damaged cabins.
Unknown meant there were items present, but their purpose was unclear, such as several ship cabins equipped with large machinery.
Additionally, some cabins were specially marked, mostly because the interior was too chaotic to clean with the available time and energy, or because there was too much equipment that couldn't be moved for the time being.
After all, one had to tackle the easier tasks first. With limited personnel, it was natural to deal with the simpler ones before confronting the more difficult challenges.
Although the method was somewhat clumsy, its effectiveness was extraordinary. With every step the commandos took, they could effectively control a certain area. Although they encountered several enemy counterattacks during this period, they were quickly repelled under Xie Yu's strict organization, consistently maintaining the overall strategic advantage.
As various equipment was gradually put into place, the commandos also established a surveillance system to manage the entire ship. Monitoring radar was deployed at critical nodes to gain comprehensive control of any anomalies within the ship.
Upon learning that the commandos had cleared out some areas, the researchers could not remain idle. Gong Yiding, carrying the requests of all the researchers, expressed their hope to resume research as soon as possible.
Xie Yu was a hundred times reluctant, but on this matter, the command center chose to support the researchers.
However, the command center also fully respected the opinion of Commander Xie Yu, strictly limiting the researchers to conduct research only in the areas designated by the commandos, and forbidding anyone from crossing the boundary.
Furthermore, the researchers could not be dispersed and were never allowed to leave the sight of the commandos, nor could they act alone.
In short, there were many restrictions.
The researchers did not disappoint, and soon produced a research outcome: they found shield generators on the behemoths and successfully installed them onto the power armor.
Although no technical advancements were made, it was a simple equipment transplant. From then on, the commandos possessed defensive capabilities similar to the aliens, greatly enhancing their combat effectiveness.
In subsequent conflicts, the commandos, protected by their newly equipped gear, easily overpowered the behemoths.
Research into alien equipment had also made some progress.
The research revealed that the weapons used by the behemoths were a form of focused electromagnetic wave, similar to lasers but with differences.
It involved concentrating electromagnetic waves of a specific band and emitting them directionally, using a principle that humans had not yet mastered to enhance the repulsive force between atoms, disrupting the stable microscopic material structure.
The result was that alliances could shatter at any moment, and atoms that were once united could instantly turn against each other, causing the basic structure of matter to collapse, thereby achieving the goal of destroying or damaging the target.
The researchers named the device a beam-directed weapon.
A very fitting name, wasn't it?
While the operational principle was understood, mastering such a weapon was still a long way off.