Chapter 1248 - An Egg Specimen! (1/2)

Money was being burnt the moment they hit the launch button.

Less than two weeks after TS Expedition departed, it reached out to the headquarters for a supply of more than a billion. Even with the behemoth empire Jiang Chen built, he was still shocked by how fast it burned through cash.

In fact, not accounting for the expenditure costs related to the Expedition, so far, Celestial Trade and Future Group spent 20 billion on Mars. But in contrast, disregarding the values of the Gaia civilization, the value created by the Mars colony was less than half of the total bill.

This was probably the most painful element of building a farm on another planet.

Before the crops grew out, you don’t even know what would grow out.

But fortunately, the frontline didn’t just send him bills, there were some other things.

In mid-February, through a comprehensive analysis of formation information and vital signal volatility, researchers at the Mars colony concluded that there was an eighty percent chance a Devil Worm’s nest was located in a granite-like cave located about one kilometer deep in the northern part of the colony.

If the information was reliable, this may be the shallowest Devil Worm nest found so far in the Mars colony.

With this information in mind, TS Expedition immediately sent a ground force to encircle the nest.

By using a vehicle equipped with a large drill bit, it managed to create a 30-degree tunnel to the target formation. The drilling vehicle was often used on Earth to build undersea tunnels, so it was capable of completing work on the relatively loose rock formation on Mars.

While they drilled down, the rear engineering vehicle built steel brackets on the tunnel wall, poured cement, and cast a concrete wall to prevent Devil Worms from destroying the tunnel.

Who said humans can’t drill holes?

The Celestial Marines proved that humans could not only drill holes but could also build roads in the holes. Devil Worms could not destroy the tunnel despite all their efforts because of the concrete wall reinforced by Grade-A steel.

When the drilling vehicle penetrated into the nest, the armored vehicles rushed in and immediately unleashed its firepower against the Devil Worms.

A bloody massacre began.

The shells accelerated to beyond the speed of sound rendered the shell of Devil Worms to be useless. But behind them were their eggs, which made it almost impossible for them to combat effectively against the enemies inside their nest.

The hoarse screams echoed in the tunnel and were overwhelmed by the explosions.

Green blood splashed everywhere, and in just ten minutes, at least fifty adult Devil Worms fell inside pools of blood. Except for a few Devil Worms that escaped after they recognized the situation, there were no Devil Worms alive in the pot-shaped cave.

After the soldiers exterminated the biggest threat, soldiers in kinetic skeletons jumped out of the armored vehicles’ rear cabin door. They carried wire mesh and rushed toward the eggs, then created a “safety belt” between the armored vehicles and eggs.

This kind of wire mesh could not be recovered after deployment, and possessed high strength, especially to shear forces.

After the soldiers completed these tasks, six soldiers spread out to form a defensive formation. They raised their rifles while they waited for the scientists on the vehicles to collect specimens.

A Devil Worm suddenly attacked from below!

However, after the mandibles broke the wire mesh, it could not bite through the wire and became stuck in the mesh. The medics immediately rushed out with stretchers and dragged the soldiers who had been attacked from below into the vehicle.