The ice and snow next to him slid down and hit the two people in the face. It was painful, and the speed of the slide was getting faster and faster. There was a muffled sound on the ground.
The snow cave wasn't too deep, Xu Le's legs were still numb and he knelt down, but his arms still hugged Shang Qiu tightly. The two of them were extremely calm, especially when Shang Qiu fell all the way, without uttering a scream, but the hand around Xu Le's neck seemed extraordinarily tight.
Xu Le frowned slightly, stood up straight with some difficulty, put Shang Qiu down, glanced vigilantly at the dark surroundings, did not notice any danger, and then took out the light stick from his arm pocket, clicked. A snap.
A faint light instantly illuminated the surroundings under the hole, and from the wall of fast-setting cement beside him, it could be quickly judged that this was an artificial space. The space was huge, and the brightness of the military light rods could not reach the end. The two vaguely saw countless dense gray cloth bags stacked on the ground in the distance, guessing that it should be some stored materials.
Xu Le glanced at his watch for the first time and confirmed that the signal contact with the ground had not been interrupted due to the underground space and geomagnetic storm, so he felt relieved, lowered his voice and shouted to the system: "Safety, don't worry, the underground distance is about at 6.4 meters."
Shang Qiu slapped the stubble of ice and snow on his body and asked, "You obviously installed the echo positioning device on the MXT first, why didn't the mecha call the police? If it was because the mecha we were sitting on was badly damaged. Because of this, the front two MXTs did not call the police either."
"This was originally the exploratory well system used in the Donglin Mine Road, but I changed it a bit. Now this system only alarms the regular space constructed by manpower. This underground space uses the top surface of natural ice rock, so MXT will naturally not issue an alarm. ."
Xu Le picked up the light stick, glanced at the dry and cold rock surface above, and frowned: "The rock wall should be very thin, because the ice and snow layer above has also torn a weak line of strength, so we will fall."
"Why make this change?"
"I don't know how many natural voids there are under the entire glacier area. If the federation mecha will call the police for even the natural voids, then we don't have to wait for the imperial people to fight. We have no way to take a step."
Xu Le explained while listening to the voice from above, Magnolia should be preparing for the zipline at this time. The air in this underground space is not dangerous except for being dry and cold, so he is not in a hurry, he picks up the light stick and shines it in the distance, his eyebrows suddenly wrinkle, and he always feels that those gray things look like Something weird.
For the sake of safety, the two of them didn't move, they stretched the light closer, and found that there were a lot of dusty things piled up in a mess under the wall not far to the right.
Suddenly, two subtle reflections appeared between the gray objects. Xu Le squinted and looked carefully, and finally recognized that it should be... a pair of eyes.
It was a pair of eyes that had been frozen by the severe cold, and they were full of shock and sadness before death. Around the eyes, after careful identification, it could be seen that it was a very small face, and the skin on the face was completely covered by dust. Only those brittle hairs outline the outline of the face.
Xu Le's eyes slammed, looking around from the little girl's corpse, and finally saw that these gray objects that were randomly piled up like garbage were not materials, but... Countless corpses were dumped and overlapped.
In a dark underground cold cave, he suddenly saw so many corpses. Shang Qiu, who had remained calm when he fell into the deep cave, suddenly turned pale.
Knowing that she was frightened, Xu Le quickly took her into his arms, buried her face on his chest, and prevented her from seeing this appalling picture again.
Shang Qiu's body was trembling slightly, Xu Le patted it lightly twice, those small eyes were very round, and their eyes were so warm, indescribably cold, and slid over the gray corpses.
There was a sound of Sosuo from above, and Magnolia slipped down the zipline, and naturally followed Xu Le's gaze, her body also stiffened by this picture. They are all iron-blooded men who have experienced life and death on the battlefield, no matter how tragic they have seen death, but this is the first time they have seen so many corpses piled up in one place without dignity. The light is from near to far, and the place it illuminates is actually gray. It is impossible to count how many people are buried in this empty underground space.
Presumably there was no echo, and a few more people slid down the ground. While shocked, they quickly followed Xu Le's instructions and sent Shang Qiu, who was trembling all over, up.
With a snort, the high-brightness lighting was nailed into the wall, and the light in the underground space suddenly brightened, making it possible to see more clearly.
Xu Le squatted down and started to look at the frozen corpses. Just about ten meters in front of him, there are probably at least hundreds of corpses piled up, including old people, children with frightened eyes, half-naked women, and young and middle-aged men with ice-like wounds on their bodies. All these dead were covered with a thick layer of ash.
Magnolia picked up a smear of dust from the body of a woman who was piled on top, rubbed it lightly twice, and said to him: "It's the wolf-hair latex explosive used by the imperial people. After being frozen for a long time, it decomposed into gray. Powder. It seems that when they started, they were going to burn all the dead to ashes, but I don't know why, and they didn't finish it in the end."
Xu Le nodded and silently turned the little girl who still had her eyes open after she died. Because of the cold relationship for many years, all the dead were almost stuck together. It was a little difficult to do this, especially those The sound of flesh tearing made him and the officers and soldiers behind him tremble.
"It's ours." Xu Le stared at the blood hole at the chip on the back of the little girl's neck, and said in an emotionless voice, "You guys check other corpses."
Sure enough, the corpses stacked here all have a blood hole frozen by ice on the back of their necks, exposing the white cervical vertebrae, leaving traces of brutal destruction on the joints, and the chips in the vertebral cavity have disappeared without a trace.
Since the tragic First World War, the imperial people hated and hated the brilliance of the federal charter the most. They never wanted to crack the secrets of the federal charter. The chips behind the necks of federal prisoners were naturally their most important trophies. Although after a long period of experiments, the empire confirmed that there is no way to obtain the technology they need through these chips, but this bloody and cruel method has become a reserved habit of the imperial army.
"It seems that all of our people are here." Xu Le stood up and looked at the gray that was spreading into the darkness. Thinking of how many compatriots died here, his mood was unprecedentedly heavy and gloomy.
"I found an exception." Lan Xiaolong waved the light stick not far away, pointed to a corpse in front of him with a complicated expression, and said, "This guy is from the Empire, because he wears the military uniform of the Empire, and his The neck is intact."
The crowd walked over and stared at the corpse of the imperial officer suspiciously, wondering why he appeared here. Bai Yulan lowered her head slightly and said, "It takes a long time for the Langhao latex to decompose. The military uniform of this imperial officer is old-fashioned. It seems that this massacre happened many years ago. Due to the dry and cold environment of this place, so... The remains are well preserved."
Xu Le didn't speak, just stared at the corpse of the imperial officer silently, his right finger on the side of his leg trembled slightly, until Lan Xiaolong stood up and handed over a booklet.
"what is this?"
"It should be the officer's diary. His rank should be quite high, so he can use this kind of fiber paper in luxury. Be careful when turning it over, it may be damaged at any time."
There is no surprising content in this diary. About 90% of the front is about the mood of this officer named Arthur far away from the homeland of the empire, and the boring career of seven years of interstellar travel. The words in it are full of words. A feeling of boredom, and later on about his fighting life on planet 5460, and his nostalgia for the rows of maple leaf forests in his hometown, until the last page to tell about the eve of the massacre... His psychological activities. "
"An imperial officer who was unwilling to slaughter federal civilians was killed by his own army." Xu Le closed the diary, looked at the corpse under his feet, and remained silent for a long time.
"It's not surprising that there is an occasional person among the animals. This does not affect the definition of animals." Magnolia replied with cold eyes.
"Although it is not easy to locate it now, I still need to record this position." Xu Le looked at Gu Xifeng and said, "Because the memorial hall will be built here in the future."
"Understood." Gu Xifeng replied in a serious tone.
Since the victory of the military operation, the federal army has launched a major counterattack on the three fallen stars. However, in these enemy-occupied areas, the troops have basically not found any living federal citizens. After great efforts, they have only found some wild graves. , occasionally with very few remains. Some of the seven groups have been found on both 5460 and 163, however the number of graves and remains does not match the population statistics before occupation by the Imperial Expeditionary Force.
The upper echelons of the federal government and the military have already vaguely made some very bad guesses, worrying that those civilians have already died in the secret massacre of the Imperial Expeditionary Force. Today, the accidental discovery of the New Seventeenth Division proves this tragic fact.
Xu Le looked at the countless dusty corpses in front of him, his eyes narrowed slightly, and after a moment of silence, he took off his military cap, and the soldiers behind him also took off their military caps or helmets. Compatriots who have been dead for many years salute and say goodbye.