Chapter 184: Spiritual Tree! Gluttonous Mouth! War Begins!

'Fortunately, after exchanging for the Ideal City technology, the remaining enterprise coins are just enough to upgrade the matrix to level 3.'

Looking at the matrix server level on the system panel, Li Ang finally felt relieved.

In fact, long before the Infinity Fleet officially set out, Leon had already connected the Matrix to all the transcendental AIs in the cyber world.

But after consuming the matrices of other transcendental AIs, it was barely upgraded to level 2!
Thanks to Li Ang for saving experience packs and feeding them to SSR characters to complete tasks.

And develop the good habit of not wasting key resources so that you won’t feel stretched at this moment.

A Lv3 matrix should be enough to bring Eva into the server!

'Eva, I've got you!'

Li Ang now feels like a villain behind a giant evil corporation, but he enjoys it.

Who made him have the "hack"?

However, despite the dangers, Li Ang always remained cautious and careful.

After all, it was the first time for him to have a friendly "nuclear peace" competition with "Eva", a macro-system life with planetary consciousness.

However, if LA Company relies solely on conventional military force to attack a monster boss in a level that is different from an ordinary mortal body, it is likely that it will not have much effect on "Eva".

Planetary consciousness is itself a rather abstract form of life existence.

Even if the entire surface of Pandora was bombarded back and forth by the giant ship Infinity, "Eva" might not die completely.

Unless the planet completely disintegrates and collapses from within, causing Eva's consciousness data to lose the corresponding container, it will be possible for it to perish.

But such extreme and brutal behavior was not what Leon wanted to see, nor was it something he could accept.

As the CEO of a giant company, it's impossible that Leon came all the way here just to use the Infinity fleet to destroy a planet and vent his anger.

Li Ang had no intention of doing such a foolish and futile act.

Pandora's suspended stone resources, free Na'vi indigenous labor, rare animals and plants, and alternative alien civilization scenic spots, these are what he values.

This is his interstellar resort. How can he build a giant enterprise if it is destroyed?
"Boss, what should we do next? Should we continue to move our soldiers forward, mine ore, and build a military base as originally planned?"

At this time, Morgan Blackhand, the captain of the Infinity, asked Leon through the real-time holographic communication screen.

So far, nearly 10 ground armed forces have landed on Pandora.

But their range of activities is still very narrow. Until they receive definite instructions, these soldiers will temporarily remain on standby.

They will not leave their locations and carry out their work tasks until the order from the supreme commander Leon is officially given!
Facing Morgan Blackhand's question, Leon thought for a moment, thinking about his next decision.

In addition to exploiting resources and killing people to establish authority, the most critical part of this colonial war is to launch a decisive raid on "Eva"!
Therefore, in Leon's vision, he still had to carry out a "decapitation operation" directly and cleanly, just like he did with the transcendental AI Europa!
First send out a medium-sized force to advance quickly and have someone bring the matrix to the Na'vi's "spiritual tree".

By then, Leon's people will use the "axonal nervous system" that is homologous to that of the Na'vi to force the matrix and the spirit tree to connect.

Once the connection between the two parties is completed, the matrix is ​​officially connected to the collective network of planetary consciousness on Pandora.

Then the matrix will be like a pump, instantly uprooting and sucking out the conscious life form "Eva"!

By then, the overall situation will have been decided, and "Eva", the only god of the Pandora generation, will become Leon's prisoner and even a power generation tool.

This series of action plans is quite concise, and the word "efficiency" is highlighted everywhere, which is exactly Li Ang's style of doing things!

"Very good! It's settled."

After Li Ang officially decided on the next deployment plan in his mind, even his slightly wrinkled brows relaxed a little.

He was obviously very pleased with the plan.

Seeing his boss Leon showing such a relaxed and natural look, Morgan Blackhand knew that he would soon be in for work!
Immediately, Li Ang raised his hands. After making a few simple annotations on the holographic screen, he officially gave the latest order from the command center:
"From now on, the 10 Infinity starships closest to Pandora will immediately dispatch 20% of their engineering team members to assist the ground forces in the construction of the base."

"Notify the AST Power Armor Corps, the Iron Hands Astartes Legion, and the LA Security First and Third Companies to coordinate and move the entire army forward."

"Their goal is to find and mark all the 'spiritual trees' on this planet!"

“Then stand by…!”

The series of command decisions issued by Li Ang were still not aimed at attacking or destroying the local ecological environment and life.

From beginning to end, he maintained absolute caution and patience throughout the process, and marched in batches, allowing the ground troops to steadily erode the planet Pandora.

This colonization plan, which took the entire human race more than three years to prepare for, is not a simple game that can be completed after a short period of hard work.

They have to leave a lot of infrastructure here and build various platforms belonging to the human camp.

Ordinary staff members of the Infinity starship, as well as police and security personnel from the wartime patrols, will assist ground forces in building a military base at this time.

When the company's soldiers have sufficiently solid logistical support and rear bases, they will be able to carry out various firepower strikes on this planet more easily!

"Yes, boss!"

After receiving Leon's exact instructions, Morgan Blackhand immediately conveyed his orders to the command centers of various starships.

Immediately afterwards, various command centers clearly conveyed Leon's instructions to the ground troops' camps.

The whole process was smooth and fluid. It was obvious that LA's well-trained iron army had undergone long-term professional drills and actual battlefield combat.

So, even though it was their first time to wage a colonial war, everyone was well prepared!

After seeing that Morgan had passed on his order, Leon, who was still sitting at the main console, continued to focus on the holographic screen in front of him.

Through the 3D panoramic topographic map displayed on the screen, Leon could clearly see that the order he had just issued had caused armed soldiers to start moving.

Thousands of flat-head tanks, magic lizard tanks, Chimera tanks, and armored vehicles of various models controlled by polymer devices all started moving.

Their function is to provide fire support, cover, and clear the way for the soldiers!
"Planetary climate state normal."

"The ground humidity and temperature are normal!"

"..."

At the same time, the Infinity ships hovering above various regions of Pandora were also actively cooperating with the ground forces' response.

And closely collect various local data and information throughout the process.

Hundreds of thousands of small drones controlled by AI, like nimble and delicate metal dragonflies, quickly shuttle through the rainforests and grasslands of Pandora.

Of course, these drones are not entirely used for military reconnaissance. They will also collect insects, plants, or soil on the planet to facilitate scholars' research.

……

At this moment, in a deep and dense rainforest, V was leading the Astartes advance squadron towards another rainforest area.

According to the latest information detected by the drone ahead, the "spiritual tree" they need to find is just a few kilometers ahead!

As long as they occupied that area, V and his group would have gained something.

"V, this place is so damn beautiful, it's almost unbelievably beautiful!"

During the march, Jack Wells, who couldn't keep quiet, couldn't help but speak to his old friend and boss V.

His excited and passionate voice was filled with his sincere admiration for the scenery of Pandora.

Looking at Jack, who had undergone the same gene seed transformation surgery as himself, V couldn't help but shook his head at this old friend in front of him who was as strong as a giant bear.

Jack has been in the army for three years, but he still can't change his carefree personality and slightly surprising way of thinking.

The other soldiers were thinking about how to guard against the unknown and special dangerous situations here.

But Jack actually had the leisure time to appreciate the alien scenery.

"Jack, you have to be serious. This colonial war is no joke!"

V spoke out in a serious tone, reminding Jack to stay alert.

As the commander of Leon's ace troops, V certainly knows something about the details of Pandora.

Unlike other ordinary soldiers, who were unaware of the planetary consciousness "Eva", V was very clear about the existence of this thing!

But because Leon did not reveal too much information about "Eva" to V, V was so afraid of this strange and huge life form.

Planetary consciousness life form... Just hearing the name of this thing makes it sound terrifyingly powerful!!

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Jack waved his hand fearlessly and said with a smile:
"V, don't be so nervous. If it was really that dangerous, our fleet would have already sent a wave of missiles to wipe out the area."

"Why do we need to come down and clear the way?"

What Jack said makes sense. Since its establishment, the armed forces of LA Company have always implemented the principle of "rich firepower coverage".

In front of the company's powerful factory, artillery and ammunition are like free tap water; they can fire however they want.

V: "..."

Seeing Jack say this, V reluctantly accepted his statement and followed him to observe the alien scenery here.

Since Le Ang asked them to come to the ground to carry out activities, it means that Le Ang is fully confident in dealing with that mysterious conscious life form.

"Jack, you know what, this place is quite suitable as a leisure area for our interstellar journey!"

In V's mind, he seemed to have seen LA's giant observation deck, towering above the rainforest, for humans to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

"Yes, but before that, we still have to make a hard trip to clean up the heretic species." Jack made a heartless joke about hell. Although his words were indeed a bit cruel, they were indeed the voice of the soldiers in the army.

They came here just to grab territory. Leaving such a beautiful scenic spot to the local indigenous people and playing childish house games is a serious waste of resources!

In order to bring some more advanced labor hobbies to the local Na'vi people, LA has decided to provide them with free mining or matrix power generation jobs.

It is a great fortune for all the creatures on this planet to be able to contribute a little to the prosperity of the world's giant companies!
"call……!"

“The night sky here is pretty nice, too.”

Just then, V looked up at Pandora's starry sky.

Pandora is a satellite orbiting a gas giant that is twice as massive as Jupiter, so there is more than one moon in its night sky.

Perhaps it is because there are too many strange natural factors occurring on Pandora that the plants, flowers, and even animals on the ground have strange genetic instincts.

For example, it can glow on its own at night!

That’s right, once night falls on Pandora, the entire planet is filled with fantastic and magnificent sights, just like a fairy tale world that only appears in children’s innocent dreams.

When V looked around, he found that there didn't seem to be any barren land areas on the planet. Dense rainforests and grasslands basically covered the entire surface of the planet.

Adjectives like cold, desolate, and bleak are totally inappropriate to describe Pandora. This planet doesn't seem to have any flaws at all!

We have to admit that the fantastic and gorgeous Pandora, in a sense, really does look like the private reserve of some advanced civilization.

"I hope that we humans are the only ones who have colonized here, otherwise the outcome of this war is hard to predict!"

V thought to himself.

Just as V was about to have his legionnaires gather their minds and continue advancing, he suddenly received a voice notification from other advance teams.

[Soldiers from the advance column have already exchanged fire with the local indigenous Na'vi people. Personnel from all units please be alert! ]

[In case of emergency, report immediately. ]

[Repeat again…]

At this moment, V and Jack, who had just relaxed, suddenly became a little nervous as the voice announcement sounded.

Details reported through voice showed that just 15 minutes ago, soldiers from another advance team had a battle with the Na'vi.

They opened fire and killed 13 blue-skinned Na'vi, exposing the area they were in.

At almost the same time, the advance team soldiers in other areas also encountered some minor troubles to varying degrees.

A few soldiers of the regiment who were in great trouble requested a round of fighter fire support from the giant ship Infinity in the air.

All of the above situations indicate that LA's ground forces have reached the limit of Pandora's ability to accommodate outsiders.

One more step closer and the war will begin!

"It looks like the war has finally begun."

V breathed a sigh of relief. For some reason, he preferred to hear the sound of artillery fire that could ignite the blood in his body rather than a silent environment.

Perhaps only when his heart beats for the conquest war of the giant enterprise, V's doubts, indecision, over-caution and fragile emotions will be completely abandoned.

"Now the entire army will speed up and seize the Spirit Tree stronghold ahead!"

V's passionate words immediately ignited the blood of the Iron Hands warriors behind him.

They responded to V's instructions with roars and cries like jackals, tigers and leopards.

Immediately afterwards, the Astartes vanguard began a forced march, with lines of humanoid steel soldiers passing through the rainforest and heading straight for the spiritual tree ahead.

And in the depths of the rainforest a few kilometers ahead of them, balls of raging fire were spreading their raging tongues of flame, burning mercilessly and devouring everything.

After receiving the request for air fire support from the ground forces, an array of Skyhawk shuttles, ornithopters, AT-99 Scorpions and other fighter aircraft immediately launched several rounds of indiscriminate bombing on a certain location.

After several rounds of artillery fire, several thousand-meter-high towering trees in a rainforest somewhere have been tilted to the ground, with half of their trunks revealing hideous bullet hole scars.

The blue and pink plant roots and self-luminous vegetation were also suffering from continuous burning in the fire, and then withered and died.

Obviously, the firepower strikes from the giant ship's flying fighter array were quite significant and effective in destroying Pandora's natural environment!

[003 Infinity starship has completed fire support! ]

【Fighters have now been summoned to return. 】

【…】

After receiving the main ship's recall order, dozens of fighter jets immediately returned to the cabin.

After just a few simple rounds of bombing and strafing, several rainforest areas on the ground were turned into scorched earth like ruins.

Here, when the fighter array that had just completed the aerial fire strike was returning, dozens of flapping-wing aircraft that maintained silent mode throughout the entire process had quietly passed over the location of a spiritual tree!

Whoosh...!
The mission of these flapping-wing aircraft is to overlook the situation under the spirit tree and investigate the group movement status of the Na'vi.

After a while, with the help of ultra-clear cameras, the fighters in the flapping-wing aircraft saw the "spiritual tree" that Le Ang needed them to mark!
"The location of the 69th spirit tree has been locked. The coordinate system information of the target has been uploaded to the main starship database."

【Headquarters has received it! 】

"..."

After completing the most basic marking task, the pilot began to carefully observe the appearance of the "spiritual tree" revered by the Na'vi people.

Unlike the towering trees that were burned or cut in half by bombs, the spiritual tree did not have any trace of the usual emerald green color on its body.

Its twigs and branches look like willow branches on Earth, but what’s extraordinary is that these branches all emit bursts of charming glimmering light.

Obviously, these branches emitting purple-pink light and hanging naturally to the ground are part of the "spiritual trees" revered by the Na'vi indigenous people.

[Send out the drone and get close to the target to take pictures! ]

At this time, the pilots in the flapping-wing aircraft hovering above the spirit tree received orders from the main ship's command room.

The person who issued this order was Li Ang himself!
"Yes!"

After receiving instructions from his superiors, the pilot immediately released the micro-drone in the cabin and let the drone get close to the target to perform high-speed photo capture tasks.

Soon, these drones used ultra-clear night cameras to clearly capture the branches and roots of the spiritual trees glowing.

These branches of the spiritual trees, which are rooted deep under the surface of Pandora and connected to "Eva", are actually very similar to the network optical fibers and cables on Earth.

Even their most basic working principles are highly similar!

"very good……"

Looking at the clear videos, images and other information resources taken by the drone, Li Ang, who was sitting at the center console, couldn't help but nod slightly.

Through the veins and roots of this spiritual tree that spread infinitely to the ground, Leon seemed to have glimpsed "Eva's" daily eating habits.

This ancient god that has existed on Pandora for billions of years uses these glowing "spiritual trees" as stations to connect to the consciousness of living creatures.

Gather the indigenous tribes scattered across the planet and use the "Spirit Tree" as their home so that the local indigenous people can provide themselves with nourishment for their consciousness!

Therefore, these spiritual trees are actually more like huge gluttonous mouths that Eva uses to eat.

"Have the drone get closer. I want to see what the natives under the spirit tree are doing."

Li Ang continued to give instructions to the pilot through the voice communication device.

Immediately, the pilots who received the instructions took control of the AI ​​drones through program instructions.

Dozens of drones, precisely adjusted by AI, quickly and quietly landed right above the spiritual tree.

Through the video and image information transmitted by the drone in front, Leon could clearly see that there were hundreds of humanoid creatures under the spiritual tree.

They are quite slender and have an average height of 2.8 to 3.2 meters, almost the same as the warriors of the Iron Hands Astartes Legion.

These natives with pointed ears, four fingers, azure skin with dark blue markings, and dreadlocks are the intelligent life on Pandora, the Na'vi.

At this moment, the gathered Na'vi people all looked serious and angry.

Their hearts were already nearly roaring, but on the surface they remained quiet and motionless. These Na'vi turned their eyes full of fighting intent towards a leader under the spirit tree.

This leader of the Na'vi people is none other than the current chief of the Na'vi people, Etukon.

He stood under the spiritual tree with a resolute look on his face, and spoke to the tribesmen below in the local indigenous language:

"In broad daylight, those unknown sky people burned our hometown and killed our brothers and sisters."

"Now, we must retaliate with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We must use our anger and our counterattack to tell them that no one can act recklessly on our territory!"

"Brave Na'vi warriors, follow my steps and attack those damned sky people!"

"..."

After making a declaration full of fighting spirit, Etukon raised his voice and let out a series of high-pitched and piercing roars.

This inefficient signal calling method, which resembles that of primitive animals, is the signal used by the Na'vi to summon all members of the tribe to participate in the war.

In this way, Etukang was telling the Na'vi people that the war concerning the survival of the tribe had begun and it was time for them to defend their homes.

The raging flames of war have already begun!
(End of this chapter)