Although it was midday, when the sunlight filtered through the clouds and onto the street outside the mall, it appeared tinged with blood-red. Through the auditory amplification provided by his helmet, Roach could even hear distant roars and gunfire.
"Price, there's combat activity in the distant streets," Soap immediately reported.
"Received," Price quickly responded over the internal comms. "Our primary objective right now is to ensure the mall is secure. Once that's confirmed and ARS Third Infantry takes over the defense, we'll investigate the streets outside the mall."
"Understood."
With clear instructions, the five men remained on standby, patiently waiting for the Hellhounds to complete their reconnaissance.
Before long, the four Hellhounds had thoroughly scouted the entire mall. After all, their design and purpose were to provide rapid ground reconnaissance for combat units.
As the Hellhounds moved through every area and corridor of the mall, the instruments on their backs recorded all the data. Once the advance team had set up a wired base station, the technicians could immediately obtain the mall's internal layout, facilitating the engineering team's renovations and construction.
The final check confirmed that the mall posed no threats and showed no signs of any prior combat.
During the reconnaissance, the wired base station had also been set up, allowing all the advance team members to communicate in real-time with the ruins base. This setup also enabled the technicians at the base to remotely issue detailed instructions to the Hellhounds.
Soon, the ARS Third Infantry took over defensive duties, and the engineering department, which had also passed through the spatial gate, began the complete "renovation" of the mall.
After ensuring everything was in order, the Hellhounds patrolled the mall's vicinity, while Price led the remaining advance team members to rendezvous with Roach, Soap, and Ghost.
Exiting the mall, the fourteen members, paired off, moved through the open parking lot north of the mall.
After crossing the open space, they arrived at the foot of an office building on the opposite side of the street, where they halted and took cover by the walls.
"Clack... clack..."
"Roar... roar..."
The closer they got, the clearer the roars and gunfire became.
Roach couldn't shake the feeling that the roars didn't sound like they were coming from humans. It seemed more like the bellowing of some... wild beast?
Without hesitating, he reached into the pouch on his side and pulled out three black metal devices, each the size of a ping-pong ball, and tossed them into the air.
Buzz~!
As the three "metal balls" reached their highest point, they emitted a faint vibration, quieter than a mosquito's wings, and "hovered" in midair instead of falling.
His comrades followed suit, throwing their own metal balls, which quickly ascended and dispersed in different directions, soon vanishing from sight.
However, on Roach and his comrades' mini radar, the outlines of buildings, streets, and even abandoned vehicles and streetlights became increasingly clear.
These metal balls were pulse scanners developed using superconducting minerals, which used repulsive forces to achieve flight.
They had a maximum flight altitude of four hundred meters and a signal reception radius of three kilometers, allowing them to scan the terrain within this range and upload it to the operators' mini radar.
The operators could also issue commands to concentrate all the pulse scanners in a specific area for real-time dynamic detection.
Although this dynamic detection only provided operators with a blurry outline rather than a detailed image, compared to drones, the scanners were much smaller, significantly reducing the risk of enemy detection. The downside was their limited battery life of only twenty minutes, which couldn't match the hours-long flight time of drones, making them a trade-off.
Soon, Roach realized from the scanner-generated 3D map that he and his comrades were in a large city.
The scanners provided not only this information but also highlighted in red the areas with significant biological activity, separated from them by three main streets.
Roach and his team then directed the scanners to focus on the area above the red-marked zone, and the real-time dynamics showed a two-story building under siege.
Seeing this, Price first used the wired base station to upload and share the city map and real-time status, then submitted a request:
"Command Center, this is Advance Team Leader Captain John Price. We've detected two unidentified forces engaged in combat less than two kilometers from the spatial gate. Requesting permission to investigate up close."
After a brief wait, a female communications officer responded over the channel, "Command Center received. Your request has been approved by the higher-ups. The emergency countermeasures unit (AECS), equipped with heavy weapons, is on standby at the base. If needed, call for immediate support."
"Understood."
With the approval granted, Price immediately ordered, "Archer, Scarecrow, Merlin, Meatball, you four find the best sniping positions. The rest, move in pairs, alternate, and cover each other. And everyone, stay hidden. Let's move."
Upon hearing this, Roach activated the HEV's optical camouflage, distinguishing his similarly "invisible" comrades by the green humanoid outlines and nicknames displayed on his screen.
Paired with Soap, Roach took the lead, maneuvering around the office building and quickly moving north along the sidewalk.
The mini radar showed that they maintained about a ten-meter distance from the following teammates.
The snipers—Archer, Scarecrow, and the others—had already marked a high-rise building to the northwest on the mini radar and helmet screens.
Glancing in that direction, Roach spotted a 30-story apartment building with a vantage point overlooking the combat area.
"Clack, clack!" The gunfire grew more intense and clearer.
Having crossed three streets, they were now close to their target.
They slowed their pace.
Gradually, they reached the corner and waited. Roach and Soap didn't rush out but first checked the real-time dynamics provided by the scanners.
After confirming that the attention of the combatants remained focused on the two-story building, they acted as scouts, quickly advancing to the intersection, turning left, and using the front of an abandoned vehicle as cover. Then, using the helmet's zoom feature, they finally observed the battle scene.
Inside the two-story building—more precisely, inside a two-story supermarket—several dozen human soldiers were frantically unloading ammunition, causing their guns to spit out bright tongues of fire.
A larger group of "people" equipped with firearms and armor was attempting to storm the supermarket. However, these attackers were...
"Die! Die! Hahaha!!"
"Roar!!"
These "people" had rotting skin, twisted faces, and severely deformed bodies.
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