Based on Future Military's factory price, a support earth penetrator that could be launched from the synchronous orbit cost about 5 million Xin New Dollars. Including the combat components of the incendiary bomb, it would be about 5.5 million.
Two hundred rounds of earth penetrators would be 1.1 billion Xin New Dollars. As for the bombs and batteries, it would add up to about one or two hundred million.
Sure enough, a cannon was worth ten thousand taels of gold.
The TS Expedition only set off for less than two weeks, and it already asked for more than a billion Xin New Dollars worth of supplies from the headquarters. Even if Jiang Chen's family business grew to such an extent, he had to admit that this thing was too expensive.
In fact, excluding the consumption of the TS Expedition, so far, the money spent by Celestial Trade and Future Group on Mars added up to 20 billion Xin New Dollars. On the other hand, excluding the unknown value of the Gaia civilization, the value created by the Mars colony was less than half of this figure.
It was also the most painful part of farming on an alien planet.
Before the crops grew, you didn't even know what fruit the seeds you planted would produce.
Fortunately, the frontline did not only send bills, but also some other things.
In mid-February, through a comprehensive analysis of stratigraphic information and life signal fluctuations, researchers in the Mars colony concluded that the probability of a Devil Worm nest existing in a granite-like natural cave with a depth of one kilometer in the northern part of the colony was more than 80%.
If the information was reliable, it might be the shallowest Devil Worm nest found in the Mars colony so far.
With this information, the TS Expedition immediately sent ground forces to encircle the Devil Worm nest at the coordinates.
By using a drill truck equipped with a large drill bit, the TS Expedition dug an inclined tunnel into the target formation at an inclination of 30 degrees. Before this kind of drill truck was modified, it was usually used to build undersea tunnels on Earth. It was more than enough to deal with the relatively loose rock environment on Mars.
While drilling, the engineering vehicle behind also laid steel brackets on the tunnel wall, poured cement, and cast a concrete wall to prevent Devil Worms from destroying the tunnel.
Who said humans didn't know how to dig holes?
The Marines of the TS Expedition proved that humans not only knew how to dig holes, but they also knew how to build roads along the hole. The concrete wall supported by A-type steel could not collapse the tunnel even if the Devil Worms broke a string of cement chips.
The moment the drill truck rushed into the Devil Worm's lair.
The armored vehicles in the back swarmed in and fired at the Devil Worms that lunged at them.
A bloody massacre began.
In the face of a one-kilogram bomb accelerated to multiple times the speed of sound, the Devil Worm's keratin armor did not provide any effective protection. However, behind them were the insectoid eggs, and with their backs facing their nests, they could not dig into the ground and fight the invading Celestial Trade Marines.
The hoarse roar echoed in the tunnel and was drowned out by the sound of cannons.
Green blood splashed everywhere. In just ten minutes, at least fifty adult Devil Worms fell into pools of blood. Except for a few Devil Worms that fled in panic when they saw the situation was not good, there were no Devil Worms that could still move in the entire pot-shaped cave.
After the biggest threat was eliminated, the soldiers in kinetic skeletons jumped out from the rear hatch of the armored vehicle and quickly rushed to the direction of the Devil Worm eggs with the folded steel wire net. A "safety belt" was laid between the armored vehicle and the eggs.
This kind of wire net could not be retracted after it was spread out. It was extremely strong, especially the longitudinal strength.
After all this was done, the six infantrymen stood in a loose formation, set up their rifles, and took a defensive stance near the Devil Worm eggs while they waited for the researchers to come out to collect specimens.
A Devil Worm suddenly attacked from below!
However, after the two pairs of scythes pierced through the wire net, they could not bite together and were stuck in the wire. The medics immediately rushed out and dragged the soldier that was knocked out from the outside, put him on a stretcher, and sent him back to the armored vehicle.
The Devil Worm with its incisor stuck in the wire net could only frantically twist its head and try its best to pull out its incisor from the deformed wire net, but it found that everything was in vain.
The Marines next to him immediately stepped forward and fired dozens of bombs at the Devil Worm's head before it finally stopped making a fuss. Then several researchers in heavy protective suits stepped forward again and carefully dug out the half-man-sized egg from the ground and put it into a large freezer for sealing.
New enemies continued to rush up from below and then hit the wire net like moths to a flame.
These fearless Devil Worms brought a lot of trouble to the sample collection, but fortunately, except for two Marines who were slightly injured, there were no casualties.
After the sample collection was completed, the Marines began to evacuate from the tunnel in an orderly manner, leaving only dark green juice and scattered limbs.
All the eggs would be sent back to Celestial City for research.
Celestial Trade had never obtained such a complete live insect egg. This operation could be described as a bountiful harvest!
In addition to the insect eggs, the frontline field researchers also found a special flesh-colored fungus in the cave.
These fungi were very small and grew on a kind of coarse sandstone, almost integrated with the rock. If it was not carefully examined with a magnifying glass, it could be mistaken for hematite.
After analysis by the field researchers on TS Expedition, they confirmed that this fungus might be the oxygen-producing fungus that could survive in an anaerobic environment and provide oxygen and food for Devil Worms and other Martian creatures to live underground.
The Devil Worm eggs and the oxygen-producing fungus were loaded onto the rocket. After more than a week of flight, the freezer containing the specimens was recovered by the port of Celestial City.
These specimens caused a new round of sensation among researchers from all over the world.
As for how they refreshed the understanding of biology on Earth, and what new breakthroughs appeared in biotechnology and chemistry … Jiang Chen was almost not interested in making a fuss with them.
It was almost March.
Xin would vote to elect its own president.
Although he was not a candidate, as the behind-the-scenes controller of Xin, he still had to work hard for this election.
In addition, at the end of the same month, the primaries of the UA election would also begin. Future Group and B City Consortium invested a lot of chips in Joseph Kennedy.
Hill's support rate within the party had fallen to the freezing point, and the possibility of winning the primaries was not high. There were only two people left with the most hope. One was Kerry, supported by the Morgan Consortium, and the other was Joseph Kennedy.
It was still unknown who would win the primaries and represent the Democratic Party in the final battle in November.
Jiang Chen temporarily entrusted the Mars colony and researchers from various countries to Kelvin, and began to focus his work on Earth.
The first day of March was also the last day of the Mars Biological Exhibition.
Jiang Chen came to the open-air venue next to the Heart of the Sea Pavilion, stood in front of the cameras of the media, and delivered the closing speech of the exhibition to all the visitors, all the viewers sitting in front of TVs and computers.
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