Chapter 402: Open Plot

While patrolling, the Pioneer did not forget to browse the map of Washington D. C. he had stored in his Core beforehand, searching for specific information about this place, which he suspected was a museum.

Soon, he found his current location from the data he had saved.

"National Air and Space Museum of the United States?"

The Pioneer was somewhat puzzled. Because he had done a great deal of preparatory work, his Core contained corresponding information for almost every building in Washington D. C. that could be accessed, including the 【National Air and Space Museum of the United States】.

The 【National Air and Space Museum of the United States】, also known as the 【National Air and Space Museum】, is one of the sixteen museums under the 【Smithsonian Institution】, which is the largest joint museum in the United States and the world.

However, what puzzled the Pioneer was why his master would give him the coordinates of a museum and then vaguely tell him to come and see what was here.

If it were like before, to steal certain American military technologies, it would be better to send him or other Decepticons to invade some of the United States' classified research centers or corporate Laboratory facilities.

Because from the data he had collected, the 【Smithsonian Institution】 did indeed have its own Yanjiu Zhongxin, but the subjects studied were basically the history and preservation of culture, monuments, and artifacts.

Although the 【National Air and Space Museum of the United States】 where he was currently located held a considerable number of retired American military aircraft—most of which were retired fighter jets donated by the U. S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and NATO allies, with their internal structures and electronic equipment mostly well-preserved—they were ultimately not comparable to fighter jets currently in service with the military.

At least in the Pioneer's view, if his master wanted to map their data to master more technology related to human military aircraft, sending them to directly infiltrate a military Base or manufacturing plant would be much more appropriate than coming here for a visit.

A slightly chubby security guard walked over holding a Flashlight while the Pioneer was feeling puzzled.

The 【National Air and Space Museum of the United States】 was nearing closing time, and this was the routine inspection before closing.

The Pioneer very carefully controlled his chassis, standing motionless in place.

After all, this was the capital of the United States, and having fully learned Sun Cheng's cautious nature, he acted even more prudently after obtaining intelligence that several Autobot Warriors were stationed in Washington D. C.

Fortunately, he still had an Optical Stealth Device on him, and it was currently activated.

This technology, which originally came from the Hunter Civilization of another world, had been improved by Atlas using some Cybertronian technology. Now, the occasionally appearing wave-like reflective patterns not only had a significantly reduced frequency, but their visibility had also been clearly improved.

Therefore, even if museum security guards passed by his side during their patrols, he had no worries at all.

Because unless the other party had been staring at his location from the very beginning, the vast majority of people, even if they inadvertently caught a glimpse of strange, fleeting ripples beside them, would only think their eyes were playing tricks on them, or that it was floaters.

Sure enough, that fat security guard did not notice at all that a cloaked behemoth was standing just a few meters away from his patrol route.

As usual, he just patrolled the exhibition area he was responsible for for a while, and after confirming there were no tourists or thieves trying to sneak into the museum to steal, he turned around, humming a little tune, and headed back to the security office from the other side.

After confirming there were no outsiders around, the Pioneer began to focus on remotely controlling the All-Terrain Scout he had just released, searching for that strange thing his master had told him about, which might be hidden anywhere in the exhibition area.

It looked easy, but this was actually a very troublesome Task!

After all, the 【National Air and Space Museum of the United States】 he had come to by following the coordinates, although it could be considered the museum with the fewest exhibits among the sixteen 【Smithsonian Institution】 locations, and also the one with the largest exhibits in terms of shape, still had twenty-four exhibition halls and an exhibition area of approximately eighteen thousand square meters.

The museum housed hundreds of retired aviation and aerospace vehicles, as well as thousands of various rockets, Missiles, and artifacts used by famous pilots and astronauts that were of great significance in the history of aviation and aerospace in the United States and even Europe.

Moreover, he did not even know if the target of the Task his master had given him was a certain exhibit collected in this museum, or some pattern or logo inside the museum.

Therefore, the difficulty of the search could be imagined.

The Pioneer soon realized this, and after quickly releasing the remaining three All-Terrain Scouts, he began to control the four scouts to fly up and down throughout the more than twenty exhibition halls, searching for that potentially existing item, pattern, or logo that was very important to his master.

This search lasted for three or four hours.

The sky soon darkened, but under his patient screening, the Pioneer had already confirmed that nineteen of the twenty-four exhibition halls were problem-free.

Irritation naturally emerged, but fortunately, his rationality was much greater than that of other Decepticons.

Therefore, although he began to feel a bit irritated, the Pioneer still controlled the four scouts after finishing the screening of one exhibition hall, carefully avoiding the security guards on routine patrol in the museum, and ignoring the surveillance cameras he had already mastered, entering a very large exhibition hall to begin a serious search.

If one were to count carefully, this exhibition hall was actually the closest one to the open-air exhibition area where the Pioneer was hiding.

The reason he had not started searching from here before was that this hall, along with two other adjacent halls, were the star exhibition halls of the entire museum, displaying hundreds of retired U. S. military fighter jets, as well as some European fighter jets donated by global allies of the United States, and even former Soviet Union military aircraft.

Because of this, the three exhibition halls in this vicinity were the focus of the museum security guards' patrols.

To avoid exposing the All-Terrain Scout and arousing human vigilance, the Pioneer had started searching one by one from the furthest and most remote exhibition halls, leaving these three main exhibition halls for last.

The scout soon flew into the exhibition hall, constantly getting close to the fighter jets placed in the hall, and began to check them carefully.

It just so happened that the human security guards were patrolling in a more distant exhibition hall, so the Pioneer also had a little less vigilance.

He was processing the data continuously transmitted by the scout while thinking about what his master had sent him here to find.

Suddenly, his chassis shook violently.

Just a moment ago, an image captured by Scout No. 3 was transmitted to him.

The No. 3 All-Terrain Scout was closely inspecting a legendary high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft that had once served in the U. S. military—the Blackbird.

When it descended almost against the ground to the belly of that Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft, an inadvertent scan recorded a special logo, which was quickly fed back into the Pioneer's Core.

Decepticon!