Chapter 154 - The Secrets of Steam

*( mood song: "Imagine Dragons - It's Time")

--- Back at ARK 52836383637 ---

Erik looked down the dark tunnel: "just in case... Rose, send a bot in first"

Rose nodded: "sure" and a bot descended down the tunnel.

Five minutes passed and Rose said: "it's safe"

Relieved, the rest of the group went down, the tunnel was slightly illuminated by heat algae lamps on the sides of the tunnel, most of them were dead due to a lack of care though, the tunnel also lacked proper steps, as octopeople just swam down the smooth tunnel, those in the group with power armor especially, had to put more effort to avoid falling tumbling down.

Erik and Inky were about to fall quite some times but were supported by warrior octopeople that held them up. Rose and Amanda on the other hand had no trouble walking down the tunnel slowly and with precision.

It took them twenty minutes to reach the end of the tunnel, as they finally reached a big room down below.

Erik: "...wow... how?!"

A lot of them gasped as they saw the room below, an enormous golden halberd emitting a green glow occupied the center of the room, three green cubes inserted on it, while other holes over the weapon remained empty. Meanwhile, there were also small robots like spiders constantly patrolling and cleaning the room, and taller robots holding the halberd in place while they looked around.

*creak thssss* a smaller statue to the side then creaked as bubbles came from it, starting to produce sounds "welcome, the last of my brethren... I'm Antalia, engineer and inventor of the royal family, I left this bubbling communicator in case someone arrived in my absence" the automaton then pointed at the halberd "this weapon you see is my last creation, but it's still incomplete, so please don't touch it, my metal workers will attack anyone who gets too close, it used to belong to the last ruler of our race... I don't know what happened to them..." the automaton then pointed at the right wall "as security measures I installed some launch pods there to the right, they should take you to the surface, it's a bit painful going up there, but there are no big predators most of the time" then pointed at the door "as for the door it closes by a lever to the right of it"

Rose: [Erik, I left a bot upstairs, not to alarm you but the door is almost open]

Erik nodded and signaled a warrior to the lever.

The warrior nodded and pulled it down, nine segments then moved and closed the circular door.

Meanwhile, the automaton continued "if you are hungry" it pointed to the left wall "I left some emergency rations in a closet on that wall, and some small warrior spears for self protection, and if you have a commander with you I also left one of my last inventions" a crate bubbled and popped open, revealing what appeared to be a gun the size of a car, three green crystals encased on it, while the body seemed to be the melted and carved skull of some being, and with a big spear at the front "a bubbling spear cannon!, it heats water until it bubbles, that creates a pressure it uses for shooting spears at high speeds!, that's all! I hope to see you someday"

Rose approached the huge cannon and slowly lifted it: [ugh... what a crude weapon... using those multipurpose energy sources just for boiling water...]

Erik shrugged as he rummaged the rations, mostly sealed containers with salted meat encased in a thick jelly: [well, they did what they could...]

Rose: [indeed... but I can do better, by the way-]

*BOOM* an explosion sounded through the walls.

Rose: [the bugs came in, I self destructed]

Erik nodded: "everyone get ready, the critters have arrived at the room above, they probably can't get here, but better be ready"

Erik then put one of the rations inside his armor and tasted it: "hmm... sweet, oily and sour, not bad" he then gave an order "look at the room, search for useful things"

Shana: "wait! this place belongs to someone important, show respect and don't break anything"

The soldiers nodded as they started looking, opening drawers and rummaging through tables, even a giant bowl bed in a corner.

Rose pointed at the halberd: "so... do we destroy those robots and take the halberd?"

Timberly shook her head: "she might be back, she can take it when she's back and give it to us then"

Rose's face soured: "what if she's dead?"

All the elder's face's soured then.

Shana: "we will need to confirm her death first then..."

Rose ground her teeth and sighed: "Fine... have it your way"

Erik wanted to relieve the tension, so he said: "hey guys, try these rations, i don't know what it is but it's good"

The elders nodded as they started eating too.

Jennifer: "hm? this is..."

Erik: "did you all try it before?"

Shana: "yes, the jelly is made with purple fruits our mother used to give us"

Erik: "oh... there might be some nearby then"

At that moment, a scout reported to Erik "Fifth Elder, we have found something" offering him a rolled up piece of thick leather.

Erik accepted it and unrolled it, revealing a map of the area around them, some things were carved into the leather while others were painted "a map huh..."

On it, lots of different areas, buildings, and streets could be seen, even farming fields.

Erik: [Rose, what do you think?.... Rose?] he then turned around and saw Rose sitting on the floor and frowning with her eyes closed.

Erik: "Rose?"

---

In a solar system far away, millions of big spaceships were fighting on three sides, the explosions rocketed the darkness of space, as lives dimmed like candles to the wind. Three pirate factions fought to rule that solar system, previously only inhabited by a primitive civilization they were planning to enslave.

The most powerful side used big spaceships that shot powerful plasmablasts, while the other two factions used laser and projectile weapons respectively.

As the war raged on though, suddenly a purple line appeared in the middle. It quickly expanded as Sarah's spaceship came out of it.

The battle stopped due to the unexpected phenomenon.

Sarah blinked her eyes as they looked around, dilating in fear: "s-ship, status report!"

Ship AI: *yes commander, radiation damage detected in hulls-*

Sarah: "not that! the outside!"

Ship AI: *scanning.... millions of unknown objects detected, do you wish to set a course?*

Sarah: "ah... what to do... they won't shoot right?"

Ship AI: "receiving a video signal, do you wanna accept it?"

Sarah: "yes..."

Then on her screen appeared three beings, a reptilian dressed in a suit of armor lazily sitting on a metal throne on the left, a humanoid with sharp teeth, purple skin, a ballooned head, and luxurious clothing in the middle, and finally... a floating ball of flesh with six eyes, they all seemingly talking in their own languages.

Ship AI: *languages unidentified, attempt mimicry?*

Sarah: "yes!

Ship AI: *initiating...* a blue cloud of particles formed then on the screen, and showed the shape of the spaceship flying away and the other alien spaceships letting it through.

The reaction wasn't good though, the reptilian laughed loudly and then seemed to be giving orders, quickly hundreds of projectile weapons pointed at her ship. The grey skin just scoffed and lasers pointed at her, while the blob of flesh just dilated its eye but didn't point any weapons at her.

Sarah: "oh... I don't like how that turned out, spaceship, do we have any weapons?!"

Ship AI: *we have a projectile hypersonic gauss gatling machinegun, and nuclear rockets for the destruction of incoming asteroids. Do you give permission to activate the weapon systems?*

Sarah: "yes!"

A hatch opened at the front and sides as 12 barrels the size of fists were revealed, along with side hatches that revealed dozens of missile bays.

Sarah looked at the gigantic spaceships concerned: "don't we have anything more?"

Ship AI: *.... we could purge the fuel from the reactor, but the antimatter cylinders would only last ten seconds before exploding and engulfing the entire area, the probability of survival of the commander is 0,0001%...*

Sarah: "okay... where is the next space crack?"

Ship AI: *scanning.... confirmed, displaying data* and a map appeared on the spaceship's HUD.

Sarah: "so right in front, just at the other side of those plasma spaceships... well they haven't opened fire so it could be a good choice..."

Ship AI: *enemy weapons locked and about to open fire*

Sarah's eyes dilated: "all engines forward! activate orbit stabilizers too!"

The entire spaceship then roared to life, easily gaining speed, its light body and powerful engine the perfect combination for space exploration, but...

Ship AI: *hold tight commander, we are under enemy fire*

Hundreds of explosions rocketed the surroundings, as lasers blew away three exterior gravitational rings, the spaceship had no armor so it quickly suffered heavy damage.

Sarah quickly put on a spacesuit as alarms started sounding.

*Life support failing, oxygen levels at 12...11...8...7...6... oxygen supply finished, dozens of breaches on the helm, emergency beacon deployed, sending an emergency signal in all broadcast frequencies*

Sarah: *How far are we?!*

Ship AI: *...we won't make it commander, the enemy has blocked the way forward*

Sarah looked up and saw thousands of rhomboid spaceships joining into a wall, and ground her teeth.

Sarah: "well I'm not going down alone... sorry Erik" she closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again determined "OPEN FIRE! SHOOT EVERYTHING!"

Instantly, a thick line of fast metal hit the wall, littering it with holes, while nuclear rockets exploded all over the wall, rendering it to pieces.

Sarah scoffed: "that will teach- you..." but under that wall, all that awaited her was a giant spaceship that had a very organic feel.

And as if from a nightmare, a maw opened on it, intending to swallow the spaceship.

Sarah's face paled horribly: "change course now!"

Ship AI: *maximum linear velocity reached, not enough space to change course... it was an honor commander...*

Sarah: "likewise, sigh... all engines forward! prepare to release the antimatter fuel containers on my order!"

The ship advanced forward in a suicide rush, but then... a purple crack expanded rapidly forward and swallowed them, splitting the organic ship about to swallow them in half in the process.

--- Back at ARK 52836383637 ---

"shit... not enough... power..." Rose cursed one last time and collapsed to the floor, as silver fluid escaped her mouth.

Erik rushed to her and fell on his knees with his power armor: "ROSE! ROSE?! shit! shit! SHIT! we need to get back to the base!"

All elders nodded, what they didn't know though, was that the base was out of power too.

---

Deep below the ground, on the core of the planet ARK, pulsing blobs of glowing flesh considerably dimmed.