Chapter 4: Underground Ruin Pt 1

~[ 5 Days later ]~

[MIDNIGHT]

[GRAND CANYON REGION]

[EXCAVATION SITE, PROXIMITY 250 KM SOUTHEAST FROM GAIA COLONY]

It has been a few days since the news about the finding. Without further obstacles such as stupid bureaucracy,I ordered a dozen companies of dominion troopers and marines, six siege tanks, 30 APC and 300 SCV, and a couple of logistics-related personnel and equipment to that site named "Wawunderwaffer.". Why use a German name? Because the site we were digging could house tonnes of advanced alien technology, I could salvage and reverse engineer it to help me survive in this insane world. Maybe a straight-out escape while we are at it.Plus it sound cool at least for my ears. The digging site Area of Operations position is quite ideal for building a good fortress

.A huge flat land is surrounded by a natural barrier of tall mountains, leaving only three narrow gates to enter. Plus, there is a drinkable oasis at the corner with deep cliffs to prevent breaches and circling. Building adequate fortifications with tonnes of defensive turrets, a cannon tower, bunkers, and a sensor tower. Before that, I need to build and clear the pathway for transportation and logistics so the process will be smoother. Along the way, we are protecting and creating another defence line just in case another assault happens.

"So, how is the excavation progressing?" I ask the chief engineer while he is busy ordering around.

"Work progress is faster than we anticipated. Around 20% of the workload is completed. But the prizes we dig in might be too much for us to handle." He said this while sweating a little.

"So how big is the "PRIZE" again?" I look around the site and see many silver tower-like structures sticking around the canyon like sore thumbs. Thanks to SCV working day and night, especially in this canyon-rocky terrain.

"The initial deep sensor scan indicates around 3 kilometres of diameter and width and 20 metres deep from the surface. But I suspect it could be bigger than the size of the city, like Tokyo back on earth. So yeah, we need more than at least another 2 days just to clean up the rough rocky surface alone, and we haven't even touched the digging site yet. That if we didn't have company here, of course," he said while covering his eye with a cap. Looking around left and right to see anything, try stalking him. He must consider the region's local animals, according to a report from scouts that I received several weeks ago. What kind of forces? That needs to wait to be found out.

"Don't worry, chief, if you are afraid of getting attacked anytime, I will reinforce this area with more manpower, not just to give you and your men peace of mind but to speed up the workload here. You have my words." I ask Siri to issue an order sending another company of dominion troopers and a couple of APC of various variants. I didn't need to worry about shortages of manpower patrolling around the area. Ask for more and more war equipment, and enlistment keeps pumping out like a fountain. At least twice as often as the first 3 weeks ago. I'm also considering using a robot, but that needs to wait after my little adventure.

"That very reassuring promise you give Marshall.Anyway, let's hope the best, shall we?" as he walks away to inspect and oversee the site.

"Hmm, that's a lot of numbers. It could be a city, or maybe some kind of outpost was built here. I just hope there is no sleeping alien buried here as well. (Nah, knowing my luck, it totally will happen.) Just leave with the commanding officer here to take care of you. But one last thing to do before returning home." I walk around the base, searching for something eye-catching. For half an hour somewhere, SCV workers found some kind of silver and golden door from hours of digging. There has been no sign of activity so far.

"Boss looks what we found." He tries to pierce the door with its left power drill but fails. Some kind of energy force field bounced off,pushing the behemoth away and knocking off the pilot from his machine. He did not hurt but just lost consciousness for a brief time.

"Easy there, big guy. Don't be hasty. The last thing we need is anger, some kind of space, sleeping beauty, and fancy toys far beyond our own blasting us with lasers or something." One of his friends tried to pull him out of SCV.

" (Great, now we have little space ruin adventures this early.) All units should clear and seal off this area. Call the security guard, reinforce this point, and guard it. Shoot anything that tries to get out of that entrance. Raise the alert to CODE:YELLOW. SIRI organise the best men for the recon team and Stetguy best men to accompany me." As I ordered,all workers here were dismissed. The marines and troopers begin to seal off the area and put some turrets, cameras, etc. at the entrance. If you wonder, there are three types of protocols. Green means save or neutral; yellow is standby; and red is an emergency. 

After hours of preparation, I was with at least 27 people, consisting of 4 marines (not including me), 12 dominion troopers (2 hailstorm launchers), 3 anti-duty armour, and 7 standard equipment), 4 combat engineers, 1 medic, 1 pathfinder, and 4 scientists from the Stetmann group. Of course, all of them wearing tights are wearing protective armour, not just to protect from enemy attacks but also from the environment, like radiation, viruses, and any imaginable horror mankind could think of. By the way,the armour only gives people a piece of mind. Unless you have totally game logic, even with mini nukes thrown at you,as long as the HP is not zero, you could survive for a while. Food and other supplies were carried individually.

"Sir, mind asking some questions? Is it wise for you to follow us on this dangerous mission?" Ask one of the best men currently present on this base. Yep, it is Shirogane Takeru in his grey CMC 400 suit. He was transferred here from the recon division and expedition team for an unknown reason.

"As the highest-ranking officer here and the supreme leader of the colony, It is the best option for me to oversee this important site with my own eyes and determination, whether this could help us survive or not. (Beside, who didn't want to explore space ruin.) It must be one of the "man romances," right?"

While waiting at least 30 metres away from the demolition team, try to breach the entrance door with explosives, etc. In almost half an hour's time, those men tried whatever they could to break the force field alone.

*BOOM...!?*

CRACKLED!*

"Sorry, but it was weird for the leader of the colony to do some grunt work," try to kill some time, and try to inspect his equipment, like the Gauss rifle, at least three times already.

"I have better questions for you, 2nd Lieutenant. Try not to bring bad luck to me, especially to our men. With your reckless tendency, I'm worried something already terrible could be worse than before. And how the heck are you among the best men we got here again?" As I try to jinx with him, I mean, he almost acts like the original, so maybe some kind of luck from the main character will happen? Maybe his face will peak another time.

"I think my luck is better than ever, sir. Of course, I'm the best there is. For some reason, Commander Raynor arranged my transfer. Pretty weird, you  know." Cocking his rifle for the last time and preparation. It seems high enough to have this confidence. But in the last part, I couldn't hear it because of another explosion.

"BLAST CLEAR," one of the demolition team members shouted after finally destroying the wall.

"Ok, not this time. You got this: Ok, all combatants, move into the Alpha-Sigma position. Protect the scientist. Any sign of danger, we bail out  immediately." As I give the order, all the men follow behind me, and we start walking towards the entrance door. For a couple of minutes, the room was pitch black, giving off an eerie atmosphere.

While others activated flash lights on our weapon, helmet, and chest area (marine), I, on the other hand, am using the night vision mod.

The light shines as far as the eye can see, revealing what is inside this ruin. The ceiling and floor were made with some kind of metallic colour with golden ornaments. The design seems like protoss for a bit, but at the same time they are not. We continued walking until we found some kind of doorless lift. Heading down straight. Thankfully, the depth is not deep enough, as our flash light could still reach the floor below.

[New Sub-Quest Initiate: Space Tomb Raider]

Investigate the ruin and uncover its secret. Beware, as some of the occupied might be hostile or could be your greatest ally.

REWARDS

A new unit may be added.The player will receive a new skill.Depending on your choice during the "great" journey, you might receive a reward greater than ever or eat the cosmic dust instead.

"(Man, the system is indeed rewarding me satisfactorily. The new unit I desperately needed to add to my arsenal might be a hit.Plus the system poor choices of words still sh1t to this day) I bet some kind of xenomorp queen is here." My voice resonated throughout the corridor.

"Sir, shall we continue?" Ask one of the troopers.

"Inform the others first about what we discover, and make sure to be ready for anything that could happen. Especially ready to save our butt moment notice.I watch a lot of movies to see what could happen next. (Some kind of xenomorp or something must be stalking us right now.) " I grip tightly with my rifle while keeping my guard up all the time. The radio connections are still okay, and my pulse sensor detector is still not showing a hostile mark, just in case.

"Lance Corporal, ready the equipment to descend. Marine I want you to recon the floor below first before giving a green light. Others, keep your guard up while the combat engineer does a deep scan." 

"Already done, sir. Hmmm, while our sensor is still working  well, around 20 metres deep,  sir." One of the engineers reported to me while still monitoring the sensor device on her hand. Beeping sounds faintly echo.

"Sir, lifting crane installation is complete. One of our Bois said nothing particularly weird. So yeah, we are clear to descend." Giving the 'OK' sign language.

For a while, one by one, they begin descending while others do defensive positions. We continue navigating throughout the journey. Walking for hours while navigating,we find out the road is complex enough to make people find it difficult without a map. Some of the sections were flooding, forcing us to detour. Most of the area we go through is very wide, where you could put even the 5 viking stacking without problem. It means anything of equal size could possibly live here, or a swarm of Zergs or whatever could potentially ambush us in large numbers.I counting at least 6 floor we decent sometimes using litfless door or the stairs.

The sensor is still working so far as Pathfinder is busy guiding and mapping the layout the navigating area for future exploration.As we keep moving deeper into the ruin, we are entering some kind of hallway with the biggest room so far. The scientist and combat engineer advised me to set up a temporary outpost here and call the backup to boost our number for further exploration. While we were at it, we could even build permanent F.O.B. frame work while we were at it. 

*\\STATIC NOISE//*

At first, we thought it just went deep enough that even the radio signal couldn't penetrate the earth. But the problem started to happen. Our pulse sensor is malfunctioning, except for me, because mine is state-of-the art and possibly Shirogane to?.Some marines try to make contact with their own communications, but only static can be heard. While it's true most use the CMC 300 variant, major improvements over the past month have made them a little better than the original. While the others are also facing the same thing.

"Sir, a powerful interference jamming signal suddenly appeared. Even my mapping device has some problems," said the pathfinder while trying his best to fix the mapping device. Some of the equipment is currently malfunctioning, causing our party to become disorganised and panic. Heck, even I began to panic. But Shirogane seemed calm in my eyes, as his body language didn't show any sign of distress. But he suddenly raised his rifle and pointed it at one of the exit corridors.

"Sir,contact 6 o'clock, distance unknown, but still closing in," he deactivated the safety pin, ready to press the trigger at any moment. The faint sound of horses stepping could be heard. The light tremor could be felt even inside the power armour.

"(Sh1t to think we meet mid boss this early.) All men, abandon our outpost and prepare your weapon. We fall back to our original rendezvous point slowly."

Then the faint tremor began to transform into a violent earthquake. From the distance, we could see a dozen red lights heading straight towards us. Judging by the height, it is around 5 metres, or roughly the size of an average SCV. Clacking and rusted metal sound masks behind the tremor make them more menaces than ever. Entering the flash light range, it finally reveals its true form. A tin-can-rusty robot with an oversize giant arm. The thin skeleton leg with sphere head is screaming with static noise or unknown language.

"(You gotta be kidding me.) Open fire...!?" I screamed while uploading all of my magazines to that abomination. The marines and troopers unleash hell, while non-combatants find some cover by distancing themselves from us. Over a hundred enemies are rushing with cumbersome speed but are still faster than regular humans without any enhancement.

"F@ck,it's just too many," shouted one of the troopers while exhausting all of his back-mounted missile launchers. That, at least, slows down most of the unknown enemies. He switched back to his Ferromag SMG standard-issue rifle and continued the fight.

"Retreat,soldier. Run for our lives like it depends on it."

While indeed our weapons are capable of cutting them easily, their sheer number seems to remind of certain game or maybe anime about tin can fighting robot?.Anyway not counting the behemoth size truly could break our spirit.One of them seems heavily armed enough to get close to one of the marines. Ready to smash him with its massive hammer-like arms. Before the marines get killed, Shirogane runs towards it and tries to tackle it with his left-mounted shoulder shield. Thanks to his power armour, he managed to pin it down. The tin-like machine tries to retaliate but fails to do so.

"What the f@ck are you looking at? Shoot this tin can down,"  struggling to keep the behemoth machine at bay.

"Yes," struggling to answer properly due to shock,he aimed his rifle at and shot the machine down. Neutralise it. The inner machine part was spurted out to expose its internal "organ" and put out of commission for good.

While Shirogane action is great, more machines have entered "close quarters combat," thus two or more manage to sneak behind Shirogane and other marines, ready for a killing blow. Due to his inhuman reaction, he managed to dodge the last-minute attack by rolling to the left. The impact from that arm slamming the floor gave off a small sonic boom. That huge noise echoed throughout the hall. 

While the marines he tries to save are not lucky enough for second chances, the other two lift both arms and smash the poor guy multiple times. That machine is strong enough to bend CMC power armour neosteel alloy, smashing it into tin foil along with the wearer. The blood splashed, covering the whole machine hand with red liquid paste. It was fast enough that the marine couldn't scream in agony.

*Thwack!!*

"You sonnab1€h. I kill you." Without thinking further, his power armour back exhaust begins to pump out heat, powering up the armour and giving him enough power to reach 36 km per hour while sprinting for short periods of time. With the rifle barrel pointing towards the machines, the bayonet attachment spurs out. Pressing the trigger, the rifle roars out in full auto-shredding the machine left side, which is less armoured into pieces.

Bang! * Bang!* Bang!* Bang!*

After successfully killing the first line of machines, Shirogane tries to stab the machine's chest with the bayonet. But without any fire support or focus, he fails to notice another tin machine with a different shape charging straight towards him. 

Kick him several metres into the air with it's powerful, oversize rocket leg. Crashing into one of the walls while bouncing. The dust was scattered, and his armour was damaged. But his injuries were lessened thanks to armour durable enough to negate this kind of impact. Far from the group, there is no one to save him from his fate. The nearby machines begin to gather around him, seeming to mock him. Staring down for a while until it decides to end him for good.

"So this it is. (To think I die here on this forsaken planet and this stupid ruin.) *VOMIT* Come and get me, you freaking oversize tin toy." vomiting blood while lying down. Still, he didn't accept his fate yet as he tried to struggle one last time. Try to lift his right arm and point his badly damaged rifle towards the machine. Alas, he was saved once again by the mighty shiny knight, clad in advanced power armour, before pressing the trigger. (No smug is intended.).

A loud clash of metal sounds approached the groups of machines, destroying everything on their path. Some of its mechanical parts were torn apart and thrown into the air, while others simply exploded. The machine that surrounds Shirogane shifts its intention towards the source and prepares to intercept. It didn't take long for the "source" to reach them.

"Taxi grab service has arrived. YEEEHAW!!!" I screamed while running rugby style, but instead of a ball, it was the chest piece of this tin can robot as a front shield. 

If you forget, thanks for the skill. "Andreline" is capable of doing superhuman feats. Augmented by state-of-the art power armour, at least by Twise, the problem of lacking stamina has been negated to some degree. Running at a top speed of 70 km or close to the Space Marine feat while lifting 700 kg of metal without problems all the time. Upon arriving, I'm sweating like crazy. I was desperately gasping for air as I couldn't retort at reckless bastards.

"Marshall? Where are the others?" He drops his rifle down, less tense than before.

"*Gasp* you MC bastard sure *Gasp* love to know *Gasp*... Ok ok ok... those guys are save." I kneel down for a second to let my lungs get some oxygen before trying to carry the 2nd lieutenant on my shoulder, but now without stripping Shirogane from his badly damaged power armor

The emergency injection system are fry so we do the old way.With my bare hand, I forcefully open the chest area, tossing to the left. To my shock, I just learned some new knowledge today, especially about my future yet recklessly heroic unit.

" *Gasp* what? Is my injury that serious? And am I going to die?" And he or she steps out of the armour and tries to stand. She fell down, but I managed to catch her and carry her in the princess carry pose.

"You are a girl?" That is my first reaction. I look at her anime like huge beewbs, not her left rib cage bleeding. My eye seems to pop up like a cartoon, as it has been focusing on one area for a long time now.

But before she tries to reply to my dumbass question, those nasty machines try to attack me again after failing to catch the other expedition team. Seemingly, they solely focus on getting me, as the attack intensifies more than tenfold. The speed and noise they make are getting louder and more annoying.

Without further ado, using "Andreline" again, my body (including power armour) is  covered in a red aura,  and I sprint towards the nearest exite to find some cover. I managed to escape from those angry tin cans with considerable distance, but me and the princess got separated from the team. How will I survive in this dungeon-like ruin with sleeping beauty again? That is a story for another time.

Time Remaining for Escape

[11 months, 18 days, 3 hours]