Chapter 260: the mission target

After getting to the door of the laboratory, Clark went to the side, hid from view, and grabbed the handle of the door. Dickson stood with a solemn look on, facing the door directly with his shield.

“Ready?” Clark asked. Dickson nodded immediately.

As soon as the door was yanked open, Dickson rushed outwards with his shield held in front. His eyes scanned around his surrounding immediately.

“Mechanical soldiers!”

Clark didn’t need his reminder as he already saw them from the corner of his eyes. His laser pistol started shooting out its load immediately, accompanied by a muffled sound due to the silencer.

He quickly attached his spear to his back and brought out his 2-form gun, red energy beams started pelting the armors of the slumbering mechanical soldiers immediately.

As soon as the bullets touched them, the mechanical soldiers finally reacted and stood up. They intended to run forward and attack the intruders, but their movements were jerky.

[Warning! Low energy reserves. Soldiers’ reactors need recharging immediately, all mechanical soldiers should head to the refilling chamber!]

As soon as this warning sounded out from a hidden voice amplifier in the corridor, the hundreds of mechanical soldiers that were charging forward a moment ago suddenly drew to a halt before shutting down again.

Clark was only able to wreak about 5 of them before this happened, he was stunned in place. “This…, is that it?”

“What happened?” Dickson asked as he carefully rearranged his stance to defend against any sudden attacks, who knew if this was a tactic by the mechanical soldiers for them to lower their vigilance.

“I think…, I think they’ve exhausted their energy reserves”. Clark hesitated before replying in a tone like he wanted to convince himself.

It seems that this was the case as even after they remained in one place for about 10 minutes, they still detected no change from the mechanical soldiers.

Some seemed to have undergone a terrible battle as their armors were dented on various angles, exposing vulnerabilities in their frame. Electric sparks occasionally escaped from their metallic frames.

During these 10 minutes that they stood rigidly in one place, watching alertly, Clark and Dickson already did a visual survey of where this place was.

They were in a long corridor whose ends were on both opposite sides they could not see from their positions.

From where they stood, they could see other doors like the one of the laboratory room that they just emerged from on opposite sides of the corridor. Doors filled their vision, seeming endless.

“How many doors are there?” Both soldiers were shocked.

From where they stood, apart from the doors, the other thing that dominated their field of view was the countless mechanical soldiers that looked like locusts, rambling across the long corridor.

Every part of this corridor was made from the same exotic metal. Clark and Dickson could only lament how filthy rich the Aragan Empire was.

After another 2 minutes of observation, Clark finally decided to move forward a bit with Dickson following closely behind him. He got to one of the mechanical soldiers and felt its frame.

After checking a lot of its critical components, he came to a conclusion. To verify this, he went further ahead to check a few other dozen mechanical soldiers.

He finally verified it. “Dickson”.

“Um”.

“These mechanical soldiers are suffering from low energy reserves”.

Clark should have thought of it before, but his encounter with a similar ruin back in the Mediterranean Sea clouded his judgment. On seeing mechanical soldiers, a bitter battle was what clicked in his head immediately.

Like the A. I that just spoke said, the energy reserves of all the mechanical soldiers here were depleted.

This was not too surprising as these machines were probably here for decades already. It would have been shocking instead if they were still completely intact, nothing lasts forever.

All their power reactors were already spoilt due to the deprivation of energy, the small movements that they made on noticing them successfully depleted the little remaining reserves that they had.

Clark’s eyes gleamed as the impact that this would cause rippled through his mind.

If his conjecture was right and this ruin already lost all energy to power most of its offensive parameters, then this mission would be a lot easier than anticipated.

This meant that he didn’t have to worry about time bombs like back in the Mediterranean Sea, his only source of worry now would be his rivals that would come.

After explaining his deduction to Dickson, they both finally couped up a plan.

As no rival was here yet, they had all the time in the world. They were going to scour through all the doors that were before them, the loot inside was all part of their mission target.

They wasted no time. As the computerized locking methods of the doors were no longer activated, breaking through the mechanical locking puzzles was as easy as eating pizza to Clark.

Both of them started a raiding parade immediately as they infiltrated room after room, retrieving loot after loot.

They didn’t spend more than 10 minutes in each room, only the most valuable loot drew their attention.

They felt like they were in a grocery store where they could pick anything that they wanted without paying, it was so f*cking convenient. For a moment, they wished that life was just like this.

After 2 hours of looting like this, they encountered no other party squad nor did they see their most important need- the main mission target.

“At this rate, I think we’ll never find the mission target before the others come. How about I go further to look for a door that is maybe different from the others, and you continue looting?”

Clark stopped Dickson and voiced out his worry before suggesting.

“I don’t think separating now is good. We should stick together, but I also know that the main mission target is the most important”. Dickson hesitated a bit before continuing.

“Don’t worry, let’s forget about the others for now. The main mission target is paramount, let’s go forward together to look for any signs that indicate it”.

“Ok, let’s go then. We need to be fast”. Clark easily agreed as he had no reason to refuse, he was also apprehensive to navigate this research base alone.

After confirming their plan, they both continued their journey across the extremely long corridor. They suppressed their yearning to get more immediate loot and focused on the greater picture.

Though they already predicted it, seeing the infinite stretch of the corridor was another thing entirely. They were moving for 3 hours already, but they still could not see the end nor any signs relating to the main mission target.

They were now becoming worried.

“This is too exaggerated. Is it that we’re moving in circles?” Dickson voiced his doubt.

Clark gritted his teeth in frustration. “I don’t know, but let’s keep on going for now. In another 15 minutes, if we still can’t see the end then we’ll turn back”.

Both soldiers took a hold of their worried nerves and continued forward. They already came this far, going back all of a sudden would leave a bad taste in their mouths.

From 15 minutes, they soon continued till 20 minutes. At the 30th minute when they were already lamenting for their wasted efforts, they finally detected a change.

For the first time since they arrived in this corridor, they finally saw its end.

They were overjoyed by this discovery, prompting them to quicken their steps immediately. It only took them another 5 minutes before they stood before the end of this record-breaking corridor.

They came to the corridor through a door, and its end was barricaded by a door also.

Unlike the other normal doors that they’ve already seen hundreds of, this door was bigger, sturdier, and more majestic than all of them combined.

At its top was inscribed a big bold A symbol for Araga, and below it was written another sentence of words in a similar bold font.

>THE ULTIMATE RESEARCH- EVOLUTION.

Seeing this, Clark and Dickson held their breath and stared with wide eyes.

It seems that their hard work finally paid off, no other place was better to keep the most important research results than such a room barricaded by such a majestic door.

They both didn’t understand the meaning of the tag inscribed on the door but they didn’t care, they were not scientists. They were soldiers, and they came with a goal in mind.

Since their goal was probably before them, they just had to find a way to unlock this huge door and go inside.

Clark went to work immediately. Though this door seemed to be far more complicated than the one that led them to the tunnel passage, he had some confidence in his ability.

Dropping his bag down, he started bringing out tools after tools for this operation.

He worked for an hour straight under the supervision and help from Dickson before the enormous door finally bulged. It felt like a behemoth that was slumbering for years was just awakened.

Boom!!

The sides of the door that were attached to the walls of the corridor shook a bit. The sound was deafening like thunder, reverberating and echoing at frightening decibels around the corridor.

The sound waves crossed kilometers and back in a few seconds, the frequency was maddening.

Creak!! Creak…!!

The door made creaking sounds, shaking the foundation of the underground as its heavy metal parts started unveiling outwards to show its internal masterwork design.

Its opening was far more complicated than anything Clark and Dickson have ever seen in their lives. They just stood in place, fascinated by this display of wealth, technological skill, and power.

“What majesty!”

Despite the hundreds of bolts, screws, metal parts, and interconnecting exotics that were giving way. The rapid opening pace reduced the time to the barest minimum; the door completely opened in just 2 minutes.

What presented itself before Clark and Dickson left them speechless, behind the door was a dark abyss.

“Is that it?”

They were surprised, but they still took the first step in.

As soon as their first step touched the floor behind the door, lights lit up from up in the sky, illuminating everywhere brightly, making it seem like it was day inside here.

“Is that a sun?” Both soldiers were stunned speechless again.

A literal sun lit up, suspended high in the sky as it distributed light to every corner of the extremely large hall that presented itself before them.

They were short of words. What was the peak of technology? This was.

The hall that presented itself before them was as big as 5 stadiums combined, and dozens of machines worked in tandem, making this place seem like the headquarters of an alien company.

They could not see everywhere but from the little that they could see, they were stunned.

A large structure that looked like a dome stood in the middle of the hall, towering to the skies, while smaller dome-like structures filled the other parts of the hall with countless machines.

They finally knew why the energy reserves for the other parts of this research base were lacking, this place was sucking every single energy that was left dry.

At the very top of this large dome-like structure that stood at the middle…,

“That is the mission target…!”

[Hey guys, a surprise second chapter for you today. From today, I'll try to increase my daily update to 2 chapters everyday. I hope I can make this, thanks for your support.]