*( mood song: "ZZ Top - La Grange")

*ZSHFOOM!* The ruins themselves vibrated as the submarine cannons fired, leaving huge trails of bubbles, and a plume of stone dust and mud that clouded the zone of impact.

Shana gritted her teeth as Jennifer to her right put her left hand on her shoulder.

Jennifer: "it's just ruins now, the submarine is more important Shana"

Shana: "I know but..., its... alright, I will harden my heart, the present comes first... the past is... already gone..."

Shana tapped the side of her neck, and connected to the general channel "harden your hearts soldiers! this might be the ruins of our ancestors but... over us stands the future of our people! stand your ground!"

The general mood changed, as they all got serious, even Erik was moved, as he gripped his gun harder.

The leader mutant and her group were confused, but they quickly read the mood, and tightly gripped their spears in the direction of the now cloudy waters.

Then out of it came Rose, running at high speeds, and with turbines on her back, propelling her forward as her very steps cracked the ground with every step, bolting forward like a fired cannonball.

Rose: [they are not dead! fire!]

Erik shouted on the com's: "COVER FIRE! COVER HER!"

*ZSHFOOM! ZSHFOOM! ZSHFOOM!* trails of bubbles and explosions echoed, as they all started to shoot around Rose, providing cover as she kept running.

Then, out of the muddy cloud came a dozen beasts at least twelve meters wide, they were highly injured, with missing legs and parts of their carapace, but still kept charging forward.

The mutants in the middle urged their leader to run back to the library, but she stopped, pointing at Erik, and she quickly swam to him.

Rose: [I think I killed a hatchling spider fish, or a scout or something, they are like ants, all are congregating to this area, the artillery won't be enough! get back in the submarine!]

Erik: [we are not leaving you behind!]

Rose: [Im glad you care okay? but this is a disposable body, yours isn't!]

Erik: [but we don't know when we will ever find good biomaterials to replace such a body...]

Rose: [run!!!]

Erik gritted his teeth as the submarine started to constantly fire without stopping, keeping the hordes at bay, when he felt a tap on his leg, he looked down and saw the mutant girl, her face was serious, as her spear pointed at the library, Erik quickly understood.

Erik: [Rose, it seems the locals have a way out of this, if we just leave on the submarine they might just chase after it, we need to keep these beasts here!]

Rose: [are you nuts?! you will trust some random mutant?!]

Erik: [heh! didn't I trust a random voice in my head too?]

Rose: [....fine!, don't keep those doors open, I will go through a crack in the ceiling! go now!] murmuring then to herself "cooling protocols disabled, throttle safety procedures disabled, life support disabled, emergency bio generators activated, redirect main power to gun and propulsion systems, emergency ascension activated"

The submarine started firing faster to the coming hordes as it quickly started ascending, its tip dangerously pointing up, a string of bubbles emerging from the prow and breaking the waters, reducing the drag as the submarine quickly ascended.

Erik: "EVERYONE RETREAT TO THE LIBRARY! GO! GO! GO!"

Shana: "what?! then-"

Erik: "don't think! run!"

They all started running while shooting back, and as they had predicted, some beasts could be seen going after the submarine, jumping and swimming like eels after it, luckily most still kept going after Rose, whom they could faintly see was covered in a yellow substance, approaching fast.

They quickly entered the library, and pushed on the thick heavy doors, taking their entire collective effort to close them, once the crust was removed they could even see a metallic shine underneath.

Amanda: "now what?"

Erik then looked at the little mutant leader and she pointed at one big lever to the right, a three meter rusty green bar, with some speck of dark gold still visible.

Erik: "the lever!" he quickly ran and pulled at it, but it didn't move "I need some help!"

The others quickly grabbed where they could, and pulled down as one. The lever squeaked, and slowly moved with an ugly screeching metallic sound, as it moved halfway down. The floor itself seemed to tremble, and finally, when it reached the bottom, the vibrations intensified. Finally, gears seemed to be heard, and bars appeared from the frames of the doors, both right, and left of the ceiling and floor were now firmly secure.

Erik was impressed with the level of engineering, and so were the others, but they were woken up by the mutant's leader who screeched, and motioned for them to follow her.

Stomping vibrations could still be heard from outside, and they would soon reach the doors, so they promptly followed after the mutants.

Erik: [we closed the doors, good luck Rose!]

Rose: [heh! thanks, but I will be there soon~(•ω•✧)]

The group advanced through the enormous library and reached a central plaza, everything was dark without the submarine's light entering through cracks... they could only see for twelve meters around them into that total darkness enveloping the place, along with stone shelves that filled the end of their outer view, and gave way to more shadows. But... luckily for them, the plaza was just ten meters in diameter, so they could see it all fairly clearly.

There was an altar, with a twelve meters tall metallic statue of the empress in the middle, but as they all observed, the mutant's leader twisted one of its arms, and the base moved, revealing a tunnel six meters wide into the dark with a descending staircase.

The mutants promptly descended, motioning for Erik and the others to follow.

Meanwhile, moments earlier Rose had just arrived at the doors, jumping up like a cannonball cracking the floors, and started climbing at high speeds. Truck sized beasts were after her in the thousands, also jumping to climb, and often colliding with each other as they frantically gave chase.

Screeches sounded behind her, but Rose didn't need to look back to know they were close, luckily for her though, she was faster than the creatures. She could sense Erik's position becoming closer, as she now ran over the ceiling, she looked for cracks but found none. She was already close to Erik's position, and she was running out of time quite literally.

Luckily for her, when she was just above his position, she saw a metallic vent pipe of one and a half meters in diameter, and readily jumped through it.

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Meanwhile, back at the entrance, they were all starting to go down except Erik.

Amanda: "is something wrong commander?"

Erik: "No, I'm just worried about Rose, how she will-"

But he was cut off by a shout "OUT OF THE WAY!!!!"

Erik promptly stepped aside along with Amanda, as something landed heavily on the floor where they had just been, this scared the others, but Erik reassured them raising a hand.

Erik then smiled and said "took you long enough~"

Out of the cloud of rubble and dust, came Rose with her power armor, a nonchalant smile on her face.

Rose shrugged: "well, it's hard to be popular you know~"

Erik chuckled as he motioned for her to follow "let's go" and they finally descended the stairs down too, and after everyone had descended, the mutant leader pulled another lever down the tunnel, and the entrance closed by itself. Making the sounds of the screeching and scraping spider fish on the outside become fainter and fainter the deeper they went, until after some time, they couldn't hear them anymore.

The tunnels were made of smooth stone, while strange golden gray pipes ran through the six meters tall ceiling. Erik jumped and touched one, and as he had suspected, it was hot, but not at a level that would hurt, just hot enough to be noticeable to the touch. But the pipes seemed thick though, so the heat inside might be greater.

Rose: "what was that... for... oh, steam energy?... well, it's unprecedented, but not impossible"

Erik: "yeah, that's what I was thinking, they also had complex gears and structures up there..., they were fairly advanced it seems, I thought these pipes might contain steam, but they don't seem hot enough for that..."

Rose: "well, you don't know, they seem pretty thick, so it could just be a good insulating material"

Erik: "well, it would be possible if we talked of aerogel, but this... seems to be just metallic bones connected together?" he observed the pipes, and while they had golden shiny spots most of it looked grey, and they also had a rough texture to them.

Rose: "...a metal and stone alloy most likely..., maybe a silicon and tin alloy, but I would need to cut a slice to analyze the interior to know more about its layers, since it has external coatings..."

Erik dismissed the idea though: "it's fine, no need to risk this tunnel getting flooded with boiling water, that... would be awful..., but if they had technology like this they were really advanced already"

Rose sighed: "Indeed, such a blooming civilization... what a pity..."

As they were talking out loud, the others soon joined the conversation.

Jennifer: "what are you two talking about? how could steam move things?"

Erik raised a brow: "seems you didn't study old human technologies"

Jennifer shrugged as she rolled her eyes: "I struggle already with electricity, can't go adding more subjects"

Erik: "well, it's not too efficient, but you might like steam energy, usually a big steam engine converts thermal energy, into mechanical energy for an entire place, but..." he pointed at the pipes on the ceiling "what we can see here, is super insulating pipes probably also capable of enduring high pressures, transporting all that steam to pistons and making them move when valves are opened, do you get it?"

Jennifer: "more or less... but wasn't electricity better?"

Erik: "well, everything is relative, electronic systems usually require rare earth elements that are hard to refine even on Earth, while for steam it only needs simple metallic materials, so if a natural heat source can be secured, so it could technically be quite long lasting, but... the same could be achieved using steam turbines to produce electricity, the systems... would be way more complicated and hard to put together, but way more polyvalent too so... it's a matter of priorities, and available materials"

Jennifer: "So... I need to learn old machinery too? how does it store energy without batteries then?"

Erik: "well, there are various ways, from flywheels to boilers that keep the heat inside, once you know a bit of everything, then you know when to apply one or the other"

Shana: "so you are saying our ancestors had advanced technology, even by your standards?"

Erik and Amanda couldn't help but chuckle at that.

Amanda: "what the commander meant is... that sometimes simple systems work better, as electronic structures are far more complicated and advanced. But that also means that electronic structures are way more polyvalent, and even end up talking like me for example"

Megan looked at Rose: "so... is Rose like that too?"

Rose scoffed: "of course not! I'm much greater! millions of times complex, like comparing a pebble to a spaceship jeez..."

Amanda murmured to herself a bit saddened "....a pebble..."

The conversation was then interrupted though.

Timberly: "Erik! come forward! the mutants seem to wanna show you something."

Erik then came to the front, and saw the mutants standing in front of a set of rings that sealed the tunnel.

Erik: "a puzzle? seems pretty easy..." the circle depicted twelve symbols surrounding a peaceful octopeople face in the middle, but the rings were rotated. Just as he was about to step forward to solve it though, several of the mutants held his legs, stopping him as their leader stepped forward. She turned the rings counterclockwise, and completed the figure, but with the head pointing in the South-West direction. Erik was embarrassed, as the entrance shook, soon sliding up as it opened.

Rose: [...a simple but effective trap I guess]

Erik: [what?]

Rose pointed up: [look closely, see the vent right on top of the door?]

Erik looked and nodded, right on top of the door he could see what appeared to be a T shaped vent.

Rose: [there's a high chance it emits high pressure steam when someone fails]

Erik: [...it looked easy, and that was the deadliest part..., if we came alone we could have been cooked alive... well, the ones not wearing power armor at least]

Rose: [yeah, it seems your decision of letting them live was... correct... (◉ω◉)]

Erik: [yeah, killing can't be undone, you can always kill at a later time if the individuals are proven a threat]

Rose: [wise words from..... threat assessment of alien species?... how do they even train you in something like that, let me see.... oh, quite imaginative...]

Erik: [yeah, we were thrown into virtual worlds with simulated alien populations, with different ways of interaction, with some we went to war, with other's we negotiated, and other's we just avoided them]

Rose: [never an oceanic world though right?]

Erik: [yeah... lot's of technologies, survival training... all gone to waste... just cause of being underwater, sigh...].

As they went through the now open doors, they came upon a big spacious room, of at least the width of a football field, and twelve meters tall ceilings. A bioluminescent fauna and algae were also growing in sealed containers along the walls as a light source, filling the room with an orange cozy light, like that of a fireplace.

Dozens more mutant octopeople lived here, with most being even smaller than the first ones. Erik observed as they came and hugged the team leader, only then did they notice Erik's group and trembled warily. The leader seemed to then explain something to them and they dispersed, swimming away as they went to play to one side of the big room.

The leader then grabbed Erik's hand and dragged him to a door at the other side of the room, with the rest of the group following after them.

They came into a room that seemed to be their food source, pipes with hot water filled a tank with boiling water. With complex shaped jellyfish swimming inside, while bone white filtering mussels covered the bottom of the tanks.

After that, they came to a room with twenty seemingly sick mutants, that rolled in their algae woven mats, the leader then pointed at the sick.

Erik: [seems like it wants us to cure them...]

Rose: [yeah... so it seems, will need to scan them to know more]

Erik: [alright]

Erik nodded and put his hand on the mutant leader's shoulder, reassuring her as blue rays emerged from Rose's palm, and scanned one of the sick individuals up and down. The scanning took some time, and after a while she said.

Rose: "they look old and famished..., probably even suffer from nutrient deficiencies too, like... like scurvy for humans, but more serious, and even have slight poisoning levels..." she then looked at the bony leader "and I'm sure the... leader ain't too different, they need proper food, your meat stuffing might have just saved the rest, thankfully you also used algae to cook, that should have given them enough vitamins to somewhat recover, but... one thing is clear"

Erik: "what is it?"

Rose: "you won't be able to obtain any sustenance here, so... we need to either hunt one of those things outside or... search for some other prey"

Erik: "alright, create a screen again. We will ask with it and tell them, that we need to hunt prey to feed their family members, they need to eat more food before they can recover"

Rose: "alright"

Erik: "by the way, is the submarine fine?"

Rose: "yeah, without living organisms inside, I made it go up at a high speed, your head would have exploded if you were going inside"

Erik: "but are those spider fish going after it?"

Rose: "it seems that way, but the base has enough defenses by now. They will be fine even if thousands of those beasts ascend, I even finished an assembly line of battle bots too by now, so don't worry"

Erik sighed relieved: "that's great..."

Meanwhile, back at the base, the guards patrolling the perimeter of the cliff were surprised, as a large object ascending at high speeds passed by them. The submarine was unable to stop, as it finally lodged itself to the ice sheet, like an arrow shot to a haystack. Thankfully, thanks to the thick armor and internal structures, the submarine didn't suffer much damage.

Guard Captain: "Go inform the-"

They didn't have much time to ponder though, screeching noises were coming from the dark waters under the cliff, but before they saw the enemy though, thousands of torpedo launchers emerged all around the perimeter, launching thousands of torpedoes that passed by them at high speeds, only leaving trails of bubbles behind.

A few moments passed and... *BOOOOOOMM!* the entire cliff vibrated, as the dark water's turned bright for a moment, and then an enormous plume of bubbles floated up, followed by what appeared to be chunks from unknown creatures.

Guard Captain: "...let's... just take a rest and inform later... I'm sure they know already with that explosion".

The rest of the guards agreed as they all sat down, eating some dried pig fish jerky and resting for a while, as pieces of dead creatures kept floating to the surface.