Chapter 10 : Inside the Hive

In a cave so dark that nothing could be seen beyond their feet, four shadows walked silently. One of them, the tallest of the four, was carrying what appeared to be a lifeless body on his back.

Those shadows moving in the darkness were none other than the last surviving rifters.

The one leading the squad was Katarina B220-84. She was the only human who has been ranked high lethality vector by the monolith, if Jun didn't have such a special result during the evaluation she would have been the one leading the unit from the beginning.

Since Jun has passed out and is no longer operational, it makes sense for her to take command of the squad until he wakes up.

"242, report."

"Nothing to report. According to my Consciousness scan, this cave is the entrance to a series of underground galleries."

"220, if we keep going down and the enemy is patiently waiting for us at the entrance, we won't be able to get out."

"I'm aware of that, however, the leader's last order before he lost consciousness was to survive. If my guess is right, our chances of survival are close to zero if we go back on our feet and get out of here from where we came from.

Our only chance is to explore these galleries and find another exit, or at least to wait inside for the leader to wake up."

After walking stealthily for half an hour, they arrived in front of a crossroad.

Three tunnels, each pointing to a different direction.

"230, 242 and 192 you go explore a path each. Do not venture more than 200 meters and return immediately if you detect any kind of life form."

"Roger."

192, the tall rifter carrying Jun gently put him to the ground, then rushed into a gallery.

242 did the same, and 230, who was the smallest of them, followed soon after.

Kat waited near her squad leader, ready to draw her energy sword at the slightest threat that could appear.

She took advantage of this time off to examine Jun's condition. His life did not seem in danger anymore thanks to the impressive regenerative properties of the black matter.

What worried her the most was the state of his left arm, which seemed charred, but not by fire. Even though the black matter was healing his whole body, his arm was the only place that was not regenerating and the traces that looked like burns seemed much more serious.

They emitted a kind of residual energy that Katarina was unable to recognize, but she felt the danger of this energy emanating from those burnt marks.

When the scyllas assigned her to this squad and designated this human as their leader, she never doubted and always followed orders. If the scyllas had ordered her to kill herself, she would have done it immediately. She herself did not understand why these orders seemed so absolute to her, but since she woke up in the Scylla ship and went through the protocols, she knew that she was obliged to obey.

She has the same blind loyalty to the one the scyllas have designated as their squad leader, she has to follow his orders. And so, she has to do everything she can to keep him alive and wake him up as soon as possible.

A few minutes later, 230 returned from her tunnel and reported.

"I could not detect anything even after 200 meters, however, I noticed artificial traces on the walls. I estimate as very probable the presence of another intelligent species further inside this gallery."

"Understood."

Shortly after, 242 and 192 came out of their tunnel almost at the same time and made the same report, except for 242 who detected traces of organic matter on the floor of the tunnel he explored, which seemed to confirm the presence of other life forms within this network of galleries.

"Based on my analysis of the monster we fought on the surface, if those underground monsters are similar it doesn't seem reasonable for us to go any lower, not until we have more information. If we enter the territory of another beast like the one we barely escaped from, we'll have no chance of surviving."

The rifters do not discuss the orders, whether they come from the scyllas or their hierarchical leader, they listen to them without arguing.

Contrary to what Jun thought, when they entered the cave, they didn't wait for him, they just found themselves in front of the same dilemma. How could they follow the order to flee if they don't even know where they are going.

Even if that's what those rifters thought at the time, Jun wasn't wrong either. Although the orders were absolute and the scyllas did their best to make their specimens docile and obedient, it seemed that these rifters were different.

They waited of their own free will instead of stupidly following an illogical order and running straight to their death.

The 2 rifters corpses at the front of the cave entrance were the rifters who took the order at the letter and went back to the surface once they estimated they wouldn't be able to escape by going deeper in the galleries.

"Establish a security perimeter, each of you is standing guard at the entrance of the tunnel you just explored. Since we cannot go any further without the risk to face another unknown enemy and we have no intel, our new priority is to wake up the Leader.

His condition has improved, he just needs a few hours to rest and a strong enough stimulus to bring him out of unconsciousness."

Each rifter stood in front of the three tunnels and Kat approached their leader, Jun, who was still lying unconscious on the ground. She tried to wake him up for several minutes before 242 reported.

"Multiple heat signatures detected, contact estimated in 30 seconds."

Then came the turn of 192.

"Same on my side, only one hostile signature detected but it seems much bigger. Contact in 50 seconds."

"230, nothing from your side?" Katarina quickly asked.

"Negative."

Katarina sat up abruptly and gave her orders.

"We're going into the tunnel that 230 explored.

192, carry the Leader. 242, you cover them. 230, you lead the way. I take care of the back.

Let's move !"

Each of them set off and in less than 10 seconds they already had left the scene, once again running into the unknown.

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___

I was hearing something...

"...er..."

A muffled voice...

"...lea..."

And this voice echoed in my head louder and louder.

"...er!..."

Until I can finally understand it clearly.

"LEADER !!"

My heart skipped a beat and I suddenly opened my eyes wide.

"Finally !"

I needed some time to adjust my thoughts, but my brain already started to process the situation I was in.

In front of me was the rifter B220-84, Katarina. She was covered in a green liquid which I guessed was the blood of a kind of monster she fought, and she looked badly hurt.

She had a long opened wound all over her chest, and her blood was profusely dripping over. I don't know how she got this kind of injury, but to be able to cut her black matter armor so easily to the point where it can not regenerate anymore, means the foe she fought was a very powerful one.

"Report."

"We are currently in the second branch and third sector of what we called the Hive. After being chased by the local life form, we ended up trapped in a dead-end. I had to retreat to recover until my wound heals up, the others are still fighting."

I could hear the sounds of laser beams and energy blades not far from here. I immediately got up and started walking to where I heard the battle noises.

"Casualties ?"

"None."

I couldn't help but slightly smile after knowing that none of them died.

"How long was I passed out?"

"Six hours, Leader."

"That much ?!"

"We couldn't wake you up no matter how many times we tried. Your injuries were healing at a visible rate so we followed your order and tried to not die until you woke up."

"My last order still applies, it's not because I'm now awake that you can just sacrifice yourselves. So first of all, stay back and rest. Looking at your injury, it seems pretty bad, you should focus on recovering. I'll ask you later to brief me about what happened while I was unconscious, but for now, I need to join the others"

"Roger."

I passed by Kat and as I was getting closer to the battle, I started feeling pain rising in my left arm.

When I remembered what I did before passing out and the insane amount of energy that circulated in my body, I suddenly had a bad omen and checked my arm condition.

It still had a layer of black matter on my skin, but it was completely burned and no matter how much I tried I couldn't move my hand or my fingers anymore. I didn't need to be an expert in physiology or medicine to know that I won't be able to use my left arm for a long time, if not definitely.

I tried to not think too much about it, I took my energy sword with my other hand and joined the battle that was raging.

From what I've seen so far, we seemed to be inside a huge network of underground tunnels and galleries, similar to a giant anthill. All the rifters, except kat, were still fighting small monsters the size of a human kid.

They had three legs at the front and two at the back. Their heads were shaped in a triangle pointing down, they had no mouth, ears or nose, just a giant round eye with three red pupils inside.

They were all covered in black, had a long crest on their head going down to their hips and their blood was a corrosive and fluorescent green liquid.

These beings seemed rather aggressive ; even if the rifters were keeping them at bay, their sheer numbers were almost enough to overwhelm them, and more of them were still coming from the entrance.

I activated my energy sword and joined the fight, shoulder to shoulder with the other rifters.

"Do you know a path to escape ?"

I directly asked them while a monster jumped on me and got cut in half by my blade.

"We do, Leader. However, the only exit is where they come from. When we realized we were at a dead-end these monsters already trapped us here and started to attack us from behind."

At a glance, I could see almost twenty of them in the same tunnel, blocking our path. Behind them was the corpse of what seemed like an alpha of their kind, it was more than 2 times bigger and had a sharp blade at the end of every leg.

I now understand how Kat got injured so badly, it's a miracle she was able to survive and even kill this monster.

'Gladia, are you there?'

[I am. Good to see you back, unfortunately, we don't have time for sweet talk. Behind the wall on your left is a hidden passage. This is your best way to get out of here without having to cross these monsters' path.]

'Thanks.'

"You, go back and get Kat. I found a hidden passage behind this wall. Once you come back with Kat, I'll try to destroy the wall while you keep these monsters at bay."

"Roger."

While the short rifter I talked to was running back, another monster attacked me, and this time it aimed for my legs.

I dodged on the side and planted my blade on his back, the high-intensity energy blade produced a putrid odor when it went in contact with his flesh and evaporated his blood.

I didn't have time to remove the blade before I felt an intense pain below my shoulder. One of these monsters jumped from behind and slashed my back with its sharp leg.

I instantly turned myself and blocked its next attack. When its leg got in contact with the high-intensity energy blade, it just melted. I used this opportunity to strike back and behead it in one swift movement.

At the rear of the battlefield was a thin rifter with an energy rifle, he was the one who accurately shot inside the centipede small hole on the surface, he seems to have a natural talent for marksmanship. Fortunately for him, these little monsters were not immune to the laser beams.

At the front, fighting next to me was another rifter, probably the biggest of all of us. He was 6'5'' tall and fought with a single enormous energy sword. His blade was 2 times larger than mine, and I had no idea how he can move so fast while being so bulky.

Until Kat and the small rifter joined us, I decided to talk to them about something that needed to be done as soon as possible.

"You, the big guy. What is your number ?"

After crushing the head of a monster with his free hand, he answered.

"B-192-84, Leader."

"Not anymore. You will be called Jerome from now on."

"Affirmative."

I slashed a sneaky monster who tried to pass between us and asked the other rifter.

"What about you ?"

"B-242-84"

"Now, you are Douglas."

I took a break to pierce yet another one of these endless swarm-lings, then I said.

"I don't want to waste time calling your numbers every time I talk to one of you, so consider these names as your new ones.

The Scyllas gave us numbers as mere livestock ; I give you new names so you can remember who you are.

You're not slaves ; you were once humans, you still are humans and you will remain humans, no matter how much experiments are done to you."

At the same moment, Kat and the shorty rifter I couldn't name yet appeared behind us. Kat had trouble moving and she needed the other rifter's shoulder to help her walk.

"Right on time ! Jerome and Douglas, keep the front !"

I ordered the rifters to keep the monsters at bay to let me the time to create a passage through the wall.

I first thought about using the laser rifle that I still didn't use once, but I doubt it would have enough firepower to melt or destroy rocks this hard and dense.

In my current state, I wouldn't try my luck again and use the void energy, especially since I don't know how to control it yet. The last time was a life-or-death situation, and even if I was lucky enough to use it and kill the centipede, it did cost me an arm.

The only thing remaining was to use the energy blade to cut the rocks at places where the wall was softer, to weaken it enough so it breaks on its own

[Jun, I detect important movements under our feet. These monsters you are fighting are probably just the scout patrolling the outer regions of this Hive, an important force consisting of many more hostiles signatures is rushing straight at your position.]

'How much time do we have ?'

[No more than ten minutes.]

'Alright, we better start now then.'

I turned myself to the small female rifter who protected Kat and told her.

"You, from now on your name is Alice. Take out your energy sword and come next to me, we need to pierce the rock and cut the wall as deep as we can here, here and here."

I pointed with my fingers the weak spots to focus on, for the wall to crumble.

"Roger that."

Without any more discussion, we started our work.

While Douglas and Jerome were keeping the front line with their energy sword, Kat was trying to help them as best as she could with her rifle.

Alice and I had both our blades planted in the wall and we were slowly moving them inside the dense rocks, until we heard a loud sound.

"Be careful !"

I pushed Alice on the shoulder before a big chunk of the wall and ceiling crumbled at the place we were standing a few seconds ago.

Behind the wall was another gallery, but this path looked much cleaner and didn't seem to have been made by these underground monsters.

The opening was wide enough for us to enter two by two.

At the same time, the battle was finally over. It seemed no more monsters were still alive as corpses were strewn all over the ground.

The walls were painted in green from their blood, and strangely enough, I couldn't make out any vital organs inside all the monsters' corpses. Their whole body, even their insides, was made of a mixture of long green fabrics held firmly together.

This is probably why the laser rifle and energy sword are so effective against them.

But it also means that these beings might just be the lowest and weakest tier of their community, and as far as I'm concerned I have no plan to wait for more powerful foes to show up.

"The passage is open, Douglas, you take some distance ahead and scout the path. Alice and Kat and I will follow you behind. Jerome, you keep our back safe.

After entering, Jerome and I will use your energy sword on the walls again to make the ceiling crumble behind us, so we can delay those monsters for a bit."

They all nodded, and we started moving again.

We need to find a safe spot where we could treat our injuries, I don't want to base our survivability solely on the black matter resilience, I can feel that we are about to reach our limit and we wouldn't last much longer in these conditions.

Since we got teleported on this hostile planet, we didn't have a single moment of rest, everywhere we went we met strange monsters ready to kill us.

While we started walking into the hidden passage, I couldn't help but internally curse at the Scyllas.