Struggle

"How did you survive?" asked Arthur to Leo.

"After we crashed, we were surrounded by many soldiers, but after getting out of our spaceship we detonate the self-destruction mode of the ship, and we escaped with the commotion it caused." he replied.

"After that, we disguised ourselves into their scientists and stole their badges when we found out a gigantic door where we entered and this is how we arrived there."

"I see." said Jeanne.

'They had infiltrated the base like us' she thought.

"So, what do you propose we can do now?"

"With this many soldiers, it will be hard to control the room."

"Hmm?" suddenly, one of the soldiers looked at the ground.

"What happened?" asked Arthur.

"Well, I tried to analyses this room to see if we can find any opening, but look at this." he said while he sends an information for everyone from his watch.

While opening it, a hologram appeared, and they saw that the inside the ground, there seems to be a path that would lead to something.

The other groups also had this.

They all decided to follow it, maybe it will aid them in their mission.

While following it, they acted as normal as possible. They walked toward an area where they were fewer to fewer people. In the end, there were only their groups walking in a desolate area.

After an hour of walking, they found themselves at an impasse, but on the hologram, it seems that they arrived in front of a door. It appeared that they found a secret passage.

'With the Rudestone planet, our technology had advanced greatly, and our detection devices are more advanced than the Shik civilization, since they didn't discover this.' She thought.

"Everyone, keep an eye out from anyone who want to come here. Me and the other scientists, we will study this." said Jeanne.

While all groups appeared in front of an invisible door, they began to study it while helping each other.

Suddenly, Jeanne discovered how it works, she takes out a Rudestone material she had on her and put it on the wall. The door then appeared out of nowhere.

"Good, let's go in." said Arthur.

As they entered the room, they saw something that they didn't expect. It was a laboratory with advanced technology, even more advanced than what they had seen before. The room was filled with different types of machinery, and there were test tubes and beakers all over the place.

The group looked at each other in amazement, and they knew that they had stumbled upon something important.

"Look at this," said Leo as he approached a table in the middle of the room. "These are parts of the blueprint of this planet and weapons."

Arthur's eyes widened in shock. "We have to destroy this before it falls into the wrong hands."

Jeanne nodded in agreement. "We need to make sure that this technology is not used for evil purposes."

She scans it for copying it in the watch, but then she destroyed them, the other groups also did the same thing.

After that, they searched the room and found a secret passage which could lead to the core area of the planet.

They smiled at each other, they found a way to destroy this planet.

"We can go there and try to activate the destruction mechanism." said Jeanne

"Right!"

Everyone started to walk into this passage and going toward the core area.

After 5 hours, they finally in front of the exit. When they arrived, they saw the other groups.

"Leo!" cried Jeanne while hugging him.

"It's alright, first let's see what we should do." he said.

They all look at the hole from the wall in front of them.

Through the hole, they could see the massive core of the planet, which was pulsating with a strange energy. They knew that this was the source of the planet's power, and that destroying it would be the only way to stop the Shik civilization from using it for their own purposes.

They also saw many guards guarding it while mostly were in front of a door to prevent everyone to enter. They would have never imagined that their enemies would come from another way.

They heard them talk with each other.

"It seems that we got infiltrators." said one of the guards.

Everyone panicked, did they discover them.

"What do you mean?" asked another guard.

"Well, many people disappeared, and even some Lieutenants were found dead, likely by a suicide." he replied.

They sighed of relief, they just had to act quickly to not be found.

Arthur took out a device from his pocket, a small detonator that could be used to trigger an explosive charge. He looked at the other members of the group, and they all nodded in agreement.

Jeanne and Leo hacked the door so that it couldn't be open anymore.

"Everyone, stay back," said Arthur as he placed the device on the ground in front of the hole. He pressed a button, and the device began to beep rapidly. "Get ready to run." The group backed away as fast as they could, and Arthur counted down from ten. When he reached zero, he hit the final button on the detonator, and there was a massive explosion that rocked the way toward the room.

The guards which were the nearest died, while the others were confused and coughing with the smoke.

They profited from this commotion to charge against them.

The group used their weapons and skills to fight against the guards. They tried to avoid their attacks and use their environment to their advantage.

They also used their devices made with Rudestone to create explosions and distractions. The best way to fight against guards is to use an archer to target their weak points, or to use a stealthy approach and avoid direct confrontation.

The group had both options, so they used them wisely. After a few minutes of intense combat, they managed to clear the way and reach the core area of the planet. They saw a huge metal sphere that was emitting a bright light and a loud humming sound.

They knew that this was the laser that could destroy the planet. They also saw a control panel with many buttons and switches. They had to find a way to activate the destruction mechanism and escape before it was too late.

Jeanne quickly scanned the panel with her watch and tried to hack it. She found a code that could override the security system.

She finds a secret file that even the Shik race didn't find and activate it.

She typed it in and pressed enter.

A voice announced: "Warning: self-destruction sequence initiated. Please evacuate immediately"

They were surprised, this was the language of the Zivar civilization, they didn't understand why, but they didn't care, they had to escape.

It indicated that it would be destroyed in 30 minutes

They decided to escaped through the way they had come.

When they were running, they heard a big explosion and the whole planet shook.

They saw flames coming their way, they activated their blue shield from their watch, fortunately they were far from the incident, so the aftermath they received was weak.

"We succeed!" smiled Jeanne.

"Right, and we have even stolen this technology, we can reproduce it with the blueprints." replied Leo.

"We need to evacuate quickly, they will now search intensely for us." said Arthur.

"Let's go!" cried Jeanne, motioning for the others to follow her.

They sprinted, their hearts pounding in their chests. The alarms blared all around them, adding to the sense of chaos and urgency.

Everyone nodded and continued to run.

After escaping from the secret room, they have found earlier, they saw many soldiers patrolling everywhere with an angry face, they arrested everyone who looked just a bit suspicious.

Then a high-ranking soldier called out to them.

"Hey, you, wait a moment! Who are you? I never saw you! Where do you come from?" he asked while crying out.

They all look at each other and run in another directions, with Jeanne leading them.

"Follow them, they are the intruders!" the soldier said with an angry voice.

They ran through the corridors, dodging laser beams and enemy fire. Jeanne led the way, his mind racing with thoughts of survival. He had to get his team out of here alive.

The guard called everyone and told them to guard every exit.

After a while he arrived at one of them, he had lost Jeanne and her group.

"Where are they?" he asked.

"We don't know, chief. We guarded all the exit, but we didn't find them." one of his subordinates replied.

Meanwhile, the trio and the others were in front of a lift.

"Jeanne, how did you find this? It seems to be a secret passage toward the surface." asked Leo.

"Do you really need to ask? She lost herself while leading us, it seems that this time we were lucky." replied Arthur.

"Haha!" laughed shyly, Jeanne.

"Well, let's go, with the core area destroyed, it would not be a long time before the whole planet destroyed itself." said Leo.

The planet was rumbling everywhere.