An unexpected encounter.

The song of guns and the shrieks of mutants echoed throughout the tunnels.

As the reinforcement squad, one of the elite mech squads of the Arcology, dispatched from the guardpost on this side of the Arcology, they made their way through the tunnel and were beset by every mutant creature in these tunnels.

Colonel Kraft, one of the more experienced mech pilots, was currently trying to fix his comms device while the rest of the reinforcement squad cleared out the last of the remaining Stalkers.

Seeing as he made no progress after a few minutes, he guessed something was interfering with it and he signaled his squad to regroup and march onwards, down the tunnel.

Shortly after, with some additional encounters with Stalkers occasionally, they came across a bunch of power armors and a destroyed commander-class mech.

"Kos 1 and 2, check for vitals, retrieve if alive, and do a count because the unit was made up of 20 trainees and a commander, maybe they carried some of the injured with them who lived but were incapacitated. Rest on the lookout for company." said Col. Kraft.

"Roger." came the simultaneous reply.

The two power armor-wearing soldiers quickly checked the power armors on the ground. Sadly, none of them survived after all. Even with the protection of a nano-material power armor that, in the old world, could stop most rifle calibers, the Stalkers managed to easily pierce through the armor plates and kill the people wearing the armors.

After confirming none of the trainees were alive, Kos 2 moved closer to the acid-covered mech that lay face-down sprawled on the ground. Rolling over the 3-meter-sized mech carefully, he was prepared for an ambush, but the only thing he found himself face to face with was the look of resignation of a dead man.

"Twelve trainees and the Commander are here, Colonel. Do we go deeper to check if there is anyone alive?" Kos 1 said to Kraft.

Contemplating for a moment, Kraft said, "Let's move on and see where the rest of them are. At least we need to retrieve the power armors since it's extra credits. If it's not too far, it should be fine."

"Roger," the squad replied as they set off again deeper down the tunnel, closer to the surface world.

"Colonel Kraft, why were there Stalkers in the tunnels?" one of the newer soldiers asked.

"Dumbass, it's because it's the tunnels. They love dark areas to ambush things from. The tails, in combination with their damned permanent invisibility, make them very dangerous to anyone without the right equipment—in this case, any non-optical sensor since they simply reflect light that passes through their bodies," came the reply from one of the more experienced soldiers.

"To an extent, you're right," said Kraft. "However, it's only when there's a really dangerous creature nearby, even for them, that they get chased down this deep into the tunnel. The tunnel is several dozen kilometers long, and the mutants won't easily approach the Arcology as they know they'd get blasted by the guards. The Stalkers arent the group thats supposed to be here either, its supposed to be the much less dangerous Skrat Rats, but they seem to have been eaten by the Stalkers who were chased here by whatever set up shop at the entrance, and it is probably pretty dangerous even for us. And if I had to guess, it's a kaijuu-class at least."

"You mean to say one of those multi-story abominations is there, the ones with incredibly dangerous innate abilities?" replied the older soldier, surprised and slightly nervous.

"It's my guess. I have no proof, but consider it a veteran's gut feeling, after all what can chase more than 30 stalkers away? Those things arent low on the food chain at all." said Kraft.

There was only silence as a reply, but the air around the squad got quite a bit more serious. After all, usually 10 mechs are needed to deal with a kaijuu-class, unless it was one of the most advanced mechs that could take it on in a 1v1.

---

"... Well, whatever. I'll play along for now," Uria said as she jumped up from the ground. After landing on her legs, she looked around to see if anything was going on.

"He did say a rescue squad should be coming. I guess I'll just wait. But why do I not have any memories of this life?"

Annoyed, she quickly checked her entire body for a badge, or a dog tag, or something similar she could use to identify herself with. Much to her dismay, she didn't find anything though. Thinking for a moment, she went and checked every single body for something with text written on it, as she had realized one issue.

She didn't know if she could read the language in this world or even speak it, which would lead to a pretty uncomfortable situation if she came across the promised rescue squad and couldn't communicate with them.

Luckily, after checking the second body, she managed to find an ornately decorated knife that seemed more like a memento than a weapon. Realizing she could at the very least read the text on it, her mood improved. Intending on putting back the knife that had the inscribed name "Darren" on it, she looked around for a weapon in case she had to fend off whatever killed these people.

However, that plan was cut short as a skittering sound rushed at her from behind. With a speed far faster than what a human should be capable of, she dodged the invisible stinger that tried to pierce her back. Knowing she dodged on the side, the creature tried to turn its head towards her, yet the only thing it saw was a fist that was rapidly expanding in its eyes.

BANG

As the creature's skull was caved in with a punch, she retracted her now broken arm.

"Ah, that was refreshing, refreshing indeed~. Although, this body is way weaker than I'm used to, so I'll need to get used to the limits. Even dodging nearly broke my legs. Well, should be fine unless there's a lot more of these critters left."

After realizing her body couldn't handle being forcefully strenghtened by her soul, she quickly tried to lower her presence as much as possible and wait for the promised rescue squad, to avoid needless combat that would damage her body unnecessarily. 

Mere minutes after that, she felt faint vibrations coming from the ground. The rescue team was, at last, close at hand.