C43 Buried Secrets

I said, stepping onto the lowered ramp and scanning the landscape ahead.

"Stay sharp. No telling what we'll find down here, but let's make sure we find it before it finds us and keep In mind we have 12 hours of oxygen I do hope you brought extra oxygen cells"

I asked as I did my battlebrothers nodded In response.

"Good lets go"

We spread out, forming a two row checker formation with me leading at the front, Darius covering the back, Julian, Robert, Paul and Airid In the middle as we advanced toward the nearest structure.

The ground was slick with frost, the air biting and thin. Every step echoed faintly against the towering ruins, the sound swallowed by the sheer vastness of the crater.

The remains of the city loomed around us, its once majestic structures now hollow and broken, like bones picked clean by time.

"This place gives me the creeps,"

Paul muttered, his eyes constantly scanning the shadows for movement.

"Feels like we're being watched."

"We probably are,"

Julian said, his sniper rifle trained on the higher levels of the buildings.

"Place like this? Nothing should be able to survive but If they did, the question is, what did?"

We moved deeper into the city, the ruins towering overhead like silent sentinels. Every corner revealed more of the alien architecture, the intricate designs and colossal structures hinting at a once-thriving metropolis.

We passed what looked like an old transport hub, the skeletal remains of transit tubes and platforms crumbling under the weight of centuries.

"Over here,"

Airid called, drawing our attention to a collapsed section of wall that had partially revealed what lay beneath.

He knelt, grabbing the sizable chunk of debris and moving It to the side thanks to his enhanced strength revealing a tunnel.

We crouched down, peering into the revealed tunnel entrance Airid had uncovered. The frost-covered ground crunched beneath our boots as we approached, the tunnel yawning before us like the throat of some ancient beast.

The inside was dark, the walls covered in the same strange, angular architecture that marked the ruins above.

"Well, well,"

Darius muttered, adjusting his grip on the light laser machine gun.

"Looks like we found ourselves a rabbit hole."

"No kidding,"

I said, scanning the entrance with my helmet's sensors. No immediate signs of life, but the tunnel extended deep into the frozen ground, out of reach of the scanners.

Paul glanced at me.

"Think it's worth the trip down?"

I gave a small nod.

"Only one way to find out. Stay close, and watch your corners."

We formed up and moved in, our combat boots leaving a trail in the light dusting of frost as we turned on our flashlights attached to our helmets and smart rifles, the tunnel was surprisingly well-preserved, the walls still intact and reinforced by some alien material that had withstood whatever catastrophe had befallen the city.

It sloped downward at a gentle angle, leading us deeper and deeper underground.

The farther we went, the colder it seemed to get. Our helmets holographic displays blinked with constant warnings about the dropping temperatures, but our gear was built for worse than this.

Still, the atmosphere was oppressive, the silence broken only by the faint hum of our gear and the echo of our footfalls.

"J*sus, how deep does this thing go?"

Robert asked, his voice low.

"Deep enough,"

Airid replied, limping slightly but keeping pace.

After what felt like an hour of descending, the tunnel finally opened up into a large, cavernous chamber.

At the far end, partially concealed behind debris and layers of frost, stood an enormous blast door.

It was heavily reinforced, its surface marred with strange symbols and markings that glowed faintly in the dim light.

Darius gave a low whistle.

"That's one hell of a door. Any idea what's behind it?"

"Only one way to find out,"

I said, pulling out my pack of C4 charges from my assault backpack.

We approached the blast door cautiously. I ran a gloved hand along its surface, feeling the cold metal beneath my gloved fingertips.

The door had been built to keep something out, or maybe to keep something in.

"We're going to need all the C4 we have to get through this thing,"

I said, pulling out more charges and starting to place them at key points around the door's frame.

Julian grinned.

"I love a good fireworks show."

Once the charges were set, we backed off to a safe distance, crouching behind a pile of rubble. I held the detonator in my hand, watching the small red light blink steadily.

"Ready?"

"Do it,"

Paul said, his eyes glued to the door.

I pressed the detonator.

The explosion rocked the chamber, a deafening roar that echoed off the walls as the charges blew apart the blast door.

Shrapnel flew through the air, grazing our armor as the thick metal door crumbled inward, smoke and dust billowing out from the impact.

As the dust settled, we approached the newly created entrance. The remains of the blast door lay in twisted heaps, and beyond it was another tunnel, leading to what appeared to be a command center of some kind.

The room was vast, filled with rows of terminals, control panels, and glass displays, all covered in layers of frost and dust.

The design was alien, but there was something unmistakably familiar about it, the structure and layout weren't too different from human control rooms.

"Looks like we hit the jackpot,"

Julian said, moving toward one of the control panels.

"Don't touch anything yet,"

I warned.

"Let's get some power in here first."

I pulled a mini fusion cell from my backpack, moving to what looked like a power junction. The connectors were unlike anything I'd seen, but with a bit of army grunt creative engineering, I managed to rig the fusion cell to the system.

With a faint hum, the control panels and displays flickered to life. Alien symbols and numbers flashed across the screens, casting an eerie glow throughout the room.

The holographic displays sputtered to life, showing schematics and maps of the surrounding area.

"Well, that's a good start,"

Darius said, eyeing the alien text on the screen.

"But we can't read any of this s*it."

I nodded, already connecting my helmet's built-in camera to Invicta via a remote uplink.

"Invicta, I'm sending you visual data. Start translating this alien language. We need to know what happened here over."

The ship's computer chirped in acknowledgment, beginning the translation process. Meanwhile, we began moving through the room, examining the displays and trying to piece together what had happened.

Hours passed as we waited for the translation to come through. During that time, we sifted through the alien records, trying to make sense of the fragmented data. Finally, Invicta pinged us with a notification.

"Translation complete."

A string of alien symbols appeared on my visor, now neatly translated into our language.

"Looks like these guys were early space age,"

I muttered, scanning the translated text.

"They had a space elevator system connected to a moon orbiting their planet. Something went wrong during one of their lifts. The moon's orbit destabilized and…"

I trailed off, my eyes narrowing.

"...It crashed into the planet."

"S*it, talk about absolute cluster f*cks"

Julian whispered, staring at the holographic display.

"Yeah, no s*it'"

I said.

"That impact caused the crater. Probably wiped out their entire civilization in one shot."

Airid leaned in, inspecting one of the panels.

"This place must've been their last command center. They were probably monitoring the disaster until the very end."

"Guess that's what happens when you mess around with tech you don't fully understand,"

Darius muttered.

As we continued searching the room, something else caught my eye. A small, half-hidden terminal in the corner of the room was displaying a series of schematics.