Chapter 1038: A Surviving Outpost

The shield on my Power Armour flared to life as it blocked the lasers coming from the turrets on top of the wall, forcing me to duck back around the corner to hide.

Right... I guess I at least know what happened to the pile of dead bugs now...

I think they set the turrets to shoot at anything that appeared in the tunnel regardless of what it was... Which really made me question why they would even set it like that since that would also make the turrets shoot any friendlies that might be coming to rescue them.

I guess they must have figured out that the other outposts were completely overrun so there would probably be no help coming for them if the bugs had already managed to break through to this part of the tunnels.

That’s pretty sad... They really thought that their comrades weren’t going to send a rescue team for them and already resolved to die fighting here.

Well... That’s a problem for us though...

I turned to my girls, "Any way to contact them through comms or something?"

Amber made a face at me, "Without the comms lines setup and with us not even knowing what their comms channels are? I don’t think so."

"Great... So what? Do we just shout at them and hope they hear us?"

"I guess that would be the simplest choice?"

Well... Fuck it then.

"Alright... Everybody cover your ears then," I instructed.

My girls did just that and... Very interestingly... The dogs also laid down on the ground and laid their paws over the top of their heads like they were also trying to cover their ears.

That was so cute... Got to take a few pictures first~

Ahem...

I got Renata to turn up the volume on the Power Armour to a pretty high setting before sucking in a lungful of air.

"HEY!!"

My voice echoed through the tunnel, reverberating off the walls.

No response came from the other side.

I clucked my tongue and shouted again, "HEY!! STOP THE TURRETS!!"

Another moment of silence.

I was just about to decide to try popping out from the corner to shoot at the turrets to let the people in that outpost know that we were here when finally a voice shouted back from around the corner.

"What’s the password?!"

What the heck? There’s a password? How the fuck are we supposed to know?!

"What password?!" I shouted back at them. "We’re supposed to be here to resupply you guys and see if you are still alive! If there’s a password, no one told us!"

There was another pause before the same voice shouted back again, "Step out from around the corner with your hands up! No funny movements!!"

I took a look at my girls and it was clear they didn’t like this arrangement one bit.

However... I believe I was the safest one to test this out since I was wearing Power Armour and not just any Power Armour, but Power Armour that Renata transformed into.

I gave the girls a reassuring nod before giving Freyja a pat as well and stepped out from around the corner.

I honestly half expected the turrets to just start shooting at me the moment I appeared but that did not happen.

Instead, I saw a few soldiers camped on top of the towers beside the gates with their rifles trained on me.

They seemed quite surprised to see me, like they were convinced that the voice they heard came from a bug that learned how to imitate human voices or something.

I honestly don’t blame them for thinking that.

I raised my hands and shouted at them, "I am Tera of the Teran Mercenary Company! We have been hired to retake the outposts and to provide supplies and aid to any surviving outposts that were supposed to be set up in these tunnel junctions! Lower your weapons!"

The soldiers on the towers hesitated before turning away, presumably to relay what they have just seen and heard to their commanding officer within the outpost.

I waited patiently for them before another person appeared on the tower beside the soldiers.

"You there! Come closer!" The new guy shouted.

I felt a little annoyed but complied nevertheless.

I took a few steps forward but decided not to get too close in case they still decided I was a bug wearing Power Armour and just shot me for it anyway.

Thankfully, they didn’t do that as he had called me closer just to scan me with some kind of device.

I guess it did tell him that I was who I said I was because he visibly relaxed before nodding his head at me.

"Thank you for your help... We had already given up hope that anyone would come for us at this point... We figured that the only things that we would see coming from around that bend would just be bugs and more bugs. Our supplies are already critically low and if you hadn’t arrived here today... We would probably be out of ammunition by tomorrow if the bugs decided to send another wave at us."

"Are they still trying to swarm this position from this tunnel?"

He shook his head, "No. But from the other direction that led towards the deeper end of the nest. Come in quickly. I assume your company is behind and waiting around the bend?"

"That’s right... Although I have to warn you... Included in my group are a hundred and one dogs sent to assist us in getting through these tunnels."

The person I was speaking to froze and even the soldiers beside him froze up as well.

I think to them... The appearance of a hundred dogs walking through their outpost might have been even worse than hearing a swarm of bugs were about to attack them.

The soldier I was speaking to eventually recovered and gave me a pleading look, "A... A hundred dogs... You say?"

"A hundred and one," I corrected him.

He shuddered visibly, "Right... Of course... A group like that... No bugs would even... A hundred? Why... Just... Just even one will... Ahem... Right. Ummm... Yes, please tell your group to... To enter the outpost... I will... I will tell my men to... To prepare themselves."

You’d think I was leading some giant monster in the camp or something...

I turned back and returned to the corner, my girls already aware of what happened since I had them on my comms the entire time and they heard our conversation through me.

The dogs only needed a single order before they were up on their feet again and leading the way towards the outpost.

The moment we rounded the corner, the soldiers who I had seen on those towers were now missing and the gates were already thrown open to allow us passage into the outpost.

We stepped inside and the place was like a ghost town, though I realised later that the person I had talked to, who was a sergeant placed in charge of the outpost, had ordered all the surviving soldiers into their barrack to hide themselves from the dogs and only leaving a few out to collect the supplies from me.

The process was pretty quick as all we needed to do was just hand over the drones over to the soldiers with the supplies and let them deal with it.

We had one more batch of drones that would follow us to the last location which was also the outpost that we were meant to check if it was still standing.

While the soldiers were taking over their batch of drones from us, I decided to try and ask them about the next outpost.

"So... We’re supposed to head to the next place where this outpost is... Which is at the far end of the tunnel. You guys know anything about it?"

The sergeant paused and turned to me, "You were told to go there?"

"That’s my main objective actually. So... You know something?"

He hesitated before shaking his head, "No. Nothing at all."

That basically told me that he knew something but didn’t want to say it.

He then hesitated for a moment before turning back, as if deciding that he couldn’t keep silent to me.

"I... Don’t know the details but... We had to hold this position when the next group came through to set up that outpost over there... The things they were carrying were really weird... There were giant glass containers and weird machines... And there were even people in lab coats that shouldn’t be all the way out here inside these tunnels. If I were you... I’d just drop the drones at their gates and tell them to take it themselves and never walk past their gates... Assuming they are still alive of course..."

"I assume you never sent anyone to check on them?"

"Fuck no. I even have guns pointed in their direction too. I don’t want anything to do with whatever they are doing there..."

Well... Fair enough...

"Anyway... What’s the password? You know, just in case you ask for it again?" I asked.

The soldier looked a little sheepish, "Ah... There’s no password. Sorry about that."

Oh... That was just a test to see if we would come up with some bullshit or something.

Very well, let’s continue then...