Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Chapter 20: Entering The Ancient Spaceship

Old Du started cutting the hole wider with his electrofusion welder. We had thought that a hull with alkene as part of its composition could be easily cut, but even after pushing the welder to a temperature of 3,000 degrees, we weren't able to leave even a mark on the hull.

"What now?" Zhang Bao'er asked.

"I can't think of anything either," Dodo replied.

At times like that, I did not hesitate to take out a timed cluster bomb and installed it near the ventilation hole. With a boom, the hole was blasted apart.

"Excessive force is still as effective as ever," I said smugly.

While Old Du was clearing the debris from the hole, a gust of wind blasted out with a whistling sound. Instantly, the atmosphere turned somewhat eerie.

"We're all revolutionary proletariat warriors. We fear nothing," chanted Zhang Bao'er. "I volunteer to go first."

For some reason, he was bustling with heroic spirit.

"Coo, coo."

We turned around to see that Dondon had awakened. The little creature kept blinking its eyes. It was probably still slightly dazed.

"Since it's going to be dangerous down there, we shouldn't bring Dondon with us," said Zhang Xingxing.

"Very well." In truth, I had the same thought.

Thus, I opened my bag and took Dondon out. I was going to install a tiny parachute on it to help it safely leave the mountain, but the little fellow struggled as if its life depended on it. It limped over to Zhang Xingxing and hugged her leg tightly, staring at her with its big eyes. It cooed repeatedly.

"Well. It doesn't seem willing to leave," said Old Du.

Since we did not have much time to waste, we couldn't hesitate, so we decided to bring it with us. I hurriedly placed Dondon back into the bag, and this time, the little fellow was surprisingly cooperative. Seemed like Old Du was right.

We stopped wasting more time. Under Zhang Bao'er's persistent request, we let him spearhead the party. One by one, we followed him into the hole. The hole was narrow, just big enough for one person to pass through at a time. With his bulky body, Old Du constantly grumbled as he kept getting stuck.

The deeper we went, the stronger the wind. It was as though some motor-like object was constantly discharging emissions at us. To be safe, we advanced with our lights off, relying only on our laser probes to provide vision.

I noted that the wall within the tunnel was incomparably sleek. However, deep scratch marks could be seen every now and then. It was as though something had clawed the wall. Zhang Xingxing and the others also saw the marks. We all gripped our weapons tighter.

"Watch out, everyone. Prepare to defend," commanded Zhang Xingxing.

After about 30 minutes of traveling through the winding tunnel, an opening appeared before us. The opening was similarly covered in some sort of mesh netting. Lying on the ground, Zhang Bao'er performed a scan before sending the result to everyone.

We saw that a sealed space was below the opening. The space was completely empty apart from a hexagonal construct in the middle of the room. The construct seemed to be making use of the stream of air to remain hovering in the air. In the southeast corner of the room was a shut door.

'We need to go down and investigate more,' I thought to myself.

"Try to open the cover," Zhang Xingxing commanded.

Zhang Bao'er tried to pry the cover open with his hands, but that did not work. Left with no choice, we utilized our trusty method of excessive violence. After retreating four turns away in the tunnel, the cover was blasted apart with a boom.

With a pulley, we had Dodo hold onto one end while the rest of us descended one after another. Finally, Dodo activated its buffer mode and jumped down to join us. The room was spacious, and the wall was sleek. However, massive scratch marks could be seen on many parts of the room. From what we could see, the marks were definitely not as old as the ship itself.

All of us activated our shields and scanned the room. Our scans found nothing, making us even more curious as to where these scratch marks had come from. At the same time, we also grew more and more nervous.

Dodo and I approached the center of the room. There, a stream of air was blowing straight upward, holding the hexagonal construct in the air. The construct seemed familiar. For some reason, I felt like I had seen it somewhere before.

"The ancient prophecy!" Zhang Xingxing, Old Du, and I exclaimed at the same time.

Yes, this construct was an exact replica of the case we had obtained from the escape pod, with the only difference being its size. This was a much larger version of the case. Captain Angela had left the case on Saturn, but we still remembered the ancient prophecy carved on it.

'Does that mean that this case would also have some sort of prophecy carved on it? Perhaps this prophecy will be the key to finding Captain Zhang Han and unveiling the mystery of Sirius B,' I thought to myself.

Everyone came to the same conclusion, and everyone grew excited. We started discussing the way to safely remove the case from the air.

"Were these scratch marks left by monsters that were also here for this case?" Zhang Bao'er suddenly asked.

"Most likely. But where are these monsters? Are they dead or are they hibernating?" I wondered.

"I keep feeling that a pair of eyes is looking at us," Dodo suddenly said.

Everyone's heart jolted at Dodo's remark.

"I have the same feeling," Old Du agreed. "From the moment I entered this room, I had a feeling that we were not the only life forms in here. There must be a unique reason for this ship to have fallen. We must inspect the room properly for hidden mechanisms or traps before dealing with the prophecy case."

Following his plan, we split our tasks and searched the room's every nook and corner. However, we still found nothing.

"How odd," said Zhang Bao'er. "I can feel that something is looking at me, but now, I can't find anything."

"Is it an invisible monster again?" I asked.

"We'll retrieve the case first and act accordingly if a new situation arises. Everyone, maintain combat formation," commanded Zhang Xingxing.

We scattered into our respective positions as commanded while Old Du prepared his jump system to leap into the air to grab the case. He did not waste any time and activated his jump system, propelling himself into the air. Then, two mechanical arms reached out from his back and grabbed the case. He began to descend to the ground.

Our hearts thumped anxiously as we gripped our weapons firmly, awaiting any sort of attack, collapse, or even explosion. However, nothing happened. The room was as calm as ever.

"That's a tad bit too easy, right?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"No, I keep feeling that something isn't right," I replied. "Stay calm and quickly scan the patterns on the case."

The moment Old Du landed, Dodo rushed forth and retrieved the case from Old Du's mechanical arms. We promptly surrounded the case. Similar to the smaller case, it was hexagonal. Unsurprisingly, patterns could be seen on it.

After scanning the entire case with its scanner, Dodo transmitted the images to us. This time, there were two diagrams. The first diagram was a duplicate of what we had seen on the first case: the prophecy depicting four individuals, a tunnel, and a spaceship.

The second diagram showed us something new. A series of circles was surrounding a creature with the head of a fish and the body of a human. The creature was in the middle of the diagram. Beyond the circles was a massive creature with six limbs, sharp teeth, and two heads. Its tongue reached out of its jaws. The creature resembled a lizard, with a pair of massive wings on its back. Behind the creature were five circles. The eerie fact was that behind the five circles was a massive paw.

"A prophecy!" Zhang Bao'er exclaimed in alarm.

We all broke out in cold sweat when we recalled the scratch marks on the wall after seeing the massive paw.

"There are five circles here. That must be us?" asked Old Du.

Everyone looked at each other. I did not dare to say anything, fearing that Dodo would flip out again. But it did not make sense to exclude the android in the first prophecy only to include it in the second. Just as everyone was speechless, Dondon cooed.

"This is the fifth individual!" Zhang Xingxing cried out.

Everyone felt enlightened. So Dondon was the fifth individual of the prophecy. Just as we were about to continue to study the diagram, little Dondon started growling. Its growling seemed to become more and more urgent, as though Dondon had sensed immense danger.

Suddenly, a loud sound came from the door in the southeast corner of the room. It almost sounded like a big creature was knocking against it. The door did not seem like it was going to hold on for much longer.

At the same time, the ceiling above us started shifting, turning into numerous hexagons. The many hexagons moved rapidly and spun around the central part of the ceiling. Not a single hexagon remained in the same position.

Immediately, the hole we came in from vanished. Countless hexagons covered the ceiling. It almost seemed like the knocking sound had alarmed this ancient spaceship. About five minutes later, the ceiling stopped moving, and the knocking rang even louder.

Everyone grew nervous as we activated our defensive shields to the maximum capacity in preparation for combat. Instantly, the ceiling opened up, releasing countless worm-like creatures into the room. Different from regular worms, these creatures each had a massive paw on its back and a mouth filled with sharp fangs.

"A one-pawed monster!" Zhang Bao'er exclaimed.

"Is this the claw depicted in the diagram?" I wondered.

"It is likely that an even bigger fellow is behind that door. There are so many of these little monsters, but they are not the ones giving me the feeling of being watched," said Old Du.

As we spoke, the knocking grew intense.

"According to the laser probe's analysis, the door will be broken in three minutes. Be careful, everyone," Dodo updated everyone with the latest data.

"Everyone, get ready for combat. Dodo, please remain alert of our surroundings," Zhang Xingxing commanded. "If the door is broken, Old Du will be in charge of providing cover. Everyone else will focus on attacking these worm monsters."

I yelled, "Since the prophet had depicted the paw in the diagram, there is definitely more to this place. Everyone, be on full alert and watch over each other!"

Next, accompanied by scratching sounds, countless worms poured into the room from the ceiling.