Chapter 1052: A Drill From The Ceiling

We caught another eighteen of those humanoid bugs and killed over fifty of them.

The dogs brought them over to the GenoTrend people and the guards moved to use the same devices to render the bugs unconscious before wrapping them up in that same metal harness for their drones to pick up.

It was quite interesting to see the bugs being placed in a line against the wall like they were mummies awaiting transport or something.

Also, it seems like they were quite satisfied with this number though they would not say no to capturing more of these bugs.

The lab coat people were already doing some preliminary tests on the captured bugs while they were waiting for the drones to arrive, which wasn’t an issue for us since there was a lake in front of us right now.

Unfortunately, it seems like there was no other path forward for us except moving through this cavern of water which we don’t even know if the water was safe to traverse in or not.

Sure, the dogs swam in it... But apparently they were not a good indicator of whether something is safe for humans since dogs have become more resilient than humans at this point.

I looked around the cavern and used the light to shine around the walls to look for another way through since the bugs must have a way to move through this cavern from other parts of the nest or else there wouldn’t be any bugs in this tunnel at all.

Also... I would need to make a note that there is a cavern of water here that the military would need to deal with if they intend to cross this place.

After a moment of searching, I found another opening that was a short distance along the wall to the left, the mushrooms around it almost making it look like part of the wall until I shone my light on the opening to cast a shadow to dispel the optical illusion.

"How do we get over there?" I asked.

Mara went over to the edge of the pool of water and seemed to stare at it for a moment, "I would recommend against going into the water at this point... To be safe, I would suggest we pull back and take some of the water samples back to run some tests on it. Assuming that this is actually water of course."

Ah, right... I had automatically assumed it was water but for all we know, it could just be something that was similar to water.

And to think the dogs literally just swam in it without any care and also seemingly suffering no adverse effects from it.

Then I heard a whisper coming from my ear as Renata spoke to me through my helmet.

"Daddy~ If you let me eat some of the liquid, I could tell what it is~"

Oh, that could work.

I stepped up to the edge and Mara gave me a questioning look.

"I can use my Power Armour to suck in some of the liquid to let the on board computer run some tests on it. It should at least be able to identify whether it’s bad for us or not."

Of course, Mara realised what I was really trying to do and nodded as she stepped aside, allowing me space to kneel at the edge of the pool and stick my finger into it.

There was a small vortex around the finger as Renata sucked in the liquid into her and she even bothered to pop up a display in front of my face to show her analysing the liquid.

The result was showing me the liquid was made up of an oxygen and two hydrogen molecules. In other words... It was literally water.

But she also showed that in the analysis, the water was quite contaminated with various other microbes and stuff which made it unsafe for a human to drink or swim in.

Tsk... That means I’m going to have to properly bathe the dogs later... Not that I didn’t intend to do it to begin with since the dirt and grime from the bugs would have also contaminated their fur as well.

"Good news... It’s water," I announced, standing up and turning back to face everyone. "Bad news, it’s not safe to swim in or drink as it’s contaminated."

I overheard one of the guards breathe out a sigh of relief, "We can’t swim anyway..."

Right... Most people can’t swim in this universe since most people wouldn’t come into contact with large pools of water to begin with...

"I suppose we would need an amphibious form of transport of some sort?" Amber asked, looking at the water with a tilt of her head.

I was just about to ask if the military had those when the ground started to rumble like there was an earthquake.

Renata helped steady me by locking the feet of the Power Armour onto the ground while the others clutched at the walls or each other in order to attempt to maintain their balance.

The ceiling of the cavern then suddenly exploded and something fell down through the opening, revealing it to be some kind of giant vehicle with a drill at the front.

It did not even stop as it hit the water and it dove straight down into the liquid pool, diving deep inside it.

The shaking stopped for a moment, then it began again, no doubt coming from that drilling machine we saw earlier.

The pool of water then started to shift and a whirlpool formed at where the drill had disappeared, quickly draining into the hole that the machine no doubt created as it drilled its way further underground.

Soon enough, the cavern that had the pool of water was now completely dry and there was now a path towards the other tunnel, albeit the path being a slope that required us to climb down from the ledge we were standing on.

All of us just stared at the now empty cavern and the dogs moved to the edge to give it a sniff before backing away.

"What the heck was that?" I muttered aloud.

"That didn’t look military," Yumiko commented, moving up beside me.

"Then... Another Mercenary group?"

"Perhaps... But it’s odd that they would even come here, since this nest was already claimed by the military to begin with... It wouldn’t make sense for other Mercenary companies to be here."

"Unless they were planning to leech off some of the credit," Lea suggested.

"I dunno... That doesn’t seem like a really covert way of trying to leech off the military if you ask me?" I pointed out.

The Alv only shrugged in response, showing that she had no explanation for it either.

"Should... Should we report it?" Patricia asked, also joining my side in her suit.

I hesitated before Amber skipped over to me, "Let’s just take a look first~ Maybe we can extort them for stuff in exchange for keeping it quiet~"

Of course, why didn’t I think of that?

"So do we climb into the hole after them or... Move towards the tunnel?"

Amber peeked behind at the GenoTrend people who were still looking in our direction, clearly waiting to see what we would decide to do instead of chiming in.

I considered for a moment before shaking my head, "I think it would be better if we stick to the tunnels for now... They did just empty an entire cavern of water so if we head down there... We might find ourselves plunging into the water as well. Later we can come back to see whether they are still digging or... I dunno... Maybe our tunnels link to where they are digging to?"

My girls seemed to agree with me so we started our advance towards the tunnel.

We had to be careful since the ground towards the tunnel was sloped at an angle and the ground was still rather wet and a little slippery.

A trip could send you skidding all the way down to the bottom and it would be a long climb back up here, assuming you don’t fall into the newly created hole.

The dogs didn’t even look like they were struggling as they walked ahead of us, clearing the path of any bugs so that we could just concentrate on moving towards the tunnel.

At the end, we still had to climb up onto a ledge and the good thing was that we managed to make it across without any issues.

Even the lab coats from GenoTrend managed to walk across the slope while being supported by the guards in one piece, which I honestly expected one or two of them to slip and fall seeing that they weren’t used to locations like these.

As we were beginning to form up to move deeper into the tunnel, the place rumbled again, this time feeling more like there was an explosion happening underground somewhere.

What the heck are those people trying to do down there?