Starship Commander Trapped In A Fantasy World 241 The Lost City Of Aeth 1

Disengaging the safety on her weapon Lux started walking towards the two ma.s.sive stone gatekeepers which guarded the entrance to Aeth. Wearing a vest with spare magazines and inferred markers, Lux had also attached a flashlight to the barrel of her rifle which cut a clear path through the void which surrounded her. Walking behind Lux was Alice and Mare with their own rifles, they were tasked with keeping eyes on the flank while Lilly and Eos acted as rear guard. Maintaining that formation and a cautious pace, the group arrived at the outermost houses of the lost city after about 5 minutes.

"Alice, send out the Lanterns."

"Okay."

Pressing a switch on her vest, the large square backpack she wore opened as sounds of small rotors could be heard.

"W-what are those?"

Looking at the small, tennis ball sized flying sphere's why scattered into the air from Alice's backpack, Eos was understandably confused.

"They are Lantern drones, just think of them like small flying golems which map out the area."

Explaining the purpose of the drones to Eos while she took off her backpack and sat it down on the ground, Alice then started controlling the drones through her newly installed neural uplink.

"I just want the city plan for now so ignore the inside of the buildings, though tell me the second you have an unidentified heat signature."

"Yes ma'am~"

"Good, for the rest of you I want eyes all around, stay focused as we make our way to the city centre."

Intermittently dropping flares on the ground to mark their way back, Lux and the others continued towards the ma.s.sive palace looking structure in the middle of the dead town. 

"Eos did that legend of yours say why this place was abandoned?"

"It didn't… Although I a.s.sume that it was no longer needed when the great calamity pa.s.sed."

"A reasonable theory, though I fear that there is some other reason."

Pointing the flashlight to a plaza up ahead, Lux displayed a mountain of bones which appeared to have been piled up there some time ago.

"We're stopping to examine those for clues, Lilly, Mare and Alice, I want you three on area security, go out a block and set up a wire. Rules of engagement are to hold fire until targets can be identified."

Having delegated orders to her trusted subordinates, Lux walked up to the pile of bones, finding that she had to look up at just to see the top of the pile.

"Hmm, I estimate that this pile contains the skeletons of about 200 humanoid creatures… Cause of death looks to be mainly stabbing and blunt force trauma."

"What makes you say that?"

"look and the bones and they'll tell you."

Crouching down next to the pile Lux beckoned Eos to join her, which the angel did after saying a silent prayer.

"See that? Those ribs have marks on them consistent with a blade while that skull over there has been smashed apart completely. Moreover since we haven't seen any skeletons laying around or any signs of a larger battle my guess is that this was some sort of organized purge or an outright ma.s.sacre."

"A ma.s.sacre…"

Eos had believed she at least knew something about this strange place they had found themselves in, but it appeared she had been entirely wrong.

Something terrible had happened here.

But before Lux or Eos could put any more thoughts into the matter of the pile of bones Alice returned with a fl.u.s.tered expression on her face.

"I saw a heat signature! 12 o'clock high!"

Giving out a quick and precise callout in a timely manner Alice then pointed her rifle towards the threat she had identified, as did Lux immediately after she had heard the report.

"... Up there? Well, that's strangely convenient."

The place Alice had spotted a heat signature was the large central palace looking building, a place Lux had already decided to search. 

With their next area of interest already settled on and the possibility that they had been spotted now a reality, Lux and her group quickly made their way towards the central structure, mostly ignoring the numerous piles of bones they pa.s.sed on the way there.

"Alice, what did you see exactly?"

On the way towards the palace Lux quickly questioned Alice about the heat signature she had seen, the reason she didn't just look at the footage herself was because some members of her party couldn't do that themselves.

"Although I only caught a glimpse of it, it was definitely a humanoid figure standing behind one of the one of the pillars supporting the dome on top of the structure, while this is just conjecture I feel like it was observing us."

"Okay, that matches up with my intuition as well. Ever since we arrived at this place I feel like we have been watched closely…"

Arriving at the large central structure which looked like some sort of palace Lux felt her earlier hunch was definitely correct.

"Something is definitely in there…"

Looking at the entrance to the palace Lux had a frown on her face as she muttered those words, while all her sensors and fancy equipment told her that there was nothing but an empty tunnel ahead, her experience and gut feeling told her otherwise.

"Mare?"

"Mmm. While it's faint I feel like something is holding its breath… I can't tell if it's scared or wants to hunt us, however."

Asking the person with the sharpest senses in the group for her a.s.sessment, Lux had her gut feeling proven correct, although she would rather had it proven wrong at this point.

"f.u.c.k… Nothing ventured, nothing gained. We need to investigate this place, as for whatever is in here I'm declaring it hostile. I'm hereby modifying the rules of engagement, shot first and shot again to make sure. Us getting out of here with intel is the current top priority, nothing else matters."

"Roger."

Taking Lux's words to heart Alice affixed a bayonet to the end of her rifle before checking her magazine. Meanwhile, Eos and Lilly collected the mana that was around them, readying offensive spells at the same time as Mare took her PDW out of its holster and chambered a round.

Entering the palace the group moved ahead in silence, only the footsteps of the group could be heard along with the quiet buzz of the Lantern drones mapping out the area ahead of the group could be heard. 

"There's a chamber up ahead… It seems like some sort of reception hall."

With Alice breaking set silence the group got noticeably tenser, something which was only understandable.

After all, if someone, or something, wanted to trap them inside the palace they only needed to block the tunnel they had come from, and the area just up ahead was perfect for doing just that. 

Reaching the reception hall Lux saw that the interior looked like some sort of bug nest with countless different paths forward, glancing to Alice Lux signalled her to take the lead, not wanting to talk in such a situation. Giving a nod in response Alice moved to the front of the formation before choosing one of the paths which had a slightly downwards decline, entering that path Mare who was acting as the rear guard completely flipped around her body as she started walking backwards at the rear of the group with her weapon raised and ready to fire while Lilly put a hand on her shoulder to guide the young beastkin as Lilly herself looked towards Lux who had taken up a position on the middle of the formation with her own hand on Alice's shoulder. Looking at the formation the rest of her group had adopted without a word, Eos felt it was strange until she noticed the faint hand signals Lux used to communicate with Lilly with, who in turn tapped some sort of code on Mare's shoulder as to inform her of what was happening. Suddenly feeling grateful to her past self for not antagonizing such a force Eos was still a bit annoyed that she was being left out, but she didn't say anything about it as she was the only outsider of the group and she also understood that they all needed to keep quiet for the moment. As if the silent teamwork wasn't enough, suddenly the light from Alice's, Lux's and Mare's flashlights had turned deep red, once more without an explanation as to why that was given to Eos, still, she could tell that the atmosphere was getting tense.

Walking along the curved pathway it eventually turned steeper as it transformed into a sharp incline, leading to another chamber with countless pathways leading out from it, but unlike the last chamber, this one wasn't empty.

(Urg, what the f.u.c.k is that smell?)

Immediately after stepping into the room Eos was. .h.i.t with a stench of decaying fish. Locating the source of such a horrid smell was easy, however, as the middle of the chamber appeared to be some sort of landfill that was piled high with all sorts of dead and decaying sea creatures. Walking a few steps into the room Alice came to a halt together with Lux who suddenly gave out an aggressive looking hand signal, understanding that signal Lilly got Eos' attention, showing the angel an extremely serious expression as she put her index finger up to cover her lips, signalling to Eos to stay quiet at all costs. Figuring that something strange was going on, Eos turned to Lux again, only to see she had let go of Alice's shoulder and was now crouching next to her in the process of putting a silencer on her weapon.

(Have they found something?)

Focusing her attention once more towards the pile of rotting fish Eos strained her ears, picking up the faint sound of bones breaking.

No, it was the sound of bones being crunched on by a set of teeth, sharp teeth.

Holding back her rising urge to swallow the saliva collecting in her mouth, Eos continued looking for the source of the sound coming from the pile of fish in the faint red light. Before she found the creature that made the sound, Lux fired at something which had s.h.i.+fted, immediately following the quiet sound of gas escaping the barrel of her suppressed weapon was the unmistakable sound of something soft being squished just like if one crushed a single grape in one's hand, following a quiet thud. Lowering her rifle as she held her breath Lux confirmed that she had killed whatever it was she had been aiming at, but before she could relax the sudden sound of incoherent screaming a.s.saulted her and her team from every direction.

"f.u.c.k! Move to the centre!"

Realizing that they had been found, Lux started shouting out commands as she popped multiple red flares and threw them around the room. Having reached the centre of the room on top of the pile of rotting sea creatures, Lux continued barking out commands in a panicked voice.

"Everyone hook up to me! Keep eyes on every entrance!"

Following her order without hesitation the group attached metal wires to Lux and themselves by the waist, keeping her as the central point of the formation.

"Here they come!"

Being the one with the most sensitive hearing in the group Mare informed the rest of the team about what she heard.

"While this is a s.h.i.+t position we're making our stand here! Lilly, Eos, keep your magic in reserve, we brought plenty of ammunition for exactly this reason!"

"They are taking out my Lanterns! I'm blind!"

With Alice's report, it was clear that whatever was coming for them was getting close, as Alice had kept the Lantern drones within 200 metres of herself at all times.

"Shoot to kill but preserve ammunition! We don't know how many there are!"

Having started opening fire at different tunnels, Lux looked after the faint reflection of fish scales and quick flashes of retina in the red light, firing at everything which moved towards them and killing every single creature with scary efficiency as she realized just how much she had f.u.c.ked up.

These tunnels weren't part of the original place, it was a ma.s.sive monster nest which had been built after the lost city of Aeth was abandoned and had sunken to the bottom of the sea.