A few hours have passed, Albur slowly regained his control over his legs. Covie underwent a reflex test with Albur. She used medical devices and tools to determine whether Albur's legs are in good condition.
After the test, turns out he is free to move again. Albur slowly stood up, his legs have weak strength, but its enough for him to fight again. Albur walked around the hut and warmed up his legs.
Covie sat at the chair at the dining table. She examined the special wrench while looking at it at different angles and directions. She remembered Johnson sometimes would store crafting recipes of weapons and inventions in the wrench. She rotated the wrench and pressed various buttons, until she finally found the recipe storage.
The storage contains crafting recipes for rifles, twin pistols, many other guns such as Cold 723 carbines, plasma ion cannons, AK47, machine guns, shot guns and many more. Each one are using laser as bullets.
Mysty is at her own room. She is punching and kicking the air as training. While Albur is walking around the hut, he saw Mysty doing that in her room.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
Mysty turned her head to Albur.
"I uh, training? I guess...."
"Is that gonna help with anything?"
"I.....don't know, I'm just trying to train like this."
"I have something that might help."
"What is it?"
"It's something Johnson ma-....."
Suddenly, the whole hut stopped, the inertia caused the whole hut to shake. The both of them lose balance suddenly, Mysty managed to not fall down by leaning on the wall. Albur however fell forward and hit the ground.
"What the heck?"
Mysty quickly helped Albur up, the both of them walked towards the living room. Covie looked around in confusion, and Havoc is yelling in fear. Havoc is on the floor, face downwards.
"Albur? Albur? Help me! Its so dark! I can't see anything!"
Albur walked towards Havoc and picked him up.
"You're just facing towards the floor, not a black out."
"Man! I thought what had happened! My night vision doesn't work."
Albur plugged Havoc back into the rifle slot 3. The crew then walked to the entrance. Rhea is standing outside the hut.
"Rhea? What's wrong? Why did the hut suddenly stop?"
"It's nothing....just....."
Rhea looked in front, the crew looked in front as well. In front of them is a giant building, covered with virus substances. On top of the building is a large turret like thing.
"Well, we can't go over, can't go around, nor under it. Gotta go through it."
"Again?"
"Yeah. Its an indoor area so I expect there should be hidden hostiles there. Safer to be guarding the hut instead of sitting in there. Come on." Rhea's expression remained cold.
The crew got out of the moon hut and got ready their weapons, Covie kept the moon hut and the trolley since there is no one in there anymore.
Rhea approached the building, she cracked her fists and punched the wall of the building. Upon landing her second punch, the wall collapsed. Rhea signaled the crew to follow, and walked into the building. The crew caught up to her.
The building apparently seems to be one of the laser tower turrets used to destroy meteorites hitting Earth. Inside there, all kinds of laser weapons are seen. All of which covered by virus substances. Emergency lights blinked despite it is slowly corrupted. Some laser turrets were about to form into humps so Rhea smashed them into pieces.
Nothing special is seen in that building as it is just a control structure to operate the laser turret and destroy incoming meteorites. Though Covie was interested in some of the laser turrets. She ripped broken some of the turrets and looked at its parts. She also took some with her.
At the other side of the building, Rhea destroyed the walls to get to the other side. They found nothing unusual inside the tower. No hidden enemies. No secret technology. No strange discoveries. For once, it was simply an obstacle in their path.
But right after they exit the building. The energy detector suddenly spiked. It wasn't because the core is near, it is because it detected an area full of high energy virus life signs.
"Uh oh, that can't be good...."
Rhea showed the crew the energy detector that is beeping and buzzing continuously. The crew was a little concerned of that.
"Its...fine, right? We just....avoid that area.....nice and simple."
"No, that place is our only shortcut to the third core."
"AWWWWW SNAP..."
Mysty cocked her pistols and got her taser armed.
"Its gonna be a huge slaughter."
Covie continued to stare at the laser turrets in the building, thinking of something.
The crew started heading towards the shortcut. They have their weapons readied and ready for whatever that might attack them.
They walked for another couple of minutes, and they reached the area where the energy readings spiked to a dangerous point. Before them is a huge building, no hazard symbols, no 'No entry' signs, just a building with its signboard covered by virus substances.
Albur slowly walked to the entrance, he found a button and pressed it. Then, the slide door of the entrance opened. The crew slowly stepped into the building. But what they see is not what they expect. It isn't some kind of nuclear power plant place nor anything related to electricity and energy, it a food court.
Yeah, a normal food court. With many stalls and booths selling foods and drinks. Nothing special in particular.
"Is the energy detector broken or something?"
Rhea stared at the energy detector, she gave it a feel flick, but it still shows this place is full of high virus energy signs.
"I don't know, it is exposed in virus environment for so long it might be faulty. But if there's nothing here then just ignore it."
The crew slowly walked towards the other side of the food court. Due to the dark surrounding they turned their flashlights on.
As they walk, they noticed that some of the food stalls are destroyed. Ripped signs are on the floor, destroyed chairs scattered around the area. And the strange part is, all beverages and food are gone.
"Why are there destroyed things everywhere?"
"And all the food are gone too."
Rhea stared at the stalls, wondering why the crew asks stupid questions.
When they reached the middle of the whole food court, they saw a hole on the wall. A wall that is around 2 meters wide and 3 meters tall.
"What the heck happened here?"
Suddenly, a metal clang footstep is heard, the crew cocked their weapons and looked around them. Then, the clang voice started to become louder and more frequent.
"What was that?"
"Contact! 8 o'clock!" Rhea shouted
The crew turned to their West-Southwest direction and pointed their weapons before shining their flashlights.
"Wait! Wait! Don't attack! I'm not a monster!"
But its not an enemy, instead, its a robot. Its a robot in an accountant's suit, it have a torn right arm with electrical sparks, oil leaks from its waist, its screen flickers time-to-time. The crew slowly lowered their weapon, everyone is in confusion.
"A...CI.....?"
"....survivor?"
Rhea fired out a scanning wave and scanned the CI.
"No AC-23 Virus mutagens detected."
Rhea looked at the CI.
"Are you guys the rescue team?" the CI have a feminine voice.
"We are. Um, ma'am, may I ask for your directives?"
"I am....the accountant for this food court, I got the evacuation notice but I didn't get out in time."
"Ok, we will get you to safety, ma'am you can follow us."
"Wait! We got to leave here right now! Quick! Before they come back!"
"What do you mean they?"
Suddenly, the crew heard heavy footsteps, the CI begun to tremble. It quickly ran to a stall and hid there.
The crew was confused, but then, a loud snarl is heard. The crew turned around, then, they saw a pack of virus lifeforms. Each of them are 2 times the size of a normal virus lifeform. There is an alpha lifeform leading them and it is 0.5 times bigger than the other pack members.
They noticed the crew, and they all screeched. The energy detector started buzzing and beeping. The crew finally understood why the energy detector is beeping like that.
"No...there's more....there's more....." the CI shut itself down.
"What? More?"
Then, a distant glass shatter sound is heard, another virus lifeform emerged from a broken stall, then another, and then another. Turns out there is a huge pack hiding in the food court. The crew raised their weapons, aiming at all direction.
"Why are they so big?"
"Must be because there is plenty of food here."
The crew entered battle stance. The virus lifeforms screeched and charged towards the crew. Albur fired a Hyper Blast at the center spot of the pack, ensuring the explosion caught every single lifeform in it. Mysty fired at a few virus lifeforms and let them chase her to make the job easier for Albur. Rhea cracked her knuckles and rushed into the pack. One single kick sent 3 of them flying, but their higher strength and heavier weight made Rhea struggled a bit.
The alpha roared at Albur and chased him, Albur backed away as he fire Virus Corruptions at it. The alpha then bit on a broken stall and tossed it towards Albur. Albur ducked it and fired a Disabling Shot at the alpha before the rifle reloads. When it is stunned, Albur dashed towards it and punched at its face, knocking it back a few meters.
The alpha snarled, and signaled two virus lifeforms to accompany it. Albur realized he is outnumbered, he quickly backed away even more.
At Mysty's spot, she remained distance with the virus lifeforms and shocked each one that came close to her. She also used her grapple hook hiking stick to swing around the building for extra mobility. Slowly, the virus lifeforms chasing her became tired and lost interest. But Mysty kept attacking them, forcing them to attack her again.
Rhea, on the other hand, is dealing with swarms of virus lifeforms. Her hard metal body is too thick for the virus lifeforms to bite through but her human left arm and face is her weakness. The virus lifeforms kept on swarming onto her, and she kept crushing their skulls and bones.
Rhea then grabbed on one of the virus lifeforms and swung it around her to ush the other virus lifeforms away. Then, she turned her battle bot suit back to normal size and hopped on. She activated the built in helmet to protect her head. Then, she crushed each virus lifeform with her arms and feet. The prevent struggle, she fired sleep gas bombs to knock out the lifeforms before killing them.
Covie watched the battle in the air, unable to do anything to help. Then, she heard Albur yelping. The alpha lifeform surrounded Albur at a wall with 6 virus lifeforms. The rifle is stuck due to overheat, and all Albur could do is use the rifle like a melee weapon. Covie quickly flew to help. She grabbed one of the virus lifeforms and flew up. The lifeform screeched in fear, the alpha and the other lifeforms looked at it. Then, Covie flew to the ceiling of the building and dropped the lifeform down. She did that repeatedly until the virus lifeform stopped getting up.