So one more chapter and as always I would like your feedback.

I'd like to thank aeval for proofreading this chapter.

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The city where we came was called Steel shaft, which in my opinion wasn’t a very original name for a miner city. When we got off from the train we moved towards the mine's entrance, where we should meet with the foreman of the mine. He should give us an update on the state of the mine and let us in as the mine was closed for now.

From the train it was only 5 minutes by foot to the mine. When we got there we saw no one. The mine was completely deserted. We walked around a bit and then we went to the entrance as our contact should be somewhere there. In front of the entrance we found a big man nervously looking around himself. He was bald with a red face and a strong body.

As he saw us he was visibly relieved. He came running towards us. “Thank god you’re here. I was nervous just standing over there.” And he looked behind him.

We let Anna do the talking with him and started to prepare our gear first. I didn’t have as much as the others so I walked towards the entrance and waited for the others to arrive. The first to finish his preparations was John, but like always he wouldn’t talk to me. It was starting to annoy me. Next one was Rock who walked towards me.

“So what’s your class? I’m a Heavy trooper with a specialization in heavy weapons.”

“I don’t have class as this is the sixth day I’m playing and that includes two days inside of the tutorial.” I replied.

“Hahaha funny. Now tell us your class already.” He looked at me but after a while he understood that I meant it for real. “You’re telling the truth!” He said with wide eyes, “How could Anna take you if you’re just a beginner. You would just get killed.”

Then he called to Anna, “Hey Anna when were you going to tell us Leya didn’t even have a class and has been playing the game for only six days?”

She stopped talking to the foreman and glared at him. “We’ll talk in a minute.” Then she continue her talk with foreman.

Lee came to us with an eyebrow raised. ”So you’re a complete novice? How come Anna let you join us?”

“She told me if I could get some decent weapons, I could join you. So these last two days I worked, so I could get better weapons.” I said and let them think that I bought the weapons rather than made them myself. “She inspected them this afternoon and said I could go with you.”

Both of them looked at me then Rock sighed. “Ok if she says your weapons are good I won't mind. But tell me do you at least 50 damage while you have your weapons equipped? Because that's the minimum amount you’ll need.

I got more than that, but I just nodded at him and looked at Anna who has ended her talk with the foreman and walked towards us. “So you want to talk about this now?” she looked from Rock to Lee as John was just being quiet the whole time.

“No we’re good, if her weapons are fine we’ll manage somehow.” Said Rock then he smiled at me, “It's nothing against you, I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Thanks, but I should be fine and if there is any trouble I’ll just hide behind you.” I said in a playful tone.

He laughed, “You do that.”

Anna beckoned us over towards her and started telling us what the foreman told her. “So for the last month there were some problems inside of the mine. Things go missing and such, but they thought it was just someone stealing them. They investigated it, but couldn’t find out anything. But for the last two weeks something has changed. There were a lot of accidents caused by traps that someone started placing at the lower levels. They suspected someone is sabotaging the mine, but it’s just a small business and they couldn’t think of anyone who would want them to close up the mine. However that changed last week. When they found a dead miner with claw marks covering his body. So they closed the mine and send their team to find out what has happened, but they could not find out anything. With nothing to show they had to either close the mine or keep it open and hope for the best. They decided to open the mine and hire more guards. But the miners didn’t want to go back so they hired us to find out what the problem is. If someone has a problem with this mission, they should speak up now.”

Then she looked at all of us. Seeing as no one objected she switched to a more commanding tone, “Ok if no one objects, we can move on towards the mine.” She called up a map of the mine. “The first level is for the miners. They could sleep there and use a shower or eat. On this level we shouldn’t encounter any problems.”

The she pointed at the lower levels of the mine. “We’ll go straight into the lowest level of the mine. That’s where the problems started. There is even one death, so be careful and if you have a problem shout out for the others. When we get there we will split up into two groups.”

“The First group will be me, Lee and Leya. The second group will be John and Rock. Now come on, the foreman will unlock the door for us.”

We went across the first level without any problems and soon were in an elevator on the way down. What greeted us was the same thing the foreman told us about. Everything was normal without anything looking out of ordinary.

I hooked the nanobots to my armor and used the armor to scan the room. I still couldn’t use the nanobots all the time as it was overwhelming to feel the radiation, temperature and other sensors. What I got from the scan was completely different. I could see thermal sources where there should be none and there were strange reading of the air we were breathing. There was more nitrogen in the air than there should be. There was about 4% more than normal.

“Hey, I don’t know if it’s relevant, but I can see some thermal spots and there is about 4% more nitrogen in the air compared to normal.”

They looked at me and John said, “She’s right I got the same readings as her.”

“So there is something. The survey group should have found this when they were here.” She shook her head, “it just gets weirder and weirder.”

“Ok better to move all together and check out those thermal spots first. From there we’ll move according to a new information. We go with Rock and John front, Lee in the middle and me and Leya will be covering your backs.”

We moved as she said and I draw both of my pistols as the rail gun would be useless in this close spaced corridors. Punch went to right and Pat to left since I could shoot more accurately with my left hand.

We moved from the main corridor towards the first thermal source. On the way we could see broken items and mined ores. There was definitely something weird here if the investigation didn’t come up with anything. We moved slowly so it took us maybe about 5 minutes to get to the first thermal source.

When we came to the first thermal spot we saw a membrane made from organic material plastered across the corridor. If we wanted to move forward we would have to go through the membrane. Rock tried to fire at it with his machinegun but he didn’t even scratch it. He even almost hurt us in the process as the membrane repelled his bullets back at us. Next we tried the laser rifle that John used but he couldn’t do anything to the membrane either.

Before we decided to just blast it, I tried to use my plasma pistol and could see that the membrane got slightly damaged but not enough to get through it. With my limited supply of plasma we wouldn’t get through it so we decided to use Lee’s explosives. He got some plasma bombs which should do the work.

As Lee started to set up the bomb we retreated back so we wouldn’t be caught inside of the blast radius. Lee took his time setting it up, but it would be better to be rather safe than sorry.

Anna looked around the corner at Lee, “Ok, he has just finished and we can move on. This mission just got much more dangerous than we thought. So be careful and if you spot anything report it back immediately, even if you think it was just your imagination.”

As she said it, Lee came around the corner running. The moment he ducked behind our cover we could hear and feel a loud explosion. Then the shockwave came which threw us further into the corridor. As the last remnants of the explosion ended we looked around the corner and could see a gap where the membrane was.

“What did you make this bomb out of? It almost removed me from my boots.” Said Rock.

“It’s probably because of the membrane. It redirected part of the blast our way.” Said Lee sheepishly.

“Don’t worry, we survived and you made us a door.” Anna said while we moved towards the hole in the membrane.

Behind it was the continuing corridor but it was in a state of disrepair. Lights were smashed, panels were torn from the walls and cables were hanging from the ceiling. Anna filmed it for the company who owned this mine and stored it all in her armor.

We moved in the same formation towards the membrane and came across it. The second Thermal spot was about a hundred meter in front of us. As we moved I thought I spotted something run across the parallel tunnel. I connected to the sensors once more and I could see movement at places where our tunnel branches out towards other tunnels.

“Hey guys there is movement inside of the other corridors. I don’t know what it is, but it’s fast.” I said to my teammates.

We stopped and formed a circle around Lee. “Can you tell us what it was?” asked Anna.

“No, it was too fast for me.”

“Now that I know what to look for, I can see it too and I can tell you it’s a Trelian tunneler.” Said John.

Rock looked back across his shoulder, “I don’t know if we have enough firepower to fight them. They are pretty dangerous when engaged in a small quarters.”

“Ok we’re moving back. We’ll have to report it.” Decided Anna.

I saw more movement going on behind me, “That would be problem, as there are more and more of them behind us. They got us trapped in here.”

Lee looked worried and the others were twitchier than normal. For me it wasn’t as bad as I had several attempts on my life already. “We should move to a more defensible position. Best would be somewhere with only one entrance.” I suggested.

“I saw a room briefly in one of the side corridors. We can try there.” Said Rock.

“Ok same positions but we need to move faster, since we need to get there before they cut us of from the room. Now move!” Commanded Anna.

We moved back to the room Rock saw. Halfway through the run and already we could hear the noises coming from the other corridors. I saw the first Trelian when we were getting around the corner to the side corridor with the room. I fired instinctively at him with Pat. He screeched and jumped back but I could see it was only a flesh wound.

It was also my first look at our enemy. They were some sort of bugs that looked like a mantis with their front limbs looking like big knifes. They were about half my size, but they could move incredibly fast.

Trelian tuneller (warrior) lvl. ??

When I hit him, it was like a signal for them and they came at us in a waves. We barely made it into the room when they were upon us. Rock and the others were firing constantly at the door where they were trying get to us. I looked around the room and could feel slight breeze which meant there was an escape possible to the surface.

Mission update: Mine investigationYou were asked to investigate the mine by the miners from a nearby city. They have had a series of unexpected accidents which led to the closing of the mine. After an official investigation they were to reopen the mine in a couple of days. The miners asked you to once more look for problems inside of the mine. After investigating the mine you found it was infested with Trelian tunnelers. They attacked you and now you have to survive their attack.

Conditions:

Find out what happened in mine

50 Trelians left.

Reward:

120 000 credits

Better price for raw minerals from mine

200 000 credits for bringing information to authorities

???

“Leya start fighting and don’t panic.” shouted Anna.

“There’s an exit to the surface maybe. I’m going to look for it. We can’t stay here.” I shouted back.

I looked with heat vision and night vision for something that would point me in the right direction. What I found was just as bad. By the noises I heard they were coming through the ventilation shaft behind us and we needed to tape it shut before they could get in here.

I moved before the ventilation and started to weld everything I could get my hands to the ventilation with my multitool. That should stop them for now, but that also took away our only way out. We would have to outlast them now. I heard scream a from behind and could see that Lee was on the ground fending one of bugs.

I ran towards him and fired with Pat and Punch along the way. Pat didn’t do much damage to them, only when it hit them in the joint or the eyes but Punch just went through it, instantly killing it. I ran to cover the hole made by Lee but it was too late as they were already pouring through it. Lee was swept away and killed before he could even stand up.

I couldn’t see the others so I tried to fight my way towards them. As always when I was in a danger, time slowed down around me. It was something I found out about when they first tried to kill me. It was a random man on the street who pulled a gun on me. I could feel the world slowing down and I managed to take him down before he could shot me.

When the first bug came for me, I ducked beneath it as the tunneler jumped at me and fired Punch aimed at the belly. The next one came from my right and I took him out with Pat with a shot into the eyes, which left it wriggling about on the floor. Only four shots left for Punch and 1 minute and 50 seconds remaining for Pat.

Next up came three bugs running at me. So I shot one close to me with Punch and rolled to left to escape the other two. From a crouching position I aimed at one of them and hold the trigger on Pat until he was dead. I stood up and was knocked down by one of the bugs. The blow took more than half my shield away from me. I tried to roll with him and luckily came out on top of him which makes it easy to dispatch him with Punch.

I looked around me and could see another three bugs coming at me. I started to run and shoot with Punch at one of them and concentrated my laser fire on the second one with Pat. With this the one remaining came at me, so I jumped over him and shot him in the head with Punch. That caused all my shots with Punch to run out, so I stored Punch in my hip holster to recharge the plasma into it. I looked around me but there were no more bugs coming at me.

New skill: Adrenalin rush

Adrenalin rushProgress:74%Type:ActiveCost:20 stamina / 2 secWhen you are in danger you’re body pumps you with adrenalin. It slows down time perception for you and makes you faster and stronger for short time.

13% faster reaction

13% faster

13% stronger

I even got a new skill from this fight, but I didn’t care about it right now. I wanted to find out what happened to the rest of my team.

All around me were dead bugs, sometimes they were even higher than me. I looked around the room and I could see it was once some sort of resting place for the miners who worked here. There were water tanks and furniture but those are now all destroyed. I looked for rest of the team and found them all dead with a circle of dead bugs around them. They fought to their last breath but that wasn’t enough.

It was once more someone I cared about killed after spending a little time with me. I don’t know if it’s a curse or something else, but I’m going to take revenge on these bugs for them.

First I treated some of my smaller injuries that I received while fighting. Next I looked around for some ammunition for my weapons. There wasn’t much. I took some plasma from a forgotten plasma torch by some miner. The laser I reloaded using my armor. Now that I was alone I could use the rail gun. I’ll just have to plug my ears with the nanobots when I’m going to shoot it, but first I’ll have to test it on one of the corpses.

I drew Fist and shot one round at the bugs and its body was thrown across whole room but my body was also tossed slightly back. I just didn’t have enough strength to use Fist properly. When I inspected the damage of my shot, I could see that it didn’t penetrate the exoskeleton but rather cracked it so the next bullet shot right through it. Not as good as Punch, but at last I have more ammo for Fist.

From this fight I leveled up 15 times which means a total of 45 points for me. I even increased my pistol skill 4 times.

I placed 20 of my points in agility, 20 points into intelligence and five into charisma. I didn’t placed any points in strength, as it would cost me too much points right now.

Now came the time to think about how I should get my revenge on those bugs. They most likely sent everything they got after us, so there shouldn’t be too many left. Now inside of this closed corridor I got an advantage as they couldn’t swarm me with too many large numbers. I could step to a wall and take a couple of them at once.

As I looked at the corridor from the room I was hiding in, I could only see a couple of dead bugs but nothing else. With some caution I moved forward to the next thermal source as it should be an entrance to their hive. I found it quickly but it was the same as the other one and I didn’t have a plasma bomb to burn through it.

My only option was to look for some bombs in the mine. I walked through this level and found almost nothing, but the more I walked and thought about my situation the more I knew how unprepared I am to come here. I didn’t even have a medikit, some rations for only more than a couple of days and almost no items besides my weapons. With that thought I start to broaden my search.

I found a used medikit but there were still some bandages that I could use. I stored them in my build-in-pack in the armor. Next I found some plasma torches and stored them too for later use. Maybe I could use them to cut through the membrane leading toward the hive. I found a small cache of explosives and made a makeshift grenades with a detonating cord. As the last thing I did were making some repairs because of the small punctures in my armor and ate some of my rations.

Finally prepared as much as I could be, I moved before the membrane and started to cut it open with the plasma torch. It went through it like hot knife going through butter. I first cut a small opening to scan what was behind it. All the walls were covered by this substance, but I couldn’t see them with the heat vision like the membranes.

I finished cutting a hole into the membrane and moved forward with my pistols drawn. From the sensors I picked up that there was much more nitrogen in the air compared to the previous corridors. That means I was closing on the heart of hive.

I was moving towards the direction of the last heat source when I came across more bugs but these were different. They were much slower, but much more robust compared to the previous ones I encountered.

Trelian tuneller (worker) lvl. 25

They were five levels above me, but I could probably take them down as there were only three of the bugs here. They saw me at the same moment as I saw them but they were slower to react. I shoot the first one in the head with Punch and the second shot with Pat grazed the back of the bugs body. The two that were left screeched and moved towards me. I shoot at them while moving back. The healthy one I took by luck with an eyeshot from Pat and the last one was easily dispatched with a shot from Punch. I looked around me for any other enemies but I didn’t see any, so I reloaded my pistols and continued on.

My second encounter, was almost fatal since they prepared a trap for me. When I was walking across one of the rooms on my way to the hive, one of them jumped at me from the crates near me. As I fall, I lost both of my pistols and was left to defend myself with my bare hands. I managed to kick the bug away from me and draw out my rail gun. That was fortunate as there were four more bug coming at me. One warrior and three worker bugs.

I shoot at them from a crouching position. My bullets tossed them around the room and I could see that the noise was hurting them too. They were more sensitive to sound than I thought from their behavior. After that it was easy as I paid attention to the higher ground, also I was keeping an eye out for the places where they could crawl and the next ambush was turned against them. I got two more levels while moving to the third membrane.

Standing before the third membrane were two new bugs. They looked like warriors but were more robust and their exoskeleton was shinier. They were probably the elite guard before the queen or what they got for a ruler.

Trelian tuneler (Elite warrior) lvl. ??

I couldn’t even see their level so I rather made it safe and tossed grenade near them. They reacted faster than I thought but two shots with Fist tossed them back to grenade which finished them. For now it went better than I thought. If they didn’t send everyone at us at beginning I wouldn’t stand a chance but with this small skirmishes I could finish them.

Like in previous membrane I first cut small window so I could look behind it. Behind this one I could see big chamber with giant bug. Probably their queen. Barring her there were five elite guard bugs. They didn’t reacted to my presence so I had time to make plan. I looked around chamber for some advantage but couldn’t find any.

That when I heard voice in my head, “Why did you attacked me and my children? What have we done to you?”

I looked at Queen and found her looking back, “You killed my friends. That’s what you did to me.”

“It wasn’t me. It is this noise. It’s making my children go crazy.”

“What noise I don’t hear anything.” I said and connected to armor to listen on all frequency. On almost lowest I could hear faint buzzing. “Yes you’re right there is something, but what it is?”

“I don’t know but it comes from this facility they build. I’d like for you to investigate what’s making this noise.” Then she paused and looked me up and down, “I’ll even give you reward which could help you in your journey.”

I thought about it for a minute, “Ok but first how come first survey team didn’t found you? They had to see it all.”

“They didn’t see anything because I wouldn’t let them but you were different from them. I couldn’t control you. I would send you back before you met to my children.” she continued.

“Ok I’ll for it but you rather be telling the truth or I’ll come back.” And with that I started walk back.

Mission update: Mine investigationYou were asked to investigate the mine by the miners from a nearby city. They have a series of unexpected accidents which led to the closing of the mine. After an official investigation they were to open the mine in a couple of days. The Miners asked you to once more look for any problems inside of the mine. After investigating the mine you found it was infested with Trelian tunnelers. They attacked you and you have to survive their attack.

You survived their attack and went to look for revenge, but you found something strange instead. The situation in the mine is maybe different then you first expected. Now you have decided to investigate the strange sound that makes these Trelians aggressive.

Conditions:

Find out what happened in mine

50 Trelians left.

Investigate strange sound

Reward:

120 000 credits

Better price for raw minerals from mine

200 000 credits for bringing information to authorities

Reward from queen

I used my connection to the armor to look for a thing that was making this noise. I walked around the facility but couldn’t found it. I pinpointed it in an area between the first and the second membrane. What came to my mind was that it could be some sort of hidden chamber. I found a scanner for mining and adjusted it to shorter distance. I wanted to look for any empty areas where there shouldn’t be any.

It took me more than three hour to find the place, but I knew it was near the area where the director of this mine had his office. To tell the truth I thought he would have one at the upper levels. I have never heard about a director having his office on a working level.

I could not find the door to the secret chamber so I tried to blast my way through the wall but I only managed to scratch it. Next I looked for the cabling and where it went, as to open door they would certainly need power. That took another hour, but I finally found it. It was behind the television concealed as a power outlet in the director’s office.

When I switched it the Door opened next to it. I walked into it, and was surprised by the shear otherworldness of this place. Everything looked just too different. There were machines but the handholds weren’t made for humans. The tech was smaller compared to other tech I have seen inside of the mine or the city. This I based on some pieces that I could identify.

Mission acquired: Who is directorWhile investigating the mine you found a secret chamber in the director’s office. The Items found in here are clearly of alien Origin. Find any clues on who Director really is.

Conditions:

Find out who director is

Reward:

???

And in the middle of the chamber was a device which made the sound. I walked around it and couldn’t find any power switch to power it down. I couldn’t even find its power source. I moved and started searching the room for a remote control or something with which I could shut it down.

What I found was a stack of papers in a different languages which I stored inside of my pack. I couldn’t understand them, but there was definitely something shady going on. From the pictures I could see the director knew that the Hive was down there and probably used this device to enrage them.

What I didn’t understand was why would he want to enrage them? That would only close this mine. They would lose money. The other question was, who is this director and why has no one told us about him? He was definitely an alien and not one of the good ones.

With my investigation done, I moved all the explosives I found to a chamber. But not before I took some tech for the later studies. I fired the detonation cord and ran. I could feel the tremors going on for some time when the bomb exploded. When the noise quieted down, I listened for any strange noises which made the Trelians freak out. I listened for about five minutes, but I couldn’t hear anything.

I went back to The Queen for my reward and to find out if she was telling me the truth. I walked into her chamber as the membrane was open. She sat at the same place as last time but I could feel happiness coming from her.

“Welcome Saviour. You helped us and for this we are in your debt. Before I give you your reward ask what you want and I’ll try to deliver it to you.” She said worriedly.

You got Title: Saviour of Trelians

Mission Complete: Mine investigation

You levelled up!

You levelled up!

You levelled up!

You levelled up!

[table]Saviour of TreliansThis title enables you to make one decision for a clan you saved and they have to follow it. Also from now on you are a friend of the Slakta clan and can call for their help when you require it.[table]

I looked stupidly at her. That was something to think about and not something make with haste. I thought for half an hour about my decision and then said, “Just don’t hurt the miners. Try to make a deal with them to help them mine and for them to take care of you or bring you anything that you might need. Just don’t fight them. If it’s not possible, try to make arrangements so you and the miners stay alive. That should be all I think.”

She blinked and then I could feel a warm feeling inside of my head, “It’ll be done just like you said.” Then one of her elite warriors came to me and beckoned me to the other side of chamber. I looked at the queen for confirmation if I should go along with him.

“Yes go with him. He’ll bring you your reward.” Said queen.

I followed him to other side and then through the tunnel to some underground hall. There on one side of it was a ship. When I looked at him he pointed at the ship and then back at me and returned back to the queen. I stood there staring, then with a squeal I ran towards the ship.