Interstellar Survival: Invasion

 In the environment I was in, time was basically life.
I needed to move fast.
After finalizing my plan, I lifted the automatic rifle hanging on my back.
This weapon utilized the same technology the Gliesens had defeated Blue with.
It was equipped with tracking bullets, which I promptly aimed at the horns the beasts relied on to sense their surroundings.

When everything was in place, I picked up my laser gun and fired two cluster bombs at the white tube.
As the blinding flash erupted, I activated my suit ’s automatic defensive system, awaiting for the substance within the white tube to spurt out.

Exceeding my expectations, a big hole appeared from the explosion while the expected liquid was nowhere to be seen.
Rather, the tubes in the hole hurriedly shrunk.
Big and small, all the tubes withdrew like overstretched rubber.
The small tubes disconnected from the white tube and withdrew into the ground.

As for the white tube, it also withdrew into the big hole in the ceiling.
Then, a thundering roar erupted from the newly opened hole.
The roar rumbled in the cave, reaching a level far beyond the 800 decibels that was so common elsewhere on Jupiter II.
It reached 2,000 decibels, and even my suit started shaking.

The two beasts outside the cave appeared fearful upon hearing the loud noise.
The big fellow in charge of sealing the cave even took a step back in fear, removing the leg blocking the exit.
I immediately fired two flashbangs outside.
The flashbangs first adhered to the tubes on the wall outside the cave before erupting with a blinding flash.

Hissing sounds rang out as the smaller beast charged toward the flashbangs.
I took the chance to dash out of the cave.
From my back, my rifle unleashed a hail of tracking bullets toward their horns.

”Everything is proceeding smoothly.
I easily completed my escape, ” I mused in joy.

But I had evidently underestimated the intelligence of these alien life forms.
The bigger beast completely ignored the flashbangs.
Rather, it raised its many rock-like limbs and brought them down toward me.

The massive legs were akin to a curtain capable of covering the sky, also akin to numerous pillars of stone that slammed into my suit rapidly.
Thankfully, my morph-capable suit ’s powerful defense counteracted a majority of the impact.
Meanwhile, my tracking bullets swerved through the many legs and struck the beast ’s horn.
Nevertheless, the beast had still been able to block many of the bullets with its legs.

I could see that when the bullets struck the beast ’s body, it was as though they were striking a cliff wall.
Countless sparks erupted, and the broken parts of the legs rained down onto the ground.
Evidently, the beast had a tough body.
However, my automatic rifle was still able to damage it.

‘My top priority is to escape this forest of legs around me.
The big guy ’s legs keep stomping on my suit, exhausting a large amount of energy.
It does not seem like I can slip through either.
If I continue wasting time here, it is only a matter of time before my suit runs out of juice,’ I thought to myself.
There was no other choice.
My only option was one that would harm both my opponents and myself.

This was my very first time being in combat.
For someone as green as me, the only thing in my mind was solving everything with enough violence.
Thus, I unhesitatingly took out the strongest weapon Blue had developed so far, a zero-radiation warhead.

Detonating a warhead in such a small space would exhaust a large amount of my suit ’s energy when shielding against the explosion, but due to my lack of combat experience, I couldn ’t really think of a better plan.

Taking out one of the two zero-radiation warheads I was equipped with, I fired it at the monster ’s belly without any hesitation.
Reality proved that although the warhead was effective, I seemed to have gone overboard as well.

After a blinding flash and a deafening rumble, a massive mushroom cloud rose in the inner section of Jupiter II.
Powerful shockwaves swept through an area of tens of square kilometers around the center of the explosion, rocking against the ceiling before bouncing back repeatedly, ravaging the environment.
It would seem like nuclear power was still as powerful and majestic as ever.

I activated my strongest nuclear defensive mode, creating a layer of shield outside my morph-capable suit.
This was an extremely energy-exhaustive mode.
Due to the massive damage caused by the warhead, I could feel the entire inner section of Jupiter II shaking violently.

At that moment, a massive roar came out of the cave.
I had a feeling that an even bigger crisis was coming.
The bigger beast had taken the warhead ’s blast right in its belly.
Its hips were torn apart, and massive rock-like shells crumbled from its body like a landslide.
However, the big beast proved tenacious as it was still alive.
Since the big beast had taken on most of the explosion, the small beast beside it was able to survive with almost no damage.

A shocking scene appeared.
The small beast was hissing sorrowfully at the big beast when suddenly, it appeared frightened.
It hurriedly lifted the big beast and fled before the mushroom cloud could even disperse.

Loud sounds rumbled behind me, and when I turned, a massive force blasted the cave apart.
I could feel an unprecedented pressure in the air as a sense of oppression descended upon me.

I tried scanning with my probe, but oddly, apart from the damaged tubes, the scanner picked nothing up.
The damaged tubes had already returned to the big parallel tube-tunnel, while the damaged big parallel tube-tunnel seemed to be self-repairing.
The liquid or substance that I had expected to spray out of the tubes was nowhere to be seen.

Apart from the tubes, the probe detected nothing.
However, my intuition was telling me that there was a massive pressure in the air.
A gigantic beast should be standing right before me, but for some reason, I couldn ’t see anything.

”This is too creepy.
I can ’t stay here any longer.
I must leave,” I told myself.

I lowered my head and checked my energy capacity.
The suit had expended a large amount of energy when it had protected me from the explosion.
It only had about 24 hours of supply left.
While I was thinking about my energy usage, a massive force lifted me into the air and then pressed me to the ground.

I could feel that a big hand was tightly grabbing my suit.
I was pushed onto the soft mushy ground, then through it and deeper toward the endless abyss beneath it.
My suit ’s automatic defense activated, and my thrusters started firing in the opposite direction to free me from the mysterious force.
However, the force was too strong, capable of disregarding all resistance.
It was as though the hand of Buddha itself was holding me, pushing me deep into the abyss.

I could feel that the suit was exhausting its energy rapidly as it resisted to no avail.
Realizing the futility of resistance, I deactivated the thrusters, allowing the force to press me deep into the abyss.

I turned on my built-in navigator.
I knew that Jupiter II only had a diameter of 3,100 kilometers, and from the surface, we only needed to travel 1,550 kilometers to reach the core.
I suddenly thought of a different idea.
If I couldn ’t get back to where I came from, I might as well borrow this force and reach the core before looking for other exits.

Thus, having decided, I deactivated a majority of the suit ’s functions to preserve energy.
The laser probe was left active.
Boundless darkness surrounded me as I descended.
I seemed to have fallen into a world wrapped in an unknown dark substance, a singular force pushing me relentlessly downward.

My map eventually indicated that I had descended 100 kilometers.
Once again, I saw more parallel tube-tunnels.
At the same time, I saw a group of life forms of differing sizes.
There were about seven or eight in total, and they seemed to be in charge of protecting the tube-system.

However, the pushing force did not stop.
It rapidly pushed me through the tubes and brought me even deeper into the abyss.
After passing by about seven or eight similar sights, I checked my map and saw that I had descended about 900 kilometers.
It was at that point that I felt myself submerge into a liquid environment.

Jupiter II ’s underground sea.
It was actually so deep, about 900 kilometers away from the icy surface.

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