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They're gaining on us!
I- it's over there!
We're almost there! Josh we-
AAAARRGGHH
Can't believe they all just died. We were fine for weeks of traveling, and then this happens—overrun by a horde of entities... now there's just the two of us left.
No time to waste, we walked away from where we got out and went down the hill until we entered in one of these empty houses. The merc went in first to check if anyone was inside, and once it's clear, we settle down catch our breath. We checked our supplies, but they were running low. Our porters died with their bags, and we have no idea where we're going because our guide died along with his PDA.
The merc blurted out something in Russian, "Only a few mags left... Are you sure this is the right place?"
"Again, not entirely sure, but our guide said it's definitely here," I replied. "If only I had his PDA, we could pinpoint its exact location."
"I feel he misled us, to me," muttered the Russian man under his breath.
What he said irritated me, and so I snapped back, "Why are you asking me? I'm just a medic. Can't you see our guide's dead?!"
We were quiet until the man sighed and clicked his tongue in frustration, "No matter," he said. "Just be grateful we weren't torn apart by those things back there. So, I'm guessing our target must've stayed in this place for a long time, the guide would've told us by now if that had changed."
He pointed at the tall buildings on the horizon. "Probably hiding somewhere in there."
"There are so many of them," I replied, "It'll take forever to search."
"Then we'll need some kind of miracle," the merc said with a frustrated sigh, "I'm not getting paid enough for this shit. Now, let's go."
It's supposed to be a secret among MEG and Colonist personnel, but there's only two of us and we're probably going to die anyway, so screw it. I told him about how our higher-ups have informed us about an alien AI or something similar, which explains why our technology has gotten so advanced lately. Then I told him about how it got stolen by a Marauder, and we have to somehow get it back. That's all we know about the details.
He asked, "So those idiotic bastards just sent us on a suicide mission?"
I responded, "I suppose so." Then I paused for a while and continued, "I'm surprised our guide managed to find shortcuts and detours between levels to get here. We've walked for weeks without any trouble up until now, and I bet we're even in uncharted clusters in the Backrooms."
Then the Russian asked, "Then there's the problem... We don't know if it's with a Red Eye or not."
The two of us fell silent, dreading that fact there's a possibility of facing that Marauder who stole it. But how do we deal with that entity?
He lightened the mood, "Look on the bright side, we're the only people who managed to get this far."
Then I told him, "But we're talking about facing a Marauder, let alone making it back alive if we somehow retrieve it."
Then he let out a sigh, "We'll figure this out somehow. Besides, if I ever kill that red-eyed bastard myself, I'll boast about this back in the Bar and keep his stuff as my trophy. Or sell it for a huge sum of money." He then chuckled with a smirk on his face. Whether he said this out of overconfidence or to distract himself from our inevitable demise, either way, we're screwed.
Also, I've heard about this Bar. I don't know if it's a place on some level, but what I do know is that it's where all the shady people gather and get hired. Apparently, it's also a black market for smuggled goods, including objects we didn't even know existed. Of all the people they recruit, I can't believe they hired this man from that place. Well, at least he's capable of taking down all those entities. I've seen him protecting us during our trip, so I don't see him backstabbing us, not even now, at least.
Then he asked me, "I forgot, we didn't give ourselves a proper introduction, did we? My name is Arman Petrov, but most people in the Bar call me Gun Man. And you?"
I replied, "It's Lena. Lena Brooke."
He then asked, "About that guide, do you know him?"
I replied, "Yeah, well... He saved me when I was lost back in that yellow maze when I was no-clipped into the Backrooms. I owe him a lot, you know? But now he's gone."
We talked it out, sharing about our lives before the Backrooms. I was a nurse working in a hospital, helping patients or doctors, the usual stuff. I was supposed to go home to my mom's place until I fell down and ended up in the Backrooms. I was worried sick about my mom more than my own safety, she's an old sick lady, she can't take care of herself. Despite that, I still believe that one of my neighbors took noticed of my disappearance and are taking care of my mom. I've been missing for eight years now, still praying that my mom's okay.
As for Arman, about them is very interesting. They call themselves the "Dwellers," and they refer to the Backrooms as the "Underworld." Instead of all the wanderers who no-clip into Level 0, they willingly enter some tunnels that lead them to their version of their own Level 0, the "First Zone." As for him, Arman was once part of a secret Russian task force, he got cut off from his team, leaving him to die at the hands of some entities, but he survived and managed to find his way to the Bar. He despises them for that and decided to become a lone mercenary for a living. Who knows what will happen next? Maybe we'll die, or maybe we'll come back alive. All that matters to me is knowing my mom is okay out there in the Frontrooms.
It's been hours of walking down this road, and we're just about to reach one of those tall houses. My legs are getting tired, could use some sleep too.
Then I asked Arman, "Do you think there are any cars in one of those houses?"
"Then we have to be careful. Who knows if those things would be lurking in one of those houses," he said.
As we walked, I noticed something strange... the shadows cast were at different angles from the last time we walked. I looked up at the sky... the moon appeared closer than I remembered. I realized it's not a real moon like an actual planet, it's just a fake, glowing orb that provides light in this uncharted level. It might sound crazy, but is it moving or is it just my eyes tricking me?
I ignored it and followed Arman down the road, but I kept hearing this sounds of rock cracking open and rumbling, and it was getting brighter than usual.
Then I turned around and see it.
We just stood there dumbfounded, seeing what the hell just happened. Black ooze spilled out around its surroundings, covering some houses—God, the smell was unbearable—and I could even feel the heat emanating from that thing. Then its strange white core began to move within the slime, twitching and doing who knows what. My God... I realized it was a huge embryo... An entity! It grew rapidly, taking shape and transforming into something monstrous.
Arman shouted me, "Run!"
We ran away as fast and as far as we could. Then I heard squelching sounds and rumbling from behind us, then we saw something massive spilling more of that ooze beside us. It urges me to look back, so I took a glance between Arman.
And that-
Shit, it's huge! It's gaining on us by dragging its entire body with its arms, and when one of its hands gets closer to us, it tries to grab us by slamming down. Fortunately, it's slow, and it stops briefly when it does so, giving us enough time to create distance from that entity.
"Go there!" I shout at Arman, pointing to a tall house.
We weave between suburban houses to take shortcuts as the giant nearly swipes at us with its hand, almost killing Arman. Luckily, it wasn't strong enough to crash through the houses, only spewing its corrosive ooze dangerously close to us. Arman shouts obscenities at the giant, shooting his rifle at its face, but it doesn't flinch, leaving only holes oozing with black slime on its face.
I gasp for breath, slowing down as my legs ache and my feet burn. I can't keep up with Arman's speed. I hear the rumbling behind us as the giant quickly drags itself over the houses, its glowing empty eyes fixated on me.
Arman finally reaches the building's entrance, "Come on, hurry!"
I run as I can, my legs aching and feet burning but I reach the entrance. Arman closes the metal doors and backs me up, rushing towards the elevator to escape from that entity banging on the entrance. I doubt it can break through despite its corrosive slime. Inside the elevator, we catch our breath after the close call with that entity.
"Looks like it gave up the chase," Arman says, breathing heavily. "What the hell was that?"
"I... I... don't know," I reply between coughs, "but whatever it is, don't touch that slime—it's highly corrosive."
The elevator stops and opens to a corridor, not the hotel rooms I expected. It's more like a family home, with doors stretching across the corridor. At least it's empty, which is one less thing to worry about. Arman leads the way down the hallway, rifle ready.
"I don't like this..." Arman mutters.
"What?" I ask. Arman signals for silence and whispers, "Did you hear that?"
I definitely hear something—a crumbling, sizzling sound, getting faster and closer. It's right below us!
"Look out!" Arman shouts, pulling me aside.
That nearly killed me. A black spike bursts through the floor, crashing down into rubble and leaving a huge hole multiple floors below. It's climbing up. We head for the emergency exit, but the spike blocks our path, forcing us to find another stairs. Another spike comes up, but I realizes it's a mutated arm and its eyes are glaring on us.
"This way!" Arman shouts.
We race up the stairs, finding ourselves at a dead end. The giant's head bursts through the floor, blocking our escape. Its face inflates and bursts into a black, gory shower, revealing its true face—eyes upon eyes, with the real one in its "mouth," looking right at us.
Its head had to squeezes in to reach us while chomping as it gets closer, but Arman defiantly shoots at the main eye. But it closes, protecting itself with its huge teeth, then retaliates by chucking those black slime, we manage to dodge but Arman's rifle is destroyed, and the corrosive slime almost burns his hands through the gloves.
"Arman..." I weakly mutter.
Arman remains silent, looking at me. We have nowhere to run, no way to escape.
So this is it?
I'm sorry...
We held our breath and closed our eyes for what felt like hours after the weird flash happened. We thought we were goners—or at least I did. When I finally opened my eyes, everything was a mess. Remains were splattered all over the halls, blood and black slime oozing from the walls and ceilings. The scene made me sick, and the smell didn't help.
"Did that just die?" I said to myself.
Then I heard the building groaning, as if it could collapse. But it held steady, but I heard a loud wet impact sound from below. Arman and I cautiously walked over to the remains of the creature, though the stench almost made me gag. Looking down at the destroyed part of the building, I felt the breeze and saw a dead entity on the surface with its head missing, surrounded by houses covered in guts.
"I need to treat your hands or you'll get a serious infection," I told Arman. The burns on his hands weren't serious. I rinsed them with all of the water I had, and he was good to go.
"I thought we were going to end up as its snack," Arman joked.
"Y- Yeah..." I stammered then chuckled in disbelief.
I asked again, "Did someone save us?" but Arman just shrugged his shoulder.
Then a glint of red light flashed at me from another building. "There are people over there," I pointed out, showing him to a building in the distance.
They were blocks away, and it could take days to reach them, especially with other entities on the road.
"Right. Let's find something to ride and head over there," Arman said.
We carefully made our way down. It took us some time to climb down until we reached another functioning elevator that brought us to the surface.
Once outside, I said to Arman, "I thought we're the only ones here."
"Doesn't matter. At least they saved us," Arman replied. "But we don't have time relax here either. We should prepare for whatever might happen when we meet them in person. Probably they'll try to mug us when we let our guard down."
I supposed he was right. We needed to be ready for anything once we got close. For now, we had to reach their location. We finally arrived at houses with garages, and there was a pickup truck parked outside on one of them.
"This one looks empty," Arman said. "It seems fine and drivable, but we'll need a lot of gas to fill up its tank. But there are some canisters with gas here."
He poured the gas into the truck and used a water hose to transfer gas from other vehicles' tanks to the canisters before filling up the truck's tank. It took several minutes, but soon the truck was ready, along with extra filled canisters for emergencies.
"Now we just need the key to start it," I said.
"No need," Arman replied, opening the steering wheel. He turned the ignition without a key.
"How'd you do that?" I asked.
"Eh, long story," Arman shrugs it off, closing the steering wheel and the door. "It's rare to find working wheels down in the Underworld. Too bad we won't be keeping it once we hit a roadblock."
Then I heard something in the distance—a shuffling ceramic sound followed by a metallic clank, rapidly approaching us. It was a Spider Legs...
And it's coming for him!
"That was close!" Arman exclaimed, his breathing rapid. He looked up at the building where the person was hiding, then glanced at me. "That guy has some serious aim."
It is. How can a person could land a shot this far? They didn't seem to be using a regular sniper rifle either, given the blue trails of energy.
"I'll drive," Arman said as we hopped into the truck. "Okay, don't fail me now."
It took a few attempts, but Arman finally got the truck running. The wheels screeched as we sped off towards our destination. Thankfully, the trip was quiet and uneventful. I even managed to take a short nap while he drove. There were wandering entities along the way, but the person in the building shot them down, covering us. We finally arrived and he parked the truck near the entrance.
As we stepped out of the truck, the two of us stood there, gazing up at the top of this strange, stretched-out house.
I broke the silence. "No choice, huh?"
Arman looked at me, then grabbed his pistol, cocked it, and said, "No choice."
The building looked similar, though the arrangement and furniture were different from the last one. The elevators were made of glass, reminiscent of the luxurious malls, giving it an authentic hotel feeling. We entered the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. It took what felt like forever to get there. Along the way, I noticed dead entities on some floors—dead Wretches and Partygoers, and some I didn't recognize.
Arman seeing the carnage, then he said, "Whoever that guy is, he's not someone to fuck with."
"Better not to piss him off," I replied.
When we reached the top, Arman took aim with his pistol while I followed closely behind. We walked through the halls, looking around until we saw a door peeking out the light that seemed to invite us in. Once we entered and closed the door behind us, the room looked like a typical family home, with stairs leading to the second floor.
"I'm up here," a voice called from upstairs.
We looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Finally, we climbed the stairs, and there, a partially opened door led to him. Don't know why it went tense all of sudden. We stood here for a moment before Arman took a step forward, and I followed him into the room.
He grabbed the doorknob, with a gun on his other hand, and opened it. Then from behind the room, someone spoke.
"Took you long enough."
Both of us were shocked. I couldn't believe we were leading ourselves to a Marauder.
It turned its head towards us and said, "You look like you've seen a ghost. Relax, I'm not going to kill you."
Arman, gathering his courage, spoke out, "Why did you help us?"
"Because he needs you for something," the Marauder replied.
Then I mustered the courage to say something to essentially a mass-murdering killing machine.
But I stammered and said something stupid instead, "You... give our AI back and we're off."
The Marauder interjected, "Fat chance. Besides, he didn't want to go back with you guys. If anything he wants you to be with us. Can't believe I have to agree with this shit..." it muttered under its breath.
"Us?" I said, confused about who "he" was referring to. We nervously entered the bedroom and saw the little box with a glowing teal light—it must be the AI we were after. But we didn't snatch it right away because it might shoot us down if we did anything stupid.
Then it turned its head towards something and said, "Can you explain to them? They really don't trust me at all."
Then the AI spoke out, "Certainly."
The AI explained everything that had happened to them in the past. It said this Marauder was finally free from their control but suffered from amnesia and had to convince this Marauder to take them to a place called "Station 107," a place we supposed to go to. They believed that was the only way to uncover the truth about what happened and possibly free other Marauders. This entity had to fight its way out, and that's as far as the story goes.
And apparently, they've been waiting for us, knowing that our guys were sent us to pick up the AI and continue to where it needed to go. It was supposed to break that Marauder and have it join with us, but things didn't go well.
We were all quiet in the room, listening. It was a lot to take in, but I spoke out first, "Well, that doesn't change the fact that this guy stole you from us."
Then the AI cut in, "This system does not wish to return to the MEG facility."
Surprised, I asked, "What? Why?"
"Look," the Marauder interrupted, "he's not going back with you. Even if I gave him back to you, how would you deal with them?"
We were quiet after that fact.
Then Arman said, "So... You're being hunted?"
The Marauder looked at him and said, "What else what I'm hiding from? So yeah, I am a traitor... more or less"
I whispered to him, "You don't think we gonna have to go along with that monster!?"
"And then what?" He then looked at me. "How can we steal it from a Red-Eye? Besides, that guy was on their list anyway, and even if he said yes and gave it back, how could we go back with so little supplies left, let alone dealing with others?"
Everything he said was true. How could we go back? And if what that defected Marauder said was true, they would be the ones hunting us down instead.
"I know you have the right to be mad at me, I get it. We killed your people, there's no changing that," said the Marauder as it stood up from its chair. "Even though I forgot who I was before I was turned into a Sleeper, that's not who we are. Someone else was pulling strings on us like puppets, making us do things we didn't like, forcing us as killers, and I intend to break free from that control. Once that happens, all of us will gonna make them taste their own medicine."
It walked closer to us, leaving itself empty-handed. It reached out with its hand and looked at us with its mechanical red eye.
Then the Marauder added, "Whether you like it or not, you have to come with us." Then he reached towards one of us.
The two of us looked at each other. As for me, I relented, there's no going back now that we're roped into this guy's mess.
"I'm Arman Petrov," he said as he shook hands with the Marauder, "and this lady here is Lena Brooke."
I grunted and sighed as I reluctantly acknowledged the Marauder.
"I'm Seven... well, that's what I think what my name was once, and that little guy is Gary. He'll lead us to that place," as it... he announced himself... hard to considered him as a person.
"By the way," Seven asked, "you guys look like shit."
Arman said, "Yeah... we didn't get good sleep earlier," as he let out a yawn. "Do you mind if we shut our eyes first?"
Seven looked at the AI, and it said, "Very well. Once you are return in optimal condition, we must depart. He will provide security while you rest. And Personnel Seven have looted those rations among those structures, they are safe and edible."
"Whatever, just make yourselves at home," Seven added.
And so we unpacked our stuff and decided to take some showers after that giant entity spilled some guts on some of my clothes. By God, I felt so good after taking a shower. Never felt so clean after weeks of a long, tiresome journey to get here. After I finished cleaning, Arman took his turn, and after that, I took a long sleep.
After some time, I woke up finally feeling refreshed. Strange... this place was still on nighttime, but hey, it's the Backrooms, so I suited up and was ready to go. As soon as I left the room, I heard a gunshot followed by Arman's cheering.
I went to them and saw those two talking to each other. I couldn't believe they'd already become friends. I guess people who like guns would easily bond, regardless of whether they're human or not. Arman had this really huge sniper rifle, and when I saw what he was firing at, it was that egg again, but this time it was completely destroyed along with whatever was inside of it.
I said, "There's more of them?" which made the two turn their attention to me.
"Yeah, while you guys were sleeping, those eggs were falling from the sky," Seven said, "It's been shitting those things out and I've smashing for a third time."
That sounded worrying. Then he walked and gestured us to another room. He revealed a metallic canister sitting in the middle of the room.
Seven said, "You guys need better equipment and some firepower if we're going to survive. So what do you need?"
Then Arman came in and said, "My rifle is broken, so I need a replacement."
Seven fiddled with a canister, and it unfurled itself into a metallic platform with a bits of machine from then and there. This followed by a holographic projection appeared as an interface, and Seven chose a rifle for Arman. He pressed a button, and the machine began to project a model of a gun, the blue light that it projected slowly "printed" into existence. Once done, Seven gave it to him along with some pouches that he said could make magazines and ammo if he waited some time for it to refill itself.
Seven then turned to me and asked, "You know how to use a gun?"
I said to him, "Yeah but I don't shoot very well."
Seven replied, "If that's the case," he whipped up a smaller gun and gave it to me, "Here. This shoots bullets that can help you aim better. Just make sure you shoot when you open your eyes and don't look away, 'kay?"
"I'll be fine using these, thank you," I said it sarcastically.
After a moment of getting new stuff from him and packing up, we headed out. About to leave the place, Seven came in carrying his ridiculously large rifle. Before that, he gave the metal canister to Arman to carry for us. As for me, he was about to give me the AI.
Before that, Seven gave me a serious look, glaring me with his eye, and said, "Look, I know you don't like me, but we're going to have to trust each other if we want to make it out alive." He slowly reached out to me. Unsure if I should snatch it away and run, he added, "I want you to bring Gary to that place. If anything happens to me, leave me."
I was quiet, contemplating, but he handed it over and placed the AI in my pocket.
I was still reluctant about this, but I had his trust and said to him, "No need to worry."
"Alright," Seven said as he stepped out first, "Let's go."
We reached the elevator, and as we descended, something weird happened to Seven. He held the side of his visor as if he was having a migraine.
"Aw, fuck..." Seven blurted out.
"Seven?" I said.
"We really need to get the fuck out of here..!" Seven raised his voice.
I didn't know why he was freaking out until we got to one of the floors that had wide empty space with windows, and there I saw it.
Oh God.
We bolted out from the building and went to the truck the moment we reached the surface. Arman started to fill up the tank as fast as he could. Looking up at the skies, more eggs were still coming out in all directions... There are too many of them, and all of them are slowly moving towards us.
I cried out, "I think you guys kicked their nest!"
"I know. Any minute now!" Seven shouted as he hopped on the bed of the truck. Then he used his large rifle to shoot at an egg that was closest to us, obliterating it into black gory rain in a single shot. Seven shouted again, "They're getting closer!"
"Hold on!" Arman shouted and finally poured the last gas can into the truck. "Okay, done!"
He started the ignition but then Arman said to me, "You know how to drive?!"
I stammered a bit, "Y-yeah..?"
Arman asked, "He needs some help in case any of those things comes after us."
I was hesitant to drive at first since I haven't driven for eight years from the Frontrooms, but I had to do it.
So I got in the driver's seat and I asked the AI, "Gary, get us out of here!"
The AI replied in a monotonous and calm tone, "Understood, navigating now," as it projected a map, guiding me to the nearest exit.
I stepped on it; its inertia caused us to throw us off balance. Seven told me to be careful, but we didn't have time to argue. We hit the road, and our destination was still far ahead. One of them on the horizon finally cracked open and spilled on the ground, and then the rest followed. Then some smaller entities came out from their hideouts—Death Moths, Spider Legs, and more—and some of those decided to chase us, but Arman cleared them out before they could reach.
"Shit!" Arman cursed out loudly. "Seven, you think you can take those things out?!" And Seven replied, "Yeah! But I only have twelve of these and more in the making!"
"Then make those shots count!" Arman shouted, "Lena, just keep your eyes on the road, we'll handle this!"
So I focused on what Gary was guiding me to do. We covered considerable distance, taking detours, getting closer by the minute. Then one of the eggs in the distance just in front of us finally hatched into those entities, blocking us, but Seven blasted it away, creating an opening for us.
"Gas it!" Seven shouted, and I drove through its corpse, causing a huge bump.
Some of them finally formed into those giants and fully matured, but the one closest to our right became bipedal, running toward us with its bizarre pace trying to get us while we were on the move.
Arman shouted, "On the right! On the right!"
Despite how fast the truck was running and how bumpy the roads were, Seven never missed his mark; he shot the giant's head, killing it in one shot.
"Can it go any faster?!" Seven shouted. Then I shouted back, "It's as fast as it can go!"
Oh God, there were so many of them in front trying to catch up with us. Then suddenly, another one of those entities closest to us leaped and crashed through all the houses in its path with its body, along with its hand reaching out onto the road as we were about to crash into it. I swerved the truck around from its hand, throwing off our balance again. Seven almost fell off from the truck, but he managed to hang on to it by phasing his hands inside the truck's windows, grabbing hold. It must be one of his powers.
He managed to climb up to the trunk and said, "You almost threw me out!" Then he went back up to the truck's bed and got his rifle again.
I drove for miles, focusing on the road while changing directions to avoid those giants. If any of them got close to us, Arman and Seven kills them.
But then Seven cried out, "Shit, I'm out!" as one of them slowly gained on us.
Then Gary told me we were getting closer and we had to drive off the road, leading us to a barren desert. We were almost reaching the exit, but all I could see on the map was just a billboard and the edge of the cliff.
"You want me to drive to that?!" I yelled at the AI.
"Yes. Proceed to enter the next sector," Gary said calmly.
Then Arman angrily yelled at the machine, "Are you fucking crazy?!"
But Gary remained unusually calm, "Please drive directly to the structure to leave this area."
Seven interjected and yelled out, "Just go!"
And so I did, only a couple of meters away from reaching the billboard while we were surrounded by those entities, leaving us between them and the cliff. There was no choice, so I stepped on it, shifted gears, and the truck's engine roared as we accelerated towards the billboard's pole.
Then drive straight through under the billboard.
Frantically breathing out of fear, I rested on the steering wheel, but then Arman kept pestering me.
"Lena?" Arman said again.
"I- uh- I'm fine..." I responded, though my voice still trembled. Then I humored him, "I haven't used to drive something that could kill us..."
Though we were still shaken up from that ordeal, both of us chuckled, trying to relieving ourselves from shock. We thought we were going to fall to our deaths, but that billboard sent us to a different level, some sort of concrete tunnel stretching to what seemed to be infinite. I looked behind us, and where we had exited was just another side of a tunnel. Meanwhile, for Seven, he looked calm, as if it hadn't fazed him after what happened.
"That was a close one..." said Seven nonchalantly as he hopped off from the truck. "Let's hope we don't do that again."
Then I saw something glowing red in the air where Seven was looking. It turned out to be a small flying drone. Then he paused for a moment, looked at us, and said, "You guys aren't half bad. I didn't expect you to be."
Arman replied, "You took us for a bunch of rookies?"
Seven said, "I guess not."
I asked them, "What now?"
"Keep moving, right?" Arman said, looking at Seven.
Then Seven nodded, "Yeah, we can't let those Sleepers find us."
I stepped out of the truck and asked Arman, "Do you mind driving? My arms went all shaky after that."
"Sure," Arman replied, "just leave it to me."
Arman took the wheel and let the AI guide us to the next level. But before that, all of us calmed our nerves and checked our storage unit to see if everything was okay. Seven took that large rifle and put it in his bag - I don't know how it fit something that big. After a while, we finally set off to the next level. I didn't know how that thing was able to know where we were going, but I was sure it could get us there as safely as possible.
I guess... there's no going back, those guys back at base thinking that we're dead and not bothering to send another expedition to look for us—or this AI, for that matter, too busy dealing with the Marauders. We lost a lot of good people along the way but in turn we did gain an unexpected ally from a defector, and I can see why they were hunting them. If the AI said that is true if we reach there and put a stop to their invasion, then...
We only have one shot at this.
