“We’ve finally made it here!” Qin Hao sighed in relief. Having to take care of two extra persons while navigating through the jungle felt much more exhaustive than going it alone.
“Don’t worry, Qin Hao. I will surely get you a transfer order once I get back on board the battleship!” said Palmer. When the transport aircraft that he was on was shot down, he thought he would die and not expect to make it back to a human military base alive.
“Leave that to another time. Let us get over there.” Qin Hao went ahead toward Coales Valley.
“Something is not quite right…” Lucia mumbled.
Qin Hao frowned. How could he not see it when even Lucia could sense that?
Coales Valley at this time was extremely quiet, the entire area dead silent. They did not even see a single soldier there when they arrived at the valley.
“Could it be…” Qin Hao had a bad feeling, wondering if this base had been abandoned.
Navigating past the valley entrance that was filled with bomb craters, they arrived before the human base. It was apparent that the place was a mess, an aftermath of the troops’ evacuation.
“They evacuated while the base is still intact?” Qin Hao looked at the metal mall at the valley entrance. There was no sign of battle on the wall and gate, which were still in perfect condition.
Qin Hao connected his battlefield recorder to the control mechanism of the gate.
“Authentication in progress…
“Authentication completed.”
A mechanical sound ensued as the gate opened with a gap just wide enough for them to get through.
“Do we have to go in there?” Lucia asked faintly as she felt that it was much more dangerous inside than outside.
The base was empty. With no one inside, the enclosed space felt depressive.
“There should be communication equipment inside. We can use it to call for help. The battleship will send landing craft for us!” Palmer said. His position was influential enough that the fleet would send a rescue team for him.
“It is not like we have a lot of choices!” Qin Hao nodded. Coales Valley was their only hope. If they could not contact the fleet, the next human stronghold was two thousand kilometers away.
Qin Hao stepped into the human base. Lucia gripped his sleeve and followed him from behind, with Blackie and Palmer following close behind.
The gate of the base closed to the sound of the hydraulic mechanism.
“Aah!” The sound of the gate closing scared the wits out of Lucia. She could not help it; the place was too quiet that everyone was a bundle of nerves.
“Calm down. It’s all right,” said Qin Hao.
“All right!” Lucia told herself to calm down, yet her hands gripped Qin Hao’s sleeve tighter.
“Do you have any idea where the communication equipment is, Sir?” Qin Hao looked at Palmer.
“It should be inside the command center,” said Palmer.
“All right!” Qin Hao nodded his acknowledgment, then went ahead toward the command center.
While going, he carefully observed the grounds. The alloy floor was perfectly intact, with no signs of the Hollowborers having been here. The strange thing was, there were no soldiers in such a large base, not even a body. Apparently, there had been a battle here.
Why is that? Qin Hao wondered why this base was abandoned. Palmer and Lucia’s transport plane crashed three days ago while on their way to this base. That meant this base was still functional at that time.
What had happened during the three days that the humans had to abandon the base? They seemed to be so hurried that they did not even bring along the equipment.
Creeeeak! Qin Hao pushed the door open to the command center, then walked in.
The equipment inside the command center was still running with lights of different colors still blinking on them. All the signs pointed to the theory that the defending troops were leaving in a hurry.
Right then, Lucia had come in with Palmer while Blackie was left outside. The last thing they wanted was to see Blackie gnaw any cables that lay around in the command center, disable the equipment, and spoil their plan to contact the fleet.
“Is that a communication equipment, Sir?” Qin Hao stepped aside. He might be an expert in combat but was a noob in operating equipment.
“Yeah!” Palmer scanned around the command center, then quickly found the communication equipment and started fiddling with it.
An electrical noise came from the microphone.
“This is Coales Valley Military Base. Can anyone hear me?
“This is Coales Valley Military Base. Can anyone hear me?”
…
Palmer repeated several times, but all he got was the static noise.
“This is The Ente destroyer. My gosh! Finally hearing from Coales Valley!” A reply came through. It should be a good thing to have contacted the fleet, but their hearts sank at hearing the reply.
“This is Professor Palmer. We are in the Coales Valley base, but there are no defending troops here. The entire base is empty!” Palmer spoke into the microphone.
“What? Coales Valley has been breached?” There was another voice coming through. Apparently, the first guy had been shoved away, and this one should be an officer.
“No signs of a battle here. But the defending troopers are missing! Not a body can be found!” Palmer said loudly.
“Hang on there, Professor Palmer. I am calling the fleet commanding officer, and he will send transport to evacuate you all,” said the officer.
“Thank you!” replied Palmer.
As the line went dead, the three of them looked at each other. No one said a word.
It turned out that the defending troopers did not evacuate but were missing in action. It was easy to tell what their fates were—and it did not look good.
“This is a large military base with two divisions stationed here. Now they have all gone missing!” Palmer mumbled to himself.
“Perhaps this place is not safe!” Qin Hao got to his feet as a sense of crisis hit him.
“Are we leaving?” Lucia asked.
“No! Dangers are everywhere on Alpha. We are only safe
“That’s right! So we have to wait for the rescue!” Qin Hao nodded his agreement. If they left the base, they would lose contact with the fleet, and the rescue team would have no way to find them.