eurekapd Chapter 249 Awareness
Chapter 249 Awareness
May once again held the flame high and walked in front, Howard followed behind May, and the nun walked at the end to ensure that no enemy could directly threaten the vulnerable human in the middle of the team from behind.
This time, with the help of the brighter firelight, Howard was able to observe the surrounding situation more carefully. The first impression Howard had of the place they were in was that it was like a stalactite cave. However, the stalactite caves Howard had explored and visited before had a lot of accumulated water and even underground rivers inside, but this place was very dry. Even Howard had sat on the ground for so long before, and his clothes did not show any signs of getting wet.
But everything here highlights the existence of the element of "water". Countless stalagmites of different lengths hang above their heads. In nature, this is a landscape that requires millions of years of continuous deposition of minerals in the water. The ground under their feet is also smooth. Even if it is not very flat, there is a very soft transition between the different height differences. This effect can only be produced by years of water washing.
At the same time, the ground of the cave was covered with many deep pits, and the bottom of each one could not be seen. Standing on the edge and looking down, Howard could only see a shallow circle of the outer edge illuminated by the light source, and the center was pitch black. Even if the nun used a tactical flashlight, he could not see the bottom.
Hmm...it seems that the ball of light that guided me at the beginning was still useful. At least it didn't lead me into the pit.
Unlike the cave Howard was teleported to before, this cave did not have crystals as numerous as stars on the top. Howard searched for a long time before finding a few things that looked like galena, but he did not find anything else.
The three of them walked forward for about half an hour. After hunching over and passing through a passage that could make people with claustrophobia sick, Mei, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped.
"Something's happening." Mei warned the nun and Howard who were still in the tunnel and then extinguished the psychic flame.
In the darkness, Howard heard two mechanical riveting sounds behind him. Howard looked back and saw a dark green prismatic glass flashing in the darkness, and then went out. That was because the nun put on and activated the power armor helmet. The green light was the brief glow emitted when the helmet system was activated.
It was obvious that the nun was ready for battle.
In the silence, Howard also held his breath. He was not sure what Mei had discovered in front of him, so he needed to wait for further information from Mei.
After a brief moment of silence, Mei rekindled her psychic flame, indicating she had determined the situation posed no threat to them. She then turned to Howard and the nun, who were still about ten meters from the exit, and said, "Miss Gloria, it seems these are your people. They're dead."
Hearing this, the nun put away the grenade launcher that had been released, then pushed down Howard who was blocking her way, and then climbed over him.
When the nun climbed over Howard, her heavily armored knee landed on Howard's neck with a clang. Howard's neck shrank because if the nun's knee had landed a little to the side, his head would have been crushed.
After the nun crawled over completely, Howard also crawled out, and then he sneezed several times in a row, which indicated that there was a lot of dust in the surrounding air.
The next second Howard knew the source of the dust because he saw corpses all over the ground, some of them were humans and others were orcs.
The orc corpses were all in a semi-thawed state, like a piece of butter taken out of the freezer and left in the sun. The surface tissue had already begun to liquefy and flow around, the liquid as thick as asphalt, constantly bubbling. The facial features of the corpses that had not yet fully melted had become a mush, covered with mycelium and mushrooms.
Death is not the end for orcs, but a necessary stage for the birth of new life. After each orc dies, the body will melt and combine with the surrounding nutrients. Before long, more orcs will crawl out from the melting corpses.
It seems that the dust Howard inhaled was the spores emitted by the corpses of these orcs.
After realizing this, Howard deliberately coughed a few more times even though he had adapted to the environment here. Although he knew in his heart that these inhaled spores probably would not threaten him who was protected by the Goddess of Life, human nature still made him feel uncomfortable.
The nun's focus wasn't on the dead orcs; she walked over to a human corpse and half-knelt down. This corpse was also covered in dense mycelium, which covered most of the body like a cocoon.
The nun pulled away the mycelium, revealing the body underneath was badly damaged, but through the equipment it was still barely recognizable as an Imperial Astra Militarum.
The soldier's cause of death was likely a bullet wound to the head, as the rest of the body was intact, except for the helmet and half of the brain. The nun hesitated for a moment before breaking open the remaining half of the helmet. Howard then saw a mummified corpse, its skin clinging to its bones. Fine, silky white hairs sprouted from the mummified body's mouth, nose, and eye sockets, completely draining the body of nutrients. Peeking inside the cracked skull, the soft brain tissue had vanished. This was the assimilation power of the orc spores, and even this was only the initial stage. In a short while, the remaining skin, bones, teeth, and even the leather from the uniform would be completely absorbed by the orc colony, becoming nourishment for the newly born orcs.
Since it was no longer possible to collect pupil information to determine the identity, the nun began to search the body again, and finally she found a sign.
The nun looked at the sign in her hand, and the helmet of her power armor scanned it synchronously, and began to search for information in the built-in database, but found nothing.
However, the fact that the nun failed to find the identity and unit of the soldier to whom the sign belonged does not mean that the soldier was completely outside the Imperial system. It simply means that the nun's authority was not high enough. If someone with a higher position, such as a Space Marine Captain, were to search, perhaps there would be a different result.
But the current situation is that, based on the division of functions, the soldier who died here and the army he belonged to are confidential to the nuns.
The nun was a little unhappy because of the fruitless search. She accidentally exerted a little force on the Star Army badge in her hand, and as a result, there was a "crack" sound in her hand, and the badge was crushed by her.
The nun was a little surprised. Even though she instinctively disliked these Astra Militarum soldiers who died inexplicably here, they were soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the Empire. No matter how unhappy the nun was, she would not take the initiative to damage the relics of a fallen comrade. She quickly spread out her hands, but the sign in her hand had broken into tiny pieces. It seemed that this was not a sign made of metal but a biscuit baked with flour. The nun took a closer look and found that the cross-section of the sign was full of holes, and many of the holes also had mycelium growing in them. It seemed that the orc colony could even corrode steel.
So the nun gently placed the powdered sign back on the body, stood up, and then heard Howard calling her.
"Hey! Hey! There's something special here."
When she walked up to Howard and saw him talking about that "special thing", the nun sneered and expressed her disgust for this "special thing" without any concealment.
Because this "special thing" is a dead technical priest.