The ruins were mostly quiet now.
Only the sound of flames from ruined equipment could still be heard.
Orion moved through the debris slowly, eyes scanning every where, thankfully his HUD helped out a lot.
Not to mention, his armour adjusted subtly with each step, compensating for uneven terrain reducing fatigue.
The air smelled faintly of rust, smoke, and something older... like metal that had been dead for centuries.
'Why did I not notice this smell before?' He asked himself as he took a deep breathe.
He passed the creature's corpse one last time, the crystalline blood catching faint light from the flames around.
For a brief moment, he wondered what kind of world could create something like that... and what kind of beings could control it.
'Well they are most likely all dead now.' He paused, 'Hopefully.'
Then he pushed the thought aside and kept moving.
{Omni-Scan Mapping Active.}
{Reconstructing layout…}
The wireframe of the collapsed structure built itself across his HUD in layers of pale blue light.
Most of the exits were blocked. Only one passage looked stable enough to try.
He followed it.
He found the first mercenary slumped against a broken wall.
The armour plating was cracked, the helmet visor melted inward.
{no vital signs detected.}
Orion crouched beside the body. "Yeah I can see that... Definitely didn't die easy though."
Compared to before he didn't bother physically searching the corpse instead he scanned the corpse.
{Identification: Helix Corp mercenary unit. Tag—expired.}
{Weapons detected: M16A4 (damaged), Combat knife.}
{Portable Credit Bank: Cred-Card. Status: active.}
With steady hands, he pried the small chip from beneath the man's wrist-plate and held it up.
"Thanks for your contribution."
He slipped it into his pack.
He worked silently after that, scavenging through the remains of what must have once been a forward team.
Some still clutched their rifles.
Others were half-buried under collapsed support beams.
He didn't bother with ceremony. It not like they would ever be needing it.
Seeing the Projectile Class assault rifles he chuckled to himself... there used to be a time where he wondered why anyone even used this Projectile Class weapons.
Well, except for the fact that they were cheaper that Energy Class and Laser Class and he had finally gotten the reason and it was something so simple.
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
Nowadays, everything had an energy shield and when an Energy Class weapon is fired at the energy shield on impact the blast converts to kinetic energy but during the change it also releases an energy that is absorbed by the shield that repairs the shield while also damaging it.
Let say a blast from an Energy Class weapon damages an Energy Shield by 1%, it recharges it by 0.5% so now you need more than 150 shots instead of the normal 100 it would take a Projectile Class causing the same damage.
(A.N: This would be useful in the future and the more you read the more you understand why a lot of similar things have different uses and why something would work in some cases and wouldn't work in other similar cases.
I had to find someplace to insert this without disrupting the reading.)
Breaking away from his thoughts he dropped his loot in his bag.
{Inventory Updated.}
{Total Weight: 37.2 kilograms. Mobility Adjustment: -3%.}
He exhaled through his nose. "Acceptable."
Further ahead, the structure widened into what looked like a shattered hallway. He paused there, listening.
Somewhere deep in the ruins, metal creaked... a low, slow sound that echoed like breath.
He aimed his rifle toward the darkness.
Nothing moved.
No heat signature appeared on his HUD.
Just shifting air.
"Either ghosts or bad ventilation," he muttered.
Still, he moved quietly, stepping over bones and cables, following the faint marker his HUD projected ahead showing the way back by reconstructing his memory.
Eventually, the hallway opened into a half-collapsed hangar bay.
The roof had caved in long ago, leaving a jagged hole that let filtered light in from the dead sky above.
Dust swirled around him like ash.
He knelt beside another broken mercenary suit, this one with markings he didn't recognize.
When he tried to scan it, his HUD flickered.
{Signal Disruption Detected.}
{Warning: Localized EM field.}
He frowned and looked around. The X-Core gave a faint pulse... an instinctive reaction, as if warning him.
The interference vanished as quickly as it came.
"Something doesn't want to be found," he murmured. "Not my business either way."
He retrieved what was left of the mercenary's wrist band and tucked it into his pack.
By the time he reached the upper levels, the artificial light from his visor was the only thing left illuminating the corridor.
The path ended at a fractured bulkhead... behind it, faint wind, and the smell of open air.
He climbed through.
Outside, the world stretched in silence. Broken towers jutted from the wasteland, some leaning like dying trees.
The sky was dull grey, clouds heavy with static.
Far off, he saw light... distant, trembling like mirages across the horizon.
Neon traces, faint but unmistakable.
A gun fight no doubt.
{Signal Detected.}
{Source: 1.3 kilometres north-east.}
{Designation: Pick Up Zone.}
"Guess we've got somewhere to be," he said softly.
He adjusted the rifle strap, checked his pack, and began moving away from the ruins.
For a while, the only sound was the crunch of leaves beneath his boots and the sounds of the wind moving through the trees could be heard.
Then, faintly, his HUD flared again.
{Heat Signatures detected...}
{Targets Identified.}
{Chrysalith (Aerial scout type)}
{5 hostiles confirmed…}
{Combat module: Active.}
'Let see.'