Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Chapter 6: Gigantic Alien Life

After falling for an indeterminate amount of time, my hazy mind started wondering about the sea and if giant sharks and octopuses were swimming right by my side. In truth, my morph-capable suit had automatically activated the impact-protection system to protect me. Slowly, I regained my clarity and realized that I had fallen into the inner layer of Jupiter II. I looked around. Chen Qiang was nowhere to be seen. I could feel that instead of the sea, I had actually fallen onto relatively soft ground.

"Chen Qiang, Chen Qiang, can you hear me? Old Du, can you hear me?" I spoke through the communicator anxiously.

The only reply I got was static. The wireless communication channel had failed as though all signals had been blocked. I had arrived at an isolated zone. The hole I had fallen through had probably been covered by the vapory substance that typically sprayed out from them. Not knowing where Chen Qiang was, I checked my suit and noted that it had enough energy to remain active for 31 hours.

I knew that time would wait for no one. If I did not want to die, I needed to move fast. I was certain that those outside were aware that I was still alive. The gamma flare had definitely transmitted my status to the team outside. I only wondered if Chen Qiang was still alive. Since all communications were blocked, I had to look for an exit. In truth, even in such a situation, I still held great faith in my suit. Nevertheless, there was also a sense of urgency.

I had a strong premonition that this would not be where I met my end. I scanned my surroundings with the laser probe and found that I had fallen into a rather massive empty space. About two thousand meters above me, the ice layer wasn't too far away. However, my probe failed to locate any source of illumination that would point to an exit. I did find many tube-like tunnels connected to the wall above me. I guessed that these tubes were probably connected to the geysers on the surface.

And when I scanned beyond the ground I stood on, I found an immeasurable abyss that returned no result. The wind speed down here wasn't too high, and the pressure around me was around 180 kilopascals. Loud noises reaching 800 decibels could be heard from each of the smaller tube-tunnels.

It was common knowledge that noise above 127 decibels was strong enough to cause one dizziness. In comparison, the sound of a bullet fired was about 168 decibels. All the sounds here were enough to pulverize the organs of any unprotected life form.

"Just what kind of a place is this, exactly?" I wondered to myself.

I was standing in a parallel tube-tunnel about a kilometer wide. Smaller perpendicular tubes were connected to the massive tube-tunnel. The tunnel was red in color, and the noise in the big tunnel was even louder than the noise coming from the smaller perpendicular tubes.

About three kilometers away from me were countless similar big parallel tunnels that were also connected to many smaller tubes. Altogether, they created a massive world of tubes and tunnels.

Without exception, when I directed my scanner to the ground beneath the tube-tunnels, only an endless abyss could be found. It was like there was nothing beneath these tube-tunnels.

"Just what am I looking at? This is too strange. Are these floating tunnels?" I wondered to myself.

After observing my surroundings, I decided to walk around for a bit to see if I could find a different environment down here. Activating my suit's haste mode, I started walking speedily in accordance with my laser probes guidance. Every 10 minutes, I called out for Chen Qiang. Alas, I received no reply.

The inner world of Jupiter II was massive and empty. Standing in it alone, I felt like a sole plankton floating amid an endless ocean. Even after walking for an hour, I did not encounter any change in the environment. Neither did I locate an exit.

I did consider cutting open one of the perpendicular tubes and leaving together with the vapor that was being sprayed to the surface. But that would only remain my final option. After all, if the tube I cut open dragged me into the abyss below the reb tube-tunnel instead of blasting me to the surface, it would make returning even harder.

Just like that, an hour passed. Suddenly, a thought surfaced in my mind. Since the tube-tunnel was enveloped in complete darkness, couldn't I turn on the flashlight to attract Chen Qiang's attention? My flashlight had turned off when I wasn't paying attention. At that thought, I promptly turned it on. Immediately, the space ahead of me was illuminated by the blinding radiance.

At that exact moment, an incredibly massive force knocked against the ground beneath me. The impact was deafening. It was as though an elephant was falling from a high place. Apart from the loud sound of the collision, I also heard a sound akin to someone groaning in pain. The voice came in bursts from the abyss beneath me.

Shark monster? was the first thought in my mind. I knew that my flashlight had probably attracted the attention of something out there. After all, this place had been shrouded in darkness for hundreds of millions of years.

I was too careless to commit such a grievous mistake. I had exposed myself in a proverbial forest of beasts.

"Idiot!" I scolded myself and hurriedly turned the flashlight off.

"This is troublesome. Looks like there really are other life forms here, and gigantic ones at that," I muttered as I took out my laser gun. "If I'm going to die anyway, I'll give it my all."

In such a situation, my foremost priority was leaving my current position. After sprinting about two thousand meters away, I felt the loud noises underneath me grow nearer and nearer. They were akin to ominous footsteps that constantly approached me.

"What kind of monster is this for its footsteps to be so loud?" I wondered.

My suit's sound analysis indicated that the origin of the voice was less than 5 kilometers away from me.

"This won't do. I need to hide."

Perhaps the heavens wished for my survival as well, as, at that moment, my probe indicated that to my side was an inclined tube-tunnel heading downward. The tunnel led to two rock-like objects. Based on the probe, there was actually a hollow space in the middle of the two rocks. The entrance was only several square feet wide. This was basically a perfect bunker.

At that point, the loud footsteps were less than 2,000 meters behind me. Without delay, I rushed through the tunnel and dove into the opening. Immediately, the massive noise stopped outside the opening.

The opening was small, but it was rather spacious inside at slightly over 100 square meters. The walls inside were filled with countless tiny holes, and within the tiny holes were many small red tubes. At the moment, I couldn't be bothered with studying my surroundings. Rather, I ran behind a protruding rock in the cave, shut down all inessential functions of my suit, and hid.

A sharp hissing sound came from outside the cave. The sound was akin to the sound of rags being torn. Furthermore, it sounded like there were more than one of the alien life forms outside. The footstep-like sounds could no longer be heard. Evidently, the monsters were stopped outside the cave. At that moment, I decided to turn on my laser probe. The image reflected to me shocked me to my core.

Two gigantic monsters were standing before the cave. They had massive, round, lamprey mouths filled with sharp teeth. Their faces were flat, their bodies were cylindrical, and each of them had a massive horn that resembled the horn of a rhinoceros.

My god. What kind of a freak is this? I thought to myself.

The monsters did not have any eyes. Their mouths were massive, the size of a basketball court. Even so, their mouths still seemed out of place when compared to their mountain-sized bodies. To put things into perspective, their bodies were the size of Elephant Trunk Hill at Guilin.

Between their heads and bodies were thin tubes the size of petroleum pipelines. The tubes weren't long, about 50 meters each. The beasts also possessed countless legs of differing lengths growing all over their bodies, similar to the spines surrounding sea urchins. Their legs were firmly adhered to the walls and tubes around them.

No wonder they were able to get in here from outside, I thought to myself.

There were two such beasts outside, one big and one small. They guarded the cave entrance and seemed to be in the process of discussion.

"Just what monsters are these? They look even scarier than an actual kraken," I cursed to myself.

The life form here had grown in a manner completely unimaginable to humans. I didn't even know if they could still be classified as an animal or a plant.

Nevertheless, I definitely don't want to enter those massive mouths, I continued thinking to myself.

At that thought, I tightened my grip on my gun. Turning on my suit's survival system, I started calculating my odds of survival. When I checked my energy supply, I noted that there were only 29 hours left before my suit went inactive.

The calculation would take several minutes. As I waited, I stuck close to the ground while observing the two monstrosities outside the cave. My parents flashed through my mind. Enough time had passed that they would have been notified of my disappearance. They must be very worried right about now. Meanwhile, Old Du and Zhang Bao'er were probably organizing a rescue party with anxiety running through their hearts.

Shark monster. Octopus monster. Saltwater ocean.

While my mind drifted everywhere, the suit completed its calculation. According to the data, the monsters relied on the electromagnetic waves on their horns to sense their surroundings, and these beasts were extremely sensitive to light. They were completely surrounded by electromagnetic waves with no blind spot. According to the analysis, I had zero chance of sneaking away and a 100 percent chance of needing to fight through them.

Fine. In that case, there was no point in wasting my time sneaking around. I turned off the safety of my gun and prepared for a fight. Suddenly, the hissing sound grew louder, thundering even. I wondered if there was a point for them to raise their voices when they were "chatting."

Through my probe, I saw that after the two beasts finished communicating, the bigger beast sealed the cave entrance with one of its many legs. Then, it went still. The smaller beast also turned still. All hissing sounds stopped, leaving only the noises of the tubes thundering in the background. Just like that, my exit had been sealed.

"Well, I'm finished now," I mused to myself. "I can't even rush out now. These two are clearly trying to trap me here. If I want to leave, I have to use force. I wonder if the cluster bomb can blast those rock-like legs apart."

Time was running out, so I had to make a decision immediately. It did seem like violence was my only option. First, I scanned the interior of the cave, confirming that there were no other exits. The holes in the walls weren't too deep. They were so shallow that their bottoms were visible. But I found that in the midst of the many tubes was a white tube. The white tube was protruding from the ceiling and was connected to the other tubes. It was as though the white tube was in charge of sending something over to all the other tubes.

"From the complicated array of these tubes, they are probably part of an intricate system. If I can't break through the exit, I can probably try spoiling the system they have here. Perhaps there will be a pleasant surprise there. The moment the leg is removed from the exit, I'll throw a flashbang to attract their attention. I'll then use the distraction to break free," I finalized my plan.

After I was done planning, I prepared to move. According to my survival system, I would need to exhaust an hour's worth of energy supply to bombard the roof and the leg. That was a risk worth taking.