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Beyond Survival: Chapter 3
🕑 Added 2025-03-26 16:01:32 +0000 UTC“Alright, people! Remember the protocols! Exo-rigs and Environmental suits will stay on no matter what you see out there. Even if the sensors say that the environment is clean, we don’t know what types of unknown lifeforms or microorganisms live there.”
The group of scientists simply nodded at Dr. Anderson’s words as their civilian-grave exo-rigs whined with the power of hydraulics and motors, allowing them to carry the cumbersome scientific equipment through the portal easily.
To save their meager reserves of fuel and energy, Dr. Anderson and General Carter decided to reduce the size of the portal, allowing them to save as much energy as possible so that they could commence large-scale evacuation in a week at most instead of the projected one month they would have needed if they left the portal size as it was.
However, this did have the problem that they would have to take most of their vital technology and equipment in pieces and reassemble them on the other side along with making bulk transportation nearly impossible.
In the end, they had no choice but to go through with this plan due to resource constraints.
The group of scientists slowly moved through the gate, allowing them to see the verdant forest on the other side, which stunned them with its beauty.
It is one thing to watch it on the screen and another entirely to see it in person.
“Remember, don’t take off your environmental suits under any circumstances.”
Once again, Dr. Anderson reminded his group, which nodded at his words, albeit more reluctantly than before they crossed over.
The built-in sensors of their exo-rigs, the exoskeleton that almost all the scientific and military groups in their complex wore, showed just how clean the atmosphere of this world was, heavily tempting this group of humans who were forced to breathe in recycled air for almost two decades to just take off their suits and enjoy the fresh air for once.
However, their logic and reasoning told them that it was a very bad idea to do so without proper study of the native atmosphere.
Given the alien nature of this world, despite its initial looks making it look extremely similar to ancient Earth, there was no telling the kind of microorganism that could be airborne. Hell, there is even the chance that humans themselves could become the source of a new kind of ecological disaster for this world with the countless microorganisms that they carry on their bodies.
The group slowly walked towards the Marines who had already established a temporary shelter in this location with fabricators that produced modular and interlocking blocks made of concrete over the past week where they had been moving back and forth between the worlds to establish a foothold.
Today, the task of the scientists is to run an entire battery of tests on the local environment, assess their compatibility with human life, and, if proven to be a good place, give the go-ahead for the construction crews that were waiting back at the base to begin the fabrication of an initial base and fortification on this side of the base.
Slowly, the scientists put down the massive machinery on the ground and started wiring them together with wireless relay stations that they brought with them to establish a data stream with the base on the other side.
While creating hardlines through the gate was proven to be impossible, signals can still be transmitted wirelessly through it, allowing humans to continue communicating with their implants.
“Seismic detectors ready.”
“Radar and Lidar systems ready.”
“Underground scanners ready.”
“Atmospheric detection systems ready.”
“Filtration and detection systems ready.”
“Temperature, Atmospheric Pressure, and Humidity detectors ready.”
“DNA sampling and sequencing systems ready”
“Accelerated growth pods ready.”
“Genetic analysis and prediction systems ready”
“Clean room ready.”
“Quarantine room ready.”
“Medical Fabricators ready”
“All systems are ready, Dr. Anderson.”
“Good. Let’s get to it.”
Dr. Anderson and his team directly walked into the self-sealing tents set up for their clean room and quarantine rooms. Determination was evident behind all of their helmets.
This group of people now had the responsibility to secure a future for their entire race, and they would be damned before they slacked off even a little bit and allowed a variable to slip through their notice.
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Earth, somewhere over Brazil.
A fleet of passenger jets tore through the sky at blistering speeds, carrying precious cargo aboard.
Their air-breathing Hydrogen-powered Scramjets screeched into the ruined atmosphere as their frames continued to deteriorate under the onslaught of the Corruption.
As the outer layer of the craft deteriorated rapidly and reached a point where it was no longer viable, they were ejected, revealing another layer of armor beneath the one that was just ejected.
Every craft was designed with six such layers, each layer projected to withstand the Corruption for up to five hours at least.
However, the recent acceleration in The Corruption affects on everything around the world, that time-frame has been cut down drastically. This, combined with the need to replace the Scramjets of the aircraft every few hours or so with on-board fabricators and the accelerated deterioration of the crafts as a whole with every minute spent moving below the sound barrier, meant that these jets were operating at the edge of death every second of their flight.
And yet, its passengers had no choice but to take these dangerous crafts to their destination, heading straight for the Nevada bunker.
Aboard one of the crafts in the fleet, a military woman wearing military-grade Exo-rig and environmental suit walked into the cabin of the pilots.
“Captain, how far are we from Neva Base?”
“Ten hours, Colonel, including our pit stop in Brazil for ejecting our damaged engines and replacing them.”
Colonel Alice Bennett nodded her head and settled down on one of the seats behind the pilots.
One of the two pilots hesitated for a minute before speaking up.
“Permission to speak freely, Ma’am?”
“Granted, Captain Hughes.”
“What are the chances that all of us will make it to Nevada?”
Colonel Alice fell silent at those words as her mind swirled with emotions. However, her training kicked in, making her look towards the Captain with a stoic look hidden behind her helmet.
“I do not know, Captain. I will not lie to you and insult your intelligence since you know just as well as I do that not everyone will make it to the base intact.”
The Captain simply nodded at the words and turned back to the instruments, his expressions and emotions hidden behind his own environmental suit.
After Project: Infinity, the research being conducted in Antarctica to prepare an Orion-Drive-based space shuttle for the exodus of the human race was deemed a failure a week ago due to the uncertainty of its operation in the Stellar Storm just like every other type of spacecraft tried before along with the long duration required to prepare a working prototype, the General of the Army, General Carter, the General of the Marines, Issac White, and the General of the Airforce, Aarav Patel, the last surviving military leaders from around the world after the two decades-long fight against The Corruption and its infected, initiated an evacuation of the other two bunkers of the Earth.
At this point, everyone had realized that either Project: Exodus must have succeeded, or the leaders of what remained of humanity had decided that it was better for all of them to die together, giving them at least a little bit of solace as they slipped into the embrace of death.
The people of the other bunkers also knew that not all of them would survive the journey.
The Antarctic base housed nearly three thousand people, all of which were scientific and military units along with their close families. A significantly small number compared to the nearly sixteen thousand people of the Nevada Bunker and the nearly ten thousand people of the Himalayan Bunker.
While the travel system employed by the Himalayan Bunker was much safer than that of the Antarctic base since they utilized underground Hyperloop systems, they would still face significant danger just as their counterparts traveling through the air due to the constant earthquakes plaguing that part of the world along with unexpected Corruption brought into the Hyperloop systems through underground water systems, both artificial and natural.
In the end, the higher-ups estimated that only 85% of the people from Antarctica and 90% of people from the Himalayan bunker would make it to Nevada Base.
And yet, despite this grim projection that had been shared with everyone, they still undertook this journey, for they knew that it was better to try and make it to their salvation than suffer a slow and painful death, or a fate worse than death, at the hands of The Corruption.
Just like Colonel Alice’s commanding officer, Major General Samuel Lewis, and the majority of her unit had suffered during their hasty retreat from Antarctica after The Corruption somehow made its way into the bunker.
With those depressing thoughts in mind, just like with the rest of the people aboard this fleet of aircraft, she silently watched the Captain and his co-pilot work on getting them to their salvation, or their doom.
