I lead the group of Legionaries to another room. This particular one is filled to the brim with weird lab equipment, and various colored liquids swirl into multiple large sets of exotic glassware. I stop in my tracks, for all I know some of those liquids are highly explosive and could be set off by the slightest nudge.
Exploring a secret lab full of experimental weapons is more stressful than I first thought. I am ready to Rewind with each step I take since there could be hidden traps or faulty experiments that have been left in a hurry. I wonder what the Imperial scientists thought when they made something like weaponized bacterias.
Speaking of Imperial scientists, where are they? The only ones we found so far were the small group hiding into the biological weapons lab; we haven't encountered anyone else since that grueling encounter. A single group of scientists didn't man this colossal lab. The Legionaries waiting at the entrance haven't reported anyone trying to run away, so it begs the question; Where is everyone?
As far as we know, there's no other exit to the complex, but maybe we missed one since this place is so gigantic. I shrug, our exploration will inevitably reveal the location of that supposed secret escape tunnel. A Rewind afterward will hopefully allow me to capture all the personnel of the facility in one fell swoop.
"Found anything?" I ask the commanding officer just as a small group of Legionaries emerge from yet another room. I'm glad that we have our maps. Otherwise, we would already be lost in the maze of same-looking corridors.
"Nothing of interest," the officer, a middle-aged soldier, replies with a grunt. "It's like most of those rooms were either unused or completely stripped clean."
I am starting to think that the soldier is right, this place is empty... too empty. There's not as much research equipment as there would typically be in such a facility. For instance, our own research facilities are filled to the brim with weird-looking machinery.
However, this idea is only a theory for the time being. I will only be able to make a more informed decision once we have explored every inch of this secret laboratory.
We clear other rooms which are either full of smashed machinery or empty; the pattern repeats for a good twenty minutes until we reach a large blast door. The construct is covered in runes so small that the slivery surface reflects like a polished diamond.
I can't help but grin; at least we are making some progress. We are bound to find something behind this massive door; it would make no sense otherwise. After all, who in their right mind would waste so much effort to guard the janitor's closet?
I try to pry it open, but the door won't budge. I turn towards Mary, who is already licking her lips while eying the door.
"I think you know what I want you to do," I say as I point at the door with my thumb. The draconic woman nods and the fireballs in her hands fuse before turning into a wire so thin that I can barely see it. However, the scorching on the wall caused by this laser-like cutting beam tells me that it packs a punch.
"Alright, let's try this!" Mary shouts as she raises her hands. Giant magical circles appear around her arms as the beam slowly shifts to a purple color while approaching the door. The door is already reacting; the runes are pulsing with blue energy, and the frequency of the pulses increases the more the beam approaches.
A sizzling sound, similar to grilling meat, suddenly echoes as the spell touches the metal. Then a wave of energy courses through the runes as a solid magical barrier forms in front of the cutting beam.
"This is strong, way stronger than the entrance," Mary says as she narrows her eyes.
I crack my neck as I ready my gun. I don't know what's behind this door, but we can't rule out any demonic presence. I don't want a repeat of the Beelzebub Incident; it would already be a disaster of insane proportions. Not to mention that fighting a demon in those cramped corridors doesn't sound like a fun time.
The door groans as the silver-like metal struggles against Mary, but in the end, the sheer power of the half-dragon wins. The sound of glass breaking echoes and cracks appear on the surface of the door before Mary cuts it into a million pieces.
We all ready our weapons as we enter the room behind the door. It looks like I was right to be suspicious since a weak beam of energy hits my shield. The spell has so little power that it's barely enough to be qualified as an attack, but I still stop dead in my tracks.
A half-melted scientist is leaning against the wall. The Dwarf's face, which is covered in third-degree burns, is looking in our general directions with empty eye sockets.
"What the fuck happened there?" Mary mutters as she surveys the surroundings. The poor Dwarf raises a stump that was once a hand towards us before drawing his final breath.
My jaw drops when I notice what probably caused the Dwarf's death. Most of the room has sustained a massive explosion, and the origin of the damage can only be the half-broken stone ring in the back of the room. A better look at the surroundings reveals that what I thought were debris are charred remains.
Pieces of the stone circle are embedded into the walls. The entire room was devastated by a massive explosion and the destroyed construct... All of these clues help me imagine what might have happened.
The Empire had a teleportation gate, similar to the one I used to visit the Bazaar before I made the Portal Gun, in this room. The personnel probably tried to escape all at once when the bombings started, so they rushed into this room. I don't know what happened; maybe the gate was overloaded and exploded?
Or the Empire intentionally blew up the gate to make sure that we wouldn't be able to track the escaped scientists.
Either way, I think I now have a rough idea of what went down once we attacked. The personnel scrapped everything before fleeing the complex, but something happened at the gate, and some of them didn't survive. I know that at least a small portion of the scientists escaped since the number of corpses in the room is too small for a facility of this size.
It's just a hypothesis, but it would certainly explain why we didn't find anything, not even a simple machine. The only intact lab we found so far was the bacterial research lab; maybe the scientists there hoped that the Empire would come and save them? It would make sense considering the zealotry of who I assume was the head scientist of that particular lab.
I guess we will have answers once the interrogations are finished, but I have to re-evaluate our plan. Unless we extract information from the captured scientists, this assault is almost a complete failure. The Empire did lose a rather large complex, but it should have no problem finding another one. The Stonecrushers also kept the research since most of the scientists escaped.
On the other hand, we gained nothing other than a handful of researchers who might not know anything. We would deploy some Fabricators to attempt to track down the scientists, but they are already beyond busy as it is.
I have two paths in front of me. On the one hand, I let the Order interrogate the scientists and hope that they have valuable information while I order Krognar and a small team of elite Fabricators to attempts to find the location that the Imperials fled to. On the other hand, I can just Rewind and attempt to stop the destruction of the complex by assaulting the area with Mary. Something tells me that I would already be too late, but it cannot hurt to try. It could be a massive waste of time, but so would the first option.
I take a deep breath and finally make a decision. I hope it will not bite me in the ass later down the line.