The tunnel entrance wasn't too deep but it was enough to make Mark knees buckle.
Now that he had survived the beginning of the end, he could finally relax a little bit but a timely reminder from his mind got him shooting back to his feet.
At that moment, a loud explosion rang out sounding as though two behemoth had collided on the surface of the city. The whole city shook and quaked, the earth shuddered from the destructive collision.
Mark was thrown back to his knees. He grunted as the bruises he had sustained earlier started bleeding
"Fuck" he cursed
He looked around warily his gaze falling on the girl that had made it possible for him to survive this ordeal. In the darkness of the tunnel, he could make out her outline. She seemed to be crouching opposite him probably trying to catch her breathe.
"Hey" he called out to her, his voice barely audible in the dark passage and waited a few seconds for a reply.
But whether she couldn't hear him over all the explosions or maybe she did but doesn't have any intention or desire to talk to him whatsoever he couldn't know.
A few seconds of dreadful silence settled between both of them. Some meters above them, various sounds of explosion was ringing out although they weren't as intense as the first, screams of different pitch and volume could be heard evidences of the carnage and destruction going on in the city above but the silence on this tunnel seemed to tune out all other sounds.
After some minutes of uncomfortable silence, a strange sound began to rise from a part of the tunnel wall. It started low then the tempo begam to increase with time graduating into a full fledged wail
Mark was surprised to see that the source of the sound was the girl who had entered the tunnel with him but decided to sit back and give her time. He could vaguely guess why she was sobbing, she probably had family in the city who would have been dead by now
'well, my condolences but I can't really feel your pain' he said inwardly
Which is true considering the fact that he had no family whatsoever growing up.
With the explosion and destruction going on on the surface and the mystery girl still probably shaken from the realization of what would happen to her family, Mark decided to sit back and rest for a little bit.
No matter what happened on the surface, he had survived most of it. Of course he wouldn't let his guard down around the mystery girl just cause she was sobbing and seemed vulnerable, for all he knew it might all be a fluke but he would atleast have to prepare for what was to come.
*********
Back at the cosmos observatory, things weren't really looking good.
Immediately the alarms were sounded, it became an orderly chaos of moving soldiers assembling into different units and squads but all in all, they looked prepared and ready for what was to come.
The government or the observatory base seemed especially prepared for this situation. A short two minutes after the alarms went off, a whole unit of soldiers had gathered and were waiting for their orders.
But that wasn't all. Maybe it was the spirits with which they assembled or their equipments, something about this group of assembled soldiers was giving off an indescribable air of mystery.
They seemed to have been preparing their whole life for this exact moment and are ready to unleash upon whatever was had invaded the planet the smoldered flames of ferocity buried deep within their souls.
But preparing to go out to face the enemy wasn't really needed if the enemy brought the fight right to their doorstep.
The waiting to be dispatched soldiers never got their order but they didn't have to wait for long either. A loud explosion rang out within the base and the whole place shook as the alarms that had quietened down a few minutes ago began screaming once again but this time in a different tone signifying something else.
At the same time, the public address system installed in the facility came alive
"Addressing all units the western section of the base is under attack, I repeat the western section of the base is under attack" "all commanders should assemble with their units at that Western section of the base with immediate effects"
"I repeat all commanders should assemble their units with immediate effects"
Almost immediately, the whole facility seemed to have been possessed by a frenzied demon as the different units tried to get to the location of the blast.
But what the soldiers was completely unexpected. A part of the facility was completely crumbled and sitting on the surface of all that rubble was a vessel that doesn't seem like anything that came from earth.
It was an advanced space cruiser that had designs the current engineers of earth couldn't hope to match.
The hatch of the vessel came open and the door was let down but instead of humans to descend from the vessel, what came out was completely unexpected.
Stepping out from the vessel was a terrifying creature standing about three meters tall. It was clad in a suit of alloy that looked like a marvel of technology with a long blade that looked identical to an odachi strapped to it's back while in its hand was an orb burning brightly with some unknown form of energy.
On it's head were ten fully formed horns jutting out, it's skin looked like a mix between scales and chitin.
Trailing behind it were six others that looked similar to in every aspect save for the horns which looked like short stubs of grass instead of actual horn.
He stood at the fore front, his eyes scanned the army of soldiers like a predator staring at it's prey
His mouth parted in what was supposed to be a grin but came out as a terrifying creature baring it's fangs
Then a deep baritone voice rang out spreading across the whole facility
"Humans, surrender or die!!!"