The heat exchange device in the mine makes the air inside hot and humid, and from time to time there will be a gust of wind blowing, like the breath of a hungry giant beast.
Red emergency lighting dyed the passageway crimson, outlining billowing clouds of steam, and the pipes overhead and gleaming with condensed water droplets in the ductwork.
Bahram also smelled the bitter smell of corroded metal and freshly splattered blood.
"I thought the heat exchanger had stopped working, but it clearly didn't."
Sabourin said as he pulled his auspicious device from his belt and tested it.
The screen flickered for a moment, and then filled with a series of data. He tried several different detection modes, then shook his head in disgust and put the instrument away.
"Nothing shows up, or at least no meaningful results, there's a lot of interference nearby."
"where."
Li Lin echoed.
"Who knows where, this instrument is working sometimes and not working. I think our company needs a technical sergeant."
"Stay alert for possible ambush."
Bahram briefly interjected, unwilling to let this series of speculations continue. During this process, Talos remained silent.
After a while, the team formed a rough pentagonal formation, with two warriors in each direction, and Talos stood at the center of the team.
This is a solid formation, suitable for dealing with close range attacks from any direction.
After making sure that all the warriors were in place, Talos waved his hand for the team to move forward, while Bahram and Sabrin walked at the front of the team.
According to the map obtained from the Thinker Array, the team passed through the winding corridor surrounding the bottom of the thermal tower and headed straight to the key area.
Along the way, visibility was very limited, and even the Astartes were hampered, with mist and dim red light creating illusory motion trajectories and blurry vision, blurring the field of view for more than two meters.
Bahram suspected they had gone very far.
As they went deeper into the mine, the terrible heat wave and the stench of decay became stronger and stronger, and the air became more and more hostile to these outsiders, becoming more and more concentrated on them.
Bahram could feel the weight pressing down on him, like a suffocating cloud making its way through his armor.
Despite the unbearably hot environment, a layer of black frost condensed on the hilt of his sword.
There are four elevators that provide access to the mine, but to Bahram they look more like deadly traps.
If the enemy uses explosive weapons, anything can destroy this team in such a small space.
Talos apparently thought so too, so the team gave up on using the elevator and began descending on foot down one of the four long stairs.
The stairs don't switch automatically like most buildings, instead they spiral down in a long arc.
There is a filthy atmosphere in the air, which becomes stronger with every step.
Bahram focused on putting one foot in front of the other, recalling the maze of steps that snaked through the monastery fortress.
As he walked, he recalled the past: joining the battle group, and being plunged into darkness for a long time due to transformation.
The memory is vague, only half of it appears, like a scene in a dream.
Suddenly, Bahram felt a faint sensation rolling on the back of his head, and finally he had to push away these thoughts.
What's even more worrying is that cracks are beginning to appear in the exterior walls of the stairwell, and these cracks are getting deeper underground.
Something like black tree roots forced its way through the soil, spreading to the inner surface of the curved wall, sprinkling black, unpleasant-smelling soil onto the stairs.
Red light illuminated the bodies of insects squirming among the tree roots, and as the Astartes passed by, each ghostly spider as big as a hand crawled out of its nest, waving its long legs and
Show challenge.
When they reached the lowest floor, the stairs turned into a pitted tunnel filled with chattering life.
Strange, misshapen insects, bloated and filthy, squirmed in a dense network of rotting root material.
There was even a long, segmented millipede, almost as long as Bahram's forearm, that unfurled like a spring from the crook of the root ball and jumped onto his shoulder, stinging furiously with its needle-like stingers.
To armor steel plate.
Astartes swept the filthy thing away with his hands and pressed it beneath his boots.
Still, the team pressed on, through ever-narrower tunnels, until Bahram began to think they would be forced to use their chainswords to clear their way.
Finally, Talos ordered the team to stop.
The air was suffocating, filled with the smell of heat and decay, and the red emergency lights had long been extinguished.
Vaguely, Bahram could feel a vague green light passing over Talos's shoulder.
"We have reached the bottom of this level of mining."
Talos arrived calmly, and then looked at the swarm of insects that kept rustling above his head.
"What's next, sir?"
"Go forward."
Sabrin nodded and walked into the darkness without hesitation, Bahram followed, and the rest of the team were holding weapons in preparation.
Heavy feet stepped on the thick gravel, cable-like vines stretched across the floor of the stairwell, bursts of fetid air whizzed past everyone's helmets, and the noise of insects surrounding the warriors swelled into a
A crazy life.
They walked along a corridor with a low ceiling for more than a hundred meters, passing many intersecting corridors along the way.
In the aisle, where the clinging vegetation remained undiminished, Bahram realized that the pale green light came from a group of swollen larvae clinging to the twisted roots.
The restless movement echoed around them, seeming to grow louder as time passed.
At one point, Bahram heard the clicking of claws behind a string of pipes half-hidden in a web of vines that ran along one of the walls, but he couldn't see the creature making the noise.
"How far is it?"
A soldier suddenly spoke, his voice a little nervous, and the constant screams and rustling made all the recruits in the team nervous.
They haven't really come into contact with the devil yet.
"More than fifty——"
As soon as Sabourin spoke, the air was suddenly filled with terrible screams, and something armored erupted from the plants around them.
A segmented monster emerged from the thick network of pipes overhead and descended to attack the Astartes.
It is as agile as a tree viper, has hundreds of chitin-wrapped legs, and has a broad head with half a dozen compound eyes.
In an instant, it wrapped around Sablin's body, lifted the huge warrior off the ground, and bit into the back of his helmet with its curved jaws.
As the team was surrounded from all sides, pistols and chainswords roared in the tight space, Sabourin writhed in the monster's clutches, slashing at the monster's body with his fighting dagger.
In the chaos, Bahram blasted the monster's head open with a single shot from his bolt pistol, freeing Sabrin.