7 Exploring the base

Right now Marco felt relaxed, he took this chance as a way to cool down as not every day he can let down his guard and enjoy that adventure. He is still on the hangar and garage part, where this place was used to park vehicles and aircraft.

He hasn't even found the armory yet, let alone the weapons. But he Is not worried about that, he is worried about something else. While observing the hangar, he noticed holes… yes holes. The holes are way bigger than a man and it looks… clean, which made him think that this isn't some kind of structural failure or accident. "It must be those damn Machines again, what kind of Machines this time? A Mole? I won't even be surprised if huge birds start to shit bombs."

*sigh

'Facing attacks from both sides, sea, and land, no wonder they are in ruins. At least the base isn't completely destroyed and flat ground' Marco thought as he sighed in pity.

The Elevator platform is probably as big as two football fields combine, measuring 110 meters wide and 140 meters in length. Seeing that there are no runways, the aircrafts used are most likely to be VTOL aircraft. Not surprising as VTOL is already common even before Marco crossed over.

As there's nothing much going on in the elevating platform, he moved on to another section of the base. Three minutes away from the platform are the barracks and where all the people live. This area is very large and has so many rooms that Marco is already feeling lazy to think about exploring the rooms one by one. He just took a look at a few rooms and they look a bit cramped, his bed at the previous base is much better than this. 'The one that lives here are probably just regular canon fodders? And the ones on command live somewhere else…hmmm maybe I can get something from their living quarters, they might have some secret stash for all I know' Marco thought as he continues to walk.

Next to the barracks, are the lounge where all the people will all the people hang out together. The cafeterias are connected to the lounge, Marco assumed people will take what they want and bring them to the lounge. There only place where there is food is the cafeteria, no restaurant, café, nothing. What do you expect? Starbucks at the end of humanity?

Other than weapons, the most important things are information. The armory, command center, plus server room if there was one were the things that Marco was looking for. He checked the storage room and it's empty with only some MRE and food, although all of them are rotten. Not even MRE can last more than 50 years even with the technological advancement in the food industry.

---

After another 20 minutes, he finally arrived at the command room or command center.

"Wow, this is much more advanced than what I used to have…" commented Marco as he was impressed. Back then, the monitor still use a casing although thin, you still can not see through it. Here, however, the monitor and screen are only a sheet of transparent glass or polyester. 'Maybe they use a projector or some kind of light magic that I don't know? Sigh… I guess war is still one of the reasons that humanity moves forward' he thought. Even though in Marco's time holograms already exist, but you still can't interact with them, rendering them only as a cooler and more pleasing moving picture.

He looked around and found a bigger terminal in the middle of the room, and it still intact. He moved closer, sitting on the seat in front of it.

"Hey Prometheus, are there any data here? Can you extract it? "

[Yes, I can extract the data

1%

20%

40%

70%

Ding: Data Corrupted

It seems that I can't get all of the data. Two-fifths of the data are corrupted and can only be read like gibberish or downright missing. ]

"That's still alright, considering all of these terminals are 500-ish years old. I'm surprised they are still standing. Summarize them for me."

[There is a lot of similarity with the data we got from your base. But there's something that you should look at. There is some information about the Machines during the war. Units used in wars behave like a hive mind, with a leader, just like humans troops. Completely different from animalistic Machines, as each different types have different behavior.

Also, this base once fought a… mythical Machines.]

'Holden probably made a completely new AI I guess. No, I think that's what he actually did considering how mad he was. ' Marco thought.

"That is quite disturbing… Machines designed base on the mythical creature? What does it look like? A fish? A whale shooting missiles out of its blowhole? Surprise me…"

If Prometheus has a mouth, it would twitch at his host's antics.

[It's a dragon with three heads, the Machine can create ice and used it as an attack. They called it [Triton]. Not much else is known as everything that met it is frozen to death, not even the aircraft can escape.]

"I'm not surprised considering Dragons are a common mythical creature. Since the war ended in our defeat, that means all of the war machines haven't been destroyed right? Where did all of them go is there any information about that? Because for sure I haven't encountered them."

[There's no information about that, I don't there's any information stored after the war since humanity has fallen.]

"Kinda expect that. Alright, let's continue exploring the place.'' Marco said to himself after getting what he wanted.

With Prometheus guiding him it doesn't take long for him to reach the armory. Marco was a bit disappointed after looking at the content. Almost empty, that's the current state of the armory. No weapons were displayed or even stored in the racks, empty crates littered the place.

Marco is starting to feel worried, if he can't find any other guns then he will have to travel a lot more to other places. After scouring the place, he found an unopen crate.

"Woahhhh," Marco exclaimed as he examined the gun in the crate. He felt like he found a new toy as the gun looks futuristic and cool. He could see that the gun in his hand is a railgun rifle. The buttstock and grip look like an AWM, the difference being that this railgun is a bullpup and semi-auto. While the handguard and barrel cover was triangular. There is another hole in the grip, he guessed that it is for a battery/power cell.

Fortunately, the crate contains some bullets and 2 energy cells. After putting the cells and magazine in, the gun buzzes a bit before falling silent. Marco shouldered the gun and the triangular barrel opened a bit radiating a bit of blueish light, a simple iron sights popped up.

Marco was satisfied with this gun, he never played with a rail gun before. Although railguns are already common in his past life, they came in a huge size used in battleships and battle tanks. The smart guys at his time still can't figure out how to store enough energy in a small package.

"This will be easier with this thing here." Marco hopes that there is a setting for the projectile speed.

He proceeds to walk into the dwellings of the top dogs, as he might find something good. With the direction in mind, it doesn't take long. Three minutes later he arrived.

He entered one of the rooms and he immediately noticed the difference. 'Top dogs room indeed, spacious room an a master bed, a luxury in the apocalypse.' Marco thought as he decides that this will be his temporary base for a while.

He wanted to take a rest first and leave the search for tomorrow as all the walk earlier exhausted him. He put all of his gear away before jumping into bed and immediately falling asleep.

----

Tomorrow morning

Marco wakes up feeling refresh although he spent a couple more minutes lazing around on the bed. After that, he put on all of his gear and starts to search the room.

[Marco, I found a bracelet inside the bed frame. I wanted to tell you yesterday but you were already asleep. ]

Marco is surprised, he didn't think that the room he randomly picked will have something in it. He lifts the bed and rips out a piece of the bed frame, inside the compartment lay a bracelet. The bracelet looks very simple, it's a metal hoop with no decoration.

[I detected a simple holographic projector on it.]

"Nice, I can use it to view the map. I don't see any battery on it?"

[it uses body heat as an energy source.]

"You must have found a map of the base right? Show it on my bracelet."

[Right away]

*Bzzz

A small hole opened in the bracelet and expose a small lense. The map isn't a top-down map but a 3d map instead which also shows the levels of the surrounding.

"Now this will make traveling a whole lot easier."

Marco exclaimed as he decided to explore the rest of the base. A part of the base pique Marco's interest, it's one of the most important parts of it, the power plant. Marco wanted to see what kind of method people used nowadays to power this massive place up, recharge all the necessary weapons, vehicles, and medical bay.