NOVEL WEB Chapter 582: Facility Defenses
It took me a moment to remember that I saw this back on that research station we raided where we got attacked by a whole bunch of androids.
So are there also androids in this place?
Then again… I think all three of these places are related to each other since the logs did mention the facility through the Warp Gate and also the one on the planet… So I guess it shouldn't be surprising that they have similar stuff?
While I was thinking about that, the Pirate Lord simply lifted his arm and fired a single shot from the cannon on his right hand, blasting the android into bits without a moment's hesitation.
"Really? You couldn't have warned me before you did that?" I scowled.
"Warn you? For what? You already saw that thing coming towards us, why won't you attack it?"
"Maybe it was friendly?"
"I doubt it."
"Well, we'll never know for sure now, won't we?"
The Pirate Lord shrugged before turning away, obviously not interested in arguing about it.
Hmph…
Right now we were just waiting for the rest to join us since the door that led to the stairs was just off to the side but it looked like it would take a while so we went forward to see if there was anything of note amongst the debris.
It most certainly looked like there was some kind of fight here but whatever the fight was, it happened a really long time ago since the corpses had already decomposed to leave only skeletons behind.
Just like the ones at the bottom of the elevator shaft I suppose.
There were a few androids also scattered around but all of them were even more destroyed than the one that had been limping to us were.
I thought I could at least guess who was fighting who from the corpses but it was hard to tell from just the skeletons which ones were fleeing and which ones were fighting when they died.
Additionally, all the androids that fell were also too obliterated to tell since their parts were strewn about all over the place that you wouldn't be able to know which parts belong to which android with just a glance.
If I had to guess, it might be humans and androids fighting against other humans and androids, probably from the Pirate Sovereign's fleet?
Then maybe they were also the ones who visited that research station and hacked the androids to protect it from intruders coming here?
Hmm… Then again, if they wanted to hide that place, they just needed to destroy the station instead of just leaving android guards there… That wouldn't make any sense.
Or… Maybe I'm just thinking about this too much and that android was part of the security forces and took us as intruders.
But now I'm quite interested to know how an android can still function after so many years… What kind of power supply do they even have?
"Hey… You noticed something?" The Pirate Lord spoke up suddenly, prompting me to turn to him.
"What? You'll have to be more specific than that."
"There's no weapons here… Yet there are marks of a gunfight happening here…"
I rolled my eyes, "Obviously whoever killed these people took them all, right?"
"Why would they leave the bodies here then? And also the androids too… Even if they were broken beyond repair, they can still be used as spare parts."
"Beats me. I thought this was the work of the Pirate Sovereign and don't pirates usually just pillage whatever is valuable? They probably didn't think the effort to clean this place was worth it and they didn't need spare parts for androids. Or maybe the hauling of these androids back to where they set their base up was not feasible."
The Pirate Lord hummed before turning towards the direction where he had shot the android earlier.
"Yet it seems there might still be some remnants… Curious…"
"I guess we'll just have to be on the look out for automated defense systems while we're down here."
He nodded, "Going by the quality of their ships, I don't think it's much to worry about. Once we get rid of the crew that is occupying this place, we will claim this planet for our own and the Pirate Hoard will be ours!"
Yeah… I'm still not buying this planet being some kind of paradise… At least I know for sure this isn't Earth since there's no other planets in this system and there wasn't even a moon orbiting this planet either.
The door opened behind us right then and the pirates filed out through the door alongside my girls.
Despite having to climb all those stairs, I'm surprised they weren't at least showing signs of fatigue…
Oh wait, the gravity here is lower than Earth's so it would not be as physically taxing to climb those stairs as normal.
When they saw the state of the corridor however…
The girls immediately rushed up to me.
"Tera?! What happened here?! Were you attacked?! We heard an explosion!"
"Did enemies show up, Boss?!"
"Mistress… Are you hurt?"
"Captain? Where are the enemies?"
I waved my hands at them placatingly, "Don't worry, don't worry. There was just a single android that suddenly stood up from the rubble and the Pirate Lord shot it. This place was already like this when we got here."
Despite my reassurances, they still stuck to me and were looking at the debris around us with wary gazes.
"So we might be attacked by androids then?" Amber asked.
"There might still be remnants of their automated defense systems around so we'll have to watch out for that."
Ries hefted her light machine gun, "If they are just remnants… The androids here seem like they are the older models so I don't think they would be that big of a threat."
Before anyone else could respond, there was a metallic clang coming from down the corridor and all of us immediately turned to point our weapons in that direction.
Our light illuminated the corridor ahead of us to reveal a corner up ahead where the sound came from.
We held our ground, fully expecting enemies to show up around said corner.
Just as we expected, an android came from around the corner looking like it just came out from a grinder with how crushed up its arms were.
"Do you think it's friendly?" I asked.
Before anyone could answer, the android saw us and started charging towards us while reaching its mangled limbs as if preparing to grab us.
It definitely did not look friendly…
The pirates at the front immediately opened fire, the bullets piercing through its leg and causing it to stumble forward before the others blew through its torso and head to disable it.
Before we could even relax, another android turned around the corner… Then another… And another… Until the entire corner was filled with androids, each of them damaged in some way while they charged towards us.
We did not panic and merely adopted firing positions where the front most group got on the ground to allow the people behind them to shoot at the horde.
Lasers and kinetic rounds filled up the corridor as we shot down the horde of charging androids, reducing them to scrap as they fell by the droves under our sustained fire.
Even though they had the numbers, they had no ranged weapons and we had superior firepower so they were definitely not a threat at all.
The disabled androids started forming a small pile that the others behind had to climb over to reach us, several of them tripping on their fallen comrades and hindering them from reaching us.
But because it also became a sort of barricade for them, the Pirate Lord levelled his cannon at the mound of disabled androids to fire a single round, the explosive blowing the pile apart and clearing the way again.
We continued firing, covering for each other whenever someone needed to reload and making sure the wave of androids did not get closer to us.
Right as I was wondering if the tide of androids would ever end, something suddenly fell out of the ceiling and crashed down on top of one of the pirates.
He let out a scream and we realised it was another android that had crawled through the space in the ceiling to attack us from above.
The android raised his hand, flexing his fingers until they were completely straight and pointed at the pirate's throat as though preparing to pierce it.
Amber reacted quickly and blew off the android's head with a shot from her pistol, while her other pistol continued to fire at the crowd in front.
That was the cue for even more androids to start falling from the ceiling but I was prepared for it this time as I shifted my minigun and shotgun to start shooting at all the androids up in the air, blowing them back into the ceiling.
Seeing that their surprise attack had failed, the remaining androids surprisingly turned back around and started fleeing, leaving us in a corridor of disabled androids laying all around the room.