Chapter 31 (2/2)

Why is that? Qin Hao wondered why this base was abandoned. Palmer and Lucia’s transport plane crashed three days ago while on their way to this base. That meant this base was still functional at that time.

What had happened during the three days that the humans had to abandon the base? They seemed to be so hurried that they did not even bring along the equipment.

Creeeeak! Qin Hao pushed the door open to the command center, then walked in.

The equipment inside the command center was still running with lights of different colors still blinking on them. All the signs pointed to the theory that the defending troops were leaving in a hurry.

Right then, Lucia had come in with Palmer while Blackie was left outside. The last thing they wanted was to see Blackie gnaw any cables that lay around in the command center, disable the equipment, and spoil their plan to contact the fleet.

“Is that a communication equipment, Sir?” Qin Hao stepped aside. He might be an expert in combat but was a noob in operating equipment.

“Yeah!” Palmer scanned around the command center, then quickly found the communication equipment and started fiddling with it.

An electrical noise came from the microphone.

“This is Coales Valley Military Base. Can anyone hear me?

“This is Coales Valley Military Base. Can anyone hear me?”

…

Palmer repeated several times, but all he got was the static noise.

“This is The Ente destroyer. My gosh! Finally hearing from Coales Valley!” A reply came through. It should be a good thing to have contacted the fleet, but their hearts sank at hearing the reply.

“This is Professor Palmer. We are in the Coales Valley base, but there are no defending troops here. The entire base is empty!” Palmer spoke into the microphone.

“What? Coales Valley has been breached?” There was another voice coming through. Apparently, the first guy had been shoved away, and this one should be an officer.

“No signs of a battle here. But the defending troopers are missing! Not a body can be found!” Palmer said loudly.

“Hang on there, Professor Palmer. I am calling the fleet commanding officer, and he will send transport to evacuate you all,” said the officer.

“Thank you!” replied Palmer.

As the line went dead, the three of them looked at each other. No one said a word.

It turned out that the defending troopers did not evacuate but were missing in action. It was easy to tell what their fates were—and it did not look good.

“This is a large military base with two divisions stationed here. Now they have all gone missing!” Palmer mumbled to himself.

“Perhaps this place is not safe!” Qin Hao got to his feet as a sense of crisis hit him.

“Are we leaving?” Lucia asked.

“No! Dangers are everywhere on Alpha. We are only safe

“That’s right! So we have to wait for the rescue!” Qin Hao nodded his agreement. If they left the base, they would lose contact with the fleet, and the rescue team would have no way to find them.