The Gray Raven managed to escape from there, made a detour to one of the openings in this tunnel, and got out of there. But Ren couldn't help but ask.
"Lee, why were the bombs set to have a 3-minute delay? Wouldn't 1 minute be enough? So that the Punishing Virus couldn't hack it." Ren asked while looking back at Lee.
"Hm, the bombs are made with the same material as our frames, it was built to resist the Punishing Virus and protect their compartments, and even if the Punishing Virus does manage to penetrate it, it will prematurely explode. And as for the countdown, well, just wait for it in…. 30 seconds." Lee said in a confident and amused way.
It was Ren's turn to raise an eyebrow. Deciding to wait for 30 seconds, he continuously ran when the whole team heard a large explosion and felt a sudden tremor that followed. Ren was shocked, and his mouth was gaping. There was only one explanation for that explosion and tremor, it was the bombs they had previously set.
Ren understood now why it had such a time delay, so that they could get out of its radius, even when they were already far, they still felt the explosion. Ren looked back at Lee, who had a smug look in his eyes, and Ren could only smile behind his helmet.
___
The Grey Raven had managed to get out of the underground tunnel with relative ease, there weren't many corrupted that stood in their way, and even if they did, they would be sliced apart or gunned down. They secured a place for them to cover and let Ren rest as the effect of his physical enhancing serum wore off, leaving him breathless and exhausted, while Lee, Lucia, and Liv didn't seem to show any sign of being tired at all, he envied that fact.
Ren then sat up right and took a couple of deep, steady breaths to regain his lost stamina. If it wasn't for his intense training as a soldier before becoming a commandant, he would have been lying down as if he were dying. His hand then moved to the side of his helmet and pressed a button.
"Babylonia command center, this is Ren Takeda of the Gray Raven Squad, we have successfully destroyed the forming red tide, and are returning to the base, over…" Ren reported and waited for a response, but he only heard static.
"Babylonia command center, this is Ren Takeda of the Gray Raven Squad, we have successfully destroyed the forming red tide, and are returning to the base, over." Ren repeated but with a sterner voice, thinking they mustn't have heard him, yet again, there was only static.
"Babylonia command center, do you copy?" Ren stood up and said, as the static was the only thing he heard, they noticed this and also tried to contact the command center, only to have the same result.
"Ren, our networks are cut off. I can't connect to the Babylonia satellite network." Lucia said as she turned to the side and looked at Lee and Liv if they can connect.
"No luck, I also can't connect." Lee said as he tried to manually send a message through another server.
"Same here…" Liv grimly said while looking up at the drone she sent to pick up any signals.
"What?!" 'Why can't we connect? Last time I checked, we were still connected to the network...' Ren began to think through logical explanations as to why they can't connect to the network, though, each thought only had a horrible ending.
'The Babylonia network can't be down. It is a crucial piece of equipment for dispatched teams to connect to the main base and Babylonia…' Thoughts began to swirl around and only made the strange feeling in him worsen.
Ren then snapped out of his thoughts and suddenly kicked Lucia out of the way. Lee and Liv were surprised by this, and before they could react, a laser went past the area where Lucia had been standing a few seconds ago.
Lee and Liv crouched down to take cover, and Lucia caught herself and looked up to process what had just happened. "Ren!"
"Aurgghhh!" Ren moaned in pain as he clutched around the area where the laser grazed and scorched his skin.
Lucia quickly came to his side and pulled him towards a wall for cover as bullets suddenly rained down on them. Lucia, Lee, Liv, and Ren were pinned down by Pilgrims, corrupteds that looked like wild west outlaws or sheriffs along with their black cowboy hats and dirty white scarves.
They were under heavy enemy fire and couldn't get out of their cover. Ren was grunting and holding on the scorching pain on his leg, he searched his pouch and found the anti-disinfectant then sprayed it on the wound, it brought him a short relief and the properties in that spray helped the wound to close up and have a protective layer against infections of bacteria and the Punishing Virus.
"Liv! How many are there?" Ren asked as he grabbed his gun and loaded another magazine.
"I-I can't locate them on the radar! Something is interfering with our sensors!" Liv reported grimly, she tried to send her drone and scan the area, but it would be shot down before it could send any feedback.
"Well, shit." Their situation was severe, and any wrong move or order could result in their lives. Ren pulled out his unused and clean dagger, that he could see his reflection, and positioned it just barely sticking out to see how many there were.
"Damn… I could see three Pilgrims, two ground monitors, and five repairers who are slowly advancing. Tsk, if we don't move now, they'll jump us and force us into the open…" Ren gritted his teeth and thought of ways to escape, fast!
"Do you have any more surprises up your sleeves, Ren?! Because we really need it!" Lucia was also gritting her teeth, she couldn't act carelessly without any information about their full number and positions, if she got out there without any sufficient data and the possibility of more hidden corrupted, she calculated that she had about a 24% chance of succeeding. If Ren doesn't have a plan, she will take those chances and get them out of this predicament.
The mention of surprises under his sleeves, Ren smiled and let out a little laugh. "Surprises? I have many."
Ren said confidently, catching Lucia's attention, he then rummaged through the back pouches and pulled out three explosive hand grenades.
"I'll pull the pin, you throw it." Ren said as he readied the grenades
"Oums, how far?"
"13 meters, can you make it?"
"Heh, easily." Lucia smirked this time, and Ren nodded, he pulled the pin and handed it to Lucia who quickly threw it with such force that it managed to deflect some bullets and still made it to the destination. They repeated it two more times and waited for the grenades to explode.
The grades exploded, and it created a chain reaction with the other two grenades that successfully killed the Pilgrims and distracted the other corrupteds, now that there was no more corrupted firing at them, Ren quickly threw two things, a smoke bomb and a flare to cover their escape.
"Everyone, let's go!" Ren shouted, and everyone complied. Liv supported Ren with her healing energy while he clenched his jaw as they ran away from there.
As they ran, Ren couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched and followed. Yes, there are corrupted following them and observing their every movement, but this feeling was different, it had a deep-seated anger similar to how a human would look at their enemy.
Ren looked back at a building where the feeling of being glared at was, and he could faintly see an outline of a figure carefully following them, its movement was well-timed and calculated.
'It is too smooth to be a corrupted, is it an infected construct? No, an infected construct does retain some of its fighting capabilities, but it usually goes and attacks when it has the chance, yet this one is keeping its distance.' Ren thought long and hard about their little tail, but there was only one possibility. "A construct…"
"Hm? What construct, Ren?" Liv asked and looked back to where Ren was looking, and before she could see it, the construct vanished into the shadow.
Ren's mumbled word alerted Lee and Lucia, and they also began to look around but found nothing, and they couldn't rely on their radars because it was jammed.
"What did you see, Ren?" Lucia asked, being on guard for any more ambushes.
"A construct was following us, it doesn't seem to be a corrupted or an infected." Ren described what he was sensing, and Lee deduced it to be a rogue.
"If what you saw was really a construct, Ren, that might have been a rogue construct following us." Lee said.
"Huh, could they be the reason behind our network problem?" Lucia asked, chiming in on their conversation.
"It could be, but why?…" Ren pondered about such possibilities as he frowned, without any contact to the Babylonia command center, they couldn't report their findings nor request any backups, and not to mention their radar not properly working, they are sitting ducks for any corrupted ambushing them.
Ren then pulled out a hand radio and tossed it to Lee, who caught it with a raised eyebrow. "Lee, take Liv with you and find the jeep, get as far away as possible and try to contact the command center for back up, while Lucia and I lure this construct away, use that radio to communicate with us when you're able to get out of its range."
"Huh?! But, Ren, your injury, I can't leave you unattended." Liv protested.
"Heh, my leg has healed enough thanks to your skill. I can take care of it myself, so go with Lee and try to contact the command center." Ren said with confidence, hiding the searing pain he was still feeling.
"But…" Liv was still unsure, but Lucia comforted her.
"Don't worry, Liv, I'll keep Ren safe as long as he's by my side, I won't let anything happen to him." Lucia reassured her and Liv could only sigh and nodded.
"Let's split inside that building." Ren pointed at a rundown building that looked like it was about to fall in any second. They all entered, and Ren placed some motion sensor bombs behind the pillars. Once set, any detection of movement within their radius would set the bombs to explode immediately.
Lee and Liv found an opening in one of the walls and made their body go in a kind of stealth mode before they separated from Lucia and Ren, who turned in the opposite direction. Just moments after, the bombs were activated and they exploded, causing a couple of chunks from the building to fall and block the front entrance and the way Lee and Liv took.
"Damn! Where did you even get those bombs?!" Lucia asked in disbelief after she heard the large explosion and rubble falling down.
"Hahahaha, secret!" Ren laughed out loud as Lucia let a small pout on her cheeks. Ren pulled out another enhancement serum and inserted it into his mask's side.
"Wait, Ren! You still haven't had a proper rest after your earlier serum consumption." Lucia reminded him, but Ren just shrugged it off.
"We don't have much of a choice anyway, we just need to lure this construct away just enough for Lee and Liv to get out of its range." Ren said, and Lucia couldn't argue, this was a matter of life and death.
"Fine, but after we find a hiding place, you must rest!" Lucia sternly said, and Ren nodded. With Ren's enhancing serum, he ran much faster and kept up with Lucia's impressive speed.
___
At the entrance area where the bombs exploded and a large rubble piled up, a sharp sound of sword waves slicing through the rubble multiple times, paving a way for the construct.
"Tsk! Those bastards." The construct sheathed her sword and began following Ren and Lucia's trails.
"Just you wait, I will get you. Lucia." The construct said with a venomous tone.