The room stayed tense even after Liliana gave the order.
The officers moved quickly after hearing her orders, screens shifting, and commands being relayed.
Light panels flashed overhead, and new data began to appear on the side displays—mission routes, team vitals, energy spikes.
"Alpha and Beta teams ready," one officer called out after making sure that the team’s personnel were ready and did not call out for anything.
Liliana gave a sharp nod. "Deploy. I want visual and comms feeds open the entire ti and make sure to stay close to your team personnel so that you can support each other if needed."
"Understood."
The wall screen split into two side-by-side live feeds—one showing Alpha, the other Beta.
Both teams were already moving.
The Alpha team took the western tunnel, which was lower on the mountain, closer to the ridge.
It was wide but steep, with narrow points carved naturally into the stone. Shadows clung to the corners.
The Beta team went higher, scaling a sharp incline that led to an elevated tunnel. This one was longer and a bit more exposed, but gave a better view of the surrounding terrain.
Both tunnels appeared natural, but neither one was.
Liliana could tell.
These weren’t created by erosion.
Sothing made them.
On the feeds, both teams entered their respective tunnels with caution. They carried light-load weapons, close-range gear, and compact scanners.
A few had drones, which they deployed first to act as scouts, which can at least prepare them for anything ahead of them.
Small machines zipped forward ahead of them, mapping the curves of the tunnels.
It was quiet at first.
Too quiet for sothing this massive.
One of the Beta team mbers whispered through comms, "It’s tighter than we expected, and from the looks of it, this might continue until we reach the core."
Liliana responded instantly. "You have override permission. Adjust formation to single-file and keep three-point coverage. Keep chatter low. If anything moves, don’t wait."
"Yes, Commander."
Alpha moved deeper without complaint. Their squad leader was larger-built, bulkier, and had a heavy step—but precise. Their style was direct.
Beta’s leader, anwhile, was more refined—he used hand signals instead of words and led from the middle.
They were different, but both were skilled and knew what they were doing, so no one was really nervous, but it does feel a bit too small for them to use their powers to full potential.
But they made it up with their teamwork, so they did not worry too much.
However, as they went deeper, they all realised that, in addition to the space being limited, it made them unable to move fast; they couldn’t rely on tech as there seed to be sothing that only let them run the cara and the drones.
And the creatures that lived here would be used to it because sothing did live here.
As the teams advanced, sothing strange happened.
The cara feeds shook.
Not the soldiers.
Not the gear.
But the mountain.
It started as a small tremor. Barely noticeable.
One of the Alpha squad mbers stopped. "Commander. We’re getting slight vibrations."
"Confirm," said Liliana. "Is it natural?"
"We don’t think so," Beta responded before Alpha could answer. "We felt it too. But it’s not under us. It’s around us."
Liliana’s eyes narrowed. "Keep going. Update every thirty seconds."
Both teams pressed on.
The deeper they got, the stronger the tremor beca.
Not enough to collapse the tunnel.
But enough to feel it in their chests.
As if sothing massive was moving—but not walking.
More like shifting.
Turning.
Waking.
The beta team rounded a curve. The light from their drones illuminated sothing large just up ahead.
They slowed down.
And then stopped completely.
The cara zood in.
There, blocking a wide stretch of tunnel, was a massive carcass.
A creature unlike anything most of them had seen before. Its body was twisted, curled unnaturally like it had died trying to escape sothing.
Its six limbs were bent at odd angles. Its hide was tough and dark, almost stone-like, but parts of it had been torn off violently.
Bite marks.
Large ones.
Clean, deep, and powerful.
Chunks of the body were missing—torn away, not cut as if sothing had fed on it. Recently.
Steam still rose faintly from so of the wounds.
It hadn’t been dead long.
Alpha team saw it at the sa ti.
Their tunnel had connected to a central chamber, and the sa body stretched partway into their side as well. From their angle, they could see the creature’s head.
It wasn’t a head ant for talking or thinking.
It was ant for tearing.
Its jaws were jagged, uneven. Rows of short, strong teeth sat crooked inside its skull. A tongue, long and muscular, had been severed cleanly.
"Commander," Alpha’s leader said, his voice low. "This thing wasn’t the predator."
Liliana nodded slowly. "It was prey."
No one said anything after that.
The mountain shook again.
Harder this ti.
A few pieces of loose rock fell from the ceiling above the teams, clattering onto the tunnel floors.
"Eyes up," Beta’s leader whispered. "It’s not just shaking now. Sothing’s echoing. Like—like breathing."
Liliana leaned in closer to the screen.
They were right.
She could hear it too.
A slow, rhythmic sound, so deep it vibrated the air.
It was coming from the tunnel walls themselves.
Not chanical.
Organic.
Sothing massive was alive inside the mountain—and it was breathing.
Liliana looked at the monitors, her mind already spinning through possibilities.
Was it a hive queen?
A dormant world beast?
A long-lost experint that went underground?
Or sothing worse?
She didn’t know yet.
But she had a feeling this mission had just changed categories.
This wasn’t a scouting op anymore.
It was a first-contact risk.
Or a survival one.
"Continue forward," she ordered, her voice calm. "If the tunnel narrows or you spot movent, fall back imdiately.
Do not engage. I repeat—do not engage without visual confirmation of intent."
Both teams acknowledged.
Then they moved deeper.
And the mountain still shook once in a while, causing the entire tunnel and everyone in it to shake.
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