With the artillery holding the enemy in the trenches, Max implemented a new plan.

[Nico, send some data probe drones into the ruins to find the underground level entrance. I need to know what is down there and if it has any relation to the Klem integrating human technology.] Max ordered.

[On it, boss. No signs of a functional power grid are detected at the surface level, but the reading from the Klem won’t let us detect one that is still active underground.]

Knowing if the Klem had human technology still active would tell him a lot, from their capability to produce new Infantry, to their ability to recharge the energy weapons that they were using. If they were working with a limited ammunition storage ability, that was the best outcome for the Regiment.

They wouldn’t be able to fight for long with only what a city garrison kept charged. However, if they still had power available somewhere, or they had improvised a way to recharge plasma weapons, the threat that the defenders posed would increase by an incredible amount, given the Klem’s ability to rapidly reproduce smaller creatures.

He hadn’t seen any of the Swarm-type Klem, who usually blanketed the ground during an invasion, recovering resources for the main force, but that could just be because this whole area had been cleared of all living things already, and they were no longer needed here.

The smaller scouting drones were carried within the Drone Fighters, and Nico deployed a half dozen of them in an instant, sending them to scout the central city while Max waited well back of his forces and out of sight.

There hadn’t been any sign of reinforcements yet, but with the majority of this continent under their control, it was only a matter of time before the Klem determined that the local force couldn’t deal with the Regiment and started to surround them with overwhelming numbers.

That was why Max had kept the Cutters on the ground, on standby in case they needed to evacuate to a new location to continue scouting for answers about this strange planet.

They still hadn’t sent any more messages to Terminus, as far as he could tell, and that didn’t bode well for the human resistance.

The drones only scouted for a few minutes before Max’s display showed that all six had found a way into the underground levels of the ruins. All of them were carved by Klem, from what he could tell by the camera feed, but before long, they were into a human-built underground complex with its hallmark concrete walls and drab green paint.

The Klem had breached it, so Max didn’t have high hopes for survivors. However, what the drones found was anything but normal. There was no blood on the walls and floors, no bits of bodies that hadn’t been recycled into useful biomass by the insects, nothing.

Other than the fact that the power was out, it appeared to be just an ordinary abandoned government facility, no different than any average development lab or security holdout.

[I am sending one to the control room to see if I can recover anything. The drones can remotely read a solid-state drive even with the power off, so we might learn something. At the very least, their security logs should give us a timeline.] Nico informed Max over the Command Channel.

[You have a layout already?] Max asked, confused.

[The evacuation plans on the walls by the elevators are in perfect condition. This seems to have been a civilian research facility called the Wolf Mountain Development Facility. What they were developing is unclear.] Nico replied.

[If the answer is Klem-specific bioweapons, I am climbing out of this Mecha to kick someone’s ass.] Colonel Klinger muttered over the radio.

It was a sentiment that Max and every other commander could understand. Many worlds tried to reverse engineer the Klem to make more effective weapons against them, but if those samples somehow ended up in the Klem’s hands, it could help them develop a resistance to all of the new weapons being designed to fight against them.

Unless their research wasn’t related to any other development streams, it could be a huge setback for every other border nation that was relying on previous generations of weapons that they had based their research upon.

Max watched as the drones raced through the facility at a breakneck speed, finding it completely abandoned and strangely clean, with no sign of damage from armored spikes and pincers, which he would have expected after the Klem breached the facility, just from walking through an empty building.

[I have a power signature. Subbasement 37 has an active generator. Control room computers show that the facility is intact but powered down. Working on the security logs now.] Nico reported.

So, the Klem didn’t kill the power. It was off when they arrived. Perhaps they didn’t even explore and only passed through as they were digging the tunnel. It wasn’t unknown for them to have shown little or no interest in ruined buildings.

One drone went further down, while the others spread out, searching for signs on this level, where the tunnel passed through the facility and then working their way to the surface, where there were most likely to be signs of battle.

[I have logs. There is no report of the Klem arrival when the facility went offline six months ago. What I can say for sure is that they weren’t expecting it. Everything seems normal in the logs, including the last half-finished hourly report, then suddenly nothing. Just logs of the main power supply going offline and a lot of door openings as the battery backups kept things running for the last few days.

It’s strange. There is no panic, no sign of damage, or reason for the sudden shutdown. It just happened with no explanation. They even still have the next month’s shift rotation running when the power goes offline. It’s all marked absent. They didn’t even try to cancel shifts or indicate that they didn’t need to be here.

Not even the most abrupt bankruptcy should be like this. At the very least, the security guards should have left a message or kicked a wall or something.]

[Keep searching. It might have been a government raid, which would have grabbed the security forces right away and stopped them from doing anything on their way out.] Max suggested, wondering if they had uncovered nothing more than a bankrupt and corrupt tech company that the government had recently shut down.

A few minutes passed, and the sporadic artillery fire gave a thumping rhythm to the battlefield, a tense heartbeat as both sides prepared their next moves.

[I have found something, and you’re not going to like it. This is a System Replication lab. They were trying to produce rapidly adaptable super soldiers to emulate the effects of the Kepler System has on our Pilots.] Nico reported, sending the data she found in a lab through to Max and the teams aboard Terminus.

[Genetically Engineered Soldiers are nothing new. Why is that such bad news?] Max asked.

[Because the researchers never left. There is a command post for them in subbasement 37, and I just intercepted a signal from them to somewhere else on the planet, detailing the battle with the infantry on the surface.

They might not have made them, but the survivors are definitely trying to adapt Klem biology to help them adapt and overcome the invasion.] Nico reported.