The Conspiracy of the Elites

Chapter 205: the tunnel

When Clark heard that the tunnel was already occupied by mountain cats, he fell silent and went into deep contemplation.

From the knowledge that he got from his learning years through his first implant, he knew the basic information about mountain cats.

The cats that live in an extreme region such as the Himalayan peaks are of different types and breeds, but they all have one similarity, they had vigorous hearts and lungs that already adapted to the region.

In short, compared to other regular cats, these were more tenacious and have more means of survival.

At this current height of the mountain, all the normal soldiers in the squad could no longer breathe by themselves. Their lungs were not tenacious enough, so they were now on life support systems.

As a home of mountain beasts, this reason alone would have deterred Clark from passing through this tunnel, but he was still hesitant as he thought through its pros and cons.

Compared to the Himalayan black bear nest that they encountered, this one was smaller and more compact as it was just a tunnel.

What really made him hesitant to abandon this short-cut road was that compared to Himalayan black bears, mountain cats were smaller, less fierce, and strong.

After over a week of climbing non-stop, though most of the soldiers still showed enthusiasm, he could still notice the faint feeling of fatigue as they have not arrived at the middle layer of the mountain yet.

For days, he was already thinking of a solution to this conundrum as he felt that their speed when climbing normally was too slow.

Seeing a tunnel that was evidently dug out by humans and may possibly be a shortcut channel to the higher parts of the Everest, he was reluctant to leave.

He knew that the tunnel was not natural, because his implant already analyzed and displayed the unique touch of humans all over it to him as soon as he arrived there.

Should I take the more conservative route and continue climbing, or should I risk it and take this possibly faster route? He was conflicted.

Though this conundrum was hard to tackle, he no longer thought much about it after a moment. They all came fully conscious that this region was dangerous, taking such a small risk to speed things up was ok for him.

In this mission, they were not the only ones that were on the search for the ultimate prize, countless others were also in the race.

Just the Spartan army alone has 20 squads. The other countries who discovered information about the ruin, especially the countries with high-grade military strength were sure to mobilize more.

This was a mission that required brain, speed, and most especially luck to succeed. First come, first serve. The one who found the ultimate prize first, takes it, no bargains.

Major. Diana called out softly to remind her leader, as they were all still on the edge in the case that the mountain cats discovered them.

As these thoughts fleeted through Clarks mind, on hearing the reminder of his second in command, he finally came to a decision. He no longer hesitated, as he started pushing his plan through immediately.

Benny, stay in your position and wait for us. Keep track of the beasts movements, and try your best not to get discovered. He quickly spoke into their connected comm, before turning to his other soldiers.

Soldiers, you heard me. This is my decision; we are forging forward through this tunnel. Does anyone have an objection to this decision? If you have, speak out now?

No, sir.

Good.

Diana, stay behind with all the normal soldiers and lead them to follow me cautiously. I dont want any casualties this time, move and retreat carefully in tandem.

Ok, sir.

I will lead all the high-grade soldiers forward to regroup with Benny to form a vanguard group, that will detect problems ahead and warn you guys at the back to avoid it.

Everyone, keep your eyes open and be alert. Check your equipment again to make sure they are working optimally, make sure your night vision goggles are working properly, and keep your comms connected to the network always.

You dare lose connection and leave the group, even if its by mistake, youre dead. I will tell you the cold hard truth, no one will sacrifice himself to save you. If I can save you, I will, but if I cant, you die, so be sharp.

Yes, sir!!

For those who are on life support systems, make sure they are safely kept inside your exotic armors to prevent any stories that touch. You dont want to escape from the beasts, then later suffocate to death.

I think thats all for now. Keep your ears peeled for any new information, this is an unknown region and we would definitely encounter unexpected situations.

Ok, soldiers, follow me.

With that, Clark finally turned around as the vanguard group followed him deeper into the tunnel.

As they went deeper, the background light gradually grew dim before becoming completely dark, but this did not affect them as they already had their military night vision goggles on.

It did not take long before they finally regrouped with Bennys small group of 5, as they finally laid their eyes before this mysterious-looking tunnel that was occupied by beasts.

You 4, go back and regroup with the backtrack group. Only high-grade soldiers are needed in the vanguard group. Clark whispered to the soldiers that were with Benny.

Yes, Major.

As soon as the soldiers left, he finally calmed his heart before looking at the pits and large holes made by these mountain cats as houses.

From their location, they could see where the first house of the cats was roughly constructed.

Just like entering the region of a city, the soldiers were shocked on seeing the big holes of different sizes and shapes that were dug into the extremely hard mountain walls of the tunnel.

The different holes rambled widely across their sight, looking like buildings, thereby making the inside of the tunnel more spread out and wide than the region they just emerged from.

Is it cats that dug and built such caves inside this tunnel-like humans? The soldiers were shocked. The stunning outlook of the cat nest was too mind-blowing to be the work of animals.

And how the hell did their claws dig into those hard rocks? They shuddered when thinking of this, and the possibility of those claws digging into their flesh was making them feel like ants were crawling through their bodies.

The first cat finally came into sight, it was sleeping peacefully behind the first hole which served as their home.

It was a big black-furred cat, with sharp claws that were faintly scratching the walls beside it despite it still asleep. Its long dagger-like teeth showed through its big maw, as it was widely opened due to its snoring.

Like this was just an interlude, after the first cat, the other cats finally started coming into their sights.

Cats of different colors and sizes were all over the tunnel. Most of them were asleep, which left the soldiers wondering, but the others were awake doing different random things.

As the soldiers eyes looked across like they were scanning devices, they finally locked on to the cat which slept majestically at the hole dug in the zenith of this tunnel top.

The giant grey-furred cat seemed like a beast that was directly fished out of a movie of dragons and phoenixes, its intimidating sleeping posture and grandeur could be felt by the soldiers despite the distance between them.

Is this the legendary puss in boots?

As different and completely random thoughts of fear and dread started being cooked up in the soldiers hearts due to this sight, Clark finally spoke out again, this time in a grave tone.

Its a big cat with 2nd rank high-grade strength, probably already at the pinnacle of the rank. This is a dangerous predator exobeast.

Hearing this from their always reliable Major, the soldiers felt light-headed all of a sudden. All of them had grim expressions on their faces, as the thought of retreating started rearing its ugly head.

I know what you are all thinking of, but I dont think that its necessary, I already analyzed our chances thoroughly with the help of my implant, and it was fairly good in our favor.

So fast?

Yes, so fast.

Now, listen to me. If all of you follow my instructions and directives to the paper, we have more than a 60% chance of emerging out of this tunnel completely unscathed.

The soldiers ears suddenly stood straight like antennas on hearing this, as they all paid maximum attention to hear their Majors plan.

Due to a reason that I still dont know currently, these cats are from a rare breed that mostly sleeps in the day, and is more active at night. This is the main basis advantage of our escape, that we should capitalize on.

To escape, all of you should re-configure your exotic boots from semi-silence step coverage to maximum silence step coverage.

The soldiers suddenly widened their eyes at this. Sir, thats too much, the energy consumption would be too much for our boots!!

F*ck, shut up and lower your voices. Do you want to botch our chances? Clark bonked the nearest soldier on the head, as he looked around to see if any cat was startled by the faint noise.

Seeing none, he heaved a sigh of relief before turning to glare at his soldiers.

No, we dont. Sorry sir, but

Be quiet and listen to me, I already calculated everything through. All you have to do is to tone down the configuration of your boots other uses that consume energy, you dont need it now.

And if we get out of the tunnel to the other side successfully, I intend for the whole squad to rest to recover our strength and for your devices which use energy to be recharged.

Oh, ok, sir. Though the soldiers were still a little apprehensive, they still compromised as Clark was the main decision-maker here, not them.

Them even complaining at first was already disrespect to a superior, but Clark ignored those trivialities generously.

Ok, listen, these are the details on how we should go directly. Our rear team, Diana, I hope you are all listening?

Yes, sir. Diana aptly replied.

Ok, this is what you all have to do. For the normal soldiers, go

A few minutes later, Clark finally finished explaining his plan to his soldiers. Though it took some time for them to comprehend everything, when they finally did, they found that the plan was feasible.

This made them all heave a sigh of relief, as they did not really want to lose their lives meaninglessly just to move faster.

Ok, follow my moves to the book. Lets move.

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it. Sorry, there was a mistake here, I just rectified it. If you love this book, please leave your power stones behind to support it. Purchase privilege for The Conspiracy Of The Elites and read a varying amount of chapters ahead of regular readers.]