First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess-Chapter 429: Underground Attack

Xavier moved through the wreckage like the place had been designed for him specifically. Walls split where Serpent’s Fang passed, reinforced doors tearing apart in segmented arcs before collapsing inward. Alarms screamed overhead, then died one by one as power conduits were severed or crushed. Smoke hung low, mixed with the sharp smell of burnt metal and blood.

Arlen took the left corridor, guns steady, shots controlled and final. She didn’t waste ammo, didn’t look back, already past each body before it hit the floor. Rin stayed close to Xavier’s flank, blades working fast in tight spaces, clean movements meant for hallways and panic. Klatos anchored the rear, heavy weapons thundering when resistance clustered, explosives planted with practiced hands whenever the structure needed encouragement to fail.

They weren’t searching yet. This wasn’t the place.

Xavier felt it as he tore through another bulkhead, the faint pull in his chest that told him this was only a waypoint. Bull’s trail didn’t end here. It curved, twisted, and led deeper into Jupiter’s underbelly.

"Keep moving," he said. "We’re not done. Find the main guy and get the access card from him."

Once Xavier said it, the bunker stopped being a structure and turned into a problem that needed to be erased.

They pushed deeper, not charging blindly, but moving with intent. Arlen stayed half a step ahead, guns steady, clearing intersections before anyone inside could even finish shouting warnings. Shots echoed, each one ending something permanently.

Rin worked the narrow spaces, blades flashing when someone tried to rush them, steel meeting flesh in close quarters where guns became a liability.

Klatos took care of what resisted.

Heavy doors buckled under concentrated fire. Barricades vanished in controlled blasts. Anyone who thought hiding behind bulkheads or reinforced cover would save them learned quickly how wrong that assumption was. The bunker shook under its own failing systems, alarms screaming over each other as power rerouted itself in panic.

"This place is folding," Rin muttered as another corridor collapsed behind them.

"Good," Xavier replied. "We didn’t see him on our way in, which means he’s still inside."

They found the trail without trying.

Dead guards clustered near a junction that led downward. Defensive positions hastily set and abandoned. A control panel ripped open where someone had tried to seal the route and failed. Fear left patterns. Xavier followed them.

The final chamber sat behind layered shielding, thicker than anything else in the facility. Someone had put real effort into this one. Klatos raised a launcher instinctively.

"No," Xavier said. "Open it."

Serpent’s Fang unfolded.

The segmented blade cracked forward, tearing into the shielding in violent arcs. Metal screamed. Reinforcement snapped. The door caved inward under repeated strikes until it finally gave way and collapsed into the room beyond.

The commander was there.

Crouched behind a console, breathing hard, eyes darting between dead screens and the ruined entrance. His weapon slipped from his grip when he saw Xavier step through the smoke.

"You shouldn’t be here," he said, voice breaking. "This place was supposed to—"

"Shut it. You went into hiding," Xavier said, stopping a few steps away. "That usually means you know something worth taking."

The man shook his head. "I don’t have anything. I swear."

Xavier glanced at the console, then at the man’s chest. A card hung there, clipped inside his jacket, blinking faintly.

Rin noticed it too. "Looks like you’re lying."

The commander backed up until his spine hit the wall. "You don’t understand what you’re stepping into."

Xavier leaned closer. "I do. That’s why I’m here."

The man finally looked up at Xavier, eyes wide now, panic cutting through whatever authority he thought he still had.

"How did you find this place?" he blurted out. "Was it you? Was it you who destroyed the other three bases?"

Xavier didn’t answer. He reached forward and pulled the access card from the man’s chest. The card came free with a soft snap.

The man’s breath hitched. "Then who betrayed us?" he demanded, voice cracking. "Who sold us out? I need to know who it was."

Xavier didn’t even look at him. He tilted his head slightly toward Rin.

Rin understood immediately.

His blade flashed once, and the question died with the man.

Xavier turned away as the body hit the floor. He flipped the access card in his hand, feeling its weight, then walked to the console embedded into the wall. The slot accepted the card with a clean click, lights flaring to life across the surface as systems unlocked layer by layer.

Before the screens fully populated, he paused.

"Hold on."

He rested his palm against the console, fingers spreading slightly as his system interfaced through the surface. It wasn’t elegant and it wasn’t clean, but it worked. The console stuttered, then complied, pulling a deeper authentication layer that the card alone hadn’t triggered.

Xavier exhaled through his nose. "There it is."

The display shifted again, folders rearranging themselves, hidden permissions surfacing. Some files were marked restricted even at this level, chained upward to higher authorities that weren’t present here.

He scoffed quietly, almost amused. "As if betrayal is even needed anymore."

The screens were filled with data streams, logs, movement feeds, transaction paths. Everything laid bare and badly protected.

"It’s all here," Xavier said, more to the room than anyone else. "Logged, archived, cross-referenced. Anyone with access can trace it. And the higher you climb, the better the card you need."

He glanced at the dead man on the floor. "Which means we stop wasting time on middlemen."

Arlen stepped in without being asked. She plugged her device into the console, fingers moving fast as she pulled data, mirrored feeds, copied logs. "I’ve got it," she said. "Routing everything through my channels and flagging it with my station. They’ll see what I want them to see."

"Good," Xavier replied.

When she disconnected, he clapped his hands once with an excited look on his face. "Alright. Let’s loot this place before the cops show up."

Klatos snorted as he checked a crate nearby. "Van’s already half full."

Xavier grinned. "Then let’s finish the job."

They spread out immediately, tearing through storage, ripping equipment free, grabbing anything that looked valuable or useful.