Amid the bright flashes of cutting beams, another metal gate blocking our way was bored full of holes. Obviously, this was no place to let Pandora keep blasting everything with her hand cannon, so the task of clearing the way fell to the accompanying Autonomous Machines. These little engineering units were not very intelligent, but they could handle almost any complicated task, including scouting, opening doors, clearing mines, and keeping Qian Qian entertained. We had already reached the Second Level of the Workstation. Starting from here, it seemed we might finally find something.
We had found nothing valuable on the first level. It had probably been the living quarters for the soldiers and researchers stationed here, along with several empty temporary hangars. No research facilities or important data-recording equipment had been found in those rooms. Only two or three damaged Data Terminals had been discovered in one set of Living Quarters, all critically malfunctioning and impossible to power on. The accompanying Engineering Soldiers had transmitted them to the laboratory aboard the mothership, hoping the scientists stationed there could extract some intelligence from them, though it was unlikely to be anything important. The second level, meanwhile, appeared to have brought us into the Work Area of the Workstation. There were sealed doors with warning labels along the corridors. This was most likely an area for "general-threat-level research" related to the Abyss, and the only likely project we could think of was the Deep Diving Project.
The group passed through the hole in the gate and entered what appeared to be a research facility. It was a large hexagonal hall, much like the layout of most laboratories. The floor in the center of the hall was slightly sunken, as though an important piece of equipment had once been placed there. Now, only