Since their objective was beneath the ruins of a city, once the Medivac had used its tractor beam to set Annie and the two assault squads' investigation teams—thirteen people in all—down outside the entrance to the underground facility, the pilot quickly turned around and left with the three escorting Vikings.
Of course, the pilots had no intention of abandoning the investigation team entirely. They simply didn't dare linger because of the strange magnetic field that could cause mental abnormalities. Instead, they returned for now to a forward airfield at a military camp outside the city to rest and stand by.
If needed, they could reach any location in this small highland city within minutes of receiving a message or spotting the investigation team emerging from the underground ruins. They could provide a bombing strike, medical support, or a rapid extraction, among other things.
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The investigation team members didn't mind the Medivac and its escort leaving.
Under the colonel's command, they immediately activated their mass effect shields, kinetic barriers, and a protective barrier based on Protoss technology that could block spiritual and soul contamination to some extent. Then, in combat formation, they filed into the underground facility, which had been converted from the ruins of an ancient civilization.
As soon as they entered, they could see that, just as the information they'd reviewed had said, the facility had indeed been adapted from an ancient ruin. Apart from the lighting and necessary signs, many areas still retained a primitive architectural style entirely unlike that of Canopy Star's human civilization.
And because it had been built with special natural stone and lay underground, it had remained largely intact despite the passage of who knew how many tens of thousands of years. Everyone, entering for the first time, couldn't