Exploration 2

Emperor Maximo's laboratory was also located within Valles Marineris.

It lay more than three hundred kilometers from the central command base, beneath a stretch of reddish-brown cliff face.

If one did not get close, it would be easy to overlook the entrance.

It was a massive stone gate over a hundred meters tall and fifty meters wide. Its surface also appeared reddish-brown, so from even a slight distance—or without careful observation—it could easily be mistaken for part of the cliff.

Prometheus was the only Decepticon engineer accompanying this operation. He had also brought several technical officers and two squads of Engineers.

After arriving at their destination aboard four armed transport ships, Prometheus disembarked and went straight to inspect the cliff face.

That enormous stone gate, visible only at close range, was naturally his primary focus.

After examining it carefully, Prometheus's expression turned grave. "This isn't stone!"

He turned to Sun Cheng. "Commander, this door is made of a metal I've never encountered before. It's very strange—it possesses some of stone's properties, but its essence is metal."

Prometheus searched through his database for quite some time before finding a fitting description.

"It's extremely similar to a concept we've proposed internally: mimetic metal!"

Although Sun Cheng could not yet be considered a scientist, the knowledge he had accumulated over the years meant he was no less capable than any Decepticon engineer.

Hearing this, he stepped forward and briefly inspected the stone gate before nodding slightly.

Just as Prometheus had said, the gate was exceedingly strange. The scan data showed that its composition was broadly similar to the surrounding cliff, yet it was dozens of times harder.

Moreover, even with his detection abilities, he could only vaguely observe an empty passage beyond the gate. He could not probe any deeper.

Still, Sun Cheng