(Here they come…)
Having entered the 6th floor and immediately fired a shot, Mac took a knee as the Lynx formation was still piling in behind him. Keeping a steady aim as he was joined in his gun line by drones, Mac heard the first roar from up ahead as the monsters he had attracted started appearing.
(As for the layout, this isn't the worst place to wipe out most of the monsters on this floor…)
The entrance to the 6th floor was located in a dead end of the maze, with a T cross 20 meters ahead the monsters had to charge Mac and his drones.
"Make sure to remain inside the Lynx unless I say otherwise, overpressure will hurt more than just your ears."
Warning the adventurers to stay inside their Lynx transport as the first monster appeared around the corner, Mac checked to make sure everything was ready for contact. The minotaur stood at 5 meters tall, and compared to the ones he had seen before, this one wasn't riddled with old injuries, it was a hulking beast packed with muscles and filled with rage as it charged Mac and his drones. The monster made it no more than 3 steps before Mac put a metal slug into its head.
"Hold. No need to waste too much ammunition."
Watching the monster stumble and fall, Mac tasked one of the Lynx gun carriers to emit a sensor growl as he held position. In the following minutes two monster corpses became 15 as the onslaught eventually thinned out enough for Mac to start moving.
"Advance."
Moving in two person groups, Mac and the human type drones started securing and locking down corners before the Lynx transports advanced Mac made sure to create a rear guard as the group started moving at a walking pace.
"Did we settle on floor 26 as the next stop?"
Talking to the Red claw party still inside their transport, Mac had Ula's response broadcasted by the transport's external speakers.
[Yes we did, but that route takes us directly through the high activity central part of this floor, you should expect to attract most if not all of the monsters with the sounds of gunfire.]
"Noted, then we mount up and go fast instead of getting bugged down."
Switching plans, Mac and the other human type drones attached themselves magnetically to the sides of the leading Lynx gun carrier as the entire convoy sped up. Hanging off the side of the gun carrier by one arm with his leg on a narrow floorboard, Mac raised his rifle to the sky as the Lynx's turret came alive and loaded a 61mm high explosive dual purpose round into its swing breach.
(2 on the left, 5 on the right and 1 ahead, wipe them out.)
Opening fire with its coaxial 6.5mm machine gun the Lynx tore through the closest target quickly, then its turret snapped to a concentration of monsters before firing its main gun. The 61mm projectile, programmed as it passed through the muzzle break, only flew for a fraction of a second before it blew up mid-air, shattering shrapnel around a corner where a group of minotaurs were approaching and briefly knocked them out with the blast wave. Releasing a sensor growl as it sent the spent 61mm casing flying into the ceiling of the maze, the Lynx gun carrier continued firing its coax as the convoy raced along.
"Now I understand where his confidence in clearing at least 5 floors a day came from…"
Following the action from inside the Lynx transport, Ula was amazed at how fast they were moving, and how efficiently Mac was wiping out the monsters in their way. From the kind of monsters Mac had been told they would run into he didn't sound worried, and now seeing minotaurs being slaughtered as they moved along at a blistering speed it made sense.
"Still, there's no way he can keep this up."
Mac's limiting factor was ammunition. While Liz and Carl could fight for multiple days without issue Mac required ammunition for his weapons to work, and of the 5 Lynx transports in the convoy only a pair of them was dedicated to ammunition. Still, this was according to plan, as Mac and the others were planning to smash through the early floors fast using Mac's firepower, then switch to combined offensives when tougher monsters started appearing.
When it was time to make camp for the first day, Mac and the adventurers had made it 6 floors down and as Elizabeth and the others were making camp by setting up tents in the centre of the parked Lynx's Mac was busy staring at the evening sky slowly turning dark from its orange hue.
"What's for dinner?"
Having finished pitching her tent and laying out her sleeping back by tossing into it, Elizabeth approached Mac who was still busy staring at the sky.
"That's up to what kind of ration you pick, I'll show you how they work in a bit."
Speaking to her without looking down, Mac continued looking into the sky and got Liz a bit curious as to what he was looking after.
"What's so interesting about the sky?"
"... It's the light that's strange. It doesn't seem to come from a star, yet it carefully mimics sunlight scattering through an atmosphere."
"Perhaps it just worked out that way."
For all the time she had spent inside dungeons like this one, Liz didn't really put that much thought into how they functioned as it didn't really matter to her, she was there to explore and kill monsters.
"Yeah, that seems to be the case, let's go eat."
Dropping the line of inquiry for the moment, Mac finally stopped looking at the sky and followed Elizabeth back to the tents where the rest of the party were finishing up.
"Food and water is packed in these 3 transports, but I would like it for you all to empty them out evenly."
Getting the adventurers attention with the mention of food, Mac walked over to one of the Lynx transports containing provisions and opened its rear door. The inside of the transport was tightly packed with boxes and Mac continued explaining as he grabbed one of the top ones before closing the door again.
"Each box with rations contains 12 pouches, these pouches each contain a random main dish that is self heating, a sweet snack, some kind of bread with spread, an energy bar and some kind of drink powder."
Tossing Elizabeth and the others one of the pouches each, Mac demonstrated how to open them as the adventurers started reading and comparing what their individual pack contained.
"I got pork stew with rice."
"Mine says beef sausages with mash."
"Let's see… 'Mixed meat L-lasagne'? Whatever that is."
"Mine has barbecue chicken taco filling? No idea what that is either."
"What the hell is mac and cheese, and why is it 'loaded'?"
Receiving mixed reactions from the adventurers when they read off their main dishes, Mac realised he hadn't considered the local customs when getting FLAC to design and fabricate these rations, still they shouldn't contain anything the people of this world couldn't or wouldn't eat, so they just needed to try them out.
"That's the names of the warm dishes contained in the packs, other than those the rest of the contents are random, but always labeled."
Opening his own pack labeled 'beef ramen' Mac demonstrated the tactical way to unpack the spork using only one hand as he produced his pack's main dish with his free hand.
"The warm dish always comes in a pack like this."
Showing the rectangular pack with the same label, Mac demonstrated how they would need to pull a pin out from the bottom of the pack and wait 2 minutes before opening their now warmed meal.
"Ooh mine is warmed up!"
"And it smells amazing!"
By the time they opened their warm meals the scepticism had all but disappeared, and while Ula and Dexter marveled at the lovely scents assaulting their senses, Jack and the siblings had simply started wafting down their food at impressive speed.
After a surprisingly competent meal Liz and the others were taught how to use the drink powder with supplied canteens which they also gave glowing reviews.
"I've packed enough of these ration packs that each of you can eat two a day, but there are only 20 different packs so it is likely that you'll get to eat the same one a few times."
"That is way better than we usually eat."
"Yeah, normally we would be eating the same simple stew for days at a time, this is way better."
Remembering the simple stew made of salted meat and pickled vegetables they would normally eat for weeks at a time with hardtack, Liz didn't even need to think for second before she declared these rations superior.
Disguising food and looking at some of the other ration packs as a group, Liz and the others eventually settled in for the night with Mac taking the night watch.
Although Mac promised to keep watch for the entire night Liz was still a creature of habit and woke up some time doing the night to take over.
(... Shit.)
Suddenly aware and very awake, Liz rolled around a few times before she accepted she couldn't fall asleep again and started feeling around in the dark for some clothes. Emerging out of her tent half dressed with her canteen, Liz scratched her belly as she stifled a yawn and looked around, finding it to be about an hour from sunrise. Gattering a bit of strength in her legs as she couched down, Liz leapt into the air, landing on top of one of the Lynx gun carriers right next to Mac.
"Morning."
"... Yeah, morning."
A bit slow to respond, Mac sat cradling a SOD-09 suppressed short rifle he had used to guard camp. Outside the perimeter lay a few monsters now fertilizing the dirt, as they had approached deliberately or wandered close on accident Mac had shot them dead without waking the people sleeping inside camp.
"Anything troubling you though the night?"
"Nah, I just woke up early out of habit."
Stifling another yawn as she looked towards the rising 'sun', Liz took a swig of her canteen, filled with lemonade made from powder.
"Are you sure we don't need to keep watch with you?"
When Mac had offered to keep watch alone Liz had found it strange, but it appeared he had made it through the night alright.
"No, it's fine. I don't really need to sleep."
Taking a swig of Liz's canteen when it was offered to him, Mac put down his rifle and stretched.
"But I might need some help when we get a bit deeper, if nothing else it would be nice to have someone to talk with during the night."
"Just say the word, we aren't really doing much at the moment."
If anything this felt more like a vacation than dungeon diving to Liz, she had slept comfortably all night, eaten great food and was genuinely relaxed, so taking a few night watches was no skin off her back.
"Sure, I'll be sure to ask for help when I need it."
As the conversation slowly died down Mac and Liz returned to silently watching the sun rise. In this early morning the dungeon appeared almost tranquil, there were no monsters to speak of at the moment, and the floating island that was the floor was a verdant grassland, if only lacking the morning songs of birds.
Still, Liz was well aware that this was a false sense of security. Dungeons were a treacherous thing, without warning they would swallow up overconfident, unlucky or unprepared adventurers and this ever present danger would only increase the further down they went.
It was because of this Liz really appreciated this silent moment of quiet tranquility to rest, relax and recuperate.
Even if it merely was the quiet prelude to a violent storm.