Chapter 2: Tawantinsuyu
Girain had prepared for her mission well, it wasn't her first time out on the field alone and she had back up in the forms of humans she works with. She had to ditch the MFS missile packs due to them not fitting the cramped and claustrophobic spaces of where she was going. As far as weapon concerns, she had only her dual wrist mounted railguns to rely on, the other being her oral AZC and chest mounted Plasma Grenade Launcher. Even then she was still a walking arsenal.
She was being airlifted across the Pacific Ocean from Blacksite Mike India-04 using White Heron transports that were signature transports for MFS units. As she took off from the runway of the GDI's PACOM base she could see the archipelago from a high up position but she can't turn her head around to observe more of it from the air.
The island chains consist of a handful of large islands near one another with dense, teeming tropical rainforests and lush jungle, the one she lived and worked on was populated by humans of Monarch and GDI with a Godzilla family that she interacts with on a regular basis. Other islands however were still unpopulated at this point.
The flight to Peru for her would take up around six and a half hours to travel there partly due to the need to refuel mid flight for the Herons as they carry her over to Peru. The competition was not far behind with Orion Sword now scrambling to dispatch their chosen Rex Unit. Out in an open stretch of land, sitting on a highway out in the Taklamakan desert, a massive flying wing shaped aircraft or rather, aerial transport ship, was warming up its engine after being taxied into position for take off, tucked in the bombay under the plane's hull and fuselage was Stuka.
The Rex unit was magnetically hooked to the ceiling of the bombay area with his head looking downward as the engines hummed and purred. "Come in Nest this is Ark flight lead, we got assets in place and ready to go. Over." the pilot spoke on the radio to his flight boss on the tarmac overlooking the makeshift runway. "Ark Lead this is Nest, you're clear for take off, expecting heavy wind and sandstorm in around 10 minutes, better make it fast. Out."
With that in mind, the pilot of the flying wing, who sat behind a remote control screen safe in the comfort of his underground base began to program take off protocols and let the Ark take off on its own. The jet engines roar out and thrusters kicked into overdrive with the VX craft picking up momentum along the highway before taking off into the sky.
"Nest this is Ark Lead, we're in the air, heading to objective now." The pilot reported over the comms as he watched the unmanned flying wing flew across Central Asia heading West, across the Middle East and North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.
[hr]
October 25th, 2026
6 hours later, 08:05 Hours
Vilcabamba, Peru
She finally arrived at Peru, land of the Incas and one of the cradles of civilization. The Heron dropped her off once her feet and tail had touched the ground, once she was on her own, Girain glanced around taking in her surroundings. She consulted her map and GPS system and compass displayed on her HUD allowing her to see that she was on the foothill of the Andes, right in front of the footpath.
She shivered however when she felt the cold breezes from the Andes blew down at her, it didn't help with the fact that her metal armor made her synthetic flesh and muscles underneath the protective plates shiver. The sensational feedback made her wish for shelter from the wind and cold air as reptiles hated the cold climate. "Let's get this over with…" She shivered in thought as she began to make her way up the mountains following the footpath.
She took notice from a ground level, it looked like a large paved highway snaking along the mountains, but the width alone is just too big for even modern Peru's road system and standards. In fact, even without the paved highway, the footpath itself was made for her to climb the mountain all the way.
The wind blew cold icy air down from the Andes at her, making her shiver and held her arms together to keep warm as she climbed the mountains, passing by ruins of Incan outposts, watchtowers, warehouses and even some statues and totems of Tawantinsuyu. But while she was climbing the Andes, she felt a tremor quaking through the area, causing her to lose balance and she quickly hugged the ground to find some grip. The tremor was brief however and it didn't seem to last long before dissipated, but this made her grew more concerning.
"Overlord, Athena here, I just got an earthquake in the sector, slight tremor more like. Can you identify the source over?" She asked cautiously while looking around for signs of unknown causes or anything out of the ordinary. On the radio, General Grady halfway across the globe was looking at the War Room inside the GDI's PACOM base, one of the monitors there was a Geologist who was observing seismic activities along the Andes. "We hear you, stand by. It looks like there's no signs suggesting a natural Earthquake in your area. Our radar did pick up a blip over the epicenter of the quake though, could be hostile." Grady cautioned her, prompting Girain to nod and looked over to the East where the quake was reported.
There were mountains obscuring her view but she could made a guess that somewhere in that area could be a hostile entity. "Orion Sword?" She asked. "You bet your nickel and dime they might be nearby. Watch your back out there. High clouds are preventing our Sats from getting visual confirmation, we're also getting blizzard reports coming on the mountain you're on so stay sharp."
With that in mind she resumed her journey up the Andes, eventually arriving at a snowy summit where before her eyes stood an enormous stone gate. The structure seem to have carvings and imagery of a Titan, a Godzilla in fact. On each of the gate, there was a Godzilla both looking towards something in the middle, a circular shape that stood high above them with humans below their feet. The coloration had faded however by the wind and climate leaving rooms for Girain to interpret it.
"You guys seeing this?" Girain asked over the comms while her eyes stream video feeds back to GDI TOC in Cusco, Peru and Monarch personnel Sam Coleman and Rick Stanton there. "Coming in five by five, pretty impressive stuff there big girl. Any ideas how to open it?" Rick asked her while stroking his chin, looking over the depictions and art style on the stone gate he could infer that Incans may had at one point lived with a Godzilla, revered it as their god and patron.
"Not even a pin could open it. This is Incan stone work for you. They're giant jigsaw puzzles made of rocks." She replied with a sigh before she started to look around at the entrance for something that can open the doors. With her height she noticed that at the top of the gate there were various glyphs and pictographs of birds. She climbed up on the mountain side to gain a better vantage point of the glyphs and saw that this wasn't Incan glyph, but rather a stylized bird of the Chimu culture.
There were three blocks of stone with the image of the motifs, the one in the center appeared to have a cylindrical button that she pressed on instinct, once she climbed down however she soon felt an uneasy feeling crawling up her spine. "Guys, I don't think I'm alone here." Said Girain as she armed her railguns and scan the area for possible threats. "Hold on, I got something here… wait a second… it's right behind you!" Sam called out urgently as Girain turned around looking at the footpath only to find a Rex Unit, R-1001 Stuka emerging up at her. He had his G36K rifle aiming at her face as they stare at one another.
"Oh great, who invited these guys?" Girain sarcastically huffed out seeing Stuka as he remained silent while maintaining his attention on her. "Target sighted Unit Athena." Stuka uttered robotically. "Sorry but this place is taken, find your own archaeological site." She sarcastically retorted at him presumably at his human commander as well by extension. "Mission objective stands, investigate unknown site in the Andes. Engaged only when under direct hostile contact." Stuka remarked in a deadpan manner, completely dull and lifeless despite his voice to her sounding very much organic.
"Somebody's gonna make a meme out of this soon." Sam awkwardly commented at the intense stand-off the two were having as they kept their weapons pointed at each other's faces ready to pull the trigger at a moment's notice. But while the two were having their stand-offs, the stone gate opened up releasing the cold breeze inside out at them.
The two were quickly greeted by the sound of loud and vicious snarls of feral beasts within, they both glanced over their shoulders towards the entrance of the tomb, from inside the cavern out came a pack of ferocious serpent like Titans, each one having a pair of pale eyes that slipped inside protected by the carapaces of their long straight jagged skulls. Their body scale was grey and leathery, some patches of flesh were torn off revealing bones within their bodies. They didn't have any legs, other than a long tail with their arms being the only means to traverse around or manipulate objects. "Oh shit… Skullcrawlers." Rick gasped in shock, though he was sitting in Lima, it felt all too real for him.
The two Godzillas were jumped upon by the monsters as they hastily turned their weapons and aimed at the charging beasts. Girain herself fired off two railgun slugs consecutively at one pouncing Titan, slaying it almost immediately just before it could land on her. She then tossed the corpse aside just as it was falling on her.
While then Stuka quickly aimed at one Skullcrawler that was zigzagging at him, using his Augmented Reality HUD, the green cyan ballistic trajectory calculation led him to aim just in front of the beast and pulled the trigger. Slaying one with precision while then his shoulder mounted autocannon flipped up and open fire on another to his side, throwing it off the mountains with a hail of lead.
Girain who was holding back at her enemies saw that one was charging at her so she quickly gave it a tail swipe across the face, throwing it at Stuka's back. His reflex was lighting fast for a Godzilla, his onboard sensors picked up the incoming monster allowing him to dash aside letting it fall in front of him, slamming into another Skullcrawler, this was the moment that he opened the mouthpiece of his helmet. His dorsal plates pulsiated, flashing blue before a blue atomic breath escaped his mouth blasting at the Skullcrawlers and pushed, completely incinerate them.
"Targets neutralized, area secured." Stuka reported blankly but as Girain looked around again, she realized that there was something not right, the commotion they just pulled would no doubt caused something to follow. And soon enough, an avalanche from the mountain top was coming down on them. "Oh shit! Avalanche!" She shouted out loud before hastily make a run into the entrance, along the way, she quickly wrapped her arm around Stuka's side and made a dolphin dive into the interior of the tunnel while the snow pile up behind them, blocking the entrance completely. "Well… guess there's no going back out that way." She sighed at the sight.
Stuka grunted as he got up to his feet, with the low light level his cyan optics and Girain's sapphire eyes were their only sources of light in the dark other than their night vision modes. "No damage sustained to platform, all suit control system nominal. Prosthetic limbs operational. Thank you for saving my life." He bowed his head briefly to Girain and in an oddly grateful manner causing her to raise her hands up defensively. "It's… it's nothing really. You did even up the odds out there with those Skullcrawlers." She replied to him in a more casual manner.
"Stone layers are too thick, our radio signal to the outside world is blocked. Recommended course of action: survival and complete mission objective." Stuka replied blankly as his radio static could not penetrate the thick layer of Incan stone architect leaving them stranded inside the tunnel and a presumed path downward. "Great… just so we're clear, the moment we're out of this place it's back to business." Girain sternly reminded him to which Stuka nodded understandingly. "Affirmative, the feeling's mutual to you Unit Athena." Said Stuka.
[hr]
"Sam you got her signal? I can't get a drone over the area due to the blizzard." Rick asked Sam who was typing away various command prompts on his field laptop bearing a Monarch logo. "I'm working on it, can't get a signal from here either. Artificial heartbeats are okay, still reading lifesigns and heat signatures from the satellite." Said Coleman as he pushed up satellite feed of the area to Rick and other Monarch personnel in the TOC.
The personnel there saw on the satellite feed, two white heat signatures moving within the mountainous caverns and tunnels with the red outlines being too vague and faint to clearly define the structural complex they were in. "Jesus Christ let's hope they don't get personal in there." Rick cursed out as he quickly ran over to grab the nearest satellite phone and call back to General Grady.
[hr]
The satellite call by Rick was being monitored by Orion Sword with their SIGINT and ELINT specialists tracing the satellite cell signals from Cusco towards the Pacific Islands that was PACOM Base. Lenox the imposing leader of Orion Sword along with his trusted second in command, Joe Marshall listened in closely with interest as the other Orion Sword personnel were beginning to grow troubled by the transpired events.
"Yes I am telling you that she is stuck inside the mountain! We need to deploy our QRF now and search the area! If we move fast enough we might catch that sonuva bitch Grey's pet Rex Unit there!" Rick's voice spoke out to General Grady with a growl and snarl as he conveyed the situation with fiery passion. "Say no more." General Grady replied tersely with a dry tone before he picked up the headset to the GDI QRF expeditionary task force in Peru. "Task Force Panther, Sunrise. I repeat Sunrise. You are mission go, happy hunting and make it double time. We have a stranded MFS unit and I want the entrance to that complex dug out fast." Said Grady with gruff voice over the radio.
"That does not bode well for anyone. Deploy our QRF and Rex Recovery Unit on stand by right now. We need to make sure Stuka won't fall into their hands." Grey ordered calmly to his lieutenant who then relayed the order to Orion Sword forces in Peru, presented to them as holographic symbol on a scalable touch screen hologram diagram. "Knowing Athena's personality and Stuka's training, do you expect them to have trouble with each other?" Joe asked cautiously, to which Grey only gave a rather nonchalant remark. "Some, but ultimately inconsequential. Considering their situations, I would have no doubt that they would cooperate for personal survival." Said Grey.
[hr]
Back inside the tunnel, Girain and Stuka were exploring the areas deep inside, completely isolated from the development of the outside world. The two at first followed the straight forward path of the tunnel heading deeper inside the mountain cave. But all around them were constant reminders of human architect scaled up to their sizes.
The Incan stone blocks built and carved into a jigsaw puzzle stacked on one another in such perfectly fit manner that not even a pin can get between the crevices of the stones. Or in the case of Stuka, not even his sharp and narrow tonfa blades can slip between the stones.
The path they were following soon branched off into two lanes, one on their left headed up a slope into a parallel section for humans and the right side was for a Godzilla. Due to the small size of their lane, Stuka and Girain had to go in a single file with Stuka leading the way while Girain followed him. As the two walked along the right lane into the interior of Vilcabamba, Girain glanced over noticing that the human lane was noticeably built to the height of her and Stuka's head so that they could see the humans activities.
"How did they coexist so well?" Girain wondered out loud as she zoomed in to observe the stone Incan mountain cave highway system seeing the rectangular tunnel being carved out of rock and wide enough for two separate lanes of humans flowing in and out of the area. Not only that but there were enough stairways leading to other sections of the area. "Unknown, architectural evidence defies all known historical records." Said Stuka robotically as he observe the area they were in.
The two would soon find themselves by a wide corridor where the stone tile sunk down upon being stepped on. This caused them both to feel a bone chilling dread as Stuka made a dash across the corridor on instinct. Perhaps motivated by fear or survival instinct, he passed by various stakes shooting out of the wall, leaving Girain to stand by the tile alone.
He looked back at her and saw that the corridor was segmented into safe spaces sandwiched between the spikes shooting out of the wall. "My apologies unit Athena, I can't seem to stop the mechanism from here." He stated dully to her. Girain sighed out and rolled her eyes proverbially before looking around noticing a lever placed in an out of sight angle of the pillar.
She yanked the lever down and did the same to a twin lever next to it, in doing so, the spike traps cease fired and allow her to walk casually over to Stuka. "Thank you for the observation Stuka. At least you didn't just sit tight." She remarked with a bit of sarcastic snark at him before leading the way for him but not before tossing down a chemlight to mark their trails. "My turn now, let's go I think I can feel some air up ahead." True to her words, the two would come upon what appeared to be a multi story and layered residential area of Vilcabamba.
The place had a more natural, almost chaotic design to it with the Incan houses being built on the higher areas tucked to the rocky ridges or dug into the cave's stone wall itself there were also clusters of stone buildings on some spacious sections near the ceiling of the cave. In the center of Vilcabamba's residential area was waterhole, positioned directly below the sunlight where ice and snow can be melted down by the sun and drop into an all natural water supply and aqueduct system.
Stuka came over to it and knelt down by it before opening his mouthpiece, he clasped both hands into a cup and took some water from the waterhole, he drank a small sip of it and licked his lips briefly before the mouthpiece collapsed back to cover him up. "Water supply is pure enough. Safe for human consumption."
He stood up from the waterhole and took a look around his area and found that there were houses with mummies inside of them. Unlike burial mummies in Egypt, he saw that these mummies were clothed, they sat in the middle of the living room of the house with food presented to them. "Waste of resources, there is no efficiency in providing for mummies." He stated blankly, not quite understanding what he was seeing.
"This is Tawantinsuyu, they believed that the dead influence the living from beyond the grave. There are more important things to humans than just wealth to themselves." Girain remarked to Stuka as she took photos of the Incan mummies and their offerings. Hearing this Stuka quietly cocked his head aside being rather confused and curious. "Interrogative, what is important to humans outside of efficient nutrients and wealth or job training?" He asked her robotically.
Girain sighed out to Stuka having a hard time trying to explain to him the concepts, the problem for her was mainly Rex Units of Orion Sword were not given E-Learning Audio Books on matters outside of military concepts. "Like emotional, psychological needs. Those can influence their decision making and outlook more than just nickels and dimes." Girain scoffed at him before walking off to a nearby wall filled with decorative arts depicting a Godzilla sitting on what appeared to be a regal Solar Throne with the Incan people bowing before him.
The depiction also seem to have another man sitting on the lap of the Titan, humanlike but he didn't seem to have the same depiction as Incan emperors like Pachacuti, Atahualpa, Tupac Amaru let alone Manco Inca Yupanqui. Rather the humanoid figure had a significantly taller stature than the Incans worshipping him. At first she thought it was merely an artistic choice but the out of place clothing left her with even more questions.
She noticed however that in another depiction next to it this supposed unknown Incan emperor seem to hold something in his hands. A wheel or spherical object, one that was held aloft into the sky almost like the sun itself and from it, rays of light sparkled and reach out, touching the hearts and minds of the Incans and the Godzilla in the depiction. "What in the world?" She blunk and in a moment of haste, she took a photograph of the two depictions together.
Stuka came over to her and looked at the depictions of the Incan Emperor on the wall, he too felt something nauseous building up inside of him upon seeing the depiction. "Uh Stuka… tell me my optics are malfunctioning… because I'm fairly sure that no Incan emperor ever had quadruple arachnid legs for walking assistance." hearing this, Stuka simply blindly gave her a literal confirmation. "Your system appears to be nominal unit Athena. I however am experiencing some… uncomfortable feelings. Slight headache, aversion of unknown subject. Require more data input."
"Let's keep moving unless we want to be frostbitten mummies." Said Girain as she instinctively held Stuka's hand and tucked him slightly towards the direction of a nearby tunnel. He felt oddly calm and aroused when she held his hand, for a moment he felt his body chemicals and hormones had a brief spike, influencing his mind to hold on to her hand tighter as they traversed through a Godzilla sized tunnel.
For Girain, the feeling of his atomic warmth coursing through the robot gauntlet and glove of his Rex Unit suit gave Girain a slight pant and the feeling of pleasant company as she led him through a Godzillian tunnel out of the cavernous interior and out to a large valley.
The outdoor setting was a change in pace for the two of them with the sun shining down on their shiny metal exterior and reflected back into the sky, giving away their locations to the humans in the sky. They saw that the clouds had dissipated and allowing their IFF transponders to react appropriately to friendly signals.
Not far from their positions, Rick Stanton and Sam Coleman were aboard a Monarch marked CH-47C Chinook flying towards Vilcabamba with Sam working on a laptop trying to triangulate Girain's signal when suddenly his screen began to pick up faint signals of Girain's beacon and transponders coming from a valley deep within the mountains.
"I think I'm picking up her signal now. She's in a valley to the Northeast of the site's entry." Sam informed Rick, pointing him to the location highlighted on the screen. "Well that makes our job easier, but why is that Rex Unit sticking with her? And are they…" Rick's face turned pale with his expression turned to a much more embarrassing one.
"Sam… what do you think the old man is gonna say… when he sees this?" Stanton asked, pointing to the zoomed in overhead photo showing Girain and Stuka were apparently holding hands walking through the jungle of the valley. "Outside of Valentine's Day comment? Who knows." Coleman remarked with a shiver as they flew with a fleet of GDI Airborne Infantry transports ranging from UH-60 Blackhawks, Chinooks and MH-6 Little Birds escorting them into the narrow passes of the Andes.
On the opposite direction, a fleet of sleek, high tech angular stealth helos were seen flying over the jungles of the Amazon heading towards the Andes, they were in close proximity as well but these were all black aircraft with the Orion Sword emblem painted on their sides.
The fleet had two Heron transports though these were unmanned, with their vanguard being a quartet of RAH-66 Comanches alongside VTOL transports such as V-25 Goshawks, a stealth variant of the MV-22 Osprey. Sitting inside one of the Goshawk was an Orion Sword IT specialist with a military grade tablet on his lap as he pinched and pulled the screen to look up the valley's location where Stuka's GPS signal was being broadcast to them.
"Oh...uh...anybody here seeing this?" He asked awkwardly to the other Orion Sword troopers on the V-25 as they saw the photo of Girain and Stuka walking and holding hands together. "Is Athena being distracted from her mission?" One of them asked looking up the recorded footage and camera feed from Stuka's helmet optics. "If she is, then so is Stuka." Another grimace seeing the two mecha units apparently not killing each other for once.
[hr]
Down in the strange almost tropical like valley, Girain and Stuka noticed that the flora present there were strangely enough prehistoric. Stuka felt his dorsal plates and spines pulsiated to the radiation in the environment as he stepped on the grasses. He dug his ditigraded prosthetic legs into the ground, taking in the slightly ticklish sensation of having grass blades rustling under his feet.
He zoomed his optics on the blades of grass and leaves on tree branches and twigs and saw the patterns they had. The trees seem to have a segmented curve stump and body like modern day palm trees with the leaves at the top spread out into multiple directions like banana leaves or palm tree leaves. "Cretaceous period flora detected. It is impossible for them to grow on their own. Your hypothesis Unit Athena?" Stuka asked her before handing her a leaf for examination.
She took the leaf with both hands and observed its pattern, recording the heat signature and radiation level it emanates along with the samples for them to research. "I have no idea how is this possible. There are theories about gravity in pockets of the Earth, then there's the Hollow Earth theory…" She paused for a moment and looked up at his stiff and expressionless helmet, staring at him causing Stuka to blunk under his helmet and asked her. "Is something wrong?"
Girain gulped thickly as she stood up to Stuka and held the leaf in her hand as if it was a gift from him. "Well… there is something I need to ask you. Back at the corridor, you could have left me there and go on yourself. Why didn't you?" Hearing this Stuka seems to have an odd moment to process her question, he had an answer that was much more personal to her question. "You could have done the same to me at the gate, when the avalanche came, you saved me against the better logic of simply leave me to be buried in the snow or thrown off the mountains." Hearing this Girain had a moment of realization as her mouth opened slowly.
"Oh… well that was actually… I don't know what to say about that either." She awkwardly stuttered and look away for a moment being too embarrassed herself. "My odds of survival is greater if I cooperate with you. Therefore, it is only logical that I protect as you have protected me. There are reasons that motivate your action then that I have yet to understand." Girain smiled mentally hearing this, it was something of an assurance to her and an uplifting comment from her supposed enemy. "Well thank you Stuka…" She uttered out hesitantly almost like she was trying to hold back a giggle.
Their moment of calm didn't seem to last however when they heard an ear piercing hissing sound. From the sound alone, they could tell whatever creature there was reptile, but what size and species was unknown. They saw various smaller raptors like animals on the ground running towards them or into the nearby bushes and caves to hide. And before their very eyes, a massive serpent slither out of a hole on the wall.
This one Girain recognized as a Titanoboa, a super species of extinct giant python. It had the obvious dark green and smeared earth brown color scale on its body with the limbless body to slither around and perhaps burrow with a sharp shovel spade like head. However its size was giving away something very unnatural, the fact that there was a Titanoboa being the size of a Godzilla alone seem to make her grow very uncomfortable with the idea of what it could do next.
Stuka noticed that the eyelids of the boa seem to be greyed out, apparently suggesting that the serpent was blind. The monstrous python then lunged forward at Giran and Stuka, forking its tongue out to sniff the chemicals in the air before bending its head over to Girain's direction wrapped its coils around her left leg before rising up to her thigh and abdomen region.
The serpent snapped its jaw at her while using the massive muscle masses it had to snap her bones or choke her to death. But it soon learn that it could not feel her lungs or heartbeat of a living organic creatures. Confused, the Titan paused its hasty assault and sniff the chemicals in the air once again, giving Girain the time she needed to bite the python on its neck, causing it to hiss out in pain and agony.
However as she bit its neck, she felt that something was off with the serpent's flesh and scale, when her teeth dug into it, she felt an intense heat releasing from within forcing her to break off her bite and shove the serpent's coils and masses away. Stuka who saw this quickly pulled up his G36K Titan and open fire on the monstrous python seeing that it was slithering away writhing in pain. But they saw that despite being peppered with half a magazine and bleeding out, the serpent didn't seem at all fazed.
"You ready for this?" Girain asked Stuka as her railguns were switched on and ready for combat, Stuka nodded to her and took some steps ahead of her to take point and tilted his rifle to make sure the ejection port for spent shells won't bounce hot spent cases into the wall or bounce back at him and Girain. "Affirmative, I'll take point." Said Stuka as they began to track down the serpent in the valley.
The blood trail led them both towards what appeared to be a large cave entrance to another section of the complex, Stuka went inside first followed by Girain as they began to descend what could best be described as the stairways to Hell. The floor as far as their night vision modes allow them to see were well carved out stone staircases of the Incas, but the wall decors and motifs were Chimu bird, suggesting two merging cultures.
"Chimu Bird, when the Incas were overthrown by the Spanish Conquistadors, they retreated into the jungle and exist as a microstate in Vilcabamba, fighting off Spanish invaders with guerrilla warfare." Girain mused as she took notice of the multiple depictions of the Incans fighting protracted guerrilla wars against the Spanish with acts of sabotage, horse theft, stealing guns and others. "But Tawantinsuyus can never be remade." She finished grimly.
"Hold. I think it's just up ahead." Stuka pointed forward to a large open cavern where Girain detected the ambient temperatures to be noticeably higher than outside, a perfect nesting ground for a reptile.
The place appeared to have been sculpted and worked on by Incas and Chimus creating rows of pillars and columns in rectangular shapes, each one bearing images of Incan gods associated with Godzillasaur. Strangely enough, these Godzillians appear to be smaller than Jr with their coloration being albino fitting the snowy climate of the Andes.
"This must be the nest." Said Girain as she observed the area, she noticed volcanic smoke billowing out of the ceiling with mosses and patches of vegetation with bioluminescent scattered around the place.
Stuka saw the Titanoboa coiled up inside a corner with its head perching up on a rock observing the place from a vantage point where its tongue can sniff the chemicals in the air. He didn't hesitate and open fire his rifle at the serpent.
More of its flesh and scale were blown off, forcing the monstrous python to hiss out in pain and heighten aggression as it began to zigzag towards Stuka. "Careful he's aiming for you!" Girain called out urgently before firing off her railgun slugs at the python, her slugs traveled at much higher velocities than his rapid fire G36K rifle, slamming and thrusting through its hides drilling two massive gaping holes on its body.
And yet the python refused to die. It coiled around a pillar, reaching to the ceiling trying to find an escape. "Oh no you don't!" Girain grunted as she grabbed hold of its tail dragging it back down in a tug of war. The struggle cracked the ancient stone pillar before it crumbled away causing the serpent to fall down on the floors. "Stuka! Tonfa blades, now!" Girain called out to him, prompting Stuka to engage his tonfa blades and rush towards her, the python lash its tail around, slamming against his waist and threw him against the wall, the tremors rippled out causing more damages and rumbles to the ceiling.
"Must...not...fail...mission...objective." Stuka mumbled to himself before dashing forward and thrust the tonfa blades into the Titanoboa's head, his blade stuck out on the chin of the serpent, what soon followed was the Titanoboa's body writhing and spasming out before finally dying in the process in a pool of its own blood.
"N-nice hit." She complimented Stuka with a chuckle while he panted out nodding to her. "Thank you, couldn't have done it without you." He remarked to her before retracting his tonfas back into their wrist compartments.
"Let's wrap this up, I have a feeling that the roof is coming down on us soon…" She suggested to him with a hint of urgency as they look up to the ceiling noticing the various cracks rippling around. "Agreed, let us continue to the inner sanctum and leave." Stuka nodded before resuming their search.
The two went to the other side of the cave where they found a massive burial chamber, an inner sanctum isolated from the main complex of the Incans. The inner sanctum had more overt Chimu arts with their stylized birds, there were also Incan styled stone statues acting as totems guarding the entrance. In the center of the room exists a pedestal holding up a wheel like artifact levitating in mid-air. From an early glance it looks like a pocket watch's exterior and frame but the device strangely enough had a gem embedded on the outer frame.
Within the confines of an Incan burial chamber, they came across what appeared to be a Godzillian mummified skeletal remains. Draped in Incas pajama, and adorned with gold necklace jewelry and sitting on a throne next to the Godzilla mummy was a humanoid mummy flanked by two vaguely human bipedal mummies.
The presumed God-King of the Incas appeared to have a strange black silo like crown on his head with an amber yellow gem in the center of the crown. His clothes didn't look Incan rather they appear to be a set of robes with a collar made of unknown metal alloy around his neck bearing a boney grey color. There were four arachnid like mechanical legs attached to the collar suggesting he was relying on it as a walking assistance.
"Detected abnormal burial practice, discrepancies and conflicts with historical records." Stuka stated bluntly as he felt somewhat unnerved by the sight of the Godzilla mummy with the strange humanoid mummy. Girain looked up at the imagery of the banner hanging above, a rainbow banner with an Inti sun god face in the middle of the flag. "So this must be the God-King behind Tahuantinsuyu, but what would that mean for the Inca Emperors past?" Girain mused curiously as she came over to the artifact before snatching it off of the pedestal.
This however caused her to be zapped by a massive electric current causing her body to be gripped by the current. Reacting in shock, Stuka quickly held on to the artifact trying to remove it from her hand, only to be zapped by the same current. Their armors glew with strange hieroglyphic writing being imprinted on their bodies while their eyes were flashing bright. Girain and Stuka in turn were apparently taken from their bodies with their consciousnesses hovering over a vaguely defined void.
In a dream like scape, they saw three towering figures looming over a pyramid, their eyes gleam down to the small vaguely humanoid figures on the pyramid top with a judgemental gaze. Girain glanced back and forth trying to figure out what it all meant. Only a single phrase was uttered that gave her a hint.
"YOU'VE DAMNED US ALL!" The vision then faded away, leaving the two lying on the ground shuddering and twitching with a splitting headache. "Ugh...ooooh...my head hurts. What just happened? Stuka? Stuka?" Girain called out to him, only to notice that he was writhing on the ground, twitching and seemingly overloaded by the information. "R-re-require assistance… data dump procedure… must be executed… too much…" He groaned and wheezed out before Girain then picked him up, carrying him on her back and made her way out of the tomb. "Don't worry Stuka, hang in there. I'm gonna take us to the LZ we'll be fine." She assured him nervously before making her way out of the tomb.
