The Lost Legion - Chapter 1: The Creeping Unknown

[Sarnai]

Looking over as the mist started billowing towards them, Sarnai cursed loudly and liberally inside of Zaya before remembering to turn on the external speakers and squawking indignantly through them, "Dragon lady! How quickly and accurately can you weld off a chunk of the shit-heap's plating?"

Well she waited for a response, Sarnai went over her tactical options in her mind. The worm thing at the satellite was fuck off huge, but there is no indication that all of the...whatevers that have been attacking everyone are going to be that big. Don't want to get bogged down trying to disconnect the railgun if they are infantry sized.

Nodding to herself as she finished her musings, she pulled out her assault rifle and flicked off the safety, aiming her sensor arrays towards the mist and trying to get as much information as possible on what might be approaching despite the signal noise coming from the atmosphere.

//

Dalia glanced up from sniffing a plant that much to her disappointment she was sure was not poisonous at all. She chuffed and tossed it aside after tasting it. It wasn't good for a meal either. This is why she didn't eat vegetables much. There was no flavor and that was not a thing her lizard mind wanted to deal with.

She looked at the giant plant that shot her, then back to Heavy Metal Chicken who had damaged the thing greatly. Survival, survival was good and Heavy Metal Chicken seemed to have the right of it. Dalia's feet on all fours carried her to the heap of plant and metal fused as one and eyeballed a sizable piece of metal comparing it to a mech. Fingers and thumbs formed an L-shape, touching to be a rough picture frame. She mumbled something of a complicated math equation under her breath, then chuckled. She gave a thumbs up and nod. That wasn't an answer at all, but it was what Sarnai was going to get.

She carefully laid the Plasma imbued sticky flame over the large mech and started to punch where the plate was effectively cut. It sounded like hammer strikes from the dragon woman until a rough piece that was two inches longer on each side than it needed to be was brought over. "Measured rough. Rougher than No Luck's Face. This works?"

//

Startled by the loud banging noise, Sarnai-Zaya jumped to the side and barely avoided a negligent discharge as she watched the Drakairis woman surgically cut off a section of metal and came over to her with it.

"Uh…yeah actually, that is perfect. Can you weld it over the crease in my armor, or do you need my help? Either way, I should probably get out of her, don't want to pass out from heat stroke inside of Zaya here."

Disabling her external speakers and putting Zaya into her automated defensive mode, Sarnai hit the button to open up the exit hatch and disengaged her safety harness. Hopping out with a small flutter of her wings, she stretched her arms and legs against the tight material of her pilot suit before she reached over to the holster on the side of Zaya's leg and pulled off the pistol there. Checking over the weapon, she popped the magazine, inspected it, then slid it back in and worked the action to put a round into the chamber before disengaging the safety and scanning the area around her.

"I got a welding kit if you need me, but if you don't, I would rather stay on overwatch," she said with a jerk of her head towards the mist as her frill rose and spread in nervousness. "Sarnai by the way, we can...slap palms or whatever it is you do to greet other people later."

//

Dalia looked at the damaged piece and etched markings around the damaged area. She was experienced in sabotage, not repairs, but this was just like doing that, but in reverse. The damaged portion of the armor was cut off and set aside. She set the metal in place and began to work it into a solid fit little by little, smoothing out the welding marks to be barely visible. If anything she knew how to work with metal, feeling it out through vibrations.

She knocked on the repaired area section by section. There didn't seem to be any fractures on a microscopic scale. Lastly she pinned the repair place over the carefully measured excess material. Her eyes followed where her fingers traced. It was a rough repair job using what she had, but it would hold and that plate wasn't going to be moving anytime soon and would stand up to punishment. She only wished she had time to heat treat the armor she crafted. "Done Sarnai. No stroking and heat.Will stay in place."

//

Her focus on the area around them, it took a moment for Sarnai to realize that the Dragon Lady had spoken to her. Whipping her slender neck around to look in her direction, she hopped over to look at her results, "Fucking...wow, I was hoping just for a quick field fix, but this is quality."

Rapping on the metal lightly with one of her claws, she let out a pleased chittering sound, then re-holstered her pistol, "I knew I would have to replace the entire section to avoid a weak point eventually, but was going to wait until we had some downtime or proper facilities to do it. You do a lot of this kind of work?"

Still feeling exposed outside of Zaya, Sarnai didn't wait for an answer before she hopped back to the front and grabbed the handle on the entrance hatch, sliding up and into the pilot sleeve. Re-engaging her safety harness and then reconnecting her implants to Zaya, she mentally went through a series of diagnostics, running one of Zaya's hands over the replaced armor plate and giving the Dragon Lady a "thumbs-up" sign as she flicked on her external speaker.

"I like you, we are going to work well together," she said a happy chirp in her voice. "Me and you? We are going to wreck some stupid fucker's day."

//

Dalia chuckled, the wheels in her lizard brain turning. "Breaking things in reverse. Dalia breaks into things so she unbreaks the armor but putting it back how she found it." That seemed like a good explanation as far as she went. She never considered it to be repairing. Things existed in a state and she could alter that state with gratuitous amounts of welding. She didn't question such things usually as much as chuckle in amusement.

She looked confused at the thumbs up, but then did it back with enthusiasm. "Wrecking the sky monster? Yes, you are fierce. Fierce as Drakairis. To more battles!" With that she let out a yip of delight that sounded something like an adorable chirp. A sign of friendship, though likely unfamiliar to most outside her planet.

//

Blinking inside of her suit, Sarnai let out a series of warbling trills in amusement, checking over her assault rifle again reflexively as she replied "Yeah, I definitely like you, you get it. What's your name? Unless you want me to keep calling you Drakairis or Dragon Lady. Do you like explosives? Because you seem like you like explosives, we will have to make you some explosives."

Aiming her rifle towards the oncoming mist, she grinned to herself as she murmured, "Ohhh, this is going to get weird."

//

"Dalia, Daughter of Dala. Born for battle. Born the huntress. Dalia fights, then Dalia feasts. But not here. If I live I am free, then I will still fight, but for battles that are mine. Motherrrrr insists." She swatted her heavy tail against the ground and let out a sonic yip, trying to discern movement out in the mist. It was a threatening yip. A warning to not approach unless whatever was out there wanted trouble. From there she simply listened and waited.

 

[FeastOfPerversions]

"Delighted that we can see one another one last time. For a regime that lived by the iron boot and serrated roots, it pleases me you will see its end from the spore-growth you saw as parasites."

The tarrhaidim's re-attached arm twitched and jerked, multiple fingers whirling and twisting in their sockets as his rough lichen-like skin began to stretch and contort almost like water. Veins squelched as they wormed and pulled their way from partially desiccated flesh to reconnect to a scarred and torn body as muscle-like mass and nerves began to reactivate to full capacity, actively draining nutrients from stores within his body to fully return to the fold.

The immense pain this would seem to cause did not register on his voice and even shaking, his re-attached arm had no problem cocking back the chamber on the pravlat-20.

Realizing his end was near, the royalist's hands shot down to his sides and a glint of steel entered the ex-POW's sight. The knife moved quickly and his legs already bent pushed out as boots scraped earth and shot his body forth.

Two pulls of the trigger, two familiar muzzle-blasts, and his body convulsed and stumbled onto his stomach. A duo of exit-wounds smoked from his back and worming, squirming tails wriggled out, joined with quivering roots and pulsing tubular proto-organs.

The barrel's stock descend and smashed into his skull and lolling his head against the dirt. Already partially opened up by the armour piercing bullets, he needed not to moan or scream for the subject of his tortures to know he was at his mercy. With a grunt the knife was removed and with a wet *schrlick* it drove into his chest, drawing a frothing screech before it fell again and again, embedding once more before dragging a series of long, winding serpentine trails, slicing organs and parasite-augmentations alike. The twitching mass on the ground wasn't alive; the raw shock had slain him. The various organisms inhabiting him, overwhelmed by the traumatic violence, twitched his body with a foul, mocking unlife; a puppet body at best now, animated by those it had once served as a habitat for.

When Rho-Hux and the voidhanger arrived, they would see Karnix and Marjan quietly watching the POW, dragging the body of the loyalist into the same building he had been imprisoned in. The door shut and the last thing they saw was its eyeless, barely-reformed face staring at them with some ghastly, alien spite.

"Do not bother him. That loyalist had tortured him and was repaid in full." Crimson spoke, letting out a huff and sigh, pointing at the trail of blood in the dirt. Karnix and Marjan nodded and reloaded their weapons and looked off. "He'll need to re-arm and a little time alone. Just wait for him."

----------​

"Hey, boss, something's moving and it ain't just the mist… wait, shit is that Yuri?" The human trooper pointed out into the mist and on their shared data-channel placed a friendly blue diamond-shaped IFF marker on Yuri. What the hell was he doing out there? The new targeting visors that Rho-Hux had given them had enhanced the raw range they could analyse and acquire targets.

"Not just him. Look!" Shouted the other one, raising his rifle and pointing at the digital outlines overlaying on his HUD. Four limbs, a slender skull, and long tails ending in thick multi-pointed ends; alghazafs. Were they same ones as from earlier? They had seen a few of the creatures from a nest on the way here but they had kept their distance.

"Yuri! You've got a bunch of the critters on the move, closing in on your position!" The first trooper shouted into his coms, hoping the mist hadn't gotten bad enough to interfere at these shorter ranges. "I can't tell if they're on the offensive but the mist must have spooked them. Get the hell back here, we'll cover you if they get bitey!"

Back in the woods, it would be difficult to make out the alghazafs. Leaves rustled, branches snapped, echoing out and pinging off of his auditory sensors. Flickers of some dark, four limbed, bestial shapes would flitter at the edges of his vision as the sounds began to rush past and around him. It was difficult to detect how many but it was at least six of them.

Given how quickly and frenetically they moved, they weren't the hunters here. To his challenge, only scraping footfalls and heavy huffs responded. The air was getting thicker and his sensors were starting to detect strange readings; ether concentrations fluctuating between a threat to resistance thresholds and barely noticeable while his electronics began to buzz and crackle as if under some kind of static interference.

Scanning the treeline, Sarnai's sensor systems would also be able to pick out similar readings; the mist was like some huge, crawling wall of jumbled, confused readings that while likely ethereal in nature, fluctuated so quickly it didn't seem like traditional ethereal occurrence. Further scans revealed the alghazafs were the same as those they had encountered earlier from bio-readings stored in her systems. Yet in spite of their fearsome appearance and apparent intelligence, this wasn't an organized movement; not strictly anyways. They were scattering through the woods, rushing past and around Yuri. Had the mist spooked them? The larger, six limbed ones weren't visible or at least not from this angle. Were these just their minions then, spooked by the strange supernatural power that had caused this recent upheaval?

----------
​

The leafy doors to the biostructure crackled as they re-opened and a familiar figure stepped out. No longer naked and scarred, his body was clad in a blast-marked mottled green camo-pattern armour, overlaying some sort of membranous bodysuit that one didn't notice as separate from his skin until its transparency flittered and revealed the scab-marked flesh beneath. Kevlar-padding like sections covered his torso, lower stomach, back, thighs, lower legs, and parts of his arm.

He had a pravlat-20 in his arms, reflex sighted and with a cylindrical device slotted into a small blocky object near the barrel; a scanner device also capable of designating targets. Multiple grenades had been strapped onto his body and various smaller pockets and storage compartments dotted around the waist and sides of his armour. A smaller weapon was seen strapped to the side of a backpack which lightly ruffle as he adjusted its tightnesss; the tislanin light plasma beam, its battery magnetically attached to where a magazine would seem to go.

As he walked out, he noticed a pair of catus and barely held back a sneer, walking towards the android who had greeted him earlier. At least he knew that one was nominally on their side… even if he seemed too clean, too much of a machine, and too advanced to appear to be another Carnazir grunt like him.

"Android, I know not who leads your team but I assume you are with us and our blessed upheaval. The sign you had shown is genuine. Who amongst your number can I also call my own? Only the female voidhanger resembles our own. You may tell us as we leave; the mist is nearing and the things lurking within with it."

He pulled something out of his pockets; a hand-held computer, shaped like a slightly larger smartphone, and packing a holograph emitter, displaying a flat-featured 3D model of their immediate area. The very hill they stood upon, save for its structures, was included on the smooth green topgraphic map but also a purple line leading down from the hill and through the woods.

"I do not know about you, but we should head to Alcericas. Before the loyalist detritus ambushed us, we were on our way there. Our commander in the city, Bruhlvasstu, had ordered a regrouping of our field teams when the treaty was first announced. He claims the city is under his control. Elsewhere would be too far. Perhaps we shall steal away from this group; I see both the revolutionary swindlers and the corporatist swine amongst you; they will betray you as they have us."

The fog's long tendrils had begun to grace the base of the hill and the soldier, his name not yet given, started to take a few tentative steps back. From the way the pigmentation where his eyes should be seemed to darken into almost crease-like stretched out smudges, he did not seem to trust much of the party; the fact that it was a disparate assembly of warring factions felt too suspicious.

"They can save the scavenging for later. We will not be able to make it to Alcericas before nightfall, but there is a hideout hidden in these woods; our task was to check on it before we made our way to Alcericas. Now, it may be our only safe shelter. At the least, your strange friends can absorb the first few bullets when the loyalist scum-scouts come and see the mess you have made."

 

[Ur Degaton]

Yuri flinched as his comms flared to life and the voice of Rho-Hux shouted into his ear. It would seem he was right to trust his instincts.

"Блядь!!" Yuri yells before flinging his one and only flash-bang into the woods in front of him before running into the mist and towards the sounds of his team. One of the things that Yuri can confidently say is that he's fast, much faster than an ordinary soldier. But most animals, especially of the predatory variety, are much faster than humans. To supplement this flaw Yuri bobbed and weaved through trees to try and slow down the abominations that are no doubt salivating at the thought of their next meal.

 

[steinOS]

Stein stood at the edge of the clearing, eyeing the others in preparation to leave with the rest of the Carnazir team. There was no telling what was in that mist. Something was able to wipe out entire armies - if that was anything to go by, even someone going solo outside of the mist had a greater chance of survival than being stuck within it in a large group.

"The Aixue beast, the female sniper and the female voidhanger count among us. This formation has arisen out of… extraordinary circumstances; to bolster mutual chances of survival. If any perishes, the rest have a greater chance of falling as well. But if they continue to pursue this foolish standoff, it will no longer matter. They would be wise to learn from the fleeing alghazafs.", Stein explained briefly as he continued to watch, but would inevitably rush the others still at the camp by audibly clapping his hands and speaking over the joint channel. "We have to go, or we're dead."

Noticing the map being held by the newest member, Stein glanced back to the camp, sending pings for the other Carnazir members to drop whatever they're doing and pull back to his current position. "You will have to lead the way confidently and quickly, at a moments notice. I doubt there will be time for mistakes.", the android stated to the Tarrhaidim. "It will also help to know your name, soldier."

 

[Rads]

Alrus couldn't help but be a little iritated as he walked back to heard the pow talking smack about most about the people of group. He then says" We both got off to a bad start, my words were out of concern, but I did go about it the wrong way so I'm sorry for that".

He pauses for several moments then says" Also this time I'm not trying to get on my high horse and what not, I understand you've been through a lot, however It's not the best idea be talking ill of others during this tense time".
" I hope we can at least be civil to each other despite our differences". He reaches out with his right hand to show sincerity.

 

[Sarnai]

Moving over towards the group loosely forming near one of the tents with her crossbow pointed up to the sky, katana held loose in her hand in order to appear less threatening, Shizuko felt her ears flicking back and forth in her helmet. Getting closer, she hears the end of the Tarrhaidim's speech and snarls to herself inside her helmet.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, she activates her mic once she gets closer, "That is an interesting theory regarding our usefulness to you, maybe you can arrange a committee to argue over how many bullets we are allowed to absorb for you well your people die of starvation outside."

Looking over the group of Carnazir fighters and the ASR moving closer she continued, the cold tone of her voice conveying exactly how unamused she was as she continued , "I and by extension my people have no stake in your petty fighting here beyond keeping my charge safe. She is a medic, and has sworn oaths to aid any who request it of her, which includes all of you. If she is injured because of any action or inaction on any of your parts, you will find out what oaths I swore."

//

Frowning inside of Zaya, Sarnai sorted through the noisy readings coming from the encroaching mist, marking the thermal signatures of the stampeding animals and then laughing a little to herself as the PCL trooper running through the woods let off a flashbang despite the lack of a threat coming from them. With no immediate threat to engage, she moved her rifle into a rest position and started running a quick set of diagnostics on reflex to double check no damage had been done to her sensor systems due to the high levels of energy spiking around her and causing the interference.

Backing up the hill towards the tents at the top, she hears the gargly noise of a Tarrhaidim speaking and vaguely noted him saying something unflattering about the ASR and PCL, and sighed at the standard issue overbearing rhetoric of the Carnies. She stiffened up however when the Cat Assassin started speaking, rolling her eyes and gritting her teeth together in frustration as she audibly clicked her speakers on to get attention.

"Assuming you can avoid killing any random laborers who dared pick up a gun in self-defense Kitty, everything should work out just fine."

 

[FeastOfPerversions]

The fungoid trooper's head turned to the catus and some strange expression played across the features of his. Flesh tightened and stretched around the centre of his face, darkening into creasy lines, as if the the arms of a child's drawing of a star, wavy and radiant not with light but a foul blackish brown blood-congealed colour. His mouth partially opened but no words exited. The soldier turned to the scielto and somehow, from that maw of jagged stalactite-stalagmite teeth and putrescent flesh, some sort of smile emerged.

Unfortunately, it was the kind of smile that looked more at home in a deep sea eel.

"Humility? APOLOGIZING? A rare trait in your kind, sky-born. Even your impoverished-underclass knew how to sneer from their great floating city. They also knew how to fight when the cards were on the table if I am to be fair. You seem drawn from the latter stock; there may be hope for you yet."

The grit-ridden hand of the creature met that of Alrus and clenched it tightly. Alrus was considerably larger than the tarrhaidim but even with his still-recovering, drug-injected arm there was a strength present as great as the desperation he had showed in signaling for their assistance. Upon closer examination, his bare knuckles were still exposed on his ood hand, caked with filthy, congealed blood and fungal residue.

"But I do not suppose a League croney, no matter their birth, will listen to a mere dirt-eating savage like myself... you feel it don't you, sky-dweller? The wall of obscurity, gaseous and foul - I have been within its bounds. Vile, unreal things beyond the here and the Abzu followed me within. It comes now perhaps as some foul curse for our warmongering, apathetic to ideology or intransigence alike." He motioned off to the encroaching fog, creeping across the ground. Creatures large and smalls kittered past the curtain of strange smoke, their cries a small chorus of terrorized shrieks, hisses, and trills accompanied by the rustling of branch and leaf. The forest was alive and it was terrified.

He turned from the membranous alien to the android.

"You are correct. We may perish soon ourselves if we are idle. For it was not truly the loyalist bark-scrapers that were our undoing but the mist." He spoke to Stein, thumbing a few buttons on a small wrist-mounted computer. Alien text indecipherable to most would be revealed as pure data to Stein's eyes; complex formulas creating calculations for data that defied the logical processing of the device as it scanned the approaching white wall.

"I am Haumoza Waujeddi. Give yours when you can, machine-heart. For now-"

He turned to the rest of the group and click-clacked his weapon, playing about with the cocking mechanism in a way that sounded quite like someone was taking aim.

"Truth be told, I despise most of you! It should be clear whom amongst you is worthy of my scorn; but my hate is not without limits. I suppose your dogmatism is the same; you are together after all in unity, not hatred. But no matter what safety you think you have been rewarded with, the approaching wall of white is-"

----

*CRACK-BLAM!*

The sound of the flashbang going off drew a chorus of clatters and shrieks. Alghazafs easily large enough to take down a full grown man stumbled and slid in the dirt, scrambling for purchase as rending claws struggled to find frictious grip in the loose, leaf-ridden soils. Smaller creatures flittered from out and about, taking to the skies or whistling through the undergrowth, crunching flora beneath the army of tiny feet like a roar of crackly static. The huge carnivores scrambled quick yet the savage grace their fearsome reputation was preceded on was absent in their mad dash.

The sound of the flashbang still echoed deep past the leaves and the brush, past the skittering creatures within, beyond the trees and the stones, and deep into the air, into the fog. It bounced and distorted as if through a deep cave or a metal shaft. And it went on, on, on, on, a lulling, relaxing, entrancing echo, almost a relief from the abrupt and spastic conflict of a mere day in the Caracosan warzone-hellscape. Like the presence of a friend even, warm company on a calm night, emanating in the wake of the echoes, clawing for the League soldier's nervous, tense mind but where one would think there would be scars were just warm caresses.

It was clear of course, looking further into the mist. Even as the light began to retreat, enough filtered through the leaves and the gas that silhouettes were visible albeit through a filter of grey. It was almost like peering through thin curtains, peeking in on some private activity. Yet it was not human bodies he would see but alghazaf silhouettes, slowly creeping or perhaps rather dragging across the soil. Slow and cumbersome, perhaps more of a limbed worm than a prowling beast, pathetic as if thirsting for some life-saving water in their imaginatry desert. The black outlines dragged themselves soundlessly, their grunts and nervous clatters like underwater mumbles, reduced to sonic murk.

Little sound came from the slow peeling of their broad, thorned backs. Even in this near-void of colour, with the stripping of spine and hardened flesh from sturdy bone, there was little but a dry, reverbrating buzz like velcro being pulled beneath blankets. A formless, particle-heavy mass of swirling blackness manifested around them but it could not shield one's eyes from the sight as shuddering, near-mute bodies peeled open into crude anatomical displays; pulsing organs, shifting spinal shafts, jerking veins - all little more than obstacles for the unseen forces in the mist, methodically reducing proud beasts of the expanse to pathetic gory parodies.

The masses of dense, smoggy blackness crowded around almost as a cruel audience of surgeons might but seemed to disperse the further they moved from their helplessly dissected subjects, turning into loose imprints of a kind of inky blue-purple loosely connected as they flittered about. Yet where they once consumed and examined the larger creature of the wood deeper in its depths, slowly they began to drift outwards, leaves rustling in their wake, snippets torn apart by unseen blades and surrounding them in a rain of green confetti.

The audience of shades didn't seem to move with much rhyme or reason. At least, that was until they started to near Yuri. Invisible to conventional sight, if he switched to thermal, he would see not thin clouds but disjointed connections of long, ovular patches of varying temperatures arranged around a warm central nexus; a chiaroscuro of cold and heat. Ether-scanning vision modules revealed something not that much more concrete; long, curving outlines of dense floating shapes, akin to some deep sea piscine or planktic creatures each larger than the alghazafs, some as large as vans. Only outlines, blurring and crackling, implied by the drifting pink-yellow readings that seemed to form vague structures of limbs, tails, maws, and bodies.

---------

The harsh crack caused Haumoza to duck momentarily, weapon raised, but soon his eyes locked onto the source. He saw the light even; seconds after the flashbang had gone off.

It was still there, filtering and traveling through the mist like a series of LED's going off. Whatever strange mysteries propelled this funereal fog, if they could capture and transport sheer light, it would likely not have a harder time with flesh or metal, living or dead.

"You fool!" He cried out to Yuri; to him, he was just another unlucky sap facing a potentially gruesome end. "Why are you still down there you imbecile! You've alerted them, shouted into the boundary that carries our echoes to their domain! They are hungering now, hungering for your flesh and the secrets they think you keep!"

The PCL troopers raised their weapons but Haumoza shouted at them, raising his arms, weapon above his head.

"Do not draw their attention further! Let him perish if he must, but we must leave! The peelers of flesh and spirit do not fear your weapons as they did not fear ours!" Haumoza shouted, wildly gesturing for them to get moving. "The mist is their domain, the mist is spreading! Untold thousands; do not force us into a last stand!"

"Void-waste you fungoid dipshit, he's one of ours! Something, anything, we gotta do it!" The Voidhanger shouted, trying to shove him out of the way. The other PCL troopers raised their weapons, trying to take aim at the flittering shapes that seemed to always fade from their sight just as they thought they had a bead.

"Our new comrade is right." A voice, deep and vrexul, entered the fray. Those turning to face Karnix would only see him turn. The creature barely looked to care, beginning his walk towards the other end of the flat hilltop. "As much as I would relish the prospect of putting the fear of my kind into these wispy wraiths, that is best saved for someone more fanatical than myself. We have a way out; there is no need to die in vain."

"Haumoza, this base, are you sure it would be shielded from this mist? If it's going to devour this part of the woods as we can clearly see, what good is an armoured series of holes in the ground going to do?" Marjan asked, reloading his weapon and motioning for the others to follow along.

"What good will your own powers do, aixue? Do not think you were the first I have seen encounter it; maybe you can fend off the first caresses of the unseen hungerers, but that isn't ether, not as we understand it, that defines them."

"Okay, so we just hunker down there or in some other hole, hope we can shoot the flitter-creatures, or that the mist will just... pass by?" Crimson asked, nervously regarding the encroaching wall of cryptic horror.

"I have walked through the fog; not of my own choice but because it had swallowed my entire platoon. There is a... logic to it, something about it not fully beyond our grasp. Order of some sort if you will. Enough questions; if you wish to face the loyalist teams alone, loyalists who control the majority of the routes through the woods alone, fine. If you wish to be devoured and sent into some unknown chasm by the fog, fine. If you wish to have some faint chance to survive, then follow me. The base is safeguarded; it has survived this long against spectral threats before."

The PCL troopers looked at one another, cursing under their breath. Death for one or death for all?

Slowly, the others began to filter out as the tendrils of the fog began to curve, having met the hill and slowly coming to embrace it in their foul, profane purity.

-------

​

The woods were quieter as they walked through, the lifeforms that would've orchestrated their duelling mating cries and territorial boasts distant or absent. Much of the mystery had left; in its place was a stark, crisp dread. And through that dread walked the mismatched squad. Here stone bridges had long since given way to tall, flanking hills risen like the backs of crooked, broken people and from which the fat, swollen trees seen prior happily taken root. They bent under their own opulent weight, frequently resting their tops into one another in entangled, bushy messes. Sometimes, they practically bridged differing hills, their trunks long since turned into empty, moss-ridden husks. Where their roots could be seen, almost straining against their bodies, they appeared bent over in prayer or submission to those that had refused the pull of gravity and festering age.

It is amongst this crowd of deforming topography and ugly bramble that the Haumoza strode forth, having taken point. His weapon was gripped tightly and those scanning his figure noticed that he was using enhanced zoom functions; multiple non-humanoid eye analogues seemed to give him certain advantages but his gaze was not scouring for the loyalists. It looked for the long passages of gaps between the hills or where they were flatter and long since corroded by the weather and the creatures who clearly burrowed into them as various dirt piles outside the empty mouths in their sides would attest.

Night had arrived; not a problem for a team of highly trained military personnel, save for one matter.

Looking all around, at the edges of their vision, far far over the hills, was a familiar series of white, waving, misty substance. Creeping as if alongside them; a living carpet of devouring white smoke. Yet it was devoid of the strange shapes that Yuri would have seen earlier, at least, they were not currently visible. Encroaching towards them, undeniably so, but so far the distant outline of a rising tide, almost languid and lazy.

"That's strange, ain't it?" One of the PCL humans asked, flicking on a few magnification settings and rudimentary ether scanners, now enhanced by the targeting upbrades courtesy of Rho-Hux.

"No shit, it's a mist that eats people. What el-" Before his fellow comrade could finish his snark, his feed was swamped with readings. The voidhanger trooper's as well; a shared data feed.

They murmured under their breath as Haumoza paused for a second, his sight passing to them, then all around, weapon scanning every hilltop and gap. Something about the data had caused intense discussion amongst the three, to the point they almost seemed unfocused.

Karnix, creeping along the soil, knelt near one of the larger burrow entrances by a hill, his feet scraping against the ground and slowly tearing up shrubs and mud. He was pawing at the ground before moving it near his face; taking in the various scents and other sensory data he could derive from it.

The huge bug looked over at the shon-vuu and the drakaris, pointing at the other tunnels.

"These aren't all abandoned; multiple scents, some fresher and overlaying the old. Some are..." He paused as multiple small feelers tapped at the dirt. "Earthy, as if a giant clump of dirt crashed in. Strange happenings in the dusk. Do you like hunting? I get the feeling something here does."

Atlas and Simon in the meantime stuck close by the centre of the group. Hills surrounded them; short and almost charming little humps of earth. Easy to hunker down in and shoot over.

"You..." Haumoza's voice sounded out. He had a finger pointed at Alrus. "Star-skin. Have you a membrane you are capable of detaching?"

He paused and peered by his side, looking over to the catus and let out some long, exhaling wheeze of some sort. It resembled the sound of a balloon inflating set a few octaves lower.

"Those two; the feline folk. I had missed them earlier when I stumbled out; insignificant, arrogant, would-be queens to illusory thrones." He spoke, his voice rather low. If anyone watched his face, that gnarled mess, a few of the veins would tense, twist, and tighten underneath his skin. His voice and expression then returned to normal. "I suppose I missed many things in my amputated stupour. The catus may be in need soon, much as I am loathe to say - one of them, she appears to be a medic, is she not? Just like that human who re-attached my arm. There is something off about this mist unlike what I had prior seen... but first, I would like to know something, star-skin. When did you encounter this phenomenon? Do you have a particular time?"

He was talking to Alrus but his voice wasn't particularly hushed; it was loud enough that he was clearly trying to garner some attention.

After all, anything he spoke to a Celestial, he'd feel more comfortable knowing if his comrades in the Carnazir heard it as well.

In the meantime, some strange occurrences would begin affecting other party members.

For Rho-Hux, a sudden chill would follow him around; one that did not correlate with non-existent changes in surroudning air temperatures. A chill that crept across skin, seeped into the soul, and seemed to grasp at his thoughts. As if something had reached out and slid a telepathic finger over his thoughts.

Stein would feel something else. It came off as a warning first; something was causing his electronics to slow. Calculations were mistaken then corrected, readings came back wrong then reverted to a correct record... and his ECM system began to notify him of something attempting, very weakly however, to interact with his systems.

Stangely enough, it seemed to be here... or had been here? Maybe it was a ghost reading; some sort of leftover electronic interference. Following the sourcing only lead them to exactly where they stood. Nothing was above them beyond the branches, thing below beyond the same old dirt. Yet it didn't seem to be affecting anyone else, did it?

 

[Sarnai]

Following near the back of the group, Shizuko split her time between scanning the woods and watching Tsubasa try to chat with various members of the party to little effect. Heaving a long sigh, she adjusted the strap of her katana's sheath around her chest where she had put it for the march and checked around them once more, trying to not make it too obvious as she glared at Haumoza at the front of the loose train of people.

He was going to be trouble, she knew it. He was going to eventually do something stupid and she was going to have to cut him into several dozen pieces because those worm bodied bastards just wouldn't fucking die. Sighing again, she put potential kill methods out of her head as they rounded a corner and the base they had been traveling to came into view. Watching as various groups started splitting off and investigating various portions of the base, she quietly moved across the forest floor to Tsubasa's side, <Catus> "Stay put unless it gets dangerous out here, yes? Mark the tunnel I go into to clear, and if you have to come in, follow after me."

Adjusting her sheathe back to her hip, Shizuko prayed to the Nine as she drew the weapon once more, then checked over her crossbow well she moved towards the Drakairis woman and the horrible bird terrorist.

Once she was in easy speaking range, she called over to the hunched over form of the Shon-Vuu armor, the filter on her helmet doing nothing to conceal the frosty tone of her voice.

"I am sure the Drakairis can handle herself, but I will be better in close combat then you. You need me."
//

Tsubasa stuck nervously to the side of her keeper until being told to wait. This time she waited with the full length of the quarterstaff ready to strike out in crackling electricity.

Her tail flicked back and forth, eyes within her suit dilated. She was ready for trouble and to follow instructions. She placed a tag on her keeper as she went, which would drop a nanobot at lengths, creating a trail of crumbs for if she needed to find her way through the dark stealthily.

//
Dalia meanwhile grumbled at the lack of action. Her lizard brain tuned to aggression yipped now and then to pick up sounds. She stayed low to the ground as she sniffed between. The picture that formed in her mind as she moved forward coming into place more. She would draw this on a tablet to feed the data to a map her kin often used to map tunnels out on their home world.

//

Sarnai snarled as she mentally issued commands to try and filter the data she had collected while the group had been marching for what felt like the thousandth time, but it just came back as senseless noise again. Clearing her system and starting the process over again as she muttered to herself angrily, "There is a pattern, there has to be a pattern, there is always a pattern!"

Clenching her fists, she felt Zarya respond as well, the metal of her rifle groaning under the strain. Slowly taking a long breath, she shut down her sensor suite to passive systems again and started looking around her, watching curiously as Dalia crouched down and sniffed the air, then started drawing on a small tablet.

Heading over towards her, she peeked at the tablet curiously for a moment before noticing Karnix also sniffing the dirt at the tunnel entrance. Shrugging in response to his suggestion that they clear out whatever they were smelling in the tunnels, she stiffened as the Catus woman came over and offered to join them.

"Whatever keeps you from murdering people defending their homes fascist." she sneered in response.

//

Shizuko shrugged languidly in response to the taunt and started walking towards the tunnel entrance when her suit gave her a notification of some sort of device attached to itself. Pulling up the reading with a flick of her eyes, she smiled as she saw it identified as a self replicating nanobot, dropping a copy of itself on the ground every few steps she took. Turning on the comm channel she shared with Tsubasa, she murred over the line to get her attention before softly speaking, "Clever little kitten. I will return shortly."

 

[steinOS]

Hours of walking, yet it seemed the woods only became more decayed and congested. Now that night has fallen, the crippling darkness only served to make the distant tree trunks look like standing figures, watching without eyes. Some of them groaned. What a foul place - there seemed to be no end to it.

Stein occasionally looked down as he walked, cautious of what he thought was an ideal place to drop into a viscous muddy sinkhole. The rest of his attention was on the environment ahead and the respective party members. The PCL folk - what would they do if they encounter other PCL patrols? Will they be shot on sight as traitors for walking side by side with their enemies? Would they even be able to shoot at their comrades for the sake of themselves, or this team? And what of the ASR?

He still wasn't sure what the Catus were doing out here. Shizuko claimed she was only here to protect Tsubasa, and the latter's reason for being here is to 'help'. From what Stein knew of their modus operandi - it was never that simple, there was always some sort of underlying mission. That report was passed into ASR hands long ago. Whatever it was must have been failed due to circumstance, but there was no guarantee regarding a lack of further underhandedness.

Simon was also a familiar face - the green man of the solar republics. Having a personal introduction would have amounted to mission failure; the PCL paid well for covert duplicates of agricultural research. None of that seemed to matter now after becoming a high value fugitive, but Stein would remain silent on it regardless. Though Simon was protected by that '700' now, he seemed to have been exposed to more danger than ever before in this short period. After observing the man in his element for a good while before, Stein almost pitied him for ending up in this mess.

They may as well all have been deserters now; Stein's gaze shifted to Rho-Hux - even the esteemed Major. The circumstances created a team as grey and ambiguous in standing as the mist itself. Its future uncertain.

—

The android's black gloved palm rested atop the stock of the Pravlat, which he deemed more comfortable hanging from his shoulder. The compound rifle that has not been used remained strapped to his back as a backup; the void residue deposited upon it by the detonation of the sky worm's pustule bomb has seemingly outlived more than its half-life judging by the lack of luminescence. However, some dark violet scuffs remained, as if a sort of grape-flavoured chewing gum has nestled and dried within the scratches on the rifle body.

Stein eavesdropped on the conversation initiated by Haumoza as it was one of the few things breaking the eerie silence, albeit his eyes moved to observe the perimeter. The fidgeting of the ASR members and the Catus seemed increasingly far away - two steps began to feel like one. Why was it so difficult to listen?

His shoulders were shrugged slowly in a circular motion, head tilting as if trying the release tension from within his neck. The numbers being returned weren't synchronised with the average, anomalies were appearing - it was like an insect was running over his calculations. Reflexively, Stein slammed down several firewalls around his core and peripheral systems.

"There's something here.", he said audibly, though his gaze seemed lost - as if trying to stare directly at somebody who had just forcefully blindfolded him. Most of that time was spent staring at the ground, occasionally glancing over the caverns in the hills. He could still see clearly, but… where was this interference coming from?

"Stick together.", Stein warned, regaining most of his composure as his hand reached up to massage his brow for a brief moment. The android moved slightly closer to everyone else, trying to implement temporary static calibration values to his sensors in order to stop them from changing.

 

[Sarnai]

Whipping her head up from where she had been staring down the tunnel, Shizuko looked towards the pale man who had just spoken up, her voice dry with sarcasm as she replied "Any idea what is in there android, or just something? Because I think that others have already sufficient made the point."

//

Cackling out a laugh, Sarnai looked over at Shizuko, enjoying the sharp personality of the Catus not being pointed at her, "Well, you know how the Carnies are, always needing to tell everyone that they are important too."

 

[steinOS]

"Go and find out, curiosity killed the cat.", he challenged without turning his head, opting to take advantage of her bravery. An organic was better placed to investigate something causing technological interference - if that was indeed its source. Perhaps it was the home of an abzu-touched trapdoor spider.

Stein glanced briefly at the PCL Major before pushing further forward to line up with Naumoza and Alrus, addressing the former due to the additional intel he had on this route. "This area is ripe with electromagnetic phenomena, almost as if there is a scrambler operating nearby, or an attempt at cyberwarfare. But Rho-Hux isn't looking too focused over there - I wager there's something more to it."

 

[Ur Degaton]

Yuri didn't know how long he ran, he didn't care, he needed to put as much distance between him and everyone else as possible. He knew he was the next target for the horrors he had provoked. They wouldn't stop until he was dead, he knows how predators operate. He needed to lead them far away from the others, far far far away. He didn't care what might happen to himself in the future, his only objective was to survive and defeat the monsters that ruled this land. He might of been ill prepared, and truth be told he was pretty low on ammo. But he would prevail, it was kill or be killed, and he was the killer.

Eventually, once the moon was high in the black sky, he stumbled upon a gap in the ground, but it didn't look natural. Most natural holes form from erosion or natural disasters, but this one was almost out of place. As if god himself split the earth just enough for the crack to form. It slanted downwards like a black abyss of uncertainty. Yuri didn't hesitate to walk into the unknown, if anything the subterranean void would be the perfect place to have a last stand against the creatures. Just a few explosives and he could bury them all underground. But alas, he had nothing but a pistol and a knife, having dropped his sniper once he realized it was out of ammo and would only slow him down.

Yuri took out a flare, one out of five he had with him, and walked downwards into the darkness, intent on uncovering the purpose of the mysterious hole.

 

[Kjbivins]

Rho-Hux looked to the sky as his senses screamed at him to get off this planet. When did things become so complicated? It used to be so much more simple. Find the enemy, kill the enemy, limit friendly casualties. There was a sort of peace to the retinue of it, with just enough of a challenge to keep his mind sharp and the game exciting. This mist, this mist had clouded his senses, made him rusty, made him afraid. He never used to feel fear before. The last time it appeared an abomination came out of the darkest pits of space and time and killed his troops like they were nothing! Now his team had been separated from two talented cyborgs, forced to join sides with former enemies, and Rho-hux had no idea what was going on. And then there was that chill. The chill that was like a spider creeping down his back, each leg sinking deeper into him. Like a cold hand of death, reading to take his soal at any moment. Something bad was coming.

To hell with the voidhanger and that satellite. To hell with the hostiles roaming the planet. To hell with taking any more prisoners or chasing down imaginary targets. He needed to keep the PCL alive. Keep them able to fight enough day. Once he became more aware of the situation Rho-Hux remained unusually quiet.

"I feel a strange presence. It's like an unnatural chill. Does anyone else feel anything? We may be dealing with another otherworldly force right now," he needed to be sure. They were all from different alien species so it was highly unlikely they were all sensing the same thing. Regardless, Rho-Hux knew that even minor gut feelings could save a life and he needed to be more careful from now on. Just until there was another fight. Then he could command with relentless vigor again.

Up ahead he saw Yuri moving ahead to investigate. He kept his eyes on him until he was in darkness. "Yuri, if you go down there you will be by yourself. Do you require backup?"

 

[Rads]

Hidalgo's spidy sense is going off the wall and he takes a deep breath calming himself down then says"give me a little I'll go a little closer and scan some of the area".
He moves up to front and starts to scan the area infront of him and starts thinking' Rho Hux is right something doesn't feel right i have bad feeling that we're about to get another load of bullshit to deal with'.
He continues to scan for about ten minutes then says" I've finished scanning short range sadly thats the limit of my right eye so i don't know what I'll find".

Alrus can feel it in his bones and then says" there's many creatures in otherworld as some might call it, but till today I never saw such a massive creature even when I used to hunt a lot".
He pauses for a minute then says " As for when I first e counted the giant flying bug from the outterworld I would say six to seven hours since I ran from the mist and it, I hope that helps some what"

 

[FeastOfPerversions]

Haumoza paused for a moment at Alrus' words. His expression did not change but the scielto would be able to hear his fingers scraping against the handle of his assault rifle. Whatever he was doing came to a sudden stop as his mental gears whirred away, trying to decipher the information.

He then turned to Stein.

"Android... well, whatever your name was, help me spread the news to the rest of your mismatched comrades. This mist you encountered, your scielto friend says it was six to seven hours ago. For me, it was roughly a little over yesterday; far before you encountered it. I am... not caught up to speed on recent events I suppose, only that all order seems to have collapsed and all of you caught off guard."

If that was so, that meant that what they were all experiencing now wasn't really even the beginning of the strange incident sweeping over Caracosa. If that was so, had the carnazir trooper seen aspects to the mist that the rest of his impromptu allies had not?

And why would there be such weak ECM this far out into the woods, targeting such a position of little strategic value? Stein's words were concerning but also confusing. Was it perhaps some ghost trace?

"You do not appear to be having much difficulty with this interference my friend. That may speak more for your systems' defences but in my experience, the mist tends to be unpleasant to sensitive electronics. The hill-eel though? I have not seen too much of him; but how strange he is dressed as a member of the League. He must have been from some noble house that lost some tribal war. Maybe his own little void-demons are chewing him apart for his transgression. I only hope he won't break before we are swallowed by the mist." He mused; he was no hacker. He'd trust this machine-man for now.

"Are you detecting any compromises or serious intrusions? If so, we may have been made. I know there are multiple loyalist bases out here; before I executed that bastard, were you looking for one? He would not speak, tight lipped foole he was, but I may have an idea. I will need to get a better picture but unfortunately, I must ask those promiscuous bipedal housepets over there for help."

His voice lowered and quieted as he spoke of the catus. Whatever his reasons for holding them in such low regard, it was clear he was forcing himself to retain an air of semi-civility if he would have to address them.

As he turned about, Marjan approached him. He nodded to him, beginning to tell the Aixue beast about when he'd encountered the mist versus when the rest of the squad had according to Alrus. That's when he noticed one of the catus, the one that appeared to be protecting that kitten, disappearing down one of the burrows. Just his luck; he had prepared himself to suck up to the snobby pests when one of them already was making its way into the tunnels.

Perhaps they were not as adverse to hard work as he thought. As he made his way to the one left standing guard, passing by the misshapen lump that called itself a vrexul and the voidhanger, he turned to see a group of the PCL soldiers chatting amongst themselves; it sounded important but why were they so hushed about it? He snarled under his breath; he already disliked having to speak to catus given his history with them. At least the younger looking one likely didn't have the sheer arrogance of others he had known.

The crackling of its quarterstaff did make him slow his pace, slinging his weapon over his back. This one did not appear to be some aged alley-cat; a child told be an adult in a time of war. Perhaps there was hope for it.

"You there; little feline. You are a doctor are you not?" His voice, gravelly and muddened, spoke to Tsubasa with an almost lecturing tone. As if he was an adult that was about to sentence her to detention time for some recess time misshap. "I will not pretend to be an admirer of species but I will say as a member of your squad, I will need your help. This mist, it-"

Why was that human just rushing into a tunnel? He looked over to the gealtirocht; he wasn't restraining him? He paused his conversation to see a flare lighting in its hand as Yuri began to walk into one of the large, earthy tunnels, the roots illuminated by his flare casting deep shadows over and around him.

A few of the PCL troopers, upon seeing this, broke from their discussion and rushed in towards the tunnel.

"Yuri, what the hell are you doing? You already dodged death once, hold on and let someone back you up!" It was the trooper carrying a shotgun, grumbling as he slung his rifle over his shoulder and the sturdy shell-spitter brought up onto his arms.The voidhanger PCL trooper with him stopped by the tunnel, flashing a light down and muttering a prayer under his breath. Whatever made this tunnel clearly had some sort of powerful digging mechanisms; long trench-like marks along the walls seemed to suggest a brutish nature.

"The other cat-lady as well? Dammit, could you at least tell us all before you go chase laser lights or ghosts or whatever?" The other league human chimed in, looking over to Dalia, not aware of her echolocation abilities. "Hey, hellmouth, I know you're probably some famous artist on your homeworld drawing rocks, but could you do us a solid and follow the other post-human? Just, you know, in case whoever knows what is hiding in there."

One of the league troopers however, the voidhanger, was looking over to the gealtirocht. He wasn't sure if Rho-Hux noticed but for the voidhanger, he didn't need his state-of-the-art armour or the targets gifted by Rho-Hux to detect that something was wrong.

After all, a voidhanger's body as naturally attuned to currents immaterial in nature. Currents such as the strange, frosty cloud of ether invisible to natural sight but to him, easily visible as it gathered around the gealtirocht like a cloud trapped in a glass prison.

"Sir, are you feeling alright ? Your bio-signatures are getting erratic. There's ether build-up... I think ether build up, but some kind of ether-related mass building up around you." The voidhanging trooper was panting audibly under its breath.

Truth be told, he could feel it as well. Something emanated out of that cloud, a passing wind of creeping, crawling whispers and strange sensations. His armour analysed them as unimportant ether-anomalies but his own void-touched flesh could feel something unusual about them. As if they were echoes repeating not words and dialogue but some kind of code or pattern; as if they were raw data-clusters for decoding some etherealist's void-vault left out in the open.

It wasn't that simple of course. It couldn't be. Nothing here was.

He was right on that. As Crimson, perched on a rooty bridge connecting two hills, scoped out their surroundings, scanning with her compact LMG, she detected another kind of interference. Not from the outside world; voidhanger flesh could practically filter out and in some cases analyse energy sources without much need for augmentations.

It began in her external data-storage; the same prismic storage she was using to store the entity. It had been quiet since their dealings with the base. Now it was sending interference of its own, nearly distracting her from realizing that it was attempting to overtaken her own communication systems. She'd momentarily shut it out, tightening her digital grip on her storage-turned-prison as the beast lashed and jabbed at the firewall defences.

Motioning for Marjan to take up watch, she began to try and decipher the strange, elusive being hidden within her own data storage. Why the hell was it acting up now? Was it just the phantom sensations from some sort of ether-residual in the air? The mist if anything was thinner from what they could see; there was something in the air, something she was sure Stein was feeling based on a preminary scan, likely that gelatirocht too from that ominous cloud starting to build up around him, but she should have been beyond the range given she was at the edges of their rough perimeter.

Was the creature able to detect phenomena beyond her ethereological and physical spectrum? If so, was it doing so without her actually noticing? What was it trying to communicate to and why?

She headed back to the middle of the group, trying to scan through her own data logs to see if it had actually been successful and if she had noticed too late.

----------

"Whatever the rest of your comrades are tossing themselves into, I can applaud their bravery or their recklessness. But as I was saying," Haumoza continued, looking back to Tsubasa. The air around him seemed to grow warmer somehow and a smell, distant and unintrusive but pungent, was starting to seep out of the air. "I need to get a better look at this area. We are halfway to the outpost but as you are no doubt aware, a lot has changed. Before I was captured, I was informed that mist had settled over the area leading to the base. Mist, they claim, was not particularly dense or heavily interfering with their electronics. That was over a day ago."

That was it; he was summoning something from outside of this plane of being. The smell wasn't from the filthy dirt and roots around them or the rotted wood. It was of a finer and deeper, more unpleasant kind of pungent domain. It was mixed in with a sound like squelching mud, pervading not just Tsubasa's likely perked ears but seemingly echoing into her head.

If she looked closerly, by Haumoza's head, the air was starting to blur and bend as something squirmed behind or underneath the empty space. Something distinctly wormlike in its struggling, writhing motions.

"I suppose you already have an idea of what's coming next," He said as he slung his rifle and began to adjust a part of his armour, loosening it slightly. "I am creating a wormgazer; a sentinel comprised of my own flesh and a creature evoked from the Void-Moon. The problem is that my body is not fully recovered from its ordeal; removing my own biomatter to craft its body is going to be unpleasant. Yet if we want to have an idea of how near the base is, if it is safe to go in, and if there is an enemy camp in the vicinity, I cannot think of a better idea."

He then looked over to Alrus again, motioning for him to join them.

"After I conjure the drone from my flesh and from the worm I am summoning, my body may go into temporary shock or a near overwhelming level of pain and stimulation. I need you to stabilize me; you and any other medic. Do not worry about the drugs being too powerful; my kind are hardy folk."

That's when he unsheathed a knife, spinning it in his hand.

"Star-skin, if you would be so kind, I would like to borrow some of your membrane. Your kind's particular coverings have a tendency to absorb foreign energy sources better than mine. Think of it as giving my forthcoming flesh-drone a nice jacket that also happens to have built in thermometers. I don't think you'll need to slice off too much; nothing you can't handle, right?"

He chuckled; it sounded like pebbles were dancing in mud puddles, echoing out of a pit. The knife was pointed to Alrus but he spun it in his hand until the blade was pointed at the fungoid's wrist and the handle was to the scielto.

----------

In the moist, fetid depths of the burrows, Shizuko, Yuri, a shotgun wielding League trooper found themselves in a tight and claustrophobic environment. The ground here remained partially muddy, smearing them with the flesh of worms crushing under their feet or smudgy dirt against the walls and hanging in clumps from the roots. Long claw marks adorned the surfaces, almost leading them deeper inside, thinning out the further in they went. All three would be forced to crouch, nearly down to their knees, as they moved through.

The tunnels weren't too deep but as chance would have it, they were connected.

As both reached the bottom of these hovels, they would find they lead into thier larger chambers almost dome-like and this time, with the roots barely grazing their heads. Here the ground was packed with the trimmed roots, leaf matter, and some sort of mossy growth that had grown over them.

A tunnel was visible between both of them, connecting the two. Yuri and the trooper scanning every inch of the room with his shotgun would be able to see Shizuko through the tunnel; wider and taller than the ones they had exited from but still refusing to allow them to stnad to their full height.

They would also discover corpses.

Scattered along the ground were the remains of some mixture of what appeared to be some sort of large insects and a bulbous organism of some sort with a number of lengthy, twisted, branch-like appendages emerging from its body.

The former were vaguely similar to earwigs but scaled up to the size of greyhounds. Their bodies were flattened as one might expect but arond the central joints of their legs were flattened plates of carapace almost like shields, most of them scarred with scratch marks. Their carpaace was coloured a kind of dark pumpkin orange mixed with a dark bloody red-brown and their heads bore both a pair of larger compound eyes and between them, smaller quad-dotted eyes. Four antennae emerged from their heads, some partially retracted into long sheaths that trailed behind their heads, formind ridges along them.

Their frontal feet ended in lengthier pincers, more crayfish than crab, bearing around six moving joints on each that could interlock like scissors. Others ended in sharp, spear like tips that like the claws, were doused in a reeking, still wet orange fluid. It wasn't their blood however. A look over to their bodies, smashed or in two pieces, revealed theirs was a deeper purple and smelled almost like spoiled milk.

At least ten were in each of the two chambers and given by the scratch marks on the walls, whole chunks scourged out by some unseen force, and the bits of orange and purple smeared about, there had been a battle of some sort.

Had it been to protect the bulb? It stood furthest back in the room surrounded by the corpses of the insects. They couldn't have attacked it; its half garlic clove half closed up flower body had been pierced open then shaken about, tearing a wound further along its entire centre-line. Whatever trauma it had endured, it had been nearly split in two. With how the insects were arranged, it almost appeared that they had tried to block something that had moved through the tunnel.

As it stood or rather lay, it was dried out by comparison to the others, almost a husk withered and crisp. Looking closer, some sort of residual fluid could be seen where the initial entry wound seemed to have been made; some kind of pinkish-white liquid, manifested as a few droplets.

Yet it wasn't just the physical remains of the massacre that were noticeable. Ether-senses would detect an unusual signature in the rank air; the electronics of all members now within this burrow beginning to crackle and buzz. It was as if someone was trying to hack into them but nobody was there. It was a field of static interference, the same as what Stein had encountered outside.

There was another faint one here; this one was pure ether, like a faint buildup of energy, and it seemed to emit from the carcass of the bulb-organism. It was fading however... no, it was morphing. Becoming blurrier, more crackly, more like that of the jamming signature.

It wouldn't be enough to cripple that of a state of the art combat armour, but it was causing their electronic and digital systems to stutter.

Something had entered here and slaughtered everything that lived within. Based on the scratches alongside the connecting tunnel, it hadn't shown any mercy to those in the other room. Whatever this being was, it was difficult to tell how powerful it was but given by how dried out the husk of the bulb was while the insects still had their viscera spilling out, it seemed it was predatory.

How would a native life form be interfering with their electronics though?

That's when Hidalgo and and Sarnai made a few discoveries of their own.

----------

As Sarnai's cries echoed through the tunnels, an image began to form of the complex system of interlinked lairs beneath the hills. Whlie the three already underground would not seem to find much at first, the drakaris' echolocating abilities easily matched some of the more high tech sonic navigation technology available on the civilian AND military market.

Was Sarnai actually a master artist? That remained to be seen. The image that was being painted in her mind however, would've amazed biologist and painter alike.

The tunnels, while they apepared to be random holes dug into the side of the hills, turned out to have an underlying logic to them. Their entrances were many but a number of them were dead ends; they did not end in larger hovel-homes with dome-like space but simply walls of dirt. It wasn't hard to imagine these may have been decoy entrances though in some cases, they went deep enough to almost intersect the tunnels that did lead into the dome-spaces. The majority of these spaces were connected by thinner tunnels as Shizuko and Yuri had seen; why exactly was unclear. Was it simply easier? Was it to keep predators from easily accessing too much of the tunnel system? Regardleess, there were pathways that were made of connecting larger chambers with these narrower paths; potentially for food storage or living space.

Though, there was something unusual as well with some of the tunnels. Something that broke and clashed with the logic of their construction.

There were long, wide, thick, roughly hewn passages somewhere near the far end of this tunnel network. They had little rhythm or rhythme to them; crossing across multiple smaller tunnels as if something had simply bulldozed cleanly through them. A bunch of them stopped roughly before a couple of the narrows; as if whatever had barged in had decided going deeper wasn't worth the risk.

What the hell was supposed to bulldoze through that much dirt and roots and on top of that, while likely being attacked by the denizens of the tunnels?

If the Carnazir base wasn't that far, as the group was halfway there, was it under risk of being assaulted by these unidentified, burrowing monstrosities?

----------

Sarnai's on board computer systems had begun to decode and partially analyse some of the mist.

From what could be gathered, it appeared to be oddly enough, possessing faint electrical currents. It was almost as if there was a hidden system of wires woven through it but no physical matter could be detected within. At most, there were faint pulses of ether weaving through it alongside the electrical pulses but neither revealed their own origin.

More importantly, it appeared when the mist got thicker, this is when these pulses got stronger. Primarily the ether pulse, allowing it to create a zone of weakened realspace. The electricity seemed to amplify alongside it and send out signals of some sort, capable of interfering with electronics but it would require a very, very heavy concentration to cause an entire country to be shut down.

In some of her scans, she might be able to make out void-trails oddly enough within the smoke. As if something bearing a heavy reisude of ethereal energy had moved through weakened realspace, leaving a slimy and dripping trail of unearthly power in its wake. That trail diminished with time, likely moreso due to the entity that had been warped into the mist.

When taken with Stein's findings on the Loyalist computer, it seemed to paint a clearer picture. While it was not clear if this could be said to be a proper "void shroud", it seemed to fulfill a similar purpose. The yet unseen black-armoured forces had benefitted from it clearly... but so had those unseen smoke-beings who had torn apart those alghazafs. Were they on the same side? The mist could channel electricity and ether. Given that it could jam electronics and cut off communications to some extent, that would be perfect for an invasion. Yet in spite of being able to channel ether, there were far from rampant wormhole incusrions of abzu-dwelling creatures. Even this far out, anyone would be able to feel the very air churning with the miasma and purulence of the realm beyond... not to mention likely becoming overwhelmed in minutes.

For Hidalgo however, what he discovered was a bit more immediate.

As his cybernetic eye scanned the surroundings, it picked up movement.

The first traces were something up ahead, flickering low and stealthy between the gaps in the hills. A flicker of motion; something long lashing about and some sort of bristly spines; only for a brief moment. Far enough away that even squinting would barely reveal but for his cybernetics, they were fast enough to at least catch a glimpse. Some sort of animal life was out there.

A likely more concerning sight however would grab his eye's attention. It was not seen but it was detected; a faint electrical signal, correlating to a not yet visually identified object hovering above the forest floor. It was somewhere further up ahead of the party; a few seconds of searching and his eye would be able to track its general location to northwest of them, roughly 200 metres away, roughly in the sub-canopy of the forest 15 or so metres above the forest floor. His eye would be able to scan it reveal a cloaked shape; a smooth central body shaped almost like an early hovercar model, bearing a longer front that was tapered down to from the top of of a slope. On both sides of this body it was flanked by the two large cannons, also thinning out from their dense thigh-like bases to a slimmer cannon, ending in a short rectangular barrel jutting out of the tips of these turrets..

There were four more signatures signatures as well; scans revealed them to be flat bat-ray shaped machines, maybe around half the size of the larger drone. Sleeker and lacking the same level of weaponry; notably armed with a pair of tusk-like turrets pointed out from the bases of their wings. They were flying on ahead of them in a spread out, x-like formation with the larger drone at the middle, the others covering its flanks.

When its design was cross referenced with known weapon databases, the former were an experimental heavy duty combat model: the Spearfisher model of combat drone, made offplanet by a powerful weapons-manufacturing corporation with ties to the Pan Celestial League known simply as Solar Dynamics. While they were originally experts in civilian designs, the had been contracted by the Regime, albeit covertly, to convert some of their desgisn to use not heavy duty tools but powerful anti-vehicular weaponry. This was a dirty secret, an open one, that continued to this day. These were likely old stock that hadn't been stolen away by the Carnazir or the allies.

The latter was a locally licensed model, cheaper and made from similar technology and principles, a home-made weapon of the Loyalists simply known as the Nightshriek; they had terrorized guerilla groups in the early days of the conflict, making a whistling sound that accelerated to a shriek as they swept down from overhead gunboats, identifying and brutilizng targets with high output energy bursts. Cost efficient and terrifying, it wasn't until their enemies started getting drones of their own in large number as well as developing speicfic counter-measures that their cruel reign came to an end.

They were too far to identify the team; in fact, they didn't even seem to be heading their way. They were headed westwards... roughly towards where Hidalgo had seen movement in the hills. Yet based on their movement patterns, they didn't seem to be hunting per se. They had been obscured from vision by active camouflage but they were projecting a field around the Spearfisher. Did the Spearfisher had its own active camouflage? Perhaps, but for now, it was relying on its smaller accompaniment to ensure it couldn't be visually identified.

Without Hidalgo's eye, they would have been able to move without even disturbing the leaves. Where exactly were they headed though?

 

[steinOS]

'No intrusions, yet', Stein thought to himself while looking on towards Crimson's position. If there really were loyalist encampments surrounding this area, scouting ahead was prudent - but stopping in order to do so? Fortunately, the burrows would provide enough cover in the event of an ambush. That is if there was anyone left to stage an ambush; maybe whatever left this residual electromagnetic ghost trail found them in advance of the team's approach.

Having observed everyone dealing with their respective data and interactions, Stein moved up to intercept Crimson's approach.

"Your EM field looks like you've had an allergic reaction.", the android noted, assuming that she was able to determine a similar pattern in his own emission. Though not quite as extreme - not quite as alive. He gave her a stern look, as if he suspected her of having been compromised by something. Having joined up with the team at the periphery of the Sprawl, Stein didn't have knowledge of the strange entity that has come to plague the voidhanger - but her field emission was littered with fingerprints that weren't hers. Something was being suppressed.

 

[Rads]

Hidalgo then says" Oh wow that was a lot more than i was expecting to get at this range, anyways going to send hud's so you can see what i see". He then sends the information to everyone's hud just as he said he was going to.
'i don't have any beef with the canazair and want to keep it that way if possible, given there is more trouble waiting for us in more places than i care to shake a stick at, simons seems really calm and collected maybe this would be better off handled by him if we are get them on our side'? ' Right now all i can do is focus on the mission and hand and work with the tools given to me at this current time'.
Alrus about what Haumoza, asked of him then says" sure I can give you some of my ethereal membranes to help, how many do you need"?,
@steinOS @Kjbivins @Sarnai-Zaya @Sarnai-Zaya @Doggo

 

[Kjbivins]

"If there is a Canazair base nearby perhaps there is also an off-world communication device," Rho-Hux told his PCL troops. The chill had not left him but he could sense victory was within reach. He's warrior spirit was returning to him.

"We need to move forward with the Yuri and the others. The sooner we're all out of this cave the better. Troops, we're going to move forward in a Column formation." Rho-Hux then proceeded to draw several squares into the ground. They were illuminated by the lights comming from one of his troop's new helmets.


"Technically I only have command over the three of you, and one of you has already left with Yuri (good on them for following the no one travels alone order). This might not be a perfect wedge column but we'll make it work for the cave. I'll lead upfront, and the two of you will follow behind my side, one to my left and one to the right. If anyone wants to follow us, I suggest you form a wedge similar to ours with one person behind my troops and two people behind you. We'll be able to move through the caves at a steady pass, have overwatch on all angles in front of us, and we'll be close enough to spot each other yet far away enough to scatter if the need arises."

Rho-Hux waited for his two troops to get in position before he gave his final order before marching. "Keep each other alert. If you see some let the rest of us know. When one of us shoots, well all shoot."