“Ngata, make your way back up here please. Carefully.” 595 commanded, as the whole team burst into action. She looked at the sanguine armoured figure of the Sacred Band next. “Saddam, help Dr Wetherall and Nirann with whatever they need, please.” The soldier nodded at her. “Yes ma’am.” 595 looked at the lead scientist next. “How long, Dr Wetherall?” He habitually scratched the top of his helmet. “Longer than initial assembly. Twenty minutes?”

“Copy that.” Rareth's last comment reminded 595 that the Simrothians were still here, prostrate on the floor. She stared hungrily at them; they looked...energy-rich. A sudden thought snapped her out of it, and she turned her attention once again to the giant worm. “If you can communicate with us...does that mean you can talk to them as well?” The response was instantaneous. “Yes.” The agent bounced on the balls of her feet, enjoying being on a roll. “Can you please ask them, or tell us how to ask them, whether they have any fast, strong animals we can ride on, and someone to guide us on the best route?”

“They will not respond while this one is present.” 595 pursed her lips inside her helmet, luminous blue eyes studying the giant creature. “Could you...go? So we can ask - it would help us get to you quicker.” There was a pregnant pause of about three seconds. “No.” was the eventual answer. 595 held her tongue before she made the situation any worse with her reply.

Rareth had no further questions, nor any other reason to delay. She felt it best not to keep this entity waiting, She too joined in assisting the scientists with disassembling the mast and transit station, and readying the rest of their equipment to carry. Nirann needed only to give Rareth the schematics for her to understand how to disassemble the devices properly. A normal Human could carry the parts, though for this journey, Rareth wanted the scientists to be as unladen as possible. They needed to make good time to their destination, and the unmodified Humans were already going to be the greatest limitation to their pace.

“Thebes, one or more of your team may need to help carry our equipment. I recommend one who will be traveling at the center of our formation, and who is most comfortable fighting at a distance. We certainly do not want this equipment damaged.”Rareth suggested. Nirann, of course, was going to be the one carrying the greatest share of the burden, including the heaviest parts of both the mast and transit station. His robotic frame had great strength compared to a Human, and he would not experience any measure of fatigue. As long as he was still faster than the slowest of the Humans, he would not be slowing them down no matter the weight he was bearing.

Once they had packed away their equipment, Rareth drew her fusion cannon once again and set it to its automatic firing mode. She, naturally, moved to take point as she looked out towards the beacon of light in the distance. They would not know the topology of the landscape, but at the very least, it would not be hard to know if they were going the right way. “Let’s move. No reason to waste time.”

Thebes didn’t take long to consider his answer to Rareth’s request. The Sacred Band was trained for all manner of movement configurations. In this scenario, the heavy gunner was ideally placed to take on more weight, as their role primarily involved moving comparatively little and providing fire support in all directions. “Memnon, take a load; you’re in the middle.” The towering figure retired from his covering firing position and took a bundle of webbed equipment parts from Dr Ngata. And then another.

After a short interlude, they were all ready to go. The Sacred Band formed a tight formation around the unarmed scientists, with 595 positioned behind Rareth but in front of Thebes. After double checking nothing had been left behind, the expedition followed the valley into a pass between two hills. What looked like a dried out riverbed granted them access into a steep uphill incline which headed roughly toward the bright light on the horizon. Short, black, stunted tree-like objects dotted the passage.

After a short while, a rumble from behind them highlighted that the worm had disappeared beneath the earth again. 595 looked around, trying to substantiate her feeling that they were being watched. “Stay sharp.” She murmured. "If the worms are docile, imagine what the nasties could be."

As she moved along at the head of the group, Rareth kept alert in every way possible. Now that there was another, bright source of light in the distance, visibility had become noticeably better. Low-light vision was still required, but she had a better effective range of awareness. Beyond that, her implants sent out regular pulses for echolocation to build out a picture of the surroundings beyond what her eyes could see. For now, they were heading uphill across fairly open ground.

“If the Rothians here are living in villages, then the threats they face must be creatures they can survive against without relying on stealth, else they would not be able to remain in one, fixed location. If they are animals that may try to ambush us, then we would benefit from keeping to long, open sight lines. If there are hostile, intelligent beings, then we may be attacked from a distance. Though, again, if those primitive villagers have survived, then I would not expect advanced weaponry.” Rareth reasoned. “For now, I would say that we should keep to open areas where we can clearly see our surroundings.”

“I think it would be a mistake to assume the life forms in here operate a rational food chain.” Dr Ngata countered. “In the Cradle, we recorded almost three dozen different mutations. They varied drastically in physiology, but were for all intents and purposes part of the same organism. Sometimes the different elements would attack each other, like an autoimmune disease in Humans. But for the most part, they were unified in removing foreign bodies from their host. Namely, us. That’s my theory, anyway. Even if the worm said it didn't have 'direct control' over what may lie ahead, that doesn't mean they don't share common programming."

The scientist hopped over a small boulder. They were moving at a fast walk, and while the regular environment suits handled 90% of the exertion, Dr Ngata was still beginning to breathe heavier in between sentences. “It's a shame we didn't get a chance to study the creatures we've found so far in more detail. It's a major development that they harbour a facsimile of intelligence, but we need to study where that intelligence really lies. With them? Or somewhere else.” A distant screech punctuated the xenobiologist’s theorising. All the soldiers raised their weapons slightly closer to a firing position. “Let’s cut the chit chat. Everyone keep your eyes on a swivel.” Thebes ordered.

They continued walking up the steep dried out riverbed, in silence, for thirty minutes. Eventually, a high, steep cliff face blocked their way, with the sides of the canyon blocking either side. “There are handholds; we can climb this.” Thebes confirmed. Dr Wetherall palmed the wall. “I don’t think this is natural. Something built it.” He looked back the way they’d come, at the steep riverbed. “If it’s meant to keep us out, it’s not doing a good job.” 595 surmised, looking up the side of the sheer face. “Lets scale it. We’re sitting ducks out here.” She grabbed the first hand hold and hauled herself up.

“The way the creature spoke implied that its mind was not solely within the being we saw.” Rareth remarked. “If we are going to speak to it ‘in person’, then that worm may have only been a conduit. We may be dealing with a hive mind, or at least something that can control certain creatures.”

Once they reached the cliff face, Rareth returned her weapon to her back and gave another quick scan of the area behind them. “It seems we need to climb to keep progressing, but we should still be cautious about it. We should not all climb at once. Thebes, have some of your team stay down here to cover us as we climb. We will do the same from the top once we reach it. And you may want to share out some of the weight from Nirann for the climb, just to make sure none of those handholds give way.” She suggested.

For Rareth, her climb was more of a sprint. Echolocation allowed her neural implant to build a detailed map of the cliff before she started, so she did not even need to use her eyes to know exactly where she should grab, and where to move next. Coupled with her long limbs and powerful muscles, she could move up top in leaps and bounds. At least for her, there were no interruptions before she reached the top.

Although she did not yet see any movement from potential lifeforms, Rareth still drew her weapon and remained alert as soon as she was at the top. From the top of the cliff, the landscape ahead of her really opened up. The dominant feature was the large lake that took up most of the space ahead, which reflected the light from the beacon in the distance. There were forests to either side in the basin, composed of trees that seemed to demonstrate some form of bioluminescence. Since they did not have the means to cross the lake directly, their path would likely take them around the side, through those forests.

Thebes nodded at Rareth’s suggestion. “Saddam and Athena, with me. Memnon, Knossos, Carthage, take some of the load and follow Rareth.” Half of the Sacred Band took bundles of equipment from Nirann and deftly followed the Datius up the sheer rock face. The other half, along with the scientists and 595, turned their backs to the wall and surveyed the incline they’d just climbed. Another screech sounded from somewhere up one of the sides of the canyon, a little closer than before.

“Clear.” Knossos confirmed once the first group had reached the top. “You four, go.” Thebes pointed at the scientists and spook. 595 and the Rothian droid practically flew up the wall, but the Human boffins were a little more ponderous. “Wow. Pretty.” 595 commented when she saw the enormous lake, surrounded by softly glowing trees and sheer cliffs on all sides. “There’s a waterfall on the other side of this lake; we might be able to scale up to the water channel above.” She remarked. Fascinating! I wonder why they dammed this fjord…” Dr Wetherall looked about in wonder.

595 turned away from the stunning vista and scanned the canyonsides looming over the way they’d just come. She couldn’t see any movement. Once the second group were safely up the wall, Saddam and Athena turned from rearguard duties and began scaling. Memnon turned to provide overwatch in addition to the agent. Finally, Thebes made his way up to complete their ascent as a group. “So...which way? I’m certainly not swimming to the other side.” 595 asked. “It looks like the left-hand side has a wider strip of land, but denser tree coverage. Right is the opposite.” Carthage assessed. “Lots of unknowns either way. These trees are messing with my optics.”

The team took some time, once they were all at the top of the cliff, to return most of the load back to Nirann, who quickly returned back to the middle of the group with the rest of the civilians. Rareth, again, was at the front, scanning the paths ahead of them. Our tactics favor ranged combat. The trees will work more to our disadvantage than the narrower path. We should keep to the right.”

Pausing for a moment, Rareth stepped up to the edge of the lake and looked down into the liquid. “Do we have any means to test this lake? I have no intention of crossing it, but if we are going to be climbing near that waterfall, we should still make sure the water is safe to interact with.” She asked.

Nirann looked around uneasily towards the tops of the cliffs surrounding the basin, as least as much as his expressionless, robotic visage could convey discomfort. “I do get being worried about the water, but is no one going to talk about this screeching we keep hearing? It was closer last time. I get the feeling we’re being followed. Granted, we’re being followed by something that hasn’t quite grasped the whole stealth thing, so…maybe it isn’t a big deal?”

“Right works. Sacred Band, get set.” Thebes intoned. The Sacred Band had been picked for this mission because of the convoluted command structure. They were an endlessly resourceful combat unit, used to asymmetric warfare. Taking suggestions from a Rothian was definitely not the strangest thing they’d had to do in their history. Thebes had noted the Outreman agent had been unusually quiet once they’d entered the simulation. She had scarcely shut up outside of it. She was...different somehow.

"We don’t have our full-fat lab gear with us - that was coming with the second wave of our colleagues. But our CRD suits do have limited water testing facilities; kind of like we’re carrying our school chemistry sets with us.” Dr Wetherall snorted derisively. The suits were in fact reasonably advanced, but the scientist was confident that given more time and less politics, he could design something better. “Allow me.” He gingerly stepped over to the body of water next to Rareth, crouched down and dipped an aperture in the hand of his suit into the murky liquid. Carthage aimed her SMG at the same spot of water and held onto the back of the man’s suit.

After a couple of seconds, Dr Wetherall stood up again, closing the aperture. “Let’s get moving shall we? Needs a moment to analyse.” He started walking around the right-hand side of the lake, and everyone moved into formation around him. “These cliffs look like good nesting grounds. Whatever is making that noise could be warning us from it’s home.” Dr Ngata offered optimistically in response to Nirann’s question. He stared up at the first tree as they passed it. Similar to willow trees on Earth, these had light dozens of blue pods attached to the drooping branches. “Let’s pick up the pace until we’re out of this basin.” 595 grunted, lightly patting Ngata’s suit from behind to stop him gawking at the tree.

Rareth walked cautiously among the trees. They produced their own light, so her eyes again had to adjust to avoid overexposing them. In normal circumstances, Rareth would not expect any animal to attack such a large group, as long as they stuck close and did not present any individual as an easy target. However, the scientists did make a fair point that normal rules may not be applicable in this place. Any dangers here could be drastically different from what they were expecting. She could understand why the scientists would be curious about every little thing they passed, but the Agent was right about the rush they were in.

“My perspective is being recorded, if yours is not.” Rareth commented back towards the scientists, though she kept her eyes focused ahead. “If we are able to come back later, you’ll be able to find any curiosities we pass. Just stay focused on reaching that beacon ahead of us.” She advised. Part of her wished that the creature had agreed for them to allow some of their number to stay behind. She would rather have let the others finish the transit station, while she dealt with this meeting. She was no stranger to operating independently, and most certainly, she could have moved faster on her own.

Well...the water probably won’t kill us..” Dr Wetherall concluded, peering at his suit’s readouts from the water experiment. “At least not right away. It’s chock full of microorganisms and minerals, but nothing innately poisonous to Humans or Rothians.” He sent the results to Ngata’s suit, who stooped over his left arm’s holo-readout to see for himself. “Perhaps i will have that swim, after all.” 595 smirked. “Maybe they’ll have some bathing suits where we’re headed.”

“Focus up.” Thebes ordered, the sight of his energy rifle scanning the land, water and cliffs in front of them.The trees rustled, as if whispering to one another. They advanced in an uneasy silence for a few minutes, keeping an even distance between the water’s edge and the cliff faces around the basin’s border. It wasn’t until they’d made it halfway round the lake in peace that a loud flap and an animalistic scream disturbed the uneasy quiet. Acting on impulse 595 turned, locked her legs, pulled her pistol out and fired up at the object she found barrelling toward them. Several others from the team fired as well.

A bundle of leathery wings fell from the sky. 595 stepped in front of Dr Wetherall, shooting at the object a couple more times as it rapidly approached them. However she didn’t get to see the results of her handiwork. Almost too fast for the eye to see, one of the nearby trees exploded into action, snatching the creature out of the air as it lost altitude. The fibrous tendrils of the tree engulfed it entirely, until something crunched loudly. The tree trunk then rocked back and forth, and the boughs ejected the crippled creature straight into the cold dark of the lake with a splash.

The water quickly submerged the ailing creature; it squealed as it was sucked down under the surface.

While Rareth could have fired sooner, she had taken those few extra moments to try and assess how much of a threat the creature really was. Still, she could not entirely fault the agent for firing. Everything about its body language and movement did suggest aggressive intent. It was strange that it would try to attack such a large group, but then again, as a flying creature, perhaps it just hoped to pick one of them off.

In any case, it was not the flyer that was revealed to be the greatest source of worry. The trees around them, it seemed, were more than just stationary plants. In retrospect, Rareth perhaps should have been suspicious of them. Bioluminescence could be used to lure or dazzle prey. Though, she was not sure if the trees were predatory, exactly. The tree had not consumed the flyer, but rather attacked and tossed it away. It may have been more of a defense mechanism, in which case the lights were probably warnings.

“Move carefully and keep away from the trees.” Rareth said calmly. She was glad they had taken the less dense pathway. “We do not know what will set them off, so just try not to agitate them.”

“Why did you do that?” Dr Ngata complained, looking at the agent as she holstered her pistol. “I was watching it, and that creature wasn’t going to attack us; believe me. If anything, it was trying to-” 595 quickly rounded on the scientist, cutting him off. “Let’s get one thing straight, ok? If you see something, ANYTHING, moving in the area, you let the rest of us know. Not after you’ve had a chance to study it, not once you’ve added it to your codex, right-a-fucking-way. All our lives depend on it. You got that?”

“I’m trying to help us all out, you crazy bitch! Analysing the fauna before you shoot the fuck out of it will give clues as to what other kinds of organisms might live here!” Dr Ngata shot back, violently poking the agent’s breastplate with one suited finger. “Or would you rather we all traipse around here with our thumbs in our asses and no idea which way is up?” 595 slapped the man’s finger away from her. “Don’t give me that; It’s our job to keep you safe! And in a place like this, we can only do that by assuming everything is hostile until proven otherwise. And now we need to add the trees to that list too!”

“Umm, guys...what are these trees up to?” Dr Wetherall interrupted. 595 and Dr Ngata both looked at the other scientist. He was in between Carthage and Athena, with his back to both of them. They were all looking at one of the trees. A noticeable creaking, rustling sound hadn’t stopped since the plant had grabbed that winged beast. Now, all of it’s blue luminescent orbs had turned to face them. The branches weren’t droopy anymore, but rigid and alert, like the tree was shocked to see them. Scanning the area, 595 noticed all the other trees were doing the same.

“We need to move. Now!” Thebes barked. 595 drew her pistol again as they began jogging raggedly in formation. They only made it a few dozen steps, passing a couple more of the trees before all hell broke loose.

Four trees, one on each point of the compass, all lunged forward as one. Their branches engulfed the team, grabbing at arms, heads, legs, weapons, everything. Comms erupted as everyone began shouting at once, and gunfire exploded in 595’s ears.

Right in front of her she saw two strong branches grab each of Dr Wetherall’s ankles, pull him off his feet and drag him out of formation towards one of the trees. Carthage leapt forward and grabbed one of the scientist’s hands as the branches pulled him off the floor and into the air. With her other hand, Carthage shot wildly up into the tree limbs.

Another offshoot wrapped around 595’s midriff and her suit’s pressure alarm blared. She shot her pistol straight down through the branch as it dragged her backwards toward the water. Gouts of blue flame rushed past her face from Memnon’s arm cannon, setting the tree behind her ablaze. A shrill squealing sound filled the whole basin, emanating from the tree as the orbs burst and from the lake. The grip around 595’s waist lessened, but didn’t give way.

Dr Ngata wiggled free of the thin stem wrapped around his wrist and ran for the agent, diving to grab her feet and slow the drag down. “SHOOT IT!” He screamed at her. “I’m fucking trying! Grab the knife from my right thigh!” 595 shouted back, pumping energy into the bough around her body.

In one, swift motion, Rareth moved her fusion cannon to her back while drawing a more appropriate weapon for the situation. Unfortunately, it seemed the trees themselves were the threat they had to face. The weapon Rareth decided to use was not one that she had carried with her, but rather, was one that was integrated into her own body. From the outside, one would see her armor on her left arm opening up, separating long-ways into three parts…along with her arm itself. It revealed that there was no bone, muscle, nor any other organic parts within the limb, as it was entirely mechanical. Inside her arm, along the length from her elbow to her hand, there were three energy projectors that pulsed with a bright orange glow. In an instant, a glowing, red-orange plasma blade extended forth from her arm. It was a long weapon that could reach the ground from a standing position, and was intense enough to burn through nearly anything it encountered.

Especially for a being of her size, Rareth moved at a lightning pace. The trees too had reached their limbs for her, but her blade covered wide arcs around herself to cleave through the branches. Certainly, it was quicker to clear foliage with a blade than a rifle, so she had the chance to help some of the others quickly. Her priority was to help those that were not equipped to defend themselves, which to start was Dr. Wetherall. While Carthage was trying to pull him back, she came in at a sprint towards the scientist’s feet and slashed at the branches to try and free him quickly.

For Nirann, he had been at the most central point in the group, farthest from the trees, so he had been spared from the initial grasping branches of their floral attackers. Or, perhaps it was the fact that he was entirely mechanical that led the trees to favor his organic allies? In any case, he was able to carefully put down some of what he was carrying: at least the things he could pick up again quickly. His cargo was important, and he had to protect it, but being in a military security bot, he did have some means to help. He reached behind himself and drew from his back a compact energy carbine, which automatically unfolded once he removed it from its compartment. Agent 595 had been grabbed from nearby to himself and was being dragged towards the water, so Nirann engaged his frame’s targeting software and started to take shots at the source of the branches grabbing her.

Dr Wetherall fell out of the tree and clattered to the floor at Carthage’ feet. She drew her knife and slashed at a few oncoming branches. Wary now, they stayed just out of reach, the blue orbs studying her and Rareth. Then, the entire tree lunged forward, swatting Rareth away and scooping up the slender Human soldier in its clutches.

It rose back up to full height, creaked backwards, and shot Carthage out like a rock from a slingshot toward the lake. Just as she flew into the air, the charges she’d primed detonated inside the mess of tree branches, creating a massive fireball that cauterised the site. The entire valley seemed to reverberate with angry screams.

Carthage gracefully sailed through the air, preparing to plunge feet first into the shallows of the lake. That is until a long, fleshy tentacle with the same pale colour as the trees burst from the depths and grabbed her. “Uh oh.” She had time to say, before the tentacle vanished back into the water with her secured to the end of it.

“Carthage, come in!” Thebes called, savagely slicing through razor-sharp vines in the middle of the ruckus. “Athena, secure Dr Wetherall! Knossos, help Dr Ngata! Rest of you, Focus fire on the trees! I’m going after her.” He burst through the swirling mass of branches, some of them on fire, onto the ‘beach’ of the lake. As if to greet him, three more large tentacles emerged from the choppy water and rushed toward him. “Oh shit.” He growled, diving to one side.

Dr. Wetherall, at least, was secure, but the fight was far from over. Most of the soldiers were holding their positions, but Carthage was being pulled into the lake after being thrown from the first tree. For them to reach their destination at all, it was vital that none of them be killed in the process. Rareth could not guarantee that the others back in the real world would not judge it less risky to pull them out if one or more of them were to die.

Rareth leaped into action just as quickly as before, jumping into the lake alongside Thebes. Her suit was fully sealed, so she had little worry for her oxygen supply. Even if the advanced alloy of her helmet were somehow breached, she would not be in danger of drowning. There was certainly some risk to plunging into the depths of the unknown, but ultimately, Rareth knew she would always have one way out, as long as she was willing to reveal one particular secret to the Humans. For the moment, though, she carved her way through the tentacles that tried to stop her on her way into the water. As she plunged underneath the surface, steam bubbled up from her sword as it boiled on contact any water it touched, though the emitters were waterproof and continued to function perfectly well. Her senses had to adapt to work optimally underwater, but her neural implant could handle the adjustment. Some senses were not quite as efficient, though her echolocation essentially became an even more effective sonar. The picture it painted was crisp and clear to her.

Back on the surface, Nirann decided to make an attempt at a different approach. In addition to the rifle, his frame was equipped with a non-lethal compliance tool for policing duty. The emitter was in his left hand and could launch an energy burst designed to paralyze certain types of muscle. Specifically those involved in locomotion. These trees weren’t animals, but with the way they were moving, they must have had something that worked on the same principle as muscle: something that could be paralyzed. Nirann extended forth his hand and took aim at source of the branches attacking the Agent. His hand released a brief, but intensely bright white beam of energy that struck the branches, and would impart its energy throughout the organism.

Athena was already bounding through the fireball when Thebes gave the order. Her railgun had collapsed down into its most compact version and now operated as a shotgun. Instead of firing one tungsten round over vast distances, it burst it into a dozen pellets with devastating stopping power. She pushed Dr Wetherall down onto the floor and crouched over him. “Steady on! What’re you doing?!” He asked, trying to look up at her. “Stay down.” She commanded, shredding an oncoming vine, and then another.

Knossos crashed through a wall of branches moments after it closed shut, separating the Sacred Band from 595 and Dr Ngata. The tree which had grabbed the agent was on fire and weakening fast, but it seemed determined to finish off the Agent. It was waving her around like a rag doll, with the xenobiologist desperately hanging onto her legs. “It can’t throw us both in!” He shouted.” 595 had riddled the bough with her energy pistol, but still couldn’t wiggle free. Knossos ran over, ducking under a branch which threatened to knock him out, and grabbed onto the limb holding the Agent. “Ngata, pull her in 3, 2, 1!” He grunted, heaving with all his might.

Thebes crashed into the murky water, dodging the tentacles which seemed to lose sight of him and head ashore to attack his team instead. “Watch out, big branches coming from the water!” He called. “Copy that, I’ve got em.” Memnon replied, hefting his sap-covered repeater and opening fire on the tentacles while branches tried in vain to lift him.

Getting back to his feet, Thebes shared a quick nod with Rareth before diving under the water. He struck out powerfully from the shore, heading quickly downwards toward the bottom. It took a few seconds for his vision to adjust, and he had to take a moment to assess what was actually there once he could see.

An enormous sea creature that struck Thebes as a fleshy, off-white lotus flower sat at the bottom of the lake. It’s main body looked a couple of hundred metres in diameter, and it had dozens of thick arms protruding from the sides of it’s body. These arms split into hundreds of smaller limbs that dug into the earth on both sides of the lake. “It must be controlling all those trees.” Thebes realised out loud as they both plunged down towards it. “There she is. Carthage, come in!” Her suit lights flailed in the deep darkness, right next to a gaping beak filled with sharp teeth. “GET OUT OF HERE!” The female soldier yelled, just as energy rounds from her SMG arced across the creature’s mouthparts.

Circling the monster’s maw were eight long, thick tentacles. Three of them had already risen to the surface to destroy the humans up top. The remaining five jostled for position to knock the human it had tried to eat into its mouth. Carthage had lodged herself in the corner of the thing’s mouth, and Thebes thought it looked to be trying to force her fully inside. “Hold on, we’re coming!” Thebes snapped, falling like a stone toward her. Just then, three of the tentacles stopped circling Carthage and rocketed through the water toward them.

On her approach, Rareth focused every sensor available to her on the creature at the bottom of the lake. Any slight weakness she could identify could be important. Although, if Thebes was correct, the creature’s central mass could be a weakness for the whole organism. “If it is controlling the trees, then we need only kill it to protect the others. If we get Carthage to safety, I will destroy it.”

Rareth did not truly swim, though she was still relatively swift through the water. She used her powerful legs to push across the bottom of the lake, moving straight towards the creature’s maw without hesitation. The smaller tentacles along the lake bed lashed and grabbed at her, but Rareth did not miss a swing of her blade to cleave through anything that might slow her down. With her sonar, she did not need to look to know which were the closest to her, and which she needed to swing at next. For the smaller tentacles, they did not so much as even slow down her progress.

Regardless, Carthage needed their help immediately, so Rareth attempted to assist from distance as well. Much like her other arm, Rareth’s right arm opened up in four parts to reveal a new weapon. Rather than a sword, the energy projectors on the inside of the mechanical limb used electromagnetic fields to contain and direct particle beams at near the speed of light. It was similar in principle to a railgun, but instead fired streams of much smaller particles at much higher speeds. She fired a few bright violet beams from her particle cannon at the larger tentacles that were trying to pull Carthage in, hopefully to at least weaken them.

One of the larger tentacles started to cut through the water towards Rareth, though she made no effort to dodge or try to get around it. Rather, she leaped forward off of the lake bed straight towards it to meet it head-on with her sword, rather than to give it any chance to potentially catch her by surprise.

The tentacles swept across the lakebed, coming at Thebes and Rareth like wrecking balls travelling at the speed of sound. Under the water and this close to the source, they didn’t fully unfurl. Instead, they packed together like fleshy fists, trying to kill its prey before eating it.

Thebes used his suit’s propulsion unit to juke left out of the way of the initial crushing blow, but another smaller tentacle tripped him up. He dragged his energy dagger along the side of it on the way down; blue-black ichor sprayed all over Thebes armour, the tentacle wiggling frantically away.

Floating back to his feet, Thebes was buffeted by the mace coming free of the lakebed beside him. Jetting above the writhing tentacle mace, he unholstered his rifle and shot down at the mass with one hand. It reacted quickly, flicking up at him. The mace clipped his legs, sending the soldier spinning head over heels toward the beast’s mouth.

“Rareth, keep it occupied; I’m going to free Carthage.” Thebes ordered, firing at the creature’s mouth whenever his spinning trajectory granted him a line of sight. Another of the tentacles rushed in to grab his floating form, so Thebes activated another little burst on his projector pack, shooting him out of the way. The current took him perfectly to the top of the creature’s main body, where he had to pump the brakes to avoid crashing into the thing’s beak.

He clunked over to Carthage, who was trapped in the corner of the mouth, firing up at the tentacles ranging to attack them. “Carthage, assessment.” Thebes called, turning to fire upon the tentacles as well. “My suit legs are all messed up. This thing is chewing them.” Carthage grunted. “There’s a spot in this thing’s throat that it doesn’t like getting shot, but i can’t do that and move away.”

“Understood, let’s do it together.” Thebes said, just as another tentacle returned from the surface of the lake and smashed into both of them from above. Thebes considerable heft bounced against Carthage’s suit, giving her the shove she needed to dislodge. “I’m falling!” She yelled alongside the system alarms pinging in his ears. Thebes quickly bent down and grabbed her hand as she fell in. The beak grinded up against Carthage’ suit, trying to crush her. She yelled out.

The same tentacle that had done the damage tried to finish the job, jabbing Thebes to remove him from the mouth area. He held on, anchored in place by his grip on his teammate.

As powerful as the beast was, and as impressively quick as it could move its limbs, it still could not simply club its way through a plasma sword. When the two met, it was the energy blade that incinerated any flesh it touched. She split the club in half down the middle for some distance down the length of the tentacle. Part of the tentacle did strike her stomach, though without near the full force. It only served to slow her down somewhat before she resumed her charge forward.

When Rareth came in close, it was to slash at the remaining tentacles close to their source. Thebes requested cover to extract Carthage, which was precisely what Rareth gave. She was quick, and there was no sneaking up on her. If any part of the creature so much as came close to her, her blade could cleave it in two. Two of the tentacles closest to Carthage she severed near the base, while others farther away started to keep just out of reach, though her particle cannon could still injure them.

Once Carthage started to fall further into the beak, Rareth turned to assist. The tentacle that jabbed at Thebes was met with the burning edge of Rareth’s sword, and would certainly be severed like the rest if it was too stubborn to give up. At the same time, she collapsed her other arm back into its normal configuration, then grabbed a hold of Carthage as well under her arm. She added her considerable strength to pulling the Human from the beast’s clutches, then decided to further discourage the creature by using her blade to start indiscriminately carving through any piece of its mouthparts that she could reach. “Just…get her out, and I can finish the beast.”