“Understood. What is your risk assessment of this place? Knowing what you know.” Andersen asked. 595 licked blood from her lips. “It’s pretty risky. But we need more experts here to figure out what’s going on. They’ll be solidly protected; this ‘Datius’ is formidable and surprisingly altruistic.” A wave of what could only be described as static washed over the line, followed by a short tone. 595 lost the Captain for a few seconds. “-to Doctor Wetherall.”

“Copy that.” 595 guessed, unplugging the interface cable from her wrist. “Hey doc!” She called over regular short-range comms, standing still as she was well aware Knossos was connected to her. Dr Wetherall looked around at her from a jumble of wires protruding from the side of the transit station. “Bring it over here, please.” He replied distractedly, lost in thought. “Oh for fuck’s sake. Thebes, would you mind?” 595 asked, wiggling the loose cable in her hand.

The team leader plucked it from her and carefully wound the cable over to the huddle of scientists and droids. 595 turned slightly so she could watch Knossos tap away at a holopad. “Well? Everything ok?” She asked privately after a little while.” The soldier’s tinted green visor looked down at her. “What are you, lady?” 595’s jaw tightened. “Am I combat effective, yes or no?” Knossos checked the readout one more time, then nodded slowly. “You need fluids, but otherwise you’re good to go.”

“Good. Delete that and pass me some tissues with my fluids. I got a nose bleed.”

Rareth’s return through the caves was even quicker than her scouting had been, especially since she encountered no resistance on the way back. She returned to the camp with the news that she had found a path through the mountain…and some scorn for the Humans for establishing contact with the outside despite the words of the creature they had spoken to. Still, there was nothing that could be done about it at this point. At the very least, they could make the best out of the situation and take the opportunity to resupply themselves. She gave Nirann, the version on the outside, her situation report, then made her requests for supplies and equipment she felt they would need.

First and foremost, Rareth had her suit and weapons replaced with versions that were fully adapted to this object’s software language, as well as taking nanite injections that would accelerate modifications to her internal implants to adapt them as well. She requisitioned a new body for the Nirann in the simulation to transfer into, as well as a dedicated power source for their equipment. Additionally, she requested extra supplies and equipment that could help them with their journey ahead. They were limited by the transit station in the size of objects they could bring through, but at the very least, they could bring small, hovering robots that could carry all the cargo and equipment they were bringing with them. It would make their trek a bit easier.

However, there was still one outstanding matter that was, in all likelihood, the most important they would have to deal with. If they wanted to return home at any point, their transit station would need to work for the return trip as well. After she finished communicating with the outside, Rareth approached the Human scientist. “Dr. Wetherall, what is the progress on our transit station? How soon will we be able to confirm that we can return people safely?”

Dr Wetherall peered up at the Datius like a bespectacled professor would to chastise a very tall, interrupting student. He was still plugged into the comms mast to speak with the real world team. “Well, we’ve made good progress with translation for synthetics. Nirann and I have narrowed the divergence in languages from about fifteen percent to around two percent. However, organics are proving to be a totally different kettle of fish.”

He waved his holopad around dramatically as he explained. “While the simulation appears content with simply trying to take control of synthetic materials, it actually assimilates organic matter while it’s in the simulation. So getting a pure translation back out again looks messy at this point. Freyr has told me poor Dr Dlamini will need therapy for a few weeks to recover. We’ll do what we can to separate us from the sim, and then it’s up to you whether it’s worth the risk of having more bodies in here.”

Dr Wetherall held up a hand, listening to something on a private channel. Then he clicked at Nirann to catch the droid’s attention. “They have everything. Power up for insert in two minutes, please.”

“I have movement down in the valley.” Athena reported soon after, laying down on the edge of the cliff with her railgun cradled in her arms. “Coming this way.” Thebes motioned for everyone to get down before quickly crawling over to where she lay. Athena marked targets for him. They were still very far away across the valley, but approaching fast.

There seemed to be little question as to the destination of the approaching contacts. They were moving towards the group, though neither their intentions, nor how they knew of their presence was known. Whatever they intended when they arrived, it was clearly important enough to them for them to rush.

“I can move ahead and assess the threat.” Rareth said once she moved up to lay down alongside Athena and look out over the valley. “I can meet them in the middle. If they are hostile and end up attacking me, you will have an advantageous position up here to cover me while I retreat back up to this position.” She suggested.

“I don’t like that plan.” Thebes responded, magnifying his vision to the maximum his suit would allow in the low-light conditions. All he could make out was a flurry of darkly-coloured material tearing it’s way toward them across a dozen different trails. “They could easily cut you off; who knows what they’re capable of. There’s no guarantee we could lay down enough suppressing fire to get you out.”

The soldier paused for a moment, feeling his team’s eyes on him. They were stuck here, at least until the supplies came through; they had to dig in and hold position. “Athena - begin your engagement sequence, see if you can funnel them. Saddam, Memnon, Knossos - fan out and take firing positions along the cliff edge.” Thebes got up and moved carefully back from the exposed cliff edge to the transit station. “Carthage, watch our six. Dr Ngata, can you set up the deployable cover on your own?” The xenobiologist, who was feverishly studying Athena’s scope feed to build up a profile of the oncoming creatures, nodded eagerly and set to it.

Finally, Thebes turned to 595, who was fiddling with her weapon. “Are you alright?” She looked up. “Yeah. It’s just my pistol got crushed earlier; I think it’s busted up pretty good inside.” Thebes took the pistol from her, examined it closely, then chucked it to one side. “That’s alright. There’ll be new weapons when the supplies come through. Stay back for now, help the guys if you can.”
“Insert in thirty seconds!” Dr Wetherall shouted, quickly hopping up on the transit plate to kick a stray stone off the surface. Thebes hefted his energy rifle and returned to the cliff edge, just as Athena fired her first shot. A cloud mushroomed from the barrel of her railgun, a deafening crack echoed off the mountain sides and a plume of water erupted from the marsh below. “No joy. Firing again.” Athena murmured to herself. She ejected the remains of her round from the side of her rifle and retrieved a fresh one from the dispenser on her thigh.

A faint wave of rattling & snapping sounds rolled across the valley, as the things drew closer.

Rareth stood up to her feet on the edge of the ridge. She let out a slight growl when the others started to open fire. “I said I would scout them.” She remarked, though it was clearly too late for that. Any other possibility except for a fight no longer seemed viable. The best they could hope for now was to stop them before they could reach their position. From what Rareth could see from zooming in on the approaching contacts, was that they were fairly large, numerous, and looked like they consisted almost of a tangling of vines. Although, they clearly were not plants.

With civilians to protect, and not to mention the transit station, Rareth’s priority was to make sure their position did not get overwhelmed. With her optics, she targeted three different points where the creatures were the most clustered as she drew her fusion cannon. There was a short sound of the mechanism inside shifting, then four launcher tubes deployed on either side of the weapon. The micro-missile launcher was loaded and ready. At long range against numerous opponents, this was the best place to use them.

Rareth raised her weapon and fired off three micro-missiles into the air, which quickly tracked on to the target markers she had painted. Normally, such micro-missiles contained an explosive charge roughly equivalent to an antipersonnel grenade. They were quick, evasive, and highly accurate intended to place explosives on precise locations with minimal collateral damage. However, these were not normal missiles. The modified munitions Rareth was using were loaded with antimatter charges. Instead of the pops of distant grenades when her missiles found their targets, each one detonated like heavy artillery. The blasts echoed like thunder across the valley, and the distant shockwaves could even be felt from the top. It was all the better that they had a wide explosive radius, as the divergence from the Cradle software was impacting their accuracy.

The antimatter explosions momentarily filled the valley with light. Fragments of rock skittered around their feet and down the cliff face. Distant wails wafted over on the shockwave. Athena fired again. "Theres's more appearing from their nest. Something must be getting them all riled up." She reported coolly.

Just then, the transit station began humming loudly. It built to a crescendo before exhorting a loud VUM. "Insert successful!" Dr Wetherall called. 595 immediately approached the mobile weapons trolley and grabbed a beam rifle capable of suppressing fire. "My spare suit!" Carthage gushed, backing up to the slate just as one unified, spine tingling scream electrified the valley.

"Hey, what if its our camp that's antagonising them?" Dr Ngata hypothesized, holding the last third of the deployable in his hands. Other members of the Sacred Band began firing at the creatures as they raced into range.

As their new equipment was being sent in, Rareth painted three more targets on her HUD. Instead of focusing on maximizing casualties this time, she instead picked critical locations on the path up to their position. She intended to damage easy pathways, cause rockslides, and in general slow their progress up from the valley, in addition to killing any that happened to be caught in the blasts. She launched the three missiles towards their intended targets, then immediately dashed back from the ridge to the weapons trolley as well. She could not fully-replace all of her gear in the middle of a fight, but she could at least grab her updated fusion cannon quickly.

Nirann, meanwhile, could not help but to express a mix of worry and frustration. Being attacked was bad enough, but as well, he was no fan of the position he was currently in. His body’s fusion core was currently powering their devices. He was sitting on the ground with paneling removed from his chest and jury rigged wiring connecting him to their equipment. His core had no trouble powering the transit station, but his internal wiring did not have the throughput to deliver that much power at once. As such, they had to bypass it and connect directly to the power core in order to deliver the needed power. Many of his frame’s functions were currently unpowered and offline. He had the power for to meet his minimum needs for cognition, but he did not even have access to his full range of processing power.

“I would comment on that theory, but I literally do not have the power to think about that right now. Let’s hurry up and get that new power source connected. If we’re about to be attacked, I’d really rather have my body back.” He said with no shortage of urgency.

“That’s alright, old chap. Just stay put for a couple more minutes and we’ll get you out of there.” Dr Wetheall assured Nirann, patting the top of his head as he whirled around the droid. “There are too many of them. Pack everything up and get ready for transit now!” Thebes ordered them, firing fully auto down into the valley. The creatures were close now, rapidly approaching the clusters of rocks and other defilades leading up to the cliff face.

“But i just finished deploying the cover!” Dr Ngata moaned. “Move it, now!” Both the Human scientists raced to free Nirann from the mess of cabling. With them back up to full strength, they could focus all their efforts on sorting through their new supplies and getting everything ready for transit.

595 rattled the weapons trolley over the ridge’s uneven ground toward the edge. She planned to resupply left from right, starting with Memnon who was laying down heavy fire with his double handed energy cannon. She parked the trolley behind his prone form and hefted a fresh, calibrated cannon from the bottom shelf. “Memnon - swap with me!” 595 shouted over the din. The heavy gunner rose to his knees and chucked his old weapon to the floor next to her. “Yes, ma’am.” He boomed.

“Look out, they’re merging!” Athena warned, sending a tungsten round straight through an amorphous blob of creatures behind a cluster of boulders. They roared in anger at the big new hole in their midriff, but it quickly closed up and recombinated into a shape vaguely reminiscent of a giant ballista from antiquity. A spiky bolt wound up and then thwapped at the cliff face at lightning speeds. The bolt struck the exposed Memnon in the back as he was taking his new energy cannon.

The force of the blow popped Memnon’s shields and sent the giant clattering into 595 and the weapons trolley. Armaments skittered all over the floor. “Target that ballista! Memnon, status!” Thebes bellowed. “I’m operational, just got the wind knocked out of me.” Memnon replied, carefully untangling himself from 595. “Sorry ma’am.” He crawled back to the cliff’s edge with his updated weaponry. 595 gritted her teeth and crawled over to the upturned trolley.

The ballista fired again, and again. Some bolts smashed great divots in the cliffside and other whizzed over their heads. Other creatures used the cover to move from hiding, twistering over open ground like big obsidian tornadoes. The air was now full of this dry rattling sound, presumably from the creature’s vine features rustling over each other.

As Rareth ran for her replacement weapon, she pulled the magazine of micro-missiles from her launcher and placed it on a magnetic holster just above her tail. Her new fusion cannon would certainly have a fresh magazine included, but the antimatter charges were far too valuable, and dangerous, to simply leave behind. Her neural implant linked with her new weapon before she had even picked it up, so it was ready to fire as soon as she had it in her hands.

Overall, Rareth agreed that they needed to get moving, if only to get the civilians to a less exposed position. The cavern would allow them to funnel the creatures into a chokepoint, which would help them deal with their numbers. The sooner they could move, the better, but they could not afford to lose any of their equipment. For the moment, they just needed to hold off their attackers and buy time.

The first creature to reach the top of the ridge did so with a shrill scream. The “vines” of its body twisted and formed into many long, sharp spikes, but even with its terrifying speed, it did not get a chance to use them. Energy bolts came in from all directions, from both Rareth and members of the Sacred Band, to tear it apart piece by piece. These creatures were at least partially amorphous and could reshape themselves after taking damage, but there were limits.

Rareth switched to her weapon’s second firing mode as she made it to the ridge. These creatures could recover from smaller wounds, so blasting them apart entirely seemed to be the best approach. “We should move into the caves. The chokepoint will work to our advantage; we just need to hold them back long enough for the civilians to move our equipment.” Rareth said through their comms. She had seen Memnon take a hit from one of those “ballista” bolts, and they did not seem to be something that even she could just shrug off. “Memnon, share me the data on that hit you took.” Rareth requested. She wanted to know the exact amount of kinetic energy the projectiles contained so she could evaluate how many hits her defenses could take before she exposed herself to them.

“Sent.” Memnon boomed, just as another creature mounted the ridge right next to him. Jump jets on the front of the gunner’s armour righted him in an instant as the thing clambered onto his back and shoulders like a malign, shapeshifting growth. Memnon hoisted his cannon and fired above his head into the creature’s face as it pounded his weak points with vines. Sparks flew.

“Carthage!” Thebes roared, standing up to fire directly down the cliff face at more of the beasts. “On it. Hold still, Mem!” Carthage called, running past 595 as she shakily threw weapons, ammo & batteries back onto the weapons trolley. The CQC expert was newly re-armoured in a very similar suit, save with ‘Cuidado’ printed on her front in white block letters.

Carthage emptied her shotgun’s magazine into the nest of vipers before grabbing hold of as many vines as she could lay hands on and ripping it off Memnon’s back. It instantly latched onto her face, driving her back toward the weapons trolley. 595 grabbed her beam rifle milliseconds before Carthage fell over her, landing a savage tornado of angry vines right in the middle of all the weapons.

Memnon strode over, put one foot on Carthage’s chestplate and then ripped the diminished creature off with both hands. He promptly hefted the wriggling, screaming mass off the edge of the cliff. “Stop fooling around and get back in the fight!” He rumbled, in what sounded to 595 like some sadistic running joke.

“Ok, you’re free!” Dr Wetherall closed Nirann’s body panel up and kicked the mess of wiring away from the droid. “Do you want to get those cargo drones operational and hooked up with as much as they can carry? Ngata and I will close down the comms mast and get that ready for transport first.

“Ballista down! But I think they’re building more!” Athena reported, shoving the small piles of tungsten remains off the cliff and grabbing another round. The first conglomeration of vine creatures fell apart under its own weight, the constituent creatures motionless and spent. But two more shapeless mergers were taking place in the valley below. Athena fired at one and it peeled apart momentarily.

“Already on it!” Nirann shouted back as he closed up the panel on his chest. For him, it was trivial to connect to each of the cargo drones and run their startup sequences simultaneously. It barely took a small subroutine for him to control each of them remotely, moving them in position to be loaded up with their equipment. More time consuming would be the process of actually disassembling the mast and transit station. The Humans were taking care of the comms mast, so Nirann went ahead on getting transit station disassembled and loaded up. Their deployable cover was hooked into their new power source and still active. For obvious reasons, he felt it best to take it down last.

Rareth had her neural implant run a few calculations on the kinetic forces Memnon’s shields had been exposed to. She knew exactly how much her own shields could handle before being depleted, within a small margin of error. While a few of the other soldiers were dealing with a creature that made it over the ridge, Rareth tried to make sure no more could follow it quickly. She peered over the edge of the ridge only quickly enough to fire a single, explosive plasma burst at a time before backing up, changing positions, and doing the same elsewhere. Under such circumstances, even she could not land a kill with every shot, but the large plasma explosions could still injure from near-misses and slow their approach. However, what she really needed to do was to take care of the priority targets keeping them pinned.

Once the hostile behind them was dealt with and the soldiers could return their attention to the front, Rareth set her sights on a ballista being set up. These strange creatures were truly otherworldly to be able to take on such forms, but she could not deny that they were effective. Instead of peeking out quickly, Rareth leaned over the ridge long enough to take solid aim on one of their ranged threats. She was certainly quick on the trigger, as she was able to fire her shot before the creature could shift its aim. The explosive energy blast his square in the center of its body to essentially incinerate nearly every part of it. A second ballista, however, did have plenty of time to send a projectile towards her. It struck her shields and shattered, causing the energized bubble around her to flare up bright white, far more than at any point before. There was a great deal of kinetic force for the barrier to handle, but it did hold. The delay before the ballista’s next shot was more than enough for her to fire another well-aimed shot to blast it apart.

Rareth ducked back into cover, intent on allowing her shields to regenerate before engaging again. However, the creatures seemed as clever as they were quick. Some of the dust and debris kicked up by the battle so far obscured the approach of one of the creatures enough to put it in striking range of the ridge. Just as Rareth was retreating back, the creature leaped over the top and pounced on her from above. Its many appendages whipped against her shields and depleted them entirely, then it wrapped itself around her in an attempt to crush her armor.

Saddam and Knossos, who were either side of Rareth, turned and opened fire on her. The team’s second in command tried edging closer, but razor sharp appendages jabbed back and forth in all directions, clashing with his shields. “Fall back from the ridge! We’ve kicked the hornet’s nest.” Thebes hollered, grabbing Athena and hauling her to a standing position right after she took one last shot at another newly formed ballista. “We have to move; how long until we’re mobile?”

“Nearly done here! Ready to move in sixty seconds!” Dr Wetherall gasped, desperately collapsing the transit station down with the help of the two other civilians. The transit station was now packed and hitched to one of the cargo bots. Thebes detected another bolt on the Sacred Band’s sensory net and pushed Athena out of the way. It hit him square in the chest and sent him flying backwards. Another creature exploded over the top of the ridge and vortexed toward Athena. She fired her railgun through it at point blank range, evaporating most of its body and spraying her with black ichor.

595 was staring into space. Despite the dust and low light, she could feel the beating heart of this valley wake from its slumber, emerge from the nest and tear across the marshy plains toward them. The agent was disturbed from her reverie when Carthage palm-tapped her on the back of her helmet. “Wakey wakey! Fire your weapon!” 595 blinked, the sounds of the battlefield draining away from her. She raised her weapon, although it felt like it weighed a thousand tonnes, and sent a solid laser beam blasting into the net of tendrils emerging over the ridge in front of Memnon.

“Take this trolley to the cargo bots, I’ll cover you!” Carthage shouted from over her shoulder, her voice echoing as if she were down a well. 595 nodded dumbly, getting up, turning and nearly stumbling straight into the mobile armoury behind her.

The aid from the others did weaken the creature, though it did prove a difficult one to kill. She pushed outwards against the tendrils trying to crush her torso, and despite its size, she held her own. She could not quite pry its vines away from her, but as it was also taking fire from the outside, it changed its approach quickly. It formed several of its amorphous appendages into spikes and began striking at her armor from several angles to try and pierce through. There was a loud clanging with every strike, but the lessened crushing pressure did give her the opportunity to retaliate.

From her left arm, Rareth’s plasma blade deployed, immediately cutting through several of the vines. She swung in a wide arm while spinning around her body at the same time to throw off the wounded creature. Her sword cleaved straight through the center of its mass, though she was spared a spray of ichor by the cauterizing effect of the high intensity heat.

After quickly recovering her weapon, Rareth fell back with the others towards their camp, her fusion cannon firing non-stop to keep their attackers at a distance. In particular, she focused on keeping the path between them and the cave clear. Nirann had the transit station disassembled at this point; it just needed to be loaded on to the cargo bots. “We’ll move into the cave once everything is loaded up. Thebes, have a few of your people move slightly ahead along the path I’ve marked, while the rest of us cover our flank. There are creatures that inhabit this cave, but as long as we stay distant from their nest, they may leave us be.”

Thebes jumped back to his feet, shield recharging after that hit from the ballista. “You heard the lady - fold back to the caves. Lets go!” The Sacred Band didn’t need telling twice. They’d done this sort of thing a thousand times before in the simulator, and it showed. Using their innate awareness of each other’s position and sophisticated battle mapping, four of the team gathered just outside the deployable cover, and another two fell back to protect a line heading into the cave system.

Half a dozen of the creatures mounted the ridge, but sustained fire from all angles kept them from advancing too quickly. Some attempted twistering through to the deployable cover, but were quickly picked apart by a laser focused barrage from the entire group.

“Ok, we’re good to go!” Dr Wetherall called, gently nudging past 595 as she fired into the melee to give the bots instructions. They began moving slowly out of the shield bubble and towards the cave system. 595 looked back to check where they were headed and then followed alongside, firing and walking. “Ngata, grab the deployable cover, quickly!” The elderly scientist snapped, clearly stressed.

Just then, a bloodcurdling roar issued from somewhere close by in the valley. It sounded like metal girders being bent and ripped. It was quickly followed by a sharp *crack* and the ground shifting under their feet. “Everyone move! Double time!” Thebes shouted. He stepped back into the deployable cover and grabbed Dr Ngata as he stooped to deactivate the first module. “Leave it, there’s no time. The whole shelf is going, get into the caves now!”

Rareth had never stopped firing when they fell back, and when it was time for them to move, she sprinted forward to place herself halfway between their camp and the cave entrance. It was only a short run between the two, but they still needed to provide as much cover as they could to get the civilians, and their equipment, across that gap safely.

Even as the ground shook, it did not meaningfully impact Rareth’s aim. With the targeting software assisting her, she could adjust immediately. First and foremost, she focused her fire on any creatures close enough to possibly intercept the others as they made their run.

Nirann ran alongside the Human scientists, though he did draw his carbine to defend them against anything that might get in their way. It was not his job to fight, in this situation, but rather just to make sure they got to safety. He controlled their cargo bots remotely, and so he also had access to all of their sensors as they moved.

The Sacred Band fell back in quick time. They worked in fire and movement pairs where one person ran while the other provided cover and vice versa. 595 reached the cave entrance first and scanned for hostiles inside before sending the bots further into the complex. She stayed near the entrance, clambering onto a rock to shoot at creatures further back as they scrambled over each other to reach the front.

Another ear-shattering scream filled the valley, and a sickly green will-o-wisp emerged over the top of the cliff. It was contained within a massive swarm of vines that seemed to collect up the smaller creatures as it crashed forward like a wave. Razor vines extended ahead of it as another series of sharp cracks came from underneath them. “MOVE!” Thebes ordered, activating one of the grenades on his bandolier then unclipping it from his armour and dropping it on the floor.

The front half of the Sacred Band turned to sprint. Carthage fired an incendiary rocket at the swarm, setting a section of it on fire. 595’s beam rifle splayed over it’s frontage. A small hole appeared where Athena blasted it with her railgun.

The others had reached the cave and were making it inside, but Rareth kept her eyes on the approaching swarm. Would the cavern truly provide safety against this beast? Not only was it massive in scale, but she could not be sure of its capabilities. If they wanted to put some distance between themselves and the creature, just running might not be enough.

Rareth was close to the cavern entrance, but did not yet step inside. Instead, she turned back and stared down the encroaching swarm. She loaded each of the six launcher tubes on her weapon with micro-missiles while her neural implant painted target locations across its mass. When she fired, she let loose the whole volley of six missiles at once, spiraling through the air towards their designated targets. Rareth did not have enough information from her scans to know its exact weak points, so she simply spread out the targets to cause as much damage as possible over a wide area. The missiles themselves were set to trigger on a timer from first impact to allow them to penetrate into the creature and detonate within.

Rareth did not know how much damage this being could withstand, but if it did not die, it was Rareth’s hope that the equivalent of six heavy artillery shells exploding within its body would be enough to at least slow it down. As the explosives started to detonate, Rareth rushed towards the cave with the others as quickly as she could.

The whole shelf seemed to explode at once. Not least from inside the swarm of tendrils, with six huge gouts of superheated energy emerging at once. These merged with the bandolier of grenades that detonated underneath the cloud. The creature let out a thunderous screech, which was quickly followed by another earth-shattering crack from underneath it.

The whole shelf began crumbling, with huge slabs falling away from the main formation and sliding down into the valley below in a massive avalanche. This was compounded by boulders falling down the mountain above the caverns as well. A rock the size of a small car bounced off Memnon’s armour while he was providing cover fire. The hit staggered him and cracked his shields. “Get back in here Mem, haul ass!” Saddam, his fire and move partner, yelled, standing just inside the cave.

The heavy gunner was just outside the cave entrance, having moved back out to cover Rareth. He turned and found he was running uphill, as the shelf slowly crashed into the valley below. He dodged another boulder, but abruptly found he could run no longer when a razor vine protruded through his stomach and his feet left the floor. The creature had spiked him with one of it’s longest tendrils as it fell, broken, down the side of the shelf. “MEM!” Saddam hollered raggedly, dropping his rifle and running forward until Knossos tackled him to the floor. The cave entrance was quickly becoming inaccessible due to falling boulders - if they went outside now they wouldn’t get back in.

“I guess it’s just you and me.” Memnon gurgled over comms, as his suit began flashing red. The vine with him attached scraped against the falling rock face, seemingly trying to find purchase as the swarm got buried under the shelf. “Good luck, everyone.” With that, the gunner shut off his comms and the cave entrance collapsed entirely. The surviving team were on their own again, with just tremors from the mountainside to keep them company. After a few seconds, another massive shockwave shook the cavern, dislodging dust onto all their heads.

Rareth turned back at the mouth of the cave when her sensors picked up on what happened to Memnon. The creature’s massive spike pierced through even his armor and caused critical injury, but she could still attempt to save him. Or at least, she could have if there was no one else for her to protect. She had the tools within her to reach him, and bring him back. In the milliseconds before she made her decision, her neural implant had already powered on the immensely powerful antimatter reactor within her body, which was dedicated solely to a single, experimental device. However, before she made her move, she spotted another threat.

Even as the creature was weakened from the detonations and the shelf was collapsing away, the swarm seemed desperate for their blood. Multiple tendrils coalesced to form another massive spike, which was aimed to pierce through the heart of the cave entrance. Even if Memnon could be grabbed, there was no guarantee he would survive, and others could die if she did nothing to stop the creature.

Rareth fired one more micro-missile straight at the spike just as the creature stabbed it forward. The creature could move its limbs remarkably quickly, but a missile was still fast enough to find its mark in time. The explosive detonated halfway up the limb to split it in half, though the explosion was also danger close to Rareth. It shattered her shields and crumbled the stone underneath her. She started to fall as well, but as she turned onto her back and looked up at the sky, her neural implant painted another set of destination coordinates on her HUD.

The amount of power that flowed into the device situated in Rareth’s chest far eclipsed every other weapon and tool at her disposal…combined. From the outside, one might see light bending in a sphere around her, following the path of the increasingly warped spacetime she was shaping. At the same time, right at her destination at the cave entrance in front of the others, the same kind of warped sphere of spacetime could be seen. From Rareth’s perspective, she was falling straight down until she passed through the wormhole and flew out the other side, her momentum sending her rolling across the cavern floor towards the others.

Nirann nearly had to dive out of the way to avoid Rareth tumbling in to him. He was more than knowledgeable, and observant, enough to recognize the physics at play in what he witnessed, but even he had trouble believing that technology was possible in such a small frame. “Did…she just teleport?”