304 Convergence 1

In the process of scraping off the now useless flesh from her shoulder which had been frozen by the strange 'frost spider', Phillipa could clearly see her collarbone she finally was done, still, she had cleared away the dead flesh and could now start effectively healing the damage done. Administering a dose of blackmatter to the affected area, a layer of nanomachines formed a new skin over her injuries she assessed the attack which had managed to get past her defences. 

(Optical camouflage?... No, it is more than simply that… This creature erased its presence almost entirely, it was only as it attacked it was able to vaguely sense it, this was a seasoned hunter…)

With nothing more to gain from that simple encounter, Phillipa picked up the rifle she had dropped and switched its magazine to one loaded with high velocity armour piercing and activated the mana powered enhancer build into it as she gave an additional report to Dax.

"Abnormal situation encountered, going dark."

[Roger, see you on the other side.]

Having evaluated that she needed to cut away any possibility of distraction to survive whatever was ahead of her, Phillipa cut contact with Dax and the others, choosing to solely use her quantum communication implant for combat assistance from IMI as she let out a soft sigh and checked how her injured shoulder was moving.

(... 80% mobility? That'll have to be enough… Whatever these spiders are, the Emergence must under no circumstances gain access to our manatech.)

With that sole motivation in mind, Phillipa pressed forward into the vast, web covered interior of the battleship Ingenuity. 

- 

"... Over there, in the middle of that skyscraper."

With the pair of large ears on top of her head fluttering slightly, Lia pinpointed the nearest Emergence bio converter, she was already familiar with all the different sounds which came from one of them as it operated. Although she felt it was extremely unpleasant to listen to the screams of the people inside being 'processed' by the Emergence, doing so would help put an end to it faster.

"Mmm, let's go put it out of commission."

With a blank look on her face, Mare's usually cold looking eyes clearly showed anger towards the Emergence, as this was not the first bio processor they were shutting down. Operating in what could comfortably be called no man's land where Emergence forces and whatever Galactic empire drones still functioned were in an open melee, creating all around chaos that the two beastkin traversed without much issue, using cover and avoiding combat as much as possible, sticking to short skirmishes where they aimed to disable the enemy drones instead of outright destroying them the pair quickly reached the residential mega block were Lia traced the latest Emergence bio converter to.

"NNOOOO! SAVE ME!!!"

This is what happened if one was unlucky enough that the Emergence captured one alive and why countless navy officers had scuttled their own ships without attempting to evacuate when it was clear that they had been overrun by Emergence breaching parties.

It was preferable to die by friendly fire and have one's corpse obliterated in comparison to becoming a walking corpse used by the Emergence.

"Lia! Formation 4!"

Charging forward out of cover, Mare drew her twin shortswords as mana surrounded the small beastkin, creating a durable shield out of black mana crystals which fragmented and shattered after taking enough damage, transforming into offensive projectiles which sought out the ones who had inflicted damage to the defensive formation in the first place. With Mare taking the role of offence, Lia instantly fell into her own role and started providing support to Mare with covering fire from her rifle and the occasional spell which created footholds or cover for Mare out of the reinforced concrete which surrounded them inside the residential mega block.

"You're mine!"

Cutting straight through the drones around the collector, Mare easily sidestepped its poor excuse for a punch as she cut off its head and bisected its torso with her twin swords, continuing on without stopping until she had secured the immediate area together with Lia.

"Here, medicine."

Tossing a vial to the speechless student, Mare made sure he had realized she had tossed it her way before turning to leave along with Lia, something the student panicked at seeing.

The way he saw it right now, the best chance of survival was the two strange mask wearing women with large, animal like ears on the top of their heads.

"W-wait! Where's the evacuation!?"

"There isn't one at the moment if you want to live then find a place to lay low. The Emergence's presence in this sector should be wiped out sometime tonight."

Not really having time to deal with a single civilian, Lia didn't even turn his way as she answered him.

"N-no! Don't leave m-"

(... Not this shit again.)

Having already heard the same song and dance from other people countless times within the last few hours, Lia already had a default response ready as Mare went ahead.

"Stop that. Don't you realize how lucky you are?"

Seeing the blank look of desperation on the students face in response to her question, Lia breathed a short sigh before she elaborated.

"We don't have resources for civilian evacuation or rescue at the moment, my only current mission is shutting down the Emergence's bio converters and their assigned collectors in an attempt to minimize civilian damage. I've already destroyed a lot of them, and seen serval hundred people in the same situation as you are right now and you're one of the lucky ones with a good chance of survival."

"How the fuck am I lucky!? If you leave me I'm dead! You're a soldier right!? Your job is-"

"I'm a Galactic marine, part of the special forces my only job is disabling bio converters. As you still don't realize how good your chances are of surviving even if I leave you alone, allow me to spell it out clearly. You're not critically injured, you still have all your limbs attached and you're not being me to kill you before the crudely implanted cybernetics take over your mind… That means you're in the top 5 percentile of civilians I've seen the last few hours. Even if we had the resources to spare I wouldn't help you, I would instead have used my energy to try and save some of the less fortunate people I've met lately, instead of shooting them in the head."

With that parting message, Lia left the student behind as she started catching up to Mare who had gone ahead, not bothering to look back.

She had promised herself that that was what she would do after all the mercy killings she had committed already.

(I must see this through to the end, as fast as possible to minimize further casualties.)

-

(Just how many of these spiders are in here? What the hell is going on…)

Shooting another large spider dead, Phillipa continued onwards towards the newly installed mana generator and manipulator in the centre of the battleship Ingenuity. Since she had been jumped by that one frost spider, Phillipa had killed at least 20 others of its kind before she stopped counting as she continued traversing the increasingly spider web covered Maintenance hallways inside the battleship.

(It's like this entire ship has been turned into a nest… In that case, there should also be a spider queen somewhere? I hope it doesn't mind me killing its children.)

But to Phillipa's dismay, something did mind.

"Holy fu!-"

As Phillipa opened a bulkhead door she suddenly found herself right in front of a significantly larger frost spider, only this one had a human torso and head attached to it, with the lower part of what normally would be a face replaced with large open jaws as the creature charged Phillipa while it was screaming. Jumping backwards to open up the distance from the spider creature which filled up the entirety of the 6 metre wide hallway, Phillipa switched her rifle to fully automatic and squeezed the trigger.

"REEEEEE!"

As the creature was hit with a hail of gunfire it released another ear shattering scream while it covered itself in a thick layer of frost crystals which protected itself against Phillipa's rifle fire. It was only when the Hellwalker enhanced her shoots with the anti tank spell 'howitzer' that she  finally pierced the creature's frost armour, finally killing it. Taking a minute to get her heartbeat under control again, Phillipa finally breathed a deep sigh after shooting the half humanoid spider creature a few more times to make sure it was dead.

(... Did I just pee myself? No, I'm good.)