308 Convergence 5

"This actually seems like home~ How nostalgic, how fun~"

Having set foot on Marex 4, Alice was immediately creeped out by the planet's strange vegetation, while Ifrit felt at home and started dancing around with a large smile on their face for some strange reason. Having landed in a lush plane filled with grass and flowers, a large forest was visible in the distance, the only thing that missed from such a picturesque scene was the sound of birds singing, and some more colour, of course, seeing as all the vegetation on the planet was pitch black like a starless night.

If the lone distant star above was red instead of blue, the 'picturesque scene' would be more fit for a nightmare than anything else.

"The plant life here is black because of the atmosphere of the planet combined with the distance from the star, very little solar radiation makes it all the way down to the surface so the plants have evolved to absorb as much of it as possible, there's nothing creepy about this."

Explaining what was going on to the superstitious acting Alice, Phillipa took stock of the surroundings before she turned to Dax and Lux.

"Phillipa, take it away."

Receiving permission from her superior, Phillipa showed a slight smile as she put the helmet of her XMRA armour on as she started barking orders.

"Button up everyone! Even if the atmosphere is breathable, I don't want to take any chances near the anomalies!"

As the others put on their black helmets another group of CAS-7A Stingers landed behind Phillipa, quickly deploying their squads of Reaper drones before launching again, climbing to an altitude of 4 kilometres where they went into a holding pattern together with the countless Hornet close air support drones which had already been deployed.

"Let's move! Although the days are long on this planet, the daylight is finite! Next stop, the most recent anomaly, 21 kilometres due west!"

Starting to 'march' towards the first objective, the unit of Hellwalkers fell into a formation where those with sharp senses like Mare, Lia and Lux in a forward position while spellcasters like Solaris and Ifrit remained in the centre of the formation. Although Marex 4's surface gravity was quite a bit harsher than Solaris and the others were used to, the pace of the march was in no way slow, if anything it was between the level of a jog and a full on sprint. Running alongside Dax and Phillipa, Solaris had spent the past few minutes deliberating if she should ask why they didn't just fly all the way to the anomaly, but figuring that things couldn't get worse than they already were, she decided to just ask.

"So, is there any reason why we didn't land closer to the objective?"

"Yeah, there's plenty of reasons. Most importantly, we don't want to be seen coming, this is still Emergence space. We're deep inside hostile territory here."

"That is reasonable yeah, thanks for clearing that up."

Getting satisfactory answers from both Dax and Phillipa, Solaris was just about to continue small talk when Lux cut in on the radio.

[Overwhatch has found something up ahead, weapons tight. Be ready for anything.]

Connecting to the IMI network, Dax quickly located what Lux had found, about 5 kilometres in front, between their current location and the anomaly, there was a large crater. Judging by the surrounding vegetation, the impact wasn't that recent, but it also lined up with the timeframe for the recent CDT event. 

"Ifrit, Mare, Terra, Alice secure the area, I want no surprises until we've found out what we're dealing with. Lux, take control of the Hornets on overwatch, secure an outer premier."

Reaching the edge of the 50 metre wide crater, Dax continued down into it as he delegated people to cover the area. At the craters epicentre was the charred remains of something mechanical, at closer examination, Dax determined it was some sort of reconnaissance drone, most likely belonging to the Emergence.

"This damage isn't from reentry, something melted straight through this drone's heat shield, and before it could even react too."

"How come you say it didn't get to react?"

"Look at the countermeasure launchers, they're melted shut. That means whatever hit this drone hit it before it even went into alert… What do you see?"

Crouching down next to half molten drone remains, Dax pointed to different parts of it before asking for Solaris' assessment. In response to Dax's request, Solaris crouched down next to him as she closed her eyes to focus while her metal covered wings spread out as a purple glow spread out from Solaris' back, a clear sign that her mana generator had started up. Spending a few minutes to focus, Solaris cautiously extended a hand out to the wreck, in response a circular mana formation spread out around the craft.

"There's definitely traces of mana, either from some sort of spell or another ability…"

"... So something sniped this drone out of the sky before it even noticed it was under attack? It's great that we didn't try and land right at the anomaly huh?"

"Yeah…"

Getting a slight shiver up her spine when she imagined what would have happened if they suffered the same fate as the drone in front of them, Solaris quietly thanked Dax for his safety first approach in these kinds of situations.

"In any event, something is taking out aerial operators, Lux ke-"

"Too late, we just lost a Stinger and two Hornets, I've pulled out the rest. I started pulling them out immediately, but whatever targeted them had been doing so for some time. I've no idea what shot them down, but from satellite footage, it is clear that they melted the same way that the Emergence drone did… Should we pull out?"

Faced with an unknown opponent able to easily take out his air support without them even seeing what hit it, it would be understandable if Dax chose to pull out, but something prevented him from doing so.

"We can't safely exfil with whatever is out there still being able to shoot down our ships without even being noticed… Phillipa, contact our friends above, tell them we might need heavy orbital artillery and that they should move to ready station ASAP. Solaris, Ifrit, I want your meanest, something tells me we can't afford to hold back against this kind of opponent."

"Meanest, huh? I can do that~"

"Roger. In that case, I'll be preparing some spells…"

Realizing that they were in a situation that was impossible to just pull out of, Ifrit and Solaris turned serious, as did everyone else. Calling down additional heavy support, the Helwalkers advanced, reaching the first anomaly in under an hour. In the middle of a forest of pitch black trees floated a sphere, not unlike the ones the Emergence had used, but different from the previous Dax had seen, this one was significantly larger, measuring approximately 50 metres in diameter. Its functions appeared to be different from the smaller one too, instead of creating a direct gateway it seemed to have a more subtle effect on its surroundings, while it was impossible to confirm without getting resident experts to examine it, the object nevertheless appeared to be warping its surroundings into something… Different.

"... What the hell is that?"

"Some kind of mana, but I think we'll have to set aside investigating it for the moment…"

While the mana users' attention had been drawn to the strange sphere, Dax's eyes were drawn to the huge seemingly artificial cave about half a kilometre from it.

"Should I go investigate it?"

"Nah, this is the exact reason we brought drones with us. Although I would like to just nuke it, we need to find out what's going on here..."

While Lia was more than eager to head into the cave, Lux looked at the situation far more realistically.