309 Convergence 6

"No, it isn't. In fact, my instincts are screaming to me that this entire thing is an extremely bad idea but there's nothing else to do in this situation."

Standing and practically looking over the shoulder of Phillipa who was commanding the Reaper drones, Solaris and Dax were both having extremely bad premonitions as the drones pressed deeper into the artificially made cave. 

"... Could you guys do whatever you're doing somewhere else? I'm busy."

Although Phillipa had plenty of concentration to spare with only assuming direct command of a dozen or so drones, having Dax and Solaris right behind her was starting to become detrimental to her performance. As the drones under Phillipa's direct command made their way deeper into the large cave it became increasingly more clear that the cave was artificially made and quite recently too. Large claw marks on the walls aside, the bedrock showed clear signs of having been melted by strong heat.

Even if it wasn't proven to be the case yet, Phillipa's intuition told her that this cave was a nest, in other words, someones or something's home. 

They were currently trespassing with armed weapons, expecting a cordial welcome wasn't really realistic.

As the drones continued their advance through the massive cave they eventually reached a large central chamber with a massive pile of strange looking red rocks.

"Looks like no one is home."

Also sharing the data feed with Phillipa, Lux saw nothing from the drones' sensors, that is until she switched over to the thermal image feed, the pile of reddish rocks were glowing with an ambient temperature above 90 degrees, she didn't know what she was looking at, that is until the massive creature started moving, its sleep being disturbed by the strange creatures who had so rudely trespassed in its home. 

"!!!"

"Fuc!- We need to move! NOW!"

At the same time as Phillipa and Lux lost contact with the Reaper drones, a massive surge of heat blew out of the cave and set fire to the nearby vegetation before the ground started to shake like an earthquake, only Marex 4 didn't have any geological activity so the shaking was nothing more than the trashing of an angry homeowner being rudely woken by trespassers.

"Retreat!"

As the creature emerged from the large cave which it had created to be its home, it's scale covered body towered far over the treeline as it unfolded its pair of large wings while its multiple heads started looking for the prey to be who had disturbed its slumber.

"HOLY FUCK!"

"There's nothing holy about that one! Ifrit!"

"A'lthz!"

Extending out a hand, Ifrit created an ominous mass of dark energy which leaped forth towards its target in the form of a lightning bolt which appeared to absorb the surrounding light. As the spell almost instantly hit its target, the dark lighting created a bright explosion, but it had very little effect on the monster which roared with enough power to shake the ground beneath it. Not very happy that it had just been attacked, the monster opened all 9 of its mouths wide, inside each one of them a complex spell formation was created as the ambient mana surged.

"Take cover!"

Charging its spell only for a single second, the monster let out 9 separate streaks of condensed energy which tore through the surrounding landscape, setting the surrounding forest ablaze in a mostly blind attack which luckily didn't hit a single one of the Hellwalkers.

"What the hell is that thing!?"

Seeing a living creature unleash the destructive power of a barrage ship, Lux turned to the most familiar member of the group when it came to mythical creatures, herself being one.

"It looks like a hydra! If it's anything like the legendary creature from my world, that thing can kill a god!"

"Luckily we can do that too, IMI CAS, priority target Omega!"

[IMI CAS ON STATION, TARGET DESIGNATED PRIORITY: OMEGA. GENERATING MESH TARGETING ARCHITECTURE, GENERATION SUCCESSFUL, SATUATING TARGET, DANGER CLOSE.]

With Solaris explaining what they were up against, Dax decided to hold nothing back, marking the hydra as the highest priority target for IMI which instantly took control of the available close air support platforms and orbital assets to coordinate a strike.

TARGET OMEGA CONFIRMED.

DIALING HIGH ALTITUDE FIRE SUPPORT, CHARGING STRATEGIC CLASS HEL... SENDING TRAFFIC.

FIRE MISSION CONFIRMED, PAINTING TARGET.

RELATIVE GRID OF INTEREST: 00 01 05.

ELEVATION: NULL

ATMOSPHERIC REFRACTION: LEVEL 5

The first of those weapons now under IMI's complete control to fire was the strategic class high energy lasers onboard the battlecruiser in orbit above the developing battlefield, as the lasers came online so did their active cooling systems with a roar while the lasers trained on their target.

CHARGE COMPLETE, FIRE AT WILL.

Although the very nature of a high energy laser made it invisible to the naked eye, the effect of multiple strategic class systems all trained on a single target was very apparent and the effect was immediate. Instantly, the ground and area around the hydra heated up drastically, everything which could catch fire did so in seconds, transforming the area around the hydra into a hellscape.

Not that the hydra cared about that at all, to it the surrounding air had just become a lot more pleasant.

"IMI CAS, no effect on target!"

Having taken to the sky with flight magic, Dax observed the effect on target while he wove together a spell which hopefully had more of an effect on the hydra.

IMI ASSESSING EFFECT ON TARGET: NULL. 

COMMENCING ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT.

Finding the strategic class high energy lasers had little to no measurable effect on the target, IMI escalated as it took control of the orbiting battlecruisers other weapon systems, launching a swarm of Viper cruise missiles as well as arming the ships numerous 420 mill anti ship railguns with ammunition tailor made for orbital bombardment. Of course, IMI's response wasn't just limited to orbital assets, it had also taken control of the close air support Hornet drones down on the surface. Swarming towards the target from all directions, the countless Hornet drones primed their suite of smart anti tank guided missiles, loading targeting profiles and swarm patterns which would inflict the highest amount of damage on the target.

IMI CAS ON STATION, FIRE MISSION RECEIVED.

TYPE: SINGLE TARGET HVT ELIMINATION.

HARD TARGET ACQUIRED, KILL WITH HV-SATGM

FIRE MISSION CONFIRMED, PAINTING TARGET.

RELATIVE GRID OF INTEREST: 00 01 05.

SWARM PATTERN: DELTA.

FIRE AT WILL.

Opening up on all sides at the same time, the countless Hornet drones let loose a salvo of high velocity SATGM's along with a mass of flares and other defensive countermeasures. Striking from comparably close range, the hydra had little time to react to the sudden attack but its 9 heads still noticed the danger and unleashed another mass of energy beams, this time aimed at the Hornet drones, hitting 5 of them which immediately melted as their stored monitions cooked off and exploded, destroying the crafts outright. Still, the destroyed Hornets had managed to deliver their payloads and as the hydra was pelted with anti tank missiles it unleashed earth shattering scream of pain.

"We can hurt it! Use anti tank class spells and above!"

Seeing the effect on the target, Dax unleashed the howitzer spell he had been constructing while passing on the information to his allies.

"In that case! Javelin formation: Lightning spear of the prophet!"

As her wings gleamed with holy righteousness, Solaris created a spear of lightning which launched towards the hydra with the speed of a railgun penetrator, hitting the hydra's large body it immediately drew blood as the spear ripped straight through its hard scales.

"I won't be outdone either! Not by such a pesky type of magic!~✿"

Seeing Solaris draw blood with her spell, Ifrit started chanting in multiple dead languages as they were surrounded by a torrent of mana.

"R'qtz sa'li R'lyeh!"

Stomping down their foot, Ifrit unleashed a torrent of dark power, creating a web like structure of tentacles made out of pure void which emerged out of the ground around the hydra and quickly enveloped it, everywhere the tentacles touched they seemed to suck out the very life essence of the hydra.

"Hit it now!"

"Much obliged!"

With Ifrit pinning the hydra in place, Dax took full advantage of the situation.

"Air pressure control: Annihilation."

Creating a high energy thermal pulse, Dax set fire to everything in front of him, including the hydra's lung tissue as it had multiple of its mouths open and screaming out in pain.