333 Large processor 3

Sliding across the loose surface using his reaction control system, Dax tossed a breaching charge which stuck to the outer airlock of an old iron race mining facility, as the shaped charge detonated Dax followed directly after it and entered the cramped airlock he would rather describe as a kill box. While all logic dictated that he should make his way from the airlock and further into the facility as fast as possible by breaching the inner door too, Dax instead took cover beside the door as a hail of bullets pierced through it, coming from the inside.

(Well, that was a pretty obvious ambush… Are they even taking me seriously, or is this some other kind of test?)

Stomping his foot into the ground, Dax injected mana into it before the gunfire from the other side stopped a second later.

"Breaching point clear."

Reporting back to the others, Dax walked up in front of the inner airlock door, burying his fist into the metal construction like it was made out of wet sand before he pried it apart and entered the depressurized facility.

(IMI, rifle.)

Reaching to his back, Dax pulled out a mana powered rifle and quickly checked the action before he inserted a fresh magazine and chambered a round of special purpose armour piercing. As Dax walked past the pair of precursor bio drones which had spears made of the metal flooring sticking through them he injected another dose of mana into the ground which created a spell that scanned his surroundings, finding the facility to be jam packed with different kinds of traps and ambushes.

(Are they really taking us seriously?...)

"Lux, stand by, I'm relaying target coordinates."

About a kilometre from the abandoned facility, Lux took a knee in the loose dust and aimed Ra's newest prototype at the facility in the distance.

"Stand by."

Opening up a direct neural link with Dax, Lux's pupils shifted slightly as she quickly adjusted to the new joined perspective, at the same time, her weapon started heating up as it rapidly charged, the two metre long metal frame kind of looked like some sort of enlarged rifle, if not made slightly unusual by the frankly absurd amount of mana Lux was pouring into it as it charged. Loading an unusually large magazine into the side of the weapon, Lux took a sitting shooting position and rested the barrel on her knee.

"Ready. Firing"

"This new anti personnel railgun really is something alright…"

With a smile on her face, Lux continued firing at the abandoned facility, precisely hitting targets inside until the only living thing inside it was Dax.

(This entire thing is too easy…)

Dax had expected the targets to move when the shooting started, so he had maintained his surveillance spell, but to his surprise none of the bio drones had moved from their original position when Lux had started picking them off, leading Dax to believe there was something off about the entire situation.

(Those drones were of the same type as the first one we fought… So either they need to be under direct control from the operator to more advanced stuff or they're leading us into some larger trap…)

While Dax would normally have chosen to call off the entire operation and just nuke the place from orbit, he knew that he was playing under the precursor's rules.

(They're taking us lightly at the moment, but if I suddenly oppose their 'tests', this might take a turn for the worse… No choice then.)

"... IMI, move the operation to phase 2."

-

Underneath the abandoned iron race mining facility was the primary and sole access point to the hollow centre of Styx-1, a 1 kilometre wide circular hole which had been dug to extract the metal core of the planet. Through the sacrificial use of drones under his control, Dax had learned at the walls of the hole had been reinforced, so it could serve as adequate footing, but he had also learned that this is where the precursors 'tests' would occur, based on the amount of firepower those drones were annihilated by.

"There are at least 24 medium calibre railguns somewhere near the bottom, they have a full field of fire which covers the entire tunnel so there's no avoiding them. Solaris, Ra and Phillipa will guard their own detachments and focus on defence using elemental magic, organize yourself however you see fit, I'm going on ahead to deal with the precursor."

While the orders which had come down from up high been to destroy the Emergence nerve cluster, Dax had independently decided that it would be more beneficial to capture and analyse it instead, so the other members of Dax's unit were tasked with eliminating all other resistance while Dax took up the attention of the precursor.

"I'm leaving the rest to you guys."

Moving in formation with the rest of his drones, Dax leapt out over the edge of the tunnel as the reaction control thrusters on his suit lit up, instead of controlling his rotation he used them to propel himself downwards, racing down through the hole towards the Emergence nerve cluster.

"Let's get to it."

Addressing her team which consisted of Mare, Ifrit and Ra, Solaris walked up to the edge of the tunnel, then she took a step out over it and let herself fall about a metre in the low gravity before the reaction control thrusters on her suit lit up and reoriented her while continuously burning to cancel out the downward gravity while simulating about 0.5 G towards the inner wall of the tunnel, allowing her to 'walk' on it. Although the sensation from the slight amount of gravity which still acted on her was slightly strange, Solaris quickly adjusted as she focused on the spell she was creating.

"Phalanx."

Uttering the one word to activate her prepared spell, a series of 10 metres wide, faintly golden and slightly transparent hexagons formed in the air 10 meters 'in front of Solaris.

"Shield up."

With that message from Solaris, Mare, Ifrit and Mu also stepped out and formed up behind her as they started their downwards advance towards the core.

"Incoming!"

It wasn't long before the group came under attack from the railgun artillery which was further down. Digging her feet into the 'floor', Solaris poured more elemental mana into the shield formation which swelled in response right as the first volley hit the multiple barriers which either slowed down or deflected the projectiles, with the innermost part of the spell formation stopping shrapnel which made it through, converting the kinetic energy to heat. Continuing forward in speed with the two other teams, Solaris' unit was only forced to stop when the railguns occasionally fired, but due to their sluggish fire rate, the teams quickly made progress.

"Ifrit do you see them?"

While Solaris maintained the detachments defence, Mu, Mare and Ifrit were tasked with the detachment's offensive, top of their current list was destroying the railguns before the precursor and Emergence brought other units against them.

"Yeah I do Mu, wanna do something about them?"

"Let's trash them."

"Words just after my heart!~✿"

While Ifrit hadn't undergone the ceremony to make it possible for them to use elemental magic, their firepower was in no way inferior to the others.

"A'lthz!"

Creating spears a group of spears made out of lighting bolts as dark as the void, a large smile formed on Ifrit's face as they launched down the tunnel, creating explosions made out of black flames when they struck their designated targets.

"Hail."

Having finished her own spell just moments after Ifrit, Mu launched a shotgun blast of small icicles which 'bloomed' on impact, creating massive flowers made out of ice which ruthlessly tore through everything standing in the way of their creation.

"Fly."

Also sharing the water element with Mu, Mare's spell was nevertheless vastly different from the one she used. At Mare's command, 6, 14 meter long spears made of highly compressed ice took flight towards their intended targets, but unlike Mu's fancy flowers which Mare believed to a waste of time, the ice spears simply broke into fragments just before impact, saturating the targets and their immediate surroundings with a shotgun like a hail of sharp fragments. 

"Railguns destroyed."

Reporting to the other detachments as she continued 'forward' while focusing on defence, Solars spotted other signs of movement further down the tunnel which she was just about to inform the others of when Phillipa beat her to it.

[We have guests, be sure to kill them properly!]