[Warning! The inner lock of the Eldehan Gate is closing.]

Eric strode to the other end of the massive fortification called the Eldehan Gate, which was named for a long-dead Aetherian hero, according to Luna. The thick nickel-iron walls of the gate hall had been smoothened by planers and polishers, and they now dimly reflected the overhead lamps that shone down from the ceiling, illuminating the bare room with harsh, white light. Two flight-capable drones rested on Eric’s armored shoulders as he crossed the room, ready to fly out to serve as the team’s forward observers once the outer gate opened. Behind him walked Osar and Serra, their boots as loud on the metallic floor as Eric’s had been silent. Guarding the rear, and louder still than all the rest in his Bulwark model battlesuit, was Cid, who had been feverishly working on modifications to his suit since yesterday.

Eric had cautioned Cid against doing such last-minute adjustments, knowing how an untested bit of hardware could be dangerous out in field and battle conditions, but the scientist had assured him that he was not doing anything major. Eventually Eric had just shrugged and walked away.

This morning Cid had surprised them all by proudly presenting a backpack weapons augmentation that could be incorporated onto his battlesuit exterior, although the scientist had been evasive when asked about the contraption’s actual capabilities. He was wearing the harness now, and the whole thing changed his profile and appearance from a bulky, heavily-armored battlesuit, to a hulking, slow-moving weapons platform.

Seeing Cid’s grey and silver battlesuit lumber through the room, Eric wondered if the scientist would be able to keep up with the rest of the team, and if not, what could be done about it. He himself had chosen a Scout model as his battlesuit for today’s mission, intending to range ahead and to the flanks of his team as they launched a probing attack to gauge the strength and type of response the chitterers would give as they penetrated into their home territory. Luna had already previously sent out several drones to try to map the area and determine the borders of the chitterer’s patrolled territory, but all of them had been detected and hunted down within hours.

In front of the final lock doors Eric stopped, turning to face his companions.

The soft rumble as the closed inner lock doors sealed themselves echoed in the confined space, accompanied by a faint tremor and a shifting of the thin layer of dust that covered the floor. Having been forewarned by Luna about the environment they would be moving in, all of them had augmented their suits with zero-gravity maneuvering gear, which Osar called a Voidwalker shell. The additional modules and power plant fit smoothly over their battlesuits, and would theoretically allow them to operate smoothly in zero- or low-gravity environments, all powered by a fingernail-sized Beast core sliver.

All of that had added almost a quarter of a meter to Eric’s height, and he could feel the almost crackling aetheric sheet that lay between his battlesuit and his now-comfortably familiar undersuit, boosting both his Body and Nerve stats. Despite its sculpted armor plates and snakeskin-like under-mail, the entire battlesuit fit so well that Eric hardly felt as if he was wearing anything at all. He felt like he could run a mile at full speed and not get tired. However, he could feel the slight but steady pull on his Prime Cores aether stores to power the battlesuit, a constant reminder that he had a hard limit to the time he could use the equipment.

“You have five hours of operation at your current state of activity, sir.”

Early this morning Pig had detected a complex glyph array at the base of the cowling that protected the nape of Eric’s neck, which, once connected by skin contact and force-grown channels, allowed the AI to monitor and takeover, albeit briefly for now, some of the functions of the battlesuit, giving Eric a greater degree of control. There was a faint hiss as the neck cowling tightened around the full-face self-extruded helmet and a blue vertical line appeared on the left side of its inner surface. “Helmet sealed and air generation module online.”

Hearing Pig’s prompt Eric breathed deeply, finding the air inside the helmet fresh and adequately breathable.

[Atmospheric reduction under way, Proceeding with gravity adjustment to Stage-surface normal.] Luna had already locked down and secured the Fortress Belzond, and had even stationed two of only five combat-optimized drones to guard the Plunderer. The Obsidian Moon’s Vessel Interface had been somewhat sensitive about her shortage of drones, explaining that she could not manufacture more until the Red Level was accessed.

The rest of his team gathered around Eric as hidden turbines activated and the room’s air was slowly extracted. As the loads they were all bearing became lighter, Eric activated his Squad Net ability.

You have invited Serra Jakobin, Osar Baratuu, and Cid Arth-Veda as members of your Squad Net. Once accepted all squad members may talk and be heard by each other if within a ten-meter radius centered on you.

Serra Jakobin has accepted.

Osar Baratuu has accepted.

Cid Arth-veda has accepted.

< Do I just speak like this? >

< I can hear you, friend Cid. >

< Testing comms! > Serra said with a thumbs up, her face hidden by the smooth, featureless faceplate of her small golden helm. Her dark red battlesuit, surmounted by modular armor plates made of a light-weight golden alloy, was distinctly different from what all of them wore, hugging her well-built body like soft, supple leather. However, anyone who looked closely, would see that the surface of her suit was formed by very small, ruby-red ceramic scales, each of them carved with nearly invisible glyphs. < Seems like comms are green, Captain. >

< Alright everyone, settle down. > Eric commanded, raising a hand fully encased in black metal gauntlets. < We have a plan and a target. What we do not know is the exact numbers arrayed against us. Our mission today is a probing assault to get a feel for the enemy tactics and reaction times. If we can, we will try to funnel a large number of the chitterers into a long column so Cid can get off a shot with that cannon he carries around. >

There was a low ripple of laughter from his companions, and Osar slapped Cid’s gunmetal-grey pauldron with a resounding slap.

< Once Cid fires we do a fighting withdrawal so we can make a more permanent plan with what we learn. Understood? >

< Yes Jad-Os. >

< Roger, sir. >

< Got it, Captain! >

< Excellent. > Eric said, smiling even though he knew none of his companions could see him. < Keep in mind our comms net has a pretty small range. Be alert. Stick to the plan. Come back alive! >

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The chorus of assents began again, and Eric nodded before turning back to face the gate.

[Gravity adjustment accomplished. Retraction of the outer gate proceeding.]

“Gravity is at 0.2 g sir.” Pig informed Eric, as a loud rumble began, kicking up dust motes into the air as the outer gates lifted upward for the first time in more than a thousand years. Luna had been unsure of the exact span of time, but she had intimated that not since the last Commander had escaped had there been any need to use the massive airlock chamber.

The Stage outside the Fortress was eerily quiet.

The wide street led straight forward, its surface cracked here and there with cratered impacts and what may have been ancient battle scarring. A thick layer of grey, powdery dust covered everything, much of it marked by several foot and track prints, puffs of it rising with every step the companions took as they cautiously moved forward, before sinking slowly to the deck once more.

Eric stepped out of the shadow of the Gate and craned his neck to look upward, awed by the size and dimensions of the Fortress they had just emerged from. The walls rose up and up, the newly repaired breaches and cracks appearing as paler webbed patterns against the sheer black metal-rock. Above the highest tower wheeled a sea of stars in all the colors of the rainbow, forming constellations that Eric had never seen before, where they were not blotted out by several hundred floating rocks of different sizes. Reflected light off the surrounding asteroids was the only light on the surface of the Stage, presenting a surreal, silver-lit landscape that Eric and his team must now traverse.

< I’m heading up ahead. > Eric announced to everyone. < Again, remember to keep to the plan: Stick to the middle of the main street and try to be as conspicuous as possible. Let’s get most of these pests in a line so Cid can fire his cannon. >

Not waiting to hear his companions agree Eric engaged his Voidwalker’s back thrusters and leaped outwards towards the nearest high point; a pile of rubble that vaguely resembled a dome-shaped building at the side of the main street.

Tags, identifying markers, and several points of interest bloomed along Eric’s vision as his hybrid vision engaged in mid-leap, giving him a general idea of the surrounding ruins as he landed gently along a half-collapsed supporting wall. The debris beneath his feet shifted a bit as Eric crept into the black shadow of an overhanging metal beam.

Luna’s drones that had hitched a ride on his shoulders began rising upward on jets of pressurized air to help provide overwatch. They couldn’t give real-time updates since apparently that was not a thing in this Universe, but they could provide advance warning, especially to the ‘bait’ that was the rest of Eric’s team. Eric looked back and saw the three backlit shapes of his companions beginning to move forward, their movements smooth and easy now that they weighed a fraction of what they did in normal gravity.

“Movement to the northwest, sir.” Pig had reverted to his old terse self, which Eric appreciated, since he was already dealing with so much data and sensory inputs given to him by not only his vastly enhanced physical senses but also the suit’s built-in boosting sensoria. Peering out from behind his cover Eric looked out along the direction Pig had indicated.

The layout of the Stage spread out beneath his high vantage point, rows and rows of starlit city-sized blocks and damaged or destroyed buildings and other structures. Here and there a few more-or-less intact edifices caught his eye, singled out by their dogged resistance to the forces of time and entropy. At the farthest edge of his vision a gigantic humanoid-shaped structure loomed, the Monument to Eldehan, at the feet of which was the building that contained the mechanism that could restore atmosphere to the entire Stage.

A red arrow appeared, pointing to a lumbering, slithering creature that moved through the buildings with deadly grace. It was huge, to be visible at this range, but seemed intent on beating a retreat rather than investigating the disturbance and light of he and his team’s emergence.

“Keep an eye out for it and alert me if it comes back.” Eric whispered, shifting his attention to the crumbled cluster of collapsed apartment complexes that Luna had identified as Chitterer Central. In the eerie quiet of an atmosphere-less environment Eric was able to pick out several groups of chitterers that looked to be out on patrol, moving in random patterns across the rubble-choked streets.

He could see areas where debris and large rocks had been moved aside to provide wide avenues, as well as places where the rubble had been purposefully gathered and placed to form walls and cul-de-sacs. Several of the taller ruins had chitterer sentinels keeping watch, their camouflaged living bodies easily discernable with Dragon Sight, limned with aetheric fire. Eric carefully scanned the route his team was planning to take, even as three bright signal flashes indicated Cid carrying out phase one of their plan.

The bright glare of Cid’s explosives starkly illuminated the entire area, silent in the air-less void, drawing the gaze of everything that could see towards the main road. Eric shifted slightly as he drew out his sword from his spatial ring, carefully watching for the chitterer response.

It was fast and overwhelming.

Before a second had passed Eric and Pig marked several dozen holes and buildings that suddenly disgorged chitterer swarms, all of them moving with frightening speed towards the pathetically small cluster of humans that sheltered beneath a huge fallen stone in the middle of the main street. Still in complete silence Eric saw the two drones he had let fly streak downwards, each dropping a prepared explosive charge in the midst of the biggest chitterer swarms. Armored bodies flew, the damage less than it would have if there was air, but Eric saw an entire swarm suddenly falter in their attack and turn against each other, even as more of their brethren charged past their struggling bodies.

“Hellfire!” Eric cursed, the sound loud within his helmet. What had just happened?

Even as Eric wondered the edge of the fastest swarm converged on his team. Osar, clad in grey and maroon, met them with his Taunt ability and a handful of grenades, scattering the leading edge and giving Serra a good view of the field. From high above Eric saw orange aether strands spread out from where his old comrade stood, creating a gleaming lattice that then erupted in flame and fire, incinerating hundreds of the rushing horde.

“There, sir!” Pig exclaimed, latching on to one particular chitterer and outlining it with pulsing red. “That looks like it’s directing the others.”

Eric focused, seeing that the chitterer Pig had identified had been injured by Serra’s area ability, and would have been killed had not a bulkier, larger chitterer pushed it aside. Even as he watched a follow-up burst of flame slammed into the chitterer’s belly, throwing it onto its back where it lay, dark blood leaking out of its cracked carapace. As it died a few hundred of its fellow chitterers went berserk, ripping at their neighbors with claws and stingers, some spraying sizzling acid in wide arcs, killing hundreds more of their brethren.

Eric suddenly surged forward, activating his jump packs so he glided over the battlefield, noting the dark lines of reinforcements streaming from what looked like every crevice and hole he could see. As he came down, he scattered over twenty micro-grenades in a wide arc around him, seeing shattered chitterer parts careen past as he landed gently beside the body of the leader Serra had killed. Wasting no time Eric slapped a hand on the still sizzling carapace and sucked the entire body into his ring, even as he struck away a wounded chitterer that had wandered too close.

He was surrounded by a sea of dead and dying creatures, over which many more of their brethren scrambled, eagerly throwing their lives against the staunch defense of Eric’s teammates. Seeing a break in the seething crowd Eric darted to the side of the road, heading roughly towards the bravely battling trio, but careful to keep heading for the sidelines.

< FUCK, something bit me! >

Cid’s almost scream filled Eric with joy, even as he was staggered by the sudden return of sound. He had finally come within ten meters of his team, although he couldn’t see them through the press of jumping, lunging chitterer bodies that was between them.

< Osar now! > Serra’s voice boomed through the squad net. < The Captain’s clear! >

Suddenly there was a spray of glittering water droplets somewhere from in front of Eric, followed soon after by a bright flash of light. Eric desperately jumped to the side, activating his jets, as the entire group of chitterers between him and his team jerked and steamed as thousands of volts of electricity struck them all.

< I’m out! > Came Osar’s full-throated bellow, followed by another wave of fire from Serra.

< Retreat! > Eric shouted as he slid up against a rubble heap, kicking up a cloud of dust. < I got what we came for! Cid, COVER! >

< YES SIR! > There was another flash of bright light, throwing dark shadows against the walls of the surrounding structures, creating nightmare shapes of flailing limbs and reaching stingers. Then an intense, white light blasted outward along the length of the road, incinerating everything in its path. For the first time, Eric’s comrades came into view, looking battered and bloody but thankfully still alive. Walls of dead chitterer’s were all around them in hacked and burned rows, and even as Eric watched Osar flicked a still struggling body to the surface of the road.

< Fall back! > Eric cried as he leaped to the top of another wall running parallel to the road, his stomach dropping even as he did so.

Between them and the open Gate, a swarm of chitterers was pouring into the roadway.

Leading them was a gigantic crab-like monster, its six serrated legs reaching towards his trapped team.