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Plasma and Fire
12: Fields of Red Grass

12: Fields of Red Grass

They'd started traveling fast after they left. Once Varis had gained his bearings, a message had appeared saying that sound blockers in his ears had been deactivated. He'd needed a while to get used to hearing so far out. Alavaros had offhandedly mentioned that "Some Minad can hear several miles out on their own. Some're better at bearing it then others." When he'd brought it up.

It hadn't stopped them from running through, and run they did. Sprinting through the fields of red. He could sometimes make out small towns, villages, and outposts. Some were relatively intact while others were demolished, only ash and slag left behind from the ruins. He could also rarely hear the wildlife around him as they moved. Birds circling trees, a large four legged cat shadowing some bovine creature. Smaller animals skittering around in their burrows as they moved. It was scarce, a rare sound in a sea of the wind breezing through tall grass and the leaves of the odd tree in the plains, rustling through the blue leaves as it did.

By the time night fell, they'd made it to the ruins of a small town. Evidently some battle had been waged here, the buildings had chunks or entire sections missing in some cases. There was some sort of six legged walker that looked like the one he'd found that medical kit in soon after he'd woken up. A giant red eye built into the front center of it, though the light in it had long died and the strange glass shattered. The walker had been slammed into a building, and pierced clean through the side by something that left a smooth hole. None of them could find any signs of it's crew, or any of the other combatants.

They ended up sitting in the hold of the walker for the night as it offered the most cover out of anything left. As they all sat and ate their rations, more of that gray sludge stored in Vials. Vossan spoke up. "I heard the doctor gave you a Tablet to read, you should start going through it soon. As is...for the Nolians let us do the talking unless strictly necessary. They're prickly and half of them consider us heretics and traitors to their gods. Other half think us Minad are the children of their gods, led astray. That we require redemption." He paused, staring at the ceiling of the walker.

"Dealing with them can be a coin flip. One half want us all dead, the others want us to redeem themselves. They hate the Imperium entirely though. None of us ever found out why to be truthful. They're a threat either way and most likely our only shot at capturing enough ships to get those of us still here off world. Three way war going on and we still need the damn blues." He was cut off by Alavaros speaking up "Don' let em hear you calling them that. You know 'ow they feel 'bout it. Short bastards." They both snorted at that, before Alavaros started up again.

"They 'appen to be quite religious about the Makians, and they consider all of the 12 first races the Makians made to be their children. They think us'n'the Kalthuran are even more special cause we were placed on the same world, in a...symbiotic relationship. Not only that but we're the closest ta Makians in appearance and strength. Their gods 'Chosen' if'ye'will. Even our names mean 'Chosen' in Makian." The Minad frowned as looked through the breach in the Walker. "They're short, and weak on their own. Make up fer it with massive suits'a powered armor. Their Templar'r painted blue usually. We'll be treating with a Paladin to hopefully assault the last Imperial Spaceport on world together. We get tha ships, they get ta mount Mauchinian heads on spikes. Shouldn' have to say this ta ya, but don' fuck it up." And with that he stopped to look through the breach once more before leaning back.

Varis frowned as he looked at the two of them, before looking outside himself. "So we have no choice but to rely on them?" A scoff sounded from Vossan and Alavaros both, before Vossan spoke "There are roughly four hundred of us in that hideout, maybe a thousand or so left on world. The second we attack that port, they'll rift Mauchinians, Imperial Warriors, Mechs, and everything they have in endlessly. They'll drop more Mauchinians, and walkers and other devices down on us from orbit at the same time. A thousand of us at most against hundreds of thousands...We might steal some ships and escape, since some of our strongest and most experienced are here."

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"We'd still lose most'a us in the fightin ta reach tha ships, and during the launch." That came out disgruntled, and Vossan agree'd with it. "We would. Not to mention their numbers are much higher then that. Most of them are still up in those Dreadnoughts. They freeze a large portion of their troops in Cryo. Saves on food, space, and other resources. Takes....four minutes to thaw a Mauchinian Warrior, five more for the Warrior to recover from the freeze. Two to three minutes to recover if it's an experienced one. Not to mention the ability to rift more in from anywhere in Imperial Space."

He could piece together that by 'rifting' they meant some form of teleportation, but why not just call it that? "Why the stasis if they can just... 'rift' them in? What is Rifting, anyway?"

Vossan answered with tiredness in his voice "The stasis units are relics from before rift tech was discovered. Lotta nations and groups without rift tech still use similiar methods. They keep and produce ships with them still in case something goes wrong with the Rifts, or it's blocked somehow. Apparently it happened once with a Reality Bender. Way before we got conquered and absorbed into the Empire as soldiers. As for rifting... It's instantaneous travel. Point A to point B, from anywhere at anytime. I don't know how or why it's instant but I know how they facillitate the travel at least. They use Rift Generators to tear a whole in our dimension and at the same time form a tunnel through other dimensions to our location. You still spend time to travel in the tunnel, but when you get out the other side, you arrive at the very second you left."

Vossan's armor suddenly projected an image, of a ship slowly being engulfed by some form of light. "Three months of time in the rift to cross the galaxy and arrive the very second you first set out. The farther the distance the more time you spend 'In the rift' but you ALWAYS, arrive at the very second you started your journey. To be honest I don't know if it's something the Grarvians found on their own, or something they took and reverse engineered from the few Makian Ruins that didn't blip into nothingness at the end of the Ancients war."

The image shifted suddenly to some sort of beast, a giant Wyrm coiled around what looked to be a planet. "Apparently it used to be pretty dangerous, the tunnel didn't have walls to block the other dimensions from interfering with the ships. Sometimes interdimensional things or disease would spew out with the ship, come out without the ship, and sometimes nothing would come out at all. Used to weaken the walls between dimensions too, but they figured both those issues out somehow. When the tunnel is formed nothing from the dimensions we're travelling through are inside, nor can they come inside. Heard is described as...spearing through the dimension, once. They even have special generators in ships and important installations that keep permanent miniature rifts open somehow nowadays even. Harvest energy from them to keep everything powered."

The image faded as Alavaros interrupted what had turned into a lecture now. "Point is, supply lines mean nothin to them. Lotta reasons to still use ships, and planetary assaults mind you. Rifting is pretty damn obvious, bright neon blue light suddenly appears? That's a rift openin'n'closin. It's how we plan ta'scape once we get ourselves some ships. Generators'r too big for anything but a ship or immobile installation. The Dimensional avzhin don't matter, side's from it gettin us out. Now quiet down'n get some rest. I wanna get ta that meetin point before the Templar do. Make sure we don' walk into an ambush."

Varis could see Vossan nod as the two of them adjusted for a somewhat uncomfortable sleep. And then he could suddenly feel his hearing diminish. He could still hear for a good distance, but not nearly as long as before. It seemed Kelxath at least worked well enough to manage the little things for him. Hopefully it stayed that way he figured, as he leaned against the wall of the Walker and closed his eyes to sleep as well.