ARC1/C24 – Earth
Back in the meeting hall, Sam and the others found Hiroma, thankfully, still talking with some of the remaining council members.
Surprisingly it was Sarah who spoke up first, “We need to go back to Earth, to try and do what we can. Before it’s too late.”
“It is true I have seen visions of great destruction but you are the only Vore, so you can understand we don’t want to lose you. Going would most lightly result in your death or capture.” Said Velta, looking up from the table at their approaching group.
“There will be other Vore but there will not be another Earth” said Sam, determined to push the issue.
“Don’t get me wrong your idea is valid but you must not fall into the hands of others. For us your coming is a sign of hope but it will not truly tip the balance of power in our favour, no matter how we would wish for that… But if you were to be used by the Seracians or others, we could be talking about the destruction of this world’s current order.” Velta took a breath.
“What Velta is saying.” Interjected Hiroma, “Is that we must ask you to swear that you will not be taken alive.”
Sam bowed is head in thought then looked up “Yes I will agree to that, does that mean you will also aid us” he said now smiling.
“Yes, Yes we can do that we would after all like you back in one piece. We have already been conferring about such an eventuality and Hiroma is hand picking volunteers for the mission”
Soon after they left the Resistance base out into the Seracian desert sun. Sam could only mask the presence of a certain number of people which to all intense was fine as there had been little point taking a large force. That would just weaken the Resistance while giving them no real advantage against the superiority of the Seracian in numbers alone.
Returning to Earth, Sam had worried about how he would convince people that leaving Earth was the right thing to do but on arrival his viewpoint was changed by the utter destruction the first waves of Seracian’s had already wrought.
Sam and the others passed through the Mirror Realm to Earth, only to find, lines of evacuees stretching in all directions, as far as the eye could see, like a giant spider web stretching out across the charred landscape.
The landscape was starting to resemble that of the Seracian desert itself, all structures as far as he could see had been completely levelled – the blackened ground the only sign that anything had existed there before. Were the Seracian’s already intent on pushing to destroy this world? Where was the two year plan that had been talked about before?
At least it should make his task easier thought Sam grimly. After seeing the fate that the Seracian meant for them, hopefully fleeing and regrouping with potential allies would be vastly preferable surely.
Giant unmanned droid flightships littering the sky like migrating metallic birds, flying high over the scorched earth, surrounded thousands of drones, patrolling the convoy routes.
Luckily Velta’s vision had prepared them somewhat for this but the sheer magnitude was still hard to grasp. She had given them the coordinates of a mountainous region to the south, where hopefully they could find some survivors, still holding out. The forest there providing excellent shelter from the many drones, provided it wasn’t burnt to the ground of course.
What they really needed was transport, although Sam’s flight speed had improved as his ability had levelled, it was still painfully slow outside the Mirror Realm. Was this even sane? Rescuing a handful of people at the risk of his group and even the Resistance group’s people.
He realised at that moment he had become very impulsive or maybe reacting based on very little information was a more precise evaluation. Still Velta had pointed them in this direction, so they would continue for now.
It took them several hours to reach into the mountain region proper. Where Sam saw their first problem, if the drones hadn’t been able to find anyone in this area, how on earth were they supposed to?
At least it wasn’t completely his burden to bare, as he dropped stealth and their company rested in the cover of the many pine trees in this area.
Maria was the first too speak, unable to contain herself as usual, which was just as well as Sam tended to bury his feelings sometimes leaving what needed to be said unsaid.
“Any idea which was we need to go now?” she said the noise of her voice seeming deafening in the secluded forest.
Hiroma, merely held up his right hand in the universal gesture for pause. He seemed to be listening intently to their surroundings. Well of course he would be thought Sam, remembering back to their recent sparring session. Hiroma had a modder ability that definitely heightened his senses.
After a minute or two, Maria joined everybody else slumped by one tree or another as they quietly checked their supplies and took a brief rest. Our party consisted of only a dozen in all. I was a bit surprised that nobody else sent had any kind of tracking skill but then abilities didn’t just grow on trees. The most useful abilities such as foreseeing the future seemed to be rare, whether this was because they were hoarded by the most powerful groups or it was intrinsic to the skills Sam did not know. He guessed he’d add it the list of things he didn’t know.
Hiroma signalled that he was making for higher ground and headed off towards further into the trees, I got up and ran after him.
“Hey why don’t I give you a ride?” said Sam, wondering why he would take the slow route.
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“Ah, yes it’s easy for me to forget that you don’t need to rest like everyone else. Ok, If you can take me above the tree line so I can pin point the highest elevation nearby.” Replied Hiroma.
Wrapping Hiroma in a psi bubble, Sam used [flight] to rapidly climb straight up at of the clearing. Towards the mountains they could see some lower peaks, but they looked to be at least twenty miles off at a rough estimate.
Sam looked to see Hiroma, was wavering at him as he couldn’t actually hear him within the bubble, one of it’s draw backs. Though as they had only used it for stealthing so far that hadn’t be a negative.
He unwrapped the psi bubble so Hiroma could communicate freely.
“If you can just take me higher. Higher than that mountain range over there I might be able to pick something up. Otherwise we’ll have to head in closer.”
Shooting straight up, I stopped just below the cloud cover, when Hiroma signalled to stop. He then paused trying to sense all around. Then pointed off to the south-west.
He didn’t need to do more, turning in that direction I was able to make out some black smoke trails that reached up like skeletal fingers to the sky – there was a big battle going on over there.
We hastily descended then gathering everyone up set off towards the battle zone. Maybe just, maybe we could be of some use.
As we got steadily closer, we could start to hear explosions going off and a mist that slowly evolved into a sea of drones in the sky. There were also some Seracian forces on the ground but these were far smaller. How to get involved with out becoming a casualty of friendly fire?
It turned out that the Seracian’s tactics were just what I needed. The drones were staying out of range as much as possible before descending in devastating waves, bombarding the enemy on the ground.
Dropping our group off, behind what was enemy lines we were greeted by a beleaguered force of humans, who were more than a little surprised to see us.
“Can I speak to whoever’s in charge?” enquired Sam on touching down near a group of resting soldiers.
“That would be Rodriguez but he’s kind of tied up as you can see. It’s no secret that were not going to be able to hang on much longer. So we’d be happy for any aid you can give and how did you stealth in by the way.” Said a man, with a beard matching all his comrades.
He had seen the humans formations as he flew round from the side. It looked like something from world war one. Trenches all over the place, allowing the soldiers to take cover and move about the small area concealed.
Having no time to find this Rodriguez guy, Sam just left Hiroma and the rest to work things out while he headed up over the battle field. It was a rough and ready plan but he would try out all his abilities and see what was most effective. Fortunately he had messed around in the sparring area at the resistance camp for quite a time.
Stealthing he got above the drones that hung there like the vultures they were. He chose to try [Energy Drain] as it was the least obtrusive giving him a chance to get in a few AOE attacks before he was noticed.
But for some reason it proved ineffective on the drone legions. Ok well how about some straightforward physical damage with a little elemental damage thrown in.
He used [Aerokinesis] to pull the nearby drones towards him then used [Cryo Wave] which luckily he had levelled up 26 now allowing it to pack more of a punch.
The drones reacted quickly to this threat by fleeing the area, and taking up position on the other side of the human camp. He couldn’t have that.
It was a shame as this was by far the most efficient method of dispatching the drones. It stead he maintained stealth and used [Flight] to take him within the epic centre of the biggest clump of drones then hit [Cryo Wave].
This proved highly effective as they didn’t seem to be prepared to flee the area completely allowing him to use this tactic repeatedly. Also they remained outside camp firing range, meaning that any destroyed drones fell harmlessly to the ground below and not onto soldiers.
Sam imagined what he could do if he levelled [Aerokinesis] up high enough, he could create his own mini hurricane to take the Seracian’s down.
The reason why whoever commanded these drones was prepared to keep sacrificing them soon became apparent as on the horizon he saw not just drones in there thousands heading there way but bigger flightships also. The battle had only just begun it seemed.
----
Traksis had by this time entered the Mirror Realm and found to her surprise that she could indeed still sense Sam’s direction, even though it was a very vague sense, that she had to concentrate on, it still shouldn’t be possible due to the small matter of him being in a different world.
She had only talked in vague terms to Lopez, especially as he didn’t seem to have the language capabilities of Sam. Boy did she miss that her master. Master? Where did that come from? Previously she’d thought of him as her saviour. But Master would be way better, if he could help her get stronger that would be ideal.
So talking with Lopez had just involved furious pointing at Bartholomew, who was looking very pallid by now, his breaths coming in shallow gasps. Traksis focused her [Psychic Energy Absorption] and her [Energy Drain] abilities on the area around her hoping she could absorb psi-energy from the Mirror Realm itself as Sam had. But both skill yielded nothing.
So she moved away from Lopez and Bartholomew and landed on the roof of a building and started to use [Absorbing Regeneration]. Nothing. Why had she thought it would work?
Well because she had survived death and seemed to have become so much more powerful than she should be. She had thought for a moment that she could do the impossible.
She had watched Sam for hours in the Mirror Realm doing things with Psi-energy and she was sure he didn’t have abilities for all those things. So how had he done it?
But she could not see psi-energy. Wait maybe, there was something. Homing in on her [Pursuit] ability she concentrated and tried to see the line of psi-energy that pointed out Sam’s direction. Then she saw it! Well not saw as it wasn’t with her actual eyes but she did sense it.
It was a thin tendril leading away to presumably an exit in the Mirror Realm. Could she manipulate it in someway? Without breaking her tenuous connection to Sam that is.
She then focused on the other two tendrils she could sense. One pointing to Lopez and one to Bartholomew. She noted they pointed directly to where their cores would be situated.
Then she tried something she had never tried to do before. Leaning on [Pursuit] ability she tried to make the connection stronger.
----
Terius Kimvelo, found himself again in such a short spell of time, seriously considering wiping out another civilisation. This time Earth and it’s humans. The Order of Seers, despite their ineptitude would eventually, pass an edict laying claim to any potential Vorians that might inhabit the world.
He could not allow for that tipping of power, from the Seracians right into the hands of the Seers. So he would of evacuate as many of the Earthlings over the next few hours. Maybe there would be a vore among them maybe not but he would scan them all the same then sell the remainder to “The Group”. Essentially laundering the lifeforms into the blackmarket where he could absolve himself of any further responsibility.
Nobody of course would think too much about the fact that there would be zero probability of obtaining a vore specimen, the market price would no doubt reach a historic high all the same.
He had his sources in the Order and would hear before any announcement was made public so no problem there. So why was it that he still felt a sense of impending doom? He had received no message from his eye network but he would contact them again. Maybe the Vanguard were making a move.