Earth, southwest of Iguazú Falls [2029-12-04]
The next day was reserved for delving into the Fissure and gathering the important information: time difference, biome type near the Fissure, characteristics of Mana, taking samples, etc. For this purpose, as Mana was toxic for the team, they used special full-body suits. A Prana container was installed in their backpacks, which were a part of the suits themselves. This Prana circulated through micro-canals around the whole body, effectively shielding it from Mana. The suits resembled metallic, skin-tight black armor, but were much more flexible. The material itself was quite resistant to Prana and Mana, which allowed to direct Prana in the first place. When in use, it felt like it was made from interlocking microplates connected by hinges. The feeling was somewhat pleasant, almost like having a shapeless exoskeleton. Prana and Mana were repelling and “annihilating” each other, at least to some extent, so they should be safe as long as Mana density won’t exceed a certain threshold. Helmet visors were connected to the magitech given to them by the Eltear, allowing them to have immediate feedback from scanners.
Using special paint, they camouflaged the suits accordingly. The other world’s flora was still not recognizable, the center blurred because of the difference in speed of the flowing time, but colors were visible. Verdant green and black, similar to the mixture of plants near the Fissure’s “border”.
The five stood on this “border”, where the density of Mana in the air was close to 1% of that of Prana. The sound from the Fissure was similar to white noise, but not overly loud.
“We can start. Throw it,” Alex ordered through the inbuilt communicator. Alana threw a stone into the Fissure, it flew much further than one would anticipate. The acceleration became mind-blowing when it started to descend, and the falling stone became a blur.
“Speed up confirmed, let’s go,” Alex said, and they started to move.
“This OSH bullshit is annoying,” Alana muttered, as theoretically it would be obvious if time in the Fissure was slowing down.
Any physical explanation of what’s going on in Fissures failed miserably. All we knew was that the time-flow was gradually changing in a Fissure, with Mana density following this gradient. When time itself changed, a big “critical error, stopped responding” occurred to all standard physical equations. We knew how it “should” work, if only the speed of time had changed. The Fissure should resemble a miniature sun, with copious amounts of air and matter blowing out, like from a constant explosion. We should be the vacuum… no, not even that, the black hole for the other world. But we weren’t. And contrary to this, it seemed that indeed only time changed. And so the relativity theory also died from shock looking at this madness. The poor thing assumed speed, mass, and time are related to each other1.
It’s not like physics stopped working, though. All Physics does is create a model of reality, after all. New theories started to show up. Mana and Prana were siphoned into the Fissures in huge amounts. Both were a form of energy, so were they powering the Fissure directly? Or was this a form of annihilation? Were they powering something? Was this an intended or natural phenomenon? Sadly, Eltears weren’t kind enough to explain how this part of the new reality worked.
As the team got further into the Fissure, the white noise became louder, obscuring other sounds. Looking back, the world became more and more dark and static. Movements slowed; the sky darkened. The strange game of light started. On one hand, Earth’s Sun was becoming darker, on the other the center of the Fissure was becoming brighter. Adding to the confusion, evidently, on the other side it was much darker than on Earth, and what they saw was only diffused, reflected light coming from the center. As a result, forest was painted in shadows.
After they got deep enough, the vegetation changed from tropical to a forest similar to Earth’s in a temperate climate. A deciduous forest, but with less shrubbery and much bigger trees that blocked most of the sunlight. The ground was like a soft soil but created from the remnants of dead vegetation, the result of Prana poisoning. Some of the Earth’s trees seemingly didn’t have such problems.
“Oxygen levels are rising. No changes in atmospheric composition otherwise,” Jorge reported. Their suits weren’t airtight, though a toxic atmosphere was rather an exotic hazard either way. The gear would be ridiculous if they had to use an equivalent of a spacesuit.
Not long after, they started moving in a stretched diamond formation. This was the part where the dangers started. An alien life, both plants, and animals, that could be deadly. As a sniper, Alex was keeping to the back, and was running all of the area scans. Alana and Jorge upfront, both using rifles. Gregory and Zeph behind them, ready with a semi-automatic grenade launcher and a crossbow. Alex was looking for anything with higher Mana density specifically, as such entities usually were the danger. In good conditions, the scans worked within a 50 meters radius. On the other hand, the team was near undetectable. They didn’t have Mana, so they could only be perceived as an empty space in the Mana-rich forest. From experience, they knew that not many organisms were able to detect it. Their full-body suits guaranteed that their smell couldn't be noticed until the first shot was made, and the smell of gunpowder usually frightened alien fauna. Sounds were obscured by the white noise, and their suits were visually camouflaged. They were moving slowly, rounding possible enemies and taking samples at regular intervals. Samples of ground, air, living and dead vegetation, etc.
Slowly, the white noise was replaced by the sound of waterfalls. They were close to the “center” of the Fissure.
“We will start the analysis from the other side of the Fissure. We need to climb up,” Alex’s voice resounded in their helmets.
In quick order, they prepared their climbing gear and started to ascend. Flora had changed to that of the other world long before they met the Iguazu Falls, but the terrain still resembled it, the effect of mushing together two different spaces. It seemed there was a body of water on the other side, too, fueling the falls. They had a 60-meter wall before them, with a somewhat dry passage between the two nearest waterfalls. As they climbed, Alana was already immersed in catching the beautiful scenery with a camera built into her suit. This recording would sell well, it was also important for documentation purposes. They could only use electronics shielded by the suits, as normally the microcircuits would malfunction in the presence of Mana. Any electronic devices needed to be adapted for a particular Mana environment to work properly.
The Cliff's face wasn’t a flat wall, something resembling ferns and long grass grew in some recesses and from small outcrops. Water was falling not even 20 meters from the right and left. The forest canopy was still overhead, but no trees were that close to the waterfalls, the team had at least 5 meters of clearance above.
The first problem showed up halfway up. Alex got the reading of a large group of Mana-rich entities up ahead. The results came this late because the scanner’s range was reduced by the cliff itself.
“Stop ten meters before the ridge. Enemies ahead, Zeph,” Alex sent his orders to others.
While the rest of the team stopped as ordered, Zeph continued to climb, using only hexes as protection to minimize the noise he was making. After securing himself near the ridge, he used a small mirror to see past it. The image from his camera was visible to the other team members, who also observed their surroundings. On the waterfall’s rock step, which was around 30 meters wide and maybe 100 meters long, strange plants were hanging from the few existing trees or lying around on the ground. They had long vines and bulbous centers the size of a small car. After comparing positions, it became clear that their scanner detected their bulbs.
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He was now above the forest canopy, so he took a look at other ledges around, using the camera zoom. The same plants were visible on them too. He decided to observe for now.
“I need some time to observe. I think we are safe for now,” he reported.
“You have 15 minutes. At ease,” Alex said. The team members shifted into more comfortable positions.
He observed some small animals, mostly multicolored birds, as they interacted with the plants. After 15 minutes, he was ready to give his analysis. His past education allowed him to discern more about alien monstrosities, one of the reasons he became a scout.
“Carnivores. The center bulb is responsible for digesting. Some kind of mouth on the top. The plants are moving slowly overall, but are able to move their vines in bursts of speed. I suspect they will also be able to quickly change the position of the bulb if needed. It should be draining for them, though. They react a little to sounds, but evidently are unable to deduce a position of a target from that alone. They probably have a tremor sense of some kind – no visible reaction to the movement itself. No visible reaction to Mana concentration or body temperature either. They have feelers and thorns on their vines. From what I could see, I think they are using poison, probably acidic in nature. The center is lighter than it looks, besides the digesting biomass it shouldn’t have much water inside, so it should be flammable enough. The biome they are living in suggests the same, they are avoiding direct contact with water and don’t come close to the ridge, but with the ability to move they probably could get to the waterfall quick enough to quench any fire. I suggest poisoning tests first,” reported Zeph.
“What a drag,” muttered Alana. This type of enemy required extra caution. Poisons of alien lifeforms were very dangerous. Not only because a human body wasn't evolutionally prepared to deal with them, but also because everything here was saturated with Mana, poisons included. Direct injection was a death sentence, period. Worse yet, penetrative properties of any form of a stinger were impossible to ascertain because Mana could enhance them. As always, ants, spiders, and wasps were the most terrifying enemies. Some things don’t change, even when in another world.
“Everyone, change to incendiary ammunition and move near the ridge. Secure yourselves just above, to be able to fire. Gregory, can you shoot a few sticky high-explosives under the waterfalls on both sides?” Alex said after a moment to think.
“Can do, boss, but only around two meters above the waterline, maybe one if I get the hang of it,” Gregory answered.
“That should be enough. Zeph, after we take positions and Gregory finishes, you can start testing,” Alex gave his orders.
Zeph prepared bolts with auto-injectors. The best universal poison for alien flora, as plants had much more diverse metabolic systems, was Prana. The bolts were loaded with the same biomatter-based gel as their suits' Prana batteries. More specific poisons were used only on animals, as their metabolism and cellular structure were similar enough to their Earth's counterparts.
Gregory managed to place three explosives under each waterfall. The thumping sound of his grenade launcher too quiet to elicit any reaction from the monster plants. Then came Zeph’s turn. He shot toward three plants near the opposite wall. Enough to have a more reliable test result.
For a minute nothing happened, but they could see, thanks to the scanners, how Mana inside the beings started to swirl in wild patterns.
Then the three monsters burped.
It had to be some sort of chemical signal because all hell broke loose after that. Other plants started moving their vines around the three affected ones, checking the area in ever-expanding swoops. The wiggling mass of vines full of green feelers brought to mind a nest of centipedes.
The three affected ones were dying, but not fast enough. Some vines started probing in the direction of the ridge. Abandoning the stealthy approach, Alex made a decision.
“Grenades! Prepare for moving!”
Gregory used two full magazines. A fire started spreading on the ledge. According to what Zeph predicted, the plants started moving quickly in the direction of waterfalls. The movement was similar to a roll, but very awkward because of all the vines that were in the way.
“Blow them up,” Alex ordered after most of the plants got to the water. The team ducked a little under the ridge, and the explosions reverberated through the valley. Some of the plants were obliterated instantly, others were sent flying down the falls, some were still living, and some slow ones still stayed on the ledge. The putrid contents of their stomachs were decorating the surroundings.
“Up and fire!” The team got on the ledge and started firing at stragglers. Incendiary ammunition was devastating for the beings, burning them from inside. Everyone made sure to stay away from the vines.
The plants on the same ledge but behind the streams and waterfalls were moving away from the fight, probably because of the smoke. That didn’t help them, as Alex wanted to have a secure return route. Firing from behind the water was much safer.
After the cleaning finished, he double-checked the scanners. Nothing wanted to check the commotion, it seemed. After reloading, and making sure nothing worse was coming, they started to climb again.
“We should have tried to enter from the top first,” Zeph complained. Though, he knew that it would take too long to scout all three sides of the valley. It’s also much easier to fall back when you are climbing down on already secured ropes, he thought.
No more problems met them as they were getting to the top. The trees were even larger here. The scanners showed the center of the Fissure not far away. Getting through it was a really strange experience. The closer they were, the more it felt like there were more than just four main directions, and the thin, blurry mist was closing on them. As they moved further, they could see some stretching of objects in their peripheral vision. Turning back felt more like turning around. In this place, the direction someone came from was more important, than the direction they were moving, as at some point every direction becomes the way out to another world.
The effects started to decrease after a moment, it took them 10 minutes of walking to pass the whole center. They were on the other side. After another 10 minutes, Alex decided it was time to make a camp. The standard procedure, also one of the reasons for naming their group “Apes” and teams “Gibbons”, was to set the camp on the trees. The camp was meant to give them a better defensive position, as they needed to set up more complicated scanning equipment. It was still quite compact, though, so one hanging platform from tubes and fabric created enough space.
Alex found a higher spot to keep watch, and Zeph took into the woods for scouting. Of course, he had a Mana scanner too. The rest of the team started analyzing some samples. Five hours later, Zeph was back, and the team started to summarize their findings. The light was dimming slowly, it seemed they had little daytime left.
“Nothing too strange in water or air. Most of the vegetation is similar on a cellular level to what we know, except the plant monster,” Alana said.
“Anomalies in the composition of the soil. Either new elements, or something Mana-related. No radiation. Also, time flows 123.73 times faster according to the signal from the outside camp,” Gregory said.
“Big group of Mana-rich fungi the size of small trees up north. No movement observed, though. Besides birds, there are almost no animals. I estimate the forest extends about 20 km in each direction. The terrain is absolutely flat. Nothing of interest in the vicinity, but I saw some high reaching ruins up north, beyond the forest,” Zeph summarized.
“We have a problem,” Jorge said. “Prana density is slowly decreasing. If this trend stays linear, in one month of the local time, the Fissure will collapse. Taking into account the speed of flow of time, it’s… around six hours in Earth’s time. Actually, scanning from this side, the Fissure looks so unsteady I am surprised it formed in the first place or didn’t collapse immediately after forming,” he added.
“Shit, any idea why?” Alex asked.
“I am not sure, really…” Jorge said hesitantly.
Everyone sighed, “This is bad, no one will be able to get here on time,” Alana said.
They were contemplating for a minute or two. Finally, Zeph broke the silence.
“Then, we should test if a system is really here right now. There is no time.”
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1) I feel I need to explain my thought process here:
Special Relativity Theory says that time flows differently for objects moving relative to each other (I am not going to explain the paradox here; just look for the “twin paradox” on the wiki or something). Here we have a case of two worlds connected by an unmoving ‘gate’, so theoretically ‘moving together', and having the time difference. Lorentz Transformation, and all that, died right here. It would be explainable if our side was a black hole, with the time slowed down. But no, there is no connection to velocity, no connection to mass, and visibly no connection to the ‘overall energy’ of atoms. On top of that, the difference in time should generate horrendous pressure from the side with a faster time. If one oxygen particle is hitting a theoretical “Fissure wall” from our side, for the time difference of ten times, ten particles from the other side will do the same. Ten times the pressure. Ten times the intensity of light.