“Alright…”
Matthew took a few moments to chew over the available information, he didn’t blame Doc for her apparent rush, 24 years might sound like a long time to most people, but Matthew, Doc, Ripper and Alina weren’t most people, they had memories that stretched back in time far longer than that seeming long amount of time
‘Besides the time estimation is just that, a estimate… No way I am wiling to sleep in and wait for that to turn up wrong’
Having finished sorting his thoughts, Matthew stood up and looked at the map for a few moments before he spoke
“We’ll start with an automated incursion, even if it will cost thousands of drones we need more data on the spacial anomalies, if we can’t figure them out I don’t care if we spend a few million to map a safe route to the center of the area of denial”
Doc nodded, so did Ripper and after a moment Alina spoke
“I might be able to help out with the anomalies if I can observe them for a while”
Matthew looked into Alina’s eyes for a few moments before he nodded
“Right, Doc have a Mystic ability related to space too, but I am guessing you hadn’t had much success in using it to figure this out?”
Doc shock her head before she added
“No, not yet at least, however the length of my examination was only around a day”
“Alright, Aea pack up a strike and engineering group, we’ll establish a forwards observation and a larger more remote logistics hub to handle the air shipment of drones”
[Confirmed, starting logistical calculations, would you like me to scale up drone production as well Master?]
“Yeah, have it doubled by this time next month”
[Confirmed, starting industrial upscaling, 588 resource extraction and processing machines added to production queue]
Then Matthew looked towards Alina and spoke rather casually
“Let’s go take a closer look”
Alina nodded, apocalyptic consequences aside she were pretty interested in this hellscape of twisted space and time
-
“How is it today, Alina?”
Alina glared at the landscape of sand dunes in front of her with visible malice for a few moments before she answered
“I still don’t like this place Matthew, at this point I doubt I ever will”
It had been 4 days since Alina, Matthew and a small detachment of drones had arrived at the edge of the desert, however ever since they had arrived Alina had felt a growing sense of unease, she could see the spaceship that had taken her love and the rest of the otherworlds in orbit
But she could not see into this desert, the more she tried, the more she ended up going down rabbit holes and tangents inside her own mind, it was like a sickening sweet honey that advanced her understanding of space and time yet wore down her psyche at the same time
“It feels like it's tempting me, trying to lure me in”
Stolen story; please report.
Matthew sat down next to her on the ground and gazed at the sand dunes ahead for a bit before he asked
“...Have you made any progress?”
Alina gazed at the endless sand dunes for a bit before she shock her head and voiced her feelings
“No, not really… I feel like I am going in circles… Or rather, I am being led around in circles only being fed enough information to keep interested”
Matthew nodded and let out a sigh
“Then let’s pull out for now”
Alina nodded, yet she still stared at the sand dunes and remained seated as she gazed forwards absentmindedly, Matthew rose to his feet and waited for a bit before he let out a sigh and asked
“Shall we?”
Alina nodded once more, however even after a few moments she didn’t move, at this point Matthew realized it
‘Aea run a diagnostic on Alina’s mental state, something is wrong’
[Confirmed, running analysis…]
Matthew kneeled down next to Alina and looked at the side of her face, the mechanical sensors that were fashioned like eyes appeared to be completely still, however when he looked closer he noticed that they were moving rapidly from side to side
[Preliminary analysis complete, Mistress Alina appeared to be under a heavy trance, readings also show an increasing metal dependence on the outside interference, take Immediate action to limit the metal interference]
‘Got it… send a SOS to Doc as well, have her send all available forces here as soon as possible, and send me a package at once’
[Confirmed, the mental interference appears to be streaming in from the ocular sensors]
‘Alright, well here goes nothing…’
“Alina, I am going to cover your eyes”
[Resistance will be expected, prioritize diversion]
Matthew reached up and did as he said he would, however a few moments after he covered her eyes Alina began to squirm and tried to remove his hand, in response Matthew reached around her with his other hand and lifted her up before he turned away from the endless dunes as he spoke
“Alina, come back to me”
At Matthew’s words Alina slowly stopped struggling, then after a bit she spoke, she sounded more than a little dazed
“Matthew?”
“Yep, the one and only”
With Alina freed from the mental interference, Matthew kicked off the ground and legged it as fast as he could towards their transport, that’s when Aea sounded out an alert
[Alert to all personnel: Code blue, local net have been disconnected]
“Shit…”
Matthew closed his eyes that were quickly sealed shut by nanites, a few moments later his vision were restored partially a patchwork of local sensor feeds, as he ran Alina spoke again still sounding dazed
“...What… Happened? I… What was I..?”
[Analysis indicate the metal interference Mistress Alina were subjected to have forcefully reduced her compatibility with her robotic body, adjustments to reverse this are still ongoing]
Matthew clicked his tongue and spoke out loud, at this point he could see what this was clear as day, the blue comet that now hang overhead might as well have sent a formal declaration of war
“Aea override Code blue, this is a direct attack from Wicka”
[Confirmed, Code blue have been overwritten, dialing Uliat bunker complex for remote target acquisition and interception… 16 targets painted, low orbit defensive grid online, starting intercept]
Matthew leaped into the Haliea that had taken them to the edge of the endless desert that already had its engines burning, as soon as he cleared the ramp the heavy transport roared to life as it lifted off the ground and rapidly accelerated East, Matthew quickly secured Alina on a seat before he spoke
“Keep us low and fast, open a direct link to Doc and Ripper”
Alina reached up and grabbed Matthew’s wrist from her seat, she held onto him for a moment before she spoke, she was still clearly dazed, however she sounded better than before
“Matthew… The space is… Weird… I can’t… See Uliat…”
[Mistress Alina’s assessment is cooperated by onboard sensors, the connection to Uliat have been entirely distorted, the local area has been almost completely isolated]
Matthew kept silent, he quickly went over the available options, he raised his head to look above, more meteors were still falling, though about two thirds appeared to be successfully intercepted by the heavy anti-air artillery emplacements all around Uliat, then he quickly looked over the nearby terrain and found what he was looking for
“Aea, set course towards that rock formation, we’re going to hunker down”
[Evacuations is strongly recommended]
“Denied, this is a targeted attack, we don’t know if Wicka have laid any ambushes or traps in our path, we stand the highest chance if we hunker down”
[Confirmed, be ready for touch and go in 45 seconds]
Matthew rose to his feet as the Haliea quickly lost almost all of its remaining altitude as it turned in towards the natural rock formation that consisted of several hundred large boulders that stood some meters apart
“It looks like we have to do the pure magic learning the hard and fast way”
Matthew called out to her as he quickly put on a set of relatively lightly armored Mk. 8 powered armor, a few moments passed before her figure disappeared and reappeared in front of Matthew that caught her in his arms before she responded
“You are right… I’ll go first then”
[Confirmed, starting application of data glyph for project ‘Pure Magic’ for Mistress Alina…]
Alina and Matthew looked into each other's eyes for a moment until Matthew sensed she had gone under
[Loss of consciousness confirmed, expected application time: 8 minutes and 30 seconds]
While both Alina and Matthew would have preferred taking a half a year to continue absorbing the complete laws and current understanding of Mystic power and abilities, Code named ‘Pure Magic’ which had taken over ¾ of their hyper-computing cores ever since Matthew had reunited with Doc and Ripper they were simply out of time.
Thus, they had taken the gamble, they both vividly remembered the last time Wicka had attacked them and the physical and mental trauma they both had been forced to endure because of it.