When the exploration team reached the fifth island, they were much more careful. Slowly they circled the whole area a few times, before they decided to land. Visually the island wasn’t different from the one before, with roughly the same size.
They got off their ships and Keran and Ang’Tue held their weapons at the ready. Patience moved somewhat to the side and Timothy stayed by the ships. Slowly they moved forward, always looking for potential traps and alike. Robin fired his Echo-Pulse every few seconds in hope of discovering any hidden robot, machine or facility.
His head quickly began to throb. The Echo-Pulse was exactly that, a pulse sent out in every direction for about 15m. Unfortunately, he had no means to control or restrict its direction, so the image that flickered in his mind was mostly a bright blue glowing mass; a result from the sky above where the storm was raging. Robin had to stay focused to his limits, to be able to see anything other than the electromagnetic interference.
However, after only 10 minutes Ang’Tue called them over. He had found the Guide-Star - no traps, no killer robots, nothing. Robin scanned the area around the stone multiple times, before he gave his okay and the team began to read the new directions.
The next island, the sixth already, was even bigger than the last two. After landing, the aspiring adventures found themselves on a 200 by 250 meters wide plain. This time there was even a little hill in the middle, not more than a bump, but at least a welcomed change in scenery.
Once more they skimmed carefully through the island, looking for traps or other surprises. When they closed in on the hill, Robin called the others to a halt.
“Give me a moment to check the middle more thoroughly.” He said and sat on the ground. He didn’t use the Echo-Pulse for this section but his main skill. Slow and diligently to not miss anything, he activated his energy senses time after time, probing deep into the hill and the grassy ground around it.
Keran and Ang’Tue stood with their weapons at the ready to his side and observed the surroundings with watchful eyes. After many scans, Robin finally reached the region on the other side of the little hill. There he actually got feedback from his senses. Relief and anxiety flooded his body at the same time.
Relief, because he now had at least confirmed that he could protect them from any hidden trap - anxiety because there was a freakin’ robot buried in the earth.
“I have good news!” He said and everyone relaxed a bit, “I found a combat unit!”
“How the fuck is that good news?” Patience immediately complained.
“Well, we now can be sure that I can find the robots and it’s only a single one again. Seems to be the same model, but no promises.”
“We can work with that.” Keran said and walked closer to Ang’Tue, “Last time the robot did need a moment to assess the situation. We can use that as a window of opportunity for an all-out attack from two sides.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Patience agreed and looked at Robin and the Eltaran, “Rob, you go back to Timothy. You already did your part, now it’s our turn! You, old man, can you do this invisibility-thing and hide to attack it from behind?”
“This invisibility-thing is a shadow-based skill. Do you see any shadows around here, young miss?” Ang’Tue replied with a warm smile, as if he was talking to his niece.
“Bah, whatever. Rob, step back and you two - get in position!” Patience ordered and walked towards the hill, “I’ll step forward to trigger its activation, move around the mound on one side each.”
The others complied and Robin watched as the three moved in on the spot where the robot was hidden.
When Patience was only four meters away, the ground suddenly opened and the combat unit jumped out. It looked to Patience and slowly raised its weapon, as if still deciding on the best course of action. However, an instant later an energy projectile hit its thigh and it stumbled backwards. A shot coming from the other side missed it completely.
It turned towards Keran, who had fired first, and realigned its gun. The researcher didn’t give it any more time and shot again, hitting it where its legs were connected to the body. Unfortunately that hit wasn’t as fatal as it would have been for a human and the robot didn’t even stumble. Keran quickly jumped a few steps back while he waited for his rifle to cool down.
That was unnecessary though, as Ang’Tue’s second projectile hit the robot square in the back moments later, making it fall over face forwards. Both men quickly closed in while Patience pulled back. From only a few meters away, they both shot the robot once more - not missing this time - and silence fell over the island.
Patience rushed forward, yelling something about “Hold your fire!” and quickly jumped on the smoking unit. With her raw strength she took its arms in a tight grip and turned it around. Robin also moved in and checked the robot with his senses.
“It is dead… offline… uhm, broken? Whatever, no more energy is running through its main part in the torso.” He confirmed its ‘death’.
“Wow, you guys really suck with guns…” Timothy said after he walked over to inspect the combat bot.
“Yeah, that’s why they aren’t part of the security squad.” Patience agreed and the two men both awkwardly looked to the ocean as if searching for more enemies.
Despite their poor performance, the situation was resolved without anyone getting harmed and they could even loot the rifle the bot had used. It was a much older and heavily modified version of Ang’Tue’s weapon and they couldn’t change the charge, but after a quick scan, Robin estimated there were 3 to 5 shots left.
After Timothy and Keran both confirmed that the rest of the robot wasn’t worth anything, Robin continued his scanning of the ground before they found the next Guide-Stone.
“We are taking a rest for now and will resume the journey in an hour. Make yourself comfortable, but don’t run around over there.” He said and motioned in the direction of the still unexplored part of the island. Who knew if there were more robots buried?
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“How many more islands do we have to follow, Ang’Tue?” Keran asked while they sat in a loose circle around the stone.
“It is said to be 5 to 10, depending on the constellation of the islands. So it should be one of the next four.”
“One more?” Robin looked at Keran, “Then we take a break for the night - either here or we try to get back to Dreamer’s Hope.”
It was Timothy who shook his head and denied that idea.
“No, traveling by night is too dangerous in the Mystic Sea. Getting back when we can use Mereus as orientation is already hard enough, but when it’s dark outside? Bad idea…”
“Yeah, you’re right.” He agreed with his friend, “Great, prepare for a night under the beauty of the stars, folks!”
Everyone looked up into the sky, where the never-ending storm was raging in the dark clouds.
“You really suck at this…” Patience flatly said and earned some chuckles from the others.
They reached the seventh island an hour before sunset. It was once more bigger than the islands before, giving the group hope that they were on the right track.
With now trained ease, they began to search the huge island. There were a few small hills like the one from before, and Robin switched continuously between Echo-Pulse and scanning to make sure he didn’t miss anything.
When they passed the first third - maybe 100 meters - it was already getting darker. Timothy chilled in the Melody II, while the others carefully walked in a wide-spread row.
“This island is so big, there has to be something here, right?” Robin muttered and concentrated even more on his energy senses, ignoring his throbbing head. Suddenly, he noticed something moving in the corner of his eye and spun around.
“INCOMING!” He yelled and jumped to the side, just in time to dodge an energy projectile that was clumsily fired at him.
“Burn in plasma… how...?” Robin cursed when he saw the three combat bots that had climbed silently out of holes in the ground a few meters behind him. They seemed to be in better shape than the last ones, even so rust was still eating away many parts.
When he noticed a slight ripple around them, he realized his mistake and understood why he hadn’t sensed them before.
“Careful, they are shielded!” He managed to shout, then all hell broke loose.
***
Silent as the night that had fallen over this damned settlement, Alena followed the others along the dark and dusty corridor.
Directly in front of her was the team leader carefully taking one step after another, but his clumsy movement disclosed that he definitely wasn’t trained in such stealth missions. Well, he wasn’t trained for most of the stuff they were doing, but he still did an adequate job under the given conditions. He came from Seka Security, nothing more than a glorified police. He never was confronted with situations like these before and she could see his inexperience seep into many of his decisions - right now she could even smell him sweating due to his nervousness.
However, that they were here at all was also because of him being more of a police officer than someone in charge of security and that definitely was a good thing.
Leading this small squad through the corridor was her brother and even without her enhanced senses she would be able to hear him from a mile away. But hey, he did his best and it wasn’t like the shield he was carrying weighed a ton or anything.
Sevastian’s role was to tank any incoming enemy fire and Landom made it very clear in the short briefing before that he expects heavy resistance.
The dark tunnel they followed should lead them to the hidden laboratory of a stitch who apparently sold his services to anyone who was willing to pay enough. In contrast to his qualities as a security guy, Walzor was a damn good inspector. Shortly after the others left for the Mystic sea, Happy was contacted by one of her childhood friends from within the Alaris family. Allegedly the family had sent someone to Seavis to get Niu back home without anyone noticing. The mission was aborted quickly after the kidnapping attempt had gone wrong, but Walzor used some of that information and everything he heard from Robin to craft some theories. After another round of interrogations and pressuring of the innkeeper that sold them out, he found a solid lead to this stitch.
They needed most of the afternoon and early evening to find the exact location to the laboratory, but ultimately Walzor really pulled it off. Now she only hoped that his theory was solid and her brother won’t mess this up.
When she spotted a door a few meters ahead in the dark, she pushed the distracting thoughts aside and gave the others a sign to prepare. Sevastian stopped and everyone tried to quiet down as much as possible, while she began to listen for anything that could help to assess the situation on the other side of that door.
Steps…
Hushed voices…
Steps…
After a minute or so, Alena put her helmet back on. She would lose most of the advantages her enhanced vision, hearing or smell are providing, but her head now was protected and she could safely talk to the other over the comm.
“At least two people are inside.” She explained, “They are walking around and keeping their voices down…”
“They know we are coming.” The team leader concluded.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Sevastian, are you up to this? We can still turn back and hope they don’t get away before reinforcements arrive.” Walzor asked her brother.
“How good are the chances that we will be able to catch them tomorrow?”
“Not as good as today, but our safety comes first. They know we are on the move and have at least had some time to prepare accordingly.”
Sevastian adjusted the heavy shield a bit.
“Enough talking, let’s begin already!”
“Alright, step back a bit.” Walzor said and crept to the door. He took a small device out of his pockets and stuck it on the thick metal. After a moment of hesitation, he took out a second one and also put it on the door.
Sevastian hefted the shield, rooting it in the rocky floor as well as possible, while Alena and Landom moved behind him and readied their energy rifles.
“3… 2… 1…”
A loud explosion shook the corridor and dirt trickled from the walls. For a second Alena feared that the whole tunnel would collapse, but luckily that didn’t happen. However, thick dust set visibility to zero. She switched her helmet’s optics to thermal vision but whoever was behind the door, they had just blasted open, was one step ahead.
Dozens of energy projectiles were fired in their direction and those were aimed pretty well. Alena saw Sevastian straining his mutated body to the limit to keep hold of the shield that caught all the shots. After the first volley was over, she leaned out of the cover and returned the fire. Walzor did the same and also shot into the room, while her brother slowly pressed forward, shield still raised.
With thermal vision activated, she could see three people in the room that hunkered down behind some turned-over tables. This could become a dangerous stalemate and she really hoped that the enemy, just like them, had no grenades to throw at hand.
“Careful, above us!” Landom shouted and actually stepped completely out of the cover. He fired wildly at a turret that just came out of the ceiling and aimed at Sevastian. He was too close already, the shield not able to provide any cover from that angle. The turret switched targets to the team leader, but Alena couldn’t observe any longer, she had to keep the thugs in check that used the distraction to stand up and were about to shot again.
She aimed for the first head that popped up and, without any hesitation, pulled the trigger of her gun.