Today is the 22nd day since they landed on this planet.
In the areas surrounding the Cerbedi City Fortress, there's a hunt in process. Military and defense forces are in a joint operation thinning monsters in the wastelands and the forests next to them. The forests have a part that looks like the Sequoias in North America, becoming dense and more humid in the west.
Inside a rocky valley in the wastelands, strong winds and explosions screeching sounds can be heard.
Military airbikes pass running.
[Damn! Those bugs are really strong! , jeez, is the 10th time I almost went back to the reconstruction healing pod.]
[What are you complaining about taking 4 days off?]
[You are kidding me? 3 days inside and one traveling inside and out, THAT'S NOT A VACATION AT ALL!]
The company "working" here is against a type of arthropod insect with a tall body and long 8 legs; they use camouflage, and because of this, the soldiers and hunters need to take care not to damage too much when they are killing.
Then a unit came flying, standing on a platform that looks like a manta ray; leading the unit is a feminine figure wearing a black obsidian full armor with red robes on the side and a red cape.
6 members took flight from the platform they were standing on; 2 pairs of wings appeared in their shoulder blades, and lower, in the back, they flew fast with midsize traditional Chinese spears on hand, maneuvering in 3D as if they were pulling to one site to another, cutting cleanly joints or the sections between head and thorax; the looks of this dangerous dance were hypnotic.
Soon the troops were receiving orders to regroup and started to clean the battlefield, but things did not always come easy: the cave entrance at the end of the rocky valley was suddenly destroyed by bigger arthropods, the ones fighting ahead, who stopped their dance and flew back.
The obsidian feminine armor knight always stood there looking at the battle; she lifted her arms, and deep blue lines got brighter on the armor.
A small blue sphere formed in front of her arms; the sphere was spinning in rotation, getting bigger, reaching over 2 meters. A warning was sent in intercommunication frequencies. At the same time, three 4-story-high spiders looking like tarantulas made their way through the exit of the cavern, speeding to attack the female knight; nobody thought they could be so fast.
The air close to the female knight was becoming a dense mist, the soil down was becoming a freezing surface with ice, and snowing began to fall; in the intercommunication, the warnings now required full shields.
As the spider's run to hit the female knight, she released the sphere; it didn't hit the spiders, but when the deep blue sphere passed, they became statues, now in white dust over their bodies; the sphere went inside the cavern.
A silence was the aftermath of this battle, no big explosions, fireworks, or else.
The soldiers got awakened again because of the radio intercommunications. Their armors help themselves against hot or cold climates, but there are limits. A new warning came: don't get close; the cold is beyond what the armor can take.
A small transport aircraft got close:
[Selenia! That was cool!, well in literal and the usual...]
The now totally Black obsidian armor the female used opened the helmet part, revealing a beautiful white Asian face with long black hair with strands of deep blue hair.
[Thanks, we came here to supervise and maybe test some of our abilities.]
The "small" boy looked at her.
[Excellent! Wanna come with us for a bit?]
Selenia: [I need to head back today, maybe in a few hours?]
[Sounds great, come.]
She jumps inside the ship that all the time was levitating next to the platform vehicle Selenia was standing on; the team also comes and jumps inside, and the platforms got inside their respective pocket spaces.
The aircraft took flight to the west; here and there they could see small battles. The transition to the forests, like sequoias, came soon; high, around a thousand meters, there were medium clipper airships with painted marks as "Press." Out of curiosity, Matthew turned on one of the screens inside their transport, then the other 3.
The news channel was streaming the operations here and in other locations, local newscasts, and newspapers that belong to a chain present in other cities of Summer Field. The virtual media was with live transmission, and on the sides, the chats were linked to a short messaging app.
In B'udea, the capital city and political center, the news corporations that were born here preferred to have their headquarters in Alvair or even in A'nsair cities, one the upcoming financial center and the other as the multimodal transportation hub, but those medium-size airships had a studio inside that allowed them to have better coverage options.
Now a special update was released; a journalist was on camera wearing a heavy winter coat talking about the recent battle. The cameras changed to focus on the huge spiders, soldiers wearing now-special winter armors were moving around, and an airship with several crane arms under it started to operate to get the spider's body.
The reporter and the studio talk as the PR from the military shows, besides the reporter, explaining the actions and the goals, the questions included: who did the killing and the impromptu Tibetan winter zone there:
The PR smiles and says, [Is from Summer Field Guardians Knight Order, Lt Col Selenia, member of Lord Alexander Honor Guard.]
Reporter: [Lord Alexander Honor Guard? They're not in B'udea capital city?]
PR: [Doing what? The High Council and Lord Alexander have more than enough strength to defend themselves and Summer Field.
is not logical to have the best close to you when is needed in other places; Lord Alexander or the High Council doesn't prioritize their safety over the citizens!]
Reporter: [Wow, I am speechless. I am new to this. I came from Terra and was kept in stasis. To have leaders that think this way is overwhelming. Studio, please take...]
In the studio the hosts were flabbergasted; the ads came on screen.
The screens got muted on the channels, and the intercommunications military radios were heard:
[Here Alpha Zulu 23, we got a strange situation here: 10 minutes ago we detected ultrasounds from the northwest direction; the monsters activity seems abnormally high. Can you check if there's something Tango Charlie Charlie 07?]
Tango Charlie Charlie 07, here Air 45, there's human movement 27 clicks northwest from Alpha Zulu 23, inside the mountain forests; also another group of humans is 25 clicks east from the running ones; there's abnormalities in the monsters movements; something is inciting them ]
[Here Tango Charlie Charlie 07, thanks Air 45, the new data you are sending is being processed. Alpha Zulu 23, can you get those groups for us?]
[Here Alpha Zulu 23: Yes, we are forming the hunting groups now.]
[Here is Sierra Charlie 68: to Air 45 and 74, Tango Charlie Charlie 07, Cerbedi Delta Fox Charlie Charlie; The areas to the Northwest of City Fortress Cerbedi now is declared as red zones; all military and defense personnel are required to present to their stations, and all civilians are banned from staying outside with exceptions ruled by the military laws. I repeat: the outsides of Cerbedi City Fortress is under martial law; in 15 minutes the areas will become hot zones.]
Now the TV screens are showing red and yellow stripes at the bottom: "Space Command declares an emergency in the northwest areas from Cerbedi City Fortress; the Strategic Command has approved Space Command's decision; it is expected the High Council approves the measures soon; military resources are being send to Cerbedi City Fortress.".
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The studios are closing their local transmissions, leaving only drones. Some medium ships get higher altitudes; they simply will not be losing ratings because of risks.
The others get even higher; they are too far to make it in time to the airports, all of them have emergency teleportation artifacts, but insurance companies stipulate the payment only if there mortal risk, as the device keeps monitoring and record vital signs they will know if a fake emergency rescue signal is triggered.
🔱
In high speed, several airbikes are traveling inside the forests. They are Alpha Zulu 07. The group got split in search of the human. The live stream data from Air 45 is feeding the locations. now that the military in Space Command issued the orders and Summer Field Strategic Command passed from temporary to permanent, the mobilization of thousands of tools is underway. A red zone is not just highly populated by monsters, but a hot zone means fighting areas. The maps from the surrounding regions follow the monsters movements and are crazy.
When they encountered the bigger group, they were fighting gray wolves, each one close to 2 meters high and one is 3 meters high. The group is falling apart; Tom sends the engage order against the wolves; several got shot, maybe because of the surprise attack.
Tom team encloses the humans and lined a perimeter; Tom jumps down from the Airbyke, taking a mid-long traditional Chinese spear in his right arm and a square Roman-style shield on the left arm. Dek, Martha, Brady, Kira, and Mirka do the same action, standing in a circle confronting the wolves; the pack is big, close to 90, and they got by surprise around 15.
As they were approaching, the scanners took the signs, and Tom, in inferiority in numbers, Air 45 and Temporary Command Center 07 took the data, and even if they were the most forward team, 25 kilometers deep from their lines, they quickly organized reinforcements; they needed to hold for 3 minutes.
Alphonse POV
The surprise attacks from the knights that arrived in weird vehicles got some ash wolves down; their group got caught with a huge pack. They were from the nearest pioneer village.
The adventurer team Moon Rabbit comes once every half year escorting new migrants and after leaving in each post towns or villages they comes a little forward to check the surrounding areas and maybe get some materials that are well paid in the Imperial Capital.
Alphonse, or "Alp," is a former noble from an archduke house in the Empire. He left and became an adventurer. Years later, he met in only women adventurers party a woman that took his heart: Anissa, not only her beauty but her courageous heart, they worked together with other parties and the knights orders to do an extermination of monsters that had become an stampede closing to the Imperial Capital.
The aftermath was almost a defeat to the Imperials and adventurers; his convalescing was within the same villa, now temporary clinic, with Anissa and her party members.
Then he found she was from the Haegenst Margrave House, training to go to the pioneers in the east. The Margrave was very rich, but the scoundrels from the court often pulling strings left them shoulder bills, including the imperial order to "conquest" (exile) to the east.
Their teams came together to be Moon Rabbit after he and Anissa got married.
Every 6 months or so, transports airboats bring migrants to the frontier, former slaves, farmers or from the slums are the preferential targets, off course: don't forget political losers, now, the Margrave territory has increased 10 times and even they to produce grains and husbandryto barely self sustaining the ever increasing population in lands that never has been dedicated to production, the court nobles are trying to keep them close to bankruptcy.
This time they are very worried: the mana levels are increasing fast, but as they decided to go back and recommend evacuating the towns to the fortress citadel, their seer detected another team working in the shadows, and they activated a forbidden artifact: one that provokes the monsters. As they were fighting to withdraw from this mountain, the ash wolves hit them.
As they were losing and dying here, a group of knights came, killing some and forming a perimeter around them. Then most of the members jumped to the soil, one group took out shields and spears, and the other got close to the humans, the few from Moon Rabbit still standing. They didn't have strength and just saw as the "knights" in weird vehicles started treatment to the fallen and injured. That's pretty much all of them.
The battle in the perimeter started. Alp, Jens, Sieg, and Hans from Moon Rabbit barely could stand. They showed a small cilinder with a green potion inside, than extend one of their arms point with other hand to them, Moon Rabbit extended their arms and the cilinder was pressed against, a small pneumatic sound was heard and following the regeneration and better feeling they understood it was a high health potion.
The team of knights fighting the perimeter, even if they were at a disadvantage in numbers, the quality was beyond even comparing with elite imperial knights, the flowing movement between shield defense and the spear, and synchrony to kill, a mass of ash wolves tried to make an irruption between the knights, but a barrier was in place.
The battle feels like being long hours of fighting, blood, organs, and parts flying here and there; there is even a few mounds of the accumulation of bodies, and then a change in the rhythm was felt. Moon Rabbit was a veteran team; something was preying on the outer circle of the wolves, and then 6 figures wearing armor and wings on their backs came cutting the attackers and landed next to the knights.
They also hold spears; the wings and spears disappear with the spears, now holding bug and wide two-handed swords.
The onslaught continued for a few minutes. Alp talked to one of them; Florence was awake, and the rest were starting to stand.
[You need to kill the leader!]
The knight looked at him and moved his head to the sides:
[No, we don't want to delay too much here; several thousand monsters are in the way. We need to leave; the leader will soon call out to retire ]
A stampede? Thousands? What about Anissa and the twins?, the people in town?, the thousands of innocents in the other towns in the region?
Alp became nervous, as he kept looking at the battle and the knights; he now came to think better of everything that's been happening: those aren't knights from the Empire; there's no way that even the Triumvirate has this kind of powerful warriors on hand; here and there they are using magic in combat mode; this is unheard of!
Well, to be honest, in the past many references told them Summer Field has a powerful knight order, and they used magic in the middle of combat. Close combat magicians were lost in time. Wait...
Alp was suddenly pale; he then looked in Florence's direction; her face was paler; she was a rare spirit user; she was a descendant from elves and humans. As the Empire is human supremacy, she can't use it in public; Alp and the others got closer.
Florence whispering: [Alp, who are they?, maybe we died and now see mithicals knights fighting?, The armors are nothing like we have seen E-V-E-R and several of them don't have souls!]
[Listen, young boy: these people are from legends and myths; those armors and weapons are just ever seen, maybe from Summer Field itself.]
Rudriger was a quarter elder dwarf.
As soon as the warrior told Alp, a loud howl prompted the pack to run away, leaving the place.
Flying airship machines got down, and more armored people came, starting to clean the place. A small boy, maybe 10 years old, came walking as if he was in the middle of a garden; his robes were luxurious, and two female armored knights were walking behind him, one Black and the other White, gold and red, both with capes. They opened their helmets; Florence, Rudriger, Alp and the others gasped, no just because of their beauty.
One of the knights that looked their healing, with a light blue cape and a strange snake symbol on her shoulder, proceeded with a weird military salute and then knelt with one leg.
This sudden action moved the Alp group to kneel the same way, keeping their eyesight low.
[Lord Matthew, some of them need urgent medical treatments.]
The boy lifts his head and sees the Alp group.
[Hello, my name is Matthew Sean Huang Winthrop, member of the Summer Field High Council.]
Then with his palms open, he signs and says:
[They are Mses. Serena and Selenia, Commanders from the Summer Field Guardians Knight Order.
We are on a special mission here, and you are?]
The group kicked or elbowed Alp:
[I am Alphonse, no surname. We are the Moon Rabbit Adventurer Party from the Ansurpolean Empire. We came here to respond to the petition from the Haegenst Margrave House to assess the state of the wild lands forests and the probable dangers.
Please!, Lord and Mses, help us. There's a town where my wife and kids live; also, thousands of people are in that direction. if the stampede comes, all of them will die.
Please, since I was a kid I heard stories from Summer Field Commonwealth, and I know you can, at least warning them...]
Alp was now crying and desesperarte, he stops because Selenia raised her hand. Alp didn't understand what was going on, his beloved Anissa and the twins...
He felt Rudriger's hand on his shoulder and Florence looking at the skies in the east, her eyes were crying too, then she looked at him and moved her head to the sides, as resigned. Her magic is special; she can combine to look farther; she is a seer and now looks defeated.
Alp looks at the Lord and the Commanders; the others ended cleaning and came here.
The group they first met came, and others in those strange flying metal horses came too; they brought prisoners. They all came and kneeled on one leg.
The red-haired Commander looked at the Lord, and he responded with a small smile, nodding.
[Thomas: Your team is now complete?]
One tall knight stood up and saluted, responding with vigor and determination.
[Yes, ma'am, we captured the guys; they used some sort of artifact to provoke the monsters to come in a stampede.]
Alp and his group opened their eyes wide and then looked at the captives, but still they kept quiet; more knights kept coming here, and they all looked strong.
[They had a small airboat hidden, maybe trying to escape, but they really made a number with this. I don't know if is bad luck or what, but this is a major calamity,]
[Lord Matthew: Lord Alexander has ordered to stop this stampede; there's more people involved, including other airboats in the northwest, some 50 kilometers from here and seems there is large groups refugees coming from West and northwest, also big disturbances in the east seas.]
Matt looks in Alp and his group direction:
[I heard my Lord uncle Serena, and thanks to you and Selenia, with her team, you are here. Well, please contact Cerbedi.]
Then address to Moon Rabbit: [Summer Field high Council approved your help request and even we were aware of the enourmous task it seems something weird is happening, as our records has never account so big movements, don't worry, Summer Field will help protect the people's life's.]
The Moon Rabbit party nodded alleviated.
In the middle of their circle, a young tall man did salute with his hand over his forehead as if trying to look far away.
Matt: [Brigadier General Finkle, everything is ready?]
Norman: [Yes sir, we are deploying fast; reinforcements come from Summer Field, but now we have a big problem with a major mass of insects that seems like moths. They are black and red, their numbers are in the millions, looks like several nests joined. We think maybe Mses. Serena and Selenia can help us.]
The man looks a the Commanders, they nodded.
[What we can do?]
[The data has ready send.]
The black armored Commander Selenia nodded.
[I think is possible, so I release my magic 300 altitude and Serena release her "Starfire" in the 700 meters altitude?]
Wait, she said "Starfire"?, Like the "Starfire" strategic spell?, Alp lookss at Florence, and Scott, the party magicians; they look dumbfounded.
In the meantime Selenia and Serena took flight off and gaining altitude, they can perfectly the black armored lady commander, but the other became a small dot high in the skies.
A field with barriers was constructed surrounding everyone.
The first was the black armored Commander: she released a powerful ice magic, all the forests and the soil was freeze, but as the cold was starting to be felt inside their barrier, a big blue flame like slow motion waves started to engulf everything, above the forests the insects comes in full speed but to be confronted by that blue flame waves.
Snow looks like started to fall, but this is a white and less gray ashes, the temperatures started to be feeling warmer.
A beautiful and terrible view, this what Moon Rabbit thought.
🔱
The Airboats convoy is coming thru the Parnalat mountains, similar to the Urals on Earth, this chain is long and dangerous.
They come from the Astur Commonwealth, a federation of states and cities-states to counter the Ansurpolean Empire in Motherland.
They had to evacuate many border cities and towns on the east border, monsters activity became a series of calamities, on the north thousands of weird insects with blackish and purple exoskeleton attacked plains with grains, in the runaway, more than 45 big airboats comes overloaded with refugees, more people was leave in the back, they tryed to bring the most weaks, the others is going to the mountains.
Magister Almus, an old man, one of the members of the Assembly, was helping the other magicians with wind spells, the overloaded airboats were flying dangerously low and slow.
[Magister Almus!, take this bowl with soup.]
More than a bowl is like cup.
Almus took and drank the warm water with some flavor.
[Thank you, You are sure we can go to Haegenst territory?]
[Yes, in the border town lives the younger sister of the Margrave and she's not interested in wars or conflicts, if we explain, I don't think she will denied us help, but most likely we need to hide, I don't want compromise her with the Empire spies.]
[I agree...]
Almus drop the empty wooden bowl and looks into the distance, Arnin do the same, then something was on the air, like a big mana pulse, then high on the skies a blue fire was seem, coming in waves, above them flying monsters hurry to not get caught.
[Captain something big just happened there, mass of insects disappeared suddenly after the that big explosions!]
The seer on top of the sentry cradle scream loud.
Arnin turn to look Magister Almus, but the Magister was lost in his mumblings.
["Starfire" spell?, but blue? with that power and reach...]
Arnin keep looking to the far away, deep wishing they could survive.