[Sergeant Malcolm's POV]

I did not like this. Not one bit.

We shouldn't have run into any of the locals yet. It was pure luck that we somehow appeared close to one of the local settlements.

How they seemed to already discovered us, I had no idea.

The only way I could think of is if they had something that detected us or someone spotted the Drones, which shouldn't have been possible due to their size and the distance from the settlement.

Based on the briefing, most of the locals we encounter luckily won't have any sort of firearms, and if they do, they'd have very few bullets.

The group heading our way seemed to only be armed with makeshift weapons and two crossbows, almost harmless. Almost.

I was just glad I had Jackson and Mike with me here, knew them both. Served in the military together.

The others, on the other hand, I did not trust. However, the scientists in the Foundation seemed to think they'd be trustworthy enough for the mission.

As the strangers got closer and closer, everyone seemed to become more and more on edge, until finally, they came into view.

A group of eight individuals soon came jogging from around an IKEA bedroom corner, stopping in their tracks when they were in front of us.

Immediately we had our guns on them, tracking their movement as they seemed to not have broken a sweat even after jogging from the settlement to here.

"Halt!" I shouted, "Identify yourselves!"

The one leading the group stepped forward but paused when several of our guns swerved directly toward him.

The man gave an awkward smile and laughed, "We came from a nearby settlement, who are you?" the man asked.

"None of your business," I sternly replied, not wanting to give away any important information.

The man's eyes wandered past me and over the camp, clearly examining everything.

"My eyes are right here, stop looking around," I told the man, his eyes focusing back on me.

"How did you find us?" I questioned, noticing a few of the men in the group twitch yet receiving only silence.

'So they are hiding something. They knew we were here, but how?' I thought to myself.

"Phil, Brock, grab their weapons, none of you move," I warned the strangers while my men moved forward and stripped the strangers of their weapons.

The strangers, now disarmed, stood before us with their hands up.

"We have any rope?" I asked one of the D-Class who came along with us.

"No." The D-Class answered instantly.

"Fuck," I cursed before focusing on the strangers, "Alright, on your knees and hands on your heads."

Once they did as instructed, I called out for Mike and Jackson.

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...

[POV Change]

Seeing the rapid change in the situation, I questioned whether or not I should interfere, but eventually settled on continuing with my observations.

I could not save them from everything. If they wanted to survive, they must get through this themselves.

So, I listened. Covering the entire area with my mana so that I could observe every detail.

That's when the leader of the expedition began interrogating my humans.

"How many of you are in your settlement? What kind of weapons do you have? How did you discover us? How many settlements are in the area?" The leader asked.

For some reason my Integrated decided to stay silent, silently looking at each other.

Suddenly the leader hit someone with the but of his gun, "Eyes on me."

"Now let's try this again," The leader started, asking a series of questions again.

Still getting only silence, the leader scoffed in annoyance.

"Mike? Sam? I want you to keep an eye on them. Phil? I want a drone over that settlement. The rest of you? Fan out. Make sure there ain't more of them out there," The leader ordered, going over to watch the human named 'Phil' as he began flying a drone towards the settlement.

It took them a bit to get the drone over to the settlement, but when they did, I noticed the two's gaze widen upon seeing the portal and Clair negotiating with the settlement's population.

Jumping up and walking over to my humans, the leader held a small sidearm in hand and pointed it towards the temple of the female [Aspiring Hunter].

"What in God's name is that thing floating in the middle of your settlement?" The leader questioned threateningly.

Getting only silence in return, the man cursed and with a flick of his hand, sent a bullet into the leg of the female human, making her cry out and roll onto the ground in pain.

"Tell me, God damn it!" The leader cursed.

"Fuck, fine!" One of the [Aspiring Warriors] cracked before answering, "It's a portal!"

"A portal? To where?" The leader questioned.

"Earth, or so we think. I doubt it's our earth. I certainly don't remember monsters and a giant floating obelisk in the sky back home," The man muttered towards the end.

"Get HQ on the line, now," The leader called out eyeing all of my humans, including the still bleeding [Aspiring Hunter] on the floor.

Humming, I reached out with threads of mana and while unseen, cleaned the wound and began to very slowly stitch it back together.

The [Aspiring Hunter] noticed it but did not say anything, likely either due to shock or fear of being shot, again.

Little did I know, as I focused on cleaning and slowly repairing the wounds of one of my humans, my mindless humming began to seep out into the surroundings through my mana.

...

[Jake, POV Change]

As the man who led whoever these people were paced back in forth, I heard a slight groan and focused on Samantha, "Samantha, are you okay? Shit. You are bleeding bad," I cursed, seeing the blood seeping out of her leg.

Fuck! I was too foolish. I should have been more careful! Because of me, I have endangered our home! Our people! What if someone died?! What if Samantha dies? What if she died, because of me?!

I was tempted right then and there to activate my skills and charge the man, but I bit my tongue.

I knew I wouldn't be able to stop him. They had guns. Not to mention the two men that were watching our every move.

When I tried moving to help Samantha, one of the men shouted for me to stop.

Not to mention the sinking feeling that we were being watched, and not by the men around us, but by something else.

That's when we heard it.

A quiet hum, one that was barely noticeable at first, but quickly became more noticeable with each passing moment.

The hum sounded like it was coming from everywhere around us, yet focused on Samantha, its voice ethereal and beautiful, but eldritch and indescribable in nature.

Only when the intruders began noticing the hum did it finally cease. That's when I noticed Samantha didn't seem to be bleeding anymore.

"Samantha?" I whispered.

She shook her head, seemingly afraid or in shock, as she was sickly pale.

That's when the radio crackled to life.

"This is callsign: Bravo-Theta-Zulu, come in, do you read me?" One of the intruders called over the radio,

"We read you loud and clear, what's your status, over?" A voice spoke over the radio, much to our surprise.

They had a working radio! And they were talking to someone!

"We have an update on the situation and require advisement, over."

...

[POV Change]

After I cleaned and fixed a bibt of the girl's wound, I pulled back, and watched the situation unfold, not noticing the confusion and bafflement of my humans.

As the intruders spoke over the radio, requesting advice on what to do about the situation and they were eventually ordered to investigate further, with the foundation citing that lethal force was permitted if needed.

Curious, I wondered what they would do next.