* Chapter 2 - Search and Destroy •
A group of Specters, which were smaller versions of the Hermits, designed for scouting and gathering intelligence, crawled out of the facility, and started walking ahead of the main group. A hundred meters- or so from the entrance, Verja spotted a group of twenty similar creatures sitting on rocks, illuminated by a small campfire. Most of them had the same armament of a spear and a shield, but one of them, presumably their leader, was larger, taller, and was wearing shoddy armor made out of bone, and a large scar on his cheek. Instead of a spear, he had a large bow on its back, and a quiver full of familiar arrows. That one was probably the one who shot Vivienne.
The Lancer’s backpacks opened, revealing intricate machinery. Each one of them stuck their right hand in there, as the parts started to attach to their hands, and it took no longer than five seconds before their hands were transformed into a complex device with thick wiring, coiled around a long barrel. Search and Destroy. The Lancers marched onwards without even trying to conceal their sounds towards the creatures. The creatures immediately picked up on what was happening, as they formed a line, with their leader staying behind them. He raised the bow into the air, while saying something that Verja couldn’t understand. Suddenly, rings of light formed in the air, as a pile of rocks started moving.
Did the lizard just animate a pile of stone? Is this sorcery? The rocks formed into a roughly humanoid figure, as their leader pointed towards the ground in front of him. The entity consequently moved in front of their leader to protect him. “Halt. Surrender yourselves and no-one gets hurt,” said the machines in unison, as the line of lizard-people tilted their heads. They’re clearly scared of my creations, but it doesn’t seem like they’ll surrender. What if I say the same thing that the intruder said? “Ynterwaki, odfarne! Hyerna tolfo, nihjun!” said the Lancers. And even with only around 30 seconds of experience with the lizard-people's behavior, Verja could still recognise this emotion from anywhere. It was dread. Hesitation showed on the face of their leader, before he shouted something, as the smaller lizard-people and the living stone construct charged towards them.
Every mechanoid created and controlled by Verja had a battery pack inside them, which usually lasted anything from 12 hours, to multiple weeks, depending on their purpose. The batteries on the Lancers usually lasted for two days, if nothing violent happened. Inside the machinery on their right hand, a titanium dart was loaded in the barrel. Arcs of electricity could be seen jumping from one side of the barrel to another, as electromagnets started propelling the dart forward. A relatively quiet explosion could be heard, as the supersonic dart flew at the nearest lizard-person. It easily pierced the bipedal being’s throat, and sparks could be seen flying in the air behind it, as the dart hit the walls of the cavern.
The leader of the group watched as one of their kin died, and readied his bow. An arrow made out of bone and roots flew towards one of the Lancers, and dinked off harmlessly. Shame. The coilguns used by the Lancers could reach a fire rate of around ten darts per second, but that could deal long-term damage to the machinery, so Verja usually fired them in semi-auto. The flashes from the guns illuminated the otherwise dark cavern, and it took no longer than a few seconds before most of the lizard-people were dead.
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The scarred leader of the group started fleeing from the battle, while the animated stone construct advanced forward. Four darts penetrated the rocks, but the entity didn’t stop. As the Lancers unloaded their twenty-round magazines into the stone pile, it certainly slowed down, but didn’t stop. Two of the Lancers pulled out a bayonet from their backpacks and advanced towards the being. It seemed to be quite slow, so Verja wasn’t that cautious of it. But before they could do anything, the entity lunged its fist towards the nearest Lancer. The punch had enough force that the machine’s arm flew off and it was sent flying towards a wall.
The machines quickly retreated out of its reach, and concentrated fire towards its legs. This is… exciting. Once its legs had been decimated, the being fell on the ground, still trying to crawl towards the nearest Lancer. Suddenly, as the being tried to move around, Verja noticed something glowing inside the abdomen of that thing. One of the machines ripped apart the rocks covering it, to reveal a slightly shining, semi-translucent orb, with an intricate, yellow glyph inside of it. The machine tried to remove it, only to find that it was somehow connected to all of the other stones. So instead, it took it in its hand, and crushed it into a hundred pieces. At the same time, the entity collapsed into a pile of rubble. Interesting. So every piece of that construct was connected to that core? Judging by its strength, the lizards probably used this “golem” to break through the door. Since magic is just science with no explanation, I shall call this magic until a more appropriate term is found.
The leader of the lizards is not here. By rewinding the footage captured by the Lancers, it was revealed that the scar-face had fled from the battlefield. It might be bad if he has allies nearby, but I’ll bring heavier firepower over here before I’ll advance. In the depths of the Ace facility, two Arbiters powered up. The rhinoceros-looking mechanoids were around two meters tall and three meters in length, with armor plating covering every inch of their body, and they had an intimidating posture. Their head resembled an old CCTV camera, and on their back were rotating turrets, with a rapid-fire coilgun and a grenade launcher. I don’t have enough power to launch every single one of them onto the field, but two of them should be enough.
The machines advanced through the facility, barely fitting in the smaller elevators. Once they arrived at the entrance, they had to “remodel” the doorway to get out. The squad advanced through the caverns, with Verja mapping every route that the Specters had gone through. The winding pathway eventually led to a larger opening, where glowing blue lichen covered the walls. Water was dripping from the roof, which had formed a small lake in the middle of the cavern. There are quite a lot of different routes I could go to, but for now I’ll create a temporary outpost here. Time to wake up some more Hermits.