Having been left to their own thoughts, the four girls found lunch had quickly fallen upon them. Having finished lunch, the four of them were meeting again for the next step of their lesson.
Rather than going outside, this next class was being held in what had so far functioned as the meeting room. The first order of business was to go over what they had done since the last lesson. Qheria had tried to take charge of the rest of the morning activities, as she was supposed to be the leader, but in retrospect, they had quickly just gone to do their own thing. Qheria had the idea of having everyone just sit down and talk about how they felt, but Thanrie was the first to get bored. Thanrie had gone off to practice with her weapon, taking the lesson to an angle of focusing on her own movement and actions, like a fine-tuned dance. In a small room, she was practicing without unleashing the chain but with her boots active, so she was gliding around the room a lot. Initially, she was more colliding with the walls, but she quickly stopped making those mistakes. However, beyond physical training, it brought no benefit to her circumstances.
Mhyl had taken Qheria's idea, but felt it had no principle of direction, she never really had a plan for what she was going to say. So instead, she got some report paper and started just writing down her own feelings for herself, with the intent on sharing that with the others. However, the end product looked more like a report analyzing herself rather than any form of actual expression. It was much less about feelings and much more about facts. Lwyn was last to give up on Qheria's idea, in fact Lwyn had kept too it longer than Qheria herself had. Lwyn had even tried to convince Qheria that the plan was still good, but Qheria couldn't be convinced. From there, Qheria had gone off on her own to sort through the chaos of her own thoughts, while Lwyn was left to wonder what she should herself be doing. Neither of them were successful with either.
Ehryinae shrugged. On account for the fact that all four of the girls had two sets of memories and personalities each, it's understandable that sorting out the mental requirements of this process would be much harder than would be typical. The most concerning part of this was then more how each of their internal conflicts were probably affecting their other responsibilities. She had signed up for this process, so now she would have to be responsible for ensuring that the four girls found a way to adjust to this abnormality.
Class was interrupted with the arrival of Xyithy, mid afternoon. She had only just arrived, which was later than her original estimate. Rhyde and Yuxzn came in with her. "Sorry to interrupt, but we do have other matters of interest. Rhyde, I'm pleased to let you know that the facility you pointed me at no only looks to be some kind of construction facility, but that we had found signs that it was resident to very few bandits. Food supplies was lacking, most of their stock seems to be designed to support their production efforts instead of supporting their people. My guess is that the goal was to involve as few bandits as possible with such creation efforts. The whole facility mostly appears to run on itself." Xyithy was very proud to offer some good news. The location would be rich in resources, and few in bandits, it was a perfect place to hit.
Still, entering a facility that was filled with advanced equipment would provide an unknown risk, even a few bandits could be a threat if they had access to complex enough stuff. Instead, the best idea was to approach them when their enemy would be least prepared. This means it was time for another overnight mission. The plan was thus for the groups involved to get some rest to be prepared for the night, then to wake up for a very late dinner. They would make their way to the facility by around the middle of the night, and would aim to be out of there well before dawn. This would have them back home in time for a late breakfast, although having some food packed and ready for the road would probably be a smart move, just in case. The need for water wasn't even disputable.
As planned, the four girls had gone to get some rest to prepare, but all four of them were still conflicted with their morning failures. It made getting a decent amount sleep at such an irregular hour a very elusive task. Xyithy showed up right on schedule to wake all four of them up. "Okay, sleepy heads, time to get up. We have a long road ahead of us." Xyithy was mostly doing her due diligence in ensuring they were woken up, but the fact that she wasn't going to be the leader was still something she had not yet adjusted to. She was already making expectations of everyone.
The four of them finished waking up and made their way to dinner. Except for those departing, everyone had eaten dinner a long time ago. The four girls sat down at a table with Zyuixqs and Chyurae. Chyurae had spent dinner trying to cheer Mhyl up, but without much impact. Zyuixqs was uncertain how he could help, especially in fear of consequences. Both of them realized at this point that usually the one who pulled through in this situation was Lwyn, but she couldn't offer anything at that point. Dinner otherwise concluded uneventfully.
Getting out at least made the four start to feel better. The task at hand proved very distracting, letting them turn away from their worries and turn instead to more familiar patterns at this point. Mhyl's headset had already needed it's first power cell replacement, and it was running the entire time as she scouted around. Lwyn and Chyurae, being the only other elf-kinds, were assigned the more mundane watch variant from hilltops along the way. Qheria had never felt the weight of responsibility of having to lead this many people, but now in addition to their usual half dozen, there were many more coming along with them. She had to organize how to best move a group this size, in addition to having her friends take roles in a wider area. Thanrie had been regrettably assigned the role of messenger in this whole network, due to the speed she could achieve with her boots. Her own boots had gotten so much usage, she had found need of replacing its power cell more than once.
Zyuixqs would have as usual been given the role of being useless, but instead it was his responsibility to work with their supplies. This had a lot more responsibility on their return trip, when they came back with their spoils. The location they were going to honestly sounded like some kind of factory, so their return load wasn't estimated to be light at all. Having access to things designed to make stuff, this was going to bring them so many nice things. They just needed to make sure that everything worked out.
Thanrie contemplated the situation as she ran messages around. They had been very lucky with many things in the past, and by the sounds of it, even the world itself was providing that very luck for them. Still, the effectiveness of that same luck wasn't supreme, she had almost died after all. There is no way they could count on some good luck to simply have them bring back success, it would at most only ensure they came back alive. As consequences have risen from their mistakes, she wasn't even certain that their luck could be counted upon to ensure their survival. It seemed to be something with some limitations, if pressed too hard it would probably fail on them in the worst of cases. Instead of depending on luck, they had to be careful, so that their luck had a much easier time getting its job done.
Qheria was mostly concerned with the state of the factory. It made sense to involve as few bandits as possible, but that would mean that something else was decreasing the workload for the entire factory. It could only imply the factory was mostly automated. Unlike how the gift appears to automate things, mechanical automation is self-sustained, and capable of operating without direct supervision. She was certain this would be a problem, but had no ideas without being present to the situation.
It took a while to reach their destination, especially considering they needed a break mid-way. When they got close to the factory, everyone stopped for another break, eating a short midnight snack before continuing. It gave them some time to consider a decent approach.
For once, they had arrived at a compound with heavy closed gates. Even Chyurae would have no means to get the gate opened. However, they had two options for approaches. Ehryinae felt that she could get the door open, though it would certainly raise an alarm. Xyithy was more interested in climbing the walls and gaining access that way, even though Ehryinae disputed that the walls had no suitable means to climb. Qheria observed the situation and gauged her mother's idea was better, not just because raising an alarm early was dangerous, but because she had her own ideas in how to deal with the wall.
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Lwyn and Qheria advanced on the tall steel wall. Lwyn tested her gloves on the wall, and was rewarded with success. Qheria got some chains ready and jumped to the top of the wall while holding the chain. Lwyn met her at the top soon after, as the two of them worked to secure the chain at that area of the wall, Lwyn ensuring it was extra secure with a bit of magnetism. Mhyl stood guard in the meanwhile, using her headset. She could sense some simple rhythmic activity within the factory, but nothing alarming, and no signs of nearby patrols.
Having passed the outside wall, they all looked at the next challenge ahead of them. The factory included more than a few buildings. However, exploring looking for the right one gave risk in getting discovered, so Qheria decided that the closest building might be the best. It was also the largest building, so it by default had some of the highest odds. They found the closest door, but as expected it was locked. Rather than having Ehryinae detonate the door, this one looked like something Chyurae could handle. Having Ehryinae conserve her stamina would probably be in their best interest. In no time at all, the door was unlocked, and the group entered the factory proper.
Thanrie looked around at the dim lighting melding around the halls, faint lights flickering with the same neon filaments she had to deal with before. They had brought their own light sources, but there was concerns about being discovered by using extra light. There was no choice, she would have to go at it without additional support. Their goal was to find the supplies for the factory, with benefits to finding supplies at both the start and end of the production process. They also needed to find a place blueprints were stored. However, as they passed the main corridor entering the area, it was clear they had found themselves in the middle of the production process. Faint lights and eerie sounds echoed around the room, as the machines guiding the process hissed steam to endure the eternity of their efforts. A chill went down Thanrie's spine.
Qheria decided to use a similar approach to their own facility, finding the most supervisory location. This spot would certainly hold a collection of blueprints, but would also not only provide a better view of the site layout, it might even have a map of the building. With that, they could quickly find everything else they needed. Carefully and quietly, the rather large group continued to make use of what silence they could still afford. Even the walls hissed steam at them, faintly glowing its own dim light. Eventually, they reached a rather important looking door, with a lot of security mechanisms. Clearly, only important people were allowed past this door.
Chyurae worked hard on the door, trying to bypass every lock on the door. At one point, he managed to get the door unlocked. The group pressed inside. There they found the room littered with documents, exactly what they had hoped to find. Plans for various projects, and even a map. The room however offered very little visibility outside, so it wasn't a perfect accomplishment. It was too dark to read the documents where they were, so they just packed up everything. Thanrie helped, picking up document after document. With one of the documents she found, as she tried to move it, a metal hand slammed down on it. A wall panel slid open, revealing a mechanical being designed to look like an artificial human. Gears and panels could be seen all over it, and its eyes glowed with nothing close to natural.
Thanrie snapped once again, her shriek wailed across the halls. That moment was beyond terrifying for her, something born out of her darkest nightmares. In how it looked so artificial, thinking of it like a metallic zombie wouldn't be so far fetched. The thing before her searched her over quietly, then appeared to identify her as an intruder as it's expression darkened. An siren began to wail across the entire facility, multiple panels across the hall sliding open. The entire facility was arming to deal with this threat.
Mhyl's initial reaction in English was much calmer than Thanrie's. "Oh wow, it's some kind of clockwork automaton. So they had these standing in for the otherwise lack of staff in the area." "Mhyl, I know you think they are neat, but don't forget that they are trying to kill us. The quiet phase of our trip is over, it's time to break robot skulls." As Mhyl marveled upon the android in front of her, Qheria smashed it with her shield, crushing it. Everyone else drew weapons, having at least collected all the paperwork.
Mhyl was scanning over the map as they exited the room, searching for their next destination. Keeping active while in bad lighting was making it harder to review the map efficiently, however her headset was giving her even more sensory overload as there was suddenly a LOT of nearby activity. She passed off the map to Chyurae, realizing she didn't even have her atlas on her either. She did have her blade book though, if she had need of it.
Carnage was everywhere, though fortunately it was all one sided. Their enemy might have robotic strength, but were still using conventional weapons. Meanwhile, a vast majority of them were either molten metal, or had been sundered in an invisible wave of mist. The combination of heat and water caused the room to fill with even more steam, making visibility even harder and progress even slower.
"We need to split up a bit, mixing both gifts like this is only making things harder. Ehryinae, this place is making stuff and having it glide along a pre-determined path. Follow that process to its destination, and secure that area. Lwyn, take Mhyl and Chyurae, and go with her. The rest of us are going to follow this thing in the reverse direction, and locate it's source." Qheria came up with a quick decision to deal with the current problem.
Lwyn explained the situation in Elaethyx as Qheria's group went their own way. Mhyl nodded in understanding while Chyurae still tried to read the map. He was still following along at least. They followed along the assembly line, taking out their robotic foes along the way. As the steam cleared up, Lwyn was getting a lot more good shots off, having even more range than the Embers. Having shots ricochet off of surfaces was shredding through the ranks of her foes, but she also had to be careful to not hit any of the Embers too.
Even with her skilled shots, most of the enemy was falling apart by intense flame that either shattered them with an explosion, or melted down important structural parts. Her own shots were proving difficult, because she had no prime target to hit. Taking off their head didn't seem to cause any fatal blow, nor did any kind of central blow in various spots on their torso. The only thing that looked to work was shredding it into tiny pieces, which was much harder for Lwyn to accomplish. Instead, she focused on the shoulders and hips, joints she could take out to make them harmless and easy to otherwise dispose of by fire.
They continued along, with Chyurae eventually giving up on the map, having handed it off as yet another document. The passage soon after opened into an immense room, a water cooling phase of the process. Because most of the process was supplemented by steam, not only did it get pretty hot, but it needed a lot of water though the entire endeavour. This room seemed to hold enough water to handle all of those concerns. Mhyl shuttered in fear, as she noticed that the path forward involved going over the water reservoir. They had to continue fighting as the continued forwards, with many of their molten enemies falling into the water below them.
As they proceeded, the room started to fill with steam, as the water below them started to heat up. Molten metal was singeing with steam as it make contact with the surface of the water. Around the middle of the reservoir, right when one of the robots fell in, the heat buildup was so intense that the water bubbled with a burst of steam, right under where Mhyl was standing. The force of the burst sent her flying, landing into the water. The water brought her under, some by the weight of what she was carrying, some because it already had a natural current. She didn't know how to swim, and couldn't escape.
Chyurae noticed Mhyl was in trouble and dove right in after her. He was both light and apparently also gifted with movements such as swimming, so he managed to go after her. However, it was still a long distance to cover, and conditions were getting worse. "Ehryinae, we need to stop letting heat get into the water. You can do explosive stuff, hit them with enough force to send them away from the water. We need to defend this entire water supply from heat." Lwyn wanted to jump in to help also, but that would leave only their fire mages to deal with a problem caused by fire. If she wanted to help, she needed to get the fighting away from the reservoir. No longer aiming for arms, she was putting most of her effort trying to get a bladed slicing weapon, more designed to pass through enemies, to push them back. Leg shots at least were far more useful for this process.
By the time they had reached the far side, they had found Chyurae had brought Mhyl to the side, and was trying to help her further. They both had serious water burns, so Chyurae was hardly capable of anything. It was only at this point that Lwyn did recall that the one who was now at risk was actually their healer. Fortunately, Ehryinae's field of expertise left her with a lot of knowledge on dealing with burns, but this still left them with a serious problem. The two elves were moved away from the source of heat, in order for them to cool off, while everyone tried to do what they could to help with the serious injuries. This was only made worse by the still ongoing rush of seemingly endless enemies approaching them.
They needed to get back to the Wardens, in order to deal with this danger. Once again, someone's life was at risk.