Standing in front of the second orb, anyone besides Dax was stunned at the sight of a 8 meter Diameter sphere floating about 2 meters above the ground
"Of course it's floating, i mean its re-entry equipment so it needs an anti-gravity field generator. Viktor, Laura start on the spikes"
""... okay""
still a bit stunned, Viktor and Laura started creating rock spikes that faced out towards the surrounding tundra, leaving just Alice, Redmond and Eduard without stuff to do at the moment
"Anti-grav what now?"
"An anti-gravity field generator also called a graviton annihilation field generator"
"That doesn't help me at all..."
"Okay… think of the force that's pulling you towards the ground - gravity, is not so much a fundamental force, but an elemental particle, that like any other can be annihilated by producing an antiparticle or a particle with completely opposite spin and electric charge. In this case, it is archived by an exotic matter field that's further exited by a heavy moun-electromagnetic field, now this is not easy and takes a huge amount of ener-"
As Dax explained advanced quantum mechanics the eyes of Alice turned dead as her brain overloaded with information
"-So that's the about the basics Alice, well let's get you in position for overwatch"
"Okay.. but where?"
"On top of the orb of course"
After looking for a second at the orb and back at Dax Alice appeared even more confused
"But. its, you know floating, and like 8 meters tall"
"I don't see your problem?"
"We can't all jump several hundred meters in the air without issue"
"Sure you can, just in low enough gravity. well try it"
"I don't trust you.."
Still remembering the multiple times Dax tricked her for his own random enjoyment, Alice wasn't ready to just believe him and try to jump 8 meters just because he said so. Noticing her sceptical look Dax sighed before grabbing her hand and dragging her over to the orb.
"You feel it yet?"
"What the fuck is this?"
As Alice was dragged towards the orb she started to feel strange, by the time she was able to touch it her hair was weightlessly floating and her clothes flowed freely and separated from her skin, resulting in a strangely liberating feel.
"Welcome to a low g environment, you're most likely the first in this world, now gently jump towards the top of the orb, as you get closer to the top you'll start to feel gravity again, although a bit unlike the kind you're used to"
"O-okay, here I go!"
As Alice chose to go where no other person from her world had gone, and gently jumped towards the orb, resulting in her starting to spin around, then panic, then flail her arms around resulting in even more panic and spinning.
"D-Dax! help me!"
(Ah I knew it, she is the best)
Watching Alice flail around in low gravity, Dax couldn't even wipe the dump grin off his face if his life depended on it
"you're doing great!"
"S-Shut up and help me! urg I'm starting to get dizzy"
"You're making history! First of your kind flailing around in low gravity"
"H-help me now!"
"what's the magic word?"
"I hate you"
"close enough."
Gently setting off the ground with a single tap of his foot, Dax started to spin, matching Alice's spin (panicked frailing) and grabbed her by the waist with his left hand and after a few seconds of further spinning Dax and Alice reached the orb and Dax stuck to it with the magnetic power of his artificial right arm
"There we go, this is fun right?"
"My head is spinning.."
"That tends to happen when you're flailing around like a newborn, next time keep calm and find a single point of reference to look at and keep turning your head towards it calmly. Or just frail around and puke, then pass out, that makes you easier to grab. Okay to the top we go~!"
Climbing up the orb while dragging Alice behind him, Dax stuck to the orb with the help of his electromagnetic arm and implants in his feet. As they reached the top gravity didn't quite seem to return but rather seemed to be concentrated around a point at the top
"Here you are Alice!"
"Please let me down."
"Isn't this view lovely?... Ah, I get it! please don't stab me!"
Letting Alice down gently, I took Alice a few seconds before she found her balance while clinging to Dax
"You good?"
"Kinda, this is really strange.. how come you have no problem with this Dax?"
"Mostly training and experience, with a bit of genetics. I've probably spent several times your lifetime in low or no gravity so it's become second nature for me."
"Oh yeah that's right you're way older than me, even if you rarely show it…"
"Your task will be to spot anything closing in on our position and task Blue Phoenix and Viktor to eliminate the threat if it gets too close, ICI will assist you the whole way so rest assured. By the way.."
"What?"
"You can let go of me now"
Without Alice herself noticing herself she had kept hold of Dax's arm the whole time to steady her balance, and when Dax pointed that out she quickly let go with a flustered face
"S-Shouldn't you be somewhere else!"
"You can't hold my hand whenever you want Alice~"
Dax quickly leapt off the orb, falling faster the further away he got from it, and landed next to Redmond and Eduard and quickly started to instruct them, leaving Alice alone on top of the orb in full bloom under the mask.
"..Idiot."
"looking good with the spikes Viktor, keep up that spacing and make 3 or 4 more rows, Laura you're resting?"
As Dax observed Viktor and Laura had made about 8 rows of 2 meter tall spikes facing outward with a single passageway through about 3 meters wide. While Viktor was slowly working on the spikes Blue Phoenix was resting with Laura included
"..Nnn….. out.. of. mana…"
"Did you drink a potion?"
"Nn.. takes..a bit….to.. work"
"Can I pat your head in the meantime?"
"I… will.. burn. it"
"I guess that's a no then, I will try again sometime else"
"You really shouldn't, Laura hate when people touch her head, one of the last ones that tried almost lost his life"
"Why do you hate it so much, don't you trust me?"
"..Secret…?"
"So you're not even sure yourself.. Ok progress on the fortifications are looking good, I'll start breaking through the heat shield"
(There's enough left for the conversion right?)
(AFFIRMATIVE. PROCESS IS IRREVERSIBLE UNLESS ACCESS TO NEW GRAY MATTER IS SECURED. BE ADVISED CONSTRUCTION WILL BE UNSTABLE, ONLY 1 ATTEMPT CAN BE MADE: REAFFIRM RETROFIT? Y/N)
"Okay! everyone ready!? for the next 5 to 6 hours I'll be unable to defend myself and making a lot of noise, so I'll entrust each one of you to protect me. I'll only get one shot at this so if we fail I will die! please keep me safe….. Confirm retrofit"
As Dax moved towards the orb he confirmed the retrofit proposed by ICI, black liquid started pouring out his shoulder and quickly covered and stuck to his artificial right arm. After about 30 seconds the nanomachines had moved to cover his hand from the wrist down, turning his hand into a solid inorganic plate which he placed on the orb.
"Commence induction heating"
Slowly Dax's new 'hand' started to turn orange, red then white and slowly starting to heat up the surrounding metal mesh that slowly started melting.
[ELECTROMAGNETS DETRIOISEING, FIRST ARMOR PLATE IN APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR]
(Please don't break.)
"Woah! that's really freaky what did you do to your hand?"
"I basically turned it into a heater, the heat melts the ablative part of the heat shielding by breaking down the grey matter its made of"
As Dax explained to the curious Eduard, parts of the black mesh slowly melted away with larger chunks of other material gradually being loosened and floated away in the low gravity
"So it's made of the same stuff that's in your body? but what else is it made of?"
"I think 'available material' is the way ICI would put it, that material being anything that was close by. Anything from parts of the ship hull to the former crew I'm afraid"
"Are you shitting me?"
"Oh I wish I was…"
Proving his point, Dax stopped melting the shield and pulled out a human finger from the black mesh, making Eduard hurl on the spot.
"It's poetic really, even in death the bodies of my former crew safeguarding my only chance of survival in this strange world… These orbs are as much a graveyard as they are caches of supplies to secure my safety"
"Eduard are you okay?"
Having heard Eduard hurling Redmond came to check if he was okay
"Yeah, I'll be fine... Just didn't realize what this thing is until Dax showed me"
"What is it then?"
"You don't wanna know… Come on let's get back to our job"
(Rest in peace old friend, I will make them pay when I get off this fucking rock)
After about an hour had passed, Dax had hit a solid armour plating and had barred an area and by melting a square meter hole.
(that's way too solid, how long would it take to melt it?)
(NOT ABLE, OMEGA-7 OUTER ARMOR MELTS AT 9500 KELVIN)
(Shit. Plan B it is)
"I'll be making lots of noise now! Alice be ready, we'll most likely see pissed off arachnids from now on! I trust you guys to keep me alive"
Before anyone could answer Dax pulled out his pistol and emptied a magazine into the plate, creating a small hole.
"What the fuck was that!?"
".... Loud.."
"This will have to do.."
Fitting 2 of his fingers into the hole in the plate with a sizzling sound, Dax greatly burned his hand on the still hot armour plate.
"Come on!!"
Placing a foot on the plate Dax slowly started bending the armour, and after about a minute the plate slowly started bending outward.
"Okay.."
After bending the armour plate outward about 30 centimetres Dax stopped pulling and instead hit the plate with his fist over and over, bending the plate back into its original location.
"And again…"
Once more Dax pulled on the hole and the beating it back to shape, he slowly fatigued the metal, and after repeating the progress 5 more times the armour plate finally shattered. And with his bruised and burned hand, he removed the metal fragments and then started heating up the next layer of mesh.
"... Doesn't… that… hurt?"
"It sadly does my sweet Laura. Can I pat your head to make me feel better?"
"... No.."
"Tch"
"We have moments! Laura gets in position!!"
As Alice warned from the top of the orb, a single arachnid closed in from behind a tree about 500 meters away, presumably attracted by the loud sound of Dax's pistol
"You fuck off!"
Having spotted the closing arachnid, Viktor started throwing rock shards using magic. Several rock shards hit their target but were mostly ineffective as the arachnids exoskeleton proved to tough at that long of a distance.
"Viktor clam down, wait for it to close in I'll stop it, then Eduard creates an opening for you and Laura"
"Okay."
As the arachnid rushed in closer, most likely pissed off by Viktors attack, Redmond moved out in front of the rock spikes and started hitting his tower shield with his sword, attracting the arachnids attention, with Eduard standing directly behind him and Laura and Viktor on both flanks
"Here we go!"
Having been lured by Redmond the arachnid tried to pierce his tower shield with its front legs, making Redmond slide backwards about a meter but succeeding in stopping the arachnids momentum and giving Eduard a perfect opening
"Eduard, NOW!"
"I see it!"
Moving out from behind Redmond, Eduard rushed forward powered with the help of strengthening magic and sliced cleanly through both of the arachnids forward legs making it scream in pain.
"Laura finish it!"
"make it blind!"
"... Nnn…"
Responding to Viktor, Laura summoned a spear made of fire and tossed it at the arachnid, hitting it in the face and burning its numerous eyes out
"REEEEEE!!-"
As the arachnids scream was cut short by a well placed rock shard pierced its brain as it collapsed dead
"That's one"
"Good shot Viktor"
"Thanks, but it only hit because Laura blinded it"
"....Nn…."