"You're kidding right Dax?"
"Sadly I'm not"
Displaying his modified arm Dax revealed that it had partially melted and was smoking.
"But I do have a backup plan, but their might be some issues with it"
"We're about to be eaten alive, I don't see anything worse than that!"
"..Agree."
"Then give me back my mask Alice"
"Ah sure, here you go"
"Okay thanks, I'll need to borrow Viktor or Laura. And there's a large chance that what I'm about to do will inflict lethal brain damage or irreparable disabilities"
"What are you talking about?"
"Mind melting, and not the gentle kind I did with Alice just to talk with her, but a process that will involve a lot irreparable brain damage, and even if by some chance one of you come out unshaped you will be changed permanently"
"I'll do it"
"Did you hear anything I said Viktor?"
"I did, the rest of you guys keep the arachnids back, I'll help Dax break into this orb in the meanwhile"
Following Viktors command Alice and Blue Phoenix spread out and started to look for the approaching arachnids.
"Are you really sure?"
"I am, so stop asking. let's do this"
"Okay, then please put on the mask"
[READY TO ESTABLISH CONNECTION. STANDING BY FOR CONSENT]
"What now?"
Having equipped the mask ICI cold voice sounded in his head
"Repeat and understand exactly what ICI says"
[PRINTING CONSENT FORMULA: I HEREBY CONSENT TO HAVING MY MIND CONTROLLED]
"I hereby consent to having my mind controlled"
[I'M ALSO FULLY AWARE OF ANY AND ALL SIDE EFFECTS THIS WILL COURSE, INCLUDING AND NOT LIMITED TO: STAGE 4 MINDBLEED, LOSS OF LIFE, CORRUPTION OF ALL MY MEMORIES AND LIFE ALTERING DISABILITIES]
"I'm also fully aware of any and all side effects this will course, including and not limited to: stage 4 mindbleed, loss of life, corruption of all my memories and life altering disabilities"
[I HEREBY FORFEIT MY RIGHT TO SUE AND OR SEEK ANY AND ALL KINDS OF LEGAL ACTION]
"I hereby forfeit my right to sue and or seek any and all kinds of legal action"
[LASTLY, I FORFEIT MY FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND WILL NOT SHARE ANY CLASSIFIED INFORMATION OBTAINED IN THE MINDBLEED]
"Lastly I forfeit my freedom of speech and will not share any classified information obtained in the mindbleed"
"Okay that's fine, let's start, ICI start the dialup"
[DIALING GUARDIAN 47, PATCHING CEREBRAL ARCHITECTURE, STANDBY]
"AH THIS FUCKING HURTS!"
Feeling as if his head was splitting in half, Viktor instinctively tried to remove the mask but failed to do so as it stuck to his head, and fell over in pain and started convulsing on the ground while half screaming in a passed out state.
[PREPARING FOR FULL MIND MELT. WARNING: COMPLETE MIND MELT IN EFFECT. EXPECTED CORRUPTION AROUND 30% PATTEN YELLOW NOW IN EFFECT.]
""I have control""
After having passed out in pain Viktor suddenly awoke with his eyes eerily wide open, speaking the exact same way Dax did.
""Okay ICI run the mana circulation prototype""
Picking up his staff 'Viktor' started circulating mana in a slightly mechanical manner.
""Seems good… Okay time to try out a spell""
Grabbing his staff 'Viktor' started channelling mana into it, making the gem at the tip glow more powerful than it ever did before
[OVERLOAD DETECTED, TERMINATING PROGRAM]
Stopping the mana circulation, the mana gem at the tip stopped glowing, revealing a large crack in it.
""So it couldn't hold together after all… what was it again? 'channel mana into the stone and the stone forms the spell according to your will'? so this gemstone is basically a converter or some form of subroutine…?""
Examining the staff briefly with great care, 'Viktor' didn't seem impressed at all.
""So basically it's some sort of mana based script stored in a crystal circuit that's grown by some sort of mana spell? so ineffective..""
Tossing the staff aside after having decoded one of the kingdoms greatest military secrets in mere seconds, 'Viktor' didn't seem impressed at all.
""Imprinting subroutines directly into cerebral matrix… ICI handle it with care""
[SCAN COMPLETE, ANALYSIS COMPLETE, FORMATTING AND REWRITE COMPLETE, STARTING IMPRINTING, ACCESSING UNUSED NEURONS…]
""It's quite simple, just format the information and integrate it directly, to cut out this inefficient system""
[PRINT COMPLETE: SYSTEM TRAINED TO NEURONS SUCCESSFULLY]
""Let's try this again, ICI launch the prototype spell interface""
[CIRCULATING MANA, BUILDING SPELL… FAILED]
""Huh.. Well that's to be expected, ICI run debug""
[DEBUGGING.. BUILDING VIRTUAL SPACE FOR SIMULATIONS.... COMPLETE. PROGRAM GENERATION #9999954 DISPLAYING RESULTS ABOVE FAIL STATE, RUNNING OPTIMIZATIONS... COMPLETE, GENERATION #75122075 MARKED AS FINAL VERSION. READY TO RETRY]
In about 10 seconds ICI displayed its true power by making about 7 and a half million simulations on the prototype spell architecture derived from the analysis of the mana gem, by making it about a million times more effective and unknowingly advancing magic by about 5000 years.
""Okay let's try it out… Load spell #5""
[CONSTRUCTING BUNSEN BURNER... ALLOCATION OF MANA COMPLETE STRUCTURE STABLE, SPELL ONLINE]
Suddenly Viktors hand started to be covered in completely black runes that looked way more complex than anything he had done before, and a completely blue flame appeared about 20 centimetres from his hand.
""It works! good time to get rid of the rest black matter""
Turning to the orb 'Viktor' walked up to it and put forth his hand
""Let's go with spell #1""
[LOADING SPELL NUMBER 1, APPLYING ACTIVE MANA IN TARGET AREA… UNKNOWN INTERFERENCE DETECTED, AIRBORNE MANA CONCENTRATION FALLING]
""What the fu- ICI execute spell script now!""
Sensing that some sort of alien/holy power didn't want Dax to use magic and/or breach the orb he panicked greatly and rushed ICI to execute the spell
[EXECUTING SPELL SCRIPT #1 VIBRATING TARGET AREA]
As ICI started the spell the exposed black matter turned completely red in seconds, on an atomic level the mana particle bound to the black matter molecules and nanobots and started vibrating, heating up and destabilizing the compound molecules, breaking them down instantly.
[FINAL PLATE EXPOSED… MANA LEVELS DROPPING, UNKNOWN INTERFERENCE IN FULL EFFECT, UNABLE TO CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL SPELLS]
""Release mind melt and give Viktor a full medical scan!""
Having done his job Dax immediately released Viktor from the mind melt, and he instantly collapsed on the ground, bleeding out his ears and behind the mask he was also bleeding heavily from the eyes. At the same time Viktor dropped to the ground Dax pulled out his pistol and emptied the last of its rounds into the plate.
"Did it work?"
[SCANNING.. BREACH DETECTED, PENETRATION SUCCESSFUL, 0.05 CENTIMETER BREACH DETECTED]
"But there's no way I can break that open by hand… but I don't need to"
-- Turning back the clock back a bit to when Alice, Laura, Eduard and Redmond went to defend Viktor and Dax --
"Are you sure we can win Alice?"
While looking into the dark and seeing a lot of red eyes looking back, Redmond asked Alice with a nervous voice
"We don't need to, we just need to survive long enough"
"As a ranger what do you believe to be our best shot at that?"
turning to Redmond and the rest of Blue Phoenix with a nervous smile Alice answered with a slightly crackling voice
"We piss them off, if we become an anyone instead of pray they'll take their time to kill us"
"Are you serious?"
"Sadly I am, hopefully, Dax and Viktor won't take too long. In any case, it will not matter if they flank us, we just need to keep Viktor and Dax safe, so let's all go to the front"
Arriving at the entrance of the spike wall Alice and Blue Phoenix waited for about a minute until about 30 arachnids stood silently in front of them drooling, with one particularly pissed specimen in font missing an eye.
"Well one of them is already pissed, so that's good, time to piss of the rest… Laura, can you use that fire spell again?"
"Nnn…. but….I'll...pass.. out"
"That's good, they'll go for you last if that comes to it. Redmond keep her safe until she's done casting, and Eduard make some noise and cut off some legs, but not too much or they'll eat you alive"
"you seem to know a lot about this kind of stuff Alice"
"That's because I've seen it happen, multiple times. As a ranger my job is to protect the kingdom from enemies coming through the Black forest, of all the spies I've been sent to intercept I only ever needed to kill about half of them, the rest I only needed to watch and confirmed that they died, and sometimes that took a while."
On a particularly grim note, the arachnids started closing in, prompting Redmond and Alice to stop talking and switch gears. As the larger of the queens with an arrow in its eye slowly closed in while being particularly careful of Alice and her bow and arrows, Laura moved behind Redmond's tower shield and silently started chanting, and Eduard slowly moved to one side and circulating mana for strengthening magic while Alice did the same and moved to the other flank.
"... Distraction... needed.."
As Laura made it ever closer to completing she found it increasingly harder to hide it. and thus needed a distraction so she could complete the chant unnoticed. Responding to Laura's request, Eduard and Alice made eye contact and nodded, them simultaneously overloaded themselves with strengthening magic and set off, briefly moving faster than the eye could see and appeared behind the arachnids, swords drawn, and 2 arachnids collapsed immediately after having half of their legs cut off.
"... Fire… consume.. ALL!"
Finishing her chant Laura used the rest of her mana to summon half a dozen football sized fireballs that quickly sought out their targets and struck with brutal efficiency before passing out.
"Yeah, GET SUM- ak aw fuck"
Watching Laura's spell hitting multiple arachnids Eduard celebrated like some of the qitons makers, he started coughing up blood, having overstrained his body with strengthening magic.
"Eduard!"
Cutting her way passed the arachnids in her way, Alice reached the collapsed Eduard as she was quickly surrounded she prepared to make her last stand.
"COME ON YOU SHITTY BUGS! I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY!!"
While Alice starred down the surrounding arachnids she heard a series of gunshots coming from the orb.
(we might make it after all)
Seemingly having her wish granted, a strange metallic sound came from the orb and gravity suddenly seemed to have an effect once more on the orb, and it fell to the ground, knocking up a dust cloud covering the area.
[ATMOSPHERE CONFIRMED, GRAVITATION ANNIHILATION DRIVE OFFLINE, PERFORMING SYSTEMS CHECK… PRINTING EQUIPMENT STATUS REPORT
Z-99 MOD-4 DROP POD
- CORE SYSTEMS CONFIRMED OPERATIONAL
- REACTOR AT 20% OUTPUT, OVERHEATING
- VULCAN HEAVY SYSTEMS GRAVITON ANNIHILATION FIELD GENERATOR MK:IIX EHECATL
ONLINE, EXOTIC MATTER FUEL AT 0.003%
- 54 HULL BRANCHES CONFIRMED
- COM SYSTEMS OFFLINE
- SECONDARY GYRO OFFLINE
- COLD GAS MANEUVER THRUSTERS 4, 1 AND 8 OFFLINE
REX-DELTA 04 CYCLOPS
- 4 UNITS OFFLINE, CRITICAL FAILURE
- 1 UNIT PARTIALLY OPERATIONAL, REPAIRS NEEDED
- 1 UNIT MISSING, PRESUMED LOST IN ACTION
- 4 UNITS ONLINE, LOADING ICI ARCHITECTURE TO SHELLS, SYSTEMS ONLINE IN 10 SECONDS
REX-344 GAUSS RIFLE
- 8 RIFLES ONLINE AND CHARGING CAPACITORS, READY FOR DEPLOYMENT IN 20 SECONDS, ICI SYNCED TO FIRE CONTROL, STANDARD ISSUE 20 CAL. ANTI-MATERIAL UNGUIDED SLUGS LOADED IN ALL RIFLES
- 1800 ROUNDS IN STORAGE
GUARDIAN ZERO GRAVITY FIELD FORGE
- 2 UNITS ONLINE
LAZARUS FIELD FIRST AID BIOPRINTER
- 1 UNIT OPRATONAL
GUARDIAN NANOBOT HOUSING
- 2 x 15 KG CONTAINERS HOLDING INTEGRITY
END OF REPORT]
When Dax finally breached through the last armour plate, air had flooded inside the orb, triggering a barometric sensor on the package inside. The Z-99 mod-4 drop pod was a 6 meter wide, 7 meter tall 6 sided cylinder with extendable hydraulic air brakes on all sides that would extend at the last part of reentry, that combined with the graviton drive would allow it to land at almost any habitable planet with ease making them commonly used by the galactic empire to establish outposts on remote planets. A millisecond after the barometric sensor tripped the onboard ICI unit, it had quickly established that it was on an unknown planet without working communications and decided to start construction of a communications array to then await further instructions. Extending the 6 large airbrake flaps all the way, the drop pod briefly looked like a metallic flower blooming inside the orb, before several explosive charges shot off the armour plates underneath, revealing the densely packed interior behind. As the blast doors had been purged the graviton drive powered down at the same time, making the drop pod and the orb surrounding it drop to the ground with a bang, and after that something awoke inside. Unpacking itself from the orb in a highly mechanical manner the first drone had awoken, and with the drone its build in communications array also awoke.