The Fae Dragon, cloaked, swooped down low to the surface in a deserted region on the outskirts of a destroyed city. It was clear that the Borg had recently conquered this world as there were more ruins than developed cities, with the largest being Echo's initial target. She did not want to beam down as the Borg would likely detect it, so instead, they landed the ship.
Echo left the ship through the Yin Realm after fusing with Nyka. While it was technically daytime, the ash-filled sky blocked most of the sunlight which lowered the cost of her rapid movement through the Realm. As she drew closer to the Borg territory, she noticed an opaque wall of maroon energy sweeping the region five hundred yards around the edge of the city which stood out for an obvious reason in the world of blue and black.
"Raven," Echo said to herself.
She stood on the edge of the sensor range and studied the pattern patiently. If her skills were still at the level of when Raven was separated from them, she would have little chance of making it past the sweeps. Fortunately, it had been six months for Raven while it was four years to her, three and a half of which she spent strengthening her body and magic.
Slipping past the initial sensor sweep, she entered the city proper and searched for life. Buildings of blue blocked her view, but rounding the right corner, she found a group of Borg. Typically, normal living people are a golden color, sometimes with a hint of a second color if they were telepathic, while anyone who had undergone a Naru Darc trial would be blue. The Borg were mostly golden, but a spiderweb of dark green energy was woven throughout their bodies, linking back to a concentrated ball within their heads.
With a target found, Echo exited the Yin Realm out of sight and activated her 'Eye of the Hunt'. Next, she used her illusion spell which helped people not notice her. She peeked around the corner and watched the Borg as they worked, studying their movements and habits. The more that she understood her target, the easier it would be to emulate them which lowered her mana usage for her spell. She had been trained from childhood to be an assassin and spy, so it only made sense to combine those skills with her unique power. While it was not useful against Rebecca, it was perfect for the group and the challenges ahead.
Echo did not want to take any risks, so she spent several days studying the Borg at close range. When she was more confident, she made her way deeper into the 'city', though she stretched to call it such. Black metal, unified structures with piping and tubing covering most of what could be seen. An ever-present green glow illuminated the way into the different buildings, but Echo stayed on the main road until she found a shield in her way.
While a Borg drone could pass through it with ease, Echo had never tried to see the capabilities of her Borg implants, just like Rebecca. It was not the time to test what they had been ignoring, so she instead found a data terminal and connected to it with her injection tubules. In an instant, her mind was connected to the computer system of the Borg Collective.
Within her mind, series of green codes dripped from the top of her 'vision' to the 'ground' that she stood on against the blackness. While it was like the Matrix coding on the screens, she did not recognize that, but rather the symbols that the code used. It was the same as the symbols that littered the Anomaly Stones in her last 'life', so alarms were raised in her mind, and she immediately disconnected from the terminal.
[Rebecca?] Echo asked through their connection.
[I've told Katye; she's thinking.]
Instead of staying in the location, Echo slipped into the Yin Realm and made her way around the 'city', the long way around the shielded zone. While she waited to hear back from Rebecca, she found an isolated rooftop and started setting up her Territory Domain. It used a series of runes like Katye's magic, but much simpler as it only had fifteen characters to the hundreds that Katye had.
Her Territory Domain was a small space that she locked down with techniques derived from her power. Illusions covered the outside of the Domain, designed to hide from detection. Within, there were illusions to confuse anyone who entered the space as well as reducing the cost for her to teleport within the zone, being inspired by Rebecca's Chaos Storm.
Releasing Nyka from her body, she transferred control of the Domain to her while Echo meditated. Although she could return to the Fae Dragon to regenerate the energy within her Borg implants, she chose to waste over double the amount of mana to replenish the energy with the technology by herself. She just needed orders on how to proceed before she left her safety net.
Surprisingly, Katye was not worried about it and even a little excited as that information would help her research. While Katye was not linked to Echo like Rebecca was, since they were together, she could connect her mind telepathically and help Echo understand the complex language, even including L'Naan into the 'conversation'.
Nyka fused with Echo once again and she disabled her Territorial Domain before slipping into Yin Realm. She made her way to an isolated section of the outer city and searched for a data terminal out of the way. When she found one that she was satisfied with, she set up her Territorial Domain again then meditated until she had returned to her peak condition. Once she connected to the computer system, she found herself in the world of green codes again.
[Incredible... Every program is built like a runic formation.] Katye exclaimed softly.
[Fascinating.] Echo replied dryly as she activated the power of her Eye of the Hunt.
Within the dripping coded 'world', a symbol took on an icy blue color followed by another one and another, creating a trail through the green and black world. Echo did not 'walk' through the code but moved her 'mind' along the path that her power created. In the 'distance', a large block of code was icy blue, but before she could get 'close', Katye stopped her.
[Wait, don't go further. There is a trap.] Katye warned.
[What? Where?] Echo asked.
[These symbols...] Katye replied, marking over a dozen runes scattered around with a violet color. [Mana-Sensing formation... It just keeps going.]
More symbols turned violet, and a dome-like shape over the blue 'tower' in the distance.
[It's a firewall. A magical-based firewall.] L'Naan remarked.
[How do I get past it?]
[We need to crack the code. Move along the edge of the firewall and let me write them down.] Katye said.
Echo did as she asked and scouted the firewall. Once Katye had what she needed, Katye and L'Naan disconnected from the link, and Rebecca decided to meditate. Instead of disconnecting, Echo changed her target from Raven to 'shields' which created a web of trails for her to follow. Focusing on minor information first, she slowly learned bits and pieces about Borg shielding, specifically what controlled the shield to the inner city.
She had worked with Raven enough times to know that simply shutting down a physical shield would raise alarms, so a different plan came to mind. Routine maintenance had been Raven's mantra when they lived on Go-Sci Ring, a space station from their past universe. Using the schedule, she was able to find a corridor that was due to be shut down soon and made her way there.
A team of six drones were cleaning, repairing, and replacing parts on the shield matrix as Echo walked past them. Her 'notice-me-not' spell was at full power, so she slipped past them unnoticed. Raven's trail appeared before her eyes, so she followed it while taking notice of her surroundings.
Unlike the 'outer city', the 'inner city' had regular sensor sweeps down the roads. While the architecture did not change, mana conduits flowed through the different buildings like a beating heart. Her instincts flared, so Echo ducked into a building right before a sensor sweep approached from behind.
Again, Echo changed her target to find a terminal. Certain piping illuminated in an icy blue glow which she followed up the structure, ignoring several terminals on the lower levels. After recreating her Territorial Domain, she left Nyka in charge while she reconnected to the Borg computer system. As she looked around the code world, she realized that she was 'within' the firewall, so she woke Rebecca from her meditation.
[Echo, why did you go inside the inner city? We've lost the lock on your signal.] Katye chided.
[Because Raven is in this city. She's near the center, but the scanners are much more active in this region, so I retreated here and found this.] Echo explained.
[It's Echo's favor... her chance to learn. She's doing exactly what she should do by following her instincts.] Rebecca defended.
[Fine, you're right. How did you get passed the firewall?] Katye asked.
[I used my Cyber Trail to find information about the shields and looked for a time when maintenance had them down. Once I got past the shield that had kept me from the inner city, I looked for Raven before I was forced to hide from the sensor sweeps which led me to the terminal that I'm now connected to.]
[Physical barriers can circumvent digital ones? It's part of the challenge.] L'Naan remarked.
[She's right.] Rebecca and Katye said in unison.
[Great... now, how do you want me to proceed?] Echo asked.
[You don't; not yet anyways. Following Raven's Cyber Trail will lead you into another trap, but if you research different things, you might be able to uncover her path another way.] Katye replied, thinking of how Echo's power worked.
Rebecca's amusement could almost be felt as she said. [Then think about it another way. A target behind enemy lines that you need to approach, but far more carefully than you can imagine. Hunt your quarry and find the perfect moment to strike. You can do this, Echo, I believe in you.]
Echo's heart pounded due to Rebecca's words, but she focused on her task. If Rebecca, of all people, was telling her to not take the direct method, she could not help but rethink her strategy as her plan always ended with her physically finding Raven. As the thought surfaced, she realized that her plan would have likely ended with her being captured as well since she was cut off from the others while she was in the inner city.
Rebecca would come after her, of course, but a large-scale battle would undoubtedly break out and the chances of her and Katye reaching her and Raven before it was too late were minimal. She knew better than that but had gotten so used to Rebecca's 'overpower it' mentality that she had stopped thinking like the spy she had been. Her power, like her past training, required subtlety and understanding of her target before she could act.
Knowing that any information directly related to Raven would likely be protected, Echo thought for a few moments as she reevaluated how she needed to track her. Ultimately, there had to be a reason why Raven came to this planet, so that was where she started, though in a general sense. Echo looked up information on the initial scans of the planet which drew the Borg's attention and found something interesting, while limited on the details.
Three months ago, the planet was scanned by a passing Borg cube, and mana crystals were detected on it. An exploratory group was sent to examine the 'vein' of mana crystals, but something else was found alongside the crystals. 'Project V' was tied into whatever the other thing was that the team found but, considering the name, Echo wisely did not investigate it too deeply.
From there, she researched a variety of topics from mining operations to drone movements to the shielding and sensor net. She took a full day to study the Borg computer system and carefully probed for what she could glean about 'Project V' without digging too deeply. It seemed that there was something important in the largest mana crystal mine which was not too far away from the Borg city. The reason why they did not build on top on the mine itself was because the mining operation was causing major instability for the ground above it.
What stood out to her were the drone distributions. Every forty-two hours, the number of drones inside the mining area was double the level for ten hours, the average amount of time that Raven spent regenerating. The Borg did not walk to the mining site, choosing to transport instead, but the security around it was not as secure as the inner city. She downloaded the schedule directly into her mind, as she had done with the other information, then disconnected from the terminal. A plan had formed in her mind, but she still needed to escape the inner city and return to the Fae Dragon before she could put it into play.