"…That Voidhunter, I feel like I do remember her slightly…" Nathan spoke to himself, as he dashed towards the cavern, "I also remember Aston telling me that he saw a Voidhunter onboard the spaceship too, so she may not be lying, however, among the numerous space factions, I have no idea what this "Melancholia of the Masquerade" is. I may need to discuss this with the others first!"
Nathan blitzed through the Xenophages in his path, that blocked the way into the cavern, and glanced upwards as the dead bodies plunged from the skies.
"It's a shame that I'm not a Flying Knight, else I could have dealt with a few more of the growing swarm beforehand."
"But, even as a Mecha Knight, there's too much at stake for me to be able to handle the Xenophages right now, as it will take far too much time… meaning, I can only rely on the other two groups to make sure it doesn't get too out of hand for now, before the reinforcements arrive."
"They definitely won't die if they don't get caught off guard, like what happened with group 3, but, I can only hope that the reinforcements come in time."
Nathan, after turning on his Night Vision, headed into the cave and upon entry, immediately smelt a foul stench, and noticed that the outermost walls of the cave were covered in strange matter, and so were the walls deeper within. But, what was most bizzare of all was that there was nothing that suggested that the cave was mined recently, at all.
"This is odd… the environment feels… suffocating, in a way."
Nathan made sure to watch his step, as he now felt as if he was walking on something that was not entirely stone.
Then, soon enough, he arrived at a point in the cavern where he believed their base was, where an opening in the cave's walls lay, and saw a few of the mercenary guards, surrounded by a bunch of tables with mechanical items and tablet writings, and also a strange jewel, on them.
It was at that moment that Nathan also noticed the Salvation Church's symbol, which was quite small, engraved on their left elbow. It was quite unnoticeable, which was why Nathan assumed they had not much to do with the Salvation Church.
…Damn it, they had me convinced. Never mind about that though, I'll just listen in for now.
"…They'll get here eventually." One of the mercenary guards murmured, "I just know it. So, why don't we just give up and surrender now? I'm sure that'll at least give us a swifter death…"
"No, you idiot! We can't! Those fools will only massacre us, and that plan that took several years to fulfil will cease completely before the culmination of it comes to fruition!"
The other two mercenary guards nodded their heads in agreement.
"We'll all get what we want. Using Sir Executive Gusteg's methods, the Salvation Church will be able to raze a secular planet into oblivion, the Abyssal Sea Cult will be able to find a barren planet to feed to their God, and Mr Hawk… will be able to get his hands on what he's been looking for."
"No matter how opposing we are as organizations that cannot exist simultaneously, banding together temporarily on this planet was our best bet, as it was already being extorted by the other planets in its Astral Region in the first place!"
"I agree! This planet was ours for the taking from the get-go!"
…Ah. So, they've been doing something like this the whole time? And, it wasn't even them extorting this planet either. It seems those two organizations just used the Slave Camps planted by other planets as a cover for this plan of theirs, as invading a planet, no matter how barren it is, is far from an easy task.
However, I still do not know who this "Mr Hawk" is. Perhaps I'll be able to find out from the tablets scattered on the tables.
Nathan walked from his hiding spot, just next to the entrance of the base near the opening, and brought out his plasma blade. In a matter of seconds, he killed most of the mercenary guards and left only one alive, just to ask one simple question.
"Who, exactly, was behind this plan of yours?"
The mercenary guard sweated with a petrified facial expression, and only repeatedly stuttered out, "I… I… I….."
"Speak!"
"It was one of the [[Nine Heralds]]!!" He said, all at once, "Or, more so, they merely suggested the idea to the executives!"
Fortunately, it seemed Nathan got his hands on the unsure one of the bunch.
"Who are these Nine Heralds?"
"…They… they're near the top of the organization… they're as strong as the leaders and executives of many major space factions!!"
"…What else is there about them?"
"They're… they're the Lords of their Pantheon's Divine Kingdoms, somewhere in a different dimension…!!"
"A different dimension? Divine Kingdoms? Yeah, there's no way I'm gonna believe that." Nathan said, before knocking him out with a strong punch to the face, "Nine Heralds, though… I doubt this is information that anybody else has currently."
"Ha… then, this means that even the higher-ups of the Salvation Church are involved in this mess. I do know a little bit about the Abyssal Sea Cult, but I didn't know that, even if they were a cult, they were so crazy about their God to team up with those lunatics." Nathan said, "But, I do wonder where the Abyssal Sea Cult is anyway."
Nathan dismissed that thought for now and walked over to the tables and began both inspecting the objects and reading what was on them.
"…Hm… it seems like mostly irrelevant information, talking about the features of Xenophages and what not… huh?"
"The Slave Miners have done everything they needed to do. Now, it's time to start the feeding process… what?" Nathan said as he read off a tablet that seemed to contain more substantial information.
"Feeding process? Feeding process for what?" Nathan asked.
Suddenly, he glanced to the far end of the base and barely caught a glimpse of a dark opening in the wall, that seemed to lead to someplace else.
And then, unexpectedly, a piercing, mind-hauntingly loud screech echoed from that same, strange, dark place, followed by the emergence of a few Xenophages.
"Huh…? They came from there…?" Nathan questioned, as he took care of them.
But, soon after, Nathan slowly ventured into this dark shadow that led into another space, entering another area within the cavern, and instantly laid his eyes on something horrifying, both in size and monstrousness.
A [[Mother Hivespawn]], the mother of a singular swarm of Xenophages, which was chained up. With a size that spanned over 50 feet, a bronze carapace that shielded its body, and extremely deadly mandibles. It had no wings but made up for that with its formidable body, and essentially served as the vanguard of the Xenophage swarms.
But, for a Mother Hivespawn to be metamorphosed, a Xenophage needed to be consistently fed both precious gemstones and raw flesh, preferably the flesh of various animals, over several years.
"Ah… so that's what they've been planning… but…"
"How am I ever gonna possibly take care of this thing?"