308 Convergence 5 (1/2)
”This actually seems like home~ How nostalgic, how fun~”
Having set foot on Marex 4, Alice was immediately creeped out by the planet's strange vegetation, while Ifrit felt at home and started dancing around with a large smile on their face for some strange reason. Having landed in a lush plane filled with grass and flowers, a large forest was visible in the distance, the only thing that missed from such a picturesque scene was the sound of birds singing, and some more colour, of course, seeing as all the vegetation on the planet was pitch black like a starless night.
If the lone distant star above was red instead of blue, the 'picturesque scene' would be more fit for a nightmare than anything else.
”The plant life here is black because of the atmosphere of the planet combined with the distance from the star, very little solar radiation makes it all the way down to the surface so the plants have evolved to absorb as much of it as possible, there's nothing creepy about this.”
Explaining what was going on to the superstitious acting Alice, Phillipa took stock of the surroundings before she turned to Dax and Lux.
”Phillipa, take it away.”
Receiving permission from her superior, Phillipa showed a slight smile as she put the helmet of her XMRA armour on as she started barking orders.
”Button up everyone! Even if the atmosphere is breathable, I don't want to take any chances near the anomalies!”
As the others put on their black helmets another group of CAS-7A Stingers landed behind Phillipa, quickly deploying their squads of Reaper drones before launching again, climbing to an altitude of 4 kilometres where they went into a holding pattern together with the countless Hornet close air support drones which had already been deployed.
”Let's move! Although the days are long on this planet, the daylight is finite! Next stop, the most recent anomaly, 21 kilometres due west!”
Starting to 'march' towards the first objective, the unit of Hellwalkers fell into a formation where those with sharp senses like Mare, Lia and Lux in a forward position while spellcasters like Solaris and Ifrit remained in the centre of the formation. Although Marex 4's surface gravity was quite a bit harsher than Solaris and the others were used to, the pace of the march was in no way slow, if anything it was between the level of a jog and a full on sprint. Running alongside Dax and Phillipa, Solaris had spent the past few minutes deliberating if she should ask why they didn't just fly all the way to the anomaly, but figuring that things couldn't get worse than they already were, she decided to just ask.
”So, is there any reason why we didn't land closer to the objective?”
”Yeah, there's plenty of reasons. Most importantly, we don't want to be seen coming, this is still Emergence space. We're deep inside hostile territory here.”
”That is reasonable yeah, thanks for clearing that up.”
Getting satisfactory answers from both Dax and Phillipa, Solaris was just about to continue small talk when Lux cut in on the radio.
[Overwhatch has found something up ahead, weapons tight. Be ready for anything.]
Connecting to the IMI network, Dax quickly located what Lux had found, about 5 kilometres in front, between their current location and the anomaly, there was a large crater. Judging by the surrounding vegetation, the impact wasn't that recent, but it also lined up with the timeframe for the recent CDT event.
”Ifrit, Mare, Terra, Alice secure the area, I want no surprises until we've found out what we're dealing with. Lux, take control of the Hornets on overwatch, secure an outer premier.”
Reaching the edge of the 50 metre wide crater, Dax continued down into it as he delegated people to cover the area. At the craters epicentre was the charred remains of something mechanical, at closer examination, Dax determined it was some sort of reconnaissance drone, most likely belonging to the Emergence.
”This damage isn't from reentry, something melted straight through this drone's heat shield, and before it could even react too.”