On the Primordial Stage 3
- Location
- Earth
The duality of our existence is a tragedy; every life lost is one too many, yet we can not stop from sending them into danger. For if we were to stop, even more lifes would be lost when the Deity of Sin returns before her time, or Her spawn end up overrunning the brave people of Gamindustri.
-Yellow Heart
IF sipped from her tea and enjoyed the trail of heat it left as it ran down her throat. November had started out cold and even their heated tents could do little about that.
Four days passed since they began to clean LAN Castle. Four days of tireless work and effort. Everyone was tired by this point and they made good progress, but there was still much to be done. Twelve hours of constant fighting every day exhausted even IF.
Their initial push into the main hall had been easy, but the sheer amount and individual strength of the monsters turned every metre after that point into a struggle. Ancient Dragons took great amounts of damage to fell, Fenrirs and Dolphins hid around corners to ambush their scouts, and almost every single Dogoo they encountered here was a Metal Dogoo on top of that. Where the normal ones were a pest, these continuously slipped through their assaults and ran away.
Nonetheless, she gladly took the hours of tense fighting over another close brush with death in form of a single Clione; just as they were told, none of those were in the castle.
"Just the basement left," Broccoli noted from next to her, with Gema lying in her lap; she was the only other Maker currently awake at seven in the morning, holding a candy bar she took bites out of while looking IF over. "One more day, maybe two. I never even saw a Giant Pixelvader before, those things look dumb."
"Hear hear," IF agreed with a mocking toast to the other brunette, who raised her sweets in response. They had found the unusual monster on the highest layer below the rooftop. "At least we don't have to clean the towers," she added after another sip.
"Yeah, I actually tried to look into one yesterday," the child admitted while pointing toward the glowing spire. "All the doors are locked and there are no keyholes. I doubt anything actually got into them in the first place."
"Noted." She idly watched her colleague break off a piece of chocolate, which was then dropped into Gema's open mouth; the creature happily chewed it immediately. "I'm never going to get over how weird Gema looks."
Broccoli shrugged and gave her companion a pat. "You'll get used to it if you stay around long enough. MAGES. and Marvy did, too." After the mention of her fellow Makers, the child perked up with a mischievous grin. "Wanna prank 5pb.?"
IF threw a glance to their shelter, where both of the remaining Makers were still fast asleep. Both Lyrica and CC2 had worked hard and needed their rest. Then again, it was almost time to get up for them anyway; not to mention that she was curious what Broccoli had in mind. "Sure."
Her fellow brunette grinned more widely and began to absorb Gema again, though her appearance did not change immediately. "Great; give me a moment and tell me if I look like the real deal when I'm done."
She nodded, not truly understanding what this was about; then Broccoli's hair began to shift in colour and length, turning into a blue reminiscent of the deep sea and growing out. Her face changed as well, losing the pudginess of youth alongside a readjustment of the cheekbones and facial structure. A little mole appeared on her forehead and at that point, the resemblance with both Lyrica and her sister was uncanny; more so because Broccoli was now a child wearing an adult's face.
"Well?" Even her voice had gone a bit deeper and changed in tone, imitating MAGES. calm yet haughty demeanor.
IF needed a moment to take in the changes and shake off the uncanny feeling. She took a deep breath before eyeing Broccoli again. "You're an actual shapeshifter? Is that other form your regular one then?"
The imitated blunette made a so-so motion. "Eh, I mostly use this to mess with people; my own body and shape are the ones I like best, maybe some cat ears or tentacles." She let that hang in the air, but IF did not ask; she did not want to know at this point.
Getting back to the original matter, IF looked over Broccoli's attempted imitation and nodded slowly. "It does look convincing; not perfect, but I doubt you want to keep it up for long."
"Yep; Gema doesn't have enough mass to let me grow into an adult body, so I couldn't do it anyway. Shaping up like the twins was a blast, though; even Lady Blanc found it funny." The child hopped up and down with a grin, then darted over to the cot Lyrica was resting on.
IF remained behind, watching her colleague shaking the blunette softly. "Wake up, my dear, it is time to conquer the castle once and for all." She could not say for sure, but it did sound convincing enough for someone who just woke up. Lyrica groaned and made to turn, but Broccoli shook her again.
"Ugh." She opened her eyes and raised her head, then blinked sleepily. "Carol? What are you...." Then her eyes focussed and narrowed while IF snorted quietly. "You are not my sister. This isn't funny."
"Oh, it totally is," the other blunette retorted as she began to return to her original form. IF felt a little uncomfortable watching the bones and flesh in her face shift. Going by her expression, Lyrica held similar thoughts.
Only Broccoli did not seem to mind it at all. "Your face was worth the effort!" she chirped, then paused and clarified: "I mean the face you made." IF had to snort again, aware that the clarification had been somewhat necessary.
Lyrica herself just sighed and ruffled the girl's hair. "I see why they sent you here; that gives everyone else a week without you."
"Hey!"
But the blunette merely kept petting Broccoli, at least until a bottle of water entered her field of vision, courtesy of IF; she took it with thanks and let off the now reformed brunette, then began to drink.
They soon settled down for breakfast and IF's thoughts began to wander to the remaining tasks ahead; her three colleagues were slowly eating their food in the privacy of their own shelter and she began to chew on the leanboxian provisions as well."You know," she told the others, "I think we're holding up pretty well."
CC2 gave her a nod while Broccoli shrugged. "Kinda?" Instead of using her cutlery, the girl grabbed for a sausage with her fingers and started munching on it. "It's more uh, no, easier for me and 5pb.," she added between bites. "Me in particular. Just blast away and take a nap when I run out."
The other brunette had to agree with that. She was used to exercising a lot and working hard by now, even if she did not get to do any exercises over the past few days; the fighting made more than up for it, but a strange feeling of failed routine remained nonetheless.
"Come now, we're fine." A hand snaked around her shoulder and CyberConnect2 leaned against IF with a grin. "We're tough cookies, aren't we?"
The brunette just grinned back and flicked her eyes to Broccoli. "And too old to get away with napping on the job."
"Exactly!" She was let go with that while the mages smiled over their colleague's antics.
Then however, IF's gaze fell on the black tarp spread out a bit outside of their camp and she grimaced. They had lost six agents so far, their bodies held in the airship up above; on top of that most of the tanks took various amounts of punishment from monsters making it past the Makers; even planeptunian composite steel could not withstand their assault. One had been destroyed entirely, half of the crew killed in addition to the agents.
She never saw a Dolphin that good at hiding itself; not even the Metal Doogos with their natural camouflage in this area had managed to sneak up on them like that.
IF had known that casualties would happen, but she still hated it. Even though she knew they were above the curve in that regard, she could not find it in herself to be happy as long as someone ended up dead.
At nine in the morning, everyone had eaten and prepared themselves for the coming day. CC2 split off from everyone and ran ahead as she had done every day after the first, inspecting the cleared sections to make sure no monsters that made it past the planeptunian scanners remained alive; only a few had moved over the night, passing through the checkpoints set up at every cleared intersection.
The mumbling about recklessness had stopped among the ranks, though. Many non-Lastationites had seen the blonde's behaviour as near-suicidal at first; when she returned hours later with a bright smile, a few bruises, and all hostiles killed, they began to understand why CC2 was called the lone wolf. IF had been in that group as well.
Of course the brunette knew that Makers often worked alone, but calling in help to deal with large numbers or similar situations were a perk of the job; IF had gone on her own often enough to know she could deal with almost anything, but her colleague simply went in and somehow made it through. No one knew how, only that the odds were not in her favour.
LAN Castle's basement had more narrow passages than the areas above ground; they could not bring the tanks there, which would remain behind and guard the staircases just in case. Agents fanned out with mages and equipment in the back lines, preparing for whatever may come.
In the lead were IF and 5pb., as usual; Broccoli remained just a few metres behind them while the Planeptunian checked around corners with a scouting drone. The first few corridors had been free and, after a suggestion from an agent, they decided to set up a kill zone. The Makers watched the path ahead while their subordinates worked on that, then two of the three advanced.
IF took point, carefully stepping forward with 5pb. following right after her; she checked around the next corner but found nothing. Following that, the two Makers approached two doorways at around the halfway mark of the following corridor, set opposite of each other and appearing perfectly innocent.
At first the fact the floor and walls swallowed any noise had been creepy; it was still a little unsettling even after four days inside, but IF had gotten somewhat used to it. It even helped in masking the sound of her approaching footsteps, though that also went for any monsters which may be hiding behind those corners.
Weirdly enough, the Sharicite appeared to only swallow sounds of transportation; voices carried normally.
IF reached the doorways and noticed that, as before, there were no doors. She signalled her friend to halt and stepped back while pulling the drone controller out of her pocket. 5pb. understood what she was doing and made room.
The metal sphere hummed softly as it passed them by, a Bite, which IF just knew had been named that exactly because it fit the weaponless scout less than Bit fit the armoured protective drone.
She watched its progress on the small screen on her controller, her colleague looking over her shoulder. The room to the left was found empty. IF made sure to turn the camera so it swept over every corner and the ceiling so as to not overlook anything in hiding.
Monsters in Lan Castle came in three flavours; the first kind merely lazed around and was easy to spot, but tipping them off with noise usually either made them charge immediately, or more often turned them into the second and third kind. The second waited right around a corner and jumped the first thing to round it; the third hid in some nook or cranny, either to make their escape or to strike from behind once they moved on.
They lost two people the first time that happened and IF would not make this mistake again. It may cost their very limited supply of drones as they got jumped by ambushers, but she rather lost material than personnel.
This machine turned under her careful commands and approached the other doorway to look inside; they immediately found two Metal Dogoos idling around, apparently unaware of their enemy's presence and ignoring the drone.
IF sent the machine further into the room to check for other monsters, but found nothing. Then she received a tap to her shoulder and turned to 5pb., who began to form two crackling spheres in her hands.
Taking the sign for what it was, the brunette made her drone retreat out of the room and around the corner, past where the two of them stood. Her colleague sent both orbs careening into the open room moments later, resulting in a flash and a loud bang followed by the smell of ozone.
Both Makers waited for a few seconds, but no agitated Metal Dogoos rushed out to flee or attack them; this prompted IF to carefully poke her head around the corner, ready to pull back immediately, but she found the room completely empty and with no sign of what just happened. A quick check of the corners told her that the monsters did not go into hiding, either.
So she turned back and showed her colleague a thumbs-up, who tapped her communicator. "Two Metal Dogoos, destroyed," she relayed to their main group. "No other hostiles so far. We proceed now."
They nodded at each other and walked on, toward the corridor's end. It split into an intersection, one path leading to the left and one to the right. IF's drone once again went first while the Makers watched its camera feed.
To the left, they found a Fenrir posed to leap, but which thankfully did not seem to care about the drone. It remained in wait, pressed against the floor with strings of muscles visible under the dark fur.
To the right, they made another first encounter of a kind IF had hoped to never see. A Giant Metal Dogoo, the same steel grey body as its small brethren and with boring red eyes, but idle as it tried to move in the small corridor. The Fenrir, too, did not have as much space due to the area they were in.
Going by how 5pb. audibly gasped, she had similar thoughts. The weight on her shoulder where the blunette's chin was went away as they separated and retreated a few metres, taking the drone along.
IF tapped her own communicator and reported her findings: "One Fenrir and One Giant Metal Dogoo, maybe impaired by the corridor's size. Set up the mines."
"Roger roger, setting up mines," the agent confirmed her order and faint shuffling could be heard from down the corridor; it was far enough away for the monsters not to hear, though they usually waited for someone to spring their traps instead of charging on their own. IF cast a glance back and found a dozen men and women lining the corridor with lastationite mines, the colours of their attire indistuinguishably monochrome through the light.
They set up a dozen mines in four clusters of three, with an obvious path right in the corridor's center for the Makers to run through. It took a few minutes which the Makers spent leaning onto opposite walls a bit away from the intersection, their hearts beating slightly faster from anticipation; they got used to things like these by now, but instinct would never allow them to simply shrug them off.
Once the mines were prepared and their agents retreated, 5pb. made to step forward but IF stopped her. She waved the blunette back and pointed at herself, receiving a quick nod; they could not kill something this big without a lot of SP expenditure, which could not be allowed in a long lasting mission. IF's magic, due to her bad efficiency, was best used to draw out foes here.
With a last glance back to make sure her friend had retreated to the far corner, IF gathered the power in her palms and tensed up. She could not do anything extravagant, but a single curve for each blast was possible even for her.
Once she was content with the amount of power she had gathered, she threw out her open palms and pushed it outward; the magic became flame immediately, rushing left and right under her will. It cut off after a moment while the brunette turned to flee. A growl sounded right behind her, making it clear that the Fenrir was not amused.
IF merely sped up, her boots hitting the floor in eery silence; she could not tell how far the pursuing monster was away or how fast it ran, so she boosted herself with her Awakening for a moment. The young Maker practically flew through the corridor with her enhanced running speed.
5pb. waited for her to clear the mines, watching the Fenrir even while IF's back was turned, and both of them quickly rounded the corner when the younger woman reached her friend. They threw themselves behind the blast shields set up by their agents only a moment before explosions hit them; the building did not shake, but the displaced air still carried the sound to them.
A bit of smoke wafted around the corner while most of the assorted humans flinched; even with the ear protection they all carried, the noise level hurt.
A few seconds passed and the noise faded. Then another set of explosions rang out, to much the same effect.
Then all was quiet once more, the silence uninterrupted again; Broccoli quietly darted to the corner and peeked around it, body pressed against the stone. Her head turned a little, taking in the surroundings, then she showed a thumbs up back to them.
IF sighed and tapped her direct subordinate agent's shoulder. "Mark another Fenrir and our first Giant Metal Dogoo." The man nodded while other agents already went out to retrieve the remaining mines and another group removed the blast shields.
This went on in roughly the same or similar manners for several hours, not much different to how it had gone for the previous days. Sometimes they had to vary their approach in more open spaces or staircases, but the allied forces worked out a good synergy after several days of facing the more dangerous monsters in Gamindustri.
When they took a break for lunch in the main hall, CC2 already expected everyone with a wide grin on her face; she appeared cheerful despite her disheveled hair and partly torn clothes, waving with a sausage hanging from her mouth.
"Heya!" she called to her fellow Makers after taking a bite from the meat and chewing it. "How'sh it going?"
IF could not help but roll her eyes a little, but knew the blonde was not the only one who would talk with her mouth full on occasion. "Pretty well," she told her. "An hour or two more and we can enter the lowest layer; we might be done by sundown.
"Wait, really?" The mages nodded in agreement, making CC2 blink. "Huh. I thought it would take longer. Good on us, I guess."
The others agreed with that, although Broccoli made a face right after. "We're running out of explosives," she told them. "The last stretch will probably need more legwork from us."
CC2 groaned and slumped over while a few planeptunian and leanboxian agents did about the same thing around them, everyone having looked forward to finishing up. IF in turn considered the new information before shrugging. "Then so be it. Let's extend the break a little so everyone can catch their breath."
She received no disagreements and a cheer followed the previous groan going through the ranks, much to their amusement. IF understood them, though; each day consisted of twelve hours of work, though each third of the assembled forces only had to go through eight hours; they cycled through in order to preserve their strength while the Makers kept at it.
She herself felt ready to keep going, though. So after a few minutes to prevent her food from coming back up due to unexpected athletics, IF got up and strapped her katars on again. "I'm going to take a quick look around, make sure we didn't miss anything."
"Sure, take care!"
"Have fun!"
"Don't die!"
Lyrica, CC2, and Broccoli respectively. IF rolled her eyes and got going.
At first it was merely a comfortable walk, through the cleared east wing and then back to camp; from there, IF went through the west wing as well while her friends relaxed.
Then she went into the basement again, their most recent conquest. Almost upon entering however, she spotted a Metal Dogoo. The monster immediately fled upon spotting her in turn, but IF gave chase around the corner it rounded.
Once she killed the creature, IF nodded and turned around to finish her round... only to find the agents already up ahead. How weird, she did not expect them to move just yet.
The young Maker made her way through the various teams, exchanging nods and greetings with some as she passed. 5pb. and Broccoli both waited up ahead and greeted her curiously, with CC2 apparently having gone ahead to scout alongside the Leanboxians.
"Finally back, eh?" Lyrica offered with a grin, "you've been gone for hours."
"Come on, it wasn't that long." IF almost laughed and moved forward to join her colleagues, who put the matter aside. "Let's finish this."
-Yellow Heart
IF sipped from her tea and enjoyed the trail of heat it left as it ran down her throat. November had started out cold and even their heated tents could do little about that.
Four days passed since they began to clean LAN Castle. Four days of tireless work and effort. Everyone was tired by this point and they made good progress, but there was still much to be done. Twelve hours of constant fighting every day exhausted even IF.
Their initial push into the main hall had been easy, but the sheer amount and individual strength of the monsters turned every metre after that point into a struggle. Ancient Dragons took great amounts of damage to fell, Fenrirs and Dolphins hid around corners to ambush their scouts, and almost every single Dogoo they encountered here was a Metal Dogoo on top of that. Where the normal ones were a pest, these continuously slipped through their assaults and ran away.
Nonetheless, she gladly took the hours of tense fighting over another close brush with death in form of a single Clione; just as they were told, none of those were in the castle.
"Just the basement left," Broccoli noted from next to her, with Gema lying in her lap; she was the only other Maker currently awake at seven in the morning, holding a candy bar she took bites out of while looking IF over. "One more day, maybe two. I never even saw a Giant Pixelvader before, those things look dumb."
"Hear hear," IF agreed with a mocking toast to the other brunette, who raised her sweets in response. They had found the unusual monster on the highest layer below the rooftop. "At least we don't have to clean the towers," she added after another sip.
"Yeah, I actually tried to look into one yesterday," the child admitted while pointing toward the glowing spire. "All the doors are locked and there are no keyholes. I doubt anything actually got into them in the first place."
"Noted." She idly watched her colleague break off a piece of chocolate, which was then dropped into Gema's open mouth; the creature happily chewed it immediately. "I'm never going to get over how weird Gema looks."
Broccoli shrugged and gave her companion a pat. "You'll get used to it if you stay around long enough. MAGES. and Marvy did, too." After the mention of her fellow Makers, the child perked up with a mischievous grin. "Wanna prank 5pb.?"
IF threw a glance to their shelter, where both of the remaining Makers were still fast asleep. Both Lyrica and CC2 had worked hard and needed their rest. Then again, it was almost time to get up for them anyway; not to mention that she was curious what Broccoli had in mind. "Sure."
Her fellow brunette grinned more widely and began to absorb Gema again, though her appearance did not change immediately. "Great; give me a moment and tell me if I look like the real deal when I'm done."
She nodded, not truly understanding what this was about; then Broccoli's hair began to shift in colour and length, turning into a blue reminiscent of the deep sea and growing out. Her face changed as well, losing the pudginess of youth alongside a readjustment of the cheekbones and facial structure. A little mole appeared on her forehead and at that point, the resemblance with both Lyrica and her sister was uncanny; more so because Broccoli was now a child wearing an adult's face.
"Well?" Even her voice had gone a bit deeper and changed in tone, imitating MAGES. calm yet haughty demeanor.
IF needed a moment to take in the changes and shake off the uncanny feeling. She took a deep breath before eyeing Broccoli again. "You're an actual shapeshifter? Is that other form your regular one then?"
The imitated blunette made a so-so motion. "Eh, I mostly use this to mess with people; my own body and shape are the ones I like best, maybe some cat ears or tentacles." She let that hang in the air, but IF did not ask; she did not want to know at this point.
Getting back to the original matter, IF looked over Broccoli's attempted imitation and nodded slowly. "It does look convincing; not perfect, but I doubt you want to keep it up for long."
"Yep; Gema doesn't have enough mass to let me grow into an adult body, so I couldn't do it anyway. Shaping up like the twins was a blast, though; even Lady Blanc found it funny." The child hopped up and down with a grin, then darted over to the cot Lyrica was resting on.
IF remained behind, watching her colleague shaking the blunette softly. "Wake up, my dear, it is time to conquer the castle once and for all." She could not say for sure, but it did sound convincing enough for someone who just woke up. Lyrica groaned and made to turn, but Broccoli shook her again.
"Ugh." She opened her eyes and raised her head, then blinked sleepily. "Carol? What are you...." Then her eyes focussed and narrowed while IF snorted quietly. "You are not my sister. This isn't funny."
"Oh, it totally is," the other blunette retorted as she began to return to her original form. IF felt a little uncomfortable watching the bones and flesh in her face shift. Going by her expression, Lyrica held similar thoughts.
Only Broccoli did not seem to mind it at all. "Your face was worth the effort!" she chirped, then paused and clarified: "I mean the face you made." IF had to snort again, aware that the clarification had been somewhat necessary.
Lyrica herself just sighed and ruffled the girl's hair. "I see why they sent you here; that gives everyone else a week without you."
"Hey!"
But the blunette merely kept petting Broccoli, at least until a bottle of water entered her field of vision, courtesy of IF; she took it with thanks and let off the now reformed brunette, then began to drink.
They soon settled down for breakfast and IF's thoughts began to wander to the remaining tasks ahead; her three colleagues were slowly eating their food in the privacy of their own shelter and she began to chew on the leanboxian provisions as well."You know," she told the others, "I think we're holding up pretty well."
CC2 gave her a nod while Broccoli shrugged. "Kinda?" Instead of using her cutlery, the girl grabbed for a sausage with her fingers and started munching on it. "It's more uh, no, easier for me and 5pb.," she added between bites. "Me in particular. Just blast away and take a nap when I run out."
The other brunette had to agree with that. She was used to exercising a lot and working hard by now, even if she did not get to do any exercises over the past few days; the fighting made more than up for it, but a strange feeling of failed routine remained nonetheless.
"Come now, we're fine." A hand snaked around her shoulder and CyberConnect2 leaned against IF with a grin. "We're tough cookies, aren't we?"
The brunette just grinned back and flicked her eyes to Broccoli. "And too old to get away with napping on the job."
"Exactly!" She was let go with that while the mages smiled over their colleague's antics.
Then however, IF's gaze fell on the black tarp spread out a bit outside of their camp and she grimaced. They had lost six agents so far, their bodies held in the airship up above; on top of that most of the tanks took various amounts of punishment from monsters making it past the Makers; even planeptunian composite steel could not withstand their assault. One had been destroyed entirely, half of the crew killed in addition to the agents.
She never saw a Dolphin that good at hiding itself; not even the Metal Doogos with their natural camouflage in this area had managed to sneak up on them like that.
IF had known that casualties would happen, but she still hated it. Even though she knew they were above the curve in that regard, she could not find it in herself to be happy as long as someone ended up dead.
. .
. .
. .
At nine in the morning, everyone had eaten and prepared themselves for the coming day. CC2 split off from everyone and ran ahead as she had done every day after the first, inspecting the cleared sections to make sure no monsters that made it past the planeptunian scanners remained alive; only a few had moved over the night, passing through the checkpoints set up at every cleared intersection.
The mumbling about recklessness had stopped among the ranks, though. Many non-Lastationites had seen the blonde's behaviour as near-suicidal at first; when she returned hours later with a bright smile, a few bruises, and all hostiles killed, they began to understand why CC2 was called the lone wolf. IF had been in that group as well.
Of course the brunette knew that Makers often worked alone, but calling in help to deal with large numbers or similar situations were a perk of the job; IF had gone on her own often enough to know she could deal with almost anything, but her colleague simply went in and somehow made it through. No one knew how, only that the odds were not in her favour.
LAN Castle's basement had more narrow passages than the areas above ground; they could not bring the tanks there, which would remain behind and guard the staircases just in case. Agents fanned out with mages and equipment in the back lines, preparing for whatever may come.
In the lead were IF and 5pb., as usual; Broccoli remained just a few metres behind them while the Planeptunian checked around corners with a scouting drone. The first few corridors had been free and, after a suggestion from an agent, they decided to set up a kill zone. The Makers watched the path ahead while their subordinates worked on that, then two of the three advanced.
IF took point, carefully stepping forward with 5pb. following right after her; she checked around the next corner but found nothing. Following that, the two Makers approached two doorways at around the halfway mark of the following corridor, set opposite of each other and appearing perfectly innocent.
At first the fact the floor and walls swallowed any noise had been creepy; it was still a little unsettling even after four days inside, but IF had gotten somewhat used to it. It even helped in masking the sound of her approaching footsteps, though that also went for any monsters which may be hiding behind those corners.
Weirdly enough, the Sharicite appeared to only swallow sounds of transportation; voices carried normally.
IF reached the doorways and noticed that, as before, there were no doors. She signalled her friend to halt and stepped back while pulling the drone controller out of her pocket. 5pb. understood what she was doing and made room.
The metal sphere hummed softly as it passed them by, a Bite, which IF just knew had been named that exactly because it fit the weaponless scout less than Bit fit the armoured protective drone.
She watched its progress on the small screen on her controller, her colleague looking over her shoulder. The room to the left was found empty. IF made sure to turn the camera so it swept over every corner and the ceiling so as to not overlook anything in hiding.
Monsters in Lan Castle came in three flavours; the first kind merely lazed around and was easy to spot, but tipping them off with noise usually either made them charge immediately, or more often turned them into the second and third kind. The second waited right around a corner and jumped the first thing to round it; the third hid in some nook or cranny, either to make their escape or to strike from behind once they moved on.
They lost two people the first time that happened and IF would not make this mistake again. It may cost their very limited supply of drones as they got jumped by ambushers, but she rather lost material than personnel.
This machine turned under her careful commands and approached the other doorway to look inside; they immediately found two Metal Dogoos idling around, apparently unaware of their enemy's presence and ignoring the drone.
IF sent the machine further into the room to check for other monsters, but found nothing. Then she received a tap to her shoulder and turned to 5pb., who began to form two crackling spheres in her hands.
Taking the sign for what it was, the brunette made her drone retreat out of the room and around the corner, past where the two of them stood. Her colleague sent both orbs careening into the open room moments later, resulting in a flash and a loud bang followed by the smell of ozone.
Both Makers waited for a few seconds, but no agitated Metal Dogoos rushed out to flee or attack them; this prompted IF to carefully poke her head around the corner, ready to pull back immediately, but she found the room completely empty and with no sign of what just happened. A quick check of the corners told her that the monsters did not go into hiding, either.
So she turned back and showed her colleague a thumbs-up, who tapped her communicator. "Two Metal Dogoos, destroyed," she relayed to their main group. "No other hostiles so far. We proceed now."
They nodded at each other and walked on, toward the corridor's end. It split into an intersection, one path leading to the left and one to the right. IF's drone once again went first while the Makers watched its camera feed.
To the left, they found a Fenrir posed to leap, but which thankfully did not seem to care about the drone. It remained in wait, pressed against the floor with strings of muscles visible under the dark fur.
To the right, they made another first encounter of a kind IF had hoped to never see. A Giant Metal Dogoo, the same steel grey body as its small brethren and with boring red eyes, but idle as it tried to move in the small corridor. The Fenrir, too, did not have as much space due to the area they were in.
Going by how 5pb. audibly gasped, she had similar thoughts. The weight on her shoulder where the blunette's chin was went away as they separated and retreated a few metres, taking the drone along.
IF tapped her own communicator and reported her findings: "One Fenrir and One Giant Metal Dogoo, maybe impaired by the corridor's size. Set up the mines."
"Roger roger, setting up mines," the agent confirmed her order and faint shuffling could be heard from down the corridor; it was far enough away for the monsters not to hear, though they usually waited for someone to spring their traps instead of charging on their own. IF cast a glance back and found a dozen men and women lining the corridor with lastationite mines, the colours of their attire indistuinguishably monochrome through the light.
They set up a dozen mines in four clusters of three, with an obvious path right in the corridor's center for the Makers to run through. It took a few minutes which the Makers spent leaning onto opposite walls a bit away from the intersection, their hearts beating slightly faster from anticipation; they got used to things like these by now, but instinct would never allow them to simply shrug them off.
Once the mines were prepared and their agents retreated, 5pb. made to step forward but IF stopped her. She waved the blunette back and pointed at herself, receiving a quick nod; they could not kill something this big without a lot of SP expenditure, which could not be allowed in a long lasting mission. IF's magic, due to her bad efficiency, was best used to draw out foes here.
With a last glance back to make sure her friend had retreated to the far corner, IF gathered the power in her palms and tensed up. She could not do anything extravagant, but a single curve for each blast was possible even for her.
Once she was content with the amount of power she had gathered, she threw out her open palms and pushed it outward; the magic became flame immediately, rushing left and right under her will. It cut off after a moment while the brunette turned to flee. A growl sounded right behind her, making it clear that the Fenrir was not amused.
IF merely sped up, her boots hitting the floor in eery silence; she could not tell how far the pursuing monster was away or how fast it ran, so she boosted herself with her Awakening for a moment. The young Maker practically flew through the corridor with her enhanced running speed.
5pb. waited for her to clear the mines, watching the Fenrir even while IF's back was turned, and both of them quickly rounded the corner when the younger woman reached her friend. They threw themselves behind the blast shields set up by their agents only a moment before explosions hit them; the building did not shake, but the displaced air still carried the sound to them.
A bit of smoke wafted around the corner while most of the assorted humans flinched; even with the ear protection they all carried, the noise level hurt.
A few seconds passed and the noise faded. Then another set of explosions rang out, to much the same effect.
Then all was quiet once more, the silence uninterrupted again; Broccoli quietly darted to the corner and peeked around it, body pressed against the stone. Her head turned a little, taking in the surroundings, then she showed a thumbs up back to them.
IF sighed and tapped her direct subordinate agent's shoulder. "Mark another Fenrir and our first Giant Metal Dogoo." The man nodded while other agents already went out to retrieve the remaining mines and another group removed the blast shields.
. .
. .
. .
This went on in roughly the same or similar manners for several hours, not much different to how it had gone for the previous days. Sometimes they had to vary their approach in more open spaces or staircases, but the allied forces worked out a good synergy after several days of facing the more dangerous monsters in Gamindustri.
When they took a break for lunch in the main hall, CC2 already expected everyone with a wide grin on her face; she appeared cheerful despite her disheveled hair and partly torn clothes, waving with a sausage hanging from her mouth.
"Heya!" she called to her fellow Makers after taking a bite from the meat and chewing it. "How'sh it going?"
IF could not help but roll her eyes a little, but knew the blonde was not the only one who would talk with her mouth full on occasion. "Pretty well," she told her. "An hour or two more and we can enter the lowest layer; we might be done by sundown.
"Wait, really?" The mages nodded in agreement, making CC2 blink. "Huh. I thought it would take longer. Good on us, I guess."
The others agreed with that, although Broccoli made a face right after. "We're running out of explosives," she told them. "The last stretch will probably need more legwork from us."
CC2 groaned and slumped over while a few planeptunian and leanboxian agents did about the same thing around them, everyone having looked forward to finishing up. IF in turn considered the new information before shrugging. "Then so be it. Let's extend the break a little so everyone can catch their breath."
She received no disagreements and a cheer followed the previous groan going through the ranks, much to their amusement. IF understood them, though; each day consisted of twelve hours of work, though each third of the assembled forces only had to go through eight hours; they cycled through in order to preserve their strength while the Makers kept at it.
She herself felt ready to keep going, though. So after a few minutes to prevent her food from coming back up due to unexpected athletics, IF got up and strapped her katars on again. "I'm going to take a quick look around, make sure we didn't miss anything."
"Sure, take care!"
"Have fun!"
"Don't die!"
Lyrica, CC2, and Broccoli respectively. IF rolled her eyes and got going.
At first it was merely a comfortable walk, through the cleared east wing and then back to camp; from there, IF went through the west wing as well while her friends relaxed.
Then she went into the basement again, their most recent conquest. Almost upon entering however, she spotted a Metal Dogoo. The monster immediately fled upon spotting her in turn, but IF gave chase around the corner it rounded.
::
Once she killed the creature, IF nodded and turned around to finish her round... only to find the agents already up ahead. How weird, she did not expect them to move just yet.
The young Maker made her way through the various teams, exchanging nods and greetings with some as she passed. 5pb. and Broccoli both waited up ahead and greeted her curiously, with CC2 apparently having gone ahead to scout alongside the Leanboxians.
"Finally back, eh?" Lyrica offered with a grin, "you've been gone for hours."
"Come on, it wasn't that long." IF almost laughed and moved forward to join her colleagues, who put the matter aside. "Let's finish this."
