I turned to look at the rock in question, hand reaching for my Goliath and wondering why Clover was talking about a moon. There was more than one rock to look at, an outcropping of a dozen or so boulders, about one hundred and fifty feet away. Each bigger than I was tall, if I was judging the distance right, but I didn’t see anything moving. I didn’t smell or hear anything that made me think of Demons either, but we were upwind and everything that my acute senses could pick up was unfamiliar at best since I wasn’t used to this desert.

“Clover is right, I am picking up heat signatures, sort of. They are very faint, just below the ambient temperature here, but those are not normal rocks,” Risha said just loud enough to carry to the rest of our fellow Angels. “There is definitely more to those rocks than meets the eye.”

“Really? A Transformers reference?” Clover quietly hissed at her fellow AI.

“Hey, that Star Wars reference of yours was a stretch too, you know,” Risha silently protested.

“Give me a break, Rish,” Clover shot back, hand still on the hilt of her sword. “This is my first real mission, and those boulders are giving me the heebee jeebees. I keep wondering when the cute little children are going to pop out of nowhere, suddenly turn all scary and start shouting ‘Gorignak!’ By the way, I see your heat signatures and raise you some movement, that big one definitely shifted a little bit just now.”

I saw the movement as well. The Avatars’ eyes might be even better than mine, especially at night when I could only see in grayscale, but I was very good at catching movement and it was slight, but that big rock had shifted slightly. I was about to confirm it when Risha said, “Yup, I caught that too, and so did Snowy, judging by how her eyes narrowed and her pulse elevated just now. Oh, and that reference was much better, Galaxy Quest is a classic, we’ll have to watch it with everyone when we all have some time off. Anyway, what do you think, Snow? Maryn? Rose?”

“We’re here to scout, so I’d rather avoid combat, if possible,” Rose suggested even as she primed her mini missile launchers.

“Yeah, my team is more suited for scouting, infiltration, and distraction than a straight up brawl with a complete unknown,” Maryn quietly contributed. “We’re in unfamiliar territory, and I’d like to have some idea what we’re dealing with before we have to fight it, if possible.”

“I agree,” I said with a nod. I didn’t take my eyes off those rocks though, or my hand off the Goliath’s hilt. “We might also need to conserve our energy and ammunition for later in case we run across something that we can’t avoid. Everyone, get back in your MISTs, quiet…”

A deep animalistic shriek cut off my words as the largest of the boulders seemed to unfold itself, followed by the others nearby. “Shit! Forget what I just said, Risha and Clover try to take a couple of those things out with your Minimaxes. Anyone else with heavy artillery, hit those things with everything you have. Snipers, look for any weak spots. Everyone else, get in those MISTs and get them prepped for takeoff.”

“And get Dayna out here, we may need her,” Rose quickly added as she powered up her M-1 mini-missile launchers.

As everyone else followed my quickly given orders, Risha took the first shot with her Minimax, hitting the first of the creatures and causing an explosion that briefly lit the night sky. My eyes had just cleared from that to see that the big one was down when Clover sent a second micro-missile flying toward another of the targets that were now lumbering toward us. “What the hell are those things? It looks like someone crossed a crocodile with an armadillo, super-sized it, and then gave it stone armor!” the Fay-looking Avatar exclaimed just before her micro-missile ended another one.

“At least they’re slow,” Rose muttered as she and Peter both launched a volley of mini missiles and Lisbet added some grenades for good measure.

“Probably because they are cold blooded and diurnal, they are probably a lot less sluggish during the daylight hours, when it’s hotter,” Risha explained as she and Clover reloaded their weapons. “We probably woke them up, maybe they heard or smelled us, or perhaps they can sense vibrations in the ground or something.”

“That’s all very interesting, Risha, but how do we take them down?” Rose pressed as the cloud of smoke from the mini missiles and grenades cleared and while the Demons that had been hit appeared battered, they were more angry than seriously harmed. Those rock-like hides were tough. “Damn, I need to get some missiles with whatever explosive you’re using in yours.”

A second later the furious Demon fell to the ground as Heather announced, “Snipers, go for those beady little eyes!”

My Goliath in its Gatling mode wasn’t doing much more than the barrage of explosives had, neither were Kyra’s armor piercing rounds, and I certainly didn’t want her using plasma rounds when those things were getting closer to us. We were giving them a pounding and pissing them off, but only chipping away at their thick stone armor. Since they were getting uncomfortably closer and I didn’t want to risk anyone getting hit by shrapnel, I switched back to Claymore mode. It wasn’t like I was doing much anyway, and I would rather conserve my gift energy.

As two more went down from shots to the eyes and only six of the Demons remained, I announced, “They’re getting too close for missiles, we risk the explosions hurting one of us if they get much closer. Kyra, our long-range modes are out for the same reason and Lisbet’s pulse cannon too. Risha and Clover, switch to your particle beam weapons.”

The two Ais quickly shouldered their primary weapons and less than a moment later, bright blue beams of light erupted from the palms of their hands, causing a pair of the massive Demons to shriek as they punched through their armor, blowing holes right through them. Even as they collapsed to the ground, Dayna emerged from Shadow Wing’s MIST and the concentrated energy beam from the rifle that had once been her huge hammer slammed into another Demon.

The process wasn’t quite as fast as the particle beams that the Avatars had built in, but Dayna’s unrelenting beam of energy managed to penetrate the rock-like armor and hit something important. By the time that it went down, Clover and Risha had managed to take down another pair with their particle beams, leaving only one remaining for Dayna to finish off when it turned around and attempted to sluggishly flee. Were they some sort of opportunistic pack hunter Demons?

I filed my thoughts and observations away for later when we would have to file our reports for this mission. It wasn’t important at the moment since we were still standing, our attackers weren’t, and we still had plenty of scouting ahead of us. I just hoped that we managed to finish, and I could return home to the twins before dawn arrived here.

Risha had indicated that it would probably get even hotter during the day, which of course made sense, but I wasn't sure whether Mera and I could handle much more heat. As it was, I felt like I was melting, and I needed something to drink. I settled for getting a large bottle of water from the food dispenser that would hopefully keep me hydrated and suggested that Mera do the same. We were probably going to be knocking those back whenever we weren’t inside the temperature-controlled environment of the MISTs.

By the time Shadow Wing’s MIST was cleaned up and we were all ready to continue our scouting mission, I had finished my bottle of water and Lisbet was ready to clean up the Demon corpses with a barrage of plasma grenades. Once we had taken the MISTs to a safe enough distance for the Harekin to take care of that task, all that she had to do was launch the grenades from above and make sure that all the corpses were burning properly and not risking a wildfire, not that there was much in this patch of desert to burn. When the flames finally began to die down, we took off once again in the direction of the central spire.

For an hour we travelled westward toward the general coordinates of the central spire. We could have gotten there a lot faster, but part of this mission was getting detailed scans of this area and any Demons or other issues that might be present. As we traveled, the desert beneath us started to give way to sparse vegetation which became denser along the shores of a small river. Beyond the river, it looked like the vegetation was lusher, forming into a dense rainforest.

Despite the largely arid conditions up until now, there were a lot of living things on ground level. Most of those things didn’t seem to be Demons, at least not that we could tell from our scans, but we didn’t see any signs of Humans or any intelligent Seedborne species. -= Huh, there are a lot less Demons than I was expecting down there. I guess even Demons are scared of Australia’s natural wildlife, =- Clover’s voice commented as we passed over the river below.

“The parasites inside the Demon Seeds likely wouldn’t survive in the river for long enough to infect anything and they don’t infect plant life. There isn’t a lot of animal life in general down there, which is concerning for a river valley in an otherwise arid environment,” Risha explained. “I’m guessing that the Demons down there have eaten everything that that they can catch in the area, including most of the weaker Demons, since the last seed-storm passed through here. They will likely move on to other hunting grounds soon or die of starvation. We’ll probably see more signs of Demons and life in general when we get over that rainforest ahead of us.”

“How accurate are these scans?” Karina, who was piloting along with Autumn, inquired.

-= I was wondering about that too, =- Krysta’s voice agreed over our comms.

Risha considered the question for a moment before answering, “Well, the system for area scanning and detecting life signs was originally created for the space program. It was designed for determining if there was life on new planets before attempting colonization. The wide dispersal beam that the system emits scans for organic matter and differentiates between flora and fauna. It also scans certain environmental factors for signs that indicate intelligent life in an area. When the MISTs started getting used for military purposes, they made some additions to scan for large concentrations of extra-planar energy so it could be used to detect Demons as well. As for the accuracy of those scans, it seems to be relatively precise for anything larger than insects, though determining different species among life signs is not very reliable.”

“So, in other words, pretty damn accurate for our purposes,” Heather said with a playful tone that belied the scowl she was giving Risha. “You could have just said that you know.”

Roughly fifteen minutes later, the vegetation below us became thicker and wilder as it turned into the dense rainforest that we had seen from afar. Not long after that, we came within sight of the central spire. Even from such a distance, the massive tower looked imposing. It was even bigger and taller than the one where we had met Desra and the other members of Suppression Team Theta. This one was stark black though, gleaming underneath the sun and towering above the rainforest that it stood within.

-= Dun… dun… dun… dun-dun! =- Clover practically sang dramatically over the comms when we finally came within sight.

“It’s not full of stars, like you might be thinking, Clover,” Risha countered playfully. “That black metal is the same super alloy that the space program used to construct the hulls of the Magellan, the Columbus, and the Armstrong. It was the strongest, most heat resistant, and most radiation resistant metal that they could manufacture at the time, though that was before the seed-storms and Demons came along and we got things like Razorwing metal that probably could have improved it further. They didn’t want to risk the FTL comms system being taken down by terrorists or something.”

A thoughtful hum preceded Rose’s voice asking, -= Are there any defenses that we should be aware of, Risha. =-

The AI frowned as she glanced at the tower in the distance. “Of course,” she finally admitted. “They really didn’t want anyone messing with the central spire. In addition to that thick armor coating, it has twice the amount of repair nanite vats as the other towers, requires access codes for approach and entry, and has attack drones and point defense lasers for defense against airborne intruders as well as ground defenses. They didn’t have plasma turrets yet when it was built, but the wildlife itself is an extra layer of defense on the ground. Anyone who makes it past the wildlife would still have to have the proper access codes to unseal the entrance and get inside or risk activating the perimeter ground defenses.”

“How do they keep all of that running? Wouldn’t you need a fusion reactor or a stardrive for something like that? Those need to be maintained and monitored, like what you told me about what you needed to do in Ashburn,” Lisbet commented thoughtfully.

“The FTL comms system was being constructed before the first stardrive prototype was finished. The towers were designed to run on geothermal energy, and this one is the mother of all of them. If I read the files on the central spire right, it’s tapping the Earth’s core itself for energy. They did not want this system to go down. I believe that the one on the moon is constructed from similar materials but lacks the additional defenses and runs on solar energy.” Risha explained.

“Well, we should probably land before we get in range of those lasers and drones, Risha,” Autumn called out from the pilot’s compartment. “Should we stop and set down while you get those access codes? I really don’t want to be shot out of the sky again.”

-= Yeah, though that rainforest looks so thick that I doubt we could land anywhere close to the tower regardless, =- Sarin’s gravelly voice pointed out.

“What do you think, Risha? Can you manage to get the access codes from in the air, or should we find a place to land?” I asked as I looked out the window at the rainforest below. At uncomfortable as the heat was, I had been hoping that the central spire would be in the desert since the barren terrain would be easier to scout and I really wanted to do some scouting on one of the REVs in a place where I could push their speed to the limits.

“We’re going to need those codes ready for the big mission,” Risha replied thoughtfully, “though it would be nice if there isn’t much Demon resistance, and we could just walk right in and shut the system down now. We will have to land, then I can send a micro-drone toward the central spire. It’ll be too small to trigger any defenses, can slip inside to the defense computer, and I can piggyback its signal to access the defense systems and generate authorization codes remotely. We will likely have to travel through a bit of that rainforest before I’m close enough to do that and keep the micro-drone in range though.”

-= Couldn’t you just use the FTL comms system itself to access the defense computer? =- Mera’s voice inquired.

“If it were that easy, I could have gotten those codes from the comfort of home,” Risha said with a sigh. “The computer for the central spire’s security and defense isn’t connected to the FTL comms system itself to prevent just what I’m going to be doing. It has its own local and very short-range communications emitter with very limited bandwidth. If we try to do anything with that other than send the proper short-burst code when it pings us, it’ll activate the defense systems. Trying to use that comms emitter to access the computer and download information is out, so I need to be sneaky, access the computer directly with the micro-drone, and then use it to transmit the information to me.”

“Let’s find a spot to land then,” I decided. “Risha, can you give Shadow Wing and Phantom Wing a flight plan that will take them in a wide circle around the perimeter of the central spire without getting in range to be targeted by its air defenses? They can go in opposite directions and meet on the other side. That way, while we’re exploring on ground level and getting those access codes, they can finish scanning the area and we’ll be making the most efficient use of our time.”

“Yeah, that’s not a problem Snowy, I’m sending both MISTs a safe flight plan now,” the AI quickly replied.

-= Be careful down there, Storm Wing, =- Rose cautioned. -= It looks like we’re picking up a lot of life signs down in that rainforest, and a good portion of them appear to be either Demon or Seed-borne. =-

“We’ll do our best,” I promised.

We managed to find a small clearing to land in, but it was only just big enough for our MIST, so it was a good thing that Rose and Maryn were going to stay in the air and finish the scans. As soon as we touched down, I ordered, “Okay, let’s break into that emergency gear and get ready to make tracks toward that tower. Marti, do you mind taking the pack since you ‘re not carrying any big weapons?”

The medical AI would be coming with us in case any of us was injured, since that was her role on the team, but the only weapon that she had was her holdout weapon, the same S&W LRX-7 that the rest of us had been issued. She did have other ways to defend herself, of course, but that consisted of the particle beam weapons that were built into her avatar body since it had the same features as Risha’s. The pig-tailed AI checked the large pack in question and cheerfully replied, “I’d be happy too, Snow. It mostly contains extra medical supplies anyway, and the portable food dispenser to create whatever else we might need while away from the MIST.

“Thanks, Marti,” I told her with a smile. “Risha, other than as much spare ammunition as we can comfortably carry, what else do you think we might need from these supplies while moving through that forest? I want us to be prepared, but I’d like to travel as light as possible.”

“It looks like a lot, doesn’t it? We needed to be prepared for various different scenarios and environments since we weren’t sure what to expect while packing these supplies,” the other AI commented before carefully considering my question. “We should definitely bring those machetes, they’re made of Razorwing metal, so they’re lightweight and keep a sharp edge. We might need them for hacking through thick brush or other vegetation, and they can serve as weapons as well in a pinch. We should take a flare gun as well, in case we need to signal the other teams, and those canteens of water and the packages of energy bars. That should be all we’ll need if you want to travel light and fast. Anything else, we have the portable food dispenser for.”

I nodded and grabbed one each of the items that she recommended, including one of the two flare guns. Then I placed them all, plus some spare ammunition for my holdout weapon, in one of the waist pouch belts that were with the supplies. “Okay, everyone, you heard her so gear up. Heather, you’ll take the other flare gun.”

Once everyone was equipped, we sealed up the MIST and started heading westward toward the central spire. I kept my senses alert for danger as we traveled, but I was too unfamiliar with the local wildlife and plants to know what to look out for, other than the more obvious signs of destruction and carnage that Demons often leave in their wake. I was tempted to have both Risha and Marti release their micro-drones and disperse them as far as they could to survey the terrain and look for dangers, but the forest and its foliage was just too dense and dark to make it practical. As it was, we were making constant use of those machetes that Risha suggested.

For two hours we trudged through the hot, muggy, forest. I had already finished my canteen of water and switched it out for the one that Marti was carrying. I didn’t like this at all, I couldn’t use my gift here and the forest was so dense in places that I couldn’t use my massive sword either if we had to fight something. Still, nothing bothered us for the first two hours of our hike and, if it weren’t for the heat and my nerves, it would have been a pleasant hike while getting to know the sights, sounds, and scents of the rainforest.

We did spot plenty of the local wildlife and having two Fay with us seemed to help keep those encounters peaceful. Fay are very close to nature and have a natural ability to bond with animals, especially herbivores and other gentle varieties. Risha was able to identify most of them for us, so we knew to be wary of some species, like the constrictor snakes that Risha pointed out, but we also saw a wide variety of colorful bird species, bats, wallabies, and even a slumbering koala that Marti thought was adorable. A pair of sugar gliders were particularly interested in Heather and Autumn and seemed to have adopted the two Fay during our trek.

Those sugar gliders proved more useful than I first thought since they sensed the danger first and tried to burrow into Heather’s and Autumn’s clothes. As the two Fay tried not to shriek at the unexpected intrusion, I smelled something that made my tail bristle and stand up straight. I stopped on the spot, my ears twitching and turning toward a rustling in the trees. Almost everyone else seemed to hear it at the same time since, except for Karina, everyone on the team had very good hearing.

“Above us!” I called out, causing the team to scatter and Karina to teleport away as something dropped from the trees above us, barely missing Lisbet as she dove out of the way. The Demon vaguely resembled the koala that we had seen earlier, except it was much bigger and had a more ape-like body. It was five feet tall with a powerful build, long claws, and much faster than I was expecting. It snarled, showing off a mouth full of oversized fangs as it leaped toward Lisbet who was trying to scramble to her feet.

Karina reacted the quickest, her chain scythe whipping toward the creature only seconds after she reappeared on the branch of a nearby tree. The chain whipped around the Demon’s neck and the scythe at the end dug into its shoulder with a spurt of blood, causing the beast to let out an ear-piercing shriek that deafened me and seemed to make even my bones vibrate. -= Your eardrums have ruptured, Snow. Initiating repairs. Estimated time to completion, two minutes, and thirty-eight seconds. Your communications implant has been damaged as well. Estimated time to repair, five minutes and eighteen seconds. =- Connie said in my mind in the silence that followed.

I looked around frantically and breathed in to scent the air around us, my holdout weapon in one hand and my machete in the other since it would be too cramped in this forest for me to properly use the Goliath in a fight. The Demon was down and dead now thanks to Karina’s other chain scythe, but from the way that everyone seemed to be silently yelling at once, and the way that Marti and Risha were wincing, I had to assume that the two Avatars were the only ones among us who could actually hear right now.

I couldn’t smell anything else like that thing coming at us, so I repeated what Connie had just told me and Risha nodded before carefully scanning our surroundings, her hands glowing as she kept her particle beam weapons primed and ready. I took the sad-looking shake of Marti’s head to mean that she didn’t have anything that would help our eardrums repair any faster than our nanites would on their own. Then, she too primed her built-in weapons and kept an eye on our surroundings.

Beams of eviscerating light erupted from their hands a total of five times before my hearing was restored and I immediately scanned the forest around us for any telltale sounds of more attacking Demons. Thankfully, it seemed that Marti and Risha had managed to take down any Demons in the immediate area that had approached us while looking for an easy meal. Finally, I breathed a sigh of relief as the normal nighttime sounds of the forest around us began to return.

“So, drop bears are really a thing, maybe we should all start talking in Australian accents to be safe,” Risha said as she tried to grin, but I could tell that her heart wasn’t really in it.

“Marti, these little guys got hurt by that sound too, is there anything you can do for them?” Heather asked as she and Autumn presented the sugar gliders that had hidden in their clothing. Her tone and her expression were both heavy with concern and tenderness that she would usually try to cover up to not seem weak. I guess she was really bonding with the little critter.

Poor Marti looked as upset as the pair of Fay as she took out one of her medical scanners and looked over the pair of tiny creatures. “I’m not sure, I’m not used to treating small animals. I would need better equipment than my field gear. Going inside your HESS armor seems to have helped them prevent any serious injuries, but the sound hurt their little ears as badly as yours. They’ll probably heal up on their own in time, but maybe I can customize some healing nanites for them once we’re back home and I can use the hospital’s equipment.”

“Have your NCIs form protective pockets for them in your HESS armor to keep them safe,” Risha suggested. “Snow, everyone should switch to full armor mode for now, in case there are more of those drop bears around. You might not be able to use your senses as well with the helmets on, but they will shield you from further sonic attacks.”

I sighed but nodded as I said, “You heard her, everyone,” and sent the command to Connie. I didn’t like it since I already felt like I was at a disadvantage in this place, not to mention hot and uncomfortable, but I liked being able to hear properly. “How long before you’re in range to send out your micro-drone to get those codes?”

“We are a little over halfway to the central spire from our starting position, Snowy. Another mile or so and I should be in range,” she replied.

We had just gotten underway again when Rose re-activated our group comms and her voice sounded very unhappy as she said, -= Snow, what the hell did your team do?! Everything in that whole damn forest that radiates extra-planar energy is heading right for your current position! =-

-= She’s right, we’re seeing the same thing over here on the northern end, =- Maryn supplied.

“Shit,” I cursed. This was very, very bad. “That damn Demon called in reinforcements. We’re closer to the tower, so we’re going to have to make a break for it and hope Risha can get those codes for us, we’ll fight on the run until we can either find a place to make a stand or get inside the tower and activate its ground defenses.”

-= I’ll have Marti take us into position and drop us where we can cut some of them off to give you some breathing room, =- Rose offered.

Maryn offered almost immediately, -= Phantom Wing will do the same from our end, Snow. Let’s give those Demons hell. Get to that tower as quick as you can and send Mother Darkness packing. =-

“Be careful if you encounter any drop bears, their sonic attack packs a punch so make sure to wear your full armor mode, including helmets,” Risha warned.

-= Got it, Rish… =- Clover replied eagerly before pausing as she realized what her best friend had said. -= Wait… drop bears are actually a thing? =-

“Enough chatter, we need to get moving,” I said sternly. “Let’s move it, Storm Wing, we have a job to do.”