Risen: Shatterverse

Rescue Mission

As the escort team prepared their weapons and the entities filed out of the transport, Hannibal turned to address Lux.

"Does the type 4 have some kind of camouflage mode, Lux?" he asked.

"Yes, General, it does," the demdagon AI quickly confirmed.

"Good. Prepare to engage it and take us out." He looked over at Naveaia. "Do you have a course for us to follow?"

The mecha nodded and a wave over her forearm activated her suit's external holo-display. As it lit up, I noted Korisahnt had paused at the top of the ramp to turn towards us. Noticing it as well, Hannibal turned towards her in return.

"Good luck in retrieving our lost people, General," the entity leader indicated. "We will prepare to return to the dark matter universe in your absence by going as far into the next insertion ritual as we can."

"A sound strategy, my lady," the venerable Cathaginian quickly replied. "Stay safe. We'll be back as soon as possible!"

Nodding, Korisahnt turned to complete her descent down the ramp, which quickly lifted back into position to become part of the type 4's hull. Which was our cue to return our attention back to Naveaia, who, by this point, had completed her map.

"I had my suit auto-track my course so I had a point of reference for any future attempts to rescue our people," the grim mecha explained when we looked up at her after a cursory examination of the map. "This uses the cave as the starting point."

Hannibal nodded after letting his eyes trace along the relatively straight line that dominated the image. He then turned to Lux, who was now guiding a camouflaged type 4 carefully out of the cave's entrance.

"Lux. Download Commander Naveaia's auto-track log and use that map as a reference," he directed.

"Acknowledged, General Hannibal," the AI quickly replied. "Accessing ... downloading. Analyzing and comparing to my own map of the planet. There."

We felt the type 4, now outside of the cave, turn smoothly to the left before accelerating.

"We will reach the targeted coordinates in approximately fifteen seconds," Lux reported. "Time enough to caution you: several of the T'sang's terraformers have been placed in a perimeter around the camp. We will be forced to climb over them before getting to the camp itself!"

Frowning, Hannibal looked over at Naveaia, who quickly shook her head.

"Okay, those are new," the veteran echo declared, looking back at Lux. "Scan those terraformers and make sure they don't have any t'sang sensor grids ..."

"Of course they have sensor grids in place," my hitchhiking t'sang essence pushed forward in my mind to say with my mouth. "My comrade would be a fool not to, with your guerilla force buzzing about like pesky vermin. But if you get me close enough, I may be able to access the control matrix and grant you a corridor through them."

Hannibal favored me with a quick look, eyes narrowed thoughtfully, before he jerked a nod.

"If it'll be as useful as you taking control of the grids on the spire, then I'm all for it!" He looked over at Naveaia. "Get ready, commander. I have a feeling we won't have a lot of time to pull this off."

"I concur," the mecha grimly replied before turning and joining her escort team to give them instructions in a low, intense voice.

"We have reached the outer perimeter," Lux reported, bringing the type 4 to a halt.

"Two?" Hannibal asked.

"I can sense the control matrix," my passenger answered in my stead. "Stand by. It will take a moment to defeat the matrix's encryption."