"The mission itself is fairly straightforward," Soren started, "We need to either repair the seals around Facility Three or we need to destroy the building completely. The hard part will be getting there undetected. With a hundred miles between it and us, we should plan to cover about ten miles a day. Sothe, how large of a force are we planning to encounter?"
Sothe responded, "Given the total population of fifty million, we should plan to run into ten thousand or so along the path we're taking. Honestly, we should prepare to see some at any time." Emory's eyes grew wide as Sothe casually rattled off the immense size of the army.
"Dealing with only that many shouldn't be too difficult," Soren continued, "However, the key is to neutralize them quickly and quietly. We can't afford to draw in a big group."
"But with the Ancient with us, can't we just wipe them away? I mean no offense, but with her, we can just walk up and destroy the complex," Titania groaned.
"When we get close, Emory can make some big moves, but until then, we don't have the strength to support her," Soren shook his head, "We haven't been this close to one of the facilities in a century, so we take this slow and steady."
Ilyana complained, "What's the point of bringing her then? We could have done this mission without her then."
"I'm here to deal with the Laxtros," Emory interrupted seriously which caused the rest of the group to freeze instantly except Soren.
"There weren't supposed to be any Laxtros here," Sothe trembled, "How do you know they'll be here?"
Emory cleared her throat, "I had a vision that Petrine herself would be here soon." At the mention of that name, waves of terror washed over Ilyana, Sothe, and Titania's faces. The sounds of the forest echoed through the silent group.
"That's why we need to avoid drawing attention to ourselves," Soren quietly broke the silence, "In a normal circumstance, maybe we could muscle our way through the slog of Mantoan. But if we draw the gaze of any Laxtros, especially Petrine, we'll have a much larger problem on our hands."
"How should we move forward then?" Titania breathed.
"Sothe, you'll still lead the group since you have the God's Eyes. I'll follow close behind in the second slot," Soren explained, "Emory, you'll be in the middle of the line to support either end. Ilyana, you will take the second rear to defend the back or support the front if needed. And Titania, you'll defend the rear. We will stay in a line formation as much as we can. Any questions?"
Emory added, "Not a question, just a point to all of you. Don't worry about how much magik you're using for attacks and moving; if you need more, just ask me. I have deep reserves and can give you some of mine."
The group took a collective sigh of relief as they were bolstered by the thought of not having to conserve magik as well. However, the comment brought a smirk to Soren's face because he alone knew how deep her reserves truly were. After a couple of moments, they filed in line with how Soren had directed them and began walking through the jungle. Everyone took care to even avoid stepping on fallen leaves or brush and used magik on the bottoms of their feet to increase their cushion further. The mere chance that Laxtros were around kept the group silent and focused.
Soren had a very predictable cadence to his walk: five steps forward followed by a few seconds of scanning the area around them. It was a slow, methodical pace that kept the group at a snail's pace. If he saw enemies, they initially stopped and waited for them to pass before proceeding ahead. However, not even twenty minutes into their trek, a group of ten stopped about fifty feet away and sat down on the ground. Emory created ten pea-sized orbs and moved them behind each of the enemies a few feet away. The group held their breath as the orbs whistled through the air and then straight through the Mantoan's head. In an instant, the Mantoan slumped over and collapsed on the ground, dead with only a single small wound on their heads. Quietly, the group moved next to the warm corpses followed by Ilyana inspecting each of the bodies.
She whispered, "These are just normal scouts. Let's pull them back under cover and move on." Following her lead, they covered up the bodies with vines and other debris before returning to their positions and continuing onwards. Emory was amazed by how well the others knew to keep quiet and calm. She guessed they had been on a number of covert missions together since they knew exactly what to do and how to adjust the plan to accommodate her added presence.
As the journey continued, Emory noticed something strange about the jungle that she couldn't wrap her head around. All the material she had read talked about the diversity of life in the rainforests, yet she had only seen a variety of plants and fungi. There were no signs of animal life of any kind, from mammals to birds to insects. Even the plants and fungi all seemed to be variations of the same handful of species. It didn't make any sense, but she kept her questions to herself for the time being. In a way, it seemed similar to the controlled environment she remembered on Mars, though on a scale that far surpassed it. Minutes turned into hours as they crept through the forest, and that's when she noticed the second oddity: the star overhead remained in the same position it had been in when she arrived.
When they stopped for a few minutes, Emory's curiosity got the better of here, "What's up with this planet? I haven't seen a single wild animal since we got here."
"Planet?" Ilyana giggled, "We may be in an Apleem world, but this is certainly not a planet."
"You've never been to an Apleem world before, have you? This is all an artificial construction," Titania explained.
"The Apleem have a few planets, mostly in their home system, as well as a number of planets with small outposts," Soren continued, "But they also have a number of ringworlds set up around stars they steal energy from. This is one of them, probably their most well-known one."
Emory raised her eyebrows, "They have ringworlds? Plural? What other kinds of installations do they have in space?"
"All of their ringworlds are powered by these huge containers they put over stars to contain all the power and siphon the raw ingredients from them," Sothe rubbed his chin, "Some of the ringworlds also have massive elevators to transfer goods from the base to space. They have a few massive space stations too."
"Honestly, their smaller technology is far more problematic than their big technology. Cloning is by far the worst one, but their terraforming equipment is terrifying as well," Ilyana clarified.
"We could use magik like they do too, but they steal and destroy everything they touch," Titania added, "Since we try to preserve native life, we take a softer approach to these issues."
Emory thought about what she had seen on Temia and Vostea when the dreadnoughts landed and the corruption the Apleem had caused in such a short time. Then she was reminded that Ninian had casually mentioned that humans were once on the same path not that long ago. It was a lot to digest as they all stood up and continued walking through the forest.
Finally, after traveling for nearly three hours, they came across a horde of a hundred Mantoan camped in an area with very scarce vegetation. Soren moved closer to Sothe as they traded ideas about how to proceed. Sothe thought the best option was to go around the horde but doing so would probably add a few hours to their journey and wouldn't guarantee that they would avoid the horde entirely. On the other hand, Soren thought they should take care of the enemy so the problem would be solved for now. Emory favored this plan, not only was it more effective but it also solved the problem instead of avoiding it. However, even with how strong they all were, there was a chance that a Mantoan or two could escape in the conflict and get more support. Eventually, Emory got tired of waiting and began creating pea-sized orbs as she had done before.
A hundred required a bit more focus than ten did, but it was still manageable. When Ilyana and Titania saw what Emory was doing, they got worried and quietly warned Soren and Sothe. While Sothe got agitated and motioned for Emory to stop, Soren just stood there and smirked. Calmly, Emory moved the orbs into place amongst the foliage and smiled at the mostly nervous Elandrian. Just like before, she released them all in a single motion, but this time, it had an unintended consequence. The sound of thudding bodies rumbled around the air in the area and traveled quite a distance even in the dense forest.
Everyone turned and glared at Emory, who turned a bright shade of red since she hadn't fully considered her action. She squeaked, "What do we do? Should we get rid of the bodies?"