October 21, 2152
The eternal daylight made it hard for Emory to judge how long she had been asleep when Titania woke her up for her guard duty. Emory nodded and she quietly stood up and stretched out on the large tree branch. They had all spent nine nights in the trees, meaning today they would finally reach the facility. Of course, she had already caught a glimpse of the massive installation the day before when they made camp though it was just a bunch of metal tubes and towers from their vantage point.
As they were only ten miles away from the facility now, the number of patrolling troops had risen dramatically. The day before, they had run into Mantoan squads every ten minutes or so, which caused them to spend most of the day waiting for groups to pass. Pods of twenty of thirty Mantoan combed through the area like a fine-toothed comb. Unfortunately, since they were so close, they couldn't go around without delaying them further. Worse, trying to travel through the trees caused leaves to fall, so they couldn't travel above the problem either. Emory was especially frustrated because, while she could easily deal with the Mantoan even if a couple other pods joined in, doing so would set off major alarms this close to the base.
The time spent traversing through the forest hadn't been fruitless as Emory had been practicing her Chaos sphere every chance she got. Being mid-stage level three meant she had progressed to the point that she could project Chaos to affect other areas instead of just around herself. To entertain herself, she would send out small balls of magik at the area around squads that passed which would cause minor deterrents like a couple soldiers tripping over each other or a branch falling on top of a few of them. They were more like pranks than traps, an important difference that made the Mantoan chalk up the occurrences to random acts in the forest. This morning, Emory saw no reason not to continue to amuse herself and had already caused vines to slap several passing Mantoan in the face.
After she had been on guard for a couple hours, she hopped from branch to branch to wake up the rest of the party. Once the ground was clear, Emory, Ilyana, Soren, Sothe, and Titania dropped down to the ground and headed onwards. To their surprise, they walked for nearly twenty minutes before they had to hide from an approaching force. However, this force was much larger than the other groups with over fifty Mantoan and a single Uthid.
Soren gloomily whispered, "That's concerning but not unexpected. We knew there were Uthid here; we just assumed they were all with the main army."
"Does that change anything?" Emory asked, "After all, they don't have any special senses, do they?"
"Not really, but they are more aware than the Mantoan. I think you'll have stop pranking them," Ilyana explained.
"It also worries me about the guards around the facility," Sothe sighed, "We weren't planning on encountering major resistance until we actually entered the building or at least the grounds surrounding it."
Titania shrugged, "It doesn't matter. Either we succeed and bring down the facility, or we die before we can. We didn't plan for Laxtros either, but there will surely be some of those around too."
"Titania is right," Soren admitted, "We've gone a little off plan, but the objective remains the same. Let's continue on."
Slowly, they crept behind the expanded force and closer to the facility. It was difficult to continue to avoid the patrols, but they pushed on and avoided conflict. After a few hours, a wave of magik rippled through the air as if someone in the distance had just released a pulse of power. It sent shivers through the Elandrian because they all knew it was from a Laxtros. In an instant, they all jumped into the trees with Emory trailing behind slightly.
Emory raised an eyebrow, "What's the problem? Was that pulse something to be worried about?"
"That came from a Laxtros," Sothe hissed, "And it was fairly close or incredibly strong. We need to rethink this plan."
"My guess is that they were removing the last seal which would have required quite a bit of magik. We should continue on," Soren tried to soothe the group.
"With Emory here, I agree," Titania supported the idea, "Even if we get into serious trouble, she's our trump card. Besides, we already knew there would be Laxtros here."
Ilyana chimed in, "Could we use more magik for the time being? A pulse that big should have knocked the sensors out for now."
"If we can use more magik, I could get us there a lot quicker," Emory added, "Is that an option, Soren?"
"I don't know if I like pushing so close to the line, but if that was the last seal being broken, we don't have much time. Alright, Emory, we can use magik freely for now," Soren sighed.
Without another word, massive wings sprung from Emory's back and vines of Arcane magik wrapped around the waists of the rest of the team. Emory sprung into the air through the canopy and started flying towards the metal complex. She flew just high enough to keep the rest of the group a foot above the canopy so as not to disturb the leaves or be seen from the towers in the distance. Since they were flying now, it only took fifteen minutes to arrive at the edge of the clearing that surrounded the massive construction. Slowly, she lowered her teammates onto the tree branches near the top before dropping down and retracting her wings. With the building about three hundred feet away, they all took a moment to study it as it was the first time any of them had seen it.
The metal complex seemed to be composed of three honeycomb sections and a tower in between all three that stretched several hundred feet into the air. The honeycomb areas were shorter, only two or three stories, but the outer walls looked to be a few hundred feet each. Glass tubing wrapped around the structure and appeared to be filled with a forest green liquid, with the width of the tubes being about ten feet. However, all of this was enclosed in a dome of raw magik that came from the ground a hundred feet away.
Soren gathered the group on one tree before starting, "Well, I wasn't expecting this force field, but luckily, Emory is with us. Now that we're here, it is vital we operate as delicately as possible. The plant looks the same as Athos described when he was here last which means our plan remains the same: get to the tower and disrupt operations. We'll start with the entrance. Emory, use your power to rip and hold a hole in the shield. Sothe, pick the lock on the side door. After that, we'll make our way through the complex to the tower where they produce the Mantoan."
"When we're traveling inside before we get to the tower, make sure to hold hands with each other," Ilyana continued, "My gift will only work on you if we're all touching."
"Good point, Ilyana. Now, once we get to the tower, Titania and I will set up the seals while Emory, Ilyana, and Sothe will defend us. We need to plan for the seals to take ten minutes. After that, we're going to hightail it out of there; we don't want to be anywhere near those seals when they activate," Soren explained further.
"If the seals failed once, what's to stop these from failing too?" Emory asked, "I guess what I'm saying is why don't we just destroy the tower?" The four Elandrian looked at Emory with a mix of shock, confusion, and amusement.
Titania chuckled, "If we could destroy it, we would have done that a long time ago. The tower is reinforced and would require an unimaginable amount of magik to destroy it."
"Plus, that would be incredibly loud," Sothe added, "Any Laxtros here would immediately be alerted to our position. Maybe we could deal with one but with all the reinforcements that would come too, it would be quite difficult."
"Maybe in normal circumstances, but I'm with you. I could destroy it and then get us out. Isn't it at least worth considering?" Emory pressed. Soren put his hand on his chin as he weighed his options.