Chapter 961: Waiting is Painful

The mighty energy barriers of the ships were holding up to the combined attacks of their enemies, and Nico was making very careful notes to ensure that when the time came, they had a proper weapons capable of dealing with any threat that came their way.

So far, the damage output of the weapons was impressive, but not on an Orbital Strike or Warp Accelerated Mass Driver sort of level.

With that information and the fluctuations of the barriers as they were attacked, she had determined that the small disc shaped craft were no real threat, but the mighty floating cathedral could present quite the obstacle.

Most of that was that the shields they used were so strange. They didn't seem to be coming directly from the energy source of the ship, they were altered in some way that neither of them had seen in any of their lives.

"Huntress Khan, have you ever seen a barrier like that?" Max asked.

"We're studying it, but I don't think we have. It's a strange one, and it looks like they are putting the energy barrier out of phase with reality, using the other layers to absorb much of the damage without overloading their energy core.

How they're doing it is a mystery to me, but from my best guess, that is what they are doing." The veteran Huntress replied.

"Now that is interesting. I will keep recording it and see what we can do to overcome that, and what possible side effects a full scale barrage against it might have.

The other layers have some strange rules, and if we redirect too much firepower to them we might cause issues in the stability between the layers in the area." Nico noted.

While there was some merit to the "Just crush it with brute force" method that the Myceloids seemed to be applying, with the specialized weapons that Nico had developed, it could be disastrous.

The Myceloids seemed to be holding their own in this battle, shockingly. Their technology was greatly overmatched, but a solid fifth of the attack pods which the cathedral vessel had launched were already destroyed and jettisoned into space.

Either the ship was actually packed full of Myceloid fighters, which Max wouldn't discount as one of their favourite tactics, or the fighters that were inside were strong enough that their numbers could overcome the small groups which were landing on their ship.

There wasn't much to see from outside, and the group in the shuttle was becoming increasingly frustrated as time went on, but their sensors were adapting, and they were already able to breach the shielding on the disc shaped fighters to verify that they were the same species that had been encountered in the biodome.

"Well, that explains why nobody came to check on them. It looks like what remains of their empire is under attack from every side, and they can't spare the attention or risk the enemy following them to the colony." Max noted once they had a full description of the ship's technology.

"Now all we need is a proper analysis of the other two and we're ready to party. We already have a pretty good guess about how the Myceloids operate, but we don't know much about their opponents." Nico agreed.

The away team leader nodded in agreement, and took out her data tablet.

"We can make some inferences. For example the ship has been retrofitted from its original configuration. It always looked like a cathedral, but it didn't used to be spikey. Also, the landing craft that they are firing at the Myceloid ship are not intended for the purpose. Look at the wide side and you will see that it is shielded for orbital entry. They are a form of drop pod, like the humans use to deliver supplies.

We can't tell much more than that, but we can assume that the aesthetic continues to their armour, which would suggest that they are used to intimidating their opponents, and should be larger than average.

That likely doesn't mean much against the Myceloids, who are also above average in size, but it does give us some clues." The Huntress suggested.

That certainly does make them sound like a very good opponent." Max agreed.

More and more small craft from every side were destroyed by the mighty warships of the fleets over the next few hours before the tide finally began to shift.

The cathedral got one more Cruiser Class ship in reinforcements, and that was enough to make the small discs flee.

Once they were gone, the fight turned against the Myceloids, who were desperately fighting to keep from being overrun.

At this point that result seemed to be inevitable, and the Myceloids were only buying themselves a bit more time before their ship was destroyed. More and more of the landing pods were attaching themselves to the ship without being destroyed, and the parts that weren't being invaded were being bombarded.

That part seemed a bit unwise to Max, as it was likely that they would blow up the ship, but perhaps they had enough experience with such things that they knew the layout of the Myceloid vessel.

"It looks like the end is here." Nico sighed as the pods began to detach and race back toward their home vessels.

But the Myceloid ship didn't explode. It simply moved into the other layer and allowed itself to be carried away by the currents. The other vessel followed a few seconds later, but didn't give chase.

Instead, they activated some sort of protective barrier and then made their way away from where Max and the others were sitting and watching.

"That's two more new bits of information. It looks like the Myceloids don't navigate the other layer, they just let the current carry them wherever they end up. But the cathedral ships do navigate, and they seem to do it quite well." Max noted.

"And, they move smoothly between the layers, so it's not a new technique for them. Perhaps the residents of our region and the ones around the other Anomaly are the only ones who haven't learned the trick." Huntress Khan agreed.