Chapter 985: Wrong Place
The crew watched for a few minutes, mostly with great interest in the fight, but Dahlia was watching in horror as the battle was happening right over her homeworld.
The Myceloid strategy seemed to be quite simple, but the way that it was executed was both so rapid and so brutal that the warriors in the Cathedral Ships hadn't even been able to respond until it was already on them.
"Why my world? What are they even fighting over? There's nothing left here. We're barely surviving." The young Envoy asked as they watched the battle move to a spot between the fifth and sixth planets, carried by the momentum of the two disabled ships.
Nico tapped her chin and nodded. "You know, that is a very good question. Why here? What do they even want in this spot? Is there some sort of treasure here? Is there an eddy in the current that makes it an easy place to stop or naturally deposits ships here?"
They didn't have the answer yet, but the sensors and the computer were all searching for it now that it had been mentioned. There had to be some reason for the ongoing battles in orbit, especially since they didn't seem to be involved with or even concerned about the locals.
"We brought all the sensors that we had on this trip, so we're bound to find something. I just hope that it's good news for you because if there is something here that is drawing both species to your world, they might be doomed." Nico explained to the small alien woman.
Dahlia shook her head.
"It just started for no reason long before I was born. They were fighting in space, then one of the Mad Ones' ships crashed on the planet, and they started fighting everyone they met and trying to take over the world. There really isn't anything special about this place."
The occupants of the ship searched in silence for a while before a sudden cheer from the away team drew everyone's attention.
"I've got it. I found the reason that there are so many battles here." She declared and brought up the data set she had been searching through on the wall screen.
"There is an Anomaly that is also affecting the other layer, right under the planet's core, and it is rotating along with the planet. They were not coming here on purpose. They hit it by accident when they passed by.
But now that there is a fight here, it draws the Myceloids, which draws in more of the Cathedral ships in the other layer, who will hit the Anomaly by accident because they can't see it, and then they're forced to make an emergency transition.
That's why they keep appearing in roughly the same spot."
She brought up her findings, and the rest of the team worked to verify them.
Then another Cathedral ship came careening through a tear in space, followed by another Myceloid ship.
"Look at that. The Myceloids are using the Anomaly as a trap to farm the Cathedral Ships. They're chasing them to the Anomaly and forcing them into this layer so that they can fight them more easily.
The warriors aren't properly geared to fight in this layer. Their ships aren't able to defend themselves against physical attacks. It's bloody genius." Khan whispered as she realized what was going on.
"So, a war from another universe just happened to spill over into our yard because the huge green things want to kill the huge bloody things?" Dahlia asked.
Max shrugged. "There's probably a lot more to it than that, but it looks like that's the essence of it. We can't tell what the situation is where they're coming from, so it's possible that one or the other is trying to defend the area, but I don't think that it matters much since they both view you as either a nuisance or an enemy."
Dahlia sighed. "That's not much consolation. My friends are dying because we happen to be in the way of a perfect ambush spot. But what can we even do? There are so few of you and one tiny ship, and you're not even from here, right? You're from somewhere else, and you just want to keep those people away from your home."
Max gave the depressed girl a hug, stopping early when she squeaked a little in shock.
"It's a gesture of consolation among my people. I'm sorry about your homeworld's luck. For now, you're coming with us, so at least you can be sure that one person from your homeworld is safe until we can reunite you with more of your people.
We know of at least one world with survivors living in hiding, and there is a similar species in our home area that might be more of your species that fled to our side of the universe, or perhaps the other way around."
Nico smiled at the Envoy. "I know it's a lot to take in. There are a lot of new things for you to learn, but for now, we will wait for the battle to end, and then we will send a message to your people letting them know what we have found and the reason for the attacks."
Dahlia smiled back, an expression that actually reshaped her face a little, making her whole head smile.
"I think that they already know; they just don't tell us, or everyone would lose hope. I mean, we all think that we're fighting to win and drive them from our world. But if everyone knew that they would just keep coming because they were being forced to come here, it would be chaos on the surface."
That was a very good point. Unlike the humans and the Myceloids, neverending war was not in the nature of most of the intelligent species. If they were faced with it, a lot of them would crumble under the pressure and not rise up or stoically persevere. Assuming that all species would respond the way that he would respond was a mistake.