Chapter 986: Intercepted Message
While the battle raged between the Cathedral ships and the Myceloids, the missing Darkling fleet sent out a message that came up on the screens of the Shuttle without warning.
[The Great Enemy is moving. Clear all battlefields until a final location is determined] the message read.
"Well, that's not ominous at all. It would help if we had any idea what the Great Enemy is or where it was moving from so that we would know what direction we should be moving in." Nico complained as she read the screen.
"I would be happy with just knowing what it is that has terrified the Darklings enough that they sent out an open frequency message. They're a species that terrifies everything else. They don't usually back down from much. Hell, they're not even afraid to throw hands with the Arisen." Max agreed.
Dahlia went very pale at the mention of the Arisen, and Max could sense her terror as she spoke in a hesitant voice.
"This species that you call the Darklings, the one that is not afraid of even the eternal army of the Arisen. Would they also be known as the Harvesters?" She asked fearfully.
Max nodded. "Yes, those are them, and we believe that fleet of them that passed here are the ones that sent the message just now, telling everyone to retreat from the Great Enemy. Do you know what that is?"
Dahlia shook her head. "I've never heard of them having any enemies, much less a great one. They're just terror incarnate. They show up, and your world dies."
Khan frowned. "Well, at least we know we're all talking about the same group. But if they were fleeing toward Koleska space, past whatever that destruction is in the distance, then we probably shouldn't be here."
"Damn, you're right. We need to be somewhere that's out of the likely path of the danger. Nico, do we have a path analysis for the Darkling fleet that came past us, as well as the ships that have been arriving and departing from here? If none of them came or went toward the Anomaly, I say we head there, and then we can retreat through it if the situation calls for it."
Khan considered that for a few seconds, then nodded. "Bring us to warp speed. The cloaking device should hold up well enough to get us close to home, and then we can creep the last bit of the way in."
Space was so messed up around the Anomaly that none of the layers were stable, which should be a benefit to them and reduce the chances that whatever this threat was would come their way.
Even if it was massively powerful, the path of least resistance was the natural way for anything to travel, and the worlds around the Anomaly were definitely not that.
The combatants didn't respond as they flew away, and there was nothing to see on the way home, only the one inhabited planet that they had passed, which Nico pointed out to Dahlia as one with some of her surviving kinfolk on it, hiding below the surface.
"Well, then, at least we're not the last holdout of our people. There is at least one more world full of us, even if my world falls." She replied with contentment when she saw the sensor feeds proving that they were still there and doing well.
There were even some of them up on the surface at the moment, gathering seeds and berries kilometres from the biodome.
From the look of it, they were following a harvest plan and only taking a quarter of what was in seed so that there would be plenty for future harvests.
It was an excellent call and proof that they were capable of adapting to their newfound abundance without giving in to greed and stupidity.
When they got close to the quarantine array, the interference got to be too much, and they had to drop the Warp Field and move to the other layer to sneak past the satellites, but they didn't see any threats, and there were no more Myceloid ships in orbit around the planet.
The ones on the planet were behaving strangely, though, and they had all gathered into larger clusters instead of their villages.
"Perhaps it's some sort of festival?" An away team member suggested.
"That's a possibility. They have gathered into larger groups, so it might be some sort of mating ritual as well to alter their spores to the most powerful in the region. They seemed to be quite intent on becoming the strongest, so that sort of ritual would make sense as well." Another team member offered.
Both were good ideas, but Max was beginning to realize that the distance limitations on his mind had been greatly increased by the change in his System's [Optimize] ability.
He could sense every mind on the planet, and they were all thinking the same chant, like a religious ritual or some sort of funeral rite.
"That's not good. The whole planet is chanting the same thing in sync." He informed the crew.
"That's not good at all. The last time they did that was when that thing looked through the portal from the other layer. I don't sense it here now, but if they're trying to bring it back into our reality, we should prepare to evacuate." Khan noted.
"Excellent point. Should we make a note that the interstellar political instability at the moment makes maintaining the camp irresponsible? We can put up a barrier over the Anomaly and send a force through if there is an attack on it." Nico suggested.
"I like the way that you phrase that. I'm sure the Alliance will understand if we guard it from our side for a bit. Getting in the middle of a multi species interstellar war was not on the mission plan for this request, and it was definitely not in the pay package." Khan laughed.
"The message is sent out, Huntress. The camp is preparing to evacuate. Twenty minutes are needed to get everything packed." The away team leader noted.
"That should be sufficient. Tell them to prepare the barrier, and we will be coming through as soon as we can get the ship parked. Add the Envoy to our travel group list."