B2-38 - Ain't No St. Crispin's (Patreon)

Tension filled the Cage as Maya stepped up to the control panel. She looked out at the twenty-seven faces that stared back at her, the Tarvana, Badblood, Bell, and Yosi. Fear was evident, but they all stood firm and ready.

Maya was impressed by the adaptability of the Tarvana. They had gone from cowering in fear inside of a panic room to wailing about Whiteclaw’s death, but now they were all solidly behind Badblood and they followed her without question. They were under leveled and going into battle with some of the strongest rogue AIs in the area and they weren’t cowering in fear as she would have been in their position.

They didn’t need to fight alongside her, they didn’t need to risk their lives, but Badblood had told them what they were going to do and they hadn’t raised any objections.

“We’re going to have to hold our ground,” Maya said at the assembled people. “The rogue AIs aren’t going to like us butting in on their watering hole, they’ll see us as a threat and they’ll come at us with everything they have. You don’t have to do this, this is not your fight, but if you wish to participate, then I thank you for your bravery and steadfastness.”

There was a moment of silence as her words were translated to the Tarvana, then a murmur ran through the crowd as Badblood glowered at her.

“This ain’t gonna be an easy fight. The rogue AIs are crowding the shores of the lake, they’re tough and they’re mean. Under no circumstances are any of you to try and fight the creatures, the level difference is just too great. Focus on your job, Bell and I will handle the AIs.

“Yosi will be in charge of the sensor arrays and will prioritize targeting. Bell and I will go in first, we’ll set up the turrets, Alpha Team, you’ll come after and get the mana netting into the lake. Remember that if the liquid mana touches you, you’re dead. So don’t splash around in it. Bravo Team, once we’ve secured the foothold, you’re to exit and get to work. Charlie Team, you’ll be in play once Bell gets back. You’re in charge of creating the tesseracts and making sure we don’t run out of mana. If everything goes as expected, Alpha Team will be held in reserves and Bravo Team will assist in the creation of more tesseracts and managing the mana flow.”

Maya looked out on the faces, they weren’t human but she could still see the emotions that ran through them. They were scared, they were in over their heads, and if things did go tits up, then they would all be dead.

“This rainbow sky hellscape is a real shit place,” Maya said, easing her stance a little. The gathered Tarvana glanced at one another. “It’s been trying to kill me since I arrived a hundred days ago.” Maya chuckled. “A hundred days, that feels like a life time ago, but for you, the Tarvana, you have been here your entire lives. You have survived in the harshest place imaginable, where nothing grows, where mana is low, and where monsters of great power prowl across the land.” Maya looked at the upturned faces, making sure to meet each and every gaze.

“We are going into battle and I’m not afraid. Not when I have the toughest bastards to ever exist at my back. I have barely survived a hundred days. You all have survived your entire lives. Your people have survived for centuries in this place. The rainbow sky hellscape might have shaped you, but after today, with this power we are gathering… You.” Maya pointed at a Tarvana. “You will now shape the rainbow sky hellscape.

“This is not just a fight for some mana, this is a fight to shape the future you want. One where you’re not hunted, low leveled, and forced into cannibalism. That dream is in reach; it is up to you to grab it and hold onto it.”

Maya looked out into the faces of the Tarvana, they were silent and she felt a bit of self conscious fear spike through her. Had she laid it on too heavy?

[Orator] Level 1

With speeches and words you sway the people… barely.

+ 1 Mental Strength

There was a thumping as the Tarvana began stomping their feet on the deck. Maya paused and smiled slightly, their way of clapping perhaps? It grew louder and soon screeching and hissing were added to the thumping as the Tarvana did their version of cheering her words.

“Nice speech,” Bell said on their comm channel. “A bit… heavy handed.”

“It ain’t no St. Cripsin’s, but I did mean every word,” Maya said. “This is gonna change their lives and ours. With the power we’re gonna get, it’s gonna change everything.”

“I hope so,” Yosi added.

It took a few minutes for the Tarvana to calm down, but now Maya could see less fear and trepidation in their eyes and stances. They stood straighter and ready for action.

[Raid Leader] Level 1

Standup fights are for heavily armed and highly trained SIL, you’re neither.

+ 1 Physical Strength

You have gained [Raid Leader], a low-grade infantry militia command rank, do you wish to create a command platoon? Y/N?

“What’s a command platoon?” Maya asked Bell, she showed him her notification.

“You’re leading people into battle, a command platoon will allow everyone who participates to gain a share of the dropped experience points and loot, since you have the Plunder Ability.”

“So, it’s gonna be divided among all twenty seven of us?” Maya asked.

“Command anything, squads, platoons, brigades, are set up so that those involved or a part of the group get a share of the experience based on their levels. So most experience and loot will go to the highest leveled SIL and downward from there. It side steps the equal splitting up of experience points when two or more people defeat a mana mutation or SIL.”

“Well, that’s bullshit.”

“For support troops or those who aren’t actively in the fight, it is a good thing because they still gain experience points from your kills.”

“So I should choose yes?” Maya asked.

“If you want these Tarvana to level from this fight,” Bell said. “Otherwise you can just not accept it and keep all the experience points to yourself.”

“I did just make a whole speech about this fight changing their lives,” Maya sighed.

Bell chuckled. “Didn’t you learn anything after the Roci Incident?”

“No grand announcements, blah, blah, blah,” Maya waved her hand. She looked to the Tarvana who were still grinning. She then selected ‘yes’ and another murmur ran through them. “Alright, folks,” Maya said. “Get to your stations. Times a-wasting and some rogue AIs need their asses kicked.”

***

Two rogue AIs battled. The first, Rogue AI HD1547VV - Level 51, screeched in defiance and a sort of outrage that their dim mind produced. They had taken a spot from a lowly level 49, but now they were being challenged. A level 55 Rogue AI trundled up, firing beams of hard light at them. Their armor pinged and was singed, the delicate network of rogue tech fusing and burning.

HD1547VV extended an array of fins along their back, a bright light flashing and condensing in a heartbeat. There was a hiss in the air as the supercharged laser tore across the distance between the two rogue AIs; the newcomer screeched in pain and rocked back on their multiple legs, slagged metal sloughing off of them.

Not all fights along the mana lake were duels and leveling up, instead they were of the simple violence variety. The lake of mana was a buffet and they were starving. They were desperate and they were willing to destroy anything in their way.

The two rogue AIs fought and their attentions were occupied as a five meter wall formed behind them. A figure in black armor stepped out and cast a worried look around, then a second followed.

“Fin backed gorilla and disco ball at five o’clock,” Maya announced and hefted a weapon onto her shoulder. “First of hopefully many firings of the new Sullivan rocket propelled pulse grenade launcher, SRPPGL, in stores soon. Just in time for the holidays!”

A screech filled the air as the helix propelled rocket blasted out of the rough tube that Maya carried. The backblast kicked up the gray dirt, but all eyes were on the flaming rocket screeching toward the two fighting rogue AIs.

An explosion blossomed, a normal helix detonation, and Maya frowned. Had the pulse grenade not worked? A heartbeat later, there was a second explosion and she grinned as a wave of blue engulfed the two battling rogue AIs. They shuddered to a stop, the old grenades had been good against low leveled rogue AIs, but when the game was bigger, one brought a bigger gun.

“Loading!” Bell announced and slid in another rocket.

A light flashed and Maya widened her stance, aiming once again at the two rogue AIs that were now beginning to recover from the shock. They barely had the time to digest what had happened when another rocket screeched in between them. This wasn’t a pulse grenade, instead it was one of Bell’s creations.

Alchemy was more than just potions, it was, to Maya, chemistry. One could make anything, from medicines to explosives and Bell was very skilled at it. With their last fight against the rogue AIs not going entirely their way, Bell had finished up a small project he had been working on for weeks, since he had gained access to the alchemical resources from Haltor’s World.

House Domakun had existed for a thousand standard years, although they were a house devoted to alchemy, war and fighting were common occurrences for high tiered Houses. Bell had plenty of training and experience in making weapons and it wasn’t difficult to combine it with the weapons that Maya had made.

Rogue AI HD1547VV - Level 51 - Defeated

Command Platoon gains EXP

Lootable

Rogue AI TN8433OI - Level 55 - Defeated

Command Platoon gains EXP

Lootable

“Alpha, time to roll!” Maya inventoried the RPG. Bell was already summoning turrets from his own inventory, two gatling turrets and three shotgun turrets. Maya followed suit, while a small window in the corner of her HUD displayed the scanners output.

“We’ve got thirty rogue AIs in a five kilometer radius,” Yosi said. “Currently they’re all swimming or fighting one another. We haven’t been seen yet.”

Alpha Team charged out of the Cage, Badblood in the lead. She carried a meter sized ball of black goo mana netting on a long pole, with a power cable attached to it. The small Tarvana were struggling with them, but they made fast progress, knowing that they were in the middle of a dangerous place. They had also gained notifications about the experience that had been dropped by the two rogue AIs and that more than anything spurred them on.

The bundled mana netting were dropped into the mana lake, carefully and quickly, then the team rushed to each of the turrets snapping the cables into the mana batteries that connected to the weapons. It all happened within less than a minute, by the time Maya and Bell had summoned their turrets, the eight Tarvana were already attaching the power cables and the weapons were coming online.

“Good work, people,” Maya shouted. “How’s it look, Yosi?”

“All good. We’ve been noticed, but nothing is coming our way.”

“Bravo Team, your turn.” Maya called. “You good, Bell? I’m heading in!”

Maya rushed for the door as another group of eight Tarvana hurried out, dragging long hoses behind them.  Maya moved toward a section of the Cage and looked up at her creation before her.

She met the eight Tarvana on the Charlie Team, they were covered from head to toe in a modified environmental suits. Maya didn’t know if it would provide complete protection, but it was better than nothing. Charlie Team was already moving the twenty liter cans of black goo into place, before a machine that Maya had built from a bit of engineering knowledge, a mention in a manual, and from dismantling a Havin Mk. 2 Mana Purge Field - mid-grade, Tier 1. The same device that Roci had used to help restart the electronic systems on the ISS.

Maya had watched a lot of science fiction in her youth, besides her brothers fascination with it and her own interest, one thing that always caused an eyeroll on her part was when some engineer just claimed to ‘reverse the polarity’ of something and it did the opposite of what it normally did.

Science didn’t work that way and magical Integration system tech didn’t work that way either. Instead Maya had gained some inspiration from the mana purge device, it basically pushed mana out of an area. That meant that mana could be physically moved, it could be interacted with, and it wasn’t too much of a reach to realize she could use the same system tech that the mana purge device used to handle mana.

Force fields, or in this case, resonating mana fields, interacted with ambient mana or generic mana in a strange way. Unfortunately, a type of polarity was at work with the mana purge device. It did not touch the mana, but created a force which moved the mana, thereby removing it from an area. Mana condensers worked the same way, but pulled mana into an area.

Maya created a mana containment device, using the same mana fields that a purger and condenser used, but instead of removing it or pulling it into an area. It held it in place. Normally, such a device would have limited use, as it didn’t do anything more than prevent mana from leaving an area.

She flipped the switch and gulped as the power drain suddenly went from ‘moderate’ to ‘pretty damn bad’.

[Patent Holder] Level 8

House Sullivan has submitted a Patent and has been awarded ownership of the Patents:

Canister Defense Turret - L1

Gatling Defense Turret - L1

Railgun Defense Turret - L1

Sullivan Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher - L1

…

Mana Containment Device - L2

Maya flinched from the ringing as the System awarded her a slew of patents. She brushed aside the notifications and scanned the data that was being spat out by the processors. Everything was green and good to go.

The only downside was that the power remaining had dropped from two and a half hours to half an hour.

Bravo and Alpha teams burst back into the Cage.

“Good to go!” Ironwatcher cried as she rushed by. The newly minted [Engineer] joined Charlie team as they began setting out more black goo canisters. The suited Charlie Team moved to the hoses coming out of the machine, their job was to create as many tesseracts as possible to keep the power running for the Cage and the containment device.

Maya took a breath and flipped the pump switch. It wasn’t anything remarkable or special, just a normal water pump she had taken from the Hangy. The machine squealed and chugged to life and a moment later there was a glug-glug noise of liquid being pumped.

Glowing liquid mana began pouring into the containment device, she stood back and the gathered Tarvana also moved to a safe distance. The glowing liquid splattered against the mana field and Maya could see it sizzle against the repelling force. The readings from the processors flashed green and steady.

“Well, the hard part is done,” Maya grinned. “We’re gonna need power soon. Bell. You’re up!”

Maya glanced over the machine one more time before she rushed out the door while Bell raced back in and began ordering around the gathered Tarvana.

A thumping and screeching noise caused Maya to pause as she neared the door; she watched as Badblood and Alpha team moved the defense drones. They were the reinforcements in case they were about to be overrun, the drones had been topped off with the tesseract and their weapons replenished. With the higher than normal ambient mana so close to the lake, the drones were moving without the mana penalty they had been facing. Although Maya didn’t understand why the Cage was still consuming twenty times the mana it normally used, but it was likely due to the Cage ‘existing’ at the Hangy and not by the lake.

“We have incoming!” Yosi announced. Maya cursed and rushed out the door.

Her HUD displayed a half a dozen rogue AIs were moving in their direction. She frowned as they came into view.

Rogue AI DD45872GS - Level 50

Rogue AI ES4712EE - Level 51

Rogue AI BD6135IV - Level 52

Rogue AI AD7541EW - Level 52

Rogue AI QZ5274OP - Level 53

Rogue AI ID5422BV - Level 54

All the rogue AIs levels were consistent with one another, either they were all leveling together or the rogue AIs had formed a level equilibrium along the shore. Either way, Maya was at a higher level than all of them.

She summoned her RPG once more and loaded in a pulse grenade. She braced herself.

“Yosi, light ‘em up after I shoot.”

“Right.”

The rocket screeched across the mana bloom lit world, a fiery trail that was lost immediately as the volex fueled rocket burned out. Although the RPG was a simple weapon, it was effective and cheap to make, but accuracy was something to be desired.

The rocket detonated as it struck one of the rogue AIs on it’s spiky back. The hedgehog looking rogue AI stumbled and then screeched as a ball of blue enveloped them and the other rogue AIs around them. A chorus of pained rogue AI screeches filled the air, followed a heartbeat later by the rattling of the defense turrets. The railgun thumped heavily and the gatling turrets screamed like banshees.

Maya loaded another rocket and sent it flying down range, another blossom of blue filled the air and the screeching of the rogue AIs intensified.

Rogue AI DD45872GS - Level 50 - Defeated

Command Platoon gains EXP

Lootable

Rogue AI ES4712EE - Level 51 - Defeated

Command Platoon gains EXP

Lootable

Rogue AI BD6135IV - Level 52 - Defeated

Command Platoon gains EXP

Lootable

Rogue AI AD7541EW - Level 52 - Defeated

Command Platoon gains EXP

Lootable

Rogue AI QZ5274OP - Level 53 - Defeated

Command Platoon gains EXP

Lootable

Rogue AI ID5422BV - Level 54 - Defeated

Command Platoon gains EXP

Lootable

“Like shooting fish in a barrel,” Maya grinned as she inventoried the RPG. She checked the status of the weapons and saw that they were all in the green. The new railguns she had made were sloppy work, a rushed project that Badblood and Yosi had scavenged parts from within the Hangy. As it were, they were running out of the more exotic components, as the previous tenants had salvaged all they could and now Maya was taking the rest. Soon the gold mine that was the Hangy would be tapped out.

If the day was profitable, they wouldn’t have to worry about to much afterwards. They would be swimming in liquid mana and all their energy needs would be met.

‘The first tesseract crystal is being formed,” Bell announced. She got a small live feed from within the Cage as a black goo can was topped off and she could see the glow that was solidifying. Soon they would be adding direct mana and it would become blood red.

A rumbling filled the air. “Incoming,” Yosi said a moment later. “There’s a horde of them, about fifty low level rogue AIs. two kilometers out.”

Maya summoned her RPG once more and sighed as she saw she was down to her last half dozen rockets. The weapon was cheap and easy to make, but they hadn’t the time to make more rockets, only creating ten workable rockets, with half of them being the pulse grenades.

“They’re stopping,” Yosi said.

Maya pulled up the scanner window and saw that the rogue AIs, insect like in their appearance, had gathered together and were climbing on top of one another. Maya had a bad feeling that they were doing something that she would regret.

“They’re building something,” Yosi said. “It’s a ranged weapon of some kind. Each AI carries a piece and when they gather together, they can make a powerful weapon.”

“Great,” Maya looked down at the turrets. The shotgun and the gatling were useless, as the swarm was outside of their range.

Yosi let out a hiss. “I’m getting a lot of interference from them, they’re jamming our scanners. I’m losing the target locks.”

“Shit,” Maya muttered. Although they had managed to cobble together scanners and other sensor devices, Maya understood that they were all of a low grade quality. Yosi had said there were military grade, or high-grade, sensors out there, stuff that couldn’t be easily jammed or blocked.

“I’m going in,” Maya said.

“What? That’s insane!” Bell’s voice cut in.

“These rogue AIs are all about level twenty. I got this.” Maya leaped over the defense turrets and then sprinted through the small mine field they had created. The swarm was a kilometer away and she could see them crawling over one another, bringing up the image of an ant swarm making a bridge with their bodies.

She skidded to a stop and hefted the RPG, sending a rocket screeching toward them and then hurriedly loading another. The first pulse grenade detonated, causing the heaving mass of the swarm to shudder and a few of the external AIs sloughed off, crackling and seizing as the mana pulse burned through them. Maya fired another round into the small opening that had appeared, the grenade detonated within the pile of the rogue AIs, this time causing more of the creatures to fall away, some ripped apart and others destroyed from the overwhelming pulse.

With the new threat, the swarm abandoned making their weapon and half of the remaining number turned to face her. Maya inventoried her RPG and then pulled out a few mines and tossed them before her. She backed up and summoned a rifle, a Haroskaski Particle Beam Rifle - mid grade, Tier 1.

The green blade of energy struck out from the rifle, cutting through the flimsy armor of the insect rogue AIs. They were like the ants, small and weak, but in groups they could and did swarm their enemies. The key was to keep them at bay and not allow their numbers to overwhelm.

The mines detonated, simple helix explosives, and the particle beam continued to slice through the AIs. With a dozen of the rogue AIs lying dead or dying at her feet, Maya felt a pressure wave as a marsani slug blasted by her. She paused and felt another round tear by, striking a rogue AI that had been charging her.

“They’re not jamming now,” Yosi said. “Get back. I think there’s not enough of them to make the weapon they were trying to make.”

The railgun slugs were tearing up the rogue AIs and Maya inventoried her rifle and turned to head back to the defense turret line.

Her dangersense hit her hard, immediately Maya hit the ground and felt something screech by, missing her by inches. The HUD displayed a creature, birdlike, with a humanoid torso and massive legs that held sharp claws.

“What the hell, Yosi!” Maya called out, scrabbling back to her feet and summoning her rifle.

“They’ve got a cloaking device of some kind,” Yosi reported. “They’re not showing up on the scanners, but I’m seeing some interference, that might mean there are more fo them.”

The swarm rogue AIs began screeching again, not at the railgun slugs still hitting targets, but as their swarm mates were being pulled into the sky by the attacking harpies. Maya watched as the flyers crashed down, their claws piercing the weak armor and then with a massive blast, shot back up into the sky. In seconds they were lost against the black of the sky.

“Fuck,” Maya muttered, scanning the sky. The birds weren’t the shiny metal she had seen in most rogue AIs, instead they were matte black, blending in with the sky.  Maya rushed back to the defense line but her danger sense screamed again, she tried to dodge and roll, but she felt something explode across her back and she was sent tumbling. The gatling turrets screamed and Maya groaned as she came to a stop.

Her back was on fire, literally. She felt the heat through her armor and smoke was billowing out from behind her. She rolled in the gray dirt, the flames snuffing out, but her HUD displayed a lot of red along the backplate of her armor.

“What the hell was that?” she muttered.

“A rocket of some sort. Fired by the flying rogue AIs.”

“Awesome,” Maya groaned and activated the mana shield enchantment that Bell had given her long ago.

“I’m cleaning up the interference,” Yosi said. “I think I’ll be able to track them, but I can’t hit them.”

“Yeah, the turrets weren’t designed to fire upward,” Maya said.

As if eavesdropping on their conversation, the harpies screeched back down from the sky and smashed into the defense turrets. Their claws made quick work of the fairly flimsy armor of the turrets. The rush job had them cut a lot of corners, most of those corners being protection for the turrets themselves. It had been a gamble, creating deadly turrets that were easy to destroy.

“Fuck,” Maya cried, firing at the creatures.

Rogue AI SS5482NN - Level 42 - Defeated

Command Platoon gains EXP

Lootable

“They’re gonna tear up our defenses,” Maya said as she made it to the remaining line of turrets. They were down five canister turrets, and a gatling turret, the railguns had thankfully not been targeted.

“I think you should fall back,” Yosi said. “I’m reading a lot of them.”

Maya looked at the scanner read out and grunted. The sky was filled with the creatures and they were coming right at them.

“How are we looking on power?” Maya asked.

“The tank is forty percent full, the pump was corrupted and had to be replaced.”

Maya nodded at the information. It had been something she hoped wouldn’t happen, but as she had seen from the railguns that had been powered by the mana netting in their first fight, the sheer amount of raw liquid mana tended to corrupt the devices they were powering. In this case it was more of the liquid mana being in contact with the low-grade unshielded pumps.

That thought caused her to check the turret statuses, the canister turrets were fine as they barely used any mana, but the gatling and the railguns were edging into dangerous orange territory.

“Send out the drones, we can’t leave.”

“We already have more than enough liquid mana to turn the vats into tesseracts,” Bell said.

“We need this,” Maya said.

Bell muttered something but didn’t speak again. Maya felt herself clenching and unclenching her fists. They needed this mana and it would change everything for them. They could get back to Earth, they could harness the ambient mana there and refill their stocks. They could-

The ground erupted around Maya and she flinched as the mana shield from her enchantment flared to life. Fire blossomed and she felt herself hit the dirt, although the damage was mitigated by the shield she was still tossed around. The ground baked and she saw all the lights on the turrets vanish.

It took a moment for Maya to get back to her feet. The mana shield stuttered and then winked out, overwhelmed by the carnage before her.

The ground was a cratered mess, the entire area between her and the Cage was shredded apart by a explosives. The harpies had bombed them.

“We’ve lost half of the hoses,” Yosi announced. “All the turrets are destroyed.”

Maya took a slow breath. “Alright, send out the drones, send out more hoses, We can fend them off.”

Bell muttered something, but didn’t contradict her. A moment later Alpha Team and the drones exited the Cage. They stomped their way toward her and Bravo Team hurried out with extra hoses.

“Get back into the Cage,” Maya called to Badblood.

“You cannot fight this by yourself,” she called back.

“You’re too low leveled to be anything but a target.”

That was the wrong thing to say as Badblood bristled and glared at her. “I have leveled from defeating Pickman.”

“Jesus, just get back inside before-“

A screech filled the air as one, then two, and then three of Badblood’s team was snatched up into the sky. Maya cursed and fired her rifle after the retreating figure. The particle beam sliced off a wing and the harpy screeched, releasing it’s prey and then tumbling out of the sky.

“Get back inside!” Maya screamed. She launched herself forward, running to the fallen Tarvana. It took seconds to reach the man.

Blackrock - Level 4

He lay there gasping, his chest punctured by the claws and his bones broken from the fall. He screamed in pain as Maya picked him up and rushed back to the Cage.  Already she could see the wounds closing up, the major damage stitching itself back together. Thankfully he passed out as she continued running.

Maya cursed, they had lost two Tarvana. The harpies were just too fast and they hadn’t been prepared for aerial attacks. She cursed again as she saw Badblood and the remains of Alpha team still standing with the drones.

“I said get back into the Cage!” Maya snapped.

“We do not fear these rogue AIs,” Badblood announced. “You stand against them easily, so shall we.” They hefted a variety of weapons, Maya hadn’t been able to arm them, but they were well armed with simple melee weapons. A few had some pistols and handguns, but none of the Tarvana were prepared or armed enough to face off against even the insect swarm.

The air was filled with screeching again as the harpies tore down from the sky. The defense drones were able to fire into the air, but their weapons were artillery based and not meant to hit fast moving targets.

Maya dropped the unconscious Tarvana and summoned her rifle. She was already firing into the air as the matte black figures descended. One, then two of the rogue AIs crashed into the ground as she clipped their wings. A dozen more descended.

There was screaming as four more Tarvana were snatched up and pulled into the sky. Maya fired after the targets, but only managed to knock one down, the figure crashing not to far from her companions.

“Get inside!” Maya yelled.

Now, the Tarvana listened. Badblood tried to tell them to hold their ground, but they weren’t trained or hardened troops. They were scavengers and hiding was their main defense, a stand up fight against an enemy they could barely see was suicide. One of the Tarvana dragged her unconscious load away and Maya continued scanning the sky.

Badblood stood amongst the defense drones, still glaring.

“You keep undermining me!” she declared.

“Jesus, you want to have this discussion now?” Maya snapped. “Get inside.”

“I do not-“

Maya stalked to Badblood and grabbed the small woman. “Five of your people just got killed and two are badly injured. You didn’t have to be out here, you didn’t have to make them stand out here. That is on you, kid. Their lives were in your hands and you wasted them. You let them die. Now get the fuck back into the Cage.”

Badblood opened her mouth to say something, but a deep hollow boom filled the air. Maya felt her dangersense screaming at her.

“Maya,” Yosi said, her voice barely a whisper.

A figure blotted out the sky, a massive winged creature that craned their head in their direction. Maya felt her mouth drying up and her knees weaken.

Allosavaro - Tier 3

The mana bloom light glinted off the monstrosity’s back, an array of silver scales that ran from their horned head to the end of their whiplike tail. The massive wings folded back and the creature stalked toward them.

“Run.” Maya hissed and then did so herself. “I’m cutting the door as soon as I’m in!”

Maya’s boots pounded upon the metal decking of the Cage and she immediately cut the door’s connection.

Nothing happened.

Allosavaro has engaged a Dimensional Lock

/Author's Note:  Well, seems like I should not try to promise things.  I had hoped to keep a consistence schedule, but travel and other things occurred, causing some delay.  Hope you enjoy the update.