Having survived her first close encounter with an elder, Terra managed to pull herself somewhat together before she made her way to the designated regrouping point about 10 kilometres inland. (There we are… Looks like I"m not the first.)
Spotting the tiny mining town that was her current objective Terra checked her scanner to make sure no elders were nearby before she moved closer in. Bringing up her rifle, Terra increased her speed to a light jog, although the rifle couldn"t really do anything against the elders, pointing it forward brought a sense of ease as she moved in on the mining town, finding the former cafeteria she knocked 2 times before entering.
"Commander, it"s good to see you."
Being immediately greeted by one of her subordinates Terra removed her helmet as she put down her rifle, allowing herself to rest for the first time since the start of the operation.
"You too Simons, have you heard anything from the others?"
"Nothing so far, I"m afraid."
"I see…"
With strict radio silence being enforced on all members of the operation it was impossible to know if anyone other than the two of them had even made it past the frontline and broken trough into the elder controlled continent, so all Terra and Simons could do was wait until the planned departure from their current location and hope they would be joined by at least some of their commanders.
In the end, none of the 8 other squad members arrived, leaving Terra no choice but to mark them off as dead, leading to the end of the first day of the operation with a casualty rate of 80%, a figure which unbeknownst to Terra that figure mimicked the rate for the rest of the operation.
-
Having made it past the front line where the most of the elders were believed to operate Simons and Terra continued to travel inland without meeting friend or foe and by the second day they had made it all the way to their second objective, the former domain capital of Turant, a ma.s.sive fortress city where an estimated 92% of the approximately 3 million inhabitants had refused to evacuate, believing that the stout walls of their city would protect them from any and all invaders.
"This doesn"t look good…"
Already form a distance Terra could tell that they would be walking into a h.e.l.lscape, there was something about the completely silent atmosphere and empty defensive positions on the outer wall which just felt wrong on a fundamental level. There was simply no signs of battle, nor any signs of life, there were no people, no animals and not even any insects around, the only sound was Terra"s and her subordinate"s own footsteps and the sound of wind pa.s.sing through the fields of wheat ready for harvest which now surrounded them on all sides.
As Simons and Terra eventually made their way to the outer gates they found them still firmly shut and locked as if the city had been enduring or preparing for a siege, forcing them to spend valuable time scaling the outermost wall. While climbing the wall Terra"s discomfort only continued to grow, it was as if the lack any of evidence to support a battle made her even more uncomfortable, surely the elders had already reached this city, in that case, what had happened to the citizens, and even the livestock which had inhabited the now empty pens which they had already pa.s.sed? Terra felt like she didn"t want to know, somehow her gut told her that the uneasiness of not knowing was better than whatever awaited her on the other side of the wall she was currently scaling, it screamed at her, saying that she did not want to know, yet she kept on climbing.
The reason why was simple, this was her job, the mission she had volunteered for herself, if she backed off now what would her dead subordinates think of her?
"... Oh G.o.d."
"Masks on."
Having reached the top of the wall Simons found himself as a loss for words, the taste of gastric acid rapidly building up in his mouth as Terra blocked him from puking by engaging his environmental protection system on his armour.
The eerily quiet and deserted cityscape which met their eyes showed absolutely no signs of battle, what"s worse, the skyline was now marked with large spires covered in the same kind of fungus that the elders where know to spread wherever they went.
It didn"t take an expert to make out that those spires were constructed of biological matter which the fungus fed on, which served as the worst kind of explanation as to why Simons and Terra had yey to encounter even a single fly, or a copse of the almost 3 million people who had lived in the city.
"We have a job to do, now I need to know now if you"re with me 100% Simons, if not I need you to head back to the first gathering point and remain there until rescued. This is just the tip of the iceberg, there was an estimated 95 million souls on the imperial continent when the elders closed it off to the rest of the world."
Being given the option to back out from the operation and retreat Simon initially couldn"t believe what Terra was saying, that is until he caught a glimpse of the reflection of his own eyes in the mask he was now wearing.
"No… I"m fine, just give me a second to collect myself."
Steeling his failing nerves Simons gathered his courage while certain parts of his brain mostly stopped working, it was clear by the look on his face that he was deeply traumatized, but still, he wanted to press on.
"Then let"s do this, we need to collect samples and doc.u.ment those structures, we owe at least that much to the people of this city."
Having once more hardened their determination, the pair of scouts made their way into the newly discovered city fungus covered the dead. Everywhere they walked, Terra and Simons left footprints in the thin layer of spores which now covered every single surface of the dead silent city, making their way to the closest fungus structure the pair was met with a new discovery. At the base of the structure which was situated in the middle of a plaza laid a small mountain of clothes and amour, seemingly discarded for some unknown reason.
"I"ll collect a sample of this structure, cover me."
"Got it, be careful commander."
Walking out into the plaza towards the 10 metre wide structure, one of the smaller one of the city, Terra closed in on it as she took a set of vials out of her chest pouch. At a distance, the fungus tower had kind of looked like a ma.s.sive white tree trunk, but upon closing in on the structure, Terra realized that the surface was far more irregular, like a loosely packed forest floor stacked into the shape of a tower.
(First I need to collect some of the newly created spores to check for genetic drift in case the fungus has mutated after coming into contact with its new environment, then I need a sample of the gills and finally a deep sample of the structure to collect a sample of the mycelium…)
Brus.h.i.+ng parts of one of the branches, Terra collected some of the fresh spores in her first vial, then she took out her knife and dug out the spore producing part of one of the larger mushroom growths before preparing to take the final deep sample by brus.h.i.+ng some of the spores off the surface of the structure, not unearthing what she believed was the fungi"s main body, but a half decayed face of a child no older than 5 years, stacked under another body.
(Oh G.o.d.)
Even if she hadn"t consciously realized it until now, Terra had been subconsciously aware of what meaning the children"s clothing in the pile had meant, yet she had refused to internalize it. Fungi isn"t part of the plant kingdom, they are heterotrophs, a lifeform which "eats", growth is their form of movement as they acquire subsistence by secreting digestive enzymes into their environment.
It made perfect sense that a tower of fungi would not be constructed of fungi, but its food with fungi growing on top of it.
"I"m so f.u.c.king sorry."
With a silent apology to the long dead child, Terra pressed her vial meant for collecting deep tissue samples towards the easiest point of entry, then collected the final sample before hurrying back to Simons.
"How did it go?"
"I got the samples, you don"t want to know anything else."
Continuing on deeper into the city Terra and Simons were met with the same sight everywhere. Empty, spore covered streets and piles of clothing and armour near every single fungi tower, having reached the city centre everywhere they went was just a repeat of what they had already seen.
"... There"s nothing else here, time to leave."
"Understood co-"
Mid sentence Simons was interrupted by an unnerving sound, the high pitch alarm form the acoustic sensor which warned that an elder was rapidly closing in on their area.
"Disperse!"
With no time to hide their tracks, Terra had no other choice but to increase the individual chance of survival for either herself or Simons, they had to split up. While Simons escaped into a nearby inn Terra took refuge inside a merchant"s shop, quickly hiding in the bas.e.m.e.nt used to store heat sensitive goods, then she waited as her acoustic sensor peaked, indicating that there was at least one elder within 100 metres. Activating the stealth mode on her Valkyrie armour, Terra sat herself down in a corner hidden behind a series of boxes before she slowly started cooking inside her armour while waiting for the elder to leave, after an unknown amount of time she pa.s.sed out from the heat.
---
Startling awake after an unknown amount of time as she was touched by something, Terra froze up in horror as she came face to face with an elder, its fungi covered having completely ensnared Terra and shutting off all attempts of escape while the elders poorly implanted cybernetic eyes were firmly locked on to her fearful expression while it slowly peeled off Terra"s armour. As the elder cracked Terra"s armour it released a joyful scream while its tentacles violently entered Terra"s body trough her mouth, reaching deep into her stomach while others sought out Terra"s brain, quickly devouring her mind while extracting the secrets within. Then she woke up for real as it took Terra a few seconds to realize it had all been a nightmare.
"... f.u.c.k."
Silently swearing while calming down, Terra confirmed that there were no nearby elders before emerging from hiding with Simons nowhere to be found. Now alone once more Terra only breathed a short sigh before she continued her mission, slowly making her way towards the former imperial capital.