[ICI ADVISING ALL UNITS, OPERATION START IN T MINUS 5 MINUTES.]As ICI cold and unfeeling voice jolted Dax awake he felt a hand being placed on his back through the vacuum suit he was currently wearing. Looking to the side he saw Solaris who had a worried look on her face.
(... Seems like it can"t be helped.)
Breathing a short sigh Dax grabbed Solaris" hand and pulled her closer, making the angel"s visor b.u.mp into his own, allowing Dax to speak to her by allowing the vibrations of his voice carry through the gla.s.s.
"It"ll all be fine, don"t worry."
"But-"
"No buts. Remember, most if not all of the elders have travelled trough the gate formation down to the imperial continent, even if we meet a single one we should be able to keep it at bay while we do what we came here to do… After this mission is over we can go on another date if you want to~"
Seeing that Solaris was about to start complaining yet again Dax decided to tease her so she wouldn"t do so, a plan which spectacularly backfired as Solaris" face lit up in absolute joy.
"In that case I want the entire day to be just you and me, first we"ll start with shopping in the new city and after that, I want to go to that place you always keep sneaking off to then-"
Seeing that Solaris" plan for their date had completely consumed her mind Dax broke contact with her visor without the person in question realizing it as he breathed another deep sigh.
(I really did dig myself into a grave there, but at least she isn"t worried anymore, which is nice.)
Pa.s.sing the rest of the time before the operation started Dax scanned the deserted luna landscape as he had done so many times in the last few hours, near the horizon in front of him and Solaris was their current objective, the lost sanctuary the two of them had visited once before.
[ICI ADVISING ALL UNITS, OPERATION START IN T MINUS 1 MINUTE.]
With only a minute until the operations started Dax confirmed that Solaris had also gotten the message, then he stood up straight, bringing a small briefcase to the front of him.
(Here we go…)
Feeling Solaris" hand on his back, Dax pressed a trigger on the briefcase which transformed into a transparent film which completely covered his figure from the front. The flimsy looking "s.h.i.+eld" blocked any and all signatures while its front side automatically changed its colour match to whatever was below it, in effect cloaking Solaris and Dax"s figures from the front as long as they remained at a distance from any observers.
[ICI ADVISING ALL UNITS, OPERATION START. TEAM ALPHA AND BRAVO ADVANCE.]
With ICI"s voice as a que, Solaris" and Dax"s vacuum suits lit up their att.i.tude control thrusters, pressing them down into the ground at approximately 0.6 G, allowing the pair to sprint towards the lost sanctuary in the distance. Within 20 minutes the pair had closed the distance to just under 5 kilometres, about the same Dax had picked as a safe landing distance when they first visited lost sanctuary, from this point on the mission was about to get radically more troublesome as the sanctuary was surrounded with pressure sensors which would open the outer airlock and alert anyone inside to their presence as had happened the last time.
Looking back at Solaris Dax received a somewhat enthusiastic nod from her, then as the pair"s att.i.tude control thrusters cut out the screen they were hiding behind switched its picture to completely black as Solaris and Dax gently set off from the lunar surface with a timed jump before their att.i.tude control thrusters once more lit up and further accelerated the pair up and towards the top of the dome which surrounded the lost sanctuary. On the way up and over the sanctuary Dax constantly reoriented himself, making sure to point the "s.h.i.+eld" towards the sanctuary while Solaris remained hidden behind him, eventually the pair spotted the other team consisting of Ifrit and Lia which was in the process of doing the exact same manoeuvre but from the other side of the sanctuary.
"Easy does it…"
With the two teams nearing each other Dax signalled Ifrit who was holding a screen just like him with a series of hand signals, guiding them to match their velocity and alt.i.tude before the two teams eventually met up right over the top of the sanctuary, the two team"s horizontal velocity cancelling out with only a bit of adjustments, then they slowly feel towards the sanctuary in the low gravity. Closing the range to a few metres from the top of the sanctuary, Dax secured a line to Solaris" vac suit while Ifrit did the same with Lia, then the two s.h.i.+eld holders slowly separated from their team partners while they used their thrusters to remain at the same alt.i.tude.
Gently touching down on the outer dome, Irit and Dax attached their screens to the surface of it as their warped to fit firmly onto the surface of it, then Ifrit slowly started circulating mana inside their body while making sure none of it leaked out. With Dax giving a thumbs up to Ifrit started using their mana to slowly open a hole in the outer dome by cutting the outer layer of rock apart without any letting any vibrations spread. With the densely compressed stone made of lunar regolith eventually was cut out from the dome in large cubes Dax opened up a hole in the screen, then he secured the topmost cube with a drill that he then used to attach to his line to Solaris above him, lifting the cube of rock carefully out of its hole and carefully placing it down on the screen next to him as Ifrit started carving out a new one.
This slow and careful process continued for several hours without a word spoken by anyone, all members of the team were completely focused on their respective tasks.
-
After 4 hours had pa.s.sed the team had made their way 5 metres into the outer dome where a metal plate which separated the outer protective dome what Dax a.s.sumed to be some sort of intermediate hollow support frame, but even then the group took no chances and while Dax and Irit prepared to break through the plate, Lia and Solaris worked together to instal a rudimentary airlock above them. Using a plasma touch Dax quickly cut open a hole in the plate revealing a skeletal metal framework with what looked like the proper sanctuary dome some 10 metres below that. Making sure he didn"t touch any of the metal frameworks Dax gradually floated down and landed on the surface of the sanctuary propper, then he took out a scanner which he pressed towards the smooth metal surface. Reading the vibrations the air inside the sanctuary carried all the way to the walls Dax confirmed the presence of at least one elder by looking for the specific ultrasound they constantly emitted, but the readings where so weak that he figured the elder must be on the lower floors, thus the mission continued.
After installing another airlock, Irit cut through the final layer of asteroid protection, then the 4 member a.s.sault team finally entered the top floor of the lost sanctuary. Closing the hole behind them, Dax made sure that he had marked the location of the entrance before he and the rest of the team spread out and started looking for the mana generating object Dax and Solaris had found last time, their objective was to either scan it completely, or outright remove it from the sanctuary and bring it back with them for a.n.a.lysis. Walking through a series of metal hallways with scratch marks all over them and rooms filled with dead servers, Dax"s visibility was no more than a few metres at the most, as the entire floor was filled to the brim with spores from the flesh and electricity consuming fungi which grew on almost everything in there.
Having found nothing the way he explored Dax made his way back to the starting point, then after waiting for a few moments he was joined by the other members of the a.s.sault team, then Solaris who had found the way to their objective led them to the centre room of the top floor, in the middle of the room was what they had come for, an amalgamation of lost technology from Dax"s world combined with runes and magic from this world in the shape of an orb, constantly emitting a steady flow of high density mana.
The mythical mana generator which Dax and Iris both theorized were behind the elder"s strength.