Chapter 19: Last Stand (1)

"Fucking. break. please!"

Smashing his fist repeatedly into a armour plate, Dax's left hand was greatly burned and bruised from breaking the 3 last plates, his ring finger had already stopped functioning as the tendon had snapped and all of his knuckles had been mostly bared with the bones showing by repeatedly fatiguing the metal armour plates by hitting them repeatedly.

"Finally!"

After hitting the plate back into shape for the 5th time, a crack finally formed and finally the plate cracked in half.

"2 more to go! how are you guys doing!?"

"Not good! why the fuck is there so many of them!?"

As Alice pointed out, several arachnids were closing in around the orb, and multiple arachnid corpses were shattered around outside the perimeter, with most of them set on fire, giving most of the remaining light as the sun had set some hours ago. As the sun had set, monster activity had increased and with the sound, Dax made while breaking through the orb's ablative heat shield, arachnids had swarmed towards the orb. Reacting to the increased arachnid activity, Alice had made the call to split the defensive force, making Redmond and Eduard take care of or slow down any arachnids that tried to force themself through the single opening in the fortification of rock spikes. Laura and Viktor were not resting however as an increasing amount of arachnids tried to crawl over the spikes or break them down as they had been busy repelling such attempts and several burning corpses impaled on the rock spikes showed their effectiveness and lighted up the night.

"One more over here! Viktor will deal with that one fast and get over here! And Laura gets back to Redmond and Eduard they seem to be struggling!"

"NNnn… on.. it!"

"Give me a second!"

"You have 20! Get your ass over here now!!"

Laura responded as she lit an arachnid on fire that had tried to climb over the rock spikes and as it screamed in pain she had impaled it with a rock shard, Viktor, on the other hand, had to deal with a way more tricky specimen that he had trouble hitting with a lethal spell.

"DEAL WITH IT! I need you over here now! there are more rude guests in need of some entertaining!"

While Alice shouted commands at Viktor she blinded an arachnid with a well placed arrow, but it had little effect as it started thrashing around and breaking the fortifications

"Oh no, you fucking don't! ICI help me!"

[CALCULATING TRAJECTORY, STANDBY... COMPLETE. SYNCHRONIZING MANEUVER]

"I see it!"

Guided by ICI Alice shot a steel arrow at the arachnid, hitting a small gap in its exoskeleton between its leg and torso, killing it instantly.

"I'm running out of arrows! Laura can you help!?"

[NEW CONTACT: @ HEADING 260 RANGE: 600 METERS]

"Not...now!... Ed… do… it!"

"OOHHH!"

Laura having hit an arachnid in the head with a rock shard, disorienting it greatly and then signalled Eduard who responded by channelling strengthening magic and charging it. Jumping of a corpse Eduard managed to reach the arachnids head and stabbed it through one of its eyes, making it collapse while convulsing.

"Laura end it!"

"NNnn!"

Responding to Eduard that jumped away, several flames appeared around Laura and then swarmed the injured arachnid, setting it on fire and reaping its life spreading the smell of burned flesh.

[IFF CONFIRMED]

While melting through to the second to last armour plate Dax finally received identification on the internals of the orb

"Well that took forever.. what do we have here?"

[Z-99 MOD-4 REGISTRATION 000042119 CONFIRMED. STATUS: IN DEEP SLEEP AWAITING PLANETFALL]

"That's fucking great! ICI commence interfacing"

[UNABLE. PRIMARY AND AXILLARY COM ARRAY OFFLINE]

"Then bypass directly to a cyclops!"

[UNABLE. ALL UNITS ARE IN DEEP SLEEP AWAITING PLANETFALL]

(So the sensors and coms array were damaged in the attack…)

"Shit…. Alice! I have good and bad news!"

"WHAT!? we're all a little busy!"

"Okay, I'll make it quick! This orb contains weapons that can clear this whole area in a minute! But I can't talk to them yet!"

"Meaning what exactly?"

"We win when I get through this armour!"

"Everyone heard that!!?"

"OOHH! I don't really get it but it means we're almost done right?"

"Nnn… pending…. victory"

"That's great! you owe us a beer Dax!"

"Great! I can't wait to see more of your worlds technology Dax!"

"Your priorities are backwards Viktor! I still need you to kill arachnids over here!"

"Hhiii! sorry!"

---

Fighting with renewed spirits they managed to push back the approaching arachnids, killing over 20 more and sending the rest fleeing, resulting in Dax starting to panic slightly.

"Okay no time for celebrations! Eduard and Redmond start making barriers of dead arachnids where the spike wall have been damaged for Viktor or Laura to light on fire when they return! Viktor and Laura start recovering mana, use all the leftover mana potions if you have to, then start recovering arrows for Alice!"

"Dax calm down already, we won they're not coming back"

"No, I'm sure they are! something called them back… Arachnids have a social structure right?"

"What are you talking ab- oh shit that's right!"

As Alice caught on to what Dax was saying she also started to panic

"It was most likely a queen that called them back, fucking shit… Redmond! can you guys kill a queen!?"

"My pride would say yes, but there's no way. We would need another gold ranked party to even try it"

"Yeah, there's no way…"

"... Impossible.. screwed"

"Then focus on slowing it down, Dax how long till you're inside that thing?"

"An hour at the most, if the refit holds together"

"And if it breaks?"

"Then we're all fucked. So start praying"

Following Dax's instructions, Eduard and Redmond started manhandling the few non burning arachnid corpses with the use of strengthening magic and piling them in front of the few areas of the spike wall and then cut up their abdomens, making them easier to set on fire. Meanwhile, Laura and Viktor where chucking mana potions both with a disgusted look on their faces and Alice were scanning the surrounding area vigilantly looking for signs of the next wave of arachnids.

(ICI call up Alice will you?)

(DIALING GUARDIAN 47, PATCHING CEREBRAL ARCHITECTURE. WARNING: LIMITED MIND MELT IN EFFECT. EXPECTED CORRUPTION UNDER 0.00000094052% PATTEN GREEN IN EFFECT.)

("Could you please not do that it making me dizzy!")

After connecting to Alice Dax was greeted by her screaming voice in his head

("But not as much as last time right? anyway can you tell me about the arachnid queens?")

("...")

("Are you ignoring me?")

Waiting for about a minute without answer Dax sighed and then decided to play a prank on her

("Hey Alice did you know I can shout loud enough in here for you to go insane within a minute without you being able to do anything?")

("...")

(No effect huh.. then let's….)

Dax's mind going into overdrive he decided on a new

("If you don't answer I won't pat your head ever again")

("Are you mentally disturbed Dax?")

("Greatly since birth. Anyway we were discussing the arachnid queens")

After a minute of great audible groaning from Alice she followed it up with a sigh and then started explaining

("Arachnid queens are larger, faster, tougher and smarter than regular arachnids. There's usually only 1 or 2 a nest and a party of platinum ranked hunter are usually needed to kill a single one")

("How thick is the exoskeleton? 2 or 3 times the normal arachnid?")

("About 3 times thicker, and quite a bit denser, why?")

("No reason, thanks for answering my questions Alice~")

While chatting with Alice Dax had finally reached the next plate and prepared to make a whole in it as he drew his pistol once more, only to find Viktor next to him eagerly looking at his pistol.

(INDUCTION HEATER INTEGRITY AT 20%)

"That's a pistol right Dax? can I try it?"

"Yeah it is, but if you fired this pistol it would probably break your wrist and shatter most the bones in your arm"

"That sounds, brutal.. I'll pass"

"Sadly this type of pistol is custom designed for my race. I'm firing so stand back a bit"

Gently jumping a few steps backwards in the low gravity Viktor blocked his ears and gave a nod to Dax that stared at him with a questioning look on his face

"What?"

"Nothing"

emptying an entire magazine in the armour plate Dax managed to make a small hole in the armour, revealing another layer of black mesh underneath

(How the hell is that kid in any kind of military?)

"WOULD IT KILL YOU TO GIVE A WARNING BEFORE YOU USE THAT THING!! IT SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF ME!"

"Ah, sorry! Anyway, that was the second to last plate so I'm almost through"

As Dax started fatiguing the metal plate with his bare hands Viktor once started asking questions.

"What's on the other side?"

"A 'vehicle' that's made for re-entry filled with weapons and some equipment"

"What kind of equipment?"

"Hopefully a shit ton of active nanomachines, a working bioprinter and a zero-g forge"

"A bio what? and some kind of forge?"

"A bioprinter, a machine that creates anything from organs to whole limbs or body parts for first aid on the battlefield. And a zero-g forge, another machine that uses the same mechanics that makes this orb float to make complex machinery that's for first aid and service of weapons on the battlefield."

"That seems amazing...."

"Yeah they are, to be honest, I'll show you how they work later."

"By the way are you sure you don't need me to heal you? that hand looks pretty… well broken"

Taking a short break from fatiguing the armour plate Dax briefly examined his hand. The knuckles were mostly bared with the bone showing, his fingers were covered in burns from handling the hot metal and the tendon on his ring finger had snapped, making it useless.

"Nah it's okay the damage is still mostly superficial, besides my body is tougher than it looks and can still get us out of this mess even if I can't use my hands as long as we get through this wall"

Half listening to Dax and Viktors conversation, Alice were vigilantly watching the surrounding from on top of the orb, still a bit uneasy on her footing in the low gravity.

[NEW CONTACTS: @ HEADING 010 RANGE: 650 METERS]

Suddenly her vision turned purple and ICI directed her attention to a spot distance with a faint yellow and red hue, slowly getting larger.

"Let me see it normally"

[SWITCHING TO OPTICAL SENSORS FROM INFERRED. STANDBY..]

"I can't see them now?"

("That tends to happen when you turn off night vision at night")

"Dax! get out of my head!"

("No can do, give me a second I'm cleaning up the sensory data… And overwrite, there you go, my sweet Alce, ~")

Having her vision one more turn purple Alice started to regret borrowing the mask from Dax that he still had complete control over until she looked at the contacts.

"Oh shit. 25, no more like 30? and 2 queens!? what the fuck!"

This time the image she saw was greatly cleared up, and she saw multiple orange and red figures, they were all arachnids

[34 NEW CONTACTS IDENTIFIED. DISSADVISEING DIRECT CONFONTRATION]

"Yeah no shit, guys we got company!"

"Already on it, Dax told us!"

Down below Viktor, Laura, Eduard and Redmond were already making their preparations. Redmond and Eduard were busy making a barrier at the entrance out of arachnid corpses, meanwhile, Viktor and Laura gathered the last of the arrows for Alice they could safely recover and passed them to Dax that skillfully tossed them to Alice on top the orb.

"What's the plan now Dax?"

"Delay them for as long you safely can outside the spikes while Alice and Viktor picks off strays that try to flank, then fall back behind the spikes and have Viktor and Laura light anything flammable on fire and start praying, I need another 10 minutes at least to get through to the last armour plate."

"You owe us so much more than a single beer! any final advice before we start?"

"Yeah, and for you especially Eduard. Fight to maim and not to kill, you only need to stall them for another 10 minutes so don't bother wasting energy to kill an arachnid if you have already cut off some of its legs."

"You're surprisingly heartless Dax, but I'll take it to heart"

Leaving Dax and the rear guard consisting of Viktor and Alice behind, Blue Phoenix when you in the tundra field to face the arachnids

"And one last thing, dying is not allowed!"

"That's not how it works Dax.."

"That's exactly how it works when your taking orders from me if I see any of you guys trying to pull off some stupid hero shit and dying I will personally drag your asses out of hell and then beat you senseless. Understood!?"

Feeling a surprising amount of bloodlust from Dax Eduard immediately knew that he was serious and responded by flinching. Redmond on the other hand just started laughing and Laura for once looked wide awake and serious. Going out into the darkness Eduard could barely make out the terrain from the light provided by the starts and nearby moon that hang in the sky above them, hearing several arachnids closing in and seeing their red eyes in the dark sent a chill down Eduard's spine, but he quickly calmed down and suppressed his fear.

"What's the plan o great leader?"

"Laura give us light, I'll keep her safe and you do hit and run tactics on them. As Dax said we don't need to kill them just slow them down so try to go for their legs or blinding them, Alice and Viktor got our back so don't bother with anyone trying to get around us as they will take care of them. And remember when they overwhelm us start running, then we hide and wait out the last time"

"Roger!"

"Nn.. Let's do this!"

As Laura finished chanting she hit her staff the butt of her staff in the ground and spread out a pattern of red runes around her, and after a second tennis sized balls of flame started to form around her.

"More."

As if responding to her voice the flames grew in number and size until there where at least 50 football sized ball of flame surrounding her

"..And… light.. up. the night!"

Receiving their final command the fire balls flew out and pelted the tundra in front of Blue Phoenix, hitting several arachnids and setting multiple on fire, lighting them on fire, Laura fell down on her knees with a pale face

"Laura! are you okay?"

"I'm… fine"

After a second of gathering herself, Laura downed a mana potion and stood up again with her face still a bit pale.

"looks like they've started, I'll get in position as well"

As Alice looked at the fires spreading out on the tundra lighting up the night, and some arachnids, Alice decided to also head out to the field, with Viktor following behind

"Good hunting"

(INDUCTION HEATER INTEGRITY CRITICAL.)

(Please hold together a bit longer... ICI start working on a backup solution)

"I'll head out too, good luck Dax"

"Godspeed"

"That's one more! good job Eduard"

"Thanks! but we need to fall back soon, they're starting to surround us!"

As Eduard pointed out after slicing off half the legs of an arachnid several of them were starting to surround the group after having initially underestimated the tiny and delicious looking humans.

"Let's gradually open up the distance, I'll carry Laura, you stop any of them that tries to charge us. Okay, fall ba-"

Before Redmond could finish giving a command he was interrupted by an arrow flying right over his head, hitting one of the arachnids that was trying to move around in a gap in its exoskeleton at its leg, making it fall over. A second later a rock shard also passed the group and hit another arachnid in the head, caused it to fall over, and breaking one of its legs in the process.

"Oh shit, was that Alice and Viktor? I guess they're helping us out, so let's keep going a bit more"

"Can you see Alice Redmond? I've no idea where she's at?"

"I have no idea, she is a ranger after all"

"Nn.. scarry"

Seeing one of the best rangers really do her work for the first time Eduard couldn't help shuttering at the fact she delivered fatal or disabling shoots from somewhere behind them, completely unseen in the dark. He felt the same about Viktor, the only thing making him visible was the short runic light from his spells as he shot 50 kg rocks with a truly frightening speed and accuracy

(I guess they're part of the military for a reason huh, I can't fall behind)

Fighting with renewed vigour, Eduard managed to disable another arachnid, and the other side responded by backing off briefly, only for a queen to approach.

"Oh shit"

"Oh shit indeed, back off slowly, we can't beat that one..."

The arachnid queen where about 1 and a half times larger than a normal arachnid with a significantly tougher exoskeleton and its 6 eyes showed significantly more intelligence than a normal specimen as it slowly approached Eduard while being curious of attacks from Alice and Viktor hid behind Blue Phoenix.

"Woah it looks disgusting up close, keep backing off slowly"

"Ugly.."

"And it smells too, keep up the same distance"

Maintaining the distance, Blue Phoenix slowly backed off, but only for half a minute before the arachnid queen seemed to realize what was going on and sped up to a run at them.

"Oh fuck, Viktor, help!"

Responding to Redmond's panic, a rock shard flew past Eduard and grazed the queen, it has predicted an attack and dogged as soon it saw the light from the magic attack, before being hit in the eye by a steel arrow, fired from the darkness behind them without any warning

"Run now!"

"With pleasure!"

Reacting to Alice's shout, Redmond picked up Laura and started running, with Eduard following after a second when he realized what was going on. Making their way back behind the spike wall and Viktor and Laura quickly set all the leftover arachnid corpse on fire making a barrier of flame surrounding the spikes.

"What's the progress Dax?"

"I sure hope you have good news, we just pissed off a queen"

"Yeah about that.."

[MALFUNCTION CONFIRMED. INDUCTION ELEMENT OFFLINE, UNABLE TO REPAIR]

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Gamma420

Thanks for reading :D

my exams are over (till January) and work is done for the year too so i'm going back home to visit my mom, brother and little sister, but don't worry I'll bring my laptop and continue to make chapters

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