The Battle of Ulimo Citadel took an unexpected turn!
Sohow, the Nyxian pirates caused the besieged stronghold and a wide area around it to beco engulfed in an anomalous hazard!
While Ves, the Black Cats and the other analysts of the Larkinson Clan guessed that the pirates might resort to drastic asures, this was sothing else. Who knew that the Dry Snakes were crazy enough to call upon the most fearso phenonon of the Nyxian Gap.
Ves and the Larkinson Clan had never encountered such a drastic ans of flipping the board!
For a few seconds on the bridge of the Scarlet Rose, everyone looked shocked as the main visuals depicted an ominous, shadowy sphere enveloping the entire battlefield.
It was as if so incomprehensible monster took a bite out of space!
Horror and confusion began to spread throughout the ships and the few hundred chs that the Larkinson Clan kept in reserve.
"What is going on?!"
"Are.. are they gone? Just like this?"
"We have lost all communications with the units engulfed in the unknown anomaly!"
"We need to rescue our brothers right away!"
"Don't panic! Everything can be explained!"
Throughout the fleet, the hundreds of scientists and engineers attempted to interpret the confusing sensor data. The sensor readings made little sense, as most of the sensors had never been designed to observed such an abnormal phenonon to begin with! What had happened exceeded the Larkinson Clan's comprehension by a huge margin!
Ves joined the frenzy as well. Even though he did not specialize in astrophysics or any other field related to spatial phenona, he tried his best to decipher what was going on. It was too bad that he failed to spot a discernable pattern that he could use to figure out this anomaly!
For several minutes, Task Force Predator attempted various moves. Several ships dispatched small, disposable drones and sent them through the sphere.
They were never heard from again. The connection to the drones cut off. Even when these devices received instructions to leave the sphere imdiately afterwards, sohow each of them failed to erge from the anomaly.
"What about sending a ship? Maybe we can still maintain contact through the quantum entanglent node."
"Are you stupid?!" A chief engineer spat. "Many anomalies in the Nyxian Gap completely garble the connection between quantum entangled particles!"
Though more clansn began to suggest they should enter the anomalous region in order to rescue their trapped compatriots, the risks were far too great to make such a reckless move. Sending in the entire fleet might potentially doom Task Force Predator entirely!
What puzzled Ves was how the pirates could possibly have such a trump card in reserve. After several weeks of probing and infiltration, the Black Cats should have figured most if not all of the strengths of Ulimo Citadel.
How could they have missed sothing as dramatic as this move!?
He decided to call the leader of the Black Cats.
Her projection depicted a spymaster who was out of her comfort zone. She looked devoid of her usual poise, and her customary smirk was nowhere to be seen.
"Calabast! What is going on!?"
"We are investigating the circumstances. Prior to our attack, we truly haven't found any indications that the Dry Snakes or their subordinate forces are capable of evoking an anomalous hazard on command. We have even researched every independent pirate outfit for abnormal capabilities, but as far as we know, they are all ordinary."
"Have you investigated any other unusual people or organizations at Ulimo?" Ves pressed.
"We have, but none of them appear capable of evoking such a huge movent."
Her answer didn't satisfy him at all. Frustration welled in him as he was lacking a huge amount of answers. The longer this anomaly stayed active, the greater the chance that he would lose most if not every ch deployed into battle.
If it ca down to it, losing thousands of chs was an acceptable price. Though Ves valued chs a lot as a principle, they were built for a purpose. He could always build new machines as long as he gained access to so production facilities in the Nyxian Gap.
What truly pained him was the prospect losing the lives of the ch pilots who were trapped inside the anomaly!
Such a huge loss not only ant that Task Force Predator would permanently lose a lot of battle strength. This would make it very difficult for the fleet to defend itself against vengeful pirates.
In addition, Ves would have huge pressure in the clan if he returned to civilized space with just a fraction of his fighting forces. His young and fragile clan would not be able to stomach such a heavy blow!
As he kept staring at the boiling sphere of darkness and shadows, Ves suddenly made a small realization.
How did the pirates manage to evoke such a big anomaly in the first place?
Through technology? Unlikely!
Not even the Big Two could make heads or tails of them. Otherwise, they would have swept the entire Nyxian Gap clean of pirates by now! Their warfleets wouldn't have chosen to avoid this dangerous region like the plague!
Ever since the previous incident, Ves hypothesized that anomalies in the material realm might be tied to activity in the imaginary realm.
This ant that this anomaly might have been evoked through spiritual ans!
Ves briefly ignored Calabast and everything else and concentrated his mind. He projected a part of his consciousness in the imaginary realm.
"Ah!"
As expected, sothing new had appeared in the imaginary realm! An identical dark sphere had appeared. The corrosive winds that spun in the motion of the huge vortex seed to crash against the sphere before parting aside. The nature of this anomaly was different than the one that appeared in the previous incident!
Unfortunately, this didn't really help him that much. He cautiously attempted to probe the sphere in the imaginary realm, only to feel that he had completely lost contact with the tiny spiritual projection he sent inside.
The phenonon in the imaginary realm seed to behave identical to the phenonon in the material realm!
The two were unquestionably tied together!
Ves began to grow suspicious as he retracted his concentration.
"Calabast.. have you perford any investigations on the cults and religions in Ulimo Citadel?"
Her projection blinked. "We have, but their footprint isn't big. The typical church or cult has only attracted a few dozen to a hundred worshippers in the public marketplace section. The Dry Snakes and its subordinate pirate groups aren't religious in nature."
"The quantity or presence of the religious organization isn't important. Which one has the biggest or most mysterious background?"
Calabast briefly ran through the gathered intelligence. "Of all of the known cults in Ulimo, the Hallowed Abyss Temple is the most mysterious and influential. They occupy a small shrine in the most coveted area of Ulimo's public section. From what we have gathered, the local branch of the Hallowed Abyss Temple is highly insular and doesn't amount to more than nine mbers."
"Tell more about the Hallowed Abyss Temple."
"While their presence here is small, the cult is known to have a wide reach. Their priests and shrines can be found in many pirate bases. So of them even set up shop aboard large pirate ships!"
This sounded more and more suspicious to Ves. Even Calabast began to realize that there might be more to the Hallowed Abyss Temple.
"Where do they co from? Where is the Hallowed Abyss Temple based?"
"It's said that their physical temple is actually located deep in the core regions. This is in line with their religious beliefs The so-called Abyssal Servants do not fear the Nyxian Gap and all of its unknown phenona. Instead, the cultists worship it. They believe the Nyxian Gap is not a cancerous tumor, but instead a sacred blessing bestowed by their mysterious 'Dark Gods'."
That didn't sound good!
The more he heard about this cult, the more Ves grew certain about this guess!
Ves not only suspected that the Hallowed Abyss Temple may be responsible for calling down the anomaly, but also guessed that it might be another splinter organization of the Five Scrolls Compact!
If the Hallowed Abyss Temple was truly based in the depths of the core regions, then it shouldn't be too far away from the mysterious regional headquarters of the Compact.
From his prior experiences, Ves already knew that the powerful Compact possessed a penchant of starting up nurous seemingly-unconnected daughter organizations. This was one of the thods they used to coverly expand their influence and reach without triggering the Big Two's vigilance.
Back in the Faris Star Region, Ves once experienced the weirdness surrounding the Church of Haatumak.
Now that he thought about it, the Hallowed Abyss Temple bore so resemblance to the Church of Haatumak! It was as if so leader in the Compact reused the sa model but adapted it to a different environnt!
"Goddamn cultists!" Ves cursed.
Even though he made so very important realizations, that didn't an he found a solution to the calamity that had descended on his ch troops.
Not everyone possessed his understanding of the spiritual nature of this anomaly.
The more the Larkinsons figured out, the more helpless they felt. Despair began to spread throughout the fleet as they began to fear the worst!
Within the anomalous region, each person trapped inside began to feel an unnerving pressure on their minds.
Strangely enough, those within the main base experienced sothing different than those trapped outside in space.
Those who resided on the moon-sized asteroid were spared from any danger. Mostly. What discomfited the pirates, guests and residents inside the stronghold was the sudden descent of darkness and shadows.
No matter how much light fixtures illuminated the interior of Ulimo Citadel, everyone's vision seed to have dropped to just a stone's throw away!
What was even scarier was that the darkness intensified over ti! Several worrying fluctuations occurred deeper within, causing frightened Nyxian pirates to imagine all sorts of inexplicable horrors lurking within!
No one knew what was going on. Ketis and her squad of Mirror Raiders had huddled together inside a random shop. Each of them ward up their rifles and looked ready to shoot whatever threat that erged.
Everyone kept their combat armor sealed and breathed air from their internal oxygen tanks. No one wanted to take the risk of breathing any toxins brought by this strange phenona.
Ketis gripped her cutlass with one hand and her compact laser pistol with the other hand. She felt increasingly discomfited by what had descended upon Ulimo Citadel.
"Have we reached the others?" She asked.
"No, ma'am. Our long-ranged communications aren't working anymore. No signal is able to make it past twenty ters." One of her squadmates replied.
This ant that the darkness surrounding them was cutting them off from the rest of their compatriots! This ant that every group of Mirror Raiders had to fend for themselves!
"What do we do?!" A Flagrant Vandal asked.
"This phenonon is definitely related to the attack on our base. The pirates must have suffered a lot of blows before being desperate."
"Are they trying to kill us all?! This is clearly an anomaly!"
"It's not the sa." Ketis remarked. "We aren't locked in ti, and I don't see any other unusual effects. Perhaps the pirates have found so way to shield their base from the brunt of the anomaly!"
The disguised Larkinsons made so guesses, but that didn't help them from this predicant. They were completely blind and deaf of everything that happened beyond twenty ters.
"What is going on outside?" Ketis frowned. Her worry kept growing as her discomfort grew with each passing second.
Though the situation within the pirate stronghold only appeared unsettling, the sa could not be said for the Larkinson chs trapped outside!
Each and every ch in space had beco engulfed by impenetrable darkness. No matter how close the chs stuck together, they had beco completely isolated from their fellow comrades after the descent of the dark sphere!
No matter in which direction they flew, they failed to stumble upon any friendly chs.
What was worse was this was just the start!
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