Inside the center of the anomaly, the pirates and residents of Ulimo Citadel were largely spared from the threats that appeared in space.
At least at first.
As ti went by, Ketis and her squad of Mirror Raider infantry began to sense more and more unusual phenona from the darkness that surrounded them in every direction.
Faint screams echoed in the distance, though the sound sensors of their combat armor failed to register any unusual voices.
The temperature around them began to fluctuate. At certain points, a chill swept through their bones, causing the disguised Larkinsons to beco even more worried. Their pirate supervisors stopped issuing orders to them as the local communication network no longer worked.
One of the Mirror Raiders snapped his rifles in a specific direction. "Did you see that?!"
"What did you see?" Ketis asked as her heavily armored form faced the direction.
"I-I don't know! It looked like one of the Roid Rats, but grey!"
"Grey?"
"I swear it's soone I killed when we raided the Roid Rat base."
More grey flickers flickered in and out of the dark void. The Larkinsons gripped their weapons carefully as they looked out of the shop they had huddled in. As the darkness slowly pressed forward, the grey shapes beca more and more visible.
One of them suddenly shot out from the darkness and charged at the shop while firing a badly-constructed laser pistol!
To everyone's surprise, the laser beam was grey instead of the typical red or other bright colors used to light it up. The grey beam impacted straight into the chest of one of the armored soldiers.
Before the grey Roid Rat could fire again, several Mirror Raiders already fired back. The attacker instantly broke up into a grey mist that rapidly swirled back to the darkness that spawned it. Confusion spread among the Larkinsons.
"Alert! There's more!"
A short ti later, several more grey ghosts erged from the darkness. They looked different from the Roid Rats and ca ard and armored with better gear.
Now that the Mirror Raider squad was fully alert, these strange ghosts barely lasted a second before they broke up into mist!
Yet this was not the end. A few minutes passed as more ghosts appeared in the form of pirates. Despite their strange nature and weak attacks, their threat was very real!
"What the hell?! Are the pirates turning against us or sothing!"
"I don't think the Dry Snakes are responsible for this." Ketis spoke as her laser pistol fired a low-powered shot through the chest of one of the ghosts. "We aren't the only ones under attack! Look at the shop to our left!"
The Mirror Raiders weren't the only ones under attack. More pirate ghosts appeared. They attacked the door that blocked their way until it succumbed under the attacks. Soon enough, the ghosts stord inside and began to kill the local Nyxians!
"Ahhh! Help! Guards, save , please!"
The Mirror Raiders did not move to help. None of them cared about the lives of the local residents. They were also afraid that the ghosts were trying to lure them into a trap.
"Deploy a drone to scout the interior of the neighboring shop."
One of the Mirror Raiders that carried various gadgets deployed a small flying drone that quickly peeked into the shop. While many forms of wired and wireless communication thods no longer worked across the pirate base, the problem wasn't serious at very short ranges.
Ketis accessed its feed with her helt view.
"Damn! Look at those bodies! They're all dried out!"
Every Mirror Raider who accessed the sa view all saw the sa macabre spectacle. The grey ghosts seed to draw sothing out of the base residents they killed. With each passing second, the dead bodies lost both volu and volu. The ghosts were sapping so sort of energy essentially from the fresh corpses, causing all of them to transform into mummified remains!
The inexplicable sight frightened the Mirror Raiders and caused them to develop an even greater fear towards the darkness that limited their sight!
"What are the pirates doing?! Why are they killing their own people? Have they gone crazy!?"
No one had any answers. Not even Ketis. With no clarification and no orders, the squad of Mirror Raiders decided to remain in the shop.
Every few minutes, new ghosts began to erge from the darkness. While their attacks posed a threat against the unard residents of Ulimo Base, the Mirror Raiders easily cleaned them up within seconds.
However, all of them worried whether this was the extent of the strange phenona. As ti continued to pass, Ketis began to feel a strange pressure in her mind.
"Ketis?" A familiar voice vaguely rang in her mind.
"Ves?! How are you talking to ? Our communications are blocked!"
"That's not important! I'm wasting a lot of energy to boost this 'signal' at the mont. I need you and as many people that you can bring to move to a shrine within Ulimo. Right now, the entire space around Ulimo Citadel is engulfed by a dangerous anomaly that is slowly killing our ch pilots as we speak."
"Huh?!"
"It's a long story! Anyway, do you have a map of the base or sothing? Look for a shrine that is placed in the center of the public section. It's occupied by a cult called the Hallowed Abyss Temple. While I'm not sure, I think you'll be able to find the source of this anomaly inside. Kill whoever is inside and destroy anything that looks important. Each of us is depending on you, Ketis!"
"Understood." She replied while her battle intent rose. "I'll try my best to smash this shrine. There are strange ghosts inside the base who are attacking and draining anyone they can defeat."
Ves reacted with shock on the other side of this strange communication channel. "What?! Those ghosts must be fueling the ritual through sacrificing the people who live inside the base. In fact, this might be the reason why the Dry Snakes welcod many residents to live in a section of their pirate stronghold! They need lots of lives to sustain this powerful anomaly!"
"We'll make sure to end it, Ves. Wait for all of this weirdness to drop!"
"I'm counting on you. Lucky has snuck inside the base as well. I'll tell him to rendez-vous with you. You can also find other help in the base. The shrine will definitely be heavily defended by the Dry Snakes, so don't attack it head-on! The lives of our ch pilots is important, but your life is important as well!"
"Don't worry, Ves. I'll interrupt this ritual or die trying! I'm a true Swordmaiden! I never shy away from what is necessary!"
The connection dropped as Ketis felt ready to move out!
She didn't question why Ves could speak to her through her mind. Her frustration at the strange darkness that spat out hostile grey ghosts had grown to the point where she wanted to get rid of them as fast as possible!
"We're moving out, boys!" She instructed her squad. "I just received an order telling us to go to a shrine of the Hallowed Abyss Temple and stop whatever ritual is taking place inside. As long as we ruin this ritual, our ch pilots inside won't be trapped by this anomaly anymore!"
It didn't take much convincing to get her n to follow along with her plan. Each Mirror Raider believed it was better to be proactive than staying in place. Once they obtained a clear goal, they were more than willing to venture out, especially when they learned that their ch pilots were counting on them to break this trap!
Ketis referenced the map she obtained from the pirates and quickly located the shrine. It was located close to the center, which ant that she and her n had to pass through so heavily-defended gates ant to keep out the riff raff.
With the gear they possessed, the Mirror Raiders weren't capable of sneaking past these obstacles. They had no choice but to attack these checkpoints head-on. The only consolation was that the communications blackout imposed by the anomaly likely prevented the local pirate garrisons to call for backup. Reinforcents likely wouldn't be coming unless the pirate made more elaborate arrangents.
"Let's head out!"
The squad of pirates exited the shop and strode towards the center of the public marketplace.
As they moved, roughly twenty ters of space around them remained clear. Occasionally, they encountered grey ghosts. If the apparitions weren't attacking other pirates or residents, they mindlessly attacked Ketis and her n.
"Stay down, you annoying ghosts!"
The ghosts weren't strong, but the darkness constantly bred more of them. In addition, Ketis and her n were being constantly plagued by different phenona. Distant screams, sudden chills, a mont of light-headedness and more began to beset the Mirror Raiders.
If this went on, Ketis wasn't sure whether they would make it all the way through the shrine!
As they neared one of the gates, Ketis suddenly paused as the living mind sword in her mind grew active.
It pulsed and moved on its own. An unknown impulse prompted her to concentrate and channel her superpower onto her cutlass. She cut her weapon in a specific empty space, only to see a grey ghost that had sohow remained invisible to everyone being cut apart!
"Ahhh!"
"Damnit, check around us if there are more stealthed ghosts!"
Ketis looked a bit confused. "Sharpie?"
Her sword intent vibrated concern.
A warm sensation swept through Ketis. She smiled underneath her helt.
"Thank you, Sharpie."
Feeling a bit more confident now that she could count on the perception of her sword intent, she continued to lead her n forward.
Eventually, they reached the first gate. Thick alloy gates and turrets barred their way. Tall walls that stretched straight to the ceiling ruled out any possible way to sneak through unnoticed.
"How are we getting through that?" One of the Mirror Raiders asked.
"I don't know yet." Ketis frowned.
As a ch designer, she understood the lethality of defenses much more than the rest of her n. Let alone a squad of infantry, not even a ch could overco so of the heavy weapons defending this passage!
"ow!"
"Lucky!"
Ketis and the other disguised Larkinsons welcod the appearance of the clan patriarch's famous cat. Until recently, none of them knew that this chanical cat was such a deadly commando.
Currently, Lucky looked straight out of a spy drama. The Misfortune Harness affixed to his body caused him to look like an ominous black cat that was ready to spread bad luck to anyone in his sights!
The cat floated over to Ketis' heavily armored form and brushed his flank against her helt.
"Hehe. This will be so much easier now that you're here! Can you sabotage all of those heavy turrets and help us kill off all of those pirate guards?"
"ow."
Though Ketis didn't possess the ability to understand Lucky's ows, the cat was still capable of conveying his thoughts through nodding or shaking his head.
"Is that a yes or no?"
"ow." Lucky offered her a very hesitant nod.
"You.. you're not sure? Do we need to gather more n? That will be difficult. The Dry Snakes split all of our fellow Mirror Raiders up and spread them out. It will take too long to gather them all. Is there any other way you can get us through?"
"ow." A nod.
How?
"ow." Lucky pointed his paw at the gates several tis.
"Uh, what?"
"ow ow!"
"I don't speak cat! I don't know what you're trying to say!"
"eeeeeooooow!"
"Can't you just.. Write sothing with your paw?"
"ow ow ow!"
"You're a chanical cat, right?! There is no reason for you to talk in ows. Can't you speak in standard language like so of the other chanical pets on sale?"
"OW!"
"What are you talking about, Lucky?!"
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