Shadow Slave: Under Strange Stars

A lone nightmare creature slithered beneath the sands intent on finding its next meal. It was heading towards a great source of vibrations that echoed through the desert, slithering its worm-like body through the dunes like an eel swimming through the ocean. As it was growing closer to the sound of the prey the winds above the sands grew more and more intense, until they began to whip the grains into a sandstorm. As the winds grew more dreadful, the vibrations as they pounded into the sand became so intense that the creature could no longer follow the sound of its prey.

With an irritated shudder the beast turned upwards and surged up to the surface, breaching from the sand like a miniature whale. As it breached the sands and was faced with a sandstorm intense enough to darken the sky the full form of the creature was revealed. 

It was an impressive looking beast with a long serpentine body covered by a layer of thick chitinous scales. Its mouth was massive and took up the entire front of its body, save for a ring of eyes just past its maw. Were there anything nearby to compare it to, the beast would have been seen to be almost six meters long from maw to tail, with a mouth wide enough to swallow a man whole.

Rather than fall flat on the ground once it breached, the beast used its still buried tail and held its armored body upright like some perverted lighthouse amidst a sea of sand. Its ring of eyes opened wide to try and catch sight of the prey it had lost the sound of and even through the sandstorm raging around it the sight of a massive caravan of steel constructs was clear. With its course found once more the worm prepared to charge down at the caravan of landships and vehicles.

But before it could relax its body and fall to the ground a crack echoed out across the sands amidst the roar of the winds, and a meter and half long lance of metal ripped through its body.

The gaping wound left behind by the bolt belied its mass and speed and the sheer surprise of the strike even left the beast still for a moment. 

The moment soon passed though and the beast fell to the sands, dead and rapidly being covered with sand once more.

***

[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Juvenile Sand Crawler]

Amidst a raging sandstorm a fleet of vehicles trudged onwards. The space between each vessel had shrunk as the storm around grew fiercer, until it reached the point that the one could almost jump between the vessels. Within the center of the formations were the many dozens of smaller civilian craft, chugging forward with mere dozens of feet between them. Along the sides guarding either flank were two of the remaining land battleships, their guns and troops pointed outwards. 

And at the head of the formation, pointed dead east was the Light of Lugalszargus, with Shirou standing atop the bridge.

He lowered the siege bow in his hand as he gazed at the fallen form of his latest target. The worms were able to slither through the sand like it was water only to erupt from the dunes to consume any unfortunate enough to be near them. 

Their sizes ranged from a small personal transport vehicle on the lower end, all the way up to building sized on the larger end. The large ones were rare enough so far that Pasha was managing to intercept them without any real issue, and thankfully the smaller ones were manageable for the squads foot soldiers in the caravan or himself to handle. 

That left the mid-sized beasts as a problem though. They were building sized monstrosities that Shirou suspected to be at least [Awakened] beasts, though without having killed one himself he wasn't sure. What he was sure about was that they were strong enough to shrug off even shots from his siege bow, and they were too numerous for Pasha to have been able to manage. 

A thundering boom, and a ripple of vibration under his feet drew Shirou's eyes towards the answer to those beasts.

Each of the battleships was outfitted with what Shirou had heard the soldiers refer to as "a respectable amount of antique automatic ballista launchers and bolt throwers", a description that was somewhat proven by the poor performance of those weapons against the nightmare beasts' armored hides. Those smaller weapons across the deck were hardly the only weapons the ships had though and unlike the smaller ballista and bolt launches, the gargantuan Ȁ̵̱̀ŗ̸̔t̶͔̎s̴̢̊̓ cannons of the three remaining landships had proven themselves deadly.

Normally cannons would have been having little effect on nightmare creatures, at least based on what Shirou had read. Cannons in the waking world, and in fact most mundane weapons for that matter, didn't seem to be that effective against Nightmare creatures at all, with some on earth having apparently endured atomic bombs without dying.

It seems that fact wasnt explained to the Ȁ̵̱̀ŗ̸̔t̶͔̎s̴̢̊̓ cannon's themselves though given that their shots seemed to be exactly as effective against the beasts as a hypersonic projectile was meant to be when it his living things. Namely by splattering them into clouds of organs and chunks. 

Shirou couldn't speculate too much on the details of why that was or how it worked but he had a suspicion it had to do with the cannons using the strange O̸̝̕ř̵̺i̶̮̋g̸̰͒i̴̼͠ṉ̴̿i̴͚͗u̴͋͜ḿ̷̖ he had heard being mentioned, as their main fuel source. Something about it seemed mystical or at least beyond the limits of the waking world, considering both the cannons' effectiveness and the fact that it was allowing millions of tons of metal to drive across solid land with no real issue. 

Regardless of the mystery of O̸̝̕ř̵̺i̶̮̋g̸̰͒i̴̼͠ṉ̴̿i̴͚͗u̴͋͜ḿ̷̖ the cannons being powered by it were impressive. 

"600 meters out! Mid-sized hostile detected!" A soldier near Shirou shouted as the main gun of the Light of Lugalszargus spun around.

The Ȁ̵̱̀ŗ̸̔t̶͔̎s̴̢̊̓ cannons themselves didn't seem to be particularly special to Shirou's eyes when he looked at them. Their barrels were rather simple rifled constructions of heavy steel and the turrets they were mounted on seemed equally normal. If not for the extra large size of the turrets and the amount of heavy wires and cables running into the back of the barrel Shirou would mistake them for perfectly normal naval cannons.

When they fired though, a difference could be clearly felt and as the gun below them aimed at the unseen target in the sandstorm Shirou had a front row seat to it once again. 

As soon as the cannon stopped spinning a deep base drone sounded out across the deck of the ship, rapidly rising in pitch until it was a keening screech. After only a second of noise, the whole barrel of the cannon recoiled backward, and a white hot streak of light shot forth, smashing into the blackness of the storm and the awaiting mouth of a building sized worm. 

A brilliant flash of light shined out through the storm as soon as the round hit its mark, illuminating the silhouette of the beast for a moment before it was swallowed again by the sandstorm. 

Having the cannon's support helped to keep the caravan from being overwhelmed but it didn't change the fact that their journey over the last four days was an increasingly perilous one. 

The farther east they went and the closer to the storm wall they got the worse the sandstorm became. It had gotten to the point that Shirou could only see a scant 150 meters in front of him before everything was pitch black. 

Along with the issues that lack of sight caused came the trouble of the sands themselves being seemingly dangerous. Shirou was still not an expert on the subject and he had to keep his questioning light to not arouse suspicion, but he had learned a lot about catastrophes as he and the soldiers around him rode ever farther towards a wall of them.

It seemed that catastrophes were a ubiquitous part of life for the people of Sargon, and in fact all of Terra. They were an extremely broad category of apocalyptic natural disasters that would usually happen in random locations and at random if somewhat predictable times. There were a number of things about them that made them stand out from simple weather phenomenon in Shirou's mind. 

The first thing was the sheer magnitude of destruction that they seemingly brought with them. Earlier on during the trip part of Shirou's mind held onto the thought that the intensity of these disasters was somehow being exaggerated. Perhaps as a consequence of collecting accounts from rank and file soldiers eager to tell tales. 

As the dreadful storms on the horizon grew closer and more massive though, despite still being thousands of kilometers away from their epicenters, Shirou changed his tune. Soldiers' stories of catastrophe storms leveling mountains or calling down meteor strikes on unfortunate souls seemed less like a tall tale when staring down an impenetrable wall of apocalyptic death. 

Based on the last time he had looked at the route they planned, Shirou knew that the closest the caravan would get to the storm wall would still be 500 kilometers from the epicenter. Even so far from the worst of it though the winds pounding down on them all were intense enough to leave people clutching railings and tying themselves down to avoid being lifted by gusts. He could only begin to imagine how bad things were the farther inside the storm one got, especially when the second danger of Catastrophes was considered. 

As is the prospect of random hell storms that could cause earthquakes, firestorms, or meteor strikes wasn't bad enough, the worst part of the catastrophes was the fact that the apparently spread or maybe even created O̸̝̕ř̵̺i̶̮̋g̸̰͒i̴̼͠ṉ̴̿i̴͚͗u̴͋͜ḿ̷̖ in their wake. The soldiers were sadly much more divided on that topic and getting a consensus on it without letting on to the fact that Shirou somehow lacked knowledge about such a well known part of terra wasn't easy. 

Despite not getting a certain answer about how Catastrophes and O̸̝̕ř̵̺i̶̮̋g̸̰͒i̴̼͠ṉ̴̿i̴͚͗u̴͋͜ḿ̷̖ were related, the fact that these dreadful storms carried O̸̝̕ř̵̺i̶̮̋g̸̰͒i̴̼͠ṉ̴̿i̴͚͗u̴͋͜ḿ̷̖ within them was an undisputed fact. It was the reason that every person out on deck was wearing respirators, or in Shirou's case a full hazmat suit due to Nishka's insistence. 

The very act of being near a storm like this even as far away as they were, could lead to someone inhaling O̸̝̕ř̵̺i̶̮̋g̸̰͒i̴̼͠ṉ̴̿i̴͚͗u̴͋͜ḿ̷̖ and developing a dreadful and seemingly fatal illness. It was that fact, even more than the raw destruction they caused, that seemed to make the soldiers all wary, and respectful of catastrophes. 

Despite the hazards that came from being out in the storm though, groups like Shirou's own were still needed. Even with the handicap of low vision, and the added challenge of his bulky environmental gear, Shirou was managing to man his post and continuously land his shots. 

He had taken up a position among the caravan guards just after they set out on their new course four days ago. At first things had been going rather smoothly and Shirou was delighted at the chance to not only help the people of the caravan but also to gain more familiarity with the abilities he had. However as the journey through the sands towards the storm wall wore on the severity of the caravan's situation began to mount.

With two of the land battleships scuttled and abandoned the caravan had lost two of its five long range Ȁ̵̱̀ŗ̸̔t̶͔̎s̴̢̊̓ cannons which put them in a precarious spot. Those guns were the only things in the caravan other than Pasha herself that could handle the larger and stronger Nightmare creatures that were steadily attacking the group. Sadly they were also the only long range weapon capable of dealing with smaller enemies at range without forcing soldiers riding small patrol vehicles to engage. 

When they had all five been active there were enough to rotate between keeping small beasts at range, while still managing to kill the larger ones as they approached. Now down to three, the cannons and their operators were being worn thin trying to manage it all. 

Which made the inclusion of a young man wielding a bow that punched straight through [Dormant] beasts at a kilometer distance a veritable godsend.

"Sensors have another small one approaching from the front. 300 Meters out!" A soldier proclaimed before hefting another massive bolt from a crate beside them and handing it to Shirou. 

Shirou nodded as best he could while wearing what amounted to a hazmat suit and holding a bow as tall as he was. "Copy that." His eyes flicked between the sandstorm shrouded dunes before him until he spotted the sight of the worm approaching the tightly packed caravan head on. 

Taking a moment to calm himself and focus Shirou called upon the now familiar feeling of energy flowing through his body. 

He still didn't have any real firm understanding of what he was doing, or how it functioned but repetition had at least made the process easier to repeat. The energy seemed to flow less from within Shirou and rather flowed into him from outside before he was able to draw upon it. As he pulled upon it though he felt the faint yet now familiar pain along his arms and legs as the energy entered his body and was directed into his arms. 

He wasn't drawing on nearly as much of the mysterious force as he had against the Guardian Wolf nearly a week ago, and instead used just enough to draw back his bow and aim it. Even that limited amount was enough for faint blue lines to glow along Shirou's arms though. The brightness was dim enough that even if he wasn't wearing a hazmat suit no one would be able to see it amidst the storm, but the glow was still there.

The last week spent firing this bow during all his waking hours had given Shirou a crash course in his strange ability and also made him confront the fact that whatever strange energy he had was not limitless. One would think that drawing in energy from outside would imply it was hard to run out, but the true limiting factor seemed to be Shirou's own body. Everytime he drew in energy his body would feel pain, and the more he drew in and the faster he did so seemed to make the pain scale exponentially.

That quirk of his ability was made more problematic by the fact that he didn't seem able to hold any of the energy inside his body. He could draw it into himself and suffer pain and damage as he did so, and he could use it to [Reinforce] things as he did, but there was no well to store energy within himself. That led to the efficient use of energy being paramount, a fact proved during Shirou's first day on guard duty. 

That day Shirou had been trying to help as many soldiers as possible and fired as fast as he was able to. Barely halfway through the day he was left practically trembling from the pain and was unable to stand much less shoot, which had led to a series of scoldings from Pasha, Nishka, and even commander Drudge.

That day had taught him not only to save his shots for where he was most needed but also helped him focus on refining his use of [Reinforcement]. On top of waiting to fire upon targets chosen for him, Shirou had found that keeping his reinforcement as short as possible helped. Rather than holding his bow drawn to aim he only pulled back the bow once a target was sighted and ready to fire, holding it for only a second at most so that he could save himself any pain.

In the scant second he spent pulling back the string as he looked at his approaching target Shirou also tried to focus on the energy flowing into him and to his arms. He wasn't yet able to narrow it down much further but after days of pulling back the bow he felt like he was close to making a breakthrough. He could almost feel the flow of energy splitting off into every part of his arms individually. If he could figure out how to focus it solely to his muscles it would make him that much more efficient. 

Such a breakthrough wouldnt come now though, he had much more to do and not enough energy to be wasting it experimenting right now. 

Letting out the breath he drew Shirou focused his mind and his eyes on the worm charging headfirst at the Light of Lugalszargus. With a smooth motion Shirou drew back the lance of metal that dared to be called an arrow and released, sending it screaming forward and straight into the head of the worm, nailing the rest of its body to the ground. 

[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Juvenile Sand Crawler]

Less than a minute after the beast's body had stilled, the caravan reached its still carcass and it was crushed underneath the massive treads of the Light of Lugalszargus. 

The pace they were managing to keep was admittedly impressive, and had been for the last four days as well since they started the new leg of their journey. Despite that though things were starting to become problematic. They had been traveling straight east for the past four days, growing closer and closer to the edge of the Storm wall. 

At first there had been a hope that the danger posed by the area around the storm wall would be the biggest issue for them to face. It was reasonable to assume that given that the west side of the chaotic barrier was in a state of collapse and being pummeled by constant deadly natural disasters. 

Sadly it was also entirely false, and as they grew closer and closer to the swirling storms Nightmare beasts became more and more common. On the first day when they had set off the whole of the caravan dealt with roughly 50 beasts. By the third day that number had grown to 300. And now on the fourth day they were on track to be facing more than 600 before the sun sets. 

Luckily their course would be turning fully north soon. He didn't fully understand the meteorological details of catastrophe storms but the members of the caravan did, and they seemed to have a good idea of how close they had to get before they could harvest any fuel grade O̸̝̕ř̵̺i̶̮̋g̸̰͒i̴̼͠ṉ̴̿i̴͚͗u̴͋͜ḿ̷̖. Once they found a sweet spot the bulk of the caravan was to stop and hunker down while the mining team ventured deeper into the storm to collect and process the fuel. 

As though the universe saw fit to answer him, Shirou's musings on the caravans's path were ended by a faint lurching sensation below him. It was hard to detect amidst the constant vibrations of the ships treads and the pounding winds from the storm, but all the same Shirou felt his center of gravity shift. 

He raised his eyes and searched for any sign of what had just happened, worrying for a moment that something terrible had actually attacked the ship directly. When he turned his gaze back to the rest of the caravan though he could see the way their tracks had bent and a smile came over his face even as the soldiers around him cheered. "We're turning North!"

It was certainly something to cheer for. Although it didn't mean they would suddenly be facing fewer enemies, it at least promised that both their numbers and the strength of the storm around them wouldn't get any higher. 

It also signaled that they would soon be stopping and harvesting fuel for the rest of their months-long journey to the north.

Thinking about the rest of that journey left Shirou feeling slightly conflicted. He still knew that he was not really here for ever and that he would be returning to the waking world as soon as the "conflict" of this nightmare was resolved. And yet so far the scope of that conflict seemed to be growing wider and wider as time went on.

He had suspected that helping a group of refugees make it home would be his trial and so far he still believed that. But the time such a journey would take hadn't really sunk in before. He had glimpsed the map in the bridge days ago and despite the route they had traveled so far being nearly two thousand kilometers, the long final journey to the north looked nearly ten times as long.

And yet despite logic telling him that he may well be in this nightmare for more than a month until they reached their final destination, something in the back of shirou's mind was leaving him feeling tense. Shirou absentmindedly scratched at a faint itch on his arm beneath his hazmat suit as he stared off to the north, unable to shake the feeling that he was nearing the conclusion of this nightmare far sooner than expected.

***

The last day of the caravan's travel was a grueling affair but still a manageable one. Everyone on the defense was certainly pushed to their limits as they traveled the last leg, with every available Ć̵͖ȃ̶͕͍ş̸̓͑t̷͚͛è̴̙r̸̻͠ having been drawn in to help man the cannons, and Pasha being forced to take to the field without rest. 

In the end though they managed to reach their goal. Mercifully, luck was on everyone's side and the canyon they had been heading towards had been spared by the encroaching collapse. 

The canyon in question was almost impossible to see from the surface of the desert, and blended in until you were right at its edges. Once one was close enough though they would see the vertigo-inducing sight of sheer cliffs almost a kilometer deep, far enough down that mist and fog shrouded the bottom, even in the dry air of the desert. 

Down at the bottom of the canyon valley a river was managing to still run despite the world around it falling to pieces, yet even with the river in its center the base of the canyon was more than a hundred meters wide. Plenty of space for the mining team and refinery rig to travel farther to the east, sheltered from the winds. 

Getting down into the canyon would normally be an issue given that the bottom was nearly a thousand meters down. However the specific area they had been traveling towards was a wide bowl shaped slope in the sands that led all the way down to the canyon floor. The basin area extended to both sides of the canyon for more than twenty kilometers and almost seemed to be the echo of a massive crater that had once smashed down into the center of the canyon. 

Regardless of its origin, the strange geography was the perfect way for the caravan to slowly and safely make their way down to the bottom of the canyon and make camp within it.

Setting everyone up had been a smooth process as soon as the caravan reached its goal. The mining craft and refinery rig were quick to break off and start making their way through the canyon farther to the east. With the high walls of the canyon blocking the worst of the wind and as many Ć̵͖ȃ̶͕͍ş̸̓͑t̷͚͛è̴̙r̸̻͠s as aboard as their crew, their odds of success seemed high. 

The rest of the caravan quickly set up in a defensive cordon, with the Light of Lugalszargus parked across the canyon floor blocking its western end while the other two battleships were acting as walls across the northern and southern basin slopes. Parked between the three of them was the rest of the caravan, both soldiers and civilians enjoying the chance to be sheltered from the winds however briefly. 

Sadly reaching their destination hadn't stopped the beasts that were pursuing them but it had given them a chance to get more entrenched. Once the battleships were parked any automatic crossbow and ballista that could be moved was hauled and mounted on them. As the ships were rapidly armed for stationary Sargonian combat engineers were quick to start carving out trenches and assembling fortifications in front of the vessels. Although their stores of O̸̝̕ř̵̺i̶̮̋g̸̰͒i̴̼͠ṉ̴̿i̴͚͗u̴͋͜ḿ̷̖ were low, the need to stay protected until the fuel team returned meant that even O̸̝̕ř̵̺i̶̮̋g̸̰͒i̴̼͠ṉ̴̿i̴͚͗u̴͋͜ḿ̷̖ explosive mines were being set up. 

In only a few hours every approach to the caravan's temporary camp was well fortified and bristling with defenses as all the thousands of soldiers in the caravan dug in. That fact, along with an actual drop in the number of creatures attacking them since they stopped moving, led to a general sense of happiness and hope spreading even as they waited. 

By the time night fell the general mood had risen higher than Shirou had seen since his arrival, buoyed by a steadily decreasing amount of nightmare creature attacks and the effectiveness of the defenses.

As night fell and morning followed things had even calmed down enough that Shirou and Pasha both were able to step back from the defenses to rest and recover, though in Shirou's case it did require him being ordered back. 

"Don't stare at me like I stole a toy from you Oz. If I hadn't ordered you back in here you would still be taking pot shots at beasts. You need rest just like everyone else." Pasha shouted as she reclined back in one of the command chairs in the Light's Bridge, a plate of breakfast on her lap.

Shirou was sitting in another one as well, but rather than lounging and relaxing he was sitting straight up and staring at Pasha with an expression that spoke of exacerbation and annoyance. "And I was going to get rest when I needed it. I didn't need to be assigned an urgent mission to take a break for an entire day."

He was answered with a snicker from the older feline woman. "So says the brat that nearly passed out on his first day shooting his new toy. Have you already forgotten that I had to come carry you back to your bed after that?" 

Any further discussion between the two was put to rest when Nishka stepped between their seats and sent a disappointed frown at them both. "No arguing! Both of you are here to rest for the day, not waste time arguing! We may be here for several days while we wait for the team to return and having you both exhausted won't help anyone. Am I clear?"

"Yes Nishka,"/"Yes, Padishah Nishka, most esteemed leader of our great caravan." 

The answer and accompanying bow she got from Pasha's were hardly proper, but her over the top response still put a smile on Nishka's face. "Good, things have certainly been hard for everyone, especially you two, but we're finally on track. Once we get the fuel situation dealt with we'll peel away from the storm wall and should have smooth riding all the way north to the icefields. With how fast we've been going we might be able to link up with the bulk of the sargonian nomadic city plates before they reach the Distant Star rendezvous site."

Shirou's ears perked up at Nishka's words, it was one of the rare moments when she let slip information that he could soak up without needing to ask and reveal the fact he lacked Ozen's memories. Knowing what he should and shouldnt know was a challenge and so he had tended to air on the side of quiet caution. 

In this case Pasha ended up coming to his curiositie's rescue. "What exactly is the deal with all that Distant Star stuff Nish? I've been around the block in Sargon for a while and I've never seen something kept under wraps as well as this has been. And on top of the secrecy it's somehow still enough to get billions of people migrating to a frozen shit hole like the Infy Icefields."

Nishka hummed for a moment and looked around them. The bridge was staffed still with technicians and grew, each looking dutifully down at their screens and displays. Despite their appearance though Nishka noticed the way their ears perked up at Pasha's question. Discretion would normally be the best course here, but given the state they were all in. "I would normally say it's confidential Pasha, but I suppose I can share the little I know with you both. Don't get your hopes too high though. After Dad passed, the Shahanshah gave me a rather brief explanation of it all before I took his place." 

Despite her caveat Pasha and Shirou both were eager to hear more, as were all other the ears in the bridge doing their best to pretend not to eavesdrop. "From what little I was told, project Distant Star is being spearheaded by Rhodes Island, but it has support from every nation of terra. Scientists from Columbia, heavy machinery from Ursus, Ć̵͖ȃ̶͕͍ş̸̓͑t̷͚͛è̴̙r̸̻͠s from Leithanien, metallurgists and fabricators from Victoria, every spare bit of gold and Gems from Sargon, along with Ancestors knows what else from every nation. All of it is getting poured into some discovery that was made in the Ice fields which can help shelter people from the collapse. As far as the details of what exactly it is though, I've got no idea." 

What she had just said was somehow more and yet less than what Shirou, or anyone in the room, had been hoping to hear. "C'mon Nish, there's got to be more that you know than that. Even the damn premise of it is insane with just that to go on. What the hell could they have found that would be capable of housing every person on terra? Not to mention what could they have found that can resist the collapse? This stuff isn't like a bad catastrophe after all. Time and space are getting torn apart and slapped back together. You and I both saw what happens when it rolls over a city. If mountains and even the ground can't hold up I doubt some bunker they found will do much better."

Nishka offered a shrug in reply, something that made her look much more like the fourteen year old girl she was rather than a proper noble leader. "I'm afraid thats all I know. Sad as it is to suggest it might even be all we Sargonians know. As much as our money is valuable we dont exactly have a thriving scientific class back home. The closest we have are our O̸̝̕ř̵̺i̶̮̋g̸̰͒i̴̼͠ṉ̴̿i̴͚͗u̴͋͜ḿ̷̖ circuit etched gems, but you know as well as I do Pasha, that the foremost experts in how they function are Columbians these days, not Sargonians. The folks spearheading this all at Rhodes Island might have just figured it wasn't worth telling us the nitty gritty details." As she spoke Nishka turned around and stared out the bridge, looking up the gentle slopes of the basin and towards the northern horizon. "As far as it working is concerned though, I have faith in whatever they've found. Distant Star has every person on Terra working on it or heading towards it. There must be a reason the nations of the world were willing to take part in a migration like that, and I'm willing to believe in that."

Before Pasha could try and get one more question in one of the technicians at the monitors interrupted them. "Ma'ams! I've got something strange on my readout. Looks like a massive number of heat signatures just entered sensor range at the edge of the southern basin. Twenty clicks out and closing."

The mood of the bridge began to grow cold at that description. Pasha got up from her seat and moved to stand over the technician as he looked at his displays "More creatures? The worms had been making a habit of staying underground though."

"No Ma'am, it doesn't look like it's worms. The pulse array isnt picking up any large rigid bodies, not to mention the thermals I'm seeing look less like large worms and more like… thousands of people? It's too far out for the thermal resolution to pick them apart, not to mention through the sandstorm, but the heat band is stretching more than a kilometer wide and it's all roughly human body temp."

As the technician spoke Nishka walked up as well looking between the southern basin and the screen below. The sandstorm still blocked any sight beyond a few hundred meters away but she could still imagine the blob of heat on the screen out there in the storm. "I find it hard to believe its humans. Half the reason we got as close to the storm wall as we did rather than heading straight here was to cover our tracks so I can't imagine we were tracked here. It may be some kind of new corrupted beast though. We've known there are more than just the worms. Pasha, what do you think we should… do?"

Nishka's question trailed off as she looked up and saw Pasha staring at the technician's screen with a look of dread on her face. "Pasha, what's wrong?"

Rather than give a proper answer Pasha put her finger forward and traced it along the thermal readout display, and followed the mass of heat as it moved steadily towards them. "That thermal contact, the shape isn't natural. It looks too square, and it's been keeping the same speed since we started talking, no speedup or slowdown, no variation at all." As she was speaking, Pasha's face grew increasingly cold and stern. Taking a deep and worryingly stuttering breath she put her hand on the technician's shoulder and looked out to the south. "If those were people, how many would there be?"

The technician hesitated at the task before pulling a manual from his station along with a pen and some paper. "That would depend on their marching configuration Ma'am."

Without turning down Pasha replied with a worrying degree of certainty, "Assume they're riding chariots, five meters spacing, no horses included."

The mood in the bridge continued to sink, drug down further by Pasha's words, and the surety with which she spoke. A silence had descended as the technician scribbled down a calculation, only stopping when he turned back up to Pasha with a look of terror on his face. "Based on what you just said Ma'am, that heat signature would correspond to an army of more than twenty thousand people."