Defiance of the Fall

out of the hands of Smaug.
I have two of those balls that disrupt teleporters.
I am not sure whether they work on Nexus Hubs though.”

“Nice.
Anything to blow any shields open?” Zac asked.

“Unfortunately, no.
I have a few offensive trinkets that should cause widespread carnage though,” Ogras said.
“If nothing else works we’ll have to use your [Void Ball], though avoid it if possible.
Even if we break the shield we might not be able to pass because of the spatial tears.”

’

The two discussed various strategies for a bit longer until they finally came to a decision.
They would try to sneak inside the Technocrat territory relying on Ogras’ shadows.
After the battle ensued Zac was responsible for taking down the powerhouses, whereas the more mobile Ogras would be responsible for taking care of the others.

The two immediately set out, keeping to the shadows as they started to traverse the area that was presumed to be claimed by the Technocrats.
Thirty minutes into their travels Zac saw clear signs of excavation, with the ground having multiple symmetrical holes leading into the darkness.
However, there were neither men nor machines active in the area, allowing the two to breathe easy.

Another hour passed as the two started to move slower and slower, carefully scouring the shadows and the sky for any hints of Technocrat activity.
Their carefulness was finally awarded as they spotted a small hovering ball in the distance.

It was the size of a tennis ball and pitch black, almost seamlessly blending into the surroundings.
It didn ’t move or make a sound, only silently floated in the air.
Neither Zac nor Ogras had seen such a thing before, but it was easy to assume it was either some sort of surveillance drone or a floating mine.

Ogras looked over questioning at Zac, who motioned the demon to keep going.
This would be a test to see if they could pass the sentry unnoticed, or whether it could see through the shroud of darkness.
It would greatly impact how they would act in the rest of the assault.
The two crept forward, with Ogras completely covering them in dense layers of shadows.
They slowly moved closer and closer, making no attempt to avoid the drone.

The drone seemed completely oblivious to their existence until they came within a few hundred meters of it.
At that moment it moved with shocking speed to stop right above them, and a mesh of red beams started to run over the ground.
Zac ’s eyes widened and he immediately indicated for Ogras to destroy it.

A beam of shadows, almost completely invisible in the darkness of the Underworld, shot up and ripped a hole through the small ball.
It immediately fell out of the air and some unknown energy inside it caused a few flickering discharges.
But by the moment it thumped into the ground it looked completely dead, which wasn ’t a surprise since only its shell remained after getting impaled.

”So much for stealth, ” Ogras muttered, looking down on the drone with some interest.
”Perhaps it would have worked if we had Janos with us, but a moving blob of shadows won ’t fool the machines. ”

”It looks like it covers the area of a square kilometer or so, ” Zac added thoughtfully.

”Perhaps we can circumvent the others with distance, but they should already know this thing is broken, ” Ogras said as he poked the destroyed ball by their feet.
”What now? ”

”We ’ll keep going as earlier, ” Zac said.
”They might not care too much about one destroyed drone.
It might have been a beast for all they know since we never exited the shadows.
But if we meet more of these things we ’ll have to rush it. ”

’

”Yeah, one or two might be okay, but any more than that they ’ll definitely understand that something is up, ” the demon agreed as they kept moving forward.

Just a few minutes later they spotted another ball in the distance, though they were able to avoid its detection by taking the long way around it.
But that orb was just one of many and they soon found themselves stuck.
If they wanted to keep moving forward they would either have to enter the field of vision of one of the orbs or start destroying them.

”There ’s no way we ’ll get to their base unannounced, ” Ogras said with a shake of his head.

”Then we ’ll have to speed up.
Destroy all the orbs so they at least don ’t know what ’s coming, ” Zac sighed.

The demon nodded and the two immediately sped up.
Any drones that came within Ogras ’ reach was instantly destroyed, causing one subdued explosion after another.
Zac started to feel a bit shocked as they ran, as there were just so many of them.
Ogras had destroyed close to a hundred after running for just a few minutes, but that was only a fraction of the inescapable net that the Technocrats had created.
A conservative estimation by Zac put the number of drones at five thousand at the minimum.

Soon enough the behavior of the drones started to change, as the unmoving sentries by the sides started to fly toward them one after another.
It looked like the Technocrats had finally realized something was up and started to control the movements of the flying scouts.
The two of them had still avoided getting scanned by the red lights, but their path of movement could easily be plotted by following the destroyed machines.

”Something ’s coming, ” Ogras suddenly said, looking into the distance with a frown.

”Shit! ” Zac said when he saw what Ogras was talking about.

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It was four machines that were suspiciously similar to the two drones that accompanied the Technocrat in the battleroach cavers, with the notable exception that they were twice as large.

”Dodge! ” Zac shouted, as even he didn ’t want to block four of those beams at the same time.

Ogras grabbed Zac by the arm, and the next moment the two disappeared in a sea of shadows, only to appear fifty meters away.
Just a moment later the four beams converged at their earlier spot, and the effect of the four beams was terrifying.
Each lance of energy was powerful enough to incinerate the air, and even space itself seemed to be unable to handle the four attacks converging.
The area where the beams had ripped through kept twisting and distorting even after the attacks, only stabilizing a few seconds later.

”What is that?! ” Ogras spat when he saw the power of the beams, clearly starting to regret accompanying Zac on this venture.

”That ’s the Technocrats for you, ” Zac sighed as he got ready for battle.