Earth Year 2840. The Mystic Island Jungle.
The squad slipped out of the cargo ramp like ghosts while the assimilated horde gorged on the dreadnought’s fusion manifolds.
"get us straight into that glowing treeline!"
Commander Maroon ordered as the the Behemoth tank plunging into the vibrant alien wonderland.
"Switching the main floodlights on,"
Daniel announced tightly from the pilot’s seat.
"Negative, keep them off,"
N032’s warned.
"The flora here reacts to heavy photonic output so if you shine a light then they will look back, Run on thermals and sonar, keep us moving,"
Zeon watched the tactical table project an ocean of crystallized mana and bone wood trees stretching hundreds of feet into the air.
"My sensors are going crazy,"
Eva muttered, tapping her holoband under the shifting shadows of the violet canopy.
"There’s no magnetic north and the ambient energy is scrambling our radar, we are driving blind,"
Eva warned as the Behemoth shuddered violently and ground to a halt.
"Report our status!"
Maroon barked as the troop bay lights flickered.
"We’re stuck, Sir, and the engine temperature is spiking!"
Daniel yelled, his hands flying across the console.
"Something is holding us down to the ground!"
Daniel panicked.
Zeon unbuckled his harness to peer through the viewport realizing the glowing blue moss beneath them had erupted into massive translucent azure vines.
"They’re wrapping around the treads and crushing the hull!"
Chang panicked as the bulkheads groaned under immense pressure.
"They’re eating us,"
N032 said standing up smoothly.
"This is a mana leeching snare and because the tank’s drive core is a battery, this starving jungle wants to feed,"
N032 explained as the cabin lights died.
"We have to cut them manually before the main battery dies and this tank becomes a permanent coffin!"
Eva shouted racking her plasma pistol.
"Marines, form up on me and pop the hatch!"
Eva ordered as the squad poured out onto the tank’s roof into the humid air smelling of rotting orchids.
"Aim your fire for the root clusters!"
Zeon yelled, firing a three round kinetic burst.
"The kinetic damage is regenerating too fast!"
Ruby shouted as the ambient magical mana instantly sealed the bleeding vines.
N032 climbed out last and dropped into the mass of roots without drawing a single weapon.
"Hey, get back here before they drain your suit!"
Daniel yelled down at him as dozens of glowing tendrils snapped upward like striking vipers wrapping around N032’s armor to bleed the twilight aura straight from his veins.
"Magic requires a flow and it requires life,"
N032 stated as his mechanical voice carrying clearly.
N032 suppressed his holy Light letting the suffocating miasma of the Abyss flood his system and bleed directly into the hungry vines.
"He rotted them from the inside out!"
Chang cheered as the corrupted vines shattered and the Behemoth’s engine roared back to life.
"Look out, it’s an ambush!"
Eva screamed, dropping flat as a crescent blade of pressurized wind cleanly slice the tank’s communications dish in half.
A dozen seven foot tall native warriors clad in bone armor dropped from the canopy as their glowing green eyes locked onto the squad.
"Incoming fire!"
Zeon roared grabbing Ruby by the harness and throwing them both behind the railgun turret for cover.
Three snipers shot arrows of concentrated lightning that shook the tank and blew Chang off his feet.
"Commander, I recommend you start the tank,"
N032’s voice crackled coldly over the comms as he raised his heavy sword toward the canopy.
"I will clear the road for you,"
N032 stated calmly as the native warriors descended like falling stars landing on the armored roof.
"We have contact on the hull, engage at point blank range!"
Captain Eva screamed, firing two plasma rounds into a charging warrior’s chest.
But the warrior’s shimmering hexagonal magic barrier absorbed the heat .
"Captain is down!"
Chang yelled as the native’s glowing glaive shattered Eva’s kinetic shield and threw her against the radar housing.
Then a second warrior delivered a mana infused front kick that crumpled Chang’s titanium chest piece.
Zeon stepped into a third warrior’s attack using his rifle as a two handed club.
"He’s too strong!"
Zeon gritted his teeth as the native warrior violently ripped the weapon from his grip.
Disarmed and falling backward, Zeon braced for the killing strike until a blur of scarlet hair slammed into the native’s side.
"Get away from him!"
Ruby yelled driving her vibro combat knife into the unarmored gap beneath the native’s armpit.
"No, Sarah look out!"
N032 yelled in pure panic, his apocalyptic PTSD flaring as Ruby’s scarlet hair reminded him of the past.
The blade screeched against the magical barrier infuriating the towering warrior who violently backhanded Ruby across the metal roof.
Ruby was knocked out as the native warrior loomed over her and raised his wind pressurized dagger for a lethal downward strike.
Down on the jungle floor, N032 stopped as he saw the flash of Ruby’s scarlet hair and the descending Dagger, triggering a horrific apocalyptic flashback.
N032 wasn’t on a mystic planet anymore but he was back in Bunker Obraxis watching the woman he loved die to save him.
"Sarah, No not again, i cant lose you again!"
N032 roared with unmasked panic.
The armored man swung his blade in a massive crescent wave of twilight aura.
Then the dark energy violently whipped across the tank’s roof slamming into the warrior above Ruby and obliterating him into ash.
N032 launched himself into the canopy with the sound of a sonic boom and crashed onto the crystalline branch.
With his heavy sword, he slice and burned through the remaining snipers’ mana shields like paper.
"Retreat, fall back into the foliage!"
The native warriors shouted in terror as emerald blood rained down from the canopy.
"They’re retreating, keep us moving!"
Maroon ordered over the comms as the surviving warriors leaped off the speeding tank.
"Are you okay, Ruby?"
Zeon rasped.
"Yeah, I’m intact,"
Ruby breathed out as her hands shaking.
She looked down at where the warrior had almost killed her.
N032 dropped back onto the moving vehicle with his twilight aura snapping back into his unscratched suit.
"Your stance was too wide,"
N032 said as he hauled Zeon to his feet.
"When you parry a heavy strike, you pivot on your right heel and not your left,"
N032 instructed.
"You dragged your left foot which threw your center of gravity and that is why you lost,"
The armored anomaly explained.
"How do you know my exact academy training flaws?"
Zeon trembled as his mind blanking at the impossible veteran critique.
N032 ignored Zeon as he turns toward Ruby sitting on the roof.
"Are you injured Sarah... i mean Ruby?"
N032 correcting himself as his gauntlet hovered for a split second desperately wanting to touch her scarlet hair.
But before Ruby could respond N032, Daniel the pilot announced;
"We are approaching the destination coordinates and breaking the treeline now!"
The pilot yelled cutting the tense silence off.
The Behemoth smashed through the bioluminescent ferns and stopping before a cavern entrance.
"Commander, I have the distress beacon signal,"
Eva was filled with dread as she looked at the thermal scans.
"But I don’t have any human life signs,"