While the boy bathed and rested, having survived the first day and a half in this new hostile world, the dark night outside was buzzing with activity.

Immediately outside the facility, the huntress had finished devouring the four snacks that had popped out beside her.

She had eaten more than her fair share and was carrying the rest of the meat inside her body.

This food would be regurgitated back at the hive and carried over to the young brood by drones that were born for that purpose.

Despite collecting heavy chunks of rat meat, she was not happy.

She still hasn’t found her mark.

The one who had dared to cut off her tail.

She had successfully marked this prey back when she had stabbed it with her tail.

The mark left a trail of faint pheromones that she could track from more than a thousand miles away.

And she had tracked those pheromones to this exact location.

This trail was now leading into a small opening inside this strange rock pillar. Normally she could dig through the solid rock of these columns quite easily but this one was unreasonably tough.

She has never felt the material this column was made of before.

It was the first obstacle that she couldn’t tear apart with her brute strength.

Although she has managed to tear off a weak sheet(gate) covering the prey’s path leading inside the column.

The problem was that she was too big to fit inside this opening.

It was impossible to pursue her mark like this.

She had tried to make the opening bigger by carving at its edges to make more space but aside from the only weak point (gate) the rest of the column was too hard for her.

Knowing that her mark was inside this narrow space where she could not go frustrated her to no ends.

She had wanted to tear and rip the marked prey with her own two claws.

But since that was impossible for her then she would need a bit of help from her hive.

A little dejected that the drones would get to enjoy what she had wanted to do, she turns around and makes her way back to the nearest pit.

The hive had an inhabitant for every role and if this pesky mark thought it could escape her wrath, then it had another thing coming.

As the huntress made her way back for reinforcements, another situation was brewing elsewhere.

Unbeknownst to the huntress and the boy, far away from their location there was another facility similarly hidden and abandoned. One that was built for a slightly different purpose but mostly had the same interior design with long gray corridors, passageways, and chambers.

A great battle had taken place a short distance away from this facility that had raged through the night.

The fight was between the darklings of the dark hive and a group of five unknown warriors.

Their battle was intense but ultimately tilted in the dark hive’s favor because of their sheer strength of numbers.

The hive’s losses were great, easily in the hundreds, but for them such a price was not worth any consideration.

Out of the five warriors, three had made a stand against the darkling swarm, acting as shields that allowed the other two to escape.

A short while later, these two manage to find and enter the hidden facility.

On the dimly lit stairs that lead from the entrance down to the containment chamber, two figures were descending.

A man and a woman.

They walked quietly, their steps slow and deliberate.

Reaching the end of the stairway they both stop just before the door. It does not open automatically.

The woman speaks first.

“So, beyond this door it’s the containment chamber, right?”

The man replies without looking at her.

“Yes, that’s correct. Just after this door are the facility’s defense drones. Since they were created to hold back darklings, they can pack quite a punch so be careful.”

“I don’t remember asking for a preaching, just a simple yes or no would’ve worked. You’re not the only one who read the briefings you know.” The woman snaps.

“If I’m not the only one who’s read the briefings then how come I’m the one with all the answers? Besides. I know you’ve never read a briefing in your life. I’m not even sure you can read.” The man replies with a grumbling tone.

The woman flares up and is about to retort when suddenly the man raises his palm to cut her off.

“We have no time for your bullshit right now Fiora, take your position and get ready for combat. Once we step through this door there is a high chance the security drones are going to activate and target us.”

It was too dark to make out Fiora’s expression but the man had no doubt she was glaring at him.

After a moment of silence, Fiora responds in a harsh tone.

“What use is the fucking authorization key if we’re still going to be targeted by security?”

The man rolls his eyes.

“This part was also in the briefing you supposedly read.” He thought to himself but replied with something else.

“This facility was built way before you or I were born. Because of the hush hush nature of the research conducted here there’s very little information available, but.”

“But?”

“The artificer who made this key told me that the cybercode and algorithms he had to use were popular over a thousand years ago.”

Hearing this information, Fiora contemplates in silence for a few seconds.

“…a thousand years ago. That was when the….”

“When the darkicite hit this planet, yes.” The man finishes her sentence.

“….they should’ve wiped it out as soon as it crashed here.” She remarked venomously.

The man stands silent for a few seconds, mulling over her words.

He understood where she was coming from. The darkicite had brought them some benefits as a people but the costs were fast outweighing all the benefits combined.

Its dark essence had now infected almost all other living creatures on the entire planet, all the flora and fauna. Not to mention it had given birth to the accursed darkling hive that was now threatening their entire civilization.

But in the end, it was lord Alfzaar’s decision, and he in his wisdom always knew best. Even the rest of the cowardly council, the traitors that they were today, had vehemently supported the research into the darkicite and its dark essence properties.

Although lord Alfzaar wasn’t a pure god, not entirely at least, thinking that a mere mortal would know better than his wealth of accumulated knowledge was as close to blasphemy as possible.

“…..there was no other way. You know the story.” He says somberly.

“……I know…it’s just….seeing how powerful the dark hive has become….really hit home for me.” Fiora replies, a tinge of resignation in her voice.

The man remained silent, thinking inwardly.

“Yeah, I agree with that one.” Remembering the three team members they had left behind.

All of them were top operatives of the Jung-jo, lord Alfzaar’s elite royal guard that was personally handpicked from amongst the military.

He had heard that it was bad out here on this side of the planet. The dark hive’s territory had expanded to cover all land mass apart from the empire.

But that was supposed to be the case for other people, for weaklings.

He was strong, his team was strong. They had quenched countless rebellions throughout the outer sections of their empire in Alfzaar’s name.

He himself, alongside Fiora and the rest had fought the worst of the worst and emerged victorious every single time.

It wasn’t even a stretch to say that apart from the council members of the ruling clan, he was the strongest warrior out of all military sections, his team being close behind.

Which is why when they were given their mission objective in the dark hive’s territory, he hadn’t worried too much.

Thanks to the technological revolution headed by lord Alfzaar and the council, not a single darkling had ever crossed the walls of the empire.

Everyone knew they were out there but they were far away from their sight. Mostly they were the outer sections’ problem. He himself hadn’t seen a proper darkling since he was a child.

Even during their search for the mission objective through the abandoned rocky wasteland outside, when the celestia tech had gone down for the night and the darklings emerged out of their pits, he was still not shaken.

A costly mistake.

The initial waves of darkling drones were nothing to write home about. Their numbers were certainly overwhelming but they were weak.

It was the later wave of hunter class darklings that had rattled him to his core. Each one had a different and distinct shape but they were all deadly blood thirsty bugs, made to rip and tear.

Their scouters had erupted into a beeping frenzy at the sight of these darklings’ aether count.

Most of them had the same amount of aether as him, the strongest warrior amongst Alfzaar’s retinue, but a tiny minority of them had amounts that far exceeded even his own.

And there were thousands of them, showing up as countless dots on their wide area aether-scanner. The darklings that had a higher aether count than him were easily in the hundreds if not thousands.

Who knew how many of these things were there, beneath the ground.

“If the barrier around the empire ever fails…!”

 “Drystan!”

Fiora’s voice snaps the man named Drystan out of his pondering.

“What?” Drystan asks.

“….You think the others survived?” Fiora asks, hesitating slightly.

“….It’s hard…to say.” Drystan replies hesitatingly as well.

Inwardly he thought “There’s zero chance, there were hundreds of those things with an aether count and stratus level higher than mine.”

Despite him not outright saying it, Fiora seemed to understand his thought.

“Well, they knew the risks. They were strong, but against that swarm it is impossible for anyone to survive.” She states somberly.

They themselves would have been dead if they hadn’t used their heavily damaged gravi-bike to turn tail and escape.

“Let’s just hope those council dogs run into the same mess as us.” She adds with a sneer.

“That is unlikely, they’re probably not even on the ground but surveying from the air.” Drystan answered a little distractedly, his thoughts moving on to the task at hand.

“The time to mourn our fallen brothers and sisters will come. For now, let us proceed with our mission, let’s get ready” He states with the air of someone who is used to commanding others.

“Yeah yeah I get it, but is the key even going to work? We’re going to really need this facility’s resources if we’re to find the asset.” Fiora asks in a casual manner.

“We’re about to find that out.” Drystan exclaims while bringing a camera lens like mechanism out of his cloak.

He extends the lens toward the wall on the left side of the door and a light beams out of the mechanism, scanning an invisible circle on the wall’s surface.

During the process Drystan turns to Fiora.

“Remember, the key only works for the doors and might work for the AGI inside, the security drones in the containment chamber have their own OS that is completely separate so its not going to work on them.”

“Yup got it. At least they’re going to be easier than the bugs.” She answers while stretching her body.

“Let’s not make the same mistake here like with the darklings.” Drystan replies calmly.

Just as he finishes his sentence, the door lets out an affirmative beep before sliding open, letting in a shining bright light.

Channeling aether throughout their body, the duo activates their weapons before stepping into the light.