Chapter 2: Zenith

[Kauria]

"Tal'set here went all explosive on some . . . spidery things and a couple of plants," Rucha explained to Kiruza. "We're going, come on!"
Although her back was sore, Rucha briefly checked to see if she still had all her equipment, and then tore off through the forest. The trees whizzed by, but for the briefest moment, the jungle trail was replaced by a metal corridor, and her sense of urgency by a calm anticipation. The hallway dissolved like a massive hologram, and she realized her pace had dropped. Tal'set was far ahead of her.
Rucha sank her claws into the loamy soil — when had she retracted them? — and put on another burst of speed. They broke into the clearing near the shuttle, and, almost immediately, she had to leap over the bulk of some leathery-skinned animal lying dead on the ground. The Ceretai twisted past the impromptu fence, and joined Lee by the shuttle.
"Has anyone let the robot know we're getting out of here?"

[Nohiki]

The second Rucha mentioned 'getting out of there', pillars of rock went up from the ground, trapping the shuttle on the ground. Lava filled the trench that the drone dug up and thorny roots started to snap at everyone.

Ariaka was heavily overclocking her processors, thinking about how to get out of this mess. She was in the chair, several holograms with data around her, her hands flying over two virtual keyboards. "Hold on guys, i'm coming to get you!" she shouted to the comms and then broke off the contact. More interface connectors deployed from the chair and Ariaka connected to them. Then she pushed one button, and the robot body blacked out.

Rerouting power from top shields generators to bottom.
Preparing drones to launch.
Resetting point defense weapons for long range interception.
Power rerouted.
Powering up pencil-point communication.
Drones ready.
Preparing stardrive.
Shield overcharged.
Jump in 5, 4, 3...

said Ariaka's voice, unusually not coming out of the robotic body, but from the ship's intercom.

...1, JUMP!

Croatoan rushed through the rift and slammed on the atmosphere. "WhoawhoawhoaWHOA!" shouted Ariaka's voice as the landing gear deployed automatically. "OK, please don't work?" she asked. Fortunately, aside from changing position, the landing gear did nothing. Meanwhile they fell down enough to launch the drones, and she did so. When all planes were out, she fired up the maneuvering thrusters, turned the ship to fall front forward and engaged the stardrive, praying it will work. It did in the nick of time, opening the rift only a hundred meters above the ground, making it look like the ship sank into the planets and leaving a huge crater behind. The drones immediately flown towards the ground team's aid.

[Zetherus]

"What the f*ck are you doing. I'm not leaving without answers of some type of reminder of my past." Demanded Tal'set as he pulled out his riffle and shot the heads off of three of the monsters he was attacked by earlier. "This planet is the last of our greatness and it holds technology that exceeds further then our first War Planet in that building over there. I need to find that tech to prove that I was here or not!" He spoke toward Rucha and anyone else that was listening during the chaos.

As the Anero'nolmi as occupied with the plant slicing and dicing the foe with his handgun and combat knife. He saw the Croatoan suddenly pass through the atmosphere then ,what he thought crashed, disappear leaving a massive crater the was several thousand feet in radius.

[Midnightmoon]

"Not meaning to sound callus but technology can be recreated and remade. Besides you can easily just come back in your scouter I saw in the hanger back on the ship. I think we'll have a better time remembering everything back on the ship anywa-aaah!" The ground heaved up and pillars surrounded the ship. Lee stumbled back and felt a intense heat. Catching his balance he spun around to be faced with a river of lava. "Hala-her! Wehing-gig-ajar!" Then something twisted around his feet and a vine snapped at him, the thorns scraping his exposed skin. Lee slashed at the vines at his legs and ran for the grounded shuttle, digging through his pack again and came out with the knife. Throwing the packs in the doorway he spun and fended the vines away with claw and blade.

[Awesomoman]

"Hey wait up!" Lance called after the others. He was sprinting as fast as he could but his armor and gun slowed him down ridiculously. It wasn't long before they were already out of sight and he just had to hope going straight would lead him to the ship, and since he was already behind he took the time to reload. By the time he arrived rocks had surrounded the shuttle and lava was pooling around. He caught a glimpse of the Croatoan as it launched off leaving loads of drones behind, backup was on the way, but they would have to fight back until then. A vine launched from the right of Lance and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him into the trees. "Foul weed!" Lance ripped the vine from whatever plant it came from. Once more his machine gun would do no good against these things. Quickly he switched it for his sword, but more vines were trying to restrain him. "I will cut down this entire planet if i have to!" He yelled as he continued slicing any plant in his reach.

[Morty]

Kiruza nodded in Rucha's direction affirmingly, bringing up her communicator as she raced in the direction of the shuttle. "Ariaka, we're returning to the shuttle--" when suddenly her attention was caught by the sight of the Croatoan plummeting through the atmosphere, drones flying from the recesses in its hull. Then just as suddenly it was gone, plunged into the forest or disintegrated in midair, Kiruza wasn't sure. She slowed down and watched as a cloud of burning plant material flew up in a shockwave behind where the Croatoan disappeared, shocked. She didn't believe what had just happened. "Ariaka, are you still there?" she called dazedly into her device.

[Nohiki]

"Safe and sound. Let me take some of this work off your heads! Get tho the shuttle and i'll take care of the rest!" the android said. Being interfaced with the ship directly allowed her mind to control each drone in real time. she sent a few to free the shuttle from the rock pillars so the crew can get in, while most of the drones were fending off the raging planet. She also connected to the point defense guns and fired several rounds down on the planet, safe out of range of the ground team but close enough to hit major enemy numbers.

[Morty]

Relieved, Kiruza turned around to make sure the others were up to date, when she realized the pilot was running in the opposite direction. "What is he doing?" she hissed, incredulous. She stared in amazement, but was snapped out of her disbelief by a massive plant vine smashing down nearby, sending dirt flying across her path. She broke away from the crashing vines and stumbled into the clearing a few minutes after the others, her bulky aquatic build not allowing for fast travel over such rough terrain. "Are we going?" she asked as soon as she stumbled in, not knowing what to do about the AWOL Anero'nolmi.

[Zetherus]

It started to become exceedingly difficult as the planet attempted to destroy it's own lush environment that the invaders were in. Now that Tal'set was slowly being pushed into shuttle from the lack of ammo and energy he had to evacuate. The only weapons he had was his handgun and knife that alone won't save his life. "I can't believe this is happening." He complained as he ran up to the shuttle and entered shoving Kiruza out of the way still firing at the advancing enemy. He sheath his knife still letting out a hail of pulse rounds from his handgun.

The drones were holding off the attack as they were constructed to but then the ancient building in the distance lit up and an odd pulse stopped the planet's cataclysm from further damage. In amazement that Tal'set saw the building with power once more he stopped shooting.

[Nohiki]

OOC: Tal's gonna beee angryyyy!

They were all in. The only thing was to get them out. Fortunately for Ariaka, the problem seemed to have solved itself with a massive energy spike coming from the planet. She didn't wait and closed the door of the shuttle remotely, immediately launching it along with drone escort. The ship shook violently as a blast of energy from the surface hit the ship, fortunately it was still turned belly side down, so the overcharged shield dissipated the blast. "Eh, guys? Looks like the planet identified the main threat, prepare for combat landing." she announced as she turned the Croatoan around and headed right towards the shuttle at full speed. When they were in the right distance, she commanded the shuttle to turn 180° and go full burn while firing up Croatoan's deceleration engines to minimize approach speed. The shuttle bumped onto the landing platform with loud screeching, sparks flying from the landing gear. "Jump." Ariaka commanded the ship and they left orbit of the cursed planet. She downloaded herself back into her robot body and unplugged from the ship, heading to the shuttle bay to check on the crew.

=========================
End
=========================