As Max parried a blade and kicked away another of the red-skinned Demons, he devoted a bit of his attention to the communication between the two groups. They didn't make much noise as they fought, other than hisses and roars, but the strategy was effectively conveyed through gestures and body language.
To be that effective, they must have fought both together and against each other countless times before. It made no sense to Max. Were they trapped in an endless loop of combat? Had this place doomed them to repeat the same situation over and over again, fighting every time that they materialized on a solid surface?
Max did his best to translate the language in their thoughts, using Nico's skill to transcribe it to the computer for analysis as he received it from their minds.
Somehow it felt like the creatures weren't really into this fight. There were only Max and Nico out there to fight against, and the sense of frustration was palpable. Most of the force was no more than bystanders, and from what Max could tell, they were not taking it well.
They wanted even numbers, one on one fights, and glorious Carnage. It was like they were the two sides of Nico's personality. The forthright, "bored and must kill something" side, and the sneaky, assassinate them while they sleep, "it's never a war crime the first time" side.
Nico's thoughts said something completely different about their enemies. What she saw was the upright and honest "crush them by the rules" side and the "just keep stabbing it until it stops being annoying" side.
She wasn't really wrong, but it didn't tell Max much about how to deal with these creatures.
Then, just as fast as they appeared, they began to disappear, with vortexes of energy swirling around both the living and the dead before the wind swept them all away.
"Well, that was intense. Good news for us, though, since it didn't toss us out into the currents again." Nico commented as the fight was suddenly over.
"It looks like we're all helping one of our Researchers with her Thesis. We need that layered space theory up and running so that we can get back before we're worn down and overrun in this place." Max sighed.
"I'm sure she will be overjoyed. But it's not all bad here. We're getting a lot of close combat practice, and we learned something new today about the capabilities of our Mecha. No other species uses anything as we do, with the exception of the Darklings and Arisen Army. So, if they ended up here. Basically, any other species would be as doomed as that Galen patrol that got sucked in at nearly the same time that we did."
Max looked up the data she was thinking about and found that the Cutter's analysis showed that the fight started inside the Galen ship and had only spread outside after the Galen had failed to clear the infestation.
They were driven out into the open and then slaughtered by an enemy who was far superior in strength and close combat weaponry.
The thought that both the Darklings and the Arisen were aware of what was needed to shield against the energy of this place went well beyond suspicious and into the realm of near certainty that they were both aware of and capable of entering this place and exiting.
The problem was that Max and Nico had never really learned how to emulate the travel techniques which the alien species used. They did have data on the topic though, and the Darklings had deliberately given it to them.
"Nico, you work on the layered space theory, and I am going to go over the data that the Darklings gave us about their transport technology. With enough experimentation and the use of [Optimize] I think that we might be able to modify the existing portal devices enough to let us move through the layers of space and back to where we started.
Or at least somewhere near it, since we were carried so far by the currents."
The pair split up to their separate tasks, and Max found himself at a workstation with Nergal, who was already pulling up all the various shield configurations that they had encountered since arriving in the Koleska's territory.
"We thought you deserved at least one helper. I know a fair bit about the Warp Drives and the Portal Systems, so I'm with you while the rest work on the theory together." The willowy Innu researcher explained.
"Well then, let's take a look at what the Darklings were trying to show us. It might make some more sense now that we're here and we can see what they were most likely talking about." Max agreed.
The two group settled into their research at increasingly high volumes after the Innu decided that such a serious topic required an increase in their daily caffeine intake, but the drinks were good, Max had to admit, and they all had plenty of motivation to find out the answers to the topics of the day.
Sitting on the surface of this strange landmass, there didn't seem to be any threats other than when the wind blew the energy beings through, but the crew was becoming increasingly uneasy with each passing shift.
By the third day, they were all convinced that something was watching them from out beyond the currents, even though the sensors didn't detect anything.
That feeling wasn't new to Max or even Nico, but the paranoia was building among the crew of the shift, and Max was considering having them head out into the current to try to find a new spot if the problem got any worse.
They didn't have a positive method of navigation in the currents, but they could at least calibrate the Warp Drives well enough to avoid hitting anything now that Max had made a few breakthroughs on the processing of the glimpse of the Darkling Technology that they had gotten.
It was much like surfing. You couldn't fight the wave you were riding, it was too strong for that, but if you carved across it just right, you could go nearly exactly where you wanted to go.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel