The Mech Touch

Inside the center of the anomaly, the pirates and residents of Ulimo Citadel were largely spared from the threats that appeared in space.

At least at first.

As time went by, Ketis and her squad of Mirror Raider infantry began to sense more and more unusual phenomena from the darkness that surrounded them in every direction.

Faint screams echoed in the distance, though the sound sensors of their combat armor failed to register any unusual voices.

The temperature around them began to fluctuate. At certain points, a chill swept through their bones, causing the disguised Larkinsons to become even more worried. Their pirate supervisors stopped issuing orders to them as the local communication network no longer worked.

One of the Mirror Raiders snapped his rifles in a specific direction. "Did you see that?!"

"What did you see?" Ketis asked as her heavily armored form faced the direction.

"I-I don't know! It looked like one of the Roid Rats, but grey!"

"Grey?"

"I swear it's someone I killed when we raided the Roid Rat base."

More grey flickers flickered in and out of the dark void. The Larkinsons gripped their weapons carefully as they looked out of the shop they had huddled in. As the darkness slowly pressed forward, the grey shapes became more and more visible.

One of them suddenly shot out from the darkness and charged at the shop while firing a badly-constructed laser pistol!

To everyone's surprise, the laser beam was grey instead of the typical red or other bright colors used to light it up. The grey beam impacted straight into the chest of one of the armored soldiers.

Before the grey Roid Rat could fire again, several Mirror Raiders already fired back. The attacker instantly broke up into a grey mist that rapidly swirled back to the darkness that spawned it. Confusion spread among the Larkinsons.

"Alert! There's more!"

A short time later, several more grey ghosts emerged from the darkness. They looked different from the Roid Rats and came armed and armored with better gear.

Now that the Mirror Raider squad was fully alert, these strange ghosts barely lasted a second before they broke up into mist!

Yet this was not the end. A few minutes passed as more ghosts appeared in the form of pirates. Despite their strange nature and weak attacks, their threat was very real!

"What the hell?! Are the pirates turning against us or something!"

"I don't think the Dry Snakes are responsible for this." Ketis spoke as her laser pistol fired a low-powered shot through the chest of one of the ghosts. "We aren't the only ones under attack! Look at the shop to our left!"

The Mirror Raiders weren't the only ones under attack. More pirate ghosts appeared. They attacked the door that blocked their way until it succ.u.mbed under the attacks. Soon enough, the ghosts stormed inside and began to kill the local Nyxians!

"Ahhh! Help! Guards, save me, please!"

The Mirror Raiders did not move to help. None of them cared about the lives of the local residents. They were also afraid that the ghosts were trying to lure them into a trap.

"Deploy a drone to scout the interior of the neighboring shop."

One of the Mirror Raiders that carried various gadgets deployed a small flying drone that quickly peeked into the shop. While many forms of wired and wireless communication methods no longer worked across the pirate base, the problem wasn't serious at very short ranges.

Ketis accessed its feed with her helmet view.

"Damn! Look at those bodies! They're all dried out!"

Every Mirror Raider who accessed the same view all saw the same macabre spectacle. The grey ghosts seemed to draw something out of the base residents they killed. With each passing second, the dead bodies lost both volume and volume. The ghosts were sapping some sort of energy essentially from the fresh corpses, causing all of them to transform into mummified remains!

The inexplicable sight frightened the Mirror Raiders and caused them to develop an even greater fear towards the darkness that limited their sight!

"What are the pirates doing?! Why are they killing their own people? Have they gone crazy!?"

No one had any answers. Not even Ketis. With no clarification and no orders, the squad of Mirror Raiders decided to remain in the shop.

Every few minutes, new ghosts began to emerge from the darkness. While their attacks posed a threat against the unarmed residents of Ulimo Base, the Mirror Raiders easily cleaned them up within seconds.

However, all of them worried whether this was the extent of the strange phenomena. As time continued to pass, Ketis began to feel a strange pressure in her mind.

"Ketis?" A familiar voice vaguely rang in her mind.

"Ves?! How are you talking to me? Our communications are blocked!"

"That's not important! I'm wasting a lot of energy to boost this 'signal' at the moment. I need you and as many people that you can bring to move to a shrine within Ulimo. Right now, the entire space around Ulimo Citadel is engulfed by a dangerous anomaly that is slowly killing our mech pilots as we speak."

"Huh?!"

"It's a long story! Anyway, do you have a map of the base or something? Look for a shrine that is placed in the center of the public section. It's occupied by a cult called the Hallowed Abyss Temple. While I'm not sure, I think you'll be able to find the source of this anomaly inside. Kill whoever is inside and destroy anything that looks important. Each of us is depending on you, Ketis!"

"Understood." She replied while her battle intent rose. "I'll try my best to smash this shrine. There are strange ghosts inside the base who are attacking and draining anyone they can defeat."

Ves reacted with shock on the other side of this strange communication channel. "What?! Those ghosts must be fueling the ritual through sacrificing the people who live inside the base. In fact, this might be the reason why the Dry Snakes welcomed many residents to live in a section of their pirate stronghold! They need lots of lives to sustain this powerful anomaly!"

"We'll make sure to end it, Ves. Wait for all of this weirdness to drop!"

"I'm counting on you. Lucky has snuck inside the base as well. I'll tell him to rendez-vous with you. You can also find other help in the base. The shrine will definitely be heavily defended by the Dry Snakes, so don't attack it head-on! The lives of our mech pilots is important, but your life is important as well!"

"Don't worry, Ves. I'll interrupt this ritual or die trying! I'm a true Swordmaiden! I never shy away from what is necessary!"

The connection dropped as Ketis felt ready to move out!

She didn't question why Ves could speak to her through her mind. Her frustration at the strange darkness that spat out hostile grey ghosts had grown to the point where she wanted to get rid of them as fast as possible!

"We're moving out, boys!" She instructed her squad. "I just received an order telling us to go to a shrine of the Hallowed Abyss Temple and stop whatever ritual is taking place inside. As long as we ruin this ritual, our mech pilots inside won't be trapped by this anomaly anymore!"

It didn't take much convincing to get her men to follow along with her plan. Each Mirror Raider believed it was better to be proactive than staying in place. Once they obtained a clear goal, they were more than willing to venture out, especially when they learned that their mech pilots were counting on them to break this trap!

Ketis referenced the map she obtained from the pirates and quickly located the shrine. It was located close to the center, which meant that she and her men had to pass through some heavily-defended gates meant to keep out the riff raff.

With the gear they possessed, the Mirror Raiders weren't capable of sneaking past these obstacles. They had no choice but to attack these checkpoints head-on. The only consolation was that the communications blackout imposed by the anomaly likely prevented the local pirate garrisons to call for backup. Reinforcements likely wouldn't be coming unless the pirate made more elaborate arrangements.

"Let's head out!"

The squad of pirates exited the shop and strode towards the center of the public marketplace.

As they moved, roughly twenty meters of space around them remained clear. Occasionally, they encountered grey ghosts. If the apparitions weren't attacking other pirates or residents, they mindlessly attacked Ketis and her men.

"Stay down, you annoying ghosts!"

The ghosts weren't strong, but the darkness constantly bred more of them. In addition, Ketis and her men were being constantly plagued by different phenomena. Distant screams, sudden chills, a moment of light-headedness and more began to beset the Mirror Raiders.

If this went on, Ketis wasn't sure whether they would make it all the way through the shrine!

As they neared one of the gates, Ketis suddenly paused as the living mind sword in her mind grew active.

It pulsed and moved on its own. An unknown impulse prompted her to concentrate and channel her superpower onto her cutlass. She cut her weapon in a specific empty space, only to see a grey ghost that had somehow remained invisible to everyone being cut apart!

"Ahhh!"

"Damnit, check around us if there are more stealthed ghosts!"

Ketis looked a bit confused. "Sharpie?"

Her sword intent vibrated concern.

A warm sensation swept through Ketis. She smiled underneath her helmet.

"Thank you, Sharpie."

Feeling a bit more confident now that she could count on the perception of her sword intent, she continued to lead her men forward.

Eventually, they reached the first gate. Thick alloy gates and turrets barred their way. Tall walls that stretched straight to the ceiling ruled out any possible way to sneak through unnoticed.

"How are we getting through that?" One of the Mirror Raiders asked.

"I don't know yet." Ketis frowned.

As a mech designer, she understood the lethality of defenses much more than the rest of her men. Let alone a squad of infantry, not even a mech could overcome some of the heavy weapons defending this passage!

"Meow!"

"Lucky!"

Ketis and the other disguised Larkinsons welcomed the appearance of the clan patriarch's famous cat. Until recently, none of them knew that this mechanical cat was such a deadly commando.

Currently, Lucky looked straight out of a spy drama. The Misfortune Harness affixed to his body caused him to look like an ominous black cat that was ready to spread bad luck to anyone in his sights!

The cat floated over to Ketis' heavily armored form and brushed his flank against her helmet.

"Hehe. This will be so much easier now that you're here! Can you sabotage all of those heavy turrets and help us kill off all of those pirate guards?"

"Meow."

Though Ketis didn't possess the ability to understand Lucky's meows, the cat was still capable of conveying his thoughts through nodding or shaking his head.

"Is that a yes or no?"

"Meow." Lucky offered her a very hesitant nod.

"You.. you're not sure? Do we need to gather more men? That will be difficult. The Dry Snakes split all of our fellow Mirror Raiders up and spread them out. It will take too long to gather them all. Is there any other way you can get us through?"

"Meow." A nod.

How?

"Meow." Lucky pointed his paw at the gates several times.

"Uh, what?"

"Meow meow!"

"I don't speak cat! I don't know what you're trying to say!"

"Meeeeeeooooow!"

"Can't you just.. Write something with your paw?"

"Meow meow meow!"

"You're a mechanical cat, right?! There is no reason for you to talk in meows. Can't you speak in standard language like some of the other mechanical pets on sale?"

"MEOW!"

"What are you talking about, Lucky?!"