UNKNOWN ISLAND-CITY LANDMASS - URBAN REFUGIA
SUBTERRANEAN ACCESS - UNKNOWN FLOOR

PFC Delve woke with a start, grasping for a sidearm that was not there. He jerked his head around, attempting to get his bearings, only to see nothing but dark tunnel in either direction - and nothing else. No bugs, no cocoons, no webs, no armored bipeds of any kind except for himself. He struggled to his feet, finding his right arm entirely uncooperative and hanging limply at his side. 'Why didn't it hurt?' he thought, checking his vitals, and noticed his armor was running some form of reconstructive protocol on the mass of bone pulp that filled the spot where his upper right arm had once been. An alert flashed in the corner, informing him that a similar process had been completed on his rib cage, as well as certain critical organs located within.

His mission timer read that an hour and fifteen minutes had transpired since the engagement against the three bugs that had been carrying off the human-like biomechs. The first two bugs had been readily simple for the Spartan to deal with, and the third had been dead when they had shown up... until it wasn't. Both of their VISRs had read absolutely zero life signs from the creature before it had attacked. It had also ignored most of a magazine from Delve's Hydra as it had pinned the Spartan to the wall and tried to eat his head. The Trooper had foolishly entered melee range, attempting to fire his last remaining shot right into its eye, only to be almost nailed to the wall by his own weapon when the creature had kicked him across the tunnel. As it was, the last RPG in the weapon had gone off when he had hit the wall, misfiring and reducing the grenade launcher into a pile of useless scrap.

The Spartan had survived, of course. The only explanation for why had been a name; "Hilda", before he had stalked back over to the alien biomech that their local AI had designated UPT-3. It had started screaming not a moment later - emitting a high-pitched, feminine tone - and Delve had quickly rushed to assist the Spartan. Aeona had mentioned something about 'unknown functionality' in UPT-3's mask, and the Private had promptly attempted to remove it. That was the last thing he remembered before he was airborne, vainly sucking air in through what was recorded as a collapsed chest cavity...

He shuddered. He had been dead. Medically dead for thirteen minutes. His armor had kept his brain active, pumping air in from outside and moderating the electrical activity within his grey matter, all until his internal organs had been repaired and ready to assume their prior roles in keeping him going once again.
Delve frantically checked his GPS system. The flickering-orange 'last known position' alert on the side of the map invoked a sinking feeling in his gut. Something had carried him off after... whatever attacked them in that tunnel had inflicted what had been otherwise fatal injuries to his body.
He was now at least one 'refugia' away from his previous position, and probably more than twenty-eight floors beneath the surface of the city.
While unarmed.

In short, he was screwed.

-

METRU NUI - LE-METRU
ARCHIVES - LEVEL ONE

Nokama blinked twice, staring at the brutalized remains of the Visorak that had captured her and Onewa. Two foreign Matoran had reportedly slain their captors before apparently attacking her, and she did not remember one bit of it. She was unable to recall anything that happened since the moment they had taken shelter in the Moto-Hub. What she was able to remember was a face - a pure-organic face, staring down at her from atop a chair that she somehow knew to be an archeological stool, despite never seeing one of its fashion before. It wore an inquisitive face - neither benevolent nor malevolent, but one of suspicious curiosity, as it reached down towards her with uncountable arms that stretched far beyond its body, flowing through the streets and canals of Ga-Metru, the canyons of Po-Metru... and a single finger from one of its many hands brushed against the side of her head. "What are you," it had inquired, as its own intelligence had simultaneously countersigned itself as 'human'.

Then the finger had been broken, snapping in half as the many-limbed being jerked away, and the experience had been sharply cut off with her consciousness rushing into reality.

What she knew for certain was that the Toa Metru were not alone in the City. There were others, a foreign faction; one that had no knowledge of where they were, or who the Toa were.

She had conveyed all of it to the rest of the Toa Metru. Matau, who would normally be the first to scoff at Vakama if their team's self-appointed leader would have one of his visions, was entirely supportive of her own event. Apparently, Onewa and her weren't the only ones to experience an encounter, even if theirs was more directly involved with the foreigners. Vakama and the others had been trapped on the surface, their Archives access point sealed off somehow, and the Visorak had just begun to raise themselves off of every rooftop around them when the surrounding night had shifted into, as Nuju had phrased it, "the interior of the Great Furnace".

Whenua had immediately thrown up an earthen wall to protect their vision, then had further surrounded them in dirt when his initial fortification had proven unsuccessful in blocking out the majority of the glare. Vakama had subsequently melted through the lock, opening their passage out of the situation, just as something massive had begun to destroy half the street they were on. The Toa had quickly re-positioned themselves into the tunnels below, which had shook for a while longer as whatever was rampaging above had continued its devastation. Whenua had mentioned something was odd about the battle being waged above; whatever had taken to the task of obliterating that particular section of Le-Metru was not making any footsteps upon the ground. All of Matau's bravado had reportedly been removed from him at that moment, as all they could think of was an even larger Lohrak serpent feasting on the tightly-packed host of Visorak clustered on the buildings around that street.

As the Toa relayed their respective experiences with each other, Whenua had bent down to pick something up off the ground. Further investigation revealed the handle of some implement, everything fore of a finger grip reduced to twisted metal. What Nuju found interesting, after training his telescopic eyepiece on its surface, was that it was decidedly not made of protodermis like everything else they had seen. Its molecular makeup was instead something completely foreign to Metru Nui as a whole, something considerably weaker in consistency and quality than even low-quality solidified protodermis.

Whenua had catalogued it, placing the remains of the tool into his archivist's sack, for further study. Vakama had objected at their "waste of time", and had urged the team to continue moving towards the Coliseum. Whenua had counter-objected on the grounds of potentially gathering more information about the "foreign beings" before leading the team back onto course for the center of the city.

An hour later, they had come across another obstacle. An ash bear, lying motionless against the wall, its body marked all over with claw-scratches and foot imprints of various Rahi. It was evident what had happened; in the mad scramble for the Rahi to escape from Metru Nui in advance of the Visorak's arrival, the ursine Rahi had been caught in a stampede and trampled underfoot. As Whenua advanced cautiously towards the creature, he could tell that it was no longer among the living. It must have succumbed to its wounds - and judging by the dry marks of spittle on the tunnel floor, quite recently too. His mask caught the indentations of a series of carvings in the wall, though what they said he could not tell. They weren't in Matoran script, even a first glance by anybody could tell that much.

Nokama had crouched over the juvenile ash bear, inspecting the young female closely. She might have been grievously wounded, but judging by its expression, its actual passing had been peaceful. Vakama had just opened his mouth to demand the group keep moving when Whenua had called the Toa of Water over to him in order to check out the etchings on the wall.
All it took was one glance. The former teacher didn't even have her Rau active, and yet she could clearly understand the words placed there.

MEMORIAL
LOCAL URSA LAURS-3
REST IN PEACE

She gasped in surprise, something that both Vakama and Whenua took note of. "Nokama, what's wrong," Whenua inquired, taking the light from his mask off of the etchings while respectfully keeping the glare away from his teammates' eyes.

"I... this language is the same that the foreigners use, and yet... I can read it. I don't even need to use my Kanohi, even though..." the Water Toa trailed off. Vakama stared at Nokama for a second, before approaching the rest of the Toa still clustered around the carcass of the ash bear. "Matau," he whispered, "Go talk to Nokama for a moment." The eager Toa of Air quickly re-positioned himself next to the archivist and the teacher, who were examining the carvings in closer detail.
"Onewa," his tone brooked no dissent, "What exactly did those creatures do to Nokama?"
"They," he started to speak, slightly startled at the urgency in Vakama's voice, "One of them laid a hand on her head, the other one tried to remove her Kanohi. I stopped them before they could do anything more. Why?"
"Nokama can read their language," Vakama replied bluntly. "And she doesn't even need her Kanohi to do so."

Onewa's eyes widened as the realization hit him. The foreigners had done something to their water-sister, had tampered with her mind in some way. Matau was busy distracting her from focusing on the script on the wall... and it became immediately apparent as to what Vakama was indirectly asking for the Toa of Stone to do. He stared, hard, directly into his self-appointed team leader's eyes before his gaze shifted to Nokama... and his own Kanohi began to glow.

Not a bludgeon, but a scalpel. A quick insertion. He slipped, unseen, into Nokama's mind. He picked up on the feelings of discovery, curiosity... and underneath it all, fear. And it wasn't just Nokama's emotions, either. A fragment of some other intelligence, nestled far, far in the depths of her subconscious, surrounded by walls, peeking out from the cracks... yet inquisitive enough that its presence could not be hidden.
Onewa did not do well with subtlety when it was one of his own friends at stake. The first inkling that the intelligence might not be as concealed as it might have perceived was a section of its cover being obliterated, and the mental-shadow of a proto-piton being embedded deep into its cranium. Its singular pair of arms jerked, detached, flowed away from its body as the rest of it uncoiled and spun into glittering motes of rapidly-disappearing dust. Onewa was able to easily catch one of the arms, rapidly pulverizing it into non-existence, before seeking out the other limb - which promptly whacked him across his mind-face. There was only one emotion being emitted from the remnant of the entity now - pure, uncontrolled terror. Fear of death. Fear of destruction.

When the disembodied arm swiveled around for a second pass, it collided with the business end of Onewa's proto-piton... and ceased to exist as anything other than decompiling knowledge. The shelter it had built collapsed, and Onewa made a hasty retreat before Nokama could acknowledge the mental intrusion.

When Onewa opened his eyes in the physical realm, the Toa of Water had finally brushed off Matau's unknowing distraction, and had turned back to the etchings, only to exclaim that she could no longer understand the script. Even checking with the Rau on revealed nothing. Vakama subsequently directed a grim smile - one that didn't quite reach his eyes - towards Onewa, and only a subtle nod was given before he once again ordered the team of Toa to continue moving. A final respect was given to the deceased ash bear; Onewa had moved a section of the tunnel wall to form a small cavern, before sealing the body inside to prevent any wandering Visorak from feasting on her carcass.

Onewa, last in line as the group began to move on, glanced at the foreign carvings. He waved his hand dismissively as he passed by, and the etchings rearranged themselves in proper Matoran script.

And once again, the Toa Metru set off in the direction of the Coliseum.

-

UNKNOWN ISLAND-CITY LANDMASS (TRNSLT/LOCAL DESIGNATION: CITY OF GREAT[ness?]/LEGENDARY CITY?) - URBAN REFUGIA (TRNSLT/LOCAL DESIGNATION: AIR-CITY?)
RESIDENTIAL STRUCTURE UR/RS49

SPARTAN-IV-311 grunted acknowledgement as he lifted his teammate out of the subterranean access hole carved into the basement of the structure that their relief force had taken cover in, before handing him a replacement HOPLITE-SV helmet. SPARTAN-IV-322 nodded in acknowledgement, swiftly replacing his damaged equipment and mag-clamping the defunct helmet to his back.

Aeona had theorized that the structure could have been a parking garage at one point, at least prior the catastrophic landquake that had struck the city and damaged the local infrastructure. It did show signs of recent habitation, though the fate of its inhabitants was likely grim indeed, judging by the multitude of webs - and cocoons - that littered the interior of the structure. Both Hornets lay on the roof, covered by two layers of active camouflage emitters that gave them the false appearance of massive cocoons. It was decided that that would be more inconspicuous than a mysteriously clean rooftop, especially given their extreme proximity to the imposing architectural achievement no more than nine "blocks" away. The rest of the arachnid horde was suspiciously absent, either clustered around their refugia-specific strongholds... or being aggressively repulsed by a rampaging Longsword.

Several armiger constructs had been dropped off inside UR/LS3, concealing themselves inside hardlight mockups of the UPTs, which had attracted a considerable amount of attention from the bug swarm. As it was, half the structure had since been overrun, and the armigers were conducting a fighting retreat towards a reinforced section of the facility, hopefully suckering in as much of the swarm as possible... enough for the deployment of Hotel-258's package of fuel-air ordnance to be worthwhile.

PFC Gerald Delve was missing, though his vitals had since stabilized long before he left their detection coverage. He was simply too deep in the tunnels for the Pelican or the Modules to pick up his signal. Aeona had assembled and deployed a significant expeditionary force of Sentinels into the tunnels below, led by yet another repurposed synthetic intelligence - one that Specialist Snyder was very reluctant to part with. Specialist Chez had taken Golf-33 into the crystal refugia to act as a forward C3 platform.

They had guided Spartan Martinez to their location via partially-audible radio, as his visual VISR systems had been damaged beyond what was possible via field repair in his near-death experience. As such, when the Spartan had stumbled upon an otherwise avoidable encounter with an example of local wildlife, it had delayed his arrival by at least fifteen minutes. Aeona had done a full scan on the biomechanical creature - designated "Local Animal Ursine 3" due to certain traits it possessed, and subsequently referred to as "Lars" by a few of the Marines - and found that the injuries it had sustained were terminal.

Martinez had refused to let the creature suffer, especially at the swirling teeth of the spiders - a maw that had almost claimed his life as well. Aeona assisted in establishing a neural-link to the bear, calming it down before she began a deep scan of its guiding intelligence. Much like the earlier encounter with UPT-3, she couldn't utilize her full suite of intrusion software - the life here seemed to straddle the line almost perfectly between organic and synthetic, and their brains were no different. Aeona extracted what she could, filling the animal's synthetic mind with a segmented protocol to slowly shut down the bear's systems before even that was exfiltrated.

The ursine creature had simply stopped breathing, and then it stopped functioning. A clean death. Enough of the bear's core intelligence survived for a potential decompilation, for additional knowledge to be gained, but Martinez had vetoed that option. "Respect for the dead," he had said, and Aeona had complied.

After carving a memorial inscription into the wall with Sarai, he had stealthily approached their designated LZ, entirely reliant on the Pelican's GPR to be aware of any potential threats ahead of him. Along the way, Aeona had filled him in on what they had learned from decompiling the bare scraps she had obtained from UPT-3; about how the spiders - the local designation for them being "Visorak" - were not local to the land, and were indeed an invasive species, one that had presumably been on the march across the world for the past five thousand years, forcing uncountable species to migrate to avoid their jaws, and condemning even more species that weren't able to relocate themselves to extinction... or worse. They were a plague upon the land itself, leaving nothing but bones, empty buildings, and their ever-present webs behind. They were a walking ecological disaster.

In short, it was highly likely that the AWOL UNSC presence here might have once again been facilitated by the Librarian. Stranger occurrences had happened before, and it would provide an explanation for that mysterious Forerunner contact that Aeona had briefly detected in the surrounding ocean. For a Lifeworker, a species such as the Visorak would be abhorrent, and would have to be isolated before they had driven all other species on their world to extinction. More decompiled memories from UPT-3 had inferred that this landmass was the penultimate one, the last bulwark before one final island, a terminus point for the preservation of this world's flora and fauna. If the island-city were to be fully claimed by the Visorak, and they moved across the sea, found a way through the rock barrier...

Jeremy had subsequently increased his pace, igniting his wrist-mounted energy blade to cast light on his surroundings, as he closed with the LZ. Once there, he had been lifted up into the sub-basement above by a seeded gravity lift. Both members of Fireteam Apex, thus reunited, quickly moved up to the second level of the structure in order to check on an alert they had received.

A Marine softly walked across the floor, avoiding contact with the web strands that ran out of the building, motioning for the pair of Spartans to follow them. Both Spartans glanced at each other before complying, soon finding themselves looming above a pair of Marines kneeling on the ground, on either side of yet another biomechanical being. This one was evidentially a bipedal humanoid - or had been at one point - distinctly smaller than the UPTs that they had been tracking. No life signs or power signals issued from its distorted body now.
The left Marine quickly filled the Spartans in on the details via TEAMCOM. One of the cocoons had burst open, depositing the biomech onto the ground behind a Marine. The creature had been seconds away from being ventilated by subsonic ammunition as it reached out a hand-turned-claw towards the UNSC service-person in question, before it died of what was registered by VISR as cascading internal organ failure. It had whispered something as it passed away, however - something that Aeona subsequently translated as a near-universal plea. "Help..."

Spartan Martinez knelt down next to the twisted form, placing a hand on its head. Aeona tapped into his GEN2's symbiotic reactor, extracting just enough power to potentially restart certain systems, before rerouting the energy through the link in order to attempt reactivation; a reverse of the same process that she had done with the bear.
To her surprise, there was nothing to salvage. Some sort of protocol had completely scrubbed the biomech's synthetic knowledge banks upon expiration, and the organic parts of the brain were impossible to tap into in the best of occasions - given how certain protocols were screaming at her about 'Flood-related' catastrophic problems by even glancing at the gnarly mess, she decided that discretion was the better option and promptly powered down whatever she had sequentially switched on, withdrawing her expeditionary systems and leaving behind only the trace code that had "checked out" the organic portion. 'Better safe than sorry,' she had rationalized, before informing the gathered UNSC personnel about her utter lack of new information.

"I'm not putting any more of my Marines at unnecessary risk," Bravo Zebra's CO had stated, before pointing towards the ceiling. "We'll have the Hornets ready for takeoff when you're ready for exfil. Your new device should be properly aligned by then."

'The device' was a modified UNSC radar tower, powered by an Aggressor Sentinel energy core and substantially reduced in size. Aeona had been seeding the "Watchpoints" throughout their territory in order to reduce surface-level strain on the Modules' own detection systems, and it had been a relatively simple task to design a Constructor Sentinel variant to continue the task in contested regions. Spartan Clarke had planted one such seed on the third level of their occupied structure, concealing its construction and deployment with yet another holographic cocoon. The Watchpoint's proximity to the large monument that was Ground Zero of the spider infestation would undoubtedly be a boon when they eventually came back to the urban refugia.

Both Spartans had finished their climb to the roof just as the Watchpoint activated itself. Their VISR's map icon blinked deep orange as the newly-collected information flooded in, and Aeona's avatar appeared in the upper left of their HUDs. "I have a location fix on the UPTs. They're on the surface, four blocks away, and still one-hundred-percent combat effective. I am also detecting eighteen bug signatures closing on their position, evenly distributed to their sides and rear. Judging by what I have learned about their team's composition and mentality, and applying their current movement pattern, I predict a ninety-one percent chance of the arachnid superpredators conducting a flawless ambush and suffering no losses in the ensuing engagement. This is troubling for many reasons, but the primary issue will be the complications in regards to UR/LS3. If the main body of the arachnid scourge finds out that the armigers are mere decoys..."

"They'll abandon the attack..."

"Enough of them will do so that the FAE strike will not be as devastating to arachnid numbers as current estimates place it. Hotel-Two-Five-Eight and Two-Five-Nine are both airborne and on station to deliver the package, yet the arachnid force both inside and around UR/LS3 has not yet reached critical mass. There is also a number of other concerns, such as loss of valuable information sources. In short, you must buy time. I have calculated several actions that can be taken within the next three minutes that can lower arachnid strike force success rate to within a margin of forty-two percent without openly exposing our presence, but we need to act within the next twelve seconds, otherwise-"

"Sergeant," Martinez growled as he stepped onto the closest Hornet's skids, opening a comm channel directly to the aircraft's pilot. "Requesting immediate transport to this location. One minute window."

-

ISLAND-CITY LANDMASS DESIGNATED "GREAT CITY"
MODULE NETWORK

ALRT: UR/LS3 AT SEVENTY-NINE PERCENT ESTIMATED CAPACITY
ALRT: INITIAL MARK FOR WEAPONS RELEASE AUTHORIZED AT EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT ESTIMATED CAPACITY.
ALRT: WATCHPOINT STATION UNDER ATTACK AT GRID MARKER DELTA-TWELVE
-AGGRESSORS VECTORING TO INTERCEPT

ALRT: INFILTRATION AND SUBVERSION OF LOCAL SANITATION/POSSIBLE MODIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT CONSTRUCTS [TRNSLT LOCAL DESIGNATION: "VAHKI"] UNDERWAY

PRIORALRT: FIRST CONTACT MADE WITH ARMED LOCAL BY ASSAULTER SENTINEL UNIT #6553
-LOCATION: DR/LS103
-ATON AND AGGRESSOR COUNTERMEASURE REINFORCEMENTS ON SCENE

-

Time stood still. All movement stopped.

Aeona focused on the status alert. One of the structures on the expanding edge of their territorial control in the desert refugia held a single Assaulter unit within it. A unit that Aton had sent to pursue the two unknowns that he had previously scared away.
On her strategic map of the urban refugia, the icons representing a pair of Hornets were suspended in mid-transit no less than three blocks away from the bipedal UPTs - which apparently referred to themselves as "Toa". At half again that range, both the UPTs and the four-legged spiders that were hunting them would have assuredly picked up on the sound of the approaching aircraft.

The events of the next few minutes would decide the UPTs fate. The matter was not one that she could entrust to Aton, to Marshall, or any of her compatriot AIs. It would require direct involvement.

"Do not shoot, little one. The fate of this city lies in your answer, so be truthful. Mere seconds hold the difference between life and death of so many others."

Winona stepped forward, a slipspace rift carrying her encased digital essence from the command module straight to 6553's location. A projectile flew straight through her holographic outer shell, smashing into the opposite wall, but she paid it no further heed. "I do not know your story, nor will I seek the information. All I need to know is... who are these individuals?"

She ran the relevant protocol, switching her outward appearance between each UPT. A notable reaction was attained upon UPT-3's visage being displayed.

Seven seconds later, an alpha-tier priority alert resonated throughout the Module Network.

-

METRU NUI - LE-METRU
COLISEUM APPROACH

Whenua strained to maintain the earthen berm he had thrown up to shield the rest of the Toa Metru as the night had exploded with energy yet again. Only instead of what he now suspected to be some form of deployed illumination, it was in the form of energy spinners raining down from the webs around them. The only warning they had got was a muffled roar, steadily increasing in volume, followed by something considerably large crashing through an alleyway next to them. The Toa had all pivoted to face the potential threat, and it was merely the fact that he had shifted left instead of right that had turned an energy blast that would have knocked him over and left him paralyzed - easy prey for the Visorak above - into something that only brushed against his arm.

Three others were also standing, though one of them - Nuju - was as still as a statue, his body having locked up in place. The other two had been knocked flat, having been caught mid-step when they were hit.

The Visorak had set a near-perfect trap for them, and they had blundered into it. Maybe if Matau had been allowed to fly up and scout for them, they could have seen it coming... but would Vakama have listened? Or would he have led the team into the spiders' jaws regardless, writing them off as "simple Rahi"?

In the end, the only thing that prevented their total defeat was a single panicked Rahi scampering away, possibly roused from its hiding place by the spiders as they closed their web. Whenua hoped it got away safely.

Movement in the ground. Something large was in the Archives below them. With a screech, it tore a hole in the street, two legs propelling its front half above the ground. A massive Visorak spider easily half-again the size of a Vahki transport, its carapace a mottled brown-orange, snarled down at the Toa before it struck. Seizing Vakama's leg in its jaws, it dragged the paralyzed fire-spitter into the darkness below the street, before emerging once again to repeat the process with Onewa.

Nokama immediately summoned a jet of water to slam into the monster's closest eye, as Whenua threw up a wall of earth to obscure his stone-brother from sight. The creature screeched once again, before sweeping the street with its legs and levering itself even further from its hole. More Visorak poured from the excavation, quickly overwhelming both Matau and Nokama with concentrated energy blasts. Soon, Whenua was the only one left fighting, protected as he was by constantly raising up new walls of dirt. However, over the top of his fortification, he could see the creature raising its forelimbs in order to presumably drag the whole defensive measure down - and he knew he was out of options. If he collapsed the street, it would likely end up plunging the remaining Toa Metru into the same pit as the spiders, and there were other creatures in the Archives that would readily make meals out of either.

Whenua could hear Onewa's muffled screams for help as he was presumably dragged beneath the ground. He took small mercy in the realization that the Visorak were apparently not immediately killing them. Why would they, when they could just encase them in cocoons to preserve them for later?
Nuju would be next to go, being the furthest away from him, and thus the closest to the spiders scaling the embankments he had made. And once the massive Rahi had dug its way into his core defenses...

Whenua knew that this was likely to be a fight that he could not win. As long as one Toa remained standing, the Visorak would find no easy victory. The Toa of Earth drew in a breath, glanced to the side - and was surprised to see Nokama upright once more, somehow completely free of paralysis. Her expression was that of confused suspicion, before forming into one of determination as she raised her arms, a sphere of water forming above her head. Whenua could feel a substantial drop in humidity around him, could sense the dirt he had dredged up around the Toa solidifying further as all moisture was drained from it.

As the colossal Visorak brought its legs down, Nokama struck. A thin stream of water surged from the forward surface of the sizable bubble suspended above her head, swiftly crossing the distance between it and one of the immense limbs, striking at the joint connecting its wicked talon with the rest of the leg. The Toa of Water's fists clenched, and her right arm swept to the side, forcing the almost-empty sphere to swivel in the corresponding direction. The stream of water followed.

And the creature screamed, jerking both legs back as the targeted foot simply slid off its now angled limb, a clean cut marking the point where the water had coursed through. Nokama herself appeared drained of energy, though she remained upright, taking a moment to stare at her open hands as if surprised that she had been able to succeed.

Further stomping noises resounded throughout the street as the monstrous spider dragged itself further out of the chasm it had made, its massive jaws easily slicing through the outer layer of protective barriers that Whenua had established. Nokama responded by jerking her right arm backward, forming a torrential sphere of water around her fist, and punching it forward towards one of the creature's multifaceted eyes. The projectile impacted with a resounding splash, causing the creature to noticeably recoil while emitting yet another shriek. Its smaller brethren flowed like a wave through the gaps it had excavated in the outer fortifications.

The Water Toa stumbled, barely being caught by Whenua as she collapsed. She had almost completely exhausted herself with her actions, as she breathlessly explained such to the Toa of Earth. The archivist opened his mouth to reply, only for a new sound to ring out over the bloodthirsty screeches of the encircling Visorak, a mighty roar Whenua immediately recognized as from the same entity that most of the Toa Metru had heard outside the Moto-Hub as night turned into day. A sizable triangular shape flickered overhead in the fog as the sound of explosions echoed from behind the Toa's position, fire spewing from its maw and underbelly. Bolts of fire hammered into the furrows that the monstrous spider had made, swiftly silencing the Visorak within, as a pair of capsules detached from its wings and plummeted towards the street below. Further detonations followed, briefly illuminating the street beyond the still-intact defensive line, turning the horde's hunting calls into panicked squeals. The narrow avian Rahi banked hard right as it rocketed down the street, barely avoiding a collision with the Coliseum ahead. Several more shapes moved in the fog, descending from their perches around the imposing edifice in swift pursuit of the mysterious avian.

While Whenua could not see the head of the siegebreaker spider, the creature's abdomen now lay motionless in the street. A series of craters had been punched into its carapace, a trail leading straight up its spine. It had since stopped all vocalizations, and the Toa of Earth felt no trace of significant nearby movement in the ground below.

Three Visorak crested the top of the innermost earthen wall. Their emerald carapaces were battered and scratched, though Whenua could tell even at that distance that none of the gashes had been recently inflicted. These spiders were veterans, ancient masters at the art of hunting, capturing, and feasting on those they chose to prey on. The weapons on their abdomens were already charged, firing as soon as they had climbed over the last barrier in their way, denying any window of opportunity for their prey to avoid their fate. Time seemed to slow as the energetic projectiles spun towards their intended targets.

Two of the spinners were abruptly prematurely detonated, exploding into clouds of energy as something raced above the heads of the assembled Toa, a constant rattling sound emanating from it. Two impact lines traced up the slope and into the trio of spiders above, swiftly cutting through their carapaces where the projectiles made contact. A pair of armored bipeds - 'Matoran?' - dropped from the new arrival as it shifted to the left and swiveled in place, still raking the top of the embankment with torrents of projectiles and preventing no other Visorak from cresting the top. Small bursts of orange energy spurted from the arms and ankles of the beings as they descended to the ground, one of them immediately scrambling over to the still-immobilized form of Matau.

The other one stabilized itself in front of Whenua, reaching out with a fist and speaking in broken Matoran. "Warrior... mistake... contact... fresh start." As the Toa of Earth paused, the being continued to talk, pointing at the spindly airship it had rode in on, even as another pair of 'warriors' dropped from the other side and closed with Nokama. "Issues... mistake... reconciliation later... got to leave now!" It pointed at the Coliseum. "Horde of spiders... there... dangerous... they are coming... cannot fight... must retreat!"

A torrent of energy spinners lit the air, briefly illuminating the whole scene. Nokama was unnaturally calm for the situation, having already assisted a pair of the warriors in loading the paralyzed form of Matau onto the nearest skid. The armored beings each had placed one of their legs in front of Matau's own, and had linked their arms across his chest-piece as well, their other hands clutching support braces mounted on the airship's fuselage. The individual in front of the Toa of Earth was trembling; whether in fear or from excitement, he could not tell. A second airship, no less rickety than the first, had boosted over the ridge on his right, another warrior - this one decidedly different than the others he had seen - riding on its skids, already kneeling with an outstretched hand.

The sound of Visorak death screeches pierced the air from beyond the embankment, traveling from right to left, punctuated by even more rattling and an infrequent number of small explosions. Nokama walked up to Whenua and the unknown being. "They will explain everything later, brother, but we have to leave now. The Visorak horde is coming, and they will overwhelm us!"

"Leave?" Whenua sputtered, his mind finally catching up. He pointed in the direction of the Coliseum. "But what about our brothers? What about the Matoran?"
"Vakama and Onewa are still alive. The Visorak have not killed them, whether for better or for worse. The Matoran... we will save them, but we cannot help them if we ourselves are trapped by the Visorak! Please, brother, listen! We must go!"

A brief consultation with the ground below revealed truth. A resident of any other metru would assume the vibrations were that of an imminent bioquake, and prepare appropriately. But Onu-Matoran were more in tune with subterranean environments. They knew how to interpret ground movements. And all of Whenua's senses told him that a massive herd of Rahi were bearing down on his position, from both north and south. He needed no further hints about what they might be.

The Toa of Earth reached up, grasping the armored figure's wrist and propelling himself upward on a column of soil. The being gently pushed him flat against the side of the fuselage as the Toa's hand closed around the closest support, before the foreigner - because surely that's what they were, the mysterious foreign faction Nokama had previously warned them about - rapped an armored fist on the side of the airship, which promptly rose into the air. Below him, he could see Nokama and the final warrior board the other airship... before his eyes were drawn to the carnage beyond the center fortification. Dead Visorak lay everywhere, either shredded or full of holes. The street had completely caved in, presumably sealing the tunnel that the massive spider had emerged from. The spider in question was also dead, unmistakably so - as its face had been turned into an unrecognizable jagged mess of flesh and armor. The mysterious avian Rahi - presumably another airship - had slaughtered the siegebreaker as it flew over, undoubtedly saving them from capture.

However, something else quickly drew the archivist's attention elsewhere. The streets, buildings, webs... every surface leading from the Coliseum was choked with movement. He couldn't see individuals, just a fluid swarm that swept across the cityscape in their direction. The other airship flew up next to them, Nokama and one of the foreigners waving from her perch, as they began to move in the direction of Ta-Metru. Whenua was more comfortable to keep his hands clutching on any support rail he could find, when the armored being next to him reached out and grabbed his shoulder once more, bringing its face close.

"Detour! Have to... down... another Toa... rescue!" It gave a thumbs up, before pointing to a nearby structure. Whenua could see the figure on the other airframe likely informing Nokama of the same development, though when their own craft broke off to land, the other continued its flight path towards the other metru.

As they touched down, yet another figure emerged from the cover of a stairwell, an individual carrying a blazing red blade in one hand, while his other was supporting a white form Whenua was more familiar with. "Nuju!"
The Toa of Ice jerked, his face coming up to see the airship and its riders. Whenua moved forward, slamming his fist against that of his ice-brother in the standard Toa greeting - the gesture almost knocking him over and causing the warrior supporting him to stumble. Flickers of blue and orange light across its armor quickly seemed to stabilize it, and it oriented its unchanging Kanohi in his direction. No expression was needed to convey its intended meaning.

Whenua quickly took hold of Nuju's other arm and helped him onto the airship's riding platform. The Toa of Ice stared at him as the two other foreigners riding on the side shifted over to give him room, directing him on where to place his feet to properly stabilize himself, and where he needed to grab onto to keep him from flying off during flight. The newcomer promptly propelled itself onto on the top of the airship, nestling itself behind the wings, before extinguishing its blade and withdrawing a lengthy, menacing staff.

As soon as Whenua and the other foreign warrior had climbed back on to their skid, the craft had once again taken to the sky. The swarm was much closer now, but they were easily out-distancing it. Within moments, they were above the Silver Sea in its dividing line between Le-Metru and Ta-Metru.

That was when the fliers attacked. The first one swept down from the direction of the Coliseum, its claws extended, only to be knocked from the sky by a burning projectile that spat out with a howling whine from above them. The second one attacked from the front, and was immediately torn apart by the airship's weaponry, which tilted to port in order to dodge the third attacker. The sound of metal hitting metal caused Whenua to look behind them, glimpsing two of the creatures attacking each other as they plummeted out of sight. Another Rahi approached from below, its jaws wide open - and a small object was dropped off the side of the airship, landing within its terrible maw and jamming its teeth in place. The flier's head exploded mere seconds later, the explosion's proximity rocking the frame of the airship. A sixth approached from starboard, its wings promptly being encased in ice.

Energy projectiles rained down from additional fliers. The airship promptly dropped altitude to outmaneuver them, though he could hear at least one make contact on the other side of the fuselage. The craft continued to fly, though the individual next to the Toa of Earth quickly reached to its back and drew out their own rectangular tool, spitting fire at any spinner that was launched in their direction. Two thunderclaps and their accompanying smoke trails lashed out from above them, driving the surviving fliers further away from the airship and increasing the distance that the spinners had to travel before potentially scoring a hit.

A screech tore through the air as more creatures descended from above. Two thunderclaps rang out in response. And then the topside warrior was sent tumbling from their perch, the long staff-like object slipping from its grip and falling out of sight below, as one of the fliers landed on the top of the airship, its claws digging into the fuselage. Both Whenua and his fellow passenger barely managed to grab onto the falling warrior's legs as it passed by them. Seconds passed as the flier scratched up the fuselage above them, as he heard someone - probably the pilot - screaming, before the foreign warrior next to him tapped his shoulder. "Let... go! We're above land now, he'll survive! Help is on the way!"
Whenua stared, baffled, as the dangling warrior shouted, "Now!" A sudden increase in temperature near the Toa's left hand forced him to let go, and for a second the being was in free fall - before their entire body lit up with directional fire, the crimson blade flashed to life, and a blue sword extended from its left arm.
The Toa of Earth gasped. He knew this individual, as it had been previously described by Onewa. This was the one that had attacked Nokama, had done something to her that had temporarily allowed her to translate their language. Was this all some form of elaborate trap? Had the Toa been saved from the jaws of the poisonous scourge, only to fall victim to a worse fate?

All thoughts were focused towards the present when the airship promptly jerked backward, tilting its nose up, sending Whenua scrambling for a supporting hold, lest he too be launched aloft. And unlike the previously antagonistic foreigner, he did not have a fancy flight system to keep himself from ending up as anything other than an gore-streaked imprint on the street below.

The sword-wielding warrior rushed up from below, swiftly catching up to the maneuvering airship. With a hissing noise, the blades carved through the Rahi's claws as if they were thin cables, before the not-Toa finished the creature off and subsequently kicked the corpse from the top of the craft. The airship subsequently shifted forward once more, avoiding incoming spinners as it dropped towards the streets below.

The warrior next to the Toa of Earth was nodding their head in some form of silent acknowledgment as the remaining fliers came around for yet another attack - this one taking the form of a simultaneous launch of spinners from all directions. Once again, the foreigners and Nuju unleashed a torrent of fire and ice to preemptively trigger the incoming attacks. Whenua could do nothing but watch - this far up into the air, his power over his element was at its weakest. The spinners closed, their number decreasing significantly. More noises not unlike cracking ice issued from the top of the fuselage, signifying the warrior up top was also contributing to the diminishing amount of incoming fire.

And suddenly, the rattling noise next to him ceased. Whenua glanced over to see the foreigner, one hand on their weapon, the other on their waist, grasping for an object that was apparently no longer there.

A mere two energy spinners lanced in. One landed on the unfortunate warrior, who was immediately enveloped in a yellow glow as their armor began to spark uncontrollably. The other smacked into the side of the airship, and the craft's now-familiar engine noise abruptly ceased.
They fell. Whenua was sucked into his side of the fuselage, almost flying off as the craft spun around. His fellow skid-rider was not so fortunate, being launched clear - and unlike the similarly-armored sword-warrior before, no stabilizing fire lit their armor.

The world became a mix of colors, the only constant being an ever-increasing amount of fog as they lost altitude. In the distance, the horizon of Ta-Metru crawled with activity. His heart sank as he remembered the swarming movement of the Visorak horde, how the shadow engulfed everything in its path...

And with a jolt, the airship ceased its uncontrolled descent. It took a while for the world to stop spinning around the Earth Toa, however, and Nuju soon verbally expressed the same issue. Tilting his gaze forward, he quickly discovered they had not entirely landed yet - the airship had crashed into a nest of webbing, which had sealed around the forward section of the fuselage. Whenua tentatively moved along the skid to check on the pilot, seeing a red light blinking in the control cabin... which soon illuminated the aviator, slumped forward in their seat and draped over the controls. No other motion was seen.

More movement rocked the aircraft from the opposite side. The expressionless Kanohi of another foreigner appeared through the transparent protective material surrounding the cabin, and they promptly knocked on the surface. For a few seconds, nothing moved... then the being inside weakly raised an arm and stuck their thumb up.
Whenua and Nuju both took stock of their surroundings. They were eight stories up, partially suspended in a tangle of webs. Only three foreign warriors remained out of the five they left Le-Metru's boundaries with, and one was all but sealed inside the airship they had rode in on. The Visorak would have undoubtedly sensed their 'landing', if the fliers weren't already bearing down on them. They had to continue moving, the sooner the better. Where they would go, though... perhaps the Great Temple?

The sound of laughter drew his attention. A figure was partially sticking out of a nearby cocoon. "Any landing-crash that goes glad-well, huh, Toa-heroes?" Whenua activated his Ruru to cast illumination on the new being, only to gasp in surprise. A Matoran stared back, its mask-less face glinting in the light. "Hey, swift-turn off the bright-light! The life-stealers are still lurk-hiding around! The false-Rama have not swept-cleaned this deep-far yet!"
A squawk came from yet another cocoon. To Whenua, it sounded like snarls and bird calls, but for Nuju, it came through clear enough. "Shut up, you confusing robo-human! That's a UNSC aircraft!"

Three sets of lights flickered into existence, two of which began to scan the other cocoons nestled around them. Some held Matoran. Others held more Rahi that both Whenua and Nuju had never seen before. And dangling in front of the airship, easily free of the cocoon that had once restrained it, was a gold-armored biped wielding yet another glowing sword.