Sylvalum. The white continent. The Alabaster Desert. The Land of Sentient Fire Alarms. Call it what you will. Cold and Desolate, the wide open tundra left no place to hide, save for the occasional caves and caverns that bored deep into the high walls that rose above the area like monoliths, dwarfed only by the gigantic orb that loomed over the southern half of the region like a sentinel.
"You sure about this Homura? I'm not picking up any sort of distress signal on my comms."
"Positive. You think I'd stop hunting indigens and drive halfway across the continent for no reason at all?"
"I wouldn't put it past you. Well, if this turns out to be another trick of yours, at least I know who to point the finger at when we're a few hours late."
"You think I'd try and off you Stel? And lose one of my few friends?"
"You're hardly picky."
"Meh, true."
The two girls barrelled across the knee-deep water of Lake Ciel in their Skells, weaving between the legs of the gigantic Coronids that ambled throughout the area as they headed westwards towards the source of the signal.
"Gods, I hope they aren't in the secluded lava lake. I always find it nerve-wracking to leave my Skell anywhere out in the open."
"Look on the bright side. If we need to go in there, we might get lumbered with a fairer fight."
"Ha, fair? I've got a crazy-ass thunder knife and you've got that massive block of death on a stick. I feel sorry for anything, Indigen or Ganglion, that decides to take a pot-shot at us."
"Feeling sorry? Stella…are you coming down with a fever?"
"Pff, that's rich coming from you."
The two of them snorted with derisive laughter as their conversation spiralled out of control, only for it to be abruptly halted by a scream of pain, deeper than any a human could make and incredibly distorted. Only one thing on Mira could make that sound: Millisardi.
"Hey, uhh…you sure that that was a BLADE distress signal?"
"…"
"Well?"
"…It appears as though Artemis has set a trap for the Ganglion. And to think that we almost fell into it too."
"Let's leave Little Miss Boredass to her fun then. What were we at again?"
"11 Tersquals to you, 13 to me."
"Oh, you are so going down!"