Several hours later, the group was sitting near the entrance to Mech Caverns. There was a huge blizzard outside, and no Stromlings had appeared since it started. Freezing wind blasted into the cave, creating howling noises that echoed throughout the tunnels. It was at least -20 degrees Celcius outside, according to Trek.
Trek had suddenly become thankful for his thick armor and warm headscarf. Meyer's bulky helmet and chestplate kept him warm, and Thenso's Sorcerer robes were nice and toasty.
Vanda, however, was not so warm.
She sat in the warmest corner, with a purple Maelstrom fire continuously dying out and spluttering back to life in an endless loop in front of her. Her hair was wet from melted snow, and fell over her face every time a gust of wind blew past, which was all the time. Her arms felt like they were literally freezing. Ice had gathered on her clothes. Her clothes were made by ninjas, and for ninja operations, which meant getting maximum agility and being able to move fast, not keeping warm in sub-zero temperatures.

In the shadows, a creature laughed. It knew how easily it could destroy these hopeless minifigures now, but it chose to wait. One of it's useless minions had already downed one member of the group... the others could not be a problem. It remembered the Shinobi in Maelstrom Domain... these minifigures left him at the full mercy of the Darkitect. He was surely destroyed now, just a torn memory of his former self...
Later that night, the blizzard had gone. They didn't want to risk their luck with their trench and the ice, so they staye din the cave.
The minifigures had managed to light a real fire with Trek's survival supplies. Trek stood guard at the cave entrance, and Thenso stood guard at the back of the cave, near the remains of the Corrupted Mech.
Vanda and Meyer sat around the fire. No wind blew into the cave, but Vanda was still shivering. Meyer had re-summoned her pet Spiderling, and it was sitting beside her.
"This Spider reminds me of that Dragon," she said. "I feel like I coul get hit by a fireball and be happy about it."
Meyer laughed. "I doubt that."
Suddenly the fire spluttered and shrank in size quite a bit. Meyer sighed and hit the ground with his staff. A miniature Dragon appeared and breathed a column of flame into the fire, and it exploded - almost literally - back into life.
The Dragon jumped up and dived suicidally into the fire. Instead of burning up, it plunged in happily and caught alight. It rose back out and dived straight at Vanda. It landed right beside her and curled into a ball. It's fire didn't seem to be able to damage anything, but Vanda felt much warmer.
"So," she said, "we now have a living heater."
"Or a blowtorch with a brain," Meyer said. Vanda laughed.
Meyer smiled inside his helmet. He knew how rare it was for Vanda to laugh.
The next morning, the minifigures ventured back into the labyrinth of the Caverns. They found another plain, similar to the now-block off one. On this one, there was an unusually large amount of Maelstrom.
Thenso walked straight in and tapped a Stromling Elite on the shoulder. It turned around, just in time to get the full force of a bolt of Dark Thunder right in it's face.
It smashed instantly, but then the ground began shaking. Thenso knew this well enough, and dived out of the way as a huge Dark Tunneller - one of the beasts that threw Extreme off the world - erupted from the snow. Thenso let off a few shots from his Wand into the creature's face, the dashed the other way.
The Tunneller simply popped out of the ground in his way. Thenso frowned and suddenly changed into a... Space Marauder?
Yes, Thenso was now a Space Marauder, holding a Wormholer. He began pouring projectiles into the Tunneller's surprised head. It roared and reared up in pain. In brought it's head down towards Thenso, but he activated his jetpack and dodged. He flew over the creature, blasting out shots all the way, until he reached the other side. The Tunneller span around, just to face two rockets flying right at it.
The missiles exploded on it's head, knocking it to the ground. It smashed into bricks.
Thenso walked over to the minifigures, morphing back into his Sorcerer gear with Doomslicer.
"Errr," Meyer said. "We didn't know you-"
"Had Space Marauder gear?" Thenso didn't look surprised. "I prefer Sorcerer, yes, but I am skilled in both specialties."
"Right..." Meyer was still confused. "We need to clear this plateau. Let's get to it, shall we?"
They split up and began smashing Maelstrom. Countless enemies attacked them, but they downed every one of them like they did it every day. They mowed them down like a tsunami, tearing down anything in their paths.
After a few minutes, the air began to hum. A noise filled the air... the noise of engines. And not just any engines - Nexus Talon Dropship engines.
Every Nexus Force soldier had been saved by a Dropship every once or twice. They were the cavalry of the Force. They were everywhere on Crux Prime, rescuing Nexus Force members and deploying more all the time.
They were bulky, with round, slanted cockpits with a machinegun on the bottom. They had a bubble turret on each side of the body, which had an open troop bay. The tail was short, with a small rotating blade on the end, like a helicopter. The wings were connected to the top of the body, and had large circles on the end. Inside the circles were huge blades that span extremely fast, keeping the Talon in the air.
This particular Talon looked a bit damaged. A bit more damaged than a veteran Crux Prime Talon, but not too damaged to be older than a six-month Crux Prime Talon.
It came over from the edge of the planet, it's blades humming. The Maelstrom and minifigures alike stood, stunned, as it came down. It's troop bya was packed with elite Nexus Force soldiers It was several meters from the ground when it shimmered.
The it morphed: into something very much not a Talon Dropship.