Victory over the Manticore was followed by a now customary feast, with all present glutting themselves on what food we had and those who could drinking themselves into stupor. The kids, meanwhile, tried to get a few sips of alcohol, but ended up having to settle for fruit juice.

Part of me wished that these islands and other arks had apples - I really wanted to have cider for these occasions. Oh well.

Of course, after that came preparing for reaching the observer, as was also customary by this point.

Except this time, we didn't really get a a chance to prepare.

XXXXX

"Already trying to prepare water rations are we?"

I glanced over at Vivian, who was wearing a set of clothes that were certainly well made for the desert...and also a little distracting, but that was understandable. And if how Vivian gradually allowed a smirk to grace her face was any indication, she'd noticed what I was looking at.

"Enjoying the view?"

I snorted. "A little. But if you think you can use your looks and feminine charms to gain some measure of control over me, you're mistaken."

"Eh, if I could, things would be boring."

"Even if you were still the one overseeing my actions?"

"...I'll get back to you on that."

Well, that was that. Now to more important topics.

"Fide, how's it going with those Oculus.. Oculi.. whatever the plural of that term is."

"Slowly. We've been fighting them since you first arrived on the Scorched Earth ARK, but they just keep coming, and they've proven to be surprisingly durable - they take the Anti-Air we've been throwing at them and manage to soldier on."

Yet another mystery that needed to be solved. It probably had to do with whatever reason the being in charge of this had asked Celm for help with the situation.

...It felt weird doing work for a ROB. That seemed to be more like something I would do on a jumpchain, if ever.

"Have any new units appeared to assist them?"

"No, sir. But their numbers are practically endless. They've managed to prevent our forces from expanding past a few areas simply through drowning us in bodies."

"Need some help?"

"Not now. If something major happens soon, then I will call the Hub."

"I see. Anything else?"

"Not at the moment-wait. Detecting abnormal activity from one of the ARKs."

Ooh, something odd. "Which one is it?"

"It appears to be...oh no."

Not good. "Say again?"

"If these reading are correct...the abnormality is coming from YOUR ARK."

Wait, what? "Can you elaborate-"

A loud roar filled the sky, followed by a wyvern flying overhead...wait, was that the dodo wyvern?

...Apparently it was.

And there were a lot of other fliers joining it.

"Are those undead wyverns?" asked Vivian, gaze focused where mine was.

"I think so."

Without missing a beat, I fired a flare into the air, which caused one of our parasaurs to cry out in alarm.

"Fide, what exactly is going on?"

"I'm picking up massive teleportation signals coming from all over the ARK - it looks like a bunch of wyverns, but also golems, death worms, and...manticores?"

The fuck? "Anything else-"

The ground chose that moment to start shaking.

"Yes: it appears that a cavern has opened up in the center of the ARK. I believe it to be related to this ARK's overseer. So, you know, GET THERE NOW!"

We did not need to be told that twice.

XXXXX

Across the ARK, a wave of disaster began to unfold as hordes of creatures descended upon the desert. Unnatural beasts teleported into the field, where they began hunting all those in their path. Practically endless in number, the creatures made swift work of any lone survivors they encountered. Whole tribes were even destroyed by them when the numbers overwhelmed any firepower the sophonts possessed. Only those who had allied with the Commander were doing well, but that may have been because they simply avoided the fighting at all, instead converging on the newly opened cave system.

Sometimes, it paid dividends to run from danger. Especially if knew where to remove the danger's source.

XXXXX

Nycorax's POV

The female makuta grinned as the echos from her sonics returned to her - the cave system below them was spacious enough to support all of the group, alongside any other survivors that made it to the cave. If they made it here - with how many creatures have suddenly entered this world, she would not be surprised if there weren't any survivors left by the time this was over.

The few kraata she had created in this heat-blasted world were exploring the cave right now, searching for any possible threats to her band of allies. Aside from a few spiders and scorpions, they found none. Excellent.

Turning her attention toward her companions, Nycorax aided the matoran and the small hooded figures they had befriended in getting into the cave, making sure that Otuma was one of the first inside - he would make it easier to direct new arrivals further inside, preventing a bottleneck from happening and hopefully making things easier for everyone.

Hopefully, time was on their side.

XXXXX

Ten minutes later, Flame's POV

Carefully, I helped Vivian lower Grease Rag into the cavern. Once the girl was through, the two of us jumped inside, as there was no one else left to save.

We'd picked up a few stragglers on the way, and now had a bunch of extra members with us. I didn't know what to think of some of them, but they all seemed to be more interested in surviving than in fighting. Hopefully things stayed this way.

Now to check with my mission control. "Fide, any intel you can give us on this cave?"

"It is relatively small for a cave system, but all indications are that it is analogous to the Tek Cave on the Island. Also, there is a massive stockpile of supplies at the end."

"...Why would the Overseer put supplies in here for us?"

"Best guess? It knows that the end is near and is giving you all the things you need for the final push."

...I could live with that. The sooner we got to Aberration, the better.

XXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!