Muru was composed when the group arrived on the planet, at least on the surface. Ten millenia away from his homeland had changed it into a distant memory. Even when Solenne was bathed in nuclear fire, the giant was still calm. But yet, this calm was finally shattered as he saw the bizzarely curved insect-like aircrafts as his furious voice roared through the communicator.
"No worries, I'll take them down." Hao Ren immediately set the three crafts as hostile targets and activated the twin auxiliary cannons on both sides of the Petrachelys.
At the same time, the three aircrafts have noticed the presence of the Petrachelys, the pilots were probably in confusion on how an unknown third party spacecraft had popped out of nowhere, but to them, anything not them is an enemy, and the three immediately scrambled as a line of alloys on the wings started glowing omniously.
As the glow on the wings expanded, the Petrachelys' weapons lost its lock. Seems like those light were some sort of countermeasure and that led Hao Ren to respect their technology even more. But it did not tgake long for Nolan to quickly recalibrate her aim and fired the auxilliary cannons.
Two streaks of sapphire-coloured lances blasted out of the underside of the Petrachelys and struck two of the aircrafts in the distance. One of them seemed to have suffered critical damage and its shields petered out after a brief struggle, and violent explosions wrecked havoc across its frame and the machine was reduced into nothing but a rain of molten metal falling into a corner of the city. Another machine was much more successful in blocking the attack, the barriers seemed to have strengthed at the very critical moment and after a moment, the attack petered out. It did not waste any time in sending two cannon shots in the Petrachelys' direction.
A few of the chaotic light orbs appeared out of thin air as they struck the Petrachelys' shields. The corruption orbs let out a greyish mist that corrodes all materials across the shield and it was continuously consuming the shield's energy. Nolan immediately barked a warning. "Shields level going down!"
The Petrachelys had survived Io's planetary scale assault, and her shields' strength was almost indestructible to the mortal races, but yet there it was taking damage, and while it was minimal, it was a clear as day that the treacherous children's weapons were beyond mortal capabilities.
This was the difference with their 'core', and this means that the traitors had indeed stolen the Goddess' powers.
Hao Ren was not only focusing on destroying the lobster-like aircrafts and he was also getting the MDT to quickly collect all usable data, like the weapons and shields systems of the aircrafts. He was rather interested in the corruptive light orbs. "What's that? Some sort of energy weapon?"
"It somewhat fits the energy weapon bill, but it also have effect against divinity." the MDT's tone of voice too suggested that it was intrigued. "The Petrachelys have some sort of divinity to it and any mortal attacks will be reduced by a certain percentile, but yet this orbs have managed to breach this limit... Interesting. While there are other civilisations in the void that can do that, for a civilisation trapped within this universe to do so, that's extraordinary."
Muru's voice rang from the communicatior. "Simple, their knowledge about divinity were all stolen."
"No matter how they researched that..." Hao Ren collected the required data before placing his hands on the weapons control panel. "They're all dead now. The spirits from ten millenais ago, let it be ashes to ashes, dust to dust."
The weapons systems roared to life again and signature blue lance of the psionic cannons tore through the air. The space between Petrachelys and the two aircrafts turned into a light stream as the psionic came into contact with the corruptive eneriges. And like a shattered glass, the shield finally unravelled and the two lobster-shaped spacecraft turned by the explosions into two raging inferno as they plummeted to the ground raining molten metal.
Nolan had already noticed the weakspots of the aircrafts the first time around and she had recalibrated the shot that the second round was a confirmed kill.
As the two remaining ships destroyed, the light orbs sticking onto the Petrachelys' shields unravelled and its damaging effects to the shields ended.
"Light damage, nothing to be concerned of." Nolan reported. "Huh... it's sure terrifying, your maiden battle. Facing this in a first person view is not good for my heart."
Hao Ren quipped. "You have a heart?"
"I have three types of engines, two energy furance and a mainframe core and you're asking me if I have a heart?" Nolan glared at Hao Ren like he was a silly muppet. "I can just pick anyone of those to act as my heart."
"..."
The combat ended faster than Hao Ren had thought. It only took barely a few minutes from the first exchange of gire to the destruction of the enemy aircrafts. As Hao Ren had only used the auxilliary cannons this time around, the damage to the surrounding was light.The biggest damage was caused by the trans-dimesion disintegration when the psionic lances shot out and the shock waves scarred the already ruined earth. As the laws of reality weakened just for that fraction of a moment, some of the items on the ground were disintegrated, but given how battle-scarred the land was, a couple extra craters was not a problem.
Up in the air, the spatial tear caused by the psionic cannons started to heal. Hao Ren commandeered the ship around the dangerous scar and continued the low-altitude cruise towards the city ruins. Lily quipped on a whim. "This was much easier than I thought. I was imagining how powerful they might be."
Muru immediately grunted as he heared what Lily said, intending to correct her for understanding her opponents. "That is their most basic weaponry meant for atmospheric combat. Their battleships and the 'Gate of Corruption' is something to behold. I'm afraid your ship is no match for those."
"What are the chances of us running into those two here?" Hao Ren asked.
"...Not likely, those are massive galatical weapons."
"Then we are pretty safe down here." Hao Ren let out a sigh of relief. "The Petrachelys is capable of facing those aircrafts, but if they were to come in a swarm... that attack is sure disgusting, it's like eating up a shield. If there's a whole load of them..."
Before Hao Ren could finish, Y'lisabet leapt up and used her little fist to jam Hao Ren's mouth. The little demon rumbled as she hung on midair. "Stop it stop it! Papa said that you've a big mouth, so please don't say that!"
Hao Ren looked at Y'lisabet speechlessly before glaring at Y'zaks. The latter coughed drying before bending down to lace his shoes, even though his shoes had no lace to begin with.
"Seems like there's no more hostile signatures." Nolan opened her eyes – the series of sensors and cameras on the hull. "No similar energy signatures like those lobsters earlier and there's no other signatures from the city as well."
"There was a firefight down here." Hao Ren frowned. "If there was fighting, then there should've been resistance... or have the defenders perished?" No one could answer his question, and thus Nolan could only bring the ship into the city quarters, and what greeted them was a sorrowful scene of devastation.
This was the city created by the guardian giants. Even when they were totally destroyed, once could still the the scale and grandeur of the place.
Especially the scale of it.
Muru's kin had an affinity for black constructs, the city was pretty much doused in black. Multiple gigantic pyramid-shaped structure stood in the middle of the city. Their outer lines were visible yet orderly and eachn structure was at least a few hundred meters into the air. These black abodes were made using a material made out of metal and rock and their surface was encrusted with a green crystal. The crystal shone brightly as if it was imbued with life, and even when the city was devastated. At areas that were more lightly damaged, pipings and drawbridges supports made out of crystals and metal were still standing. They formed a complex yet orderly airborne structure, and they were probably used for transportation of goods prior to their destruction.
And all of these structures, were massive.
"So where to next?" Nolan asked for Hao Ren's opinion.
Hao Ren pondered ."What direction did that three aircraft came from?"
Nolan used a laser mark on the holographic map projection, pointing towards a point in the city. "From the vicinity of that gigantic building.