After leaving the phantom, Th’lak led both Nel and Bec through the vast labyrinth of the chasm, navigating not only the patrolling ravengers and warframes but the various obstacles that layout before them. Crates, machines, even the large legs of the cruisers created a maze so intricate that Nel was considering whether this was deliberate. Something she strongly considered given how intelligent the ravengers had proven to be compared to the average bandit and thugs she was used to dealing with back in Avalon.

As much as she would not admit it out loud; Th’lak and his small ‘ghost’ were instrumental in navigating the maze without raising too much of an alarm. This, along with the fact he barely said anything beyond two syllabus (her guess due to whatever device was built into) made him tolerable even if she did not trust him.

Her other companion, Bec, was the complete opposite. Not a second went by without some quick jab, talking to himself or trying to coxe Nel into a conversation. If not for her friend’s loud, rude and often silly outbursts she would have choked the man if it meant he could stop talking. Despite his mouth, his skills were certainly on par with even her own.

“This way.” Th’lak said as they ducked under one of the large cruisers. “Follow.”

“Lead on buddy,” Bec said ducking under the low-hanging beams.

Nel was the last through, gathering by large container. Before them was an elevator connecting to a massive gathering of capsules and platforms. Large wires coiled like veins, connecting to various sections.

“Eather conduit. Inside,” Th’lak pointed.

“So… this place will take out the entire fleet?”

“That would be perfect,” Bec chuckled. “My guess is… half?”

Th’lak nodded.

“Ravengers or not, you’d be pretty stupid to leave refueling all these ships from one point.”

Nel returned a piercing gaze. “But we only have one of those cores.”

“I guess we improvise after that,” Bec said as he and Th’lak broke cover.

Improvise… So business as usual.

Nel followed after the two, watching Bec tackle a reg to the ground before killing it with a stab to the neck. They inched closer to the elevator seeing stubs patrolling it.

“Oh great,” Bec drew his pistol.

“Wait.” Th’lak raised his staff. electricity coursed through the tip. Th’lak moved out of the shadows before letting lose a torrent of electricity which struck the stubs, arcing from one machine to the next. The lights in their lens eyes went out one by one before falling over.

“This way.” Th’lak moved towards the elevator followed by Bec and Nel.

“Glad he’s on our side,” Bec commented as the two of them moved past the fallen warframes, joining their ravenger guide at the elevator.

“What was that, anyway?” Nel asked as the machine began to move.

“Eather channel,” Th’lak said.

“Dude’s a Priest. Basically a ravenger technomancer.” Th’lak clarrifled. “Which… you probably don’t know.”

“Someone like Melvin?”

“The kid? Yeaaaah, more or less.”

“Little, you truly know,” Th’lak clicked.

“Trust me dude, getting into that’ll take a lot longer than we’ve got.”

The elevator then came to a stop. Th’lak brought out the ghost, allowing it to lead the way through the capsules, each filled with ravenger consoles and vain like wires that fed energy into a large chasm. On the wall at the rear was a large machine where all the wires connected to, resembling a mechanical heart pulsing with white energy.

“The eather refinery,” Th’lak said as they walked into the room. “Energy from Sora, refined.”

“So what’s the plan?” Nel asked.

“Simple,” Bec brought out the warframe core. “We just feed this into its intake and run before the whole thing blows. The chain reaction should cause major damage to the cruisers.”

“You don’t sound certain.”

“Oh no, It’ll work. Everything’s up to how big the explosion will be.” Bec said tossing the warframe core in his hand.

Nel simply glared at him but relented as the two began to walk towards the eather refinery.

“Wait!” Th’lak suddenly yelled (or his speech unit increased in volume), his ghost fluttering up and down in his bottom left hand in a frenzy.

“What is it? More ravengers?”

As soon as Nel asked, floodlights poured through the door nearly blinding Nel.

“Oh crap,” Bec quickly drew his hand cannon. “We got company!”

A long shadow was cast from the source of the light to the trio. A krell, far large than the one Nel had killed, strolled into the room. With decorated armor, helm, and clutching a massive spear, Nel quickly recognized it; it was the same krell the group had encountered at the summit. At his flanks were two other krells, each armed with a massive gun, clutched by all four hands.

“And not the welcoming type,” Bec added.

“I can see that!” Nel snapped as she drew her knives.

“Shanks…” Th’lak growled, clutching his own staff in three hands. “The pillager.”

As they backed up, sounds could be heard coming from behind. Around the refinery, ten skars had emerged with their weapons honed at the three.

“Well this has gotten worse…” Bec said.

“Trespassers!” Shanks slammed his staff on the ground.

“Think he’s talking about us?”

“Could you shut up for once?” Nel said raising her dagger.

“Shanks!” Th’lak took a step forward tapping on the bottom of his helmet, letting forth a flurry of loud clicks and hisses which were met with hisses from the flanking krells. One took a step forward before being forced back by Shanks.

“How far. Char has fallen.” He continued. “To rely on others like these. Scavengers. Thieves. Butchers.”

“What now?” Nel glanced behind her. She could feel the bloodlust from the ravengers at the rear. “I don’t think they would hesitate to gun us down.”

“.... Get ready to run,” Bec said taking a step forward. “Hey, pillager was it?”

Shanks glared at Bec.

“While I won’t deny that Thall here’s got some bad choices in friends, there’s something about us scavengers and thieves you seem to underestimate about us.”

“What. Is it?”

Bec held up the warframe core. “We can be pretty stupid.” Pivoting on his heel and threw the warframe towards the eather reactor. Everyone watched as it few overheads. Twirling his hand cannon in his hand, Bec fired at the core he had thrown.

The resulting explosion blasted the ravengers away. The white plume sent a small shockwave that almost knocked the trio off their feet while staggering shanks and his fellow krells.

“Now we run!” Bec pulled Th’lak to his feet as they rushed the krells, pushing past them before they could respond.

Shanks hissed as he turned about, ordering his two krells to peruse. A hiss and crackle came from the eather reactor, deep fissures cracking along its white glass surface. Shanks only just saw it before the entire apparatus exploded.

****

The resulting explosion blew the trio on their fronts as the flames from the blast washed behind them. All along the vein like cords, small bursts of energy erupted like blood leaking from a wound. Below, engines of the large cruisers started detonating one after another, blowing apart large chunks of the colossal machine's rear sections in ways Nel has completely overestimated. While the devastation below was great and certainly would be a while before these vehicles were functional again, there was not the sea of flames that Nel had come to expect. Not to mention that half the cruisers were unaffected, situated on the opposite side of the cavern.

“Wew, It worked,” Bec said. “I-I mean I totally knew it would work.”

“Okay, fleets sabotaged,” Nel said, moving back. “Now let’s get out of here before the revengers hunt us down!”

“No!” Th’lak slammed his staff to the ground. “Fleet. Half. We must sabotage.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“Not to mention we’ve got nothing to sabotage the rest of them with,” Bec pointed out. “Half is going up in flames and with any luck it’ll take the rest out! Let’s get going before-!”

A phantom passed overhead. With its doors wide open, a large krell hissed, barking orders to its followers that leaped down to the platforms below.

“-they come to kill us.”

Bec drew his hand cannon, firing at the attackers while Nel and Th’lak turned about only to be met with a giant crab-like tank crawling among the platforms towards the trio, accompanied by a krell leading a group of halberdier regs.

“Oh great,” Nel hissed as she drew her knives. “We’ve got company!”

“You don’t say!” Bec yelled back, ducking behind cover as the skar krell opened fire with its large cannon, spewing forth a hail of flame projectiles. He fired back, taking out two regs and a skar before being forced into cover.

Nel and Th’lak meanwhile ducked into cover as the crab tank began to fire at them with mounted guns on the front while taking aim with the giant cannon.

Something struck the tank from behind, piercing through the hull. The entire vehicle exploded, consumed in flames.

“What?”

“Attack. From behind.”

The ravengers turned to the destroyed tank. From the flames, something leaped from the top of the tank, falling on the krell leader who raised his spear. A blade sliced through its weapon, cutting deep through its armor. The wounded krell scuttled back, grasping his wounds with his four arms.

Before him, and among the halberdiers was a lone human, raising up branding his katana.

The ravengers descended on him, but the swordsman made short work of them, slicing through each with one strike. The wounded krell grabbed two halberds from its fallen brethren as the human rushed towards it, cutting off both left arms before slicing through its torso.

On the flaming tank, another figure rose; a towering hulk aiming a cannon and firing. The shot struck the rear skar krell in its chest, destroying both its gun and blowing a hole through it.

Bec, ducking from the blast turned, smiled and waved.

“Ha-ha-hey! Thanks for joining us!”

In the flames of the destroyed tank, Yuki and Markus stood at the ready as more ravengers descended on them.

****

A wall of rock shot from the ground, acting as cover as a hale of laser fire descended on the phantom. With a yelp, Rodger slammed his hammer into the wall. It shattered with the fragments flying towards a pack of ravengers, blasting them back by the barrage of rubble.

Max launched forwards into the incoming chaos, flaring his fists up as they made contact with the incoming reg halberdiers and swordsmen, each punch smashing through their armor, ending his assault by grabbing a reg by the chest and slamming it to the ground. Unexpectedly, the reg grabbed Max’s outstretched arm with all four of its hands while two regs charged in towards him. Meracle punched on one of them, landing on its head before performing a handstand, whirling her legs like a windmill catching the second. Max dragged the one that held him, holding it over his head before throwing it at another wave.

As soon as Meracle stood up, her instincts kicked in alerting her to potential danger. Jumping back, she avoided the blue tracer fire. Max meanwhile was hit in the forehead, adding a third burn mark to his forehead.

“Ah, not again!”

Closer to the phantom, Melvin fired off fire and wind spells at the skars cresting the cruiser’s edge, catching a handful of them. Beside him Sasha fought back against melee regs that rushed towards the young wizard as he engaged the numerous ranged enemies that seem to endlessly crawl out of every nook and cranny along with stubs and drones.

“We got to go! Now!” Larek called from the safety of the phantom's interior.

“No! Not without Nel, Bec and Thall!” Sasha snapped before punching a stub back.

“We’ll be overrun at this rate!” Larek yelled. “Besides, those three can take care of themselves!”

The ground began to shake. Converging on them was a large crab tank flanked by two wardens. Before it was three krell’s armed with cannons, firing on both Max and Meracle.

The cait smith panicked as she leaped, dodging the hail of fire coming towards her. Max stood his ground, holding his arms up against the new threats.

“Get outta here!” He yelled. “I’ll hold them off!”

“Are you nuts!” Melvin yelled before throwing his wand out, erecting a barrier to block a shot from the krell’s.

“Relax,” Max slammed his fist together with a grin. “I’m just getting warmed up!”

Rodger stood by Max’s side, grinning while wiping the bottom of his nose. “I got ya back!”

Just then, the rear engines of the cruiser detonated. Sheats of metal flew free with the ravengers above flying off from the residual blast. A large chunk of metal ditched and fell down towards Meracle who expertly dodged it.

“Nyew, best’ve luck!” The cait sith waved before rushing back to the phantom along with Melvin and Sasha.

Rodger twirled his hammer before slamming it to the ground. A large golem formed behind him and lunged towards the krell. The creatures halted before opening fire. The weapons they held made short work of the golem, blasting it into piece. As the creature fell apart, Max leaped through the rubble, landing both his feet on the helmet of one of the krell, the impact shattering it. The krell was sent flying backward past its two companions towards the crab tank.

The remaining two hissed before honing their weapons on the salamander. Through the debris, Rodger launched himself with a pillar, coalescing rock around his hammer before smashing it down into one of the krell. Max meanwhile dodged a blast from the remaining krell, performing a handstand before letting out a fire roar. The concentrated flames sent the creature flying backward, destroying both its weapon and severely damaging its armor. The final krell attempted to recover from Rodger’s attack, aiming its weapon at him with only two of its arms. Rodger sent a rock fist slamming into it from the front, damaging the weapon.

“Take this!”

Slamming his hammer to the ground, a rock stake shot up, scowering several parts of the krell’s armor. Staggered the krell fell to one knee. With it at his level, Rodger swung his hammer at the krell’s head knocking it out.

Behind them the phantom began to take flight, hovering a few feet above the ground before pulling up.

Max could see Melvin, Meracle and Sasha at the door and gave them a thumbs up.

“Looks like we’re fighting out way out,” He said cracking his knuckles.

“Just the way I like it,” Rodger rested his hammer on his shoulders as he turned to the remaining krell that was getting back to its feet. With half its helmet cracked, a small portion of the face underneath was visible, its shimmering blue eyes and gray skin with wires and metal plates connected to it.

The creature looked at the phantom and hissed, pointing at it with its upper left arm. The tank’s turret began to move as a device rotated on the barrel. An arc of energy shot out of the main cannon and hit the phantom. Arcs of white energy weaved around the ship, holding it in place suspended in the air.

*****

The entire phantom shuddered, throwing its four passengers forwards with the force.

“Wh-What was that?! Did they get us?” Melvin called out.

Sasha poked her head out the door and saw the front of the ship being held with a glowing whitebeam, keeping them suspended in the air.

“Somethings got us!” She said. Both Meracle and Melvin looked out and saw what was causing it.

Meanwhile at the cockpit, Otto was wresting with the controls trying to break them free.

“Otto...” Larek nervously gripped the back of the seat as the bunika tried everything he could to free them.

“No good, we’ve been caught in a tractor beam!” He said.

“A tractor beam?” Meracle parroted. “What’s a tractor beam?”

“A high-energy gravity tether that locks a ship in place!” Otto replied.

“I still don’t know what any of that means!”

“Basically, we’re screwed!” Larek said.

****

“Oh no!” Rodger gasped. He and Max stood underneath the phantom while it dangled helplessly in the air.

“Hey! You guys okay!” Max called.

“We’re fine, but not for long!” Melvin shouted back. “You gotta get us outta this! Try breaking whatever’s causing this!”

“Right!” Max and Rodger turned back to the crab tank with the krell standing before it. More ravengers began to huddle around it as the krell drew four blades, hissing as they cackled with electrical currents.

The regs all howled in unison before descending on the two like a pack of wolves. Rodger immediately raised a wall which several crashed into. Max burst flames from the souls of his feet, vaulting over the wall before crashing on two of the regs below. The krell lunged at him, forcing Max to dodge to the right as the blades embedded into Rodger’s wall. With a hiss and a click, the krell freed its weapons, taking a few more swings at Max.

Max dodged two strikes before putting up his arms blocking a downwards strike by the creature. The electric blades struck against his hardened skin, leaving behind two cuts. Unfazed, Max let out a roar, blasting the krell back. It caught itself, skidding across the ground as Max’s flames damaged its armor.

As it rose to oppose Max again, Rodger came, gathering rocks on the tip of his hammer and slamming it into the krell’s left side, breaking both left arms.

As it staggered, Max vaulted up, bringing down a flaming axe kick against its helmet forcing it to the ground.

“Alright!” Rodger cheered. Shots then flew overhead. The crab tank was walking towards them. With its main cannon still connected to the phantom, the machine fired with its front-mounted guns. Rodger raised a rock wall as cover while Max raised his hands before taking a hit in his arms which blew him backward.

“Damn…” Max grumbled as he tried to get back up. He then saw a swarm of skars forming up behind him, each one armed with a large shoulder-mounted cannon aimed directly at the caught phantom. “Shit!” Max tried to get on his feet but was pinned by incoming fire from the crab tank. Now flanked by two wardens that charged towards them, firing their rear-mounted guns adding to the pressure.

Rodger two was busy, bring up walls as the shots peppered him only noticing the skars when they fired. However, the shots detonated in mid-air as it hit an invisible wall.

As the skars began to reload their next rounds, someone rushed them from the left. Before any of them could react, the person delivered a roundhouse kick to its chest, sending it flying into the others.

“Hey!” Rodger pointed.

“Mirage!” Max waved.

The skars scuttled to their feet, aiming their weapons at the new threat. Mirage jumped back, hopping on her feet before performing another high kick, nocking the cannon out of the skars hands before delivering a punch to its chest. The weapon fell down before being caught by Cliff who rushed past them with Dale who cast a spell that blasted a skar in front of them back towards the wardens.

“Sure hope this works,” Cliff fired the cannon, hitting one of the wardens in the leg joint causing it to fall to the ground. With the relent in the suppressing fire, Rodger slammed his hand to the ground, firing out a rock spike that flew and impaled the warden.

“Why is it we always find you in the middle of things blowing up,” Cliff said as he, Dale and Mirage reached Rodger and Max.

“Sasha?” Mirage asked.

“Up there!” Max pointed to the caught phantom where Sasha, Melvin and Meracle could be seen poking their heads out. “And it’s our ride outta here,”

The crab tank crawled forwards as more ravengers flooded in. “Just gotta deal with this bastard first!”

“Of course we do,” Dale sighed readying his wand as Cliff discarded the launcher.

“Par of the course at this point,” Cliff said cracking his knuckles as the ravengers charged.

*****

As soon as Melvin popped his head out of the phantom, something suddenly landed on him, knocking him back into the phantom. As the young boy looked up, he saw Cerberus resting on his chest, letting out happy yelps.

"Cerberus!" Melvin embraced his little friend.

“Mirage is here!” Sasha cheered.

“Myow! So is Cliff and Dale.” Meracle added.

“Sure chose a great time to show up,” Melvin sighed with relief, putting his friend to one side.

“That’s great, but we’re still in deep shit up here!” Larek called out as Otto continued to wrestle with the controls.

Below, the five were already busy fighting off the swarms of ravengers with the crab tank still suppressing them. Despite their dogged resistance, it was clear they would soon get overwhelmed in a matter of minutes unless something was done to alleviate the pressure.

“We have to help them!” Sasha yelled. “We can still jump out of this thing, right?”

“Are you nuts?! It’s the void down there!”

“He’s right.” Melvin said.

“Thank you! Least one of you is-”

“Otto, can you move us towards what’s holding us in place?”

“Uh, yeah. We’re being pulled towards it. I’m trying to keep us from it-”

“No don’t! Get us closer to it!”

“Wh-What?!”

“Trust us!”

“I stand corrected…” Larek banged his head on the back of Otto’s chair. “You’re all completely insane…”

“... We’ll be shot out of the sky at this rate so,” Otto sighed reluctantly. “What choice do we have?”

Slowly, the phantom began to inch forwards towards the crab tank as the bunika tried to keep them suspended in the air as much as possible. Melvin stuck his head out the portal, aiming his wand at the machine.

“Is this gonna work?” Meracle asked.

“One way to find out,” Mist began to form before him, coalescing into two large spears of Ice. Sweat fell from Melvin’s brow, gritting his teeth as he poured as much mana as he could increasing his spell in size.

“Ice needle!”

He fired his spell. One shard slammed into the tanks front section while the other smashed into the turrent. The beam of light dissipated, freeing the phantom as it began to gain altitude once more.

“Okay! Take it out!”

When they were directly above, both Sasha and Meracle leaped out of the phantom. Both landing feet first into the large chunks of ice that protruded out of the tanks hull. Both shards pierced deeper into the hull. Both leaped back and landed on the ground before the tank as it slumped to the ground, ceasing all movements.

“Alright!” Both girls hi-fived each other.

“Sasha!” Mirage rushed up to Sasha and gave her a big hug.

“Hey kiddo,” Cliff approached scruffling her hair. “Good to see you’re okay.”

Sasha grinned back at him.

“Nyow… I’m fine too,” Meracle whined.

Now free, the phantom swung back around before landing close by.

“Hey!” Melvin waved. “Get in!”

Without arguing, everyone funneled into the phantom just as more ravengers began their attack. Everyone was on board and Larek gave Otto a pat on the head. Just as more wardens, stub warframes and another crab tank began to encroach, the phantom was already gaining altitude, taking flight over the sea of flames.

“Whew, finally…” Dale sighed as he collapsed from exhaustion. “Let’s get outta here.”

“Not without, Nel, Bec and Thall,” Rodger said.

“Markus and Yuki went after them,” Cliff explained. “Just gotta keep a- Thall?”

“You’ll know when you see him,” Melvin said poking his head out of the portal. “Well… whatever they did it worked. The fleets up in smoke.”

“Not those ones,” Rodger pointed to the other side of the cavern. While over half the fleet was burning, some still detonating with mini-explosions, the other half was intact, only receiving damage from the damaged vessels.

“We still gotta take out the other side!” Max shouted.

“No! We’re finding the others and getting outta here before they kill us!” Cliff pointed out. “Yo! Bring us around the edge! Markus and Yuki gotta be-”

A large beam fired across the expanse, impacting a spot at the other side of the cliff, resulting in a massive explosion. Not long after that, more ships began to spontaneously detonate, one after the other.

“I think we found them,” Otto called back.