Starship Commander Trapped In A Fantasy World 240 Start Of The Operation

With a single message which was broadcast all over the world, the largest military operation the world of magic had ever seen commenced as long range railgun artillery installed all over the world opened fire at the same time as a drone force 2 trillion strong started advancing on the imperial continent. The goal of such a ma.s.sive offensive was nothing more than distraction and containment however, as some 500 strange creatures which they targeted were all surrounded in some sort of impenetrable s.h.i.+eld it wouldn't have any effect, but still, it would be hard for the so called Elder's to strike back when they were getting pelted by such an absurd amount of firepower.

"They have started, we should get going now too."

Looking up at the horizon Lux saw the familiar trail of high velocity armour piercing railgun munition rip through the clouds as the ambient sound of the countless projectiles blended together to form an ever present roar like that of a far off thunderstorm. Being under complete radio silence and operating without any contact to the outside world, the ambient roar of railguns was the only sort of confirmation that Lux could count on. With her were a small force consisting of Lilly, Alice, Mare and the archangel Eos from the 22nd sanctuary who all had been hand picked by Lux herself with the sole purpose of maximizing the chance of mission success.

"Then let's get this over with."

The only reluctant member of the team was the archangel Eos, who had somehow found herself among those as she had viewed as enemies up until recently, it was only by necessity that she had chosen to work together with Dax in the first place.

"... I still wished I could have gone with Dax trough…"

"Yeah, same."

While they both understood why, it was still demotivating to know that Dax had chosen not to include either Alice or Lilly in his team, the reason being that neither of them had any considerable experience with s.p.a.ce travel or had the skill set needed for stealth operations.

"Come on, that's enough chatter, get in the sub."

Even with their small grievances the team still listened to Lux, all of them knew full well that they had been entrusted with an extremely important mission which would directly impact the chance of survival against the Elders who had all but consumed life on the imperial continent at this point. With everyone loaded up into the highly modified AEHWP transport (including Mare who had been sleeping inside it for the entire time) Lux took one last look at the sun before closing up the hatch.

She was fully aware that there was a considerable chance she would never see such light again.

-

"Okay, I'll repeat it for the sake of clarity now we're all together in here. This operation is quite simple, we are to locate and identify the anomaly which is a few kilometres off the imperial continent's coast which was hinted at in some of the doc.u.ments uncovered in the hidden libraries of sanctuaries around the world and later confirmed in archival footage from orbital surveillance of the area. If the anomaly is some sort of lost sanctuary like some records state we are to investigate it and retrieve any artefacts which could prove useful for the fight against the elders… In essence, the job is a simple smash and grab operation, trough with a few notable caveats."

"Like the fact that if this craft fails we're all going to die before realizing it?"

"No, that's pretty normal where I'm from Eos… I'm talking about those elders, if we're spotted, we are going to die with no exception, in fact it might be better to commit suicide if we think we've been spotted."

Answering Eos sarcastic question with a bit of dark humour Lux turned deadly serious as she handed everyone a vial marked with red bands.

"If we're looking like we're going to be captured by those things, set this up against the neck and press the b.u.t.ton on the back."

"... What is in this vial exactly?"

Examining the vial with a grim look on her face Alice still found the need to know exactly what it was Lux just handed them.

"It's a combination of active blue matter and black matter. The blue matter is a restricted bioweapon that denatures biological compounds and the black matter is programmed to kill you before that… Basically this vial will kill you and destroy your body after the fact, as such it is an absolute last resort meant to deny those monsters from learning anything from us."

Having explained the functions of the vial to everyone, a solemn atmosphere spread inside the transport.

"So will it hurt?"

"Not at all Mare."

Giving an immediate answer to the youngest member of the team, Lux's hand naturally found its way on top of Mare's head as she started stroking her hair.

"Then it's fine, it would hate if those creatures learned what Dax was doing from me."

Noticing the incredibly frank and nonchalant att.i.tude from the young beastkin Eos breathed a deep sigh as she cleared her mind, she felt kind of stupid from being affected by something which didn't even slightly bother someone much younger than herself.

Little did she know that Mare used to be a gladiatorial slave, the idea of death didn't really phase her anymore.

"Well, if this child isn't disturbed by something like that then we can't afford to either."

"That's right, besides this place has been entirely lost to history, it is likely that the elders don't know of it either."

Having regained morale after that slight hiccup, the crew of the modified AEHWP transport commenced their mission. Travelling along the bottom of the seafloor, the sheer amount of water above them made the craft impossible to track from the surface as it slowly crept towards the imperial continent, arriving at a continental trench a few kilometres from the sh.o.r.e only a day later.

"It's coming up on the scopes now… Seems like the intel was correct."

"Finally some good news, does that mean we can get out of this ridiculous thing sometime soon?"

"Yeah if there's any air inside the sanctuary, otherwise we'll be stuck here for the entire operation."

At a depth of about 10 kilometres beneath the surface of the great sea a few kilometres from the imperial continent, the raiding party led by Lux finally seemed to have found what they were looking for. Not even light made it this deep into the sea, and if a person even tired diving this deep they would be crushed by the sheer pressure of the water above. In a way, this environment was similar to the void of deep s.p.a.ce Lux normally operated in with the lengths one had to go to just die in a matter of minutes rather than seconds, it was no surprise that something all the way down here had remained hidden for so long without anyone looking for it. Showing up on deep penetrating radar Lux had found what appeared to be some sort of void surrounded by incredibly dense rock up ahead, and as the external lights lit up to reveal a collection of well preserved ruins Eos who was the only angel on the trip spoke out in disbelief.

"The city of Aeth…"

Before the group stood a ma.s.sive underwater city made out of densely packed rock carved out by magic directly into the cliff face of a continental plate, although some of the decorations had been slowly covered by a thick layer of marine snow, Eos recognized the inscriptions which had stood the test of time.

"Wait a second, Eos do you know what this is?"

"I'm not sure, but this place bears a striking resemblance to something I heard about as a child, a legend of sorts that's mostly forgotten by now. 'It was said that long ago, doing the great calamity some angels didn't want to leave the holy world behind which they had come to call home, moved by that conviction the G.o.ds created the city of Aeth, a fortress like no other which allowed the angels to remain on their holy world doing the great calamity.' Or that's the way the legend goes anyway, I had no idea that this place even existed at all."

"Well, we can let the historians have it when we're done, for now, we are to search the place for any Elder technology to salvage. While we don't know the situation inside, there could be trace amounts of that flesh eating fungus, I want every single member of this force to wear a mask and not touch anything before I give permission, understood?"

With determined nods from all around Lux gave a slight smile at the reliable subordinates she had been blessed with.

Searching the immediate area for a point of entry into the city of Aeth, Lux eventually located an air pocket which allowed them to enter the inner city where she made the AEHWP transport surface. Opening the hatch to the 'outside' world Lux was struck with a sense of wonder, although the rest of her team didn't see anything but darkness.

���This sure looks like a legendary lost city alright…"

Stepping out onto the top of the AHEWP Lux popped a few flares as she looked around, making Mare wonder what was going on.

"What do you see?"

"Ah, sorry about that. Switch to LIDAR and you guy will understand."

Following Lux's order Mare switched the sensor mode on her reaper's mask, revealing a world which had been hid by darkness up until that moment. 

"Wow…"

Struck with a deep sense of awe Mare looked around at the lost city of Aeth. Immediately in front of the ma.s.sive lake they had surfaced at stood two gigantic statues which had been carved out of the surrounding cave, behind those 'gatekeepers' was the remains of a ma.s.sive city which were comparable to the central kingdom's capital of Kingstead all packed within and carved out of the ma.s.sive underwater cave she now found herself inside.

"Time is of the essence, after confirming that this landing area is secure we will start exploring the city, from the moment we leave this craft to the moment we return I want everyone to follow my orders without question, is that understood?"

While Eos had no way of knowing, the fairy tale she had been told as a child was incomplete. Having lost most of its meaning over the aeons it had been told, the legend of the lost city of Aeth was a cautionary one, telling of the dangers of opposing the angel's G.o.d, for the angels who stayed behind on the holy world doing the great calamity were forever changed into twisted beings which no longer had any sense of self when they finally emerged from their shelter, leading the old G.o.ds to banish them, then seal away the city deep underground to be forgotten so that the sin which had been committed there might never repeat itself.