Chapter 41

Haledon stared at the lifeless Mechanites scattered across the floor like a windswept pile of obsidian leaves. Around him, the Hypogeal Nexus was silent against the crackle of energy that eventually began to quiet in its own time.

"Is it...dead?" Haledon whispered as though his words could wake it.

"It is incapacitated, yes." Birchbark groaned as her form crawled from the remaining puddle of nutrient fluid.

"Wonderful job, Asteraceae Guild," Sparrow remarked. "I think we outdid ourselves—"

"Gaz, I need help over here!" Mek-Tek squeaked from beyond the flowered screen.

Haledon felt as Gazeas withdrew her hand from his SOIL and pushed up from him. She rushed out of sight in the direction Spark had flown and released an audible gasp as she parted the flowers.

"Spark." Haledon heard her say as he rushed to push himself up.

"Here you go," Witch-Hazel responded as they emerged from the floor before Haledon. They took hold of his hand and lifted him to his feet. "Nice job back there. You held your own quite well."

"Thanks," He replied, looking over the arbornaut’s freshly grown body. "You really can't die from Mecharrion's weapon, can you?"

"Nope, and they really hate it," Witch-Hazel smirked as they lumbered forward, stretching an arm over their chest. "The downside is that each new body is a bit rigid. Curse of bark bodies, I guess."

Looking back, Witch-Hazel parted the curtain of flowers as Haledon approached, beckoning him through first. As he stepped beyond, he saw Gazeas and Mek-Tek kneeling over a prone Spark.

"Is she..." Haledon gasped, afraid of the response.

"Alive, luckily," Gazeas responded as she reached down and pulled Spark into a sitting position. "A hair deeper, and she would have been composting."

Spark's blood-soaked visage looked to the ground as she felt at her face. She traced her fingers over her eye and along the length of two thick gashes that had been hastily scabbed over. Rubbing at a lower scab that reached from her opposite ear along her jaw, she smirked wildly. Looking up at the group, Spark began to laugh with uncontrollable giggles.

"That was so much fun!" The Druid shouted out. Her joyful laughs filled the room as she examined her hands. "Where are my daggers?"

"Yeah, she's fine," Mek-Tek remarked, jumping up to her shoulder and nuzzling his head against hers. He gently patted her head with both paws, tucking away loose strands of hair. "I'll make you new ones."

Haledon watched as the flower screen separating the Asteraceae Guild from the rest of the Hypogeal Nexus split open. It revealed Sparrow and Birchbark as they walked into view, closing the ring of flowers in their wake.

"I am glad we are all still in one piece," Sparrow directed her words to Gazeas and Spark. "Unfortunately, we're in the eye of the hurricane, and our current calm skies will be quickly ending."

"What do we do next?" Witch-Hazel asked as they slowly grabbed at their limbs, continuing to stretch them out.

"We need ideas." Sparrow clapped her hands, drawing the attention of the entire group. "We have tens-of-thousands of Druids depending on us. What is our plan?"

"Okay, I was thinking," Mek-Tek started, glancing between the Guild. "What if we took the Broadhead and rammed it into the Mecharrion Scout—"

"And how would we do that?" Gazeas cut in.

Haledon felt his mind wander as Mek-Tek continued to explain, diving deeper into the technical jargon. Finding a place to sit next to Spark, he continued to half-listen until fatigue gripped his body. He felt his eyes growing heavy, and no matter how hard he fought, the darkness eventually overtook him. But he wasn't asleep for long before the rooted shoulder of Spark nudged him back to consciousness.

"Hey, sleep after the Mecharrion kills us all," Spark remarked through her scabbed-over lip. "Anything to add?"

Haledon looked along the floor, eying the cactus needles that had failed to impact the Mecharrion. He suddenly became fixated on them, his mind racing with questions before he looked up.

"Sparrow, Witch-Hazel—" He asked quietly. "When I first saw the Megacolides, it looked like it had emerged from a star."

"Correct," Sparrow replied, her focused eyes quickly locking on Haledon. "Megacolides can slip in and out of steep gravitational wells, travelling between points within the Entropic Biome. It is how they travel between physical locations in space and time."

"The Entro—" Haledon shook his head, trying to stay focused. "Can we go there? The Astralaceaes?"

"The Astra was never designed for that form of travel. It would be instantly torn apart by the sheer gravitational waves."

"I could help with that." Birchbark interrupted from the back of the group. With a flourish of her hands, the pollen danced before the Guild and transformed into the Astralaceaes. "With the help of a proper layering of Primevals, I could redirect nutrients from the rest of my seeds directly to the Hypogeal Nexus pod. I can grow a burl of the same density and composition as the Megacolides scale around a single seed thick enough to protect us in transit."

"What about the rest of the Astra?" Haledon asked as he observed the image of the teardrop seed transforming into the likeness of a walnut.

"All other seed pods will wither," Birchbark said, waving away the remaining pods and leaving a single, large nut. "All Astra Druids would need to be migrated into the Hypogeal Pod before transport...But I have reason to believe that the bark will hold."

"And could you continue to survive like that?" Witch-Hazel asked.

"Oh, no," Birchbark responded quickly. "My ecosystem would soon become overwhelmed. We must find a planet to seed as soon as we emerge."

"One last seeding," Haledon said grimly as a knot formed in his stomach. "And the other Astras?"

"They understand that they will not continue the seeding, and I must confess, this is part of why I could not store your Mecharrion data here."

"Oh, right!" Mek-Tek blurted out. "My data, everyone. We have to get that data-tuber back here."

"Birchbark, what do you mean?" Haledon asked over Mek-Tek.

"As you know, the Fleet of Astralaceaes is meant to travel between star systems, seeding planets with thirteen biome-unique seed pods. One produced by each Astralaceae, carrying the genetic data of that crew and biome. But what Astralaceaes Druids did not know is that each ship also maintains the embodied consciousnesses of every Druid that has died following the last seed drop. When a seed touches down, this Druidic repository is sown into future generations' youth to expedite planetary development. As was planned by Primeval Druid Hawk of the first pioneers."

"So, Astra Druids don't die?" Gazeas gasped in awe. "You keep us until adequate resources exist to redistribute consciousnesses?"

"Correct, Gazeas, or until urgency decides it necessary. Following the razing of my sisters, it was decided that each Astralaceaes must carry a copy of each other's ship's genetic information. Within our Nucleus, I house the genetic data of every Astralaceaes Druid remaining in the fleet and the planetary codex of their seeds."

"Well, I guess calling it a season and choosing death isn't an option." Witch-Hazel huffed. "This 'sending the Astra through a gravity well plan' is starting to sound as good as any."

"Yes." Sparrow cut in. "But that being said, you would need a gravitational source larger than anything we have for this seed to puncture the quantum lens. So, unless we want to turn this whole ship around and return three months to the last star passed..."

"The Mecharrion," Mek-Tek spoke up once more. "Their—their Scouts output intense gravitational readings. I would postulate that at the core of every ship is some form of black-hole drive. If we could get the Broadhead close enough, we could fire on it—"

"And what, open a hole?" Witch-Hazel asked. "That Mecharrion armour is too tough. If we're going expose the engine, we'll have to break containment first without destroying the whole ship. That means we'll have to do it from the inside."

"Go inside a Mecharrion vessel?" Haledon coughed, his head swivelling to gauge Sparrow's response.

Sparrow stood with one of her arms wrapped across her waist. The opposite hand was balled into a fist that rested against her lips. She stared loosely over the Guild, lost in her own thoughts. Haledon could see her eyes twitching back and forth as she weighed her options.

"I'm in." Spark volunteered, reaching a hand out to Witch-Hazel eagerly.

"You can't go, Spark," Mek-Tek reminded, "The minute you enter the Broadhead, you'll be cooked."

"And the minute you land on a Mecharrion Scout, you'll get pounced on. What? You think the Mecharrion will let some organics walk on their flight deck?"

"Wait," Haledon said as he allowed his mind to think. "The synthetic polymers within Astra Druids...can they be put into a bramble clone and used to trick the Mecharrion? Like what this Mecharrion was doing with organics."

Haledon pointed back to the concealed obsidian bugs and looked toward the group. Silence filled the room as the Guild eyed the Druid curiously.

"I'm sorry, what?" Sparrow asked, her distant stare suddenly locking onto Haledon moments before the sounds of millions of cicadas filled the space.

"What is that?" Spark asked as she grabbed at her ears.

"Warning." Gazeas and Haledon responded instinctively as they felt their bodies tense with anxiety at the sound.

"The Mecharrion are inbound," Birchbark announced and waved her hands.

The sliver of the room where the group stood began to darken. There, the flowers dimmed to half their brightness, revealing clouds of illuminated pollen that drifted through the open air. The particles danced and took shape, creating the images of five Astralaceaes and six Megacolides.

Haledon watched as Birchbark looked around the room, observing the Druids as they eagerly investigated the image. Her pale bark face revealed a smirk before flicking the fingers of her open hand towards the Guild. The image dispersed as tiny pollen-laden motes impacted each Druid at the core of their SOIL.

"Engage your helmets," Birchbark announced, and Haledon obeyed. As the roots raced over his head, he felt the calm voice of Birchbark whispering in his mind. "This modification to your SOIL will allow you to view beyond the hull as I do."

As the familiar sap window hardened in place, Haledon began to notice distant pinpoints of light flashing into existence. They began to brighten, quickly changing colour, becoming emboldened by chaotic patterns. Then they darkened again, revealing an ocean of stars and the Fleet of Astralaceaes. The image was so clear that Haledon felt like he was floating amongst the fleet again.

"Is this like the Nucleus?" Haledon asked.

"I modified the genetics in your SOIL to allow a minimal integration with the mirage traits," Birchbark replied. "Through it, I have translated void wavelengths and particle dispersal patterns to illuminate rhizomatous filaments within your helmets with a photorealistic duplicate."

"Yeah, that's what I was going to say." Mek-Tek cut in as he inspected the inside of his vapour-clouded orb.

Haledon focused his vision on looking beyond the fleet's image toward Sparrow. He felt his heart skip a beat as he stared at the suddenly armoured figure of the Primeval. In the months Haledon had been studying under Sparrow, he had only ever seen her in the familiar leathers and moss-covered antler crown. But at that moment, she stood tall and inspected the inside of her hawk-headed helmet. The wells of her eyes were covered by dark orbs, and the front of her pointed face was sleek and aerodynamic. He admired the chest of her SOIL, which was covered in thin leaves that resembled feathers, glimmering a silver-white. Beneath them, Haledon could see millions of tiny pale blue flowers that hugged tightly against the skin.

Adjusting himself to see the back of her body, he saw that it had become covered in a dense mat of tangled vines and roots that looked both wildly overgrown and tamed simultaneously. They came to two points at her shoulders, where bramble transformed into a pair of massive wings that were neatly folded away.

The cicada alarm became louder as Haledon focused back on the image Birchbark provided. A point in space behind the fleet became dark, followed by a second and a third. In rapid succession, three Mecharrion Scout vessels emerged through the darkness and immediately began to activate. Swarms of reflective, geometric bees flowed from the Mecharrion hives as they released Broadheads into the void. Haledon watched Megacolides' scales quivering and flexing as they released their own Druidic swarms of dragonflies and starfish into the conflict. Then it arrived.

Haledon sensed it before he saw it. Like an immense, crushing wave of gravity flowing through space before the Mecharrion ship. He felt the entire Astralaceaes shift forward before being tugged gently back toward the approaching vessels again. Then darkness consumed the stars behind the Mecharrion fleet. But unlike the scouts, the absence of light grew, blinking out the void behind the fleet until it finally popped—the darkness appearing to flee from the emerging vessel.

Haledon felt his racing heart drop into his stomach as a half-domed vessel the size of a planet began to appear. The jagged protrusions along its surface revealed it not to be a perfect dome. Instead, the structure twisted and folded under its own design infinitely. Long metal strands drifted behind the enormous body and framed a single, long shaft that it dragged in its wake. Even in the terror of observing something unnatural, Haledon couldn't help but feel that the distant ship resembled a beautiful jellyfish. He stared in silent horror, admiring the geometric bell, oddly shaped tentacles, and long metallic arm that drifted in the wake of the Mecharrion beast.