“They’re very good,” Cassandra spoke, “just a little unnerving.”

“It’s not like they’re going to turn on you,” I sighed, sitting on top of the Ogre as I conversed over the comms.

Another round of explosions went off, the Determinators informing me of another target that had been neutralized. They were machines, yes, but there was an undeniable flavor of exuberance in which they notified me of a task completed. Eagerly, they marched in three separate formations, each a phalanx, ready to combat any approach from any side.

They were six feet tall each, but to say that they were the same size as a human would be somewhat inaccurate. Bulked up, each Determinator was four and a half feet across when they weren’t in their storage modes. Digitigrade legs with broad three flanged platformed feet kept them stable as the assortment of weapons available to them flared to life. Each weapon was designed to be used in concert with an exo-suit at the minimum. Bolt rifles, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and heavy pikes with assorted equipment pieces rounded out each of their kits.

Their favorite was the bolt rifle, and I had to admit that the 1 caliber rounds they fired in controlled bursts were intimidating.

“That’s fine by me, though,” I heard Patrick chuckle, “the whole point of the things is to take care of and ground fighting that’s too dangerous.”

“Isn’t that just going to put us out of the job?” Cassandra asked.

Another man sarcastically replied, “Oh, looks like that’s it guys. Pack it in. Go back to town and get some lemonade.”

Some amusement rolled around, “But, seriously.” The same man continued, “It’s not likely that they’ll be the end-all-be-all. The only reason why they’re even working is because the Reaper’s helping out. He’s got some tech voodoo thing.”

Daniel snorted, “Tech voodoo thing, really?”

“You make it sound like he’s doing magic,” Fran teased, “he’s just able to talk to machines.”

“Yeah, but, like, how is he doing it?” The man asked, “Magic. Tech voodoo magic.”

People laughed at that, and I cracked a smile. We were nervous during this stretch, and anything to take the edge off was appreciated. The morning had been quickly passing, hours melting away as we were operating at what could be called a fast jog, or slow run. The Determinators were doing good work, and thus far hadn’t received any fatal damage.

The A.I.’s were able to respond faster than humans, but the bulk of that was due to the cloud processing that I was taking over for. Any robot that wasn’t doing anything, or myself currently, helped process data for the rest. In essence, if only one group was in combat, the other two were helping with the backend information.

Idly, I wondered if something similar could be done with the Legion, but I abandoned the idea quickly. It was easy for these A.I.’s to do this, they trusted me and their companions implicitly and without barriers. Sharing mental space, knowing every thought that passed the confines of their minds, none of that was an issue for them.

It was odd even between myself and Wolvy, knowing that I could never lie to it, nor it to me, the thoughts would simply come through. One the one hand, it was a boon for trust and accuracy of information. On the other hand, I could never see a group of humans do this.

Not that it would work the same way, after all. Biological processing didn’t happen the same way computers processed information. These Determinators were a step between, but I was willing to be there were more things different than they were the same.

We called a brief stop again, swapping out scouts and point team again. I would remain on duty, working through the Determinators primarily. I watched as the volunteer teams took up the head of the formation. With the exception of Cassandra’s team, the volunteer teams would be given the opportunity to demonstrate that they could work together with others and accomplish the task at hand. After seeing what the Determinators were capable of, I knew they wouldn’t have too much to do. But, that was the same as with the last several rotations we’d done.

I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t let a few low-threat Spindlies remain inactive as we passed, though. Just enough to keep the Legion shift awake and alert, just in case.

Ahead, I saw through the eyes of the Determinators as a small black mass with eye-stalks was detected a few meters off to the right flank, far enough that it wouldn’t be too dangerous. There was an inherent danger to all of this, but it wasn’t as though I wanted to put anyone in overt risk.

A minute later the convoy line drew near, and to my surprise someone in one of the teams pointed it out well before it was particularly visible. Three snipers timed their shots with a countdown and dispatched it cleanly.

I raised my estimation of that team a few marks, interested in the fact that they’d clearly practiced with aiming and general tactics.

“Reaper, copy?” I heard a voice I didn’t recognize over the comms. “This is scout team 5.”

“I copy, find anything interesting?” I searched for the video feed for scout team 5, submitting authorization codes to access them.

“Yeah, might wanna stop the convoy for this. I estimate we’re almost out of the mountains, but… well this shit is sci-fi right here.” The woman made a weak chuckle, nervous of what she was seeing.

As I looked through her camera, I had to agree, “Convoy halt.” I ordered, sending the mental order to the drivers as well, “We’ve got an interesting roadblock ahead of us.”

The Ogre’s ground to a halt as the Determinators fanned out, clearing out nearby zones in case there was an ambush waiting. I heard bolt shots fired off, and received a damage report from one Determinator returning to dock for repairs. It seemed that a portion of its torso was damaged from a spike, a wound that might have been fatal for a person.

‘Damn glad these guys are here,’ I noted that many of the injuries that they’d sustained would have had a high chance to completely debilitate a person.

The area ahead of us, and for the foreseeable future, was entirely unlike anything I’d ever seen on Earth.

Anything above the waterline, anyways.

“Is that… coral?” Terry asked over the comm’s, “That can’t be right.”

“Looks like it, though. I’m going to take a closer look, watch my back.” The scout grew nearer, the other two with her attentive and ready to fire upon anything that appeared.

She knelt down, the vibrant colors of a coral reef flaring to life in the sunlight. Bright orange, dark red, turquoise, there were so many variations that the reef itself looked like a kaleidoscope, there were some that were black, as well, and that immediately made me wary. This would be an ideal terrain for the Spindlies.

“This isn’t gonna be good for us,” the woman agreed with my assessment, “This is gonna be like walking into a building with tripwires.”

“Fall back for now.” I ordered after contemplating a course of action. The coral was manageably level this far out, but I highly doubted it would continue as such. “Paint a path for us, we’ll test the artillery for this.”

“We’re shooting coral?” I could hear confusion in Patrick’s voice.

“Humor me.” I deadpanned, directing the Determinators further out with every passing seconds.

“Targets painted.” The area on my map where they were pointing flared up, feeding coordinates to our artillery team.

“Test firing,” came the response as one of the artillery mech’s hammered out a shot.

The shell exploded on the range, sending coral shrapnell everywhere, or disintegrating it outright. Another explosion resounded a heartbeat later, the form of a Spindlie splayed across the area.

“Wonderful.” I heard Richard and could feel sarcasm dripping from every word, “This is going to be a lovely walk.”

“Yeah, no, we’re not walking.” I shook my head, “We have plenty of ammo. Artillery team, use the maps we have and hammer out path for us. Use an alternating airburst with high explosive ordnance.”

Immediately I could hear the entire artillery company move, a respectable amount of which was from the Iron Chariot team. Sensing the information, I felt them plot out their firing plan, a detailed schematic that would, hopefully, clear out any waiting landmines for us.

“Everyone else cluster up, the Determinators are going to be on the line with you herein, we won’t have the space to work with an outer ring.” I mentally ticked in frustration. This wasn’t ideal, but at least this proved that there was something else other than the Spindlies. Otherwise, we would have had these formations further out. Unless they took considerable time to create.

Which, if that was the case, then we were about to set them back on construction.

“Heh,” Patrick wound up for a joke, “wait for it.”

The entire mech legion fired at once, high arcing shots. “Stop. Hammer time.”

All at once the shells hit the ground or exploded in mid-air. The ground shook, and even from as far away as we were the sound still roared. A second volley sounded, repeating the firing maneuver, just slightly to the side, and repeated again and again going forward.

Smoke plumed into the air ahead, the mountain curvature not letting me get a good look at it from here.

“Alright, let's start moving.” The convoy rolled forward, the artillery still firing as we went.

The scouts ahead gingerly probed the area, “It’s not like it’s flat, but it’ll be a helluva lot easier to move across now. Damn glad I don’t have regular boots now, though. This shit is sharp.”

“We’ll be coming up soon, hold position and check things out, but don’t range too far, the terrain is too treacherous now.” I spoke, “We’ll keep painting for artillery.”

“Sounds good.” She responded. “Whoa… that’s a helluva view.”

I looked, and blinked with surprise. A minute later, I was seeing it with my own eyes.

“It’s beautiful.” Fran’s voice was full of wonder, and she wasn’t the only one. The sunlight played across a resplendent field of vibrant corals, stretching onwards as far as the eye could see.

It hugged the ground, and whereas on the outskirts it was only the hard, sharp material we saw, the environment radically changed further in. Plants rose from the calcified terrain, a significant amount of them resembling sea weed and bearing thick, ballooned parts. Thick was some kind of gas, the trailing tendrils of the greenery wafted lazily in the air.

They weren’t the only plants, either. There were fronds, emitting pulsing patterns of light from bioluminescent bands. A plant that looked like an elongated rose with the largest petals I’d ever seen did the same, only with trailing, elegantly swirling lines that cascaded bright pink color. Floating bubbles, the source of which were the densely packed surfaces where some kind of moss lay transpired in the air, filling bubbles.

It was gorgeous, and the sight only became that much more ethereal as I took in the city of Damond in the distance.

There were no man-made structures that remained unburied, covered in sometimes transparent coral. It looked like formations of glass, streaked with veins of color, had encased the taller buildings, immortalizing their crumbling, devastated forms for all time. The meteor had certainly brought destruction, and I could feel a deep, yawning anguish as I looked upon the sight.

“We’re home,” I felt the words come from deep within my chest.

Daniel’s voice was loaded with emotion, “Yeah, Matt. We did it.” He let out a shuddering breath, “It’s funny. I expected to see it… gone. A smoking crater.”

“But not this,” I nodded, “I don’t know how to feel right now.”

He grunted, “Me neither.”

“I remember having my first date right here,” someone said over the comms, “It was right here, at the top of the mountain pass. Best damn view of the city. Used to be heavily forested here, too, but… not anymore.”

There were plenty, I’d realized, who might have had people in Damond, who might have once lived here.

Almost two years ago now, the apocalypse had begun for humankind. It was easy to put it in the back of my mind these days, how many people we’d lost, how shattered everything had become. Half, if not more, of the population was gone from initial impact and the following weeks.

Who knew how many of us were left now?

“I don’t want to be the one to interrupt a moment,” the scout reported again, “But I’m seeing a biotic I’ve never seen before. At least, I think it’s a biotic? That or a really big damn crab.”

“I was getting hungry.” Patrick laughed.

“That’s a big crab.” I blinked, seeing the thing that was on the video feed, several dozens of meters away. It was far from the only one, too, dozens of them all across the field, scattered for miles. They were a pale white color, like bleached coral, and seemed to be interested only in punching parts of the coral into small pieces. It’s claws were more like clubs, fulfilling the role of a grinding pestle as it turned the colorful types of coral into dust. Where it then ate it.

There were plenty of them all around, and some of the larger ones had much more colorful, rainbow shells.

“Right, well, guess that’s my cue.” She said, stretching out and then running towards it. She bounced across the tops of built up ridges of coral, touching a location only for a few seconds. Several chute-like formations of spiraling coral stuck out of the ground like towers, and she made use of them, jumping to them, scrambling up them with a speed that matched her when she ran.

She stopped nearby to the crab, two large, compound eyes on stalks swiveling in her direction.

It waved his club fists with all the menace of a toddler with a toy. And, just as minimally threateningly, attempted to scrabble up the side of the coral sideways.

“This is embarrassing.” She commented, “This isn’t a Gen 2, right?”

“I certainly hope it is,” Terry laughed hysterically, “Oh, man, I guess biotics suck at stuff, too!”

She watched as it steadied itself, almost falling backwards as it rose up a particularly sharp angle. The lady snorted, and the crab seemed to almost be aware of the gestures meaning.

In impotent frustration, it punched its claws into the coral, whether for obtaining purchase or otherwise lost on me.

“Crap.” She uttered, falling flat a moment later, both of us seeing the revealed undulated black ball that the crab had freed on accident.

It let out a loud, shrill sound and then…

...attacked the crab.

“Backing to safe distance!” The woman took the opportunity to put some distance between them.

The Spindlie feebly tried to stab it with its limbs, and the crab engaged in a somewhat more damage attempt to punch through its body. Broken spikes littered the ground as they moved rapidly against one another.

“I guess they don’t blow up if you don’t deal damage?” Someone muttered, “Not that I’m gonna test that myself.”

“I’ll have a Determinator test it,” I responded casually, watching the scene with abject confusion. Distantly, I felt a Determinator volunteer before any of its kin could, and shook my head helplessly. They were quite enthusiastic, if nothing else.

“They’re not good bedfellows, I guess,” the woman nonchalantly brought her rifle to bear, sighting it but holding fire at the moment.

‘Who is this anyways?’ I glanced through the files, noting that she wasn’t someone in the Legion. I frowned at that, I thought for certain she would be.

I dug into my thoughts and, unexpectedly found a match with Cassandra’s group.

‘Huh, okay, not bad.’ I appreciated that their group was better than I’d expected.

Finally, the crab did enough damage that the Spindlie inflated, its spikes facing towards the crab, half of them destroyed.

It exploded, and the crab was punctured straight through with a ridiculous amount of spikes. They didn’t proceed all the way through, though, instead only protruding out of the other side of the truck-sized crab. Silvery gore splattered the coral around as the crab twitched a few times and expired.

The scout shook her head, “Alright. I don’t get this shit. Can someone point out what and the actual fuck I’m missing here? Why is that happening?”

“Nothing concrete,” I mulled the thought over, “I’ll send the recording back to HQ. See what RR&D says about it. My guess, though, is that they’re using each other to get better at their respective fields?”

“Evolving?” Jeremy Strauss spoke up, sour expression on his face as he stood next to the Ogre I was on, “I don’t like that at all.”

“Alright, let’s do an artillery sweep, now we know for sure that they’re hiding in the coral. I don’t wanna be the guy who sets one off because their Ogre crushes one.” I said aloud, letting the artillery continue their work. With luck, maybe we could keep this strange environment intact, I’m sure Yaga would love to take a look.

Still, I was becoming more and more nervous about this whole situation. We hadn’t even found the Gen 2 biotics yet, but we’d already found a lot more than we’d expected. In only a few hours, the light would be gone, and I wanted to have a forward camp set up long before then.