Zack watched the screen displaying a far off battle. The invaders fell back incrementally, giving ground and picking off many an overzealous android who advanced to quickly. But Zack knew they were just kiting the enemy forces in order to lure them into a trap. Then someone pressed a button on a control panel and a wall fell. Another force of invaders hit the androids flank hard.

A call came in from the E-sport gamer turned coordinator and Zack said "Perfect timing as always Ace."

"I need you to proceed to this area for scouting." a map came up and pinged a location. A path appeared before him and so he activated Eidolan Symbiosis: Poiraud. His skin turned green. The hairs on his arms grew thicker and crackled with electricity. After flying for five minutes he reached his destination.

Zack looked at the strange moving wall in front of him "Um, this is a dead end."

Another call came in, this time from a specialist unit who had a purple skin and an elongated head "No it isn't just wait for the entrance to appear...right...about...now." and a hole briefly appeared on the bottom of the wall and went to the top "Based on the curvature of the wall we know it is a sphere but that's all."

Zack briefly looked at the alien creature whose job was to make sense of the puzzle that was the mechanical planet "I'm going to be trapped the second I get in there."

"Then you'd better get out quickly or just wait by this exit until it lines up with a different entrance. Now don't miss the next oppourtunity, time is a valuable resource." as if to emphasize his point he hung up.

With a grunt Zack steeled himself to prepare for whatever shit he was about to get thrown into "Alright." then he launched forward with the aid of Attraction, his timing was also perfect and he entered what looked to be a metal cylinder.

Immediately he slid down the much too smooth and slippery tunnel, until he stopped himself by sticking to the wall of the tunnel. The gravity shifted as the sphere slowly rotated. In a few moments the incline changed from horizontal to a steep angle. Then he noticed that his hand was covered in black char.

"Scorch marks?" He demagnetized himself and slid at nearly free fall speed as flames poured out of the entrance. It wasn't even close, he never even felt the heat. But seeing that much fire coming straight at him unnerved him slightly. In all likelihood, sometime later a flame resistant unit would enter the sphere and take the exit that almost burned Zack.

He magnetized himself to the smooth circular tunnel in order to stop himself, then used Echolocation. Hints from various tones and dips in pitch showed him that the area ahead looked like an entangled mess of tubes and tunnels. Some only as wide as a basketball, but most could fit a train engine. Unfortunately it was inefficient to make his way using only sound and there was no light source, so he turned on the flashlight built into his blue uniform. With the metallic tunnel illuminated, he able to see that the surface was covered with a spiral shaped chisel mark all around it.

"How strange" absentmindedly he wondered whether the marks came from the crafting process or whether they were put there afterwards.

He proceeded through the tunnel system that rotated randomly, or at least had a very lengthy pattern. A map in the cornor of his vision guided him, courtesy of a specialist at the rear of the invasion force. The Poirauds splitting off into other tunnels to scout and reenter the spiritual ether so as to lower risk of triggering any traps or activating any enemies. With each use of Echolocation the map updated and from what the specialist could tell, the sphere maze was roughly two miles in diameter. Zack didn't know what kind of mathematical equation was used to get that piece of information, but he did know that the sphere's size was determined by comparing rates of rotational speed at the entrance and his current location slightly further in.

After several minutes he thought he was getting good at traversing the tunnel system. Sometimes skiing on the slippery smooth surface and occasionally freefalling when the tunnels became completely vertical. But Zack kept his speed low, there were basket ball sized outlets everywhere and he didn't want to trip on any of them. There was also the possibility of there being other nasty surprises within the sphere.

Then he stopped as he heard a noise, some kind of high pitched whiring 'ssss' sound rang out through the metal tunnel.

He sent a message into his eidolan network 'Prepare yourselves' the whiring grew closer and with a use a Echolocation he knew that something was definately approaching. Then he saw something that looked like it was going to be a problem turn the corner.

Fan-like blades rotated in the air at an extremely high RPM, bending as they ran along the circular walls. Behind it was a basket ball sized metal pod driving down the corridor on three spindly wheeled legs.

Zack took one look at the advancing spinning blades and repulsed himself away from it with a force driven by fear 'That thing's going to slice me into a hundred pieces.' he needed to buy time to figure out how to deal with the threat. He fell and flew as fast as he could down the corridors as the android chased him. He thought he lost it once but then it appeared out of a basketball sized hole in front of him. Then his heart sank as he realized that it was white while the last one was gray. Meaning that there were at least two.

He dove down into a 'U' shaped tunnel that he had yet to explore and the android with spinning blades fell back. Glancing behind him, he watched the android turn off into one of the basketball sized outlets, which it fit perfectly. Once he got over the bend, it came out of another outlet right in front of him. Zack summoned the three Poirauds and they aided him in magnetizing him away from the spinning blades, cloudy stars appeared in his vision as the whiplash hit him.

'This is bad. I might be just a little bit faster than them but they have more areas they can traverse. Bloody hell, I alway's did suck horrendously at pac-man.'

He flew into another tunnel, there had to be an exit somewhere and he needed to find it before the androids found him 'Can they track me?' with a ping of Echolocation he saw another exit ahead of him 'There!' then another android came out of a small outlet in front of him. This one having a red band on it's side 'There's at least three, and I'm meeting them one after another over a short period of time. They are boxing me in.'

The android unfolded itself in under a second and began spinning its blades as it moved towards him 'I cannot go back or I will be pincered. I must go forward.' Zacked summoned his three Poirauds and they all used Repulsion to push the android backwards, yet it still advanced.

'New plan' Zack and the three Poirauds pushed the center of the fan-like blades upward to open a space beneath.

"Hroyd! Your turn!" the green mist of spiritual ether formed into the Kulabv warrior and Hroyd charged, then his feet slipped out from under him. A momentary panic flooded the link on both ends as the plan fell apart over a single mistake. But then Hroyd stuck his arm into the fan-like blades. The razor sharp edge cut into his arm and half his torso, but it stopped as it couldn't take the weight.

Seeing the oppourtunity, Zack sent the Poirauds past the inert blades and with their long magnetized bodies they ripped apart the android. All of the Eidolans dispersed into green mist as they went back into the spiritual ether.

Disdain crossed Zack's face "Recklessness. A pointless risk."

"Not really. I criss crossed the iron fur to create a mesh so that it's really hard for bladed weapons to penetrate."

"Like ringmail. I get it, but that's not what I meant. You have a military background, I thought you would know the value of retreating."

"Cowardice."

"We could have just left and then reenacted the plan again when we were uphill. Now you're injured."

"If we did that then we could've run into two of them at once on opposite sides."

"Fine. It's pointless to bicker about it anyway."

The coordinator Luke called "I watched that. You good man?"

Zack's hand trembled slightly "A bit shaken but I'm fine."

"So what do you think we should call that enemy type. How about bladebots?"

Zack knew that Luke was asking the question as diversionary tactic, and laughed in spite of himself "Nah, that's horrible. I was thinking Quadpods."

Then Zack went to the exit and waited for it to open. After five minutes, a whirring sound echoed from the tunnel, growing louder as another android approached. Zack summoned the Poirauds and watched the spinning blades approach again. As the android got closer he began to see that it had a thicker body to allow it's larger blades to rotate at a higher RPM and stronger legs to move faster. They had adapted to Zack's tactics.

Zack and the Poirauds pushed the new android with as much Repulsion force as they could muster, but the android still continued to advance with it's deadly blades spinning.

'I miss my days of playing JRPG's, back when a bunch of adorable monsters lined up for me to slay them. Now I have enemies that actually try to kill me.'

Then the tunnel became completely vertical and the exit opened, revealing a liquid below.

'Get chopped up? Or dive in?' Zack jumped through the hole and about mid flight he realised that for all he knew, the liquid could be acid.

With a splash, he tensed up momentarily expecting the worse but it turned out to only be water "Whew, out of the blender, into the...pot of water." He sighed "What now? I don't suppose this is a garbage shoot and the walls are going to converge on me or something."

Then all of a sudden, the current dragged him down, down, impossibly far down into the great depths. Bubbles trailed above him and he rated his speed by how fast they moved away from him. He was moving way too fast! Two hundred feet in less then ten seconds! The air in his lungs was expanding and so he exhaled, lest the oxygen explode his chest.

Although that seemed to be least painful action to do given his options 'Do I let the water in? Or do I wait to be crushed by the pressure? Choices. HAHAHA! Why do people laugh when they are about to die?! Haha. There's nothing funny about this situation. But I suppose the answer is to live as long as possible.'

Strangely enough the water didn't put much pressure on him at all.

Then he fell through a bubble and sharply inhaled. His lungs stinging as he breathed in for the first time in forty seconds.

'In, out, in, out' it took several seconds before his vision cleared and he could look around himself.

'Another function? But I can't imagine why there would be one to save anything that dropped into the water.'

Octopus tentacles with suckers rose up around the bubble in what was reminiscent of every seaman's nightmare.

Zack said in a somewhat stupified way "Those aren't mechanical." then a feeling told him to turn around and when he did he found himself looking into two massive globular pale blue eyes.