Captain Sildeth crashed through the ground, entering the catacombs below the town. He landed in a large ritual chamber.

Two girls and a man were sitting calmly, the girls casually deflecting any debris from the roof. One of the girls was wearing a backpack.

He raised an eyebrow. Saydaa nodded.

“It’s about time.”

“You’ve been expecting me?”

Roxanne shrugged.

“You haven’t exactly been quiet.”

“Hm, I guess not.”

He tried to read their minds but they seemed to have psionic powers of their own, and blocked him from their thoughts. He shrugged.

Investigating suspicious people wasn’t his job, after all.

“So we doing this?”

Saydaa tilted her head.

“Hmmm…nah. I don’t think we will.”

“You aren’t going to resist?”

Roxanne shook her head.

“Seems painful.”

Arvid nodded.

“It would be fun, to be honest, but we both have schedules to keep, do we not?”

Captain Sildeth narrowed his eyes.

This was all incredibly suspicious. There was a fourth presence in the backpack but they weren’t giving off any significant energy signatures, nor making any moves, so he signaled the projector team and remained on alert, ready to instantly react. Dimensional Projectors were rare and expensive, after all, so he’d get quite the scolding if something happened to one.

The team came in, the three didn’t respond. Neither did the quiet fourth presence.

The team set up the projector, again nothing happened.

They fired the beam. It struck the three and they vanished, taking the fourth presence with them.

Captain Sildeth remained on-guard until the Dimensional Projector left the area. Then he dropped his shoulders and sighed.

Well that was anti-climactic. What a letdown.

He heaved a sigh and started slowly flying to his next destination.

Once he had left the area, the air shimmered and Elise appeared, deactivating her Vophae-tech powered stealth field. Turns out if she simply put her organic components on standby, the size of her psionic signature would drop dramatically. If she then disabled all extraneous functions besides the stealth field, she would appear as no more than another computer to even Captain Sildeth’s perception.

“Status Report: Area secure. Proceed with operation.”

The rest of Aurora Legion and Nemesis arrived through the convenient new entrance in the roof Captain Sildeth had made for them. Voidspeaker began to chant, surrounding the area with a thin barrier of void energy. Elise and alternate Saydaa took up positions in the center of the room.

Alternate Saydaa took a deep breath and then expelled as much of her own power as she could.

“Scanning…locking onto profile…searching for similar signatures within subspace distortions…target locked. Loading Profile: Dimensional Projector.”

Elise had recorded the Dimensional Projector, using her own Vophae tech to record data. As such, she had received a highly accurate readout and could mimic the effect.

Elise’s core charged up and then she fired a beam that seemed to stop midair.

The Dimensional Projector was powered by the pocket dimension it contained, however, so Elise couldn’t just replicate it at will. Said pocket dimensions could only be created by the most powerful of Vophae, the Emperor himself, so they were extraordinarily precious among the Imperium.

But in this case, she didn’t need the full effect; she wasn’t intending to trap a target after all. The boundary of the universe was still weak from the use of the original Dimensional Projector, and so any similar energy would tear at it. And Elise had an identical signature on both sides to ensure she was targeting the right place.

And most of all, it wasn’t her job to open the gate. Just to crack open the door.

Within the pocket dimension, Arvid and Roxanne were relaxing, floating about. Saydaa dropped a backpack she was carrying.

The backpack exploded in a puff of smoke, revealing Kiyosuke, who removed a handful of talisman seals restricting his chakra.

With that, Saydaa started to unleash her power, flooding the area with her magic and pushing against the boundary, attempting to create subspace distortions on the other side.

And then they saw it.

A tiny crack of light.

Kiyosuke drew his blade and swung…

Suddenly at the point where Elise’s beam stopped, a white arc of light appeared, growing into a small vortex. Arvid, Kiyosuke, Roxanne, and the original timeline Saydaa stepped out of it.

They all looked at each other and grinned.

“Looks like it worked.”

“Yeah! Screw you, you dumb alien!”

Alternate Saydaa crossed her arms, grinning smugly.

“Aren’t you glad I’m here? You can thank me now.”

“Ah shut up other me. It was mostly killer robot girl.”

“Gracious Statement: Actually friendly Kiyosuke had significant contribution this time.”

“Heh.”

“What the heck Elise?! Why’d you have to go and say that?! Look at the stupid grin on his face now, he’s never going to shut up about this! And you! Stop looking at me like that, you jerk!”

Arvid just shook his head and chuckled.

“So, friend Elise, what now? Has our plan been completed?”

“Negative. Elaboration: We wait for the Captain to hit his last target. He will find a surprise.”

She paused for a second, whispering in a small voice.

“...and then we can finally save Dad.”

Captain Sildeth made his way to a cold and twisted swamp. He found a small hut in the center standing on chicken legs, surrounded by herb gardens and a fence made of bones. He grinned and walked up to the door.

THWACK!

Only for the door to swing open and a cane to bonk him on the head.

“I’m coming! I’m coming! Give an old woman a last moment with her home, would you?”

Captain Sildeth heaved a sigh. Great. Another willing one. This was getting boring.

Baba Yaga hobbled out of the house and closed the door. She took a deep breath and then stood still.

“Well? What are you waiting for, boy? Get on with it, it’s cold out.”

He checked again for foul play. She had a lot of potions and magical items on her person but nothing that bothered his intuition. So he shrugged and called the projector team.

The Dimensional Projector charged up.

The beam fired, heading towards the woman.

And then she raised her staff horizontally and slammed it into her own stomach.

The potions smashed and mixed together. Cracks formed all across the old woman, spilling out black and green lights.

Captain Sildeth’s eyes widened and he rushed forward, but he was too late.

The beam connected.

The air started to hum and groan as light distorted around the witch. White cracks of light began to ripple through the air, black lightning arcing out from the witch. She whispered to herself amid the din.

“So our bargain is finished. Good luck, girlie. Please, bring back my Ivan.”

And then she started to glow with white light. The witch cackled, her voice growing louder and louder along with the humming in the air. The cracks of light continued to grow, the air distorted and the lightning intensified.

Captain Sildeth's eyes widened

“MOVE!”

Captain Sildeth grabbed the projector team and fled the area.

A massive explosion rocked the area.

Captain Sildeth frowned as he returned and surveyed the damage. A massive white vortex with jagged edges was swirling in the air.

“Looks like she ripped a hole in the dimensional boundary.”

He expanded his psionic presence, searching for any other minds. His frown depended.

“She’s gone, and no one’s coming out of the vortex? So, a suicide spell that ripped apart the walls of the universe? But what’s the point? It should close on its own shortly as long as there’s no further damage, so if no one escapes now they’ll miss their chance. I mean, I guess it stops us from using any more projectors for a while, but she’s the last one we needed to hit, so that doesn’t help them. Unless she didn’t know that?”

Captain Sildeth rubbed his chin, before heaving a sigh.

“Well, not going to figure it out now.”

He turned to his auxiliaries.

“Put out an alert. Space destabilized, Dimensional Projector use should be banned in this system for the time being. All space-affecting technology and techniques should be used sparingly until further notice. Then let High Admiral Siendir know he’s clear to begin the invasion.”

The auxiliaries saluted and got to work. Captain Sildeth heaved another sigh.

“Well that’s that then. A couple decent fights but not as crazy as I thought. A bit sad the best ones weren’t in their right mind and a bunch more just surrendered. I guess I should check on that machine army again, they seemed more capable than our initial predictions suggested. The High Admiral will probably throw a fit if I leave them.”

He started to grin to himself.

“On the other hand, that lazy bum could use a challenge every now and again. Going to lose his edge if I hold his hand every time.”

And so Captain Sildeth flew off, chuckling to himself.

Once he had cleared the area, a plane flew overhead. The team jumped out and landed a short distance from the vortex, carried down by those who could fly. Voidspeaker kept a thin barrier in a wide area around them at all times, to ensure the Vophae didn’t detect their presence.

“Status Update: Operation was a success. Universal barrier has been weakened in this region even more than weakest point in prior timeline. Target should arrive to investigate shortly. Recommendation: Let’s take cover.”

Elise stared at the vortex as the team moved into position.

“Predatory Statement: This time, you aren’t the only one looking to tear down this universe, Mr. Wilson. Whenever you are, this unit will find you, and will kill you.”