NOVEL NEXT Chapter 420: Transformers
Two hours later, they stood on the palace's primary landing platform as their transport ships underwent final preparation. Lucy had requisitioned military vessels for the mission—sleek craft designed for reconnaissance rather than comfort, their hulls painted in the same adaptive camouflage system as their Beast Gear suits.
"Two ships, different approach vectors," Lucas confirmed, reviewing the flight plan on his tablet. "Noah's team takes the direct route, draws initial attention. My team uses the distraction for detailed reconnaissance."
"Teams?" Sophie asked.
"Noah, Kelvin, and Uncle Dom in ship one," Lucas replied. "Diana, Sophie, Lyra, Lucy, and me in ship two. If something goes wrong with the direct approach, the second team needs to complete the mission."
It made tactical sense, but Noah couldn't help feeling like they were splitting up their strength. Kaia was left behind on this one. She'd opted to do some independent diggings of her own.
Still, Lucas was right—if one team got into trouble, the other needed to be capable of independent operation.
"Stay in communication until the electromagnetic interference starts," Lucy added. "After that, we're on our own until the next clear window."
The flight to Sigma-7 was uneventful, giving them time to review their intelligence one final time and test their suit systems. Noah found himself staring out at the stars, thinking about Lucas's dad and kaia's dad held captive somewhere in the system they were approaching, and wondering what they'd find when they arrived.
"Sigma-7 coming into visual range," Kelvin announced from the pilot's seat. "Initial scans showing... well, pretty much what we expected. Lots of nothing with a side of more nothing."
The system looked exactly like their intelligence had suggested—a dim star surrounded by a handful of planets, none of them showing obvious signs of civilization or development. If there was a secret facility down there, it was well hidden.
"Beginning atmospheric entry," Kelvin continued. "So far, so good. No incoming signals, no targeting locks, no—"
That's when the sky exploded.
The attack came from everywhere at once.
Streams of coherent energy erupted from the planet's surface, from hidden positions in the asteroid field, from what had appeared to be empty space. The darkness that had seemed like natural atmospheric conditions suddenly revealed itself as an active camouflage system concealing massive defensive installations.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Lucas's voice crackled through the communication system. "Multiple targeting locks, they're painting us with everything they've got!"
Noah's ship bucked and rolled as Kelvin threw them into a series of violent turns, trying to avoid the streams of weapons fire that filled the space around them. Through the viewports, Noah could see shapes moving in the darkness—not ships, but something that looked almost like mechanical birds, their wings gleaming with reflected weapon energy as they dove toward the human vessels.
"Are those... are those flying robots?" Kelvin asked, his voice tight with concentration as he fought to keep them airborne.
"Flying robot bird things," Noah confirmed, watching as more of the mechanical creatures emerged from concealed positions. "Definitely flying robot bird things."
"Well, this is new," Uncle Dom observed cheerfully, apparently unconcerned by the fact that they were taking heavy fire. "I don't believe I've seen autonomous defensive systems configured for aerial pursuit before."
"Less commentary, more not dying!" Kelvin shouted, pulling them into another sharp turn that left Noah's stomach somewhere behind his spleen.
The mechanical birds—for lack of a better term—were fast and maneuverable, their weapons systems tracking the human ships with disturbing accuracy. Whatever was controlling them had access to advanced targeting algorithms and enough processing power to coordinate attacks from dozens of individual units.
"Ship two, what's your status?" Noah called into his communicator.
"Taking heavy fire, but still airborne," Lucas replied. "These things are trying to herd us toward the surface. I don't think they want us destroyed—they want us captured."
"That's comforting," Sophie's voice added with obvious sarcasm. "Really takes the edge off the whole 'being shot at by robot birds' situation."
A direct hit rocked Noah's ship, sending sparks cascading from several control panels. Kelvin's hands flew over the controls, trying to compensate for damaged systems while maintaining their evasive pattern.
"We're losing power to the main engines," he announced. "I can keep us airborne for maybe another few minutes, but we need to find a landing site."
"Make it fast," Noah replied, checking his Beast Gear suit's systems. "I'd rather choose our crash site than let these things choose it for us."
The planet's surface rushed up to meet them as they descended through layers of toxic atmosphere. What had appeared to be uniform darkness from orbit resolved into a vast landscape of black sand dunes stretching to the horizon. The sun was visible as a dim disk through the atmospheric haze, providing barely enough light to see.
"Brace for impact," Kelvin called out, fighting to keep their descent controlled as weapons fire continued to streak past their hull.
They hit the black sand with enough force to rattle every component in Noah's body, the ship skipping twice before coming to rest in a cloud of dark particles that immediately began settling back to the surface.
"Everyone alive?" Noah called out, checking his suit's status displays.
"Define alive," Uncle Dom replied, but he was already unbuckling himself from his seat. "Though I must say, the local atmosphere is even more toxic than advertised."
Through the damaged viewports, they could see ship two touching down about a kilometer away, also apparently having made a controlled crash landing. The mechanical birds had withdrawn to a respectful distance but remained visible, circling their landing sites like predators waiting for prey to emerge from hiding.
"Well," Kelvin said, activating his suit's external sensors, "at least we made it to the surface in one piece."
"Now we just have to survive whatever's waiting for us out there," Noah replied, studying the sensor readings on his visor display.
The black sand around their ship was moving. Not just shifting in the wind, but moving with purpose. Patterns flowed beneath the surface like something large was traveling just below the dunes.
"Movement detected," his suit's systems announced in a pleasant feminine voice. "Multiple contacts, subsurface, estimated mass classification: Category 3 to Category 4 equivalent."
"Turn on external lights," Noah said quietly. "I want to see what we're dealing with."
The ship's external illumination systems activated, casting stark white beams across the black sand landscape. What they revealed made all three of them freeze in their seats.
Mechanical creatures were emerging from the sand like metal flowers blooming in fast-forward. But these weren't the sleek, organic-looking mechanical birds they'd encountered in the atmosphere. These looked like someone had taken Earth animals—wolves, bears, large cats—and rebuilt them as technological constructs.
Their bodies were clearly artificial, composed of interlocking plates and visible joint mechanisms, but they moved with the fluid grace of living predators. Red optical sensors glowed where eyes should be, and when they opened their mouths, rows of metallic teeth caught the light.
"Okay," Kelvin said slowly, staring at the growing pack of mechanical beasts surrounding their ship. "I have to ask the question that's on everyone's mind."
He paused dramatically, then continued with forced cheerfulness:
"Autobots, really?"
The first mechanical wolf struck their ship's hull with the sound of a sledgehammer hitting a bell. Metal screamed against metal as razor-sharp claws raked across the outer plating, leaving deep gouges in what should have been impenetrable armor.
"They're tearing through the hull!" Kelvin shouted, watching his control panels light up with damage warnings. Sparks erupted from overhead conduits as more creatures swarmed over their ship, their metallic bodies moving with predatory grace despite their obviously artificial construction.
Through the cracked viewport, Noah watched a pack of mechanical bears—each one the size of a small vehicle—systematically dismantling ship two. Their jaws unhinging to reveal industrial cutting tools instead of teeth, slicing through hull plating like it was paper.
"Beast Gear systems online," Noah announced, feeling the suit's strength enhancement kick in as he stood. "Everyone out, now!"
The ship's exit ramp lowered with a hydraulic hiss, revealing the toxic atmosphere of Sigma-7. Immediately, three mechanical cats pounced through the opening, their optical sensors blazing red in the dim light. The lead creature landed on Uncle Dom, its weight driving him to his knees despite the suit's strength amplification.
Dom rolled sideways, electricity crackling around his hands as he grabbed the beast's neck. Lightning coursed through its metallic frame, causing its limbs to spasm and lock up. But instead of falling dead, the creature's torso simply detached from its damaged legs and sprouted new appendages from hidden compartments in its chest.
"Well, that's inconvenient," Dom said cheerfully, dodging as the reformed creature swiped at his head with freshly deployed claws.
Noah ducked under a mechanical wolf's leap, feeling the displaced air from its passage. His Beast Gear's sensors were going crazy, proximity alarms blaring as more creatures emerged from the black sand around them. Diana rolled behind a piece of wreckage, her suit's adaptive camouflage shifting to match the twisted metal.
"Noah!" Lucas's voice crackled through the comm system from ship two. "Whatever these things are, conventional weapons aren't working!"
[THREAT ASSESSMENT COMPLETE]
[CREATURES IDENTIFIED: ADAPTIVE FORGE STALKERS]
[CATEGORY: 4]
[SPECIAL ABILITIES: RAPID SELF-REPAIR, MODULAR RECONSTRUCTION]
[WARNING: CONVENTIONAL DAMAGE INSUFFICIENT FOR PERMANENT TERMINATION]
"Category 4 Adaptive Forge Stalkers," Noah called out, parrying a swipe from metallic claws with his armored forearm. The impact sent vibrations up his arm despite the suit's protection. "They can rebuild themselves from damaged parts!"
A mechanical bear twice the size of the others charged directly at Sophie, who dove to the side at the last second. The creature's momentum carried it into the wreckage of their ship's landing gear, but it simply absorbed the twisted metal into its own frame, growing larger and more armored in the process.
"These aren't mechs!" Noah shouted, watching as another wolf dissolved into component parts before reforming with a completely different body configuration. "They're beasts! Living machines that adapt and evolve!"
Kelvin transformed his right arm into plasma cannon mode, the Beast Gear's power systems feeding directly into his cybernetic weapons. The cannon fired with a sound like thunder, the superheated plasma bolt punching a hole clean through a mechanical cat's torso. For a moment, the creature staggered—then metallic tendrils sprouted from the wound edges and began pulling the hole closed.
"Oh, come on!" Kelvin complained, firing again. "That should have vaporized you!"
Diana's momentum nullification caught a charging wolf in mid-leap, freezing it in place three feet off the ground. Sophie closed the distance in two quick steps, her twin plasma energy blades igniting in brilliant blue arcs. The superheated weapons sliced through the frozen creature's neck, separating its head from its body.
Both pieces hit the ground and immediately began sprouting new components. The head grew a spider-like mechanical body while the headless torso developed sensory stalks that tracked their movements.
"Now there's two of them!" Sophie backed away, her blades weaving defensive patterns as both reformed creatures circled her.
Lucy's voice cut through the chaos from their position near ship two: "Lightning's only slowing them down! They're adapting to electrical attacks!"
Lyra had shifted into a hybrid bear form, her enhanced strength allowing her to grapple with one of the mechanical beasts claw-to-claw. But even her augmented power wasn't enough—the creature's metallic limbs were stronger than her enhanced muscles, and it was slowly forcing her backward toward the wreckage.
Noah realized conventional tactics weren't going to work. The Beast Gear suits were keeping them alive, but they couldn't win this fight through normal combat. These creatures were designed to adapt and overcome, turning every attack into a learning experience that made them stronger.
It reminded him of the abomination they came across at the lab on Lilivil.
It was time to stop playing defense.
"Void Blink," Noah said clearly, disappearing from between two mechanical wolves and reappearing behind a cluster of creatures near ship two.
His first target was a mechanical bear that was trying to break through Lucas's lightning defenses. Noah's hand glowed with purple energy as he activated Entropy Touch, pressing his palm against the creature's back. The metallic hide began dissolving immediately, molecular bonds breaking down as void energy corrupted the machine's atomic structure.
The bear tried to turn, but there wasn't enough left of its core systems to coordinate movement. It collapsed into a pile of corroding scrap metal that sparked and smoked but showed no signs of self-repair.
"
"Enhanced Null Strike," Noah called out, void energy coating his fist in a purple aura. He drove his enhanced punch straight through a mechanical wolf's chest, the void energy erasing matter on contact. Where his fist passed, there was nothing—not a hole, but a perfect absence where the creature's torso had simply ceased to exist. No sparks, no electrical discharge—just empty space where solid matter had been moments before.
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 340 XP]
[CURRENT EXPERIENCE: 3,187/35,000]
The mechanical creatures paused their assault, red optical sensors focusing on Noah with what seemed like surprise. Their primitive artificial intelligence was trying to process weapons that didn't just damage—they erased.
"Void Barrage," Noah said, extending his fingers toward a pack of mechanical cats. Purple projectiles erupted from his fingertips in rapid succession, each one punching void-holes through the creatures' bodies. Unlike conventional weapons, these holes didn't trigger repair protocols—they simply removed matter from existence.
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 280 XP]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 190 XP]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 250 XP]
The tide of battle shifted immediately. Where conventional weapons had only provided temporary setbacks, Noah's void abilities were creating permanent solutions. The mechanical beasts' adaptive programming had no response to weapons that operated outside normal physics.
"Storm Fall," Noah called out, and void-infused lightning answered his command. The purple-tinged electrical discharge didn't just damage the mechanical creatures—it unraveled their molecular structure at the point of contact, leaving gaps that couldn't be repaired or adapted around.
Lucas and Lucy quickly adapted their own lightning attacks, using Noah's technique as a template. Their electrical abilities, while not void-enhanced, carried enough raw power to overload the creatures' repair systems when applied in concentrated bursts.
Kelvin's plasma cannon found new effectiveness when he focused on completely vaporizing individual components rather than trying to disable entire creatures. Diana and Sophie developed a brutal efficiency—Diana freezing targets in place while Sophie used her plasma blades to completely dismember them, separating vital systems beyond their ability to reconnect.
The pack of mechanical beasts began to thin as the team found their rhythm. Noah moved through their ranks like death incarnate, his void abilities carving permanent destruction through their adaptive defenses. Uncle Dom provided lightning support while Lyra's bear form proved devastating when paired with Noah's entropy touch—her enhanced strength holding creatures in place while Noah's void energy dissolved them from within.
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 420 XP]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 380 XP]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 310 XP]
The battlefield was littered with smoking piles of corroded metal and perfectly circular holes where creatures had stood moments before. The remaining mechanical beasts began retreating, their programming apparently recognizing that continued assault would result in total destruction.
But just as victory seemed certain, the retreat stopped.
Every mechanical creature on the battlefield froze in place, their red optical sensors dimming to standby levels. The sudden silence was more unsettling than the chaos of combat had been.
Then, from deep beneath the black sand, came a roar that made the ground shake.
The sound was unlike anything Noah had ever heard—part mechanical whine, part organic bellow, amplified to a volume that resonated in his bones. The black sand around their feet began shifting, patterns flowing outward from some massive disturbance far below the surface.
Something enormous was moving down there. Something that made the Category 4 Forge Stalkers look like house pets by comparison.
The mechanical beasts that had been retreating now stood at attention, their optical sensors brightening as they received new instructions from whatever was stirring beneath Sigma-7's surface.
"Oh, perfect," Kelvin muttered, his plasma cannon automatically tracking the movement patterns in the sand. "Just when I was starting to think this place might be manageable. Where the hell is Optimus Prime when you need him?"
The roar came again, closer this time, and Noah felt his system beginning to ping with threat warnings that made his blood run cold.