[Max, we've got the ship up and running, or at least the shields are up. Give us another few minutes, and we will be finished with all the Mecha. What is the situation outside?] Nico requested.
[The residents seem to have no idea what is going on. They don't know who or what we are, or even what species we're from. The Energy Beings are fighting off attacks by the wildlife, that are enraged at the intrusion into their territory, and the Golden Legion are viewing everything as a possible threat until they understand what happened to their city.
Casualties aren't as high as I had expected. It appears that a large part of their city was fortified against attacks, and the noncombatants were put in the most secure buildings.
That has cut down the number of warriors, but the core of the city appears to be mostly alive.]
Nico returned her focus to swapping the power sources on the Super Heavy Mecha, and Max fine-tuned the input systems on his new custom unit using [Optimize] while he waited for something to happen.
Then, the sky filled with white light again, further in the distance, and well away from the city, but the sensors were filled with the same noise that blinded everything, and when it faded, there were thousands more soldiers, all from an unknown species, and another gravely wounded Greater Energy Being.
But this one had nowhere to flee to. The one which was already here attacked it the moment that it appeared, dispersing it into Lesser Energy Beings without a cohesive will behind them to tell friend from foe.
They were everywhere, scattered all through sensor range, as the first group had been, and also throughout the ruined city of the Golden Legion.
[Halt, or we will fire on you.]
[Do Not Move or you will be fired upon.]
[Advance, and we will treat you as an enemy.]
[By the Great Golden God, state your intentions.]
Every faction in the region all broadcast at nearly the same time, trying to determine the status of everyone else around them, and protect the spot where they happened to appear in this world.
The influx of demands only confused things even more, as none of them except the Golden Legion knew who was here before them, so they were all treating the situation as if they had been abducted by a hostile force.
The two Greater Energy Beings were fighting in the atmosphere, and their thoughts told Max that while the first one belonged here, and had been trying to open a portal, the second one had been somewhere else, and had no intentions of opening a portal at all until the explosion threw them through the layers and wounded them too severely to go back.
But the feminine thought pattern wasn't accepting any sort of apologies for the intrusion, and was intent to make sure that her counterpart would not be able to regenerate.
[What's going on out there? All our systems went offline for a few seconds.] Nico demanded.
[I have no idea. There was another explosion, and then there were more people here from some other layer of space. None of the factions knows what's going on, and the newcomers weren't even trying to go anywhere. They think that they've been abducted.]
[What a fething mess. Is there anything close enough to pose a danger to us?]
[Only a few Lesser Energy Beings, but they're less of a danger than the wildlife. Seriously, don't let those things catch a Corvette Class unit off guard, they might actually win the fight.] Max replied.
[That sounds like this will be one giant mess. How long do you think it's going to be until they realize that they're allies?] Nico replied.
[That's just it, I have no idea. For all I know, they will go feral on each other, and we will be caught in the middle. The new arrivals might have come from a different layer of space, and I don't know what happened to cause the explosion that brought them here because we don't have communication with anyone outside.]
[In that case, there are three minutes on the Mecha, and we will be ready to defend the ship.]
Nico's excitement was growing with every message that they exchanged, but she wasn't getting sloppy with her work. Everything had to be perfect before she sent it outside to fight.
The first battles were beginning in the distance, where a group of lesser energy beings had appeared inside the defensive perimeter of another group, and the hostilities were spreading through the wilderness at a steady pace, as the two groups decided that the others couldn't be trusted.
That was drawing in the aliens, who were spread between the groups, and the wave of hostilities would soon reach the Golden Legion's city, which was currently in a tense standoff with the new arrivals.
[How are the Mecha looking? The fight is getting close, and it's time that we sent out some defensive forces before someone decides that we're a weak target with a safe bunker.] Max asked.
[Thirty Seconds to completion. We can start sending out the Corvette Class units now.]
Max powered up his Mecha and prepared to move.
[I will lead the group outside. Corvette Class units fall in around me and spread to protect the Cutter.] He ordered.
The staff ejected the racks of Corvette Class Mecha whole, to allow them to disembark once they were outside, and Max rushed through the door to put his Titan Class Mecha between the ongoing fighting and their ship.
Max looked down at the nameplate on the Mecha and smiled.
[Warning, this is the Command Mecha Godslayer. Any hostile actions toward my force will be met with your annihilation.] He announced as a group of alien vehicles began to move their way.
He silently thanked Nico for giving his new Mecha a cool name, and waited for the enemy to respond. They had gotten the message, but for the first few seconds, they hadn't detected the Giant Mecha standing in front of the Cutter.
Max knew the instant they did, as the whole line of vehicles came to a screeching halt, and panic spread all through their ranks. That was precisely the response he had been hoping for.
