<...Help... is on the way...>
That message was the only light in Ava's darkness and despair. She wasn't in that cold mine tunnel... her physical body was still safe in her drone control room back home. But her mind... her consciousness had been sent across the stars, now residing in the wrecked Hummingbird Mk. IV lying next to S-81's unconscious form.
All she could do was watch the flickering image from the still-functioning camera lens... and listen to his faint, ragged breathing through the audio system... Time stretched into an eternity.
Suddenly... she heard the sound of soft footsteps approaching through the drone's microphone, before a voice, gentle yet commanding, spoke in her private party channel.
At the voice, three figures in high-tech, black-and-gold operational suits appeared in the drone's field of view. They moved with an almost supernatural silence.
The first to step forward was a tall, slender woman. The code on her shoulder read S-24. She immediately moved towards S-81's body.
The second was a powerfully built man, code S-153. He raised a hand slightly, and the objects around them... loose rocks and metal debris about to fall from the ceiling... froze in mid-air, as if suspended by an invisible gravitational field. "Area secure," he said, his voice flat.
And the last, code S-67, stood back, closing his eyes before raising a hand to his temple. "I'm scanning the cave structure," he said. "No other life forms detected within a 500-meter radius... but the structural integrity of this tunnel level is highly unstable."
Ava could only watch the professional, coordinated teamwork through her screen, completely in awe.
S-24 knelt beside S-81. She carefully placed her palm on the severe wound on his chest, and a warm, emerald-green light began to glow from her hand.
"His condition is critical... multiple fractured ribs, internal bleeding... but there's still hope," S-24 reported, her voice calm. She closed her eyes, focusing. Her power didn't just "heal"; it "reconfigured cellular structures." She was directly accelerating the process of cell division and tissue regeneration, causing a wound that should have required ten hours of surgery to mend rapidly before Ava's very eyes.
Before long, S-81 let out a soft cough. He opened his eyes weakly. "Res... rescue... team..." he mumbled.
"Easy now, officer," S-153, the apparent team leader, walked over. "You're safe now. But we need information... What happened here?"
S-81 tried to speak, but his voice was still too weak. Ava quickly interjected through her drone's speaker. "Let me explain!"
She recounted the entire event quickly, before remembering the most crucial detail. "I... I have a complete recording of the incident! My drone... it's still recording!"
S-153 nodded. "Excellent... Send all the data to us through the Sora network."
Ava used a thought to command "Frau" to immediately send the high-definition video file from the drone to the IDs of the three rescue team members.
An image, flickering and filled with static, but terrifyingly clear... appeared in the HUDs of S-24, S-67, and S-153 simultaneously. They saw the appearance of the "Ferrocarne," the desperate battle, the coordination between Ava and S-81, and the final moment where S-81 used his last ounce of strength to thrust upwards...
A moment of silence fell...
"Unbelievable..." S-67 murmured. "A single Rank G... and a civilian... took down a creature that doesn't even exist in the database."
S-153 closed the video window, his expression grim beneath his helmet. "The data is very useful. Thank you for your cooperation, Ms. Ava." He turned to S-24. "What's the patient's status?"
"He's out of critical condition, but he'll still need further treatment from the Aegis medical team," S-24 replied, withdrawing her hand. The green light faded, leaving only a faint scar on S-81's body.
"Good... Med team! You're clear to enter!" S-153 commanded through his commlink.
A medical team in full Aegis Industries protective suits rushed in, placed S-81's body on an energy stretcher, and quickly moved him back to the ship.
Now, only the carcass of the Ferrocarne, Ava's damaged drone, and the three Solendel team members remained in the tunnel.
S-153 spoke into the private channel connected to Ava. "Your mission is considered complete. We will retrieve your drone for you." He then opened a direct channel to the main command center.
"Sora... this is S-153 reporting... We have successfully rescued officer S-81," he reported. "But we have a request... We've discovered the remains of a new species... codename 'Ferrocarne'... and the video data indicates there may be more than one... Our team requests permission to proceed with further exploration of the area, to collect samples from the carcass for analysis, and to assess the threat at a deeper level."
Zen's own voice came back in reply... a voice filled with gravity.
"Understood," S-153 closed the communication.
He, along with S-24 and S-67, turned to look into the darkness deeper in the tunnel... The fight for survival was over... but the journey to find the truth... had only just begun.