Cutting off all outgoing communication Terra fell silent like her surroundings, with nothing other than the sound of the wind ripping as she glided towards the imperial continent, cutting through the clouds with a silent prayer that she would not be spotted doing mission insertion. Although it's referred to as the front, the 50 kilometres deep no man's land which surrounds the imperial continent was usually silent, that was mostly due to Dax's strategy of containment. While there currently didn't exist any known weapon capable of piercing the elder's defensive barrier, a sustained bombardment of regular monitors and a mix of close quarters hara.s.sment proved effective in making the elders retreat. Based on that knowledge Dax and his forces sought to contain the elders to the imperial continent by using brunt force and sheer numbers, as each of the approximately 400 elders who had left the lost sanctuary on the moon and invaded the imperial continent faced 4 trillion strong drone force which would attack any time the elders tried to move out into the sea, leading to the current delicate balance where the elders were contained, but nothing was known of the situation inside the imperial continent. 

Terra was currently leading a mission hoping to change that latter statement, a recon mission that would reach deep into the imperial continent to learn about the elders, size valuable intelligence and secure live samples of the flesh eating fungus that the elders carried with them wherever they went. After a few minutes of gliding unpowered Terra finally sighted her first waypoint into the imperial capital, an abandoned coast city which had served as a major evacuation point a few months prior, it hopefully still contained numerous hidden sensors which had been surveying the elders in secret ever since they were left behind, Terra's first objective was to secure that data, after which she would regroup with her squad deeper inland. Approaching her landing zone Terra braced as she pulled her parachute as she was gliding only a few metres off the ground, killing most of her horizontal velocity before landing on her feet, grabbing her parachute which was still floating behind her and transitioning into a full on sprint down the deserted back road she had landed in, making her way into a nearby building before immediately seeking cover.

(Was I spotted?)

Holding her breath in antic.i.p.ation Terra reached for her wrist mounted interface, pressing a few b.u.t.tons she brought up a simple acoustic scanner tuned to a very specific frequency. Collecting her courage Terra started the pa.s.sive scan, praying to whatever G.o.d would listen at that moment, then the interface transitioned to a screen showing an empty frequency band. 

(Thank G.o.d…)

Taking a deep breath Terra started silently repacking her parachute in her Valkyrie armour, then she took out her suppressed rifle before starting to make her way on foot to the church which housed the first sensor she needed to examine. Running down an empty street Terra made little to no sound, something which was very much by design as stealth was the top factor in survival, if she was spotted Terra was to give up any hope of survival and dedicate the rest of her short life to distracting the elder before her demise. Stealth was also the reason why she wasn't flying around, even if it was a much faster way of transport it wouldn't be very quiet and more importantly it would drown out her only lifeline, the acoustic sensor, making her blind to any approaching elder. For some reason, the elders constantly emitted a stream of high frequency noise when they moved around, proving to be the only way outside of visual identification to sight an elder as they emitted no thermal, radiological or even mana signature. Entering a run down church in the centre of the abandoned city, Terra made her way up to the top of the bell tower.

"Now, the sensor package should be around here somewhere… There you are."

Looking around the large central bell Terra quickly noticed the small orange container which had been stuck to the ceiling above the bell.

(Then it's just a matter of retrieving it…)

Looking around for something that would help her to reach the box Terra eventually found an old stepping ladder which had originally been used to help the priest clean the large bell.

(I can do this.)

Placing that stepping ladder next to the bell and being careful not to make too much sound, Terra carefully tested the ladder as she placed a foot on it a few steps up before leaning a bit of her weight on it. In response to the sudden weight placed on it, the old ladder creaked as the Valkyrie armour Terra was wearing wasn't that lightweight, but as the ladder was made st.u.r.dy it proved able to carry Terra and her armour's weight without any notable issues. Making her way up the ladder Terra flinched every time it gave in and creaked under the weight, if it wasn't for the fact that she was under a time limit she would have definitely looked all over town for a more st.u.r.dy ladder, but nevertheless, she made her way up to the sensor. 

(Easy does it…)

Reaching out Terra grasped the sensor which had been stuck to the ceiling above the large bell, then disaster struck.

"Fu!-"

As Terra touched the sensor it immediately released from its mount as it had been improperly installed in a rushed manner right before the evacuation of the continent. Cutting herself short as she instantly realized that swearing wasn't going to help her, Terra reached out to grab the falling sensor, a rash action which only made the old step ladder she was standing on collapse as she bashed her head into the bell. 

(f.u.c.k!)

Terra had just created a noise so loud it could be heard for miles around her, something which immediately brought her chance of survival into the single digits as her acoustic scanner peaked, indicating the rapid approach of an elder. With no time to think, Terra acted on instinct as she took the fallen sensor and scrambled to the only hiding spot that was within range and activated the cloaking function of her Valkyrie suit. 

Seconds later Terra's pa.s.sive acoustic sensor spiked as the floorboards of the church tower softly creaked, a sound which made Terra squirm as she grasped the self destruct trigger on her suit. At this point, seconds felt like hours for Terra as she had braced herself inside the bell while sweat poured down her face, a result of the tension as much as the now closed cooling vents on her armour.

The elder who had just landed inside the bell tower slowly spread out its tentacles while it looked for the source of the sound it had just detected, its numerous cybernetic eyes poorly implanted into its decaying flesh scanned everything around it as it spread flesh eating mushroom spores throughout the air.

(Come on, leave already!)

With one hand firmly grasped around her dead man's switch, Terra's eyes were firmly locked on her sensor which was silently screaming at the proximity to an elder, if she was spotted now her only choice would be suicide. With her mind running in overdrive Terra counted the seconds, then the minutes which pa.s.sed as the elder moved around the church tower, tossing away the broken step ladder before it finally started paying attention to the bell.

First, the elder hit the bell with a surprising amount of force, almost knocking Terra out of it in the process, then walking around it and hitting it once again. 

(Are you f.u.c.king with me!?)

Barely able to keep her calm, Terra gripped her dead man's switch so tightly that the device armed.

(You are f.u.c.king with me huh!? b.i.t.c.h, I will end you!)

Then a single pop broke the eerie silence, followed by a series of other faint sounds.

"AAAAAAAAAARG! AWDSAHTAEDFLOWERQZZZ6 11 C-001 WIYAGEW!"

Screaming incoherently the elder set off, disappearing from the abandoned city in only a split second, leaving a fl.u.s.tered Terra behind.

"What the f.u.c.k was that?"

Disarming her dead man's switch, Terra triple checked her sensor to confirm that the elder had disappeared before emerging from her hiding spot and immediately retreating to a secondary hiding location.

"... s.h.i.+t."

With the adrenaline leaving her body Terra realized that the shooting which had dragged the elder away from her was one of her comrades which had been spotted. With no way of defeating the elders, they most likely started shooting to distract it for longer before self destructing. 

"... Urg!-"

Collapsing to her knees, Terra's helmet retracted as she puked up the small amount of food she had managed to eat before the mission as tears suddenly started pouring out without signs of stopping while the strength left her body. Having come so close to death only to be inadvertently saved by a comrade committing suicide really sucked, but after fighting with the discomfort for a few more moments Terra managed to rebuild her failing psyche, getting back on her feet she wiped some puke off her lips before fetching some water to rinse her mouth.

"... It seems I still have a long way to go."

Disgusted at her own immaturity Terra hardened her determination before she continued with her mission, collecting and extracting the data from the other hidden sensors before quickly making her way out of the port city, moving further inland with a renewed determination.