The containment barrier snapped shut, a perfect, seamless dome of transparent, reinforced Polymer-Glass.
The thousands of shambling zombies, now trapped inside the 200-kilometer prison, continued their aimless crawl, occasionally stumbling into the sand with soft, thuds. Some can't even stand up again, crawling around.
Suddenly, the golden-red light of the portal intensified, contracting slightly, then expanding with a palpable burst of energy. The air around the portal crackled with a dark red volatile energy.
The nature of the figures emerging through the portal abruptly.
Instead of the frail, two-meter zombies, this next wave is composed of colossal, grotesque giants. They were still zombies, but monstrously transformed.
Dozens, then hundreds, of Giant Zombies emerged through the portal. Each was easily five to ten meters tall, their bodies distended, bloated, and covered in layers of hardened, tumor-like black bone and decaying muscle.
Because of the difference in gravity and heavy weight, their feet struck the sand with earth-shaking thuds, creating shallow craters that quickly filled with the surrounding sand.
The sheer mass of the Giants caused a localized tremor that even the deeply buried sensors of UHS1 registered.
Although they didn't stumble in the sand; they advanced with slow, horrifying purpose, their guttural moans now deep, resonant roars.
'A significant escalation in mass and strength. They are of no use except deterrence… my attacks will just consume a little more energy to pierce through their thick skin. The invasion and defense must be based on equal level, at this rate I am thinking the Higher Being wants me to complete this task without any effort. Anyway, the current situation looks to be in my favor.'
Keon analyzed, immediately running a new set of Material Recognition and strength calculations, then he released a mechanical sigh in his heart. 'These giants look burly but they probably can't even break through the polymer barrier I set, let alone dealing with me.'
Just as he was observing the zombie giants movement. A horrific, flowing river of movement followed behind them, pouring out of the portal's base like a black, tidal surge. These were Zombie Rats, thousands upon thousands of them.
Unlike their smaller, living counterparts Keon has seen on Earth, these undead rodents were immense.
Each rat was nearly a meter long, its body a patchwork of wet, rotting fur, exposed muscle, and sharp, needle-like teeth. Their eyes glowed with a faint, malevolent red light. They moved with terrifying speed, a single, unified organism of snapping jaws and scratching claws, their swarm completely covering the surrounding sand around the portal.
'Mass deployment of fast, agile, burrowing creatures. Still useless, it would be a challenge to annihilate them all if I hadn't set up the bubble prison.'
Keon registered the incoming undead rat swarm. 'Giant zombies are large, while rats are small. A coordinated tactical escalation. The candidate on the other side is intelligent, but he is still thinking from an earth inhabitant's perspective. Looks like the world on the other side is the same as Earth.'
Keon allocated more of his core processing power to the Adaptive Synthesis protocols, focusing specifically on the bubble barrier.
The barrier's walls instantly began to expand from three meters width to five meters.
Keon then zoomed his optical focus into the eye of the rat swarm, tracking the center of the movement. He was looking for any hint of a command unit, a creature whose behavior deviated from the chaotic, primal hunger of the rest.
Suddenly his lenses halted their movement, locking something hidden in the swarm.
'Found it, finally something intelligent.'
Nestled unnervingly close to the trembling legs of a 10-meter Giant, perfectly camouflaged by the shifting, dark mass of the Rat Swarm, was a single, non-undead figure.
Keon zoomed it on the display. It was a humanoid woman figure. Dressed in a dark, tactical suit, crawling using her four limbs with a fluid motion, deadly grace that was imitating the walking style of rats surrounding her.
'Impressive skills, if it weren't for my sensors and straight thinking capabilities of mechanical life… I would have labeled her as a rat.'
Keon mused as he observed her figure, her camouflage tactical suit, oxygen mask and a long, dark sheathed sword attached to her back.
Keon's Neural Nexus registered a sudden, sharp spike of awareness. This was not a zombie. This was a player or subordinate.
He instantly isolated her thermal and energy signature.
'She is probably the scout.' Keon calculated, marking her as an important target of supervision. 'She is here to gather data, to analyze my defenses, and locate the primary base of operations.'
'Should I engage now?' Keon started thinking of the next step, two options flickered in his thoughts.
The first option is a focused burst from an orbital Alpha-1 Railgun could atomize her instantly. This would eliminate the high-value asset and send a clear, devastating message.
The second option is to deploy specialized, non-lethal assets to secure her. The intelligence she possessed, and the insights into the enemy's player (Kai) she could provide, were potentially priceless.
Keon hesitated for a microsecond, eliminating her was easy. But doing so will destroy the chance to know the trump card of the enemy. Capturing her, however, offers the potential for interrogation and data extraction. Knowledge is the ultimate defense.
'She is not a threat to me with her current strength. Her value is higher alive and interrogated than dead,'
Keon immediately decided and issued a command through the Neural Nexus network.
[Command: SW Drone Deployment.]
[Non-Lethal Containment Protocol.]
Keon did not use the massive fabrication drones. Instead, he deployed four specialized SW Reconnaissance Drones.
These drones were small, agile, and equipped with non-lethal, high-tensile polymer netting and low-energy stun emitters. They were flying shadows, virtually silent, and designed to move unnoticed in the chaos of a battlefield.
The four drones, moving at Mach 2 speed close to the sand surface to minimize radar detection, converged on the female position within seconds.
The Rat and Zombie Swarm, focused on the scattering, didn't notice the faint rush of air above them.
'Why is the gravity so high on this planet? No wonder those small first grade shamblers are crawling, while second grade giants are sinking in the sand. Even with my current second grade power it is harder to move. I have to return and inform them about this planet's environment.'
Aria thought flickered, sensing the gravity effect on her body and surrounding undead. She felt extremely strenuous while crawling through the sand and maintaining her camouflage.
Just as she was planning to return, her expression tightened, and the instinct honed by the apocalypse screamed a warning.
Suddenly her head snapped up, her black eyes shrinking as she felt the silent shift in the ambient pressure. She saw four dark blurs descending upon her, their approach too coordinated to be natural.
'Ambush! Drones? Where did they come from?'
She thought, her expression changed completely.
Swish!
She jumped instantly, her sword already in her hand releasing black blur, cutting down toward the sand, intending to sever a nearby Giant Zombie's tendon for cover.
Before she could complete the movement, two high-velocity, high-density polymer nets, fired from the lead drones, expanded around her. The sticky, near-invisible filaments wrapped instantly around her torso and limbs, pinning her arms to her sides and her legs together.
She let out a single, sharp gasp of surprise and frustration, her sword clattering uselessly onto the sand. The nets were designed to resist hundreds of tons of stress; her second grade strength was insufficient to break the seal.
The third drone deployed a quick-drying chemical foam, encapsulating her entirely in a dark, rapidly hardening cocoon that completely suppressed her low-grade energy signatures and prevented her from sending any kind of signals.
In less than three seconds, the enemy's most vital forward asset was neutralized and captured.
Aria captured figure was silently lifted from the battlefield by the fourth drone, and accelerated toward one of the temporary bases built a few hundred kilometers away from the invasion portal.
Meanwhile, the Giant Zombies moved on with their slightly bent figures because of higher level gravity. While the Rat Swarm continued to burrow, scattering through the sand in search of something.
'Containment successful,' Keon noted with a cool, clinical thought. 'Now, what kind of interrogation method is suitable for her.'
...