931: 931 Changed Landscape

931 Changed Landscape

For the next three days, the rainfall was constant, never relenting from its intense downpour, and the landscape of the entire region was rapidly beginning to change.2

First, the lake in the valley had swollen to become more of an inland sea, stretching for hundreds of kilometres, and then the flow of the flood waters had started to carve deep furrows into the land, directing their flow through the path of least resistance.

None of that was unexpected with a monumental rainfall like this. What was unexpected was what began to happen when the rain relented on the fourth day. Strange alien plants began to grow all over the region, and a deep shuddering began far below the crust of the planet.

"Are we about to experience a continental shift?" Nico wondered out loud. 

The phenomenon was rare, but there were a few planets in Kepler, as well as in Max's memory, which underwent periods of massive continental drift on a somewhat regular basis, measured in the hundreds of thousands of years instead of the billions.

Usually, it was caused by an imbalance in the materials of their mantle, or core, and when it shifted, all the continents would be suddenly rearranged, leaving the whole world looking differently.

If that happened here, there was no telling what would happen to the Anomaly. It seemed tidally locked to the current spot on the planet instead of stationary in space like the other, but that might not remain true if the surface of the planet underwent massive changes.

"Send up the drones and see what we can find out. Even if you have to risk sending them to higher altitudes to get a better view of the planet." Max ordered Nico, who hurried to get their scouting abilities back into operation.

The three of them watched as the drones launched directly into an expanded scout pattern, with four of them spreading out and headed for low orbit. If they could get most of the way there, then they could send back detailed images of the whole planet, which the Hunters hadn't managed to obtain in weeks.

"Is this the same planet as last week?" Khan asked in confusion.

She brought up the topographical map, and Max noticed that not only had all of the river systems changed due to the floods, but almost all the hills had been replaced, and part of the mountain range was gone. If they hadn't been here for the rain, it would be normal to think that they were on an entirely different continent.

"The drones are reaching orbit uncontested. Checking for orbital threats." Nico informed them as she finished the routing for her Drones.

One after another, the four drones fell into low planetary orbit, circling the planet, but there were no ships to be found. There was a lot of space debris up here, but no sign of any active vessels.

"Could it have been a battle of mutual annihilation? If some enemy had won, wouldn't they have launched a surface attack?" Khan wondered.

"Unless they can't land on this surface? Not all species we encountered here are suitable for this sort of environment." Max suggested.

"But then, why attack at all?"

That was the question of the day. Nobody knew who was fighting up here if anyone. Nor did they know where the victors went or if any of them had even survived.

"I have signs of orbital bombardment. Early indicators suggest that was the cause of the earthquakes. The planet did undergo a minor tectonic shift, but not of this continent. The one that was targeted suffered a seven-metre northward shift and was subsumed by the surrounding plates, causing it to drop nearly thirty metres."

Max and Khan nodded. That sort of shift was enough to be felt anywhere on the planet. If they had been even remotely close to the impacted plate, they would have suffered far worse than a few damaged wall sections and toppled storage rooms.

"Is there any sign of what was there before the attack?" Max asked hopefully.

"Nothing. But I can tell you a lot about the Orbital Lance that was used. It was a directed Ion beam, similar to the old Kepler Ion Destroyer technology used on Heavy Mecha. It looks like Ionized Nitrogen, suggesting that they came from a similar environment to us or used this planet's atmosphere as the source material for their weapon.

Damage estimates suggest that the impact speed was far higher, and the energy content was more dense than an upscaled version of the traditional Kepler Ion Destroyer as well.

I would call this a completely different version of the Ion weapon than what we have encountered in the past, but I have just sent the data to the Cutter to analyze against known patterns.

Frankly, we are lucky that the planet didn't shatter under the force of the impact." Nico finished.

Max and Khan turned to each other, and Max voiced what they were both thinking. 

"Have the computer run an analysis on the probability that this storm was the result of atmospheric disturbance due to repeated orbital bombardment. 

As we didn't have sensor data from that continent at the time, it is possible that there was a whole battle going on that we were unaware of, and we didn't even know who was fighting. It could even be two factions of Myceloids."

That got Nico extra excited. The thought that their enemy was a splinter faction meant that there were more of them out there somewhere, and they should all be just as combat-loving as these ones. The thought that they were the native inhabitants of this world and only native to this world was a bit depressing to her. They were far too grand of an opponent to be relegated to obscurity.

"I am on it. But in the meantime, we have a lot of orbital data to compile and send to the other Commanders. We should start with the local situation since we're essentially starting over on a fresh world with the same enemies."

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