However, with ten seconds remaining on the countdown, the energy flow within the teleportation channel suddenly became violent.
Innumerable chaotic color patches and black lightning bolts exploded within the previously stable faint blue glow. The violent oscillation caused a brief stability alert across the entire squad.
"Encountering unknown spatial-temporal turbulence. Coordinate lock was lost," Pilar suddenly reported loudly.
Maine immediately issued an instruction: "Everyone, stabilize! Iron Guards, deploy stabilization anchors!"
The Iron Guards piloted by Valerie and Jackie instantly fired several physical anchor cables from their backs, digging deeply into the energy flow beneath their feet—if it could still be called "ground"—attempting to secure the squad.
But the oscillation was too fierce, and the streaming light in their vision completely twisted into an unanalyzable chaos.
When the violent shaking and dazzling light finally subsided, Maine's squad found themselves in a completely unfamiliar environment.
The sky was lead-gray, covered by thick smog and low-hanging dark clouds.
The air was filled with the pungent, mixed scent of gunpowder smoke, ozone, and some kind of burnt organic matter.
They stood on a muddy, crater-pocked coastline, with a dark-green, turbulent sea of polluted waves stretching into the distance. Nearby, the wreckage of burning armored vehicles and collapsed concrete fortifications were scattered everywhere. The corpses of humans in khaki military uniforms lay scattered in the mud and water, clearly the result of a brutal battle.
Explosions and dense gunfire echoed faintly in the background.
"Localization failed, not within any known database coordinates," Falco reported quickly. His sensor view was full of unfamiliar environmental parameters.
Pilar had already tossed out his multi-functional environmental sensor sphere. Several small detectors scattered like spiders, beginning to collect data on air composition, radiation levels, background noise, and more.
"Atmospheric composition is breathable. Nitrogen-oxygen ratio is close to standard human habitability. Background radiation is slightly elevated. High-intensity electromagnetic interference detected, source unknown."
"High-speed movement signature detected! Non-human identification code!" Lucy suddenly exclaimed. The sensors of her quad-pedal reconnaissance skitarii, just deployed, had captured the anomaly. Almost simultaneously, Maine and the other team members' optical lenses locked onto the targets.
A group of indescribable creatures surged out from behind the coastal mist and wreckage.
Their movement was extremely bizarre, sliding like liquid metal yet possessing the swiftness of an arthropod.
Their main bodies were dull iron-gray, composed of countless continuously rotating and flailing sharp metallic tentacles. They had no discernible head or sensory organs, only an unstable, faint glow at the center.
"Engaging hostiles!" Maine's synthesized voice was steady. "Open fire, neutralize the threat."
The battle erupted instantly.
Rebecca was the first to react.
The heavy weapon mount on her shoulder rotated smoothly, and the thick barrel of the plasma cannon began to condense a dangerous, scorching white energy.
"Get out of the way, you sacks of scraps!" she yelled excitedly. A plasma stream, half a meter in diameter, roared out, accurately hitting the densest area of the mimics.
The fierce explosion blew a three-meter-wide crater in the muddy ground. The five mimics caught in the radius were instantly vaporized by tens of thousands of degrees of heat. Even their metallic remnants sublimated instantly.
Almost at the same moment, Dorio moved.
The reinforced muscle fibers in her legs contracted and released instantly, launching her like a cannonball.
Ignoring her ranged weapons, her fists, covered in refractory steel gauntlets, struck the nearest mimic with a sound that tore the air.
The moment her fist impacted the target, the miniature flash-combustion energy generator integrated into the gauntlet was triggered. With a muffled bang, the mimic was not only shattered by the sheer force but its splashing remnants were encased in sticky white flames, burning fiercely on the ground with a crackling sound.
"Three on the right side, crossing trajectories," Sasha's calm voice echoed in the squad comms. Her prosthetic eye flashed with pale blue data streams as her hands rapidly worked on a portable tactical terminal.
Just as she called out the location, Kiwi had completed a preliminary analysis of the battlefield's electromagnetic signatures.
"Abnormal data exchange pattern detected. These creatures are utilizing high-frequency quantum communication," she said, simultaneously activating her electronic warfare equipment, attempting to interfere with the communication stream.
The Promethium flamer on Pilar's back roared at the opportune moment. A tongue of scorching white flame accurately swept across the location Sasha had indicated, fully engulfing the three mimics attempting a coordinated attack.
The high temperature caused their metallic casings to quickly glow red and melt, emitting piercing shrieks. Simultaneously, Kiwi's interference seemed effective, causing a momentary lapse in their movements.
Falco did not participate in direct combat. His main task was to protect the technical members and monitor the overall situation.
Using his upgraded perception system, he continuously called out threat positions over the comms: "Two to the rear-left, approaching under cover of wreckage. David, watch your three o'clock."
Maine steadily turned his body, his left arm's integrated flash-combustion rifle moving with his gaze.
A focused heat ray accurately hit the target reported by Falco. The mimic instantly combusted and underwent a small-scale explosion, like grease thrown into a smelting furnace. Splashing burning fluid ignited its nearby companions.
"Signal interference is effective, but its duration is limited," Kiwi reported quickly. "They are switching communication frequencies."
"Continue the interference, prioritize disrupting their coordination," Maine ordered, simultaneously firing a second burst with his flash-combustion rifle.
David and Lucy maintained their tactical positions at the center of the squad.
Lucy focused on controlling her quad-pedal skitarii, using its equipped heavy machine gun to precisely neutralize any stragglers, while the skitarii's multiple sensor arrays recorded combat data.
"Targets show low resistance to conventional kinetic weapons," she reported in real-time, "but movement trajectories are hard to predict."
Taking advantage of a momentary lull created by Rebecca's explosion, David quickly collected a sample of the mimic's shattered remnants, which had been shaken apart by the blast wave, and placed it into his portable analyzer.
"Biological structure does not match any known species," he analyzed the data quickly. "Abnormally high metallic composition."
The Iron Guards piloted by Valerie and Jackie remained in tactical standby.
At a nod from Maine, their shoulder-mounted heavy grenade launchers and autocannons fired several precise, short bursts, completely flattening several distant covers that might have concealed enemies, cutting off potential mimic reinforcement routes.
"Communication interference rate reached seventy percent," Sasha reported, her fingers rapidly moving across the virtual keyboard. "Their coordination efficiency has noticeably declined."
Under the combined suppression of overwhelming firepower and electronic warfare, this first wave of dozens of mimics was completely eliminated in less than a minute, leaving behind only a ground littered with burning, melting debris and still-crackling flammable liquid.
The battle ended. The air was thick with the acrid smell of scorching and molten metal.