As they neared Xina's atmosphere, the planet's gravity took hold, dragging the ship into its grasp.
Dixie fought the controls, steering against the pull like an old sailor wrestling a raging sea, only this sea was twice the size of Earth. The hull groaned, metal strained, and the engines screamed like banshees being born from the abyss.
Then came the thunder.
Bolts of lightning cracked across the hull, each strike tolling like the bells of hell itself. The crew knew it, this wasn't just a storm. This was Satan's personal garden.
A monstrous howl echoed through the black clouds, a sound that rattled even Dixie's metal frame. His processors whirred, crunching insane equations just to keep the ship airborne.
"WATCH OUT!" Moore shouted.
Dixie yanked the controls, twisting the ship into a brutal ninety-degree roll. Something massive tore past the viewport, a creature the size of a football field, glowing with bioluminescent veins that pulsed in blinding reds and whites.
It flashed at them, as if sending a message:
Watch where you fly, idiots.
Then another shape emerged from the clouds. And another.
"BLOODY HELL, IT'S A POD OF THEM!" Dixie barked.
The Dixie spun the ship like a frantic housefly dodging a swarm, weaving through giants that filled the storming sky. Winds screamed past at over 400 miles per hour, tearing against the hull. The storm roared. The beasts roared. The planet itself seemed to roar.
All of Xina demanded one thing from the intruders:
Submit to its domain
"WARNING. WARNING. ENGINE THRUSTERS OVERHEATING. DISABLING THRUSTERS. INITIATING STABILIZATION MODE."
The ship's AI blared, voice flickering through static.
They were near their target zone now, an unholy landscape where volcanoes bled rivers of lava and lightning raged across skies the color of dying fire. The storm and the flames merged into one vision of torment, a scene torn straight from the Bible's pages of hell. Pools of acid hissed below; shapes moved in them, demonic things, screaming in a chorus of agony.
"Nyxa! Dearly, help me out!" Dixie barked, his voice crackling through the alarms.
Nyxa closed her eyes and raised her hand. A blinding orange aura bloomed around her, pulsing like molten glass. The glow rippled outward, wrapping the ship in a translucent cocoon of light.
Then the aura morphed, the cocoon unfurling into a pair of massive, radiant moth-like wings, wings that shimmered with orange fire and cosmic dust.
Nyxa's nose began to bleed, glowing orange, a bright streak running down to her lips as she gritted her teeth.
Those wings caught the storm. They beat once, and the ship surged forward, riding on divine will and sheer defiance, before smashing down onto a jagged bed of obsidian.
The impact shook the hull. Metal screamed. Then, silence.
Nyxa slumped, her breath ragged, tasting iron and ash on her tongue. "…We made it," she whispered.
Everyone exhaled in relief, except CAT.
The legionnaire unit rose smoothly, posture perfect, unbothered by the chaos. Its synthetic eyes flickered red.
"I will be waiting in the cargo bay," CAT said, voice calm and mechanical. "Be ready for the hunt… my allies."
"Another happy landing, guys." Amaru said start to slouching down the seat.