Karbana Kinis was far from the raging battlefields near the Dominion's boundaries but there were actions of a more calculatred nature progressing. The fleet of monstrosites carapaced and armoured had spread out in the same manner as predators drawn to the scent of hidden quarry - a few of the smaller vessels descended past the voidbeasts hanging in low orbit and past the networks of drones, not burning bright but like faded embers through the atmosphere that shrouded the labyrinthine world. They did not descend alone as like flaking dust, a rain of shrivelled, wrinkled particle fields fell alongside them, burning through the atmosphere as if the creatures serpentine and arthropod were decrepit architecture, the innumerable fragments dotting the sky beneath them like a cloud of flies. 

The function of the chaff however was not merely hygenic. As they descended into the atmosphere they burnt, releasing waves of electrointerference and static and turning the area beneath them into a dead zone for any scanning devices present in the area. The beetle-like ships however, were not affected by such. They contained a variety of electronic components themselves but those were placed within the grotesque context of engineered chitin and flesh. What would cripple even EMP hardened satellites and current generation atmospheric entry craft did little but at most slightly dim the bioluminescent lights within them. Their living cargo shuddered as they braced themselves for drop, mycelial nerves connected to electronic wiring jolting them into awakeness. It wasn't light and life behind their flat, pupil-less spot-like eye-analogues or their motley, blemished flesh laced through with complex metals and electronics, lab-grown symbiote-parasites, and adaptive-malleable nano-armour plating directly bolted into their bodies.

The flooring beneath them began to open as the dropships, still beneath the cover of the cloud of interference, discharged their living cargo letting them fall towards the targeted drop sites. Spine-like protrusions on mite-like bodies extended as if waiting to catch onto some passing creature or vegetation, multiple feathered wing like protrusions emerging like moth antennae, stabilizing their patterns as they glided towards the rectangular platform seemingly floating above the chasm of jutting, misaligned metal below. These vast puzzle pieces that formed the body of Karbana Kinis were each large enough to be cities, islands amidst the architectural un-logic of whatever civilization once inhabited and deformed this world. 

It wasn't long before their decelerated descent brought them onto the hard surfaces - they, along with others of their lab-born kind descending behind them through the atmosphere. Not human, vrexul, tarrhaidim, or gealtirocht but the un-living creations of this powerful alliance. Arachnid shapes bulbous yet predatory, bodies lined with complex scanning mechanisms and hidden weaponry, skittering about guided by intelligences as programmed machine as bestial instinct. Taking advantage of the remaining static interference, they began to rapidly disperse in groups of four kept aware of one another by psycho-mycelial communication networks immune to electronic interference. A number of them began to scatter downwards, hopping from platform to platform, boosting themselves with anti-gravitational thrusters, and swinging about with specialized retractable silk-like threads launched from frontally mounted caster-ports - they were too graceful to be mere automata but even a passing glance made it clear they were not mere animals. 

Their data gathering was not merely visual. Senses normally reserved for creatures guided them and specialized observational software and organs detected minute traces of living organisms - scent trails from repeated use, areas where small flecks of residue could be detected subtly against small irregularities on the terrain, and holes or crevices where they were clearly stronger from distant scans done by camera-mounts behind translucent biomass-ports. There was life on this planet, not just that which teemed beneath from innumerable aliens crowding into the hollowed out carcass-world but something else. Consistent patterns of scent and other residual markings. 

Something had been sliding over this ground. Many somethings, too many for it to have merely been ambient wildlife. Not all at once but repeated usage, subtle and creeping, skilled in concealment but not before entities created to detect, observe, and if need be, to prey.

As the information was relayed between the multiple squads, as if guided by an unseen leader they all began to move at once almost in synch across the distance they had dispersed. In the same way marbles clustered in formation would scatter when another clattered into them, so they did the same. The difference was the motions were not random reactions to force and energy but deeper strategic positioning across a shared network of information. Some skittered high, others slinked low, all activating scanner-muting shrouds as they began to settle into various positions at varying heights - all allowing multiple observation angles around the crevices and holes. Angles that if need be, could become firing ones. 

A few hours later and more ships would arrive. In stark contrast to the seed-like beetle ships that flown by earlier, these ones had more angular, conventional shapes with bulky bodies and long, powerful wings. High output and heavy calibre weaponry sat next to missile pods and ball-like ECM mounts, the slight shimmer of the air around their bodies as their force-shielding rapidly adapted to the new atmospheric conditions, and a tinge of cold in the air as they boosted over the great chasms and towards multiple landing sites. In their wake, strange organisms like floating spheres of pulsing fungoid mass out of which jutted pointed, smeared electronic antennae and multi-jointed limbs descended. Easily the size of attack helicopters but drifting with an almost jellyfish like languidness, they neared the miscellaneous alien inhabitants below, the long wire-limbs underneath their body waving in the wind currents wafting from the winding chasms beneath.

Out of their bodies, messages in multiple languages, some little more than fragmented code and others transmissions of symbolic images, echoed throughout the hollow realm. The message was the same regardless.

[center][h2][color=ed1c24]"All citizens of Karbana Kinis, please proceed as usual. The Nexus of Integrated Revolutionary Councils is undergoing a survey of this region."[/color][/h2][/center]

[center][h3]++++++++++++++++++++++++[/h3][/center]

South of the NIRC's territory, a different matter was unfolding. Through a vast expanse of shattered metal, sparking plasma fires, and starship carcasses a patrol fleet forged through. The few sparking machines that remained clinging to some semblance of life, some bisected in two and others little more than half hollowed hulks, fired with some vengeful desperation to the fleet of ships. Force-shields flared like glass lit by pinkish red lighting before armoured smashed through their dying carcasses. Lances of plasma and particles sliced apart those that dared to bring heavier weaponry to the fray. The debris field was growing, shields flaring constantly as if they were sending out signals to one another, but they pressed onwards.

They weren't here for a clean-up operations. They knew whose they belonged to. A single individual's fleet was the easiest way to put it.

That was it, close enough, past the interference of the debris field. This was Foundry territory now. The problem was figuring out which foundry. Long range scans had pointed to this region of space supposedly being under control of the originator, the prime machine as they were known to the Ascendency and later, to their successors in the NIRC.

Turrets, vomitor-mounts, heavy duty particle accelerator cannons - a variety of weapons swept the air. There was no telling if this area outside of The Foundry's had fallen years ago to the divisors within their ranks... or if perhaps the Ascendency's remnants were listening in. They were armed for a reason - there was work to be done but would the original Foundry allow for it, even in a weakened state? The cosmos watched their every move. They were upstart inheritors to a throne they had dismantled. They could not afford to metamorphosize into the tyrants they had sworn for lifetimes to defy and never become.

They had backup of course - some of their own and more monstrous companions remained in the debris field. If things truly fell apart, it was better to be prepared than to be remorseful.

From the antennae of one of the enormous earwig like ships, a message was sent towards where they believed the original Foundry's forces were. If they reached that, it was as good as reaching the CORE itself.

[center][h2][color=ed1c24]"Attention - CORE and its sub-entities. The Nexus of Integrated Revolutionary Councils recognizes that you have a problem. We are of the understanding that if unaddressed, it will soon become ours. If we are in agreement of this assessment, we are prepared to work out an agreement and an alliance."[/color][/h2][/center]