[center][h2][b]Ilshar Ard’sabekh[/b][/h2][/center]

[b]“It’s certainly not,”[/b] the tarrhaidim rumbled in reply, reeling his consciousness back to his body after diving into the lingering Chasm-shadow of the huge carcass, [b]“This is an etheric transmitter all right, but it’s been stabilized by entirely physical forces. May the Nexus spit me out if I know what that means.”[/b]

He could make a guess, of course, or indeed several ones. If the slime was the stabilizing agent without being etherically active itself - and indeed he had felt no traces of Chasm ripples from it even before - it had to be some clever device. Organic technology, perhaps, or more unsettlingly the secretions of some material predator of Chasm-spawn. A very large one, from the size of the dead entity. Sure, the antenna meant that at least some sapient activity was involved, but in a place like Sargasso one thing did not exclude the other.

The quake interrupted these grim thoughts, and Ilshar immediately went to ground, cursing as the comms and sensors in his helmet died. While it was a rather rudimentary suite, it helped compensate for most of his eyes being covered by the voids-sealed membrane, limiting him to what he supposed must be a human-like field of vision. Damned uncomfortable. He extruded more optical clusters around his mouth, but this only helped so much.

When the comms returned after a tense minute without any enemies taking the opportunity to attack, it was a relief he thanked the Spiral for.

[b]“Understood,”[/b] Ilshar voiced back to Rasch, before switching direct communications to the other voidhanger, [b]“Ready to provide cover fire. I doubt we’ll be blessed with a chance to take prisoners.”[/b]

Keeping low behind what ridges of torn metal and drifting debris could afford some cover, he crept on a wide, curving trajectory towards the trailers, keeping his machine gun ready. Out here in the vacuum, he would have to use self-propelled rounds if he was to hit anything, and those had to be used sparingly at the best possible angle. Even if the suspicious movement [i]was[/i] some enemy advance unit taking advantage of the disruption to assume a vantageous position, he was not about to be caught by surprise.