***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Magnus***

The world shifted seamlessly from a horrific green hell to a room of grey metal, and I found myself back at the arrival hall with Astra standing next to me.

The guards who were in charge of the area took a collective step backwards upon seeing our state, and one of them immediately called for medical aid. The others made sure their protective masks were in place.

Astra looked down at herself and grimaced. "I want to die! It is so sticky and slimy and stinky. Blergh!"

She wiped ineffectively at the greenish goo which was covering her whole body. It writhed, trying to resist while it slowly ate away at everything that wasn't metal.

I didn't look much better. The only difference was that I also had gotten the stuff into my mouth, and my belly was already roiling with the natural reaction to poisons or infections in an attempt to expunge the foreign substances. My clothes were already lost, and my skin had slowly begun to tingle over the course of the last few minutes.

"What happened?" one of the perplexed guards asked.

"Shit happened!" I replied, feeling ill. "We need decontamination right now. It is some kind of slime mould."

The mould wasn't leaving us completely untouched, but it seemed like our immune systems could handle it at least for a limited exposure time, which was a lot better than the fate that had befallen the scouting group.

Astra cursed and began frying the slime on her with arches of electricity, which helped at least to some degree as it began flaking off as charred clumps.

Things finally got rolling when the prepared intervention team from the ninth strata entered the room and began spraying everything with disinfectant and diluting agents aimed against slimes. They had more than enough experience with such things.

Elder Sienna Tate stuck her head into the room and entered after she deemed it safe. "Get me samples, people! Don't just spray everything. We need to know what we are dealing with if we ever encounter it again."

She threw me a small vial and I caught it. Then I did her the favour of scraping some of the stuff off my armour. There was a lot of the stuff on me, so I quickly sealed the vial once I was done.

"So, did you find them?" Sienna asked hopefully.

"Yes," Astra replied. "Though there wasn't much more than bones left. The whole area is a Mycelium case. But instead of spores, everything is covered with this slime. When we arrived, it looked like a normal forest at first. But as soon as we left the sphere's vicinity, the plants dissolved and started attacking us. No matter where we went, there was no avoiding the stuff. Luckily, we didn't have to search for long. I doubt we could stay there for any length of time. Speed doesn't matter much if the environment itself is against you. It must have gotten the scouts as soon as they arrived."

I shuddered at the memory of one of the trees suddenly falling over for no obvious reason, dissolving into slime mould while it went down. Of course, I dodged, but the splash still got me.

"Ooh, interesting!" Sienna gestured for me to put the vial into a container which could be hermetically sealed. "A metamorphic slime? Did it copy only flora, or was the fauna affected too? Could you tell with your Second Sight once you were aware of the situation, or could it fool your senses completely?"

"Only saw plants turning to slime. Second Sight isn't that good with plants, which means things without a central nerve system," Astra replied. "Wouldn't be surprised if the entire forest was one giant slime-thing."

"I couldn't sense anything after I began blasting the stuff!" I complained. "Look, Sienna, can we just flag the third continent as one giant death zone? The last five teleports were just one bio-warfare scenario after the other. What do we do if the sixth one is something we have no resistance against?"

Sienna hummed and nodded after a moment of hesitation. "It is unfortunate, but the alien must have used that place to get rid of all the stuff with a general plague-theme. We will just treat all five teams that went there as a loss. Even if you haven't found teams two and three. I dislike abandoning people, but sinking any more lives and resources into a lost case would be foolish."

Astra shuddered at the memory of our second and third missions. "Yeah, no way we are going back there! Send some of your precious medics! But don't forget to douse the area with deathnut oil beforehand!"

She popped a small flask with diluted deathnut oil and downed it.

I followed her suit to ensure that nothing could take root inside me. I knew I would regret it as soon as I began throwing up, but being able to survive one of the deadliest known poisons was quite handy for killing off things you didn't want inside your body.

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Sienna's assistants finally began spraying me with disinfectant once they were done with Astra, so I took off my armour so they could get every spot.

"I say we find out how to operate the weather control system, and then we use those large solar collectors to scourge everything till there's nothing left but ash!" Astra griped.

I smiled for the first time since we started our latest mission. "Love, what a wonderful idea. Is my attitude towards Tirnanog's biosphere finally rubbing off on you?"

"No comment!" Astra replied while she dumped her amour into a container with disinfectant. Then she began scrubbing herself with fervour.

I didn't bother and just climbed into the container after I threw in my armour. Thankfully, it was large enough to double as a barrel bathtub.

"You know… that stuff is pretty aggressive," Sienna pointed out with a doubtful tone in her voice. When one of the clan's main healers wasn't sure about the health safety of a chemical, you knew the stuff was good.

"I don't care!" I shot back. "Actually, it might not be so bad if a layer of skin comes off."

Astra saw what I was doing and decided to copy me without comment.

Sienna sighed. "Fine, are you up for another mission in two hours, or do you want to call it quits for today?"

I sighed and submerged myself for a few moments. Then I rinsed my mouth before I came back up for air. "No. Just let's get it over with. The sooner, the better."

Astra nodded. "Give us an hour to clean up and get the lost gear replaced."

It still took us two hours to get ready before we met back up with Sienna. The elder and her people were managing the missions under the highest restrictions possible once we found out that not all of Tirnanog's continents were as habitable as ours.

"At least it explains why Earth's exile system was so strange in regards to who would go where," I commented once we returned to a perfectly cleaned and disinfected teleportation room.

"What do you mean?" Sienna asked.

I made a helpless gesture. "I mean, some people from Africa would get deported in Europe or at the Tibet facility. While others would get shipped to Africa in return. I can only assume that Africa's gateway facility has its exit points on Tirnanog's third continent. If the GOV's scientists were playing with different research fields at the various gateway facilities, it would make sense to shuffle people around. For example, to have those who are expected to be dead on arrival moved to Africa."

"The more I learn about their practices, the less impressed I am," Sienna commented sourly. "Well, the next missions should be a lot better. On the second continent, we only lost two teams, so you should be done with your task soon enough. The other scouting parties returned with varying degrees of success."

"Any idea what we are going into?" Astra asked. "What's the time over there?"

"Twelve hours, so you should arrive early in the morning. Well, the locations we checked so far are either areas with no signs of human habitation. It looks most settlements over there failed permanently," Sienna elaborated. "But some groups found small settlements with similarities to the Old Camp in terms of potential. Going by the initial contacts, it looks like they are scraping by and are still receiving new exiles regularly."

"I am fine with anything as long as it isn't some swarm or otherwise disgusting, creepy crawlies who try to eat us alive as soon as we arrive," I commented and stepped onto the platform while putting on my helmet.

Astra joined me with the control disc in hand and began dialling. "We will be back soon."

A moment later, the world warped and was replaced with… something akin to an arena?

"Well, that's new?" I commented in a questioning tone while several guards streamed into the area through a large door. At least I assumed that they were guards, given that they all had the same gear.

Astra nodded. "They seem well established. America's or Europe's exit point, what do you think?"

I shrugged. "Does it matter?"

"Halt!" One of the guards stepped forward, menacing me with his spear. He didn't look like he had any notable mutations.

I spread out my arms. "We come in peace!" Then I turned to Astra, chuckling. "I always wanted to say that. It is so cringy!"

She looked up at the ceiling, saying nothing.

"From where are you? You aren't normal exiles! How did you get in here? Has Earth changed its policies?" the guard asked and dared to poke my armour with his spear.

"Chill out!" I pushed the spear's tip away. "We are just searching for another group like us. They should have arrived here a few days ago."

"Heard of no other group! You two are the first ones to arrive on my watch." The lead guard returned the tip of his spear towards my chest. "You are coming with us! You are going to be fresh meat for the kingdom's army!"

With this preposterous statement, I felt the familiar feeling of a strong psychic influence weighing down on my mind with a lot more force than I liked.

Astra raised her hand. "Wa-"

I grabbed the man's spear and ripped it out of his hands. Then I whacked his helmet with it, breaking the shaft and giving the metal a nice dent. Stepping forward, I closed the range as he went down. Then I hit him a few more times on the noggin. Just to be sure that he got the message.

"-it." Astra dropped her hand, seeming exasperated. "Why do you always overreact with psychics?"

"I didn't overreact!" I shot back and poked the twitching guard with his broken spear. "See? He is still alive. What would you say if that shit actually worked on us? Would you be so cavalier about it then!?"

Astra turned to the rest of the guards who were tightening up the circle around us. Seeing their comrade being pummelled like some machine gun didn't help their confidence.

"Is there someone in charge whom we can talk to?" my partner asked in the politest tone she could manage.

I raised my stick menacingly. "Tell whoever is in charge of all this that we come in peace. But I will personally cane any mind manipulators who dare so much as to look in our direction."

One of the guards ran out of the arena. Presumably to get reinforcements.

"Tact, Magnus. Have some god damn tact," Astra chided.

"I tried to be nice!" I retorted and pointed my stick at the closest guard. "You! What's your name?"

"L- L- Logan, sir," the guard replied uncertainly.

"What's this kingdom the mind twister was talking about? Are you fast-tracking everyone who arrives here to conscripted service?" I questioned.

The guard looked between me and his companions, clearly uncertain whether he was supposed to give out information willy-nilly.

When nobody offered to take over, he decided that talking would keep the situation less violent at least until someone higher-ranked than him arrived. "This is the arrival point for new exiles from Earth. Of course, we are conscripting everyone according to their misdeeds into military service until they can earn citizenship. The kingdom needs every able body to keep the monsters at bay."

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