But while some of the other ships were doing the same, many were moving. He looked at them wondering if they were obeying orders or trying to flee, and some of the smaller vessels near a ship portal were trying to head out…which was wise…but the others, he realized, were either heavily damaged or too small to survive what was coming and they were running towards other ships, including his own.
“Bring those four Gvan in underneath us and interlock shields with them. There’s no need to waste perimeter energy on the interior. One shield covering all, and use theirs to cover our underside while we divert full power topside…but do not let them raise Essence shielding that will interfere with surface pickups.”
“So ordered.”
Plausious thought fast for anything else he could do. The entire atmosphere in the Temple was going to be gone shortly, along with the vaporized surface blasting back towards them. He could get some more altitude, but that would mean a few people on the periphery of range would be left behind.
And already he could feel glowing points inside the ship where 4 crewmembers each would stand, three in a triangle, plus one above either flying or having negated the artificial gravity in that chamber so they could float there, outlining a clear zone between them with no bulkheads or other physical matter.
And to their massively glowing positions Neofan on the surface were desperately throwing themselves through the Essence realm with no portals to use. They had to aim and hope, creating an Essence bubble themselves and being propelled by another pushing them or by finding a way to fling themselves up to the ships overhead following the little 4 person beacons they saw. If they got close those 4 people, if they had sufficient skill, could latch on and pull the bubble inside where it would be released or broken, landing the person in the ship and having them walk out as another was drawn to them, but traveling for hundreds, if not thousands of miles with no navigation was hazardous.
But without any other hope, slim was better than none.
When the ship’s sensors finally detected the incoming blast wave, the number of tiny lights coming up from the city below swelled greatly, and most were not targeted. Many missed, passing by the ship or even going through it. Some that did not hit a beacon quartet tried to revert inside anyway, with many rematerializing inside solid matter, dying instantly or becoming mangled with parts of their bodies intact and others fused into the technology.
The beacon groups grabbed as many as they could, as did the portals onboard the ship that were not only accepting incoming portal transports as fast as possible, but they were also reaching out to grab people on the surface who did not have the ability to fling themselves up to the ship, but were rather emitting an Essence distress aura asking to be pulled up.
If they were close enough the ship portals could do that, but only the upper buildings in the city below were within range as Plausious saw vast tracks of the city light up asking for rescue as they knew it was too late to get underground.
There were so many that couldn’t be saved, even with the four supply ships helping to grab some of them, and this was just in the Neofan city beneath them. There were so many more scattered across the Temple that had no ship near them at all, and some that had smaller vessels taking who they could, but Plausious knew their shielding probably would not hold.
A disaster was playing out before him…and not just for the Neofan. Their population was miniscule here compared to the Vargemma, all of whom would be lost unless they could get into the catacombs where the Caretakers would not allow them to go.
Plausious made one final alteration, quickly updating the Caretakers to allow people inside while ordering all mechanical units on the surface to descend as far as possible. They would be needed in the aftermath, and maybe a handful of lucky Vargemma might flee there, for they now could see the coming blast wave on sensors as well…though some had to feel it coming before that.
Some of the Gjardans, which were no longer clumped together and had spread out around this side of the Temple, were pairing up to better whether the storm, and he wished one of them was closer so his flagship could do the same, but there was no time for such travel. Two more Gvan and a Gpio were racing to get to his position and burning Essence in their drives to do it while skating around the curve of the Temple and igniting the atmosphere as they went.
One of the Gvan was not going to make it, but there was an ocean they would be passing over soon so Plausious transmitted the best plan he had for them…and immediately saw the ship decelerate over the ocean and dive down into it, trying to get to the bottom and turtle up there, knowing the water would absorb some of the impact before it got to the ship.
The other two vessels got to his Gjardan in time and were incorporated underneath into the common defense matrix as the flagship poured all its remaining Essence into the primary shield…at least as much as it would take, and it was designed to take a lot, as little lights in the Essence realm kept rising up to, through, and around them.
The sight above them looked as if the star in the center had grown to encompass the
