Eric and Michael arrived at Diarya Village the next day. The village was a ghost town. No villagers had come back after the Mana storm.

Eric sat against the hood of his truck, looking through the front gates of the village. The road they had stopped on pushed through the gates and became dirt roads halfway into the village square. "That must be where we stopped construction." Eric mused as he rubbed his chin.

Michael walked up. "Do we really have time to look at roads?" He groaned, looking into the sky. He fidgeted with his watch. "The Ark is only about ten hours from making contact with Killeen. This village is next."

Eric sighed and hopped off the front of his truck. "I know." He murmured. He didn’t turn to Michael, instead choosing to walk through the front gates of the village.

Michael followed behind.

"Well. This is eerie." Michael muttered, looking into one of the houses. Plates sat abandoned on the kitchen table, with molding food sitting in the various pots and pans.

Eric sighed, dragging Michael away.

"Come on. We have to decide where to set up." He grumbled.

Felicity flew overhead in her Dragon form, and both men looked up. Eric unbuckled his ACH and rubbed the sweat from his brow. "Didn’t we tell her not to do that?" He grumbled.

Michael laughed. "Teenagers never listen."

They ignored Felicity and moved further into the village.

Once they arrived on the far edge of town, Eric looked down from the top of the hill Diarya village was built on.

"I don’t like it." He muttered.

The forests surrounding Diarya ended abruptly near a river that cut its way to the grasslands below.

"It’s a death trap, Eric." Michael murmured. "We’d be sitting ducks. That thing could level this entire area without us being able to shoot back."

Eric sat down on a nearby boulder and looked back at the village. The houses were lined up in a neat grid along a main road. He looked back to the forests.

"We gotta use the forests as cover. From what Riemskin reports indicated, their main weapon takes at least two days to fully recharge. They deduced that it likely takes at least fifteen mages to recharge. The Dwarves confirmed that it takes a team of high mages. We don’t have to fear the main weapon because it likely won’t be available to them for this engagement. We have to be wary of their other weapons."

Eric let out a long, deep sigh.

"Have every tank we have set up in the forest. I want a semicircle around Diarya. Apaches will stay in the rear. The Supercarrier is ready for initial contact, so their sorties will standby."

Michael pulled out a map.

"Are you sure the semi circle idea will work? I think having the tanks set up in offset rows will be better. Have them spaced a few hundred meters from each other. We can have the paladins set up near the back of the forest. Fuck, it sucks we have no ADA. At least the thing moves slow."

Eric looked up at the sky.

"Hey Goddess, if you can, a little help with ADA would be nice?"

There was no sign of an answer, and Eric let out a fake laugh.

"Yeah. I thought so."

Eric looked down at the ground, his eyes were closed as he focused. "We have every available asset we can here." He murmured. "Trysasche and the Dragons will hit it in coordination with the B-2, we will have sorties from the Carrier conduct bombing runs, tanks, paladins, and bradleys will engage from the forest..."

His eyes opened.

He felt it. The ground was rumbling, with the very air seeming to weigh tons. He focused on the mana around him, and small voices seemed to be screaming in agony. The pressure from the mana being pulled in from the air made Eric feel like he was trying to breathe underwater. He shook his head, coming to his senses.

"What were they thinking, building something like that?" He grumbled as he looked off to the North. The Esponia mountains were too far away for him to see, but he could feel the air being pushed from the force of the Ark. He could feel the mana in the air being sucked in as it made its approach. It was if the very atmosphere would be made a weapon.

Michael walked up.

"Eric."

Eric shook his head. "I know bud."

He then pulled out his notebook, reading through some notes he had taken after reading through Mia’s reports.

"Alright, here is what we will do... Staggered columns that are offset. We will have Armor, and Paladins fire at integrated intervals." He pulled out a map, showing it to Michael.

"Five rows of five. Each phase line will have five tanks spaced two hundred yards apart. We will use this hill as Phase Line Alpha, and go all the way to Delta with the tanks. Interspaced with that will be the Bradleys and AT-4 teams."

Eric grabbed Michael’s shoulder.

"Mike. This one has to work. We have to throw everything at that goddamn Ark. Every round of ammunition we can muster from the Vargas 5.56 rounds to the SABOT rounds of the Tanks."

Michael felt Eric trembling. He had only seen Eric break bearing a few time before, but this was the first time the Master Sergeant was actually trembling with fear.

"What’s going on, Eric? Why are you acting like this?"

"Mike... I can hear the air screaming."

Michael’s eyes widened. He backed slowly away from Eric and looked around. Gone were the jokes, gone was the grin and the "fuck you attitude", Michael knew that...

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt it too. "I’m just a normal guy." Mike said as he joined Eric and looking off to the North.

"But that definitely feels wrong." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The sky around Esponia was beginning to turn different shades of purple or green. Light seemed to bend in different directions as the light in the sky made its approach. "The thing hasn’t gotten here yet, but we can see what it does to the atmosphere from this far out." Michael said, dropping to his knees.

"I don’t think the air is screaming, Eric. I think the world is."