They all flinched as the cry rang out again.


    "You know what that is?" Cage asked.


    She shook her head. "I''ve heard it before, but I''ve never seen it."


    "It sounds fucking terrifying," Cullen muttered.


    "It''s native to the Traverse then?" Mercer asked.


    She nodded. What she wasn''t sure of was if they could hear it because the world barrier was thin or because it wasn''t on the other side anymore. And she had no idea what it was, what it looked like, how much damage or destruction it could cause, or how dangerous it was.


    "It sounded quite far away; maybe it won''t even know we''re here," Cage suggested.


    "Given the cages, maybe that''s what they''re doing here," said Cullen. "Drag it into this world and catch it."


    A heavy silence settled over them as they looked down the rows of cages. Were these creatures the intended purpose? Had they released something in their attempts? How did the bodies end up on the other side then?


    They gathered around the largest machine that had been set up in the centre of the encampment. It wasn''t inside the containers, but it did have a makeshift shelter built over it to keep the rain off. Given its position and how the rest of the camp seemed to be set up around it, it must have been important. Thick cables spread out from it to the generators and consoles and other machines whose function she couldn''t begin to guess.


    The closer she got to it, though, the weirder she felt, like walking through water. The pulsing lights on it were hypnotic, and the gentle pulse it let off was so calming; the closer she got, the stronger the pull. She reached out to touch it, a hand closing firmly around her wrist.


    "We don''t know what it does," Mercer warned.


    "Sorry. Why do you think it pulses like that?" She asked softly, her eyes fixed on it.


    "Pulses?"


    She nodded, looking around. The pulses came in time with the appearance of the bodies. The machine was the cause! The machine was affecting the veil somehow.


    "It''s the machine," she said. "I think it''s thinning the divide, or weakening it, or something."


    Cage didn''t wait for an order, pulling the power cables out and disconnecting it from the generators. Once it was off, they all felt it. A slight lifting of the symptoms the others were experiencing, and she could no longer feel the pulses or see the bodies.


    "There has to be some kind of log of what they were doing," Mercer said. "Find it, and maybe we can make sense of this and possibly figure out how to fix whatever happened here."


    Whether just turning off the machine would fix the problem entirely, they didn''t know. It would help if they actually knew its purpose and how it worked.


    They glanced around; it was a large encampment with a fair few places to have to search.


    "No one goes off alone," Mercer warned them.


    Fair enough. Sun headed off with Cage, the two boys with the Commander. Sun and Cage picked their way through the tents, looking for logbooks or journals.


    "What do you think happened?" Cage asked her, ducking inside a tent while she kept her eyes peeled for danger.


    "They fucked around with the barrier, let something through, and it killed everyone? Or maybe the Traverse itself killed them? I don''t know. What actually did the killing is what I''m unclear on."


    He ducked back out empty-handed, and they trudged over to the next tent.


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    "It''s weird," he muttered.


    "What is?"


    "These tents, the equipment here. Not all of this is Revenant gear. And just the fact that it''s the Ninth out here. It should have been the Tenth, or even Twelfth. Hell, even your brother''s Division would make more sense than the Ninth. If the intent had been to find the missing people."


    Her heart skipped a beat at the mention of her brother, and she rubbed her chest uncomfortably to alleviate the sensation.


    "Ninth is Internal Affairs, right?" She asked. Commander Allen''s.


    He nodded, unzipping the next tent. Sun agreed it was an odd choice to send out here.


    "It would make sense if they thought a Revenant was at fault, though, wouldn''t it?" She asked.


    When he came back out, he looked at her, his eyes narrowed. "Maybe. Doesn''t make sense they would send us after, though."


    That was true. There was a lot that wasn''t adding up.


    "What do you think is going on then?" She asked.


    "I don''t know," he replied after a long, thoughtful silence.


    They continued searching tents in silence, him going in, her keeping an eye out. Every now and again she caught a glimpse of the others by the containers. They were doing the same, keeping one out to watch their backs.


    Again they heard the roar, still a great distance from them. But what sent shivers down her spine was the answering cry that followed it.


    "There''s more than one," Cage breathed out, looking out into the dark, dead forest. "How do we fight them, Sun?"


    "I don''t know; I''ve never even seen them," she whispered.


    "Can creatures from the Traverse even die?"


    "I''ve never seen that either."


    "I wonder if Perdition thought you might know more than you do," he grinned down at her.


    Smart arse...


    -


    Towards the end of the day they struck gold. Or at least, Commander Mercer''s group did. They gathered up everything they found, but it was too late to head back to the village. They would have to spend the night at the camp. Turning off the machine had alleviated the worst of their symptoms at least.


    The body from the cage was moved and covered over. They would take him back to Perdition so he could be returned to his family. He had no uniform on, though, and nothing to identify him. Perhaps Commander Allens would recognise him when they got him back to base.


    As night descended, the outside lights and lamps automatically turned on; they quickly turned them off, not wanting them to act as some kind of beacon. They kept the power running to the container they had decided to set up in; it must have been some kind of lounge area. It was the only place with any semblance of comfort, and it had a kitchenette with a few snacks and dry food they could eat. Once again, all things perishable were beyond inedible. Sun was about the only one who could stomach anything right now anyway, so she nibbled quietly away as they pored over documents and through journals.


    Cage was sent out to check on the horses since he could fly; he reported back that they were a little agitated but otherwise fine. And still absolutely refusing to come any closer to the camp. None of them liked the idea of leaving them out there alone and exposed, but they couldn''t force them either.


    Unfortunately, nothing so comprehensive as a mission statement or detailed log had been left behind. There were diagrams of some of the machines, notes over notes as they tried to calibrate them. It appeared they were using them for the first time out here. This whole thing was an experiment in itself. The machine they were putting the most effort into wasn''t the one they had turned off but the one beside it. The pulsing machine was a close second, though.


    There was also a broken phonograph with a few records left behind, though the majority of them had been smashed by something.


    Of all of them, Cullen was the only one with enough technical knowledge to be able to make some semblance of sense out of the diagrams and schematics. And because he was also specialising in casting, he was able to talk with Commander Mercer about the Casts they were using with this tech.


    The pulsing machine was designed to weaken the boundary, and the main machine was built to punch a hole right through it in its weakened state. Idiots...


    But it wasn''t until Cage managed to get the phonograph working again that they realised how badly the people here had messed up.


    They started with the record that had still been on it.


    It didn''t even start out routine. The man talking didn''t identify himself, his division, or his rank. He just initiated the test, which was attempt twenty-six to hold the rift open longer than a minute, which was their previous record.


    There had been some unidentifiable sounds, someone counting, and then once it had gone on longer than a minute, there were cheers and claps. Then that horrible roar, which sounded even more spine tingling hearing it this close. That was followed by the sound of people screaming, crashing, gun gunfire; there were more growls and roars... Eventually the record reached its limit and stopped recording. They weren''t made to hold much more than ten to fifteen minutes.


    The silence that settled over them remained unbroken for a long while as they processed what they''d heard. There had definitely been more than one, more than two.


    They opened a rift to the other side, and they let creatures through. But how many? They hadn''t seen a rift, so it must have closed.


    "Now what?" Seph asked.


    Before anyone could say anything, the container violently shuddered, everyone bracing themselves as furniture toppled and cupboards swung open to spill their contents over the floor.


    Outside they could hear that shudder-inducing roar from the recording, followed by another, then another, and another.


    They were surrounded!