Commander's POV

It was early, probably around six a.m. local time, and I found my self-at least the biological shell I was using-stumbling around like a damned fool. My companion had insisted on an early start; her mission would take possibly the better part of three days to get to our destination-a town somewhere in the west-nestled in the mountains called Horrigan's Rest. While I had initially planned on simply refitting a transport for use by biologics, the idea had been quickly qaushed by my companion when I had suggested it; her reasoning being that it could very well send the local residents into even more of a panic-a sound reason, given the fact Silver-Eyed Slayers, or Claymores as they were more commonly known as, already had an admittedly bad reputation.

Over this though? We'd probably be burned at the stake.

Her other reason was that the walk would do us both some good, and while I would personally would've preferred to have opted for air transport in an attempt to avoid the dangers of overland transit-there was chance even if I landed us a good several miles out from our destination we could end up bringing trouble with us. Though, a small niggling voice in my head told me that she was probably still annoyed with me. I suppose vomiting on her boots didn't help much...

xxxx

"Would you like some?"

"What is it?"

"Rabbit, mixed in with some wild fruit I found."

"...I suppose. Thanks."

"Huh, better than I anticipated."

"Are you alri-"

"Ugh...BLUUUGHHHHPHT!"

"AUGH-GROSS!"

xxxx

In hindsight, given how fresh this body is, I probably should've stuck with a nutri-pack. Or eaten slower

Yeah, definitely eaten slower.

Anyways, I sipped one of said packs as we trekked through an old game trail that Audrey had found-she had seemed to know where it was, making me wonder just how she knew it was there. My own guess was that she may have been out this way before...either that, or the Organization had managed to keep accuate track of the various roads and trails that crisscrossed the continent. I have to admit, if that was the case then they were certainly far more well organized than I had initially thought. Which also meant that if it came to blows more likely than not I would have a difficult time hunting them down, and I may have to resort to sterilization in order to stamp them out properly.

And wouldn't that be a damned inconvenience?

"What's with you?" Audrey's voice had brought me from my musings as I looked up. Though only one side of her face was visible, from what I could see she had a look on her face, one part concern, another part containing something I couldn't quite place. I shook my head; I had been frowning and hadn't relized it. "Nothing," I lied with a shake of my head, "Just a few reports I received."

The one eyebrow I could see raised slightly, and then the hybrid simply shook her head. "Must of been rather unpleasant with that look." Either she had seen through the lie, or was genuinely concerned. No point in lying to her completely.

"Just some of those critters got into their heads to wreck a few extractors." Unfortunately, inspite of being an extremely dangerous entity, while rare, the reports of mostly low-level assets such as low-tier Kbots and vehicles, particularly scout cars being lost did happen, and occasionally I lost metal extractors given that they tended to ne built over deposits in the ground.

Couple that with how uncommon deposits of metal could be depending on where you were in on the continent, even the loss of one extractor could be detrimental. Though for a yoma to get through its armor...there'd have to be a lot of them.

Or they had a couple of rockets-one or two and they'd fold like wet tissue paper. Wait, yoma don't use rockets.

She sighed. "You really should defend them better." Right, tell me something I don't know. Most extractors tended to be built in remote locations, simply because metal deposits didn't have courtesy to be clumped together.

Simply put-it would cost more to build defenses around them-defenses that could be put to better use in stamping out the larger critters and protecting my major base-and I had metal makers if things got desperate.

"So," I said, deciding to change the subject, "Horrigan's Rest. Anything in particular I should know about it?" Her response was a shrug. "It's all small community-it does some trading with a few other villages-mostly meat and furs." A small hunting village then.

"Why?" The sheer amount of suspicion in that word was enough to make me pause. Simple curiosity was what drove that particular line of questioning. I told her as much, and her response was a shake of the head.

As we trekked further onwards, I couldn't help but wonder if following her was a good idea, and if I'd been better off just letting her and her friend die...

To be continued...

A/N: These chapters don't take place in any particular order, though this particular story arc does take place after they met. Next chapter will be out sometime next month. Had to redo it twice...typing on a phone is slow.