The hunt had proven fruitless, and it was past midday by the time they gave up and took a rest. The pair took a break for lunch at the edge of a nearby pond, and Stella complained tiredly as she bit into a sandwich. It was her first time working with the Reclaimer, and while she'd been initially sceptical (not every BLADE was as good as they said they were after all), her partner had instantly proven to be more than worthy of his title when they'd been ambushed by a patrolling Punisher Simius. He'd dispatched it without wasting a single movement, leaving Stella musing as to where he'd learned his skills and whether or not Nagi was aware he had a following.
"We've searched almost the entire area up and down, and even took a look around the southern part under the bridge, but not a trace of the debris we're looking for. I'm not one to question their ability, but are BLADE sure they got the right place? They've been off about trajectories before."
Draco opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a ringing sound: a call on his comms, the tone matching that of BLADE HQ. Expression unreadable, the Reclaimer took one last bite of his food before taking out the device and accepting the call.
"Draco here. What's the trouble?"
Vandham's voice, distorted as usual by the connection, crackled through from the other end.
"Right to the point as always. Since you're still out there I'd guess you've had no luck with the search, but we need something done. The FrontierNav probe in the area's been acting up for a while. It wasn't too bad to start with and we hoped it would fix itself, but…"
Draco nodded, and Stella briefly wondered what was going through his head behind those sunglasses.
"FN 225? We'll check it out. It'd be easier than sending a second team. Even if we can't fix it, we can at least get a feel for the problem."
"Yeah. Take Little Miss Kuroi with you if she's still there: That's deep Simius territory you're wading into."
The call ended, and the pair finished their food before heading off towards their target. It was a short while before they arrived, and the two crouched among the nearby plants as they saw the source of the problem: a vast pile of shrapnel, debris and twisted metal sitting right on top of where the probe had been planted. Stella muttered to herself as she eyed the pair of Wrathful Simius lounging nearby, seemingly guarding the pile.
"No wonder the probe's not working properly. Having all that on top of it must be massively interfering with the sensors. It's strange though, I've never seen this kind of behaviour before. Simius aren't documented to have hoarding habits, so it's almost like they're cleaning up the planet…"
Draco shook his head.
"Let's not worry about that for now. We can take out the Simius and call in a retrieval team to get the scrapheap back to NLA: Our original objective is almost certainly in there. You ready?"
"Whenever you are. Should we just dive right in or have you got a plan?"
The Reclaimer glanced over at their targets, eyes flickering from point to point behind his shades before pointing out a route with his finger.
"Get their attention and climb up there. Keep them occupied while I strike from the rear but keep an eye out for any unwelcome guests, indigenous or otherwise."
Stella nodded before drawing her knife and slipping into a coiled stance, mentally tracing a path with her eyes.
Pick up the rock and throw it, dash forwards, kick off that one's head onto the roots and pelt them with whatever I can find up there until Draco moves in. Right then, let's get this done.
As Draco lowered himself into the greenery and drew his blade, Stella focused, blinked twice and leapt.