Alec thrashed and writhed, kicking and clawing as he tried to get out of Chrome's grasp as he yelled at her, desperate to make himself understood or to get away, "This is suicide! You're talking about gutting an entire hive... they'll be ready for you." He wasn't entirely sure he was being understood, he couldn't yet express half the concepts needed in Chrome's own language so he was hoping repeating himself enough in his own would do the job.

The praetorian ignored him stoically, having heard various versions of the same plea ever since she'd explained her plan to him.

"I'm not being paranoid." He snapped at her, "And look around you, you've got five ravagers, five, as if one wasn't enough of a threat, what if they go rogue? I saw it happen last time, just one ripped through two praetorians like they were paper!"

Chrome repeated herself as she guided her group to her human's compound.

"Okay so you put that one down, at it was very nicely done, don't think I didn't notice." This at least got a brief pleased rumble from her. "But still you're basically trying to ride an unguided missile down your enemy's throat, sure there's going to be a big bang, but you're going to be in it. We're going to be in it. And I'm not acid proof."

She put him down, snapping some brief instructions to him. Grab a gun and armour then get back out. There'd be an 'or else' in there somewhere but he hadn't grasped the actual threat.

"Understood." He replied in her own tongue before creeping his way through the shattered vent and returning ten minutes later, rifle in his hands and every inch of skin covered in thick cloth, the armour beneath it only a slight bulge, he planned to ditch the overlayer at the first serious splash of acid, hoping it would spare his skin.

He'd made a couple of other additions to the minimum Chrome had asked for, a grenade belt, a sidearm at one hip... and the repaired plasma caster on the other. That earned a growl from his guardian... well he presumed that's what she officially was for him now the Queen had decided not to kill him. It could just as easily have been commander or owner, he wasn't sure but either way it was clear he'd been made her responsibility and thus far she'd seemed to take that quite seriously.

At least there was a little good news, the extra equipment had evidently made him too heavy for Chrome to comfortably carry in her arms and his usual, and mildly nauseating, mode of transport replaced as he was slung over her shoulders, one leg either side of her neck as he carefully positioned himself between two of the spines protruding from her back, rifle slung over his back so as not to get in the praetorian's way as he clung to her for support, both physical and emotional.

Still at least now he might have a small chance of surviving afterall, at least if his friend did the smart thing and hung back to let him pick them off with gunfire rather the dive into a brutal melee as praetorians tended to.

Her human had been complaining for over ten minutes now, going so far as to actively try to fight her with his bare hands as the smell of fear rolled off of him with waves. It was laughable really, his soft body would have been fortunate to cause a bruise if he put all his strength into it, this aimless hitting was doing nothing but riling up the ravagers...

She wished he'd settle down. The war-caste of the hive was hard to control at the best of times, they'd had their mission given to them by Mother, and they'd been told to listen to her but that in no way meant that they wouldn't go berserk as soon as blood was heavy upon the air. She'd had to handle her human even more delicately than usual, a process he seemed determine to undermine at every opportunity.

Still she supposed she could imagine it from his perspective, no claws, no tail, no jaws worth a damn in a fight and even if by some miracle he could rip and tear his way through even a drone's measly armour the mere act of it would reduce him to a pile of slowly sizzling flesh. She could understand his fear, it just wasn't helping!

Piusnex let him babble, at least it gave him some catharsis, or so she assumed, listening to it at least helped pass the time as they moved and it helped her learn his language better though her inner jaws ensured she'd never be able to speak like her human was learning to speak hers. Though his inability to hit (or hear) some of the higher pitches meant that even with all the practice in the world he'd still sound like a concussed drone. That didn't stop it being adorable that he was making the effort.

One part of his rant stood out and provided a small insight into the problem, he'd seen what had happened the last time a ravager had got out of control, he just didn't know he was risking causing a reenactment with every kick and flail. And he'd noticed that she'd struck the killing blow!

Oh how she dearly wished he'd think more before panicking, it wasn't like she was going to make him go into battle without anything to protect him.

"Go fetch one of your guns and your best armour, and don't think about hiding in there I'll just drag you out and you'll spend the rest of the journey dangling by an ankle." It was a hollow threat, probably, the mental image held enough amusement for her to at least consider it though she doubted her human would get the same enjoyment.

Her human. She really needed to think of a better way to refer to him than that, a name, something noble but gentle, he'd more than earned the right, distinguished himself as an individual enough but that was a thought for another time, as it was her human was already occupying far too much of her thoughts when she was supposed to be leading a raid upon a dangerous foe and she'd barely even noticed.

Slowly she schooled her mind into a state of battle readiness, managing to preserve it even once the unfamiliar weight of him was upon her back; it was time for war and a deep, buried part of her couldn't wait.

Yeythwei had tracked the battlegroup, in all its excessive force, to the former dwelling of the human, now days dead.

To his surprise the praetorian released the struggling human she'd been carrying, allowing it to run into the building as if it would, in its wrecked form, offer some protection from them.

The behaviour struck him as most odd, he'd never heard of the hard-meat taunting or playing with their prey before, even once. Perhaps the intention was to give the young inside it a safe place to grow, though that was odd in itself, to not grow it in the hive.

That theory proved false once the human re-emerged, armed... with his plasma caster, crudely refitted to one of the handgun grips the humans used. And now at last he recognised them, the missing fingers, his plasma caster, this was the human that had come so close to killing him.

And then things got stranger as the human mounted the praetorian like they were some kind of steed, and the praetorian allowed it, encouraged it even!

This was something truly legendary, now he had to have that skull, both of them in fact, but first he had to get something to record this because noone would ever believe him when he told tales of this hunt. Before this hunt he would never have even considered a human would be a worthier trophy than one of the hard-meat, but this human likely was a worthier foe than even a queen or a ravager, unique amongst it's kind...

Very well then. Let the hunt begin...

Author's Note: Well there's really no excuse for taking this long, but I'll try anyway. Uni happened.

I know it irritates some readers but I'll keep Alec and Piusnex speaking their own languages for the most part, kinda a Chewbacca and Han thing where anything in their perspective will have the only "speech" in their native tongue with everything else being their own interpretation of what's said to them.