The group had found there way to a part of the jungle where most of the reports came from. So far they had not seen anything that resembled the hunters or crawlers, well apart from a spider that was crawling on a tree. Worriz wanted to kill it but Alex stopped him. Eris set her jet down next to the group as they began walking around on foot to examine the area.
"I didn't see any ice patches" eris said disembarking her jet "so The hunters might not be around here"
"They could be using their tunnels" Laval said.
"Yeah, we should launch an expedition into the caves" Alex said walking off into the woods. All he saw was plants and rocks, nothing that would indicate enemy movement. Then out of the corner of his eye Alex spotted a gray, square shaped object. He looked at it for a moment and saw that it was a military style crate.
"Hey guys look" Alex said pointing. The group moved over and took a look at the crate. It was sitting in the middle of a very simple first road, and It was covered in mud so the group couldn't really examine it closely.
"What do you think this is doing here?" Laval asked.
"Uh, what about that" toothdee said pointing into the forest. Sitting in the dirt road was a gray jeep and more military supply boxes. There was even a small artificial canopy set up nearby. They walked over to the jeep and began to look through it, wondering why this was here and who put in here. That question was answered when Alex spotted a logo on the side of the jeep, It said MAN.
"Guys" Alex said, causing the group to come over and take a look at the logo. They gasped when they saw it.
"MAN" Alex said.
MAN stood for mankind against nature, they were a terrorist organization that harbored a deep hatred of anthropomorphic animals. They carried out attacks on anthropomorphic animals all over the world and were clearly a feared group. It seemed like the government wouldn't really take MAN as a serious threat despite Alex protesting that they were a danger to anthropomorphic animals the world over.
"MAN? In Chima?!" Laval said in disbelief.
"I had a feeling it would happen eventually" Alex said. "If they want to carry out attacks against anthropomorphic animals, then why not go to a place in the world where the population is only anthropomorphic animals."
"What do we do about this? They are a serious threat" Toothdee said.
Alex looked down the road, thought for a moment, then came up with a plan. "Eris, you go to the eagle spire and mobilize some jets. if MAN is in Chima they we will need those jets to scout from the air and see if we can pinpoint their locations." Eris nodded and started flying to her jet. "Rogon, you, Kate, Humphrey, razar, bladvic, and worriz. You guys go back to the tribes and tell them what we've found. I also need to guys to secure the typhoon, MAN might make an attempt to sabotage it." They nodded and ran back to rogons rock flinger. "Everyone else with me. We're going to investigate further"
Cragger hopped back into his fire striker and drove over to the road. "Just in case" he said.
The squad began heading down the road, weapons at the ready.
"If that vehicle is here then there must be MAN operatives close by" toothdee said.
"Yeah, be on the ready" Alex responded.
They kept moving down the road and started to see more crates and supplies but still no enemies. It was quiet, almost to quiet. Suddenly gunfire burst out of the woods in front of the group. Everyone took cover as figures in dark uniforms began coming out of the trees.
"Engage!" Alex yelled. Cragger powered up the weapon systems on his vehicle as Alex, toothdee and laval shot back at the hostiles. Alex gunned down 2 and toothdee took out another soldier. Cragger opened fire with his vehicle, enveloping the MAN operatives in an explosion that stopped them.
"Told you it would come in handy" cragger said. The group continued up the road and started seeing more supplies and vehicles.
"Well we definitely know MAN is here" toothdee said.
"Then let's stop them" Alex said. Like many he had a strong dislike for MAN, partly because he had so many friends who were animals. More gunfire erupted from up ahead and the group started shooting back. Within a minute they quickly dispatched the enemies with help from cragger and continued up the road. They reached an area with a large concentration of vehicles, supplies, canopies, and hostile soldiers. Before cragger could use his fire striker and RPG shot came out of the woods and hit the vehicle.
"Weapon systems are down" cragger said jumping out.
There were dozens of hostiles and without vehicle aid this would be a tough fight. Alex used grenades to clear a few enemies as the rest of the squad kept shooting. They were taking out a lot of enemies, but more kept coming. There was the sound of a loud engine as an APC came up the road towards the squad.
"APC!" Alex yelled. The vehicle opened fire with its heavy machine gun, forcing the group into cover. The hostile forces kept bearing down on the group and it looked like there was no way out. Suddenly missiles streaked from the sky and crashed into the APC and enemy soldiers causing an explosion that wiped them out.
"The cavalry has arrived" eris said through her radio as a squadron of eagle jets flew overhead. The squad came out of cover and stared at the burning wreckage that was once shooting at them.
"Perfect timing love" Laval said, making eris blush.
Alex noticed a soldier, who appeared to be a leader of sorts, crawling on the ground. He walked over to the soldier, spun him on his back and pointed his gun at him.
"Talk!"
"You can't do anything to make me talk"
Alex stepped on the soldiers hand and started pushing down.
"Ahhh ahh! Alright alright! I don't know much, but I do know that tomorrow we are moving a large group of troops and vehicles into the crocodile swamp. But that's all I know!"
"Alright" Alex said, turning around and walking back to his squad, who had heard the whole thing.
"The crocodile swamp!" Cragger said.
"It looks like Chima is in danger yet again" Alex said.
"But we can fight them" Laval said, "and now that you're hear Alex, we will surely win!"
Alex smiled. "Let's get ready"