Chapter 25: Rumble in the Jungle.
As Vippy had said the command prides were not exactly pleased about Smoke's rescue winding up on the broadcast networks but there were pleased about his glowing praise for their Surface Stalker units, according to them recruitment for them had gone up 600% pretty much immediately after Smoke's interview was aired on Pride Life Today News.
They were utterly taken aback by the news that Vippy's pride status now had to be updated to the married pride list but they could do nothing about it as under Raptorian law once marriage was sanctified before the High Priestess pride it was sealed, it also marked Vippy's pride as the first pride to ever marry outside of their own species.
But their most extreme reaction was to Smoke outlining his plans to return to the surface with as many Surface Stalkers as they could spare to meet up with Clan Mason.
"Absolutely not! We cannot and will not allow a male to set foot on the surface of this planet! It's too dangerous!" they yelled.
Smoke kept his cool and took a deep breath, "Am I a prisoner?' he asked flatly.
They baulked at that, "No of course not!" they exclaimed.
"Then you have no right to hold me, I am a soldier and diplomat of a sovgerin nation, to hold an ambassoder either prisoner or hostage is an act of war against that nation, we are doing our best to become your allies here, now I appriaciate what you are trying to do and your feelings on the matter, I also appriaciate the fact of how your species do things, but I am not of your species and I am going to be blunt here I find this coddling to be downright disrespectful and pretty much borderline sexist, just because I am male makes me no less a warrior than any of my beloved Surface Stalker wives sat right next to me, I appriaciate the dangers up there, I saw them first hand with my own eyes while I was up there, but I will not allow my brothers and sisters to fight this battle without me, I am a sworn Hunter of Clan Mason and it is my sworn duty, I will not allow you to force me to betray my people," he said flatly without malice in his voice.
The command prides sat in jaw-dropped silence at this looking at one another seeking answers, Smoke decided to push his advantage, "You say you will not allow males to the surface, did you forget that there are males already up there? Do you intend to kidnap them and force them underground for their own protection?" Smoke asked using quotation fingers on the word 'Protection'.
"No of course not!" the command pride spluttered.
"Well then please explain to me how their presence up there is any different to my own?" he asked.
They were stumped, he could see they wanted to argue the fact that he was already down here and that he was safe, but they could not do so as he had already accused them of walking a line of outright sexism towards him and given that he had taken on an ambassador's role that would be a rather stupid move to insult a potential ally like that.
"If I should fall up there it will be no fault of the Raptorian people, no one here will be held accountable for it, it is war and it is messy and horrific, but me hiding from it does no one any good and most certainly not when I have the tools and expertise both my and your people need to break the communication blackout, if we are to win this they need me up there in order to break the scrambling," Smoke said.
"B-B-But you're the hero of Raptoria, the alien male who saved males from a Mimic, if you should fall then it will devastate many" they replied quietly.
"If I should fall I have no doubt that will be by the sides of my beloved wives, what better tale could you tell the people to inspire them? Do you want to tell the tale of the male who came to your world and hid underground like a coward? Or the tale of the alien male who came to your world, saved males, fell in love with your brave Surface Stalkers before taking to the surface to stand alongside them and to fight for Raptoria just as her brave warriors did?" he asked and with that, the trap closed.
The command pride buckled, they relented to Smoke's demand and requests, but they insisted on sending numerous Surface Stalker prides with him to the RV point where Smoke was to meet up with his squad, which was exactly what Smoke wanted all along.
But he could see that Vippy and the others were visibly uneasy about taking their new husband anywhere near the surface, but after his display in the command pride's meeting room and in the temple they weren't going to challenge the decision, but he could see that it disturbed them.
So as they all walked to the squad room to brief the other Surface Stalker prides he put his arms around the six of them walking in the middle of his pride, "Don't worry girls, it will be alright you'll see, after what I saw and what happened today I'm sure the Eternal Huntress and Great Tree have our backs, it'll all be ok, you'll see" he said.
Their closeness drew some very curious glances from passing prides as they passed, but Smoke and his girls paid them no mind as each of them was proud to be a part of this interspecies pride they had formed, the first of its kind but by some of the looks they were getting Smoke figured most definitely not the last.
The briefing room was packed, there had to be a hundred Surface Stalkers in there and as Smoke and his pride entered and took the stage at the front the whole lot of them stared open-mouthed at them.
"Alright ladies, you have been summoned here because you are the best of the best, the elite, the ones who dared to tread where only the bravest dare set foot and today we are going to prove our worth to Raptoria, up there on the surface of OUR planet las an enemy who dares to defile the soil of OUR home with their unwelcome presence, but also up there is an ally waiting for us to make contact, this is our pride male and husband Hunter Smoke, he is also a Surface Stalker, just like all of us and whats more he stalked our surface alone and lived" Vippy and her pride said together.
This drew gasps and amazement, not to mention looks of awe and curiosity, "Up there waiting for us are others like him, they are called Clan Mason, they came here after receiving word of the invasion from our friends the Serpentinus, the Serpentinus are allies of Clan Mason after they recently foiled an attempted assassination of the Royal Pack and of the Serpentinus Ghost Slitherers, who before anyone asks are yes very real, we even met one of Clan Mason's very own Ghost Slitherers or Dream Warriors as they call them today in the temple, when he walked right into our beautiful and fair city as a spirit and came to our pride wedding, so yes they are very real and yes they are very powerful, plus Clan Mason has a whole team of them ready to help us send these sniveling male defiling scum back where they came from, they stand ready to stand with us and cast these vile creatures from our beautiful home, so today all of you will be accompanying us up to the surface where we will meet up with a squad from Clan Mason and together we will plan an assault on the Forward Operating Base, with the intention to destroying the communication scrambler so we may re-establish communication across our planet and better co-ordinate our defence" they said.
Then the pride turned and ushered Smoke up to one of the podiums and he felt every set of eyes lock onto him in an absolute rainbow of colours, "That's him! The Guardian of males!" someone hissed.
"Umm hello honoured Surface Stalkers, my name is Smoke and as my beloved wives pointed out I am a Hunter Pathfinder of Clan Mason, we came here with one purpose, to help protect the Raptorian people from the Draconis and the Scalathor, but we need your help to do this, we very much wish to be both your allies and hopefully your friends, as my beloved wives have already stated there are numerous squads of ours up there waiting on the surface ready to both attack your enemies and to help defend your innocent from them, together we will ensure that not a single Scalathor or Draconis foot ever falls on the beloved rock of your beautiful cities, together we will ensure that the honour of your prides and your males remain safe in their loving homes safe in the arms of their beloved females, together we will show them how strong we are united and like any good pride we will stand together and fight for what is ours!" Smoke said with so much passion in his voice that he saw tears of joy forming in the eyes of his wives.
The whole room erupted in roars and cheers as his wives encircled him and took turns in kissing him, after that Smoke gave the Raptorian Surface Stalkers a quick rundown on how to identify each group of Clan Mason, what they looked like, what their armour looked like and how to approach them, he also promised to supply his people with their language so that they could easily communicate if Jack Mason hadn't done his Dream Warrior thing already and spread it as he'd done with the Serpentinus.
Very soon they were ready, all the Surface Stalker prides had gone to the armoury and had drawn weapons and armour, then together they headed to the elevators which would lead them to the surface ports.
Smoke closed his helmet and double-checked his weapons for like the fifth time as the elevator took them to the surface, he was in one of five large elevators each holding about twenty-four Raptorians, he was having to stoop somewhat because of the low ceiling plus with having his pride packed tightly around him it was somewhat of an uncomfortable ride.
He could see his own pride and the other Surface Stalkers all checking their weapons as well, the Raptorian firearms were interesting things, ballistic weapons designed to have a variable charge caseless shot so they could switch from subsonic suppressed fire to supersonic full power on the fly.
They'd explained to him that they used a super-light aluminium steel cored round which could be made to go fast enough to defeat the armoured scales and bodies of a lot of the surface predators, though there were some that only their heaviest firearms could penetrate, like the one that Sema was currently holding.
It was a rifle as big as she was with a wide polymer encased bullpup design putting all of the moving parts and weight in the rear of the weapon, it had a long barrel that was longer than it appeared due to the face a decent amount of it was hidden under the casing, it also had a huge round suppressor on the end.
Sema had explained to him when she'd caught him looking at the weapon curiously that it was an anti-material sniper rifle designed to punch through even the toughest armoured hides and scales, the suppressor on the end was also modified so that when the rounds were fired subsonic it acted as a suppressor but when in supersonic mode the suppressor opened vents inside it so instead of trying to suppress the shot it acted as a stabiliser by venting the gasses out sideways instead of behind the projectile, so essentially acting as a muzzle brake.
All the other Surface Stalkers who hadn't seen Smoke's weapons before were fascinated by the railgun/contained plasma weapon, obviously trying to compare it to their own battle rifles which they called Multi-Stage Suppressed Protection Rifles or MSSPR's for short.
When he handed around one of the tungsten projectiles that his own weapon fired they were all surprised by the weight of it, until they found out how it worked and what kind of power it could generate and then they were genuinely shocked and somewhat sceptical.
All of Clan Mason's firearms had been designed and produced in Citrus and Yoshi's ive by their very one Xeno engineers and R&D science teams, but before any weapon found its way into the hands of a single Hunter, Seeker, Savior or Battle Angel they were rigorously tested by both the Grand Matriarch and Patriarch not to mention Head Tamer Ryan Mason and Head Savior Sela eleth Mason to ensure that they were not only fit for purpose but safe for their warriors to use.
These rifles were multi-use combining powerful long-range stopping power of the railgun and the shorter range but no less powerful plasma projector, there were even a few models floating about used almost exclusively by Savior snipers that had all the plasma parts removed in favour of a far longer barrel with more coils that used a larger and heavier round to fill the role of an anti-material sniper rifle, it as said that after the Grand Patriarch and Matriarch tested the variant out that they immediately after only firing a single shot each with the massive weapon that they immediately banned the whole Clan from using it for hunting as it could drop a Dino Dozer with a single shot from three miles away and therefore violating the rules of the fair hunt.
The Surface Stalkers also carried a verity of bladed weapons, some favouring smaller daggers while some seemed to carry full-sized swords of rather interesting designs in scabbards mounted on their backs or at their hips, his wrist blades seemed to fascinate them as did his combi stick but the star of the show was his smart disc, the thought of a flying bladed weapon that was controllable with an edge that was strong enough to cut through just about anything utterly blew them away.
The elevators finally reached their destination and the doors opened spilling the Surface Stalkers and Smoke out into a large hanger like area, there were numerous other Surface Stalker teams here guarding the entrances as well as sending equipment and a variety of what appeared to be vehicles up and down freight style elevators to what must be engineering teams waiting below.
They all looked curiously as the large group headed towards one of the large blast style doors with Smoke directly at its centre, it seemed that female protective instinct was pretty hard-wired in as even though he was already surrounded by his own pride the other prides in his group hand-formed themselves into an even larger circle around them placing as many layers of protection between the only male and any potential danger as they could, which given that he stood over a foot taller than they did was a kinda moot point in Smoke's opinion, but it wasn't like he could stop them.
One pride headed over to the gate guards and handed them their orders, they looked at them and then at Smoke before obviously protesting the fact that they were taking a male out onto the surface, but the argument was quickly silenced by the pride showing them a signature on the orders.
Rather reluctantly the gate pride headed inside a hut and using a set of controls designed only to be used by a team of people began the procedure of opening the doors and almost immediately the large doors began to retract slowly letting sunlight filter into the artificially lit cavern.
No sooner had they stepped outside than Smoke could see why the Draconis and Scalathor hadn't found this place yet, it was utterly camouflaged to the point that even standing directly in front of it he couldn't tell it wasn't just a moss-covered cliff face.
"Weapons up! Spread out!' Vippy's pride ordered and instantly the other Surface Stalkers fanned out in a large defensive circle, Smoke's sensors were now all online and he scanned not only the tree line of the high up part of the jungle that they seemed to be in, but also further out watching the treetops for any sign of movement, he also used his thermal and electrostatic views which highlighted numerous creatures all around them that to the naked eye were utterly invisible.
Almost instantly Smoke's plasma casters reacted to the potential targets and popped up on their gimbals, they turned to target the nearest concealed creature and began to spin up as his laser targeting marked it, "Easy Smoke its just winged Lima, it won't hurt you though I must confess I'm impressed you actually saw it" Vippy said touching Smoke's arm gently.
Smoke powered down the casters and cancelled the targeting making the caster's power down and retract, "Told you this mask of mine is good for picking out the unseen" he said tapping the side of his visor.
"Evidently," she said then using a series of coded hand signals she and his pride sent out scouts in every direction who began reporting back using equally complex signals, "Utter silence from here on out unless it an emergency," she said to Smoke and just like that they were off.
The large group moved with such utter coordinated precision that it utterly reminded Smoke of a Xeno hive when one of the Queens decided to pull some strings using her telepathic link to settle an argument between her children.
They stayed off the game trails instead carving their own path through the incredibly thick undergrowth, he knew this would prevent them from being seen by the Draconis ariel patrols which every so often caused them to freeze and seek cover while Smoke simply activated his cloaking tech and silently observed them wheeling through the sky high above them.
They soon began to stumble of evidence of Scalathor casualties that had run afoul of both the local fauna as well as traps and ambushes set by the Raptorians, but while every abandoned Scalathor corpse they found filled him with a sense of joy because it was direct evidence of the resistance being mounted it also filled him with sadness, because most of these women were simply soldiers and their bodies had been abandoned by their so-called comrades to be devoured by the fauna or reclaimed by nature.
They also stumbled across to very stark reminders that this was indeed a war for this very soil when they found two massacred Raptorian prides, their bodies were littered around a single area which to Smoke told him of their refusal to abandon their dead or wounded pride sisters they themselves had met their end as well.
After checking the area was clear the Surface Stalkers set about retrieving their identification tags and marking their position so their bodies could be retrieved for burial later, "Go with the Great Tree beloved sisters, let the warm sun bathed fields of the Eternal Garden welcome you to your final rest" Vippy and the others said while Smoke himself said a prayer to Paya to guide the brave fallen warriors to their Eternal Hunt.
It took the best part of the day for the group to make the trek across the jungle from the underground entrance to the meeting place that the Grand Patriarch had designated, their path had taken them pretty close to the central FOB and it had given them a good view of the place, the walls were pocked with the evidence of numerous firefights and Smoke instantly noticed the scorching of plasma-based weapons which made him smile as it meant his people had also been involved in those battles, Clan Mason was fighting, but he also noticed something that filled his heart with dread, some of the leaves were bathed with splashes of bright neon green.
"That's Yautja blood," he said pointing to it even as his analyzer picked it up and he sensed a worry among the Surface Stalkers around him, "Don't worry Clan Mason won't fall easy, we go down fighting and given there are no bodies or drag marks the wounded got out on foot, trust me when I say it takes more than a few gunshots to even slow down a Yautja and you'll see why when you meet them," Smoke said confidently.
The group moved off and headed towards the mountain that their Grand Patriarch had designated the RV and as they drew closer Smoke saw something that made him smile under his mask, "How much longer till we reach your people?" one of the Surface Stalker prides asked as they clambered up the steep fern-covered verges leading to the base of the cliffs.
"Oh they're watching us right now," Smoke said and those six words made every single Surface Stalker stop and take up defensive positions all around him scanning both the trees and the undergrowth with their weapons in the aim.
"Where?" one pride asked.
"I don't see anything!" another said.
"That's the point," Smoke said, then he stepped forwards and put his arms out to the sides.
"When the Darkness comes..." he said loudly.
"...We are the light that shines," a deep gravely voice from the tree directly in front of him said finishing the Hunter countersign and with a heavy thud that both crushed the undergrowth underfoot and sent leaves flying a large shimmering figure dropped out of the tree landing right in front of Smoke.
As the figure began to decloak the Raptorian reaction was instantaneous, his own pride utterly surrounded Smoke in a protective circle and trained their weapons on the large golden figure while all the other prides created another larger circle doing the same some facing outwards and others inwards pointing their weapons at both the jungle and the figure at the same time.
"Easy girls he's Clan Mason and also he's not alone, you might want to lower your weapons I don't want any more misunderstandings that wind up with people getting punched and winding up underground or worse shot," Smoke said and it was at that point that a few of them were marked by tri dot laser markers.
Slowly the Raptorians lowered their weapons as Vippy's pride issued a whistle, as they did the figure in front of them lowered his mask and revealed a very familiar face to Smoke causing him to do the same and reveal the huge smile on his face.
"A'Ramek! It's good to see you brother!" Smoke said stepping forwards and embracing his fellow Pathfinder who returning the embrace heartily.
"And you crazy ooman, we thought that you were lost for sure when Seeker Dimondscale told us of your fate," the large Yautja male said picking up Smoke and squeezing him enough to make his armour creak and his pride nearly freak out.
"Well, the Grand Matriarch always said that all I had to do was land on my head because it was so thick that it would save me from any fall," Smoke said grinning as his old friend put him down and roared with laughter before clapping him on the shoulder.
"Looks like she was right, you should always trust the Grand Matriarch," A'Ramek said with a huge grin on his mandibles before turning his attention to the small group that had formed around them both now.
"So these are the Raptorians we keep hearing but never seeing? Gotta say these little fellas are real good at hiding, they'd give all the prey species on our homeworld a run for their money, we keep seeing them spark up an assault but by the time we get anywhere near they vanish like a fart in a storm" A'Remek said grinning down at Vippy who was looking up at him in astonishment.
"Actually they're all girls, A'Remek Vandlfore of the proud Pathfinders of the Hunters of Clan Mason let me introduce you to the proud Raptorian Surface Stalkers and more specifically to my own pride, Vippy, Sema, Uma, Skeeva, Lima and Freeda Ringtail, my wives and my pride," Smoke said making the huge Yautja's eyebrows shoot right up.
Suddenly a shape came out of the undergrowth moving so fast that until Smoke was in the air in a tight hug no one saw it, "There you are! Thank the Eternal Huntress! We thought we'd lost you, I couldn't believe it when the Grand Patriarch found you on a Soul Walk" Seeker Dimondscale exclaimed hugging Smoke much to his surprise, he'd never seen the normally stoic Seeker so animated.
His appearance and actions did cause Vippy and the others to freak out this time because they'd never seen him coming and right under their noses he'd plucked their male up before they could even blink.
"Unhand our male!" they exclaimed in perfect unison.
Seeker Silver let Smoke down and looked down at them, "Ahh these must be your wives, the Grand Patriarch mentioned that he was a little miffed that he had to crash a wedding in his Spirit Form and he's still waiting for his invite to the reception to arrive" Seeker Dimondscale said his voice playful and friendly.
"Ladies I'd like you to meet Seeker Dimondscale the second in command of the Proud Soul Knights of the Seekers of Truth" Smoke said gesturing to the blue armoured Seeker.
"Seeker? As in Dream Warrior!?" Vippy exclaimed and Smoke nodded.
"Yeah so please don't point your weapons at him unless you want it out of your hands and up your tail hole before you can blink," Smoke said playfully patting Vippy on the shoulder.
To Smoke's surprise Seeker Dimondscale playfully punched his shoulder before turning the pride and lowering his helmet, "Your husband jokes I'm not that bad, greetings proud Surface Stalkers, I am Seeker Dimondscale and it is our honour to stand here on your beautiful world and help you to stand for your freedom and to help you fight these vile invaders" the proud Seeker said in perfect Raptorian proving that indeed the Grand Patriarch had snagged their language on his way out the door.
Now the tension had been utterly broken between the two groups, with not just a single male among them on the surface but now three the Raptorian girls instincts got the better of them and instantly the other two males found themselves utterly surrounded by curious Raptorian girls instinctively trying to protect them, which was an utterly hilarious sight with an utterly huge Yautja male who looked like someone had painted a handsome Yautja face on a block of black granite under his armour.
He suddenly found himself utterly surrounded by Raptorian girls trying to lead him away to what they saw as a safer place, to see this huge seven and a half foot tall Yautja male being manoeuvred around by the tiny Raptorians surrounding him one of which was even brave enough to climb up him like a tree to get a better look at him close up.
That's when the Xeno's appeared, out of utterly nowhere Battle Angels appeared around Smoke and tried to shepherd him away for a check-up as he'd been removed from their sight long enough for him to become injured, this utterly freaked out his pride as out of nowhere these alien girls had popped up and to them looked like they were trying to steal their male away, they literally leapt onto him and dragged him down before kneeling on him despite his protests covering him and protecting him.
"Easy girls! These are the Battle Angels, they're Clan Mason medics" Smoke yelled in a muffled voice from under Vippy's rear which was planted right above his head.
"Hunter Ringtail can you keep your hands off your new wives for five minutes and possibly handle the introductions and debriefing?" a loud commanding voice carried over the entire scene making Smoke scrambled out from under his girls having to resort to using his power-assisted movement to actually remove them so he could snap to attention.
"Grand Patriarch! Hunter Samson reporting in as ordered!" Smoke exclaimed saluting as Jack Mason himself strode into the centre of the group parting the group of Raptorians with the ease of an ice breaker cutting through soft ice by using his sheer presence.
"W-W-Who is that male!?" Smoke heard one pride say quietly the awe in their voices obvious.
"Does he have a pride?" another asked quietly.
"Hands off! We saw him first!" another hissed quietly.
"If I were you I would put your hands in your pockets and keep them away from him, if his wife our Grand Matriarch sees any of you touch him, new allies or not she'll feed you your own tail and use your as a rolling hoop and that's if she's in a good mood" A'Ramek hissed quietly to whoever had said it.
Jack Mason returned Smoke's salute, "At ease Hunter Ringtail," Jack said and Smoke cocked his head and Jack's face cracked into the very smile that had melted a thousand Yautja hearts both female and male.
"Well you are a married man now aren't you? And from what I observed it's customary for the male to take his pride's surname, so Hunter Ringtail" he clarified and it hit Smoke like a slap, he'd never even thought of that which as if he was reading his thoughts made Jack Mason laugh out loud, "Calm yourself young one married life has a great many more surprises in store for you other than that one trust me, now gather up our new friends here and kindly advise them against molesting my very married second in command before we wind up with angry Serpentinus girls drop podding into a war-zone and save molesting the very single and utterly available Hunter Vandlfore for after the debriefing if you please" Jack said and with that, he strode back off towards the Clan Mason temporary command centre.
"An unprided male! Here on the surface!?" a couple of prides exclaimed in perfect unison and Smoke noticed that suddenly A'Remek looked very nervous under all the helmets currently aiming at him and Smoke knew of the predatory stares beaming through their visors, he simply laughed at his huge friend's uncharacteristic nervousness and patted him on the shoulder as he walked past.
"Good luck escaping this hunt," he said and then gestured for the Surface Stalkers to follow which they did, a few far more reluctantly than others they turning to track A'Remek as they walked past him.
The command centre was little more than a cave they'd set up in and camouflaged making it invisible from the outside, holo projection emitters had been set up to disguise the entrance and Smoke could see the snipers and gun emplacements that were hidden among the foliage and up on the cliff covering the area.
The first thing Smoke noticed was a medical area had been set up and there were currently a few Hunters being treated for wounds by the Battle Angels who were fussing around them, he immediately spotted a large Yautja male with his upper armour off having a couple of large wounds to his side being treated, he also noticed that some of the Surface Stalkers visibly began to vibrate at the sight, he instantly guessed that they were the group's combat medics.
"Go on, go see if you can help but speak to the Battle Angels in charge first, they are incredibly protective of their patients and if there is one thing do not want to do its get between a Battle Angel and their patient, it does not end well for you," Smoke said gesturing to the medical area.
Three Prides of six detached themselves from the main group and scampered over to the medical area to offer assistance, the big Xeno's saw them coming and made to intercept them before they got close but after a very brief conversation, it appeared the Xeno's were receptive to sharing ideas.
Jack Mason was stood at the centre point of the cave studying a large holographic image of the FOB and the surrounding jungle, Seeker Silver strode up and joined the fellow Dream Warrior as Smoke guided the incredibly curious Surface Stalkers up to the hologram, it had become a bit like herding cats as he could see things constantly catching their attention and in all honesty, they probably hadn't ever seen so many males in one place before so this to them was like sensory overload.
"Ahh good you're here, right well here's what we know so far, our teams dropped in roughly here, here and here he said high lighting the large areas where all the Clan Mason drop teams were scattered across.
"Their standing orders are without communications are to dig in and observe while harassing the enemy with guerilla hit and run tactics on any targets of opportunity, as Strong as our forces are we are heavily outnumbered and outgunned here, we have personally observed heavy artillery, mechanised vehicles and assault platforms like battle tanks, heavy weapons emplacements, plus we've also observed the Draconis dropping cluster mines into the jungle around the game trails, we've snagged a couple of them to study so that our sensors can be tuned to detect them, obviously we will share what we have with your people so that you can avoid them as well," Jack said pointing to the areas that were speckled with lots of little red dots to indicate minefields.
Vippy and the rest of Smoke's pride stepped up ahead of the others to study the map, "Our people stay away from game trails due to the predator foot traffic along them, if you have not yet seen our local fauna and what it can do I would highly advise you do the same, our beloved husband tells us that he has figured out a way to spot some of the more nasty ambush predators we have using various visual sensor types you have in your armour, things like mimics which can perfectly imitate any object to blend in seamlessly with their surroundings" the pride said.
Jack Mason looked impressed and turned his attentions to Smoke, "It is good to see that his trip to your city has been more useful than a *ahem* diplomatic mission" he said giving Smoke a sly smile that made him flush and a lot of Raptorians begin quietly hissing among themselves about human males changing colour and how lucky Vippy's pride were.
"Our beloved husband has been incredibly useful and insightful in both explaining to us your ways and your abilities and let me firstly apologise if any of our interactions come across as either coddling or even sexist, we are both highly uncomfortable and unsettled by seeing males in combat roles, such a thing to us is utterly unthinkable, it to us is akin to sending children out to fight and I don't mean that as an insult towards you or your warriors, I am merely trying to explain our perspective, our males are simply not cut out for combat, they are weaker than us, far more emotional than us and they're simply not enough of them being one male to every six to eight females born here, a loss of a single male life to us is a truly devastating loss, so please do not think us disrespectful if we say or do something that might seem sexist to you," the pride said.
Jack Mason nodded, "Noted and I appreciate your candour, I assume Hunter Ringtail has taken steps to show that not all species are like this and that we do things very differently?" he asked and they all nodded not just Smoke's own pride.
"He is the Guardian of males! Protector of the defenceless and the innocent!" one pride yelled happily from the back.
"Slayer of vicious and vile male murdering mimics!" another yelled proudly.
Jack raised an eyebrow and looked at Smoke for an explanation, "I err killed a Mimic that broke into their recreation zone which is basically like our Grand park, there were a bunch of males and their male children children hiding in a public toilet from the thing, spotted it using electrostatic vision, useful tip use plasma only on them, railguns don't work, they're basically like a living ball of putty that can imitate anything, so the slugs punch right through doing zero damage as hey instantly reform but they are very flammable, so plasma lights them up like the bonfires you make to cook the kill from the Grand Matriarch's Freedom Day hunt" Smoke clarified.
Jack nodded, "It pleases me greatly to see you upholding the creed of the Clan even when you are apart from us young Hunter and I am sure the Grand Matriarch will be most pleased as well that her Hunters are carrying forward her ideals in protecting the innocent in the name of the Clan, you might even avoid those push-ups," Jack said smiling making Smoke blush again as Vippy and the others surrounded and hugged him.
Jack turned back to the map again, "Ok now while the heavy weapons, tanks etcetera is not much of a problem for my Seekers they are a problem for anyone else..." he began before one of the prides cut him off.
"How can heavy weapons not be a problem for you!?" they exclaimed and Jack turned to Seeker Dimondscale and nodded.
Seeker Dimondscale seemed to flicker for a moment then reappeared holding something, or rather an arm full of somethings.
"Remember those weapons you had?" Jack asked and the ride looked confused before looking down and shrieking that their weapons were gone, at which point Seeker Dimondscale simply wandered up and handed them back to the utterly dumbfounded Raptorians.
"Remember when I said a single Dream Warrior or Seeker of Truth was worth a thousand troops? Now you know why" Smoke said looking at the utterly astonished Vippy with a wry smile.
"Ghost Slitherers! You have Ghost Slitherers in your ranks!" another pride exclaimed and Jack held up his hands to quieten down the growing hubbub.
"We're called Dream Warriors or more specifically in relation to Clan Mason Seekers of Truth, both myself and Seeker Dimondscale here are Soul Knights, but don't worry all will be explained in due time, there are Dream Warriors among your people too, I awakened some myself earlier today, but anyway continuing here," he said.
The remainder of the debrief went smoothly with Jack Mason listening intently to the Raptorians outlining the problems they would face with both the terrain and the fauna, both agreed that the primary focus for the moment was to either highjack or utterly destroy the jamming tower at the nearby FOB, Smoke waded in with his idea that before they destroy it he should be given a chance to access it directly because not only would it allow them to figure out a comprehensive countermeasure to the jamming should they set up another or indeed already have another at one of the other FOB's the Raptorians informed them had been set up but also give them access to the Scalathor and Draconis military network, allowing them to pull valuable intel from it, this could then be fed to both the Raptorian command and other Raptorian Surface Stalker units for their own resistance operations against the invaders.
Jack Mason heartily agreed with this assessment, infact he put Smoke in charge of cracking their network when the time came, which both pleased Smoke and highly unsettled his pride due to his incredibly close proximity to the densest degree of combat there would be.
Though once Jack explained that once the jamming was removed they would also be able to coordinate with their ships in space and arrange for not only combat drops of other personal and supplies but of orbital strikes on key targets the Raptorians soon saw the wisdom of this approach.
"Ok having studied the layout of the FOB in great detail our first major obstacle is gaining entry to it, the place is filled with heavy weapons not only in the towers but both internally as well with the sole purpose of repelling invasion," Jack said pointing to firstly the guard dowers but also along the top of the walls to show ramparts for troops to fire both out and if needed inwards.
Vippy and Smoke's pride nodded, "The outer wall is also electrified to prevent climbing along with a heavy plated metal floor to prevent tunnelling," they said pointing to first the wall and then the floor.
Jack scratched his chin thoughtfully then smiled, "That settles it then, we go in through the main gates" he said with a grin and they all looked at him like he'd gone mad.
"And how do you suggest we do that?" she asked and Jack simply gave her a wry smile.
"Simple, we get the Scalathor and Draconis to open the gates and welcome us home," he said and now everyone even Seeker Dimondscale was confused, that was until Jack outline his idea and suddenly everyone was smiling.
"Yeah, I do believe that could work," Vippy said.
"So it's settled, I'll take a Seeker team and we'll take care of that part, everyone else will move into position and await our signal, when it happens it will happen fast so everyone will need to be running their arses off, especially as there's only one bridge to those gates so its a really narrow field of fire there" Jack said and there were nods all around, all they had to do now was prepare and wait.