Chapter 87: Ghosts of Velona.
"By the Great Tree thats a lot of ships!!" Lucious exclaimed craning his little flexible neck around to look through the whole canopy window.
The most alarming thing here was that they didn't even need the deep space sensors to be able to see them there that many of them.
"Picking up hundreds of contacts on the passive," Levi said from the recon seat which gave her access to the Runner's impressive plethora of advanced cameras and sensors.
"Is it me or do they look...organic?" Verris said leaning in to look at the sensor readouts over Levi's shoulder.
"Now that you mention it, yeah they kinda do," Levi said looking closer at her readouts.
"That fits with what we briefly saw on the planet," Adesus said moving over to look at the readouts between the two confused-looking Xenomorphs.
"Organic ships?' Markus asked from the commander's seat looking at his own feeds.
It was true the ships had an oddly insectoid or crustation-like profile, they even seemed to have carapace rather than armour though thankfully it did absolutely fuck all for their stealth capabilities if anything it made them even easier to detect thanks to the heat bloom.
"Yeah, hundreds of them though smaller than what we're seeing here just raining down on the cities of the planet and disgorging soldiers the likes of which we've never seen before," Adesus said and Feris was nodding in agreement.
A truly giant ship that kind of reminded Markus of a solar moth wearing armour complete with space sail wings that appeared to be made out of some gold-coated material floated silently nearby, a huge bulbous oval body was sat between the wings and it even appeared to have six rather large legs tucked up into its carapace.
All over its body were a series of gun turrets of unknown design that seemed to be scanning the area by the way they were constantly rotating though Markus couldn't be sure of their projectile type as their barrel shrouds appeared to be made from some kind of organic polymer.
"Think we can get close enough to one of these things for me to space walk out and get some samples?" Verris asked suddenly and Markus looked at the young Xeno like he'd grown a second head.
"You want to take samples, from what my guess is a fucking battleship?" he said his voice mirroring his surprise and scepticism.
Verris nodded his large domed head in confirmation.
"If I can get some samples and sequence them I can send my findings back to the GMF and the hive for study, it might be able to give us an edge in comabting these things later on," he said.
Markus thought about that for a moment, it kinda made sense actually, you would send captured technology to an engineer for study or reverse engineering, so was it too far removed to send a possible biological weapon or armour sample to a doctor?
"Alright we'll try for one of the bigger ones once we drop the satalite," he said and Verris nodded.
"Wouldn't it make sense to take a sample from one of the smaller less well-armed abominations?" Victus asked and Markus shook his head.
"It'll be easier for us to fly into the shadow and latch onto one of the carrier-style ones without being detected and if we are it'll be easier for us to outrun and evade one of the larger ones compared to one of the much more nimble cruisers or frigate style ships if you can really call them that," he said.
"I'm going to drop the satalite in amongst that large cloud of spacial debris that looks like an asteroid belt over there," Lucious said pointing out of the canopy window to their three-o-clock.
Markus rotated one of the outside cameras to look where he was indicating and nodded, "Good shout Lucious that should help mask it as well as its cloaking tech, make it so," he said.
The little Raptorian expertly steered the ship in between the large deceptively slow-moving chunks of rock that thanks to their mineral content made deep scans almost impossible, fortunetly one of the packages the clever Xenos of the science hive had added into these things was debris avoidance, so the satellite would bob around and weave about to avoid getting struck, it could even latch onto a larger chunk if need be, they really were pretty smart for a satellite.
"Satalite away and cloaked, now testing comms uplink to the Clan," Lucious said as the satalite which they could see thanks to the Clan's friendly cloak IFF system flew silently out into the mess of rocks before vanishing from sight among the debris.
"Got a clean ping back from the GMF and we are already getting a request for an update from the Grand Matriarch," Levi said from behind him.
Markus chuckled and nodded, "Of course, we are ok patch her through," he said and suddenly a miniature Tik eleth Mason appeared on his console before him.
"Greetings Grand Matriarch infiltration into the Velon system has gone well so far though we are detecting a hell of a lot more resistance than we anticipated, it seems that our enemy may have bolstered their forces in the time it took Adesus and Feris to locate us," Markus said saluting the miniature Tik hologram as he spoke.
Tik clicked her mandibles thoughtfully, "How much so? Do we have accurate reads on numbers yet?" she asked and Markus shook his head.
"Not yet Grand Matriarch we have only just completed hiding the communications satalite, that is our next step will be performing a deep scan of the system as we dare as well as gaining a sample from one of the ships for battle Angel Verris to study and confer with his queen and hive upon," Markus said causing little Tik to scowl in confusion.
"Why would Battle Angel Verris wish to study a sample of one of their ships?" she asked.
"Because they appear to be highly advanced biotech in nature Grand Matriarch, I'm sending some of the images and scans we've managed to capture so far for yourself and the Clan leadership as well as our allies to study," Markus said sending a data packet containing the data they had so far garnered to her.
Little Tik looked down at what was obviously a console out of frame of the hologram and her eyes first widened before narrowing, "Organic ships!?" she exclaimed and Markus nodded.
"It seems so Grand Matriarch though whether they are bio-mechanical or fully biological is up for debate at this moment though when we know more you and the Grand Patriarch will obviously be the first to know," he said.
"Very good Seeker, I will bring this to my heart's star and see what he makes of it I would suggest that as a Seeker you too may wish to see if there is any additional intel that those Tamer senses of yours may discover whereas our sensors may not, I'm sure my beloved cub will be in contact in due time to advise you, keep us in the loop Tik eleth Mason out," she said and with that the channel closed and mini Tik vanished.
"Well then looks like we have our orders let's get close to one of those big moth-like fuckers and see what we can learn," Markus said.
Lucious nodded and after setting the ship to full silent running she set an intercept course for the nearest of the large moth-like ships, silently gliding their way up into its shadow under its belly.
The closer they got the more like a living breathing creature the giant ship appeared to become, to the point that Markus swore he could see fur on both the abdomen and legs of the silent ship.
A few smaller ships that kinda reminded him of fruit flies were buzzing about the rear of the ship and he kept seeing organic flaps opening and closing to let them in and out, they must be the hanger bays for it though how many it had were debatable.
"Matching velocity and drift course and beginning decent, prep for roll," Lucious said before turning them fully upside down to match their landing gear to the bottom of the massive moth ship.
"The outer hull is not metal so the magnets don't work, "I've had to use the grab claws to hold us in place, though I wouldn't recommend sticking about in case they manage to shake us lose by doing some kind of manoeuvre," Lucious said his chirpy voice getting higher as he expressed his worries.
Markus nodded before climbing out of his seat, "Alright Levi you have the bridge, Verris you are with me, think I need to take a closer look at this ship myself," he said as the large Xeno joined him in heading for the airlock.
Figuring that their magnetic boots would be totally fucking useless the pair had equipped a set of wrist-mounted grapple launchers designed to rappel down the sides of buildings or to fast-assend them to help them stay in contact with the hull on their little walk.
As the airlock opened and true silence hit them Markus hit his cloak and his thrusters to glide out of the airlock and onto the hull which felt incredibly odd under foot, it was like kinda standing on hard plastic rather than the hull of a space-faring ship.
Both he and Verris looked at one another to confirm their confusion at this before both fired an anchor into the outer layer of the hull from their wrist launchers.
"It kinda reminds me of being at home in the hive," Verris said through the comms in his helmet as he leaned down to use his laser cutter to strip away from of the outer hull before placing it into a small pot he stowed in his belt.
"How so?" Markus asked as he too knelt down retracting the wire from his grapple to ensure that he simply didn't wind up floating upside down with his feet in the air.
"it kinda feels like the older resin in the hive, once it has a few layers on it the stuff kinda takes on a hard plastic-like feel with just a little play in it, hell I might even suggest my queen share this with the science hive, who knows maybe between our hives we could come up with some kind of absorptive armour to coat the outer metal places of our ships?" he suggested.
Markus thought on this for a second and then nodded, "You know that could probably work, you know the way they put wiring on the outside of tanks and vehicles to soft detonate incoming missiles and ordnance, it could possibly work like that?" he suggested and Verris nodded his large domed head as he worked.
"Yeah I think so too!!" he said cutting off jet another sample this time from under the outer layer.
Markus placed a hand against the outer layer of the hull, admittedly this would work much better if he were skin to shell but given the vacuum of space would turn his hand into an icicle in less than five seconds he'd have to make do with the glove muffling things slightly.
He slowly began to reach out with his feelings and his senses, he didn't want to go all out just yet in case there were any Nightmare Assassins on board or nearby who would feel it, though just because he hadn't actually felt any didn't mean they were not there, it was easy to hide in a psionic noise like the one all around them but a trained Seeker like their own Seekers of Balance could filter it out, Markus was under no illusions that Nightmare Assassins had something similar.
What he felt played merry hell with his senses, there was certainly a sense of organic life here but it was unlike anything he'd ever felt before, so much so that his brain struggled to comprehend it.
Insectoid life made up a huge majority of the life that Tamers sensed every single day in the world all around them, but this was both so similar and yet so different from anything he was accustomed to that it jarred him quite badly as he tried to attune himself to it.
The only real way he could describe it was like having blood in your mouth that overrode the taste of another thing, that metallic taste that kinda lingered.
It honestly felt like the ship was both alive and dead at the same time to the point where he really had to fight to tune out the white noise of the energy that flowed through it.
The energy was obviously the ship's electrical systems powering the internal systems but it was more than that, it was like this species had actually made use of a kind of modified central nervous system to carry the high-voltage currents that most systems required to operate, so this resulted in the nerves being in a state of perpetual hyperstimulation which bled into Markus as he tried to attune himself to it.
When he finally gathered enough strength and wits to pull back he was left with a buzzing echo of what he had felt, like looking at a bright light and having it create a pulsing spot in your vision it was the same for Markus, like a pulsing after image of the ship in space left floating where it had been rather than where it was.
This gave him an idea, if these creatures had bio-mechanical parts in their bodies as well then Tamers might be able to use this to their advantage like a radar of sorts, being able to ping them in amongst the background energy of the life all around them.
Just then Verris tapped him on the shoulder very nearly making him jump out of his skin, "You ok Seeker?" he asked with an obvious concern in his voice.
"Yeah I'm good, bit of a head rush from trying to jack into this thing, hell of a trip I can tell you," he said smiling at the Battle Angel through his helmet before remembering that the faceplates were opaque and he couldn't see him.
"I have what I need let us return to the ship, we do not wish to push our luck here I believe," Verris said and Markus nodded before detaching his anchor and kicking his thrusters back into motion.
"I will begin my study of these samples once we make landfall and there is no chance of them being disturbed or destroyed by the turbulence of reentry, for now, I will store them in the medical bay," Verris said upon retracting his helmet.
"Good shout, I'm going to head back to the bridge and send a ping message to the Clan before we push onwards," Markus replied before turning and heading for the bridge, he still couldn't shake the odd sensation of an after echo in his mind's eye and now he had felt the energy of the ship it felt like he could feel the other ships in their fleet to, like the distant electrical buzzing of a gathering thunderstorm on the horizon.
"Find out anything useful?" Adesus asked as he dropped into the commander's seat.
"Not sure exactly, possibly," he said and she raised an eyebrow at him.
"Possibly?" she repeated curiously.
"It felt strange, like nothing I've ever encountered before but I may be able to use it to attune myself to their bio-electrical field so that we have early warning when one is near us," he said with a shrug.
"Well did Verris fare any better?" Feris asked and Markus nodded.
"He got his samples, he's currently storing them in the medbay and will start working on them when we make planetfall, who knows maybe he'll find a way to assist us in defeating their armour," he said.
"Ok I'm disengaging us from the hull, let's begin our approach," Lucious said pressing a few controls on his large panels.
There was a soft thud as the ship disengaged its grapples and began to drift away from the large moth-like ship before accelerating away from it under the power of its thrusters.
When they were a safe distance away Lucious opened up the main drive a little to give them some speed before shutting it down again to let their inertia carry them, that was the beauty of space flight, they really didn't need to keep burning the engine to get somewhere fast as once a speed was achieved there was nothing to slow them down with drag.
As they sped silently towards the planet Markus and Levi were both studying the sensor readouts, and that's when Markus noticed something very odd in the planet's orbit.
The planetary defences were rather obvious to see as there appeared to be platforms spaces out all around both the equator and the poles of the planet and from what their sensors could pick out without running invasive scans all of them were armed with the same sort of weaponry they'd seen on the Moth ship.
But it wasn't these that caught their collective eye, it was behind them closer to the atmosphere that piqued their curiosity.
"You seeing this boss?" Levi asked glancing up from her console to look at him and he nodded.
"Yeah, what the hell is it, it reminds me of a fucking oversized spider's web or something?" he said looking at various feeds from the different camera types which displayed an image of the planet in various wavelengths, it was like looking at different vision modes in a hunting mask all at once.
"I think it's a laser grid designed to emulate a spider's web, it appears to be coming from a series of small satellites in low orbit, close to the outer atmospheric edge," Levi said.
"Purpose?" Markus asked.
"Unknown but if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's a detection grid of some kind, probably to detect any ships trying to either enter or leave the atmosphere," Levi said running an analysis on what their sensors were picking up while also broadcasting data packets back to the Clan for analysis by the science hive and their allies.
"Actually that makes perfect sense," Markus said scratching his chin thoughtfully as everyone glanced at him for clarification.
"Well think about it, Adem is leading this little revelation and he has experience fighting us on Raptoria and on the Beledon homeworlds, he knows of our cloaking and stealth capabilities and he must have prepared for the eventuality of us coming in covertly, so this must be one of his answers to that, plus it doubles up in order to try and prevent any escapees from the planet's surface, so a win-win in his eyes," he said.
"So how are we going to get past it without being detected?" Lucious asked looking up out of the window at the faintly shimmering web that seemed to surround the planet.
"Hmm good question, do you see any gaps in the net Levi?" Markus asked and the big Xeno ran scan after scan before finally shaking her large domed head.
"Nope I doubt we could even get through if we did an orbital drop in just our suits it's that tightly woven," she said.
"What if we disrupt one of the nodes interlinking it?" Feris asked.
"It would work but my bet is that would set off every pauking alarm their HQ has," Levi said looking hard at her readouts.
"What if we hitch a ride?" Victus said suddenly and everyone looked at him before he pointed out of the window.
As they looked up Markus saw what he was pointing at, there appeared to be some kind of space checkpoint set up so that ships could proceed down to the planet or disgorge their cargo/passengers at a way station which would then be ferried down on smaller ships, but the larger ones that were trying to make landfall were simply checked and waved through by whatever security that had running in there.
"Risky as hell but honestly I don't see that we have much of a choice, tinkering with their tech before we have any real idea what we are doing is almost certainly going to get us caught, so before we commit to this anyone else got any other suggestions?" Markus asked looking around the bridge.
There was complete silence from his companions and they all glanced at one another as if waiting for anyone to speak up, but they never did.
"Alright then I guess that settles it, Lucious find us a sutiblely large ship that's heading through the checkpoint and latch us on, try and find a good spot for us to evade any kind of scanning laser that might pick us out even while cloaked," Markus said.
The little Raptorian nodded and then seemingly counted on his fingers while doing what appeared to be some very complex mental math, once he was happy he set off putting them on course towards what appeared to be a rather large ship that reminded Markus of a crab.
Just before they entered the queue they found a good spot to drop their second cloaked satalite which when dropped immediately began attacking the Velon comms and data networks seeing entry.
Markus knew that task was going to be an arduous one as to ensure their infiltration went undetected the system would be scanning the network and first of all translating both the language and the programming languages used to code it, then it would begin to attempt to locate weaknesses and exploits that it could make use of before finally attempting a full penetration of the network itself, it would not be a quick process in the slightest.
Once that was complete Lucious expertly piloted them beneath the large oval-shaped crab ship and found a large enough gap between its six massive legs to tuck the Runner into one of the gaps, once anchored in place upside down they powered down the ship as best they could leaving only the cloaking and life support systems running, while everything else was off to make them as electronically quiet as possible.
The wait to get scanned was absolutely horrendous, it was obvious that all of them hated waiting for something and Markus did his best to try and soothe his companion's nerves by influencing their energy and auras to help calm them, but finally, their turn came.
The ship entered what appeared to be a truly massive docking station of some kind that was made up of a series of rings that reminded Markus of the rings in the barrel of one of their railguns, a series of larger thick rings made purely of metal with cabling connecting each one of them.
As the ship passed through they seemed to be subjected to a series of high-intensity scans which were obviously probing for any stowaways or maybe contraband as the ship slowly inched its massive frame through.
Fortunately, the spot that Lucious had picked out shielded them from the scans as the lasers and energy fields used to sweep the ship hit the leg they were hiding beneath rather than them so finally with a loud whoosh of held breath they emerged from the other side of the security checkpoint and Lucious released them.
As they were so close to the planet Lucious didn't have a lot of time to get everything back up and running before the gravity well began to drag them down towards the surface, fortunately, he'd prepared for this and while they had been waiting to go through the scans he'd set up a command set that would power everything up with a single command given which thankfully worked like a charm, so before they even hit the outer edge of the atmosphere their thrusters and engines as well as their shielding were fully operational.
The ship jolted and rocked as golden flames licked over the window as they dropped down through the atmosphere having travelled a little bit away from the security checkpoint so as to not be obvious when they began to leave a trail of flames behind them, though if they had been spotted or not was still up for debate.
But either way, they finally made it down through the outer atmosphere into the much calmer inner one, settling into a stable flight as they did.
"Alright ladies it's your show from here, tell us the best place to go and little Lucious will get us there," Markus said shooting a warm and grateful smile at the little Raptorian in the pilot's seat.
"While every instinct in me demands that we drop right on top of the capitol to kick Adem's tail quills up his tail hole it is probably better that we stay out of sight for now, so my guess would be either Sandhome or the ocean near to the Bloodplane," Adesus said and Feris nodded.
"Though as much as I'd love to head right to Bloodplane to see what can be done to aid the All Mother I would recommend we get the lay of the land and see what it is we are up against first, so with that in mind I would recommend Sandhome, it has miles upon miles of remote desolate desert that's real easy to hide in and get yourself lost in, plus we may be able to reach out to the Archnidia to see if they are able to help us," Feris said.
"The Archanidia? Who are they?" Lucious chirped.
"Not all Velons look like us, we are but one sentient species among seven who share this world, but we are all Velon, the best way to describe them would be to think of one of your scorpions but much larger, they are a very robust and hardy people, not to mention incredible architects, the city they have built in the centre of Sandhome is a true feat of Archnidia engineering and a thing of beauty," Adesus said with a proud note in her voice.
"Alright then to Sandhome it is, if one of you girls would kindly point our eager pilot in the right direction he'll do the rest," Markus said indicating the navcomp.
Both of them studied the holographic render of their planet for a few moments before picking out a large golden-red area that looked like a massive continent.
"Here, this is Sandhome, the capital should be about here though I would not recommend going here just yet as who knows what we will find there, I would recommend here, there are very old caves in these hills that will be big enough to act like a hanger for the ship to hide in and for us to set up a makeshift base of operations in, also with a bit of luck we may find other Guardians like myself hiding there as we used to use them for training when doing our desert training with the Archnida Guardians, infact Guardians from all over Velona would come here to train," Adesus said wistfully.
"Got it, plotting a course now," Lucious said tapping his own little map set up to give himself waypoints to follow on the vast sand-covered continent and with that, they were off.
It didn't take Markus long to see why Sandhome got its name, it was thousands upon thousands of miles of dunes and rocks in all directions, interspersed with little green and purple islands of life in the form of oaisises that popped up around where underground rivers fed pools where the wildlife that called this hot barren place home congregated.
Though flying at the speed and altitude they were it didn't take them long to spot the cave network that Adesus had mentioned because out of the dunes rose a towering mountain made of fire-red rock that even from here they could see was littered with a massive yawning mouth like caves far bigger than they would need to fly the runner into.
"There that one, I'm detecting a water source running through it," Markus said highlighting one on Lucious's display near the base of the mountain.
"We call it the jewel of Sandhome as from a distance it looks like a giant flame red ruby jutting up out of the ground, it is one of the hardest places to reach in all of this place thanks to how far from any oasis you have to travel with no cover, the journey here is a test and a testament to one's will to survive and thrive, it's why we Guardians use it to prove our dedication and mettle," Adesus said proudly.
"We should be wary still, if Adem managed to take any Guardians alive he may already know of this place and while I am not sensing any Nightmare Assassins here that does not mean they are not there," Markus said with a note of caution to his voice.
Levi scanned the mountain with the ship's sensors, "I'm not reading any life signs or at least any sentient life signs around here, so unless they are deep underground where our sensors can't read them we are clear," she said.
"Alright take us in Lucious," Markus said pointing towards the large cave that was highlighted on his readout.
Not only was the cave easily big enough for them to fly into it was big enough for them to turn the ship around while hovering before landing, though Levi did insist on doing a deep scan of the rock structure around them to ensure that the cave wouldn't collapse atop of them with the vibrations and pressure generates by the engines, but once she gave the thumbs up they touched down.
To Markus, the red rock looked like a mixture of polished marble and sandstone, but the initial scans that Levi had taken showed it to be harder and denser than granite in its composition which was good for them as it would make it far less likely to give way under the stress of say having a space ship taking off and landing within your walls.
"Alright people let's get out there and set up a security perimeter then once we're sure we're good we'll set up a base of operations, I'll reach out to the Clan to let them know we are on the ground," he said and there were a few salutes before they all trooped out of the bay including Lucious.
Each of them was a professional in what they did and all knew their jobs incredibly well so Markus felt no need to micro-manage them, his team had been hand-picked by Liam Silver-Diamondsclae himself so he knew he could trust each and every one of them to perform up to the Clan's standards.
It took a bit of time for the comms to establish an uncrackable quantum tunnel for real-time communication but eventually, there was a miniature Jack Mason and Tik eleth Mason stood before him on his console.
"Report Seeker how goes it?" Jack asked.
"We've touched down Grand Patriarch and Matriarch, we are in a place Adesus and Feris call Sandhome which is basically a kind of giant continent-sized desert, according to our friends the locals are highly skilled warriors and architects so we are going to start with them as a path to locating possible resistance cells, I also plan to scope out their capitol city here and use it as a baseline for what we can expect to encounter in the enemy occupied territories," Markus said.
"Good thinking Seeker, we've taken a look at the intel you have sent us so far and I must say we are very intrigued, bio mechanical living ships are certainly a new one for us, the science hive and Battle Angel hive are both buzzing about it, we're getting requests for updates almost hourly from them so I do hope that Battle Angel Verris has something to add for us?" Tik eleth asked.
"I'm afraid not Grand Matriarch, we did however retrieve some samples of one of the hulls of one of their ships, Verris plans to study it and send all his findings plus data through to both yourselves and the two hives to also be shared with our allies of course, but he wished to wait until we were safely on the ground to begin his work for fear of compromising the samples," Markus said and both of them nodded.
"Excellent thinking young Seeker, this will hopefully placate both hives and reduce my Xeno-induced headache somewhat, let us know what you find out, over and out," Jack Mason said and with that, he terminated the call.
Markus made his way out of the ship and into the cave and the first thing that happened was his breath was truly taken away by how massive it was, it reminded him of the huge hollowed-out sections that the Raptorians built their underground cities inside of, well except blood red and gold instead of black but no less impressive in scale.
"I've set up some perimeter sensors at the cave mouth and a little way beyond it so if anything or anyone comes near this place we'll know in plenty of time," Levi said jumping down off one of the walls and landing next to him.
"Excellent forewarned is forearmed," Markus said approvingly and just then both Victus and Adesus appeared obviously both heading back from the cave mouth also.
"We have set up some of the remote sentry turrets to guard us, if the sensors go off they will alert us and enable us to fire upon any threat remotely should the need arise, I ensured to use their cloaks to hide them from view and they will not fire unless directed to do so, so they will not give us away by inadvertently firing on the local fauna or a passerby," Victus said with a salute.
"Good, the last thing we want to do is wind up shooting one of the very people we are here to aid on accident," Markus said nodding in approval.
"I've located the water supply and taken a few samples, the stream runs through a large second of the cave over there, I'll take these to Victus for an in-depth analysis, my suit gave it the all-green but I'd rather doc ok everything before any of us grab a drink," Lucious said holding up some test tubes filled with incredibly clear water.
"Good job team this is what I like to see all getting stuck straight into things, I've spoken to the Grand Matriarch and Patriarch and they are eager for updates on anything we can provide especially the biotech they are using, sounds like both the science hive and Battle Angel hive are screeching up a storm in the Grand Patriarch's ear already," he said and they all chuckled.
"Probably chose to bug him because the Grand Matriarch would go down there and screech back," Levi said with a chuckle.
"If you call that bellowing war roar of her's a screech then sure," Markus said with a grin, then he turned to Adesus and Feris.
"Alright ladies this is your show from here, time to step up and save your people, so where to first?" Markus said.
"I would recommend we scout out the city first though I think only a single pair of us should go to ensure we draw as little attention as possible," Adesus said.
"Alright good idea so here's the play, me and Adesus will take a skimmer and head to the city to see what we can find out, we'll set up an OP on the place, and the rest of you get the FOB set up and don't remove anything that can't be swiftly loaded back into the ship in case of an emergency, ok people lets get this show on the road," Markus said and with the crash of fists hitting breastplates in salute, the team broke up to begin their tasks, this war was just getting started.