Chapter 103:Lightning Before the Thunder.
Vessa watched as the lumbering tank made its way slowly towards their position and her heart began to beat hard and fast in her chest.
She kept having to remind herself that this was exactly why she and her pride had joined the Star Stalkers in the first place, the chance to go to distant worlds and to help show them that the Raptorian people were good people who would help them iin their times of need, to fight for them when no-one else would.
A chance to stand tall and proud alongside the warriors of Clan Mason as they fought the good fight on many worlds and to shed blood next to them shoulder to chest in the case of the humans or shoulder hip in the case of the Yautja and Xenos.
"Sensors ain't getting shit from that thing other than it exists, they must have some kind of jamming system thats blocking our attempts to scan it," Thomas said about a second before the tank suddenly froze solid and seemingly went on alert along with its escorts.
"Ahh pauk I think they detected your scans," Ziva said crouching down and ducking back around the corner of the building she had been peeking out from behind.
"Crap I think you're right, this is about to get spicy everyone get ready to move," Thomas said gesturing quickly to another alleyway opposite them that flanked around the tank.
As Vessa watched the drone feed from Jex's micro drone she saw the large two pronged turret on the top of the walking beetle tank begin to swivel around towards their hidden position.
"Fuck its locked in on us! Move!!" Thomas yelled about two seconds before a massive green flash hit the area sending them all flying.
Vessa's head felt like it had suddenly been placed inside a drum that was repeatedly being struck and oddly enough the beat was perfectly in time with her heartbeat.
The world swam slowly back into focus but kept pulsing in time with that drum beat and she saw a gold shape appear above her and before she knew what was happening she was being lifted as she got an odd sensation of being weightless for a moment before she found herself hanging upside down on something.
"Go loud!!" Thomas's voice suddenly bellowed inside of her skull and around her the world lit up.
Thats when Vessa's senses realigned and she was herself again.
She instantly realised that the gold thing she was hanging from was Thomas's shoulder as he moved her into the other alleyway while her pride and his Hunters gave covering fire.
It was only now she realised what had happened.
The tank had somehow managed to zero in on their scanner and had fired a blind shot at the location of where it had come from, fortunetly as they had all been in the process of moving the shot missed them but the explosive blastwave didn't.
This had flung them all around like toys in the narrow confines of the alleyway and it seemed she had been closest to it's flash point which had sent her sailing head over tail down the alleyway.
Thankfully it seemed that this new combat armour of theirs had done its job and saved her life, though her shielding was now down due to the severe force of the blast.
"You ok?" Thomas's voice rang through her head and she suddenly found herself pulled off his shoulder and held out infront of him in his hands like she weighed no more than a stuffed animal.
"I-I think so," she stammered as her head realigned.
"Oh thank Paya," he said before placing her back down on her feet where she wobbled for a moment before gaining her balance just before her pride surrounded both herself and Thomas.
Suddenly the comms sparked up and she heard the commander's voice breaking through the fog that was rapidly clearing from her head.
"Viper one to Viper one two whats your status over?" she said.
"Viper one two to Viper one we've been engaged by the enemy, they've got something that can detect our scans and they fired upon us with heavy armour, we require a fire mission over," Thomas replied.
"Roger that Viper one two, change of plans here, you and your team head directly for the tunnels, we'll handle the street fighting, stand by for Gipka fire mission, get real low as this is gonna be danger close, over," the commander said.
"Everyone get your heads down and get formed up ready to move!" Thomas yelled over the din of the constant fire that was raining down on them and which they were returning in kind.
Vessa quickly abated her pride's concerns and took up her spot in the formation taking her retrived weapon from Cemmil and checking it over to make sure it was undamaged.
From all around them she heard the tell tale whooshes of the Gipkas firing their indirect missiles that would arc up high into the air before flipping over to drop on targets below them.
Above her she heard a whine that indicated the missiles were inbound.
"Heads down!!" she yelled and the whole team crouched low in the alleyway.
There were a series of explosions from the next street over as the missiles began to impact their targets with their focused damage warheads that were specifically designed to direct all of their damage and force into their targets to lower the potential of colateral damage.
"Go Go Go!!" Thomas yelled even as dust and debris rained down on them and the team were immediatly on their feet and moving.
Vessa and her pride sprinted in a staggered line down the alleyway with the Hunters interspecalled among them.
As they burst out of the end of the alleyway the damage the Gipka's missiles had done was obvious as the tank that had fired on them was now a smoking husk, its large turret had been blown clear by what seemed to be a direct hit to it's hydrogen or possibly its plasma tanks.
The legs had been blown off the tank leaving it little more than a burnt husk.
Ahead of them there were more missiles raining down on the main base in an attempt to cripple the remaining armour that was on the surface and it seemed the Titans had gotten in on the action.
Above their heads there was a sharp crack and directly above them a vapor trail appeared as a large calibre shell flew over their heads and impacted what appeared to be some kind armoured mech suit that seemed to be climbing up ontop of one of the nearby buildings in order to get a firing solution on them.
The Titan's shell hit with so much force that the mech suit that kinda looked like an oversized mantis with large cannons on its shoulders and massive blade-like forearms was cut clean in half.
A blast of green plasma flame plumed from the thorax section of the suit as the top half was launched clear by the force of the blast.
The team ducked and doged as fire rained down on them from both the rooftops from what had to be the snipers that her pride had been worried about as well as from patrols that were out in the open of the streets that they ran through.
Instead of using stealth now the team had disabled their cloaking tech and had diverted the power freed up into their shield emmiters, a smart move as they were being near constantly clipped by the plasma fire that was ripping through the streets.
Thankfully the Hunters had engaged their plasma riot shielding and both Ziva and Thomas who were at the front of the pack managed to deflect most of the fire that was raining down on them from the base they were rushing towards.
It was only now that Vessa and her pride actually seemed to notice that the Hunters had actually fanned out to surround them on all sides with the two other Yautja on the flanks while their two Xenos were on the rear all with their riot shielding up to form a loose bubble.
Vessa actually kinda found it odd for her pride to be surround instead of being the ones doing the surrounding and by mostly males of all things.
"Prepare to breach!" Thomas yelled as they reached the entrance to the base.
Ziva quickly stepped forwards and pulled a can of what looked like some kind of foam from one of her pouches and she sprayed in a large Yautja shaped circle on the wall before replacing it in her pouch and attaching a detonator and giving Thomas a thumbs up.
"Breach Breach Breach!!" Thomas yelled and Ziva pressed a button on her wrist comp.
There was a sharp crack and a perfect circle appeared in the resin covered sandstone wall as the spray high explosive detonated with enough force to not only cut right through the resin and the stone beneath it, but it also caused the circle to drop inwards leaving a perfect circle cut clean through it.
Even before the circle hit the floor with a loud thump the team was rushing through the breach into the inner compound.
It seemed they caught the insects on the hop as there were only a few of them in the outer compound.
Vessa raised her rifle into her shoulder and took aim at a group of soldiers coming out of one of the small dome shaped buildings that made her think of minuture anthills.
She took a deep breath and blew half of it out as she squeezed the trigger of her rifle sending a burst of projectiles speeding towards the group.
Jets of yellow and green ichor showed exactly where her hits landed and she pulled the trigger three more times sending the subsonic rounds speeding towards the hapless insects.
Even before the group slumped to the ground there was a loud buzzing noise from outside of the compound that Vessa recognised very well.
It was Beta pride and they pulled their MK5's up to the hole the team had used to breach the compound before racing through the hole on foot having dismounted their vehicles to join the assualt.
"Ziva, Fexrill and Alpha pride on me, we're going to clear those left buildings, Evvra take the others and Beta pride and hit those buildings on the right, meet up in the centre," Thomas yelled and the group immediatly split and began to move.
Thomas took point with Ziva on the left and Fexrill on the right while Vessa and her pride formed a semi circle to bring up the rear as they rushed towards the buildings on the left side of the compound.
Fortunetly it seemed that the attack had caught the bugs on the hop and they were not fully prepared to repell close quarters attackers, though this was not going to be the case for long if the team didn't act fast and they all knew it.
Thomas rushed forwards towards the oddly shaped buildings which seemed to have been constructed out of a mixture of crushed sandstone, earth and the odd resin that they used giving them a red gold colour with a splash of orange under the sunlight which would have actually made pretty good camaoflauge in the golden sands of the desert.
But under their night vision gear they just appeared to be black and white with heavy emphisis on the black part.
Vessa couldn't help but look over at the rows of armoured vehicles that were stationed at the rear of the compound as they ran forwards following Thomas.
While they looked like living breathing insect beings it was easy to forget that they were just vehicles that needed a pilot, though as she ran she swore she saw at least one of them watching her.
This begged the question, just how alive were these bio-organic weapons?
Were they concious but just programed to follow the instructions of the pilot as they had no concious will of their own?
Or were they simply bio-organic and cybernetic shells merely made to look like larger versions of insects that required a fully concious pilot to operate?
Or was it a symbiotic relationship between the pilot and the vehicle?
There were just so many question surrounding the strange vehicles and indeed their operators, but she didn't have time to answer any of them now and she figured that in time both the Clan and its allies would undoutably study captured specimines to garner the answers that currently eluded her, but for now her only focus was helping to blow the fucking things away post haste.
As if the Great Tree herself had weighed in on that last point there were a series of flashes from the behicle bay and a blast wave rolled over the compound sending a wave of dust and sand washing over her pride and team.
It took her a moment to realise that it was the Gipkas, they were using the feeds from their suit cameras to pinpoint targets inside the compound and dropping ordenance by using positioning data recived from the command Titan.
Vessa felt a ruffle of pride wash over her feathers as she saw the destruction her battle sisters had wraught, they were truly showing what a united and determined Raptoria could do, now it was her and her pride's turn.
"Breach!" Thomas yelled and Ziva once again rigged the door with her spray foam before sending the whole thing flying inwards, swiftly followed by the whole team.
The response from the occupants was instantanious.
Bolts of sizzeling green plasma straked through the air towards them as the bugs tried to repel the invaders storming their building.
Both Thomas and Ziva were at the front and were using their riot sheilds to cover the team's entry, acting as a literal living bulwark as the rest of the team entered through the hole in the wall and scattered into whatever cover they could find.
Vessa and her pride scattered and used their small size to their advantage as they entered, keeping low and ducking behind the odd protrusions that could be furniture or simply part of the structure it was hard to tell.
Vessa herself managed to get behind a support coloumn that was running from the floor to the celing like a massive stalagtite made of amber while leaning out to fire bursts into the defenders on the opposite side of the room.
Thankfully even in the dust and smoke filled room, their HUD's managed to pick the enemy out thanks to their plothora of sensors and highlighted them in red, while her allies were all highlighted in blue to prevent friendly fire.
Thanks to the Raptorian way of thinking the Star Stalkers had designed their weapons for mulitrole and multipurpose, this mentality served them well in the ever changing arena of combat as it did now.
Vessa seeing the clustered nature of the defenders flicked a switch on the side of her rifle and activated the underslung shotgun which was rigged to fire either buckshot style ballbearings or dart-like flachettes in a cloud before her.
She chose the flachette option from her HUD display by blinking on it and the weapon instantly reconfigured in her hands, opening the lower barrel and sending both the selected projectiles and a supply of the liquid proppelent that they used to prime it into place in less time than it took her to register the green light on her HUD telling her it was ready.
She peeked out from behind her cover and upon seeing a group of red sillouettes in the smoke fired at them.
Unlike the rifle's normal mode there was no suppression on the shotgun so it issued what sounded like a bark and a boom as it fired, sending a jet of flame out of the muzzle of the underslung barrel that was normally conceled in the forgrip of her weapon for ease of use.
The small high speed darts did their job very effectivly and caught the insects by complete surprise, while also having the side effect of chewing their cover to pieces as well.
Like any good pride, it seemed that they were of a single mind now and her sisters had also opted to switch to their close quarters options, as was signaled by yet more barking booms from around the room spewing clouds of death into the area of the defending bugs.
This had the effect of chewing their cover up as it seemed that while the resin that coated everything was highly resistant to plasma fire it wasn't so great at stoping clouds of metal micro darts moving at high velocity.
Bugs that were caught out in the open when one of these weapons fired were simply shredded as their armoured carapaces were no match for the darts at this range, they either blew fist sized holes right through them, or peppered them with a cluster of smaller holes that made them look like the head of a pepper pot.
The noise from the small weapons also seemed to disorentate the bugs as it appeared that they didn't seem to have any kind of protection from balistic fire or the supersonic shockwaves they produced.
This was not a problem for either the Raptorians or their Clan Mason allies who all had aural protection built into their suits which kicked in the second one of those little shotguns opened up.
The momentary distraction allowed both the Hunters and the Star Stalkers to push further inwards using their advantage to get in close.
Ziva let out a bellowing roar almost right in the faces of the insects using what appeared to be some kind of large console for cover before leaping clean over and landing right on top of the confused insects.
Regardless of size, the weight of a couple of hundred pounds of angry Yautja girl landing on your head is pretty disorentating to just about anyone, even if you are into that sort of thing.
Ziva wasted zero time doing what her kind were famous for and unleashing her wristblades while getting upclose and personal with the stunned insects.
Just like the flachette rounds from Vessa's shotgun, Ziva's Yautja powered wristblades also had little to no problem punching through the armoured carapaces of the bugs and there were a series of loud cracks and crunches and she stabbed and slashed her way through the group, sending limbs and bile-yellow ichor flying in all directions.
Not to be outdone, Vessa issued her own war cry and while not as deep or resonating as that of Ziva, the fact that it was picked up by her sisters made it echo powerfully through the room as she and her pride sisters charged from cover and right into the fray.
Vessa vaulted over the console and leapt high into the air before coming down on the back of one of the insectoid warriors as they struggled to turn to level their weapon on her.
About a second before her armoured feet slammed into the top of their head and driving her armour reinforced claws into their skull they managed to get off only a single shot which glanced harmlessly off her sheilding but still set her alarms blaring.
As she kicked into a acrobatic flip that landed her squarly infront of Thomas who was currently pulling his combistaff from the back of another insect she gave him a coy smile before realising her couldn't see it through her helmet and feeling kinda embaressed as her sisters all landed beside her having all done somthing simular with exactly the same result, think alike, act alike.
"Looks like we're clear, nice job team and that goes doubly for you girls, nice idea to use those shotguns in close like that, seriously shook them up," Thomas said looking around at the scene of absolute carnage surrounding them.
"Told you we Raptorians know a thing or two about fighting upclose and in tight confines," Vessa said.
"Yeah you can always count on a healthy Raptorian pride to know how to handle tight," Jex said about a second before Cemmil cuffed her across the back of the head making her armour ring.
"Anyone hurt?" Thomas asked obviously choosing to ignore the comment and looking over his team but everyone seemed as good as when they entered if just a little more dirty thanks to the sheer amount of dust floating around in the air.
"Alright lets move, we gotta meet up with Beta pride and the others, we have a tunnel complex to clear!" Thomas yelled planting his combistick back above his tight human arse and heading out the door with his weapon back in hand.
Vessa and her pride formed up and followed in formation and as they moved towards the obvious entrance to the tunnel she saw a blast from the anti-air battery that was fitted to the top of the other buildings that Beta pride and the others were working on.
"Viper one four to Viper one two anti-air is toast, I repeat anti air is toast, over," Evvra's deep resonating voice came through the comms.
"Roger that Viper one four, nice work, meet us at the tunnel entrance, it's time to take this party down town, over and out," Thomas replied.
"Viper one two this is Viper one how copy over?" the commander's voice came over the airwaves and Thomas held up a hand to halt the team before taking a knee.
"Viper one this is Viper one two slid copy, go ahead over," he replied.
"Stand fast Hunter we have some reenforcments coming in who want to join the party, over," she said.
"Roger that ma'am holding fast, over," he said with obvious confusion in his voice and suddenly there was a series of very loud booms high above them causing all of them even beta pride who had just rejoined them to look up.
Out of the dark sky above a series of flaming streaks rocketed downwards before landing in the sands all around the base though somehow manageing to thankfully miss all of the buildings, they were orbital drop pods.
The pods were much like the ones that Vessa and her own pride had ridden down in, only these pods were much larger and seemed to only hold two ocupants in each.
As the doors blew off them Vessa's mouth fell open inside of her helmet as huge Beledon warriors stepped out dressed in the golden armour of the Hunters with the badge of the Templars emblazened across their broad chests.
But it was the badge next to it that really caught her eye.
It was Beledon head sat atop what looked to be a set of crossed swords which sat atop a large shield.
Underneath the sheild in English the words 'For a home we lost we shall fight and for the souls that we remember we shall win.'
These were the Knights of Beledonia, the Beledon orbital shock troops that they'd spoken about only earlier, but what were they doing here?
Without missing a beat the ten knights pulled their massive weapons from their pods and charged to join their comrades, led by a knight dressed in the blue and silver armour of a Clan Mason Seeker.
"Seeker Knight Pelma Broadhorn at your service honourable Hunters and beloved little sisters of the Raptorian Star Stalkers, we stand ready to aid you in this fight! Now who is in charge here?" the massive and obviously female Beledon said raising a truly massive broad sword above her head which caused her fellow knights to bray and bang their weapons against their reinforced metal shields in agreement.
It was only now that Vessa realised that they didn't carry rifles, they only seemed to carry over sized hand weapons, though given the size of the bore of them was nearly as big as her fucking knee they were more like portable cannons than pistols.
It was also now that she noticed that their sheilds although made from an odd looking black metal seemed to have a shimmering electrical shielding layer over the outer skin, it seemed that the clever Xenos of the science hive had been at it again and had combined the Clan's sheilding technology with an old school heavy metal kite shield.
"Ok Seeker Knight that would be me, Hunter Thomas Silkweather, my callsign is Viper one two welcome to the party, here's the plan, we're about to clear out these bug tunnels in order to break the insects grip on this town and free it's inhabitents, our work so far is what let you guys drop in without being shot out of the sky by their air defences, the Serpentinus Royal Swords have already dug down and are going to breach the tunnels from underneath, this will allow us to catch the insects hiding within in a pincer movement, clear?" Thomas said and the big Beledon Seeker nodded her large horned head.
"Perfectly Hunter Silkweather, we shall asist you in crushing these vile insects into the dirt where they belong!" she said clenching a fist bigger than a sledgehammer head before her to emphisise her point.
"Glad to hear it, did the commander issue you with callsigns on the way down?" Thomas asked and she nodded.
"We took the time to patch into your comms network on the way down while we were communicating with your commander," she said.
"Excellent alright lets have them then," he said and the large Beledon listed off her team so that Thomas could not only mkae a mental note of their call signs but also program the team's IFF which showed up a moment later as all of them began displaying their call signs and ID's next to them in Vessa's HUD.
"Alright team form up, I want Alpha and Beta prides up front as not only are they our tame tunnel experts alongside our Xenos here but they are also the smallest targets, so when the shooting starts the fuckers are a lot less likely to hit them while our girls scatter into cover, next up will be our new Beledon friends here, when the shit hits the fan it will be their job to be a steel wall that will allow the rest of us to advance, I hope those fancy sheilds of yours are up to the chalenge," Thomas said gesturing to one of the kite shields the knights carried.
"Do not worry my new human friend and ally, these shields were forged with combined knowlege of the finest Beladon smiths, the ingenuity of your science hive and the skill of our very own Grand Patriarch himself, they will stop anything that is thrown at us!" Pelma declared proudly and thomas nodded.
"Well alright then, time to shine people, lets get in there and fucking do this and remember its gonna be tight in there so stay sharp!" he said and Fexrill hissed next to him.
"Oh well looks like its time for a fucking bug hunt then, for some reason I've always wanted to say that," the big Xeno male said and Vessa could positivly feel his toothy grin through his mask.
"Form up people, time to go spelunking with guns," Thomas said gesturing to the large tunnel entrance that sat in the centre of the base directly underneath a large tower that most likely housed their comms network.
Vessa turned to her pride and Beta pride and gestured for them to take up their positions around the doors and both prides stacked up on either side, this was so when the door was blown inwards they could move to pass over one another without obstructing one another.
"Switch to shotguns ladies, its time to get up close and personal, I want every second pride member running shot and everyone else on standard," Vessa said and she saw the pride members making the switch without even consulting one another as they just knew who would be best for the change.
"Knock knock mother paukers!" Ziva growled as she detonated the charge she had prepared while they were waiting for the arrival of the Beledon.
There was a sharp crack followed by a secondary one as the initial cutting charge was simply to cut a perfect ring in the door, the second one launched the freshly cut disc of metal inwards like an oversized smart disc.
As it turned out this was a smart desision because the insects had organised a bit of a surprise part for the invaders in the chamber behind the door.
They had set up a series of weapon empacements to fire on the door as soon as it was breached, but there were blatently not expecting the door to be used as a breaching weapon as the spinning chunk of metal cut two of the the emplacements and their ocupants clean in half before the first Raptorian even set foot through the gap.
The invaders also had another surprise in store for the defending bugs as well in the form of the several stun grenades that Vessa and her counterpart in Beta pride pobbed through the hole less than a second after it opened up.
Thankfully the sensory suppression equipment in Vessa's helmet did it's job perfectly, protecting her from both the incredibly bright series of flashes and loud explosions the grenades gave off which were amplified thanks to the tunnel not only being pitch black but closed in as well.
Though the entrance way was actually surprisngly spacious despite having only a small door, it had ramp that led steeply downwards into what almost looked like a hanger made of resin and earth.
Vessa and her pride charged forwards with their weapons raised firing as they moved to make the remaining defenders get their heads down, but to their surprise they chose to stay standing trying to return fire as the small and fast moving Raptorians flooded the room ahead of them.
Both prides did as they had rehersed during their training for building breaching and scattered finding what ever cover they could behind the odd looking machinery that was littered around.
The shotguns were proving invalulable in the close confines of the loading ramp as the barrage of flachette darts and ballbearing shot created a cloud of death that tore apart anything in its path in the close confines.
That wasn't to say that the defending bugs were going down easy though, they answered the barrage with one of their own.
Vessa lowered herself to the ground as she ran, straightening out her tail to act as a balancing rod and bowing her top half as low to the ground as she could to not only help her run at her top speed but to present as small a target as possible.
It seemed to work because not onyl did she cover the ground to the base of the ramp in just a coule of seconds but all the shots aimed at her sailed right over her head, sending orbs of crackeling green light screaming through the inky blackness of the shadows surrounding her.
To prevent being blinded by the plasma fire she switched her vision mode to thermal imaging and instantly the place was lit up in a cool blue, with the plasma now appearing as fast moving white orbs that left momentary trails in the air behind them as they super heated it.
This helped to trace the path of the shot right back to the shooter who fired it and her thermals revealed that the bugs were thankfully exothermic with their carapaces glowing reds and golds that were surrounded by red outline from her IFF detection system.
From behind her came a bellowing roar and a loud crashing noise that would have scared her shitless had she not known that this was the sound of rightous Beledon fury.
As she and her pride along with Beta pride provided covering fire on the bug positions within the hanger the sound of thundering hooves could be heard behind them getting rapidly closer as the Beldon knights charged into the fray with their sheilds lowered to absorb the plasma fire that was now being directed at them in the vain hope of stoping their charge in its tracks.
The sight of ten Beledon Knights in full armour with their swords held high was really somthing to behold as they charged past the little Raptorians who were still praying fire into the bug positions, it was like watching fury made flesh charging into battle.
It took Vessa a moment to realise that the Hunters were spread out among them as well and it wasn't until she saw Fexrill leap high into the air while spinning over to kick of the celing and then smashing into a large sniper bug in order to jab his tail right through its chest cavity, that she realised they were even there.
It really did seem that the Beledon had the rather unique ability to darw all atention onto themselves here as it also seemed that the bugs themselves were blissfully unaware of the Hunters until it was too late which only now dawned on her had been Thomas's plan all along.
It felt like someone had just stuck the final piece of a jogsaw puzzle together in her head, her pride charges had been meant to lock the bugs in place and force them to take cover in order to try and repell the small and hard to hit invaders.
While they kept them pinned in place the Beledon charged into the fray instantly drawing their attention with their sheer presence and fury forcing the bugs to try and adapt to the rapidly charging bovine knights as they fearlessly charged into melee range to engage them with their massive bladed weapons.
While all this was happening the Hunters had snuck in while stealthed and used the distractions caused by the other two groups to get around the bugs and hit them from the sides and the rear, a point that was currently being proven by Ziva grabbing a bug from behind its defensive barricade and pitching it into the air with a mighty swing where it was promptly cleaved in two by one of the Beledon knights who swung her sword like a baseball bat.
It had been a masterful stroke and Vessa couldn't help but admire Thomas for making it, he had expertly used the strengths of the three very different groups to his maximum advantage and had created a hell storm that he and his Hunters had used to strike at the enemy from the shadows.
In less than two minutes the hanger fell silent with only the sounds of shuffeling hooves, dripping ichor and the pinging and hissing of cooling gun barrels filling the void that had been left by the cries and shrieks of battle.
"Form up people, any injuries?" Thomas called as he appeared in the middle of the field emerging from his cloak with ichor dripping from his extended wristblades which proved he had gotten up close and personal with more than one of the insects.
Vessa as leader of the Star Stalker prides instantly summoned her pride and Beta prides to her and quickly did both a head count and an inspection and other than a few scortches to their armour where some of the high powered shots had made it through their sheilds they were all good to go so she turned to Thomas and gave him a human thumbs up.
"Prides Alpha and Beta still in the fight and ready to keep kicking tail boss," she said with pride in her voice.
"We too are ready for more tail kicking of which our valient and honourable little sister speaks!" Pelma said banging her sword pommel on her shield making it ring.
"Alright then well lets get too it, plenty more tails to kick here me thinks," Thomas said and with that they formed up with Vessa and her prides on point again, it was time to go deeper.