Chapter 113: Special Delivery.
Jack Mason stood in the courtyard of the FOB as the drop ship they had sent to retrieve the gift that Viper squad had sent to him special delivery landed on the large landing pad.
"Looks like Viper squad just keeps sending us gifts don't they boss?" Liam said leaning on a large weapon's create to their right.
"Yeah though not as much of a gift as the one that is supposed to be arriving soon, I wonder if I should introduce the two?" Jack said with a grin and even before Liam could laugh or answer him there was a boom above their heads causing the pair to look up.
"Speak of the Devil and she shall appear," Liam said and Jack laughed out loud.
"Don't let her hear you call her that as I really don't feel like explaining to your pack why they have to spend a few weeks fishing your arms out of your arse so they can reattach them for a hug," Jack said as the drop pod sped down towards the surface to land a few meters outside of the wall.
"You go and see her while I take our new guest to his new quarters otherwise I get the feeling there will be a rather large Yautja-shaped hole in our walls that I'm gonna have to get the Saviours to patch up when she hunts your arse down," Liam said with a laugh and a wave as he headed for the drop ship.
"Aye just don't forget to remove the fucker's suicide pill as we don't want him popping off on us before I get a chance to introduce him to my wife now do we?" Jack called as he turned and headed for the drop pod.
No sooner had he reached it than four sides of the multi-person drop pod blew off and four very recognisable figures stepped out.
"Welcome to Velona my love, the itch to hunt got too strong ehh, or did you just miss me too much?" Jack said as Tik eleth Mason stepped down from the pod.
Tik turned towards the sound of her husband's voice so quickly that her predlocks fanned out around her head forming a halo of armoured flesh.
She was currently dressed in her Valkyrie hunting armour that Jack himself had made for her and she looked every bit the regal Huntress leader of the Clan.
Without saying a word Tik dashed forwards causing the ground in the immediate area to shake with the force of her footfalls before she snatched Jack off his feet and into her tight embrace.
"Both my beloved one, it was both," she said as she pressed her masked face to his.
"Thought it might be," Jack said with a chuckle as he hugged Tik's large frame to his before she placed him back down on his feet.
"I have left Sela eleth in charge up there while our beloved son heads out on that mission you gave him," Tik said as her team formed up on their leader.
"Well come on in and I'll show you what we've done with the place oh and your timing couldn't be more perfect my love as we've just taken possession of a rather special gift courtesy of Viper squad," Jack said taking hold of his wife's massive hand and leading her into the base.
"Let me guess they have sent you another commander that you might pry their secrets from their skull if that is what you call it?" Tik said making Jack laugh.
"I see someone has been reading my mail again," he said playfully and Tik purred at him.
"A good Huntress keeps an eye on her mate even when they are not together, though mainly to ensure that no other hussy Huntress is trying to muscle in on her territory," Tik shot back equally playfully making Jack roar with laughter.
"You honestly think that anyone in the Clan is either that stupid or brave?" he asked shooting her a grin that made her purr.
"Stupid no, brave maybe," she said and Jack nodded in agreement.
Both of them couldn't be prouder of their Clan's accomplishments here if they tried, every single day their warriors and their allies were proving to the Galaxy what they were made of and what they stood for.
Even right now the Clan and its allies were matching ever further from their starting point on this world and were returning freedom to its inhabitants.
Every day new recruits to the cause rolled up on the FOB from the local resistance for training and arming so they could do their part in freeing their beloved homeworld.
Even now as Jack strode hand in hand with his wife across the courtyard of the FOB Hunters were training local resistance fighters in Clan tactics and it made Tik stop and observe.
"One moment my heart's truest star," she said before letting go of his hand and striding towards the group.
Jack couldn't help but chuckle as he glanced at Hunter one as they stood watching their Grand Matriarch get stuck right into the training and also watching the trainers snap to attention so fast it made their armour ring.
"You can take the Huntress out of the Clan but you can never take the Clan out of the Huntress," he said with a chuckle.
"It's why we would follow either of you through the gates of hell itself Grand Patriarch, because if either of you are treading that path it is a worthwhile road to walk and you will be the first ones through those gates once they are kicked open," one of her team said making Jack chuckle but also puff up a little with pride.
"Pretty sure it would be my wife who would be the one doing the door kicking, I prefer kicking asses, much softer on the ankles," he said with a laugh as he watched his wife take the rifle from one of the locals and show her how to hold it properly before handing it back to her and make her fire off a few shots which she instantly put through the bullseye of the target in a very tight grouping.
Tik nodded approvingly before turning to the rest of the gathered resistance fighters and lecturing them on proper shooting tactics all while Jack simply stood by, smiling the whole time.
It was obvious for anyone to see whether they had known the pair their whole lives or had only just met them that they absolutely adored one another.
It was easy to see how their love-fueled and shaped Clan Mason into what it was.
The pair of them fought so hard for one another and those around them that it couldn't help but be infectious.
They absolutely embodied the pride that Clan had in its members and even its friends, they lifted those around them and empowered them, they gave them the drive to fight.
Once Tik was finished doing Tik things she rejoined her husband who still had finished smiling at her.
"What entertains you, my love?' Tik asked as she noticed the goofy smile that was plastered all over his face as they fell into step together.
"Oh just once again being reminded of one of the many many reasons that I love you Tik eleth Mason," he replied flashing that smile at her and hearing the purring click that she gave in response.
"Then you now know how I feel every time I look at you standing tall and proud at the head of this Clan of ours, it reminds me of the truest trophy that I took in my lifetime," she said placing a large hand on his shoulder before sliding it down his arm to take his hand.
"Then once again we agree my love," Jack said as he opened the door and held it open for her once again displaying that no matter what, that to Jack his family came first.
The pair headed down to the holding cells where the commander was currently being extracted from his suit by the Xenos of the science hive with Hunter support.
"So this is one of those elusive commanders of which you spoke my love," Tik said as she watched through the reinforced two-way mirror that looked into the room.
"Yeah and we've learned a bit from the last one, least of which is that the fuckers have a suicide pill built into them that we need to neutralise," he said and tik nodded.
"Smart, brutal of course but smart all the same," she said.
"Yeah, it seemed that their leadership or maybe queen is a better term has obviously considered the concept that these commanders could be captured by a powerful enough military force," he said.
"Then this is good but also worrying, it means that our enemy is not so arrogant as to not have proper respect for their enemy that they consider themselves unbeatable, we will have to be on the lookout for for other potential..." Tik began to say before they were interrupted by an explosion and the ringing of alarms.
Both Tik and Jack spun to see green gas pouring out of the biosuit and starting to flood the cell.
"Seekers get in there and get them out! I'm on my way!" Jack yelled before turning on his heel and igniting his power to its fullest extent.
Jack burst into the rapidly filling cell alongside his fellow Seekers, each of them grabbing either a Xeno scientist or Hunter and pulling them out of the way of the rapidly expanding cloud of noxious gas that was spewing out of the suit.
They were all rapidly dropped outside of the cell in the corridor and the last thing that Jack Mason did before sealing the cell to allow the decontamination protocols to do their work was to tear the commander out of the wreckage of his crippled suit.
"You are not getting off that easily you fucker!" he bellowed as he threw the startled insect into another cell and he was swarmed by the now rightfully angry Xeno scientists who were screeching and hissing at him, throwing some rather colourful expletives at him in their own language.
Jack wasn't sure he'd heard someone being called a lonely own tail fucker before.
The Xenos rapidly fought to nullify the backup suicide pill the creature had buried inside its carapace and by the way, it fought it knew exactly what they were trying to do.
"It looks like they have already adapted to our tactic of going after their commanders by fucking booby-trapping their suits, no wonder they were testing those nerve agent gasses on our people, they were trying to see which ones would be most effective on our people!" Jack said as Tik joined him at the entrance to the cell.
Tik snarled inside her mask before finally retracting it and exposing her beautiful face.
Jack instantly noticed the fire of fury burning behind his wife's luminous eyes.
She marched right up to the prone commander who was in the process of being robbed of his ability to commit suicide by poison by their science hive Xenos.
"You will not escape your fate that easily coward, my husband is going to pry every single secret that you try so desperately to hide from your skull and you will be happy to give them to him because if you do not then I am going to have a go, believe me when I say that you do not wish this to happen, because if it does you will consider my husband's work to have been the gentle caress of a favourite lover because I can promise you there is only one man who has earned my gentle side and its that one right there!" she snarled before slamming her fist so hard into the metal table that she left a perfect imprint of it in the metal and on everyone gathered in the room in the way that only Tik could.
Jack walked up to her and gently placed his hand on her shoulder making her glance at him and raise her mandibles into a smile.
He patted her shoulder and nodded before walking up to the prone commander whose compound eyes tracked him fastidiously until he crouched right in front of him.
"Let's get started shall we?" he said as he saw the Xenos successfully pluck the poison capsule from the commander's body with a screech of triumph.
A couple of hours later Jack walked into the command centre where Tik had retreated to while he and his Seekers worked.
He found her already hard at work pouring over the holographic battle map that was being fed intel that was coming through both the GMF's on board SIGINT section as well as the FOB's own team.
Jack couldn't help smiling as he watched Tik directing the multitude of alliance ground teams that they now had in the field, it was actually at the point where they could begin to think about possibly spreading their influence to other continents and regions as well as even setting up other bases.
"Gold one to Spectre one one come back over," Tik said as she was looking at the map.
"Go ahead Gold one over," the response said.
"Have you located Viper team yet over?" Tik asked.
"Roger that Gold one, they are currently approaching our staging area and we are preparing to make contact over," Spectre said.
"Roger that, update us when you have a functioning plan in place to liberate Mycelia Gold one over and out," she said.
Then Tik immediately switched her focus over to another cluster of glowing green dots on the blue map which showed the local topography of Sand Home.
"Ruby one one this is Gold one come back over," Tik said.
There were a few moments of silence before a voice came back along with the sounds of heavy gunfire.
"Go ahead Gold one over," the deep resonating voice of Kextra Savageclaw came back.
Kextra was a massive Yautja Huntress and was currently in charge of Ruby squad whose job was to hunt down local infrastructure strong points such as hydrogen refineries and water resoviours to take control of them for the Clan and its allies so they could start restoring control of the region to its rightful inhabitents.
Ruby squad was predominantly made up of Hunters, Raptorian mechanised division and Serpentinus Royal Sword Packs.
They did also have a Knights of Beledonia heavy strike unit with them who had drop-podded into their AO after they'd got bogged down trying to clear out a massive town, though the local resistance had helped out massively as well.
"Sit rep over," Tik said looking intently at the glowing map.
"The bugs are dug in heavily, they've got pauking tunnels crisscrossing this entire area, they keep popping all over the place, its making progress slow, we could really use one of those War Angel tunnel units, over," Kextra snarled while the sounds of heavy gunfire cut over her comms despite being mounted inside of her helmet which told them just how intense the fighting was.
"Roger that Ruby one one, stand by over," Tik said she then switched channels on the comms.
"Gold one to GMF control come back over," she said.
"Go ahead Gold one over," a young-sounding male Raptorian voice said.
"Ruby one is requesting one of Queen Ink's new Hell Crawler units, do we have any ready over?" Tik asked.
"Stand by Gold one checking now over," the young Raptorian replied.
There were a few moments of silence in which Jack took the opportunity to approach the map and stood next to his wife who glanced at him and nodded, recognising his appearance.
"GMF control to Gold one Queen Ink has authorised the deployment of two Hell Crawler units, they are being deployed to Ruby squad's location now over," the young Raptorian signaler aboard the flagship replied happily.
"Roger that GMF control, I believe that area of the shield has been cleared by the Star Stalkers so remain in orbit over the area to provide orbital artillery fire if it is needed, Gold one over and out," Tik said before changing channels again.
"Gold one to Ruby one one you have Hell Crawler units on the way to help you dig those paukers out of their hidey holes and the GMF is going to be on station to provide orbital cover fire so call them if you need them, over and out," she said.
"Roger that Gold one this hunt will be glorious I shall ensure that we bring you back a few horned heads to mount on your trophy wall in the barracks, Ruby one over and out," Rextra snarled with fierce determination and pride echoing through deep voice.
"Even in the heat of battle those Hunters of yours honour their Grand Matriarch," Jack said placing a hand on his wife's broad shoulder which she promptly placed a massive hand atop and squeezed gently.
"They do me and our Clan proud," she said proudly before turning to face him.
"So what did you learn from our captive?" she asked.
"It took a bit but we managed to break him, it seems that somehow they are incredibly resistant to psionic attacks and their resistance seemed to increase, the only way I can think that they are managing this is that their queen is training with the Nightmare Assassins and using the knowledge she has gathered to harden her troops and most directly their commanders against our attacks, what's most concerning is the fact that she seems to be insulating her commanders from having enough knowledge to compromise their entire operation, they are given just enough to control their region and to carry out their direct orders only," he said with a heavy note of concern in his voice.
Tik's brow furrowed and she reached up and stroked her beloved husband's face.
"Worry not my beloved husband, though they adapt so do we, look here, right now as the bugs retreat into their tunnels to attack our troops from all sides our Hell Crawler War Angel units are already dropping into the battle, ready to crawl into the depths of that underground hell the bugs have created and to dig them out," Tik said defiantly as she pointed at the map.
Jack looked and saw a series of glowing dots rapidly moving from a massive dot which was blatantly the GMF in orbit.
The Xenos really were the most adapted to tunnel warfare so it made perfect sense that Queen Ink who like her sisters had been pouring over the intel flooding in from the field units had acted on it.
The Hell Crawler units of the War Angels specialised in tunnel warfare.
Their armour, weapons and tactics were designed specifically for underground fighting, they had reinforced heavy shielding but lighter armour that allowed them to move faster to get in close.
They were armed with some of the Clan's newest plasma caster tech which until now only Tik had access to as Jack had managed to obtain and modify some of the prototypes to create her Valkyrie armour.
These plasma casters allowed them to pour fire in nearly any direction regardless of the angle that they were on as they clung to walls and ceilings as they moved.
Pair that with heavily reinforced claws and tail spikes they could easily cleave right through bug chitin armour like it was wet paper.
This was the party piece of the Hell Crawlers, they made use of special concussive devices that not only blinded the enemy in the pitch-black tunnels but also deafened them allowing the Xenos to rapidly close the distance and drop in among them and unleash chaos in close.
Rather than carrying regular rifles like the rest of the Clan's soldiers the Hell Crawlers carried wrist-mounted plasma smgs that were fed by armoured tanks on their waists.
The weapons were essentially stripped-down rifles that had magnetic coiled barrels mounted to the Xenos long forearms that were designed so that they could not fire while the Xenos hands were in the way.
This allowed them to drop right into a group of bugs and fire in as many directions as possible while also going apeshit with their tails.
The result was a unit that was absolutely evil in close-up warfare.
Something told Jack that these Hell Crawlers were seriously going to turn the tide of Ruby squad's fortunes and it also rather helped having the GMF on station and ready to turn any surface strong points into craters from orbit.
Infact no sooner had the thought crossed his mind than he heard the call come in from Ruby squad requesting a fire mission on a bug outpost that was far enough from the civilian structures around it so as to not be a problem.
As Jack watched the holo-map he could see the GMF moving its massive frame into the optimal position to be able to rain death down on the selected target which only moments later simply did not exist.
In his mind's eye, he could see those mighty guns dropping hot tungsten death down onto the hapless bugs hidden inside of the structure designated by Ruby squad.
Jack turned to Tik who was also watching the destruction wrought by their flagship.
"Speed is going to be our biggest ally in this fight as the longer we draw things out the longer our enemy has to adapt and given how quickly they already seem to do it we need to stay ahead of them," he said and Tik nodded.
"Indeed my beloved one, hopefully as soon as our people get Mycelia out of their clutches we will have eyes all over the planet and will be able to better understand what is happening as well as where best to focus our efforts," she said.
Jack nodded in agreement with his wife's assessment.
"Agreed, despite our gains we are still on the back foot and fighting in the blind here, we need to get ahead of them and the only way to do that is to get reliable intel," he said.
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The darkness of her prison was stifling, as was the crushing silence that surrounded her.
No matter which direction she looked or turned there was nothing but empty blackness where there was once life and joy.
The voices of her many Hands were silent and lost to her now that she was cut off from them and it brought her more pain than she would have thought possible.
She prayed to Gaia that this was not the case for her Hands as well which added a thick layer of guilt atop of her pain as she sat alone in the silent darkness of the prison of her own mind.
This torment that Adem had unleashed upon her was the worst thing she could have imagined. It took her back to the days before she was able to figure out how to connect herself to the beautiful beings of their sacred home.
To see the world through their millions of eyes, to hear the wonderous sounds of all the different biomes of this wonderful place and to feel the love for it and each other in every heart she touched.
Now to have this connection severed and this bond broken stabbed her soul with a pain she had never imagined possible. It felt like falling into a bottomless void of eternal nothingness where not even light was permitted to exist.
All she could do was sit and hope. Hope that her message had been understood and that those who walked the path of love and unity were on their way to free her and her people from this deathly silence.
To once again fill her lungs with the free air and her heart with the joys of a million different hearts that she could then share with all of them so that they might feel it and revel in it together.
Suddenly deep in the silence, there was a faint whisper, more like the echo of a whisper it was so faint.
But given the absolutness of the silence surrounding her, its presence was unmistakable.
"Worry not beautiful daughter, hope comes," it said and Mycelia steeled her heart, her prayer had been heard.
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As Viper squad pulled out of the dense forest and into a large clearing they found a most welcome sight waiting for them, a Runner class scout ship.
"That must be the Spectre team we're here to meet up with," Thomas said through the comms of Vessa's shiny new mech suit as she and her pride strode along ahead of the main column.
Since these new mechs were too invaluable the pride had decided to hand in their MK5s and instead make good use of these suits.
Though the male-sounding onboard A.I. was more than a little disconcerting to her at first and its presence almost made her feel like she was cheating on her pride male, an unforgivable crime on Raptoria and indeed all of the alliance worlds.
It hadn't taken her long to figure out the settings to the suit though and with a bit of tweaking and some rather inventive voice sampling she had managed to get the A.I. to agree to imitate the voice of their Pride male and that had made her feel a lot better, she'd even taken to calling it little Tom.
This was something that the entire pride had followed suit in doing once they had realised that it was an option and now Thomas had to put up with five little Toms speaking over the comms when he called in to talk to his pride and Vessa couldn't help but grin at how confused he had been when he had called her and his own voice had answered him back.
Now thanks to these suits not being as fast as MK5s in the ability to cover ground the scouting duties had been taken over by Beta Pride, this had left Alpha Pride to be redesignated by the commander as the QRF pride.
This meant that once Beta pride discovered a threat and while they harrassed them it would be Alpha pride's job to go in and claw the fuckers to death up close and personal.
After the shit these bugs had put her and her beloved pride male through as well as their entire pride as they worried for their missing beloved ones was absolutely fine by Vessa.
As they approached they could see a group of figures standing waiting for them by the Runner and by the size of them it was obvious that at least two of them were native Velons, this was the Spectre team they'd been sent to meet.
"Ahh about time you guys got here, heard you had quite the adventure dragging your collective butts here, name's Markus," a blatantly human voice said over the comms as they approached and Vessa tilted her suit to look down to see a human Seeker stood near them that they hadn't originally seen as they'd broken through the tree line and headed for the ship.
Seemingly sensing her confusion through her suit he retracted his helmet to flash her a toothy grin.
"Spectre by name Spectre by nature, so you must be Viper squad, we've been hearing a lot about you guys and your adventures on your way here, gotta say that some damn fine work you guys have been doing out there oh and I heard about your pride's loss, I'm sorry to hear about her passing and I hope you guys avenged her blood times ten," Markus said as one of the others from the Spectre team sauntered over to join him.
"You bet your ass we did and we're not done yet, I'm personally gonna kill a bug for every single scale on our fallen sister's body," Tezz snarled from inside her suit as she clomped up next to Vessa.
"Glad to hear it and I personally will be proud to help you achieve that noble goal, my name is Adesus by the way and I am a proud member of the Guardians of Life of clan Lunara of this beautiful world, so I welcome you, honourable warriors, to Velona and I grieve along with you for your fallen pride sister," the tall Velon female said drawing herself up into a salute.
It never failed to surprise them just how many sentient species had evolved on this planet and yet they all lived in harmony, well other than this Clan Ruara who had kicked this shit all off anyway.
"Thank you Guardian Adesus for your kind words and we will gladly accept your help regarding our quest, but in the meantime, we will redouble our efforts to free this beautiful world of yours," Vessa said.
Suddenly there was a series of footsteps behind them and Vessa utilised her rear-facing cameras to see the Commander and her Seeker team approaching.
"Ahh there you are Markus, I heard you were romping around the jungle with a pretty local girl and here you are!" the commander said and Markus laughed as he pulled the now slightly sour-looking Adesus to his side as she scowled at the new Seeker.
"We were romping around the sands of Sand Home first and now we've taken our romping to new heights, this place was temperate and cool till we got here and now look at it, all hot and steamy," Markus said making Adesus snort a laugh that broke her attempt to look sullen.
It was obvious to Vessa that the prim and proper Velon was trying her hardest to deal with having fallen in love with a Clan member just like she and her pride were but for different reasons.
These damn humans just had a way of worming their perfect skin-covered asses into your heart and it was maddening.
Misty roared with laughter and slapped her fellow Seeker on the shoulder hard enough to make his armour ring before turning to Adesus.
"it is good to meet you Guardian Adesus and it will be an honour to fight alongside you, I've read the report on you written by your mate here and honestly it reads like a love poem, I hope I meet a guy who writes words as lovely about me one day I can tell you and I quote, 'She is so graceful when she fights that she would make the Grand Matriarch herself proud to call her one of her own, she is a force of nature and I am proud to stand at her side and die there if need be end quote," Misty said shooting a playful grin at a now blushing Markus.
"I err umm..." Markus began.
"You wrote those beautiful words about me?" Adesus said looking at Markus as his skin darkened through about several shades of red.
"Well I umm yeah, I mean I was impressed by you and your combat style and I've never been one to play down or dismiss the strengths of others and I felt you deserved the credit your hard work deserved," Markus stammered obviously embarrassed at being called out.
Adesus turned to Misty again.
"I wish to hear more of what my beloved one wrote but at a later date, first we will debrief and greet our fellow warriors, then while you all rest up in preparation for the upcoming battles I will proudly ravish my male, so I apologise for any noise disturbance in advance as I doubt I will be quiet," she said making Misty and the other Seekers not to mention Alpha pride roar with laughter.
"You sure you're not a stretched and spiky Rpatorian under there?" Tezz said making Adesus laugh and give her a grin.
"Nope, proud Velon woman through and through," she said.
Tex turned to the still-laughing commander.
"Permission to pluck our pride male out of his tin can APC and join in on the ravishing commander?" she said making Vessa snort as her pride sister was doing a damn fine job on filling in for Jex.
"Once we set up here and have a proper camp established you have my permission to do all the consensual ravashing you can get away with, but let's at least get some privacy tents set up first yeah?" she said grinning.
"Roger that commander," Tezz said saluting with her metal arm.
"Alright people let's move out, we have a safe location not far from here, we'll update your HUD markers, and we'll meet you there," Markus said before he turned towards the Runner.
"Lucious I think you're gonna need a bigger kettle!" he yelled as he walked towards the Runner and to Vessa's surprise a small male Raptorian head popped up out of one of the Runner's upper hatches.
"You underestimate a male Raptorian's ability to care for their pride boss, the bigger the pride the harder we care, just wait and see!" the little Raptorian male chirped back and all of Alpha pride's mouths fell open.
A male Raptorian had beaten them to the punch of being the first Raptorian on the ground here.
As the Runner took off and moved off over the trees while engaging its cloak as it moved.
"Alright people mount up, not far now," the commander said heading back to the command Titan before the whole squad followed after the Runner.
It turned out the safe place was a truly huge cave network that they could have fitted a ship far bigger than the Runner that was now parked in the centre of it.
After all of the vehicles rolled into the cave Markus gave a signal to a Xeno who was up on the wall and he engaged a cloaking device which when activated hid the cave entrance from view by making it look like a solid wall.
"Welcome to Costa del Clan, pick yourselves out a spot and set up so you can take a load off, the journey here must have been a royal pain in the arse," Markus said as he leapt down off the rock wall.
Misty and her commanders got all of their vehicles organised and parked up before their crews spilt out and began running maintenance on them so that they could indeed take a load off.
Thats when that little Raptorian male that he had called Lucious came out of the Runner towing along what looked like a barrel on a cart and it took Vessa a moment to realise that he had managed to rig up a portable tea urn.
"Come one come all, hot tea and snacks here! Don't be shy I got enough for everyone here so come on grab yourselves something to eat and drink!" he chirped merrily.
"Ok I concede, never challenge a male Raptorian that he can't feed everyone because he fucking well will," Markus said looking at the little Raptorian-powered tea wagon as he began handing out sandwiches and hot mugs of tea to the rapidly growing crowd of interspecies warriors surrounding him.
Though Vessa could see a rather hopeful look in the eyes of the prides that were crewing the Gipkas and she also saw it change to one of disappointment when another Velon woman walked up and planted a kiss on his little snout.
That kiss spoke so many volumes that it was positively a booming yell of "This is my male, touch him and die."
"Well guys this is gonna be home for a little bit as we got quite a few targets in the area that are gonna need dealing with, the most important of which is freeing the All Mother Mycelia, so make yourselves comfortable, you are gonna need it," Markus said and with that everyone rushed to get their tents and claim their space.