Chapter 117: Something in the Blood.
Given the large size of the Viper squad, it had been deemed appropriate that each of the smaller teams would be given a code name more in line with their roles within the team to make it easier for everyone to identify them without trying to remember who was what number.
So with this in mind Pemistra's team had a new call sign, they were now called Hammer One so that made Pemistra's new callsign Hammer One one which she rather liked.
The scout team had now been named Pathfinder One and the commanders had decided to stagger the teams heading out, with Pathfinder One having a four-hour headstart on the Hammer One team so that they could mark potential problems along the route they marked out.
The mood in the camp was electric and Pemistra could positively taste it in the air from both the Clan members and the non-Clan alliance members alike.
But as they checked gear for what felt like the hundredth time Pemista noticed Commander Misty making her way through the crowd towards them.
"You guys got everything you need, everything ready to go?" she asked looking over the pack and their two human members.
"Yesss commander, we are ready and raring to get out there!" Pemistra said lifting her newly modified Spiker rifle and banging it down into the palm of her hand to emphasise her point.
These weapons had been designed to combat heavy combat armour and even vehicles.
The royal weapon science and armoury had designed these things using a similar premise to the Clan's modular Railgun platforms but rather than using magnetic propulsion like the Railgun platforms did these used a high-energy plasma propulsion system.
But this was for a very specific reason, it was because of what the projectiles were made out of.
The scientists of the RWSA had figured out that by compressing plasma under specific conditions they could turn it into an incredibly dense solid matter using the three states of matter.
This allowed them to shape the gas into an incredibly sharp and dense but still lightweight projectile that had an incredible trick up its sleeve.
If the projectile was fired using a plasma charge it destabilised the matter making it incredibly unstable but would remain stable just long enough to impact its target before it truly started the party.
That instability in the matter created a chain reaction that not only drove the still solid matter through the armour of what it had embedded itself into before finally exploding sending shrapnel in all directions which also then exploded into ionised plasma gas which would vaporise just about anything it came into contact with.
The weapon itself actually resembled a kind of condensed crossbow rather than a rifle due to the four limbs that extended from the end of the barrel in an X configuration.
These limbs held ionized plasma in magnetic suspension and while yes this was utilising magnetic forcefields to hold the plasma in suspension it wasn't the magnets that drove the propulsion system.
The projectiles were held in special magazines which looked like a small drum that clipped into the bottom of the weapon with each drum holding over two hundred rounds that were roughly the size of a 7.62mm bullet.
But the best part of this weapon was its ability to reconfigure itself to fire different calibres of projectile depending on what the user was facing and using a portable system that each team carried that was roughly the size of a house brick you could always make more ammo, as long as you had plasma on hand.
This device was even compatible with the Clan's plasma cannisters and their clever scientists had even figured out a way to adapt a Clan plasma caster to actually pull the gas out of the air and convert it into plasma which it could then deed directly into the ammo producer.
Granted this system was a lot slower than simply plugging a canister of plasma into it but it did mean that as long as you had both this device and a Clan member equipped with plasma casters on hand you were never going to run out of ammo.
"Alright then glad to hear it, Pathfinder team have begun laying down waypoints, the red ones are places they have figured out that there will be problems bringing either the mechs or armour though, it's up to you guys to get everyone through and we're counting on you also remember this is hostile territory and just because the Pathfinder team has passed through an area does not in any way mean its a safe zone," the commander said.
"We will not let you or our alliesssss down commander, you can count on ussss," Pemistra said saluting her and the commander nodded approvingly.
"Alright then team you have a green light, your vehicle is over there, good luck out there," the commander said pointing off to their right and Pemistra turned to see one of the newly delivered Raptorian Suba all-terrain and all species APCs sitting waiting for them.
The Suba was named after a small but notoriously tough little armoured mammal that lived on the surface of Raptoria.
The creature had overlapping armoured plates that were made from a bone-like substance that made it look like a walking nut covered in plates and spikes not to mention three very prominent horns that it had on its head.
In place of horns, the Suba vehicle had a retractable bladed dozer that allowed it to punch through various obstacles along with eight wheels that had independent drive systems.
This allowed it to scale almost any kind of terrain from thick mud to soft sand, with the help of some weight-reducing magnetic coil systems that were mounted underneath taken from the Surface Skimmers and upsized could reduce the mass of the vehicle and prevent it from getting bogged down.
The vehicle was actually surprisingly large and spacious by most species standards having been designed to allow a fully interspecies team to reside within it for weeks at a time which given that the fuel system was run on hydrogen which could be produced and processed in a converter in the rear of the vehicle was very much viable.
The vehicle had also been designed with both Raptorians as well as Serpentinus in mind with regards to piloting the thing as the driver's seat came with multiple configurations which were simply selected on the console at the entry point to the cockpit.
Pemistra shepherded her pack and their two Saviour engineers up into the crew bay of the Suba which was both spacious and snug considering how many people were now inside the vehicle though three large and rather healthy Serpentinus females could take up quite a lot of room.
However, this was offset somewhat by their much smaller Raptorian packmates who by contrast took up very little room at all.
Their two human engineers fell smack in the middle of this size dynamic what with being much smaller than a Serpantinus, but larger than a Raptorian.
"Visssstra you take the controlssss, you are by far the least likely of ussss to crassssh thisssss thing," Pemistra said to one of her Raptorian packmates who nodded and vanished into the cockpit after setting the controls to Raptorian mode.
Pemista glanced around at the rest of her pack which she now considered to contain the two humans as they all stowed their gear and took their seats in the crew bay.
"Alright lisssten up, everyone isssss relying on ussss to make them a path through thisssss place and we will not let them down, our two human friendssss from the Clan here are our top priority, sssso when they are out doing their thing we will enssssure that not a ssssingle bug getsss anywhere near them, underssstood?" she said as the engine of the Suba wound up with a high pitched whine.
There was a collective cheer of affirmation from her pack before Pemistra turned her large scaly head to face the two humans who were sat together in the centre of the bay with one Raptorian and one Serpentinus wedging them in on the bench seat.
"Do not worry, you are in good handsssss with ussss, we have sssseen what thesssse bugssss can do and we are ready for another round with them, they will pay dearly for the ssssissstersss they stole from ussss," she said clenching a fist to emphasise her point.
"Glad to hear it but don't worry we can hold our own in a fight, believe it or not, these arms can do far more than fix things or help us move around on tough terrain, they have some combat functionality as well," Ian said patting the top of the pack over his right shoulder.
"Oh? What kind of functionality?" Opina asked from her seat opposite the human male.
The Suba jolted slightly as Vistra powered up the throttles and set off out of the cave which caused Pemistra to slither her way into the commander's seat which was located just behind the cockpit.
The commander's station had access to all of the Suba's advanced sensor systems which would give her a damn fine view all around the vehicle as well as feeds from any nearby vehicles or drones that had been launched.
She also had access to the real-time battle map which was being beamed down to them from the ships in orbit which showed every active alliance transponder on the planet.
This was possibly the most protected system in the alliance due to the massive advantage it would give the enemy if they were to capture it, therefore it had a special AR screen which interfaced with Pemistra's armour.
In order to view it her armour had to be active and plugged into the system which would overlay the information onto her personal HUD, this meant that to anybody without access, it would simply look like a grey screen.
"Well given how I can use them pretty much like I would my normal flesh and blood hands I can handle a weapon with them pretty easily, though aiming said weapon is a bit trickier though those clever Xenos have been working on some special weapons that are specifically designed to be handled by the arms and that can interface with our plasma caster aiming systems for greater ease of use, but from what I hear they are having a little trouble working through the problems of having that information translate from the viewfinder on each arm through the nervous system interface without it overloading our central nervous systems," Ian said.
"Ouch don't think I'd want to be the one who gets to test drive that system," Opina said wincing at the thought.
"We need ssssomeone on the main gun," Pemistra said as she flipped a few controls to tune in the sensor systems so they could have a better view around them.
The Suba's main gun was a fully automatic coilgun system that had been based on Clan railgun technology, while not as powerful as say the main gun of a Titan it still packed one hell of a punch.
It fired a 20mm slug which was accelerated through a series of coil rings to get it up to the desired velocity and thanks to some Serpentinus Royal Sword pack modifications this particular Suba also had a quad barrel Spiker system outfitted so that it surrounded the main gun.
These Spikers were configured in a .50 configuration to deliver the maximum energy to the target down range and with the 20mm backing them up the Suba could deliver a hell of a lot of firepower on its intended target very quickly.
But a beefed-up main gun wasn't the Suba's only party piece, it had both smoke launchers as well as a few choice ECM systems mounted all over its hull to be able to distort the enemy's view of it.
"I'll take it, just show me where to hook in," Alissa said standing up and holding onto the ceiling-mounted handrails.
"That ssssseat there, there issss an armour jack in the consssole," Pemistra said as she watched the human female seat herself in the self-adjusting seat.
Alissa pulled a small cable from a port in her wrist comp and connected it to the console, this would now allow her to route the view from the gun turret and the various other hull-mounted cameras directly into her HUD which would make aiming a lot easier.
As she watched the human female acquainting herself with the system she could hear the gun turret on the roof of the vehicle moving around thanks to its motors as Alissa adjusted the aiming system.
"Ok looks good, all the visual systems are good and the HUD aim is synced up properly, fuck me with the aim on this thing I could shoot the balls off a gnat at a mile," Alissa said making Ian visibly wince.
"Can we not talk about getting your balls shot off in front of the only guy in this vehicle please, I already feel like I'm drowning in estrogen over here," he said somewhat playfully.
Alissa laughed and popped open her helmet's mask so they could see her pretty face.
"From what Zixva was saying to me the other day I don't think I'll need a zoom to shoot yours off, just aim in the general direction of you," she said making the male human who had his mask down visibly grimace and flush.
As the colour of his skin changed Pemistra saw her sister have to physically bite down on her tongue to prevent her from tasting and smelling him.
She also saw Yevva her little Raptorian packmate actually have to sit on her hands to prevent herself from attempting to comfort the embarrassed male.
Only when sat slightly apart from her pack could she actually see their instincts in real time and she knew her packmate's struggles as she too was fighting the urge to flick her tongue out at him, though thankfully her helmet made things a little easier.
"Gee thanks, I don't know whether to be insulted or complimented here," Ian said crossing his legs over one another almost protectively and making Alissa laugh at the gesture.
"Oh I'm pretty sure she meant it as a compliment, I believe her actual words were, A pretorian has nothing on that cute human boy where it counts, so I'm using some artistic licence to mean that I doubt I'd need a zoom," Alissa said.
"Good to know that I've got all the Xenos doing size comparisons for me, I hope that the partner of the Pretorian she was comparing me to didn't get wind of it otherwise we may come back off a deployment to find her doing her best insect who lost to a windshield impression, now can we stop talking about my balls please?" Ian whined and this caused a few of Pemistra's pack to giggle and smile at the embarrassed human male though Pemistra could see her Raptorian sisters visibly fighting against their instincts again.
Male embarrassment was quite a serious thing for them, but having had a bit of a brief on humans and Clan members in general, she knew that they liked to banter and wind one another up.
It was a bonding thing to them while also helping to alleviate some stress and tension by using an almost confrontational type of humour.
"Yeah you ain't wrong there, I think she was comparing you to Texra whose mate is Nastari," Alissa said leaning back in the gunner's seat as they bumped over the rough terrain and bounced along to their first-way point.
"Holy shit talk about playing with fucking fire, I don't know why that girl needs to be looking at my balls when she must be hiding a set of brass ones the size of fucking cannon balls if she's willing to peep on Nastari's mate," Ian chuckled.
All of Pemistra's pack looked at one another in confusion obviously not getting the reference.
"Why would sssshe have brassssss ballssss?" Pemistra asked in confusion.
"Oh sorry, it's a Clan saying we all kinda picked up from our Grand Patriarch who says it to describe anyone who is either really brave or really foolhardy," Ian said turning his beautiful emerald green eyes onto the big Anaconda genus and looking up at her.
"It's kinda a human saying brought from our old homeworld of Earth, in this case, it's referring to the fact that Texra 's mate is Nastari who a well-known female Yautja Seeker and known to have quite a fucking temper, she's a reformed Nightmare Assassin rescued and released by the Grand Patriarch himself and he's one of the only people who can control her," Alissa said.
"Remember the Tibiri lizard that ate the meat pie she made for Texra?" Ian said and Alissa snorted so hard inside of her helmet the pack actually thought she was choking for a moment.
"Tibiri lizard?" Opina asked cocking her little head up at the male human curiously.
"They are these meat-eating six-legged lizards that live on our home world, you find them all over the place and they like shimmer lizards are one of the main staples of meat farming in the Clan due to how rapidly they reproduce and the quantities of young they produce, but they can be little bastards if you don't see them because they are opportunistic scavengers that will get into anything and everything, they are about two to three feet in length and pretty muscular," Ian said doing a size measurement with his hands to give them a rough gauge.
"Ok, so how did the lizard eat her pie?" Opina asked.
"Well it was just after she caught Texra during his mate hunt, she took him out for a nice picnic lunch to one of the groves around the outskirts of the city, they are quiet secluded mini nature reserves watched over by the Saviours to be places of natural beauty for Clan members to go and relax away from the bustle of the city or even the parks, well they were having their picnic and Nastari had baked a meat pie for him, it was her very first attempt at human cooking and she'd been secretly getting lessons from one of the Saviours because she wanted to impress him, well she gets this pie out and Texra is over the moon with joy that she would do something so thoughtful for him, so the pair are just enjoying a kiss and a cuddle when bam, this sneaky little fucking Tibiri lizard sneaks its way out of the undergrowth while the two are distracted and wolfs down the whole fucking pie before either of them had time to notice!" Ian said.
Pemistra had noticed that all of her pack were hanging on his every word as they garnered insight into Clan dating practices and methods, she could practically feel them taking mental notes and it made her smile.
"Oh no! To have your prides hard work spoiled like that, how dreadful, she is lucky her male was not a Raptorian as he may have very well cried and that would have set off his entire pride's defence response!" Lix who was the youngest of the pack said with a sorrowful ruffle of feathers.
"No worries on that front, Texra was a full-blown Pretorian at this point, Xenos tend to become Pretorians when they find their true love in the Clan, it's like the instinct to protect their hive has transferred over to their mate plus they were in a one on one relationship and I guess you could kinda say that her response was on par with that of an angry pride," Ian said thoughtfully.
"So what happened to thisssss ssssneaky thieving lizard who ssssspoiled her hard work to impressssss her pack male?" Pemistra asked curiously.
"Well there are two universal facts that are known in the Clan, do not piss off a Seeker of Truth and do not piss off a female Yautja," Ian said.
"Especially if that female Yautja is named Tik eleth Mason," Alissa chipped in making Ian snort a laugh and nod.
"Yeah true that, but if you happen to piss off a female Yautja who happens to be a Seeker of Truth and a former Nightmare assassin to boot, well your ass is more than just fucking toast you'll be able to wave to the Devil as you scream past his flaming ass as you punch a hole clean through hell on your way through," Ian said making quite a few of Pemistra's pack chuckle as they pictured the image.
"Rumor has it that Nastari kicked that lizard so hard in the ass that it cleared the entire city and hit the Grand Patriarch and Matriarch's house on top of the hill which for context is two miles outside of the city on the opposite side from where this nature reserve is," Alissa said making Ian chuckle and nod.
"Yeah Pixxy who is one of the flying Xenos from Aine and Murphy's hive that protect the fields from birds like to sit on top of the Grand Patriarch's house, and according to him they were just all sitting there minding their own business enjoying the view and keeping a look out for the Grand Matriarch shooing them off when this fucking lizard comes screaming down out of the clouds at mach fuck and slams right into the upper wall of the house like a scaly missile, according to him it took the Grand Patriarch over an hour to scrape the remains off the wall," Ian said.
"Ouch, so I assume the lesson here is do not mess with the chosen pride male of a Seeker of Truth?" Opina said wincing at the mental image of a smushed lizard splattered all over the house wall.
"Especially if that Seeker is a Yautja female, and definitely do not mess with either the food or any gifts they have made for their chosen one, as calm isn't exactly in their vocabulary," Alissa said with a very wide grin.
Opina couldn't help but snort a laugh but Pemistra could also see her still wincing from the rather vivid image of a small reptile being kicked into low orbit before colliding with a building at Mach fuck.
"That is the contrast of the Yautja though ain't it and why so many in the Clan love them to pieces, on one hand, they are strong brutally efficient warriors and hunters, then on the other, they are gentle but somewhat overprotective lovers who will do anything to not only make their chosen one happy but to protect them from anything that comes their way," Ian said leaning back in his seat and gripping the rail that ran above their heads as the Suba bounced over a large divot in the trail.
As the human male lifted his arm to the overhead rail Pemistra saw Opina seize her opportunity and quickly slide in a little closer to the male's side and she couldn't help but both smile and feel a brief flash of panic as she worried her little pack sister may just freak him out with her closeness.
"In my opinion and I'm sure in the opinion of my noble pride, this is how a female should act towards her chosen one, loving and close while also fierce and protective of them at all times," Opina said while looking up at the handsome human male who seemed to have not noticed (or was too polite to say anything about) her closeness.
"Ahh but that's the thing about us humans you see, there is never a one-size-fits-all approach," Alissa said turning her attention to the gun turret and swivelling it about so she could scan around outside the vehicle.
Now all of the pack's eyes swivelled to the black-skinned human female to stare intently at her silently urging her to continue to pervay to them the sacred knowledge of how to win over humans.
But it seemed Shay her horned viper genus sister was a little impatient to gain this knowledge.
"What do you mean?" she asked as her intensely vivid and fierce yellow eyes fixed on the young human female.
Shay might look fierce and in battle she really was but under her imposing-looking exterior, she was truly the biggest softest sweetscale you could wish to meet.
She was always worrying about how her appearance would scare off members of other species for the pack as even among their own species horned vipers drew a bit of a bad reputation for being snappy and volatile which in Pemistra's opinion was stereotyping of the highest order and absolutely unwarranted.
It broke her large heart when she saw her sister get sideways glances from other Serpentinus for nothing more than the way she looked as if it was her fault she looked like a Dragoness though why she should be ashamed of that was truly beyond her as in her personal opinion her sister looked amazing with her bright red and gold armoured scales.
"Well some humans like to be chased while others like to do the chasing, it's true for both males and females of our species, while some guys like to have a big strong exotic alien female come along and sweep them off their feet, others like to be the one to do the sweeping although that can be a bit tricky when dealing with a nearly six hundred pounds nine-foot tall Yautja girl," Alissa clarified making Ian snort a laugh at that mental image.
"You know that always made me wonder about the Grand Patriarch and Matriarch, who chased who exactly?" he said thoughtfully.
"Yeah kinda a good point, though according to the Grand Matriarch's writings, it was a bit of both really, he proved himself to her by standing for her when no one else ever had and facing down what should have been certain death to protect her or to claim the right to die at her side and then she picked up that thrown gauntlet by pursuing him and making it clear to him that if he didn't explicitly tell her not to that she was going to chase his ass down and make him hers," Alissa said and Ian nodded.
"And the rest is history as they say, Eternal Huntress above I gotta say it must be really something to have someone that loves you so fiercely that they will stop at absolutely nothing to protect you like that and in all fairness to have someone that you yourself love so fiercely that it unlocks something unstoppable in you too," he said.
"Yeah it's true, I mean all you have to do is simply look at the Grand Matriarch and Patriarch when they are together and you can feel the love and passion that radiates off them like the warmth of a fucking sun, it's like you can simply tell that no matter what comes there is nothing that they would not do to protect one another, one with the power of a Goddess at his back and the other with nothing more than her unquenchable fury," Alissa said looking almost dreamy.
"The interspecies love story that spawned an entire Clan and keeps it burning bright to this very day," Ian said smiling to himself.
"So which are you two if you don't mind me asking?" Opina asked curiously and once again making Pemistra flinch at how direct her little sister was being.
"What do you mean?' Alissa asked turning her attention to the little Raptorian who sat next to Ian who she could barely see tucked in beside him as she was.
"Are you a chaser or do you prefer to be chased? You see with both Raptorians and with our Serpentinus sisters it is always the females who chase the males but we have heard that humans do things tail-end backwards in some respects," Opina said thankfully covering her obvious interest with curiosity skillfully.
Alissa barked a laugh at that one and nodded.
"Yeah I can see why you'd think that coming from where you guys do, hell even things in the Clan are vastly different for humans than they are on our homeworld or so the Grand Patriarch and the other old timers who came from the homeworld would tell you, it was always males that chased the females with some outliers of course, but now in the Clan it's kinda the other way around what with all the hopeful Yautja girls and Xeno girls as well as now our new Serpentinus and Raptorian Clan sisters to boot, our boys really have a tough time doing any chasing of their own," Alissa said shooting Ian a loaded look with a grin.
Ian simply nodded.
"Yeah no arguments here, hard to show off your manliness when there's a nine-foot Yautja girl with an ass that looks like she could use it to hold extra weights between her cheeks while she's doing squat lifts in front of you," he said with a chuckle.
Pemistra couldn't help but smile as she saw Opina glance over her own shoulder as if she were subconsciously checking out her own tail end to see if it could be compared to this high standard.
She also noticed that Opina wasn't the only one doing so, Lix was also doing the same thing to the point that she was actually moving her tail to look at it which Alissa caught her doing.
"Ahh you don't have to worry about comparing yourself to our Yautja girl's little sister, I swear to the Eternal Huntress and your Great Tree that those girls pump iron in their sleep, must be a bloody nightmare for their spouses as it must be bloody murder to sleep while your girl is snoring her mandibles off while doing squat lifts in the corner of the room or doing either sit-ups or press ups in bed," Alissa said making Ian roar with laughter and nod vigorously.
"You know I once asked Kavra Fireskin if all of the girls of his kind suffered from withdrawal symptoms if the gym was closed for a single day," he said and Alissa turned to look at him curiously.
"Oh yeah? What did he say?" she asked.
"That there's a reason that the Grand Patriarch had to start bolting his anvils to the floor or he'd walk into the smith's and find our girls trying to figure out how to bolt them onto a lifting bar," he said making Alissa bark out a laugh.
"Honestly I'm sure if some did close one of the gyms for the day we'd probably find them all down in the Beledon quarter trying to figure out how to convince to get two Beledon onto a see-saw so that they could lift it," she said making them all chuckle now.
"The Yautja take their exercise very seriously huh?" Opina said and both of the pretty humans grinned at the little Raptorian.
"That's like saying Raptorian girls are slightly protective of their boys," Alissa said with a grin at her that made the Raptorian ruffle her feathers under her armour, a gesture you might miss if you didn't know Raptorians very well.
"Well it's not our fault, it's just the way we are wired, none of us could ever bear another Great Sorrow!" she chirped defensively and Ian placed a reassuring hand on her little shoulder making her look up at him in surprise.
"Don't worry she's not having a dig at you guys, she's simply saying that just like being protective of your boys is a cultural thing to you guys, maintaining what they see as peak physical condition is cultural to the Yautja and it's the same for their boys to be fair, though they don't go as hard on it as the girls," he explained and Opina seemed to relax but was still obviously very happy that Ian's hand was still on her shoulder.
There was a bleep from Pemistra's display and she turned to look at it.
"We are approaching our firssst sssstop everybody tighten up and prepare for dissssmount, headssss on the ssssivel and check your anglessss, I do not want any misssstakesss," Pemistra said closing up her helmet and checking her weapon.
The atmosphere in the back of the Suba instantly changed as everyone switched from jovial mode to professional mode.
Everyone closed up their armour and checked their weapons before getting to their feet making sure that the two Saviour engineers were the last two in the stick that would exit the vehicle last.
"Vissstra I want you to remain in the vehicle and take control of the gunssss while we are parked," Pemistra called to her little pack sister who was piloting the Suba.
"Roger that, I have backup weapon controls in here so I'll keep the engine running just in case we need to bug out fast," Vistra called back.
The vehicle pulled up and the engine switched into idle mode before the ramp began to lower and the rear armour plates opened up.
"Move!" Pemistra yelled and to her pride, her pack moved like a well-oiled machine.
They ran and slithered down the ramp and moved into their assigned positions around the vehicle scanning the ground and trees alike for any signs of movement.
"Clear!" each one of her sisters called as they cycled through their vision modes and checked their motion trackers.
"Alright let's see what we have here," Ian said as he and Alissa detached themselves from their positions and moved towards the front of the Suba to see what could hinder the progress of the convoy following them.
Pemistra moved up to the front of the vehicle to keep the two engineers covered while they worked though she found herself perplexed by what she saw when there appeared to be no obstructions in their way.
"What issss the problem here?" she asked as she swept her weapon over the seemingly open ground.
"According to the report they detected mines, they disarmed one and left it for us to analyse so we could scan them and detect the others," Ian said reading the report in his HUD.
"Minesssss!?" Pemistra exclaimed nervously glancing around them.
"Yeah here look at this," Alisa said pointing to a rather odd dome-shaped device that sat on a rock with a little glowing symbol floating in the air above it in her HUD.
Both Alissa and Ian moved over to the device and scanned it before their six long mechanical arms unfurled from their backpacks and began preparing their tools by swapping out their heads for the required task ahead of them.
"Doesssss it not sssseem sssstrange to you that the bugsssss are ssssudenlly ussssing minesss?' Pemistra asked as she slithered over to look at the oddly organic-looking mine.
The mine looked like a cross between a limpet and a crab with four mechanical legs attached to the sides of what looked to be a chitin shell.
"They are probably getting wise to the fact that we are using large mechanised strike groups and what better way to slow down vehicles than to use mines?" Ian said as his arms lifted the defused device up and began to analyse it.
"But a lot of our vehiclessss float and would passss right over them and mosssst of my own peoplessss vehiclessss dig underground," Pemistra said.
"Yeah they probably haven't developed a one-size-fits-all solution to dealing with all of the different vehicles that we have deployed on the field yet but if we give them the time they will and that's what we want to avoid, so the quicker we get a handle on these things the quicker we can punch through them or come up with countermeasures, all the date both the scout team and we collect here will get sent to the science hive on the GMF as well as to the alliance science teams so we will have the best scientific and engineering minds our species can produce combating these problems," Alissa said as she used her own mechanical arms to begin dismantling the shell of the semi-organic mine that Ian was holding.
Pemistra could not help but be impressed as she watched the two human engineers work, they were so focused and diligent.
Once they had a good understanding of the mines and how they worked the pair of them began scanning the environment and sharing their feeds to the ad-hoc network that all of them shared and that's when she saw the extent of the problem, the fucking mines were everywhere, this was going to take a while.