“That’s alright, old chap. Just stay put for a couple more minutes and we’ll get you out of there.” Dr Wetheall assured Nirann, patting the top of his head as he whirled around the droid. “There are too many of them. Pack everything up and get ready for transit now!” Thebes ordered them, firing fully auto down into the valley. The creatures were close now, rapidly approaching the clusters of rocks and other defilades leading up to the cliff face. 

“But i just finished deploying the cover!” Dr Ngata moaned. “Move it, now!” Both the Human scientists raced to free Nirann from the mess of cabling. With them back up to full strength, they could focus all their efforts on sorting through their new supplies and getting everything ready for transit.

595 rattled the weapons trolley over the ridge’s uneven ground toward the edge. She planned to resupply left from right, starting with Memnon who was laying down heavy fire with his double handed energy cannon. She parked the trolley behind his prone form and hefted a fresh, calibrated cannon from the bottom shelf. “Memnon - swap with me!” 595 shouted over the din. The heavy gunner rose to his knees and chucked his old weapon to the floor next to her. “Yes, ma’am.” He boomed.

“Look out, they’re merging!” Athena warned, sending a tungsten round straight through an amorphous blob of creatures behind a cluster of boulders. They roared in anger at the big new hole in their midriff, but it quickly closed up and recombinated into a shape vaguely reminiscent of a giant ballista from antiquity. A spiky bolt wound up and then [i]thwapped[/i] at the cliff face at lightning speeds. The bolt struck the exposed Memnon in the back as he was taking his new energy cannon.

The force of the blow popped Memnon’s shields and sent the giant clattering into 595 and the weapons trolley. Armaments skittered all over the floor. “Target that ballista! Memnon, status!” Thebes bellowed. “I’m operational, just got the wind knocked out of me.” Memnon replied, carefully untangling himself from 595. “Sorry ma’am.” He crawled back to the cliff’s edge with his updated weaponry. 595 gritted her teeth and crawled over to the upturned trolley.

The ballista fired again, and again. Some bolts smashed great divots in the cliffside and other whizzed over their heads. Other creatures used the cover to move from hiding, twistering over open ground like big obsidian tornadoes. The air was now full of this dry rattling sound, presumably from the creature’s vine features rustling over each other.