As Rareth ran for her replacement weapon, she pulled the magazine of micro-missiles from her launcher and placed it on a magnetic holster just above her tail. Her new fusion cannon would certainly have a fresh magazine included, but the antimatter charges were far too valuable, and dangerous, to simply leave behind. Her neural implant linked with her new weapon before she had even picked it up, so it was ready to fire as soon as she had it in her hands. 

Overall, Rareth agreed that they needed to get moving, if only to get the civilians to a less exposed position. The cavern would allow them to funnel the creatures into a chokepoint, which would help them deal with their numbers. The sooner they could move, the better, but they could not afford to lose any of their equipment. For the moment, they just needed to hold off their attackers and buy time. 

The first creature to reach the top of the ridge did so with a shrill scream. The “vines” of its body twisted and formed into many long, sharp spikes, but even with its terrifying speed, it did not get a chance to use them. Energy bolts came in from all directions, from both Rareth and members of the Sacred Band, to tear it apart piece by piece. These creatures were at least partially amorphous and could reshape themselves after taking damage, but there were limits. 

Rareth switched to her weapon’s second firing mode as she made it to the ridge. These creatures could recover from smaller wounds, so blasting them apart entirely seemed to be the best approach. “We should move into the caves. The chokepoint will work to our advantage; we just need to hold them back long enough for the civilians to move our equipment.” Rareth said through their comms. She had seen Memnon take a hit from one of those “ballista” bolts, and they did not seem to be something that even she could just shrug off. “Memnon, share me the data on that hit you took.” Rareth requested. She wanted to know the exact amount of kinetic energy the projectiles contained so she could evaluate how many hits her defenses could take before she exposed herself to them.