As Rho-Hux confronted the Sect group, the offensive through the woods raged on. Off in the distance a section of the woods burned an angry, weltering orange as vehicular weaponry and shrieking mortar shells devoured foliage and infantry forces alike. The dialogue between purple, yellow, and white weapon flashes against the blue, green and orange had momentary stalled as a partially scourged open stretch of the woods became the site of another massive firefight. Gourlan’s advance had stalled but the woods weren’t any less alive with activity than they were before.

Through the shaded paths winding deeper into the heart of the Sprawls, the parasitic drones sent Zsresrinn found a foreboding, maze-like path where the mist hung heavy and the light barely reached. Bumpy and uneven terrain forced them to travel up and down an irregular topography defined by dense roots that crept over the path and sudden ditches in the earth. Footsteps and the scents associated with them could be detected; primarily troops from what could be discerned but a closer look revealed those of indigenous life forms – clearly making usage of a pathway that was increasingly revealing itself as a connecting pathway to other hideouts in the Sprawl.

Advancing further would cause the shared sensory link with the parasites to blur; a static not electric but somatic, causing the link between creator and drone to weaken as they neared the edges of control range. It couldn’t be said that was entirely the reason as to why however. A piercing, synthetic shriek roared through the thick foliage and the vision and hearing of the creatures momentarily blanked from a bright blue-white flash of light, silhouetting trees and leaves in a bright flash. Chitters, roars, and crumpling leaves could be heard in their wake as wiry, serpent-like shapes scattered through the woods, running towards and over the parasites in a wild, frenetic stampede. The sound of the unseen weapon firing was audible and visible from the distance; an angry burst of light that crept out of the depths of the Sprawl’s darker pathways yet did not truly leave it.

The creatures however, were unheard and unseen amidst the radiance. Most of the parasites sent out by Zsresrinn had been crushed in their frenetic stampede yet it is one that was impossible to hear over the monstrous, roar. It wasn’t what most would pay attention to.

Breaking from the tree cover, an enormous globule of radiant angry blue-white soared overhead. It seemed almost liquid like, a gigantic raindrop-like mass of coalescing, fleshy, warping energy not of this world. A distant chill crept across skin and carapace alike as distant waves of ethereal radiation washed over them; not enough to be dangerous but it seemed to caress them with a tender, hungry lustfulness as the globule descended towards the armoured column.

An explosion just a little less radiant than the burst that had sent it forward erupted in the woods, flattening trees and swallowing the flashing lights of weaponfire in a horrific bluish-white. Drifting clouds of an algae-like foggy blue hung as sporadic, intermittent weapons fire from the insurgents kicked up.

Their coms began to buzz, static washing through but not overwhelming the voice calling.

<How quaint; the very void-howitzers the League sold to us are now being turned on us.> A cruel laugh broke out from Gourlan, followed by a shrieking series of weapon discharge. <I hate to demand this of our guests, but would you mind dealing with this hopefully trivial matter?>

As the wash of spectrometric strangeness began to die down, the remaining two parasite-drones would have their psycho-somatic link re-established and repaired to Zsresrinn. As the stampede had ended, sight though not scent of the strange, unidentified creatures had been lost as they scattered into the woods. Yet they weren’t the only ones moving; air pressure sensors and their other longer-distance detection measures would notice other shapes moving in the wood. Yet they only needed their eyes to see something larger and multi-limbed shambling across the hill over which the void-howitzer had fired. It was too dark to make out its particular shape, too well hidden even in this frenzied moment, but a particular fresh, wet smell reeked from its body.

More importantly, the drones had established at least the rough general location of where the howitzer likely was and as they were still active, could keep an eye on the area for beast or soldier within the area. They hadn’t been detected, at least, not the living ones.

"Gnosis Eaters? Well, that's better than shit-eating troglodyte insurgents." Rho-Hux was interrupted by explosions and a voice coming from the strangers' coms. "Speaking of which! I think a little bloodshed is in order."

In one of his four arms, he pulled out one of his Earth-based swords. In another, he pulled out a las-pistol. "All the matters in terms of allegiances is that as of right now I am your friend. I know can help you find the base of the insurgents but first I think we better disarm these trigger-happy terrorists before they start to improve their aim."

Rho-Hux used his grapple hook gun to people himself deeper into the woods. He soon felt the need to return to the group to say one last crucial detail.

"Just to be clear, when I say disarm, I mean cut off their arms and show it to them before you further torture them for information. Professionals have standers and traitors need to be reminded about what happens to dishonorable deserters."

Through the undergrowth

Sounds and images flashed as Zsresrinn refocused her senses through the cycle of disruptions that came with the destruction of a number of her drones. Normally this would not have been very taxing, but the sharp bursts of sensation from the void-howitzer’s shots gave her perception a slight pause as it was inundated by the blinding surges from several angles at once. In a moment, however, her briefly scrambled strands of mental input were cleared up again. She began to make her way towards the mouth of the path.

“Caution,” she hissed at Rho-Hux as he leapt into the thick of the jungle ahead of the group. It would have been false to say that she cared much about what happened to the gealtirocht, but, like it or not, for now they shared a common enemy. She would have to make the best of it. Perhaps more importantly, if he went in swinging he would stir up both the militias and the local fauna, which from what she had glimpsed was already dangerously agitated. Those creatures looked dangerously agile, and it was hard to tell how many of them there could be lurking around nearby. “Insurgents on alert, beasts prowling. Camouflage if you can. Direction is known.”

She gave a mental tug at one of the remaining symbiotes, and the eye-like drone rose into the air to indicate the way where the howitzer seemed to lie before ducking back into the undergrowth. It was best not to expose them too much as long as they were her only link to the deeper paths.

As she began to make her way through the brush, trying to step carefully on the tips of her legs but still making an unavoidable amount of noise, she glanced up with a row of eyes at Rho-Hux’s last words.

“Interrogation not my specialty. Will disarm as I can.” She brought her upper limbs forward, and wide recurve blades quietly extended from the shell along their length like unfolding palm leaves. Shooting where the trees grew so thick would be difficult, and if some feral creature decided to ambush them, she had best be ready to fight it off on its own terms.

Since entering the dense forest Silver had been tagging along behind the bulk of their little group. Having his paranoia confirmed by one of the troop commanders had only made the voidhanger’s fretting worse, opting to engage his cloak despite being among ‘comrades’. Their newest compatriot was no different to any other of the paramilitary soldiers they had met so far; full of bravado and out for blood. Silver hadn’t even bothered with an introduction, attitudes like that got people killed real quick and who knows what the gealtirocht’s angle was.

The voidhanger grimaced as his foot sunk deep down into a flooded pothole that Zsresrinn had punched into the ground. The beast of a thing was surprisingly nimble and quiet for its size but the forest floor could only bear so much weight.

Egh. Silver thought as he shook loose the mud that stuck to his leg. Note to self: never leave space again!

Continuing on, the cyborg rolled his eyes as he shooed away another report from his little AI companion. There was nothing new to be gained from such things, more enemies, more threats, more carnage. The voidhanger didn’t need a report to tell him how royally fucked they were.

Right on time Gourlan’s slimy, stomach churning voice crackled through the comms, calling the group into action. Seemingly without a second thought, the gealtirocht bounced into the tree’s with talk of dismembering while Zsresrinn whirred into action mode. Silver, however, paused; instead choosing to open up their comms channel.

<Guys, I’m not sure about this. Back at the outpost Yrilovan warned me that Gourlan shouldn’t have known about the rendezvous spot and that he didn’t know why he was there. This could be another ambush.>

The man growled as he looked at the hasty companion and he looked at the other who was lagging behind as he slowly moved forward, raising his shield and slowly tromping in the shadows, he wasn't the quietest thing ever but once the other had decided to charge out, he slowly would push forward. His mind was full of the idea, of scouting, not slaughter, but that was ruined, so now it's, let the guy take attention, and move by.

Paris turned lightly and looked about to make sure that he wasn't about to get shot again that day, but if anyone just listened they could likely hear the mechanics of his armor, as well as likely, see some of the metal underneath the foliage. Light would likely not do much to help them with reflections, but he still was likely a lighter and more silvery color compared to the foliage, even if he was coated in soot, dirt, and everything else that had been collected over the past however long it has been since they landed.

He heard a bit of static in his helmet and sighed softly, next time they stop he might try fixing it, it was getting a connection, but it just wasn't wanting to give audible sounds that weren't static. Paris turned his head lightly, "just stay low... we can use his foolishness to our advantage, he might have stirred the forest, but he could likely direct attention away from us until we are in better positions to attack from. Or, we can just move past..."

Rho-Hux had taken the lead as he swung into the treetops, swallowed by the cluttered bramble above and the thick shadows cast into the undergrowth the rest of the team crept and trundled. The day was not a bright one and the sunlight that did peek through had a faint, almost silvery colour to it as it peeked through the dense leaves. The ground below was its own maze but the treetops could not be said to be any better. Branches overlapped branches, bushy clusters of fuzzball like flowers competed for the thin beams of light, and dense moss and creeping vegetation colonizes where any rot on wood crept. Progress might be faster through such a path but the treacherous nature of the Sprawls spared through from its obfuscating grasp.

Traveling through the trees, a particular sensation began to creep and tug at the geatirocht’s senses. Like a faint electrical current that was woven through the air, the residual ether from the howitzer swamped the region around the heavy weapon’s firing pit, densest on the ground as Silver, Paris, and Zsresrinn moved through. Mere tendrils as opposed to the enveloping heat-wave like miasma occupied the upper levels of the wood, whispering the un-logic driven nonsense of the Abzu into quiet, unsuspecting corners of the mind. Below, the afterwash effect was fading but the three-person team, quiet as they were, would not be able to shake the feeling of the seeping, skin-crawling otherworldly power washing over them.

It was thick enough that Silver’s cloaking system was starting to gather it across his body. Invisible to sight but he would be able to feel it clinging to his armour – patches of piercing cold that dug into the skin and seemed to hum to his head. His armour naturally shielded him, even as the ether in the air slowly waned, but his cloaking system might not shroud him as much as he thought.

To anyone with sufficiently advanced scanning modules for their visors, it would appear that clumps of supernatural waste byproduct were gradually concentrating around an unseen, indefinite shape. That is not what the enormous creature on the ground noticed first however.

From his perch up high, Rho-Hux would be able to see the enormous predator – low to the ground like a crocodile slithering slowly, its gnarled arms thickening with bony outgrowths and muscle past the elbow as a squirming leech-like creature feebly thrashed against the leaves and the dirt. Gaseous hissing exited its tendril-lined maw, slithering head and serrated paddle tail writhing angrily against rows of interlocking triangular teeth slowly soaking in the blue-green of its blood. It was a large beast, not as dense as Zsresrinn but its body long and streamlined with powerful, brutish muscle and clustered of bony armour-like growth, like some enormous semi-reptilian creature.





The gealtirocht remained unseen to the creature as its attention turned towards the largest member of the party - Zsresrinn. For a split second, its jaws froze and its long tail with its four gore-drenched tips would rise over it almost snakelike, flickers of flashing red membrane around its four tooth-like prongs flashing at the approaching vrexul. Slowly it began to drag itself backwards, audibly scraping across the leaves and roots as the mechanical clunking of Paris neared.

Subtly, movement could be seen in the bushes. A scent unlike the raw and dry earthiness of the plough-head, wet and slimy like the creature trapped in its jaws. If she or the others could scan the foliage opposite to the plough-head, it was clear that its captive had not been abandoned. Clusters of quiet and creeping leafslithers lay hiding and still, their sickle like claws scraping against the ground as eyeless faces watched the grim spectacle play out before them. The dense ether in the air had marked them out, painting their skin in hues of light blue and yellow that those touched by the Abzu could easily see even through the miasmatic fog.

Were they frightened or were they enraged? They were not leaving one way or the other.

To the plough head, the Sect team wasn’t a random encounter – these were predators every bit as savage in tooth and claw as any dweller of the forest deep. The meat in its mouth, small as it was, remained its brutal livelihood; the iron-giant that stomped behind the enormous arthropod made it clear these two were in league with one another. It could feel a third, its void-receptive sensory glands detecting a shrouded presence causing its frill-plates around its head and neck to rise.

A deep, sonorous growl began to emerge from its throat, drowning the cries of its victim. Like a faulty heating unit it groaned, morphing ominously into a phlegmy, dragging growl. Too deep to merely be emerging from its mouth but radiating from its heavy body as its tail’s pincer grips grated across tree bark and its mid-limbs gripped into the dirt. It might be stepping back but with its hind legs coiled and tensed, there was no telling how it might react.

This prompted rustling in the leaves above, subtle but unheard amidst the plough head’s defensive response. Rho-Hux would hear the movements then see the leaves shift a few feet ahead of him. More leafslithers – slender bodies snaking through the clutter of branches and leaves, positioning themselves above and around the far larger predator below. One of them rose its head and froze. It did not need eyes for the gealtirocht to tell that it was looking his way, frozen still as if by command as its compatriots paused, hesitating at the sight of an unexpected presence up in the tree tops with them.

As this was ongoing, the surviving drone, re-entering the control range of Zsresrinn, had slowly hovered over the nearby hill. Image quality from the somatic link was erratic but not beyond salvation, even as it neared where the concentration was at its deepest. Sight of the insurgent howitzer pit was achieved – a deep wide depression in the earth, dug into the top of the hill and flattened out with wooden panels and morphic fungal planks. It was quite wide and large, connected to what appeared to be a small shack of some sort, quickly made with rapidly grown and maintain tarrhaidim biomass padding and infested plasteel, sporting a series of small antennae emerging from its slanted rooftop. A few trenches could be spotted around the sides that stretched off across the elevated ground to defensive positions, collapsed tents as well further to the heart of the emplacement.

The centrepiece however was the void-howitzer itself. The pit was deep enough to support this enormous, semi-cylindrical monstrosity. Its barrel had square-like protrusions apart of a normally cylindrical frame, lined with specialized ether-filtering grates that stopped an inch or so short of its wide mouth. Pointed prong-like appendages stretched out from a few inches behind, stopping over its top and lightly glowing in the dim aftermath of its recent burst. Energy modulation and projectile shaper attachments – high end equipment innocuous at first but capable of turning mere high explosive globs fired from a single charge to a hellish rain of smaller, rapidly launched shells. High tech equipment – a fairly recent invention but not the sort that typically ends up in insurgent hands.

Before the drone slipped away, it could tell that the small artillery position was on alert. A tall, powerful celaderaka encased in metal-laced carapace growled something out and a few tarrhaidim troopers got off of the artillery platform, leaving its computer systems and targeting attachments in exchange for picking up their bioelectric auto-rifles. Two more celaderaka were seen – unlike their leader hefting along what seemed to be an autocannon-derived battle rifle, these two had large and sickle-like blades attached over their left shoulders and dark green camo-patterned armour. Heavy duty shotguns were slung over their shoulders as they cackled and spoke – one of them had a bandolier of heavy duty slugs on his chest, the sort that you didn’t use for hunting, not game animals anyways.

A group of humans, roughly 12 or so, could be seen, lightly armoured by comparison (reconnaissance or security type armour, little augmentation capability) and with smaller calibre older generation rifles. Most were sitting in a circle around the artillery piece at the bottom of the pit and draped in sweat. A few were popping qillatu-diminisher pills or running checks on the still hot, smoking supernatural howitzer. Around where they were mostly concentrated were a few crates with a peculiar symbol on them – a U-shaped magnet with red and blue tips with a bullet piercing through its lowest end. A few of them were eating some sort of nutrient paste-gruel and one with a notably advanced looking visor, League tech by the looks of it, was moving over to the shed.

The growl from the plough-head had caught their attention and just before Zsresrinn’s drone vanished, the four tarrhaidim troopers had crept up over the top, rifles raised as they began to slowly advance down the hilltop. The heavy Kevlar like armour they wore and the exoskeletal servos across their arms and legs made it clear they could move quickly and hit hard if they wanted. Yet sharp as they were, the foliage was still thick enough they hadn’t caught sight of the standoff happening down below.

Given by the size of their rifles and the quiet, professional way they moved from cover to cover, always having one keep an eye out as the other three moved, it was clear it might not be long before they approach. The plough head seemed to notice but it had stopped, frozen in place, huffing coming from behind its jaws as it began to realize what was happening.

The window of opportunity was starting to diminish for the Sect team. Would they take the initiative, fall back, conceal themselves?

Animals. What was it about evolution that led to the universe creating so many unique killers, yet only a small percent of them were intelligent enough to organize and form empires? Some mad scientists could turn this Plough-Head into a good bioweapon, it looked like it was already one right now. Then there were the leafslithers, who could be hiding from the Plough-Head, or were planning to attack it. However, could it be they were working together? Could such an advanced form of symbiotic relations develop? Activating his camouflage suit, and “Ghosting” powers, Rho-Hux crawled lower down the tree he was in like an Earth gecko. He tried to get in front of the front but off to the side. His plan was to fire his grappling gun into a tree across from him and attach another line to the tree he was currently on. In theory, this could create a trap wire. In the best case scenario, detecting or walking into the line would confuse the Plough-Head, and allow the group to move on. Worst case scenario, the monster would become enraged but at least the wire would slow it down somewhat. Once his trap had been set he slithered back into the darkness trying to get within arrange of his group. He still had to reconfigure his communication device to theirs.

"Large predator up ahead. It's looking at you Zsresrinn. I planted a trip-wire between the trees. Produced with caution."

One leg still raised in an unfinished step, Zsresrinn stopped in her tracks. She had let the comms chatter about Gourlan fly by without answer - even if the voidhanger's suspicions were correct, there was not much they could have done about it at that moment. Not until they had dealt with the enemy they knew. Her senses followed the movements of the rebels by the mortar emplacement through the remaining parasitic drone as it wove and ducked about the undergrowth, her body moving ahead almost by reflex. Rho-Hux's warning, however, made her hesitate. She had not thought the stalking beast was still so close. Abandoning her mobile eye for a moment, she focused her senses ahead of her. Still nothing clearly in sight, besides a fleshy shape slithering here and there, but she could smell it now, feel its body heat. The stench of several animals, and a very large thermal patch, though a pale one. Maybe cold-blooded.

"Understood." She readied her side-limbs' grip around her hellhammer as she passed on communications to the rest of the group as quietly as she could. "Insurgent patrol approaches, prepare to engage. Will attempt misdirection."

Zsresrinn had to acknowledge that she was in no way equipped for subtly hampering the enemy. All the same, the raw calculations of combat were clear: they were facing an adversary that matched their numbers and an unpredictable wild creature. One of these elements attacking another would lead to the third one taking advantage of the fight, and unless the group did something about it, most chances were that they would be on the losing side. Anything she could so much as try mattered.

She shifted her attention to the drone again, pushing it to rise into the air with an unnecessarily loud buzzing of its membranous wings. The symbiote was small and the sound it made was easily lost in the rustling and breathing around them, but she hoped that the large predator's honed senses or the insurgents' detection systems would be sharp enough to pick up on it. Even if they did, though, that might not be enough to have them focus on that. Driven by a direct mental command, the drone flew in a wide, exposed loop, bringing it onto the trajectory the tarrhaidim were approaching from, and dove at the plough-head, which she now could see more clearly from above. It was unlikely to survive if either foe did spot it, but that would be a small price to pay if it could get them to notice each other in time.