The squad leader stood to the side of the ramp and gave the signal for the first of Sinclair's Raiders to exit the ramp of the hovering assault transport as the lush green and purple foliage of the jungle below batted to and fro in the vortex of four vectoring thrust engines above. The relentless torrents of hot air not only forced it the thick liana to split, but inflicted sufficient heat to cause the tops of the nearest trees to begin to wilt. He watched with an appraising eye as each of his team leaped out and then dropped into the heat of the jungle below using directive jets to land in a precise perimeter. Then mere moments after they appeared upon the jungle floor as dark almost black silhouettes against the flowers and frawns one by one they vanished from sight in the millisecond flash that updated the Chameleon Chromatic Perspective Projections Generators were switched into the active setting. The dedicated camelion skin processors on-board the Mongoose Armor, that the Carver Corporation's Marine Contingent, gave it the stealthiest infra-red and visible light profiles of any weapons platform yet devised. The company's armor wrights would be justifiably prideful if they knew in this one detail they had exceeded even the Tlasi at their height.
The squad leader stepped from the ramp where it hung above the canopy and moments later landed in a jet of compressed air that cushioned his armored fall to little more than he would have felt if he had jump down a half flight of stairs instead of the near 30 meter drop he had just completed. Then he vanished into the deformed landing zone as his 'chameleon chrome' updated and he signaled to the hovering H.A.M.S.T.E.R.;
"All systems are green," he said into his mic.
"Roger! All green is varified. Good hunting, Lieutenant!" the pilot responded in her thick Martian Irish brogue.
"Good hunting indeed!" Lieutenant Sinclair replied, "Try to leave a few of the mange ridden nasties for me and mine."
The reply was filled with that lilt and humor that made all men smile, "Lieutenant, I kill'em as I find'em. You just need to play the game better, if you want to play in the same league as the big girls!"
"I'll take that challenge Lieutenant Killafina," Jon replied, " you will owe me though!"
"Tin can bravado and testosterone is no match for a keen eye and a H.A.M.S.T.E.R.," she jabbed back.
He let the Killafina's last statement stand as he knew all too well the hell that was about to be unleashed when she finally settled down for her kind of fun.
Sinclair's squad's objective was clear and they all knew just how critical it was that they be in position before either the Ma’Rni Shock cyborgs or the Rocorian marines now confirmed from stealthed observation platforms to be working their way to the crashed site's coordinates. Jon knew he had a narrow window to rendezvous with the Voiceless team and successfully conceal their ambush positions. He figured at most the had an hour to cover the twenty miles of thick jungle, which on a good day was going to be no easy task. His team's buzzers were going to be cutting a wide obvious track until the meat up with their native guide and his team.
He just hoped that the Intel Winnies had been correct when they told him not to worry about the obvious nature of their path from the drop zone. The head Winnie had simply said,
"The Voiceless have better paths to the ancient site."
That was it, he refused to elaborate anymore than to tell him his old friend was supposed to meet him there and lead him in. He wasn't sure why a voiceless traveling bard would have been selected for the task but the orders were clear on that point. Jon didn't know what that meant and he only had 20 minutes to make it with his team to the way point.
"We've got a mile to go and only minutes to get there people. I want a single file line on Sergeant Major Martinez. Move!" he said.
"You heard the man, my bambinos! Line up and hold hands 'cuz I'm not going looking for any lost lambs today!", the SMaj's less than altruistic voice stated loud in each soldier's ear through the auditory implant, "We've bus to catch and we're already late!"
Then the SMaj's suit started buzz sawing its way through the thick lianas and under growth leaving a swath of pulverized vegetation in her wake. The neat thing about the buzzer was its ability to mimic a native creature's swath of breakage, which in this case she had set to the Horned Saber. She set the pace and all that followed were hard pressed to keep up especially Private Nathan Wanzowski who walked in her wake and had the task of cutting down what his diminutive scaled leader missed. Thus, by the time Lieutenant Sinclair and his twitching tale end Charley came through the well tramped path there was no need to cut anything. Their sole task was to monitor the presence of the wary predator, known as Askarsa'berat; and called 'Horned Sabers' or 'Saber Toads' by the Terrans, because it looked like a cross between a Terran horned toad and a Saber-Toothed Tiger.
Horned Sabers Toads were extremely dangerous to unarmored troops, but could only damage some of the more sensitive joints of the heavy Mongoose chameleon chromed armor. They posed little danger to the armored marines of Sinclair's Raiders, but were always monitored. They couldn't see to attack the team, beyond a vague sensed motion, but the creatures were highly territorial and were constantly fighting each other, as they redefined their territorial dominance. This usually ended in the death of the defeated male, but occasionally the losing male would submit to the largers dominance and then run away to attempt to survive and find new territory.
Horned Sabers Toads were often a challenge in the jungle because they viewed anything that wasn't prey as a challenge to their dominance of the territory. Though the one that followed the team was of the more cautious variety and followed their path at a cautious distance. It seemed to know there was something bigger passing through. It followed the team to the edge of its territory where it stopped and watched in puzzlement at the passage of a mysteries of existence.
The chameleon chrome projectors flickered and passed images from side to side projecting the illusion of a patch of haze melting through the jungle whenever there was the slightest processing resolution error. This default error illusion worked extremely well in nearly all environments. The system perfect when stationary, did occasionally flicker mist to cover unknown pixels.
Though Lieutenant Sinclair noted that there was precious little that could be done to mask the progress of the heavy combat armor that was the standard issue of the elite palace guard, assigned defended the heir of the Ta’Leni clan and her chosen Battle Lord Zack Carver. The swath of passage would indeed pass for a Saber Toad trail in a few days but it to anyone who observed the passage of the nothing but the occasional wisp of haze that snapped and buzzed its way through the jungle, there could be no mistaking the presence of the military grade light bending armor and he knew there was nothing to prevent that detail. Which is why the team moved in a fashion that would encourage that assumption by any off planet invasion force, that might come upon it later.
Camouflaging their approach to the ambush position Sinclair hoped they would achive the suprise needed to utterly decimate the team of cyborgs and their Rocorian lap dogs. Their progress was easily tracked by the swath of destruction that made Sabers Toads seem small by comparison as it arrowed straight for the coordinates fed to them by the spy before his treachery was unmasked and executed. Now that the Sinclair's Raiders were on the ground, the downed team stood a chance of to accomplish the mission before the cyborgs and wolves reached the abandon monastery. They would not live to see their chaotic plan implemented, now that Lt. Sinclair and his team were in the jungle and on an intercept course to catch them from behind at the moment they were engaged by the deadly Lt. Simmons stationed on the ridge above and the ever deadly Lt. Killafina.
The squad leader stepped from the ramp where it hung above the canopy and moments later landed in a jet of compressed air that cushioned his armored fall to little more than he would have felt if he had jump down a half flight of stairs instead of the near 30 meter drop he had just completed. Then he vanished into the deformed landing zone as his 'chameleon chrome' updated and he signaled to the hovering H.A.M.S.T.E.R.;
"All systems are green," he said into his mic.
"Roger! All green is varified. Good hunting, Lieutenant!" the pilot responded in her thick Martian Irish brogue.
"Good hunting indeed!" Lieutenant Sinclair replied, "Try to leave a few of the mange ridden nasties for me and mine."
The reply was filled with that lilt and humor that made all men smile, "Lieutenant, I kill'em as I find'em. You just need to play the game better, if you want to play in the same league as the big girls!"
"I'll take that challenge Lieutenant Killafina," Jon replied, " you will owe me though!"
"Tin can bravado and testosterone is no match for a keen eye and a H.A.M.S.T.E.R.," she jabbed back.
He let the Killafina's last statement stand as he knew all too well the hell that was about to be unleashed when she finally settled down for her kind of fun.
Sinclair's squad's objective was clear and they all knew just how critical it was that they be in position before either the Ma’Rni Shock cyborgs or the Rocorian marines now confirmed from stealthed observation platforms to be working their way to the crashed site's coordinates. Jon knew he had a narrow window to rendezvous with the Voiceless team and successfully conceal their ambush positions. He figured at most the had an hour to cover the twenty miles of thick jungle, which on a good day was going to be no easy task. His team's buzzers were going to be cutting a wide obvious track until the meat up with their native guide and his team.
He just hoped that the Intel Winnies had been correct when they told him not to worry about the obvious nature of their path from the drop zone. The head Winnie had simply said,
"The Voiceless have better paths to the ancient site."
That was it, he refused to elaborate anymore than to tell him his old friend was supposed to meet him there and lead him in. He wasn't sure why a voiceless traveling bard would have been selected for the task but the orders were clear on that point. Jon didn't know what that meant and he only had 20 minutes to make it with his team to the way point.
"We've got a mile to go and only minutes to get there people. I want a single file line on Sergeant Major Martinez. Move!" he said.
"You heard the man, my bambinos! Line up and hold hands 'cuz I'm not going looking for any lost lambs today!", the SMaj's less than altruistic voice stated loud in each soldier's ear through the auditory implant, "We've bus to catch and we're already late!"
Then the SMaj's suit started buzz sawing its way through the thick lianas and under growth leaving a swath of pulverized vegetation in her wake. The neat thing about the buzzer was its ability to mimic a native creature's swath of breakage, which in this case she had set to the Horned Saber. She set the pace and all that followed were hard pressed to keep up especially Private Nathan Wanzowski who walked in her wake and had the task of cutting down what his diminutive scaled leader missed. Thus, by the time Lieutenant Sinclair and his twitching tale end Charley came through the well tramped path there was no need to cut anything. Their sole task was to monitor the presence of the wary predator, known as Askarsa'berat; and called 'Horned Sabers' or 'Saber Toads' by the Terrans, because it looked like a cross between a Terran horned toad and a Saber-Toothed Tiger.
Horned Sabers Toads were extremely dangerous to unarmored troops, but could only damage some of the more sensitive joints of the heavy Mongoose chameleon chromed armor. They posed little danger to the armored marines of Sinclair's Raiders, but were always monitored. They couldn't see to attack the team, beyond a vague sensed motion, but the creatures were highly territorial and were constantly fighting each other, as they redefined their territorial dominance. This usually ended in the death of the defeated male, but occasionally the losing male would submit to the largers dominance and then run away to attempt to survive and find new territory.
Horned Sabers Toads were often a challenge in the jungle because they viewed anything that wasn't prey as a challenge to their dominance of the territory. Though the one that followed the team was of the more cautious variety and followed their path at a cautious distance. It seemed to know there was something bigger passing through. It followed the team to the edge of its territory where it stopped and watched in puzzlement at the passage of a mysteries of existence.
The chameleon chrome projectors flickered and passed images from side to side projecting the illusion of a patch of haze melting through the jungle whenever there was the slightest processing resolution error. This default error illusion worked extremely well in nearly all environments. The system perfect when stationary, did occasionally flicker mist to cover unknown pixels.
Though Lieutenant Sinclair noted that there was precious little that could be done to mask the progress of the heavy combat armor that was the standard issue of the elite palace guard, assigned defended the heir of the Ta’Leni clan and her chosen Battle Lord Zack Carver. The swath of passage would indeed pass for a Saber Toad trail in a few days but it to anyone who observed the passage of the nothing but the occasional wisp of haze that snapped and buzzed its way through the jungle, there could be no mistaking the presence of the military grade light bending armor and he knew there was nothing to prevent that detail. Which is why the team moved in a fashion that would encourage that assumption by any off planet invasion force, that might come upon it later.
Camouflaging their approach to the ambush position Sinclair hoped they would achive the suprise needed to utterly decimate the team of cyborgs and their Rocorian lap dogs. Their progress was easily tracked by the swath of destruction that made Sabers Toads seem small by comparison as it arrowed straight for the coordinates fed to them by the spy before his treachery was unmasked and executed. Now that the Sinclair's Raiders were on the ground, the downed team stood a chance of to accomplish the mission before the cyborgs and wolves reached the abandon monastery. They would not live to see their chaotic plan implemented, now that Lt. Sinclair and his team were in the jungle and on an intercept course to catch them from behind at the moment they were engaged by the deadly Lt. Simmons stationed on the ridge above and the ever deadly Lt. Killafina.
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