510: 510 Hunting Tree Vipers

510 Hunting Tree Vipers

Once they were in the shuttle, the Canis team began to inspect the new additions to the Terminus team. They were all from the infantry but were among the strongest, having all washed out of the piloting program due to either their size or attitude and not their aptitude.2

The two men were over two meters tall, while the woman had a criminal record that made Nico's own military history look positively pristine and tempered. She had narrowly escaped a lifetime prison colony sentence because there was no evidence that she was actually the one that used a case of claymores to frag the Inquisitor investigating their team.

So she had been reassigned and ended up with the team from Kepler 142, who were left behind for Terminus to find on that decrepit space station. She was a genius with infiltration and explosives, though, and had earned her spot on the drone team, as well as this hunting trip.

Rill gave the pilot directions to the landing site while Nico equipped her custom armor, complete with integrated Tech Adept Harness. That got the attention of the Canis team, who were intrigued by how she was planning to use six extra arms in any sort of practical way.

"She has a natural affinity for machinery. She can use them all as naturally as her own arms. The normal units have a neural link, but it takes a while to get used to using them smoothly." Max explained as Nico tested the link to her new limbs.

"It's got better gravity control than a standard unit as well, so it is easier for me to chase the Vipers if they retreat up into the trees." Nico smiled.

"I don't know how to say this, but to do what? You're barely bite-sized to a Tree Viper." Ramba asked.

"Kill it, of course. I am capable of using a sword with every one of these limbs, or they can be used to restrain a target while I chop it apart. I brought axes as well." She replied, taking an axe with an energy field protected blade out of her storage.

"You will likely never meet anyone who likes killing things more than Nico. Even the Hunters were impressed by her bloodlust." One of the Special Forces guys laughed.

"We should catch up with them again. They would be great hunting partners. I will contact them and see where they've gotten to once we are finished here." Nico agreed.

"They said that they wanted to see what the Narsians were like in close combat, so they should be somewhere Northeast of our Planet, but how far, I do not know. We lost track of them not long after they departed." Rill replied, then pointed to a spot in front of the shuttle.

"That is our landing zone, that pond. There aren't many clear spots in the jungle. Just watch for hidden creatures in the water. The crocs can grow rather large."

"In that case, I will be going first," Nico announced and directly stepped out of the shuttle's rear door, which had only begun to open when her body disappeared from sight.

"You get used to her. She's like that." Max shrugged as the others stared out the door.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot that you guys don't usually use gravity control, do you? She can fly with that armor on, so she's not going to crash into the ground. She just wanted first dibs on anything that might be in the water." he added.

"I see."

Nico had the remains of one large snake and some sort of turtle on the shore when the shuttle landed only seconds later, discharging the team before returning to high altitude to keep track of them and any threats that they might be facing.

If they needed evacuation, it could drop a line down for everyone to climb up, letting them leave from almost anywhere in the forest in a hurry. Not that the Pilot expected to need to do that. The team she had dropped off looked more than capable of handling anything she could see on sensors, and they had all brought Plasma Cannons.

"That is one of the Tree Vipers we are here looking for. The turtles are vicious but unfortunately inedible." Ramba informed them, looking at the single-blade wound on the Viper, then turning to appraise Nico in a different light.

"It didn't expect that I could fly. I lifted when it struck at me and severed its spine with my axe." Nico explained, shaking the blood off the large-headed weapon in her hand.

"Why an ax instead of a sword?" One of the Canis team asked.

"I wasn't sure how thick the hide was, and the extra force of the ax helps it penetrate bone more smoothly."

The team took a moment to siphon a large amount of Viper blood into what looked like a canteen that had been hidden under their clothing, and Rill signaled for them to move out behind her.

They silently moved into the trees, smirking at the noise that the Terminus team was making before they all gave up on being as quiet as the locals and just did their best not to break branches that would cause extra loud noises. 

The only one that was truly silent was Nico, and she wasn't on the ground, preferring to scout from a spot further up the trees, flitting from one to another with an ax in her hand and clinging to the thick branches with the tentacles of her tech adept harness.

"I like that suit. It's almost like she's a baby goliath, but with extra arms. They move the same way through the trees when they are small." Rill whispered.

"And when they are grown?"

"Then they are too large for the branches to support them."

Some of the branches were over a meter across on the enormous trees of this jungle, capable of supporting even a Corvette Class Mecha, so whatever sort of species the Goliath was, it had to be truly massive.

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