Chapter 39: Scavengers

The Scavengers were a biomechanical species that many speculated were the result of an AI run amok. They could come in almost any form, but were most commonly the size of a medium dog, and multi limbed for efficient material extraction. Larger Sizes hinder movement, and smaller ones have trouble handling the materials they find without disassembling them first.

The shuddering and screeching continues for over a minute before the sound of shooting begins. That snaps the soldiers into action immediately.

"The intercoms must be down. Cadets, you're with Bravo Company Third Platoon. Follow their directions and you will most likely live through this." Colonel Cortez, leader of this infantry unit directs, before giving assignments to the rest of his men.

Scratch that, the rest of his soldiers, Max sees that there are still some women in Bravo Company. With less than one fifth of their original numbers left, the infantry soldiers still alive in the unit are either the very tough or the very lucky.

"Lucky you. Our post is right here. The Armory and the training grounds. You can usually hear Scavengers before you see them, but be careful, they can dive in from any direction, their claws let them climb walls." Sergeant Enns who leads the patoon assigned to them smiles.

He is sandy haired soldier who still looks quite young, despite his years of service, but his team all works as one, so he must be a good leader, Max decides.

The signs of combat are getting more distant as the soldiers move out, and Third Platoon waits, guarding the Armory. Ten minutes in to the battle, the first unit comes running their way, nearly out of ammunition and trying to make it to the Armory.

"Look alive. It's time to work." Sergeant Enns calls and Max activates [Multi Point Targeting] finding that it works just fine in these basic powered suits with a pair of pistols.

Sure enough, the patrol is being chased by a number of Octopus looking mechanical creatures. The closest of them leaps at a fleeing soldier and meets a trio of Pulse blasts. One from Nico and one from either of Max's pistols.

The creature collapses to the floor in a spray of black blood and the incoming troops move towards the center of the hall to give the guards a better line to the Scavengers that are mostly moving along the walls. Pulse blasts fly constantly for a few seconds until the Scavengers are dead and the hallway is drenched in inky ichor.

"Thanks for that. I thought we were goners." The soldier who almost got eaten laughs as he grabs more power cells for his rifle and heads back out of the Armory.

"No problem Corporal, but it was the Cadets who saved your ass. The targeting skills of Pilots are no joke." Sergeant Enns tells him, nodding at the youngest pair in his team.

"You let Cadets shoot at my head?" The Corporal complains, turning back to Enns.

"Pulse rifle to the face hurts less than being eaten by Scavengers. Now get back to work." The unassuming looking Sergeant laughs, ushering more of the team in to restock.

The restocked patrol is still in the training grounds when the next group arrives, with even more Scavengers in tow and Max realizes why this location was chosen for the Cadets to be stationed. There will always be extra units around them, because they will need to get to the Armory, so this is the best guarded position in the area, but still a combat post and not hiding away somewhere.

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Max fills his pockets with extra power cells for the pistols, which only have ten shots on a charge and he notices Nico's suit has gained a backpack. Someone attached a charging station to her suit to fill their magazines and power her rifle.

Being as short as she is, she can move between soldiers without impeding their firing lines, and the backpack meant she never had to stop shooting, a minor recognition of her talent with a rifle.

Max has taken a spot near the door to the Armory, while Nico is up front, in a kneeling stance where everyone can get to the spare cells on her back and swap in their depleted ones.

The returning patrols are stacking their dead cells outside in a trash bin for later recharging and Sergeant Enns tells off a private to start plugging them in to the charger inside the Armory.

Max thought these fights were usually short, but it's been twenty minutes and the stream of depleted patrol units isn't showing any signs of stopping. Most of the time they can't hear the battle, but the Abraham Kepler is over a kilometer long, so that's not too surprising.

The prolonged battle teaches Max a valuable lesson in the Horrors of fighting the Scavengers. One of the units that comes back are infiltrators, a squad killed by the Scavengers, with their dead bodies controlled from the inside by the mechanical tentacles of the attackers.

Once they get closer, they burst out of their disguises and attack. The front rank doesn't hesitate, blowing them apart with massed firepower, but everyone takes at least some damage, with one soldier losing an arm to a razor sharp claw.

In the aftermath, everyone rushes to help the wounded, sending the most seriously injured with the next group that returns towards the medical wing. Max is helping load wounded on the stretchers when the sporadic fire turns to fully automatic ammunition dumps and the acrid smell of a flamethrower fills the air.

Max looks back and a hippo sized Scavenger has burst open and dispersed hundreds of small Octopus creatures. They're small, but far from harmless, Max can see that the steel floor is deeply gouged where they have passed by.

The flamethrower troops check the area, making sure they got them all, but that seems to have been the last hurrah for the Scavengers. A few minutes later the orders are given to clear their zones and assemble back at the Armory for casualty checks.

"Scavengers are drawn to Kepler ships because of the System. They can sense it and want it for their own, but as far as we know, the Nanobots won't cooperate." Sergeant Enns explains, checking everyone's suits.

Under half of them are still sealed, and the entire front row has had theirs shredded after the infiltrators attacked. Nico in particular looks like she was painted black and red with the combined blood of the two species, both the Scavengers and the dead soldiers they were using as disguises.

[Sensors Detect All Clear] comes the announcement and a cheer goes up all through the assembled soldiers.

"Good work everyone, fall out and hit the showers."

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