Chapter 978: Introductions
Max snuck up on a hapless recruit, still visibly nervous even without reading their mind, and put an Ion blast into their back before moving on.
The elite troops had become harder and harder to find, as they had arrived first, and now all that was left was for the team to clean up the stragglers.
Many of them were completely lost in the woods, not equipped with any sort of navigational aid, only basic powered armour and some secondhand weapons at best.
Many of the ones that he was coming across weren't even in proper armour. They were wearing flak jackets and plate carriers like the worst-equipped Kepler infantry.
The lack of armour and mutations revealed the most shocking moment of his whole trip. Many of them appeared to be human. Appeared was the keyword because when he sampled their blood, they had nothing in common with his species except their appearance.
Still, it was uncanny how close the resemblance was, and he wondered if they were a legacy species created from a template by something like the Darklings that liked to genetically engineer species for later harvest.
It was doubtful that they would be able to answer that even if he asked them in person, so he just silently vaporized them with the Ion Cannons and moved on to the next targets.
After a few minutes, the signs of life faded, and his team was left alone in the woods, no longer pursued by the Warriors or anything else.
[It looks like that's it. Clean up any stragglers you find and return to the ship.] Khan sighed.
There had been some injuries later in the battle when the Hunters started to get tired, but no casualties. It was a testament to how superior their wargear was, and the woods were littered with bodies of the enemy.
The locals could deal with that later. They had learned a lot in their short time here, and Max had every intention to get them off this planet and back into orbit before anything went wrong that they couldn't hide from the Alliance.
The team fanned out to search for hidden survivors and slowly made their way back to the ship from multiple directions, weary from exertion and ready for a hot meal and a nap.
"You know, I'd forgotten what it was like to be in a mobile suit instead of a large Hunter Suit. The light Mecha of your forces don't have it easy, having to live in such cramped quarters all the time." Khan sighed as she sanitized her suit in preparation to take it off.
Max nodded. "It's a definite lifestyle upgrade when you move to the Heavy Mecha and again when you move to the Super Heavy units. It serves as great motivation to improve their skills, just for the improved living quarters inside the larger units."
One of the Hunters shook her head in dismay.
"Humans have such strange motivators. Do they not have the drive to improve just for the sake of pride?" She asked.
Nico chuckled. "Yes, but also no. Humans' sense of pride drives them in many directions, most of them self-destructive. They will take pride in all the wrong things and bring about their own downfall, so we have to give specific direction when we're helping each other grow as intelligent beings."
The Huntress considered that for a moment, then nodded. "So, it's like when Commander Max constantly reminds you not to do excessive things?"
Khan and Max laughed at that while Nico shook her head.
"No, that's because he is the arbiter of all things fun, and he wants to take all the joy out of life." She explained.
"Also known as it's his job to make sure she doesn't do anything genocidal," Khan added.
Max nearly laughed out loud as the young Huntress realized that Nico was likely the scariest one in the room if she was left unsupervised, and then shrugged it off as just humans being humans.
Nico was definitely giving people the wrong impression of what human culture was all about. Sure, violence was part of it, but they were starting to associate genocidal tendencies and gleeful slaughter with just the average human getting annoyed.
[Commanders, there are drones incoming overhead. Unknown design, but deployed from the city.] The Android Pilot of the shuttle announced.
[Everyone inside. I don't want any of our units visible when those drones get in camera range.] Max ordered.
The Androids were already arrayed around the ship, so they were inside in seconds, crowding the bay where the Hunters had just finished sanitizing their suits.
The door closed behind them, leaving the ship the only thing visible from the outside, and Nico brought up a three-dimensional display from the outside cameras so they could watch the drones' behaviour.
At first, it wasn't clear if they had detected the ship at all, given their erratic pattern of movement, but as the sensor data came in, it began to make sense.
They weren't headed straight for the ship. They were surveying the battlefield. It was impossible for the city to have missed all that, with the bombardment and the flying Mecha, but so far, they had made no effort to contact Max and the team.
First contact with the Warriors had been successfully made, so all that was left for the mission was to determine if this species could be negotiated with and then return to base so they could continue their inspection of the region.
Once the drones were finished with the inspection of the forest, most of them returned to the city, but one solitary drone remained overhead, slowly circling the area before coming to hover right in front of the shuttle.
It flashed a series of lights, and Khan began to laugh.
"It says, we come in peace. It's a standard protocol greeting that is in the data we recovered from the colony world. Give me a second, and I will send them a message back."
True to her word, it was only a second before she started programming the response into the lights of the shuttle.
[We came to Hunt. If you are not a Game Species, we can talk more.]
Max laughed at the impression of Hunter culture that he could sense from a distant outpost outside the city.
"I found the drone pilots. I'll ping them on the map. They seem somewhat confused at the notion that they could be considered a Game Species. But they aren't hostile, just afraid that we are."