Shuttle Exterior
In the flash of light on reflective snow, shadows danced as
too many men began to flood out into Claytons bulwark and began laying down small arms fire where Clayton and Caffran had shot. There was not the wild spraying of panic but the clipped, controlled bursts of reactionary fire in that direction.
When the potassium charge went off, it disrupted some of the massive snowbank that was building as wind built up snowdrift on the side of the shuttle, and kinetic and energy rounds alike honed in on something not far away but was distorted by the changing lights and the obscurity of near-whiteout conditions even so close.
"Hold fire. HOLD FIRE DAMN YOU ALL!" Borok strode out, clipping one of his men hard enough on the back to knock the wind out of the man as the SOL drew his HHG and pivoted the light outwards as well.
"The beasts here are large. But they are not simple; You must never underestimate them." He calmly stated, the now static lights landing on the assumed target as a shuttle panel opened up to the interior became lit up as men watched it carefully. Under the considerable overwatch and unprompted three of Boroks men peeled off and out of the bulwark. Covering their faces from the wind with one hand each the point man toughed it out with M2 raised as he advanced while the other two followed behind him with a hand outstretched onto each others shoulders to stay together as they advanced to cover the breach.
It was a tense minute until they were most of the way there when it happened...
There was no way to have seen it beforehand as it blended in with the snow against the shuttle as
something almost as tall as the shuttle itself peeled back and pulled its massive head out of the hold it had stuck it in to investigate the insides. At almost 15m nobody would have thought the entire snowbank was a living thing, and as it moved and snow fell off of mophead-thick hairs of a fur coat that snow stuck to hiding its thermal signature a massive beast turned to regard the lights.
The shape of a man with two stumpy legs and arms thicker than the torso of even Borok it stood like a great ape covered in a thick coat of cold-defying fur that obscured even its facial features but for two beady black eyes that showed with cunning, savage intelligence, and an open-breathing maw of fangs longer than a mans arms that protruded up from the bottom lip and almost to its nose as it loomed menacingly down over them like the literal giant amongst men that it was.
The sheer size and proportions of the megafauna before them was downright
staggering. And the obvious intelligence in its eyes as it studied them was as impossible to miss as when it brought its other arm out of the hold in the shuttle it had made, and with casual indifference while looking at the tiny and inferior men before it brought a missed corpse from the interior up to its mouth; Practically the size of a doll in its hand, and took a stunningly casual bite out of what had once been a man right at the shoulder with an audible
crunch.
The sounds of screaming inside of the shuttle shelter from Iki, and the flow of a few people out of it who then immediately retreated back inside at the sound did not take much for such a creature to put two and two together to surmise that this nest of creatures before it had more biomass and sustenance inside of it to need only pass the warrior caste that guarded the anthills entrance. Two massive nostrils flared to blow out steam strong enough to displace the falling snow as, with many still processing the giant yetti before them it brought up an arm above its head.
A spiked the corpse it had bitten into their midst like a meteor; Collapsing a portion of the bulwark in its path as the yeti opened its maw and roared at them like a foghorn and lurched forwards what would only be a few long strides for its massive form.
These men were not so easily cowed, however, and Borok was the first to fire as his HHG barked.
And nothing happened as the massive HHG round simply blunted against its massive coat and obvious shield of thick fat.
Shuttle Interior.
Iki was screaming. She was screaming and rambling at Carina in the Kuz with strange words with the unfocussed eyes of someone out of their mind in shock. Her hands had grasped Carinas fatigues and twisted almost painfully as she rambled while a firefight went on outside.
When the firing stopped the girl too seemed to wilt as she was forced to finally intake air and began to wheeze and cough in respite. A few had scrambled back inside at this point cursing and shouting in the language of the Kuz to no apparent sense to Carina as they got as far away from the entrance as possible to crowd at the back wall with what small arms they could muster.
One merc kept gesturing wildly at Carina and the girl with wild gestures. Between words, at least a couple came out as "Silence! Quiet! Shut her up!" which was punctuated by the sound outside over the silence after the gunfire of what sounded like a foghorn of all things and then more shooting.
The sounds were muffled outside, and inside many had gone deathly still and quiet. Even Iki seemed to retreat inwards and while still grasping Carina tightly seemed to be fading and just mumbling incoherently to herself and her surroundings.
"Hey." The word was almost missed, so quiet as it was with everything else going on it was easy to mishear.
"Sanroma." A bit loader, actually getting Carinas attention as someone nearby in a corner of the shelter and alone-away from the others called out weakly to her.
Francis was still sitting in the same spot she had been before, holding her shotgun to her chest and pointing down but ready she looked
odd at a glance. Her posture was slouched and she was leaning heavily on one side and her legs splayed out in a way that would clearly be uncomfortable long term looking almost like a marionette puppet that had its strings cut.
The chemlight nearest to her was dim but gave off a warm white light to expose clammy, sallow skin and dark rings under her eyes as though all the color had been sucked out of her. She looked awake and aware but when everyone else had run off, despite being at the ready she had seemingly flopped right back down in her spot without notice.
"Something doesn't feel right." She stated clearly, still in control of her mental faculties even as her head was drooping onto one shoulder almost subconsciously and it seemed she was holding her firearm against her chest with little more than limp wrists as she began to visibly slump back against the wall of the shuttle to stay upright.
Unlucky Star
"Be careful with that." The commander, Tsar, warned Masato.
"The locals might seem friendly but a few of them might not be able to help themselves to get their hands on something like that. Its nothing some of them couldn't make or even buy here but with the locals and weapons you see more often a keep what you kill mindset about them."
He continued to explain some nuance about the Kuzynetski that sounded genuine enough to be believed. In their fervor and fell moods for insight into what may be within reach financially or even within the ability of some of them to make it was not always easy so far from the core to get their hands on the niche or advanced. Masatos weapons, his armor, his very possessions he warned may be as valuable as dropping a Daisy suit of armor infront of some of the locals.
The local NPF, a barely token force kept mostly to themselves and did not interfere much in the colony and would likely be of little help or deterrence for him.
"They have a hard enough time keeping the locals away from your marines billet, or the ship in orbit still fully stocked as the last day it flew to worry about such things."
He looked to be about to continue when something that was before unseen rose up abnormally tall for the crate-loader it was prone behind. It looked beautiful at first. With a long coat like snow. But then he noticed the too-long face, the eyes of pure black with but a speck of white, and the long razor-like teeth.
Tall as a horse it looked around and stretched before noticing them and casually striding over with its thin and too-long legs as it towered over them and was simply ignored as commonplace by the militia milling about. Tsar noticed the beast and casually scratched it on the chest and under its chin while it loomed over them both, staring down Masato with unblinking eyes as it moaned what almost sounded but not quite like words in a high-pitched sing-song voice.
"You're not uncomfortable around dogs are you?" Tsar asked casually at the presence of a seven-foot tall horse-sized monster.
"I heard most Yamatains are cat-people by nature."
