:: 22nd Mech Regiment - countryside ::
Sheela followed the other light mech through the tall towering trees that blocked the path they was running on. Sunlight shone through in streamers from the canopy to the ground. Her eyes darting over the scenery and the Hud as she kept up with the other Mech. But it felt way different that her Akiashiro Main Heavy Battle Mech. It felt like it could easy be toppled over with one misplaced step or an errant wind.
Finally after traveling for several hours, they slowed down. Over her screen came a text message.
Move forward till you can see over the top of the ridgeline and stop. If you must transmit, back below the ridgeline and send text to me. Once you can see, start vid recording.
Sheela gave the thumbs up through her viewing port to the other Mech Pilot. She began her advancement through the brush till see could see what lay beyond and activated the vid recording.
The sun shone over the bowl-like valley with no vegetation seen. In the middle was towering spires and domes reaching for the sky. Arching bridges spaned the distance between them several hundred meters off the ground. In between the domes and spires, the ground was covered with a grey film that looked all bubbly with smooth paths going all over the place, criss-crossing each other at random points. some of the paths spiraled up the sides of domes and spires before arching out over space to the next structure.
The whole valley floor was covered with the greylike substance that the spires and domes were made of. Like bees gone wild in making their hives.
Sheela increased magnifaction to get a better view, bringing the conglomeration of structures into better view. She saw the waving horizontal lines ringing each structure, like the way a wasp nest would be like.
She spent several minutes scanning back and forth slowly to get as much details as possible before slipping back below the ridgeline. She didn't know what she was suppose to look for. But recorded everything she wanted to see.
Then they was on their way back to the base at a leisuerly pace, taking a different route.
-= "Now you see why we need a Heavy Mech. What you looking at is a NMX Hive complex." =- Her partner spoke after a while letting what she saw sink in.
-= "I thought they lived underground. That is where the crabs live in the innercity." =- Sheela responded back as they entered the base and parked the light mechs with the others.
Sheela was impressed at the shear size of the NMX Hive. That was almost as big as Innercity. And it looked like they was expanding with new domes being constructed. -= "Are them bridges that span beteen the domes tough enough to support them? They must be pretty light." =-
-= "Those structures are very tough. Need heavy ordinance to penetrate them structures, which our lighter mechs can't carry very far. With your heavy mech can provide the punch we need to open them structures up so rest of us can lob in high explosives." =- He responded and then the coms went dead as he powered down the light mech.
Sheela did the same as she gave thought of having a heavy mech fully armed. She couldn't help but smile as she climbed out of the light mech onto the scafolding that was placed around the light mech to be serviced.