Scavenger Hunt. (2)

The one called Banshee simply nodded, and stood on the other side of the doorway. 

Sheeva and Kraigg were busy displaying their expertise derived from many such Scavenger hunts, in many different tunnels, very quickly identifying what made sense to be loaded on to the carts in order maximise the space as well as the potential profits. They clearly weren't the first group to raid this particular cache, but that just meant that it was easier to find the best materials. In spite of how quickly the group inside was working, Ruon, who had been scanning the tunnel they were in so much you would have sworn his head was in sync with his UV lights, was becoming increasingly antsy. His hand had instinctively moved to rest on the handle of his Chain Sword, and as the instincts that he had cultivated through years of trawling through these tunnels had his body incredibly warm – to the point the inside of his visor had fogged up. His head suddenly stopped darting about and focused as he stared down into the fogging darkness further down the tunnel.

"Sheeva." He mumbled.

"We're almost done." Sheeva said, slightly surprised that he had noticed her approach. "Just tying everything down."

"I'd suggest that you make sharp." Ruon said as his hand gripped the sword. "Something is headed this way."

"How much time do we have?" Sheeva asked.

"We don't have any."

"Roger."

Sheeva turned around and bolted towards the carts, pulling a torch out from somewhere and getting a message across using light signals, which prompted everybody to suddenly pick up the pace and work a little quicker. Ruon pulled a small ball shaped object out from a pouch on his Rig as through the smog, a few sets of beady red eyes murkily glowed and pulsed, not only multiplying, but becoming ever so brighter as the seconds passed.

"Banshee." Ruon said, not even turning to look at her. "The size of those eyes suggests that these are critter sized Thralls. I'm no good against them."

Banshee, who was much smaller in height and build compared to Ruon, moved from where she was standing, and now stood right next to the big man. She turned the small motors at the base of her shoulder mounted lights off, and set them in a fixed direction. She also attached two small clips to hilts on either hip as she readied herself.

"Melee first. We've just got the one Mud Blood sonic grenade, so I'd rather we use it when we're fucked."

Banshee just nodded and gripped two handles on either side of her waist. The snarling of the approaching Thralls became evident, and soon, they came into view. They were a series of Tunnel Rats and Tunnel Mutts, variants of their respective species that were far more ferocious, and far larger than the domesticated and reared variants often found in settlements and cities. Most all of them were hairless, with leathery skin that was also wet and slimy, and while they had glowing eyes, they had all started to go blind as the Vampirism that had reanimated them was rendering their eyes useless.

Banshee didn't wait much longer, as she pulled on both handles and removed her twin rapiers from their cobbled together sheaths, before immediately darting towards the approaching crowd of Thralls. They in turn all leapt towards her, however due to the UV lights being configured low level Vampires that are orders of magnitude more powerful than Thralls, they were either being frozen in place, or freaking out. All this gave Banshee more than enough time cut the mobs down with relative ease and speed. Thick, black blood flowed and plopped onto the ground below with a heavy splat, as the shrieks of the dying Thralls echoed and filled the tunnel. Them dying in droves left the Thralls undeterred however, and as they kept coming forward in ever increasing numbers, Banshee jumped back and pulled hard on the wires attached to the clips. The spring loaded steel coils flowed from their boxes with an almost silent zing, and Banshee started spinning the rapiers on an axis that she created. She then started swinging her arms around while still spinning the swords, and started cutting the Thralls to shreds at an increased rate, and even though she was still doing this with ease, Ruon couldn't shake his feeling of unease. He looked behind him to see that the Scavengers and his subordinates were done loading and fastening everything.

"Great, you're done! Let's get the fuck out of here!"

As he said that, he turned to look at Banshee who had seemingly finished the mobs off. She was catching her breath whilst spinning her rapiers as a means to get rid of the thick, gloopy blood before it dried and damaged her blades. More mobs approached, prompting Banshee to ready herself for more combat, but Ruon tapped his left shoulder pad twice – the signal for her to retreat. The funny thing was though, that both Banshee and the mobs retreated at the same time, and this caused the burly man to perk up and squeeze the grenade in his hand tightly, before tapping his shoulder pad again, only four times in this instance, which caused everybody to perk up and pay attention. Soon, the cause of Ruon's angst briefly came into view, as a hunched figure broke through the miasma, revealing the colossal, dome shaped head, the shiny grey skin, perpetually opening and closing slit nostrils sniffing everything, holes in the side of its head that housed its ears and snarling, open mouth filled with a multitude of jagged, filthy teeth of varying length, thickness and shape. Black spittle pooled at the corners of the massive, sinister looking mouth, and occasionally, droplets of the black ooze dripped onto the ground and sizzled upon touch. It sniffed a few more times before suddenly stopping, looking as though it had confirmed what it curious about, and grinned ever so slowly, yet ever so broadly, before suddenly disappearing back into the fog.

"Fuck!' Ruon bellowed as he released the hilt of his Chain Sword and pulled his almost comically massive Bolt Rifle from his back.

"Why are you reacting like this?" One of his subordinates asked. "Isn't that Straggler alone?"

"That's exactly why I'm reacting like this!" Ruon replied. "These things are communal – especially Stragglers! So if one is roaming around alone, that means—"

"That means it's either been exiled from a Hive, or it…" Sheeva trailed off as it hit her.

"Or it doesn't NEED a Hive!" Ruon finished as he connected the Bolt Rifle harness to his Rig and readied himself for combat. "Sheeva, you and Kraigg get the fuck outta here with the carts. Jace, you stay behind with Banshee and me to take care of business."

Ruon said this before looking at Banshee.

"Be on guard, Banshee… that smile made my hair stand on end."

Banshee just nodded as she took a deep breath and the tips of her rapiers rested on the ground.