Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

While Max was busy with politics on the ship, Nico was busy with the Hunters on the surface. They had found a lovely new group of Behemoths to hunt, and these three were particularly agile, able to flee from their fiery affections time and time again as the small group pursued them across three zones.

The Behemoths were in full survival mode at this point. After watching the group annihilate everything that they had come across for the last six hours, their imperative to survive and spawn more Klem was all that they could think of, but they simply couldn't escape their pursuers.

"Take the left ridgeline, and I will try to herd them up to you. The last three hundred meters are a clearing, so you should have time for a good shot." Nico informed her hunting partners.

They silently split off, using thrusters and gravity control to move silently through the woods. They had learned hours ago that the Klem had exceptional hearing, so they could likely still detect them, but not from as far away as when they were walking.

Nico was not trying to hide. She was crashing through the trees, using her extra limbs to climb the sturdier ones and throw herself forward toward her prey, attempting to chop them apart before they could make it to the tree line where the others were waiting in ambush.

One of the Behemoths got caught in the remains of a tunnel that had been collapsed by the unit which had cleared this zone and stumbled, taking two blades to the back and crippling it. The eight-legged creature howled a warning to its companions, sending them even faster away from the site as the downed Behemoth turned to face Nico so its companions could escape.

It wasn't going to last long, though. It was bleeding too heavily, and its back two legs were disabled after being broken by the hole in the ground.

Nico put it out of its misery in a flash and then continued behind the fleeing insects. They were almost out of the forest now and into sight of the ridge where the Hunters were waiting.

Now that they had a head start, they didn't have to evade as much and were charging straight forward, fast enough that they didn't even notice the incoming energy attacks until scorching plasma tore their carapaces apart.

"That's one for me, one for Jeera, and who got the kill on the last one?" Nico asked.

"Apprentice Sandra got her first Behemoth kill of the battle." Huntress Jeera announced proudly.

Though Nico didn't know it, the apprentice was her daughter, and she was very proud of her ability to keep up with the much more experienced team, both in movement and in hunting skills. It was far from her first hunt, but it was her first time hunting properly large game, like these sixty-meter-long Behemoths.

"First kills are important. If you want to take a trophy, I will call a drone here to take it back to your shuttle so that you can have it mounted later as a memoir of your time here." Nico offered.

"These pincers would look good above my bed. Give me a moment, and I will have them removed." Apprentice Hunter Sandra agreed, sounding as cheerful as an Innu in a gravity slide.

"It looks like this zone was adequately cleared. Other than our prey, I didn't detect any other Klem presence in the area, and the drones are all doing well, so how about we take a moment and look for something unique?

We have had great luck with the Behemoths of the strength and agility types, and the ranged type was no real challenge, but soon enough, they should be adapting to fighting the android pilots, and we should start seeing even more new patterns, though they might not be as individually impressive." Nico suggested.

"Not a bad idea. The main force is doing an excellent job, and soon our hunt here will be finished, so we should look for one more worthy target before we go. The mothership suggested that there might be a hybrid or an immature queen here, but we haven't found either one of them yet, so the command structure of this planet should be intact unless your Commander blasted it to bits while he was collapsing tunnels."

That would be nearly a tragedy to them. None of them, not even Nico, had the chance to hunt a Klem Queen in the past. If they lost the opportunity because it picked a lousy hiding spot and got a mountain range collapsed on its head, it would be supremely disappointing.

The Hunters ate a quick meal while they searched to save themselves from having to take a break later, though they weren't at all hungry yet. You could never tell how long a hunt would take, so their protocol said to always eat before every target, even if it was only a little bit. That way, you could always be at your best in a long chase and not have your judgment clouded by biological necessities.

"I think I have it. Check this grid location, where the Mecha Battalions have converged on a fortified location. I think they are hiding their Commander in that region. It's the last significant cluster on the planet at this point, so if it is anywhere, it should be there." Huntress Jeera informed the group.

It did seem likely, and the units there would appreciate the assistance. It also wasn't too far away. One of the locations that Max had pointed out before he left was only a few hundred kilometres from there, and Nico had suspected that he might have found the Commander at that point, but it was all hatchlings and new pods when they arrived with the Battalions.

"One last push for glory, and we can return to our ships to craft the stories of our hunt." Nico agreed with a giggle that made all of the Hunters smile inside their suits.

Even though Nico was an experienced Hunter like themselves, she still had such a childlike joy every time they found something new to kill.

"How about we make a wager for the push to the Commander? We are all best with our melee weapons, so how about two points for a ranged kill and three for a ranged weapon kill from within five meters?"