Seated within the dropship, Eric straightened his spectacles and tightened up his combat vest. He was already strapped and harnessed into his chair when the ship began its drop; he could hear and envision all the artillery fire from the ships above, covering their descent towards the surface of Libra. The journey itself wasn't eventful; bumpy sure, but that was expected during reentry into the planet's atmosphere. It sure was boring though, so he busied himself with Fayth. His quick inspection ran over everything; first the military-grade targeting computer in the octagonal center body, calibrated and synced with the UDF mainframe. Next, the main length, which included the barrel and the long magnetic tines that comprised the firing system, seated snugly within their housings inside the stark white rectangular plastic frame. He checked through each of Fayth's configurations, making sure the parts of the barrel assembly lengthened and folded back smoothly, while the tines themselves were properly powered in their various states. After that, he checked the sight assembly, making sure all the small lenses were not broken or scratched, since he kept them in tip top shape every day. The grip was alright and the butt stock was fully lubricated and ready for use. Everything good to go. Along with the ammunition in his pouches, he was one hundred percent ready to go.

The dropship leveled out and everyone breathed easy. The sergeant they were with began a briefing to which he paid full attention to, while the other soldiers busied themselves with preparing the Rover. Their mission was simple: a search and retrieval somewhere in this wasteland. They were to be dropped further ahead, then to proceed to the coordinates provided in the envelope Selene was given. With no more words, the team saddled up in the Rover and Eric followed them. He bade the soldiers farewell with a wave of his hand as they dropped and then the ship was a shrinking dot on the horizon. Their vehicle was a small craft, almost like a hovercraft, except this was powered by several small repulsors that were angled to give them forward momentum and stability, obviously controlled by a computer. Almost like a cruiser, in a way. He sat back and relaxed, enjoying what little scenery there was in the marsh. Nothing was going wrong, and that was good.

That was when Electric Frenzy decided to zap him. It made him yelp and start out of his chair slightly.

The cheeky little thing. He smiled and played with it a little, using Fayth's long end to prod it gently while it flitted here and there. Eric knew Shock resided within Fayth, and occasionally the grumpy old spirit would forgo his grumpiness to step out and keep the little ball of energy company. Today wasn't one of those days, sadly. He watched as the little yellow orb travelled up and down Fayth's barrel assembly, as if it were searching for Shock. Amusing. The little spirit was almost like a small pet animal in its simplicity. He enjoyed such moments like this. Made it seem like everything was normal.

That illusion was shattered when a glob of some came flying in out of nowhere and smacked their vehicle upside the front end, causing it to tip over forward and dig its nose into the water and mud. Eric held on tightly to his seat as it screeched to an almighty halt and came to rest in the murky water, the engines all but shot from the sudden immersion. They sparked and thrummed to a halt as he clambered out of his tilted seat and splashed down feet first into the muck. Not like he was a stranger to getting his shoes and pants wet; there was always the laundry and he always had replacements. As he righted himself he saw a fish beast rise from the water, no doubt the one that had pelted their craft and crashed it. Wren, as usual, charged in first, scoring a hit on the creature's arm, and she was splattered with goo and tossed backwards, taking the first hit, as usual. He deployed Fayth in her standard rifle config and took aim with a plan in mind.

[color=bc8dbf]"Fellows, I am going to freeze this thing in place. Then you can unleash whatever torments you have in store for it."[/color]

As he said this, a cold fog began to seep from the seams in his clothes and his hands began coating themselves in ice. Frost was making himself known and he was getting comfy within Fayth as he enchanted and froze the rounds within his magazine. Eric steadied his aim and racked the slide, feeling the first icy round slide right into the chamber, whereupon it was held tightly in place by the powerful magnet at the rear of the rifle. Its tines deployed from the from housing, the rectangular body turning horizontal as the long quad lengths of electromagnetised plas-steel extended from their housings. He took aim, set his finger on the pressure trigger on the grip, and squeezed. The trigger sent an impulse to the magnet holding the round in place, switching its polarity from attraction to repulsion, and that sent the steel bullet shooting straight down the short barrel, out into the powerful magnetic field created by the four tines, whereupon it was accelerated to almost ten times its original speed and erupted from Fayth in a small cloud of ice crystals. It slammed into the fish thing and tore right through its other shoulder, but not before spreading a large patch of ice over its shoulder and arm that rapidly spread down to its fingers and froze the limb solid. Another round loaded into the chamber, Eric aimed lower and squeezed the trigger again, and another high velocity round gouged itself a neat home in its knee, freezing that leg and the water it was immersed in completely solid. One more round punched into its other leg and it was firmly rooted in place, never to move unless it thawed.

In response, the thing gurgled and opened its mouth as it gathered more slime to hurl at him, but along with this another, clearer orb formed within the growing sphere of muck within its maw. What then shot forth was a torrent of gunge and muck, high enough in intensity to completely blow Eric off his feet and into the drink several feet behind him, whereupon he sputtered as he got back awkwardly onto his feet, everything of his now soaking wet and the most shocked expression on his face as he spat out a mouthful of marsh water.

[color=bc8dbf]"Disgusting, ugh! I might have to incinerate this set of clothes when we're done with the mission!"[/color]