Neil lounged atop the [i]Highlander[/i], nearly forty feet above ground. Even laying lazily, it gave him a good vantage point of the local grasslands, and the village they had stopped at. 

Most hamlets, villages, and towns on Fornax outside of the fabrication cities were mining settlements, and those that weren't were smaller farms where they grew crops and raised livestock. Most of the planet's food they got from offworld, but it seemed the Duke wasn't too keen on not being at least somewhat self sufficient in a time of crisis. Unfortunately, this was a crisis where food might not be plentiful for some time. 

It took nearly an hour for the first villagers to start trickling out of the village, though they looked to be appraisers rather than actual refugees with their belongings. 

"[i]We really should have lit for orbit when we had the chance[/i]," Sayeeda spoke softly so as not to be overheard by the pair of Knights who had remained on board.

"[i]This is likely to turn into a real shit show[/i]." Neil heard on the comm. The young man shrugged, though she couldn't see. "Look at the bright side." He said persuasively. "If we do make it out of here, we're getting paid far more than we could have dreamed! That, and we're helping people." He added the last as an afterthought and minor reminder. If he wasn't such a glutton for excitement, he'd be on board with Sayeeda's concerns. 

In the distance, Neil heard faint booms, and he glanced behind him. The sky was blue, with nary a cloud in the sky. But passed the distant mountain range, he could see fiery streaks cutting into orbit from the ground. Those were the PDC guns. Massive cannons planted on the planet's surface to aid the defense of the orbital battle. They were powerful, but they boded ill for Fornax. If those guns were firing, it meant there was little left of the defenders, or the enemy was so numerous they couldn't hope to dodge such a stationary weapon. 

Luckily it seemed the guns had been the kick in the ass the town needed. As soon as they had begun firing, the townsfolk began to gather in the street. While the Knights had frightened them earlier, they saw them as harbingers of doom now, and ran to obey their orders. 

Astador stood at the brink of the townscape, overlooking the foodstuffs being taken first, driving them like they were his serfs. Still, the man had a grasp on what was important, and he even helped haul the larger items, the minor synthetics in his musculature, as well as his normally strong body was a boon to the town's movements. He wondered if this hamlet even had a name. It reminded him somewhat of his old origins, before his induction as an acolyte. 

It seemed fate that the Knight was looking towards the where the [i]Highlander[/i] was parked. For behind Neil, three grey objects began to materialize above the horizon, plummeting toward the hamlet at terrible speeds. Astador enhanced the vision in his helmet, and to his mounting trepidation, he could tell whatever was hurtling toward them was organic. A mass of muscle, with no real face or limbs save for writhing tentacles and frontal sucker. 

"Captain." He called on the comm, but Sayeeda would already see them on the rader. Neil didn't notice the transport Organisms until they had struck the far field a scant few miles south of them with the impact of a planetary ballistic missile. It nearly rocked him off the [i]Highlander[/i]. He caught himself dexterously, and then moved his thick hair out of his vision, slowly going for the comm again once he saw very distant movement from the now crushed bio-ship. 

"Hey, that's not a good thing is it?"
[@Penny]