Sayeeda settled her helmet onto her head and adjusted the fit so it rested comfortably. The medigel beneath her garments was still uncomfortably slick and the slight differential rate of evaporation made her feel chilled. The militia hunkered down nervously around her. It was an understandable reflex even though nothing they had seen suggested that the xenos could bring any projectile weapons to bear. She unslung her plasma rifle, snapped open the breech and examine the mechanism. Satisfied she closed the lock and worked the action ejecting the poker chip like cell and snatching the spinning disk from the air. Although plasma guns were reliable tech the tolerances were tight enough that veterans learned to give their equipment every assistance they could. Junebug tucked the unspent round into an equipment pouch and unhooked her canteen and took a long drink.

Below them the Knights were arranging themselves in a loose skirmish line at the edge of a recently hewed field. The crop was unfamiliar to Sayeeda but it seemed to consist of finger thick brownish stalks. She wondered how tall the stuff grew before it was harvested. Travelling the stars gave one a wide palette for crops and even though Terran varieties tended to predominate the galaxy was full of strange and partially edible biota.

"When we collect all this reward money, we need to invest in a vehicle," she mused as she watched the oncoming alien through her magnified view. The crops further out were somewhat longer and so the enemy was visible more by the movement in the grasslike undergrowth. Range finders ticked down in her augmented view.

"Damn, they can move," she commented, clocking some of the smaller creatures at over thirty kph. This could get really messy if they were smart enough to flank the Knights. Pulling out in a hurry was likely to be a non starter. She glanced back towards the ship and wondered if they could use the ship for some fire support. Probably not a great idea if they were going to be trying to load civilians, the side scatter from the heavy guns would make the ship unapproachable.

The helmet carroted a sudden new target in the distance and her head snapped up to follow the movement. At the hiveship fragment, something much bigger was emerging from its transport pupa and beginning to lumber towards the group. The estimate from the helmet gave its arrival at ten minutes. It seemed to be moving slowly but builing up speed rapidly.

"Didn't see anything like that at the asteroid," she said to Neil and pointed with an outstretched finger at the much larger Xenos.

"We better be ready if these things try to flank the line, these farmers wont last two seconds if they get behind us." Crouching down she unsnapped a bipod from the front of her rifle and thumbed the holographic sight to life. The leading creatures would be in range within a handful of seconds ans she needed to make sure they came right at the Knights.

[@POOHEAD189]