[centre][h2][colour=008000][u]Gerad[/u][/colour][/h2][/centre]

With the Brute finally dead, he took a quick survey of the area as Cyne gave voice to his idea. [colour=008000][i][b]Chem’ ‘splosives!?[/b][/i][/colour] He scoffed to himself. [colour=008000][i]Touch’n…[/i][/colour] The Militia Fleets had stopped using anything that [i]primitive[/i] about the same time they made contact with the greater galaxy. [colour=008000][i]No need t’ fog matters by talk’n tho…c’n wait ‘til we get there.[/i][/colour]
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Once the trio set out, they made good time through the ship, cutting down Hive packs quickly before they could get bogged down in combat. Pushing into a mostly intact ship’s mess, Gerad let out an amused chuff at Cyne comment. [colour=008000]”Naa, ‘uman food tastes like t’ bottom end o’ a tharnx.”[/colour] He replied, referring to a common herd animal, and source of protein, on Eshan. [colour=008000]Tha’ said…[/colour] He added, eyeing one of the food machines; he got no further in his thought however as a band of mercs busted in, their leader ordering his men to open fire.

Threat analysis programs in Gerad’s armour triggered as soon as the new hostiles had come into sight, and he was unimpressed, but not surprised. None of the new mercs had anything heavier than non-garundin small arms, which meant they only posed a threat to Gerad if they’d [i]all[/i] concentrated their fire on him…and he did nothing to fight back; instead, he responded to the platoon leader’s order by snapping a single shot right through the leader’s helmet, the VLA flashing a 10 cm hole through his head before he’d even realized Gerad had raised his weapon.

Ignoring the other mercs fire as it spent itself, mostly, harmlessly across his armour, he made his way to the closest fabricator. Using his armature mounted cutter, he sliced open the machine and began digging into the inner workings with his secondary arms, extracting a series of small components, while at the same time a swarm of bots from his nano-factory swarmed down the same arms as began stripped what he wasn’t taking for needed base elements.

He was nearly finished when his threat alarm sounded as his armour registered a genuine challenge to his safety, another set of Militia armour. The merc platoon’s garundin must have been at the back, probably covering them against Hive attacks from the rear as they moved and as such was a bit of a late arrival; which, unfortunately for them, meant Gerad got them on the bounce.

Gerad’s PRP came online, swivelling on its mount towards the new threat, and firing, before the other garundin realized he was there. The plasma bolt covered the intervening distance faster than thought could process, and it struck its intended target square in the chest. The blast killed three [i]other[/i] mercs outright as well as throwing the survivors into even more chaos.