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[color=00aeef]"The only animals that can threaten an adult hippo are other large mammals like elephants, Rhinos and other Hippos. Part of the reason for this is their very thick skin and large size. Most predators in the region rely on causing bloody wounds with their claws and teeth. But a Hippo's skin is too thick to easily puncture by the predators of the region. Furthermore, a hippo can weigh as much as two tons, more than enough to outweigh every predator on the savann-[/color] The sound cut out as Lucas pressed a button on the side of his personal computer and the screen went dark

[color=fff200]"Thick skin huh? That doesn't really help me any. I can't just make armor thicker and thicker. Sower is already big and heavy. If he was much bigger it would be a huuuge loss on mobility and it would take a lot of resources… It’s interesting to learn about though"[/color]

Lucas placed his personal laptop on his nightstand and stood up from his bed, yawning as he stretched. He had spent the last hour lying down on the bed in his private quarters, watching various reports, records, and documentaries on old earth animals, as was his custom. After an hour of lazing around watching documentaries, it was time for his daily walk

He exited his room, locked the door, and started walking around aimlessly. He found that some of his best thoughts came while his body was moving and his blood was pumping.

Most of the large mammals had been a complete bust. Apparently the things that made elephants and bears so strong couldn’t be replicated with metal, only with flesh and bone. For the most part, the only animals that had given him something to work with were insects, arachnids, and other fairly small creatures. That’s because those animals couldn’t just outweigh their opponents and assert dominance like that. It looked like he had to focus on animals with neat tricks and body structures instead of raw weight and muscle

[color=fff200] “Maybe I could take a look at birds next? They use wings instead of jets, but I could probably learn something from their bodies. Like their bone structures or their talons. That ought to be useful.”[/color]

Lucas absentmindedly turned a corner and ran directly into Lycoris and fell flat on his butt.

[color=fff200]”Ow. Sorry about that I wasn’t paying attention.” [/color]

Lucas looked up and saw a familiar purple-haired girl. He immediately stood back up and started jabbering

[color=fff200]”Oh hi Lycoris! How are you? Are you working on anything interesting? Want to hear about what I learned today?”[/color]
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Despite its fanciful name, The Grand was a somewhat dingy medium-sized bar tucked in the corner of the habitat. The only people there were disgruntled miners there to dull the pain, or on rare occasions, soldiers with shore leave or Merchants coming to stock up on booze before the journey home.

Sitting in a dark corner of the Grand was Denzel Zenith, pouring over several documents and notes. He took a small sip of alcohol as examined a rough sketch of patrol routes in the area surrounding a Martian owned warehouse.

Truth be told Denzel was getting impatient. It had been quite a long time since his last proper act of rebellion. The warehouse was full of machine parts big and small for Mobile Workers and suits. The Mekon movement wouldn’t get any full suits or workers, but they would obtain a lot of replacement parts.

The influx of replacement parts would allow the movement to repair more downed suits, enemy and friendly. As long as the movement still had friendly repair shops to help out it would more than double their combat potential, and give them something of a safety net…

[i]With that potential we could attack the Venue-[/i] Denzel shook his head and rejected the thought. Of course, he would like to stick such a huge blow against the empire but there are many, many reasons why it wouldn’t work. It was too heavily guarded, it was too big, it would get everyone killed. [i]You don’t really want to hurt the princess, considering her thoughts on Venus…[/i] yeah that too. 

But for now, he had the outline of a good enough plan to take the warehouse, he just needed to get the boys together first. Denzel took out a notecard and wrote a short message.

"Meet at the hideout, as many people as you can get, within a few hours. Thanks, cinnamon bun." -The Crusher

[color=f26522]“I would like another drink please.”[/color] Denzel quietly slipped the waiter the note as they brought over another mug of beer

A few minutes later, one of the Venusians at the counter left with the note after “paying his tab” and went to deliver the message. Denzel wasn’t in a big hurry though. It would take a bit for the message to her to Johanna, and then a few hours to get the gang together. He had time for a few more drinks.