[img]https://i.imgur.com/Av18nNy.jpg[/img]

Ingram’s eyes shot to his monitors as the ping from Pip’s full echo suite filled them. Good news: Pips and Grizz were still alive, and they had found Sunray. Why and how Sunray made her way into a mech was a question that could be answered later. Bad news: Sunray and the Recovery team had been engaged by Coalition forces, and if the edges of Pip’s echo were to be believed, more were on the way. The rest of the Coalition forces in the area would likely be notified shortly, and they’d start closing in. They needed to move fast.

Ingram was about to open his comms to comment such, when his radar pinged. Or more correctly, information from Deadeye’s MAS pinged- they had contact. From his position at the back of the pack, he couldn’t see anything, but just a few hundred meters ahead of the 7th was a patrol of a few Fenrir IIs, backs turned- making their way towards the recovery team.  Distance growing as the enemy mechs began sprinting towards the recovery team.

"Contact. Three Foxtrot twos, three hundred metres." Aleks pinged each target in succession as he came to a stop, raising his rifle. "The one on the left is mine. Lucky, Apples, new girl, take the centre target. Eyes, Boss, focus right hand target. Boss, once all three are KIA, take new girl and fly below the canopy straight to Pips and Grizz."

Aleks flicked on the ignition for his own flight engines and prepared to leap straight up a tree, his targeting computer predicting the sight lines from that vantage point and preparing firing solutions for the Longbow already.

"Make ready to fire on my mark."

His engines spooled up.

"Three, two-" there was a roar as the Yeoman-2 shot into the air, and Aleks latched on to a fork in the megatree's trunk, levelling his weapon against his first firing solution and charging the rail system.

"- one, [b]mark![/b]"

One of the Fenrirs might have noticed something was up, as one turned its head over the shoulder at the last second. Of course it was a second too late, as a savonite spear pierced through its upper back and through to its chest, pinning it to the jungle floor. Electronic signals from the Fenrir shut off immediately and the mech went limp as the spike punched clean through the cockpit and through its generator. The other two didn’t have time to get so much of a peep out in surprise before a flurry of autocannon, laser, and missilefire engulfed them in much more explosive balls of fire.

“On the move, Rookie lets go!” Ingram called curtly into his mic as the boosters on the Sparrowhawk flared to life. The Sparrowhawk leaped into the air, assisted by its powerful boosters, and shot forward, deeper into the treeline, his smart-AI tracing a trail through the trees for him to follow in real time. Trees whizzed by as the large machines shot through the dense foliage, smaller trees bent as the Sparrowhawk’s alloy frame plowed through the brush. 

“Roger that!” Clara replied as the Peregrine formed up at a staggered distance from Ingram.

On the ground, the 7th was limited to the speed of their slowest walkers, but up in the air, the Peregrine and Sparrowhawk could close the distance in a fraction of the time. Ingram’s eyes whizzed back and forth between his monitor and the viewscreens as they rapidly closed in on the recovery team’s position. 

“Keep an eye out for more- Shit!” Ingram cursed, breaking off at the last moment, as the trees in front of them exploded, Ingram catching the glimpse of a massive riverdrake’s tail as it snapped past them. The Sparrowhawk stalled in the air for a moment as Ingram rapidly scanned his monitors for signals. He barely managed to get his breath before he heard the crashing of trees again, the Sparrowhawk juking to the left as again the massive riverdrake bounded past, clenching jaws snapping at where the Sparrowhawk just was. 

It seemed the sound of combat and movement must have disturbed the nest of a nearby pack of riverdrakes. Lizard-like creatures not too dissimilar to monitor lizards- but much larger and more aggressive, these creatures sported lifespans into the centuries, and never stopped growing in size. To make matters worse, they were more or less invisible to heat scans, forcing Ingram to rely on his already spotty radar system.

“Deadeye this is Boss, complications: There’s a large pack of oversized riverdrakes getting involved, I think Pips and Grizz are starting to look like lunch. Better move fast.”

The Sparrowhawk quickly waved the Peregrine forward, and they continued further onward to assist their stranded squadmates.
[hr]

Even as Abigail and Jakunta cleared out the immediate threat, it was clear that more were on the way. From the far edges of Pip’s full echo suite, before it cut out, Abi could spot at least 2 more patrols of Fenrirs closing in on their position. In the distance, they could already hear the crunch of metal limbs forcing their way through the heavy brush. More immediately however, the princess and the recovery team could also hear a foreboding hiss, as something unseen in the underbrush stalked the three pilots and their mechs.

Beady yellow eyes were the first to be seen, followed by the slinking, lumbering bodies lizards the size of minibuses pushed out of the brush. Flaps on the sides of their heads flared out as the riverdrakes continued hissing, three of them circling around the stranded mechs as they slowly began closer. In the distance, there was more gunfire, as a Coalition patrol must have ran into another pack of their own.

One of the lizards, finally deciding to make the first move lunged forward towards the fallen Kolibri, only for a flurry of explosions to ripple across its back, causing it to hiss and retreat back to the others. Overhead, the Sparrowhawk and Peregrine zoomed by.

“This is Boss, coming around for another pass.” Ingram called into the comms, as the Sparrowhawk spun around, “Start making your way north and link up with the rest of the 7th, we’ll cover you.”