Abigail slouched in her chair, fingers pressing against the side of her face as she held herself upright. It wasn't that she was exhausted, just really uncomfortable; the lurch of the Krakono did nothing for her remnants of nausea and even less for the thumping headache that accompanied it. Her HUD told her it was a delightful thirty two degrees Celsius in the cockpit and she was sweating like a hog in her EVA suit. She'd been tossed around like a leaf in a storm drain and the effects were making themselves increasingly apparent.

But they weren't far now. They couldn't be far now. Even without the Full Echo, each cacophonous bounce of the Krakono crossed more distance than any foot patrol could ever hope to in twice as much time due to sheer size alone. The issue remained that Jakunta's singular attack had the unintentional side effect of alerting everything remotely nearby of their presence, and given the terse silence on the Comms, Abigail couldn't shake the feeling Jakunta was very much aware of this as he forced his metal demon to tear through the jungle at a breakneck pace.

Her gaze slipped through the smart AI sensors again as she watched the designated Helmheimr follow them, lost in thought - then her eyes narrowed and she immediately slammed onto the Comms:

"STOP MOVING-!"

Whatever it was, it tore through the trees like toothpicks. A gargantuan leathery belly slammed into the Krakono. The Kolibri's boosters flashed into life so fast that the MAS skidded clean off the Krakono's chassis and into the dirt as Abigail scrabbled underneath the Krakono, away from the line of fire but very much in range of what appeared to be a grotesquely large male Riverdrake that clearly took the cannon blast as a threat to its territory. This creature was just as, if not larger than the Krakono; in the chaos, the munitions fire and the thumping of the heavy MAS its approach was masked until it was too late.

"Can you shake it off?!" Abigail cried out in horror, grabbing her heat knife and trying to take a slash at the monster's hind leg - in vain.

"No," grunted Jakunta through gritted teeth. The Krakono whined in protest as the hydraulics shuddered under the weight of the Riverdrake, stuck in an even struggle to remain upright. If the drake knocked over the Krakono here of all places, Jakunta wouldn't have the time to right himself before the Coalition descended upon them and picked them all off. 

Almost instantly, Jakhunta's radio crackled with a split second burst of static.

"Grizz, this is Deadeye, right turn now!" Aleksanderin's voice cut through the static as the remainder of the 7th drew within range, and the engagement began in earnest. The Yeoman was in the midst of a mad charge straight at the entangled Krakono and riverdrake, bayonet affixed and raised, rails on the longbow charging. All Jak had to do was pivot so that the drake was the first thing the Savolax would run into. The Krakono creaked as its great body heaved to the side, one gargantuan leg thumping into the ground to steady itself.

At the apex of the Krakono’s turn, just as it came to a great creaking halt, Aleks activated his flight engines and completed the charge. 

The drake gave a screeching reptilian roar as its side was punctured by a shard of forged savonite-titanium the size of a sports car, and it turned with shocking speed and deliberacy to face the new threat, raking its claws across the front of the Yeoman as Aleks danced backwards out of its reach, with timing so tight it was up for debate whether he’d done it just right or half a second too late. Flakes and ribbons of armour fell to the forest floor as the bayonet flicked a streak of xenobiological matter across the field - he was outsized, and at this range outgunned, but their first collision had left the lizard worse for wear, and that was an advantage Aleks knew to push.

Aleks grinned in the cockpit, regarding his prey as it drew back and up, protecting its new injury and sizing him up in return.

The jungle buzzed with Savolax as his speakers came on.

[i]”You don’t look delicious.”[/i] He taunted it. [i]”Not delicious at all.”[/i]

"Deadeye, please confirm: did you just chat shit to the wildlife?" Abigail asked in the encrypted channel. The Kolibri scrambled to make distance from the melee and circled the Helmheimr, autocannon raised and smart targeting engaged for any coalition surprises.

[i]Crack.[/i] Louder than thunder. The longbow discharged from the hip, a spear of Savonite disappearing deep into the creature’s thorax. It squealed and screeched, lunging for Aleks as he leapt backwards, drawing it away from the Krakono for a moment.

“Affirm that Pipsqueak.” He confirmed, shouldering his rifle and placing another round in the creature, this time puncturing its thick skull. “It would probably taste like chicken, but not in a good way.”

"No talking!" Barked Jakunta. The Krakono lurched forward when the Riverdrake let go of the chassis, stumbled, crashed into a tree that covered it in detritus and continued a slow thunderous charge through the jungle.

Aleks frowned. Jakunta didn't give him orders, but Jakunta was right. That bothered him.

He took it out on the riverdrake, which was grabbing frantically at its new head injury, writhing about on the floor.

Two more bayonet jabs and a stomp to the head and Aleks was satisfied that the drake was dead - and then he started looking for coalition targets.

"7th this is Deadeye, ignore wildlife where possible, leave them to the Coalition."

"Understood. Deadeye, are you going to help me cover Sunray on the ground or find a new position to fire from?" Abigail asked.

"Pips, Deadeye here, I'll stay on your six for now, engage targets as I-" he broke off for a moment as another big lizard tried to bite a chunk out of him and got a mouthful of bayonet and railgun, "- follow you."

Abigail had the Kolibri keep pace with Aurelia to cover the princess' left flank as the Krakono picked up momentum. Suddenly aware that the princess hadn't received an update in a while, she swapped channels. "Sunray, follow Grizzly - I'm right here to back you up. Don't worry about the lizards, just keep moving where you can," Abigail reassured the princess as the Kolibri jogged beside the Helmheimr in the wake of whatever the Krakono smashed to pieces during its race back to the Roanoke. She swapped to the encrypted channel. "Boss, you're in the air - can you detect any Coalition units nearby? They're bound to be closing in by now." 

There was a crackling boom of sound as the Sparrowhawk whizzed by, strafing a  pair of drakes that got a bit too close to Sunray and the Pips, disappearing back into the thicket of trees as he continued on his path. His voice crackled in moments later, a bit distorted from all of the disruptions.

“They’re closing in on us alright, I’m picking up patrols all over us, closest at 3 and 8 o’clock, 10 klicks out. Make a break for the clearing, the Roanoke’s guns can cover us once we get in range.”

"Well, somebody's gotta tell her - and since I've been playing mouthpiece this entire time it's going to be me." Abigail clicked back into the public Comms just as Aleks kicked a smaller, runty Riverdrake away from the Kolibri's broken landing strut. "Sunray? It's Pips. There's Coalition patrols closing in on our location as we speak - a lot of them. You've got Deadeye right behind you, I'm on your left, and Boss in the sky. We're almost at our ship." Abigail turned the volume down in her cockpit so the little pinging alarm about the structural damage she was inflicting on the landing strut didn't distract the princess. "It'll have more than enough firepower to deal with them but I don't want you getting caught in the crossfire. The moment the hangar doors open, you run in first. Trust me on this - we'll be [I]right behind you[/I]." She hesitated a little, eyeing her MAS's condition on the HUD. "None of us want to stick around for longer than we need to."