Braxton climbed back on Icca. He shifted his course east and went into the hills again. There were plenty of creatures in the hills munching on roots and other vegetation. Braxton didn't see any black, purple or red creatures as he was going. After Celious' warning he knew what was likely to be more aggressive.
Braxton did see a few birds flying around that concerned him. They were circling above the animals grazing. These were large purple creatures. The flock was three and they had long beaks. He couldn't tell how big they were. If they attacked him he knew he couldn't hope to get away by running. They reminded him of dinosaur birds that he had seem in museums on a school field trip. The thought of being chased and eaten by one of them sent chills running up him spine. Thankfully they seemed more interested in the creature a few miles from his location.
"Alert! Alert! Countdown terminated." Alpha notified.
The alert he had set for ending his travel for the day went off and scared the shit out of him. "Holy hell Alpha! Could you just use a soft beeping for something like a timer. That was like I was being attacked." Braxton said curtly.
"System setting preference updated." Alpha replied.
Braxton dismounted and climbed to the top of the hill. It was the middle of the day still and he wasn't overly concerned his prey could catch up with him. He didn't think they had become aware of his presence either. As he crested the top of the hill he crouched low so he wouldn't silhouette himself. He summoned his laser rifle again to scout for his prey's location.
He had passed them while he was traveling. Icca was faster than they were. Braxton got a good look at their faces. The lizard men were nothing new. The larger creatures fit the discription of the Tritops Celious had given him. He counted eight of them in total. They were wearing armor plates over their chests. Celious had told him they had a weak spot their. The armor plating must be a new addition these creatures acquired for fighting humans. There were four lizard men in the group.
It had been a few weeks since he took out the snipers on the tower. That was enough time for the lizard men to walk a few hundred miles and collect some heavy hitters. Killing humans was a sworn mission of the Tritops. This squad wasn't that large but they had several heavy melee weapons. The lizard men have had pulse rifles and laser rifles.
They looked like they were getting ready to stop for the night. The lizard men were splitting away from the Tritops. Two went west and two were coming east. They were about a half mile behind him but they were making a beeline for him. It looked like they were using the bird-like creatures to pinpoint a food source.
Braxton backed down the hill. He mounted up and went further east and dropped down behind another hill. He got off Icca again. Then rushed back on top of this hill's crest. He summoned the laser rifle again and waited. The laser rifle was a quiet weapon the beams could easily give away his location. They had to be seen first. He picked a spot that he hoped would have the lizard men reach the valley. He could take them out from behind after they killed a creature for their dinner. His plan was to get kills and food all at the same time. Then move on another ten miles and harass the warband over the next day or two.
He wasn't sure if he could kill the Tritops or not. The lizard men he wasn't worried about at all. If he could kill them the Tritops might not know where they were going. The railgun was still a wildcard in his arsenal. The problem with his pulse rifle was, they could see it coming. With their armor, he wasn't sure he would have any success with it.
Braxton waited for the lizard men patiently. About ten minutes later they crested the first hill. It was clear they spotted the creatures ahead of them. They crouched low and pulled their weapons. One had a pulse rifle and the other had a laser rifle. Those would make nice additions to his own gear. He had no idea what they were carrying in their packs. Now wasn't the right moment to kill them, he still needed to wait.
His prey made their shot. It was the one with the laser rifle. Then they waited and watched. About five minutes later they moved forward again. Braxton calmly switched off the safety on his weapon. Took aim and squeezed the trigger. The laser beam went through the back of the head of the one with the laser rifle. He toppled forward and fell in a heap. His legs twitched uncontrollably. The second man looked at his friend for a second unsure what happened. His pause was more Han enough time for Braxton to fire another shot into his ear. He fell to the ground twitching wildly.
Braxton put his weapon away and moved forward to collect their bodies and gear. He left Icca where it was eating and gathered the gear.
"Pulse rifle acquired. Blood lizard corpse acquired. Backpack acquired. Laser rifle with scope acquired. Backpack acquired. Blood lizard corpse acquired." Alpha played the messages as each item was collected. Then Braxton saw the body of a red snake coiled up. The underside of it was white which made it stand out. It was still a mile in the distance.
Braxton continued walking to the snake. It was twenty feet long at least and over a foot around. When he reached it, he touched he snake. "Constrictor Blood Snake acquired. Combat armor light weight acquired." Alpha notified.
The message caught him off guard for sure. He was not expecting the armor to be found. Then he continued walking away from the area towards the south. He walked for an hour. It put another three miles between him and the warband.
He crested the hill and summoned his laser rifle again. The scope was powerful enough for him to see the area they were in. Yet not with any great amount of detail. The lizard men had returned from the west dragging a good sized creature. The creatures sat around cooking bits and pieces off it from the best he could guess. With the cloud cover today being extra thick it was getting darker than normal. The night vision mode on the scope kicked on. All he could see was an area of heat signatures.
He put the weapon away. They would most like be getting worried about their companions soon. That's if they behaved like people, Braxton reminded himself.
Braxton pulled the whistle and blew it a couple times. He was not sure if the mount could here it from this far away. He didn't want to walk back to reclaim it but, it was too valuable to leave.
"Alpha what is the current distance to base camp?" Braxton requested.
"Thirty six miles. You will have to skirt the blood lizard tower too. The total trip will be more like forty miles." Alpha recalculated as he processed the data.
"What is the status of the light combat armor?" Braxton inquired.
"Light Combat Scout Series prototype. It's a third generation armor manufactured roughly three years ago. It has a comlink upgrade that could be integrated to this armor. The armor is at seventy percent. This armor is universally user adaptable. Repair time estimated at twenty hours." Alpha informed.
Braxton summoned the armor. He wanted to see if he could find the comlink. The armor was pretty well crushed and the bones were still inside. The player wristband was still here too. He could recover items from it but, that could wait. He couldn't return them, if he ran out of room he'd be screwed. "Comlink located. Connection established, integrating upgrade. Projected install and activation in fifteen minutes." Alpha chimed once again.
He put the armor away and started walking back towards the place he left his mount. He blew the bone whistle again. He only walked about a mile before the spotted yellow lizard located him. He finished the rest of MRE, making a meal of the peanut butter and crackers and a package of M&Ms. Then he activated his Burrow skill to sleep under the ground.
"Alpha, wake me in eight hours." Braxton commanded.
He closed his eyes and slept like a baby. He woke up while it was still dark. His UI display the time at 4:00 am. The UI was flashing blue. There was a message written out. Major Blade: Specter where the hell are you?
"That answers that question. I wonder when that message was sent. Alpha, is there any history of messages stored of the comlink?" Braxton thought.
"The rest of the data was corrupted." Alpha replied.
Braxton exited Burrow mode. He got up and summoned his laser rifle. He took a quick survey to the landscape surrounding the area. Icca moved off somewhere unknown. There was a few different creatures nearby. They were laying down and were ones he had considered non-hostile. He climbed back up to the hill crest and checked the camp area from the night before.
There were a couple of the Tritops standing up but most of the creatures looked to be lying on he ground sleeping. He switched to the railgun. The scope on this weapon was smaller. He didn't expect much from it. When he looked into it, he was pleased. The scope zeroed in on the distance targets much better. He could make out the targets perfectly. The scope zoomed in on its own and the darkness didn't seem to have any effect. A red dot appeared and as he adjusted the scope, the red dot moved. It looked like he red dot was exactly where the ammo would contact.
The red dot wiggled when the wind blew. It was compensating for the wind on its own? Braxton considered. He settled the red dot over the Tritops' eyeball, relaxed and slowly squeezed the trigger. The recoil was handled by the weapon. The projectile was so small it couldn't be seen. The noise was mostly mechanical with a loud whoosing sound. The projectile emitted a high pitched whistle as it traveled along.
He watched in the scope as he waited to see what happened. The target didn't react. The seconds ticked by like it was slow motion as he waited the results. One, two, three then he saw the head move. The projectile entered the eyeball. Then blood and viscera exploded from the eye sockets, nostrils, mouth and ears. Then the creature fell to the ground. "Holy shit!" Braxton whispered.
The campsite became hectic. The movement and scurry around was hard to track briefly. The scope adjusted out and Braxton could see the creatures moving around clearly. The Tritops that had been sleeping were hurrying to equip their breast plates.
Braxton zeroed in on another one but it was moving around too much. He couldn't get a shot on it clean like the last one. He decided to test if a normal headshot would be effective. He tracked the red dot and squeezed the trigger again. The seconds ticked by again. The projectile impacted one of the horns and blew it to pieces. The beastly man stumbled backwards a step. Then he looked pissed.
Then Braxton saw an object flash across his scope for a second. He opened his other eye to see what was going on. He saw a baseball size white light heading in his direction. He rolled to his right and down he hillside as the incoming round blew up the spot he had been laying a second before.
"Good morning Fuckers!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.