Braxton and Vixen left the next morning. They had setup the gate behind Vector's house. Vector and Cammy were given their address. Braxton had returned and made them badges to get into the apartment building. That would allow them to get back in using the company portal and return. He also sent his father the video footage of the new gate location and had told him to wait three days before opening it. Limiting the company presence to just putting banners on the sides of the gate.
The cost for his father was minimal and he was happy about that. "Jr. picked a good spot this time for sure. I don't even need guards for this one. City people will love this place too. Darcy, edit this video and upload it. We will sell five hundred tourism passes and one hundred hunting passes for this place." Braxton Sr. ordered.
The couple headed north, on the second day it started raining. If not for their armor they would've been soaked. They had to stop because they couldn't see. Their mounts Burrowed to avoid the rain. They didn't seem to like it at all. The rain lasted a couple hours. The mounts surfaced when it ended and shook off the moisture. The couple could see the lands ahead were covered with grass and a few trees. The clouds had cleared and the sun was shining down. This could've been a seen from earth the sky was blue and the temperatures were normal.
Their mounts however refused to continue going north anymore. "Let's take environmental readings. I'm curious if that might be the issue here." Braxton stated calmly.
The readings were similar to those on earth. The data had more information than he could understand. He setup a another gate. The area was vacant and had plenty of wildlife Braxton could see with his Scout Vision. There were herds of wild animals roaming the vastness of these plains. He took the data he collected and sent it to his father. Then returned.
With his options limited the couple decided to return to the last gate. He was more curious than ever about what was north but, it would wait for another time. They dropped off their mounts with Vector then went back into the real world for a short break. They need to sort out what they should do next.
After a week of rest. They had consumed the last of their blood. The couple decided to return and get fresh mounts from Celious. From there they headed south to place the last four of their gates. Gathering blood was a must early on and Braxton wanted to test his new weapons. He traded away his laser sword for the mounts. It was no longer a necessary item for him to carry. One of the weapons he got from Vector was a laser sword. This one had a blue light from the crystal. It lasted half an hour.
He also got a new rifle it was a laser rifle that was more like an assault rifle. Vixen wanted the weapon but he told her no. She already had her assault rifles. Her extras were sold in the market by Jax. Along with much of her 70k rounds. She kept the last 10k of them for herself. This assault rifle fired short lasers of blue light and had a 20 shot capacity with blue energy cells. He didn't currently have any empty red ones. But expected it to be able to shoot 40 rounds before running out. The beauty of it was, then it would be fully charged for his other weapons.
They found a nice hunting ground two days south east of Celious camp. They dropped another gate in an area surrounded by hills. Then climbed up the hill out of the valley. Braxton raised his rifle and took aim. This weapon only had iron sights. This was something Braxton had never used before. Shooting with scopes was much easier. He completely missed sending three laser beams shooting over the heads of the animals. The sizzling noise flying over there heads was enough to scatter the herd.
"What the fuck was that?" Vixen said between fits of laughter. "How could you miss an entire herd?"
Braxton's face turned beet red as he got up to pursue the herd and try again. "The sight must be broken." He said defensively.
"Give it to me I'll take a look at it." Vixen replied reaching for the weapon. She continued "Vector wouldn't give you a broken weapon without telling you what was wrong with it. You're probably using it wrong."
Braxton didn't respond but, had Alpha display the training manual pages devoted to iron sights. He reviewed the materials silently.
"Just as I thought. There is nothing wrong with this weapon." Vixen said after taking a shot with it. She had dropped a desert rat. It was a much smaller target and was further away than the shaggy Buffalo like animals Braxton had tried to shoot.
"It's my gun. This is why I wanted to practice with it before trying to use it in combat." He said testily.
Vixen froze again. She stared ahead briefly. Braxton was really beginning to hate how she did this. He never had any warning but, she always seemed to get prior warning. He started to ask her what was going on but, before he could she shouted "Run!"
She didn't wait for him to respond, she bolted east as fast as her legs could carry her. She was already a few hundred yards away before he moved. "Damn she's fast!" He thought. He began following as fast as he could. She continued to expend the distant between them at first, but slowed down noticeably to let him catch up.
"What are we running from?" Braxton asked.
"A stampede. Something is chasing those creatures. Can't you run any faster than this?" Vixen urged.
What the hell do you want? At this rate I'd run a mile in four minutes!" Braxton asked incredulously.
"We should be fine when we reach those hills ahead." Vixen pointed a few miles away. She didn't even seem to be exerting any effort to maintain her pace. Braxton was at his limit but, he knew he could keep up this pace for a while.
"Can't you use the Burrow skill? We can just sink under the surface and let them pass. They aren't that heavy." Braxton inquired, he had seen the mounts do that already.
Vixen stopped and sunk into the ground. "Agh." Braxton sighed and sunk under beside her. He turned around with his assault rifle pointed toward the direction they had run in from. He waited with his body halfway under the ground.
The herd appeared in his vision a couple minutes later. It was a scary sight. There were ten to twenty thousand of the beasts. They weren't as tall as cows but, still around four feet. The animals were shaped like cows but were thick in the front and narrow in the back, like bulldogs. They had long shaggy hair that almost drug on the ground. Their horns were wide, extending two feet out to either side they had four points facing forward. They almost looked like pitchforks mounted atop their heads. Racing toward him.
Braxton took aim and shot the nearest one. It was a quarter mile away and closing fast, but it didn't even slow down. It lowered its head more and turned towards him. It looked intent on attacking him now. He continued to fire. The hits on its head had no effect at all. But he hit its spine with a shot and dropped it. The bull crumpled into a heap less than fifty feet away from him.
Braxton sunk into the ground ten feet deep and waited for them to pass. The animals continued to thunder over their heads for a few minutes then all was quite.