The Evergreen slipped out of faster than light travel with grace and elegance, Solomon could see The Infinity from his chair, the Silver ship was offset, it looked as if it was adrift. No lights could be seen along its beautiful hull or where the command bridge sat, but that did not worry Solomon or Kyril half as much as the fact there was no sign of the other ship. "Hopeful, come in. This is Evergreen, we require a location, copy?" said the communications officer into his microphone to no response. Kyril told the officer to keep trying the lines as he got a response from another officer that the Infinity was in full lock down and not responding. "Solomon, we are going to have to go aboard... I'm bored of boarding our own ships by force now, Lieutenant Commander." said Kyril with a long sigh as he rubbed in between his eyes. The worst began to enter Solomon's mind, he could see with Kyrils face and most of the crew's that they had the same thoughts. Pirates. The Hopeful, possibly taken, waiting just out of sensual range, waiting to ambush.
With caution the priority, The Evergreen moved slowly towards The Infinity, weapons online, double sensory teams had come on to the bridge and Kyril had ordered yellow alert. Creeping onwards the best a ship that size could. Kyril ordered another communications officer to try hail The Infinity, the ship lay derelict, adrift through the void, with no signs of life. The Evergreen received no communications of any kind, Kyril ordered some one to check the signal relay of the ship, to make sure that their messages were sending correctly. The messages were being received, but not answered.
The wind blew softly through the long and tall foliage, Theo walked through grass brushing just above his knees, green as back home, lush in colour, thick enough that he could not see the dirt beneath his advancing feet. The sun to his and his platoons back. Jones had point, she walked proudly, fifty meters in front of the group, her red helmet attached to her side belt, hanging loosely as she walked. The platoon had chosen the path of open field, the Mares had more chance to ambush and strike unexpectedly within the trees, and with no other known hostile faction to use projectile force, they had come to their path and decided that open ground was far more advantageous. Only the human team had deployed, with the vacancy of the Evergreen companies, command decided to place the joint operations with the Gryph Forces stationed near by at Forgod on hold for now.
The wind brought the unusual scent of the ocean, salty but bringing with it the decay of plants and wildlife, the group halted, they knelt in the grass, reserving energy whenever they could. Jones checked her compass and GPS map on her pad. After a few minutes, they were off again, changing direction east, this brought them dangerously closer to the tree line, Theo and his squad trained their eyes on the ever moving trees and shrubbery for anything hostile. Anything with teeth bigger than their forearms.
The grass became higher, thicker and suddenly became full of a sour odour, the group stopped again once the sour odour was behind them, kneeling once more, they passed around food rations and water. Corn bread and dried steak, nice, but not perfect. Theo always dropped a little bit of his water on his steak to make it slightly more bearable. The trees lay just a few meters on either side, their eyes never leaving the perimeter for more than a few seconds, thick trees lay ahead of them, this was the point where they had to enter the infested forests. The nest is located roughly three miles ahead of them. "So, what does a Mare nest actually look like?" asked Jack to Theo. Theo simply blinked at the question as he quickly realised, he had no idea what he, himself was looking for. "Hey, Boss, what does a Mare nest look like?" repeated Theo to Jones. She just looked at him, as if she hadn't heard the question for a moment before replying in a dull, monotone. "Simple. We find mud where they lurk, if they defend it, it's their nest. If it's their nest, we kill it. Basic and simple." she said, "Hell if I know what one looks like."
After they had their fill of dried steak and corn bread, the group began their journey into the thick forest with trees as thick as a houses, some no more than a couple of inch in diameter. The mud was dry and resembled more dust than sludge, despite their best efforts and years of training, their soft well practised footsteps cracked every twig, loudly crinkled every fallen leaf, they had to stop every twenty or so meters to make sure they are not been followed or worse yet, stalked.