A pack of garwolvens were gathered in one of the large loading bays of the Moz Lidule.

Yoeke snarled when he spotted Hal arriving with Munaci.

“Why do we have to work with this human spawn?” Yoeke asked.

“Admiral’s orders. I don’t like it any more than you do,” Munaci replied. “He’ll be riding with me.”

Munaci checked over the traps that were lined up and equipped with the new remote-control panels.

The garwolvens circled around Hal, keeping a good distance between them. They boarded their individual pods and prepared for takeoff.

“Now their delicate feelings have been aired, what’s the final plan?” Hal asked.

“The garwolvens will scout for skulkers, then report back the coordinates of the location and approximate size of each nest. We will teleport the number of traps needed to each location," Munaci siad. "The traps will trigger automatically and once full, your job is to teleport them back to the Moz Lidule

He held out a small magiton body in his hand. ”You will pilot our pod and I be using this device. For larger nests of skulkers, the traps can be set to follow me. I’ll lead them into the center of the nest and teleport back to our pod.”

“Sounds easy enough," Hal said. “I am tracking all the pods. For small numbers of skulkers I can teleport traps back and forth from the pod location to base.”

Munaci spoke into his communicator, “Pilots, we can send traps directly to your location for small groups of skulkers. Prepare to deploy now.”

“Ready, sir,” Yoeke responded.

“Time to get in, Hal,” Munaci ordered. He disappeared into the small magiton body. It flew into the pod and landed in a small niche made for the purpose on the control panel.

Hal took over the controls of the pod and prepared to launch as the huge bay doors opened. The party of garwolvens exited the bay in their pods.

Hal followed. “And now we wait."

Munaci spoke to Hal telepathically from within the magiton body. “It won’t take them long. The tasmaroos sent out a reconnaissance team earlier and we have the general locations of several nests already. I must admit you’ve surprised me, Hal. Your remote-control guidance devices are an excellent design and saved a lot of materials,”

“Thanks. I have to give Lieutenant Cratus some credit. He helped me out with a few details.” Hal settled into the pilot’s seat. The pod was small, and all his controls were at arm's reach. “Hey, I’m already picking up a transmission.” Hal pulled up his locator controls and changed to open mic.

“Rovan here, Pod SS8GW requesting three traps.”

“Proceed. This will be the first test of our system,” Munaci said.

Hal teleported the traps to the pod’s locations and waited. A return message came back.

“Skulkers attracted and secured,” Rovan reported.

“Recalling traps now, SS8GW,” Hal replied. He teleported the traps back to the loading bay of the Moz Lidule, flagging them as full. “This is too easy.”

"Only as long as everything goes as planned. Don't anyone let your guard down," Munaci warned.

The garwolvens continued to spot clusters of skulkers. Hal soon had more than fifty pods full of skulkers teleported back to the Moz Lidule.

“Pod SS1GW reporting. Borgg and I have spotted a mega nest of skulkers,“ Yoeke called out. "Send in full support.”

Hal keyed two hundred traps to follow him and teleported to the Yoeke’s coordinates on screen. He looked out on a sea of space skulker nests looming straight ahead of their pod.

“He wasn’t exaggerating, Colonel. There may be over a hundred nests out here'" Hal said. "Looks like thousands of them.”

“Set fifty of the traps to follow my lead. They need to lock on and follow me in.” Munaci teleported his magitron craft over to one of the traps, designating it as the lead.

Hal confirmed the other traps were set to follow Munaci. "Ready."

"When I move into the nest, the traps will all automatically trigger on contact with the skulkers and draw them in. Wait until I am back to our pod and turn off my tracking signal to teleport the full traps back to the Moz Lidule."

"I’ve got your back, Munaci. I know what to do.”

Munaci flew into the closest nest at high speed and spiraled into the middle of the skulkers, spreading out the trail of traps following him as widely as possible through the nest in the shortest time possible.

Hal watched the flashes of light as the parasites awakened to the invasion of their nest. The traps were attacked instantly and disappeared under a swarm of skulkers. Munaci teleported his magiton body back to his niche in the service pod with Hal.

“Cutting it a little close there, buddy,” Hal said. “"But it worked perfectly.”

Munaci gave a grunt of acknowledgement but remained quiet as they waited for the other traps to be triggered. It had hardly begun before it was over. All the skulkers were secured, ready to teleport back to the Moz Lidule. They moved on to the next large nest of the mega cluster.

“Let's get them all," Munaci said. "I'm beginning to enjoy this."

They canvassed the entire nesting area methodically until all the skulkers had been gathered into traps.

“I just hope this is enough.” Hal said. He teleported the pods back to base on the ship.

“It should be, if it’s going to work at all,” Munaci replied. “I’m going to teleport back to the Moz Lidule. Call in the pack and bring everyone back in.”

“Mission complete, return to Moz Lidule,” Hal sent out the colonel’s order. He was about to head home when a new message came in.

“Plato here, Pod SS7GW, Order 1 Alert, Emergency! Skulkers on my hull! Repeat emergen… “ Plato cut out and his pod lost radio contact.

“He’s been cut off, Colonel,” Hal shouted, but Munaci was already gone.

“We lost Plato!” Rovan wailed into his mic.

“Get out Rovan,” Yoeke shouted. “You’re too close!”

“Guys, we have to go in and get him!” Hal called back.

“Negative. Too dangerous,” Yoeke responded.

“I won’t stand by and let those bastards eat anyone,” Hal shouted.

“We were ordered to return to base,” Yoeke said.

“You do whatever. I’m going in.” Hal said. He teleported to the coordinates of the pod and called the fifty or so remaining traps to follow him.

When he arrived, Plato’s pod was covered with skulkers and had been sucked dry of energy.

Another nest of skulkers loomed not far ahead. Hal put three traps directly on the hull of the dying pod to pull the skulkers off and directed the rest of into the nest in a scatter pattern to control the threat. Once the pod was clear of skulkers, Hal docked and tried to board, but the door mechanism had frozen shut.

Hal set up an induction cycle through his hull and managed to route enough power to break the lock open. He sent an emergency power feed through the pods crippled circuitry. The garwolven inside made a few feeble movements, then passed out as the last energy was draining from the pod’s capacitors. There wasn’t enough power getting through to keep Plato alive much longer.

“Hang on, Plato, we’re getting out of here,” Hal said. He fashioned a conduit and created a direct feed back to his own pod. He was surprised to see another pod fly up.

“How can I assist?” Yoeke asked.

“I need all the power I can get. Boost the current in this life feed so it will be strong enough to pull us both out,” Hal said.

Yoeke linked his pod’s power. The jolt of energy brought Plato back to consciousness.

Hal grabbed Plato and jumped into the circuit, combining the current with his own life feed. It worked. They both made it back aboard his pod. Once secure, Hal and Yoeke teleported back to the Moz Lidule.

When they arrived the other garwolvens and Colonel Munaci were in the loading bay waiting.

“He lost power. Take him to medical right away,” Hal said as he jumped out. “His pod was badly damaged and sucked dry by the skulkers. We didn’t try to bring it in.”

Yoeke got out and directed two of his pack to take care of the rescued garwolven. He approached Hal. “We are grateful for you actions, human. Perhaps we judged you prematurely,” Yoeke said.

“No problem. I have a name you know.”

“Hal, it is. Thank you, Hal.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Good job,” Munaci congratulated him. “I believe this is the first time anyone has ever been rescued from a dead pod after a skulker attack.”

“Great. I like setting records.”