Melnie and Frankyl were still distraught about their losses, their steps more sluggish, their eyes puffy and red. Even the trio felt a bit down, they were experiencing reality now, this wasn’t their simulation, there would be no respawn. However, even so they held themselves together well, considering the circumstances.

Luckily, following our conversation the previous evening, and what one might consider a casual acquaintanceship, Beta agreed to maintain the secret of my existence. While also uploading their current understanding of the surrounding area, it wasn’t the best map if I was to be honest. Huge swathes of the area were missing, then again it was understandable as Beta only had access to the areas where it possessed functional structures. There was one very important benefit however, and that was the chokepoints and sense dampening equipment.

At this very moment the party of five was making use of the sanitizers and illusion projectors at the very edge of Beta’s territory to lure in today’s meal. The humans took their position on Beta’s territory, on the other end was what Beta had described as Centipod alley, the dirt and sand hiding the dangerous predators below. Beta had long known about these creatures, observed their hunting patterns, as there was little else to do than observe its surroundings. Either way the Centipod’s were blind, relying on sound, which apparently assisted them in hunting their prey while avoiding predators, primarily the Slitherwings who would swoop down and sweep up such a prey.

These creatures were particularly fast, relying more on ambush to capture and consume prey, just as they had done with our team member the previous day. Which brings us to the second reason for this specific hunt, revenge, Melnie and Frankyl were very excited to cull the local Centipod population. A distinctly human action, yes, the creature is their enemy, yes, it is dangerous, and yes it did kill their teammate. But it is only beast, it eats to survive and their desire to cull the population could lead to an imbalance in the local ecosystem. Something that Augus will be forced to remind them of, for now I would observe the hunt, see how the humans intended to hunt the fifteen-foot-long predator with only their knives and buzz batons.

Well, the hunt began with Phenix, the big lug was sent out alone. Made sense, he matched Melnie in size, but his unique constitution granted him three to four times the normal strength of the average human. He was faster, tougher, and far more durable, meant he was perfect bait, even if he had to be prodded by the others slightly. Eventually he left, moving cautiously, but as soon as he left the sound dampening field at the border of Beta’s territory, his big thunderous footfalls did exactly what they were meant to, attract the prey.

Just like the previous day the dirt and sand erupted, the Centipod burst out from the earth looking to snatch its prey before its friends caught on. The problem for the insect was that Phenix was ready for it and had no problem dodging out of the way before making a beeline for where the others were waiting. Augus, Jasemine, Melnie, and Frankyl had taken up positions, with Melnie and Augus up top on rusty old remnants of some mechanical amusement ride, combat knives in hand. While Jasemine and Frankyl were flanking Phenix’s main path.

Phenix kept pumping his legs, staying a few steps ahead of the clacking mandibles of the frustrated insect. It pulled away from the safety of its territory, chasing the juicy morsel that continued to evade it by a hair’s breadth. Then it hit the sound dampening field, and it was like watching a train derail. The centipod tried to stop, its many legs having trouble catching hold in the rockier soil, its head whipping from side to side, most assuredly blind now that its main senses had been disabled. Continuing to clack its mandibles, either attempting to call its friends or use some form of echolocation.

None of that mattered, as it was now paralyzed, unable to act, unable to see the hunting party above its head and to either side. Phenix moved first, waiting for it clack and move its head close enough before slamming a rusty metal beam down onto its skull, cracking the carapace and disorienting the centipod. Following that he took the same beam and flexed his bulging muscles, bending the metal beam, twisting it around the dazed creatures’ mandibles, effectively muzzling and blinding it.

Phenix’s job was over, it was the other’s turn to pull their weight, Frankyl and Jasemine slammed their buzz batons into the centipods flanks, on either side, the electrical discharge appearing to have little effect. However, Frankyl could not let it go, he thrust his baton toward the underbelly and then upwards beneath the segmented carapace, into the softer meat below. This time when he let his buzz baton go full charge, the creature spasmed, with the mucus that coated the underbelly to counter abrasion proving to be extremely conductive to electrical discharge.

The creature’s body began to spasm, thrashing left and right, knocking away Frankyl and almost crushing Jasemine. It was only thanks to Phenix’s instinctual actions and quick reflexes that a tragedy was avoided, as he circled his arms around one of the centipods segments, shouting out as his arms swelled and his body held the creature firmly in place. Sensing the opportunity and having realized the danger both Jasemine and Phenix were in, Melnie and Augus dropped down from their perches directly onto the creature’s back.

Melnie having spent the morning fashioning a long rusty spear from whatever scraps were lying around, aimed to see just how useful it would be. The answer turned out to be surprisingly useful, it may have been because of her strength, or just that as an ambush predator the centipods segmented plates were softer than they appeared. In either case, her spear impaled the beast somewhere around the center of its body, the metal rod with a filed down point going straight through and embedding itself in the ground below.

I didn’t have much time to gloat at the effectiveness of my human’s, because although the creature was no immobile and bleeding profusely, its upper half was still incredibly dangerous. Of course, that is exactly where Augus found himself, clinging on to the centipods head, hand firmly grasping one antenna, hanging for dear life as the creature continued thrashing. In such a situation he struck down with his knife, somewhat unsuccessfully, the movement plus the angles of the segmented plates made such as action somewhat difficult. As much as I may have wanted to let him learn on his own, it wouldn’t do much good to anyone if he died, he was after all my only form of transportation.

“Augus, you don’t need to respond back and just listen to what I am telling you. Just focus on holding on, instead try getting your feet between the segmented plates below you. Wait for the creature to tire or slow down before you go in for the strike, I’ll mark on your HUD exactly what to target.” As expected Augus was so focused on holding on for dear life that he had nothing to say, at least not while he was trying desperately to get his feet and hand where I had indicated. I also went ahead and marked the location of the creature’s brain, it was small in comparison to the centipods size, but what would one expect from an insect.

He just needed to jam the knife in anywhere nearby, and the beast would go down quickly enough. It took a few minutes of wrangling, some more prods from the buzz batons below, and Melnie even ripping off some of the segmented plates, flesh, and all, before the centipod started to slow. Any organic, no matter the size, tended to tire the more damage it sustained. Not an issue for machines, sure we could degrade, but with proper maintenance it wouldn’t be much of a problem, then again permanent death was also not much of a concern.

However, not of that was particularly relevant to the situation at hand, in which the centipod had finally been brought down. With Augus managing to penetrate the carapace near the designated spot, it had weakened enough that its thrashing had slowed to the point Augus could stabilize with a single hand. With a more stable platform, more strength could be placed in his right arm, enough to penetrate the plating and plunging into the soft tissue below. Like a machine whose off switch had been switched, the centipod seized up and then its body went limp, falling to the ground.

“Shit!” Everyone heard Phenix yell out as the large insect came crashing towards the ground. That was about all the time there was before hundreds of pounds of insect carcass dropped on his head. Melnie and Frankyl rushed forward, while Jasemine and Augus were far more casual in their approach. Instead taking the time to rummage around the corpse, tearing off segmented plates and collecting some of the mucus which coated the underbelly.

“What are the two of you doing! Stop messing around and come help us! We need to get your friend out of here, do you not care!” Melnie was livid, the calm and cool demeanor she showed at the start of the expedition had been turned on its head. It was clear that the deaths plus the overall situation, specifically them being trapped with no way out was weighing heavily on her. The bags under her eyes and elevated stress levels detected from the sensory nodes in her suit stated as much. Phenix’s age and status as a child under her protection probably also had a lot to do with the massive spike in stress being relayed.

The problem was that they were worrying over nothing, before they could get to moving the centipods carcass, the area underneath shifted slightly. Followed closely by the sound of something shuffling and scraping along the ground, then second later Phenix appeared unharmed. Phenix was basically a living piece of armor, in short bursts of a couple of minutes at a time he could drastically increase his defensive capabilities, anything short of armor piercing rounds wouldn’t leave more than a scratch.

“Don’t worry leader, you can drop a building on this guy, and he would be fine. If he was down there for longer than a minute, then I’d be worried. He has quite the useful gift don’t you know.” Jasemine waltzed over to the prone Phenix, who was just catching his breath while staring up at the distant ceiling. Then proceeding to gift him with a playful kick to his side, while stepping away and disappearing into the surrounding as he stood up with an irritated look on his face.

Melnie was done, she just dropped onto the ground, sighing in exasperation as Phenix went stomping around trying to locate the camouflaged Jasemine. All the while Augus didn’t bother, focused on examining and analyzing the spoils of their hunt.

“Ah humans, how I missed their foolish antics. There is no better entertainment, after all what unexpected things will they do next. Such precious and irrational beings, oh how I missed their company. AL, do you want to hear about this time my humans…” Dammit, I expected as much but why couldn’t we have discovered a different AI. Perhaps one that didn’t descend into long rambling monologues for hours and days on end!