To the south of the central Kingdom lies the Eglax territory, a young country founded on fertile land with an emphasis on monster hunting. The territory of Eglax had long been an attractive area of expansion for most of its neighbors, but the very thing that made it attractive also made it unsuitable for long term habitation. On paper colonizing fertile land seems like a good idea, but the reality is that land with a large amount of resources is often already occupied by natives of some sort, that won"t really give up their territory."Another pack incoming!"
"Why the f.u.c.k is there so many monsters!?"
"I told you, this is the Eglax territory, the home of monsters."
Living in the Eglax territory meant living under constant threat of monsters, with fertile ground came a large amount of animals, and a large amount of animals attracted a large population of monsters, and in turn a large concentration of monsters meant high ranked monsters. Monsters are a broad category of living and non living creatures that actively feed on, and empower themselves with the use of mana (Unlike normal animals and livestock) and are empowered by the more mana they consume. As such the more mana monsters feed on, the more powerful they become, and the more attuned they become at seeking out dense mana sources. Humans and other intelligent life forms being especially rich in mana content makes them a sought out meal for monsters in the Eglax territory, and every attempt at a long term colony have all perished within a year of forming due to so called monster stampedes, one Lux currently was experiencing for the first time.
"Limit engagement to low caliber weaponry only, we need to conserve ammunition."
Driving through an open field with Zephyr running alongside the convoy had been ambushed by a pack of about 200 large wolf type creatures called direwolves.
"Engage all hostile targets, open up with the zero triple nines""
[FIREMISSION RECEIVED, MOVING TO DEFENSIVE FORMATION DELTA… NEUTRALIZING TARGETS.]
The convoy outfit Lux, Dax and Terra all had agreed on was a slightly modified 15 vehicle fast mobility battlegroup with additional escorts.
Of the REX AEHWP variants vehicles there were:
2 closed type armored personnel transports.
For carrying mission personal, basically an armored all terrain bus on wheels, equipped with an all around ERA system which was standard on all vehicles and a single Rex-0999 machine gun mounted on a gimbal on top for defence.
1 general type drone tender.
For maintaining drones and the other AEHWP"s with advanced repair functions and diagnostic tools with a similar Rex-0999 defensive outfit.
1 Guardian Specter type drone tender.
Build to maintain, repair, launch and operate Specter and Guardian Vulture type unmanned aerial surveillance drones, also armed with Rex-0999 machine gun and a defensive caff/smoke launcher.
1 fuel breeder type AEHWP.
Responsible for refining the high amount of fusion fuel needed to maintain a large battle formation. Being the by far the most valuable and explosive vehicle it was equipped with extra potent ERA, along with thermal jamming and all round caff and smoke launchers.
1 electronic warfare specialist type AEHWP.
For maintaining, encryptioning and coordinating communication between the several hundred active friendly drones while disrupting, confusing and even sometimes even hacking hostile drones. Uniquely it is equipped with optical camouflage to prevent visual detection as its only defence.
3 Reaper type drone carriers.
Basically armored transports but made especially made for transporting and refueling Reaper drones, each one carries 16 drones and their gear. Equipped with 2 twin Rex-0999 machine gun turrets and a fully automatic grenade launcher.
1 AEHWP type Monition manufacturing and storage plant.
Collects raw materials and turns it into munitions and explosives to extend and maintain logistical supplies of the battle group. Not designed for front line use it only carries defensive smoke launchers.
2 high caliber Guardian-G097 indirect fire railgun carriers.
As Lux calls them: "anti fortress railguns on tracks" constantly on anti drake duty. Equipped with both a indepentialy turreted and a coaxial Rex-0999 machine gun they boast the highest offencive power of the convoy.
1 Viper cruise missile carrier.
Carrying 28 Viper long range missiles for over the horizon engagements, just because. Equipped with twin Rex-0999 machine gun turret for close range offence and a smoke launchers for defence.
2 open high capacity AEHWP material transports.
Like a large flatbed truck, without the truck part. Brought along to eventually transport the sphere"s contents, but was currently filled with supplies and tradable goods for the trip, the only vehicle in the convoy without any offensive or defensive weapons.
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"This is definitely overkill…"
Sitting on top of one of the armored transports Lux looked as her priced military equipment which she was so proud of being used to slaughter what amounted to large dogs.
"Now now~ Don"t be so grim child. This is definitely better than being forced to fight all these monsters."
"But we"re only shooting them with the 0999"s, those are handheld weapons by default. A squad of drones could do the same, I alone could do the same."
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With a frown Lux explained the groes overuse of resources to the lazy Lilly.
"Yeah you could and so could I, but this trip is going to take over half a year at the least… Could you keep killing monsters all this time while doing all the other stuff we need to do?"
"That…. Might be problematic now that I"m thinking about it."
"See? It"s good to take a break once in a while."
After defeating the direwolfes and extracting the monster cores from them the convoy continued to travel into the planes of the Eglax territory and defeated several more monsters before stopping for the night and forming a camp for the night. With Lux and Terra on meal duty food was prepared in relative silence and after eating Lux Terra and Lilly were finally joined by the last member of the mission.
"Oh she finally emerged~"
Having low energy from the rough trip (kidnapping) Iris looked at the campfire with little interest before turning to Terra as she started shooting of questions.
"Where are we?"
"Is this still the central Kingdom?"
"Are we home soon?"
"Just inside the Eglax territory, no and no."
Somewhat satisfied with the answer Iris turned to Lux that she looked at slightly afraid.
"Are you ever going to do that again?"
"We really hate that."
"Please never do that again."
"Could you promise that?"
"Yeah if you make me, I know you hate it, and no I can"t promise I will do it again."
Answering Iris rapidfire with a warm smile on her face, Lux send a chill up Iris" spine and she quickly retreated behind Lilly that was currently busy killing a bottle of something high prof.
"We understand now."
"The large women can"t be trusted."
"Therefore we will stick with the tiny elver."
"Nice to meet you once again Lilly."
"I hope we get along."
"Are you aware of how rude you are being right now?"
With an annoyed smile on her face Lilly clearly took offence to mention that she was a "tiny elver" she barely managed to not wrack Iris in the head.
"I"m sorry."
"But you are tiny."
"It was just an observation."
"You know!-"
As Iris kept poking at her insecurities Lilly"s anger boiled over.
"We will apologize with alcohol."
"A gift of alcohol."
"Something I left in the north."
"Special alcohol."
"The elder told me it was over 200 years old."
"We can give it to you."
"Over 2-200 years old!? Iris I love you!"
But was pacified by Iris" bribe and readily hugged Iris as she continued drinking her bozze.
"Those two sure do get along.. I wonder if we also could le"
"There"s no way that"s going to happen so let"s just do what we came here to do. We need to settle on the route for tomorrow."
"I see… Of the 3 routes to the hunters guild 1 has the best terrain but 3 is the shortest, while 2 has neither."
Quickly switching gears after trying to get on Terra"s good side, Lux quickly glanced at the proposed routes and gave her honest opinion.
"While that is true route 1 has about 3 suspected dragons nests close by and route 1 is straight through 6 troll villages."
"And?"
Looking at Lux that didn"t at all understand Terra breathed a deep sigh.
"Trolls have thick skin that is resistant to machine gun fire so the best thing would be to deal with them personally, taking way too much time. Dragons are not that much better of an option either, as they can only be killed with the high caliber railguns we might lose some equipment in the battle… I propose to take route 2, as it will only add about 3 hours of travel to reach our first objective."
"First objective? Where exactly are we going in this wasteland?"
"We have been traveling for about 3 weeks now, Dax told me the AEHWP"s need to have their reactors adjusted every month to maintain stable output, therefore we will be stopping in the only permanent city in the entire Eglax territory, the city of monster hunters."