[GZG] [GZG Fiction] The Watcher 3 of 4 - The Hunt

Keeping low and away from the light, she deactivated her Rns'krans, to
conserve it in case she needed it later. To help her stay hidden she jostled a
depression in the sand. From her new position she concentrated on the Huu'Mon
the toovo had marked out as being on its team. She studied in each turn. First
her main target, her toovo. No taller than her, but much thinner this Huu'Mon
wore a small dark covering around its smooth head. The lack of ridges still as
odd looking as the first time she saw a Huu'Mon. It also wore some kind of
mask over its mandibles, most likely to aid in respiration, as it clearly
lacked any respiratory tendrils to help in the thin atmosphere. She had
initially thought that the orifice and flaps on the side of its head may have
had this role, they clearly had a sensory role and she had pegged them as the
location of chemosensory pits lining a respiratory canal. This was during the
mission on Zh'Kra'Vna'Tin'Tau, where they had first encountered
bare-headed Huu'Mon. She changed her mind on the mission to extract
captured personnel on Zh'Kra'Vak'Kaa. During that operation she had
ascertained early on that the pits were auditory sensors. This had been
confirmed from a subsequent report on the make-up of the Huu'Mon
tu'kro'len they had brought back with them.

Si'Buk then switched her attention to the other Huu'Mon around her toovo. The
first was shorter, broader than both the toovo and Si'Buk. The small patch of
krans visible between its armour and other coverings showing it to be a member
of the palest Do'. The toovo was of the darkest hue, suggesting this Kon was
mixed. Si'Buk tensed, should she discard her toovo as another kaa'zes?
Watching them pull their equipment together Si'Buk judged them as
Huu'Mon'Kra'Bna making their integration of hue acceptable. She could feel the
cool tingle of Ro'Kah leaking into her system, her sisu prickling. Kra'Bna on
Kra'Bna this would be a good hunt, she had chosen her toovo well.

The last of the patrol members was again about her height. Also clothed in
dark armour, this Huu'Mon had pale krans with fine spots. Si'Buk had noted
that Huu'Mon with this hue often gained more spots with increased
exposure to direct primary star-light. Some Kra'Vak developed darker
stripers under extreme exposure to high levels of ruozat, but this was fairly
uncommon.

When the patrol set off she gave them some distance and then dropped in behind
them. They engaged their own Ro'ns'krans. Not as effective as her Rns'krans,
the shifting armour made it hard but not impossible to pick out the Huu'Mon.
Tasting the wind she could locate their general location and then looking
carefully she could pick them out by the hazy lag in the lower peak their
suits left, if the Huu'Mon moved quickly. More effective at hiding them from
Kra'Vak than she suspected the Doo's armour was at hiding the Kra'Vak from the
Huu'Mon, but not as good as the Rns'krans.

She was impressed by their discipline. They were moving quickly in loose
order. They maintained silence, passing messages by signaling with susi rather
than scent or sound. Si'Buk was fairly certain that Huu'Mon did not typically
use scent, but they were usually as raucous as Das'ban. She had noticed that
most humans used sound carriers in their head covers, but these Huu'Mon did
not. She suspected they knew the whisper of sound caused by speaking to the
sound carrier gave their position away to the top Kra'Bna operatives. As they
pushed on, a sho then another sho peeled off, leaving only the toovo and its
keo'Kon.

Si'Buk moved round to their flank, putting herself between them and the main
body of the Huu'Mon, so that it would be harder to notice her tracks in the
sand. They were stopping, dropping low to scan around before moving on. She
began watching them less as Vo and more as siau, judging if they would be of
sufficient grade to enter a Kra'Bna unit.

They had covered another rivituonvao-tu when she realised they must have
detected her, they had slowly swung her way, pinching her between them and the
bulk of the Huu'Mon. Si'Buk stopped, tasting the air and preparing for a
fight. With little other choice she reactivated her Rns'krans. The Huu'Mon
froze, the toovo scanning the area, turning its head slowly. She could see the
bodies of the Huu'Mon rising, flushing like she had seen them do when
stressed. She had her answer for the Kra'Bna'Kon'Ak, the Huu'Mon could detect
Kra'Vak unless they used the Rns'krans. In previous vaosh that would have been
sufficient and she would have slipped away. It was not enough this time, she
wanted to test these Huu'Mon'Kra'Bna.

Moving across the front of the Huu'Mon patrol she moved out into the sand away
from the bulk of the Huu'Mon. She had hoped they would detect her tracks and
follow her out, but they did not seem to have picked them up. Taking a risk
she cancelled her Rns'krans. Kneeling just behind a small dune she left
herself partially exposed, waiting to see if they had detected her again and
begun following, or had fallen back to the Huu'Mon'Kon and called in greater
support.

Straining Si'Buk tried to pick the Huu'Mon out from the background. They were
good, she couldn't see them. She knew they were there; she could taste them on
the wind. The toovo was almost directly ahead, each of the others to its
flanks. Turning her head slowly she was using the gradient in their scent to
refine her estimates of their position when she was hit high in the torso. The
impact of the shot knocking her down the back of the dune, the rest of the
fire tearing up the sand where she had been kneeling. Rolling to her feet she
crouched down behind cover checking where she had been hit.

Probing the suit where the shot had gone in. It was damaged. The round had not
penetrated, though the area was tender. She would have to remember to lead
with the other shoulder or they may detect the distortion in the suit's field.

Si'Buk reactivated the Rns'krans. Staying low against the sand, she began
looping off down the line of the dunes, keeping below the crest and her
damaged side angled so it pointed off into the dark steppe. She
kept on for shvishonrio-tu, putting distance between her and the Huu'Mon
patrol. She could hear them calling to each other now, short barks, not loud,
but loud enough that they carried to her on the thin Martian air.

Coming around the end of the dunes she turned back trying to come in behind
the Huu'Mon. Then she picked up another noise. The whine of one of the Huu'Mon
automated To'Vo and the thwump of one of their air tanks. The Huu'Mon had a
much wider ranger of propulsion types than the modern Kra'Vak'Kon, who relied
mainly on grav. Si'Buk found it amusingly quaint. Riv'Doosh ago, before the
Va'Va'Va'Va'Do'An had been brought in from the birthing lands, Kra'Vak too had
used such a wide variety of technologies. This had been before they had
mastered grav technology, now they used little else. They were developing more
efficient means of
travel, trying to master Za'Va'Sku micro-jump technology, but for now
grav was their dependable mainstay.

She dropped to the sand and buried her damaged shoulder amongst the grit,
pebbles and smallest tussocks. Lying very still she waited for the To'Vo to
pass over. It was meticulous as only the purely mechanical can be. Si'Buk
tasted the air. The dirt below her was the strongest signature, but she could
detect the uninteresting tang of the To'Vo, which was hovering overhead, but
she could still make out the scents of the Huu'Mon back along the dunes. They
had not followed her. If she were right they had stopped where she had last
seen them. That could only mean one thing. She tensed, sealing her eyes and
tendrils.

She felt the thud through the dirt before the percussion wave rolled over her.
The To'Vo must have detected some of her trail along the dune, but not all of
it. The Huu'Mon air tank had blasted where they thought she had gone to ground
and the area around that. As was the way of elite Kra'Bna, she had erred on
the side of caution, moving out into the grit and pebble field rather than
staying in the sands.

Using support from other De'Tu'Kon rather than slipping into Ro'Kah and
charging in. Impressive, these Huu'Mon were worthy toovo. The last doonvaosh
had shown the Huu'Mon, at least some Huu'Mon, could use De'Tu'Kon well, fight
in the open and cities, in the void as well as
on-world. Their void ships were often not as advanced as the Zhs'Kek of
the Kra'Vaka'Kia'Kon, but they still challenged them. This was truer
on-world, where Huu'Mon numbers could make up for much of whatever gap
in technology existed.

The air tank stayed in the area for many riosh, circling, searching with the
Huu'Mon and To'Vo. She lay there as they crossed overhead or walked within tu
of her, ignoring the incessant vibration in her collar telling her the suit
could fail. She risked wriggling her susi and desusi, so they would be ready
should she need to spring up and getting moving quickly.