Orion lowered himself into the hollow of a fallen root, jacket blending with leaf and bark.
The bio-armour followed his movement, the seams tightening around muscle and tendon.
His energy cloaking was active so they definitely can't find him through simple energy detection.
His HUD painted the world with soft tracery only he could see: heat signatures, motion vectors, the ghostly arcs of wingbeats.
Five fast blips.
According to his database, Aerial scouts Chrysalith were small and sharp while also been the lowest caste in the Chrysalith Swarm.
They were efficient flying things, all hooked limbs and needle beaks, built to haunt open spaces and drop into a kill zone while been disposable.
He did not move.
They came through the trees in a single, low sweep... five silhouettes ghosting between trunks.
Two kept higher, circling to scout.
Three threaded lower, scouting the ground.
Their chitin made a dry hiss like paper being torn.
The nearest dipped to scent the undergrowth, talons raking the air.
Orion's hand found the edge of the fallen root and, without breaking cover, pulled out a blade from his pocket.
The closest scout perched on a low branch, wings folding. It cocked its head, all motion meant for prey, not expecting another predator.
Orion's breath slowed and in one smooth movement, a blade from nowhere.
The dagger slid between neck membrane and carapace.
He did not need to sever the spine.
A single, precise cut across the throat and the scout slumped, wings folding like dropped paper.
Its body went slack, thermal signature disappeared as well.
A rustle to his left, two figures diving at altitude.
He did not admire them this time.
He rose on a knee and shouldered the AK with practised speed.
The rifle stuttered once from a short burst... three rounds, aimed at the wing joints where chitin met tendon.
The muzzle flash was briefly, popping the air.
The first of the diving scouts ballooned and went out of its arc, tumbling end over end into the trunks.
The second snagged feathered on a sapling, talons scrabbling as it tried to right itself.
Orion shifted his aim by the smallest fraction.
Two more rounds to the thorax and both lay still, chitin cracked like old pottery.
Two and three.
He let the rifle fall to a strap and drew the Desert Eagle with a single motion, heavy and precise.
The fourth scout dropped from a low glide and hit the underbrush faster than expected, charging like a wounded animal.
It bit at the air, beak snapping for flesh.
Orion met it with the weight of his fist and the stopping power of a bullet next.
The creature keened and went still, the impact shattering membranous wing joints and leaving a smear of black bile on the leaves.
Four.
Only one remained, circling wide and clever, watching the other bodies.
It was cautious.
It tried to stay out of range, to use the trees as a shield.
Orion chuckled as his HUD immediately got to work scanning.
He moved fast like a flicker... less than a second between choice and action.
The Glock came out and he was immediately pointing.
His HUD synced with the gun instantly as he slipped through the forest, boots silent on wet bark, closing the distance in three steps.
The scout saw him too late, opened its wings to flee.
Orion fired twice, low and precise, not into the wings but into a joint where the wing flex met the body, the hinge that kept the membrane taut.
The chitin split, the wing tore, and the scout folded like a dropped banner.
It tried to right itself, talons scrabbling at the trunk.
Orion was already over it, one knee on its back, his hand cold on the crown of its head.
Black cells poured out if his pour transforming into a dagger which he immediately slid under its carapace and eased upward, feeling the small resistance give way.
A motion, a clean end.
His HUD ticked through the tally in the corner, the numbers as neat as ledger entries.
{Hostiles: neutralised.}
{Reactor draw: 0.7%}
{Stamina: 68%}
He allowed himself a slow exhale and a crooked grin that he could not hide.
'That was so clean.' Orion thought. 'And it was very cool as well.'
He couldn't help but still be surprised and impressed by what he could do.
Leaves drifted down over the still bodies.
The dagger retracted back into his body.
He picked his pistols and checked the ammo in his pistols... two rounds here, three there...
He grabbed his bag and didn't border lingering.
Five kills or not, this place was obviously not safe not to mention the fact that those where the lowest caste of the swarm and there was he chance he could be overwhelmed.
He had 1.3 kilometres to cover and he planned to do it in less than two hours.
The longer he waited here the lower the chance of him getting off this god-forsaken planet and to be real between the Chrysalith Swarm and the weird synthetic creatures there was less than 1% chance of him surviving not to mention the other things that he didn't know about that would be trying to kill him.
***
*One Hour Later*
Orion was closing in on his destination... the landing zone.
The path had been quiet so far, only a few stray Chrysalith like the first five he'd encountered.
They'd gone down easily enough, a couple of clean shots to the head or thorax and they were done.
Then the silence in the forest broke.
"Aaaaaahhhhh."
"Fuck!!!!!!!!"
"Shoot!... Shoot!!... Shoot!!!... You fucking dumbass Shoot."
Screams.
Although he could barely make out the words... He knew what it meant... Human.
Short, panicked bursts of gunfire followed... controlled at first, then wild and desperate.
It was coming from ahead, directly on his route to the landing zone.
Orion froze for a heartbeat, listening.
Whatever was happening, it wasn't far.
He slipped his pack off and tucked it behind a thick tree root, half-covered by leaves.
No point carrying the extra weight if it could impede his movement.
The bio-armour flexed slightly as he straightened up, sensing the shift in tension.
He checked his ammo by touch... rifle, sidearm, spare mags all where they should be.
One in the chamber, safeties off.
He rolled his shoulders once, just enough to loosen them, then started forward, slower now, crouched low and silent.