"Alright, we're going to split into pairs and search for the Fireflys," I told the three women. "Carrie, I want you to go with Sarah. Bunny, you're with me. We're going to be searching in the general direction that the variant came from; if either pair finds the Fireflys, you are not to engage. Mark the position, send word to the other team, and observe the Fireflys in case they move on. We don't want to find them and go in guns blazing just to lose more than half of them when they run away. The closer we can get the Screechers to them the better we'll be. Questions?"

"Do I have to go with Carrie?" Sarah asked.

"Yes," I told her. "You're a better shot than she or I and you're a better melee fighter than Bunny is. I want you two together because you'll be able to take care of yourselves in a fight if Bunny's with me then I know she's going to be fine."

Sighing, Sarah nodded and made final checks of her ammunition and weapons.

"Bunny, do you need me to carry any extra ammunition or consumables?" I asked my partner for this outing.

"I should be good," she assured me. "I can carry a bigger ammo bag than most others cause I use two blades instead of one and a shield. Leaves my back free for my rifle and extra ammo space."

"If you're sure," I said, beginning to check my own armor and throwing hatchets. I always liked to carry a healthy number of the explosive variety but if stealth was the name of the game, I could forgo them for mundane hatchets.

Finished with our checks, Bunny and I set out just before Sarah and Carrie and made our way toward the marked direction that the variant Scourge, the Prince, had come from.

"Cai, Rex, you two make sure to mark the route we take for the sisters," I told the Cybers. "If they follow our route, then it'll end up wasting time."

With a short tone, Cai marked his assent to the task.

"How long do you think it'll take to find the Fireflys?" Bunny asked as we ran to the the marked position.

"No telling," I told her, dodging rocks and roots. "Drones and Cybers can find them faster but they both have limitations. Drones make noise, which make stealth a bitch for them. Cybers have to use sensors on starships, drones, or our armor, but all those have different limits. Starships lack accuracy, they can only confirm that they're here with a sensor blast. Drones are loud and their sensors are fragile so they might false positive or not even pick anything up. Our armor lacks range and needs us on the ground to be useful."

"So we know that there are Fireflys, just not how many or exactly where without something like a shuttle or a coffin coming down to draw them out?" Bunny asked in confirmation.

"Precisely," I said. "Thankfully, Fireflys tend to be fragile when they're not on the move and when they are they're slow. That means that if they are present on a planet, the Queen tends to assign Guardians and other Scourge to protect them. We can use that to estimate the area or direction they're in and focus our search efforts there."

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"The Queens don't try to hide them with other methods?" she asked, vaulting over a fallen log.

"Nope," I said. "I wouldn't be surprised if this Queen did that though, her armor was pretty beat up and old."

"You mentioned something about that before," she said. "What did you mean?"

"Queens tend to keep their armor in pristine shape," I told her as I jumped a small stream of water. "They know that they're the best hope of their Horde growing and surviving, so they constantly remove the broken or brittle shell and regrow a pristine one in its place so that they're constantly protected the best they can be. This one had an old, beat-up shell and she didn't move like it was uncomfortable."

"Do they act like it's uncomfortable if they have a damaged shell?" Bunny asked.

"They tend to," I confirmed. "Makes me wonder if this Queen is actually in charge."

"The Phoenix didn't find the signs of another Queen when it scanned the planet," she said as we coasted to a stop in the clearing we'd fought the Queen in. "They can't hide from a starship's sensors without outside help and there's nothing like that here."

"That's true," I agreed, "but I try not to underestimate the Scourge. For as dumb and simple as they can be, they're still cunning and constantly learning. Just when you think you know all about them, they pull something new out for you. We need to be quiet from here. I'll lead, you follow. Keep your rifle handy and don't shoot me."

With that, I moved through the woody underbrush that was so like Earth's forests and began to make my way the direction that the Prince was projected to have come from. Carefully, I moved brush and branches aside, attempting to make as little noise as possible and searching for any sign of the Prince's passage, or even better, the Firefly's.

Bunny creeped behind me, her mag-rifle at the ready and the soft hum of the magnetic housing the only noise she made. I knew as we went further, so long as it was on, the hum would fade until it reached a magnetic charge that could be suspended by the housing until it was fired. That would make any shot she made with it more powerful, but it ran the risk of burning the housing out. She'd have to careful and monitor it so it wasn't broken.

The deeper we moved into the forested area, the more signs of Scourge I saw. Here and there a track or broken branch. Claw marks on trees where they sharpened their taloned claws. Eventually, we came across the most promising sign of the Firefly's movements since we'd started.

"Is this good, sir?" Bunny asked in a whisper as we looked around at the broken branches and tree limbs, over ten feet in the air.

"It's not bad," I told her. "If we're really lucky, then this is from the Fireflys going through. If not, then I don't the faintest idea what could have caused this."

"Another new Scourge?" she asked.

"I hope not," I said. "I'm getting tired of having to learn more about something I thought we knew inside and out. Physically, that is."

I'll keep an eye out," she promised, looking around the area for any Scourge that might be attempting to sneak up on us as I took the lead once more and we began to move again.

"Rickshaw," Carrie's voice came over the comm line. "We've found the Fireflys. Sending location to you now."

"Are you sure you found them?" I asked her as I peeked around a tree and saw the large, bulbous, shelled bodies of Fireflys appear in front of me. They appeared to be resting.

"Of course I'm sure," Carrie said unhappily. "Do you think I don't know what a bunch of damn Fireflys look like?"

"I'm sure you do," I assured her. "It's just that I've found a bunch myself."

"Where are you?" she asked me as Cai flashed a rendition of the mapped area we'd all travelled in and marked the positions of all four of us for me.

"Looks like Bunny and I are about three miles east southeast from you two," I said. "Cai should be sending you the location we're in."

"Got it," she confirmed. "What's the plan now?"

"I was thinking of having Bunny watch my Fireflys while I went back for a couple of Screechers," I told her. "Then I'd set at least one near enough to them to cook them and we'd run like hell. Sound good to you?"

"Great," she said. "See you back at camp for the Screechers."