“I’m not so sure, guys,” Lana said from her seat. “Check this out.”

She punched a few keys and the viewscreen changed to show the outside of the ship, where a small section of the hull was rippling. The picture zoomed in and they could see small pieces of black metal growing out from the hull, piling up on each other and fitting together like some sort of three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.

Nori frowned as she realized the part they were looking at was only a few centimeters wide. “This might take longer than we thought.”

Bulco grunted. “That figures. The upgrade called for eighteen tons of Balatium. Lana was right; it would take a lot longer than the cannon.”

“We’ve reached Lou’s Yard,” the Navigator said, working on her console. “I’m putting us half a kilometer above it. Lana, you’re up.”

The young Expert nodded and accessed her controls. The three-parts viewscreen flickered and changed, each part showing a different picture of the Warped fort below them. The middle showed a normal aerial view, which made it hard to pick out details due to the increasing darkness. The left one showed a sensor scan view, painting the fort’s interior in bright yellow with several large red spots. The right one showed a topographic map of the area, the fort being the darkest as it was situated at the top of a hill.

“Nice surveillance system, girl,” Bulco complimented her.

“Thanks. I only figured out how to do that after my Path evolved and the extra points in Control help a lot. As a matter of fact,” she scrunched her face and entered a few commands to her light console.

The main view screen zeroed in on a single dark spot in the middle of the fort. A single line appeared hovering over a shapeless mound.

Warped, Broodmother, level 12

“Now that’s one fat-ass monster,” Bulco said in contempt, though his voice betrayed his nervousness.

“You know,” Noah lifted his arms and the holographic cannon controls instantly covered them. “We don’t have to wait till tomorrow. I can get the fuckers from up here. It will be like shooting ugly-mutated-fish in a barrel.”

Nori shook her head. “No. You’ll never kill them all, they’ll just scatter. And it might just provoke them to launch another attack on the settlement. Even with the new bullets, the shelters can’t repel another large attack, not without suffering more casualties. Let’s not kick that anthill just yet. Staying here and keeping an eye on them is the best thing for now.”

Noah frowned. “You sure about that?”

“You heard the captain,” Lana said merrily

The Gunner looked at her in surprise. “She’s the ship’s captain?”

“Voted by the vast majority of two against one,” Bulco grunted. “But yes.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Noah said with a faint smile.