Since the last battle, when they’d marked the location of this stone circle, Clan:LESS had used the tracking device planted on Feng to fill in some crucial missing information. Most importantly, they knew when Feng and Bugz logged in and when they left their bots in charge. On a few occasions, when Feng left his ’Versona on bot mode around Bugz, they’d also watched her emerge from the lake with equipment and animals. They knew she made stuff down here. Not wanting to provoke another battle, Alpha sent the Behemoth on a solo mission deep behind enemy lines. But now, a giant serpentine panther lay in the way of him completing his task.

“I’ve got eyes on the nest,” the Behemoth voice-commed back to Clan:LESS HQ. “But that giant water-cat is sitting guard on top of it. I need some kind of distraction. Otherwise, I’m bringing back nothing.”

The voice-com went silent. As he waited for a reply, the Behemoth increased the magnification in his heads-up display by a factor of one hundred and studied the armor plating on Mishi-pizhiw’s back. The cat shifted suddenly, apparently sensing the attention. He rolled over to face the Behemoth. His red eyes blinked twice quickly before he snuggled back to sleep.

The voice-com crackled as it returned to life, Alpha’s voice unmistakable. “Okay, we’ve got a helicopter sortie incoming in T-minus one minute. They’re going to lay down fire on some of the animals topside. We’re hoping to provoke a response from the Thunderbird, lead the birds to fire over the water, and then, based on what we know of its behavior, we’re hoping if some of the lightning hits the lake the big cat will rush to the surface to fight the bird. Capiche?”

The Behemoth sighed at Alpha’s overly militaristic lingo. At times like this, the Behemoth sensed that maybe Alpha was just a wannabe. He stifled this feeling. “Yeah…capiche.”

“Standing by?”

The Behemoth cringed. “Standing by.”

Like clockwork, the telltale reverberations of gunfire shook the lake bed. A few seconds later, the low rumble of thunder overtook the gunfire. At this, Mishi-pizhiw suddenly snapped to and craned his neck toward the surface. A few more volleys of thunder and gunfire and Mishi-pizhiw darted toward the shallow waters.

“Okay, that worked. Keep ’em busy as long as you can,” the Behemoth radioed home.

“We’ll try, but they’re barely hanging on already,” Alpha replied. “10-4.”

The Behemoth ignored this last message. He kicked his feet as fast as he could, swimming toward the nest. Once he’d arrived next to it, he tore the backpack quickly from his shoulders and unloaded its contents.

“How the heck does this thing work?” the Behemoth asked, forgetting his voice-com was on.

“I don’t know, stand inside it and visualize something cool,” Alpha suggested.