A Planet, a Dwarf, and Alcohol Dependence

Part 3: Salt Pits

The drop pod rocked and shook violently as it bored through the rock and red salt like an angry glyphid through flesh. A cacophony of hoots and hollers sounded from within the metal carapace of the drop pod. The ship slammed into the bedrock and the thruster reversed, priming to extract itself after the dwarves had left. The doors opened, and all of the dwarves were off the ramp and pinging minerals before the doors even fully opened. Gabrielle zipped up to a vein of Nitra as Eitri fired off several platforms to give her a good platform to stand on while Brokkr looked around to help defend the team while Ragnar searched his Terrain Scanner, looking for the dreadnought cocoons. He spotted one from the side and angled himself towards it, before looking off to the distance. It was a pretty straight path, It seemed; He couldn't see the egg, but he wouldn't have to use too much drill fuel to get there. Ragnar grunted and beckoned for everyone to follow, which they all did. Gabrielle hung back to deposit the Nfitra in the M.U.L.E, affectionately nicknamed Molly, before grappling back up to the pack and running with them. Ragnar had his Subata out to break the cocoon the second he got a sightline. As they were running, he asked everyone in an excited shout, "Let's have some fun with this, guys. You all ready to fight the second we find it, or do you want to set up an arena to bully it?"

Eitri shouted, "You think I want to spend ten minutes building a turret ring? Hell no, we go in guns blazing and pray to Karl it isn't a Hiveguard!"

Ragnar laughed heartily, along with everyone else, saying, "Alright, then! Eitri and I will set up a minefield, Gabrielle and Brokkr, you are on standby!"

Everyone affirmed Ragnar's plan with a powerful Rock and Stone as they practically ran into the cocoon. Ragnar dropped his stache of C4 while Eitri threw down several Proximity mines and Gabrielle ran around trying to find Nitra nearby. After a minute of dancing around each other and burrowing a small theater high into the opposite wall to watch, Ragnar knelt down and asked everyone, "Y'all ready for this spectacle?"

Everyone nodded. They did this for fun on eliminations whenever they got bored, usually while drunk. Eitri custom-made a small rig to carry 10 separate proximity mines specifically to take out Dreadnoughts in a few seconds, but they needed to be machine-loaded to fit, so once he had thrown them all, he couldn't restock more than 3 before even Ragnar couldn't force another one down the pressure chamber.

Ragnar pulled out his overclocked Subata with a screamin' hot powder load and pulled the trigger once. The recoil would have thrown any other dwarf right on their ass, but Ragnar compensated for it as if it was a dart gun. The cocoon burst open and an angry Dreadnought popped out, walking right into their trap. Usually, Dreadnoughts were able to temporarily turn themselves impervious to damage by covering their weak spots with their incredibly well-armored legs. They did this whenever they took too many shots, leading to your average dreadnought needing a minimum of three of these cycles to complete, which Ragnar has seen take 15 to 20 minutes with higher hazard ratings. This way, they could be done in a handful of seconds, practically no matter the hazard, and it's always hilarious to blow a bug the size of a BET-C, and the same weight too, a hundred feet into the air. Bonus points if it smacks the ceiling and crashes back down, even more if it gets stuck on one of the silicate spikes.

They were not so lucky.

The first thing this damn glyphid did was spit a fireball at them, then ran over the explosives before the mines could trigger, doing hardly any damage to the shell of the critter. Ragnar did press the detonator, so while the beast did get a faceful o' fire and some shrapnel, with was more or less unharmed.

The team dove through the air, Gabrielle grappling to safety while the rest of the crew landed on some pre-placed plastcrete that Eitri was cautious enough to make. Now that they were on the ground, equal to the dreadnought, they were in a little bit of a rough spot. They would have to maneuver. Gabrielle started to kite the dreadnought away from the rest of the team while Ragnar whipped out his drills and made a more maneuverable arena, taking out some of the odd outcroppings so they wouldn't have to do parkour and so the Dreadnought wouldn't get the height advantage that easily. Gabrielle was running circles around the dreadnought, hitting random potshots with her M1000 just to make the goliath angry, which she cackled maniacally at its loathing roars. Eventually, the Dreadnought wised up and predicted where she would grapple next. The bug was right and slapped Gabrielle right out of the air as she rolled to Ragnar's feet. Always one to turn the worst situation into a time to flirt, she looked up to a startled Ragnar and said, "Hey, honey. Enjoying the view?"