The following day another call came for Paula while she was training in the desert field. She was briefed on the dropship. Clara showed strangely coloured pages on her screen “we've noticed something strange heading our way. it's not within range of our drone zones. but it warrants investigation. a single heat signature entered the forest and is heading straight for our location. soon after additional signatures entered the forest. this is either a very brave hunting party or someone's being chased.”

Sniper appeared next to clara. Paula had noticed that when they were in the mechs they would often appear as if they were living in the screens like clara. 

“For now we just investigate with watchtower. That'll be a fitting mission.” Sniper explained taking charge rather than Natlee. 

Paula turned to Natlee “so i'm confused. are you in charge or are mechpilots in charge?”

“Well it depends. Pilots like Bertha and Jack can't be bothered so leave command to us and there's a few scenarios where I can question their commands. it's a good idea to ask Clara for examples when you can take action on your own.” She suggested. 

Erix held up a tablet “I'm betting 20 creds this is an advance scouting party.”

“You're on . I'm saying it's a runaway slave. considering what we know.” Sanie piped up followed by Jaro

“I'd say it's a drunk getting chased by someone he pissed off. I'm not betting though. it's not in my budget.”

They were dropped off at the edge of the zone designated just within drones range. Paula saw watchtower kneel down and extend a small cabin on top of it. It now looked like a literal watchtower had grown out of the mech. Sniper used a latch on top of his mech where he could reach a ladder. Once up top he could survey the area using his helmet. Paula could follow what he saw on Erix's tablet.

“What direction was it?”

“north. slightly to the west.”

Sniper observed the direction. using his helmet to take a closer look. He described what looked like a woman with bird legs and green feathered wings on her back. 

“it's a harpy!” Paula shouted. 

-“no need to shout. I can hear you through the tablet.”-

“Sorry Sniper.”

-“it's ok. at least they didn't hear.”- Sniper looked further and saw a couple of burly men. -“no matter how I look at this. it doesn't look very proper. the harpy isn't wearing a collar tough.”-

“So none of us had it right?” Sanie asked 

“It might still be a slave.” Natlee interjected “let's go find out.”

Everyone agreed and gave Natlee the all-clear to have the team go check it out while Sniper stayed in the tower. 

Paula looked back “he's not using the mech to fight?”

“Nah. Its main weapon is a railgun to snipe armored targets. if he fired that thing here, the forest would have a new path.” Erix explained. Then the harpy ran into him. 

“That was faster than I expected,” Natlee smirked. 

“yeah very funny” Erix snarked as Sanie and paula pulled the harpy off him. 

Getting a closer look at the harpy woman paula could see why she didn't fly. She was clearly missing several feathers and was easy to hold down by just pushing her shoulder. it seems she was exhausted and starving. 

-“incoming!”- Sniper warned over the comms. 

The group looked over at the bushes where the harpy came from. with Natlee's crew there there was no point in trying to fool them. so they just aimed their weapons at the bushes. The men came through the bushes with little trouble 

“Oh thank you for catching her.”

His partner took a breath “yeah. the lord would've killed us for losing one of the birds.”

“Seriously, why do we get the blame? it was his son that broke the gem.”

“Because we'd take part in the fun.” his partner whispered. 

They finally realized how strangely dressed 3 of the five people were, not only that they were pointing at them with decorated metal scrap. “Hey, is that some new fashion?”

“It's my ass-kicking outfit bitch!” Jaro responded.

The slavers looked at him oddly “okay... anyway thank you for getting our slave.”

“Called it! you owe me 20 creds.” Sanie cheered.

“Dammit” Erix cursed  “tell me this is how you guys scout. Maybe I can recover from this.”

The men were confused and getting frustrated. “Look, just hand over the bird,” one said. 

Natlee looked at the harpy shivering in fear of the humans around her. Natlee turned back “I don't think we'll do that.

The men stepped forward, one of them grasping his fist tightly. “This isn't a request. Return our lord's property now!”

They pulled their swords. One of them used some sort of wind spell causing Natlee, Erix and Jaro to fall over. Sanie and Paula, still holding onto the harpy, just got knocked off balance. Paula lost grip of her pistol. She decided to pull her sword blocking a swing from the first man knocking her back. his partner was trying to slash Jaro who blocked his strikes with his gun. 

Paula heard Sniper -“can you push him back? too risky to take a shot with you so close.”-

Paula noticed Sanie had pulled the harpy back a bit but could not shoot with her near the man. “take it!” she shouted.

The slaver backed off a bit, smiling and thinking she meant they could take the harpy. one shot ringing through the air later and the contents of his head were scattered across a nearby bush. his friend still crashing his sword with erix's gun took notice. He pushed Erix back and ran away. 

“Stop him!” Natlee fired several times only hitting his shoulder.

The slaver got close to the edge of the forest when paula shouted “slime!”

He thought it was an insult until it was too late for him to notice a slime falling from a tree on top of him. immediately the slime's corrosive started eating away at his skin, his screams muffled by the slime. Natlee,Paula and Jaro came close. Paula slashed the slime's core, killing it. The slime's body evaporated  revealing the slaver. 

“ugh gross. Is he still alive?” Jaro asked. 

“If he is, he probably won't last long. when you're hit by a slime screaming is the worst thing you can do.” Paula explained. 

Hearing that Natlee just walked up and shot the man in the head “no need to let him suffer.”

“Why not? He definitely made that harpy suffer.”

"we'll we're not them for one.”

They returned to the harpy. where Sniper had joined them in his mech. The harpy was too tired to walk let alone run so they had to carry her to an open area to board a dropship.

The harpy was called angela and had been captured months ago near the dwarven kingdom. She was part of a group of lancers. They flew down from their village in the mountains to hunt for food. Apparently the slavers of st-baalz found out when they came down to hunt, making that time a harpy hunting season for them. 

The citadel had another problem. First, a common problem the citadel had to deal with since landing: can we get this person healthy enough for their first scan? with local humans this wasn't a big problem since in essence they were exactly the same. But with beastmen will the medical equipment and medicine work? The bearman were approached cautiously. Since, aside from some fur and strange ears, they had the shape of a big human. Angela however had wings and very different legs. The dna scanners had never been programmed for wings before and would need to have a new type built and programmed. 

On the other side was the slime attack. During debriefing some of the board members with weak stomachs had to drop out of the meeting or had Clara censor the gore for them. 

“So they can climb trees and drop on top of their victims?” one of the board members asked Dave

“correct. in the open fields these creatures are easy practice for an adventurer. In the forest they become dangerous traps. anywhere high up is dangerous because they can make a small jump. generally if you see a slime in a higher position than you, keep your distance.”

Dave had learned about the creatures from his own adventuring days before he settled down. He never expected to teach people centuries older than him the things kids were sometimes taught. 

He could not even understand the joke when Jack said something about them having the high ground. for the following days things turned into a routine. but more problems were looming on the horizon.