Escalating Across The Cosmos

[Chapter 36]

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□
(Log 037)

"A swamp... why does this place have to have a swamp." A marine grumbled while crossing through a large swamp in some parts if the ring where they are following the blue trail to somewhere.

None of them knew where it leads but it did helped prevent them from meeting the covenants who were to busy being burned alive by the sentinels to even get near them, which was both good and bad for most that were here right now.

"Be glad our exo suits were modified to handle conditions like these otherwise we would have clogged our own pants by now." A partner if his exclaims as they kept their treck to the large swamp.

"Yeah... but seriously why couldn't they turned the place into just something else? A savanna or jungle that would've been better." The marine remarked as he unhappily kept his own feet moving.

It was only half an hour since they have followed the trail which surprisingly lead them to some areas of the ring that none of their scanners have detected, mostly due to the strange interference.

Which took some time for their systems to map the area they where passing, sure it was an hindrance in knowing the things present in the area but it wasn't that long as they have expected it to be.

Usually taking a few minutes rather for their scanners to map the entire area rather than just a few seconds, which is not much of a huge downside as one would have originally expected it to be.

Though that still didn't made others feel happy of crossing through a swamp, much less one that was proving to be an annoying issue due to the mosses and the local fauna that are hindering them.

But some mostly complains of the awful smell that the swamp permeates, the mushy ground, or the insects that were trying to crawl into their suit which isn't appreciated by anyone, a few even tried using a flamethrower to burn them off.

But that quickly was halted by their Sgt, who didn't want to waste ammo or cause issues by trying to burn the area, which would lead to fire spreading since they don't use regular chemical ammos, but a specialized long term compounds.

Or in much simpler terms it burn much hotter and last longer than regular flamethrower, not to mention it would just ignore the moist and water around it and melting anything due to it's heat.

Thus they were force to simply walk on their feet, having not equip with with gravity belts thay would have save up a lot of effort in crossing the muddy swamps that they all found themselves, their Elite units however are unaffected.

Especially the Ershalans who had lived in a jungle filled with all sorts of things, ponds or rivers that are nearly similar to swamps or real one's they knew how to pass through such difficult terrains.

The Arkahns barely had any reaction to the swamps considering their fully metallic body is unaffected, their own height and strength made them have no difficulty in crossing the swampy areas.

The complaint of some of their group is ignored since they're professional soldiers who merely trying to entertain themselves during their boring treck as there were little to no enemies to fight.

"Keep quiet you two!" One of their more senior officers barked causing the marines to shut up. "You should be thankful it's just a swamp that we're in not a covenant death trap." He remarks.

"Hmm... we should be reaching the end of the swamp soon, glad our weapon were designed to handle through these condition." A Nyrion templar added as he remove the vine latching on his rifle.

"How long till we reach our destination, Cortana?" Chief asked, while observing the sentinels that were wandering to varied directions, their size and shapes similar to the ones they were following.