AN: It's summer and I was out for several days :) , now I'm back, finally back to work on my 3 little fictions. Here is chapter 5 of the story of our transmigrants. Enjoy... Maybe...

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The Ranger was advancing at a constant pace, lifting a cloud of snow in its wake, and opening the path for the mobile base. Because the snow was hidding the ground, the ranger had most of its sensor directed toward the ground in front of the vehicule. As a cyborg, Proteo could be connected to certain electronic devices, and right now, he used the custom port made by Tony for his exclusive use, and he could literally sense with the sensor of the Ranger. That's why he quickly noticed the irregularity in the ground 60 meters in front of them and suddenly turned to the side.

A second later, the snow erupted on the path he just avoided and something lunged at the armored car. It hit the vehicule at the back on the right side, lifting it and making the car drive on 2 wheels, almost knocking it over. Since Tony was at a safe distance behind, he got the time to stop. What they saw was a dark grey worm-like creature, but its body had a diameter of about 4m, and it was nearly 30 meters long. Its mouth opened in 5 sections, and 5 tentacles shot out toward the still advancing Ranger. The giant worm tried to warp them around the car, but without succes.

Tony taped a few commands on the tactical screen of the on-board computer, and several sensors on the roof of the mobile base focused on the giant animal. Then he pressed the communication command.

“How are you doing?”

“No damage and no injuries boss, it barely scratched us... It looks like we're out of its range.”

“Keep taunting it, we will see how good our weapons are against it. Robynn, you start with the hand gun, then the submachine gun, then the assault rifle. Aim for the body, not the head.”

“Understood!” the 2 of them answered.

“Uranus, keep an eye on the surroundings, I'm going out.”

“Yes master! … Please be carefull.”

Since they were travelling in unknown territory, they had their weapons ready near them. Robynn opened the hatch on the roof and got into position with her handgun in one hand and the submachine gun in the other. The hand gun was an advanced version of the desert eagle, called chaos eagle, more powerful than his predecessor to deal with th new chaotic world, but with a performant recoil-absorption system. The submachine gun was custom-made by Tony with the MP5 as a base, and the assault rifle was made with a sacrifice in firing rate for power and precision

Proteo was driving in a circle around the worm, purposelly going into the range of its mouth tentacles, knowing they couldn't hold down the Ranger. The worm was following them with its head without problem. If not for the fact that it seemed stuck in place it would have quickly caugh up on the car. Robynn first emptied the cartridge of her magnum, then her submachine gun. There were little effects visible.

While she was doing that, Tony took out the sniper rifle hidden behind the driver seat of the mobile base. He got out of the vehicule and climbed on the roof using the retractable ladder on the side. The sniper rifle was custom-made, inspired from an old game named Halo. If coupled with an external source of energy it could increase the power of the shot by 150%. And he could do that. He finished preparing himself just as Robynn emptied her assault rifle.

Tony held his breath, carefully aimed, and fired. The worm reacted to the shot as a wound was clearly visible on its body, but it was still a flesh wound for it. Then Tony connected the sniper rifle to the energy circuits of the mobile base. Some access points were placed on a few places on the vehicules for the use of powered weapons, drones or other equipments. Then he fired again.

This time the bullet completely went through the body of the worm, and I trashed around in pain. He fired one more time, aiming for the head. The worm froze in place, shuddered and then fell limply. He fired 2 more times, but there were no reactions. Seeing the result, he got back in the vehicule with the gun.

“Alright, let's see what we can learn from this dead body. Robynn and Uranus, keep an eye on the surrounding. Proteo, there is some dirty work for us.”

“You say that, but in fact you're happy to have something new to dissect, right?”

He put on some protective gear and a mask, took of a chainsaw from the storage room, and started to cut of the head of the beast. Even though there were no reactions from the head, the body seemed still alive, as when he cut past the skin it spewed large quantities of purple and red body fluids like a broken pipe spewing water. The fluids were still circulating in the body, meaning some vital organs were still functioning.

After cutting of the head, he gave it Proteo. Proteo went to the back of the mobile base, where he set up a field infirmary so he could dissect the head more carefully. Tony cut the rest of the body in sections, sometimes coming across an organ that spewed more body fluids at him, until he got at the point where it connected with the ground. He left the chainsaw to the side and went to take a shovel. It was bigger than an ordinary one, and had sharp edges.

An electric engine made the edge vibrate, allowing the shovel to cut deeper into the ground, and with more ease. Thus Tony dug the rest of the body out within a few hours. The reason the worm stayed in place was because at the bottom there was a big sack linked to its body, and this sack contained dozens of eggs. A few were taken for further research.

They stayed at that place for 3 days, 3 days during which Proteo studied the differents tissus and organs of the worm, the cells, the molecular composition, the general physiology of the monster, the micro organisms present within, and determining if it was edible or not. Tony studied the physic properties of the differents pieces and tissus of the worm, their resistance to heat, cold, their resistance to different types of physical agression. They sent drones to the nearby woods to get plants samples as well.

It was all to know how similar or differents the beings from this world would be compared to those of earth, which kind of action would bring the most harm to the differents parts of their bodies. They would know what to do the next time they encountered similar beings. If they encountered something differents, they would do the same tests and analysis.

At the end of those 2 days or research, considering the planet itself have many similitudes with the Earth, Tony and Proteo came to the conclusion that most of the life forms of this world would be similar to those found on earth. There was no denying that they would find something exotic, but for the most parts the living beings and the ways to deal with them would be similar.

With that, they continued their trip toward the south. They encountered several worms on the plains during their trips. A few of them were not stuck in place. They could move above ground at nearly 80km/h, however extracting themselves from the ground always gave Tony and his servants the time to get away. Even with all the snow around, they could still reach a speed of around 110km/h depending on the terrain. The ground was mostly flat so it wasn't a problem.

They did wonder how the worms got their food. The answer was given by en encounter with a herd of wolly birds that looked like ostriches. Those things probably got their food from the few woods in the surroundings. But the worms weren't their only predators in these frozen lands. There was also a kind of wolf that traveled in groups of 4 to 7, probbly following the constantly moving preys. Of course they were much bigger and tougher than the regular earth wolf, but also smarter. They always kept their distances, so Proteo had to snipe 1 of them so he could study it.

That was how the trip went until they could see a mountain range on the horizon. They already new it would be there from the scouting with the stealth drone. That mountain range was extending a long way both toward the east and the west. They would have to rely on the stealth drone to find a path through it. It was a good thing that the mountains weren't too high. It would be possible for both the Ranger and the mobile base to move through it. It was shortly after noon when Tony decided to talk to Uranus, who had a weird expression on her face for almost an hour.

“What is it?”

“Ah, I think there is something!”

“Where?”

“On the waves scanner!”

Tony hastly pressed the comm button.

“Robynn, call back the drone, we may have detected traces of communications. I want you on it!”

“Now, that is something interesting for me. I was bored while you had your fun with the worm.”

Once the stealth drone got put away, she resumed the original job Tony had given her when they first got into this world. A few hours later, as they were almost at the foot of the mountain range, Robynn called Tony.

“There really is something Tony, but it looks like it's jammed. The closer we get to the mountain range, the more apparent it is, both the communication and the jamming, though it's still on the weak side. I suspect there is something in the mountains that disrupt communications. There is a civilisation on the other side, Tony. A civilisation advanced enough to at least use radio waves.”

“If there is a civilisation on the other side, we may come across some isolated individuals in the mountain range. The hunt will be open soon.”

“Hunt? Why?” Asked Uranus.

“To get some informations from these isolated individuals before reveling ourselves to a greater number of them. We must capture one of them, it will be intersting, hehehehe...”

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AN:What will they find within those mountains and beyond? Find out in the nexy episode!!! … ...