"Disengaging," Yamina replied, voice as cool as the desert night.  That doubled her word count on the comm channel to two since contact with the enemy.  Far too often she'd seen AeroSpace fighters or artillery rain down on BattleMechs whose units were careless with their commo discipline.  Granted, most of the time the lance was able to use tight line of sight only communications, or very short ranged ones, but it was far too easy to triangulate a position using nothing more than a few loops antennae and a map.<br/><br/>Whatever those things were, those... vermin... were as tough as scorpions and just as deadly for all their small size.  They were slow, even though they had a surprising mobility one wouldn't expect of a roughly man-sized piece of equipment.  The missiles they carried over each shoulder were worrisome.  They easily matched the range of her<em>Locust's</em>laser.  They probably wouldn't penetrate her armor, but two might.  Or three.  Or five.  The little vermin swarmed it seemed.<br/><br/>As she withdrew, Yamina kept the<em>Marauder</em>between her and the bulk of the enemy.  Her<em>Locust</em>remained close enough to scratch the<em>Marauder's</em>back if he ran into trouble.