"So noted."

These things are startlingly fast and she's not here to take risks. So, ranged fire not close-in crush. She's done this on the range. Ever so calmly, hand up, line up-

POP.

The sound is pretty distinct- No explosion, the bearing is bigger than most bullets, and also going faster.

-She wants to watch it tumble but NOPE. Switch on. Ignore Haru's target, glance around, any third or fourth ones? Then back to hers, to make sure it's not recovering from the hit.

Looks like she got hers and Haru got his, though his keeps rolling downhill after it's dead and he empties a few more into it to be sure. They have pink blood.

Onward. Another pod. This one wakes up to a poker chip. Bang.

She startles and shoves a fair bit harder than she was planning to on a bit of carapace in the neat little narrow circle she's been practicing! There's a disgusting wet crunch.

"Shit!"

She clenches one fist. No, don't freak out. Glance around. Situational awareness is queen.

"-I'm okay, just- Startled."

"You need a second?" Haru asks, holding out a hand.

"What I need is- Actually, yeah, just five seconds."

She touches the back of her hand to his palm. Deep breath. Glance at Rhombus, glance around for monsters.

"-Okay. I'm good, let's keep going."

They're still in a dungeon and she still has to take it seriously. Deep breath, move on, no catastrophizing.

Haru's racked up less backlash than her but five seconds doesn't get it all. Rhombus doesn't comment, just watches their six. When they move on again, they next see armadillos from the top of a hill, two that way and three that way - "I'll take those," Haru says, gesturing at the group of three and taking aim.

It was more for the centering effect than to actually clear it.

"Taking the group of two."

Aim, POP. Pull a new steel ball from her leg-chute. POP.

Yeah, this is fine, just keep going steady. The not-quite-an-itch is plenty ignorable at this level.

"We should have hand signals if we're going to do this, guns are fucking loud," says Haru.

"Good thinking," says Rhombus.

They find another pod. This one's got a person in it.

Oh no how do you do this part. Her mouth goes on autopilot.

"Hello! Let's get you back to the entrance, nice and easy- How are you feeling? Can you walk with us?"

"Here, let me give you a hand up out of there," Haru adds, clasping the woman's arm and hauling. She's gasping for air and doesn't respond right away, but nods and seems able to keep her feet.

She's less chatty and more watchful as they progress, though also glancing at their rescuee in concern. It must suck, being kidnapped and then getting the newbie squad on rescue duty.

And then they only have to do this thirteen more times. Maybe she should also train with guns, just to have a lower-backlash solution? No, no, stop letting your attention wander in a dungeon. Glance around for monsters.

They kill two more armadillos on the way back to the entrance, and spot another pod that can be their first port of call on the way back.

She keeps reminding herself that this place wants to kill her. Don't slip into thinking it's tedious. That's how bad habits start. It wants to kill you. It's not a game. You should be alert.

They jog, they check pods, they kill ambush-armadillos, they rescue people. They find the core on one of the trips out. She runs through her ammo steadily and calls a one-minute break after rescue #10 to refill the chute-thing. She doesn't overkill any more armadillos in startlement.

"Weird that it just kept the core in a pod. Lazy."

"Yeah, uh, lazy dungeon is good for us. Let's chat about the terrain or their attack patterns, stay on topic. Two more known victims and we can go relax."

She will NOT scratch herself, not when she just half-lectured Haru about it.

"No we can't, we've got to do the sweep, the longer we wait on that the more likely it is to grab another guy."

"Right. Two more known victims, final sweep. Can't get lazy."

"I'm not lazy I'm chatty. There's just not a lot to this dungeon to talk about."

"I'm the one at risk of laziness. Careful of that one bit on the right, there's a little dip one might be hiding in-"

They have lots of poker chips; he throws one into the dip.

Nothing.

She does her best to keep focus as they keep going. Regular breathing and focusing on how it will be Done Soon.

They find the next guy. The last one proves evasive; they keep finding pods, including in places they've already been, but they're empty, empty, empty, and eventually Rhombus calls for them to go sit in each other's laps outside the dungeon while he checks if the missing person report is still good. It turns out they found the guy. They can call the last while of looking through pod after pod their sweep, drag out a few more shells, and blow up the core now.

Oh good it's over. (She can help with pod hauling even if it's more backlash if this saves a minute or two!)

She's pretty self conscious about, eh, maximizing skin contact near support staff. Luckily, privacy curtains exist.

"Do we need to do a - report, debrief, you think? Talk to Rhombus?" She asks Haru.

"Yeah, probably, I don't know if there's a written form or what - I don't think they can expect it right away though since some people have backlash even more incapacitating than ours and even mine is plenty to make it so I can't write," he says. The privacy curtain is around an air mattress. This is suitable for lying on top of her on.