AVP Prey 7

At first there was only the vision of dark, cracked matter all around, seen through a thick cloud of oily smoke. The electronic eye scanned the pit and then looked up. With a sudden lurch, the lou-dte kalei moved forward, using its segmented pincers to pull itself out of the crater. It was a large, armored mechanism, the lou-dte kalei, designed to withstand almost any type of environment so far encountered; it was actually modeled after a kind of predator discovered on Thän, a world of dense metals and poisonous weather. Something like the Hard Meat, but more efficiently built-it could climb, walk, run, or dive into liquid. And while the robot crawler did not Hunt as the real creature
could, it served a purpose that was more important than simple survival; it was the bearer of life. Dachande switched to the rear gkinmara, another of the rounded eyes that transmitted sensory informa-
tion.-pg.23-24 chpt.3