"DO NOT RESIST OR YOU WILL BE EXECUTED!" A brash, feminine voice echoed through the sandy pueblo. Her shout was almost robotic, but one could tell she was actually talking through a megaphone of sorts.
Colonel Sigma and Sergant Jaqcour both stood behind a corner, their back against the wall and blasters at the ready in hand. Normally, their missions don't stray far from their local planetary group, and if they do, they aren't directly involved. The circumstances they found themselves in, however, challenged this, and that is how they ended up in Visapra, a planet roughly 200 kilometers beyond the furthest planet to the Astral North that composed of the planetary group. Sure, they weren't technically alone -- the entire crew was still monitoring their every step back at the Endeavour, hoping that they didn't get the jump scare that happened days ago after Sigma seemingly died -- but this was new territory that they had to map out by themselves while on the hunt as the atmosphere surrounding the planet made any over-the-air communication impossible.
Both the tiger and the horse were practically sweltering in the thick air of the desert, only making them damp underneath their uniforms. Sigma looked over to his cohort and sighed, trying to keep it as minimal as possible despite the harsh winds surrounding the town they were in roaring loudly past everyone. "I'm going to take a look. You better get ready when I say so..." The colonel whispered very quietly to Jaqcour, who nodded and raised up his blaster to his chest, covering it with his other hand, so he could whip it out on short notice. The tiger eventually turned his body so he could face the wall and peered around the corner, very, very briefly.
From the corner, Sigma saw the apparent source of the voice they heard not too long ago: it was a large, extremely armored combat suit, pacing around slowly and looking in every direction for possible targets. She appeared to hold a light gun of sorts, it wasn't clear what it was, and most defining of all, her helmet had two large protrusions on the top for apparent ears. Sigma could only catch a small glimpse of the front as the suit turned around and he ducked his head back behind the wall, but from his perspective, he could have sworn he saw a large, cartoonish maw drawn on top of the helmet.
"It's a fennec in an suit of armor," told Sigma to the sergeant, quietly. Jaqcour motioned the colonel to move to another building, and the two tiptoed around the stone walls while they discussed. "Heavily defended, seems like one of our old combat suits but modified beyond recognition, and she's armed. They'll sign up just about anyone, hm?"
"Around these parts, probably." Jaqcour had read up about the planet as best he could until he was called for the mission. Between nearly losing his friend and that... THING now targeting him, it was difficult to find any concentration on this mission. "Sure, civilization can thrive in solitude, but they usually succumb to space pirates because they didn't have a space force big enough. Then they claim the land as their own, take all their stuff, and demand they stay where they are. There's only one option to save your hide at that point..."
The two rounded another corner and took refuge under an awning, sticking themselves inside a doorway for a few seconds. "Weren't most pirates already eradicated after we 'apparently' defeated Pantera's goons a while ago?" Jaqcour pointed to an open door just meters away from them, and the two carefully stepped across the sand, trying not to make too much noise while going as fast as they could.
"Not all of them." Jaqcour retorted shortly before their short and dangerous dash to the door, where they quickly weaseled their way in and up a staircase. "Space is still a big place. We haven't even charted most of the Astral North. Whatever our enemy is doing somehow HAS to know about this, because I doubt anyone local to that area wouldn't have a map of their local galaxy, at the very least."
As the two ascended the staircase quietly, Jaqcour would flash a few looks around any window he encountered, seemingly confirming his suspicions. "Hm. Seems like this armored woman is the only being in existence around here. No other guards or thieves or... anything. This may as well be a ghost town..."
At last, the two arrived at the highest point of the building, a top floor with no access to the roof save for a risky rope ladder dangling from outside. The two were absolutely sure they weren't in any danger of being heard, but they still maintained a low voice. "So... why did you bring us here, exactly?" Sigma queried, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "We won't be in any less danger here than when we were on ground level."
Jaqcour scanned the area for a window to the side and got as close as he could to it while crouched. "Because it's a good enough vantage point for this..." The horse then took out a small disc from his pocket, which he tossed in front of him after stepping back just a bit. The disc fell flat to the ground for a moment before it gently raised itself up and expanded itself into a weapon... a sort of suppressed sniper rifle.
The sergeant moved forward and got it set up while Sigma looked on at him, and then outside, briefly. He decided to crouch down as well, still confident the fennec couldn't see them from here but opting to err on the side of caution this once. "...right. Why isn't there any security around here? You'd think that a space brigade like, y'know, OURS, would make the safety of every civilian their number one priority, especially for uncharted regions?"
"Because people typically don't like it when someone assumes they need help, even if it's true." Jaqcour quipped back while still adjusting his weapon, occasionally looking through the scope to make sure it was calibrated properly. "Independent planets should stay just that -- independent. Although..." Jaqcour suddenly stopped and looked back to Sigma with a bit of a puzzled face. "I do remember this one time, there was a planet on the Astral West, they were asking for help from just about every brigade they possibly could, including ours. They found no help, no sympathy, and then they just... vanished. As if it never existed."
"Mm. I know which one you're talkin' about." Sigma recalled the events he saw to him briefly. "In fact, I think I was about to be called in for an urgent mission to that planet, but as soon as I woke up the next day, it was gone from the database, wiped from the chart, and seemingly erased from certain higher-up's minds, too..."
"...is that so." Jaqcour now shifted his face to concern, seemingly distraught at these news, and was about to continue this thought with more evidence. "So would it be safe to--"
"Jaq, we can talk about politics or whatever it is you have in mind," Sigma stopped him with one hand on the horse's shoulder, "but we gotta focus on the current mission first." This was the first time he's ever talked back this... softly to Jaqcour. It felt alien to not be filled with bitter rage towards him, but at the very least the eternal tension between them faded slowly.
The sergeant seemed to catch on to this as his ears flapped about slightly, remembering where he was. "...right. Almost forgot." Jaq flipped over once again and looked at his sniper before returning to calibration... but not before jutting out a quick, sorta sincere "sorry". It seemed to take Sigma back a bit, as he looked at his friend with a tilted head.
After a minute or so of dead desert silence, the horse finally stood up momentarily and let his whole body move around a bit. "Alright, Sigma. It's time to fire. You better stand back for this one, because I'm going to fire an EMP of sorts to the fennec. This may still knock our vitality trackers out for a few hours, though..."
Sigma nodded and prowled back to the doorway leading into the room, looking to the sides and making sure no one was coming around. Jaqcour eventually crouched back down and got into position, readying his sniper and very precisely moving it around to his desired target: the armored fennec pacing on the sandy ground, walking forward but unaware she was being targeted. A large dust storm was about to kick in, evident by the small wave of sand marring the lower half of the armored fox's body, so he had to act now or else he wouldn't be able to see.
"Yep... that's one of Pantera's crew, alright..." Jaqcour remarked, scowling. Something wasn't right, and he didn't know what it was, but despite the alarms in his head going off, he persisted.
With one hand holding the sniper steady and another on the trigger, Jaqcour was ready to take the shot. From there, they'd likely only have seconds to act, but the sergeant prepared for this with a second bullet inside the magazine already loaded. All Jaq had to do was keep his aim steady.
A deep breath in... and the horse was about to fire, before--
"INTRUDERS DETECTED! YOU WILL DIE!" To the horse's bewilderment, the fennec turned her focus exactly to where they were situated and outstretched one arm out, which quickly assembled into a large cannon. Sigma also heard this and panicked.
"Shit, shit, SHIT! GET OUT OF THERE!" Sigma yelled to Jaq, who scrambled up and left behind the sniper. It would unfortunately have to get destroyed. Both the starpilot and the sergeant ran down the stairs as fast as they could to the next floor down, where they could quickly jump out of the building from a patio, but just as they did that, a giant blast of energy melted through the floor above them, somehow causing the entire building to quickly collapse all around them. The last thing either of them remember was jumping out of the building in desperation, seeing the debris flying past them as they closed their eyes and placed their faith in their uniform's anti-gravity generators to break their fall.
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iPoke: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/51905187/
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