"Are you sure about this?" Robert asked into the comm transmitter, his hands securing the gas-mask tightly around his head. "We don't know how well these natives organize, or how prepared they are."
"Don't give me nonsense, Robert." Arthur replied from the other side of the deployment bay, as he ran a last minute check on his equipment. "Miriam ran a scan of the largest local settlement. No physical weaponry of any sort, or at least none that could be considered dangerous at long ranges, and defenses at their most basic." Arthur slid a cartridge into a compartment under the left armpit of his suit. "We're pretty much dealing with spears and bows here. Keep an eye on your oxygen, your ammo, and your surroundings, and you'll be just fine."
Arthur turned to a small panel adjacent to the closed ramp at the end of the room, and gave it a thumbs up. The walls rumbled and the floor trembled, and the lights inside the deployment bay flashed once before turning off completely and being replaced by a red glow.
"Attention, deployment bay sealed off and ready for deployment. Please confirm to open the ramp." A woman's voice blared through speakers located around the bay, and the red lights began to flash.
"Do your thing, Miriam." Arthur called into the panel. "We're all set down here."
"Deployment confirmed. Opening ramp."
The red lights stopped flashing and grew dim to the point they only illuminated the bay, and the ramp slowly began to lower, revealing a lightning storm raging on the outside.
"Get ready for the jump, Robert! Once outside, wait a while before firing the stabilizers! Remember the coordinates I gave you, and keep an eye on your map, and for God's sake, try not to be seen on the way down!"
"See you on the other side!" Arthur grabbed his lifeline and unhooked himself from it. "Remember! Second time's the hardest!" Turning his back on Robert, Arthur slid down the ramp and dropped down to the ground beneath.
Robert groaned, sight locked on the gaping maw that the ramp made. He took a hold of his lifeline, and walked toward the ramp.
Foot after foot, until he stood gazing down at the abyss.
"Fuck." He whispered. "Fuck, this is crazy." He took one tentative step forward, feet pressing down on the steel floor, the cascading rain outside the ship roaring frightfully.
"Alright, let's-" He screamed as his foot slipped on the edge, sending him tumbling downward, lifeline still attached to the flying ship. His body tossed to and fro as the ship flew onward with him flailing about behind it.
"Shit! Shit! Miriam, cut the fucking lifeline! Let me loose!" He screamed into his transmitter, arms and legs flailing. "Let me loose!"
"Detaching lifeline number two."
"Holy fuck!" Robert felt the lifeline lose tension and his stomach grow a pit, as the ship slowly became smaller and smaller, and the ground beneath drew closer and closer.
Arthur sighed. He massaged his brow gently with his index and thumb, and used his other hand to brush debris off of Robert's body.
"I told you to wait before firing the stabilizer." Arthur leaned back against a rock and lifted his right hand to his mouth, palm facing outwards. A green dot flashed and beeped once out of his middle knuckle, and he leaned in.
"Anvil here, lost my tail. Over."
He closed his hand into a fist, and heard static coming out of his knuckles.
"Copy that Anvil. That was fast, what happened? Over."
"Rich boy blasted his stabilizer too far from the ground. Fell into a tree, snapped his neck. Saved us the trouble. Still meeting at the same spot? Over."
"That we do, Anvil. Make sure to bring the VIP, then meet us at the specified location. Sending you both coordinates as we speak. Hammer out."
Arthur flexed his fingers and his knuckle beeped red. With a jump, he sprang to his feet and began to search Robert's corpse for anything of value. Once done, Arthur ran a final check on his equipment, and headed off northwards, to the VIP's coordinates.
Running a few numbers into the voice command of his helm, Arthur began to see the world around him with new eyes. No gas in any amount that could sustain him, but an incredible quantity of many other gases made up the atmosphere of the planet he was in. Vegetation flourished all around him, but none were plants he could recognize. Neither did the wildlife resemble his world.
It was exotic, very much so.
His thermal scanners spotted a lively and abundant amount of creatures around him, but none seemed overly intelligent. Despite the falling rain, Arthur still made fast progress through the wild, as he propelled forward at great speeds with only a word. His suit maintaining a speedy and inconspicuous trek through the landscape.
Before dawn had broken, Arthur stopped by the edge of a forest. His breathing was coming in slightly hurried, and a few drops of sweat had begun to fall from his forehead.
He lowered himself to ground level as his hand reached for his sidearm, both eyes eyeing the small town before him with thermal scanners on. He could see the diurnal tendency of the locals, as very few of them were out at night, while most others remained inside the buildings, in slumber.
Arthur stood and whispered a command, enabling his camouflage. He seemed as a shimmering mist and nothing else as he moved, and all he touched with his hands was hidden as well.
He moved closer, until he stood meters away from the exact position marked by the VIP's estimated coordinates. He had a large house embedded into a tree before him.
His thermal scanner revealed several shapes inside the building, eight of them scattered throughout the inside and outside of the building. Two of them seemed to be patrolling the outside of the tree, and were slowly converging on his position.
Pressing himself close to the wall, careful not to touch the bark of the tree with his hands, Arthur waited. Before long, two small, quadruped creatures, about knee-sized, clad in gold-painted steel armor passed him without a second glance. He watched them exchange a smile before continuing with their patrol.
'VIP indeed.' He thought as the two were lost from sight. 'Two guards outside, some more in. Might be stealth won't be enough'
Producing a small cylinder from a belt that ran around his chest, Arthur moved closer to one of the windows nearest to him. With the building being small as it was, he would have a hard time entering it, so a simple extraction wouldn't be enough.
'I'll have to lure you out.'
Arthur gently pushed the window open, detached the cylinder's upper end, and tossed it inside. It landed on the building's floor with a sonorous clank that made Arthur clench his jaw, and rolled away from the window before stopping altogether.
Arthur ran his sight over the area once more, checking for the lifeforms inside. All was quiet, no shapes moved. Arthur saw no guards were stirred, and raised his arm to his face.
With a four digit number entered, Arthur slowly lowered himself to the ground, and pressed a button.
The explosion that followed was deaf, but not kind. The walls of the building trembled and the floor shook beneath. Smoke rose swiftly from inside the window, and continued to do so constantly, never stopping.
'Smoke grenade gone, two more in store. Just a waiting game now.'
In a matter of minutes the entire building was in turmoil. All eight shapes moving hurriedly about inside, rushing for the exit while helping each other out of the house. Arthur checked his ammunition and moved towards the tree's exit, keeping his eyes open.
As he neared the exit point, he could see all eight shapes assembled, plus a ninth one the thermal scanner did not register. Six of the creatures and the unknown one were huddled together while the two guards stood next to them, facing outwards.
Arthur raised his sidearm and took careful aim. Making certain to avoid the armor, Arthur fired.
Once, twice, the shots were muffled entirely. Not a sound as both guards fell down on the ground, perfectly immobilized and unaware of what occurred around them. Arthur heard the other seven gasp and cry out, trying to either awaken the guards or search for him.
'Tsk tsk. This will not do.'
Arthur aimed once more, and fired freely, minding the amount of shots he put into each of the creatures. An overdose could easily kill such small things.
One by one they fell. Some were more difficult than others, as Arthur discovered. One attempted to charge in his general direction, another attempted to fly away, while the rest were a mix of either fleeing or attempting to mount a defense. One did absolutely nothing, and just cowered until it was turn to be shot.
It took a full minute, in the end. One of the creatures, the VIP, Arthur assumed, had put up quite the fight. Shot after shot it blocked, until Arthur was forced to utilize live ammunition. The VIP could not block that. Whatever it had used to block the tranquilizers was shattered the moment a bullet crashed into it.
'Aimed low and fired true. The bullet tore through the barrier and hit the floor. VIP safe and out of the fight.'
Arthur rushed toward the fallen creatures and ran a scan over them, his instrument detecting energy levels in each, until the VIP was identified. Smiling, Arthur slung the creature over his shoulder and hurried out of the scene.
"Anvil here. Do you copy, Hammer?"
"We copy, Anvil. How'd it go? Over."
"VIP secured without complications. Horned and winged female specimen with purple coloration, marked with what seems to be a star on her flanks. Is this it? Over." Arthur said as he ran, holding the unconscious creature with both arms.
"Haha, yeah. That's our VIP. One of the aliens' tribal leaders, as our research has told us. Fairly tough for one of its kind, too. Bring it over, Anvil. We're all set to go over here. Over and out."
Arthur sighed and compared his coordinates with his destination's. The creature was heavy in his grasp, weighing him down, even if just a little, and the distance was long. He didn't know how long it'd be before the natives sent out a search party, nor did he know whether they even had the intelligence to carry out a search party in a proper way, but he would not risk it.
'It's a straight run from here to the falls. Keep running, no rest, and you'll be there in twenty four hours. Keep away from all natives. The suit will keep you going. No drink or food when you stop, only after five hours. Ample rest is a good idea.' Arthur repeated the instructions inside his head over and over, as if they were a prayer. He pushed onward, avoiding any settlements or travelers he met, and eliminating any creature that posed a threat to his mission.
By the end of the day, at the stroke of midnight, Arthur spotted the waterfalls. The sounds of cascading water filled the air, birds and wind singing songs, the water dancing to the rhythm as it fell from the heights.
Arthur gasped and struggled for breath inside his suit. He dropped the creature he held, and moved closer to the edge of the cliff that overlooked the lake where the waterfalls fell into. He searched until his eyes fell on a small cave by the side of the opposing cliff, and he spotted a yellow flag placed outside the entrance.
'That's the meeting point.' He thought, as he checked his coordinates. 'It's going to be a bitch getting down there.'
Arthur took a deep breath, and raced toward the edge of the cliff.
Heartbeat racing, he leapt, holding the creature with both arms as he fell down, every second pulling his feet closer to collision with the rocks beneath. Arthur closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, counting inside his head as he fell.
'A thousand hundred and one... a thousand hundred and two...'
Seconds flying by, ground growing closer, Arthur grasping the alien tighter as he witnessed the moment growing nearer...
...he barked a command into his helm.
Stabilizers flared up as the final meters between Arthur and rock became too few. He felt gravity losing its grip on him, and a saving force pushing him upwards. The stabilizers gently lessened in strength, setting him on the ground, and shimmered and died as he pressed his feet against the ground.
Sighing, Arthur checked his equipment and marched to the cave's entrance, creature slung over his shoulder.
