Operation: Alien Artifact

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.