Here you go folks, the second chapter after a week long hiatus. I was originally gonna stop at this story being a one shot, but I decided that there was enough interest to make this a full fledged story.
PLANET DESIGNATED THETA IV – 5 days before Dr. Rala's report
They watched as the dropship took off, leaving them within a clearing of the forest that they had designated as their patrol route. Sergeant Kayron then turned around and began walking off into the forest, and the rest of the men quietly followed. The Crythanians under Kayron's command were some of the best pathfinder's within the army, and he was surely proud to lead such fine men when ever duty called.
The ship's captain requested that they do a little hands-on approach to scouting the local terrain and native culture, since video drones don't tend to give elaborate opinions anyway. There are just some things that have to be seen personally to be believed.
After a few minutes of walking in silence, sergeant Kayron spoke, "Alright, here's the drill. We patrol this section of forest from points alpha through gamma, no noise and no fuss, and then we take up a position near the nearby road and then wait."
"Why do we have to wait near that road sarge, its not like were gonna start seeing some action before the campaign starts are we?" Kenz protested.
"because Rala is so damn adamant about getting a living breathing specimen to study, preferably one of them "benders" he keeps on babbling about" the sergeant barked.
"How will we know who's a bender and who's not?"
"Let me put it this way Kenz, if you encounter someone who starts trying to shoot flame at your ass, you'd know in a second if it's a bender." The sergeant said with a grin.
"So tell me sarge, if this is such a hush-hush mission, why the heck is Damocles tagging along".
Damocles was the team's heavy weapons expert. Being encased in a massive battle suit bristling with armaments, he stuck out like a sore thumb among the other members of the group.
After perhaps half an hour of walking, they finished their patrol and moved on to the roadside position. They situated themselves behind the bushes that covered either side of the road. Damocles remained a bit far off behind the group, so as not to give them away. Nevertheless, he brought up his high powered scope, and started up the power systems for the shoulder mounted rail gun that he carried.
"Gee sarge, this sure is some beautiful landscape, kinda like Zhol isn't it?" private Jeso commented.
"More like Orcanza in my opinion. Heck, you could smell the energies of this world in the air around you" Kayron corrected.
They were instructed by the captain to wait for at least 4 hours before making a return trip. So far no one had appeared on the road, and their time was almost up. Just as Kayron was about to call it quits, that's when he saw it. A small fire nation military patrol coming up along the road.
Kayron flicked a switch on his power suit's helmet. His vision magnified by a factor 10. He could make out at least a few dozen soldiers on foot, marching beside a large steam powered vehicle, and behind that was what looked like a rather primitive looking tank. Strangely enough, the tank lacked any gun barrels; supposedly it is just a form of protection for any benders that may be inside.
Kayron signaled for the men to attempt nothing without his signal. Rala shall have his specimen, but Kayron was not about to start a firefight just to get one. They waited until the patrol got close. Just then, the patrol stopped, right in front of the bushes where Kayron's men were hidden.
"Why have we stopped here sir" one of the fire soldiers asked.
"Unless you want to pass up a chance to rest your legs soldier, I suggest you keep your mouth closed" the man in charge replied.
He continued, "We shall camp here for the night, set up the camp and have someone go fetch some water".
Kayron heaved a sigh of relief. For a moment, he thought that their position had been compromised. But this complicated things, they could not fall back to the forest with the fire nation warriors patrolling the area.
Kayron started typing a message to the dropship on his wrist-com. He instructed the pilot to re-enter orbit and wait for him to give the okay signal to return to the LZ. He hit the "send" button, and after a while, he got the "affirmative" reply.
And so it basically boiled down to a dull evening for Kayron's troops. Spending the night out here was no picnic, regardless of how beautiful they thought the landscape was. At least Damocles was used to this sort of thing, since he is a member of the Centurion battle force. He was conditioned to accept unusual conditions such as this without a complaint.
The air boredom was building up heavily within Kayron's patrol, but that was soon shattered by events in the fire nation camp. The officer in charge of the fire nation patrol came out dragging a girl by the hair. She was bound at the wrist by some sturdy looking rope, and her clothes were torn and tattered.
"YOU WILL LEARN TO RESPECT ME YOU STUPID GIRL!" the officer howled.
The girl remained defiant and spat in his face. "I'd rather die than be molested by fire nation scum!" she taunted.
"You think you're so high and mighty? It's a wonder why princess Azula chose to take you prisoner rather than kill you like she did your friends" the officer barked.
The fire nation officer turned to his men, and a wicked smile crossed his face. "Do you want her? Anyone who wants to have his way with her can do so, and when you do, make sure she suffers greatly"
There are some things a Crythanian just can't stand, regardless of his orders. Raping a captive female was one of those things. Kayron gave the open fire signal, but his men already had the order in mind long before he did.
The air suddenly came alive with the sound of gunfire. A storm of Kaiser metal rounds started tearing into the group of fire nation soldiers stationed on the perimeter of the camp. The fire nation soldiers started panicking, not accustomed to such an assault. Nevertheless they began firing bolts of flame in the general direction of the gunfire.
The tank crew for the fire nation patrol got into their vehicle, and started moving towards the front of the camp, where Kayron and his men were massacring the fire soldiers. Damocles was watching the battle the whole time, and when he noticed the tank start to move, he swiveled his torso and aligned the rail gun with the fire nation tank. The shot exited the gun, instantly breaking the sound barrier. The shot traveled at an unbelievable speed, igniting the air where it had passed. The sheer kinetic force was so great, that upon contact with the tank, the rail spike tore the tank apart into tiny pieces of junk, sending them flying across the camp.
It was over in mere moments, and all the fire nation soldiers, including their officer, were either dead or wounded. The men made their way to the captive girl, who had an absolute picture of horror upon her face. When the men got within just a few feet of her, her consciousness gave way, and she fainted on the spot.
Kayron cut her bonds, and turned to face the rest of the men, "well now, guess this wasn't such a boring evening after all. We had a good scrap, and look, we can take one of these wounded fire nation soldiers as a take home present for Dr. Rala."
"But what about the girl, you don't expect us to leave her here do you?" private Marik asked.
"It's not my problem anymore boy" Kayron replied. "We've already done quite enough for her, and we've got enough baggage as it is. Now here, take this flamer and get to torching the bodies, we'll make it look like they had a little too much to drink, and then it'll look like they wasted each other".
With that said Kayron lead the rest of the men back to the LZ. On the way, they encountered Damocles, who was busy painting a tank symbol with a fire emblem onto the side of his rail-gun. They reached the LZ, and signaled the dropship to return. Before they could depart however, they had to wait for Marik. He finally came running through the underbrush, but he had something slung over his shoulders.
"Oh dear god no! Marik you bastard I thought I told you that we don't need the extra baggage." Kayron protested.
Marik came up to him, panting with exhaustion and with the captive still slung over him, "sorry sir, but we are Crythanian, are we not. We can't just leave this girl out there with all them fire nation patrols mucking about. Besides, since we technically saved her, she might help give us information about this world."
"Either that or you're trying to fish for a girlfriend, aren't you Marik" Kenz joked. The rest of the men started to break out into laughter, until one stern look from Kayron shushed them up.
"Fine, we take her along" Kayron said. "But after this Marik, you and I are gonna have a long chat".
Marik nodded, "Yes sir".
With that said, they departed from the planets surface, and headed back to the ARS Destiny, with two extra people in tow.
So how was that? I hope it's not a bit too "way out there". Do not fear, later chapters will have a more spiritual and mystical element to it. I promise.
Remember to please review. The more you review, the more likely I am to get things finished sooner. I can accept constructive criticism, and I'm even open to suggestions.