The pilot adjusted the navigation of the helicopter as they flew over the desert, the heat of the day beginning to strike the glass of the cockpit. He altered their course with an adjustment to the joystick and took a deep breath of the fresh, clean oxygen being funnelled into his specially fitted helmet. It would be a few more long hours of flying before they reached the base across the barren, sandy wastes.
Suddenly there was the sound of whooshing just barely audible, as if one of the armaments had fired. Panicked, the pilot checked the status of the onboard guns and weapons, seeing that none of the targeting missiles had malfunctioned. So what was…?
He caught sight of a small spark of light in the corner of his vision and the helicopter was jarred violently to the side by an explosion that hit just near the rotating blades. Warnings blared all throughout the control cabin as the vehicle, it's means of flight blown up and disabled, began to fall from the air. The pilot yelled a series of vowels, flipping switches around the cabin in a panic, quickly deactivating the onboard weaponry and dumping the fuel it was carrying. Seconds later, the fuming, twisted, hunk of metal crashed into the ground in an explosion of metal parts, shrapnel, shattered glass and bits of metal, leaving the desert still once again.
Murk heaved and shuddered, sneezing and coughing, panting from the effort it took to shove his ribs away from his lungs, coarse sand and dirt from the ground dirtying his pelt as he lay where he'd fell after such a horrible impact. He'd been beaten up and dragged across metal are the wall had become the floor first, then the ceiling, then the other wall, and then he'd hit the sand and everything was back to normal.
At least that's what he'd hoped. The black and white cat lifted his head from the sand, blinking as he gazed around the deserted landscape. The cat shoved himself onto his paws, flicking his tail as he immediately began to search for his master. Calico lay a few metres away, face down in the dust, covered in dirt like his cat. Ears drooping and pinning back against his head, Murk bounded to him quickly, mewing with concern and grief as he pawed at his person's now dirtied suit. Calico wasn't moving, and Murk pawed more insistently with worry.
Then a sound that every cat dreaded.
Fierce doggy growling erupted from somewhere close to his shoulder and Murk looked up to find himself underneath sharp teeth and wide-open jaws as a vicious red and white wolfdog lunged at him, clasping him in needle like, pointed teeth and shaking him around ferociously. Was it that super dog Calico adopted?! Why would he do that? how was he even here? The cat went limp with fright and pain. Just barely he could hear voices over the dizzying fog of himself being shaken.
"drop it, Dakota." Called a voice. "leave the cat alone. Best not harm him." and then Murk flopped ungracefully to the sand, fur dampened by ugly canine spit, delirious and dazed. The wolfdog who had just unhanded him looked up towards what was presumably his master's voice and abandoned the kitty chew toy, stepping deliberately over to the figure who had called for him. Murk staggered to his paws, hissing warningly and arching his back as he stood near his fallen person. He could barely make out what was going on through his shaky, darkened vision, but he saw the wolfdog and a large party of people picking through the wreckage. One of them let out a shout and seconds later he saw the professor being helped to his feet by one of the figures. Instinctively, Murk hissed again, his fur standing on end as the owner of the monstrous dog approached and crouched in front of him and his person.
"well, Dr. Calico." He began, ignoring the cat and studying the man on the ground before him. "what a surprise. I did not expect you to be out here. But as you have come all this way to see me, I might as well make the most of this turn of events." He looked back at his party and nodded. One of the closer men stepped up behind him and then thrust a hand forward, grasping Murk, who screamed and hissed with protest and shoving him into a pet carrier.
That was the last thing the cat saw.