They thought they were ready for anything. They were also wrong. And they found that out pretty quickly. Like, as soon as they logged onto mission Comm-channel.
"Due to an unfortunate complication, the Crow registered to oversee your mission is no longer available," a bored voice sounded in her earpiece, "I will be your guide for this mission. Now, let's get this over with."
Niff looked over at her, wide-eyed. "It's Prince Uldren!"
That doubled the stakes. Whatever happened, if it was more or less than average, there was a possibility that the Queen herself would hear about it. If they did very well, they could be promoted. But if they messed up…..
"You had better not blow this," Niff hissed.
"Uh-huh! Same goes for you!" Petra glared at her. "It's not always me."
"Approach Lister-11 from the southwest hemisphere, coming around behind Lister-12, then turn in between 9 and 10 to land in the alcove. It's marked for landing. You can't miss it. Wait there for your next set of instructions."
Petra carefully turned the ship to follow Niff's navigation of the instructed route and landed in the cave. It was a tight space, and it was undoubtedly among one of her most difficult unimpeded landings, but she thought she did pretty well.
"Now, there should be a keypad nearby. Today's code is 2903. Type it in and a section of rock will disappear to your left, revealing a passageway. Follow the passage into the hidden observatory."
Niff typed in the password and a section of dark rock less than six feet high and four feet wide fizzled away and walked inside. Petra followed her, wondering aloud, "What if a tall person comes here?"
"They'd have to duck, I guess. Focus."
"I am focused. Besides, we're literally walking up a secret tunnel. What could happen?"
"What could happen? What could happen? I don't even want to know how many people have asked themselves what could possibly happen and died like ten minutes later."
"Well, I don't think we'll be in here for ten minutes, so if that happens, it won't exactly be applicable, will it?"
"You're missing the point." Niff growled.
"So are you. Do you even remember what the point was?"
"Yes! My point was that something bad could happen any time!"
"No." Petra delighted at every chance to aggravate her surly companion. "It was that I needed to focus."
Niff groaned. "You aren't doing that either. And you're distracting me."
"Fine. I'll be quiet. Oh! This must be the hidden observatory!" She pressed a button on her earpiece. "We've reached the observatory. What now?"
"This is a simple scouting mission," Prince Uldren responded, "Look up at the Wolf Fleet. Which ketch is centered? How much of the fleet is gathered there? And don't just tell me. Make a report."
Petra approached the telescope and adjusted it to focus on the Fallen fleet above a nearby asteroid, Fortuna. "The commanding Ketch appears to have no name." she scanned the ship and a screen attached to the scope flashed green. MATCH. She looked at the results. "It belongs to Beltrik, the veiled. One of Skolas' commanders. They've amassed a very large force. However, the fighters all appear to be docked, and the scavengers are… it's a resupply. The force is to protect the resupply." She snapped a couple pictures and attached them to the report, which Niff had been typing.
"Excellent work. This resupply is a target worthy of our attention. I will alert- Sorry, hold on a second." His end was silent for a few minutes. They waited. "We've received a distress call from two of our best spies on Lister-8. I'm calling in a few Crows for backup. Since you two are already very close, I'm setting up a transmat to these safe coordinates. You will observe. I'm connecting you with the crows. Scout out the situation and let them know what to expect. Do not engage except in an emergency."
"Got it." they hurried back down the tunnel toward their ship.
"Let me clarify. By 'emergency' I mean 'imminent termination of the spies before the arrival of the Crows.' that is the only situation acceptable for intervention, otherwise you will be held responsible for any unfortunate incidents."
"Don't get involved unless they're about to kill the spies and we're the only ones there. Got it."
The coordinates led to a sniper's nest hidden among the rocks. Petra pulled out her sniper, a standard issue, and laid down on her stomach. Pressing her good eye to the scope, she peered down at the scene some hundred meters below and three hundred west of them. "Yes, It looks like an extermination," she relayed into their new channel, "They have two prisoners with their hands cuffed, down on their knees with their backs to a pair of Fallen with fusion rifles."
"Don't worry," a Crow responded, "We're closing in."
Petra looked up. Three Crow fighters were approaching in formation.
Niff kicked her. "They're here! So don't do anything stu-"
The Captain in charge had noticed the fighters. He gave a shout and pointed to them. A Wolf Ketch decloaked and swooped toward the fighters with an astonishing speed. A few missiles whistled by. She watched as the Crows dodged in time to prevent a direct collision, but not in time to stop each projectile from finding a target. They spiraled out of the sky and hit the rocky shore with a deafening boom, effectively drowning out the rest of Niff's sentence.
Petra watched the fallen prepare to proceed with the execution. She knew that she had to do something. There was no time for anything else. Worst of all, Niff wouldn't help. She'd have to take out both of the fallen with the fusion rifles in a second or less. As the Captain began to count down in Eliksni from five, she quickly practiced the motion of moving her aim from the first to the second.
In Eliksni: "Five! Four! Three! Two-"
Petra fired. Two quick bullets ripped through the air.
Surprisingly, she didn't miss either of them.
Two furry, armored bodies fell to the ground. Heads whipped up toward them. Petra aimed again and the Captain hit the ground. She scrambled down the rocks toward them, ignoring a colorful protest from Niff. The fallen shouted and fired at her. She slid down the rocks to dodge the blasts, returning a few of her own to keep them distracted from the spies. A few sniper bullets zipped past from Niff's end and two dregs hit the dirt.
"What's going on down there?" She heard the Prince ask urgently over comms as she charged the rest of the fallen.
"Uh, the Crows went down! We're, uh, working on, ah, handling the fallen."
She heard a heavy sigh. "Right. I'll send in a team of medics. Let me know when...if... You manage to clear the area."
"I appreciate the confidence!" Petra chirped, whipping out her shotgun and blasting aside a pair of wretches. She dodged a dreg that was attempting to stab her in the back and pulled her knife on it. "That's the last of them, actually! Now I'm going to scramble their beacons so that no reinforcements can find them." She shoved a couple simple coordinate hackers into an outlet on the devices so that the position was shown far, far away.
"Good work," the Prince sounded a little surprised. Or at least less exasperated. "The medics are arriving. Stay and cover them until they get my crows out of here, and then escort the spies back to Vesta."
"See," she said to Niff, who had joined her stride toward the wrecked Crow fighters. "I don't mess everything up. This time, I actually saved the operation."
Niff gave a shrug of acknowledgement. They looked up at the sky as a few medic transport ships entered landing mode. They had done really well, better than expected. Maybe that would shake things up a bit in their favor.