June 13th

"Sergeants, Niff. That's an actual ranking, if you please. Now we'll have many opportunities to do awesome stuff. Our next assignment? They're sending Corsairs into the Hildean asteroids to hunt for Skolas. We're tracking activity on Rox-9. No engagement. We'll be connected to a Crow channel, and if we spot him, we get to be the ones to call them in."

Niff glared at her. "It won't be like last time. No engagement under any circumstances, even if the Crows go down, in which case, we have to leave. Skolas is too powerful for a couple of Corsairs. Those were the strict orders."

"Still. To be the ones to spot him." Petra grinned. "We'd be promoted again. I hope we find him."

"It'll be a difficult hunt. And there's a lot of asteroids in the Hildeans. He'd have to somehow be on Rox-9, and we'd also have to be skilled enough to find him." Niff shook her head dismissively. "If he doesn't want to be found, I doubt he will be."

Petra scowled. "Well, then, we're going to be in for a very boring scouting mission."

June 28th

Rox-9 was a rocky maze of gradual inclines, steep drops, winding caves, and towering cliffs. They had been scouting for two weeks now, with no sign of Skolas or any fallen. After being drenched unexpectedly with a heavy rain, they had found a cave to hide in, and built a small fire to warm up and dry off.

"We'd never spot Skolas in this anyways," Niff grumbled.

Petra had to agree. They'd barely been able to see a few feet in front of them to find this cave. She would have preferred a smaller cave, just a room-sized hole in the rocks, but this was what they'd been able to find and they had to escape the weather. This cave was the entrance to a much larger underground system. Behind them, instead of a solid wall of rock, there was a looming hole leading down, down, down into darkness. She didn't like it. It felt like something dark and ancient could emerge from the depths of the asteroid and attack them at any moment.

She sat up with a start, suddenly realizing that she had dozed off. Glancing around, she saw that she was alone. "Niff?" She stood up, clicking on her helmet's headlight. "Niff!"

No response, except for the slightest sounds of movement down the dark tunnel. Damn. There was nothing else for it. Her sniper wouldn't help much. The only other weapon she had was a flimsy sidearm, which she slowly and carefully pulled out. She crept toward the tunnel, clicking her headlight off and switching to night vision, that way nothing could see her before she saw it. Even with night vision, she could barely see more than a few feet in front of her, it was so dark. The tunnel curved down, down, down, but she walked on. A hundred meters, a hundred and fifty meters. Two hundred. Two-fifty. Suddenly, a dark figure loomed out of the blackness in front of her. She gasped, then realized it was Niff.

Niff swiveled around, then seeing who it was, held a finger in front of her helmet where her mouth would be to indicate that Petra should be quiet. Then, she tapped her left ear. She.. heard something? Turn on your earpiece? Listen?

Suddenly, Petra heard it too. A low screeching of metal on rock. Squinting, she saw that in front of them, the tunnel opened up to a large room. Water dripped from the ceiling, filling a cavity in the floor, where thin lines had been carved in the shape of-

Niff grabbed her arm, diverting her attention from the Wolves' symbol. Something about the way she was squeezing it tight filled her with dread as she slowly turned to face the hulking figure that had crept up behind them.

The hunters had become the hunted.

Skolas himself.

Petra and Niff took a few stumbling steps backward before Petra pulled out her sidearm and opened fire, knowing perfectly well that such a tiny gun would have no effect on the Kell of the Wolves. Niff pulled out her sniper. Petra remembered seeing her requiem on the cave floor. She hastily removed her empty mag and stuffed a new one into the gun as Niff attempted a no-scope. At that close range, a Damietta would have dealt a heavy blow, but unfortunately, she missed. Petra shouted a warning and raced forward as Niff scrambled to cock the sniper again, with Skolas bearing down on her. He seized the sniper and snapped it in two with his bare hands, dropping the circuiting pieces to the ground. He pulled out a shotgun and brought the butt down hard on Niff's head. Sparks flew as her metal helmet cracked and she slumped over, dazed, and Skolas whipped the shotgun around to deliver the killing blow.

Time seemed to slow down. Petra gave a shout and, gathering her full momentum and strength, leapt through the air toward Skolas as three blasts of a shotgun echoed through the cave. She landed on his back, balancing herself by pushing her feet against the weird horn-things sticking out of his back. Before he could shake her off, she found a slight gap in his armor, and shoving the barrel of her sidearm into it, she emptied her magazine into the back of his neck in a desperate fury. She threw the empty gun aside and pulled out her knife. Throwing herself onto the top of his helmet, she made an erratic swipe toward his face with her knife, intending to take out his eyes, but missed. Her knife caught on his rebreather, and as one of his huge arms grabbed her and yanked her over his head, it was dislodged, falling and disappearing in the darkness. Skolas slammed her to the ground. He stumbled back, gasping and choking. Petra's HUD showed that there were high levels of toxic carbon monoxide present. She scrambled back, her survival instincts kicking in, and, as Skolas found his rebreather and positioned it across his mouth and nose, she grabbed Niff's arm firmly and activated an emergency transmat.

She felt them hit the ground and forced her good eye open, pulling her helmet off of her sweaty head. The light stung her eye. She closed it again as a couple shipwrights turned toward her in surprise. She was on the floor in the middle of the Hanger Bay of Paladin Abra Zire's command ship.

"What the-?!"

"What happened?"

"Sergeant? Can you hear me?"

"Skolas," She gasped, fighting to remain conscious, "Ambushed us on Rox-9. Tell Paladin Zire… get the Crows… Rox-9. The coordinates..." she collapsed over Niff, who was long gone, muttering as her vision faded away, "I think I uploaded them…"