Veira: Chapter two was actually written about two months later. Still needs one more, though.
Lost Chance
Glance down the sight of the long plasma rifle. She was perched up in the cliffs of Vaang, the innermost of Vort's three moons. Thunder crackled quietly in the distance, off at the horizon where it wouldn't be a nuisance for at least three hours. The party below didn't even blink.
The wind was high on the ledge she was sprawled out on, streaking past her antennae with a whir. Peaceful. Safe, on the hunt, gathering information before the hit. Everything had fallen into place perfectly this time, and she smiled in the dry air for a moment before peering down the scope again.
The Vortian smiled, tossed something at one of his comrades and went back to work on the computer set up. They were almost a half mile below her, but she had bugged the camp. There was that sizzle of static from the band wrapped around an antenna, components in the ground messing with the signal, but not so much that she couldn't understand them.
"General Lard-Nar, we're being hailed from orbit. Skoodge has arrived, and they're bringing him down."
Tak grinned, breeze on serrated teeth as she watched the scene below through the rifle sight. The Vortian lifted up his goggles and peered at his own screen for a moment before setting them back and turning to walk over to the pale green Geminix that had spoken to him. Muffled sound of him speaking as he leaned against her console, a picture of the Irken in question on the screen.
"Let's just hope he's telling the truth. And that he can help us."
High up on the cliffs, the female Irken flexed her fingers and set the gun down for a moment, sat up slowly to stretch. She'd been waiting too long for this to finally happen. Still listening to the radio transmission, she scanned the sky for a moment, eventually picking out the bright orange plume of a reentry craft, stark against the deep purple of the sky. It disappeared behind one of the black clouds for a moment, emerging again sans it's brightness, simply visible because of the sleek chrome of the hull. Arc in a careful turn, until the ship landed with all the grace of its form, a few meters from the Resisty camp.
Tak sprawled flat again on the rock, gloved hands clenched slightly on the gun. Through the scope, she watched as the hatch sprung, silent hiss of escaping air and a cloud as the first of the Vortians stepped out. A female, a male, another female.
There. She grinned again, eyes narrowed in a cruel look.
Skoodge stepped out, brushing off the front of his uniform and looking around at the dark surroundings of the camp. Lard Nar and another of the random aliens populating the camp had come out to meet the Irken deviant, and Tak watched as they escorted him back to the mess of tents and wind shields. The guards followed him closely, and she could tell just by their posture that they weren't all to comfortable with having him in the Resisty camp.
Click. She cocked the gun, glancing down the barrel for a moment before the static picked up and she heard Lard Nar talking again.
"...know you weren't comfortable giving the access codes over data feed, so we thank you for coming."
Through the scope, she finally caught the Irken's face. He looked scared, uncomfortable at being surrounded by those who didn't trust him, and who he didn't trust either. He was wringing his hands, glancing around, but definitely paying attention to the goggled Vortian. She smiled, the crosshairs on his face, and listened as he stammered distantly.
"Yeah, well I wasn't sure I wanted to give away my position and everything. They're looking for me, you know."
"They're looking for us as well," Lard Nar responded softly
"Uh.." Skoodge seemed to snap back to reality. "Right. Sorry. The codes?"
Nods from the group, Tak noticed annoyed faces as she scanned over them for a moment.
The Irken rattled off a list of numbers, his eyes blank for a moment as he searched through the memory of his pak.
Tak scowled, antennae twitching in annoyance. "You filthy moron. Where are they going to use it?"
Lard Nar turned to a console and started recording the long string of code. He frowned, only getting halfway through the list before turning back to their guest. "This is for the military lock down on Devastis?" He asked, fingers shivering in the air over the touchpad.
Skoodge nodded, folding his hands behind himself for a moment. "You want me to repeat it?"
"No." Tak whispered to the air.
Bang.
Even through the recoil of the rifle, she could see the explosion as the slug triggered upon impact with his metal brain. A second later, she watched as his green blood spattered on the wind shields of the camp, what was left of his torso slumped in the dust.
The Resisty screamed all dove for cover. She smiled, watching them as they scanned the horizon from under tables and chairs. Standing up, she stretched, waving to the distant Lard Nar before turning away. A hop, skip, and jump down the rock face to her Voot Runner, and then she streaked off into space.
---
The list scrolled slowly down the screen, angular green characters reflected smoothly in her violet eyes. She loved dragging a line through each name with her finger as they passed. There he was. Skoodge.
Mimi peered down at the screen as well, perched on her master's shoulder, the feline disguise over her metallic features. The robot reached out, dragged a hand over the long list of names that didn't have a line through them yet. Tak frowned and pushed her away.
"We're assigned to go to Blorch next," she said, taking the controls.
Eventually she'd get through them all.
---
Her boots crunched in the loose gravel of the parking structure planet. The gun, as usual when she went on assignment, was slung over her shoulder. The air was stale, choked full of exhaust and the smell of spilled fuel. The wind traced through the paths, carved out by the bodies of randomly placed and tightly packed ships. She could just see the sky over the wing of an ugly green ovoid ship, a horrible reddish brown and the arc of the skyhook, shooting up to the zenith in one fluid stroke.
Antennae perked. She looked around for a moment before setting off to search through the shipyards. Someone was defacing Irken property, and the Tallest wanted him out of the picture.
Shades of color, all grayed over in the ever settling dust that seemed to rain down from the sky. She had to pick her way around pools of spilled fuel, lubricant, even the rusted off wing of a vessel that looked like it had been parked there before the conversion of the planet had gone over. The vandal was supposed to be somewhere in this hex of the world, his basic position triangulated and updated three times a minute in the memory of her pak.
Crunch.
She stopped for a moment, listening on the wind, before latching on to one of the lower ladder rungs of a nearby ship. The Irken hoisted herself on top, staying low, her knees just brushing the laser burnt hull as she crept forward to the nose. Back to the topmost weapon mount of the thing, she peered around the side, eyes running smoothly, searching for movement.
Nothing for a long moment, just the wind and swirls of the ever-present dust. And then she heard a loud clang, head jerking toward the sound. It was an old Irken class Voot cruiser, dented up and in apparent disrepair. But it was the dust that caught her eye, the lack of it, the fact that it hadn't been there long enough to blend in with the rest of its surroundings.
An empty lubricant can clattered out from behind the ship, dragging streaks in the dust. A squeal, and then she knew. There he was. The defective SIR unit scrambled out from hiding and scooped up the can before plopping down to play with it again. The robot wouldn't stop squealing and Tak clutched the trailing edge of the cannon.
"Gir! What are you doing? I told you to be quiet!"
Her eyes shot wide open. She hadn't heard his voice in ages, and it prompted immediate action, her hand to the gun on her back, tensed legs. He walked out and snatched the can away from his minion, going off on some useless lecture about how they couldn't be noticed despite how great he was. She stood up, the rifle out and ready.
"Zim."
He looked up, an annoyed look changing instantly to panic as he recognized the gun and who was holding it. Breath hissed through her teeth as she pulled the trigger, the force of the blast almost throwing off her footing. She saw him jump out of the way, back behind the bulk of the Voot cruiser.
Her boots slid against the smooth metal, and she jumped down, landing heavily but still on her feet. Quick sidesteps to get him in view again. The other Irken was already in the cockpit, booting up for a launch sequence. She watched as his are shot out and grabbed the SIR unit. She shot, the blue plasma slapping against the hull as the cruiser shot up into the sky.
"Damnit!" She fired at the sky, spray that hit nothing but still made her feel better for some reason. She stood there staring up at the spot where he had disappeared.
The sound of running. She glanced over, saw him come out from between two of the flanking ships. He skidded to a stop, gravel spinning aside, and just stared at the sky.
A sigh, before he kicked at the ground, angry. "Fuck. Thanks a lot, Tak. Now I'm stuck here."
She cocked an eyebrow, watched him for a moment before she finally recognized the human for who he was. Dib.
It had been forever, and he was taller, thin and darker looking, somehow pulling off an air of control. She got closer, circled him slowly before she strapped the rifle to her back again and reached out, taking the hem of his sleeve.
"Come on. I'm not going to leave you here to die."
He jerked away, scowled at her as she continued back to her ship, the pause of only a moment before she could hear his footsteps behind her. And then he was next to her, hands in his pockets as he studied her.
"Why?"
She glanced up at him for a second, annoyed more than anything. "I know what it's like to be left for dead by that disgusting idiot."
They didn't speak again as she led the way back to her ship, watched as he got inside to sit next to Mimi. She closed the glass and ignored him as she walked away to finish her job.
The Geminix reference is from 'Bitter' by ailea. Read it if you're not already. Also, forums if you wanna stab me, guys. :D