A/N I am SO sorry for the wait, I hadn't realized that I hadn't posted the sixth chapter on , it's been on AO3 for quite a while though. However that means you guys get two chapters right off the bat! So yeah! I'm really sorry about that. Please enjoy it! Content warning for death and stuff.


Three sweeps since she'd enlisted into the off-planet military. It wasn't as if she didn't know the risks, but it wasn't until now that she really realized just how dangerous this work could be. Living and fighting on the front lines definitely put one's mortality into perspective. She crouched low to the ground as she slowly crept along the path, holding a hand up to give her squadron the signal to wait as she slowly worked her way up the path, military grade gun clutched in her fists. It felt so clunky in her hands, especially compared to the claws she'd once used.

Her tongue darted out over her lips as she waved her team forwards, eyes narrowed at the area before her. She then indicated for her squadron to wait there again, slowly making her way forwards towards a covered area of the path, her breathing heavy in her chest as she walked up along the path through to the next area.

According to the most recent report on the area, the inhabitants of this particular moon were not the most friendly and had managed to thieve away some of their weapons which is why they sent Nepeta. She was efficient, consistent, and got the job done. It's taken her a couple sweeps to earn her reputation, but when she did, it was beyond noticeable. She and her squadron would start getting more difficult tasks, better benefits, all that fun shit. She got enough shore leave to go visit her moirail on his ship sometimes.

Now she had her group hold. There was bound to be an ambush in the area so she climbed up into the jungle-like areas on either side of the path, narrowing her eyes and creeping forwards ever so slowly, she knew they'd be there. She paused mid-step at the sound of something or someone moving not terribly far from her and she crouched down again, narrowing her eyes and checking her gun briefly to ensure that she wouldn't have some crazy fluke accident in which she left the safety on or some such bullshit. She swallowed and tread forwards carefully, trying to keep her labored breathing slow and steady as she made her way through the foliage.

Twenty seconds and she realized just how much of a fucking idiot she was. They weren't on this side of the path, a gunshot and one of her battalion went down. She turned just in time to see her tealblood fall, clutching at his gut. Fuck. They needed to get some cover. She waved her squadron into this side of the path where they crouched down, peering into the foliage on the other side. The humidity of the foreign planet had them at a disadvantage, breathing heavier, making them shake, unable to get enough air into their bodies. She signaled for open fire.

She'd been lucky to have only lost one of her squadron. She signaled for them to wait, narrowing her eyes at the trees across the way. This was always the rough part, being able to tell whether there were more still there. She waited before waving them forwards, through the foliage, along the side of the path, bloodpusher pounding in her chest as they made it down through the jungle.

It was a slow tedious process, but they got the job done. There would be the sound of a gunshot, they'd have a target, they would fire, then they would eliminate it.

And soon it appeared that they'd done their job, they'd taken out the hostile targets, they found themselves at what looked to be the main camp, mostly deserted except for a few here and there whom they easily downed before starting to go around reclaiming the stolen weaponry. As soon as they'd gotten everything loaded up she had the blueblood girl push the rolling containers while she and the rest of the squadron fanned out ahead.

The slow trek back to their landing base was slow and long, but thankfully uneventful. They turned the corner to the ship's landing pad and Nepeta's throat went dry.

She signaled them to hold.

A group of the green-skinned inhabitants of the planet, nearly twice their own height and a protective sort of outer layer of plastics over their bodies (She'd looked into the reports on the indigenous people of this moon, they apparently grew plastic plates in their skin, like scales of some sort and survived off of some strange diet she couldn't remember all the components of) stood around the base of their ship, carrying more of the stolen military weapons.

And then Nepeta looked up. Hanging from the hull of the ship was their pilot, riddled with holes, her mustard blood dripping all over the ground beneath her. She was hung up on the ship with hooks and ropes wrapped around her throat, pierced through her chest and arms, dangling like some sort of limp doll from the hull of the ship, red and blue eyes staring blankly at the ground. Mouth hanging agape, dripping yellow onto the dirt.

Nepeta swallowed the bile rising in the back of her throat and she glanced back at her squadron. For now, they were stranded. She whispered back to her crew, "Who here can construct a distress beacon?" The little Maroonblood in the back raised his hand and Nepeta nodded, glancing back at the grotesque scene before her. The inhabitants appeared to be waiting for them, "Build one with what you have. Now. Everyone else, make sure Hessir does not die. Do not approach the landing pad. We are outnumbered at about five to one. If they come to us, do not fire unless you have a silencer, understood?"

Her battalion nodded and Hessir got to work, digging through the weaponry they'd just recovered, pulling out various parts of weapons and equipment and going about the slow process of building a handmade distress beacon.

They would switch off watch, two people at a time while the rest of them would try to sleep. For the first few hours the inhabitants appeared to think they were simply taking their time. It wasn't until after that the trouble started.

The first set wandered over to check maybe four hours after they'd started trying to get a signal beacon set up. The tough part was the fact that they didn't have a battery, and certainly not one strong enough to reach a shuttle passing by. So Hessir sat, slowly starting to assemble a battery. It would help if they had a psionic to power the beacon, but alas their pilot was dead and if their pilot weren't dead they wouldn't need the charge in the first place.

At first it was just three, creeping down the path before the two trolls on watch fired and dragged their bodies off the path. Nepeta ushered her squadron off into the cover on either side. As soon as they realized that their scouts went missing there would likely be more coming. Hopefully they could pick them off one by one like this. But these were not primitive creatures, they understood warfare and understood it fairly well it seemed.

The next batch was larger, but thanks to their placement off the path, her battalion managed to down each of the hostiles efficiently. It seemed like they might be able to get out of this safely.

That is until the entire hoard came, realizing that their scouts had been killed.

Nepeta ushered Hessir into the crate containing the weapons and had him stay there. If they could get a passing shuttle to come rescue them then they could survive. If not, they were doomed. She had her squadron spread out in the foliage to either side of the path, if they could flank the hoard they might be able to take out the majority of their forces, then they might just stand a chance.

Her bloodpusher beat fast and hard in her chest and she took a moment to clutch the little diamond-shaped locket around her neck, flipping it open just briefly to get a look at the awkward toothy smile of her moirail before smiling a little bit and taking a deep breath. She closed the locket and took a deep breath. She watched as a large group of the hostiles approached the path where her squadron was set up. She checked her gun to make sure that it was loaded properly. She took a deep breath and watched down the barrel of her gun, taking a deep breath and waiting until they'd made it just slightly past their ambush before opening fire on them.

For a while it appeared that they might actually make it through this, they couldn't entirely tell where they were being shot at from, but slowly it seemed like they figured out where they were, she heard a cry of pain from across the path and she started moving down the side of the path, trying to find a different vantage point and firing into the crowd of the plastic-skinned hostiles.

There were almost 30 of them and only six of themselves. She panted as she ducked behind the trunk of a tree and started to reload her gun. She heard another pained cry from across the path. How many of them were left? She clutched to her gun, panting and sweating before peeking out around the back of the tree and taking aim before starting to fire again and moving along in a crouch through the underbrush.

She grunted in pain as she felt a bullet in her shoulder and she gritted her sharp teeth together. She made her way along the floor of the forest, trying to find another point to shoot from and firing again, panting as she picked off a few more of the enemy before she felt another bullet in her stomach and she clutched her gut, breathing heavily and swallowing as she looked down at herself, her hands now covered in her own olive green and her eyes widened. She picked up her gun and managed a few more shots before yelping at the feeling of another shot in her chest and she panted, reaching up to grab her locket as she rested back against the tree she sat by, closing her eyes and trying to keep herself from hyperventilating. She clicked her locket open and ran her blood-covered thumb over the image of Equius's smiling face before closing her eyes again and trying to force herself to stop shaking and relax.

Her battalion never made it out.