Aside from the sounds of the local wildlife living their lives amongst the trees, the forest outside of Discovery was silent. A dirt road surrounded by trees on either side was all that awaited the truck full of soldiers when they arrived at the spot indicated by their map, made all the more unsettling by several darkened stains in the dirt where the previous holdups had taken place. The light of the twin suns filtered in hazily through the lush canopy, shadows dancing in tandem as the wind rustled the leaves overhead.
In the distance, Octavia could faintly hear the sound of waves crashing against the coast, but from where they were standing she couldn’t see the vast ocean. The wind whistled through the trees, providing an ethereal chorus of whispers and howls as the wind ebbed and flowed. They were too far away from the colony for the sounds of city life to interrupt the sounds of nature, leaving them truly in solitude as they stood within the forest.
“Amaranthians sure know how to pick planets,” Alex remarked as she hoisted herself up on top of the cab of the truck, peering off into the forest on both sides with unfiltered awe, “This reminds me of back home - the forests of Ilox looked just like this,” she added, her voice lowering an octave into a breathless tone of wonder.
“I won’t lie - I prefer the desert myself,” Octavia admitted amusedly as she stepped away from the truck, making her way over to the disrupted dirt where the bloodstains were, “I can see the appeal though, it is very pretty.”
“Too much nature for me,” Jace remarked as he dismounted from the truck bed, stepping to the side of the road to kick at an errant pile of dirt, “This shit’s got disease, animals that just wanna eat you, and fucking bugs, man! I’ll take the mean streets any day,” he added, the disgust clear in his tone.
“You were all lucky just to be born on planets,” Mack interjected with a short bark of laughter, “Habitat stations don’t come anywhere close to this,” she added, turning on the spot as she marvelled at the canopy above.
“You’re a spacer?” Octavia asked curiously, turning her head towards the pilot with a slight tilt.
“Horizon Station, born and raised,” Mackenzie replied boisterously, snapping her fingers into a finger-gun as she grinned widely, “Didn’t step foot on solid ground until I was nineteen!”
“Now that’s fucked,” Jace remarked, shaking his head in meagre disbelief.
“Guys, focus,” B’roka barked from his position kneeling next to the disrupted dirt, “Minuteman Kelly, distribute the ordinance. Minuteman Jones, cut the chatter and stay on overwatch. Flight Officer O’laughlin, see if you have a signal to the Scales of Justice - keep them on the line in case we need reinforcements,” he ordered before turning his head towards Octavia, “And Guardian Tiberius, tune into frequency delta.”
“Sorry, boss,” Jace remarked before turning to jog back to the bed of the truck where he had stashed his duffel bag.
“Yep! On it, L-T!” Alex snapped.
“I’ll see what I can do, sir,” Mackenzie replied with a nod, making her way to the cab of the truck to try her radio.
Shaking his head, B’roka turned back towards the scene of the assault in silence. Zuur was busy sniffing away as it slowly circled the area with its face to the ground, the sounds of its loud inhalations distinctly audible in the otherwise quiet forest.. Its enormous tail swished slowly behind it as it made a perimeter, its enormous paws leaving no trace as it barely disturbed the dirt it walked on.
“I am suddenly reminded of how fucking scary xaxar are,” Vita remarked as she watched Zuur plod around them, her arms crossed and a focused look on her purple face.
“Shush, Vi,” Octavia snipped quietly as she knelt across from the Lieutenant, turning her gaze down towards the stained dirt as she shifted her helmet communicator to the correct frequency.
“‘Vi’, for Vita, correct? Your digital intelligence?” B’roka asked curiously, his head turned up slightly to indicate his shifting attention.
“Yes, sir,” Octavia replied with a short nod, glancing up at him curiously.
“Then greetings to the other Guardian Tiberius,” he remarked with a friendly gesture of his hands, “I apologize for not greeting her earlier - remarkable though amaranthian digital intelligence technology may be, it is not conducive to a polite conversation when you cannot see nor hear the other participant.”
“Are all ryjax this long-winded and painfully polite or is it just him?” Vita wondered aloud as she crossed the stained dirt and stood next to the Lieutenant, peering down at him with a curious look.
“She says hello and that she doesn’t blame you for not greeting her,” Octavia replied, ignoring her companion’s comments, “It’s acceptable to just address me - you’re addressing both of us when you are, after all.”
“Noted,” B’roka remarked with a single nod. His head turned back towards the stains as he pointed to the scuffed dirt, “Forty-two calibre rifle casing here, forty-five handgun there, and six thirty-eight shells over there,” he explained as he pointed to each expended cartridge, “Restricted military, police and civilian calibres. They must be using whatever they can get their hands on.”
Octavia’s retinal display blinked for a moment before a series of equations and analytics began to populate her view, linking the expended calibres to phantom weapons as Vita searched through the amaranthian database for a match. While the equations ran, a brief scan of the ground confirmed her suspicions as she reported, “Ballistics confirm no plasma scaring - they don’t have hypertech weapons at least.”
“Small graces,” B’roka replied thankfully, shuffling in his spot to another section of the disturbed ground, “This blast mark here - this is from a Federation Mark-Eighteen Flashbang. The drivers were likely blinded first so they couldn’t drive away.”
Octavia’s neurolink pinged as the analysis was completed and the information began to populate her vision, highlighting the shape and size of the blood spatters and tying them to each of the shells that were used to make them. She frowned slightly and piped up, “Ballistics is finished calculating; that forty-two is a Federation X83, modulated as a submachine gun. They’re using hollow-point rounds, not standard full-metal jackets.”
“Typical machines, chambering their weapons to do the most damage to organics,” B’roka remarked bitterly, “Anything else of note?”
“No, sir. Standard issue Alari Inquisitor sidearm for the forty-five. Thirty-eight is commercial grade and matches the ballistics of two hundred models of civilian revolvers,” Octavia reported with a shake of her head, pushing off of the ground to stand up as her head turned towards Zuur to watch it hunt.
The xaxar suddenly paused in its hunting, lowering its head to the ground until its nose was practically in the dust. As it inhaled, a low growl began to emanate from within it, the rumbling baritone echoing through the trees as it raised its head and began to stalk off towards the coast with its head lowered and tail straight out behind it. As it left, B’roka stood up and barked out, “Zuur has the scent! Everyone, roll out!”
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As Octavia stood up, one of her ears twitched in response to one of the humans suddenly stepping up behind her. She had to consciously bite down on the programmed reaction of her combat interface so she didn’t immediately leap into action as the surprise lanced down her spine. Focusing on unflexing her fist that had unconsciously lept for the pistol at her hip, she slowly turned her head towards Jace, who was standing directly behind her with two rifles in hand.
“Woah! Easy, foxy, no need to get all gunslinger on me,” he remarked with a mocking edge, “Take this, just in case,” he added as he held one of the rifles out to her.
Taking a breath as the instincts to follow her combat interface bled away, she reached out and gripped the barrel of the rifle, snatching it away with far more strength than she had intended. As the joints in her secondary skeleton enhanced the movement, a look of surprise crossed Jace’s face as the rifle was effortlessly torn from his grip, the excess force even going so far as to force the human to take a stumbled half-step forward so as not to be pulled off balance. His look shifted into an awkward grin as he steadied himself and murmured, “You’re awfully strong for a fox,” as if he couldn’t help himself from making the remark.
“Not a fox,” Octavia snapped sharply as she shifted the rifle grip into her dominant hand, her armour instantly connecting to the computerized parts within the weapon to link a sophisticated readout to her heads-up display. Without looking away from Jace her opposite hand automatically darted up and racked the bolt back with a prominent click-clack that echoed sharply between the trees, a fresh round loaded in the chamber for combat.
Jace visibly winced, though his shit-eating grin never left his face as his visage became slightly more pale in the dim light of the forest. Taking a half-step back, he eagerly wheeled around on his heels and powered off after Zuur without a word. The sense of satisfaction from terrifying the human brought a hidden grin to Octavia as she turned and began to follow at a much more casual pace.
“If you don’t kill him, I will,” Vita remarked as she walked backwards in front of Octavia, her grin practically ear-to-ear.
“Patience,” Octavia remarked playfully, “Like Auntie Valentina always says; good things come to those who wait.”
As Octavia stepped off of the road she began to make her way up the short incline into the forest proper, following the rest of the squad as they left the vehicle behind to pursue Zuur through the woods. It was impossible to miss the xaxar as it plodded through the underbrush, its continuous growl serving as an audible beacon that guided them in the right direction.
With the rifle in hand, Octavia kept a cautious pace behind Zuur and the other squadmates, her gaze flicking between the trees in the distance as she searched for any signs of their quarry. The forest was dense and the sound of crashing waves was getting closer with every step, but nothing stood out in the endless wilderness. Pine needles and wooden debris littered the forest floor, irritating her paws through the ballistic layer of her armour with every step, drawing her attention down to the ground in front of her.
“Oh fuck!” Octavia and Vita suddenly screamed as their next paw step fell through the ground into nothing, the sensation of pins and needles racing up their leg as the haptic feedback in her augmentations tried and failed to interact with the digitecture ground in front of them.
“Octy!” Mackenzie called out in surprise, darting forward from her position a few feet to her side. As the pilot reached the hole, she desperately reached an arm out to grip Octavia's shoulder before she fell in, only to fall short. She gripped tightly onto the edge of her cape instead, watching with wide-eyed terror as she pulled hard onto the cape until it became taut with Octavia hanging at a dangerous angle directly over the pit below.
Octavia lurched forward, held from gravity’s clutches by the grip on her cape and one paw planted on the edge of the hole while the other dangled loosely over the pit that she still couldn’t see. As the panicked edge left her system she felt the bleedthrough of her neurolink dissipate, feeling more like herself despite her currently treacherous position. Flexing her paws, retractable claws extended into the dirt, anchoring her grip as best as she could as she brought her other leg backwards to try and grip onto the flat ground outside of the hole.
“Hold on, Guardian Tiberius!” B’roka exclaimed as he charged over to their position with his shoulders squared. He came to a skidding halt behind her and reached out over the hole, gripping the back of her armour’s collar with a steady hand. Without any effort he yanked her firmly backwards, sending her catapulting out of the hole. Despite her clawed grip on the ground, she squarely tumbled backwards, her back hitting Mackenzie’s chest as the human’s arms instinctively wrapped around her torso to keep them both from falling to the ground.
Disoriented from the sudden change of direction, Octavia looked over her shoulder in surprise, only to find the dumbly grinning visage of the human pilot behind her. Peering down at her as she held Octavia aloft, Mackenzie remarked smoothly, “You know, I don’t go fishing often - but you’re quite a catch!”
Octavia’s brain froze as the sound of a needle scratching on a record brought all of her thoughts grinding to a halt.
“Seriously?” Vita asked in abject disbelief.
“That was the worst pickup line I’ve ever heard,” Octavia managed to proclaim, the shock impossible to keep from her voice.
Mackenzie broke into a bout of laughter as she pushed Octavia up into a proper standing position before she broke away to stand next to her, looking down at the ground where she had almost fallen in, “It was the best I could do on short notice,” she remarked in amusement before gesturing to the ground with an idle sweep of her hand, “How did you not notice that pit there?”
“Digitecture trap,” Octavia remarked with a dry sigh as she unhappily reached through her neurolink and disconnected from the local network. Instantly the ground in front of her vanished, replaced with a glaringly obvious hole in the ground that was several feet deep and had sharpened wooden spikes jutting out of the bottom, “They expected the Enforcers to follow them into the woods.”
As she disconnected from the network, she noticed several other changes throughout the forest. Bushes disappeared, holes opened up in the ground, and even the flat ground towards the coast shifted into a raised mound of a rocky coastal hill, all previously concealed with digitecture that she couldn’t perceive. She sighed in annoyance and cursed under her breath with a shake of her head.
“Roger that,” B’roka remarked with a nod as he turned his attention past the hole to the rest of the group, “Keep an eye out for traps! They were expecting amaranthians but that doesn’t mean they didn’t hide anything the conventional way. Eyes-up, Rednecks!”
“Someone keep an eye on foxy and make sure she doesn’t fall in another pit,” Jace remarked with a short bark of laughter and a shake of his head.
“I’ll keep both eyes on her,” Mackenzie remarked, smirking as she turned her head to blatantly eye Octavia from head to paw.
Octavia couldn’t help the scoff that escaped her at Mackenzie’s comment, shaking her head slightly in amusement before readjusting her grip on her borrowed rifle. Glancing over at Mackenzie she offered a small nod, then set off, taking care to round the pit without falling in this time.
“The hill up ahead was hidden by the digitecture,” she remarked as she advanced, pointing to the hill in question as she glanced over at the Lieutenant, “Might want to check it out.”
“Looks like that’s where we’re going anyways,” B’roka remarked as he began to follow Zuur once again, heading off in the direction of the hill in the distance.
Zuur had begun to pick up the pace, plodding ever-faster through the underbrush as it deftly avoided pitfalls and trip wires as if they weren’t even there. It effortlessly bounded between the trees as it steadily sped up, making its way tirelessly towards the hill in the distance. The rest of the team had to start running just to keep up, each doing their best to avoid the scattered traps throughout the woods on the way towards their destination - without anyone being connected to the network, however, the traps were fairly easy to see and avoid, even at a decent pace.
As they climbed the hill, Zuur slowed down to a near-stop and dropped to its stomach, crawling along silently through the underbrush to crest the hill. Its growling suddenly stopped as it fell entirely silent, and as the rest of the group approached the base of the hill Octavia found that she couldn’t find so much as a hint as to where the xaxar had disappeared to. She paused and took a look around at the rise of the hill, but after a moment she turned towards B’roka with a slight tilt of her head, hoping for his input.
“Stay down,” he replied quietly, taking a knee as he glanced over his shoulder and made a brief gesture with his hand to get the attention of the rest of the squad. The humans took to their knees in a loose semi-circle around the base of the hill, their rifles up as they scanned the area in silence for a few moments.
A soft, warbling hiss came from somewhere near the top of the hill - had she not been paying attention, Octavia would have easily mistaken the sound for that of one of the creatures in the canopy. Turning her head up towards the source of the sound she squinted for a moment before returning her gaze to the Lieutenant as she asked, “Is that the signal?”
“Yes, it is,” B’roka replied with a small nod. He raised his hand once again and made another motion, and without a word the humans lowered themselves to their stomachs and began to steadily crawl up the incline, disappearing into the underbrush as they made their way slowly towards the crest of the hill. B’roka stayed where he was to watch them disappear for a moment before he lowered himself steadily and began the climb.
Left at the base of the hill by herself, Octavia looked down at her armour and the distinct mulberry cape hanging off of her shoulders, “Vita, you mind doing something about this?”
“One sec, the Guardian armour’s getting some sort of interference,” Vita remarked. She hummed for a moment as she focused on her unseen work, then suddenly she called, “Got it!”
As soon as she declared her success, the silvery metal of the armoured panels of her armour flickered unsteadily as they faded and warped. The armour began to bend the light around her before her eyes, actively camouflaging her from view as the panels began to mimic the scenery opposite her. The mulberry accents switched instantly to the same pattern, mimicking the forest around her as the reserve power was directed to the active camouflage systems.
Satisfied that she was all but invisible in the dense underbrush of the forest, she shouldered her rifle and steadily made her way up the incline in a low crouch, keeping her head low and her silhouette as small as possible as she steadily traversed from shadow to shadow. The crest of the hill steadily approached, though she couldn’t see any of her companions by the time she got there. At the top of the hill was a small thicket of trees around a rocky grove, and there she took a knee behind a rock to peer over the decline to the small, hidden camp below.