I had talked it over with my team, and they all knew the ship didn't have the fuel to make it, so I had started angling the ship towards another city that was close. Everyone would have to walk for a few hours to get to the target city. But we could leave the drop-ship in high altitude and let it fly on towards another city before crashing, allowing our true destination to be somewhat hidden. I was sure anyone smart enough would figure it out, but I was hoping by then it would be too late or that who ever was looking already didn't care enough to find us. We had also decided to take the ships' owner with us and give him a building maybe two in the city to compensate him for the loss of his ship, he should be able to recover soon enough.

  Once the ship was high enough, I stood up and walked out of the cockpit as the rest of the Star Hawks team was pulling wing suits out from under the chairs and putting them on over their battle gear. I nodded to each of them before reaching out for a random seat and pulling the cushion up and reaching in to retrieve my own wing suit. After quickly putting it on, the other five were encouraged to put their own on so we could leave, the more time wasted up here, would lead to a longer walk to the city. I quickly walked over to the ramp door and pushed the button to lower it as I turned to see the Star Hawks lined up and ready to jump. The other four were still struggling into the wing suits, and Jasmine was looking at hers with apprehension.

  “Hurry up, and put it on!” Corwin shouted at her over the screaming of the wind.

  I did not hear what she said back to him over the rushing of the wind, but I did see her lips moving before she started putting it on over her shoes. Occasionally I would glance out the back of the drop-ship and make sure we were not getting too far away from the landing zone, luckily they were all ready and lined up before we did. I nodded to Zeo who quickly ran and jumped out of the ship, followed by the rest of the star hawk team. I was turning to look at the rest when the man who turned out to be called Trevor ran past me. However, he did hesitate for a few seconds as he glanced back at his ship one last time, before he turned back and jumped. I smiled at his courage and determination before turning to look at Corwin and his team.

  “Jump or die” I stated simply before turning, checking my helmet was secured properly and then leaping out of the ship.

  I extended my arms and legs out to catch the air as I flew. A visor was slid out of the helmet to cover my eyes and display a line out in front of me to follow to the predetermined landing zone. A green line highlighted the four ahead of me, so I could see where they were, and when I rolled over to look behind me, I could see another four human outlines. Two of them were a lot closer than the other two, this made me think Corwin had to throw Jasmine out of the ship to get her to jump. I giggled softly to myself before rolling back over and tilting my body to slide back on course with the yellow line. The slightest movement would send me shooting off in another directly, causing me to have to counter the move and come back to the line. Truthfully, I was having fun with it and enjoying playing around, until my radio app let out a ping. I opened it to see a direct secured signal.

  [FSGT Walker: Kenna, we have a problem]

  I quickly pulled myself back onto the line. I had to take a minute and breathe slowly to get myself to calm down. A problem while at this altitude in a wing suit that may or may not have a parachute was really not something I needed right now.

  [FLT Mackenzie: What is the problem?]

  [FSGT Walker: My wing suit beeped, I think someone has remotely activated a tracking device hidden inside them.]

  I was about to ask if she was sure it was a tracking device and not something else when my own suit suddenly let out a loud beep. And the words in bold red colour that read ‘Tracker Activated’ flashed across the left top corner of my visor for a second.

  [FLT Mackenzie: Oh, someone is pissed at us.]

  [FSGT Walker: You got a plan for this? Or should I start looking for a good spot to stick my head when we reach the sand on the ground?]

  [FLT Mackenzie: Ha ha, very funny, of course I have a plan… okay I have the start of a plan… okay I have no plan, but I do have an idea!]

  [FSGT Walker: An idea… alright, I guess we can work with an idea, what is your idea?]

  [FLT Mackenzie: When we reach the ground, we find a nice sandy spot and stick our heads into it.]

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  [FSGT Walker: …that …that is your idea?]

  [FLT Mackenzie: No, it was your idea, I'm just taking credit.]

  [FSGT Walker: That's a terrible idea, think of a new one.]

  [FLT Mackenzie: Shit, alright. Let's see… ooh, wait a minute, yes that's it! We can stick our heads into the sand! That's a great idea!]

  [FSGT Walker: don't go loco on me! I have already told you it's a terrible idea!]

  [FLT Mackenzie: no, it's a great idea, we land take off our suits and berry the damn things head first! It might look like we crashed landed and died on impact or something.]

  [FSGT Walker: that's stupid, no one will fall for that!]

  [FLT Mackenzie: I don't need them to fall for it, I just need them to buy it long enough for us to get to the city.]

  A warning flashed across my visor, and it suddenly occurred to me the wing suit was considered a very dangerous sport on my planet, and that got me thinking about how safe what I was currently doing actually was. I was about to voice my concern to Zeo when the warning word changed from yellow to red and the parachute on my back deployed on its own. I let out a groan as me decent was suddenly slowed, and I found myself head up instead of down. My visor continued to display the way to the landing zone and showed that I had deployed my parachute at 2000 feet (0.61 kilometres).

  *******

  Alison Rose was sitting on the deck of a Siluhsky with one leg hanging over the edge as the ship flew low over the ground. She thought the damn thing looked like a black hawk helicopter from home if someone had decided to build it with antigravity plates on the underside instead of rotary wings on the top. With her sniper rifle in hand, she was scanning the horizon. Apparently some nut job players had stolen a drop-ship and crashed it out here somewhere after they jumped out of it; at least that was the story she had been told. She didn't believe it, there was no way command would send a platoon out here to find some stolen player's ship just so they could recover its salvage and arrest the fools that stole it. The woman sitting next to her had short brown hair and looked like she came from mice. Alison found it fascinating when she found out her friend, Lilah, actually did evolve from mice on her home planet, the mice had become the dominant species instead of monkeys.

  “Corporal Rose, Ma’am, do you see anything out there?” Private, Lilah Sliure asked.

  “Not a damn thing, plus you really need to just call me Ma'am when you want to talk to me.”

  “Yes Corporal Rose, Ma'am, you have told me this many times and each time I tell you again I can not stop talking this way, my people believe to show respect for the person we wish to speak to we must first say their title or in the military case their rank, then their name, and since we are military in the federation I must then call you Ma'am every time. It's just not polite or respectful otherwise. You know, a lady of nobility such as myself can not be seen failing to do this.”

  Alison let out a sigh as she nodded her head. She knew this, and Lilah had told her many times, but she had been hoping to wear her down and get her to stop at some point. She was about to respond when she noticed something weird in the distance. She instantly stood up and pointed her rifle at it as she looked through the scope.

  “Corporal Rose, Ma'am, do you see something?”

  “I see… i uh… I see legs coming out of the sand, and I think I see one person kneeling by a hill I can't see his torso, but the knees are bent like he was kneeling when he hit the sand dune…” She replied in confusion.

  She suddenly stood up and moved to one side of the door's opening and placed the barrel of her rifle on a small piece of metal that her sergeant had directed her to. She leaned into her rifle and slowly made some adjustments to her weapon before looking through the scope, moments later she gently squeezed the trigger and a needle sized hole appeared in the thigh of the kneeling legs. Nothing happened, there was no difference.

  “I think they have been dead for a while since there is no blood… hold that thought” she said slowly before making some adjustments to her rifle then the scope before leaning down to the scope again and taking aim a second time. Moments later, she squeezed the trigger and a golf ball sized hole appeared in the side of a leg that was sticking straight up. Less than a second later, the leg deflated as sand poured out of the hole.

  “AMBUSH, AMBUSH, TAKE EVASIVE ACTION!!” Alison screamed as she waved to the pilot to get them the hell out of there.

  The Siluhsky suddenly rocketed up into the air, the sudden downward force on Alison's body forced her to kneel as she braced herself from the quick accent into the sky. The ship then levelled out and tilted to begin circling around the area, making sure to keep itself well out of range from whatever could be waiting for them down there. Alison slowly got back to her feet as a mouse like man with brown hair down to his mid-back, who Alison knew as Lilah’s uncle, Sergeant Jefferson Sliure, walked over to stand next to Alison.

  “What did you see that made you show such shame?”

  It sucked being the only human in a platoon of Miceria. They used weird rules and customs that Alison had been finding it hard to adapt to, and calling out an ambush and ordering the pilot to take evasive actions was considered shameful on her part. If she couldn't justify it, then she was to be shunned until she redeemed herself.

  “Sergeant Sliure, Sir, I put holes in two of the legs one had no reaction not even any blood, when I put a bigger hole in the second one sand poured out of it, this lead me to believe they were all filled with sand and were left there to lure in who ever came to investigate. On my home planet, cowards would do this and leave behind explosives or an ambush of some kind to kill anyone who came to help. They called it a baited kill zone. I decided to put our lives ahead of finding out what some fool player who is most likely dead wanted us to find, or die in the process of finding nothing.

  The man lifted his nose in the air and sniffed before turning away and walking over to the pilot.

  “Glass the zone, then get us out of here. Plus, I agree with the Corporal, this shit is not important enough to throw our lives away sorting out.”

  “Sergeant Sliure, Sir, Yes Sir, glassing zone. Flight Sergeant Arbfitle, colleague, drop the omega 23 glassier bomb.

  *******

  I was just stepping onto a road that was leading into the city. We had all somehow survived the landing and had walked to the city, only just reaching the first building when I heard a boom. A few moments later a wind hit me, nearly knocking me off my feet, and as I turned to see what had caused it I saw a huge mushroom cloud about where our landing zone had been.

  “Oh, fudge cakes” I whispered in shock.

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