Dynamic Patrol: Gel-Squad (Remastering!)

Chapter 10: Guard

Of course, he had ended up with the night shift, Kaleb Aguirre, a human from Mars. At one point, his species occupied Earth with many fluffy, anthropomorphic animals, but the planet took so much industrial damage that the humans decided to leave and terraform a new world. Mars, leaving their animal co-habitants to take over and fend for themselves. That was hundreds of years ago, but they still have a strained relationship. Kaleb thought of this often, even more so when he was on one of these missions. Their group had no official name, only a mission. A mission to acquire and seek out that which was rare; they only specialized in one type of merchandise, and what they did was most certainly illegal. They were poachers, to put it simply.

Their latest operation was to acquire a member of the Omeocoon species. They were one of those new members of the Galactic Protection Force or whatever. Mars had no part in that little experiment of theirs. In fact, they were very much against it, preferring to rough it on their own. Humans are prideful that way; they have always been and have developed a reputation for it. Poaching was just one of the ways they kept their economy flowing. They were meticulous, on top of everything else regarding this sort of operation: they first settled on a planet by establishing a base, then selected a target. Preferably someone nobody would miss. Then they would swiftly depart as if nothing had ever happened, with their treasure in tow; this boat house being here was incredibly convenient.

In terms of power, they had a small, mid-level recon vessel parked on the other side of the island; it was equipped with a cloaking device and the ability to mask its energy signature to remain undetected. For this application, the buyer provided them with a specialized container modified for airtight containment; they'd never captured something so strange before. The ability to alter body density, stretch, and form weapons, among other things. They would catch a pretty penny for this one; what the buyer would use their new toy for is not their concern. Hell, it was probably better off with the buyer. The planet was virtually uninhabitable now that those bombs had killed most of the population. The entire thing went down without a hitch, and they would've made their way out, but the aforementioned bombings got all the sensor towers and satellites in the area watching like hawks, and even a ship like their own would have trouble navigating past that obstacle. So they had to wait, putting Kaleb on guard duty on the night shift. The bombing they had nothing to do with, but it was affecting them as well. 'It's like a vacation,' his Commanding Officer stated more than once as he saw Kaleb gearing up for his late-night assignment. Suppose it was a bit of comfort that the Commander was also up roaming around, talking to their client, finalizing the transfer details, and checking on the other watches.

About thirty minutes later, as he was nodding off, he was able to catch about eight minutes of slumber before he heard a twig snap, causing his eyes to crack open without hesitation just in time to spot a shadow moving relatively closely to the outskirts of the building, and then stopping, it appeared to be hunched over and messing around with something... in its hands. He was aiming a firearm of some kind..? Behind his mask, Kaleb's eyes widened in shock, and he raised his weapon and made his approach rapidly. "Hey, you! Stop that right now!" He said quickly, coming up on the figure, but he was not stopping. The intruder was speeding up whatever he was doing, which irritated the guard immensely. "Hey. I said stop. Or I shoot..! Are you listening..?" The intruder succeeded; they fired off a bright orange spark of smoke and ember that gravitated toward the foundation of the building, and once completed, he turned and bolted for the forest... but in his wake, he left a burning blaze. One that was expanding greatly, Kaleb turned and fired off a clip, but his target disappeared into the woods.

He had no time to speculate about where the intruder had come from, even what it was. He doubted it was an Omeocoon because they'd be far from their friends, and they'd been told several times in multiple briefings that the island was uninhabited. The boat house was abandoned, and now it would be destroyed because the fire was too big to stomp out or extinguish by traditional means. The other soldiers resting inside came running out, hacking and wheezing because of smoke inhalation, most of them in their pajamas, some half-dressed in their gear. It looked like they were terrified enough to come running out but not terrified enough to come running out naked; they had no time to rescue their asset or personal things, and it was Kaleb's fault. Rather than face the consequences of not firing sooner, he instead joined his colleagues in running as far away from the building as possible. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw that figure again, entering the building as all the men had left.

He certainly wasn't trying to be a hero, let it be burned to a crisp.