The Lunar Commanders (DISCONTINUED)

Scarlet Hunter

Scarlet trained her eyes on her target, steadying her rifle. "Wait..." She instructed herself aloud, repeating her grandmere's advise.

Her target ran on through the dense trees, sprinting hastily from the grey wolf on his tail, his feet churning up pale white snow. He didn't realize the danger of running to the clearing, to what he believed to be sweet salvation only meters before him.

Scarlet's finger itched to pull the trigger. This man was a murderer, a tormentor, a terrorist, and a kidnapper, and the world would be a much better place without him and his evil buddies.

Her target cried out as he lost his footing on a root buried under the snow, but recovered quickly. He didn't deserve to show his pain. He deserved to bear it quietly, as her grandmere had. The thought of Scarlet's grandmother brought furious tears to her eyes. This man truly deserved to die for the pain he had caused, to Scarlet and countless others.

The man broke into the moonlit clearing, and the wolf fell back, tentative to leave the undergrowth, sensing the danger of Scarlet's gun above him. The wolf let out an angry howl. Don't worry... Scarlet thought. You'll get your prey... The arrogant nuisance laughed triumphantly, daring the wolf to catch him.

He was silenced as a report sounded through the still, winter air, and looked down in disbelief at the dark blood blooming out from his heart, before collapsing into the snow.

Scarlet blew her bright red hair from her eyes, and leapt down from her perch among the pines, daring to venture further into the clearing. The great grey wolf sniffed at the dead man's form, before turning towards Scarlet. She felt no fear towards the giant creature.

Suddenly, it was no longer a wolf, but a man standing in the snow next to the body.

"We should be reporting back to Kaito soon," He growled, his bright green eyes filled with disgust for the man beneath his boot. "This one was the last of them."

"I'm aware of that, Ze'ev," Scarlet said without much interest, freeing her hair from the contents of her white fur parka. "I don't want to get in trouble any more than you do."

Ze'ev flashed her a toothy grin as she shouldered her rifle, and started back through the snow to the tree line. Ze'ev followed her to the edge of the clearing, carrying the body, then paused and howled into the night air.

Moments later, a ship appeared. A Rampion Class 1.3 spaceship paused for a moment above the clearing, then jolted suddenly to the left as it descended. It landed clumsily in a flurry of flakes before the two and extended a boarding ramp. Scarlet sighed as she stepped onto the ramp, seeing full crates still stacked in the halls. "Thorne," she huffed, "I thought I told you to get all this unpacked before we got back."

Hearing his name, Cadet Carswell Thorne stuck his head out of the cockpit. Though he had never earned the title during his six months of service in the American military, he insisted on being called Captain, a title that his new emperor promised to soon grant him. "Ah, Scarling," he said, imitating her French accent he often used when speaking to her, and ignoring her question, "glad to see you back, safe and sound. Then again, your precious Wolf wouldn't let anything happen to you," he added suggestively.

"Knock it off, Carswell," another voice scolded quietly from the cockpit. "Leave her be. She might just shoot you." Sweet, naive, Crescent Darnel stepped around the corner, her attention trained on a port screen in her hand.

"Wouldn't that be terrible," Ze'ev smirked. "We would go without his voice for another whole week."

"I know!" Thorne cried, missing the sarcasm in the brutish man's voice. "It's my gift to the world."