(On the Hunt) Chapter 14

Pride: On the Hunt

Chapter 14

Serpent

Khoru was a small, mostly desert planet, inhabited by spindly humanoids called the Khorun Rhekolae. It had only been part of the Alliance for a little over twenty years. When the 686 arrived, the most visible sign of the Alliance's presence was a temporary spaceport set up in the sand near the northern pole. Helpfully—or not—the ping frequency Tana had given them to locate this Bokar was leading them right to it.

Landing clearance came from a very bored-sounding controller who didn't even ask who they were, and soon the Bolt was parked on a slab of dusty tarmac looking out over sand, sand, and more sand. The only sign of whatever this spaceport had been built for was a high fence cordoning off, well, even more sand in the distance.

This should be interesting.

Flynn was waiting at the airlock, with Pidge, who was looking slightly more surly than usual. They had discussed manners; it had gone remarkably smoothly, which made Flynn suspect the point hadn't gotten across. He was trying not to worry too much about it right now, but he had insisted the ninja come along for this just so he could keep an eye on him.

Keith showed up soon, with Lance and Daniel in tow. Lance grinned and shot the chief engineer a wink. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Strange coincidence, right?"

"So odd."

Rolling his eyes, Keith stepped in and activated the airlock; the Khorun atmosphere was breathable, but the heat was best left outside the ship. "Enough." Behind him, Daniel mimicked the order, drawing a short snicker from Lance. "Let's get down to business. Everyone ready to meet this Bokar?"

Nobody was really there because they were interested in meeting Bokar. Getting off the ship was the important part. "Sure, at least it's not a library."

"Yeah, ready to breathe some real air."

"Very ready. It's a desert."

As the outer hatch slid open, Keith and Lance slid on sunglasses. Pidge pulled his camo suit's hood up, flinching a little despite his own glasses filtering the brightness. And Daniel groaned as a hot wind immediately greeted them with a scattering of sand. "Sand sucks."

Lance eyed him. "Bring Hunk a pail of it and you'll have all the food you want."

Did Hunk really need to be bribed for that? "I'll keep that in mind."

Conversation trailed off quickly. It was scorching hot, though at least it was a dry heat… but not even Daniel really wanted to waste precious breath on talking. For a few minutes they simply followed the strengthening ping from Keith's datapad, leaving the relative shelter of the spaceport for a field of towering dunes.

Once or twice, they briefly lost the signal. Whether that was the dunes, the atmosphere, or their target not certain he wanted to be found, was impossible to say. The third time Lance couldn't take it anymore. "I hope that thing is right, cause we're wandering in a desert here."

"It'll be right," Keith answered shortly, sounding more confident than he felt. "This way."

"I'd feel better if Sven was the one with the map," Daniel not-exactly-whispered, earning him a slight glare but nothing more. It was too hot to really argue.

Finally, circling around a particularly large dune, they came upon a battered ship painted in haphazard blotches of primer and sealant; it was long and narrow, with stubby wings that carried large turbines on their tips. It looked aerodynamically questionable, so Flynn was immediately interested. "I've never seen a ship like that."

"Well… now you have?" Keith offered. His second shot him an annoyed look. Pidge glanced up briefly, wondering why he seemed so annoyed; it was a perfectly valid statement.

There was a large tent set up nearby, and they'd just barely turned towards it when the ship's boarding ramp extended.

The man standing there was pale and wiry, with flawless features and long blue-white hair that shimmered in the desert sun. He was… not what Keith had been expecting, to put it mildly. It didn't look like they were what he'd been expecting, either, if his pause before heading down the ramp was any hint.

Lance's eyes narrowed slightly as the stranger approached. Something about him seemed… off in a way he couldn't quite place, and instantly it was making him uneasy. Next to him, Daniel was having no such concerns, looking the man up and down with appreciation. He's pretty. Flynn and Pidge glanced at each other, and Flynn shrugged; he hadn't had any expectations to begin with. Except that it wouldn't be what they expected.

Keith took another step forward as the man reached the bottom of the ramp. "Hello."

"Hello." He bowed slightly. "And who might I have the honor of speaking with?"

"My name is Keith…" Maybe he wasn't ready to give his full name here, not until they figured out who and what they were dealing with. "This is part of my crew. We're looking for an individual named Bokar?"

The man crossed his arms, immediately looking more interested… and much more suspicious. Daniel also looked more interested. In his arms. "What business do you have with him?"

"Tana referred us to him, from the Great Library of the Ages. We're tracking a criminal, and we were told that this Bokar might have information that could help us."

"Were you now." The man's dark eyes narrowed slightly. "Dear Tana, always sending along the most interesting things… you're on the trail of a criminal, you say? Do tell me more."

Immediately Daniel pulled out his poster and walked up, eager to get a closer look at the stranger. He is hot. "We're looking for this guy."

The man accepted it and studied the picture carefully, then gave a long, slow exhale and handed it back… along with a smile that nearly sent the gunner reeling. "Ah, I see. Well, I haven't seen him. But I am Bokar."

Lance's gaze sharpened. Was that relief? Not liking this. He glanced around at the others to see what they made of the guy. They seemed noncommittal, except… is Daniel drooling? He liked that even less.

Relaxing a little, Keith withdrew the paper Tana had given them. "We have a letter of introduction…"

Bokar accepted the letter, looked it over, then pocketed it and nodded. "It seems in order, but you'll understand if I show some caution. Interstellar archaeology is a lucrative field, and the Alceites have been trying to learn of my other benefactors for years. How do I know you aren't just another of their ploys?"

"You think we're spies?" Lance asked, glaring.

"You think we'd tell you that's who sent us if we were?" Flynn added.

Keith raised an eyebrow. The Alceites they'd met had not seemed like the type to use such underhanded tactics, but then, he supposed building such an impressive library must occasionally call for some shady business. "We've no interest in your… benefactors. We're only looking for our criminal."

"One cannot be too cautious." Bokar gave a low chuckle. "But come now—let's speak in my cooling tent, out of the sun."

"That would be welcome."

As the group followed him to the tent, Lance found himself unconsciously angling to stay between him and Daniel. He couldn't say why, exactly, it just all still seemed off. In response Daniel kept angling to keep his eyes on the very pretty man in front of them. He'd have followed this guy anywhere at this point—out of the sand was just an added bonus.

Stepping into the tent, the blazing sun was replaced by a cool semidarkness and the soft hum of a conditioning unit. Pidge immediately pushed his hood down, trying not to look too relieved. It wasn't very convincing. Flynn eyed him and wondered if they also needed to have a talk about wearing black to the desert.

Bokar gestured them all to the simple stools scattered around the tent, and took a seat himself. "Now, shall we begin? Tana's letter spoke of your quest for Altea. You understand, I hope, that you're searching for one of the holy grails of my profession."

Keith nodded, glancing around the tent before taking a seat. "Yes, or rather, our criminal is. We've gathered it's quite the prize."

"Indeed. Even if I had information, I wouldn't share it lightly… and as it happens, I do not."

"You sure about that?" Lance challenged. He wasn't sitting, mostly because Daniel had taken the seat nearest Bokar and was watching him with unusually rapt attention.

If Bokar was bothered by the hostility, he brushed it off easily. "If I did have it, I wouldn't hesitate to tell you… and to extract a good price for it. However…"

Lance scoffed. "I believe that."

This wasn't helping; Keith shot their pilot a glare before leaning forward. "However?"

"You've come to me in the grips of a most… unfortunate predicament of my own." Bokar shook his head slightly. "Perhaps we can help each other. I lack information for your search. But what I can offer you is an introduction to a vast… network. A web of hunters and rumors that may be of far more use to you than I."

Standing back by the tent's opening, Flynn arched an eyebrow. Well that sounds both incredibly shady and incredibly useful. He could understand Lance's skepticism, though maybe not why Lance was the person it was coming from; shady and interesting seemed right up his runway.

The shadiness wasn't lost on Keith either, but they needed to get what they could out of this lead. He hadn't hesitated to duel a giant lizard kangaroo, he wasn't about to back off now. "What sort of predicament?"

Bokar gestured out in what was more or less the direction of all the Alliance activity. "There is an extremely valuable dig site here. I had the rights to unearth it, until the local authorities realized just what I'd stumbled upon. They moved in and seized the site, then called in the Alliance to help secure the area. They complained of looters." He gave a low, derisive hiss. "They are the looters."

…Oh. Well then. Even if they were to admit to being Alliance soldiers, Keith wasn't sure what they'd be able to do about something like that. But he kept his expression even. "And how are you thinking we might help you with this?"

The archaeologist smiled faintly. "I know when to cut my losses and run. But I have a valuable cache still hidden deep within the site, and my research assistant is with it… the guards are being quite uncooperative about letting me back into the dig."

"Valuable artifacts and your research assistant, got it," Flynn murmured under his breath; Lance snorted. Priorities.

"If you can help me retrieve them, I can take you to my primary benefactor and arrange an introduction."

"I'm all for helping people!" Daniel said immediately, and Lance shot him a withering look. He returned it as innocently as he could muster. What did I do?

Lance shook his head, then turned the look on Bokar. "Who is this benefactor, exactly?"

For a moment Bokar glared right back, then it shifted into a wry smirk. "Of course, you have no more reason to trust me than I have to trust you. Very well. My benefactor's name is Glethaun of the Sixth River. With a bit of research, you'll find his name is well known in certain quarters… and that without an introduction from one of his trusted agents, his name will be worthless to you."

"Of course it would be." Lance matched his smirk. How convenient. This dude had no idea who he was dealing with, they should just take the name and get out of here. But when he looked at the boss, he looked like he was taking that story way too seriously.

"I see." Keith nodded slowly. He didn't like this, though for wholly different reasons… he wasn't sure how much leverage they really had here, but he decided to test it. "We're hunting this criminal for the Alliance, you understand. So you're asking us to help you work against our employer to gain an introduction to your employer. That's the gist of it?"

Bokar considered that for a moment, then shrugged and shook his head. "Yes, but no. The Alliance has been duped by a corrupt local government. You'd be doing them a favor if you aided me, really… a certain amount of justice would be done."

Lance made a face. There was no way they were actually going to buy that argument, was there?

"…Okay. I think we may be able to help you with that, then."

Fucking…

"I could sneak in and grab your things," Pidge offered, "but probably not your research assistant."

"You'd need me to show you the way, anyway. The cache is well-hidden… the site is constantly shifting, and the markers I left are specifically designed so only I can follow them." Frown. "As I said, this profession can be very lucrative, and we must protect our finds."

Lance was swearing profusely under his breath, and Flynn elbowed him slightly. "Relax, flyboy," he muttered quietly. "We'll get what we need from him and go."

"He just wants to use us," Lance muttered back, "we can't trust him to give us anything!"

"He can use me any time he wants," Daniel whispered, overhearing.

"…We're talking later, kid."

"…But I didn't even do anything!"

Flynn had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing—both at Daniel's excessive admiration, and the thought of Lance of all people trying to teach him about caution, be it about flirting or really much of anything else. Though thinking about Lance and flirting only frustrated him, so he shook it off. "We have the name, that's something."

"Which is why we should just cut our losses here!"

While his team muttered behind him, Keith had been considering a plan. Coming up with underhanded plots wasn't really his forte, to put it mildly. But on an Alliance planet, with Alliance military guarding the site, one obvious option was springing to mind. "Alright. I think we may have a way past the Alliance personnel."

Flynn had been about to try to calm Lance down a bit more; he didn't particularly trust Bokar either, but they'd dealt with worse. Much worse. Whatever he'd about to say completely vanished as he heard their commander's words. "Wait, what? You're not going to make us drag you into this kicking and screaming?"

"Fucking fuck!" Lance threw his hands up in disgust. Daniel, though, was grinning. He really felt like Keith not being a pain in the ass should be encouraged. Meanwhile Pidge had completely lost the thread of what was going on around here, and had his hand on his knife just on principle.

Keith sighed slowly. It grated. But they had a mission, and their mission had to come first. Standing, he turned to face Flynn and nodded. "We have to catch our target. You know that. So we do what we have to do."

"That wasn't a complaint. What exactly is your plan?"

"Other than stupid," Lance grumbled.

Keith ignored him, a slow smirk creeping over his face. "Remember those uniforms we… found?"

"Uniforms." Bokar looked at them with new interest. "Alliance uniforms?"

"Yep!" Daniel grinned.

"We're bounty hunters. Have to be prepared for anything."

He's learning how to lie! Flynn gave Keith an approving look, then turned his attention to Bokar. "We've surely got something that would fit you and your assistant. We could walk right in and out."

"My assistant, ah, won't need a uniform. You'll understand when you meet her." Bokar stood, a devious smirk on his own face. "But I like the sound of your plan."

That smirk wasn't doing anything to improve Lance's mood. Walk right into a trap… "I want it on record that I think this is fucking stupid."

"Noted." Keith crossed his arms. "But let's get moving. The sooner we help our friend here, the sooner we're on our way to finding our fugitive."

That didn't do anything to improve their pilot's mood either. Nor did it calm the death glare he was shooting the other man. "We can't trust that guy."

"Chill, Lance," Daniel definitely didn't whine. Don't make the hot guy mad!

Flynn nudged him playfully. "Flyboy who fears no asteroid field is scared of a shady archaeologist?"

"Scared of him?" Lance scoffed. "No, he's just pulling a fast one, I don't trust him." The hair on the back of his neck was prickling, and it had nothing to do with the temperature in the tent. "It's off, he's off."

Pidge pulled his knife, flipping it casually between his hands. Social interaction may not have been his strong point, but he was pretty sure he could offer some reassurance. "I'll stab him if it becomes necessary, sir."

That got him a mildly exasperated look from Flynn, and a more than mildly wary look from Keith. "It's an option if we need it," their commander finally said as calmly as possible. No sense ruling it out at this point. "Let's go."

"Yes, because stabbing makes shady situations better," Lance muttered, trudging after the boss.

Bokar came up next to him and gave a charming smile. "I find it often does, actually."

There were many things Daniel wanted to say right then. Mostly regarding his very strong opinions on circumstances in which he'd let Bokar stab him—none of which involved a knife. He was pretty sure Keith would get annoying again if he said any of them out loud, though… and one look at the blistering glare on Lance's face erased any lingering temptation. He'd just have to think about them. All the way back to the ship.

Stepping out of the tent, the team headed for the Bolt.

*****

"It's a trap, it's a fucking trap! I'll bet you anything! The dude was shady as fuck, they all know he's shady! But nooooo…" Lance was storming around the general quarters, pacing and weaving between the bunks in some unfathomable pattern, waving his arms wildly. "Keith, Keith is all yeah, we'll sneak you in. KEITH! It was like he was working some shady mojo."

Leaning back on his own bed, Hunk was watching the display with something close to awe. "They all know he's shady, bro! You just said it! That means they're ready to deal with the shade, yeah?"

"No! No, no they aren't! It's more than just shady, it's…" He shook his head in frustration, running a hand along his neck as the hair there bristled. "It's off, it's wrong!"

"Dude, how much crazy crap have we gotten through so far?"

Fair enough, Lance supposed, but usually the crazy happened when they were out of options. "Why go through it if we can fucking avoid it? It's a trap of some kind, something bad is gonna happen. And we've already got the name! Might be harder without Shady McShady's intro but we can pull it off." That seemed like a much better use of their talent for crazy.

Hunk eyed him. "You mean Shady McShadyface."

Glare. "Yes, my snarknaming is the point to focus on." Shaking his head, he calmed down a little, exhaling for what felt like the first time in quite awhile. "I just… I've got a bad, bad, bad feeling."

"Sorry bro." Hunk shrugged sheepishly. "I'm just tryin' to figure out what kinda alternate universe I've gotten dumped into here, what with Keith sayin' sneak the dude in and you not wantin' to take risks…"

Lance stopped pacing, laughing, though the laughter didn't last long. "That, that right there. I don't want to take the risk!"

"Yeah, I got that. It's weird."

That got him another glare. "It's not gonna be good, and none of them are taking it seriously. It's fucking bad." He knew he'd said that a lot of times already too, but he couldn't completely explain it. It was just a visceral unease, churning in his guts, and he always trusted his gut—at least as much with creepy archaeologists as with snarky kids. "I don't like it."

Not even Big Dumb Hunk at his worst could have missed that he didn't like it. It didn't seem worth pointing out. "Well, there's one plus at least, yeah? You're not goin', so when they get in trouble you can go save their butts."

"They're gonna need butt saving."

"We usually do." Grin. "We're pretty good at it."

Lance tried to grin back, but the worry was making it hard. The knock on the door to their quarters ended the attempt. "Oh, let's get this farce on the road." Yanking open the door, he turned his best glare on everyone involved.

'Everyone involved' proved to be Keith, Sven, and Jace: apparently that was who they'd deemed most capable of looking and acting like respectable soldiers. Bokar was there too, of course, taking the brunt of the glare as they stepped in.

"Did you guys get the stuff out of the nonexistent smuggler's hold?" Jace asked immediately. "Or are we gonna get to see where it is?"

Like hell they were going to sacrifice the mystique of the smuggler's hold for this guy. Lance didn't actually say that, or anything else; he was busy glaring. But Hunk gestured to a pile of uniforms on an empty bunk. "Have at it, dudes."

"Thank you, Hunk." Keith smiled, heading over to the stack. As the others trailed in behind him, Hunk gave the man who had to be Bokar a curious once-over. He didn't seem any more off than anything else they'd run into on this crazy train. Looking over at Lance again, he noticed the pilot wasn't glaring at Bokar anymore.

He was, however, glaring at someone. "Why the fuck are you here?"

Daniel had been trying to hide behind Keith and Sven; he plastered on his biggest smile as Lance noticed him. "Emotional support?" With all his might he struggled not to look over at the uniforms; there had to be some way to get to his without Lance losing what was left of his shit.

It wasn't a very convincing act, and it didn't work for a second. "Oh hell no!" He grabbed the kid's shirt and yanked him back. "You. Stay. Put."

"What—ack!—the hell?" Daniel yelped, trying to shake the hold.

"Keith, tell the kid he's not going."

"You're not going, Brennan." Keith didn't even look up.

"Why not? I'm actually offering to be helpful. This should be encouraged."

"I said no," Lance grumbled, cursing under his breath. "None of them should be going." He couldn't do anything about the others, but he could at least keep the kid out of whatever the hell was about to go wrong.

"You're being weird again," Daniel grumbled back. This wasn't near as nice as Lance's other weird.

"He's just frightened," Bokar said pleasantly, shooting Lance a glare while nobody was looking. He quickly replaced it with a smile. "Nothing to be ashamed of, we can't all be heroes."

Right about then the hatch burst open again, admitting a sprinting Cam. "Sorry I'm late!" He rushed over to grab a uniform, mentally kicking himself. Way to prove you're the right choice to play responsible soldier. It wasn't his fault; the heat was doing weird things to the radar. It hadn't stopped squawking since the others came back.

Jace was looking their new 'friend' over carefully. "Toss him one of yours, Viking, probably the best bet." Sven did not in fact toss a uniform to Bokar, but he did politely hand him one. The other man nodded gratefully as he accepted it.

Cam's interruption had not really done much to break the tension in the room. Lance was gripping Daniel's shoulders to make sure he couldn't get away; no way was he letting the kid near Shady McShady if he could help it. After accepting the uniform from Sven, Bokar turned and shot him a slight sneer; he narrowed his eyes in response. "I'll kill you if any one of them gets even one scratch."

"I'm sure you will."

"It's a date." Lance got a very unpleasant smirk, his fingers digging harder into Daniel's shoulders.

"Ow!"

"We'll be fine, Lance." Keith had finally found one of his uniforms in the stack. "Ease up on Brennan."

"Yeah! Ease up on Brennan!"

"Oops, sorry." The pilot loosened his grip, a little, still watching Bokar like a hawk.

Even if they hadn't had a job to do, getting this mess broken up seemed like a priority. Keith looked around at the others, checking to be sure everyone had their uniforms, and nodded. "Let's go get changed." They filed out of the general quarters, Bokar tossing one last smirk over his shoulder as they left.

The second the hatch shut Daniel pulled himself free and sulked. "But he was so hot!" This time he most certainly was whining.

Lance stared at him, looked over at Hunk, looked back at him, and shook his head in disgust. "And I'm the weird one!?"

"Relax, little dude, not like you're missin' much. It's a desert, everyone's gonna be hot." Personally Hunk thought the guy looked a little too perfect to be attractive, not that he was really any judge of male attractiveness. Or female. Or really anything but grills and crush cars, for that matter.

The kid didn't seem to appreciate his reassurance, in any case. "Not that kind of hot." He looked back at Lance and pouted. "I can't even enjoy the fact that fanboy was late to something!" It was so unfair. He gets to go out with the hot guy and I don't!

"You'll be safe," Lance countered. "All that matters."

"Awwwwwwww!" Hunk clasped his hands together and grinned at them.

"Shut up."

Daniel's own usual reflex to mock the idea of safety didn't kick in. He was oddly okay with Lance being overprotective… he was not, however, okay with being okay with it. And now he was just confused.

Hearing the airlock activate, Lance breathed a sigh of relief. At least Bokar was off his ship. Though he was out there with four of his crewmates, so the relief was minimal. Turning, he eyed where his rifle was racked up against one wall, then headed over. May as well be ready when things went bad.

For once, he would've liked to be wrong about something. But he was certain he wouldn't be.

*****

The scientific term for what Keith was feeling, he was pretty sure, was 'deja vu all over again'. Once more he was forging through a desert, with the Viking and their medic, after making a questionable decision in the name of their mission. This time they just had a comms officer and an archaeologist tagging along behind them.

Hopefully this would go more smoothly than the Kithran expedition had. "We're coming up on the checkpoint. You all ready?"

"Yes sir."

"Totally."

"Ready."

Up close the fence was a reasonably effective construction: some ten feet high, with barbed wire and regularly-spaced warnings of high voltage. The locals were serious about keeping this place secured. The Alliance troops they'd called in, on the other hand…

Sergeant Kel Alisko had been stuck in this hell desert in full uniform for going on twelve hours. Oh sure, the checkpoint had air conditioning, but that was only so much help when you were stuck in a glorified tollbooth with the sun pouring in. He watched the approaching squad and counted his meager blessings; at least he wasn't out there wading around in the sand.

It didn't mean he actually felt like checking ID. Five other uniformed soldiers were as far from suspicious as it got, even if they did have Explorer Team patches. This mission was low priority, it got all types. "Patrol duty?"

"Yes, we've been sent to reinforce the site."

What the site didn't need was reinforcements, other than maybe a few more people for checkpoint duty. Alisko waved them in tiredly; wasn't their fault. "Sucks to be you. Happy melting." That got a snort from the one with the medical kit.

"Thank you." Keith nodded to the guard and led the others into the site, suppressing a low sigh of relief. He'd been ready to show his own tags and hope they wouldn't ask for the whole group, but he was just as happy not to have to put his name to this at all.

Once they were in, the endless stretches of sand started to resolve themselves a bit more. Several large excavation pits bustling with Khorun workers had been dug into the desert, with ropes and flashing electronic tags designating various subsectors. Other stretches of the site remained pristine. This operation would be going for a long time yet.

"This way." Bokar was watching the sand carefully, occasionally switching direction, though their path seemed to always be more or less leading to a valley between two towering dunes. As they reached it he started pacing in circles, hissing in concentration.

It all just looked like sand to Keith, but after a few moments their strange companion nodded and seemed to simply walk into the larger of the dunes. He blinked, glancing back at the others; there was a tunnel. With all the sand blurring together in the bright sun, he never would've seen it without stumbling right into it. "Nice trick."

The tunnel widened a little ways in, reinforced with what looked like some sort of structural canvas and lit by the occasional dim lantern. They were clearly going downhill, though it wasn't steep. Soon it brought them to a dead end, and Bokar started to pace again. A moment later, a wall of sand fell away to their left, revealing what looked very much like a gaping canine mouth with long, vicious fangs.

Jace jumped back. "Oh fuck no!"

"I agree." Sven hadn't jumped, but he'd definitely tensed.

"Great, another damn cave in a desert…" Making a face, Keith started checking around them for any other worrisome signs.

"Cave?" Jace repeated. "Cave?"

"It's… only a doorway?" Bokar was looking at them all with a great deal of confusion. "This site is an ancient city. They had some… unusual decor."

Their medic wasn't buying it. "You're absolutely fucking positive this place isn't some giant-ass dead monster?"

Bokar stared at him blankly, then turned to Keith. "Is he… alright?"

That was a loaded question. "No. We had a bad experience before."

Cam stepped forward hesitantly, wondering if this was another thing like the legendary murder vines. "Sir, I can go first, if you need me to."

"No, Starr. It's alright." Keith looked at the other two, who hadn't exactly relaxed, but at least seemed to be wound a little less tight. "Just a city, right?"

"Just a city, I assure you." Bokar hissed softly. "The only danger here are the looters."

Following him through the doorway, they found themselves in a large chamber covered in colorful mosaics. It seemed otherwise empty. Another door on the far side brought them to a tunnel with a cobbled stone floor to it; it seemed they might be walking on the city streets. Every so often they would pass through another building, all of which seemed to be empty, though their walls were surprisingly well preserved.

The work was impressive, really. "How long did this take you to dig? All by yourself?"

"My assistant did most of the digging. She has a knack for it." Bokar paused briefly at a fork in the tunnel, then took the left branch. "Proper excavation is intensive… and expensive. We were attempting to map the site out through tunneling before hiring a full crew, we were a few months into the work when the Khorun moved in."

"And when was that?" Jace frowned slightly. "Or at least, how long has this assistant of yours been stuck down here?" He'd packed a light kit with the proper supplies for dehydration and exposure, but there was only so much he'd be able to do.

"Awhile… a few weeks. She did have supplies, but I fear they'll be running out any day now."

Keith's eyes narrowed. Whatever else may be ill-advised about this operation, they couldn't just let someone die down here. "Then let's hurry up and get her out." With answering nods, the others picked up the pace.

A few minutes later, entering another half-intact building brought them out into blazing sunlight.

"What the…?"

Bokar hissed something that was almost certainly profanity. "I didn't realize the main excavation had gotten this far. I hope you can talk our way through this…" A grouchy-looking guard with a plasma rifle was already moving in on them.

"Hey! What are you lot doing there, this area is off limits!"

Fantastic. Keith turned to face him and took a deep breath; maybe he should've made McClain come along, he was the expert on talking their way out of things. Then again, he'd also have been bitching this entire time. He'd just have to do his best. "We're surveying the site, exploring some tunnels we found. We have a mission."

"Ah." The guard lowered his gun. "You're here to check out the disappearances?"

Well if the guard was going to give him a story, he was damn sure going to take it. "Yes, we are."

"Disappearances?" Bokar repeated at the same time, worry clear in his voice. Keith winced.

The guard looked between them for a moment, then shrugged. "Don't blame you, man, I don't like listening to briefings either. Been a problem for a couple weeks now. Workers going missing, bones turning up later, fun stuff. It's cutting into the work here something awful."

Bones turn up later? Sven winced too. "Wonderful."

"All right." Keith fought down a sigh of relief. "How about you clear everyone out of here until we finish? To be safe."

"You got it," the guard glanced at his rank patch, "Commander. Good luck." He turned away and started yelling for the other guards to get moving, and Bokar led them back through another doorway.

Cam glanced over his shoulder, swallowing nervously. "Sir, if something is hunting the workers, it might try to hunt us too…"

"Yes, Starr. I know that."

"Won't be the first time." Sven shrugged. "We'll be fine."

"Won't be the first time?" Cam was not reassured in the least. "Um, Lieutenant, what are you talking about?"

"Terinian wildlife. It was handled."

"Kid, you are fucking adorable."

"Calm, Starr." Keith looked at Bokar, who seemed to have gone even more pale since hearing about the disappearances. "Let's go. Hopefully your assistant is okay."

"Yes, I… hope so," the other man agreed, gathering himself. Jace pushed him forward, more or less encouragingly.

"Move it, we'll find her."

Watching the others troop down the tunnel, Cam couldn't help the slow smile spreading over his lips. They're fucking badasses… I made a good choice! Still grinning, he rushed to catch up.

A few more twists through the tunnels brought them into a large, haphazard chamber being held up with rough wooden supports as well as the canvas. The ground was a delicate mosaic of the same canine creature they'd seen in the doorways; it looked like it might once have been a town square. A ramp led up to a large stone door with a crumbling hole in a bottom corner. Bokar stopped, nodding to the door. "In here."

Keith took one of the lights stuck to the walls and shone it into the hole, hoping to get a sense of whether they were about to be walking in on a dead body or not. What he got instead was a pair of glowing red eyes lunging for him.

"Kuso!" He stumbled and fell back, nearly bowling over Cam. Sven and Jace both jumped away as well, drawing their weapons, though neither moved to use them. Lunging at the snake to try to stab it seemed like a bad idea; shooting in this fairly precarious chamber seemed even worse. As they tensed, the enormous hooded serpent that had struck at Keith slithered free of the hole and reared up, hissing furiously, preparing another strike—

"—Senac! That's no way at all to greet our friends."

Immediately the snake froze, turning to face Bokar, then hissed softly and backed away.

Jace slowly lowered his gun. "…Really?"

"Bokar…" Keith stared at him as everything came together. "You really could have told us that your research assistant was a cobra."

"A Denorin burrowing cobra, to be exact." The snake slithered up one of the supports and draped herself over his shoulders. "She's extremely efficient, as you've seen."

"Really?" Jace repeated, shaking his head.

Cam moved up around Keith and looked up at him with concern. "Are you alright, sir?"

"Fine. Just shaken."

Bokar reached up and patted the cobra's head; she gave a hiss that wasn't wholly unlike a purr. "Have you been eating the workers, Senac? I know they're stealing from us, but that does seem disproportionate."

This time the entire team stared at him in disbelief, dead silence stretching for a few incredibly uncomfortable seconds. "She's been eating…" Keith closed his eyes. "I didn't want to know that."

"I was afraid she'd have to resort to it," Bokar agreed grimly, sighing. "Very unhealthy for her. Anyway, shall we gather my things? The sooner we get out of here, the sooner I can give you your… introduction."

Jace caught Sven's eye; the Viking looked just as incredulous as he felt. We're a fucking Explorer Team. We're a fucking Explorer Team. We're a fucking Explorer Team… The mantra wasn't helping a whole lot, and when Sven turned to give Keith a questioning look he followed.

"…Yeah." Keith let Cam help him up and dusted himself off, shaking his head slightly. What else were they going to do? They were in a labyrinth of tunnels under the desert, it wasn't the place to make an issue of things. We do what we have to do. He looked at Senac. "To get her out past the guards, it might be best if she… pretends to be dead? We can say we successfully found the threat."

He'd been a little worried about how the giant cobra might take that, but she seemed calm. Bokar chuckled. "She's quite adept at such stealth, Commander. Don't worry." He moved up the ramp and pushed the door open, revealing a grand foyer that still looked pretty impressive despite being buried in the sand for who knew how long. There were a few boxes and several satchels lying about… and some bones. Not a lot of bones, but more than enough.

Grimacing, Keith found an empty box and started gingerly placing the bones inside. "We should take them the remains."

"That would be a kind thing," Bokar agreed, moving straight to a smaller satchel that appeared to be full of tiny wriggling snakelings. Nobody was about to say a word about that; nobody really wanted to know if Senac also happened to be a proud mother.

None of the packages were particularly large or heavy, which did seem sensible for a one-person, one-cobra operation. They packed up quickly; Sven spoke for all of them as he waited by the door. "Let's get out of here."

"Yes, let's." Bokar gave a smile that Sven for one didn't particularly like, though he wasn't going to say so. That would be rude. "Thank you all for this." As they headed out, Senac went almost completely limp over his shoulders. She really did look very dead.

And scary. Still definitely scary.

Coming up on the breach in the tunnel, they found two guards waiting for them. That seemed like exactly the opposite of clearing the place out. The one they'd spoken to before eyed them suspiciously. "So what exactly are you people doing here? The Director says she didn't send anyone to look into the disappearances."

Keith went still. "…Well we found the creature," he tried finally, "and some more remains from further down in the tunnels." He offered the box of bones with his most businesslike expression.

The other guard gave a slight glare, flipping her pistol in her hand. "Let's see the rest of those 'remains'."

Sven and Jace exchanged glances; the boss was not that good at lying. He really wasn't good at lying at all. Even Cam was silently unclipping his holster, he could drop a pretty good pistol-whip if necessary…

Bokar tried to intervene, giving his most ingratiating smile. "You really don't want to see them, they're quite brutal, you know. Better if we just get them to the proper authorities."

"Yeah, just let us handle this. You don't really wanna fuck with it, do you?" Jace threw a friendly arm over the first guard's shoulders… and casually stabbed him with the syringe of sedative he'd palmed. He went down like a sack of bricks. "Whoopsie."

The second guard startled, bringing her pistol up. "Hey, what do you think you're—" Turning to Jace meant she'd turned her back on Sven, who quickly stepped up with a sleeper hold. She collapsed next to her squadmate.

Keith blinked, staring at them and reminding himself not to piss them off too badly. Ever. Jace looked about as stunned, looking at the empty syringe in his hand as if wondering how it had gotten there, then turning to look at the fallen guards. "…Well that was a couple of fucking bad ideas worthy of giant donut dumbass himself."

Wasn't that the truth. "Let's get out of here before more show up."

"At least we didn't put them in the boxes," Sven pointed out.

"True, true." As Jace recovered what he'd been carrying, the female guard started to twitch. "…Book it, bitches!" He broke into a sprint, the others right on his heels as they vanished back into the tunnels.

"What about putting them in boxes?" Cam demanded.

"You don't wanna know!"

"Don't ask! Just run!"

Though they'd passed through several branches on their way in, there was really only one way out of the tunnel network; the various forks had all been burrowed in one clear direction. Within a few minutes they burst out onto the surface, the blinding flash of the sun disorienting them all for a few moments; as they recovered, distant yells started to sound in the distance. More guards.

"Oh for fuck's sake." Jace did not have enough sedative for this. "Anyone else got any bad ideas?"

"Just go!" Bokar reached into his bag, grabbing a handful of the little snakelings and starting to run forward. The guards approaching them weren't shooting yet, at least. In fact they mostly looked to be trying to body block the group, and that was fine with him. As their paths were just about to cross, he threw the snakelings to the ground.

Suddenly there were a dozen giant cobras, identical to Senac, lunging for the guards.

"What the…?" Keith had a lot more he wanted to say there, but none of it seemed like a good idea. Instead he lowered his head and ran faster. Here we go again…

"What the hell are those?!" Cam yelped.

"You don't want to know!" Bokar yelled back, earning a remarkably sullen look. "Just run!"

Sven had momentarily frozen in shock. Only momentarily. He'd already recovered and started moving again when Jace grabbed his collar and yanked. "Do what the creepy motherfucker says, Viking!"

Shaking the medic off his collar—that had been totally unnecessary—Sven did as the creepy archaeologist said, and ran.

*****

It took another handful of snakes to get them past the checkpoint, and the spaceport might as well have been miles away under these conditions—never mind that the spaceport might also be on the lookout for them. The group found a cluster of large rocks and staggered into the shade they cast, all panting heavily. It was too hot for this. At least the heat would also work against their pursuers…

"Have we lost them?"

"Don't see 'em. Fuck…"

"Catch your breath. Probably haven't shaken them for long." Keith rubbed his side, gritting his teeth; he hadn't been officially recovered from Takrekul for all that long. Cam looked at him with concern, but he waved it off. They had bigger problems.

Bokar was gasping for air as much as any of them, but froze up as Senac suddenly thrashed and hissed in pain. "They're killing the decoys," he snarled, hissing himself as the snake twitched again. "Bastards."

For a moment Jace considered pointing out his snake had been eating the workers, but it didn't really seem like the brightest move. Glancing around he could tell he wasn't the only one having the thought.

"What do we do now?" Sven gasped out, still doubled over. It was much too hot for any of this nonsense.

"We have to get back to the ship." Keith looked around the cluster of rocks they were in, moving over to a boulder that masked a small crevice. It looked like a good hiding place… "We'd be faster without these boxes."

Bokar eyed the group, and Senac gave another pained hiss. They could hear shouting in the distance again—it sounded like their pursuers had gotten through the snakes at the checkpoint. Nodding slowly, he slipped the boxes he was carrying into the crevice. "Let's stash them. I can recover them once things are calmed down a bit…" A sly smirk crossed his face. "And I'll be faster without you."

Before anyone could react, he punched Cam in the face, dropped another handful of snakes, and took off towards his own ship.

"Ow! Chto za khren, dude?" Cam hit the sand, rolling to recover, and looked up to find a rearing snake in his face. "Der'mo…" It lunged and he just barely dodged, but a second later Sven drew his knife and slashed the cobra in two. Rather than slumping, it disintegrated; by the time its body hit the ground, it was reduced to a scattering of dust on the sand. Scrambling to his feet, Cam stared at the dust for a second—it was all the time he dared take. "Thanks, Lieutenant."

"You're welcome." He spun around and slashed at another snake, barely missing and getting his sleeve ripped open by gleaming fangs for his trouble.

Jace, meanwhile, was chasing after Bokar himself. "Oh fuck no you don't." He tried to tackle the backstabber, only to have Senac slither off his shoulders and strike at him. The medic retreated, trying to kick her—it connected, but she was a snake, it didn't do much but annoy her—or at least she seemed pretty annoyed when she reared up and hissed at him. "Yeah, fuck you too." He grabbed her by the… throat?… and made an attempt to toss her aside, which didn't work overly well either, but it gave him enough separation to get back to following the main target.

Running right on Jace's heels, Keith drew up short as Bokar threw down another handful of snakes. How many of these things does he have? Didn't matter. One thing was more than clear enough; he hit his comms. "We need backup! Heading for his ship!"

Cam and Sven caught up, shooting and slashing at as many snakes as they could, and they kept right on running.

*****

"We need backup! Heading for his ship!"

Flynn was in the engine bay with Pidge as the comms crackled. For a moment he just stared at the speaker, then took a long, steadying breath. "Fuck, flyboy's going to be insufferable."

"Yessir," Pidge agreed, nodding. "Is that different from usual?"

"I FUCKING SAID IT!" Lance's roar over the open comms silenced that discussion.

"Yep. You said it." Daniel had been watching their pilot pacing furiously around the bridge for the last hour. I'm never gonna hear the end of this. We're never gonna hear the end of this.

After another moment of exasperation, Flynn remembered he was currently in charge of the ship. Right. Time for that backup, then. "Guns now, yelling later. That means you, Lance." He took off from the bay, heading for his quarters to get his rifle. "Group at the rear starboard airlock and let's go see what they've gotten themselves into…" He didn't transmit the last part, but couldn't help saying it. "…this time."

Lance already had his rifle, and was halfway off the bridge before he reconsidered and turned. For a moment he just stared at Daniel. Then his eyes flickered to the helm, then the guns, then back to Daniel. It might just work. Oh, it would totally work. "…No. I have a fucking better idea."

That was met with what felt like an excessively long silence. Finally Hunk was brave enough to answer. "We're gonna do an Explorer Team, aren't we?"

"Fuck yeah we are!"

Despite the circumstances, Daniel couldn't help but smirk. He knew what that meant. This is gonna be awesome.

*****

Much like… several other things they'd had to do on this bullshit assignment, Academy training had not covered the proper manner of combat with dozens of giant cobras. Knife fighting was less than effective; Sven had more than a few bites and scrapes from his attempts. Sidearms weren't a whole lot better. Jace was doing his damndest to pick the darting targets off, and Cam was backing him effectively, but all they were really accomplishing was keeping back the tide. Barely.

Keith was wrestling with one that had gotten through. That was yet another combat discipline not intended for snake combat; finally he managed to get his sidearm free and shoot it in the face. It disintegrated.

"Kufot…" Sven slashed another snake, not managing to kill it but at least driving it back. They just seemed to keep coming.

Ahead of them, Bokar was aware of exactly how many decoys he could unleash, and it wasn't nearly as unlimited a supply as it felt like to his pursuers. He just needed to hold them off long enough to get to his ship, then he'd make these fools very, very sorry… drawing his own sidearm, he turned and took a few warning shots. He intentionally aimed wide, not wanting to hit his decoys, but maybe it would make them think twice.

Without hesitation, the commander hit the ground and opened fire in return, and his shots came quite a bit closer. Bokar winced, realizing the problem a second too late—if it devolved into a gunfight, they had nothing stopping them from shooting to kill. Didn't think that all the way through. To be fair, in all his long and often dangerous career he'd never quite been in this situation.

Spinning around, he increased his pace. His ship's weapons would solve the issue nicely.

Sven looked at the scorch marks Bokar's shots had left in front of him and made a face. He was deciding right this moment that he didn't like snakes; now he was also reminded that he still didn't like guns.

Cam helped Keith up, both of them firing on another snake as it tried to lunge at them. "Thanks, Starr." He hit his comms with a scowl. "Kleid, where the fuck is our backup!?"

"Working on it."

Working on it? "Work a little faster, will you?"

"Oh sure, now the boss drops the fucks," Jace grumbled, grabbing a snake by the tail and attempting to swing it at another one. That didn't work particularly well either. Mostly it just pissed the snake off, and he dropped it and darted to the side just in time to avoid a pair of fangs to the face.

Bokar's ship was coming into view now, the sun glinting off some exposed metal. He paused a moment, then threw down the rest of his reagent bag—he was so close, no sense saving any resources now. He'd have plenty of time to replenish once this little unpleasantness was dealt with.

A literal wall of snakes rose up from the sand, writhing and hissing.

"Sukin syn…" Cam jumped back, eyes wide. "They multiply like moonrabbits, don't they?"

Keith looked at him blankly. "Isn't there just the one?" He'd heard the tale of the moon rabbit pounding mochi—not so much the tale of the moon rabbit having a population boom—as a snake came at him, he decided this was definitely not the time to worry about it.

Just as well, because a few moments later, a faint roar became audible over the hissing of the snakes. A very familiar roar, getting closer, and quickly.

"…Is that what I think it is, sir?"

It couldn't be much of anything else. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Of fucking course they did."

"Of course!"

As the four of them turned, the Jupiter's Bolt appeared over the horizon, just barely skimming above the ground with its gear. "Yeah, the cavalry is coming…" Keith shook his head slowly, unsure whether to be relieved or just… well… "…and we're gonna hear it…"

The Bolt touched down in a spray of sand, rolling forward at a rapid clip, and Lance stuck his head out of the front airlock to see what was going on. His yell easily overpowered the engines. "ARE THOSE FUCKING SNAKES?!"

Pidge was on monitoring duty, and frowned slightly as the yell came over the comms. "They do seem to have been reproducing quickly at some point, sir, but it doesn't seem to be what they're doing at the moment." Next to him, Flynn opened his mouth to say something and immediately thought better of it. Much better.

Maybe mercifully, Lance wasn't really listening. "I. FUCKING. CALLED IT!" Cocking his rifle, he took aim and let loose. Even Jace forgot to swear as the ship came bearing down on them, raining lead over the snakes like some kind of crazy-ass avenging angel.

"About time!" Cam grinned. "Slowpokes!"

"Slow?" At the helm, Daniel jerked the ship forward slightly; he was certain he'd been pushing this thing as hard as it could handle. "Did he just call me slow?!"

"Daniel, I need the ship fucking steady!" Gritting his teeth, Lance re-aimed and started unleashing a second round of shots.

"Sorry! Blame Cam." He hit the brakes, in any case. Ramming the other ship would probably mean he didn't get to fly again any time soon.

Though the Bolt's entrance had been very impressive, it hadn't actually stopped Bokar from approaching his ship. The boarding ramp extended as he drew near, and he looked back at the mess of snakes he'd left behind. "Senac! We're leaving!" His familiar immediately detached from the swarm of her clones, slithering through the sand as quickly as such a large snake had any right to move.

The motion of the boarding ramp caught Keith's eye; he growled and took aim, but one of the decoys threw him off. "His engines!"

"Got it!" Lance narrowed his eyes, taking aim at one of the ship's huge wing turbines; his shot rang harmlessly off the metal, nearly grazing Bokar as he ducked away. Taking another equally ineffective shot, he noticed the one giant snake on Shady McShady's heels. That seemed like it might be important. Giving up on the engines, he dropped his aim over the snake and fired.

The bullet didn't hit cleanly, tearing through one of the snake's flanks. It jerked back, blood spurting over the sand. Lance took two more quick shots, and these hit true: one through the hood, one through the head. With a long, ragged hiss, the snake slumped over and went still.

As one, the rest of the snakes shriveled up and disintegrated as though they'd been shot themselves, leaving a pile of dust that swiftly began dispersing in the wind.

"What the…"

"…Holy fuck."

Bokar had reached his boarding ramp, and spun around as he heard Senac's last gasp. "…You're going to regret that!" With a look of absolute hatred, he darted forward, retrieving the snake's body, then raced up the ramp and slammed the airlock closed.

Lance rang another shot off the hull, but it was too late. "Fuck, need more firepower for the ship…"

Back in the engineering bay, Flynn was still technically in charge of the Bolt. Flyboy was kind of running this show. Not that he'd have required much convincing to use something more than small arms fire against a spacecraft. "Brennan, do it!"

"On it!" Daniel jumped up from the helm and ran back to his usual station, bringing up the missiles. The sensors didn't really want to get a heat lock here—fine, it was a stationary target. Hitting the guidance override, he took aim and fired.

The escort group was still staring at the remnants of the snakes in disbelief. "What the hell just happened?" Cam finally managed.

"No idea," Jace muttered, "but Lance is gonna have our asses for it…" He turned back to the ship just in time to see two of the Bolt's missile launchers blossom with fire. "Porra!" He dove to the ground beside Sven, as Keith shoved Cam to the sand and covered his head.

Both missiles slammed into Bokar's ship, one punching through the hull, the other hitting something inside… and the explosion was nearly enough to knock Lance off his perch. "Fuck yeah."

"Direct hit, fuel cell rupture," Pidge reported somewhat unnecessarily. Then he hesitated. "I think? It looked like a fuel cell, anyway." He'd never seen a ship like this before today either. Vince shot him a look from the other side of the bay and just shook his head slightly. It was another interesting day.

Daniel grinned as the strange ship burned. "Awesome."

Standing slowly, Keith helped Cam off the ground and sighed. "You alright?"

"I think so, you?"

"Yeah."

Sven took his time getting up; he really didn't feel like it. He'd have happily taken a nap right here in the too-hot sand, after all this… though on the other hand, maybe what he needed was a shower. Yes, definitely a shower. Beside him, Jace started trudging for the rear boarding ramp—the one Lance wasn't at. He knew they'd be hearing plenty about this, but he wasn't ready just yet. It seemed like a good idea; Sven and Cam both followed him.

"You're welcome, Jace!" Lance yelled over at him as he vanished into the airlock.

Keith took the ramp to where Lance was; may as well get it over with. Though Flynn spoke up over the comms first. "So here the fuck is your backup, Kogane. Want to tell us what the fuck we were backing you up against?"

"I'd be happy to, Kleid… as soon as we figure it out." All he was completely certain about was that there had been snakes, and…

"I TOLD YOU!" Lance yelled as soon as he was within earshot.

No point arguing that. "I know. Good shooting."

"Good? It was fucking amazing."

Definitely no point arguing that. "Who was flying?"

"Daniel." Lance finally let himself smile. "He did good."

Nobody had ordered Pidge to stop minding the sensors, so he was still silently watching the ship burn. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary… until abruptly something did. "Sir, some kind of biological signature spike from the wreckage."

Flynn whirled on him, rushing over to look at the screen. "What."

"Biological…?" Keith slowly turned back to Bokar's ship… just in time to see several fiery chunks of wreckage go flying. A very large, scaly green hand emerged from the flames, then another.

With a furious hiss, a snake person that had to be twenty feet tall came climbing out of the wreck, brandishing the leading edge of one of the ship's wings like a scythe. "Bassstardssss… that sssstingssss!"

"Holy fucking WHAT?"

"Holy shit!"

"Oh, fuck." Keith blinked; that was the second time he'd used that word today. Must have been something about snakes. "Get inside!"

Lance had opened fire—swearing the entire time—but it didn't seem to be having any effect. Whether because he was at the edge of his effective range or simply because the giant snake needed more firepower, he didn't know and probably didn't care. Emptying out his current magazine for good measure, he got his ass back inside.

"Completely. Fucking. Insufferable," Flynn muttered under his breath, sighing. Then he steeled himself. Kogane hadn't actually retaken command yet, and he was currently running around in a hallway, so… "Battle stations!"

Slamming the airlock door behind him, Jace started trudging for his battle station. "Fuck today."

"Brennan, somebody, shoot that damn thing!" Keith ordered as he ran for the bridge. "Kleid, I have command!"

"Thank you!"

"Don't think our missiles will lock on that thing," Hunk warned. "Any luck, little gunner dude?"

"No. Too small, no radar lock…" Daniel switched from the mass and signal scanners to infrared, though he already knew what he would get there. "And way too hot." That definitely hadn't just been directed at the targeting system.

"Next time you guys are going to fucking listen to me," Lance snarled, skidding onto the bridge. "What now?"

While the team argued, the snake man was moving… though he wasn't moving in on them. He may have been a twenty foot tall cobra monster, but the Bolt was a four hundred foot long spaceship. Bokar was many things, but he wasn't stupid. Glaring at them one more time, he ran for the city.

"Follow him," Keith ordered, eyes narrowing. "Get us off the ground, we'll drop the missiles on his head if we have to."

"We uh, probably ain't gonna be getting off the ground without goin' back to find a solid surface, boss."

"Kogane, he's heading for the dig site. No way we can fire on him in there with anything without collateral, and we don't have any way of knowing where the workers will take cover."

"Kuso…" It was a good point, but they couldn't just leave the snake monster alone. They were responsible for this mess. "Ideas?"

Vince hesitated. He really didn't want to contradict his superior officer, but he knew the disruptor cannon wouldn't cause splash damage. Trying to target with it would be iffy, admittedly… but it was an option… no, it wasn't a good option. He stayed silent.

Next to him in the bay, Hunk was also hesitating. But hesitating for long wasn't Hunk's style. "Uh… well, this thing can't take off from sand, but it can roll on it. And I've got a rocket launcher, and a bunch of us have got rifles, and we've got a hatch up top…"

Lance's eyes lit up. "Brilliant."

"…We're going to do another Explorer Team, aren't we?" Grinning slightly, Flynn slung his own rifle over his shoulder. "Kid wrenchlings, you have the bay. Don't break anything." He ran for the nearest elevator, Hunk on his heels.

Watching them go, Vince came to a decision. "You got this, Pidge?"

The ninja blinked. "Where are you going?"

"To take the gunnery console while Daniel's flying. Just in case." He tried for a smile that came out more like a grimace. "I did those test fires fine, right?"

Pidge stared for a moment, then shrugged. "Go for it." He could monitor the bay fine by himself.

With a quick nod, Vince ran for the bridge, just as the Bolt's engines began to roar.

*****

Bokar was, to put it mildly, displeased. He'd lost his ship, he'd lost his precious familiar, and he'd probably lost the use of this alias… damn it, he'd been fairly attached to this identity. Well, fine. He would just have to abandon subtlety, get off this miserable rock, and start again. Wouldn't be the first time…

Near the center of the dig site, he'd managed to find the Alliance's command post. Most of the soldiers stationed there were elsewhere, probably chasing him and the intrepid but none-too-bright bounty hunters somewhere they weren't. The ones that were left were raining fire on him; the plasma bounced harmlessly from his scales. The actual bullets were less harmless, stinging as they impacted, though more annoying than dangerous.

In return he took a swing with his makeshift scythe, knocking a couple of them over and leaving deep gashes in a couple more who didn't dodge fast enough. "I'll make thissss sssimple," he hissed. "You're going to get me a ship, and clearancccce to leave here. Or I'm going to make you very, very sssorry."

"Like hell we will!" The one he was pretty certain was the site commander took aim and bounced a plasma bolt right off his nose.

Well that was insulting. "Fine! We'll play thissss your way." He took another swing with the scythe, sending the cluster of guards scattering, and started moving in on one that had gotten himself cornered. Perhaps a hostage would clarify things for them.

A dull roar echoed somewhere in the distance. A roar he'd heard already today, not too long ago. He knew what it was, but surely he couldn't be right, because nobody could actually be that insane. Not even…

The bounty hunters' ship came howling over the horizon. Again. Its tires were kicking up huge plumes of sand, and there were large chunks of wire dangling from its wingtips; the fence hadn't stood a chance.

Poking his head out of the top hatch, Keith braced himself and sighted on the snake monster with his rifle. "This is such a bad idea."

"Our fucking specialty." Jace was crouched beside the disruptor cannon, holding one of the docking clamps with one hand and his duty rifle with the other. Marksmanship wasn't his specialty, per se, but it sure as fuck beat his battle station.

Lance was moving up the hull, finding a partially sheltered spot at the edge of the hyperspace thruster cowling. "This is the best idea." Dropping flat to the hull, he opened fire; opposite him, Flynn took a similar position and did the same.

A little behind Jace, Hunk was sighting with his rocket launcher. "Never BBQed snake before," he said casually. "Heard it tastes like chicken." As the medic snickered, he yanked the trigger.

Bokar had frozen in disbelief as bullets started pinging off his back. Yes, they actually were that insane. "You can't be ssseriousssss…" Turning to face the incoming ship, he promptly took a rocket to the face.

"Fuck yeah! That oughta do it!"

"The BBQ is on!"

The celebrations were cut short as the snake man swatted a few flames away, stumbling back from the impact, but otherwise just giving them an exasperated look. "Honesssstly…"

"The fuck? He's fire resistant?"

"You know," Flynn muttered, "we probably should've guessed that when we blew up his ship and he just walked out." Shaking his head, he took a couple more shots that glanced off the monster's hood.

"How are we supposed to kill this thing?"

"Apparently not with fire!"

Keith hissed as his next few shots had no more impact than anything else. "We need to find a weak spot!"

"Great idea," Lance snorted, "got a suggestion?"

"Where's a snake's brain?"

Jace shot their commander a look before returning his attention to his target. "In their head, where's yours?" Keith made a mental note to smack him once the opportunity presented itself, though in all honesty he'd probably deserved that…

"It's the fucking scales," Lance growled. As Bokar looked up at them, meeting his glare with a snakey smirk, he felt his focus sharpening. "Eye sockets lead to the brain, right?"

"Usually?"

"Worth a shot."

"A literal one."

That it sure as hell was. Staring into his scope, Lance breathed out slowly and squeezed off a shot… which missed, grazing the snake man's cheek. "Fuck!"

"Fine." Bokar was still staring at Lance as the Bolt rolled to a halt in front of him. "We can play. I'm going to enjoy thissss." He took a running leap and sprang onto the ship's nose, slashing with his scythe and leaving a respectable dent.

Flynn gave a hiss that could've given the snake man some decent competition. "Get the fuck off my hull plating, lizard." Setting his rifle aside in favor of his sidearm, he took a shot that actually made Bokar flinch… slightly.

Pidge was still monitoring from the bay. "It's not a lizard, sir."

"Not the time, Pidge! It's a snake, it has legs, it's a fucking lizard!" He took another shot, only to have the gun jam up. For something called a Desert Eagle, it really didn't like when actual sand got into its workings. "Faex."

The yelling had gotten Bokar's attention; Lance growled in frustration. He was trying to get another shot, but it wasn't going to work out with him facing the wrong fucking direction. Scowling, he opted for the direct approach. "HEY! Asshole!"

"Oh, hell's bells, Lance…" Keith shook his head and reloaded.

Bokar took another slash at the hull, this one leaving a gash in the armor, then turned and glowered. Crouching on the Bolt's nose, he took another leap… landing directly in front of Lance, forked tongue flicking merely inches from his face as he glared. "Yesssssssss?"

Smirking as the others scrambled to intervene, Lance pulled one of his pistols and dropped his sights straight over the snake's eye. "I told you so, too."

He fired.

This time he didn't miss.

With a shriek, Bokar staggered backwards, dropping the makeshift scythe and tripping over it as he clutched his bleeding eye. As he flailed to recover, he staggered right in front of the disruptor cannon.

Oh, yikes! Vince had been listening to the comms and hoping things weren't as bad as they sounded when suddenly scales filled his targeting monitor. Before he even realized it, he'd fired—was it his imagination, or had he seen a spark that actually hadn't set the console on fire?

Probably his imagination, considering the blinding light filling the monitor in the next instant. Bokar was flung bodily off the hull, sailing through the air, lightning arcing over his scales and turning them from bright green to an odd, dull brown.

After all they'd seen so far, Lance wasn't about to count on the bastard being dead this time either. Grabbing his rifle, he sighted again, squeezing off one more shot at the apex of Bokar's arc that ripped through the monster's other eye… and the rest of him. As the group on the hull watched in stunned silence, he fell out of the air, bounced off the Bolt's nose, and hit the ground hard.

"That was seriously badass," Hunk whispered.

Keith's immediate thought was Jace, who'd been right next to the disruptor cannon when it fired. "Doc, are you okay?"

"Que fucking porra!"

Snort. "Yep, he's okay."

Scrambling forward, nearly slipping on snake blood, Lance peered over the edge of the ship to see if he was actually staying down this time. What he saw was a motionless snake monster curled in a shallow pit of sand. Falling back, he exhaled, feeling it turn into a ragged laugh of triumph. "I hated that guy."

Flynn came up next to him, having a look at the scene. "We noticed."

"I was right."

"We've heard."

"Did you see that shot?"

"Sure did." Smirk. "Whoever's on the cannon nailed him."

Lance rolled his eyes, but returned the smirk, accepting Flynn's hand to stand back up. "Sure, they did good too."

"Shut her down, Brennan." Keith dropped back through the hatch, motioning for the others to follow. "Let's go make absolutely certain this snake is dead."

As the group disembarked, Daniel paused at the top of the boarding ramp and looked sadly at the snake monster's remains. "Is it wrong that I think he was still hot as a snake?"

Lance and Pidge both eyed him, one notably more disgusted than the other. "Kid, we need to have a conversation about your taste."

"Given the ambient temperature, it seems accurate." Both Daniel and Lance rolled their eyes at that; they'd heard that joke already today. Though the ninja probably wasn't joking.

"Dude." Cam shook his head slowly. 'You've got some strange definition of hot."

Lance was admiring his handiwork; that had been extremely satisfying. He could see and hear the guards approaching, but he really didn't care. They'd bagged a snake, nobody could complain all that much.

Hopping off the ramp, Jace walked up to Bokar and kicked him; the scales didn't seem very solid anymore. Flynn eyed him. "Is that a medical test?"

"Is now." Beside him, Sven snorted. It seemed valid enough.

Hunk shook his head slowly. "Dude… what even was that?"

"That is a Najari," a sharp voice snapped from behind them. The guards had arrived, with the site commander at their head. "Infamous as looters and smugglers."

Several of the team blinked. "Wait, giant snake-summoning snake-people are a known thing around here?"

"Around archaeological and historical sites, yes. They're known for their skills with quantum camouflage and decoys… and this was a very old and powerful one, based on the size." Of course, she wasn't preparing to thank them for ending the threat. "Why exactly did you bring it here?"

"Yeah guys," Lance grumbled, "why did you do that?"

Keith sighed, looking at the Director and saluting weakly. "We're on a mission of the utmost importance to the Alliance. We needed him to—" Flynn elbowed him. Hard. In the same side he'd had injured on Takrekul; he gasped slightly. "Gods dammit, Kleid…"

His second gave him a brief apologetic look before turning his attention back to the Director. "What he means is, we were here undercover trying to find your looter."

"Yeah," Jace agreed, giving Flynn a slight kick in the calf. Just to make it clear he'd noticed the elbow. "You know, the one that's been eating your workers."

"Nobody told you because they thought it might be an inside job. Looks like it wasn't. You're welcome."

"He ate people?" Lance muttered to Sven, who grimaced and shook his head. It wasn't worth explaining. "I fucking knew it!"

The site commander seemed to have been rendered speechless by their sheer audacity, which certainly wasn't the worst response they could have gotten. Finally Hunk decided someone ought to break the awkward silence, and looked up at the mess Bokar had made of the Bolt's nose. "So uh, you guys got a proper repair pad around here we can use?"

She stared at him for a very long moment. "…Yes. You can use our port facilities. As long as you promise to stay in your berth and not help us ever again."

A few of them couldn't quite suppress the snickers at that; even Keith had to cover it with a cough. "Yes ma'am." He gestured to the rest of the team. "Load up, let's get back to port."

"And on the way," Lance added, "I'm going to spend at least fifteen minutes expounding on the meaning of the words I TOLD YOU SO."

Sigh. "Of course you are."

*****

Tanner sat listening to the sound of the caves… every sound possible. From the drips of moisture from one side of the dark, to the mumbles of some of the elders sleeping on the other side. With the prince in this shelter and no word on his father or sister, his guards had been extra vigilant. Supposedly there was an expansion tunnel that led to other areas, but Tanner never moved even between caves unless someone had doubled checked it first.

He could understand it, despite being frustrated beyond measure. The shelter felt like a prison. He wanted to stretch his legs, move about, have some light… be useful. But it seemed like his guards, Captain Sherion especially, were second guessing themselves at times. If anything happened to him on their watch, it could be disastrous. So, no risks.

Perhaps it was their numbers. There were only so many of them available to look after him, and… Tanner shifted on his makeshift bed. There were many civilians with them that were in need of help. So many scared at times. This was as foreign to them as it was to him, and the tunnels and caves were strange. He could sense things moving about sometimes… it could have been people, it could have been creatures, it could have been ghosts. It creeped him out at times. But he would remind himself of his place and his duty. He would be strong, and he would see his family again.

For now… it was best to wait and listen. Making himself a burden would help nothing.

A sudden growl startled him, until he realized it was his stomach. He pulled a small bag to himself, retrieving a morsel from the last time he ate. It was some kind of processed ration, kind of bland, but it was filling. Being the prince didn't, and shouldn't, mean he had anything special under these circumstances.

He frowned at the bite he took, though. There was a kind of earthy aftertaste to it. Very slight, but enough to notice. Grabbing a small glow light to inspect his food, he didn’t see any odd growth or molds on it. There wasn’t even an off smell. He took another, smaller bite to see if he was just imagining it. Yes… there it was.

Letting it sit in his mouth for a bit, he finally shrugged. Maybe some dirt had been kicked into his bag and that was the reason. Didn’t change the fact that he was still a bit hungry and needed to eat.

He had to keep his strength up, to be ready when he finally returned to his family. That was the most important part.