# Ensign Roy Bancroft - The Enemy of my Enemy is Probably Tired Too
Carter Schimpff
(OOC: This is a little bit of world building done with Liv’s permission, to provide context for my following sim. All characters in this sim are GNPCs.)
(( Rooftop - 3 Kilometers East of Makeshift Command Operations Building - Kobyar Capital, Galaris IV ))
Major Oowli’s voice issued through a small handheld radio clutched in a gloved paw, her words tinny and barely audible over the thunder.
=/\= In togetherness between Grunden and Kobyar. Against the threats that besiege us both. And towards our proper place in the universe. A place of peace and friendship and life. =/\=
Captain Grexl, leader of Detachment Echo of the First Grunden Commandos, slid the radio back into its pocket on his chest harness. His ears twitched. Something had caught his eye.
A shimmer across the way.
Through the curtain of rain on the opposite rooftop, five figures stood silhouetted in strobing flashes of lighting. Kobyar. Armed. And watching him and his team.
Grexl raised his binoculars. One of them – the leader, he guessed – lifted her manus in a slow wave. No weapons raised. No hostile movement.
He waved back.
The Kobyar pointed to the street below, spoke a few clipped words to her team, and disappeared down a ladder.
Grexl turned to his own squad, jerking his chin toward the stairwell.
Captain Grexl: Let’s move. Low and ready. Fire only if they do first.
(( Street - 3 Kilometers East of Makeshift Command Operations Building - Kobyar Capital, Galaris IV ))
The rain came harder here, bouncing off broken pavement and cratered masonry. The two teams emerged from opposite alleys, weapons at the low ready. Boots sloshed in the runoff.
Ten meters apart they stopped. Nobody blinked.
A long beat passed – the kind of silence that used to mean someone was about to die.
Captain Meera: Captain Meera, Team Three. Kobyar Raiders.
Grexl let out a slow breath through his nose. Just a little tension released from his shoulders.
Captain Grexl: Captain Grexl. First Grunden Commandos. ::beat:: I assume you caught the radio broadcast?
Meera nodded. Her posture was loose, but not careless. Grexl noted, with some satisfaction, that none of her team had fingers on triggers.
Captain Meera: We’re here to extract Major Oowli.
Captain Grexl: Same. General Kexxin. ::eyes flick to her rifle:: Didn’t think the Kobyar had anyone who knew how to pound ground and shoot a rifle.
Captain Meera: Not many. ::deadpan:: But we’ve got you by the short fur when it comes to the air.
Grexl chuckled – low and gravelly. The sound of a man who hadn’t truly smiled in years, but still remembered how.
Overhead, a tiltrotor bug screamed past, engines howling as it banked hard and looped back toward them, slicing through the storm like a blade.
Grexl looked up, then back at Meera. She gave a nonchalant shrug, then nodded toward a nearby intersection.
Captain Meera: Relax, Captain. It’s mine. ::beat:: Need a lift?
(( Kobyar Assault Bug Swift Whisper - Outside Makeshift Command Operations Building, Kobyar Capital, Galaris IV ))
The tiltrotor hovered in the driving rain, just outside a high, reinforced window into the hallway outside the command center. Sheets of mist spat out from below the rotors.
Inside the cockpit, wipers scraped uselessly across a rain-slicked viewport.
Kobyar Co-Pilot: ::over internal headset:: =/\= The insurgents are making a move, Captain. =/\=
Captain Meera turned sharply to her sergeant, who was hunched over a portable tactical display, rain dripping from his helmet onto the screen.
Captain Meera: Confirm no friendlies in that hallway?
Sergeant: Negative friendlies, sir. IFF reads all targets red. No Starfleet, no planetary defense IDs, Grunden or Kobyar.
Captain Meera nodded grimly and turned to Captain Grexl.
Captain Meera: We’ve got to move now. Are you ready?
Captain Grexl: ::to his commandos:: Assault team up! On me – stack for breach!
Behind him, four Grunden commandos snapped into motion – checking magazines, flipping visors down, weapons low and ready. Rain tapped a frantic rhythm on their armor through the open side hatch.
The bug drifted back two meters, stabilizing against the rotor wash gusting off the side of the building.
Inside the gunner’s turret, a low mechanical whine hummed to life. The railgun aligned its sights with the large window.
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Ensign Roy Bancroft
Medical Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240205RB1