Captain Orgig Telnik listened to reports coming in from his crew and rubbed his paws together. I wish I were down there with them. They had been scanning with drones, of course. The landing party was only there as backup, tucked into a clearing in the woods a short walk from the property in question.

"Twelve humans in the main house, outside of the basement. Four sentries outside," Arp reported. "The path to the town is clear."

"Wait for their next comm check, then take out the sentries," Gomgom ordered.

"Aye."

It wasn't long before the drones received the kill order, and all four human guards were dead before the first hit the ground.

"Sentries are down. Proceeding to the house."

The drones floated over an expanse of very short local plant life, past stone statues of Earth megafauna...or perhaps mythical creatures. One of the windows dissolved under a brief spray, and the drones drifted inside silently. Two of them ascended to the second level, and the other two swept through the first.

They scanned and verified each human before killing them. It might be a primitive planet, but that was no reason to treat their lives as cheaply as the humans did themselves. There would be no innocents killed here tonight.

When the first two inside targets hit the floor, the other humans in the room reacted, but they had no idea where the drones were, so they ended up firing metal slugs everywhere. Those things were noisy. A couple of them even hit one of the drones, but bounced off harmlessly.

"Their comms are locked down, but the other humans still heard that racket. They're moving."

"Don't get sloppy. Track your targets."

"Wait, where did the leader go?"

Orgig stilled, listening intently.

"Blue lichen! Arp, I swear by the Code that if you lost—!" Gomgom started.

"Found him! He's inside the walls."

"Finish off the others first, unless he's heading for the prisoners."

"Yes, Gomgom. He's heading for a ground transport."

"The rest are down."

"Confirm kills?"

"Confirmed."

"Take the leader."

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"With pleasure."

Moments later, Gomgom called, "What's taking so long?"

"Artistic justice, sir."

"Don't get too fancy, remember we need to remove all the evidence of our presence."

"How are the prisoners?"

"All awake, with elevated heart rates."

"Give me a puppet."

"Aye. Drone Three is ready to wear."

Orgig toggled a switch mentally so that he could watch through the drone's puppet eyes. Gomgom took control and "walked" down a hallway to a thick, hard-plant door with iron fasteners. A moment later, his cutter sliced through the locking mechanism. A hard pull swung the door outward.

"Now we can get out of—"

"A prisoner just killed herself!" Arp shouted.

"What!?"

"Heart stopped, blood leaking fast! Left of the door!"

"Blue lichen!" Gomgom hurried inside the cell, ignoring the screams of the other humans. "Give me a stasis swarm!"

"...Armed!"

Gomgom fired it at the victim. The black swarm swept over the human, concentrating on the neck wound, and settling over the rest of the body. "Talk to me!"

"She's stable."

Gomgom let out a sigh, and pivoted so he could see the rest of the prisoners in the cell. "Captain, we've got a gnawed corner here."

"I'm already watching. If the female is stable, tend to the rest of them first. Are you visible?"

"I might as well be. I had to shove a couple of humans out of my path and they must have seen the medical spray, so they know something invisible is in here with them."

Orgig groaned. "All right, the damage is done. Drop stealth and see if you can get them to agree to silence. And you can send Holgiv in with the medkit."

"On my way," Holgiv responded.

"Vool, what's the human gesture for silence?"

"Searching...one digit vertical over a closed mouth."

"One digit...got it."

Orgig could tell by the reactions when the drone became visible. Their expressions were not encouraging. "Go ahead and talk in their language, Gomgom."

"Hello. I am here to help. The bad men are all dead."

One woman, braver than the rest, moved closer. Others were already fleeing the cell. "Are you a demon?"

In orbit, Orgig frowned. Did the women not even hear that aliens have arrived at their planet? Perhaps not.

Gomgom paused. "Does it matter?"

"Will you help her?"

"I will try. Please say nothing about...me."

The woman nodded and backed away. They could hear shouting between the freed prisoners as they spread through the house. It was chaotic for a while.

Holgiv arrived, and the woman who appeared to be the leader yelled at the others to say nothing about their rescuers and to ignore everything they heard and saw. Meanwhile, some of the women were ransacking an upstairs office as if looking for something. Gomgom had a drone slice through the wall behind the desk, exposing the steel-wrapped hollow space inside, containing what looked like money, metals and jewels.

"Don't forget to put that back together after," Orgig reminded Gomgom, but otherwise stayed out of it.

Holgiv only had to work for a little while before the suicide victim was better stabilized and the stasis swarm removed. "When she wakes, keep her calm. She will heal, but do not pick at the wound. Do not show anyone this." He carried the injured human and put her in a ground vehicle at the request of the woman brave enough to talk to him. To Gomgom he added, "the patches will all decay away in a day or so."

"Take what you want and head to town soon, because we are burning this place to the ground," Gomgom warned the women. "Remember, you didn't see who opened the door, and the house was on fire when you got out."

"Thank you. We saw nothing, right, girls?" There was general agreement and many more thanks. Holgive packed up and retreated, with the drones following after setting several fires.

"Well, that was a real fire fart, but we may have pulled it off," Gomgom commented as their shuttle headed back to the Guranaki Melor.

"Even if we didn't...it was worth it," the Captain reassured him.

"That it was."

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